Live Stream Treasure Appraisal: Your elf isn't thriving!

Chapter 674 A Pokémon whose form has remained unchanged for billions of years! A living fossil, Relicanth!

A fish.

Its size is far beyond the norm; its estimated length is over 1.5 meters.

Its head is light brown, broad and flat, like a pebble sculpted by a river over millions of years. The eyes are almost invisible, appearing as two cracks embedded on either side of the skull.

Its body is dark brown.

But that's not the smooth surface of ordinary fish.

Its body is covered with a dense layer of uneven scales. Each scale is like a small rock, with sharp edges, a rough surface, and an irregular arrangement.

Irregular light brown patterns are scattered across its dark brown body sides.

The patterns were intricate and chaotic, like an ancient map that had been crumpled and then unfolded.

And a large red dot in the middle of the pattern.

A vibrant red, strikingly bright against the darkness of the deep sea.

It's located in the upper middle part of the body, round and full, as if someone had painted it on with a paintbrush.

The most crucial thing is—its mode of movement.

It does not swim by wagging its tail fin like ordinary fish.

Its pectoral fins spread out to the sides, are thick and short, and end in a joint-like shape.

It walks on the seabed using its pectoral fins.

Left front. Right front. Left front. Right front.

Like an old soldier in heavy armor, trudging through a muddy battlefield.

With each step it takes, its fins press a shallow pit into the silt on the seabed.

The live stream was silent for a full three seconds.

Then the barrage of comments poured out from the bottom.

What is this thing? Is a fish walking???

[I watched it three times, and I'm not mistaken, it really is walking with its fins! This is so bizarre!]

[4820 meters deep in the ocean! The water pressure here could crush a person into paper! How does it survive?]

Those scales on its body look so hard—like they're made of stone!

[Wait, it can't be found in the Alliance database? Is this a new species?]

Lu Chen's voice came from the screen, carrying a suppressed seriousness.

"Mr. Kirby, this video was taken live three hours ago. Our submersible spotted it at the edge of the trench at a depth of 4820 meters. The entire process lasted about twenty minutes. It moved very slowly from left to right in the frame and did not show any aggression towards the submersible throughout."

She paused for a moment.

"We uploaded the screenshots and vital signs data to the Pokémon Database for comparison—zero match. The three researchers on board went through all the publicly available Deep-Sea Pokémon entries, and not a single one matched."

Her tone was very low.

"To be honest, if I hadn't seen the video with my own eyes, I would have thought it was an equipment malfunction. A fish that walks with its fins—this is almost unprecedented in known marine biology."

Ye Yinchuan remained silent.

He's watching.

The Insightful Eye was already operating at full power the moment the screen lit up. Golden data streams surged, converged, and took shape on his retina.

The information panel appears line by line.

Pokémon: Ancient Relicanth

[Attribute: Water/Rock]

[Gender: Female]

【Characteristics: Swift Movement/Rock Head】

[Rank: Lv.41]

[Status: Healthy/Stable/Mild Stress]

When Ye Yinchuan's gaze swept over the "female" category, his eyes lingered for a moment on the head of the ancient coelacanth in the image.

Gill cover.

It is indeed on the shorter side.

Female characteristics.

He looked down.

At the bottom of the information panel, an additional description appeared.

Ancient Coelacanth – A Pokémon whose form has remained unchanged for 100 million years. Once thought to be extinct, it has reached a stable state of life and is known as a "living fossil."

Living fossil.

Ye Yinchuan let out a breath.

"Captain Lu."

"exist."

"congratulations."

Lu Chen was taken aback.

"You've discovered an ancient coelacanth."

When Ye Yinchuan uttered this name, his tone was very soft.

But the reaction in the live stream was anything but mild.

Ninety thousand comments flooded the screen within two seconds.

[Ancient Coelacanth? I've seen that name in my paleontology textbook! Only incomplete fossils have been found; it's an extinct Pokémon!]

[Wait, wait, wait, extinct? Then what is this? A ghost?]

[Is this really a living fossil? Surely someone couldn't have gone out of their way to recreate one in the deep sea, could they?]

After a brief moment of blankness, Lu Chen's expression turned into an extremely complex one.

Shock.

incredible.

And the unique joy of a scientific researcher when faced with a major discovery.

"Are you sure?" Her voice was well controlled, but Ye Yinchuan could hear the vibration below.

"Confirmed." Ye Yinchuan nodded. "Water and rock attributes. The uneven scales covering its body are as hard as rock, and combined with the fat-rich float structure inside its body, it can withstand the extreme water pressure of the deep sea. Its teeth have degenerated and it cannot chew—it feeds by sucking in seawater filtered through microorganisms to obtain nutrients."

He pointed to the ancient coelacanth slowly walking on the seabed in the picture.

"The most striking feature is what you see: it walks on the seabed using its pectoral fins. The joint structure of these pectoral fins is more similar to the limbs of terrestrial animals than any known fish."

He paused for a second.

"Regarding its name, the ancient coelacanth was named after the person who first discovered it. For more than a hundred years afterward, no one saw a second living specimen. The academic community generally accepted that it was extinct."

He looked at the camera.

"Until today."

Lu Chen braced his hands on the edge of the control panel, his knuckles turning white from the force.

She took a deep breath and quickly regained her professional composure.

"Mr. Kirby, if this really is Relicanthus—this would be the most significant marine Pokémon discovery of the past century. I need to report to the League headquarters as soon as possible." But before that, her voice trailed off.

"There's something I'd like you to confirm."

"explain."

Lu Chen typed on the keyboard again.

The camera switched to another video clip. The timestamp was about forty minutes later than the previous one.

Still at a depth of 4820 meters underwater.

It's still the same seabed plain.

This time, however, the submersible's searchlight illuminated a wider area.

In the center of the image, the ancient coelacanth rests on the edge of a depression on the seabed.

It stopped walking.

It lay there, its pectoral fins spread out on the mud, its body slightly leaning forward.

The large red dot stood out prominently under the light.

Its mouth was slightly open and closed. Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhaling. Exhaling.

Normal breathing rhythm.

But its head is facing the depths of the depression.

"Look carefully into the depression," Lu Chen said in a low voice.

The camera zooms in.

The depression is not deep, with a drop of about two meters. The bottom is covered with a thicker layer of silt.

But there was something in the mud.

Not one.

There are many.

The grayish-white, oval-shaped, fist-sized objects were half-buried in the silt, not arranged neatly, but showing a clear tendency to cluster together.

Ye Yinchuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

With his keen eye for vision, Jianbao could see through the screen, through the seawater, and through the surface of the silt, and he could see the internal structure of those oval-shaped objects.

A translucent outer shell. Inside is a liquid nutrient layer. At the center, a tiny, curled-up, unformed outline.

Egg.

That's an egg.

Eggs of the ancient coelacanth.

Not just one or two.

Ye Yinchuan quickly scanned the area and made a rough count.

Twenty-three pieces.

A Pokémon that the world believed to be extinct.

Not only alive.

They are still reproducing.

"Captain Lu." Ye Yinchuan's voice changed tone.

"exist."

Those are not stones.

Lu Chen's breath hitched for a second.

"Those are the eggs of the ancient coelacanth."

In the footage, inside the research vessel's command center, someone can be heard gasping for breath.

Lu Chen's hands clenched tightly on the control panel.

"Twenty-three eggs," Ye Yinchuan reported. "This female coelacanth is protecting her eggs. The reason she's staying at the edge of the depression isn't because she's tired, nor is it because she's interested in the submersible."

"It is guarding its child."

The comments section erupted again. But this time, the emotions were different.

[They went extinct for a hundred years—but they've been quietly giving birth in the deep sea!]

[Twenty-three eggs! This isn't just the discovery of a living fossil; it's the discovery of hope for the continuation of a species!]

Ye Yinchuan did not respond to the comments in the live chat.

His discerning eye is still sharp.

He saw more.

The arrangement of the twenty-three eggs was not random. They were embedded in the silt in an almost spiral shape, with larger spacing between the outer eggs and smaller spacing between the inner eggs, leaving a groove in the center.

The ancient coelacanth's body was facing the groove.

The frequency with which it opens and closes its mouth—is not breathing.

It is blowing oxygenated water into the egg colony.

"Captain Lu, how far is your ROV from that ancient coelacanth?"

Lu Chen glanced at the data on the control panel: "Horizontal distance is twelve meters, and the depth difference is about one and a half meters."

Is the sonar working?

"The active voice call has been turned off, but the passive voice call is still on. Turn it off."

Ye Yinchuan's tone left no room for negotiation.

Lu Chen frowned: "Passive sonar doesn't emit signals, so theoretically it won't interfere with the target." Another voice came from off-screen. It was a young male voice with an academic tone.

"Captain Lu, this is Associate Researcher Lin. The passive sonar receiver itself produces a trace amount of electromagnetic radiation, but in known studies, this level has a negligible impact on marine life. I don't think there's any need to shut it down."

Ye Yinchuan did not look at the camera.

He looked at the ancient coelacanth in the picture.

It turned toward the searchlight by sensing its surroundings.

The eyes, barely visible through two slits, betrayed no emotion, but a hint of unease could be sensed.

"Associate Researcher Lin, right?" Ye Yinchuan's voice was calm and devoid of any warmth. "The research samples you mentioned used modern marine Pokémon. Right?"

There was a moment of silence off-screen.

"----yes."

"The sensory system of the ancient coelacanth is completely different from that of modern fish Pokémon. It lived in the deep sea for 100 million years, and its lateral line system is several orders of magnitude more sensitive to electromagnetic fields than any of the test subjects in your laboratory."

Ye Yinchuan tapped his finger on the table.

"The electromagnetic radiation generated by the passive sonar receiver is negligible for other Pokémon. But for Relicanth, especially a female that is protecting her eggs, it's like someone is constantly shining a flashlight at her doorstep."

He looked at Lu Chen.

"Turn it off. Then reduce the searchlight's power to 20%. Your light is too bright right now. At a depth of 4820 meters, there is no light at all. Her vision has already deteriorated significantly. Strong light is not illumination for her; it's an attack."

Lu Chen did not hesitate.

"Turn off passive sound. Reduce searchlights to 20%. Execute."

The operator responded quickly. The screen went dark.

The searchlight beam changed from a blinding white to a dim, yellowish glow. Visibility on the seabed plummeted, but the outline of the ancient coelacanth was still discernible.

The changes were immediate.

The frequency of the ancient coelacanth's mouth opening and closing returned to a steady rhythm.

He relaxed his body slightly and pressed himself even deeper into the mud.

Their ability to observe comments is astonishing.

It's relaxed, visibly relaxed!

[The streamer is awesome!]

Even with formal training, it's still not as good as a self-taught streamer!

Off-screen, Associate Researcher Lin remained silent.

Lu Chen spoke in a deep voice: "Mr. Kirby, what should we do next? The geology of the trench in this area is unstable. Our original plan was to set up three seabed monitoring posts in this area. If this is a breeding ground for ancient coelacanths, the anchors of the monitoring posts will vibrate when they are driven into the seabed." Ye Yinchuan interrupted her directly.

"The seabed sediment layer at a depth of 4820 meters is soft, and the transmission distance of seismic waves will be four to five times farther than that of a hard seabed. With the anchor specifications of your standard monitoring piles, the vibrations generated by driving the piles are enough to propagate to a radius of 200 meters."

He glanced at the twenty-three eggs half-buried in the mud in the picture.

"Although the eggs of the ancient coelacanth have tough shells, their hatching depends on an extremely stable external temperature and pressure environment. Vibrations in deep-sea sediments cause the silt to redistribute, altering the insulating structure around the eggs. Temperature fluctuations exceeding 0.3 degrees Celsius will interrupt embryonic development."

Lu Chen's expression darkened.

"The monitoring stake will be postponed. Or moved to a location at least 500 meters away." Ye Yinchuan leaned back in his chair. "It's not that we can't do scientific research. It's a matter of priority. You have a discovery that all of humanity has been waiting for for a hundred years: a living ancient coelacanth, reproducing. Twenty-three eggs. This may be the last breeding population of this species on Earth."

His voice lowered by half a octave.

"If these twenty-three lives are lost because of these three monitoring posts, who will bear the consequences?"

The command center fell silent.

Lu Chen stood in front of the control panel and remained silent for five seconds.

Then she nodded.

"The monitoring stake deployment plan must be revised immediately. A 500-meter radius around the ancient coelacanth breeding grounds will be designated as a no-entry zone. I will apply to the alliance headquarters to include this trench in the core area of ​​deep-sea ecological protection."

She looked at the camera.

"Mr. Kirby, could you please provide more detailed suggestions regarding the follow-up protection plan for the ancient coelacanth breeding grounds?"

Ye Yinchuan did not answer immediately.

His discerning eye was still scanning the twenty-three eggs.

One by one.

From the outside in.

Eggshell integrity. Embryonic development stage. Nutrient layer thickness. Temperature distribution.

The first one is normal.

The second one is normal.

The seventeenth one—normal.

Ye Yinchuan's gaze froze on the eighteenth note.

The eighteenth egg.

It is located near the center of the inner spiral arrangement. Its appearance is indistinguishable from other eggs; the grayish-white oval shell is partially buried in the silt.

But the internal structure seen by the discerning eye after penetrating the eggshell was different.

The other twenty-two eggs contained embryos that were standard larval stages of the ancient coelacanth. Tiny fin buds, a curled spine,

An undifferentiated head.

The internal embryo of the eighteenth egg was almost twice the size of the other eggs.

The spine is not curled up, but extended.

On the back of that abnormal embryo were two symmetrical, budding protrusions.

"Could it be that—some Pokémon that haven't changed at all in the last hundred million years have mutated!"

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