HDRDTH -Chapter 88 The Ultimate Mockery of the Deep-Sea Grouper

“BOOM—!”

The counterweight at the back of the excavator emitted a harsh creaking sound of metal tearing apart.

The 15-ton steel beast was forcibly yanked upward by the force from below the water, lifting its rear tracks off the ground. Mud splattered everywhere. Wang Da Fu rolled and scrambled out of the way of the swinging mechanical arm, shouting at the top of his lungs:

“Dad! The machine is flipping!”

Yu Xian didn’t turn back.

His feet were already deeply sunk into the muddy courtyard ground, water rising past his ankles. His black tactical jacket was stretched tight over his muscles. The wound on his left hand had reopened, blood flowing down his wrist into the mud.

He didn’t rely on brute force. Instead, gritting his teeth, he shifted the stress point of the special fishing line from his palm to his entire waist.

This was a technique he had used in his previous life in the South China Sea while fighting a massive black marlin—abandon hand strength, and fight with body weight and center of gravity.

“RISE—FOR ME!”

A beast-like roar erupted from Yu Xian’s throat.

He leaned his entire body backward until he was almost parallel to the ground.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

The winch welded onto the excavator spun violently, gears screeching and throwing off sparks.

At that moment, Yu Xian’s 55 years of fishing instinct caught a fleeting signal.

“Da Fu! Pull thirty degrees left!”

He suddenly shifted his body, using the winch angle difference to precisely wedge the line into the gap of the monster’s left gill cover.

That was the fatal weakness of all large groupers—once the gill cover was locked, they couldn’t breathe properly, and no strength could be unleashed.

The effect was immediate.

The underwater struggle suddenly froze. The previously violent pulling force became heavy and sluggish.

“Got it under control!” Chu Feng blurted out, eyes filled with shock.

Then—

The water exploded.

A black water column shot into the sky, piercing toward the second-floor balcony.

From within the deafening roar, a colossal creature was dragged out of the sea eye, suspended in midair by the special line.

Silence fell across the entire scene.

It was a deep-sea giant grouper—nearly five meters long, like a black minibus hanging in the air.

Its body was covered in thick, dark brown, rock-like scales, each as large as a palm.

Yu Xian noticed something immediately—the patterns on those scales vaguely resembled the geometric designs on the bronze sphere from Thousand Island Lake.

But the thought vanished instantly, swallowed by excitement.

“Who cares what pattern it is—if it has fins and gills, it’s fish! Da Fu! Boil water! Ginger and scallions!”

“Yes, Dad! This thing’s so big we’ll need a fuel barrel to stew it!” Wang Da Fu shouted, trembling with excitement.

But suddenly—

The giant grouper stopped struggling.

It tilted its massive head slightly.

One enormous, murky eye—larger than a washbasin—locked directly onto Yu Xian below.

There was no fear in that gaze.

Only pure, undisguised contempt.

“…What the hell are you looking at?” Yu Xian frowned, a strange unease rising in his chest.

The grouper didn’t respond.

Instead, it jerked its body upward.

Its massive mouth suddenly inflated like a balloon, and a dull rumbling sound came from deep in its throat.

Then—

“PFFFFF—!!!”

A thick, dark green stream of deep-sea mucus—carrying bone-chilling cold and extreme salt stench—erupted like a high-pressure water cannon.

Yu Xian didn’t even have time to react.

The gelatinous mass slammed directly onto his face.

SLAP.

It covered him completely.

It dripped through his hair, hung from his eyelashes, clogged his nose and mouth, and seeped down into his tactical jacket.

It felt like being doused headfirst in a bucket of ice-cold expired industrial glue.

The stench pierced straight into his soul.

Dead silence.

Chu Feng’s jaw nearly hit the ground.

Wang Fei’s guitar fell from her hands with a loud clang.

“…Dad?” Wang Da Fu weakly called out, stepping forward to help, only to recoil from the overwhelming stench.

Yu Xian stood frozen.

Mucus dripped from his chin onto the ground.

His bloodshot eyes were filled with despair.

This wasn’t fishing.

This was one-sided bullying.

“Damn you…” Yu Xian wiped his eyelids, voice trembling.

He was about to pull the line again—

But the grouper moved first.

With a violent twist in midair, it generated a bizarre spiral force.

CRACK!

A sharp snap echoed.

The titanium alloy barbed hook—thick as a forearm—was bitten clean through.

The grouper flipped gracefully in midair, and as it fell back, its tail deliberately fanned Yu Xian’s head, sending the foul smell even more evenly across him.

PLUNK—!

It plunged back into the sea eye.

The black water churned once, then calmed.

Only the broken titanium hook remained swaying in the night wind.

The courtyard fell into absolute silence.

Yu Xian stood there, drenched, covered in slime, radiating indescribable misery.

“Three thousand meters deep. Fifteen tons of pull. Titanium hook.” He wiped green mucus from his hair, eyes red, voice hoarse:

“Xiao Chu… tell me. How the hell does a fish bite through titanium? Does it have diamonds in its mouth?!”

Chu Feng stepped back slightly and coughed.

“Mr. Yu… the evolutionary direction of deep-sea organisms… is still not fully understood by us…”

“Xiao Yu…” Su Wanyi ran out with a towel. Seeing his face covered in the disgusting slime, she almost laughed out loud but forced it back.

“Let’s… let’s go take a shower, okay?”

“Don’t bother me. I need to be alone.”

Yu Xian waved his hand and walked upstairs heavily.

Wang Fei looked at him and couldn’t help speaking:

“Mr. Yu… losing fish happens all the time. Don’t take it too hard.”

Yu Xian stopped.

He turned his head, eyes extremely resentful.

“You don’t understand.”

“Losing fish isn’t scary.”

“What’s scary is—it didn’t even curse me when it left…”

“…but it still made me feel like a complete waste.”

He sighed, pointing at the pit.

“Da Fu. Fill it. Cement it. Reinforce it with steel. Seal it completely.”

“I’m never fishing again in my life.”

The moment he stepped into the house—

The black water at the bottom of the pit violently boiled.

With a deep geological rumble, the sea eye rapidly collapsed and turned into solid, dark earth within seconds.

Upstairs.

Yu Xian lay flat on his bed, replaying the grouper’s final contemptuous gaze.

“I don’t believe this nonsense.”

He suddenly sat up, pulled out a notebook labeled with classified fishing spots across the country, and stared fiercely at the map.

“Thousand Island Lake failed. My backyard failed…”

“Tomorrow, I’m going to the Yangtze River Estuary!”

“I refuse to believe there’s a fish I can’t catch in this world!”

The vow he had just made didn’t even last a minute.

The mouth of a fisherman—always a liar.