After having the Mechanical Insects turn the Sea Wolf back to normal, Nie Yun rested his chin in his hands and pondered the ship's future.
"Where can I find a big ship? Preferably an abandoned one. A sunken ship seems like a good choice, but most of the bigger wrecks have already been salvaged. There's no way I'd get there first."
Suddenly, inspiration struck. There was one place with a huge number of sunken ships!
Rabbit Country's South China Sea had once been a hub of ancient Asian trade. Ships from Europe and Africa sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to trade there, while others sailed from Southeast Asia and the Americas to Guangdong and Min Province. According to statistics, at least two thousand ancient wrecks lay near Rabbit Country's South China Sea.
In recent years, Rabbit Country had stepped up its efforts to salvage these ancient wrecks, recovering a great many rare national treasures, including porcelain and antiques. Yet many ships still lay buried in the deep-sea silt, forgotten by history.
The South Nanhai Nanao Sea Area was a famous shipwreck site known far and wide! Several merchant ships laden with porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties had been salvaged there, their overall value impossible to estimate.
Nie Yun sailed the Sea Wolf into this treasure-filled stretch of water. Since many ships passed through the area, he had turned the Sea Wolf back into its battered old state.
Then Nie Yun ran into a problem. There ought to be plenty of wrecks in these waters, but they were all in the deep sea. How could he get the Mechanical Insects down there?
After racking his brain, Nie Yun spotted the fishing rod leaning against the railing. A daring idea immediately came to mind.
He picked up the rod. At his bidding, the hook at its tip shifted and transformed into a small, solid silver ball.
"Off you go!" Nie Yun gave the rod a hard swing. The ball and its line flew more than ten meters before hitting the sea with a splash and raising a tiny spray of water.
The heavy ball sank slowly into the depths, trailing a long, slender silver line. Schools of fish occasionally circled it curiously.
At last, the ball reached the seabed and stirred up a little cloud of silt.
Then six slender spider legs suddenly sprouted from the ball, and it began searching the deep-sea floor like a little spider.
But a single Mechanical Spider was far too slow. Nie Yun frowned. "All hands! We need backup up ahead! Reserve team, move out!"
At Nie Yun's command, several objects aboard the Sea Wolf melted into pools of silvery liquid and flowed down the fishing rod and its slender line into the deep sea.
Below, the original little spider began splitting at a furious pace: one became two, two became four, and four became eight. Before long, the seabed was crawling with them.
Many sea creatures panicked at the arrival of these newcomers and darted in every direction. A minor commotion broke out beneath the waves.
Thousands upon thousands of little spiders scoured the seabed. Nie Yun secured the fishing rod to the ship, then closed his eyes and basked in the sun, replenishing the energy he had spent.
As the search area on the seabed grew, the Sea Wolf's mast disappeared, then its sails, then its anchor. In the end, aside from a few essential supports, the ship had become a bare hull.
With enough helpers on the seabed, the search became much more efficient. Less than twenty minutes later, the Mechanical Insects found their first target.
Nie Yun opened his eyes, a flash of delight crossing his face.
It was a single-masted sailing ship about the same size as the Sea Wolf. From its appearance, it seemed to be an old vessel from the nineties. Nie Yun sent the nearby Mechanical Insects inside to search, while the others continued expanding the search area.
"Not bad. It's wooden, but there's plenty of iron inside—an anchor, iron plates. Enough for my little ones to feast on. But this design won't work. It's just an appetizer. Keep looking! Dig up the whole seabed if you have to—find me the big one!"
There were plenty of Mechanical Insects, but the seabed was vast. It wasn't until an hour later that they sent word of another target.
Nie Yun sensed it—and his jaw dropped. He couldn't help blurting out, "Holy crap!"
Before him lay an ancient European-style, three-masted sailing ship. It was tilted at a seventy-degree angle and buried in thousands of years' worth of silt, with only a small part of the hull exposed. Coral reefs covered the surrounding area. If the Mechanical Insects hadn't searched every inch of the seabed, it would have been hard to find!
After centuries beneath the sea, the hull was covered in algae, and marine life darted in and out, clearly using it as a home. Several large holes had been torn in one side of the ship, presumably the reason it had sunk.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that this was an ancient warship!
A row of open gunports lined the side of the hull. In some of them, ancient cannons coated in verdigris were still visible. Centuries had passed, yet the dark gunports still stood, as if recounting the ship's glorious days of old.
Nie Yun swallowed. The ship had to weigh at least a thousand tons, and, more importantly, its cannons could provide a considerable amount of iron!
What else was there to say? Gather the boys and chow down! Don't stop until it's all gone!
Countless silver Mechanical Insects swarmed over!
On the surface, a bare ship's frame floated on the water. It had only two things of note aboard: a man and a fishing rod.
This odd sight drew the attention of quite a few passing ships. Some even came closer. A sailor on one deck shouted over, "Hey, buddy! In trouble? Need a hand?"
Nie Yun gave him the most heartfelt thanks. "No need! Thanks, buddy! I'm fishing for a big one! A thousand tons, at least. It'll take some work!"
The people aboard that ship eventually left the area, looking at him like he was crazy.
The sun rose and set. By noon the next day, the Mechanical Insects had finally devoured all the iron objects aboard the ship. Their numbers had multiplied more than tenfold, and Nie Yun was finding them difficult to control. There wasn't enough sunlight to keep up a high-intensity workload, so he had to eat a big meal from time to time to replenish his energy.
The Mechanical Insects had run out of power again, so he had no choice but to call a halt. He spread the little ones out across the sea to absorb the strong midday sunlight and recharge. From a distance, they glittered silver. Unless someone came close, they could easily be mistaken for sunlight reflecting off the water, so there was little risk of anyone spotting them.
Just then, Chu Xiaoxiao called again.
"Hello, Nie Yun. They've finished appraising your ancient silver coin!" There was something odd in Chu Xiaoxiao's tone.
"Mm. How much is it worth?" Nie Yun asked absently, then slurped down a huge mouthful of instant noodles. He was starving.
"The appraisal says your coin is worth at least ten million."
"Mm, mm? Pfft!" Nie Yun first hummed absentmindedly, then suddenly caught what she had said. He let out a startled "Huh?" and sprayed the noodles from his mouth, nearly choking on them.
"Cough, cough! Cough, cough!" He hacked violently for a long while.
"Y-you said how much?!"
"Ten million yuan! At least!" Chu Xiaoxiao said crossly. What a country bumpkin!
"What?! That one lousy coin is worth ten million? Hey, wait. You're not saying that just to repay me for saving your life, are you?" Nie Yun asked suspiciously.
"I'm not that bored! You can look at the appraisal certificate yourself when the time comes. You really are lucky, you know?
"This coin is called the Double Dragon Longevity Coin. The pair of bats on either side of the front symbolize good fortune. The Chinese word for 'bat' is a homophone for 'blessing,' so bats were engraved on the coin to invoke both meanings.
"Together with the 'longevity' character on the reverse, they symbolize 'blessings and long life.' The Guangdong Mint made it to commemorate Cixi's sixtieth birthday. Only a few were minted, and none have appeared on the market for many years.
"Ten years ago, this kind of silver coin sold for 1.29 million. Its current estimated value starts at ten million."
"So my coin really is worth ten million?" Nie Yun asked, still a little dazed.
On the other end, Chu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes. Great, everything she'd said before had gone in one ear and out the other!
"That's right! It's worth ten million! And that's just the starting bid."
"Mm..."
"Hey, what's wrong? Why did you go quiet?"
"Nothing. I was just wondering how many bowls of beef noodles ten million would buy."
Chu Xiaoxiao: "..."
Before you continue