124: Chapter 123 Preparing for Return

"Thump!"

A low, muffled sound came from underwater, and then the sea surface within a radius of hundreds of meters surged with massive waves. The entire yacht jolted upward instantly, lifted about two meters high, and then immediately sank several meters. Had the yacht not been so large, it might have been capsized by the enormous impact from below.

In Cao Xiao's eyes, however, it was a different scene. Over a dozen small but powerful bombs exploded simultaneously, causing the Megalodon to instantly lose its strength and go limp. Its body stiffened, unable to maintain balance, as its belly flipped upward and the entire mass slowly began to float. If its tail hadn't still been twitching slightly, Cao Xiao would have thought it had been killed outright. This was the result of Cao Xiao's deliberate control, but the other sharks swimming nearby weren't so lucky. Their bodies weren't as massive as the Megalodon's and couldn't withstand the massive shockwave. Those closer were killed instantly, while those further away were knocked unconscious. Even those even further out fared little better; their bodies no longer responded to their brains as they fled in a panicked, crooked scramble.

Cao Xiao was very satisfied with the power of this 'big firecracker.' He stood by the gunwale observing the surrounding sea while Duan Hong and the others stood guard with Vulcan cannons.

"Mr. Cao, this commotion is too much! Please don't do this again. If the distance is too close, the yacht could suffer local damage leading to disintegration and structural failure." Li Quanshuo hadn't expected the small bombs Cao Xiao brought out to be so powerful, and he was filled with lingering fear. Despite the yacht's steel hull, the ship's body wasn't a single piece but was constructed through welding. Generating such a massive impact over a hundred meters underwater meant that if it were any closer, small flaws or cracks from construction might not withstand the tension and snap. A single break could affect the whole structure; flooding would be the least of their worries, as a chain reaction could cause the entire hull to break apart from that point.

"Hehe! I didn't expect them to be this powerful either. I won't use them recklessly in the future. Encountering a sea monster isn't something that happens every day. Anyway, don't drop any more bombs. Hurry and reel it in. That thing is at least stunned. If too much time passes, it might wake up. We need to drag it to the surface early.— Cao Xiao felt a bit embarrassed seeing the strange looks his bodyguards were giving him and immediately changed the subject.

As the winch turned, the straight fishing rod slowly began to bend again, but the curvature was small. With two bodyguards working at full strength, they could make dozens of rotations per minute. The winch had a circumference of eighty centimeters; at this speed, it would only take a few minutes to drag the fish to the surface.

But in less than three minutes, the rod suddenly bent sharply and the line swung left and right. The monster in the water had woken up!

"Stop turning! That thing is only a few dozen meters down now and could surface at any time. Get your weapons ready and stay alert. Switch to armor-piercing rounds. As soon as it appears, give it a full burst. At a distance of dozens of meters, armor-piercing rounds can easily penetrate a meter of flesh and wound large animals. Aim for a one-hit kill!" Cao Xiao had picked up an assault rifle left on the deck by Duan Hong's team at some point and shouted loudly at the two bodyguards, Zhou Bo and Chen Dong, who were tightly gripping the winch handles.

But just then, Duan Hong and Niu Zhen opened fire. The Vulcan cannons spun rapidly, spitting bullets toward a certain spot on the nearby sea surface.

"Brother Duan, cease fire! That's just a normal shark, not the sea monster. Those bombs earlier must have killed quite a few normal sharks. Wait until you have a clear target before firing."

Cao Xiao had been keeping a close eye on the Megalodon's movements. That fellow was still struggling dozens of meters deep, while other sharks had surfaced first. Duan Hong's target was a dead Great White Shark, though its several-meter-long body was now mangled and incomplete.

Seeing that the Megalodon still refused to surface, Cao Xiao grabbed a bomb, set the timer, and tossed it a dozen meters away onto the sea surface, right above the Megalodon's head.

Another muffled sound echoed, and the commotion on the surface was even greater than before. The seawater at that spot shot up several meters high, followed by a large string of bubbles and a blooming red tint in the water.

This time, Cao Xiao showed no mercy, dropping the bomb just ten meters from the Megalodon's belly. Several sharp shrapnel pieces struck the Megalodon's abdomen, sinking in and tearing open several wounds dozens of centimeters wide. Blood gushed continuously from the injuries. Wounded, the Megalodon became frenzied, thrashing back and forth and opening its massive maw to try and spit out the hook, but the sharp hook had already torn through its oral flesh and embedded itself into the jawbone, making it impossible to pull out.

Cao Xiao continued to drop bombs below it, adding small wounds each time, slowly forcing it toward the surface.

Fifty meters, thirty meters, ten meters... Cao Xiao could now vaguely see the massive shadow outline, dozens of meters long, beneath the surface. The gun in his hand was already aimed there, ready to fire at any moment. Duan Hong and the others also pointed their muzzles at the spot. When they saw that shadow, their eyes narrowed and their breathing quickened.

They had thought it would take a bit more time for the Megalodon to surface, but unexpectedly, it suddenly arched its body and slammed its tail downward, leaping over ten meters out of the water. Its tens-of-meters-long body was completely exposed to everyone's sight.

"Fire! Fire!"

Everyone roared in unison, followed by the thunderous roar of gunfire as streaks of fire shot toward the massive body. Before the Megalodon could even fall back into the sea, vertical gashes appeared across its body, torn open by the Vulcan cannons' armor-piercing rounds. The Megalodon's body was over six meters in diameter, but the modified Vulcan cannons paired with armor-piercing rounds could easily breach the thick fat at close range to destroy internal organs. With a rate of several thousand rounds per minute, hundreds of bullets struck its body in those few short seconds. Furthermore, with two Vulcan cannons and three assault rifles spitting a hail of bullets simultaneously, Duan Hong managed to adjust his aim to the Megalodon's head in the shortest possible time, sending countless bullets drilling into its skull and brain.

The Megalodon's massive body crashed back into the sea, but it didn't dive back down. Instead, it floated motionless on the surface, blood flowing from everywhere as several large, crisscrossing wounds covered its frame.

"Brother Duan, give it another burst right in the head." Cao Xiao couldn't be certain if the Megalodon was truly dead.

Hearing this, Duan Hong immediately continued firing at the center of the Megalodon's head until the bullets punched a hole clean through. "It's as dead as it can be."

"Drag it over. Have the crew take the speedboats to hook the dead sharks with ropes and bring them here. Hahaha! What a harvest today! I'm afraid the cold storage won't even fit it all! Hurry and call the others to help." Cao Xiao laughed joyfully.

This Megalodon was thirty-five meters long and weighed one hundred and three tons—a true behemoth. Excluding the blood, bones, and useless organs, there were likely seventy to eighty tons of meat. There were also various shark carcasses popping up on the surface. Cao Xiao did a count and found a total of one hundred and twenty. Originally, only a few dozen had been killed by the blast; for those that were stunned and hadn't woken up, Cao Xiao finished them off to ensure the crew's safety. He also killed those that swam over after smelling the blood. Not counting the Megalodon, these sharks weighed over three hundred tons in total. The yacht wasn't a fishing boat and couldn't store that much in its cold storage, so they had to butcher them all, keeping only the best parts and discarding the rest.

Like other cartilaginous fish such as rays, shark meat contains a large amount of urea, so the larger the shark, the more its meat smells of urine. To humans, urea is a toxin rather than a nutrient. Shark meat isn't inedible, but it is difficult to process; without superb culinary skills, it is hard to swallow.

Shark liver is the main source for extracting fish liver oil, which can strengthen the body, promote growth and development, boost brain health and intelligence, and help with the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. it also enhances resistance to infectious diseases and is used as a supplement for Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and DHA during the growth periods of infants and children. It can also prevent dry eye syndrome, night blindness, and rickets.

Furthermore, shark fins are rich in collagen, which is beneficial for nourishing and softening the skin and mucous membranes. In addition, shark skin is not only a good food ingredient but also an excellent material for making swimsuits.

Sharks were once considered immune to cancer, and their cartilage powder was promoted as a cure. However, clinical trials have proven that shark cartilage powder actually has no anti-cancer effects.

Therefore, the useful parts of these shark carcasses were few—only the fins, skin, and liver. However, no uric acid or harmful components were detected in the Megalodon's meat. Its texture wasn't coarse like other sharks but was instead very delicate and incredibly rich in nutrients! This surprised Cao Xiao, as the Megalodon's meat quality was entirely different from other sharks. But thinking about the era the Megalodon lived in and its structural differences from other sharks, he felt enlightened. Perhaps ancient sharks didn't have meat like modern ones; millions of years is enough for a species to complete multiple organ evolutions.

It didn't take much effort to drag the Megalodon's carcass to the side of the yacht. Because it was too large to lift onto the deck, it had to be butchered in the sea and brought up piece by piece. Processing the other sharks was also quite troublesome, as the skin needed to be peeled off intact bit by bit. It would take a long time to fully process over a hundred sharks.

Thus, everyone on the yacht got to work. The crew used speedboats to drag the sharks to the yacht and string them together with ropes. The entire yacht was surrounded by floating shark carcasses. Cao Xiao didn't stay idle either; with a super-alloy machete in hand, he hacked away at the Megalodon. Large chunks of meat were continuously sent to the cold storage. Even with dozens of people working together, it took two hours to finish processing all the sharks.

The sea within several hundred meters was stained red with blood. From time to time, other sharks would catch the scent and swim over from afar, but Cao Xiao didn't bother killing them anymore, letting them help destroy the evidence instead. Once everything was packed up, Cao Xiao had the first mate set sail, leaving this area and heading back via the shortest route. Such a large commotion could easily attract the attention of passing ships. Their large-scale shark cull would be met with strong condemnation, especially if caught within South Africa's territorial waters, where they could be arrested and sentenced by the coast guard. Thus, they needed to leave this place of trouble early. The scent of blood in this area would attract a massive number of fish; it wouldn't be long before the shark remains were devoured, leaving no trace.

Tonight's dinner naturally included shark meat. The fins would require some time to process before they could be eaten, but the Megalodon meat could be consumed directly. Its flavor was exceptionally delicious, not inferior to other seafood, and could be called a top-tier ingredient. After several hours of hard work, the thirty-some people ate ravenously. This dinner alone consumed over a hundred pounds of Megalodon meat.

Under the moonlight, Cao Xiao practiced a set of boxing on the deck until he was drenched in sweat. His perception of power became a bit clearer. Starting tomorrow, he could begin condensing power. At that time, supplemented by the medicinal formulas in the boxing classic to refine blood-enhancing medicine, and with sufficient resources, the process of condensing power would be very fast. There were still over twenty days until the one-month deadline agreed upon with Hou Jingsheng. He was fully hopeful of reaching the level of Obvious Power before the deadline. Hou Jingsheng would surely look at him in a new light then.

Before resting, Cao Xiao gave the industrial mother machine instructions to explore and collect minerals. To avoid repeating past mistakes, he didn't set an alert. At the same time, he slowly extracted seawater to refine deuterium and lithium metal.

The night passed without incident. When he woke the next day, the yacht was docked at the port terminal. Cao Xiao gathered all the crew members on the deck and announced that the yacht would be sent to a shipyard for modification. Everyone would have a one-month paid vacation and would gather in Hong Kong on this day next month. Naturally, the crew had no objections to such a good deal and joyfully packed their things and left the yacht.

Afterward, Cao Xiao had Cheng Xiaodao take Ren Keyong's family back to the villa, while he, Duan Hong, and Li Quanshuo piloted the yacht to a bay surrounded on three sides by cliffs a few nautical miles away. Finally, the three of them took one of the yacht's small speedboats back to the port. Although Duan Hong and the other man found Cao Xiao's behavior a bit strange, they didn't ask why. Cao Xiao proactively explained that he was handing the yacht over to people from the mysterious laboratory behind him for upgrades.

In fact, shortly after they left on the speedboat, Cao Xiao had already stored the yacht in his research space. That bay was deserted and shielded by cliffs on several sides. When Cao Xiao was piloting the yacht out of the port, he had started absorbing the light reflected from the yacht's surface. By the time they reached the bay, even satellites in the sky couldn't capture any images of the yacht, so there was no fear of being discovered.

It was still early today, so Cao Xiao decided to visit Xiahou Anbang at the embassy. He suddenly felt a bit homesick, missing little Guoer and He Yueyou. He wanted to settle things here in South Africa as soon as possible, spend two days in Somalia, and then return home.