Chapter 118 The Huge Ghost Hair Jellyfish
After resting for half an hour so the electric eel could recover its strength, Chen Fan glanced at the ghost jellyfish head hanging on the pike. Having heard that it was as poisonous as the Australian box jellyfish, Chen Fan felt that he had better be careful and not let the electric eel touch it.
He controlled the eel to use the pike it was holding to first carefully pierce a few holes on the surface of the jellyfish"s umbrella-shaped body and let the egg white-colored fluid that was inside, flow out. Like most other jellyfishes, the body of the ghost hair jellyfish was made up of mostly fluid and two mesoderms; one on the inside and one outside. Therefore, it didn"t require much effort to take out the poison sac.
After waiting for the jellyfish"s umbrella-shaped body to completely dry up from using electromagnetic induction, the electric eel then used the pike to tease the thick, greasy mesoderm. It found the grayish-green, half-meter wide poison sac, and hooked it out carefully with the pike.
It was a watery, jelly-like ball with a smooth surface, similar to an elastic rubber ball filled with water. However, Chen Fan was a little troubled over how to handle the poison sac. He couldn"t possibly let the electric eel bring it along.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Chen Fan controlled the eel to the nearby sediment and dug a one-meter deep hole. Thereafter, it used the pike which still had the jellyfish mesoderm on it to push the poison sac into the hole before filling it up again.
Phew! Chen Fan heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he settled the electric eel down before retrieving his thoughts to his own body.
Shortly after lunch, Chen Fan received a call from Xia Qingqing, informing him that the various systems of the s.h.i.+p had been tested, and he could get someone to drive it away. The crewmen with whom w.a.n.g Bing sourced from the major labor markets and intermediary companies had signed a one-year contract and submitted their records to the maritime bureau.
With the help of Zhongtian s.h.i.+pyard"s sales and public relations officer, the large 12,000-ton bulk cargo carrier was finally in Chen Fan"s name after he completed all the registration procedures. Chen Fan fitted the s.h.i.+p with the necessary navigation equipment before dialing Ma Rongtao"s number again.
Ma Rongtao did not decline when he received Chen Fan"s call but quickly helped him link up an order for coal transportation to Australia. After expressing his grat.i.tude, Chen Fan hung up the phone. He decided that he would prepare an expensive gift for Ma Rongtao during the next festive occasion. Reciprocity was a traditional virtue of the Chinese, and also a good bridge of communication between people.
After linking up the deal, Chen Fan got w.a.n.g Bing onto the cargo s.h.i.+p to be in charge of the route to Australia even though it was beyond his ability. He had no other choice since Yiteng Yun and Yu Lin were still out at sea, and Zhang Lele and her accounting cla.s.smate were in charge of financial matters. Chen Fan couldn"t find anyone who he could trust, so he would only let w.a.n.g Bing bite the bullet.
...
"It has been five months!" Looking at the painting-like lake outside the window, Chen Fan exclaimed as he breathed in the fresh air. After moving around for a while, Chen Fan s.h.i.+fted his thoughts onto the electric eel again. For the past few days, the eel dove into the deep sea no less than ten times and only caught two small jellyfishes with a diameter of four meters and five meters respectively.
Diving into the sea at 2,500 meters deep at one go, the electric eel took another breath before embarking on its hunting journey with enthusiasm. After the previous three experiences of successful hunting, Chen Fan had somehow figured out the ghost hair jellyfish"s activity patterns. The ghost hair jellyfish mainly fed on deep sea plankton and fish seeds. He only needed to find where large groups of plankton gathered and then let the electric eel wait patiently nearby.
Needless to say, this also depended on luck. The electric eel was unable to stay too long in extremely deep seawater, so whether it was able to wait until the ghost hair jellyfish came for its food depended entirely on Chen Fan"s luck.
Luck seemed to be on Chen Fan"s side today. After moving around for seven to eight minutes at a depth of 2,300 meters, the eel found a school of white fish seeds. There was an enormous amount of these peanut-size fish seeds that stretched over a 500-meter long and 200 meter wide area. Cl.u.s.tered closely together, they numbered in the hundreds of millions, like sperm.
After finding the spot to sit and wait, the rest depended on heaven"s will. Chen Fan controlled the eel to swim at a range of 100 meters around the fish seeds as it released low electric waves to sense the environment. After monitoring for more than ten minutes, there was no ghost hair jellyfish but only the many fish that wanted to get their share. Chen Fan couldn"t be bothered with them and let these uninvited guests fight over the fish seeds.
After waiting for another five minutes, Chen Fan"s heart suddenly beat faster! An enormous shadow suddenly appeared in the electromagnetic induction. Although he already had three experiences with catching ghost hair jellyfish, Chen Fan still couldn"t help but feel excited. This ghost hair jellyfish"s umbrella-shaped body alone was thirteen meters in diameter, and Chen Fan was unable to sense how long the numerous tentacles behind it were.
The discharge that the eel transmitted to the ghost hair jellyfish was only 110 volts, which didn"t alert it at all. The jellyfish swam quickly to the center of the fish seeds before spreading out the greasy mesoderm above its tentacles, wrapping the numerous "fillings" like a dumpling.
"G.o.d bless me!" Chen Fan prayed in silence before controlling the eel to go near the ghost hair jellyfish. The jellyfish"s tentacles were around ninety meters long, dancing wantonly like a fan being used by a white-haired girl.
When the electric eel was one hundred meters away from the ghost hair jellyfish, the jellyfish, which was in the center of the fish seeds, probably discovered the terrifying huge creature. Its greasy mesoderm stopped contracting and its numerous white tentacles pointed to the front, like numerous fingers looking at the electric eel.
At that moment, the electric eel also stopped moving. The jellyfish"s greasy mesoderm resistance to electricity was too high. It had to be ripped through by the pike first before it could be dealt with a fatal blow.
According to the ghost hair jellyfish"s dielectric data from the previous few times, this huge ghost hair jellyfish was likely to maintain its fighting strength under a 10,000-volt discharge. The two were 100 meters apart and its tentacles were ninety meters long, but the pike was only thirty meters.
Chen Fan a.n.a.lyzed the situation and then decided to take the risk by implementing a long-range attack on it. At that moment, the electric eel paused for a mere two seconds before suddenly das.h.i.+ng toward the ghost hair jellyfish at full speed.
Bang! Just when the jellyfish wanted to entwine its tentacles around the eel, a bluish-white light suddenly burst in the dark seawater. The huge impact caused the jellyfish to pause its tentacles momentarily, and before it could react, a sharp pike flew out at the speed of lightning from the eel"s front claw.
After throwing the pike with a strong accelerated force, the electric eel immediately lifted up its head to avoid the jellyfish"s tentacles, and dashed upward.
We cannot use human intelligence to measure animals. Seeing the fast approaching pike, the huge ghost hair jellyfish didn"t move its body at all but moved its thumb-size tentacles forward to bind it.
How heavy was the pike? It was a full forty tons. Due to the deep sea pressure, the speed of the pike thrown out by the eel was greatly reduced. However, the better the quality of an object, the higher the inertia. The huge inertia brought along by the forty-ton pike was definitely not what the weak tentacles of the jellyfish could stop. The huge pike went right into the jellyfish"s body, like a metal skewer piercing through a water bag, and egg-white colored fluid gushed out as though from a high-pressure hydraulic pump.
Chen Fan roared out at his successful strike, and the bluish-white ray continued without any interruption. It looked as if colored dye was poured into the sea. Although this ghost hair jellyfish was much bigger, its behavior was exactly the same as the previous jellyfish he caught. After being dealt the fatal blow, it gave up resisting right away and swam quickly toward the deep sea with the weight of the pike forcing the acceleration.
Chen Fan had expected this to happen. The electric eel outflanked below the jellyfish as it continued releasing discharge. One was escaping with serious injury and the other was well-prepared. While chasing downward, the electric eel maintained a distance of 100 meters throughout to allow the strong discharge to attack.
2,300 meters…
2,500 meters…
2,700 meters…
Finally, at 2,800 meters, the tentacles of the jellyfish hung limply, letting the force of the pike bring it in a downward fall. Enduring the huge water pressure, the electric eel increased its speed and rushed to the bottom of the jellyfish, moving its claws toward the pike. After grabbing hold of the pike, the eel quickly made a turn and ascended toward the shallow waters.
At 2,000 meters, the electric eel could no longer maintain the strong discharge and had to reduce it to 800 volts. However, after swimming for less than two seconds, something that scared Chen Fan out of his wits happened. Unable to withstand the strong discharge, the drooping tentacles of the already motionless jellyfish suddenly started moving slowly again.
"Ah…" Chen Fan tensed up, and a chill ran down his spine.
The electric eel could no longer maintain 10,000 volts of discharge and could only make do with 3,000 volts. It dashed toward the shallow waters with all its might, hoping that the imbalance in the pressures inside the jellyfish"s body and that of the shallow waters would accelerate discharge of the jellyfish"s body fluid.
Under the electric eel"s horrified gaze, one of the numerous tentacles of the ghost hair jellyfish suddenly shot toward the eel. They were only thirty meters apart. The eel had just let go of the pike and escaped when the shooting tentacle caught up with it and stabbed it into the eel"s tail.
"Fight it out…" Under tremendous pain, the electric eel grabbed the pike again and dashed toward the water surface. It was probably a momentary recovery for the jellyfish just before its death. When the electric eel dashed up to 1,000 meters, the tentacle of the jellyfish could not raise up any further.
However, the electric eel definitely was not feeling good. The area on its tail that was stabbed felt as if sulfuric acid had been poured on it, and excruciating pain shot to the eel"s brain through its neural stem cells.
After reaching the seabed at 800 meters, the electric eel quickly threw away the pike without even taking a glance at the jellyfish, and s.h.i.+fted the electromagnetic induction to the area that was stabbed.
Under the electron microscope-like induction, the surrounding tissues of the thumb-size wound had totally lost its feel, and was still spreading.
"Ah…" Enduring the pain, the electric eel kept pressing the electroplaques on both sides to release a 300 volt discharge, and constantly licking the bowl-size necrotic area.