Chapter 94

This should be a shipwreck from the mid-seventeenth century.

How did it sink? Was it due to a ship malfunction? An enemy attack? Or did it encounter a giant squid like Old Black? These questions, it seems, will never be answered.

The space inside the wreck was quite large. Slave quarters, crew quarters... As Xiao Hai passed through these areas, he seemed to see a scene unfold:

The crew in the rest room were drunk, singing sailors' songs, and staggering onto the deck, cursing the slaves they had plundered and boasting about where they would go to enjoy themselves when they returned home.

Madrid, London, perhaps Rotterdam or some other city, where the girls would always give the warmest welcome as long as your pockets were full of money.

But just as they were in high spirits, they suddenly encountered an attack, perhaps from enemy warships on the surface or from deep-sea monsters from the depths. In any case, they had no chance to fight back, and the warship sank.

Then, it lay quietly at the bottom of the sea until an unexpected visitor appeared...

The room ahead, from its appearance, seemed to be a storage room. Xiao Hai swam in, with the group of candlefish always accompanying him.

Cannons, barrels of gunpowder... This was an armory, with nothing of value... The second storage room contained barrels of wine, the exterior of which was already severely rotted. Of course, what was inside was no longer fine wine, but seawater... In the seventeenth century, during long voyages, to prevent mutiny among the crew, wine was always the best weapon. If there was no wine for three days, the captain's life would be in grave danger.

Unfortunately, Xiao Hai was not at all interested in these things.

Two consecutive storage rooms yielded nothing, greatly disappointing Xiao Hai. Perhaps the centuries of seawater had washed away everything of value...

He swam into another room. The layout, though barely recognizable, was clearly the captain's quarters.

What was that? Xiao Hai's eyes suddenly lit up... Three chests, quietly waiting for human discovery...

Xiao Hai did not immediately open them. Who knew what was inside? What would happen when they were opened in the seawater? He grabbed one chest, finding it not large but quite heavy, and dragged it out of the wreck. He left the other two chests, then went back in to retrieve the third one.

Strangely, the third chest seemed to be empty, very light.

Old Black had recovered a lot and could now be of use. Xiao Hai had Old Black carry the three chests and follow him as he surfaced, summoning Da Bai to find an uninhabited island.

Da Bai soon returned, leading Xiao Hai and Old Black to a small, deserted island.

Fortunately, no one lived here year-round, or the sudden appearance of a great white shark, a thirty-meter-long giant squid, and a human from the sea would have been terrifying.

Xiao Hai brought the three chests to the island and took a deep breath of air. Hmm? Was he now an amphibious creature? After a slight adjustment, his gaze fell on the chests he had found...

Approaching the chests, he suddenly felt a bit nervous. What was inside? Would it be full of treasure, or would it be another disappointment? The answer was in his hands.

He opened the leftmost chest. The chest had a very clever waterproof design, ensuring the safety of its contents. Such highly waterproof chests were state secrets in the maritime power of Spain at the time, and only a few ships were equipped with them. It was not until the eighteenth century that the subsequent maritime hegemon, the British, mastered this technology. This suggested that the wreck was a Spanish warship.

Of course, this also made it quite difficult for Xiao Hai to open the chest.

Silverware, the chest was full of silverware!

Silver tableware, silver candlesticks, silver decorations...

Well, with this chest, Xiao Hai's trip was not in vain. Ignoring the value of the silver itself, the historical value of these centuries-old silver items was considerable.

The first chest was a great find. What about the other two?

The second chest was opened... Xiao Hai could not believe what he saw...

Gold plates, gold crowns, gold necklaces studded with emeralds... All gold items, which even made Xiao Hai wonder if the chest itself was made of gold?

He had struck it rich, really rich!

Picking up a gold plate, he could not determine its age, but gold, regardless of whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa, had always been a hard currency. Throughout human history, from the use of shells as currency to the appearance of paper money, countless currencies had disappeared in the river of history, but only gold and silver were eternal.

The craftsmanship of the gold plate was exquisite, and it was engraved with patterns that Xiao Hai could not understand, seemingly some kind of totem.

He picked up the crown, which was magnificent. What was carved on the front? The sun? Yes, it was the sun. On the back, there was a monster's face... Ah, not a monster, but a deity of some tribe...

The warship must have conquered a primitive tribe and plundered a large amount of wealth. It was probably a small tribe, as the chests were not very large, and each contained only a dozen or so gold and silver items.

But just these gold and silver items, if auctioned, would fetch a huge price...

Wait, something was wrong. It was not a small tribe, definitely not! Which primitive small tribe could produce such exquisite gold items? And a crown! That was something for an emperor to wear.

Did a small tribe have an emperor?

And what about the silver items? Did a totem-worshipping primitive tribe eat with silver tableware under the light of silver candlesticks? That was too absurd.

Xiao Hai's mind was full of questions, but there were no answers.

Shaking his head, his gaze fell on the last chest... This chest was very light. Was it empty?

He carefully opened it, and inside was a smaller chest.

Xiao Hai frowned. What was so important that the captain valued it so much? His interest piqued, he carefully opened the small chest.

What was this? This...

Not gold, not silver, not even jewels... a thick diary made of parchment.

Xiao Hai was greatly disappointed. After all that effort and protection, he had found just a diary?

Opening the diary, he was even more disappointed. Page after page was filled with dense writing. The problem was, Xiao Hai could not understand a single word.

It was definitely not English, though some letters looked like English... Don't let it be Latin! That was a language known as a "dead language."

Xiao Hai flipped through the diary, which filled more than half of the book, but he found nothing of value... Ah, not that he found nothing, but he simply could not understand what was written.

It seemed that treasure hunting was not so easy. Would he have to study several foreign languages?

Xiao Hai abandoned the chest, put the diary back in the large chest, and added a silver candlestick, a gold plate, and a gold necklace.

It was difficult to open the chest, but even more difficult to close it. Xiao Hai spent over an hour figuring out how to close the chest and activate the waterproof mechanism.

He returned to the seabed and put the two chests back in the wreck. There was no need to take them back immediately, as they were inconvenient to carry and difficult to sell. Moreover, there was no safe place to store them. Was there any place safer than the bottom of the sea?

No human could dive to such depths, and even if they could, who could defeat the giant squid, Old Black?

However, he would need to find a way to gradually bring out the treasures he had discovered.

He instructed Old Black to guard the wreck, not allowing any creature to enter, and assigned ten sharks to patrol the perimeter for protection.

Still feeling uneasy, he infused Old Black with a dose of spiritual energy to accelerate its recovery. Old Black had a great deal to gain from this. Although its essence had been drained, being infused with two doses of spiritual energy not only extended its lifespan but also ensured its essence would recover within twenty years. It might even grow to over sixty meters.

At that point, the shark army led by Da Bai would not be a match for it.

Old Black could feel the benefits of the spiritual energy and was extremely grateful to King Xiao. It had always lived nearby, and from that day on, it loyally guarded the area, not allowing any creature to pass. Some fish that occasionally passed by were quickly devoured by Old Black.

There was no need to worry about food. Originally, it rested during the day and hunted in the shallow sea at night, but now this task was taken over by the shark army. Every night, the shark army would bring it a large amount of food.

As for its natural enemy, the sperm whale? Old Black was already a formidable fighter, and with the added protection of the sharks, the sperm whale would only flee in terror.

Xiao Hai arranged everything and, thinking he had been out for a long time, left with the chest containing the diary, silver candlestick, gold plate, and gold necklace.

Accompanied by Da Bai, he returned to the East Sea. Prime Minister Gui Cong and the sea snake army were anxiously waiting. Seeing the king return, they all gathered around, asking questions non-stop.

If possible, Xiao Hai would rather spend his life with them.

Unfortunately, he was still a human.

(Actually, the author has updated quite a bit... Well, the author will try to write more every day and aim to update more in early August. He also hopes to continue receiving support from his readers. Thank you.)

[Page Break AD Start]

[Page Break AD End]