"Strengthen the training, and meet all changes with constancy. There's no sense in guarding against a thief every day. At the same time, investigate the movements of monsters within Mondstadt's borders. To attack Mondstadt, relying on the Fatui alone is certainly not enough. And that Harbinger, La Signora, is an extremely crazy woman. I suspect they will use a powerful monster to attack."
"Yes, Lord Pope! I will arrange for men to investigate," Kaeya nodded, indicating that he would work hard. Since he had received the information, he had to treat it seriously, whether it was true or false. And Mondstadt had indeed been a little too quiet recently. To say the "enemy" had no counter-attack, he would never believe it. Back during the "Darknight Hero" incident, the Fatui had been jumping up and down. For them to be so quiet now, who would believe there wasn't a ghost?
The next day, in Liyue Harbor, within the Sea of Clouds, Hu Tao boarded the Going Merry and set off with her two murlocs. The only people accompanying her were Keqing and Sucrose. Since the Going Merry could sail on its own, there was no need for sailors.
Hu Tao sat on the ship's sheep-figurehead, swinging her little legs. "I wonder if we'll have a good harvest today. Although Su Han and Ningguang both said we could make a lot of money, if there's no treasure at the bottom of the sea, we'll have gotten excited for nothing."
"You…" Keqing rolled her eyes at Hu Tao, annoyed. "Can't you say something positive? What if we make a fortune? Not many people dare to dive to the bottom of the Sea of Clouds to salvage things." As one of the Liyue Qixing, she was very familiar with Liyue's affairs. Those sailors, at most, only dared to operate near the shore or in the inner sea. The bottom of the ocean was simply too deep. Everyone was afraid of accidents.
Hu Tao stuck out her tongue and giggled. "I'm just preparing for the worst! Don't be mad."
"Actually, you don't need to be too worried," Sucrose added. "I've surveyed Liyue's geology, and with the reawakening of the Archon not long ago, the seabed should have been shattered quite a bit. If there are treasures, they should be easy to find. Let's stop here. Let's have the murlocs dive down and try."
In her hand, Sucrose had a map. The position they were currently stopped at was the center point between Liyue Harbor and the Guyun Stone Forest.
Hu Tao nodded. "Alright! Go on, Ah Da, Ah Er! Whether this lady can get rich is all up to you!"
At her command, the two murlocs obediently jumped out. They were fish, after all. Unlike their dazed state on land, the moment they entered the sea, they became extremely happy, and their swimming became incomparably fast.
Hu Tao closed her eyes, her vision linking with the two murlocs. Looking at the scenery at the bottom of the sea, she couldn't help but be amazed. "Heavens, so this is what the bottom of the sea looks like? Huh? What's that? Ah Da, go and get it!"
Hu Tao, who had been admiring the scenery, quickly discovered an ancient wooden box and hurriedly urged the murloc to retrieve it. Of course, their small bodies were unable to hold such a heavy box. In the end, it was Meyer, controlling the ship's crane, who pulled the wooden box onto the ship.
"What is this?" Sucrose was a little surprised. The murlocs had only been in the sea for less than five minutes, and they had already managed to pull up a box that was a full two meters long?
Keqing observed it for a moment. "There's writing on it. It seems to be from an Inazuman fleet. Oh, I remember now. There was a huge storm two years ago, and I think a ship was destroyed. It was I who sent people to rescue them."
"Then the things in this box are cargo?" A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Hu Tao's face. Since it was a cargo ship, this box must be worth a lot of money, right?
Keqing nodded. "Let's see. I heard there were a lot of things inside. There was a merchant named Liben who was even crying about how all his goods were soaked."
"Alright! Let me see what good stuff is in here!" Hu Tao took out her weapon, about to smash the wooden box open, but was quickly stopped by Keqing.
"What are you doing? The things inside are very valuable! If you hit it like that, they'll probably all break!"
"Ah? Is that so? I'm so sorry." Hu Tao quickly apologized. Then, following Keqing's instructions, she began to pry the wooden box open, bit by bit. Because it was for a sea voyage, the waterproofing was done particularly well.
After opening the wooden box, they found that it was filled with porcelain and jewelry!
"Wow! Such a big pearl! It's almost as big as my rice bowl!"
"Hiss… this one box of goods, at a conservative estimate, is worth several million Mora!" Keqing's eyes were wide. It had only been a few minutes since they had set out! And they had gotten several million Mora just like that?
However, to confirm the price of the items, Keqing still contacted Ningguang in the group chat and had her appraise them one by one. In the end, it was estimated that this one giant wooden box was worth six million Mora!
When Hu Tao heard the value, she couldn't help but scream, "Wow! This is too awesome!" Several million Mora! How many graves would I have to dig to earn this much money? This is just too great!
Sucrose said to the excited Hu Tao, "Since it's so profitable, let's continue! Let's see what else is at the bottom of the sea!"
"Mhm!" Hu Tao closed her eyes and continued to have the murlocs search for things.
Soon, Ah Da brought back good news. Another wooden box had been found nearby. With Meyer's help, it was pulled onto the ship. However, their luck was a bit worse this time. The box seemed to have been hit by something, and more than half of the contents were lost. But they still found some jewelry.
Keqing said excitedly, "This is too great! It's practically picking up money! And it's not even robbery!" Those goblins of mine can only mine. But Hu Tao's murlocs are just too good at raking in money. These jewels are worth at least tens of thousands of Mora.
At this time, Sucrose suggested, "How about we have Lady Ganyu dispatch some ships to help? With only Meyer, the salvaging speed is a bit slow."
Although Meyer could control the Going Merry, it was still just one person, while the murlocs could continuously search.
Hu Tao nodded. "Alright, I'll go and communicate with her."
In the Multiverse Mission Group chat.
Hu Tao:@Ganyu, send some boats over! The murlocs have found a lot of things at the bottom of the sea. Meyer is too busy by himself.
Jean:What are you all doing? I just saw you appraising some things.
Lisa:I'm also very curious. It all adds up to several million Mora!
Su Han:It must be the murlocs. Hu Tao got some murlocs from her independent mission. They must be treasure hunting in the Sea of Clouds.
Diluc:So all those things just now were from the bottom of the sea?
Hu Tao:That's right! There are too many things, so I'm planning to get more boats to be responsible for the salvaging.
Jean:Liyue is already so rich. Please have some pity on us in Mondstadt.
Not long ago, they had been so poor they couldn't even open a pot. And look at Hu Tao, just commanding some murlocs, and she had easily gotten several million Mora. Comparing people really was infuriating.
Ganyu:Okay. I've already given the order to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Someone will be over soon.
Ningguang:@Jean, when we've cultivated more murlocs, I can send some to you.
Jean:Thank you so much!
About half an hour later, five ships arrived in front of the Going Merry, on standby. Hu Tao's task was simple: she just had to tell the ships where to stop and then have them drop their crane hooks into the sea.
At first, it was just some sunken cargo. Slowly, as Hu Tao became more familiar with controlling the murlocs, her speed also began to increase.
After two hours of salvaging, they finally stopped, because the two murlocs were about to die of exhaustion.
Hu Tao looked at the murlocs lying on the deck, their eyes rolled back, and said angrily, "They're so weak! Sucrose, is there any way to make them stronger? I still want to make more money!" She hadn't expected the murlocs' stamina to be so poor. Two hours, and they were already out of energy. So useless.
Sucrose thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps we can use the Qilin blood or the dragon blood to modify their bloodline. If we can enhance their physical fitness, that would be great."
"Mm, I'll leave these two fish to you. I'm going to go and count today's harvest."
"Okay." Sucrose took out the Qilin-blood potion she carried with her and began to try and figure out how to change the murlocs' physical fitness. Otherwise, if all the murlocs in the future were this frail, it would be too much of a waste.
"How is it, Keqing? Are there any precious treasures?" Hu Tao asked, looking at the Yuheng who was picking through the items. In this period of time, they had pulled up more than twenty boxes. They should be worth a lot, right?
"They're alright. Although not as stunning as the first box, they all have some of the same things. And Liyue's Sea of Clouds is very peaceful; it's rare for ships to run into trouble near the harbor. But there are still a lot of treasures here. Like this box, it's full of precious ores. I heard before that a ship was overloaded, and before it could reach Liyue, a big wave hit it and destroyed it. It was also from that time that Ningguang strictly forbade ships from being overloaded. If they insisted, they would be fined or even banned from docking."
"Wow, so strict. Then how much are these ores worth?"
"Mm, they're all metal ores from Fontaine. Probably about a hundred thousand Mora!"
"A hundred thousand? That's a big business," Hu Tao couldn't help but click her tongue. She had thought that these black, lumpy ores would be worth thirty or forty thousand at most. It was such a small pile.
Keqing couldn't help but laugh. "You really don't understand prices. These ores are all semi-finished products that have been refined. They can be used to make very strong weapons. In the past, only high-ranking officials could have them forged. And in Liyue, only those rich young masters can wear them. The blades forged from them are snow-white and silvery-bright. They look very impressive."
"Tch, so they're sold to those fools. No wonder they're so expensive."
Alright. Hu Tao's only evaluation of rich young masters was: "fools."
100+ chapters are available now and daily updates!
at 20% OFF!
use the promo code: CFE65
Expires at jan 4th
patreon.com/Zefyrus