The entire ocean is my fishing ground.

Chapter 60: A single coral plant alarms a powerful figure in the capital!

Abandoned sea area No. 1.

Among the fishermen of Binhai Town, this place has another name—the fishing net graveyard.

This sea area has strong currents and is full of sharp reefs. If a novice is not careful, he or his boat could be swept away with a single cast of net.

Even the poorest fishermen would never come here to make a living.

At four o'clock in the morning, Lin Chen drove the small fiberglass speedboat to the coordinates marked by the system.

All around were the sounds of crashing waves and the muffled thuds of speedboats hitting the rocks.

The wind howled, and the seawater kept crashing against the ship's side, splashing Lin Chen all over.

Without the slightest hesitation, he took off his coat and began to put on the diving suit that Sun Heizi considered no different from trash.

The rubber patch against the skin brought a chill.

[System Warning: A decline in host vital signs has been detected. The current water temperature is too low, and ordinary diving suits cannot provide effective insulation. Continued descent will cause irreversible damage to the body.]

[System Warning: A high density of mutated blue-ringed sea snakes roams around the target, the Blood Red Coral King. Highly venomous. Instant death upon contact.]

A series of piercing warning sounds echoed in my mind.

Lin Chen didn't pause for a moment. He quickly spent 200 points in the system shop to exchange for two abilities he had long coveted.

[Basic Marine Life Affinity (Passive): Reduces the hostility of underwater creatures towards you.]

[Special Underwater Combat Techniques (Beginner): Improves your dodging, power generation, and perception abilities in water.]

This is a useful skill that only appeared after he unlocked the level 2 shop access with the thousand points he used after completing the epic mission last time.

He bit down on the makeshift breathing tube, slung the heavy iron chisel on his back, and, amidst the violent rocking of the speedboat, tumbled into the icy sea.

"Thump."

The world fell silent instantly.

All that remained were the heavy breathing and the beating of his own heart.

Dive down.

Ten meters, twenty meters...

Thirty meters.

The terrifying water pressure squeezed in from all directions, causing a sharp, stabbing pain in my eardrums.

The beam of the waterproof searchlight could only illuminate an area of ​​less than three meters ahead in the murky seawater.

Right at the edge of that dim halo of light, a strange change occurred.

A dozen or so colorful shadows silently emerged from the dark crevices of the reef.

Each of them was only as thick as a finger, covered with eerie blue rings that shimmered with a deathly luster under the searchlight.

Mutant blue-ringed sea snake.

A terrifying venomous creature in the ocean, its venom is fifty times more potent than that of the king cobra; without antivenom, it is fatal upon contact with blood.

The swarm of snakes had clearly spotted him as an intruder; a dozen pairs of vertical pupils locked onto him in unison.

The seawater seemed to have frozen.

Lin Chen floated in the water, his muscles tense.

Instead of retreating, he faced the swarm of snakes and slowly moved forward.

The initial affinity of marine life began to take effect. Although the snakes surrounded him, their aggressive desires were significantly reduced, and they adopted a more wary and dismissive posture.

But this is not enough.

One of the snakes, a size larger than the king snake, flicked its tongue and began to slowly approach him.

Lin Chen locked his gaze firmly onto the snake king.

Right now.

Just as the snake king was about to launch its attack, Lin Chen moved.

He made an incredible twist in the water, narrowly missing the snake king's fangs by the slightest margin.

At the same time, he brought his right index and middle fingers together, infusing them with the inch-force technique from special underwater combat, and precisely and gently tapped the nerve node three inches below the Snake King's head.

There was no huge impact, just a slight tremor.

The ferocious snake king suddenly froze, as if a pause button had been pressed. Then, as if greatly frightened, it abruptly turned around and fled frantically back into the depths of the reef.

With the leader gone, the remaining snakes were thrown into chaos and scattered like birds and beasts.

A potentially fatal crisis was easily resolved by Lin Chen in an almost artistic manner.

He didn't stop and continued to descend.

Finally, at the end of the searchlight beam, an eerie blood-red color appeared in a deep crevice on the seabed.

It was a coral that was half a meter tall and crystal clear.

Its shape resembles a phoenix spreading its wings and soaring high, with every branch full of vitality.

The finest blood-red coral king.

This is no ordinary jewelry; it is a top-grade life-extending medicine ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, specially marked by the system.

Its value cannot be measured in money.

Lin Chen suppressed his inner elation, carefully approached, took out an iron chisel, and began to peel it off piece by piece, along with the bedrock at its base.

This is a physically and mentally demanding process.

After an unknown amount of time, when the entire coral king was completely removed and placed in a specially made waterproof bag, Lin Chen felt as if all his strength had been drained.

He struggled to swim upstream.

"Splash!"

The moment he surfaced, the intense pressure difference between the inside and outside caused a burning sensation in his nasal cavity, and two streams of blood flowed uncontrollably down his face.

But he couldn't care less about any of that. He just clutched the heavy waterproof bag tightly in his arms, leaning on the gunwale, breathing heavily.

As the sea breeze blew by, he gazed at the distant horizon, a bloody smile playing on his lips.

Shao Kun.

You can shut down the entire seafood industry in the province, you can freeze all my bank accounts.

However, you cannot seal off this sea.

Even more impossible to seal off is the true elite circle beneath this sea—the jewelry and pharmaceutical industries.

He did not return to Huangni Village, nor even approach the coastline near the provincial capital.

He turned the boat around, steered the dilapidated speedboat away from everyone's sight, and headed straight for a black market private dock in a neighboring city that didn't even exist on the map.

On the way, he sent an email through the system's built-in encrypted network.

The recipient of the email is another name provided in the system intelligence.

A figure who commands respect and fear throughout China – Huo Zhenxiong, the current head of the reclusive Huo family, a top collector in Beijing. He is known as Old Master Huo.

This old man, Huo, is currently searching for a medicinal ingredient that can prolong his life through various secret channels at all costs.

Three hours later, in a private room of a club in a neighboring city, where the security level was comparable to that of a military base.

When Lin Chen placed the blood-red coral king, which still carried the salty smell of seawater, on the table covered with golden nanmu wood.

Old Mr. Huo, who had seen countless rare treasures, was so excited that he jumped up from his armchair, smashing the purple clay teacup in his hand to the ground with a crash, shattering it into several pieces.

"Heavens...Heaven-sent treasures, heaven-sent treasures!"

The old man's lips trembled, and an astonishing light burst forth from his cloudy eyes.

Half an hour later, a blank check with no upper limit was pushed in front of Lin Chen.

Lin Chen didn't even glance at it, but simply pushed it back.

"Mr. Huo, I don't want a single penny of cash."

Old Huo was stunned.

"Then... what would you like, young friend?"

Lin Chen raised his head, his gaze calm and profound.

"I need you to use the Huo family's overseas capital to help me with an 'offshore capital swap'."

"I want to use this coral to exchange for a free account that can completely tear apart that financial blockade."