83: Chapter 83 Barely on Time

Zhu Bu was a pirate leader active along the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty. In his early years, he followed Cai Qian, later establishing his own faction. He dominated the South China Sea for decades, plundering countless merchant ships, and at the height of his power, he commanded hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men.

There are many versions of folklore regarding his treasure. Some say it is buried in the mountains of Taiwan, others claim it sank in the waters near the Penghu Islands, and some suggest it lies near several offshore islands along the coast of Southern Fujian. Opinions have always been divided, with no definitive version.

Hu Tian took out a pen and began making notes in the notebook beside him.

There are not many records of Zhu Bu in official history, mainly concentrated in the large-scale suppression campaigns during the Jiaqing reign. The "Draft History of Qing" contains a few entries, the "Xiamen Gazetteer" also has scattered records, and the "Jinghai Jilue" does mention him once, stating that he "hid goods on islands, known only to his trusted confidants."

This sentence is crucial.

Hid goods on islands.

This shows that he indeed had a habit of hiding wealth, and the locations were islands, not the mainland, and certainly not mountainous regions.

As Hu Tian searched, he noticed a piece of information—an excerpt from a hand-copied manuscript from the Qing Dynasty that had been scanned and uploaded to an ancient book database. The handwriting was a bit blurry, but the content was very interesting.

That text roughly recorded that around the 15th year of the Jiaqing reign, after a large-scale breakout, Zhu Bu led his main fleet to operate in the waters of Southern Fujian. During this period, he stayed on a certain island for several days. In addition to resupplying, he secretly transferred and hid a large amount of his plundered loot, never publicly mentioning it again.

The 15th year of the Jiaqing reign.

Hu Tian circled this date in his notebook.

That period was exactly when the Qing court intensified its suppression of pirates. Cai Qian had already fallen in the 14th year of the Jiaqing reign, and Zhu Bu, as a remnant force, found his situation increasingly precarious. Hiding wealth at this juncture was completely logical.

He continued searching and found a fragment of a local county gazetteer regarding the waters around Donghu. It mentioned that this area was a place where pirates frequently appeared in ancient times. With numerous reefs and complex hydrology, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, having always been a good hiding place for outlaws.

Donghu Island.

Hu Tian opened the satellite map, brought up the location of Donghu Island, and cross-referenced it with the previous scan data from the Treasure Hunting Radar, marking the coordinates.

The location of the treasure was likely in an underwater reef area to the southwest of Donghu Island, at a depth of about fifteen to twenty meters. This depth was not too deep for professional diving, but the dense reefs and complex currents were indeed troublesome.

He pulled out the marine condition data he had found earlier, compared it with the wind direction and ocean current data for the current season, reviewed it several times, and roughly had an idea in his mind.

The result he found actually matched the location speculated by Zhou Waner.

This operation was much more complex than the previous treasure hunts on land, requiring more thorough preparation.

Diving equipment was one aspect; he would need professional scuba gear, oxygen tanks, regulators, buoyancy control devices, waterproof flashlights, and underwater locators. All of these needed to be prepared in advance.

The issue of the boat also needed to be resolved. He needed to rent a powered boat capable of stable operations in coastal waters, preferably a local fishing boat or work boat, and the captain needed to be familiar with the distribution of the surrounding reefs.

Additionally, underwater excavation and salvage were technical tasks. If things were pressed under reefs or buried in the seabed silt, manpower alone would not be enough; he might need some professional underwater tools.

Hu Tian listed these one by one and made notes for each: what could be purchased locally, what needed to be brought over, and what needed to be contacted in advance.

After checking the equipment section, he turned back to dig deeper into the information about Zhu Bu's treasure, wanting to see if there were any more specific clues, such as the method of concealment, the approximate scale, or a more precise location description.

After browsing for over an hour, most of the online information was just old material being reposted repeatedly, with nothing new.

However, a paper written by a scholar studying Qing Dynasty pirate history caught his eye. It mentioned a detail: Zhu Bu's method of hiding treasure was very distinctive. Instead of simply piling things in one place, he hid them in a dispersed manner. There was a system of recording between the main storage point and several secondary storage points that only his most trusted subordinates knew. As these people died in successive suppression campaigns, the clues were completely severed.

Dispersed concealment.

This detail made Hu Tian think for a few seconds.

Not one place, but possibly multiple storage points dispersed in different locations within the reef area. This also meant that the difficulty of searching was higher than expected. He could not just count on finding one spot and being done; he would have to search the entire area carefully.

Just as Hu Tian was staring at the data in deep thought, a slight buzzing sound suddenly came from his mind.

Immediately after, a line of text emerged deep in his consciousness, clear and abrupt.

【Treasure Hunting Radar New Task Triggered】 【Task Name: Zhu Bu Treasure】 【Task Description: Underwater in the reef area southwest of Donghu Island, a large amount of wealth secretly transferred by the Qing Dynasty pirate Zhu Bu is hidden, stored in multiple dispersed locations. Having passed over two hundred years, it has never been discovered by the world. Please complete the underwater exploration and collect all the treasure into the System Space.】

【Task Rewards: Deep Sea Diving Skill (including underwater breathing control, underwater direction perception, reef terrain identification), Underwater Operation Skill (including underwater excavation, salvage operations, silt penetration perception)】 【Extra Reward: Water-Repelling Bead × 1】 【Task Time Limit: None】 【Accept?】

Hu Tian barely hesitated, silently responding in his heart, "Accept." The buzzing sound rang out again and then dissipated.

He froze for two seconds, then felt as if something had been stuffed into his brain. It wasn't pain, but a sense of fullness. Dense information was embedded in his memory in a strange way, as if things he had originally mastered were suddenly awakened.

The standard operating procedures for scuba diving, methods for controlling underwater breathing rhythm, how to determine direction in a reef area with blurred vision, how to distinguish hard objects under the silt layer by touch... pieces of knowledge were clearly arranged in his mind, as solid as skills he had practiced for years.

Hu Tian flexed his fingers, feeling a bit moved. He had originally been worried about his lack of diving experience and that operations in the reef area could easily lead to accidents, but now this concern was mostly gone.

He turned his attention to the extra reward. Water-Repelling Bead. The system still understood him.

Water-Repelling Bead; he had never seen this thing before. He searched his memory, and there were relevant recollections from fantasy novels he had read before, but the system provided no extra explanation.

Hu Tian entered the System Space to confirm. He saw a thumb-sized bead quietly floating in a corner of the space. It was pale cyan, translucent, with faintly flowing patterns on its surface, looking like solidified water waves.

He took the bead out and held it in his palm. The bead felt slightly cool. The texture was hard to describe—he could not tell if it was jade or something else—but in any case, it did not feel like an ordinary object.

The system did not say how to use this thing, but just looking at the name, it probably had some special function underwater. He put it away first and would observe it when he got underwater.

Hu Tian put the bead back into the System Space and returned his gaze to the notebook on the table. The notebook was densely filled with over a page of notes: equipment list, marine condition data, task timeline, and now he added one more line at the end: Deep Sea Diving Skill, unlocked.

He looked at this line of text, and the corners of his mouth moved slightly. It seemed that this trip to Donghu Island was a certainty.

He closed the notebook, picked up his phone, and began to check information about piers and fishing boat rentals near Donghu Island one by one.

Hu Tian wrote these deductions in the notebook, closed it, leaned back in his chair, and looked out the window. The morning sunlight was already quite strong, shining into the courtyard outside the villa. The old tree in the yard cast a shadow, swaying gently with the wind.

It was still early, several hours away from four o'clock in the afternoon. He stood up, walked to the window, stretched his slightly sore neck, and went over the whole thing in his mind again.

The matter of Donghu Island generally had a direction. Over the next two days, he would refine the equipment list, contact a boat in Southern Fujian, and confirm the window period for marine conditions. The day after tomorrow, he would first send Zhou Waner back to Jinling, and after that, he could go directly to Southern Fujian. There were no major problems with the itinerary.

He went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, stood by the window and finished it slowly, then returned to the studio to go through the equipment list again, making some adjustments and additions. He also checked online for a few boat operators in the Southern Fujian area that provided sea fishing and diving services. He found two or three with good reputations, wrote down their contact information, and prepared to confirm on-site before formally contacting them.

After finishing these tasks, he checked the time; it was almost two o'clock. Hu Tian packed up his notebook and computer, stood up and stretched, went upstairs to take a shower, changed his clothes, grabbed his car keys, and drove toward the Tianhai Villa area, timing his arrival.

From where he lived to Zhou Waner's place, it was about thirty minutes if there was no traffic. They had an appointment for four o'clock, so he set off at three. When he arrived at the entrance of the Tianhai Villa area, he parked the car outside and sent a message to Zhou Waner.

Within a few minutes, Zhou Waner came bouncing out. She was dressed in casual attire—a light-colored top and dark trousers—with her hair tied in a loose low ponytail, looking dashing and beautiful.

She opened the passenger door, sat in quickly, and glanced at Hu Tian. "Hehe, I thought you would be late."

"We agreed on four o'clock," Hu Tian said, "What time is it now?"

Zhou Waner checked her phone. "Three fifty-eight." She paused, twitched the corner of her mouth, and said, "Fine, barely considered punctual."

Hu Tian drove the car out and headed toward the city center. Zhou Waner turned to lean against the back of the seat, looking out the window. "What did you do this morning?"

"Checking information," Hu Tian said, "I wanted to get a better understanding of the stuff regarding Zhu Bu."

"So what did you find out? Is it Donghu Island?" Hu Tian didn't answer immediately, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, his hands steady on the steering wheel.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Zhou Waner leaned closer to him, her bright eyes staring at his profile. "Is it? It's Donghu Island, right?"

Her tone carried an irrepressible anticipation; she had obviously been holding it in for a whole day, just waiting for this confirmation. Hu Tian turned his head to look at her, then withdrew his gaze. "Guess?"

Zhou Waner paused, perhaps not expecting him to ask her back, but then she reacted, the corners of her mouth lifting. "So, it's correct?"

Hu Tian didn't make a sound.