Qi Shanshan did not straighten up again until she had completely bandaged Li Weiyi's wrist. As she set down the scissors, she said, "I ate her!"
Qin Ke, standing behind her, jumped in fright.
For some time now, she had often heard expedition members saying that their food would soon run out, and that perhaps in the future, something as terrifying as people eating people might happen.
Qi Shanshan turned around and looked at Li Weiyi, who sat there watching her calmly. Irritated, she said, "All you know is how to worry about your Senior Sister Cai. I'm getting jealous! Don't worry, she's safe."
Of course, she knew Li Weiyi had not asked casually.
He had been testing her.
So she answered very seriously, then added, "You people, not one of you has any powers of observation. A few days ago, I noticed Xie Tianshu frequently meeting with Kong Fan and the others. This morning, after the Ethereal Clouds dispersed, all of you were studying Ancient Script, while those two snuck into the Kitchen Tent like thieves."
"I didn't dare follow them, and I couldn't be sure what they intended to do, but I knew it definitely wasn't anything good. To be safe, I could only pull Yutong away and hide."
"It would have been best if nothing happened. But if something did happen, at least we could hide first."
Li Weiyi could not find the slightest flaw in Qi Shanshan's gaze or expression. Her answer had been watertight as well. He hurriedly stood and smiled. "Don't answer so seriously. It makes it feel like I'm interrogating you."
"Aren't you interrogating me?"
Looking somewhat angry, Qi Shanshan walked out of the Medical Tent.
Li Weiyi followed, wanting to apologize. After all, when they had first fallen onto the Bronze Ship, she had saved half his life. And during the earlier clash with Laboratory 705, if she had not smashed out the Cross Pendant to help, it would have been hard to say who would have emerged alive between him and Han Qin.
Qi Shanshan suddenly turned around and crashed straight into Li Weiyi's arms. She let out a soft cry of pain, frowned, and slapped his chest. "Why were you walking so fast? You hurt me when you ran into me!"
"I still have something to tell you. Your senior brother's injuries are severe. His arm and kneecap are both shattered fractures, and his blood vessels and nerves are badly damaged too. With the medical conditions currently on the ship... you need to prepare yourself. Even if he pulls through, I'm afraid he'll only be able to lie paralyzed in bed for the rest of his life."
Warm fragrance and soft jade filled his arms, and the other party even seemed unwilling to leave, but Li Weiyi had no mood for any of it. He hurriedly returned to the Medical Tent, channeling the scalding current from the sole of his right foot into his palm, intending to try injecting it into his senior brother's wound.
But after pressing his hand down, he stopped.
The scalding current could only flow through the Silver Meridian Lines. His senior brother had no Trace Meridians in his body. If he injected it, it would most likely cause secondary harm.
It would be like striking his senior brother with a palm force.
"Senior Brother has also learned the Jade Void Breathing Technique. As long as he wakes up and continues cultivating according to the Breathing Technique, perhaps he can cultivate that mysterious scalding current himself. But..."
"With his legs broken like this, can the soles of his feet still produce that scalding current?"
Li Weiyi's chest felt stifled and miserable, as though a thousand-pound boulder were pressing down on it. In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind. One of them was even to let his senior brother drink Black Flood Dragon Corpse Blood. Perhaps his injuries might heal.
But when he thought of Xie Tianshu's monstrous appearance, he truly had no way to make that decision for his senior brother.
At that moment.
From outside the Medical Tent, in the direction of the bow, a woman's faint, drifting song floated over.
"A broad river rolls with waves,
The wind carries Rice Flower Fragrance along both banks,
My home stands upon the shore,
I grew used to the boatmen's calls,
And to the white sails upon the river..."
Who was singing?
Just as Li Weiyi and Qi Shanshan stood there in bewilderment.
Qin Ke remembered something. "It's Liu Ying! We looked for her earlier but couldn't find her. We all thought she had hidden in the Nether Mist Graveyard Forest..."
"Oh no."
Li Weiyi and Qi Shanshan rushed out of the Medical Tent at once, one after the other.
Wrapped in a filthy blanket, Liu Ying sat atop the bow's railing, her legs dangling in midair.
Her face and legs, along with the shoulders and arms exposed beyond the blanket, were covered in bruises and wounds.
Her eyes held hollow despair, memories of her household, her parents, and the peaceful, law-governed world she had once lived in. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. The sea wind tossed up her long hair, making her mournful song even more hoarse and low. At last, she nearly recited the lyrics word by word. "Everywhere... there is... the sunlight of peace..."
Hurried footsteps sounded behind her.
Without the slightest attachment, she jumped.
Li Weiyi saw her jump with his own eyes. She had only been a dozen or so steps away, yet the railing was already empty.
Qi Shanshan and Qin Ke caught up, panting heavily.
Qin Ke rushed to the railing, but she did not dare look down. She could already guess that Liu Ying must be getting devoured by the dead souls swimming in the seawater. Tears fell from her eyes like rain.
Qi Shanshan went over to comfort her. "After something like that happened, how could she go on living? It's all right, don't be afraid. With Weiyi here, nothing like that will ever happen on the ship again. He'll protect us."
Li Weiyi was heavy-hearted and enraged. Carrying his longsword, he silently walked toward the Graveyard Forest shrouded in drifting Nether Mist.
Passing the barely living Chen Hong, Li Weiyi abandoned the thought of leaving him for his senior brother to avenge personally. One punch pierced through his chest. Then he picked him up and threw him into the sea as though tossing away a piece of trash.
Could they still be called human?
They were worse than garbage.
Other than Xie Jin, the remaining four fugitives were all captured in the Graveyard Forest.
One person had buried himself in grave soil, leaving only his nose and mouth exposed.
But his breathing and heartbeat remained. As long as he got close enough, he could not hide from Li Weiyi's hearing.
Upon learning that Liu Ying had already jumped into the sea, Gao Huan and Professor Xu's students beat the two security team members who had bullied Liu Ying half to death. In the end, amid the crowd's furious outrage, they shoved them into the Sea of Souls.
Faintly, Li Weiyi heard the camel bells in the Graveyard Forest again. He immediately practiced the Jade Void Breathing Technique, restoring his consciousness to clarity and stillness, while deep doubts arose in his heart.
As for the other two, they naturally could not escape a vicious beating either.
But they were not thrown into the Sea of Souls.
Someone suggested they could be used for experiments.
After Xie Tianshu's Dragon-like Mutant transformation, though his appearance had become bizarre and frightening, he had gained real Transcendent power. Perhaps he could already live for a hundred years, even several hundred, like the demons and monsters of legend.
Compared to Transcendent power and longevity, what did sacrificing a normal human appearance matter?
The strong never suffered from appearance anxiety.
Li Weiyi did not object. He shared Zhao Meng's view.
Once a person bared their fangs, they were no longer human!
This was not the dragon slayer becoming the evil dragon. Rather, one could not show even the slightest pity or soft-heartedness toward an enemy. The other side would not appreciate it. They would only hide their resentment in their hearts and, when you were weak, ensure you died without a burial place.
Besides, Li Weiyi also wanted to use the experiment with Black Flood Dragon Corpse Blood to judge whether it might be possible to save his senior brother.
Too many things had happened in one day.
They dealt with every corpse, either throwing them into the sea or burying them. By the time they were done, everyone was exhausted.
At first.
No one could sleep. They lit a fire and gathered together, afraid that another disturbance like this would break out.
Moreover, Xie Jin had yet to be found. Like a thorn lodged in their flesh that had not been pulled out, he made it impossible for them to rest easy.
But by the latter half of the night, they were ultimately too weary. Other than the two people assigned to keep watch, everyone else fell asleep on the ground beside the fire.
Li Weiyi went alone to the other end of the Bronze Ship and stood beneath the Black Flood Dragon's corpse.
The Dragon Pattern Ring was on his left thumb. As he touched the Flood Dragon Blood congealed into purplish-red ice crystals at the corpse's severed wound, a layer of white frost instantly formed over his fingers from the cold.
The Dragon Pattern Ring truly reacted. The dragon-scale patterns on it faintly lit up.
After Xie Tianshu's Dragon-like Mutant transformation, the first thing he had said was, "This severed arm of mine was bestowed by you. Neither the Black Flood Dragon Corpse Blood nor the Dragon Pattern Ring can make it grow back."
Li Weiyi had guessed at the time that Xie Tianshu must have received the Dragon Pattern Ring's help to transform into a demon.
That afternoon, the experiments on the two expedition members had confirmed his speculation.
The first did not wear the Dragon Pattern Ring. After drinking the Flood Dragon Blood, his skin rapidly burst apart.
In the end, he died from excessive blood loss.
The second wore the Dragon Pattern Ring and drank the Flood Dragon Blood, successfully surviving. Then they used the blood within his body to soak the ring, and before long, he began undergoing a Dragon-like Mutant transformation.
Of course, no one dared allow him to successfully transform into a demon. Just as he was about to succeed, they immediately removed the Dragon Pattern Ring.
The transformation was interrupted, and he died even more miserably than the first test subject.
Almost all his flesh and blood exploded apart.
"No matter what, this is still a way to save Senior Brother."
Li Weiyi murmured this to himself.
The Nether Mist lingered.
Before him, the sea of graves and Stele Forest lay beneath the distant glow of the Golden Crow's corpse, tranquil yet carrying an eerie air.
A familiar trace of perfume drifted in on the wind.
Li Weiyi's sense of smell was nowhere near as exaggerated as the Ghost Bear Emperor's, but it still far surpassed that of ordinary people.
He knew who had come!
He had waited here precisely for her.
Without a sound, Li Weiyi hid behind the enormous Black Flood Dragon corpse. Gradually, light footsteps sounded. A tall figure passed the Black Flood Dragon corpse and swiftly headed toward the Nine-Story Ship Tower.
Li Weiyi stepped out from the shadows and looked over.
That familiar, graceful back had already entered the passage between the Ship Tower and the railing, heading toward the stern.
The yard-wide passage beside the Ship Tower was filled with Humanoid Stone Statues bearing all manner of expressions. Nether Mist spread through it, making it all the more terrifying. Yet Qi Shanshan was not afraid in the slightest, weaving through them with ease.
On the first floor of the Ship Tower, every cabin door was cast from bronze. Each stood more than a zhang tall and was unimaginably heavy, utterly impossible to push open with human strength.
Halfway down the passage.
The Nether Mist gradually dispersed.
In its place came hazy Immortal Radiance, like smoke and gauze.
This Bronze Ship, like an Undead Ghost Ship, seemed to have changed. It was as though it had transformed into an immortal's Jade Palace barge.
The stern and the bow were two utterly different worlds.
(There is one more chapter. I promised the readers in the review section.)
Before you continue