Tuoba Qingtian was originally the king of pirates who crisscrossed the East China Sea in ancient times, and his treasure place should have been in the East China Sea, and the stories that have been circulated on the rivers and lakes for many years are indeed described in this way.

However, even if they are lucky, they are doomed to return in vain, because Whale Swallowing Island is not in the East China Sea at all, but in the South China Sea.

Compared with the flagship of the "Wanjintang", the "Jinyu", the "Jinyan" is much smaller, only thirteen zhang long, and can only carry more than 30 people on board. However, the two sides of the "Golden Swallow" are also painted in a gorgeous golden color, and the streamlined hull and the nine sails that can be hung on the three masts make it sail at a speed that is not inferior to that of the "Golden Jade", or even faster.

In fact, the "Golden Swallow" was the fastest of all the ocean-going sailing ships of the "Wanjintang".

Now on the "Golden Swallow", there are less than twenty people, except for Hua Bushi and Sima Rulan, there are only more than ten elite guards from the City Lord's Mansion, and the one responsible for steering the ship is the helmsman Fu Ao, who commands the Okura Castle Naval Army.

Whale Swallowing Island is very stable, outsiders have no way of knowing, this time to go to the island to get a map, there should not be any danger, if you bring too many disciples to follow, it is not easy to keep secrets, and it is not necessary. And the "Jinyu" was seriously damaged in the sea battle a few days ago and has not been completely repaired, so Sima Rulan chose this fastest sailing ship and only accompanied it with a few escorts.

The sky is clear and the sea is windy, but not too violent, making it the perfect weather for sailing.

At noon, the ship boarded the ship from Okura Port, and the "Golden Swallow" was much faster than an ordinary sailing ship, and the voyage that would have taken a whole day was only reached in the early morning of the next day.

When the sun was rising in the east, on the deck in front of the sailboat, Hua Bushi was holding the cable on the side of the ship with one hand, and building a pergola with the other, looking out at the sea, and Sima Rulan was standing beside him.

Just a dozen miles in front of the sailboat, a small island was already clearly visible.

The island was not very large, only about five or six miles long, but it was composed of two parts: the main body was a round blue-black rock mountain, which protruded in an arc above the sea level, and behind it there was a small sharp pinnacle. From a distance, the whole island looks like a large whale half-sunk in the sea, with an arc-shaped stone mountain with a fish body, and a small stone peak behind it as a tail fin.

Around this large whale, there are also many trash fish of different sizes, but they are all half-exposed reefs.

"Miss Qiyu, there is the island marked on the chart ahead, and the Lord of the Fortune Helm said that there are too many reefs in front of this island, and it may be difficult for our big ship to sail through!" a City Lord's Mansion guard ran onto the deck and reported to Sima Rulanyu.

The location of Whale Swallowing Island is a secret that only the principals above the elder level can know in the "Ten Thousand Golden Hall", and ordinary disciples have no way of knowing, even as the helmsman Fu Ao. This time she went to sea, Sima Rulan only said that she was going to take a boat with Hua Bushi to play on the sea, and handed over the nautical chart marked Whale Swallowing Island to Fu Ao, and asked him to drive the boat according to the direction of the nautical chart.

Hearing the advice of the gang, Sima Rulan said: "Go and tell the Fu Helm Master that the ship will anchor and stop here, and Mr. Hua and I will row a sampan to the island." ”

The sailboat came to a halt and the sampan was soon ready, and it was lowered into the water from the side of the Golden Swallow.

Sima Rulan and Hua Bushi were about to go down from the deck, but Fu Ao had already walked over quickly and said, "Miss, slow! This reef outside the island in front is very dense, it is better to let your subordinates accompany Miss Hua and Master Hua to go together, so that you can paddle and rock." ”

The stocky man with a beard on his face was obviously a little worried about the two rowing to the island.

Sima Rulan said: "Thank you Fu Helm Master, but don't need it! I have been to this island many times before, and I know the waterway of rowing on the island, and the Fu Helm Master only needs to wait here, at least three hours, at most half a day, and we will definitely come back." ”

Although Fu Ao was still not at ease, when he heard the city lord's eldest lady say so resolutely, he had no choice but to say: "That's okay, the subordinates will wait for the two of you here, and the eldest lady should be more careful." ”

Hua Bushi grew up inland and didn't know anything about boating, but Sima Rulan was a good rower.

The two got on the sampan, and the wooden oar in Sima Rulan's hand tapped a few times in the water, and the sampan jumped out like a fly and sailed towards the reef in front of them.

When it came to the reef group near the edge of the island, Sima Rulan did not let the sampan go straight forward, but rowed the boat and turned around, circled around the island for half a circle, and came to the place where the tail of the "whale" was directly facing it, and then sailed into the reef group.

Then she rowed the boat, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, zigzag through the many protruding reefs on the surface of the sea, as if she were going in circles.

Hua Bushi looked at it in his eyes and said curiously: "Could it be that these reefs are weird?"

Sima Rulan said: "You guessed right! When my father got Panlong Jue, he also found a parchment scroll, which recorded the location of Whale Swallowing Island, and also wrote the way to go to the three moats of the secret cave on the island, and these reefs were the first way. ”

Hua Bushi said: "Do you want to go to the secret cave and have so many moats!"

Sima Rulan said: "Yes, these reefs look very ordinary, but in fact, there are many undercurrents in the middle of the sea, and there are many sharp rocks hidden under the water, and small boats have entered the reef group from the tail of the big whale, and they can only get close to the island through a special path, otherwise they will be washed on the reef by the torrent and run aground, or the bottom of the ship will be pierced by the underwater sharp stones." ”

Hua Bushi said: "I see, with these reefs as obstacles, even if a ship passes by here, it will not be able to land on Whale Swallowing Island, and the treasures on the island will be much safer." ”

He looked out from the sampan to the sea, but all he could see was a blue-black chaos underneath, and he couldn't distinguish between the undercurrent and the sharp rocks. It seems that without knowing the path to the island in advance, it is absolutely impossible to cross the reef by visual observation.

Hua Bushi retracted his gaze and asked, "These reef groups are the first moats, but I don't know what kind of dangerous places the second and third paths are?"

Sima Rulan smiled and said, "Lan'er won't tell you first, you'll know when you get to the place!"

The reefs on the sea outside the island were numerous, and the small sampan was very flexible under the control of Sima Rulan, and after half an hour, it crossed the dense forest-like reef group and approached the island.

Beneath the pinnacle of a whale's tail, there is a small sandy beach. Sima Rulan paddled the sampan to the shore, and the two jumped from the boat into the shallow water, and then worked together to drag the sampan onto the beach. Sima Rulan, on the other hand, tied the rope at the bow of the boat to a large rock on the side, so that the sampan would not be washed away by Hailang.

Walking from the beach to the island, Sima Rulan took out a sachet from her pocket, handed it to Hua Bushi, and said, "Put this on your body, and we can pass the second moat!"

Hua Bushi took the sachet, put it in front of his nose and sniffed it, and said, "It turns out that the second heavenly moat is a thing of snakes and insects, but it is a little unexpected. ”

He has a very keen sense of smell and is good at distinguishing various smells, and when he smells it, he knows that the sachet contains drugs that remove snakes and insects, such as realgar.

Sima Rulan took out another sachet and put it on her waist, saying, "There are many vipers on this island, but as long as you wear them, they won't come to mess with us." ”

Hua Bushi is proficient in medicine, knows how to prepare the "Thousand Snake Powder" in the Miaojiang Poison Gate, is not afraid of poisonous snakes, and has already had drugs to dispel snakes. But he saw that the sachet handed by Sima Rulan was very exquisite, and a white orchid was embroidered with silk thread on it, obviously it took a lot of thought, so he hung it on his waist according to his words, and said: "This sachet is really beautiful, but Miss Lan'er embroidered it herself?"

Sima Rulan's face turned red and said, "Yes, Lan'er's hands and feet are clumsy, and the embroidery is ugly, which makes Mr. Hua smile." ”

Hua Bushi said: "Miss Lan'er is too humble, such a beautiful sachet, Hua Bushi must keep it well." ”

As he spoke, he thought of the incident where Yang Jiangyi embroidered on him in the abandoned courtyard in Wuyang City that day. Yang Jiangyi was really clumsy that day, and he stabbed the eldest young master with a silver needle and screamed, so he barely sutured the wound on his chest, and that night was also the first time he and Yang Jiangyi experienced life and death together.

Sima Rulan led the way, Hua Bushi followed closely, and the two quickly bypassed the protruding stone peak and went up from the tail of the "big whale" to the back.

There is no vegetation on this small island, there is not a trace of green in sight, and all the rocks are blue-black. The two of them walked on a natural stone path, which was so rugged that they could only hear the sound of seabirds chirping except for the sound of waves crashing against the stones.

Vipers of different sizes can be seen on both sides of the stone path, and even everywhere on the stone path, the large ones are two or three feet long, and the small ones are less than a foot. Some of these vipers curled up in a ball and stretched out their heads to spit out letters, some coiled around the stones, and some hid between the cracks in the stones, and they smelled the scent of the sachets on Sima Rulan and Hua Bushi's bodies, and they all crawled to avoid them.

Vipers are highly venomous snakes that can be found on the mainland. According to Hua Bushi's rough estimate of the distribution along the way, there are at least tens of thousands of vipers on this not large whale swallowing island, and their number is enough to be amazing.

On the mainland, even in the primeval mountain forests, it is unimaginable for such a large number of snakes to grow, and it is probably only on such an inaccessible island, where seabirds and other food are abundant, and there are no natural predators, these vipers can thrive so vigorously.