A week later, an article titled "The Fountain of Youth" in the Dark Jungle counted 22 fountains of immortality discovered in thousands of years of human history. The authors try to summarize their commonalities and try to calculate the probability of the occurrence of the Fountain of Youthfulness in each region. After a series of calculations, the author believes that there is a high probability of discovering the Fountain of Youth, in the dark jungle in the Magical Corruption Zone in the northern part of Greg.

It is true that many fountains of immortality have been discovered in human history, but as of today, no new fountains have been discovered for more than 300 years. The so-called fountain of immortality does not allow people to drink a sip of water to live forever. In order to exert the effects of the Fountain of Youth, one must soak in the spring water and have three or more archmages perform the "infusion ceremony", after which the person who soaks in the spring water will gain an additional life span of about 50 years. Each person can only undergo one "infusion ritual" in their lifetime, and each ritual weakens the effectiveness of the Fountain of Youth, so the Fountain of Youth, which is actually a consumable, and the last recorded Fountain of Youth, which has lost its efficacy two centuries ago.

The pursuit of the fountain of immortality by the rich has been going on for decades, and after the popularity of public media, such articles are not uncommon. , which should not have attracted much attention. However, the next day, four professors in related fields expressed support for the article's views. These professors had a large number of heavyweight academic achievements when they were young, but unfortunately as they got older, their achievements became less and less, and now they have not appeared in the public eye for many years. But this still does not shake their authoritative position in the academic world.

The solidarity of these four people caused a small earthquake in the academic circles, and most scholars, even though they were still skeptical about this idea, did not dare to publicly oppose it given the status of the four authorities. Other experts and scholars were quick to support the four authorities.

Soon, the focus expanded from academic circles to the public eye. Articles similar to "The Fountain of Youth, from the Magical Balance" began to appear in mainstream newspapers. The public conversation has also begun to change from "does it exist" to "where is it".

Then, an article titled "Pirates, Mysterious Routes and the Fountain of Youth" completely detonated the topic. The article uses detailed evidence to prove that the legendary pirate leader Cole Brown. Determined to keep the secret to himself, Cole ordered his subordinates to destroy all logbooks and other records, and he used a code that only he could understand to record the route to this land of legends, and hid it in the hull structures of several ships in the fleet, so that he could organize a mission to this mysterious paradise to explore the following year. Unfortunately, Cole died in an assassination attempt that year, and no one has known the secret since.

Rumors of the Fountain of Youth, Cole Drake's secret record instantly came into focus.

Immediately afterward, some experts pointed out that Cole Drake's flagship did have some unique structures that were different from ordinary ships, and soon, more experts pointed out that these differences were not limited to Cole's flagship, and that many of the ships belonging to Cole's fleet had several structures that were different from other ships. They firmly believe that the secret code that records the mysterious route information is hidden somewhere in these ships, and the number of these suspicious ships is about 20.

The public craze for wealth and immortality was ignited.

But there was still a small group of people in the crowd who were not affected by the fanaticism. They were witnesses to the assassination that led to Cole Drake's death, and knew that Cole was not dead, and if he really knew the location of the Fountain of Youth, he would have gone to explore it, and the clues to the so-called Fountain of Youth, it would be impossible for them to be discovered until today. But none of them revealed the secret of Cole's survival to the public, because a week before the publication of The Fountain of Youth, each of them received a letter from Samuel asking them to remain silent, and a check for 5 million imperial gold dollars attached to the envelope.

The fanatics soon found the location of the ships in Cole's fleet, and after Cole's death, the ships were auctioned off, and the twenty or so ships went to seven different small and medium-sized shipping companies.

Treasure hunters with huge cash in hand quickly found the 7 businesses.

In the face of the temptation of immortality, what is the value of money?!

Soon, the first ship was bought by treasure hunters for 50 million Imperial Gold Dollars, which was just an old cruiser, which is now on the market for less than 10 million Imperial Gold Dollars.

The buyer inspected the ship for three days and three nights with the most advanced inspection methods today, and inspected every plank, steel plate and nail in the ship. And then found nothing, the buyer already knew at the moment that the shocking secret was probably not hidden in the ship, and he spent a huge amount of money to buy a dilapidated old ship.

How can this be?!

So, the buyer, who got nothing, immediately revealed that he had found part of the secret to the secret route in the ship. The next day, the wrecked ship was bought by another treasure hunter for 80 million Imperial Gold Dollars. And this buyer is none other than one of the companies controlled by Samuel and Toft. Two days later, at the behest of Samuel and Toft, the ship was sold to the next buyer for 120 million imperial gold dollars.

Samuel breathed a sigh of relief to see the deal close, which was the most uncertain part of the entire plan. Samuel had not been sure that the unyielding buyers would claim to have discovered the code left by Cole, that he would raise the price to resell them, or that other treasure hunters would be willing to pay a higher price for the resold ships.

Seeing that this resale was successful, Samuel smiled. From now on, every victim involved in this scam will become his helper and help him deceive more people.

In just 2 months, none of the more than 20 ships has changed hands more than 20 times, and the most expensive ship, which is Cole's former flagship, has reached 520 million imperial gold dollars!

Samuel and Toft have made a lot of money. But Samuel found that the rate of price increases of these ships has begun to decline, which means that the potential hot money has basically come in, and there are not many new pick-ups entering the game. This is a precursor to the collapse of speculative games. Moreover, the scale of this scam is so huge that it has disrupted the market order, and Carlin's regulators may intervene at any time.

With these factors in mind, Samuel already has plans to leave. He still has 2 of the more than 20 "cipher ships" in his possession, and he is ready to sell them immediately.

That's when he saw a news item in the Karenta Times:

"Documents leaked ...... the Gureg Theater Command indicate that the Carlin Air Force had launched a covert operation, codenamed 'Carlin Seagulls,' to find the Fountain of Youth, which Cole had discovered...... The commander of the Guleg theater of operations, Count Eugen Hookes, refused to take a position on the matter. ”

In response to such rumors, the presiding officials generally directly stated that there was no such thing, but Count Eugen chose not to take a position, and this attitude caused public reverie.

As the initiator of this scam, Samuel knew that there was no fountain of immortality in the Dark Jungle, and Cole Drake had never explored any safe routes, and it was naturally impossible for the Carlin Air Force in the Gureg War Zone to launch any secret operation against the 'Carlin Seagulls' that did not exist. Then the attitude of Count Eugen seems very unusual.

Samuel also knew that Count Eugen was one of the most important cronies of the current Emperor Carlin, so did his statement represent the meaning of His Majesty the Emperor?

Carlin's Emperor doesn't plan to intervene in this scam, and even wants to join in for a piece of the pie?

Later developments quickly confirmed this suspicion.

A day later, a secret letter signed by His Majesty the Emperor leaked out. The secret letter expressed His Majesty's displeasure with the slow progress of Operation Carlin Seagull and asked the Royal Intelligence Service to assist the Military Intelligence Directorate's operations. His Majesty the Emperor did not take a position on this matter.

The prices of the two dozen or so "cipher ships" that may have hidden Cole Drake's cipher had already begun to stagnate, and with the announcement of this secret letter, it immediately skyrocketed. Funds from other powers, such as Falaise, Sistine, and Riegel, began to come in, and the carnival that swept Carlin began to spread to other countries.

These new entrants may not believe in the existence of the Fountain of Youth, but they have seen firsthand the wealth-making effects of this Fountain of Youth. Two months, several times the increase in asset prices is enough to make any capital lose its mind.

More than two dozen "cipher ships" as the subject of the transaction can no longer meet the massive amount of money that has just poured in, and the subject matter of the transaction has expanded to everything related to Cole Drake. Diaries, clothes worn, houses lived in were all traded for sky-high prices.

Seeing the skyrocketing price, Toft, who had planned to leave with Samuel, hesitated:

"Why don't you leave the scene in a hurry, and wait?"

Samuel did not hesitate to reject the offer, and Samuel did initially unite a large number of Imperial officials to run the hoax, including several high-ranking officials from the Imperial Joint Intelligence Agency and the General Information Administration. All sorts of news and rumors he made up himself completely manipulated the mood of the market. But now, his connections are nothing compared to the heavyweights who have recently entered the game. Since Carlin's Emperor entered the game, the sources of the market have been completely controlled by the other side. Since there is an official revelation, who cares about the gossip released by Samuel?

Samuel had completely lost control over market sentiment at this time, and had become an ordinary speculator who could only follow trends, from predator to prey. So he decided to leave immediately. And immediately leave the center of the storm in Karenta.

After selling all the chips they had left, Samuel and Toft began to liquidate the proceeds of the speculation. In addition to the previous expenses of bribing officials and insiders, there was also a net profit of 4.2 billion imperial gold dollars, and the two decided to divide the money equally. At this time, it was already six months after the carnival began, and Samuel conservatively estimated that Emperor Carlin and his main accomplices had made more than 10 billion profits each. This scam orchestrated by himself ended up working for these people in power.

Immediately after taking the money and leaving the market, Toft began to restructure its assets, and after a series of capital operations, supplemented by a number of "accounting skills", Toft's group was revitalized – at least on the financial statements. After that, he quickly found a buyer and sold most of the assets to the other party.

At this time, only the branch office in Gureg was left under Toft's name, which accounted for a small part of Toft's assets. He decides to leave for Gureg at the end of the month to clear out the rest of his assets, and Samuel, who has also decided to leave Karenta for safety, decides to go with him.

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After all this work, the two initiators of this Fountain of Youthmania sat down in the restaurant again and talked about the past.

"What happened to old Defia?" Samuel suddenly realized that he had no idea what was going on with his old friend.

Defia Cookie is an orphan of Dales, abandoned by his parents on a ship, adopted by the kind crew members, and called "Little Cookie" by the crew because of his love for cookies as a child. After the shipwreck occurred, Cookie became the sole survivor, and in honor of the crew who had treated him kindly, he named himself "Defia Cookie".

After a few struggles, Defia Cookie eventually took root in Cole's fleet and became a chef, learning the art of grilling fish while fascinating cookie making. Samuel was devastated when he was first "assigned" to Cole's fleet, and Defia Cookie gave him great encouragement and helped him get out of that slump.

"He opened a restaurant in Gureg and now he's obsessed with cooking every day," says Cole, who knows his former crew members very well.

Samuel suddenly envied old Defia. The old chef found a job that he loved from the bottom of his heart, and since then, several years have passed without realizing the heat and cold of the world. And people like themselves, whether they are Xiaomin with shallow roots or a high-ranking official, can only be coerced forward by this earthly world, and it is rare to have a moment of peace in their hearts.

"Uncle, do you want to buy a newspaper?"

Uncle Samuel was stunned for a moment, only to realize that a little girl who sold newspapers had arrived. Then he couldn't help but turn dark.

Is it because you haven't washed your face for too long, so it looks a little greasy?

The simple little girl didn't find that her word "uncle" hurt Samuel's heart, and she looked at Samuel's eyes expectantly.

Previously, she had been selling flowers on this street to supplement her family's livelihood, but sales have not been good. In recent months, the adults in the neighborhood have started talking about the Fountain of Youth, and the sales of the newspaper have increased dramatically, so the little girl has changed her career for the first time in her life - from selling flowers to selling newspapers.

Business is already much better every day than before.

Unfortunately, it is still not good enough, the little girl is thin and small, and the clothes on her body are also very shabby, and there are patches in several places. It was clear that she hadn't earned back a new set of clothes in the past few months.

When the two big words "uncle" were still rushing through Samuel's heart, the old pirate who licked blood from the knife all year round relented. He bought a copy of each newspaper from the little girl, and then stuffed a 50 yuan denomination for the other party's consumption—which was already a month's income.

Then a small pile of newspapers was spread out on the table.

The first thing that catches your eye is "Carlin Finance", a major newspaper focusing on financial news:

"Shelfield Industries Declares Bankruptcy"

"...... today, the Shelfield Group officially commenced bankruptcy proceedings...... It witnessed the industrialization of Carlin and the establishment of Carlin's hegemony...... Today, the legend comes to an end. ”

Samuel and Toft sighed. The Shelfield Industrial Group is one of the largest industrial groups in Carlin, which has existed since the beginning of industrialization in the last century, and it has witnessed the entire process of Carlin's industrialization and witnessed the glorious past of Carlin industry from backwardness to world domination. For more than a century, its business has expanded from the original magic furnace parts to a series of fields such as ships, marine engineers, port machinery, artillery, machine tools, and structures. It's a pity that even such a giant still hasn't survived the economic winter.

The headquarters of the Sheldfield Industries Group is located across the river in the Black Lake District, and Samuel and Toft decided to go there after dinner to see off the legendary company for one last time, and in people like Samuel and Toft who came out of the floating fleet, the Shelfield Industries Group is not just a business, it is a symbol of a bygone era.

Sheaffield Industries is not the only giant to fall, before it, giants such as Lothar Shipping Group and Frankland Alchemy Group have fallen one after another. Carlin's various industrial sectors have not been spared.

The headline in another newspaper was a bit harsh:

"The Dark Forest Exploration Company Auctions the Flagship of the Cole Fleet for 2.2 Billion Imperial Gold Dollars"

"...... Dark Forest Exploration Group today bought the flagship of the Cole fleet, the Guns and Roses, for 2.2 billion yuan...... The person in charge of the company said that the location of the Fountain of Agelessness had been found on the 'Guns and Roses', and the company was confident that it would be the first company to discover the Fountain of Youth...... By the end of the day, the company's share price was up 56% in response......"

As the initiators of the Fountain of Youth's fanaticism, Samuel and Toft have mixed expressions. The scam was started by them, but by this time it was completely out of their control. All kinds of capital, you sing and I appear, and I have a lot of fun. As funds continue to come in, everyone has a large amount of floating surplus on their books, and the whole tulip area is filled with the smell of prosperity and happiness.

Looking at the news of the bankruptcy of Shelfield Industries, the two of them couldn't help but feel extremely ridiculous.

There are still flowers here, and the other side is already full of ice.