Chapter 15: Raising The Spear
Xie Tianshu scanned those several master’s students, his eyes narrowing as he asked coldly, “Where is Cai Yutong?”
“We haven’t found her yet,” Xie Jin said.
“Is it that you haven’t found her, or did you hide her away?” Xie Tianshu’s tone carried a hint of severity.
He had secretly gathered so many people, yet mistakes kept happening one after another. First, those few from Laboratory 705 and Li Weiyi had gone missing, and now even a frail woman like Cai Yutong had vanished without a trace.
Xie Tianshu worried that Xie Jin wouldn’t be able to resist beauty and had deliberately let Cai Yutong go.
“Brother Shu, am I the kind of person who disregards the big picture? Cai Yutong really isn’t in the planting area. If you don’t believe me, ask them,” Xie Jin said.
One of Professor Xu’s master’s students, named Sima Tan, wore rimless glasses on his nose bridge and looked refined and scholarly. He was one of the three standing behind Xie Jin.
Three days ago, under Xie Tianshu’s coercion and inducements, he had chosen to submit.
He said, “Not long ago, Doctor Qi came to the planting area. It was she who took Doctor Cai away.”
Xie Tianshu’s expression softened slightly, and he sighed, “A Jin, beautiful women are certainly scarce resources, but compared to survival, they can at most be considered momentary playthings. Send two people to search in the grave forest. Once found, she will be a shared usage resource for us all.”
Xie Jin’s expression changed, but he ultimately nodded.
Sima Tan looked toward Chen Hong, who was interrogating Gao Huan, and reminded, “Asking him like this is useless! Everyone has a weakness. Gao Huan’s weakness is Liu Ying. He has liked Liu Ying for three years. For her sake, he took the postgraduate entrance exam, and later pulled strings to enter Professor Xu’s laboratory.”
Liu Ying was one of the five trainees just brought back from the planting area. Her skin was very fair, her eyes exceptionally bright, and her appearance quite outstanding. On the research vessel, it was she who had asked Li Weiyi to help take a group photo.
“You were classmates, yet you sold out so thoroughly,” Chen Hong laughed.
Sima Tan said, “Tit for tat, no one should laugh at anyone. Everyone has a dark side in their heart. It’s just that we finally have the chance to release it, without worrying about legal sanctions. Brother Shu, hand Liu Ying over to me for half an hour, and I guarantee that whatever you ask Gao Huan, he will confess honestly.”
Laughter immediately erupted around them.
Kong Fan laughed, “Half an hour? Young people are so confident. But our new Captain Xie has said that beautiful women are shared usage resources. How about adding me, old Kong?”
Laughter rang out again.
From departure until now, everyone had been on the ship for nearly two months, full of boredom, loneliness, and exhaustion.
Who wouldn’t want to seek some stimulation?
Now arriving in this lawless place where no one could control them, plus not knowing which day in the future they could live to, their courage naturally grew bolder.
How could the evil and wickedness in their hearts be suppressed?
In history, some emperors, after becoming victors, couldn’t avoid seizing the women of the losers. How much less could this group of people avoid it?
Ever since Kong Fan obtained the silver thread gloves and tasted the sweetness of supernatural power, his state of mind had unknowingly changed. Looking at the people present, he felt a sense of superiority like a superior looking at servants.
Servants, after all, could be toyed with however one pleased.
Gao Huan cursed, “Sima Tan, you really are a beast. Liu Ying is my classmate; isn’t she your classmate too? I don’t know where Li Weiyi went. I really don’t know.”
Whether he knew or not, sometimes it didn’t really matter.
Liu Ying herself was the benefit that Xie Tianshu had promised to Sima Tan.
Using beautiful women to win over subordinates and turn enemy personnel, this had existed since ancient times and was hardly anything new.
Liu Ying was already scared to tears and ran toward the grave forest.
But with her hands tightly bound behind her back, she couldn’t run fast and was quickly caught by Sima Tan, who dragged her toward the nearby medical tent.
Kong Fan chuckled and followed into the medical tent.
Professor Xu lay on the ground, crying while slamming his head against the floor and roaring, “You are too barbaric! Do you have no morality or conscience? Let Liu Ying go. Whatever it is, come at this old man. Sima Tan, with your character so corrupt, no matter how good your academic performance, I won’t let you graduate…”
Xie Jin said, “This old guy talks too much. Throw him into the soul sea to feed those lost souls, so he doesn’t waste grain on the ship.”
Two security team members looked toward the medical tent, then at Professor Xu with broken legs who kept slamming his head on the ground, feeling very reluctant and sensing guilt in their hearts.
Their consciences troubled them. In just a short seven days, it seemed not only the social environment had changed!
The changes in people’s hearts were even more shocking.
At that moment, a camel bell sound came from the grave forest, ethereal and illusory.
Xie Jin’s eyes filled with strands of bloodshot veins as he said gravely, “What’s this? Your consciences have awakened, and you want to go back to being good people? Some things, once started, have no way back. Throw that old guy down…”
“I’ll tell… I’ll tell… Li Weiyi went to the nine-story ship tower side. He’s going to the stern. He told me earlier. It’s absolutely true!”
Gao Huan knelt on the ground, kowtowing while tearfully pleading, “Let Liu Ying go. Spare the professor, I beg you! I beg you all!”
“Thud! Thud! Thud…”
His forehead soon became bruised and bleeding.
He naturally had the idea of tricking this group of evildoers into feeding the Ghost Bear Emperor, but at the same time, he truly had no other way and genuinely hoped his pleas could save Liu Ying and Professor Xu.
Zhao Meng rebuked, “By revealing my junior disciple brother’s whereabouts, you’ve completely lost your value! You think kneeling and begging will make them reform and spare us? Naive, foolish… Once a person bares their fangs, they are no longer human!”
Xie Tianshu watched all this indifferently and calmly, saying, “Don’t think I don’t know the situation at the stern. Little Huan, how can you be so dishonest? You’ve disappointed me too much!”
The last sentence was almost roared out.
He waved his hand.
The two security team members directly threw Professor Xu, who was lifted in midair, into the soul sea.
Following the “splash” of water, beneath the bronze ship, came countless excited howls from fierce souls, along with the sounds of flesh and blood being torn.
Professor Xu let out only a few shrill screams before falling completely silent.
Gao Huan stopped kowtowing and knelt there in complete stupefaction.
The deck was unusually quiet.
The crowd with bound hands all trembled in fear, not daring to make a sound, even curling up their bodies to avoid the gazes of Xie Tianshu and the others.
Another female trainee comparable in beauty to Liu Ying was even more panicked, her fingers clenched tightly. She wanted to cry but could only hold it back desperately.
“Lying comes at a price.”
Xie Tianshu slapped Gao Huan’s face repeatedly, saying, “Next time you speak, think it through first.”
The next instant.
He shouted loudly, “Send two more people in!”
Immediately, two security team members entered the medical tent with expressions both shy and guilty yet fervently expectant.
Human nature is always full of contradictions.
The bottom line is like the clothes on a woman’s body—it’s hard to strip them all off at once, but once you start removing them piece by piece, how could you not end up stripping them all?
Chen Hong looked down on Xie Tianshu’s methods of “using beauty to win over” and “binding with sin,” saying, “Instead of interrogating him, interrogate the first mate. Meng Bro and I are like brothers and can’t bear to watch the cruel scene next. I’ll take people to find those few who are hiding.”
…
Li Weiyi carried the Yellow Dragon Sword as he fled through the grave forest, finally shaking off those hairs.
A set of white bones was actually reviving as if from death and could devour his blood.
Terrifying and bizarre.
Even though Li Weiyi had already cultivated to the point of supernatural prowess, he was no match for her. Without the Dao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish and Yellow Dragon Sword, he would have died there.
Fortunately, she had always lain in the ice coffin and seemed not fully awakened yet, and the range of her hair attacks was only five zhang.
He didn’t dare imagine what a horrifying thing it would be if this “white bone spirit” truly broke free?
“Senior Brother really knows how to hide things. Why hide the Dao Ancestor Tai Chi Fish and Yellow Dragon Sword in her grave mound for no reason? Nearly got me killed.”
Li Weiyi recalled that his senior brother had said he fell onto the bronze ship right into her grave mound. Fortunately, her grave mound had cushioned the fall, or he would have died.
This damned fate!
Li Weiyi looked toward the glow coming from the Golden Crow Corpse in the nether mist, somewhat puzzled. With directional light to guide them, why were there still scientific expedition team members getting lost in the grave forest? Were there other mysteries and unknowns in the grave forest?
About two hundred meters from the Golden Crow Corpse, Li Weiyi exited the grave forest and appeared at the gunwale. He raised his arm and looked; the cut on his wrist had already scabbed over, nearly healed.
That group of white-boned humans wearing armor and various types of weapons lay scattered quietly not far away.
According to Director Yang, that ten-foot-long black long spear was the lightest but still required two people to barely lift.
With no one around, Li Weiyi had no more scruples and grabbed the black long spear near the spear tip with one hand.
It felt quite heavy upon grasping, but he still lifted it up.
“One hand, much stronger than two people?” Though Li Weiyi was surprised, his mood wasn’t overly excited, because he had just witnessed the prowess of the “white bone spirit.”
Without the Yellow Dragon Sword, he could only resist her for a moment.
With the Yellow Dragon Sword, he could only flee in panic.
Suddenly.
From the direction of the Golden Crow Corpse came light, quick footsteps.
Moments later, Qi Shanshan, wearing a white physician’s uniform, hurried out from the nether mist, her expression somewhat panicked and vigilant.
“Li Weiyi… why are you here?”
Qi Shanshan looked around, finding it incredulous.
Nearly two months had passed, and this was the first time Li Weiyi had seen Qi Shanshan not wearing high heels but a pair of pink sneakers. His gaze shifted to the hazy, mirage-like nine-story ship tower, his mind full of doubts. Doctor Qi clearly knew the Ghost Bear Emperor was still alive—how dare she come alone to this area?
Li Weiyi said, “Isn’t Doctor Qi afraid of the Ghost Bear Emperor?”
“Something big has happened!”
Qi Shanshan looked serious as she walked toward Li Weiyi, reaching into her pocket to grab the damp medical cotton swab inside, saying, “Second Mate Xie Tianshu has allied with many people and launched a mutiny. The bronze ship is in chaos now. I had no choice but to risk coming here. Didn’t you hear the gunshots just now?”
“Gunshots? They acted ahead of schedule?”
Li Weiyi hadn’t heard any gunshots and guessed it might have happened when he was dragged into the ice coffin. Though he still harbored suspicions toward Qi Shanshan, things were definitely critical on his senior brother’s side, leaving no time for further consideration.
“Swoosh!”
With a flick of his toe, scalding hot qi flow surged madly through the veins in his legs, all his power erupting in an instant.
The ten-foot-long black long spear flew up and steadily landed in his hand, the spear tip emitting a “zheng” vibrating sound.
Yellow Dragon Sword in one hand, spear in the other, Li Weiyi stood tall and resolute, preparing to rush immediately to the bow.
Qi Shanshan, now within five steps of Li Weiyi, saw this scene. Shock filled her charming and alluring face: “Your injury has healed… Did Yutong give you Golden Crow Blood to drink?”
Besides Golden Crow Blood, Qi Shanshan couldn’t think of any other possibility that could heal someone whose arm was nearly crippled within days. And the power was terrifyingly strong.
Li Weiyi had no time to explain to her.
“Come back!”
Qi Shanshan wasn’t confident she could take down Li Weiyi, who was now this strong, and seeing the clear vigilance in his eyes, a new idea formed in her mind.
She quietly put the medical cotton swab back, withdrew her hand from her pocket, and said softly with concern, “Weiyi, Shanshan Sis understands your worry for your senior brother, but they have guns. No matter how strong you are, one bullet can still take your life. We need to plan carefully. Before acting, at least figure out the current situation and the enemy’s numbers.”
