He Lingchuan was reviewing examination papers for new stewards with Ding Zuodong, not even looking up. "What good news?"
Right now, he only wanted to hear good news.
"We found a lot of shipwrecks."
"Oh?" He Lingchuan finally lifted his head to see Min Tianxi grinning. "After the fiendish energy was cleared from the fourteen islands, we discovered quite a few wrecks around the newly opened sea route. On the northeastern tip of Longji Island, there's even a bay—we named it Shipwreck Bay. It's like a graveyard for ships. A few vessels are still intact, probably having entered only this year."
Whether blown off course by winds or losing their way into the depths of the archipelago, once those ships entered, they never came out again.
He Lingchuan grew interested. He tossed the papers to Ding Zuodong to fret over, dusted off his hands, and said, "Come on, let's take a boat and have a look."
Ever since planting the Dragon-Torture Pillars to absorb the yin fiend energy, he had not found the time to tour his territory.
Now, hoisting the white sails to cross the vast sea, he sat at the bow, watching dazzling clouds drift in the sunlight under an immense, boundless sky.
The lingering impatience and nagging worries were swept away by wind and wave.
The grandeur of heaven and earth made human anxieties seem all the more trivial.
Along the way, they passed several fishing boats casting nets. Rarely had anyone ventured into these waters before, so the fish were fat and foolish, innocent of human deceit.
Just as He Lingchuan was admiring this peaceful scene of fishermen at work, Min Tianxi had already dispatched men to drive the boats away—
These were Island Master He's private waters, so the fish in them naturally belonged to Island Master He as well. Fishing without special permission was strictly forbidden!
Entering the bay at the northeastern corner of Longji Island—the cove the pirates dubbed Shipwreck Bay—He Lingchuan indeed saw all sorts of wreckage and flotsam.
The battered ships here were exceptionally crammed together, stacked on top of one another along the shore.
Mangroves had even sprouted from inside some of the rotted wooden vessels.
The northern sea route through the Yangshan Archipelago was bustling, with numerous ships plying back and forth each year. A tiny fraction of them, driven by disorientation, typhoons, or shifting zones of yin fiend energy, would stray deep into the archipelago—and that was the end of them.
Wrecked ships drifted with the waves. Some sank to the seabed, while others were carried by currents onto the islands, gradually degrading into skeletal husks under the erosion of wind and surge.
For countless years, Longji Island had been a dead zone at the edge of the sea, somewhere even cultivators dared not trespass. It became a graveyard for shipwrecks. The yin hui had no interest in them either. Only after He Lingchuan absorbed all the fiendish energy from Longji Island's northeastern corner could humans set foot here.
Qiu Hu and the archipelago guard under Min Tianxi had already begun leading men to search the wrecks.
Min Tianxi went from brimming with enthusiasm at the start to looking sheepish.
These hill-like piles of wreckage were basically just junk.
Soaked in yin fiend energy and seawater for years on end, human bones, silk, and pearls had all eroded away, leaving not a scrap behind. Coins had rusted green with verdigris, and even gold and silver were dull and tarnished.
Not to mention magic artifacts, which in this kind of environment turned into scrap metal.
Over a hundred men rolled up their sleeves and set to work, but before long, treasure hunting turned into scavenging through trash.
Min Tianxi felt a pang of regret. The moment he discovered the shipwreck graveyard, he had rushed to claim credit from He Lingchuan. Had he known, he would have sent men to search it first.
He Lingchuan patted his shoulder. "There may not be mountains of gold and silver, but the haul is still quite good."
More and more gold, silver, gemstones, and jade pendants were uncovered from the bottoms of the wrecked hulls and the tidal flats. Though not overflowing by the bucketful as Min Tianxi had envisioned, the quantity grew steadily.
In just four hours, they had recovered around two hundred taels' worth of valuables. Once taken back, polished, and cleaned up a bit, they would once again be the beloved gold and silver ingots everyone adored.
With such a vast beach of shipwrecks, it would probably take two to three months to unearth everything.
Beyond that, the wrecks held numerous jade seals, stamps, and personal effects.
Right then, a whistle blew in the distance. A pirate stood atop an intact large vessel, waving and shouting, "There's something here!"
Wang Fubao asked in surprise, "Wasn't that ship already searched earlier?"
There were only a few intact ships, so they had naturally been searched first.
Min Tianxi chuckled. "Ships often have secret compartments and hidden rooms. Some are concealed so cleverly that you have to listen carefully when knocking on the hull planks." Inexperienced people would never notice them.
These Mount Rong men might possess overwhelming martial might, but when it came to raiding and searching ships, they were far behind seasoned hands like them.
The group boarded the ship to look. As it turned out, beside the cargo hold was a secret room, its doorway quite concealed.
Before opening the door, Min Tianxi reversed his saber hilt and tapped all around, listening to the sounds. "This secret room isn't small at all. I reckon it's at least five feet square."
The ship itself was massive, with three decks.
Wang Fubao pointed at the lock. "Won't we know how big it is once we open it?"
"Heh-heh, how could it be that simple?" Min Tianxi gestured to one of his men. "Everyone clear out! Don't stand directly across from the keyhole. Guizai, get over here and pick the lock!"
The crew member called Guizai produced a small gadget from his robes, carefully engaged it into the keyhole, and stepped aside.
The lock-picking tool looked much like a winch with two long metal rods. Standing a foot away from the door frame, Guizai pumped the winch to pick the lock.
Dozens of people squeezed into the narrow corridor, watching him manipulate the device at an unhurried pace.
Three turns left, three turns right—no.
Try again.
No one knew how many rotations it went through, and the air soon turned stifling; besides, the smell inside a shipwreck was foul to begin with. Wang Fubao couldn't help asking, "Hey, how much longer is this going to take?"
The words had barely left his mouth when—*click*—the lock sprang open.
Xiang Lian cuffed Wang Fubao upside the head. "Why didn't you ask sooner? Ask earlier, open earlier."
While the two were joking, two small holes suddenly caved inward above the keyhole. With two sharp *whooshes*, a pair of steel spikes shot out and embedded into the wooden wall opposite.
They sank deep into the timber, packed with tremendous force.
Fortunately, no one was standing in front of the keyhole, or their bodies would have had two extra holes punctured in them.
"There's a mechanism on the door. If forced or opened abnormally, hidden projectiles shoot out to kill," Min Tianxi pulled out a small pair of pliers, extracted the spikes, and inspected them. "The tips are dipped in poison too."
Spell arrays might be eroded by fiendish energy, but mechanical traps remained intact.
No one moved to open the door. Wang Fubao sorely wanted to ask just how many bitter losses they had suffered in the past to become this cautious.
After five or six breaths, a plume of green smoke spewed from the doorway.
Poison gas—the second layer of traps had triggered.
Everyone was standing back, so no one was caught in the blast, but they still reflexively held their breath. Xiang Lian casually pinched a hand seal for the Wind Dance Art, letting a gust sweep the toxic vapor away.
Min Tianxi cursed, "Those damned ghosts were pretty cautious, weren't they?"
Cautious or not, hadn't they all died right here anyway? When Heaven wills your doom, doom you must!
After waiting a good while longer without any further tricks from the hidden door, Guizai finally used a long pole to push it open.
Everyone was filled with anticipation.
The nastier the traps, the more valuable the contents of the secret room.
Sure enough, the interior did not disappoint. As soon as the door swung open, it glittered with jewels and treasure!
The pirates—no, the archipelago guards—all began howling in excitement.
The secret room inside was about four or five square meters in size, stacked with three large chests and three small chests. Originally, all the chests had been lidded and bound with ropes, but whatever the ship had endured before running adrift had overturned one large chest; the ropes had slipped off, spilling gold and silver jewelry all across the floor.
As a wave struck and the ship swayed, a golden rabbit figurine rolled to He Lingchuan's feet. He picked it up and examined it: the ornament, just over a finger's length, was hefty in the hand and intricately carved. Even the fine hairs on its round tail were distinct and countable, and its eyes were inlaid with rubies that shimmered brilliantly against the light.
The other curios and ornaments displayed equally exquisite craftsmanship.
The ship had wrecked fairly recently and could still float on the water; otherwise, once the hold flooded, the treasures would not have looked so pristine.
He Lingchuan ordered the chests hauled out and opened.
The three large chests were filled entirely with gold and silver—from ingots, pellets, bars, and rods to various animal shapes; He Lingchuan had never seen precious metals wrought into so many forms.
Whatever form they took, they were delightful to behold.
Of the three small chests, two contained various precious vessels and jewelry, all tightly wrapped and neatly arranged. Qiu Hu randomly unwrapped a brocade bundle to find a necklace inside, set with forty-eight equally lustrous, translucent emerald-green jades and bordered with diamond chips, exuding peerless elegance and nobility.
The final small chest held an assortment of miscellaneous items.
A small pouch of plant seeds and fruit, several vials of red liquid, a few seals, several mineral ores, and so forth.
Lingguang hopped down from He Lingchuan's shoulder, held up the pouch of seeds, and sniffed it. "Smells like medicinal herbs."
Without the slightest hesitation, it pocketed them.
One of Min Tianxi's men produced a talisman, lit it, stuffed it into a bottle of clean water, took a mouthful of the water, and sprayed it over the items in the chests.
With a *pfft*, a mist of fine droplets scattered through the air.
Qiu Hu and the others couldn't help taking two steps back. "What are you doing?"
"Checking if the treasure has any curses," Min Tianxi explained. "A few years back, we encountered a shipwreck treasure like this, and an unlucky bastard got cursed. Half his body rotted away, and he died before we could get him back to shore for treatment... Mm, these valuables are clean. Nobody tampered with them."
Beholding this windfall, everyone grinned from ear to ear. Only He Lingchuan paused, thought for a moment, and said to Min Tianxi, "Can you find the captain? Or whoever held the highest status aboard this ship?"
Min Tianxi immediately replied, "Right away. This ship looks fairly new; the corpses might not have been completely eroded away by the fiendish energy yet."
With that, he promptly led his men to search cabin by cabin.
He Lingchuan nodded inwardly. Min Tianxi obeyed his superior's orders without asking why, showing that he was beginning to adjust to his new role.
The vessel was larger and grander than an ordinary merchant ship, radiating an aura of prestige. The timbers used for the hull and the decor on board were also very refined—not the craft of an ordinary person.
If the ship's owner was someone of stature and noble standing, their personal effects would likely be even more precious.
Before long, Min Tianxi found two wardrobe trunks in a partitioned cabin. Inside were garments of exquisite, superior quality, and even a suit of ceremonial armor encrusted with gold beads and jade ornaments, designed solely to blind onlookers with brilliance.
On the breastplate of the ceremonial armor, there was also an insignia.
Still, no human remains were found aboard the ship. Regrettably, ordinary living beings could hardly withstand the erosion of yin fiend energy.
He Lingchuan had no choice but to let it drop, ordering the chests of treasure carried back.
Afterward, Ding Zuodong tallied the results: excluding the rewards given to Min Tianxi and the other turncoat guides, Shipwreck Bay had so far yielded over thirty-seven thousand taels' worth of treasure for Young Master He.
Truly, no man grows rich without windfalls! He Lingchuan's net worth had temporarily rebounded to over two hundred and eighty thousand taels—
Though it would not stay there for long.
Chapter 929