Chapter 1346: Inability to Move
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Plunging bravely into the watery depths, Li Du swam in.
Soon, in the cold water, a huge dead sea animal appeared in the light.
Its body was about four meters long. It was round and had a long horn sticking out from the front of its head. Here comes the narwhal!
It was, of course, a narwhal carca.s.s, well preserved in the icy water, with no outward signs of decay. However, Li Du could see when he looked closely that it had wounds on its skin along which the decay began.
He swam over and felt the narwhal’s tusk, which was what he had been looking for.
Now he was just at the opening of the hidden cemetery. The ice hole was so big that it was no wonder the old man with the plaited beard said that the scene was spectacular.
More and more narwhals appeared on all sides and in all directions. Looking up, there were many narwhal bodies above him too. Some were mere skeletons while others were relatively intact carca.s.ses of the great beast.
Looking at the beasts, Li Du took a deep breath and a string of bubbles rose up around him.
In contrast with the giant animal, his own body looked small and the bubbles even smaller.
He had no idea how many narwhals were there, but wherever he looked, all he could see were the bodies of these large beasts, probably hundreds or thousands of them.
Unfortunately, he was not living in the right era. If Li Du had found so many narwhals in the Middle Ages, he would have become rich in an instant.
Medieval Europeans were very superst.i.tious, and narwhals’ teeth were said to have healing, revitalizing and detoxifying effects. Narwhal teeth were used to make goblets, cups, and bowls, and it was believed that when poisonous liquid was poured into them, the effects of the poison would become neutralized.
The emperors and popes of the era valued whale teeth as a treasure, and despite the sudden and inexplicable deaths of princes and n.o.bles who possessed narwhal horns, the trophies still enjoyed a reputation as an antidote, and their price remained high in the market.
Four centuries ago, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire gave Malleve of Bayreuth, Germany, two narwhal horns to pay a debt equivalent to $1 million in today’s currency.
Today, of course, no one believed that narwhal teeth had such magical properties, and their value now lay in sculpture and research.
The narwhal could dive as deep as two kilometers under the sea level, and its tusks were impervious to changes in water pressure, being a marvel of hardiness created by nature.
Such capabilities were valuable to modern marine science because the deep ocean was a world still largely unknown to humans who lacked efficient deep-diving equipment.
Narwhal tusks were a fascinating bodily structure of sea mammals, and many scientific inst.i.tutions were interested in researching them.
However, Li Du knew there was a better way to make money. King Frederick III of Denmark had the largest collection of narwhal horns in history. He used the narwhal tusks to make a throne which was known as one of the world’s miracles.
For a long time, the throne was used for the coronation of Danish kings. Its legs, arms, and pedestal were made wholly of narwhal teeth.
The tusks, however durable, were worn down by centuries of use and compet.i.tion for the throne, which was eventually destroyed in a palace coup.
Nothing remained of the throne but photographs and Li Du wanted to make a new one with the views of trying to sell it to the Danish royal family, believing the relic would appeal to them.
Narwhals were now an endangered species, and the trade in their tusks was banned by most governments. Fishermen in some parts of the Arctic still traditionally hunted them for food and oil, but the tusks were confiscated by the government.
These tusks, however, which came from carca.s.ses of narwhals who were already dead, could be put on the market with strong proof of their origin.
After visiting the underwater cave, Li Du surfaced.
Although he was not claustrophobic, Li Du still felt very uncomfortable in such a deep-sea ice cave, and there was always a certain fear lurking at the bottom of his heart. It seemed that the ice cave might collapse at any time, and then he would be trapped.
They wrote down the coordinates so that it would be easy for them to come back again.
Li Du took the group of people back to the s.h.i.+p. When Sophie saw the crowd’s expression, she knew what happened. “Did you find the cemetery? How many narwhal carca.s.ses are there?”
Brother Wolf showed her the photos from the underwater camera. Sophie raised her eyebrows in surprise. “G.o.d, so many? It’s a miracle of nature!”
“If you see it with your own eyes, it’s even more impressive,” Li Du sighed.
Sophie looked at the pictures in silence, then glanced at Li Du carefully.
After a long time she said, “Well, you don’t have to destroy the cemetery. G.o.d does not like it… Well, it is no use telling you about G.o.d. You are not afraid of him. In short, I think it a bad thing to destroy such a fascinating natural phenomenon for mere profit.”
Li Du said, “What’s wrong with putting the tusks on the market? We don’t hunt narwhals, we just make the most of their carca.s.ses. If we just leave them here, wouldn’t it be a waste?”
Sophie looked at him earnestly. “Listen, my dear, if we destroy this cemetery, where will all the narwhals go when they die? In addition, if you put whale tusks on the market, maybe you’re legal, but there are always people who have illegal whale tusks, and how will customers be able to tell them apart? It would be abetting illegal whale-hunting!”
Listening to her, Li Du said helplessly, “So why did we come here? You did agree to come with me to find this cemetery.”
Sophie said, “I thought there were maybe a couple of narwhals in this so-called graveyard, not hundreds.”
Li Du said, “Hmm… so we put this much effort into coming here all for nothing?”
“Who said it was all for nothing?” Sophie laughed. “We’ve been to the Arctic. We’ve seen all these amazing places. Isn’t that a fantastic experience?”
Heading south, The Hammerhead Shark suddenly broke down as it left the glacier.
There was a chief engineer on board, the primary technical officer of the s.h.i.+p’s machinery, circuits and electrical equipment.
He went to check the situation and soon came back. He said helplessly, “The transformer that is responsible for supplying power to the propeller has burned out. We have to replace it with a new one, or we won’t be able to sail onward.”
Li Du said, “Then do that. Doesn’t the s.h.i.+p have a spare transformer?”
The chief engineer gave a bitter smile. “Sorry, sir, we have no stock. This s.h.i.+p was originally docked for repair, and some spare parts were used up before. Unfortunately, we had no time to replace some of them.”
Li Du was stunned. “Then what can we do? Is there no other way around this?”
The chief engineer spread out his hands and said, “Unless another boat hauls us away or someone brings us a new transformer, I honestly don’t know how we can get out of this.”
Sophie said coldly, “Do you think it’s a narwhal ghost trying to say something?”