Chapter 9: Strange Tales On The Ship
Over the next two days, Li Weiyi did not get out of bed, appearing listless and sickly.
In reality, he was completely immersed in exploration of the Supernatural Realm, with the silver veins in his body increasing to thirteen. This meant he now had thirteen routes for Qi Movement.
Subsequent attempts failed to find a way to add more silver veins.
Fortunately, the thirteen veins already preliminarily covered his entire body. Using them as channels for the scalding hot qi flow to nourish his flesh and blood, tendons and bones, in just two short days Li Weiyi had completely undergone metamorphosis. His hearing and sight were sharp, his five senses keenly sensitive, and his bodily functions had grown to an unknown extent.
His body seemed to possess inexhaustible power, as if he could strike out and kill a cow with one punch.
The recovery speed of his left arm injury was unbelievably fast; the wound had already preliminarily healed and scabbed over, allowing simple lifting and grasping. As long as he did not exert too much force, there would be no pain.
Such self-healing speed completely defied reason and was incomprehensible.
Li Weiyi estimated that under the nourishment of the scalding hot qi flow, he would fully recover in another two or three days.
If not for needing to hide his strength to avoid suspicion of really having swallowed the Buddha’s Sarira, Li Weiyi would have hated to not immediately go outside to test his current physical condition. He felt that his current speed and power would probably scare even himself.
However, over these two days he got hungry extremely quickly, with voracious appetite, never able to eat his fill no matter how much.
This formed a stark contrast with Professor Xu on the adjacent sickbed, who had no appetite. Thus, most of the meals sent to Professor Xu by those students ended up in his stomach.
“Unable to open more silver veins, so halt Supernatural exploration for now. Go outside to see what the situation is like on the Bronze Ship now… and conveniently find some food.”
Over these two days, he had only heard everyone talk about how the “Bronze Ship is enormous beyond compare, sometimes lost in the mist,” “the Grave Forest is eerie, with strange sounds from time to time,” “the Golden Crow Corpse is massive like a mountain, its radiance illuminating the darkness, its heat resisting the bitter cold”… and so on, but in his mind, he had no concrete concept.
With his injury nearly healed and Supernatural Power as backing, Li Weiyi’s confidence surged, dispelling the confusion and anxiety from two days ago.
Human confidence derives either from sufficient capital, or from strength superior to others, or from solid backing, and certainly not from empty encouragements like a pavilion in the sky making him confident instantly.
To avoid becoming the bird that sticks out, Li Weiyi did not want to be pushed to the forefront due to being too special, so he still acted like a normal patient. He sat up with pretended difficulty, slowly searching for the ground with his feet.
“Little Brother Li, what are you getting out of bed for? Need help?”
Gao Huan’s injuries were not too severe; his neck sprain had recovered, but his broken right arm was still bound with a wooden splint and wrapped in gauze. He had just gotten up, preparing to relieve himself.
Li Weiyi walked out of the medical tent with Gao Huan.
Upon seeing the scene on the bronze deck outside, even with psychological preparation, Li Weiyi was greatly shocked, a chill running straight from his spine to his head.
The sight before him was like the Underworld, full of tombstones, grave mounds, Ghost Flags, prayer flags, with nether mist swirling, severely limiting visibility. Above was pitch-black dark clouds, very close to the deck, pressing down like on one’s head, giving an extremely oppressive and stifling feeling.
They had said before that within visibility, only three or four rows of grave mounds could be seen, and entering the Grave Forest was like being in a labyrinth.
Li Weiyi’s eyes, nourished by the scalding hot qi flow, could see much farther.
Seven or eight rows of grave mounds came into view, with no mist obscuring within a hundred meters.
However, the deck alone was five hundred meters wide, still giving a sense of profound mystery like “right in these mountains, clouds deep unknown place,” inspiring awe.
The only light source was the Golden Crow Corpse that the numerous scientific expedition team members spoke of. It was said to be extremely shocking to view up close; dead for endless time, yet its feathers still emitted strangely high temperature, with brilliant radiance.
But Li Weiyi, separated by distant nether mist, could only see a large patch of dark red glow.
Like a dark red mountain, unable to discern the corpse’s outline and details.
“At the very beginning, there was no such thick fog on the Bronze Ship. It was only after raising sails and setting off that the nether mist grew increasingly dense.”
“I heard many strange things happened. Someone in the Grave Forest encountered a ghostly camel caravan, with camel bells ringing, and finally the caravan walked into a tombstone with a Ghost Flag and vanished.”
“Someone else said that once while walking in the Grave Forest, they heard sounds of iron chains and claws scratching metal from deep underground. This ship’s interior probably seals some unknown great terror; just don’t know how to enter, can’t find the entrance at all.”
“We’ve absolutely fallen into the legendary Underworld. Remember that giant beast Nine Infants that capsized the research vessel? It was seized by a golden claw—I tell you, it was definitely the divine claw of the Kunpeng.”
“How big is the Kunpeng? Its size spans thousands of miles unknown; Zhuangzi saw it with his own eyes while dream wandering the Underworld.”
“The Underworld is terrifying and vast; it invaded Earth during the Xia and Shang periods. The gods on Earth at that time all thought it was demons from the North Sea. No one could have imagined that the Underworld was hidden in the microscopic world.”
…
After relieving himself, Gao Huan pulled Li Weiyi along, talking about all sorts of mythological legends and his own speculations. When asked where he learned them, he named some obscure books that Li Weiyi had never heard of.
They went to the kitchen shed to find some food, filling their stomachs.
The two passed a cluster of small new graves, and Gao Huan was somewhat wistful: “When we set off, the entire Long Ji Hao had one hundred seventeen people; only eighty-two survived, with over a dozen badly injured from falls.”
On the deck, three medical tents had been set up in total.
The one with Li Weiyi and Gao Huan was near the ship’s rail, just one of them.
“Still alive may not be a blessing.” Li Weiyi thought of the near future, when the people on the ship might erupt in conflict over shortages of food and water, step by step toward annihilation, and his mood grew very heavy.
The microscopic world was inevitably different from Earth; without land to dock, with current supplies, they could not hold out long.
Li Weiyi had heard that the scientific expedition team members used ropes tied to iron buckets, trying to draw water from the dim, invisible sea, lowering over a hundred meters before finding the sea surface.
But they encountered a massive strange force, nearly pulling the water-fetching member down. Multiple attempts all failed the same way.
Sea waves could be heard, but water could not be drawn up.
Unknown dangers lurked in the sea.
“You’re absolutely right!”
Gao Huan looked around, then whispered: “I heard that to solve the food and water problem, the higher-ups decided to test and experiment on the blood from the Golden Crow and Black Flood Dragon corpses. Doctor Cai personally handled it and gave the test results yesterday; not sure if it can be drunk directly.”
“I also heard that Xie Tianshu proposed using those severely injured as experimental subjects. If successful, the injured might recover. If failed, it would save a lot of grain and water.”
“But this proposal was collectively opposed by the higher-ups. In my view, it will inevitably be implemented sooner or later. When food and water run low and survival conditions worsen, they’ll hypocritically ask those severely injured for their own wishes. In reality, the severely injured have no other choice.”
“Once the severely injured are used up, it’s our turn, we old, weak, sick, and disabled. Wherever it is, it’s people eating people, with clear hierarchies of three-six-nine grades.”
Li Weiyi said: “Perhaps there’s another way.”
Gao Huan was greatly curious and asked: “What way?”
Li Weiyi pointed to the cluster of tall grave mounds ahead.
There, Cai Yutong was leading over ten scientific expedition team members excavating the grayish-white soil from the grave mounds, spreading it into three plots of about half an acre each on the deck near the ship’s rail.
Beside the plots, several bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and various vegetable seeds were prepared.
Several buckets of Black Flood Dragon and Golden Crow corpse blood were drawn and set aside nearby.
Gao Huan laughed heartily: “Doctor Cai still has the way. Right, we can experiment with plants first. Moreover, water on the research vessel is still relatively plentiful; we can totally plant some vegetables, melons and fruits, and be self-sufficient.”
Cai Yutong heard the laughter and looked over at the two, then walked over with a cold face: “Who let you leave the medical tent? The wind on the deck is so cold; your body is weak, can you handle it? Feeling a bit better and you start messing around?”
“I’m talking about you!” Li Weiyi said in a low voice.
Gao Huan was stunned, meeting Cai Yutong’s gaze, stammering an explanation: “It’s… not that weak, didn’t mess around, just came out to pee…”
“Not your business.”
Approaching within one or two steps, Cai Yutong unleashed another round of scolding and warnings, as if her glare could send Li Weiyi back to the medical tent.
This senior student had a rather strong personality.
But she had given blood transfusion and cared for him; in her presence, Li Weiyi really had little temper.
After letting her vent enough, Li Weiyi said as mildly as possible: “Senior Student, your emotions have been unstable lately. If there’s pressure or anywhere you need help, be sure to tell me in time. Perhaps I can help.”
Li Weiyi felt that Cai Yutong’s heavy “hostility” was likely due to excessive pressure from those leaders. Perhaps someone had already forced her to use living people for experiments.
Gao Huan clearly misunderstood, chiming in: “Drink more hot water, keep warm.”
By the time Cai Yutong reacted, the two had already slipped away quickly.
“Too scary! Little Brother Li, take my advice: no matter how pretty or how good her figure, you can’t have a female doctor.” Gao Huan said with lingering fear.
Li Weiyi laughed: “You’ve misunderstood big time; we’re just alumni, acquainted only a few days.”
“Alumni? Would a mere alumnus care about you this much? She talks to you more than to everyone else combined, and even fed you fish soup. I’ve got a big group of classmates on the ship; who brings me fish soup? Let alone feeding!” Gao Huan said.
“Senior Student is cold on the outside but warm inside; that’s her personality.”
Li Weiyi looked toward the distant dark red light spot in the mist, like a mountain peak, unable to suppress his curiosity: “I want to go see the Black Flood Dragon Corpse and Golden Crow Corpse.”
In his mind, he recalled after falling into the Arctic Ocean, as his body continuously shrank, the bizarre scenes he saw on the Bronze Ship.
At the clearest moment, the Bronze Ship was like a fishing boat size, right before his eyes.
He clearly saw two powers, Immortal Radiance and nether mist, enveloping the ship. The Immortal Radiance was at the stern direction, where there was a unique and magnificent ancient-style building, like a palace where immortals resided.
What exactly was there?
“Let’s go together; I haven’t seen it with my own eyes either. Those are the two legendary divine beasts. How did they die? Why after death are they still glowing and emitting heat?”
“Too unbelievable; this ship definitely comes from some brilliant and grand primordial great world, and may be taking us there right now.”
Gao Huan was quite excited, walking with Li Weiyi toward the dark red light spot at the stern, adding: “Actually, with your special relationship with Doctor Cai, you should quietly inquire about the real news. If the Golden Crow and Black Flood Dragon blood can really be drunk, we two drink a few cups first; isn’t that no different from taking elixir or spiritual medicine? Maybe your arm recovers like new the next day.”
Li Weiyi said: “Senior Student and I really have no special relationship! Besides, if Golden Crow and Black Flood Dragon blood could be drunk directly, why would Senior Student lead people to clear land for planting?”
Gao Huan had another insight: “Women—you don’t listen to what they say, don’t look at what they do; you have to make her fall hopelessly in love with you, then she’ll lose reason and tell you the truth. Who can prove Doctor Cai didn’t secretly drink it herself, then tell everyone Golden Crow Blood can’t be drunk, Black Flood Dragon Blood can’t be ingested.”
“Weiyi, bro is a few years older than you; I know these women’s true faces too well. Normally all smiles with you, deep classmate bond, but when you’re injured in bed, no fish soup for you.”
Li Weiyi felt Gao Huan was too hung up on the fish soup, saying: “Actually… fish soup—you weren’t badly injured, you could go to the kitchen shed yourself. Classmates are all busy; inevitably they didn’t attend to you.”
Gao Huan thought carefully and reluctantly accepted Li Weiyi’s guess.
…
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