383: Shipwreck

Yang Qi moved the fishing boat forward another seventy meters. He took out two ropes, tied one end to the gunwale, and then he and Bai Xue each tied a rope around their waists before diving into the sea.

After locating the two boxes, the two of them worked together to quickly tie them up, wrapping the ropes several extra times to ensure nothing would go wrong.

Returning to the setting sail, they hoisted the two boxes onto the deck in two trips. Upon opening them, they found that they indeed contained two boxes of twenty-four gold bricks each.

"Hubby, why do you think three boxes of gold bricks appeared? It feels like someone threw them into the sea on purpose."

After moving the gold bricks, Bai Xue asked while drinking a red bull.

"I'm quite curious too. Who would throw gold bricks into the sea? Or was there some special situation at the time that forced the people on the ship to discard them?"

Yang Qi was also a bit puzzled. These gold bricks had no inscriptions or markings, so there was no way to identify who they belonged to.

"How about I go down and look again? Maybe I can find something else."

Yang Qi decided to search again to see if there were any more dropped boxes. He hadn't found anything else near that part of the seabed just now.

"Then let's go down and look together; it'll be faster that way!"

Bai Xue suggested.

"No need. You mark this position and sail the boat two hundred meters in each of the four cardinal directions. I'll go underwater to check. The boat can't be left unmanned for long."

Yang Qi shook his head and said.

As Bai Xue sailed the boat to each location, Yang Qi would dive into the sea to investigate. If he found nothing, they would continue to the next target point.

It wasn't until the last target point, the one to the north, that Yang Qi finally made a discovery.

And it was a major discovery at that. Besides finding another box, he actually found the remains of a shipwreck about four hundred meters north-by-southwest of the box.

He even went over to examine the wreck and found it was a rust-covered iron ship.

After returning to the setting sail, he told Bai Xue the good news. The two of them then began to analyze the shipwreck.

Since it was an iron ship, they could rule out the possibility of it being an ancient shipwreck.

If these gold bricks were thrown from this shipwreck, then based on the trail of the boxes, the ship must have been traveling from south to north.

In that case, it was highly likely that the ship encountered an irreversible crisis during its voyage.

This caused the vessel to slow down or even take on water. They could only throw some heavy cargo into the sea, such as gold.

"Traveling from south to north, an iron ship, and carrying so much gold... Hubby, do you think there's a possibility that this was wealth plundered by the japanese back then from Southeast Asia, the South Seas, or even our own country?"

"While they were attempting to transport it back to their home base, they ran into a special situation, or the ship was hit and started leaking. To lighten the load, they had no choice but to throw heavy gold into the sea."

"But in the end, things didn't go as they hoped, and the ship sank anyway!"

Bai Xue's analysis was very logical, giving Yang Qi a sudden moment of enlightenment.

"Folk legends say that the japanese General Yamashita Tomoyuki hid $400 billion worth of cultural relics and treasures plundered from Southeast Asian countries and our country in 175 locations in the Philippines."

"It's known as the 'Yamashita Treasure' and is recognized as one of the three great lost treasures of World War II."

"Furthermore, the vast majority of the Yamashita Treasure sites have yet to be discovered. It's possible that most of the treasure spots are in this vast ocean. After all, how large is the total land area of the Philippines?"

Yang Qi nodded, his desire to thoroughly investigate the underwater shipwreck growing stronger. In the future, when he came to the South China Sea, he would definitely have to look for those treasures.

"Little Snow, don't go into the sea for now. The location of that shipwreck is too close to Philippine waters."

"We'll salvage that one box first, then you sail the boat a few nautical miles west to put some distance between us. I'll go down alone to take a look later."

Hearing Yang Qi's words, Bai Xue hesitated for a moment before nodding. She then hugged him and said:

"Okay, I'll listen to you. Hubby, you have to be careful alone!"

"Don't worry!"

Yang Qi gently patted Bai Xue's head and held her close.

The setting sail moved another two hundred meters north. Yang Qi dove into the sea alone, tied up the box, and hoisted it onto the deck.

Upon opening it, they found it was indeed gold bricks. The two of them became even more expectant regarding their previous speculation.

"I'm going down. In a bit, sail the boat further away and turn off the lights. Wait for me to come back."

Yang Qi re-checked his equipment: the Diving Knife strapped to his thigh, the headlamp on his head, the mesh bag and entrenching shovel on his waist, and the speargun on his back.

"Be careful! Hubby, I'll wait for your signal."

Bai Xue let go of Yang Qi and watched him dive into the sea without blinking. She then turned and steered the setting sail three nautical miles to the west. Then she turned off the lights, leaving only one headlamp on as she began moving the gold bricks to the Rest Cabin by herself.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi dove alone toward the location of the shipwreck. At two hundred meters deep, the seabed was pitch black, making him feel very oppressed.

Although he could see in the dark, he still kept his headlamp on. However, the light from the headlamp was swallowed by the darkness, and visibility did not exceed two meters.

The surrounding blackness was like overturned ink, so thick it was suffocating. The light from the headlamp couldn't even match the brightness of a firefly.

Yang Qi gripped his entrenching shovel to steady his nerves and swam toward the shipwreck without looking back.

He finally arrived. A behemoth lay on the seabed, estimated to be about forty meters long and eight or nine meters wide.

There were no weapons or equipment on the deck, so it didn't look like a warship. The most likely possibility was a disguised transport ship.

Circling the wreck, he found a large hole under the bow; this was likely the reason the ship sank.

The hole appeared to be below the waterline and seemed to have been caused by a torpedo hit.

Yang Qi didn't enter through the hole immediately. He re-hooked his entrenching shovel, took the speargun off his back, and landed on the deck.

He went to the Cockpit, hoping to find some clues. Gently pushing open the half-ajar cabin door, several Grouper over a meter long suddenly darted out.

This gave Yang Qi, the intruder, quite a fright. He quickly aimed the speargun he was already holding at the dark shadows and instinctively fired.

"Holy crap, that scared me. But I guess it's a pleasant surprise; this Red Grouper is at least fifteen pounds!"

Yang Qi finally calmed his racing heart. He stepped forward to retrieve the speargun and reloaded it.

He carefully inspected the Cockpit, but aside from thick dust and shellfish, he found nothing. Even if there had been something left behind back then, it would have turned to dust by now.

He didn't bother with the dead Red Grouper and swam out of the Cockpit toward the Rest Cabin.

Upon entering, he found that the corridor inside had become a fish nest. Various marine creatures, large and small, including fish, Crabs, and shellfish, had made this place their home.