Chapter 355 - 352: Salvaging the Shipwreck 3

Dragon Dungeness Sun Yaotong, of course, had no intention of taking it for free.

He had already decided to have a sculptor carve a small monkey out of Yellow Jade to send over once he returned.

Seeing Yun Jiao pull up such a huge fish, the others grew envious.

They all rushed to Sun Yaotong to ask for fishing rods.

But it was obvious they didn’t have Yun Jiao’s luck. Though they caught fish, they were all small, worthless ones.

Yun Jiao stopped fishing. She lay on the clean deck, gazing at the stars.

The next morning, everyone got busy again.

After five days of surveying, they finally had a clear picture of the entire shipwreck.

The next step was to clear away the dangerous parts of the wreck.

Yun Jiao lent them the killer whales to help them control their direction and speed in the deep sea.

By now, everyone on the ship couldn’t have been more impressed with the young girl, Yun Jiao.

’She’s the real deal. Not only can she get along with the delinquents of the ocean, the killer whales, but she can even command them.’

Most importantly, her diving skills were better than anyone else’s.

At first, the adults had wanted to compete a little, but now? ’There’s no comparison. Not even close!’

The team took long ropes and dived down to the shipwreck. Following Tang Lei’s directions, they attached the ropes to different points.

Yun Jiao was helping too. She was very curious to see what was inside the wreck.

’I wonder if there’s any more of that cloth I brought back.’

Once all the ropes were secured, Tang Lei gave a hand signal, and everyone scattered.

Someone went up to inform Sun Yaotong. Soon, the crane connected to the ropes began to operate.

The sound was muffled in the ocean, but as the debris burying the shipwreck was pulled away, the long-silent, ancient wooden ship emitted a dull, decaying groan.

The water around the wreck became visibly murky.

Just clearing the wooden debris pressing down on the shipwreck took them several more days.

"This is the last of it today. Let’s give it our all."

Sun Yaotong poured a bucket of fish into the sea.

The killer whales below began to eat joyfully.

Since the killer whales were helping, Sun Yaotong naturally wouldn’t treat them poorly.

Whenever he had free time, he would take a boat out to catch fish for them.

The killer whales didn’t need to hunt for their lunch; what Sun Yaotong gave them was enough to fill their stomachs.

It had to be said, Sun Yaotong was a very smart and responsible boss.

Spending long periods of time adrift at sea is truly miserable.

Except for Yun Jiao.

She spent most of her time in the sea, playing with the killer whales or her other little friends.

When the last bit of debris on the shipwreck was cleared away, everyone cheered.

On this day, even Sun Yaotong himself put on a wetsuit to go down and see the situation.

"Jiaojiao, I’ll have to trouble your killer whales."

Yun Jiao high-fived him. "No problem."

Now, what they needed to do was salvage the items from inside the shipwreck.

Sun Yaotong instructed that even broken porcelain shards should be brought up if possible.

Yun Jiao let out a "Wuhu!", jumped into the sea, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Her speed made everyone watch with envy.

’If we had skills like that in the water, we could make a living just by finding valuable sea goods.’

Yun Jiao was the first to arrive at the cleared shipwreck, and she joyfully zipped through it.

A killer whale followed behind her.

She saw a wooden chest and grabbed it.

She saw some porcelain and gathered it.

She saw a bronze vessel and picked that up too.

Bones...

Huh? Human bones.

Yun Jiao wasn’t scared at all. She gathered the bones and piled them to one side.

When Yun Linhai and the others came down, they were greeted by the sight of several chests, some porcelain, bronze artifacts, and other items all piled together.

Some of the chests were broken, and through the cracks, faint glints of gold or silver could be seen.

It was gold!

As for silver, it wasn’t worth much these days.

Of course, the pile of human bones a short distance away was also hard to miss.

Even though they knew they might encounter such a scene, everyone still got goosebumps.

But... they couldn’t just abandon the treasure because they were scared, could they?

So, they cast an admiring glance at Yun Jiao, who was swimming out with the bones.

’This little girl is seriously amazing!’

Then they all moved a little farther away from her and went to search for treasure elsewhere.

Any chests they found were brought out and set aside.

But they couldn’t stay underwater for too long; when it became uncomfortable, they had to return to the surface.

Only after recovering could they go down again.

Yun Jiao had no such concerns. Like a busy little bee, she zipped through the shipwreck, bringing out anything she thought was useful.

Yun Linhai saw she was getting a bit too carried away. He swam over and patted her, signaling that she should go up.

Otherwise, it would arouse too much suspicion.

Yun Jiao acknowledged with an "Oh," then stuffed some small chests into a net bag for a killer whale to take to the surface.

She herself started swimming toward the surface, dragging a large chest.

The others who saw this wore calm expressions.

Heh... they had already been utterly demoralized by this young girl.

"Godfather, look! I brought up a big chest! I wonder what’s inside."

Sun Yaotong quickly called people over to help lift her chest onto the boat.

There were also the ones the killer whales had brought up.

One of the chests was filled with heavy gold ingots. The person carrying it underestimated the weight, and the whole chest fell over.

The somewhat tarnished gold ingots inside spilled out, and everyone stared, mesmerized.

This wasn’t just gold; these items represented a piece of history, making them more valuable than mere bullion.

These gold ingots weren’t shaped like typical golden ingots; they were narrow in the middle with fan-shaped ends and had inscriptions on them.

Sun Yaotong picked one up and studied it for a moment.

"These might be Song Dynasty gold ingots. This ship could be a Song Dynasty wreck."

The Song Dynasty had a flourishing economy and was one of the wealthiest dynasties in history.

But the dynasty was also spineless.

The Emperor and his court were once chased south by Jurchen soldiers, forced to drift at sea for several months.

This showed that the Song Dynasty’s shipbuilding industry was quite advanced.

If this ship was one of those that accompanied that Emperor, it would be of significant research value.

Not long after coming aboard, Yun Jiao dove back into the sea to continue her treasure hunt.

As time passed, all sorts of chests were salvaged.

There was also a good deal of porcelain, goldware, and silverware.

After inspecting them, Sun Yaotong discovered that a portion of the porcelain was from Song Dynasty official kilns.

He was incredibly excited.

Porcelain from Song Dynasty official kilns is very valuable and highly collectible.

However, compared to the amount of broken porcelain, there were very few intact pieces.

Some chests contained calligraphy and paintings, inkstones, brush washers, and similar items.

Likely because they were at sea, these items had been carefully wrapped in several layers of oil paper.

But after soaking in the sea for so many years, the items were still ruined, which made Sun Yaotong look on with regret.

The scholars of the Tang and Song periods were very famous. Their calligraphy, paintings, and poetry—especially works by renowned masters—were extremely valuable.

But now, these were damaged beyond any hope of restoration.

Sun Yaotong could vaguely make out some preserved characters in one of the calligraphy copybooks that looked very much like the writing of Wang Xizhi.

Although he couldn’t tell if it was authentic, it was enough to make his heart ache with loss.