Chapter 449: Accidentally Discovering Another New Species

Ning Fei was enjoying his dive in the Coral Sea.

A gorgeous, blonde-haired, blue-eyed young woman drifted over to him.

She swam right up to Ning Fei and waved in greeting.

Assuming she was just an enthusiastic local tourist, Ning Fei waved back.

But she lingered, smiling at him as if they knew each other.

"That evil capitalist hussy is actually trying to hit on my husband!"

Some female viewers grew outraged at the sight and flooded the stream with comments.

"Temple master Ning, don't fall for her seduction!"

"Ahhh, this is so frustrating!"

The female audience members filled the screen with bullet comments, entirely displeased by the encounter.

The male viewers, however, felt differently.

"This foreign chick has a killer body."

"Look at those pale legs!"

"My daily dose of envying temple master Ning."

"I think I recognize her. She's a famous foreign travel vlogger with a massive following."

The viewers buzzed with chatter.

Ning Fei didn't recognize the woman at all. He gave her a polite greeting and simply continued swimming forward.

"There are countless varieties of coral," he explained. "They might look similar, but their prices vary wildly."

"Take blood coral, for example. A high-quality specimen can sell for tens of millions."

Ning Fei continued his underwater commentary.

"Tens of millions? Where are they? I'm going digging!"

"That's the kind of treasure you have to stumble upon. You can't just hunt for it."

"There might be some right here in the Coral Sea."

The mere mention of money instantly fired up the audience.

Ning Fei swam further along the reef.

The colors of the coral continuously shifted around him.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

"Look over there, everyone! A pink coral field!"

"Pink coral is quite rare. I didn't expect to find any here."

"It truly lives up to its name as the largest coral reef system in the world!"

Ning Fei marveled at the sight.

The viewers looked ahead to see a dense, sprawling expanse of pink blanketing the seabed. It looked completely magical.

"Whoa, it's macho pink!"

"Now that's a real man's favorite color."

"As a Gen Z-er, I feel nothing for pink. It's actually kind of tacky."

"It really is a weird cycle. Now all the millennial 'old aunts' love pink, while the Gen Z kids prefer dark colors like black and gray."

"Aesthetics are a mystery!"

"Still, this pink coral field is just too gorgeous!"

Ning Fei swam deeper into the field.

He was soon entirely surrounded by the pink coral.

Right then, two wondrous little creatures suddenly appeared beside him.

"I finally get to see one of these!"

"They're seahorses."

"Seahorses typically live in the gentle currents of coral reefs. They aren't particularly strong swimmers, so they like to anchor their bodies by wrapping their tails around coral branches."

Ning Fei watched the two little seahorses with delight.

He reached out to gently touch one, but the seahorse sensed the shift in the water current and quickly darted away.

"Seahorses have another trait that is entirely unique among all creatures on Earth."

"The males are the ones who give birth to their offspring."

Ning Fei chuckled as he watched the two seahorses swim out of sight.

"What? The males give birth?"

"How does that even work?"

"Temple master Ning, if the males give birth, how do they actually have sex?"

"He's here! It's the 'Sex Bro.' I recognize that ID: 'Han Yuanshi, Handsome Young Master.'"

"Yeah, that's the guy! He's the same one who asked how penguins mate last time."

"And he asked about the blue whales, too!"

"Sex Bro and his peculiar hobbies."

"RIP. Absolute social suicide right there."

The viewers burst into digital laughter.

The user "Han Yuanshi, Handsome Young Master" hadn't expected the internet to have such a long memory, tracking his past questions so easily.

"Han Yuanshi, Handsome Young Master: Don't get the wrong idea, guys. My intentions are purely academic."

He frantically typed out an explanation.

"Give me a break. You asked a question like that, how could your intentions be pure!"

The chat exploded with banter, the screen flooding with strings of "6666" and "hahaha."

Since Ning Fei didn't have his mobile phone with him underwater, he couldn't read the chat and had no idea how rowdy his stream had just become.

Once the seahorses were completely out of sight, he continued his search for other marine life.

The sheer variety of fish darting through the pink coral field was dazzling.

It was an absolute visual feast.

Ning Fei pressed forward.

Then, something else caught his eye.

"There's something over there!"

"Wow, this little guy is hiding deep!"

"Marine life really is fascinating."

The viewers were thoroughly confused by his words.

From the livestream's perspective, there wasn't a single fish visible in the pink coral. What was he looking at?

"Temple master Ning, what did you spot this time?"

"We can't see anything!"

"Look a little closer, everyone," he said.

"There's an incredibly unique creature down in the coral."

The bionic tuna didn't zoom in; it just kept filming the wide patch of coral below.

The audience stared intently at the screen.

Finally, a few eagle-eyed viewers spotted the creature.

"Look right there! There's a pair of eyes!"

"Holy crap, you're right. Its camouflage is insane!"

"Where? Where?! I still don't see it!"

The chat exploded in a flurry of messages.

Down in the reef, an animal was clinging to the pink coral. It blended into the background so perfectly that a passing glance would miss it completely.

"That thing is an absolute master of disguise!"

"Right here."

Ning Fei stopped keeping them in suspense and pointed out the animal's exact position.

Even then, some viewers were still lost.

"Where? There's nothing there!"

"I can't see it either!"

Ning Fei laughed and said, "This creature is called a weedy seadragon. It's a fish from the Syngnathidae family, and it grows to about forty-five centimeters long."

"It's endemic to the waters off Australia, usually dwelling around rocky reefs, seagrass beds, and coral forests."

"They are absolute masters of camouflage."

"However, weedy seadragons are generally a greyish-brown color, which helps them hide perfectly in kelp forests."

"Finding a completely pink weedy seadragon like this one is incredibly rare."

"Either this particular seadragon is a genetic mutation, or I might have just discovered another new species."

The moment those words left his mouth, the viewers were stunned once more.

"What? Another new species?"

While the chat was reeling, an official account chimed in with a comment of its own.

"Huaxia Ocean Research Center: Temple master Ning, the weedy seadragon species currently known to humanity would never be found living in a pink coral cluster. This means that what you're looking at is likely a new subspecies of marine teleost fish belonging to the family Syngnathidae and the genus Phycodurus."

"In other words, you have indeed discovered another new species."

"This species will likely be added to the official catalog of Great Barrier Reef marine life very soon."

With the official stamp of authority backing him up, any lingering doubts the viewers had were completely wiped away.

All they could do was marvel in absolute awe:

"Temple master Ning, you are too freaking awesome!"