Chapter 949

He Lingchuan was checking the new steward's exam papers with Ding Zuodong and didn't even look up: "What good news?" He just wanted to hear good things now.

"We found many shipwreck remains."

"Oh?" He Lingchuan then looked up and saw Min Tianxi smiling, "After the baleful energy of the fourteen islands was driven away, we found quite a few shipwrecks around the newly opened shipping lanes. There is also a bay at the northeast end of Dragon Spine Island, which we named Shipwreck Bay; it's like a graveyard for shipwrecks, and there are even a few ships that are intact, probably having entered just this year."

Whether they were blown in by the wind or lost their way and mistakenly entered the depths of the archipelago, these ships had entered and never come out again.

He Lingchuan became interested, threw the papers to Ding Zuodong to worry about, and clapped his hands: "Let's go, sail the ship and take a look."

After installing the Punishment Dragon Pillars to collect the baleful energy, he hadn't had time to tour his territory.

At this time, hoisting the cloud sails to cross the vast sea, sitting at the bow of the ship, he saw the bright clouds floating in the sunlight, the sky wide and the earth vast.

That trace of restlessness and those troubles were all blown away by the wind and waves.

The beauty of the world only made human worries seem ridiculous.

Along the way, they passed several fishing boats, all casting nets to catch fish. These waters had rarely been visited by anyone before, and the fish were fat and stupid, unaware of the dangers of the human heart.

Just as He Lingchuan was sighing at the scene of peaceful fishing songs, Min Tianxi had already sent people to drive the boats away—

This was Island Master He's private water area, and the fish in the water naturally belonged to Island Master He; no fishing was allowed without special permission! Entering the bay at the northeast corner of Dragon Spine Island, which was the Shipwreck Bay named by the pirates, He Lingchuan indeed saw all kinds of remains and floating objects.

The broken ships here were unusually crowded, one piled on top of another, all stacked on the coast.

In some broken wooden ships, mangroves had even grown.

The northern shipping lane of the Yangshan Archipelago was very busy, with a large number of ships shuttling back and forth every year. A very small number of them would mistakenly enter the depths of the archipelago due to factors such as getting lost, hurricanes, or even changes in the range of baleful energy, and then there was no then.

The wrecked ships drifted with the waves; some sank to the bottom of the sea, while others were brought to the archipelago by ocean currents, gradually turning into remains under the erosion of wind and waves.

For many years, Dragon Spine Island had been a dead end at the cape, and even practitioners dared not trespass. This place became a graveyard for shipwrecks, and the Earthly Yin Qi was not interested, until He Lingchuan sucked away the baleful energy at the northeast corner of Dragon Spine Island, allowing humans to set foot here.

The archipelago guard team under Qiu Hu and Min Tianxi had already begun to lead people to search for shipwrecks.

Min Tianxi went from being full of enthusiasm at the beginning to being embarrassed later: these piles of hill-like remains were basically junk.

Under the long-term immersion of baleful energy and seawater, human bones, silk, and pearls were all eroded away, leaving nothing behind; coins rusted into copper green, and even gold and silver became dull.

Not to mention that magic tools in this environment also turned into scrap metal.

More than a hundred people rolled up their sleeves and joined the battle, and in a few moments, treasure hunting turned into scavenging.

Min Tianxi even regretted it a little. He had gone to He Lingchuan to claim credit as soon as he discovered the shipwreck graveyard; if he had known, he should have sent people to search it first.

He Lingchuan patted him on the shoulder: "There are no mountains of gold or silver, but the harvest is still quite good."

The gold, silver, gems, and jade pendants found from the bottoms of the ships and the mudflats in the shipwreck graveyard were increasing, and although they were not as full as Min Tianxi had imagined, the quantity was steadily growing.

In just these two hours, the wealth found was about two hundred taels, and after a little polishing and processing upon returning, they would be gold and silver ingots that everyone loved.

With such a large shipwreck beach, I'm afraid it would take two or three months to finish excavating.

In addition to this, there were a large number of jade seals, stamps, and personal items among the shipwrecks.

Just at this moment, a whistle came from afar, and a pirate standing on an intact large ship waved and shouted: "There's a trick here!"

Wang Fubao asked curiously: "Wasn't that ship already searched before?"

There were only a few intact ships, so they were definitely searched first.

Min Tianxi laughed and said: "There are often secret rooms and compartments on ships, some hidden cleverly; you have to listen carefully when knocking on the ship planks." Inexperienced people wouldn't be able to discover them.

These Rongshan people had explosive combat power, but when it came to robbing and searching ships, they were still far behind these experts.

Everyone boarded the ship to take a look, and it turned out that this ship had a secret room next to the cargo hold, and the door hole was set up quite covertly.

Before the door was even opened, Min Tianxi turned the hilt of his knife and knocked everywhere to listen to the sound. "This secret room is not small; I estimate it's at least five feet square."

This ship itself was large, with three layers up and down.

Wang Fubao pointed to the lock and said: "Won't we know the size once we open it?"

"Hehe, is it that simple?" Min Tianxi gestured to a subordinate, "Everyone step aside, don't stand opposite the keyhole. Guizai, come over and pick the lock!"

The team member called Guizai took a small gadget out of his bosom, carefully stuck it into the keyhole, and retreated to the side himself.

The lock-picking tool looked like a winch, with two very long metal rods, and Guizai was just a foot away from the door, pulling and twisting the winch to try to pick the lock.

Dozens of people were squeezed into the narrow corridor, watching him operate the lock-picking tool slowly.

Three turns to the left, three turns to the right, not right.

Do it again.

No one knew how many times the lock-picking tool had turned, but the air soon became stuffy, and the smell in the shipwreck was already bad to begin with. Wang Fubao couldn't help but say: "Hey, how much longer?"

Just as he finished speaking, with a click, the lock opened.

Xiang Lian patted Wang Fubao on the head: "Why didn't you ask earlier? Ask earlier, open earlier."

The two were joking when two small holes suddenly collapsed above the keyhole, and with two swooshing sounds, two steel nails shot out and stuck into the wooden board opposite.

It went three points into the wood, and the force was quite strong.

Fortunately, no one was standing in front of the keyhole, otherwise, there would be two more holes in their body.

"There is a mechanism on the door; once it is opened violently or abnormally, there will be hidden arrows to hurt people." Min Tianxi took a pair of short pliers to pull out the nails and looked at them twice, "The nail heads are also quenched with poison."

The magic array would be eroded by baleful energy, but the mechanism remained.

No one went to open the door. Wang Fubao really wanted to ask how much they had suffered in the past to become so cautious.

After five or six breaths, a green smoke sprayed out from the door hole.

After half an hour of climbing mountains and crossing pits, the man and the spider slowly approached the sinkhole.

The Yin Serpent took them on a shortcut, otherwise, it would have taken them more than this time to get here last time.

Standing on the edge of the sinkhole, one felt even more the magnificence of this geological miracle. He Lingchuan had been to Zhu Erniang's Demon Nest and had attended lectures at the Wenxian Hall in Panlong City—the Wenxian Hall itself was a huge sinkhole, but compared to the sinkhole "White Abyss" before his eyes, it could not be compared in terms of size or depth.

So what if they are cautious, didn't they all die here? If heaven wants them to perish, they have to perish! After waiting for a long time, the secret door didn't make any more trouble, and Guizai took a long stick to push the door open.

Everyone was full of expectations.

Zhu Xiuer immediately said: "Get on my back."

This place really lived up to expectations; as soon as the door opened, it was full of pearls and treasures! The pirates—no, the guard soldiers—all started howling.

The secret room inside was four or five square meters in size, piled with three large boxes and three small boxes. Originally, the boxes were covered and tied with ropes, but no one knew what had happened to the ship before it lost control; one large box was overturned, the rope had come off, and the gold and silver jewelry inside was scattered all over the floor.

When a wave came and the ship swayed, a golden rabbit rolled to He Lingchuan's feet. He picked it up and looked at it; the ornament, more than a finger long, was heavy, exquisitely carved, and the rabbit fur on the round tail could still be counted; the rabbit's eyes were made of rubies, and when held up to the light, they shone brightly.

Other treasures and ornaments were also of excellent craftsmanship.

This ship hadn't been wrecked for long and could still float on the water, otherwise, the treasures wouldn't be so bright after the ship's cabin soaked in water.

He Lingchuan ordered people to move all the boxes out and open them.

The three large boxes were full of gold and silver, from ingots, small ingots, bars, to various animal shapes; He Lingchuan had never seen gold and silver in so many shapes.

Anyway, no matter what they looked like, they were all pleasing.

In the three small boxes, two were filled with various precious utensils and jewelry, wrapped tightly and arranged neatly. Qiu Hu casually unwrapped one of the brocade bundles and saw a necklace inside, embedded with forty-eight equally lustrous and clear emeralds, and edged with small diamonds, extremely luxurious and noble.

The last small box contained various sundries.

A small bag of plant fruits/seeds, several bottles of red liquid, several stamps, several pieces of ore, etc.

Ling Guang jumped down from He Lingchuan's shoulder and picked up the seed bag to smell it: "It seems to be medicinal herbs."

It accepted them without hesitation.

Min Tianxi's subordinate took out a talisman, lit it, stuffed it into a bottle filled with clear water, took a sip of the clear water, and sprayed it toward the items in the box.

With a "puff" sound, water mist filled the air.

Qiu Hu and the others couldn't help but take two steps back: "What is this for?"

"Checking if there are any curses on the treasures." Min Tianxi explained, "A few years ago, we encountered this kind of shipwreck treasure, and an unlucky guy was cursed, his body rotted halfway, and he died before he could return to the shore for treatment... well, these treasures are very clean and haven't been tampered with."

Looking at these unexpected riches, everyone smiled from ear to ear, only He Lingchuan thought for a moment and said to Min Tianxi: "Can you find the captain? Or the person with the highest status on this ship."

Min Tianxi immediately said: "I'll go do it right away. This ship looks quite new, the dead person might not have been completely eroded by the baleful energy."

After saying that, he immediately led people to search cabin by cabin.

He Lingchuan nodded secretly. Min Tianxi executed his superior's orders without asking why, which showed that he was beginning to adapt to the change in his status.

This ship was larger and more magnificent than ordinary merchant ships, and its whole body exuded a sense of style. The materials used for the ship and the layout on the ship were also very particular, unlike the vehicle of an ordinary person.

If the ship's owner had status and position, their personal belongings should be even more precious.

Soon, Min Tianxi found two clothing boxes in a cabin compartment; the clothes inside were exquisite and of superior quality, and there was even a set of armor for ceremonial use, embedded with gold beads and jade ornaments, just aimed at blinding people's eyes.

There was also a mark on the chest of the ceremonial armor.

But no human remains were found on this ship. It was a pity that ordinary creatures were hard to survive the erosion of baleful energy.

He Lingchuan had no choice but to give up and ordered people to move the boxes of wealth back.

Afterward, Ding Zuodong calculated that, excluding the rewards for Min Tianxi and other guides, Shipwreck Bay had brought Young Master He wealth worth more than thirty-seven thousand taels.

Sure enough, one cannot get rich without unexpected wealth! He Lingchuan's net worth had temporarily returned to the level of more than two hundred and eighty thousand taels—

Although it wouldn't last long.

Just returned from Mount Putuo yesterday.

When making a vow to the Bodhisattva, I also prayed for peace and wealth for all of you, that is, my readers, and walked around the lotus platform 7 times.

So, if anyone's wish comes true within the next year, remember to go to Putuo to fulfill your vow. Hehehe.

(End of chapter)