Cave Refuge

Apart from that, they had been living on this ship for a very long time, so they rarely used their Companion Spiritual Treasures, or rather, even if their Companion Spiritual Treasures were damaged by some accident, it actually had little impact on their future lives.

Seeing that so many volunteers had been found, Dong Tianyu stopped saying much. After all, he was standing on Jason Jefferson's ship, and apart from his family of three, everyone else was intricately related to the Jefferson Family.

What came next was simple. With the approach provided by Dong Tianyu, Jason Jefferson explained the testing content to the volunteers, and then the testing began immediately.

The first to take the stage was, of course, a Companion Spiritual Treasure which had yet to evolve and was still in its Raft Form. As its owner released the Companion Spiritual Treasure from the Sea of Consciousness, it crashed heavily onto a pair of coffins not far away.

As the raft fell and hit the coffins below, those floating on the water, beneath the raft, slowly began to sink, leaving the raft floating alone on the surface.

Seeing this, everyone's spirits were uplifted, for if this method proved successful, it meant that they could leave this dangerous area with minimal cost and with great ease.

After multiple attempts by several volunteers, it was confirmed that this method was indeed effective. Although it was unknown why the coffins, which would open upon contact with any object, did not automatically open when pressed underwater by a Companion Spiritual Treasure, they had found a direct solution even without the specific reason.

However, even though the second method of departure was also validated successfully, Jason Jefferson's expression was still not very cheerful. The reason was that his Companion Spiritual Treasure contained too many resources.

If they chose the first method of departure, perhaps they might consume seventy to eighty percent of the resources on the ship.

On the other hand, choosing the second method would be equivalent to exposing the actual quantity of his resources directly to everyone's view.

This way of revealing wealth, while it wouldn't have any immediate impact, could easily lead to an uprising or protests over time due to resource allocation issues.

Moreover, having been educated in Confucian culture from a young age and learning the doctrine of moderation and the saying "do not flaunt wealth," they understood such matters.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Jason Jefferson was unwilling to choose the second method of departure.

In fact, although Dong Tianyu has proposed two different methods of departure, Jason Jefferson had long before conceived a third method of departure.

This method of departure was very simple: since they couldn't leave over water, they could actually choose to leave from underwater.

In principle, this was similar to the second method, and in order to take his Companion Spiritual Treasure back into the Sea of Consciousness, Jason Jefferson would inevitably need to clear out all resources except those in special rooms. Once this was done, it would also break the ancient teaching of not flaunting wealth.

For this reason, although Jason Jefferson had long thought of the idea to leave with the aid of Dong Tianyu's Companion Spiritual Treasure, he kept it to himself and did not mention it.

Dong Tianyu was merely a guest, so he could only fulfill the duty of giving reminders and could not make decisions for Jason Jefferson.

The Guard Squad Captain, seeing Jason Jefferson's indecisive expression, took the initiative and said, "Since it has been tested and found that traveling with three bricks is effective, why don't we first arrange for three guards to go and investigate the extent of this Coffin Sea? Once we determine the actual size of this area, we can then consider which method of departure would be more appropriate."

Following the Guard Squad Captain's arrangement, three Guard Squad members, employing a three-brick walking method, went ahead to investigate how vast the Coffin Sea was.

Although ample time had been allowed for Jason Jefferson to think, by the time the three investigators ventured out, he still hadn't made his final decision.

Upon hearing that the three members who had gone out reported back that they were roughly one kilometer away from the northern edge, the Guard Squad Captain dispatched three more teams, each in different directions, to explore—they needed to find the nearest route of escape.

Regrettably, the other three teams of explorers brought back no good news, as the areas they surveyed were further from the edge of the Coffin Sea than the north.

Seeing Jason continually agonizing over the decision, Dong Tianyu kindly whispered in his ear, "Lose the land and lose the people, and you will lose both; preserve the people even if you lose the land, and you will keep both. Consider letting as many people live as possible, the rest can wait."

Perhaps it was that Jason had come to a realization himself, or perhaps Dong Tianyu's advice had had its effect—either way, Jason finally made up his mind to proceed using the three-brick walking method and to leave directly from the north.

Even though he had decided on the method of departure, Jason still wanted to struggle a bit, and so he asked Dong Tianyu, "Does your Companion Spiritual Treasure have the ability to drag my Companion Spiritual Treasure underwater, and then leave directly from underwater?"

Hearing Jason's idea, Dong Tianyu stared at him as if he were looking at a lunatic. Without even attempting it, Dong Tianyu felt the feasibility was too low, so he didn't entertain the thought of trying.

Once the departure method was settled, not only Jason but also everyone else on the ship was unwilling to waste any resources. Since many aboard possessed Companion Spiritual Treasures, they chose to move everything from the ship like ants moving house, aiming to take all the goods with them.

The distance of one kilometer might not seem long, but it would require a considerable number of ships if only their bow-to-stern connectivity method was used. After calculations, aside from the Thompson Family's three Companion Spiritual Treasures, it would take three trips for the other Companion Spiritual Treasures on the ship to theoretically complete the one-kilometer migration.

Although Dong Tianyu, out of respect for Elder Jefferson, had once offered to use his Companion Spiritual Treasure to help transport goods underwater, Jason was initially excited upon hearing this. However, after careful consideration, he ultimately rejected Dong Tianyu's offer of help.

Dong Tianyu wasn't surprised by Jason's refusal. After all, the Jefferson Family's ship held considerable materials, and Dong Tianyu's Companion Spiritual Treasure was quite large; it could probably hold at least half of the goods stored within Jason's Companion Spiritual Treasure.

Though Dong Tianyu's help would have been a significant convenience, sparing much trouble, it's true that even though Elder Jefferson and Mr. Thompson had a good relationship, Jason had only met Dong Tianyu once and hadn't known him before that day.

For this reason, Jason had never deeply understood Dong Tianyu's character, and the idea of entrusting him to transport a considerable portion of his materials—Jason wasn't so magnanimous.

As for the risk-avoidance method of hiring guards for the ship, it wasn't of much use. After all, if the other party was genuinely helpful and arranged for guards, this could be seen as a show of distrust and could impact the mutual trust between the two parties.

If, on the other hand, the party only intended to exploit the situation and make a quick profit, even the presence of guards wouldn't prevent Dong Tianyu from potentially dealing with them unnoticed and making off with the goods.

Having been involved in politics for so long, Jason knew that human nature is not to be tested, so to prevent any deterioration in the relationship between the two families, he ultimately rejected Dong Tianyu's offer of help.

If Jason were as familiar with Dong Tianyu as Madeline was, he would be aware that Dong Tianyu's offer was sincere and wasn't looking to double-cross him.

After all, even if the Jefferson Family ship had ten times the resources, it would still amount to just a small sum to Dong Tianyu and not be worth compromising his integrity.