Treasure?

--- Chapter 24 ---

Hearing Huo Yuhao's bold statement, the middle-aged fisherman couldn't help but frown weirdly. "Your subordinate? Brat, you don't even look like ten years old." He commented while summoning his spirit rings to scare him.

"Damn, this is worse than I thought."

Huo Yuhao jumped into the boat casually and tapped the middle-aged man's throat, stunning him for a moment. He summoned Eas and transformed one blade-like wing into a bunch of silver needles.

"Let's see... I'll stab you around here, and voila~!" He said while poking around the chest area, causing a black liquid to pour out from the middle-aged man's body.

Huo Yuhao whistled and waited for the poison to come out of this middle-aged man's body. The alchemist in the cultivation world is a versatile master skill because he can do more than create pills, medicine, or poison. He could formulate a method to heal someone from a deathbed situation with his observation skill alone.

Cough!

The middle-aged man coughed a mouthful of black blood in his lungs. He wiped his mouth in disgust and felt way better than before, staring at the blue-haired kid with an awed look.

"Feel much better, right?" Huo Yuhao smirked at him. "Here, drink this medicine to expel the leftover poison inside your body."

A glass bottle filled with pink-like liquid flew to the middle-aged fisherman. "Brat, who are you?" He grabbed the potion with a solemn look. "There is no way a normal child could heal me...'

"I went to the Star Luo Imperial City and asked physicians for help, but they couldn't find a way to dissolve Deep Sea Sting Ray's Poison."

"Well, let's start by introducing ourselves. Shall we?" Huo Yuhao said while patting the shark's head on the boat's deck. "My name is Yun Long."

"Yun? What a coincidence, My name is Yun Han." The middle-aged man responded with a curious expression. It's not like having Yun as a family name is rare, but to think his little savior possesses the same one surprises him.

Yun Han was a middle-aged man in his late fifties, having gray-colored hair and a beard. He wore a tight sailor outfit, hugging his bulging muscle.

Huo Yuhao nodded and added, "As I said beforehand, you'll become my subordinate from now on. I saved your life already."

Yun Han chuckled in defeat because he couldn't do anything to fight back in this situation. The kid before him wasn't even afraid of Spirit Elder. What a day.

"Why do you need an old man like me, kid?" He asked while downing the potion, trusting Huo Yuhao won't harm him after doing such a big favor. "I'm too old to become your bodyguard, and it's not like you need one from what I've seen so far. No kids are brave enough to step into Black Lagoon."

"Well, I'm not an ordinary kid." Huo Yuhao shrugged casually.

"I can see that." Yun Han picked a beer to wash out the poison aftertaste in his mouth.

Huo Yuhao pointed his finger at the far-away sea from the Northern Sea City and added, "I want information about the whirlpools in the coastal area. Even though people here say it was a mystery and anger toward the fisherman, I believe there is more than that."

Yun Han was quiet for a moment and drank the beer with a gloomy look because the whirlpools were a topic he didn't expect to come out of his kid's mouth. He sighed and told everything he knew slowly.

Huo Yuhao listened carefully and heard that Northern Sea City used to be a small town, but a black lightning strike abruptly descended from the sky and swept over the coastline. It was the beginning of the whirlpools, closing the sea travel path.

The Northern Sea City's fishermen tried to use so many methods to pass the whirlpools, but none of them survived getting devoured into the sea. The people here don't want to talk about this because they lost their loved ones and are traumatized by the event.

Even the younger generation of the Northern Sea City knows nothing about the incident because their parents never returned home. Older people like Yun Han knew enough to tell the complete story, but they stayed quiet and didn't want to make kids go there.

"Why didn't you ask for help?" Huo Yuhao asked while staring into Yun Han's eyes.

Yun Han stopped drinking and responded, "Do you think we haven't asked for help? We tried, but it was useless. Even a Title Douluo couldn't help us nor revive the death. The city is declining quickly, making everything hard for us."

"Some left for better opportunities while the hurting one stays to remember the dead." A desperate voice escaped his mouth.

...

"What's the strongest oceanic spirit beast you've seen near the coastline?" Huo Yuhao suddenly questioned, which left Yun Han speechless for a second. "I'm just curious."

Yun Han pondered for a moment and replied, "I've seen 10.000 years old oceanic spirit beasts like Saltwater Crocodiles and Monkey-faced Eel on the border, but as long as you didn't provoke them. They won't bother to hurt you."

"Although some of my dead friends told me they have seen an enormous snake around the whirlpools."

"Snake?" Huo Yuhao mumbled to himself.

"Yeah, Snake."

They kept talking for several hours, and Huo Yuhao rested his head on the boat with a weird expression. He looked around and saw there weren't many people on the docks. There are only Yun Han and his friends.

"Evo, Scan."

[Scanning...]

The whole coastline was scanned by Evo and transferred to Huo Yuhao's mind in real-time. He closed his eyes and watched the beautiful sea from underwater, seeing more than he could before with Kenbunshoku Haki. A bunch of lights entered his visions, some rare materials of the sea.

He also grasped the Saltwater Golden Crocodile's location five kilometers away from the dock, sleeping soundlessly on the bottom of the sea.

"Evo. I want you to keep monitoring the area and share with me the new changes." He said while staring at the sea. "I'll catch a crocodile."

[Noted...]

Huo Yuhao called Eas and created a diving mask with it. He grasped the location between the dock and the target with Spatial Manipulation, creating a wormhole above the sea surface.

Since Huo Yuhao wasn't familiar with his Spirit Skills yet, his calculation was off several meters away. Well, it was good enough. He created another wormhole beside the Saltwater Golden Crocodile, sending the Chains of Heaven to the wormholes.

"Here we go." Huo Yuhao created the third wormhole above Yun Han's boat.

BOOM!

The Chains of Heaven appeared and moved through the wormholes, catching the Saltwater Golden Crocodile effortlessly.

A fifteen meters long saltwater crocodile with golden scales was pulled out of the deep seas, hanging like a keychain before Huo Yuhao's eyes. It struggled for a few minutes but couldn't fight back because of the suppression.

"That was easy." Huo Yuhao released his Haoshoku Haki and grabbed the oceanic spirit beast's head. "I know you could understand me..."

The Saltwater Golden Crocodile's eyes become dilated and tamer than before. It calmed down and stared at Huo Yuhao with big slitted black eyes.

"Good." He smiled slightly. "You should know something inside those whirlpools, right?"

A spirit beast over ten thousand years old could understand human emotion and even know how to communicate non-verbally. And Huo Yuhao's Haoshoku Haki makes that easier.

The Saltwater Golden Crocodile nodded his head at Huo Yuhao's question.

Huo Yuhao patted the oceanic spirit beast and asked, "Can you bring me there?"

"Oh yeah, I'll call you Goldy from now on."

The Saltwater Golden Crocodile growled slowly and nudged his head against Huo Yuhao's palm. It submitted itself to Huo Yuhao when sensing Haoshoku Haki and Divine Dragon's bloodline from him.

[You have added a new loyal subordinate]

[17/200]

"That counts?" Huo Yuhao was surprised and glanced at the system panel. "Also, that old man has been considered to be my people?"

[Yun Han agreed to become your subordinate when you cured his poison]

[And Subordinates don't have to be humans]

He chuckled, "My bad then."

"What the fuck-!" Yun Han yawned and saw a massive crocodile above his boat.

Huo Yuhao waved his hand and shouted, "I'll be back in an hour! If a beautiful woman was searching for me, tell her I went to the sea, checking the whirlpool."

"B-Brat, wait-!" Yun Han shouted back, but Huo Yuhao abruptly disappeared alongside the Saltwater Golden Crocodile.

...

...

"Let's go, Goldy!" Huo Yuhao commanded while clutching the crocodile's scales.

Goldy nodded and swam toward the whirlpools, brushing some weak spirit beasts away. They moved so fast, and some sea creatures could only see gold blur underwater.

Huo Yuhao excitedly grinned as he felt no water resistance on his body. Goldy seemed to create a translucent bubble around him, making the ride comfortable for him.

SWOOSH!

They swiftly arrived at the closest whirlpool, one of the sixteen whirlpools in the coastal area. Huo Yuhao used Kebunshoku Haki immediately and saw a towering purple crystal within it, shining with dim blue light.

[Name: Moon Monolith(Incomplete)]

[Type: Materials]

[Grade: S+]

[Description: A monolith made of moon crystals, having a "strong." gravitational pull on the area. And it could enrich the zone around it with moon essence, transforming barren land into a sacred land full of heavenly treasures after a "certain period" of time]

[Innate Effect: Moon's Blessing, +10% Growth Speed]

"Haha, Jackpot."