101: Chapter 101 By Imperial Decree, Forever Secret

Epic-grade remains.

That was it; the system provided no further explanation.

Hu Tian stared at those words for a moment. The system interface slowly retracted, the purple halo dissipated, and silence returned, as if nothing had happened.

He withdrew his gaze and let it fall back onto the copper box on the deck.

Six scrolls.

Epic-grade.

He took a deep breath and set the pry tool aside. He didn't rush to take the scrolls. Instead, he stood up and went back into the cabin, found a pair of thin cotton gloves in his backpack on the table, put them on, and grabbed a clean piece of soft fine cloth. Only then did he return to the deck and squat down next to the copper box.

He wasn't in a hurry.

He didn't dare to be hasty with something the system had labeled in purple.

He used the soft cloth to gently cradle the bottom of the copper box, lifted the entire thing, and moved it into the shadow of the cabin entrance. There was still plenty of light there, but no direct ultraviolet rays, making it safer for the artifact.

Then he just squatted there, looking at those six bundles of decayed cloth without moving them.

He was thinking about the system's words.

He understood the 'Epic-grade' rating, but the system was usually quite talkative, always giving a description when it encountered something valuable. This time, there were only four words and nothing else, as if it were deliberately omitting something or waiting for something.

In his time in the treasure-hunting business, he had seen the system react in various ways—scanning, labeling, prompting, warning—but he had never seen it like today: just a flash of light, four words, and then silence.

He felt that this silence itself was some kind of signal.

He slowly stood up, hands at his sides, not immediately moving to open those cloth bundles.

Seventh year of Yongzheng Emperor, By Imperial Decree, Eternally Secret.

Six scrolls, purple, Epic.

The combination of these things gave him an indescribable feeling. It wasn't excitement, but something heavier than excitement. It was like standing before a door where the light peeking through the crack told him what was inside, but he hadn't pushed it open yet.

He picked up his wine glass and found it was empty. He stood holding the empty glass for a while, then set it down.

He squatted back down by the copper box and reached out, his fingertips hovering over the decayed dark brown fabric for two seconds.

Then, he gently touched the outer fabric of the first scroll.

The fabric crumbled at the touch. He moved several layers away, revealing the true face of one of the scrolls.

It was a thin object, not paper. The color was yellowish, and the texture was thicker than paper, with fold marks along the edges. He leaned in and took a look through a magnifying glass, determining that it was silk.

Silk fabric.

He didn't rush to unroll the silk. It had been submerged in water for nearly three hundred years. Although the copper box's seal had slowed the decay, he couldn't be sure of the silk's integrity. Unrolling it rashly might destroy it.

He used tweezers to cover it back up with the outer fabric, gently replaced the box lid, and then put the entire copper box into the System Space.

This item needed to be handled under more professional conditions; he had no plans to continue dismantling it on the yacht.

He picked up a Harbin Beer, poured another glass, and took a large gulp, feeling the coldness suppress the slight restlessness rising in his chest.

The iron lump was hard to judge for now, so he set it aside.

The copper box was the most important harvest of this trip. If the contents of the silk scrolls were complete and indeed related to official affairs of the Yongzheng Emperor era, then their value would be on an entirely different level.

He finished the beer, set the glass aside, leaned against the yacht's railing, and looked up at the blue sky, spacing out for a while.

The wind blew in from the sea, carrying the salty scent of brine and gently puffing out his clothes. He narrowed his eyes, feeling the cool breeze against his face.

Seventh year of Yongzheng Emperor, Yuehai Governors Office, Secretly Stored by Imperial Decree.

What exactly was written on these six silk scrolls was still unknown. He would have to return to Binhai to verify.

Hu Tian then took four iron chests out of the System Space and arranged them in two rows on the deck.

He stood before these four dark iron chests, looked around, and then glanced toward the sensing area of the System Space.

There were eight left inside.

He smacked his lips, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.

It was time to open the blind boxes again.

He felt this every time. Even though he knew there was a high probability of something valuable inside, the sense of the unknown before the moment of opening still made his heart race. It was like the second before receiving New Year's money as a child; you knew there was money inside, but you didn't know how much. That mix of anticipation and nervousness was a bit childish, but he could never suppress it.

He rubbed his hands together and squatted in front of the first iron chest.

The corrosion on this iron chest was lighter than the previous ones. A metallic luster could still be seen at the hinges of the lid, indicating that its position during the sinking process was relatively enclosed, meaning it was exposed to seawater for a shorter time or shielded by the surroundings.

He took the pry tool and, using his previous technique, slowly loosened it along the gap. Because the rust layer was thinner this time, it took less time—about ten minutes before the lid was pried open.

He glanced inside and then froze for a moment.

White.

A full chest of white, gleaming with a matte luster under the sun. They were stacked neatly, each piece a similar shape—long strips, slightly curved, with textures left from the casting process on the surface.

They were silver ingots.

The system radar activated at that moment. A blue halo spilled out from the chest, enveloping the entire iron box. Then, at the edge of his vision, an information box quietly popped up.

[Item: Official-cast Silver Ingots, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Emperor Era]

[Quantity: 180 pieces, 50 taels each, totaling 9,000 taels]

[Source: Yuehai Customs Tax Silver, Transported by Imperial Decree, Autumn of the 7th Year of Yongzheng Emperor]

[Condition: Excellent, clear casting patterns, legible stamps]

[Estimated Value: Based on current market trends, single pieces are estimated at approximately 120,000 to 200,000 RMB at auction; total estimate is approximately 30 to 60 million RMB]

Hu Tian read the information box from beginning to end, then slowly stood up. Standing next to the chest, he looked down at the silver ingots.

Official-cast.

Seventh year of Yongzheng Emperor.

Yuehai Customs Tax Silver.

It matched the words on the copper box—Yuehai Governors Office, Secretly Stored by Imperial Decree. This ship was most likely the official vessel that had set out from Guangzhou that year, carrying tribute items by imperial decree.

He looked down at the chest of gleaming silver ingots, his mind beginning to race.

If this ship's route started from Guangzhou, its destination was likely the north. It should have followed the usual coastal route north, and passing through Fujian waters was almost inevitable.

In the seventh year of Yongzheng Emperor, in the waters around Fujian and Zhejiang, there was one name that no one could avoid.

Zhu Bu.

Hu Tian stood up straight, withdrew his gaze from the silver ingots, slowly scanned the four iron chests before him, and then looked out at the distant sea.

Zhu Bu was a major trouble-maker repeatedly mentioned in official history. He was already active in the Fujian and Zhejiang waters during the Yongzheng Emperor era. At his peak, he commanded hundreds of warships and over ten thousand troops. This continued into the Qianlong era. The government tried to suppress him for over a decade without success. For a time, he threw the entire Fujian and Zhejiang coast into chaos, even daring to hijack official tribute fleets.

Hijacking tribute ships.

This was incredibly bold, but for Zhu Bu, it wasn't the first time.

Imperial official ships were a 'third rail' to average pirates—untouchable, as touching them meant the execution of one's entire clan. But Zhu Bu didn't play by that logic. His logic was that the fatter the sheep, the more it was worth slaughtering. As for the consequences, given his scale, if the government came to suppress him, he would just flee to the high seas where no one could catch him.

These nine thousand taels of tax silver, according to the regulations of the time, should have had a high level of security, with at least several hundred official soldiers guarding them. But Zhu Bu had cracked tougher nuts than this; such a display meant nothing to him.

And after the hijacking, where did he take the ship?

Hu Tian's gaze landed on the distant coastline, where the silhouette of Donghu Island appeared exceptionally quiet under the sun.

Donghu Island.

That was one of Zhu Bu's most important strongholds in the Fujian-Zhejiang area. There were scattered records in history books saying he had secret storage on a certain island to hide hijacked wealth, but the specific location had never been verified. This location was like a fog in history; some said it was near Zhoushan, others said it was an unnamed small island in the outer seas of Fujian. Opinions varied, and no one could provide solid evidence.

But the shipwreck before him told him that the answer lay at the bottom of the sea around Donghu Island.

Zhu Bu had hijacked this tribute ship and hadn't distributed or resold the goods. Instead, he had hidden the ship and its cargo together in the deep waters near Donghu Island. Either the situation was too tense at the time to deal with it, or he intentionally kept this batch of goods as a reserve for later use. As it turned out, due to some unknown turn of events, the ship had remained sunk here, untouched.

Until today.

Hu Tian smacked his lips, leaned over to snap the lid of the iron chest shut, clapped his hands, stood up, and looked at the remaining three iron chests on the deck.

Alright, then let's keep opening them.

Since this was the reserve stock from Zhu Bu's old lair, what was in the remaining chests probably wouldn't be as simple as just tax silver.

He squatted back down, picked up his magnifying glass, and leaned in to look at the stamp on one of the silver ingots.

The stamp was clear. He could see the three characters for 'Yuehai Customs' and a line of smaller characters below. He couldn't see them all due to the angle, but he could identify the characters for 'Tax Silver' and a partial era mark.

He put down the magnifying glass, gently closed the lid, and put the silver from the chest into the System Space.

He casually tossed the chest into the sea, where it sent up a series of bubbles.

If the iron chest could talk, it would probably scream 'Motherfucker!'—'I'm not worth anything, so you just look down on me now!'

Hu Tian's gaze then moved to the second chest right next to it.

The corrosion on the second iron chest was heavier than the first. He felt significant resistance when inserting the pry tool, and it took nearly five minutes to loosen the lid.

The moment the lid was lifted, he smelled a faint scent that had been diluted by seawater until it was almost gone. He couldn't say what it was, just a very weak, stale odor.

Inside, it was entirely filled with copper coins.

Strings upon strings of copper coins. They were once held together by rope, but the rope had long since rotted away, breaking into several segments. The copper coins were scattered in the chest, layered and piled up. Some had stuck together into clumps due to copper rust.

The system's blue light scanned them.