Li Haochen swallowed hard as he looked at the giant abalone before him, his heart pounding and the crowbar in his hand trembling slightly.
The giant abalone's suction was too strong, and it took Li Haochen a long time to pry it loose with the crowbar. Holding the live abalone, as big as his face, in his hand, the intense visual made him feel as if he were in a dream.
"It's truly unbelievable. The impact of the abalone shell just now was completely different from the live abalone itself."
Indeed, it was like the difference between a ten-million-dollar check and ten million dollars in cash piled before you. The money was the same, but visually, the two were incomparable.
Stimulated by the giant abalone, Li Haochen felt as if he had been injected with tens of milliliters of adrenaline. He immediately crawled on the seaweed, his hands fumbling forward inch by inch.
"There's more! I'm rich, I'm rich!"
Pushing aside the seaweed not far ahead, he discovered another large abalone. Li Haochen's eyes immediately turned into shimmering golden coins.
One, two... The more he dug, the more astonished he became. Li Haochen looked at his net bag, which was already full, and then at the area that was still more than half unsearched. Besides excitement, he felt more surprise. "How... how can there be so many? Have all the abalones on Luzhou Island hidden here to escape humans?"
The more Li Haochen thought about it, the more he believed this was possible. This idea made him hesitate. He asked himself if this was the right thing to do. After a while, he sighed heavily, "The law of the jungle is the basic law of the world. I'm just an ordinary person, why think so much? Just follow your heart and continue."
Facing the threat of extinction, it is also the inherent nature of living creatures to seek a safe haven to reproduce and thrive. The revelation of the cave entrance signals their doom.
However, Li Haochen, possessing a spatial ocean, brought a glimmer of hope to these abalones. Although they would inevitably end up on the dining table as food for humans, they had found a place to breed and thrive. This was their destiny.
The number of abalones in this cavern was truly unbelievable. It took Li Haochen a full three hours to search the entire cave. He didn't know how many abalones there were, but there were no less than thirty giant ones, and an estimated two hundred large ones, not to mention countless smaller ones.
Li Haochen knew this represented an unimaginably vast fortune.
After searching again and finding little, Li Haochen's attention turned to the seaweed. He believed that besides the safe environment and high-quality water, these abalones might have grown so large due to this seaweed.
Li Haochen didn't uproot all the seaweed. He only dug up a few stalks of each type. After sending them all into his spatial realm, he returned the way he came.
Returning was much faster than entering. Knowing there was no danger, it took him less than twenty minutes to reach the surface.
Back on the boat, he took off his diving suit. His entire body was shriveled like a dried corpse, with little color left. His skin was covered in red spots that itched, a result of being in seawater for too long.
Fortunately, he had coconut milk in his spatial realm. Otherwise, after hours in the sea without a drop of water, he would have likely dehydrated and died.
Even so, his throat and lips were extremely dry. After drinking a cup of hot water, he went into the bathroom. Hot water cascaded down from the showerhead. Li Haochen stood under the shower, letting the hot water wash over him.
Li Haochen showered for at least twenty minutes before coming out. He checked the time; it was already 3:30 AM. Although he was very tired and sleepy, he couldn't rest. He grabbed some sausages and ate them with Red Bull, put on his jacket, and went to raise the anchor and start the boat.
Three hours later, Li Haochen couldn't hold on any longer and was forced to use his wake-up artifact again – the elderly perfume, also known as medicinal oil.
To stay more alert, Li Haochen didn't use it drop by drop. Instead, he poured it into his palm and rubbed it all over his head and neck. He then applied some under his eyes.
Instantly, his entire head felt like it was being pricked by countless needles, an incredibly invigorating sensation. His tear ducts also overflowed.
However, the elderly perfume didn't last long. As soon as the effect wore off, the sleepiness and fatigue hit him instantly. Li Haochen had to use the medicinal oil again, to the point where his neck and head developed a resistance, and applying it had little effect.
Thus, after repeatedly using it five or six times, he finally managed to reach the vicinity of the dock.
The sun was just beginning to rise, but Li Haochen had no mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery. He took out his phone and called Murong Yanran, "I'm back, don't worry!"
These few words contained all of Li Haochen's love for Murong Yanran, his silent, unreserved devotion, even at the cost of his life...
"Mmm..."
In the office, Murong Yanran covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. This love was as heavy as weak water. "Of the three thousand rivers of weak water, I only take one scoop. Of the three thousand splendors, I only drink the joys and sorrows for one person."
"I..."
"You don't need to say anything. This reception will surely make your hotel famous. Believe me. Alright, hurry up and call someone to the dock. I'm tired, hehe!"
Li Haochen hung up the phone and entered his spatial realm. Looking at the abalones in more than a dozen large net bags, he smiled without hesitation, holding a few bags of giant abalones. "Dozens of abalones weighing eight or nine pounds each. If not the whole world, then certainly unique in the entire country, right? Hahaha!"
He exited the spatial realm, and soon Yang Tao and the others arrived. Their expressions were priceless as they looked at the live lobsters in the water tank. They had seen lobsters before, but seeing seven or eight hundred piled together was incredibly shocking.
"Brother Yang, I have more good stuff, wait!"
"Good stuff?"
Li Haochen smiled and said nothing, then went into the ship's cabin and brought out several net bags in three trips.
"Hiss~"
Everyone gasped. Dozens of abalones, as large as their faces, piled before them. The shock was no less than the Chinese national football team winning the World Cup.
Yang Tao clutched his chest, finding it difficult to breathe. He looked at Li Haochen as if he were a monster. "Hao... Haochen, you'll give me a heart attack sooner or later."
"Alright, Brother Yang, let's get down to business. Hurry up and send them back to prepare."
He hadn't slept for a day and a night. If he had to wait for Yang Tao and the others to receive them, he would have gone to find Duke Zhou for a game of Dou Dizhu long ago. After seeing Yang Tao and his group off, Li Haochen locked the cabin door and immediately lay down on the tatami mat to sleep.
Meanwhile, at the Binhai Grand Hotel, in addition to the hotel staff, a large number of armed special police were stationed, on high alert. The road leading to the hotel had been sealed off, and many police officers were patrolling the streets to maintain order, making passersby think that a central government leader had arrived.
At 9:30 AM, a magnificent and dazzling private jet slowly landed at Binhai Airport.
As the cabin door opened, a charming man in a white robe with a white cloth on his head appeared before everyone's eyes, reminding them of the saying, "A piece of cloth on the head, and he's the richest in the world."