The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 227: The Sea Lion's Feng Shui Treasure Land

The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 227: The Sea Lion's Feng Shui Treasure Land

Huh, the little sea lion?
Just as he speared a parrotfish, Chu Mingcheng caught sight of a large creature approaching in his peripheral vision. He turned his head and was surprised to see it was a sea lion.
It looked a lot like the one he had rescued before, but it had grown so much in the past few months that he wasn't sure at first.
But a moment later, his doubts were confirmed.
The sea lion approached him affectionately, interacting with him.
A smile spread across Chu Mingcheng's face. He was glad it was okay.
If it had truly disappeared, he would have felt a twinge of regret.
They hadn't seen each other in a long time, yet the little sea lion still remembered him. He offered it the parrotfish he had just caught as a reward for its good memory.
The sea lion didn't stand on ceremony. It grabbed the fish with its flippers and started chewing on it directly.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng swam toward the surface to share the good news with Jiang Luoluo. The sea lion followed, gnawing on its fish.
"Luoluo, come out, quick!"
"What's wrong?"
"Look..."
Chu Mingcheng pointed at the sea lion. When Jiang Luoluo saw it, her face lit up with joyful surprise.
"The sea lion—it's still here!"
"Yeah, it probably just wandered off somewhere far away. That's why it took so long to come back."
As the two were talking, the sea lion finished its fish.
The fish Chu Mingcheng had caught wasn't large, only about three jin, so it ate it quite quickly.
An adult sea lion would have probably swallowed it in one gulp.
After finishing the fish, the sea lion didn't jump onto the boat as it had before. Instead, it barked twice in front of him and then swam off into the distance.
Chu Mingcheng thought it was leaving, but when it looked back and saw he wasn't following, it swam back and barked again.
He and Jiang Luoluo immediately understood the boat's behavior. It wanted them to follow.
Chu Mingcheng climbed onto the boat first and used a towel to dry his wetsuit.
Jiang Luoluo had already started the fishing boat and was following the little sea lion.
"Are sea lions that smart? It's actually leading the way?"
"I'm not sure, but mammals generally don't have low IQs, right?"
"Do you think the little sea lion found some kind of treasure, and now it's leading us to it?"
"That's impossible, right? How would it know what treasure means? At most, it would just catch a fish for us."
Chu Mingcheng was both amused and exasperated by Jiang Luoluo's train of thought. He really didn't think the sea lion was leading them to treasure.
But they couldn't guess the reason either, so they had no choice but to follow and see what it was up to.
This pursuit took quite some time. Jiang Luoluo even managed to cook dinner.
And by then, Chu Mingcheng finally understood the sea lion's purpose. It was inviting them to its new home!
Looking at the small island ahead and the sea lion waiting in front of it, he felt he had figured it out.
Evidently, the sea lion had left its previous deserted island and moved to this one.
Or it traveled back and forth between the two islands. After all, this place was quite far, yet the sea lion had appeared over there today. Chu Mingcheng didn't think the sound of the fishing boat could travel that distance.
After leading them here, it paid them no mind, hopping directly onto the boat and settling on the deck.
Therefore, Chu Mingcheng didn't bother showering or changing. He went back to the cockpit to eat first, planning to explore the resources around the island at night.
But for the sea lion to change locations, he guessed the resources here must be better than at the other island.
After dinner and a short rest to digest, Chu Mingcheng drove the fishing boat in a circle around the small island.
He discovered that the island was crescent-shaped, with a long sandy beach in its inner bay.
On its back side, however, there was a coral reef. No wonder the sea lion lived here. One look at this terrain and you knew the resources had to be incredible!
"Ah Cheng, let's buy a drone when we get back. In the future, we can just use a drone to check the terrain. Driving the boat around is not only a hassle, but it also wastes fuel," Jiang Luoluo suggested.
Hearing this, Chu Mingcheng slapped his forehead. "How could I forget about drones? That thing will be incredibly useful for future sea trips."
Jiang Luoluo laughed. "I thought about buying one when Agong was using his, but then I forgot about it. This time, let's both remember and remind each other when we get back."
"Deal." Chu Mingcheng nodded and went to get the diving flashlight. "You stay on the boat. I'm going to check out the situation underwater. If the resources are good, we'll come here more often in the future."
"Okay, you go ahead. Be safe."
Chu Mingcheng then took his speargun and flashlight and entered the water again.
The sea lion had been lying on the deck, clearly intending to sleep in the cockpit for the night.
But seeing Chu Mingcheng get in the water, it immediately got up and followed him in.
Ignoring the sea lion behind him, he turned on his flashlight, dived to the bottom, and simultaneously activated the Fish Gathering function.
If any valuable seafood came by, he wouldn't mind scooping it up.
The boat was anchored in the inner bay, and as soon as Chu Mingcheng entered the water, he saw the sandy bottom.
The depth here was thirty-seven meters, as indicated by his dive watch.
He began to move toward the island. When he reached a depth of fifteen meters, he noticed many familiar little holes on the sandy bed. If he wasn't mistaken, these holes likely contained ornate mantis shrimp.
Chu Mingcheng stopped, immediately turned off the Fish Gathering function, and hurried back to the boat to ask Jiang Luoluo to bring him the foraging tongs.
With such a good opportunity, he would be letting himself down if he didn't catch a batch of mantis shrimp tonight.
"What did you find? Why do you need the foraging tongs?" Jiang Luoluo asked curiously.
"I found a lot of ornate mantis shrimp burrows. I plan to catch a bunch."
"Oh, ornate mantis shrimp! That's great—they're expensive. But are you sure you can catch them with just these tongs?"
"It's easy. Just put some snail meat at the entrance of the burrow to lure them out. Very simple."
"It's best if you have a method... but I haven't eaten this kind of big mantis shrimp in a long time. Why don't you catch a few first, and I'll make a raw-marinated dish for a late-night snack?"
"Deal."
Seeing Jiang Luoluo practically drooling, Chu Mingcheng chuckled and readily agreed.
He hadn't brought any plastic bottles today. As expected, this group of ornate mantis shrimp would fight in the mesh bag, which would naturally provide the raw materials for the raw-marinated dish.
He then shooed the little sea lion onto the boat and had Jiang Luoluo close the door, lest it follow him and get in the way.
Chu Mingcheng returned to the spot, activated the Fish Gathering function, and floated quietly in the water, waiting for the attracted mantis shrimp to come to him.
The small burrows were not close to each other, but the area Chu Mingcheng covered had a diameter of twenty-six meters. There were quite a few burrows within this range, so the 13% chance was quite easy to trigger.
As he expected, it only took a short while before he detected movement.
A huge mantis shrimp, almost as long as his forearm, slowly crawled over on the sand.
What surprised him even more was that this was not an ornate mantis shrimp, but a regal mantis shrimp—Harpiosquilla raphidea.
This type of mantis shrimp was even more expensive than the ornate variety and was only found in the southern part of the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea islands.
They only dig burrows to live in the sandy areas of inner bays, and the terrain here perfectly matched this condition.
Chu Mingcheng hadn't expected the little sea lion to lead him to such a treasure trove.
Although the regal mantis shrimp was also fierce, unlike the ornate mantis shrimp, they generally didn't fight with their own kind, which would make it easier for him to store them.
In a short while, the forearm-sized regal mantis shrimp arrived in front of him.
At the same time, Chu Mingcheng spotted two others, though they were not as large as the one before him.
This thing had to be big to sell for a high price—the price difference for smaller ones was huge. There was no need for him to catch the small ones.
The foraging tongs immediately clamped down on the exceptionally large regal mantis shrimp.
The shrimp instantly began to struggle, scaring away the two that were following behind. Its strength was considerable.
But with Chu Mingcheng's current physical condition, he was basically at the top tier compared to domestic athletes.
Handling this small regal mantis shrimp was, naturally, a piece of cake.
Opening the mesh bag, he put the regal mantis shrimp inside. Chu Mingcheng then left and moved to a new spot.
The Premium Aquatic Species Codex was truly amazing after level ten. These creatures that were once very troublesome to catch were now easier to get than fish.
Every time he moved to a new spot, regal mantis shrimp would basically appear. Sometimes one or two, sometimes as many as five or six.
He could even return to the original spot and "farm" them repeatedly until all the regal mantis shrimp in the area were caught.
With so many regal mantis shrimp here, Chu Mingcheng became particularly picky, only catching the ones as large as his forearm and ignoring any that were even slightly smaller.
Although catching more could increase his experience points for the Premium Aquatic Species Codex, the codex now had a function to accelerate reproduction and growth rates.
These regal mantis shrimp only lived for two or three years, and their reproduction and growth rates were very fast. If he left the slightly smaller ones, he could come back to harvest them periodically.
Chu Mingcheng could still tell the difference between one big meal and eating well every day.
An hour later, his large mesh bag was almost full.
Chu Mingcheng estimated he had caught over thirty of them, each the size of his forearm and weighing about one jin.
He hadn't paid special attention to whether they were male or female—the price difference between the two was almost a hundred yuan.
But taking an average value, one jin was worth three hundred and fifty yuan. He had caught over thirty jin, so even calculating conservatively at thirty jin, his income for this one hour was over ten thousand yuan.
It was literally like picking up money from the seabed!
Chu Mingcheng turned off the Fish Gathering function and returned to the boat, calling out, "Luoluo!"
The next moment, Jiang Luoluo, who was in the cockpit researching her next dance, immediately ran out. "How many did you catch?"
With a slightly smug look, Chu Mingcheng lifted the mesh bag. "A full bag. Impressive, right?"
"That many?" Jiang Luoluo's eyes widened in surprise.
She then took the mesh bag, opened it, and when she saw that all the regal mantis shrimp inside were super-sized, she couldn't help but take a sharp breath. "They're all so big, and they're regal mantis shrimp! The resources here are just insane, aren't they?"
"I bet those shops that sell regal mantis shrimp can't even get this many at once, right?"
Hearing this, Chu Mingcheng smiled and explained, "It's not that they can't get them. It's mainly because this stuff is expensive and most people can't afford to eat it, so they're afraid of not being able to sell them and only stock a few."
"After all, the price drops drastically if they die. If they stock too many, can't sell them, and then they die, their losses would be huge."
Jiang Luoluo nodded, knowing he was telling the truth.
Thinking about the raw-marinated dish for the night, she asked, "How many do you want to eat?"
Chu Mingcheng thought for a moment and said, "These are about one jin each. Two should be enough for me. I want one male and one female."
"Okay, I'll go marinate them right now." Jiang Luoluo first added seawater to the fish box, then poured all the mantis shrimp in and turned on the aerator.
The little sea lion curiously peered over. Seeing that it was food, it seemed to want some, but she smacked it on the head, making it cry out pitifully.
"There's not much meat on these, so don't you eat them. I'll give you fish!" Jiang Luoluo first closed the lid, then picked out two small yellow croakers from her afternoon catch and handed them to it.
The little sea lion wasn't a picky eater. It immediately opened its mouth and caught the two fish.
But its mouth was too big, and both small yellow croakers slipped down its throat in one go, so it barely tasted them.
It paused for a few seconds, then started begging for more with loud barks.
An adult sea lion can eat forty kilograms of fish a day. Although this little one wasn't fully grown, its appetite was definitely not small.
How could two small yellow croakers possibly satisfy it?
Jiang Luoluo felt a bit helpless. She hadn't caught many fish herself today. Chu Mingcheng's haul was indeed large, but she couldn't bear to feed the sea lion fish that cost one hundred and twenty yuan per jin.
"Luoluo, open the gate and let it go hunt for itself. I'll also take a look and see if there are any fish. I'll catch a big one to feed it later."
Chu Mingcheng noticed her helpless expression and said with a smile.
Hearing this, Jiang Luoluo went over and opened the small gate on the boat. The sea lion immediately crawled over and jumped into the water.
It poked its head out, looked at the two of them, and then dived into the water to search for prey.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng also dived in and followed behind the little sea lion.
Don't be fooled by the fact that the sea lion was a marine creature. His speed now, thanks to the changes in his physique since getting Effortless Swim, was significantly faster. He could easily keep up.
His purpose in following the little sea lion was, of course, to find out its hunting grounds.
He wouldn't hunt too many of the fish here, lest the sea lion run out of food.
But if he encountered any particularly valuable fish, he definitely wouldn't let them go.
He had thought the sea lion would go to the coral reef on the other side of the island, but instead, it headed toward an open area.
After swimming for about five or six hundred meters, he discovered a school of spear squid, also known as long-gun squid, in the middle and upper layers of the water.
This type of squid was not small, much larger than the small squid he had caught before.
Chu Mingcheng estimated that the largest among them could reach forty to fifty centimeters.
Their tentacles were very short, distinguishing them from other squid, and they lacked the two particularly long tentacles.
This made their bodies look quite substantial, and they looked like they would be delicious.
The sea lion had long been eager. It rushed over and easily caught a spear squid, starting to munch on it.
Chu Mingcheng also loved to eat squid, especially this kind of premium spear squid.
From the sea lion's actions just now, it seemed this school of squid was quite easy to catch.
So he also rushed forward and, relying on a burst of speed, caught one.
The moment it was caught, the spear squid's color immediately turned transparent, and it spat out a large cloud of ink from its mouth.
But this was useless against Chu Mingcheng. He held it and shook it continuously, making it spray even more ink.
At the same time, his feet weren't idle. With a few gentle kicks, he moved away from the spot.
Then, without waiting for it to empty its ink sac, he stuffed it into his mesh bag, letting it slowly spray inside.

Chapter 227: The Sea Lion's Feng Shui Treasure Land