112 Hunt the Ghost Hair Jellyfish

The hole in the reef had already been opened up by the electric eel to 20 meters in diameter and 100 meters in depth. If all the seawater here had been emptied, the experts would definitely think that it was another big hole created by an aerolite. 

After days of putting in effort, the electric eel could already dive to 2,000 meters deep, but it still needed a few more days of training to be able to move around freely for a long period under that pressure range. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to do anything when it reached Tonga Trench.

Reaching Shimen Trench again, Chen Fan decided that he would only go back after the electric eel was able to not feel any pressure at more than 2,000 meters deep. After that, he would prepare to go straight to Tonga Trench to catch the ghost hair jellyfish.

Arriving under the cliff where it previously found the treasure box, Chen Fan turned the output power of the eel's discharge to the maximum to test the terrain below.

Bang! A sound akin to the vibration of a bowstring transmitted quickly in the surrounding waters, and the dark underwater suddenly sparkled. The thing that consoled Chen Fan was that there were no large cliffs or large cracks on this gentle slope all the way to the end of the electromagnetic induction testing. 

Under pressure and cold, Chen Fan started to dash toward 2,200 meters under water. The electric eel could now manage to withstand a depth of 2,000 meters, but was still some distance away from moving around freely. Enduring the pain and cold, the electric eel slowly crawled along the slope for two minutes before reaching 2,200 meters deep.

Endure for ten minutes this time before leaving! Chen Fan made up his mind. There was only the sound of the eel's deep breathing in the dark and silent underwater. Gritting its teeth and holding on for ten minutes, the electric eel could not take it anymore. Exerting its strong back claws and with the strong counter force, it dashed toward the shallow waters.

If it had been a diver with the eel's ascending speed, he would definitely suffer from serious decompression sickness, and may even die of it. However, the breathing technique of the electric eel in the deep sea was different from a human being. The electric eel breathed by filtering oxygen directly from seawater, whereas a human being could only rely on an enclosed diving suit and could not expel the cause of decompression sickness, which was nitrogen molecules, out from the diving suit. 

After floating up to the shallow waters, the electric eel stopped at the gentle slope at around 300 meters and rested for half an hour before making another dash. The eel repeated another few rounds of resting and dashing all the way until midnight before it dragged its exhausted body to find fishes and fill its stomach. After strengthening its pituitary gland for half an hour, the eel shut its eyes and rested until dawn.

The next day, Chen Fan did not do anything but straightaway controlled the electric eel to dash toward the deep sea. There was significant improvement today as compared to the day before. The electric eel stayed for a good fifteen minutes at a depth of 2,200 meters before it couldn't take it anymore and rose up.

Three days later, the eel could stay for fifteen minutes at 2,300 meters!

Six days later, it became 2,400 meters!

Ten days later, the eel could stay up to twenty minutes at 2,500 meters. Also, it could stay at around 2,000 meters for half a day without feeling too much pressure and cold.

According to Wang Xingyu, the ghost hair jellyfish was usually active around 2,000 meters! The Tonga Trench located at the center of the southern part of the Pacific Ocean was 4,800 nautical miles away from Zhongyun. With the electric eel's current average speed of 50 knots, it would need ninety-seven hours, which was a little more than four days to arrive. When resting and eating were added in, it would need at least a week. After a week's journey, the electric eel should be able to reach the ability to stay at a depth of 2,500 meters for half a day. In this case, when the eel arrived at Tonga Trench, it would have the endurance and time to hunt the ghost hair jellyfish down!

...

Chen Fan retrieved his thoughts from the electric eel. Since it was going to Tonga Trench, the electric eel definitely could not just kill one ghost hair jellyfish and return to Zhongyun after getting hold of its poison sac. It had to catch at least ten of them to make the trip worthwhile. However, there was another new problem. A live ghost hair jellyfish was poisonous all over and even if the eel electrocuted them to death, it was still difficult for the eel to take out the poison sac inside. It would be terrible if the eel got poisoned!

"I can't possibly kill the ghost hair jellyfish and wait for it to sink to the bottom and rot, and then wait for the poison sac to float up by itself!" Chen Fan twitched the corner of his mouth.

Nonetheless, there's always a solution to all things as long as you rack your brain. After pondering for a long while on the couch, Chen Fan finally thought of an idea which he felt was good!

Taking out his phone, Chen Fan dialed Zhang Xueyang's number.

"Hello Bro Chen, I heard you made a hundred million recently. Are you calling me to buy me drinks?" Zhang Xueyang laughed cheekily on the other end of the phone.

"I'm quite busy these days but I'll definitely treat you to a good one once I have time!" Chen Fan laughed. "Bro Zhang I need help from you this time!"

"What is it? I'll definitely help if I can!"

"I would like to ask for your help to custom-make a thirty-meter long and half-meter diameter round iron bar!" Chen Fan hesitated for a while before saying. 

"That would weigh around forty-six tons. Why do you need such a long iron bar?" Zhang Xueyang was a little curious.

"For use on the large ship!" Chen Fan had no other excuse and could only make up a lie.

"Large ship? Are you using it as a watchtower or a flagpole? If it's for that stuff, it doesn't have to be so long. Also, the weight will exceed the limit...just hollow steel is sufficient." Zhang Xueyang said doubtfully. "Moreover, doesn't the ship come with that stuff?"

"No, it's not for those. I custom-made a 10,000 ton ship recently…" Chen Fan paused for two seconds to organize his lies. "I intend to connect a long bar at the bottom of the ship, for smuggling purposes."

"Can't you just use metal chain?"

"It would hit the bottom at shallow waters!" Chen Fan said, as if to say "you're a layman". "Just help me make one, why do you need to bother so much?"

"Alright!" Zhang Xueyang readily agreed. It was just making a solid iron bar, not a cannon. He would be more than happy if someone ordered a hundred at one go.

"It would be best if the metal used has high hardness and corrosion resistance, otherwise, a normal iron rod would get corroded very fast underwater." Chen Fan added after thinking.

"That's simple, I just need to get the master worker to add in ten percent of titanium alloy. Much diving equipment these days uses this type of material, but the price may be a little expensive!"

"Titanium alloy…" Chen Fan gave it some thought. He was aware of the properties of titanium. This silver-white metal is stronger than steel, but its weight is forty-three percent lighter than steel. Its corrosion resistance is also very good; even aqua regia is not able to corrode it, not to mention seawater. "Add thirty percent of titanium into it then!"

"Thirty percent? Then it will cost 3 million RMB just to make this iron rod!"

"Um, price is not an issue!" Chen Fan stretched himself out on the couch. "Oh one more thing, tell the master to cast one end of the rod into a shape of an anchor one meter in diameter."

"No problem!" Zhang Xueyang replied readily. "But the melting point of titanium is higher, so it will take around four days to get it done!"

"Um! Just get someone to send it to the previous seaside shipyard when it's done!" Chen Fan instructed before hanging up. Chen Fan's idea was very simple. After the electric eel electrocuted the ghost hair jellyfish to death, it would rip through the jellyfish with the pike like candied haws on a stick before bringing it to the shallow waters and torture it slowly. Actually there was another reason behind this. The electric eel did not have a suitable weapon after the meteor hammer was scrapped. 　

Just as Chen Fan was about to get up from the couch to fix some food to fill his stomach, the phone which he had just hung up rang again. He saw that it was from his father and quickly pressed the answer key.

"Hello, Dad, what's up?"

"S-son, how have you been recently? Did...did you take your meals regularly?" Chen Fan's father faltered and stopped.

"I've been eating well, and even put on a few pounds!" Chen Fan was a little puzzled as his father did not usually sound like this. "Dad, what is it?"

"Then...how about the shipping company? Is it making profits or losses?"

"The ship just did a trip to Singapore recently, and made 200,000 RMB!" Chen Fan did not lie about this. After deducting the workers' salary and expenses, he really made 200,000 RMB. "Dad, what is it exactly? Tell me quick. "

"Erm...erm…" Chen Fan's father hemmed and hawed before saying, "Your mom and I went Macau yesterday…"

"And then?" Chen Fan suddenly straightened his body and asked anxiously.

"Then...then we went to the casino and walked one round. Your mom and I couldn't couldn't control ourselves and bought 5,000 RMB worth of chips to play…"

"But...in the end, we continued playing after losing, and after playing the whole night, we...we lost 1.2 million RMB!" Chen Fan's father sounded like a child who had done something wrong, muttering at the end that Chen Fan could not hear what he said.

"Well…" Chen Fan felt relieved. His parents had always liked gambling, but they only played mahjong and cards at the most, and they had indeed gone a little too far this time. It was fine as long as it was nothing else serious, he could make more money as long as he spent some time.

"So be it then!" Chen Fan put his worries aside. "The company has started to make profits anyway. We can earn back the lost amount after another month!"

"Oh...then...that's good...your mom and I are not going to stay in Macau anymore. We'll take the plane to Dali in Yunnan tomorrow!"

"Take care of yourselves on the way!"

"Um…" After some nagging, Chen Fan hung up the phone.

"Gave me a scare!" Chen Fan placed his hand on his chest and then went to the kitchen downstairs. There was still three more days before he could get the weapon. After filling his stomach, Chen Fan shifted his thoughts onto the electric eel to strengthen its pituitary gland.

--------

Four days flew by in the blink of an eye. At 5PM in the afternoon, Chen Fan ate some food before driving to the shipyard by the sea. Zhang Xueyang had just called to inform him that the iron rod had been cast and it was now being transported to the shipyard on a semi-trailer.

When Chen Fan reached the shipyard after making a detour to the bank to transfer 3 million RMB to Zhang Xueyang, there was already a Steyr semi-trailer towing a long iron rod parked at the side with a yellow crane right behind it.

Zhang Xueyang got out of the truck the moment he saw Chen Fan and pointed at the shipyard, looking troubled. "Your shipyard is too low, the crane can't go in!"

"Seems like it!" Chen Fan looked at the shipyard and the crane. The shipyard was twelve meters tall, and the crane was not able to go in with its arm extended.

"Lean it at the entrance in front of the shipyard then, I'll get a lifting vessel to tow it later!" Chen Fan scratched his head and pointed at the waterway in front of the shipyard.

"That works too!" Zhang Xueyang ran to the crane and gestured to the driver. The yellow XCMG crane which could lift up to sixty tons, extended its sword-like arms, and the truck driver jumped off the truck, and attached the hook onto the steel cables wound in the middle of the pike.

Looking at the more than forty-ton pike being lifted high up, Chen Fan, Zhang Xueyang and the driver all covered their heads and ran a distance away, afraid that the shaking pike might drop and mash them up. Thump! The pike got hooked to the front of the shipyard by the crane, with half of it on the beach and the other half in the water.

"I've already transferred the money to your bank card!" Chen Fan turned to Zhang Xueyang after seeing the 'handover ceremony' was completed.

"I've received the notification message!" Zhang Xueyang showed his phone and then patted Chen Fan's shoulder. "I still have things to see to. I'll make a move first. Let's go have fun another day!" 

Chen Fan laughed. "Get going!"

After the two heavy-duty trucks left, Chen Fan ran to the front of the pike which looked like a pillar from heaven. The pike which glowed with a silver-gray metallic luster and had thirty percent titanium alloy mixed in it completely occupied Chen Fan's mind with its thirty meter length and forty ton weight. The tip which had been specially cast into a one-meter diameter spearhead with curved hooks at the two sides fully portrayed its "all-conquering" property!

Chen Fan picked up a ten-kilo rock nearby and threw it at the pike with all his strength. Clang! A huge echo-filled metal sound got into Chen Fan's ears. After Chen Fan wiped away the slags on the surface of the pike, the surface of the metal that he hit still glowed with perfect luster without any scratches.

"Divine weapon! This is absolutely a divine weapon!" Chen Fan danced with excitement. With this pike, even Godzilla would have to beg for mercy.

Chen Fan got back into the car and switched on the in-car theater. He casually found a movie to kill time, and planned to wait till nightfall before getting the electric eel to tow away the pike. After finishing two American movies, the sky outside was already completely dark. Chen Fan got out of the car and stretched himself before opening the main gate of the shipyard. Thereafter, he got into the car again and shifted his thoughts onto the electric eel.

Chen Fan had gotten the eel to drag the submarine to the nearby seabed because he was afraid that Zhang Xueyang would discover the fake submarine in the shipyard. A human being could only use machines to move a forty-ton pike, but it was easy for a sixty-meter long electric eel, especially when it could still make use of the seawater's buoyancy. 　　　

Chen Fan controlled the electric eel to use its front claws to grab the pike and drag it to the seabed a distance away before pushing the submarine back into the shipyard again. Chen Fan closed the main gate of the shipyard and then drove himself home. 　

After getting home, Chen Fan found a comfortable position and laid down before shifting his thoughts onto the electric eel again. Ghost hair jellyfish, your nemesis is coming!