122: The Torch Project and the Chess Game of Desperation

After hanging up the phone, only Wang Dalong's heavy breathing remained in the room.

His eyes were shining as he tightly clutched the electronic backup of the nautical chart, as if holding a ticket to a new world.

"Brother Feng! Australia! Darwin Port! When do we leave? I'll go check for flights right now! Wait, we need to get visas! Damn, this is getting serious. We're really going on a global adventure!"

Wang Dalong's excitement was almost enough to burst through the ceiling; he had already mentally drafted eighteen video titles like 'Braving Australia in Search of Treasure.'

Lin Feng did not respond to his fervor, only silently walked to the window and looked out at the dark sea.

The sea breeze blew, bringing a hint of coolness, yet it couldn't disperse the gloom in his heart.

"We can't go." Lin Feng's voice was soft, but it felt like a bucket of ice water poured directly over Wang Dalong's head.

"Huh? Can't go? Why?" Wang Dalong's smile froze on his face.

Lin Feng turned around, leaned against the window frame, his gaze terrifyingly calm: "First, have you forgotten what the General said? 'Do not leave the country.' That wasn't a suggestion; it was an order. Our every move right now is under state surveillance. The moment we buy plane tickets, someone will be inviting us back for 'tea.'"

Wang Dalong's face fell.

"Second," Lin Feng raised a second finger, "do you really think those mysterious people will let it go? They suffered heavy losses because of El Dorado, and now they'd love to swallow us whole. The moment we step out of the country, leaving the protection of the state, we'll be like two fish on a chopping block."

Wang Dalong shuddered, remembering their previous predicament.

"Then... then we should tell the state about this!" Wang Dalong said urgently. "Hand over the nautical chart and let the state send people to find it! We'll just go along!"

Lin Feng shook his head, his gaze turning profound: "And then what? On Australian territory, dig up a treasure worth a nation's fortune. Do you think we could bring that treasure back?"

Wang Dalong was stunned. He wasn't a fool; he understood the logic. According to international law, ownerless cultural relics and treasures discovered on another country's territory belong to that country's government.

At that point, Xia State might at most get a small 'finder's reward,' or borrow a few pieces back for exhibition under the guise of 'cultural exchange.' That immense wealth, enough to change a nation's fate, would forever slip through their fingers.

"Then... then what do we do?" Wang Dalong was completely deflated, plopping down on the bed. "Do we just give up? Watch this treasure rot in a foreign country?"

Lin Feng fell silent.

Yes, what should they do?

This was a deadlock.

A Desperate Chess Game that Zhang Shijie, seven hundred years ago, could not have anticipated, belonging to future generations.

He said softly, as if speaking to Wang Dalong, yet also to himself: "If this wealth cannot return to its true owner, then I would rather it sleep forever in the long river of history, for no one to ever obtain."

The atmosphere in the room instantly became oppressively heavy.

Wang Dalong looked at Lin Feng's grave expression and knew he wasn't joking. If there truly was no solution, Lin Feng would absolutely keep this secret buried in his heart.

"Damn it!" Wang Dalong scratched his head in agitation.

Lin Feng ignored him, picked up the scroll of beastskin documents again, and began reading it word by word, once more.

He forced himself to calm down, placing himself in Zhang Shijie's perspective.

A commander as meticulous as he, capable of laying out such an earth-shattering scheme as the 'Tidal Lock'—would his plan really have such an obvious flaw, dependent on an 'overseas pure land'?

Lin Feng's gaze, like the most precise scanner, swept repeatedly over the bold, silvery-hook calligraphy.

Once, twice, three times... Suddenly, his eyes fixed on a few characters.

"... recruited merchants from Hainan Island as guides, following the newly opened sea route, traveling far across the ocean..."

"... over three million taels of gold, ten million taels of silver, over seventy chests of various treasures, over a hundred chests of Agarwood..."

Hainan Island!

Agarwood!

These two words, like two bolts of lightning, instantly cleaved through the fog in Lin Feng's mind!

"Fatty!" Lin Feng suddenly looked up, a terrifying intensity bursting in his eyes.

"Huh? What's up, Brother Feng?" Wang Dalong was startled by him.

"Where is Hainan Island?"

"Hainan Island? Sounds familiar..." Wang Dalong scratched his head, took out his tablet, and looked it up. "Holy crap! Hainan! That's what parts of Hainan Island were called in the Song Dynasty!"

"And Agarwood? During the Southern Song Dynasty, what was the most famous, highest quality source of Agarwood?" Lin Feng pressed.

Wang Dalong's fingers flew across the screen, his mouth hanging open wider and wider: "It's... also Hainan! Especially 'Kynam' Agarwood from Qiong Island, hailed as the finest of incense, worth its weight in gold!"

The clues matched!

Lin Feng's breathing became rapid.

The recruited merchant guides were from Hainan.

The large quantities of supplies carried by the fleet were Hainan specialties.

A fleet of such massive scale, before embarking on an unprecedented ocean voyage, would, by all logic and reason, inevitably first go to the guides' hometown—also the source of the supplies—for final provisions and rest!

"Fatty, look this up." Lin Feng's voice was hoarse with excitement. "During the late Song period, was there a deep-water port on Hainan Island capable of berthing hundreds of warships?"

Wang Dalong didn't dare delay, immediately beginning to search the vast ocean of historical databases.

A few minutes later, a name popped up.

"Found it!" Wang Dalong pointed at the information on the screen. "Shenying Port, also called Baisha Anchorage! Located in present-day Haikou! Historical records state it had 'a depth of over ten zhang, capable of mooring giant ships,' and was one of the most important foreign trade ports during the Song and Yuan periods!"

Lin Feng stared fixedly at the three characters 'Shenying Port.' A wild idea began to take shape in his mind.

What if... what if Su Xian's fleet, after reaching Hainan, never left?

When news of the Battle of Yamen arrived, with the country destroyed and families lost, the plan to travel overseas to establish a 'New Song' instantly turned to dust. As a lone army carrying the wealth of a fallen nation, in a time of panic and uncertainty, continuing to an entirely unknown 'Anlan Continent' would undoubtedly be suicidal.

The safest, yet most helpless, choice would be to find a place and hide.

And Hainan, this remote place far from imperial power, with local guides familiar with the terrain, wasn't it the best choice?

"Brother Feng... you mean..." Looking at the shifting expressions on Lin Feng's face, Wang Dalong guessed seventy to eighty percent of it. He covered his mouth in shock.

"Australia is Plan B." Lin Feng said word by word, rational flames burning in his eyes. "Hainan is the real Plan A!"

He abruptly closed his laptop and stood up.

"Book tickets. To Haikou!"