Li Keyi was searching for materials in the captain's cabin, so she didn't arrive on deck in time. When she did, she noticed that many people around her had expressions of understanding, and their smiles seemed rather peculiar.
Finally, Shen Feng cleared his throat and said to Li Keyi, "Well, your private box is vibrating. You should attend to it quickly."
At that moment, Li Keyi saw the vibrating box and was filled with surprise and joy. Holding the box, she exclaimed, "My experiment is a success! It seems there is indeed a substance that can shield against the electromagnetic waves of meteorites. The plan to salvage the meteorite will be much smoother from now on."
Upon hearing this, everyone became confused. "Experiment? What experiment?"
Li Keyi explained, "Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the box in my hand; it's quite sophisticated. The box was custom-made. The outer layer is solid wood, the interlayer is lead, and the innermost layer is graphite. The box contains a mobile phone, and the lid is designed to be flush-fitting, leaving almost no gaps."
"So, it's a mobile phone in the box," Shen Feng realized, understanding that he had misinterpreted the situation.
Li Keyi frowned and asked, "Otherwise, what did you think it was?"
Shen Feng smiled but didn't answer.
Yue Hengyi asked with confusion, "Doctor, after all this effort, are you just trying to find a way to bring a mobile phone into the Divine Realm? Isn't that a rather small ambition?"
"It's your ambition that's small!" Li Keyi retorted without hesitation. "You only see that I've brought a phone into the Divine Realm. Then let me ask you, why are all electronic devices unusable within the Divine Realm? Yet, my phone can still vibrate on schedule?"
"Didn't you just say that your box shields electromagnetic waves?" Yue Hengyi stated as a matter of fact.
Li Keyi nodded and said, "If the box can shield electromagnetic waves, then where will the salvaged meteorite be placed? Will we drag it back with a thirty-kilometer chain? That's impossible, isn't it? It's very difficult! Therefore, we first need to find a way to shield electromagnetic waves so that we can successfully bring it back to Yanjing. Do you understand?"
Only then did Yue Hengyi understand Li Keyi's profound consideration. According to her, a massive box would need to be built to contain the meteorite. Once the meteorite was enclosed, the Divine Realm would disappear, and ordinary people would then be able to approach it.
Li Keyi pondered for a moment and said, "At this point, the most important thing is still to locate the meteorite. Once we find its position, we will work on salvaging it while simultaneously contacting Yanjing to have them quickly custom-make containers. We need to be fast. Before others arrive and reach this place, we should salvage and transport the meteorite first, to avoid future disputes."
Currently, the Chinese fleet was the earliest to arrive in the Divine Realm, giving them an advantage in salvaging the meteorite. While others were still en route, the Chosen Bureau and the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs had already entered the Divine Realm. However, if they couldn't quickly find and salvage the meteorite, their advantage would be lost once other fleets appeared.
"If that's the case, then I must also accelerate my actions to find the meteorite as soon as possible and begin the salvage operation!" Qin Kewei nodded seriously. The time advantage must not be wasted; only by holding the meteorite in hand would they feel truly secure.
Two minutes later, the box stopped vibrating. Li Keyi placed the meteorite on the deck again, and everyone continued to clean the ferry.
Ke Yiming found many wooden crates in the ship's warehouse. These crates appeared sturdy. Upon opening them, he discovered that they were all filled with gold bars, each weighing two hundred grams. There were over twenty such crates in the warehouse. A quick calculation showed that this amount of gold exceeded one ton.
"Damn, what a rich person! No wonder they could travel by ship during the apocalypse. Rich people are truly different," Ke Yiming muttered, looking at the gold bars in his hand. He quickly grabbed a few and stuffed them into his backpack.
However, after a moment of calm reflection, Ke Yiming took the gold bars out of his backpack and put them back into the crates.
"I'm so foolish. How could I do such a thing? My brain must be broken!" Ke Yiming lamented.
As he spoke, Ke Yiming picked up a large crate and left. What was the use of taking just a few gold bars? At most, they could buy a few tons of grain. At this time, if you're going to take something, you should take a lot. Being hesitant and timid is not like a man.
"When I return to the Three Gorges, I'll find a way to improve my life. I'll build a manor for my wife, hire dozens of servants, and live a decadent life," Ke Yiming thought to himself with a smile.
The bodies on the ferry were eventually thrown into the sea. They drifted away with the currents, and the ship's environment became much cleaner.
Qin Kewei addressed everyone, "The ship is still drifting. To stop it, we first need to anchor. In addition, the ship lacks drinking water, and we must use our own drinking water sparingly. As for washing our feet and faces, we'll have to use seawater. Lastly, regarding communication with the outside world, the dinghy must not be lost, otherwise, it will be difficult for us to get out."
At this point, Fang Qinghao slowly said, "I can take an oxygen tank and dive to search for the meteorite. The water pressure doesn't affect me, but the light underwater is a major problem. There's no light in the deep sea, so I can't see the specific conditions on the seabed!"
Li Keyi frowned and thought, feeling helpless. The meteorite was located on the seabed, at a depth of at least three thousand meters. Most people couldn't dive that deep, but Fang Qinghao could. However, if Fang Qinghao went down, he wouldn't be able to see clearly.
"Didn't they say there are many bioluminescent jellyfish in the sea? Why don't we use the light from these jellyfish to dive? As long as we can find the meteorite, catching a few jellyfish won't be difficult," Shen Feng suggested at this time.
"If that's the case, it might be better to look for fluorescent fuel. Jellyfish glow because of fluorescent substances. However, it's not certain if the fleet has this item," Li Keyi said helplessly.
Hou Xiaohua quickly chimed in, "I think the fleet has plenty of fluorescent substances. Have you forgotten about glow sticks? When the fighter jets land at night, the guiding personnel use glow sticks to direct them. Let's leave the Divine Realm and go to the fleet to find necessary supplies."
Ke Yiming thought for a moment and said, "I'll go! This task is mine. It's time for me to shine. I'll personally sail to find glow sticks, as well as diving suits and other equipment. Also, the urgently needed electromagnetic shielding containers. I remember them clearly. I'll go!"
"Why are you so eager? This isn't like your usual behavior," Shen Feng said, finding Ke Yiming's volunteering strange. He hadn't expected Ke Yiming to volunteer for such a troublesome task.
Ke Yiming quickly defended himself, saying, "I've always been very proactive. This is for the country, for our own interests. Of course, I'll strive to complete the mission. Give me this opportunity to prove myself!"
"Alright, I won't compete with you for it. Go and come back quickly. You must accomplish three things: glow sticks, electromagnetic shielding containers, and diving suits and oxygen tanks. None of them can be missing!" Qin Kewei, seeing Ke Yiming volunteer, didn't refuse and assigned the task of leaving the Divine Realm to contact the fleet to Ke Yiming.
Ke Yiming was overjoyed and immediately began his preparations. With a heavy backpack, he quickly boarded the ship and then sailed into the distance.
Once on the ship, Ke Yiming happily thought, "I now have two hundred jin of gold. If I do this a few more times and save up a bit, I'll be able to build my manor, won't I?"
Ke Yiming's backpack was heavy with gold bars. He hadn't announced his discovery of the gold, so he planned to keep it all to himself, bringing it back to his room in batches to hide. When they returned, he could bring all the gold back with him.
Upon finding the fleet, Ke Yiming immediately boarded and told the soldiers, "Quickly prepare a few sets of diving suits and enough oxygen tanks. I need to go back to my room first. Later, I'll need to contact the headquarters in Yanjing to have some things sent over. You guys get to it! Oh, and glow sticks, prepare plenty of glow sticks!"
The soldiers quickly went to prepare the necessary supplies, while some contacted their superiors to arrange the subsequent communication with Yanjing.
Ke Yiming took the opportunity to return to his room, opened the wardrobe, threw his clothes onto the bed, then neatly arranged the gold bars from his backpack, and finally locked the wardrobe.
"One cannot get rich without unexpected windfalls, nor can a horse grow fat without night fodder! Truly, heaven has favored me, granting me such a wonderful opportunity. I can now be considered wealthy!" Ke Yiming thought contentedly.
In the apocalypse, gold and silver were hard currency. Of course, the hardest currency was still grain. However, gold and silver were absolutely valuable. As the saying goes, "Gold in troubled times, collectibles in prosperous times," meaning that gold and silver are most valuable during times of chaos. Currently, the major countries worldwide use gold and silver as a medium of exchange, and they can even be used to directly purchase goods like grain.
The fleet gathered all the glow sticks they had and handed them over to Ke Yiming, a total of five hundred. They then delivered the diving suits and oxygen tanks to the motorboat. Afterward, Ke Yiming contacted the headquarters in Yanjing, stated the required supplies, and then sailed back to the Divine Realm.
Upon receiving the equipment, Fang Qinghao began his operation. He first put on the diving suit, strapped on the oxygen tank, and then jumped into the water. The limit for human diving is about five hundred meters; going any deeper is beyond the limit. However, Fang Qinghao had no such worries. He was an ability user who controlled water currents, and he barely felt the water pressure underwater, so he could perfectly handle the diving task.
Fang Qinghao grabbed a glow stick and went underwater. There was absolutely no light in the deep sea. On the deep-sea seabed, there were generally only two types of things: shells and soft-bodied animals. Beyond that, even whales couldn't stay in the deep sea for extended periods; the immense water pressure was something these creatures couldn't withstand.
At a depth of several thousand meters underwater, immense water pressure squeezed in. For an ordinary person, such pressure would have caused bone fractures or even internal organ rupture.
The seabed was pitch black, with no sunlight, so neither aquatic plants nor algae could grow. This area had become the domain of anaerobic organisms.
Fang Qinghao searched underwater for five days, finding many rocks on the seabed, but none of them were meteorites. It is said that meteorites experience intense friction when passing through the atmosphere, causing their surfaces to become molten. Once solidified, irregular bubble-like depressions would form.
However, what Fang Qinghao found were always ordinary rocks, never meteorites.
Just as Fang Qinghao was searching desperately, it began to snow underwater.
White snowflakes fell from the surface into the seabed, creating a dreamlike scene.
The reason for the underwater snow was the marine plankton. The deep-sea plankton ascended, encountering the long-lost light, but soon died. The bodies of these plankton formed white snowflakes that slowly drifted from the surface to the seabed. Such a scene, rarely seen, was encountered by Fang Qinghao.
At this very moment, Fang Qinghao found the extraterrestrial meteorite!
Using the brightness of the glow stick, Fang Qinghao saw the black stone lying quietly at the bottom of the water. This stone was covered in bubble-like depressions, felt rough to the touch, and had a diameter of ten meters. Part of it was already covered by the underwater snow.
"Didn't they say the meteorite was twenty meters in diameter? Why is the one I found only ten meters?" Fang Qinghao was somewhat puzzled.