Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

When the sea monster was towed onto the stern deck by the crane, the entire ship was pushed further below the sea surface. Its twelve-meter length spread out and occupied almost two-thirds of the usable area at the stern. The dark shell on its outer surface gleamed oilily in the sunlight, and the crevices of the shell were filled with unknown shellfish and dark algae sediment.

The crew spent the entire afternoon working around the enormous corpse, cutting it up, removing bones, freezing it, and sealing it. The ship's refrigerated hold was almost full before they were done.

Yakoda squatted beside the water pipe at the stern of the ship. In front of her, amidst the pile of freshly cleaned entrails, sat a fist-sized, spherical object covered with a layer of dark grime.

After rinsing Yakoda several times with water, most of the residue was washed away, revealing a clean outer shell with a soft and clear light blue sheen.

A wind-attribute God's Eye.

Yakoda held it in her palm, turning it over and over to examine it, then stood up, walked to Fanes, and opened her palm: "Boss, it was found inside the sea monster's belly."

Fanes was leaning against the ship's railing, unscrewing the cap of a mineral water bottle. He glanced down at the pale blue object in her hand, its casing now clean from being rinsed, and squinted to confirm that the patterns on it were of the wind element. He unscrewed the cap and took a sip of water: "Good stuff."

Yakoda raised her hand slightly: "Boss, do you need it?"

Fanes screwed the bottle cap back on and put it back beside him: "What use would I have for that thing? I can use elemental power even without the Eye of God."

Yakoda retrieved the Eye of God and put it into the inside pocket of her coat. The pale blue object slid down the fabric to the bottom of the pocket, where it was mostly obscured by the zipper. "Then I won't be polite. I'll go back and see how to activate this Eye of God."

That evening, after the fleet docked, Yakoda squatted on the edge of her bed in her room and studied the wind-attribute Eye of God on the table for most of the night.

Yakoda ran her fingertip along the texture of the outer shell, then held it up to the lamp and examined it from several angles. The shell maintained its quiet luster, unresponsive to any touch or probing. She put it away in the drawer without doing anything more.

The next day at noon, Fanes and Akoda cut a piece of meat from the sea monster next to a campfire lit at their temporary camp. The meat was dark red, with much coarser fibers than ordinary fish meat, very few fat lines visible near the muscle, and a thin, transparent fascia on the surface.

Yakoda cut the meat into thick slices and placed them on the grill. The sizzling sound of the fat dripping onto the charcoal surface filled the air with a richer aroma of char and herbs than that of ordinary grilled meat.

Fanes squatted by the fire for a while, and when the surface was roasted to a slightly golden brown and glistening with oil, he picked up a piece and took a bite.

Fanes took the first chew. He frowned slightly, then stopped chewing after the second chew, took the piece of meat out of his mouth, placed it in his palm, and looked down at the cut surface: "This thing doesn't taste right."

Yakoda also picked up a piece and tried it. After chewing it a couple of times, her expression changed: "It's like chewing a rubber tube that's been sitting for a long time. The sweetness of the jam and the metallic taste are intertwined. If you chew it for a long time, the sides of your tongue will feel sour."

Yakoda put down her chopsticks, set aside the piece she had bitten, picked up a thinner slice from the edge of the plate, flipped it over the charcoal fire a couple more times, and tried it, but still pursed her lips and shook her head.

Fanes sat down against the tree roots, looking at the piece of meat in his hand that had only been bitten once and was still steaming. He said, "I admit it should be quite effective, but the texture is really hard to make one want to eat more."

Fanes thought for a moment, then stood up and patted his trousers: "Give all this meat to your men to handle. I don't care how you cook it, where you sell it, or how much you can sell it for, and I won't take a cut. Whoever wants to take it can divide it up themselves, just don't let me smell that odor again."

After hearing Fanes' words, the others in the camp fell silent for a moment, and then became lively.

Several people gathered around the refrigerated box, examining the cut pieces of meat. Some took out their terminals to look up information, while others began discussing how to process the meat to mask the fishy smell.

Fanes didn't go far, leaning against the trunk of a coconut tree not far away. Yakoda stood beside him, still clutching the wind-attribute God's Eye that hadn't been activated, slowly twirling it between her fingers.

Yakoda asked, "Boss, are you really not going to care about the profits from this batch of meat?"

Fanes shook his head: "Never mind. Anyway, I didn't spend much money fighting that sea monster, just some ammunition and time. How much they can sell it for is their own business."

Yakoda put the Eye of God back into her pocket: "But the fact that we were able to catch the sea monster is more useful than its meat. Next time a fleet passes through this area, at least we'll know what's down there."

The discussion in the camp continued. Someone had found an old illustrated guide, turned to the page marked with the species' habitat, and read aloud the annotation: "This thing is good for yin and yang, and can be used by both men and women."

Someone nearby chimed in, "If we transport this batch of meat back to winter, we could sell it for a lot of money just based on its medicinal properties."

Fanes didn't reply. He put the empty teacup down at his feet, stood up, and walked to the shallow beach at the edge of the camp. He looked at the receding tide in the distance, where several crabs were pushed ashore by the waves, turned over, and quickly disappeared into the wet sand.

The camp lights stayed on very late that night. The guidebook was passed around several times, with some people making annotations next to the sections on meat processing methods and estimated market prices. Others started contacting suppliers in the city to inquire about delivery times and the availability of refrigerated storage.

Fanes did not participate in these discussions at all, but after nightfall he walked over to the refrigerators and glanced at the temperature display inside the units—the readings were stable.

Several subordinates holding terminals and scheduling tasks recognized him, stopped what they were doing, and greeted him. Fanes, standing beside the refrigerated container, asked, "Has the treatment plan been finalized?"

The person at the front opened the terminal panel, flipped through two pages, and showed him a table on one page that listed the product name, origin, packaging method, and target channels: "It's settled. We'll first transport it to Winter City via low-temperature cold chain, then distribute it in three batches through different channels. The first batch will go to high-end restaurants and prepared food processing, the second batch will go through powder extraction, and the third batch will go through raw material wholesale. Based on current market conditions, the gross profit margin for this batch of meat is estimated to be around this range."

He gestured to a number, saying, "If the market feedback is good, we can do secondary processing and product line extension."

Fanes glanced at the table showing the specific flow of funds and the corresponding expected revenue points: "Okay. Follow your plan. I won't concern myself with the operational details. You'll need to coordinate port availability, the completion of certificates of origin, the exemption forms for port quarantine, and the port scheduling confirmation letters. You can write these yourself and submit them to me for signature. The rest is up to you."

Fanes turned and walked back along the beach.

The campfire at the camp was already halfway through its burn, the embers flickering in the wind. Someone was stacking a new batch of dry firewood around the edge of the fire, waiting for it to burn to the right temperature before adding more.

Several small boats were slowly sailing along the near-shore route in the distance. The lights on their masts swayed slightly in the night as the boats rose and fell, drawing gentle arcs from near the sea surface before going out one by one at the edge of the field of vision.

The tide was receding on the beach, and the damp sand shimmered with a uniform dark gray sheen under the moonlight. The surface water gradually shrank as the tide receded, like a film of water being slowly peeled away.

Yakoda, on the other hand, was still in her room, battling wits with the Eye of God.