Chapter 489: Chapter 322: Underwater Cave_2

Initially, when Chu Mingcheng encountered Mimao Lobsters in Xisha, he feared he could only catch a few and the rest would escape.

In the end, he chose to lure them with bait, and it took a vast amount of time to catch them all.

At that time, he had just joined the industry and didn’t understand the habits of lobsters well.

But now it was different; to save time, Chu Mingcheng was not at all afraid of lobsters escaping.

He caught them quickly, nabbing five decent-sized Ise lobsters within minutes.

As for the others, naturally, they escaped–about half were caught, half escaped.

Although many escaped, the efficiency was much faster than fishing, and he continued to search for the next lobster nest.

Sure enough, as he predicted, there were a lot of lobsters here, and it took him less than two minutes to discover another lobster nest at the bottom of another pit.

He simply reached in to grab them, and five minutes later, his two large net bags were full, containing thirteen Ise lobsters.

The abundance of lobsters here slightly exceeded his expectations; he quickly swam back to the boat, dumped the lobsters into the fish box, which immediately filled up by more than half.

Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng furrowed his brow; the fish box wasn’t large, and even though it wasn’t full, putting too many lobsters might overwhelm the aeration system.

Moreover, the oxygen pump needed charging and was far less convenient than a live fish well.

He simply went to the live fish well on the King Isopod side and reorganized the space, leaving half empty.

The space reduction made it crowded for the King Isopods, but these creatures’ vitality was far stronger than that of lobsters.

He should be returning in a couple of days, so it wasn’t a big problem.

He then dumped the lobsters into the live well, pulled all the net bags from the boat, hung them around his body, and jumped back into the water to continue the hunt.

With eight net bags hanging on him, he resembled an Eight Bag Elder from the Beggar Gang, which was somewhat amusing.

However, having eight net bags allowed him not to have to come back and forth as often and made things much easier.

Chu Mingcheng slowly searched for lobsters in the water and unwittingly came to the cliffside below a small island.

Here, the coral reef was gradually replaced by rocks, but fortunately, there were still plenty of lobsters.

Chu Mingcheng even wondered if this area had long been neglected, considering the abundant lobsters.

Of course, the lobsters he later caught were not only Ise lobsters but also Mimao Lobsters, Green Lobsters, and Striped Spiny Lobsters.

All these lobsters were about the same size; he had now caught over thirty, filling six net bags.

Just then, beside a rock, he spotted a large lobster crawling.

Chu Mingcheng slowly approached, but the lobster, exceptionally vigilant, suddenly flapped its tail and sped off before he could reach.

Normally, he would have given up.

But this lobster was the biggest he had encountered that evening, measuring over fifty centimeters.

It would have been too regrettable to give up on such a large lobster, so Chu Mingcheng decisively chased after it.

As he pursued, a large cave as tall as a person suddenly appeared before him; he quickly stopped, then helplessly watched as the lobster swam inside and disappeared.

Chu Mingcheng stared at the massive cave, his expression fluctuating.

The light from his lamp had limited reach; he shone it into the cave entrance and discovered the cave was very deep.

In the cave, he could see quite a few fish swimming and some small crabs crawling.

After considering for a while, Chu Mingcheng chose to turn back and continue searching for other lobsters.

Finding caves near the island wasn’t strange due to geological reasons; many cave explorers entered caves on land, and it wasn’t unusual for them to exit into the sea.

Chu Mingcheng was a bit curious about this cave and having a map meant he could find his way even if he got lost inside.

But who knew where this cave led or how long it was, so without any practical benefits, he wasn’t eager to venture inside.

That evening, Chu Mingcheng kept busy.

As he continued, the number of lobsters caught dwindled, and ultimately, he caught just over eighty; given the circumstances, he decided to return and collect the extended lines.

After pulling up the five extended lines, the harvest weighed over one thousand pounds, which was considerably more than in domestic waters.

After a busy night, he woke the next day to over seven hundred pounds of catch, nearly meeting the customers’ order requirement of just over one thousand pounds.

The extended lines were set again, and Chu Mingcheng began diving to look for the medium-sized cruise ship.

But the information he obtained was too vague regarding the geographical position; the sea was so vast, how could he possibly find it just by searching?

From morning until late at night, even places as deep as five to six hundred meters were searched, yet Chu Mingcheng didn’t even find a piece of glass.

Although he was mentally prepared, such a result still somewhat discouraged him.

Originally, he planned to continue searching the next day, but the weather at sea changed abruptly while Chu Mingcheng was sleeping, unfortunately encountering a violent storm.

The intensity of the sea wind was just like the last typhoon; he quickly navigated the boat to the lee side of the island.

Sitting in the cabin, Chu Mingcheng was somewhat nervous; this was his first time encountering such bad weather at sea.

The Sea God was violently heaving up and down with the sea waves, looking as if it could capsize at any moment.

Fortunately, the Sea God had a high level of resistance to wind and waves, and with the boat on the lee side of the island, it just rocked a bit but remained unharmed.