Chapter 26: Disembarking
Back to the medical tent, everything was normal.
Li Weiyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Cai Yutong, Gao Huan, Old Liu, and others knew the purpose of Li Weiyi’s entry into the grave forest and had been waiting outside. Seeing him return, they thought he had succeeded and all asked about the situation.
“That White Bone Demon is no small matter; it can already walk out of the grave. With my current strength, even using all my means, I can only contend with her on equal terms.”
Li Weiyi’s face was full of worry. Unable to eliminate the opponent meant she could act freely to some extent. If she really attacked the scientific expedition team members, it would be impossible to guard against.
What’s more, there was also a ghostly shadow riding a camel whose soul might or might not have scattered.
“You’re injured?”
Cai Yutong saw the bloodstains on Li Weiyi’s body.
“No problem.”
Li Weiyi instructed: “Pass the word down: no one is to enter the grave forest next. Upon hearing the camel bell, immediately put on earplugs. Also, be careful to guard against Doctor Qi.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
Cai Yutong was concerned about Qi Shanshan’s safety.
Li Weiyi thought for a moment and uncertainly said: “She might have been body snatched by the White Bone Demon!”
Cai Yutong’s expression was somewhat gloomy. Although she had anticipated that Qi Shanshan might have met with misfortune, this outcome seemed even harder to accept.
“It might not be body snatching; I feel her state is very strange.” Li Weiyi comforted.
“Brother Weiyi, the First Mate is awake!”
Qin Ke rushed out of the medical tent, joyfully shouting from afar.
Li Weiyi’s spirits lifted, all the worries and distracting thoughts in his mind vanished, and he quickly walked into the medical tent.
The two senior disciple brothers exchanged laughter and stories.
Zhao Meng sat up, troubled: “Have I turned into a giant now? I see my height is at least three meters, and my legs are almost as thick as water buckets!”
Li Weiyi said: “If I had another way, I absolutely wouldn’t casually feed Senior Brother flood dragon blood.”
Zhao Meng sensed the guilt in Li Weiyi’s heart and immediately laughed: “I think it’s pretty good. My whole body is filled with power; maybe I can capture a tiger barehanded. How about we senior brothers spar? Do you dare, you brat?”
Zhao Meng had not shed his shell, nor had any signs of his skin immortalizing appeared.
It seemed that everyone changed differently after drinking golden crow blood and black flood dragon blood.
Even Li Weiyi himself showed no change in appearance.
Li Weiyi asked: “No need to spar. I have an important matter to ask Senior Brother. Does Senior Brother still remember Senior Disciple Sister Canaan?”
Zhao Meng’s mind instantly conjured the unforgettable stunning figure of his life and said: “Why do you suddenly mention Senior Disciple Sister?”
“I remember Senior Disciple Sister stayed at the sect for three years, but I was too young then and don’t remember many things clearly. Where exactly was Senior Disciple Sister from? Why did she never return to the sect afterward? Did something happen to her?” Li Weiyi asked.
“It wasn’t three years; it was two and a half.”
Zhao Meng recalled bits and pieces from the past: “Senior Disciple Sister had the best relationship with you, unfortunately, you were too young and don’t remember. If you had been a bit older, Senior Disciple Sister would surely have been the woman you’d never forget in your life. She was too outstanding, not like anything the mortal world should have.”
“Stop reminiscing about your youth; I’m asking about serious matters.” Li Weiyi said.
Zhao Meng said: “You tell me first what your matter is.”
“It’s not something I can explain in a few words.”
The reason Li Weiyi asked about Senior Disciple Sister was that the language used in the exchange between the red-clothed Qi Shanshan and the ghostly shadow on the camel earlier was the same as Senior Disciple Sister’s native tongue back then.
Li Weiyi had been young at the time, but not unremembering.
He had learned that language from Senior Disciple Sister, so he could understand most of their conversation.
Zhao Meng said: “Master said Senior Disciple Sister came from a minority ethnic group overseas. She left the sect to go home. Later, I went to sea multiple times and searched many countries around the world, but I could never find that mysterious minority ethnic group.”
“Didn’t you ask Master?” Li Weiyi said.
Zhao Meng said: “I did ask. How could I not? But Master told me to inquire less, to give up the idea, and even scolded me harshly, saying I was a dirt monkey from the mountain, not worthy of Senior Disciple Sister. I was wronged; I just wanted to see Senior Disciple Sister one more time. Don’t you want to?”
“Of course I do too! But I think we might be able to see Senior Disciple Sister in this world.” Li Weiyi said meaningfully, instantly thinking of many things.
……
Two days later.
Li Weiyi stood at the bow, looking toward the crimson sea surface, his mood growing heavier.
The red-clothed Qi Shanshan and the ghostly shadow named “Yu Tuo Nan”—he had entered the grave forest multiple times to search for them but found nothing. He guessed the two evils were hiding in some grave mound, healing injuries.
There were too many graves; there was no way to dig them up one by one to search.
If he dug up a third evil…
As the bronze ship rapidly sailed, the coffins on the sea surface grew more numerous and denser, almost converging ahead into a coffin sea shore. A dense black mass blocked the waterway.
Making the ship’s sailing speed unprecedentedly slow, almost to a stop.
The coffins varied in size and shape.
Some were even hundreds of meters long, with pitch-black coffin wood carved with demon diagrams and text, wrapped in chains as thick as basin mouths, unknown what kind of corpse was buried inside.
In some places, thousands or tens of thousands of coffins piled together, forming “floating islands” with purple-red vines growing. The roots of the vines, who knew where they took root.
The entire coffin sea was unusually quiet.
It was unknown whether it was always this quiet here or only became so after the bronze ship arrived.
Li Weiyi said to Gao Huan beside him: “You come explain; what place is this from mythological legends? Where did these coffins come from?”
“We’ve sailed all the way here, and the number of coffins we’ve seen—if not ten million, then several million, right? And this is just what we’ve seen.”
“They seem driven by some unknown power, all converging here.”
Gao Huan’s lips parted and closed; he thought for a moment and calmly said: “Perhaps they all fell from the macroscopic world, just like us… The universe has many planets; surely not only Earth has life. After those life forms are buried, maybe for some special reason, they drop into the microscopic world!”
After Zhao Meng woke, Gao Huan was the first to drink golden crow blood.
He shed his mortal shell, metamorphosing like an immortal spirit, his whole body skin white as warm jade. Like Cai Yutong, his physical power had increased greatly, comparable to those peak state athletic champions.
But…
His height had shrunk a lot.
He was originally only 65 meters; now he was less than 5 meters.
Except for his surname Gao, he had nothing to do with being tall.
“Hey! Master Li, there’s a red figure on the sea surface below?” Gao Huan exclaimed in surprise.
Li Weiyi’s eyesight was far better than his; even from hundreds of meters away, he clearly saw the figure jumping far away on the floating coffins—it was “Qi Shanshan.”
She had actually gone down from the ship?
Red-clothed Qi Shanshan sprouted a pair of flame light wings on her back, holding a person in her arms, and in an instant, she landed on a massive cluster of coffin floating island.
She glanced back at Li Weiyi at the bow and pointed with her finger at Cai Yutong in her arms.
Then.
Without looking back, she rushed toward the depths of the cluster of coffin floating island and disappeared into the yin mist.
“That’s the red-clothed White Bone Demon?”
“Doctor Cai was captured by her?”
“What is she going to do? Leaving the bronze ship, the white bones are fine, but how will Doctor Cai survive?”
……
Gao Huan closely followed Li Weiyi toward the medical tent and the direction of the broken research vessel.
“She did it on purpose, wanting to lure me off the ship.”
Li Weiyi found the rope tied to the gunwale for fetching water—clearly, red-clothed Qi Shanshan had gone down from here.
How did she dare?
Did she know what this place was?
“Weiyi, big trouble—Doctor Cai was attacked by Doctor Qi…”
Zhao Meng, Old Liu, and a group rushed over with hurried expressions.
Li Weiyi said: “I know; they’ve already gone off the ship.”
“When she left, she said something very strange: ‘If Li Weiyi wants to know who he is, I can give him the answer; let him come find me.'” Zhao Meng repeated word for word.
“Who am I?”
Li Weiyi’s brows furrowed; he had never thought about this question before. But with the appearance of the White Bone Demon and the so-called “guardian wife,” everything became confusing.
People always have an origin.
He gripped the rope tightly, quite hesitant.
It wasn’t that he didn’t dare go off the ship, but he knew there was an even more terrifying ghost on the ship and was very worried that after he left, Senior Brother and the others would meet with disaster.
And if everyone went off the ship, the future was unknown.
This coffin sea was too eerie; no one knew how many dangers existed. Once the bronze ship sailed away, they would lose all hope.
“It’s stopped… The bronze ship seems completely stopped…” Gao Huan lay on the gunwale, looking toward the sea surface.
“Dang dang!”
From the grave forest, the camel bell sound and wind roared, rapidly heading toward the gunwale.
“Careful!”
Li Weiyi quickly stepped forward, mobilizing the cold and hot qi flow in his body to form a heaven-overturning palm seal, slapping a palm toward the nether mist cloud group flying out from above the tombstone.
Bang.
The terrifying power in the nether mist cloud group sent Li Weiyi flying out of the gunwale.
The humanoid ghostly shadow rode the camel astride, leaping high over the gunwale amid the deafening camel bell sound, swinging the ghost flag in mid-air toward Li Weiyi’s waist and abdomen, intending to directly strike him down to fall and smash to death on the sea surface.
In this extremely perilous moment, Li Weiyi, disregarding that he was falling in mid-air, drew the Yellow Dragon Sword from his back and swung it to block.
“Bang!”
The two powers clashed.
Li Weiyi’s internal qi and blood surged, falling even faster.
More critically, the camel bell sound and ghost flag came again; the humanoid ghostly shadow was unafraid of falling, intent on killing him.
In this near-death situation, springs surged madly from the soles of Li Weiyi’s feet, qi flow filling his entire body’s twenty-six veins, executing Yellow Dragon Ascends to Heaven.
The first step landed like treading on wind and cloud, steadying the falling momentum.
The second step dodged the ghost flag, reaching the same height as the humanoid ghostly shadow.
The third step brought Li Weiyi above the humanoid ghostly shadow’s head.
Amid the humanoid ghostly shadow’s shocked gaze, offense and defense switched.
“Die then.”
Li Weiyi raised the sword with both hands; the sword edge erupted in yellow light, heavily slashing down.
