Chapter 605: The 12th Year of Qianlong

‘Don’t move!’ Shen Yibin was about to shout, but he remembered he was underwater and wearing a diving helmet. So, he followed the diving instructor’s directions, paddling his arms and kicking his flippers to swim toward Bald Qiang. When he reached him, Bald Qiang turned his head and gave Shen Yibin a bewildered look before lowering his head again to stare at the round rock. He seemed to have realized something was off, too. ‘Why is this rock moving?’

The two of them lay on the lakebed, staring at the rock. Shen Yibin reached out, touched the rock’s surface, and gently wiped away the mud, revealing a hard shell with a regular pattern underneath. Bald Qiang seemed to have made a new discovery. He pointed forward, squeaking excitedly and releasing a stream of bubbles.

On the side of the round rock near Bald Qiang, a round hole appeared. A bald head with two beady little eyes popped out of the hole, then quickly retracted.

‘So it’s a big turtle!’ ‘No wonder I didn’t see it move at all. It must have been too lazy, huh?’ Shen Yibin finally identified the creature. Wow, this thing was huge. After wiping off the mud, the turtle’s full form was revealed. Its shell was about thirty centimeters in diameter and looked quite heavy.

‘Bald Qiang, give me a hand! Let’s get this guy onto the boat!’ Shen Yibin gestured. He and Bald Qiang worked together to lift the turtle. Then Gao Lujie came over to help, too. The three of them supported the enormous turtle and slowly ascended from the lakebed. With a SPLASH, they finally broke the surface.

Once at the surface, he freed a hand to pull off his diving helmet. “Hey, give us a hand! Get this thing onto the boat!” The captain and the server who had stayed on the boat quickly leaned over and hoisted the large turtle aboard.

‘A turtle this big? It must be a spirit beast,’ the server muttered to himself. ‘We didn’t find any big Zongzi, but we fished up a turtle spirit instead. Could it be that what’s down there isn’t an ancient tomb, but the Dragon Palace of the Dragon King of Dongting?’

“Yeah, it’s not uncommon to see sea turtles this big, but freshwater turtles rarely get this large!” the captain chimed in. He had been piloting boats on Dongting Lake for many years and had never seen one like it. The native species of Dongting Lake—the water turtle, the golden thread turtle, the mud turtle, and the yellow-headed box turtle—were all small. Even after growing for many years, they’d barely be enough for a single dish. None were anywhere near the size of this one.

“What kind of turtle is this? It’s not a protected species, is it?” Shen Yibin grabbed the railing and climbed aboard. He then pulled the couple, Bald Qiang and his mate, onto the boat before walking over to examine the turtle.

“Can’t tell what species it is. But while we have many protected animals in Dongting Lake, turtles aren’t among them. You don’t have to worry.” A wild turtle this big could probably fetch a good price. The captain was about to mention this but then remembered that Shen Yibin was staying in a luxury suite and had chartered the entire boat. He obviously wasn’t short on cash, so the captain held his tongue.

“Good, as long as it’s not a protected species!” ‘If it were, getting it back to Yunzhong City would be another hassle. Now I just need to confirm that this guy is the orange dot of light, and this mission will be complete.’

“Even though it’s not a protected species, it looks pretty old. It’d be a real shame to eat it.” The captain thought Shen Yibin wanted to stew it for a health tonic and couldn’t help but add a word of advice. People who worked on the water year-round were often a little superstitious. Eating such a large turtle was considered bad luck.

The turtle, which had just started to get used to its new surroundings and was poking its head out, heard the captain and immediately snapped its head back in. It was hard to tell if it was frightened.

Seeing this, Shen Yibin’s confidence grew. ‘An ordinary turtle wouldn’t be this smart.’ “Of course not! It would be great to take it home as a pet. I couldn’t bear to eat it!” ‘If I ate it, who knows what the Future Pet Shop would do to me.’ Shen Yibin then gave an order, “Let’s go. A little further. We’ll go check out that island!”

‘There isn’t much to see here, but this is a good chance to check if the orange dot’s position changes. If it moves and follows me to the island, then this turtle has to be the target.’

‘What’s so interesting about a barren island?’ The captain was confused, but his professional creed was to satisfy the customer, so he said nothing and slowly steered the boat toward the island. Shen Yibin struggled to carry the turtle onto the small island and set it down at his feet. He told Bald Qiang to keep an eye on it, then took out his phone. He opened the pet radar and saw that the orange dot had indeed moved right next to him. ‘Looks like the mission is complete.’

‘I’ll give you the medicine when we get back!’ Finally having found the pet assigned by the Future Pet Shop, Shen Yibin was overjoyed. He immediately ordered the boat to return. Once back at the hotel, he didn’t even stop for a meal, taking the turtle straight to his room. He placed it in the bathtub and turned on the cold water to rinse off the mud and sand, revealing its true appearance.

Its mottled shell was covered in so much moss that the original patterns were completely obscured. Shen Yibin grabbed a brush and scrubbed with great effort for a long time before finally getting all the moss off.

He had heard that the scutes on a turtle’s back have special concentric rings, much like the growth rings of a tree, with a new ring appearing each year. By counting the rings, one could determine the turtle’s age. Shen Yibin was also very curious about how old this turtle was, so he began to search its back carefully.

“There really are concentric rings!” Sure enough, Shen Yibin found the rings on the turtle’s scutes. Unfortunately, the scutes were so heavily worn that the rings had become faint and difficult to see. Shen Yibin strained his eyes and counted for a long time, but he could only make out a little over fifty rings. He couldn’t determine any more than that.

‘Hm? These markings on the side are strange. Why do they look so much like words?’ Shen Yibin caught sight of some strange patterns out of the corner of his eye, which immediately piqued his interest. He quickly picked up the brush to clean the grime off the markings, then found a few toothpicks to dig the dirt out from between the lines.

‘Are these… words? And they look like traditional characters? I just wanted to figure out how old it was, I never expected a discovery like this! What in the world is carved on its back? Is it some cultivation scripture? A treasure map?’ Shen Yibin grew excited and quickened his pace, clearing away the dirt until all the characters were revealed.

The characters were ordinary traditional Chinese characters. Although Shen Yibin couldn’t write them, he had no problem recognizing them. Unfortunately, these characters were also heavily worn. After studying them for a long time, he could only make out a few words, such as “the 12th year of Qianlong” and “release.”