Ji Qingzhuo drove to the coast of Yelanhai, an almost undeveloped area where even the tourism industry near the coast had not yet been developed.
Yelanhai was a relatively untouched ocean, inhabited by highly aggressive marine creatures.
Initially, the Lanhai Company had planned to drive away these creatures and develop the tourism industry for profit, but Ji Qingzhuo opposed this plan. She believed that if the native inhabitants of the ocean were driven away, they would have nowhere to go on this planet, while there were still many places where humans could enjoy themselves.
She parked her car at the end of the coastal road, with the beach, ocean, and sunset in the distance.
Ji Qingzhuo took the diving equipment from the trunk of her car and walked into a small wooden house by the sea.
She pushed open the door, which creaked as the sea breeze blew, causing the house to sway as if it could collapse at any moment.
But inside, it was warm and peaceful. A small oil lamp hung on the bar, and the lonely owner of the tavern sat behind the bar, playing an outdated game with a game controller left over from centuries ago.
Behind the bar counter, Ji Qingzhuo remained silent. She didn't like to talk, so she just stared at the game interface of the tavern owner, watching the little red-capped character eat coins one by one.
"Orange juice?" The owner put down the game controller. He was an old man with a stubble beard.
"Hmm," Ji Qingzhuo responded, and soon a glass of orange juice was placed in front of her.
The news of the Lanhai Company spread quickly, and the news of the change in ownership also reached the tavern owner's ears.
While sipping her orange juice, Ji Qingzhuo stared blankly. She wasn't thinking about anything important, just letting her mind rest.
"Miss Ji, did you resign?" The tavern owner asked with a smile. In the dim light of the tavern, his eyes behind the stubble beard sparkled like the small eyes of a beetle.
"Yes," Ji Qingzhuo's response was brief.
"Is it worth risking your future for this sea?" The owner winked at her.
"Not worth it," Ji Qingzhuo's response remained rational.
Undoubtedly, she had a smart brain, but in the eyes of others, she was doing something foolish, foolish... even she herself knew it wasn't worth it.
"Miss Ji, you know it yourself now," the owner opened a bottle of strong liquor and blew on it.
"I need to go," Ji Qingzhuo took out a test tube from her pocket. Her brain had rested enough, and now she finally came back to her senses. She remembered that she still needed to release the jellyfish in the test tube back into the sea.
"Salute," the owner said to her.
The wind on the sea became stronger, blowing against her eardrums. Ji Qingzhuo's long hair fluttered, brushing against her face.
Perhaps it was a sign that it would rain tomorrow, the sunset on the sea surface was particularly red, casting a golden red glow on the shining waves.
Ji Qingzhuo couldn't look at the bright colors like the sunset for a long time. She put on her glasses.
She opened the diving equipment bag and put a mechanical device on her back. This diving equipment was made of special materials and had a much lower density than water. If necessary, she could float to the surface at any time.
After entering the water, it would eject air currents around the body, forming a cavity that would protect the diver while separating the oxygen from the water to maintain the oxygen supply.
Strictly speaking, it was an artificial lung. When humans dived, they were protected inside the "lung" while isolating the effects of the water pressure.
In addition, the small crystal on Ji Qingzhuo's wrist contained artificial pheromones that simulated the scent of the Devil Shark, the ocean overlord in Yelanhai. The pheromones of the Devil Shark could scare away almost all predators in the ocean, ensuring her safety in the sea.
All of these diving equipment were designed and invented by Ji Qingzhuo herself, and she was proficient in using them. Even though she couldn't swim, it didn't prevent her from controlling her movements in the sea using the air currents ejected from the diving equipment.
She took a leap into the water, enveloped within the air chamber of her diving equipment.
Ji Qingzhuo held the test tube in her hand, where she had accidentally captured a jellyfish that belonged to a deeper part of the ocean. She had to swim further downstream.
The test tube was hollow and double-layered, with the space in between designed to isolate the temperature of the human body. Ji Qingzhuo had obtained it from the laboratory because her body temperature would melt such a tiny jellyfish.
She tapped the walls of the test tube, causing the jellyfish swimming in the seawater to react and emit a faint glow in the dim ocean.
Lighthouse jellyfish, a fragile and harmless creature. She wondered how the collector managed to capture it in the test tube.
As soon as she entered the water, the pheromones on her wrist were released, causing predators in the ocean to steer clear of her. To those marine creatures, Ji Qingzhuo, who appeared as a delicate young girl, appeared as a terrifying devil shark.
Ji Qingzhuo's figure ventured into the coral reef. She saw a small fish, sensing the presence of the ocean overlord, only managed to hide half of its body in a crevice, thinking it had gone unnoticed.
Only when she was in the uninhabited sea would she show some playfulness.
Ji Qingzhuo approached the thick-skinned little fish slowly and extended her hand, leaving the air chamber and immersing it in the water. With a flick of her wrist, she lightly tapped the tail of the little fish.
In an instant, the fish's tail stiffened, and it turned its head in a slow and terrified manner to meet Ji Qingzhuo's gaze.
Then, it trembled and swiftly darted away.
Ji Qingzhuo watched it and smiled, pursing her lips. The little creatures in the ocean were all so cute, and she didn't want them to just disappear.
She arrived at the habitat of the lighthouse jellyfish and released it into the water after opening the test tube. The jellyfish swam out lazily.
Cnidarians, unable to sense the pheromones, were not afraid of her. It twined around Ji Qingzhuo's fingers and completed a circle before she gently brushed the water, sending the lighthouse jellyfish away.
Since she was already there, Ji Qingzhuo decided to collect seawater samples from the deeper parts of Yelanhai tonight. She wasn't particularly skilled at this meticulous task, but after resigning, she wouldn't have a dedicated collector to gather suitable samples for her. Everything required her personal effort.
Ji Qingzhuo knew the reason why Yelanhai had been able to survive until now. The ocean on this planet had once suffered a devastating blow when a large oil tanker capsized, carrying almost all of the planet's oil resources. Most of the marine areas were contaminated, but Yelanhai remained untouched by oil.
It seemed that there was something sheltering this place. Ji Qingzhuo believed in science and firmly believed that Yelanhai had something special about it. She wanted to analyze the reasons behind it and promote her research findings throughout the galaxy.
Unfortunately, she had only just begun her investigation when this incident occurred.
Ji Qingzhuo understood the profit-oriented nature of businessmen like An Kun, but she did not agree with such practices.
In the central part of Yelanhai, there was an abyss with a depth of several thousand meters. With her diving equipment, Ji Qingzhuo could easily dive into it. However, the deeper she went, the more unpredictable the marine creatures became. Her Devil Shark pheromones might not be able to ward off dangerous creatures.
But time was running out for Ji Qingzhuo's research. She was the kind of person who immediately put her thoughts into action, so she decided to go down today.
In the deep and serene underwater world, shimmering waves of dark blue danced. Countless marine creatures fled at Ji Qingzhuo's arrival. She held an illuminating lamp in her hand, and the air chamber surrounding her resembled a small moon, descending into the depths of the abyss.
Ji Qingzhuo slowly descended along the cliff wall, and as she swam deeper, it became increasingly quiet. For those with thalassophobia, this place was hell, but for Ji Qingzhuo, who disliked crowds, it was simply paradise.
No one was around. How could such a perfect place exist in this world? She could stay here and daydream for a long, long time without anyone to disturb her.
Ji Qingzhuo took out the collection vials and collected seawater and specimens from the cliffs every kilometer.
Compared to her intricate operations in the laboratory, her collection techniques were quite unbearable to watch. Ji Qingzhuo had tried her best to control her limbs, but as a visibly weak person, it was difficult for her to maintain her stability in the surging ocean.
When she reached an area near the bottom of the abyss, she accidentally knocked loose a shell from the cliff wall.
Ji Qingzhu instinctively apologized and frantically tried to put the ugly shell back, but her hand trembled and a large number of shells fell down again.
This situation was like accidentally breaking a decoration in someone else's living room. The more Ji Qingzhu tried to remedy it, the more fragile the cliff became.
In the end, the entire cliff collapsed. Ji Qingzhu quickly pulled her hands back and hid them behind her back.
She was truly clumsy and careless.
However, what happened next shocked her. After the rocks fell, Ji Qingzhu saw something resembling a chain.
How could there be human objects at such a deep sea?
Driven by curiosity, she carefully pushed away the murky water and took a closer look. When her air cavity enveloped the chain, it quickly oxidized upon contact with air. Then, with a gentle touch from Ji Qingzhu, it... cracked.
Ji Qingzhu slapped her forehead, realizing the grave mistake she had made.
What a precious artifact, and she had broken it. Luckily, the broken chain seemed to be salvageable.
So Ji Qingzhu followed its path, all the way to the bottom of the sea abyss. There, she found something- a large sunken ship. Judging by its design and construction, it must have been thousands of years old, or even tens of thousands of years old.
When the timescale reached such a span, it explained why it was in the depths of the sea abyss. The shifting of tectonic plates was enough to transport objects from the shallow sea to the deep.
Ji Qingzhu marveled at her discovery. She took out her camera and notebook from her pocket, snapping photos of the details of the sunken ship and the chain, documenting everything.
However, in her haste, she dropped her glasses from her face while taking pictures.
These glasses were specially made, and she couldn't afford to get a new pair after buying Night Vast Sea.
So, on the verge of bankruptcy, she had no choice but to reach into the dusty depths of the sea floor.
She groped around, and it seemed like she touched the chain. It had a cold and rough texture, and there were some hard objects.
Probably just stones from the sea, Ji Qingzhu thought. She was too preoccupied with finding her glasses, so she didn't think much and continued searching.
But she still didn't find her glasses. Instead, the texture of the hard objects became increasingly strange. They seemed to be... vertebrae?!
In that moment, Ji Qingzhu wanted to retract her hand. She realized that something was wrong. But just then, her fingertips touched a cold scale.
At the same time, a hand firmly grasped her wrist.
The person imprisoned at the seabed hadn't seen Ji Qingzhu yet, but he sensed her presence. In his mind, he imagined the shape of her aura.
Hmm... a devil shark.
A delicious meal delivered right to him, as a reward for waking up.
He licked his lips.
So, he grabbed her wrist and, in a hunting posture, dragged her to the seabed.
He instinctively wanted to curl his tail and imprison his prey in his embrace, but the underwater chain locked his tail.
The murky seawater surged, but he still managed to pull her down. She was just too easy to handle.
Bubbles of air rose around Ji Qingzhu's air cavity. In that moment, she fell into someone's embrace.
Under the illumination of the light, the silhouette of a beastly creature flickered. When he saw Ji Qingzhu herself, his fangs retracted, and she didn't even see them.
Soft strands of hair hung on her cheek. Ji Qingzhu's cheeks turned red with fear, now even a little shy.
What entered Ji Qingzhu's line of sight was an incredibly handsome pale face. Her hand, which had been recklessly searching, was now resting on his abdomen, and the cold scales felt distinct under her fingertips.