"Can the ship hold up?"

Jeff heard this and nodded, "Mr. Qi, rest assured, I've been through this kind of situation more than once..."

Before he finished speaking, another giant wave loomed ahead, causing the ship to tilt sharply and the metal framework to creak continuously.

The first officer next to him nearly lost his balance and almost got thrown onto the control panel. Luckily, Jeff was quick to grab his belt, barely steadying him.

Then a voice came from the intercom: "Seawater is flooding into the engine room!"

Jeff frowned even tighter upon hearing this and shouted into the intercom, "Chief engineer! Chief engineer! Report the situation immediately!"

"..."

Come dawn, a rainbow hung across the distant horizon, and Qi Yun's salvage vessel was less than a hundred nautical miles from their destination.

Qi Yun went up to the deck, taking a few deep breaths of fresh air. The storm at dawn had been quite the ordeal, but fortunately, they had made it through without incident.

At this moment, two fair-skinned men approached from behind, holding fishing rods. One of them smiled and asked, "Mr. Qi, want to fish?"

Qi Yun had seen these two men yesterday, the only two white men on the ship, responsible for operating the deep-sea salvage equipment.

Qi Yun shook his head with a smile, "No, thank you."

The two men didn't say much else, heading straight to the edge of the deck, baiting their hooks and casting their lines.

The sea under the clear sky was beautiful, with the morning sunlight piercing through the clouds, casting patches of golden light on the water.

Qi Yun also walked over, taking out cigarettes to offer to the two men, "How long have you been working at sea?"

The two men took the cigarettes and thanked him, and the slightly older one replied, "I've been at sea for more than seven years, and Mike has been here for two and a half years."

Qi Yun nodded, lighting his cigarette and taking a drag, seemingly casually asking, "Have you ever salvaged anything valuable from the sea before?"

With a cigarette in his mouth, Mike grinned, "Last month, I just salvaged a few boxes of silver coins from the Indian Ocean, worth over four hundred thousand US dollars."

The older Frank, while fiddling with his fishing rod, replied, "Once, I salvaged an ancient cannon from the waters near Southeast Asia. The employer said it's very valuable, probably over a million."

Qi Yun laughed and took a puff of his cigarette, "Anything more valuable?"

Mike shook his head, replying, "No, although many treasures are buried in the deep sea, few truly encounter them."

Frank didn't rush to answer, seemingly surprised as he looked at Qi Yun.

After casting his line, Frank cautiously asked, "Mr. Qi, is what you're looking to salvage this time very valuable?"

Qi Yun smiled noncommittally, "Maybe, I don't know either."

As they spoke, Mike's fishing rod suddenly dipped, and from the bend, it was clear something big was hooked.

"Here it comes!" the two men excitedly began to struggle with the underwater creature.

Qi Yun, however, showed no interest in watching and turned to head back to the cabin.

By evening, as the sun was about to disappear from the horizon, Jeff pointed at the map on the screen and said to Qi Yun, "Mr. Qi, we have now reached the target location, ready to start the operation."

Qi Yun glanced at the fluctuating coordinates on the screen and nodded slightly.

Working at night was actually no different from the day, as visibility in the deep sea was nonexistent anyway.

At this time, Mike and Frank also came into the cockpit. Frank looked at the radar map and said, "The water depth in the target area shows 1300 meters. The seabed is flat, so let's conduct a detailed scan over a two nautical mile area and generate image data."

Next to him, Mike nodded and took out a notebook to start operating.

With a crisp beep twenty minutes later, the seabed image was completed.

Frank leaned over, pointing to a shadow on the screen, "The echo strength here is higher than the surroundings, like something is there."

"Should we send the robot down to take a look?" Mike suggested.

Frank shook his head, "We can receive signals at this depth. Let's drop the grappling hook first, check the current situation below before deploying the robot."

Mike didn't insist further, reaching to operate the red knob on the console.

In the next second, the hydraulic systems below deck roared to life, and three mechanical arms extended from both sides of the ship, followed by long grapple hooks descending into the deep sea.

Each of the three grapple hooks was equipped with spotlights and cameras, displaying surveillance-like footage on the notebook.

The deep sea was very dark. As the grapple hooks descended slowly, the screen grew murkier, with the spotlight beams refracting eerie halos in the suspended silt, causing a sense of inexplicable fear.

After two minutes, the seabed appeared on the screen, stirred by the currents, agitating vast clouds of murky silt.

The image on the screen was blurred by swirling sediments, vaguely revealing the uneven surface of the seabed.

When the silt settled, a long object appeared under the spotlight on the right side, capturing everyone's attention.

Mike opened his mouth, somewhat surprised, "It seems like... a shipwreck?"

Frank compared the sonar chart again, taking a deep breath and slightly excitedly agreed, "It seems correct, the area with the anomalous echo strength is right here."

At this point, Captain Jeff spoke up, "Send the robot down and clean off those attachments."

"Aye, Captain." Receiving the order, Mike pressed the silver button on the side of the console, and a sound of gears meshing came from the hull's bottom.

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