Huaxia had not discovered wild Jiang dolphins for many years, and the recent sighting at Huating Reservoir was taken very seriously by the higher-ups, who allocated a batch of specialized equipnt. Every fishing boat was equipped with diving suits.
Mr. Song had already given Suming a brief instruction on how to use the diving equipnt. Mimicking Liang Shi, Suming suited up properly, and then the two of them sat on opposite sides of the boat, giving Mr. Song a 'thumbs up' for 'ready.'
"Be sure to pay attention to safety!"
Still not at ease, Mr. Song added another word of caution. Suming and Liang Shi looked at each other through their diving goggles, nodded simultaneously, and then, leaning backward, plunged into the lake with a backward sorsault.
anwhile, in another direction, a bighead catfish was also racing towards them at high speed.
After getting into the water, Liang Shi gestured to Suming, pointing ahead, and then with a twist of his waist, he took the lead and swam towards the direction where the shadow had appeared.
Suming gently glided through the water with his fins, following about half a ter to the side and behind Liang Shi, ready to assist at any mont.
According to the data from the detector just now, the 'target' was deep underwater. The two dived headfirst, swimming diagonally downwards. As they went deeper, the light from above dimd, and they were surrounded by murky darkness, with visibility less than half a ter. There was not a single sound in the water, nothing but an eerie and deathly silence.
Liang Shi, with far more experience using the diving equipnt than Suming and eager to find the Jiang dolphin, swam faster and faster, soon leading by a considerable distance. Suming, following behind, could barely see Liang Shi anymore; he could only discern a figure floating ahead, so he quickly turned on the underwater lamp on his helt.
A focused beam of light shot out from the searchlight, cutting through the gloom under the water, forming a long column of light. Countless tiny aquatic organisms, like specks of dust, glittered as they passed through the beam.
Within the visible range of the searchlight, however, there was no sign of Liang Shi!
Suming startled slightly, thinking, Where did this guy go?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, his helt was bumped, and suddenly, a series of dull thuds... thump, thump, ca from behind—it was as if sothing in the water was knocking on his helt!
A buzz ran through Suming's scalp; he felt a surge of blood ready to burst out. Instinctively, he turned his head to look back!
He saw a huge head pressing against the helt, its two pitch-black eyes staring directly at him through the diving goggles!
Several tentacle-like barbels floated above the large head, pale and ghostly under the searchlight's illumination!
"Shit!"
Suming hadn't quite recovered from the shock, which had rattled him considerably. He paddled water frantically backward, waving his arms in confusion as bubbles of oxygen burbled chaotically from his mouth.
With so distance between them, Suming could finally see that it was not so ghost from the waters but actually the bighead catfish.
The bighead catfish, shaking its head, swam beside Suming, nudging his helt with its mouth, seemingly quite curious about this object.
"Next ti don't just suddenly 'biu' out like that; you can scare soone to death!"
Suming was sweating bullets, almost wanting to strangle the creature. If he weren't underwater, he might have been frightened to the point of urinating! Co to think of it, he might already have been scared enough to do so without realizing it because of being in the water...
"Have you seen any other people?" Suming asked the bighead catfish using his spiritual power.
Finding the Jiang dolphin would be great, and it wouldn't be a big deal if they didn't, but it was absolutely essential that Liang Shi remained unhard!
The bighead catfish nodded, circled around Suming a few tis, and then, with a flick of its tail, swam leisurely off at a thirty-degree angle. Suming quickly made a few strokes with his hands and followed close behind.
After following the bighead catfish for approximately fifteen ters, Suming finally saw a blurry shadow in the distance, over a ter long. From afar, it looked like both a fish and a person.
Suming powerfully kicked back with his legs, stepping hard on the water, and shot towards the shadow.
As he got closer, Suming realized there was sothing off about this shadow. Although it was about the length of a human, it definitely wasn't human-shaped!
If it were a person, it should have been elongated, unlike the roundness of a Jiang dolphin.
The shadow in front was like a massive ellipse!
He hurriedly drew his arms back, halting his forward montum and staying motionless in the water, not daring to move an inch and even trying to minimize his breathing.
In the beam of the flashlight, a layer of dark green scales swept by—a massive creature underwater slowly glided past Suming.
Since it had scales, it definitely was not Liang Shi nor a finless porpoise, but so kind of giant fish! Suming remained still, holding his breath and focusing on the enormous fish just a short distance away. A fish of such size was extrely dangerous in the water; a casual flick of its tail could easily knock a person unconscious.
The giant creature seed not to have noticed Suming, as it kept moving slowly toward the deeper parts of the lake, gradually distancing itself from him.
Suming finally exhaled in relief, planning to quietly approach the giant fish and attempt to control it with his spiritual power. Such a large fish was extrely rare; if he could control it, the benefits would be nurous.
No sooner had Suming moved than the giant fish seed to sense sothing amiss, abruptly flicking its tail and turning to charge right at Suming!
In Suming's pupils, the rapid approach of a gaping maw reflected!
…
At that mont, the surface of the water was in uproar!
"I told you to be careful, to be careful—why don't you ever listen!"
Mr. Song's eyes almost shot fire as he glared at Liang Shi in front of him, berating him so fiercely that his spit flew all over Liang Shi's head and face.
Having scoured the waters below and determining that the dark shadow was not a finless porpoise, Liang Shi had turned back the way he ca. His objective had only been to find the porpoise, and it wasn't until he got back on the boat that he realized they had lost track of Suming.
Mr. Song and the others waited on the boat for a while longer, but still, Suming did not surface. It was then that Mr. Song beca anxious, swiftly making contact with the other boats to relay the situation.
Learning that soone was missing, Professor Chu and the others panicked, no longer concerned with searching for finless porpoises. They hurriedly approached from afar, gathering above the area of the incident.
Professor Chu and Mr. Song conferred, and although Mr. Song had trained Suming in the use of diving equipnt, it was, after all, Suming's first dive, which carried great risks. With such a long ti elapsed without surfacing, sothing might have indeed gone wrong. They made an imdiate decision not to wait any longer, deploying all the divers available to work in pairs and search for Suming under the water!
"Chu, Song, don't panic just yet, I'm on my way. Little Su is quite clever; it's not certain that sothing will go wrong."
Through the walkie-talkie, Wang Jian She tried to reassure the two older experts, but his tone was more anxious than anyone's.
Not to ntion the relationship between his son Wang Hao and Suming, if an accident had truly happened and soone had died, he, as the leader of the team, would be the first to bla!
Professor Chu's face was ashen with frustration as he glared at Liang Shi, "You, you, how could you be so careless! It's good to be fully invested in your research, but in situations like these, you... oh... "
"Teacher, it's all my fault, all my fault!" Liang Shi was also frantic, almost in tears.
Professor Chu said nothing, turning instead to comfort Mr. Song: "Song, it's just a big green fish. Fish are timid creatures that generally get frightened away by humans—there shouldn't be much danger."
"I hope so," Mr. Song sighed deeply, pausing to pray for divine protection. A green fish that large could easily cause soone to blackout from the slightest collision. Fainting in the water was as good as being dead.
"Everyone, pay attention! Pair up and get ready to dive for the search and rescue!"
Wang Jian She's voice rose above the lake, as he stood on the bow of the yacht with a gaphone, his face an ashen hue.
Liang Shi put his diving helt back on, preparing to be the first to dive in search of the missing person.
Just then, the surface of the water suddenly rippled, and a large splash erupted!
"What is that thing!" soone on the boat exclaid.
Among the splashes, an enormous green fish, the size of a small hill, erged!
And astonishingly, there was a person riding on the back of the green fish!
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