Chapter 823 - 369: The Sea Turtle Treasure

Chapter 823: Chapter 369: The Sea Turtle Treasure

On a relatively flat section of wreckage in the middle of the sunken ship, a discarded fishing net, overgrown with brown algae and tiny shells, lay draped there.

And at one corner of the net, a poor little hawksbill turtle had the misfortune of having its right rear leg and left front flipper tightly bound by the tough nylon lines.

Every struggle only made the lines bite deeper; it couldn’t move forward or backward, could only spin in place, futile and despairing.

Lin Yu’an immediately recognized this kind of ocean killer known as a "ghost net."

These nets lost or abandoned by fishermen don’t degrade like organic matter; they drift through the sea for decades or even centuries, like real ghosts.

Indiscriminately ensnaring, imprisoning, and killing any creature that becomes trapped in them.

He had seen this tragedy countless times in documentaries—seabirds whose beaks were tangled so they couldn’t feed, starving to death.

Dolphins dragged down and unable to surface for air, drowning; and turtles like the one before him, whose strength is slowly drained away in the long struggle until they die.

For this little turtle, this net was a death sentence being carried out in slow motion.

Lin Yu’an immediately pointed in that direction and quickly made a "trouble" and "need help" hand signal.

Seeing this, Riven didn’t hesitate for a second and at once gave him an "agree to act" signal.

The two of them swam over together, slowly and gently, so as not to startle the already near-breakdown turtle too much.

Then, with silent tacit understanding, they divided the work.

Lin Yu’an lightly steadied its shell, restraining its flippers that were thrashing wildly in panic, keeping it from injuring itself again during the cutting.

Then he gently covered the turtle’s eyes with one palm; for most wild animals, visual darkness can greatly ease their stress response.

Sure enough, once the World fell into darkness and a firm strength held it in place, the little turtle’s struggles clearly lessened.

Riven swam around to the front. She drew from her thigh pouch an extremely sharp, serrated professional dive knife.

She didn’t recklessly slash straight at the lines wrapped around its leg, but instead, like a surgeon, carefully studied the path and depth of each line.

Those tough nylon threads, thanks to the turtle’s prolonged struggling, had already sunk deep into its flesh; the surrounding skin was red, swollen, even torn.

Using the hooked tip of the knife, she very carefully lifted a strand of net that was farthest from the skin, then with the serrated edge, with a crisp "swish," sliced it cleanly through.

One strand, two strands... Every movement she made was full of focus and precision, terrified that the knife tip might veer even slightly and nick the turtle.

The live-stream camera faithfully recorded this tense, wordless yet deeply tender scene.

The whole process went without a single spoken word, yet it brimmed with a teamwork chemistry beyond language and a deep respect for life.

A few minutes later, when the last main line entangled around the flippers was finally cut, that evil net at last loosened its "claws."

The newly freed little turtle seemed almost unable to believe it. It paused there for two seconds, and Lin Yu’an slowly let go of his hand.

Instead of bolting away in panic as expected, it circled the two of them, slowly swimming a ring around them.

With its intelligent black eyes, it gazed deeply at these two "strange creatures" who had just saved its life.

Only then did it gracefully stroke its flippers, gliding off like a soaring eagle, vanishing into that deep, dusky blue.

[May good people be safe all their lives! Saving a turtle, that was awesome!]

[This is what adventure is about! Protect the ocean!]

[I was a bit scared watching the moray eel just now, but now I feel so warm.]

[This is the kind of content I want to see! Not some abstract giant pendulum ride!]

Riven swam over to Lin Yu’an’s side and, through her mask, gave him a "well done" hand signal, her eyes full of approval.

"All right, now let’s get back to our ’main quest,’" Riven signed as they’d agreed before.

They picked up the metal detectors hanging at their sides and, starting from where the turtle had been trapped, resumed the treasure-hunting game that had been interrupted.

Like two meticulous archaeological team members, they lined up side by side, slowly following a zigzag pattern to sweep the sandy seabed around the wreck.

Most of the time, their headsets were filled with silence.

Suddenly, as Lin Yu’an’s detector passed over the spot directly beneath where the turtle had been trapped—

A series of beeps came through the headset, crisp and piercing, completely different from all the noise before: "beep-beep—beep-beep—"!

The signal was extremely pure and stable, without the slightest interference—that was the unique signal of gold and other high-density precious metals!

He stopped at once and waved to Riven, who was searching a short distance away.

Riven swam over curiously. Lin Yu’an pointed to the location of the signal source, then to his ear, making an "I found something" gesture.

Riven’s eyes lit up instantly. She switched on her own detector and ran a cross-check over that patch of ground, and likewise received a strong signal response!

The two exchanged a glance and saw in each other’s eyes the same barely contained excitement and disbelief.

Like two archaeologists on the verge of revealing an answer, they began scooping away the layers of sand that had buried who knew how many years, stirring the water into a cloudy haze.