Chapter 471 - 448: The Giant Skeleton in the Trench
"You’re finally back."
Ying Chengye let out a sigh of relief when he saw Yun Jiao.
"What’s wrong?"
Ying Chengye: "What do you think? That black horse won’t listen to me at all. It was a real pain in the neck just to take it out for a walk."
"Also, a huge snake showed up by the lake the day before yesterday. It was so thick I only dared to watch from a distance. I didn’t get any closer."
Ying Chengye clicked his tongue just thinking about that snake. It was as thick as his leg.
"And it was white."
Yun Jiao was immediately reminded of the white snake she had seen on this island before. ’Could it be the same one?’
Ying Chengye wasn’t really afraid of wild animals, but he didn’t dare get too close either.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but give Yun Jiao a complicated look.
’This junior sister of mine is the real deal.’
’Then again, if I had that kind of strength, I’d be just as bold and capable.’
The house on the island was a small villa with a modern Chinese architectural style, and it also had a hidden basement.
That basement was Yun Jiao’s treasure vault.
A mechanism in the master bedroom opened a passageway, which also had a few traps. The door would close automatically after entering, and only the person with the key could open it from the inside.
And that key was a black jade pendant hanging around Yun Jiao’s neck.
It was an old piece of black jade from Mr. Mu’s collection, which he had given to her.
But Yun Jiao had compensated Mr. Mu with an even larger piece.
That’s right, it was the one she had won from stone gambling.
Yun Jiao entered her treasure room.
There were lights she could turn on—incandescent ones, with a much more intricate and beautiful design than the simple bulbs back home.
The treasure room suddenly lit up, fully revealing the beauty of the treasures displayed on the curio shelves.
Gemstones refracted a rainbow of colors under the light, and pearls were piled high inside a Conch Shell.
She had piled all the pearls salvaged from the shipwreck into the Conch Shell. So many pearls gathered together seemed to shimmer with a pearlescent glow.
There were also various jades, with a pink one being the most dazzling.
As well as beautiful clothes, porcelain...
Yun Jiao took a look around and was very satisfied.
However, she was a little dissatisfied with the pearls.
Most of the pearls salvaged from the shipwreck were white; other colors were rare.
Yun Jiao wanted pearls of all different colors.
’I’ll have to go find some pearl mother shells and open them myself another day.’
But there were basically no pearl mother shells in this area. They had Conches, but Conch Pearls were also white.
’When I get back, I’ll look up where to find pearl mother shells and take a trip.’
After leaving the treasure vault, Yun Jiao saw her third senior brother off, then went for a stroll in the ocean.
This time, she went alone to the site of the shipwreck.
The contents of the shipwreck had been mostly salvaged. What she couldn’t keep was handed over to the state. She kept a good portion of what she could, gave some to her family, and sold the rest.
After swimming two laps around the shipwreck, she looked at the bottomless ocean trench in the distance.
She felt an eager urge for adventure.
’I wonder if that giant Octopus is still around.’
As Yun Jiao thought this, she had already arrived above the trench.
The deep sea was already silent. The colors all around were dim and the expanse was boundless.
Even if a person could descend to this depth, they would be enveloped by an extreme sense of loneliness in this sea.
Not to mention floating above this bottomless trench.
The trench made Yun Jiao seem like a speck of dust. As she gazed down, if she looked for long enough, it was as if a giant beast—or several—was hiding in the bottomless depths.
And they were gazing back at you.
Someone with less courage wouldn’t be able to last long before wanting to flee.
Yun Jiao was one of the bold ones.
In her past life, she had hunted giant beasts. Even if there really was one here, she wouldn’t be afraid.
’If I can’t beat it now, I’ll just run. No big deal.’
So, Yun Jiao swam towards the trench.
This trench seemed minuscule in the context of the entire ocean.
But to Yun Jiao, it was immense.
The deeper she went, the dimmer the surroundings became, and the marine life grew stranger.
For example, she saw a fish with a small "lightbulb" on its forehead. Its appearance was what you could call "hastily sketched."
It was the type that looked disgusting and unappetizing.
She’d never tasted one, so she didn’t know for sure.
She even considered whether she should catch one on her way back.
Continuing downward, a dark red, snake-like object suddenly lunged at her.
Yun Jiao swiftly dodged it.
But another dark red thing shot out from the side.
Looking closely, she saw it was a thick octopus tentacle.
"A giant Octopus."
Yun Jiao followed the tentacles with her eyes and saw an Octopus even bigger than the one she had caught before.
Yun Jiao wanted to explore deeper and had no time to fight with it here.
So, as the Octopus extended its tentacles to attack her again, she darted left and right, sometimes even grabbing onto a tentacle to swing around.
By the time she left, the giant Octopus’s tentacles were tied into a knot.
"Bye-bye! If I don’t find anything good down there, I’ll come back for you."
With that, she shot downwards and vanished.
The giant Octopus finally managed to untangle its tentacles. Furious, it thrashed about wildly, and an unlucky nearby fish was snatched up instantly.
Yun Jiao didn’t know how long she had been swimming down, but she finally reached the bottom of the trench.
It was completely dark here, and she couldn’t even see any fish.
Not even deep-sea fish could reach such depths, let alone humans.
Yun Jiao’s eyes were special; she could make out some things even in complete darkness like this.
For example, the massive, menacing skeletons on the trench walls.
There were skeletons on the trench floor as well, far too large to belong to any modern marine creature.
Even the largest Humpback Whale she had ever seen would be dwarfed by these skeletons.
The skeletons embedded in the rock walls were clearly visible. A single glance told her they were from ancient creatures.
They were somewhat similar to the giant sea beasts she had encountered in her past life.
Yun Jiao swam to the seafloor and circled a giant skeleton with a gaping mouth nearly three meters high.
This was just the skeleton of its open mouth.
Each tooth was bigger than her palm.
She stroked her chin, thinking, ’I wonder if these bones could sell for money?’
’Maybe I should take them back and see?’
Aside from the jawbone, the other bones were scattered all around.
There were many skeletons on the trench floor and various bones embedded in the rock walls. She wondered if she could piece together a complete one.
The skeleton was heavy and fragmented.
Yun Jiao did have a net bag with her, but she could only pick up the smaller bone fragments. The large ones wouldn’t fit at all.
’I’ll pick up the smaller ones first.’
After collecting some small pieces, Yun Jiao grabbed the ring of bones that formed the jaw and began to swim upward.
’I’ll come back for the rest another day.’
She was determined to assemble a complete skeleton.
Carrying the things she’d collected from the trench, she avoided the giant Octopus’s territory.
She was worried the creature would go crazy and break her precious bones.
Yun Jiao didn’t return to the village with the large skeleton, but went to her private island instead.
Bringing it back to the village now would surely cause a huge commotion, and there was nowhere to put it.
Nowhere would be safe.
She couldn’t guarantee that someone else wouldn’t have the same idea that these bones could be sold for money.
She couldn’t just stand guard over them all the time.
’I’ll just keep them on the island for now and bring up the rest of the bones first.’
So, for the following days, Yun Jiao would dash to the sea as soon as school let out.
On Saturdays and Sundays, she would go to her master’s place to study.
It took half a month before she finally collected all the bones she thought belonged to this big fellow.
But whether they were all from the same creature remained to be seen.
Assembling the skeleton was also a challenge.
It was too difficult to do it alone. ’I’ll go find my third senior brother.’
Her third senior brother specialized in treating animals, so he naturally knew a lot about their skeletal structures. He was the perfect person for the job.
’Hmm, I’ll call Fourth Brother too. Dad and the others can come if they want.’
"What’s all this mystery about?"
Ying Chengye was curious. He hadn’t been to the island in less than a month. ’What has my junior sister gotten up to now?’
Yun Jiao: "It’s a secret. You’ll find out in a bit."
Yun Linhai steered the boat, bringing them to the island.
And then they were all stunned by the bones on the open beach.
"Oh my god!"
Everyone stood on the boat, gaping at the bones.
The most eye-catching part was, of course, the massive jaw.
"Wh-what monster’s bones are these?"
"Am I seeing things?"
Yun Jiao was the first to jump off the boat. "Go on, get a closer look."
Hearing this, everyone snapped out of it and hurried onto the island.
Yun Chenbei was silent, just focused on taking pictures of the bones.
The others ran over, standing in front of the giant bones to compare their size.
"This has to be three meters tall, right?"
"Good heavens, what animal do these bones belong to? It’s bigger than a Humpback Whale."
Ying Chengye said, "Bigger than that. It’s probably even bigger than a blue whale. And these teeth... they look like a shark’s."
"What kind of shark is that big?"
"If... if there’s something this big in the sea, our boat wouldn’t even be a single mouthful for it."
"Jiaojiao, where did you get this?"
Yun Linhai and the others grew frightened the more they looked.
You have to understand, they were all fishermen. If a creature like this still existed, they would have no chance of escape upon meeting it. All they could do was wait for death.
Yun Jiao: "In a very deep ocean trench. There were other bones there, too, some embedded in the rock walls."
Ying Chengye knew a bit more. "This must be a creature from ancient times. Our country discovered a complete dinosaur fossil back in ’38. This thing is probably from the dinosaur era too, but it lived in the water."
Yun Linhai hurriedly asked, "So, there are no more of these things around now, right?"
"They should all be extinct. Those fossilized skeletons embedded in the rock walls were probably caused by tectonic plate movement."
"A creature this large couldn’t have survived to the present day. If one did exist, it would have been discovered by now."
Hearing this, both Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe breathed a sigh of relief.
If that thing really still existed, it would be too terrifying. Who would dare go out to sea?
Ying Chengye was particularly interested in these bones.
"Jiaojiao, did you call me here because you want to assemble the skeleton?"
Yun Jiao nodded. "Yeah, I want to assemble a complete skeleton. It would definitely be spectacular. I wonder if it could sell for money."
Ying Chengye: "It definitely could!"
There ought to be plenty of people who would want to collect something like this.