Chapter 191: Pool Foraging

"Brother, it looks like there are sea urchins." Xiao Hu pointed at several black spheres on the beach and said.

The two walked over and saw that indeed, several sea urchins were lying in the shallow water.

Ye Cheng casually picked one up, looked at it, and said, "It's still alive, I'll take it."

The two kept picking them up along the beach; the sea urchins here were fairly large, just lying there, and picking them up wasn't much effort.

They spent over half an hour picking them up, filling most of a snakeskin bag, and then they were done.

They didn't see anything else on the beach, so they continued forward; ahead lay a stretch of reef where there might be some good catch.

Climbing over the reef, they saw a large expanse of connected reefs, all sizable, with pits and depressions forming many shallow pools.

"Brother, there's movement in here." Xiao Hu pointed at a pool ahead and said.

This pool isn't small, several square meters, and one could faintly see something swimming in it.

Ye Cheng waded in to test it; the water reached his waist, and trying to catch fish there would be quite strenuous—he could barely grab anything.

"Bring the buckets; we'll drain some water first, then catch when it's shallower." Ye Cheng said.

"Ah, draining water, such a big pool." Xiao Hu felt a bit uneasy; they only had two small buckets used for temporarily holding sea haul, and using buckets to drain would indeed take a lot of time.

However, Ye Cheng had no choice; he remembered from scrolling certain video platform that those big sea-foraging streamers would set up four or five water pumps, which worked very quickly.

Now that he didn't have a pump, he could only do it by hand.

Each took a bucket and began to drain the water outward.

Fortunately the pool wasn't very large, and no seawater was flowing back in; after about half an hour of work by the two sturdy men, the water level finally dropped to knee height.

The fish below were already a bit panicked, searching everywhere for deeper water.

Seeing there was catch, the two instantly regained energy, found a few deeper spots and kept draining; after ten or so minutes, the water dropped to calf level, with some areas already exposed.

"Let's get to work!" Ye Cheng shouted, and the two began to sweep through the pool.

They had been draining for nearly an hour; if there were nothing in the pool, they'd be at a huge loss.

A few fish had misjudged their position and were completely out of the water; Ye Cheng simply picked one up—a black seabream weighing over two jin, not bad.

Over there, Xiao Hu dragged an eel out of the pool; it slipped onto the ground with a splat, started frantically fleeing, but Xiao Hu caught up in two steps, grabbed its head, and tossed it into the water tank.

That eel was a little under two meters long, weighing about four to five jin.

Ahead, in a small pool, many things could be seen wriggling; Ye Cheng walked over, stepped down, and felt something move under his foot.

He bent down and picked it up—a sole fish.

The sole fish, scientific name narrow-bodied tongue sole, also called plate fish, sole order, ox tongue. Body tongue-shaped, extremely laterally compressed, standard body length greater than body height by 4.4 times; both eyes located on the left side.

Its appearance is extremely distinctive, being flat and tongue-like, hence it's commonly called sole fish or ox tongue.

The sole fish resembles the tonguefish; they belong to the same family, with tender, low-bone meat that's great steamed or pan-fried, and it's inexpensive, making it a common-grade seafood.

Sole fish are usually not big, just over twenty centimeters; the one Ye Cheng held was about twenty centimeters, likely not worth much if sold, but still fine to eat himself.

After securing that sole fish, Ye Cheng continued to feel around.

As soon as he reached in, a tail flicked up and slapped his hand with a smack; a dark brown fish leapt out, landing in the dry area outside, still writhing, and Ye Cheng grabbed it—a dogfish, the same kind he'd caught before.

This one was a bit smaller, estimated at just over three jin.

After putting the dogfish into the water tank, Ye Cheng bent down and continued to feel; there were no fish left in the pool, but he pulled a large octopus out from a crevice in the rocks.

As soon as it emerged, it flailed its eight arms, trying to wrap around Ye Cheng's arms to bind him.

Don't let its modest size fool you—it's surprisingly strong; Ye Cheng wrestled with it for a while before finally tossing it into the water tank.

The scientific name of Watching Tide is short octopus; this kind is called long octopus or common octopus, much larger than Watching Tide.

This long octopus's head was about the size of Ye Cheng's fists linked together, estimated at five to six jin, qualifying as a fairly large octopus.

Of course, compared to deep-sea octopuses and terrifying giant beasts, it's still far inferior.

After finishing with this pool, Ye Cheng moved to another and, upon looking up, saw two spider snails clinging to the rock wall.

Spider snails, because their shell aperture is narrow and elongated, with the outer lip expanding into conspicuous "spider-foot" protrusions (usually 6–10), resembling spider legs, hence the name. Shell colors are mostly white, light brown, or orange, with some species bearing patterns.

Also due to their many feet, attractive appearance, and beautiful patterns, they are also used as ornamental items or processed into crafts; along the coast they are sometimes called pen-rack snails.

Besides this common name, spider snails have a few special epithets:

First is Blade Warrior, because the snail's flesh often extends out like a blade and haphazardly slashes a few times, earning that name.

Second is Alien Hermit Beast, because the snail has two eyes located on two tentacles, resembling the alien antenna monsters from cartoons; whenever its flesh emerges to slash a person, the two eyes come out as well, lifelike, hence the name.

Moreover, spider snails themselves are rich in various nutrients such as minerals, proteins, and vitamins; they can be eaten fresh or processed into dried products, making them a fairly popular seafood with decent pricing.

After tossing the two spider snails into the water tank, Ye Cheng continued to feel around in the pool, catching a few true seabream and five horse crabs, thus completely finishing this pool.

The two tallied their haul; it was not bad, but compared to an hour's work clearing the pool, they were indeed quite tired.

"Brother, I see coconut trees over there; want to go check if we can get some coconuts to eat?" Xiao Hu pointed at the island's center and said.

Indeed, the island's center boasts a vast stand of coconut trees, with many coconuts visible hanging from afar.

However, coconuts are never that easy to obtain; they grow tall and lack branches, making climbing difficult.

"Can you climb? I certainly can't."

"Brother, rest assured; I've got this handled."

Seeing Xiao Hu's confidence, Ye Cheng also felt motivated; the two agreed, left the water tank here with a stone weighing it down, then set off lightly to fetch some coconut water.