Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 540: Chapter 540: Catching Seahorses

"You guys have fun here. I’m going for a swim."

After speaking, Li Xu put on his goggles and snorkel, then climbed onto a giant rock.

With a graceful dive, he plunged into the deep, clear ocean water.

The moment he entered the water, the cool seawater enveloped his entire body.

The water quality here was excellent, and the visibility was extremely high.

Sunlight pierced the surface, forming columns of light that illuminated a vibrant, multicolored coral world below.

Li Xu didn’t linger on the beautiful scenery. Following the intelligence he’d received, he quickly swam toward the hidden cave on his right.

Sure enough, behind a dense patch of seagrass, he discovered a dark cave entrance.

As he swam inside, the light dimmed, but he could still make out his surroundings.

The current here was relatively gentle, and a special type of seaweed grew on the seabed.

There, amidst the seaweed, Li Xu saw a sight that made his heart race.

A school of seahorses, each with a unique shape, was leisurely drifting in the water.

Some were entirely golden, others were a deep brown, and there were even a few extremely rare white ones.

They clung to the seaweed with their tails, their bodies upright, swaying gently with the current. They looked both elegant and mysterious.

This school of seahorses was a size larger than ordinary ones. The golden ones, in particular, had fins on their backs that shimmered faintly, clearly marking them as the kings of their kind.

These were the special seahorses with potent medicinal properties, capable of repairing the nervous system.

Li Xu held his breath, his movements becoming exceptionally gentle.

He slowly approached a golden seahorse that was resting on a piece of coral.

Seahorses aren’t fast swimmers, but they are extremely alert.

The slightest disturbance in the water would cause them to flee instantly.

Li Xu hovered motionlessly in the water, like a fish.

The very instant the seahorse turned its head...

Li Xu struck like lightning.

He didn’t grab it with his bare hands, but instead deftly swooped down on it with the net in his hand.

’Got it.’

The palm-sized golden seahorse struggled in the net for a moment before quickly settling down.

Li Xu was ecstatic.

’The medicinal value of this single seahorse is probably no less than that of the Ten Thousand Year Agarwood.’

Li Xu silently tucked the precious seahorse into a special mesh bag at his waist, then ascended swiftly, like an agile fish.

Song Sisi and Ding Kaifang were his own people, so naturally, there was nothing to hide from them.

But while Lin Xiaoyu was a good friend, she was, after all, a media professional, and her occupational habits gave her a natural nose for news.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Li Xu decided it was best to be cautious.

Back on the boat, while Lin Xiaoyu was away getting drinks, Li Xu pulled Ding Kaifang to a corner at the stern.

"President Ding, take a look at this."

Li Xu lifted a corner of the mesh bag, revealing the glittering golden seahorse inside.

Ding Kaifang took one look and his eyes went wide. "Is... is this a golden seahorse? And it’s so big?!"

Although he wasn’t a doctor, he knew just how rare a wild seahorse of this quality was.

Li Xu lowered his voice. "It’s a wild seahorse, with extremely high medicinal value, especially for repairing the nervous system. I found a whole colony of them underwater just now, and there are quite a few."

"I want to catch some more to take back."

Ding Kaifang was a shrewd man; he instantly understood what Li Xu was getting at.

But then his brow furrowed. "Doctor Li, this is a great find, but... seahorses are an internationally protected endangered species. If we try to take them through customs, it’ll be a huge problem. If we get caught, it’s smuggling wildlife, and that’s a serious crime."

Li Xu knew this as well, which was why he had come to discuss it with Ding Kaifang.

"Are there any other ways?"

Ding Kaifang pondered for a moment, his fingers tapping lightly on the railing.

As the man at the helm of the Ding Group, he had extensive connections.

"Yes."

Ding Kaifang thought for a moment and said, "I have a friend who specializes in international tourism. As it happens, he has a yacht passing through here tomorrow on its way to international waters. We can hitch a ride with him."

"Once we’re in international waters, we’ll be in the clear. From there, we can transfer to another cruise ship heading straight back to the country and use a special channel to bypass all the troublesome inspections."

"Alright, let’s do that."

Li Xu agreed.

「...」

That afternoon, Li Xu and Ding Kaifang dived back down to the hidden cave.

The two worked together seamlessly. Li Xu was in charge of catching, and Ding Kaifang was responsible for bagging.

The number of seahorses in the colony was truly astounding. The ecosystem here was so pristine that even if they took some, it would be a mere drop in the bucket for the entire population and wouldn’t cause any devastating impact.

As long as they weren’t overfished, this renewable resource could be continuously replenished.

In a single afternoon, the two had a bountiful harvest, catching over ten pounds of top-grade seahorses.

Each seahorse was plump and robust, especially the golden ones, which were practically gold from the sea.

Li Xu wrapped them in multiple layers of black, opaque, waterproof bags and stored them on the boat.

Seeing the bulging bags, Lin Xiaoyu came over curiously and asked, "Doctor Li, what did you two catch this afternoon? That’s such a big bag!"

Li Xu zipped up the bag nonchalantly and gave a vague answer, "Oh, it’s nothing, just some pretty shells and coral rocks. I’m taking them back to decorate a fish tank for Sisi."

Although Lin Xiaoyu was a bit skeptical, she just chalked it up to one of men’s strange hobbies and didn’t press the matter.

「...」

The next morning.

Li Xu habitually opened his system interface, and a new piece of intelligence popped up.

[Today’s Intelligence: Located in a certain area of the Philippine Sea (specific coordinates: N XX°XX′, E XXX°XX′) is a rare natural pearl oyster bed. It contains several top-grade, wild, large pearls with extremely high medicinal value, possessing the miraculous effects of calming the spirit, clearing the liver to improve vision, and promoting tissue regeneration...]

’Pearls?’

Li Xu’s eyes lit up.

In traditional Chinese medicine, Pearl Powder was a sacred remedy for enhancing beauty, nourishing the skin, and calming the spirit.

Moreover, large wild pearls were a once-in-a-lifetime find, their medicinal effects far surpassing those of cultivated ones.

He checked the coordinates and saw that the location was right on their route back home.

This was practically a gift from the heavens.

’I’ve come all this way out to sea,’ he thought. ’How could I possibly pass up a treasure that’s practically being handed to me?’

Li Xu put his phone away, a confident smile spreading across his face.

At ten in the morning, a luxurious white yacht arrived as scheduled.

This boat was much larger than the one they had rented before, and its facilities were far more luxurious.

The captain was a weathered middle-aged man who gave Ding Kaifang a warm hug upon seeing him, clearly an old acquaintance.

The four of them boarded the yacht, bid farewell to the beautiful Lombok Island, and began their journey home.

Lin Xiaoyu was a little puzzled. They had planned to stay for five days, but now they were rushing back on only the third day.

But upon seeing the luxurious yacht and thinking about the deep-sea voyage she was about to experience, her slight disappointment vanished into thin air.

After all, a trip home from across international waters on this kind of yacht was an experience that would definitely get a hundred likes on her social media.

The yacht cut through the waves, forging ahead on the azure sea.

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