Strange Tales Aboard the Ship

For the next two days, Li Weiyi did not get out of bed, looking sickly and weak.

In truth, he was completely immersed in exploring the Transcendent realm. The Silver Meridian Lines within his body had increased to thirteen. That meant he now had thirteen routes through which to circulate qi.

After several further attempts, he still could not find a way to create any more Silver Meridian Lines.

Fortunately, the thirteen meridian lines had already begun to encompass his entire body. Using them as channels for the scorching currents to nourish his flesh, blood, bones, and tendons, Li Weiyi underwent a complete transformation in just two short days. His hearing sharpened, his eyes grew keen, his five senses became acute, and his physical capabilities had increased to an unimaginable extent.

It felt as if he had inexhaustible strength within him, as though he could punch a bull to death.

The injury on his left arm was recovering at an unbelievable speed. The wound had initially closed and scabbed over, and he could perform simple lifting and grasping motions. As long as he did not exert too much force, he felt no pain.

Such a rate of self-healing was utterly beyond common sense, impossible to understand.

Li Weiyi estimated that, nourished by the scorching current, he would make a full recovery in another two or three days.

If he had not needed to hide his strength to avoid making others suspect that he had truly swallowed the Buddha's Sarira, Li Weiyi would have loved to go outside at once and test his current physical condition. He felt that his speed and strength might frighten even himself.

However, he became hungry incredibly quickly over those two days. His appetite was enormous, and no matter how much he ate, he could not get full.

This formed a stark contrast with Professor Xu in the neighboring bed, who had no appetite at all. Thus, most of the meals the students brought Professor Xu ultimately ended up in Li Weiyi's stomach.

"Since I can't open up any more Silver Meridian Lines, I'll put my Transcendent exploration on hold for now. I'll go outside and see what the situation on the Bronze Ship is really like... and find something to eat while I'm at it."

Over the past two days, he had only heard people talk about how "the Bronze Ship is incomparably huge, and people sometimes get lost in the mist," how "the Graveyard Forest is eerie, with strange sounds from time to time," and how "the Golden Crow's corpse is as massive as a mountain, its radiance illuminating the darkness and its heat resisting the bitter cold"... Yet he had no real concept of any of it.

With his injuries nearly healed and Transcendent power at his disposal, Li Weiyi's confidence rose. The confusion and anxiety of two days ago were gone.

A person's confidence might come from sufficient capital, superior strength, or a solid backing. It could never be like a castle in the air, where someone merely encouraged him to be confident and he immediately became so.

The gun shot the bird that stuck its head out. Li Weiyi did not wish to be thrust into the eye of the storm for being too unusual, so he continued acting like an ordinary patient. He deliberately struggled to sit up and slowly searched for the floor with his feet.

"Brother Li, why are you getting out of bed? Do you need help?"

Gao Huan was not too seriously injured. The sprain in his neck had healed, though his broken right arm was still splinted and wrapped in bandages. He happened to be getting up as well, preparing to relieve himself.

Li Weiyi and Gao Huan walked out of the Medical Tent together.

When he saw the sight on the bronze Deck outside, even though Li Weiyi had been mentally prepared, he was still profoundly shocked. A chill shot up his spine and straight to his scalp.

Before him lay what looked like the Underworld itself—gravestones everywhere, burial mounds, Ghost Flags, Prayer Flags, and surging Nether Mist that severely restricted visibility. Above hung dark, heavy Ethereal Clouds, so close to the Deck that they seemed to press down upon their heads, creating an overwhelmingly oppressive and stifling feeling.

Earlier, they had said that only three or four rows of burial mounds could be seen within one's field of vision, and that entering the Graveyard Forest was like stepping into a maze.

Li Weiyi's eyes had been nourished by the scorching current, allowing him to see farther.

Seven or eight rows of burial mounds were clearly visible to him, and the mist did not obstruct his sight within a hundred meters.

Yet the Deck alone was five hundred meters wide. It still carried the mysterious, profound feeling of being right within the mountain, where clouds ran deep and no one knew the way, filling people with awe.

The sole source of light was the Golden Crow corpse that the Research Team Members kept mentioning. It was said that the sight was immensely shocking from up close. Though it had been dead for endless ages, its feathers still retained an extraordinarily high temperature and emitted dazzling radiance.

But through the distant Nether Mist, Li Weiyi could only see a great mass of dark-red light.

It was like a dark-red mountain. He could not make out the corpse's outline or details.

"At the beginning, there wasn't such thick mist on the Bronze Ship at all. It only grew denser and denser after we raised sail and set out."

"I heard all kinds of strange things have happened. Someone encountered a caravan of yin souls in the Graveyard Forest. The camel bells rang out, clanging and chiming, and in the end, the Camel Caravan walked into a gravestone planted with a Ghost Flag and vanished."

"Someone else said that while walking through the Graveyard Forest once, they heard the sound of iron chains deep underground, along with the piercing scrape of claws against metal. The inside of this ship might be sealing some unknown, terrifying horror. The problem is, no one knows how to get inside. We simply can't find an entrance."

"We definitely fell into the legendary Underworld. Remember Nine-Infant, that gigantic beast that capsized the Research Vessel? It was seized by a golden claw. I'm telling you, that was absolutely Kunpeng's divine claw."

"How large is Kunpeng? No one knows how many thousands of li it spans. Zhuangzi saw it with his own eyes when he wandered through the Underworld in a dream."

"The Underworld is terrifying and vast. It invaded Earth during the Xia-Shang Period. At the time, Earth's gods all thought demons had emerged from the North Sea. No one could rack their brains enough to imagine that the Underworld was hidden within the Microscopic World."

After relieving himself, Gao Huan pulled Li Weiyi aside and began telling him all sorts of random myths, legends, and personal conjectures. Whenever Li Weiyi asked where he had learned them, Gao Huan named obscure books that Li Weiyi had never heard of.

After going to the Kitchen Tent to find some food and fill their stomachs,

the two passed a stretch of small, fresh graves. Gao Huan sighed wistfully. "When we set out, there were a hundred and seventeen people aboard the Dragon Extreme. Only eighty-two survived, and more than a dozen of them were severely injured in the fall."

Three Medical Tents had been erected on the Deck.

The Medical Tent where Li Weiyi and Gao Huan were staying was near the ship's rail, just one of the three.

"Still being alive may not necessarily be a blessing." Thinking of how the people aboard might soon clash over shortages of food and water, then gradually march toward destruction step by step, Li Weiyi felt deeply weighed down.

The Microscopic World was bound to be different from Earth. If they did not reach land, the supplies they currently had would not last long.

Li Weiyi had heard that Research Team Members had tied iron buckets to ropes in an attempt to draw water from the dark, invisible sea. They had to lower them more than a hundred meters before reaching the surface.

But they encountered an enormous, strange force that nearly dragged the water-drawing team members down. It happened every time they tried.

They could hear the sound of waves, but they could not bring up any water.

There was an unknown danger in the sea.

"You're absolutely right!"

After looking around, Gao Huan lowered his voice. "I heard that, in order to solve the food and water problem, the higher-ups decided to test and examine the blood from the Golden Crow and Black Flood Dragon corpses. Dr. Cai is personally handling it. The test results came out yesterday, but I don't know whether it can be drunk directly."

"I also heard that Xie Tianshu suggested using the seriously injured as test subjects. If it succeeds, the severely injured might recover. If it fails, it would save a great deal of food and water."

"But the higher-ups collectively rejected the proposal. If you ask me, it'll be carried out sooner or later. Once food and water become scarce and the living conditions worsen, they'll put on an act and ask those severely injured people for their consent. In reality, the severely injured won't have any other choice."

"Once the severely injured are used up, it'll be our turn—the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. Everywhere, people eat people. The ranks of high, middle, and low are divided crystal clear."

"Perhaps there is another way," Li Weiyi said.

Gao Huan was greatly intrigued. "What way?"

Li Weiyi pointed toward the tall burial mounds ahead.

Cai Yutong was leading more than a dozen Research Team Members as they dug up the grayish-white soil from the burial mounds. On the Deck near the ship's rail, they had spread it out into three plots of land, each around half a mu in size.

Several bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and seeds for various vegetables had been prepared beside the plots.

Several buckets of corpse blood from the Black Flood Dragon and Golden Crow had also been drawn and set aside.

Gao Huan burst into laughter. "Dr. Cai really has a solution! That's right, we can first use plants for the experiment. And the Research Vessel's water supply is still fairly abundant. We can absolutely grow vegetables and fruit, becoming self-sufficient."

Hearing the laughter, Cai Yutong looked over at them. Then, with a cold expression, she walked toward them. "Who told you to leave the Medical Tent? The wind on the Deck is so cold. Your body is weak—can you endure it? You barely got a little better, and now you're already messing around?"

"She means you," Li Weiyi said under his breath.

Gao Huan froze. Meeting Cai Yutong's gaze, he stammered an explanation. "I... I'm not that weak. I wasn't messing around. I only came out to take a..."

"This has nothing to do with you."

When she came within a step or two, Cai Yutong launched into another round of scolding and warnings, as though she wished she could send Li Weiyi back to the Medical Tent with her eyes alone.

This Senior Sister's personality was indeed somewhat overbearing.

But she had given him blood transfusions and taken care of him. In front of her, Li Weiyi truly did not have much of a temper.

After letting her berate him to her heart's content, Li Weiyi finally said in as gentle a tone as possible, "Senior Sister, your emotions have been a little unstable lately. If you're under pressure or need help with anything, you must tell me in time. Perhaps I can help."

Li Weiyi felt that the reason Cai Yutong carried such heavy hostility was likely because those leaders had placed too much pressure on her. Perhaps someone had already forced her to conduct experiments on living people.

Gao Huan clearly misunderstood and quickly added, "Drink more hot water and keep warm."

By the time Cai Yutong reacted, the two had already hurried away.

"Terrifying! Brother Li, take my advice—no matter how pretty she is or how good her figure is, you can't marry a female PhD." Gao Huan spoke with lingering fear.

Li Weiyi smiled. "You've misunderstood badly. We're merely schoolmates. We've only known each other for a few days."

"Schoolmates? Would an ordinary schoolmate care that much about you? She has spoken more to you than to everyone else combined. She even fed you Fish Soup. I have a whole crowd of classmates on this ship—do you see any of them bringing me Fish Soup? Let alone feeding it to me!" Gao Huan said.

"Senior Sister is cold on the outside and warm on the inside. That's just her personality."

Li Weiyi looked toward the mountain-like patch of dark-red light in the distant mist, unable to restrain his curiosity. "I want to see the Black Flood Dragon's corpse and the Golden Crow's corpse."

In his mind, he recalled the strange sight aboard the Bronze Ship when his body had continuously shrunk after falling into the Arctic Ocean.

At his clearest, the Bronze Ship had been the size of a fishing boat, displayed right before his eyes.

He had distinctly seen two kinds of power enveloping the ship: Immortal Radiance and Nether Mist. The Immortal Radiance lay toward the stern, where a stretch of unique and magnificent ancient buildings stood, like palaces inhabited by immortals.

What exactly was there?

"Let's go together. I haven't seen them with my own eyes either. Those are two legendary divine beasts. How do you think they died? And why are they still giving off light and heat after death?"

"It's too inconceivable. This ship must have come from some brilliant and magnificent Wild Grand Era Realm. It might even be taking us there."

Gao Huan was extremely excited. As he walked with Li Weiyi toward the dark-red light at the stern, he added, "Actually, given your special relationship with Dr. Cai, you should secretly ask around for the real news. If Golden Crow Blood and Black Flood Dragon blood can truly be drunk, the two of us should each down a few cups first. Wouldn't that be no different from eating immortal pills and spiritual medicine? Maybe your arm will be completely healed by tomorrow."

"Senior Sister and I really don't have any special relationship! Besides, if Golden Crow and Black Flood Dragon blood could be drunk directly, why would Senior Sister bring people to reclaim land and plant crops?"

Gao Huan had a different opinion. "With women, don't listen to what she says, and don't watch what she does. You have to make her fall head over heels in love with you. Only then will she lose her mind and tell you the truth. Who can prove that Dr. Cai hasn't secretly drunk some herself, then told everyone Golden Crow Blood can't be consumed and Black Flood Dragon blood can't be drunk?"

"Weiyi, I'm a few years older than you, so I know these women's true faces all too well. Usually, they laugh and joke with you, acting like your friendship as classmates runs deep. But when you're injured and lying in bed, you don't even get Fish Soup."

Li Weiyi felt that Gao Huan was far too hung up on Fish Soup. "Actually... Fish Soup... your injuries aren't severe. You could have gone to the Kitchen Tent yourself. Everyone is busy, so they inevitably didn't think of you."

After thinking it over carefully, Gao Yutang reluctantly accepted Li Weiyi's explanation.

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