The Pacific Ocean, after two days of arduous travel, the deep-sea fishing vessel Yuan Yu 66, carrying Ling Tian and Xuanyuan Jie, finally reached its destination.
Fortunately, Ling Tian had obtained a minor spell from the merfolk to locate things in the sea; otherwise, they would have wasted a considerable amount of time finding this place.
Upon arriving at the target waters, Ling Tian cast several more spells to confirm that the location indicated by Nu Lin Luo Yun for the teleportation array was indeed on the seabed.
"Deploy the sonar matrix!"
At the captain's command, four cylindrical objects, each over a meter in diameter and about two meters long, were released into the water, trailing hundreds of meters of steel cable.
These were towed terrain sonars. Once submerged, they could emit sound waves of varying wavelengths towards the seabed.
These sound waves would reflect off the seabed's topography and be received by other equipment.
The large electronic computer on board would then use the echoes of these different wavelength sound waves to generate a map of the seabed on the computer.
Although this appeared to be a deep-sea fishing vessel on the surface, in reality, like the Ice Queen, this ship was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The reason for this was that many countries and maritime zones prohibited foreign warships from entering, but a deep-sea fishing vessel faced far fewer restrictions.
A few hours later, Xuanyuan Jie led Ling Tian into a cabin on the ship.
This time, Ling Tian only brought Ah Li with him on the ship. Yu Gong Yui had gone with Aurora and the others to the nearest port. Although Ling Tian had complete faith in Yu Gong Yui, her identity was somewhat sensitive.
The cabin Ling Tian and the others entered occupied an area of over five hundred square meters, a considerable luxury for a ship.
However, this room was already filled with various types of equipment. To dissipate heat, the air conditioning in the room was running at full capacity.
The walls and the control consoles of the entire room were covered with screens of all sizes.
Xuanyuan Jie led Ling Tian to a man in his forties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and with a receding hairline.
This man, surnamed Hu, was an expert in hydrology and seabed exploration in the country.
"Engineer Hu, what have you found?" Xuanyuan Jie asked. Although his status and position far surpassed that of Engineer Hu, he held great respect for scholars like him.
"Mr. Xuanyuan, my team and I have searched this sea area back and forth four times and found nothing.
If there were indeed the dozen or so stone pillars nearly a hundred meters long that Mr. Ling mentioned on the seabed, our equipment would not have failed to detect them.
You must understand that the towed terrain sonar we are using is of the absolute latest world-class technology. We have even accurately surveyed the seabed topography of the Mariana Trench!"
"State your conclusion!"
"I have reason to suspect that either Mr. Ling has the wrong location, or this is simply a scam and there are no such pillar-like ruins on the seabed.
The area we are in is called an abyssal plain. The terrain is very flat, with an average depth of negative five thousand meters.
There are no tectonic fault lines within thousands of kilometers, and not even islands nearby!
Furthermore, at such depths, no life, regardless of its form, can survive. How could intelligent life have built a dozen stone pillars here!"
This Engineer Hu had been invited to participate in the Xuanyuan family's rescue operation, providing only technical support. He was unaware of the matters concerning the merfolk.
Therefore, Engineer Hu, relying solely on his professional expertise, had directly dismissed Ling Tian as a fraud.
Xuanyuan Jie turned to look at Ling Tian.
"Ling Tian, what should we do next? What is your suggestion?"
Ling Tian thought for a moment and said, "The thing we are looking for is an array. According to my research, arrays can cause significant disturbances to the surrounding magnetic fields, electromagnetic signals, and similar phenomena.
It's like that island we were looking for; it was visible to the naked eye, but completely undetectable by radar or satellites!
Don't we have underwater probes on our ship? Why don't we send one down to take a look, and that will settle it..."
"Heh, what a big talk you have!" Before Ling Tian could finish, the Engineer Hu suddenly attacked him.
"Young man, do you know that the underwater probe was brought by us, and each use of that probe costs millions?
Moreover, underwater exploration is very complex and dangerous. If the equipment is damaged, can you take responsibility for it?"
"Hey, what's the big deal? I'll cover the cost!
If the machine gets damaged during the exploration, I'll pay you double the price!" Ling Tian said, showing no concern. For Ling Tian now, problems that money could solve were not problems at all.
Upon hearing Ling Tian's words, Engineer Hu suddenly smiled, a mocking expression on his face.
"Young man, I advise you to read more books. Ignorance is truly terrifying.
Our Shan Hai probe is the pearl of industry. The price of this thing is not something you can afford by buying a few sports cars!
Our deep-sea probe costs eighteen hundred million each! That's enough to buy you a hundred sports cars!
And you offer to pay double the price if it's damaged. Go home and ask your parents if they have that much cash!"
Those who work in technology tend to be single-minded and stubborn, especially technical giants like Engineer Hu, who often lacked emotional intelligence. He assumed Ling Tian was some rich second-generation heir.
Perhaps in the eyes of the rich second-generation, a few million was just the price of a car, or a month or two of pocket money. He looked down on such people. Not knowing Ling Tian's true identity, he directly attacked him.
Ling Tian smiled upon hearing his words.
"Eighteen hundred million each, right? No problem. If something really goes wrong, I'll pay you double, which is forty hundred million!"
"You... Don't talk big. Can you afford forty hundred million?" Engineer Hu was so angered that he bristled. He hadn't expected Ling Tian to challenge him like this.
Just then, Xuanyuan Jie spoke.
"Engineer Hu, Mr. Ling is not bragging. He can indeed afford this money!
I forgot to introduce him. Mr. Ling Tian is the founder of Bing Tian Pharmaceutical, the largest shareholder of Bing Tian Pharmaceutical!
The profit of his company in one month is more than enough to cover the cost of your deep-sea probe!"
"Ah..." Engineer Hu's jaw dropped. He hadn't expected the young man in front of him to be telling the truth.
As the saying goes, a good reputation precedes a person. The reputation of Bing Tian Pharmaceutical was well-established!