Once again, with great difficulty, he climbed up the waterfall along the bronze chain, and Chaozi silently carried Qing Yiran on his back. Zhuo Xiong looked at him with a lost and dispirited expression, feeling anxious and distressed in his heart, and he probably already guessed the outcome.

  Zhuo Xiong patted his shoulder and said: "Chaozi, we promised Wen Bin that we would live well and walk out..."

  Chaozi gently lifted his hand, blinked a few times upwards, and his lips trembled slightly. After a long while, he forced a smile and said: "It's okay, Wenbin brother is blessed with good fortune, we'll go out first and wait for him outside!" He then led the way, carrying Leng Yiran, and walked out.

  Zhuo Xiong looked at the broad and thick back shadow, no longer speaking, and followed him up.

  Their remaining supplies were not many, and if they delayed for another day, they would either die of thirst or starvation, so Chao Zi quickened his pace.

  Nor did I know how long I had walked, until both legs had lost all sensation, and were moving mechanically, without a moment's pause.

  "Look ahead, Superzi! Look ahead, there's a bright light!" Not far from them, a faint light was emitted, which made Zhuo Xiong very excited and loudly called out to Superzi.

  Chaozi, who had been walking with his head down all along, finally lifted it up. He saw a glimmer of light, or rather, a glimmer of hope. They had finally walked out! Chaozi's mouth corners moved slightly as he patted the person on his back and quickened his pace again, heading towards the hope in his heart.

  The moment he walked out of the cave, the long-lost sunlight spilled onto his face, and a gust of mountain wind blew in. He could no longer hold on and finally fell to the ground. No matter how loudly Zhuo Xiong shouted in his ear, he couldn't resist the heavy eyelids, and when he woke up again, it would be a completely different scene.

  What would happen to Mutsuki Ichiyamada, who had entered the cave on the right? Was it true that this side represented life, as Takashi Okina had said?

  Two inflatable rubber boats went along the river on the right, with those five burly men leading the way in front and Wang Yue bringing up the rear with the Taojing sisters and Zhuo Lao.

  From a visual perspective, it is no different from an ordinary underground cave, with a dark environment, icy river water and strange-shaped stones.

  They relied on their weapons and equipment, as well as their large numbers, to move at a speed that was much faster than Zhang Wenbin's pace on the left. Except for the occasional sound of water droplets falling from rocks, there were no other sounds. This road was indeed unobstructed, just like Old Zhuo had said. At first, they were still quite vigilant, but gradually relaxed as they walked.

  They walked for about ten or twenty miles, and suddenly the rubber dinghy in front stopped. The one behind didn't have time to brake and crashed into it head-on, causing the people on the back boat to sway back and forth, especially Zhuo Lao Han. His body was originally not very strong, and this time he almost got knocked into the river.

  The moon's atmosphere was violent and thunderous, with a mouth ready to scold, but one sentence from Tachibana Chiyoda made him swallow his words without saying a single word.

  "Master of the house, there's a boat ahead!"

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, in front of them, a wooden boat was tied up with two chains, quietly lying on the water surface, blocking their way.

  How did a boat end up here? Wang Yue stood up and took a closer look, illuminated by the lamp. It was a small wooden boat with a layer of wooden boards covering it, similar to the modern awning boats commonly seen in Jiangnan, but this boat's cabin was completely sealed off. Under the light, the entire body was emitting a faint white glow.

  Wang Yue was originally a very overbearing and self-centered person. When he saw the sudden situation, he was the first to rush up and take a look. The two kayaks were squeezed parallel in this narrow space, making it very cramped. He pressed his fingers on the hull of the boat, and his fingers could slightly indent inward. "Soft!" Wang Yue said.

  Several big men also tried to press it with their hands, and as Wang Yue said, they could move it. Looking at the two bronze chains tied to the hull of the ship, they were already rusty and did not seem to be from modern times. He had been in China for so long that he naturally understood that whenever bronze objects appeared in desolate places without people, their history was mostly over a thousand years old.

  "Mr. Zhuo, you've lived here for so long, do you know what this thing is made of?"

  An old man also went over to join in, trying to press it with his hand a few times, and then stuck it up to sniff with his nose, saying: "Lend me the flashlight."

  He took the flashlight handed over by a big man next to him, and Old Zhuo carefully observed it again, saying with certainty: "This is 'Snowflake', wow, this person is really generous, using such a large piece of 'Snowflake' to make such a small boat."

  Zhuo Lao saw this thing and was very happy. He asked: "What is 'Snow Cypress'? What does it represent?"

  Zhuo Lao Han put away the flashlight, returned to the inflatable boat, propped up his legs and said: "As the saying goes, 'thousand-year-old horizontal' and 'ten-thousand-year-old fir' are no match for a single branch of 'Snow Birch'. This Snow Birch is indeed precious timber. I, Zhuo Lao Han, have learned excellent carpentry skills since childhood and have even made coffins for others using this high-quality wood material. According to the owner's family, just buying the wood costs as much money as making a coffin entirely out of gold, you can imagine how valuable this tree is."

  Wang Yue only knew that the sandalwood and golden nanmu were precious, but had not heard of another kind of wood being so valuable. Looking at the wooden boat emitting a faint white glow, it was indeed similar to the color of snow.

  "Why is it soft then?" Mochizuki asked.

  The old man puffed on his pipe, pointing at the wooden boat and said: "This boat, in my opinion, is not just an ordinary 'Nanmu', 'Nanmu' grows very slowly, taking thousands of years to mature. Legend has it that in ancient times, people pickled meat, but the jars were too small, so they put some of the meat into wooden barrels made of 'Nanmu'. Half a year later, when they took out the meat, they found that the meat in the jars had rotted, while the meat in the wooden barrels was still well-preserved.

  When I first moved to the town, due to tourism development, a road needed to be built. The construction team accidentally dug up an ownerless old tomb. The corpse inside the coffin was well-preserved, but it rotted soon after being exposed to light. The coffin that held this corpse was made of 'Nanmu' wood. According to the archaeological team, the coffin should have a history of over a thousand years, and its owner might be an ancestor of the ancient Ba people.

  However, Mr. Wangyue, apart from the golden nanmu wood, there is no other type of wood that can be soaked in water for a thousand years without rotting, and there is only one way to do it, which is to separate it from the water!

  "Separated by water?" Wang Yue looked at the wooden boat floating on the river, looking at the waterline, and there were at least several tens of centimeters below it. How could this be separated by water?

  "Not bad," said Old Zuo, "there is a way to keep it afloat. 'Snow Birch' is actually a type of cedar, also known as silver fir. Its color isn't white, but rather milky yellow. Whenever cedar is cut down, a white sap flows out. If this sap is applied to the outer hull of a wooden boat that has already been built, and it solidifies, then the boat is essentially wrapped in the sap, just like amber. The layer inside can withstand wind and rain without suffering any damage. That's why this boat looks milky white, and feels slightly soft to the touch, indicating that it has been coated with a thick layer of sap."

  To know that a 'snow pear' was cut down and only a little tree sap came out, but from the materials used in this ship, it's unlikely that dozens of large mountains were cut down to gather enough wood sap. In ancient times, one snow pear tree with a trunk as wide as a bowl could be exchanged for ten hectares of good land. How much is this ship worth? Mr. Wangyue, you should have an idea in your mind."

  Although he was born into Japanese nobility and was responsible for searching for treasures for the royal family, he had seen many rare and precious items. However, after listening to Old Zhuo's words, he couldn't help but look at this ancient ship with new eyes. If what he said was true, then this thing would be a top-level national treasure worth a fortune, and it was still so well-preserved. But how could such a valuable item be tied up in a river like this?

  Wang Yue glanced at him and said with his eyes fixed on Zhuo Lao Han, who was in high spirits: "Mr. Zhuo, aren't you talking nonsense?"

  Old man Zhuo took one look at Wang Yue's scar and hastily retracted his legs, extinguished the cigarette in his hand, straightened up and said: "Hey, Mr. Wang Yue, I don't dare to speak recklessly about this, but as for this wood, I'm an expert. This thing has super strong anti-corrosion properties, so most of it is taken away by the wealthy to make coffins. Look at that ship in front, the cabin is sealed tightly, I think there's probably something inside, maybe it's a water burial!"

  "You're Chinese, aren't you supposed to believe in being buried to rest in peace?"

  The old man shook his head repeatedly and explained, "We also have a kind of drifting water burial here, which is to put people on wood and place them in the river, letting them drift away. Who knows if this is it!"

  Wang Yue's big mouth opened wide, and he chuckled: "This is easy to handle. You few people go open up that wooden boat, let's see if Zhuo Lao Han was lying! If he was lying, then stuff him inside and give him a water burial!"

  The old man's legs went limp after hearing this, and he sat down directly in the inflatable boat. He no longer had any of his previous composure and trembled as he said: "Mr. Wangyue, Mr. Wangyue, you're joking, right? You're teasing me, right? I'm not sure what's inside either. If it really is a dead person and we open it up, disturbing their rest, won't we be punished by the ghost? Let's just hurry along our way..."

  Wang Yue ignored him and laughed maniacally: "Open it up, let's take a look at China's ghost ship!"

  Several burly men, without saying a word, jumped onto the wooden boat one after another...

  read3;