Chapter 11: Ghost Wastelands As Ghostly Clouds Disperse
The six people in Laboratory 705, except for Han Qin holding the shotgun and the middle-aged woman wearing glasses, the other four were all slightly advanced in age.
They were still at the previous spot.
Seeing Qi Shanshan, Li Weiyi, and Gao Huan returning from the direction of the nine-story ship tower, Director Yang hurriedly went up to them and said apologetically: “Thank heavens, seeing you back is great. I forgot to tell you earlier that there’s an unfathomable danger at the stern—don’t let curiosity drive you there.”
“This is very likely a burial ship!”
“The ancient garden at the stern may not be the ship owner’s living quarters, but possibly the ship owner’s tomb.”
He could forget this?
Li Weiyi and Gao Huan had no goodwill left toward Director Yang and responded with perfunctory and polite words.
In front of Director Yang, Qi Shanshan put on a different face and said with a smiling expression: “Thank you for the reminder, Director! These two boys, even if they had the mind, wouldn’t have the guts. That row of terracotta figures at the nine-story ship tower is already creepy just looking at them. Eh! Haven’t all the immortal objects on these white bones humans been taken by everyone? Director, what are you still researching?”
Director Yang said: “Researching their cause of death! Moreover, I believe the most important treasures on them are not those immortal objects at all, but these armors and weapons. Unfortunately, they are too heavy—no one can lift them.”
“They are probably the legendary heavenly soldiers and generals. These armors and weapons are all divine weapons—how could we mortals use them?” Qi Shanshan said.
Li Weiyi looked at the ten-foot-long ancient spear on the ground. It was pitch black like ink throughout, the shaft rusted and spotted, but the spear tip was still sharp with cold light gleaming.
If not for the many people around, he really wanted to pick it up to test what level of power he had reached after cultivating to the supernatural realm.
It should be liftable.
After Qi Shanshan and Director Yang exchanged pleasantries, the three headed back toward the medical tent at the bow.
Li Weiyi couldn’t help asking: “Doctor Qi, what are the immortal objects you mentioned earlier?”
Qi Shanshan had her hands in her pockets and didn’t turn back: “They’re just some accessories and clothing-like items on those white bones humans, like the dragon pattern ring, three-headed snake bracelet, cross pendant, scripture belt, silver thread gloves, and so on. They remain undecayed after a thousand years, so they are clearly not ordinary.”
“The moment those white bones humans were discovered, everyone scrambled to take them all. Afterward, everyone hid them tightly—no one knows how many good things they actually have.”
“What I mentioned are just the few that have been talked about the most these past few days, seen by many people.”
“It’s said that when Xie Tianshu took off the dragon pattern ring, there was faintly a dragon’s roar, extremely mystical. Also, after Kong Fan got the two silver thread gloves, his arm strength greatly increased, allowing him to lift three or four hundred jin of heavy objects.”
Li Weiyi said: “Kong Fan? Head Chef Kong? With his build, he can lift three or four hundred jin?”
Qi Shanshan lightly nodded her head, her beautiful eyes filled with envy, and sighed softly: “Now you know why everyone is so eager to find the Buddha’s sarira and so hostile toward you, right? No matter how good these treasures are, they pale far in comparison to the Buddha’s sarira.”
“Pa!”
Gao Huan slapped his thigh and exclaimed “Aiya”: “What did I miss? So many millennia-old undecayed treasures, and I didn’t get a single one. Li Zi, we shouldn’t have gotten injured!”
Li Weiyi remained calm and said: “An innocent man with a jade gu carries guilt. Whether it’s fortune or calamity, who can say?”
…
The Ghost Bear Emperor was still alive and could make a comeback at any time.
On the bronze ship, people’s hearts were no longer pure. They worried about the soon-to-be-shortage of food and water, while coveting each other’s treasures, with contradictions growing ever sharper.
Moreover, many felt that Li Weiyi had swallowed the Buddha’s sarira and eyed him covetously.
This was the fifth day since falling onto the bronze ship!
From here on, every passing day would increase the possibility of conflict and danger by one more point.
Driven by survival, greed, jealousy, and desire, many were surely gathering strength and plotting in secret. Li Weiyi had just gone out for a walk and clearly sensed the dangerous atmosphere.
It would only take one spark to ignite everything.
While Li Weiyi stayed twelve times vigilant, he mobilized the scalding hot qi flow to fully nourish his left arm injury.
Two days later.
The seventh day since everyone fell onto the bronze ship.
At nine in the morning, outside the medical tent, bursts of exclamations rang out, noisy and chaotic, with footsteps running everywhere.
“The sky has brightened, the dark clouds are gradually dissipating.”
“Great, are we about to reach land?”
…
Everyone in the medical tent was startled awake.
Li Weiyi was also overjoyed inside. After a quick tidy-up, he got out of bed swiftly and came to the deck.
The outside was already packed with people.
The thick, pitch-black dark clouds in the sky had indeed thinned, drifting like gauze, faintly revealing the starlight above.
“The sea—I see seawater!”
A young scientific expedition team member lay against the gunwale, pointing at the bottom of the ship, shouting in wild joy.
After the crowd gathered, they indeed saw the sea surface over a hundred meters below, with waves layer upon layer. But because the dark clouds hadn’t fully dissipated, they could only see it vaguely.
It was enough to excite everyone.
It was like a blind person regaining sight, or eternal night welcoming dawn, bringing infinite hope and anticipation.
“What is that? A steep mountain peak standing in the sea?”
Someone rushed to the very front of the bow, pointing into the distance.
“Not a mountain peak—it seems like a stone pillar… more like a stone tablet, with words carved on it.”
“My god, how can there be such a tall square-pillar stone tablet standing in the sea? Just the part exposed above the surface must be over two thousand meters.”
“What’s the difference from a stone peak?”
…
Li Weiyi walked to the bow with the crowd.
The dark clouds above were almost completely dispersing.
The ocean was dark and somber.
Dozens of kilometers ahead of the bronze ship, the stone tablet stood like a majestic divine peak, straight up from the ground into the sky dome. Even from afar, its imposing presence could be felt.
On the boundless ocean, it appeared extremely lonely and abrupt, and thus even more majestic and magnificent.
Four vigorous and powerful strange ancient characters were carved deeply into it, as if chiseled by heavenly blades, extremely clear.
“Such strange characters—how do they look like some kind of symbols?”
“Is this still Earth? I’ve never heard of any sea area on Earth having such a stone peak pillar stele.”
Many had still harbored illusions, thinking that once the dark clouds dispersed, they would see the familiar sea and then return to the motherland, homes, and schools.
After the illusions shattered.
Some scientific expedition team members who extremely missed their families cried out hoarsely.
Cai Yutong stood on the periphery of the crowd, looking up at the completely cleared sky, and said: “Don’t you think the starry sky is a bit too low? And… it doesn’t look like the Milky Way Galaxy, not like the starry sky we know.”
Just as her words fell, something eerie happened.
“Hua!”
In the starry sky, billions of light clusters unexpectedly fell, like dense rain, scattering toward the boundless sea surface.
The nearby light clusters could be seen clearly—they seemed… humanoid.
Everyone was stunned by the sudden change, uncomprehending, only feeling chills down their spines.
The starry sky was raining people!
“Come look quickly—what’s in the sea?” Gao Huan waved vigorously, calling the crowd.
After the dark clouds fully dissipated, the sea surface could finally be seen clearly.
In the inky black vast ocean, a scene of terror: densely packed people swimming inside.
Not just nearby, but far away too.
Countless.
Their bodies were semi-transparent, emitting faint glows, with men, women, old, and young, mostly old men. Some floated on the surface, some sank underwater.
Not people with flesh and blood bodies, more like lost souls.
The vast majority of lost souls had dull gazes, muddled and dazed. Some were extremely active, darting through the sea to hunt.
“Jie jie!”
“Roar!”
One old man with disheveled long hair and a shriveled face sensed the many gazes from the ship, looked up and let out a fierce piercing cry, leaping from the seawater toward the deck over a hundred meters high.
When had the crowd encountered such a bizarre thing?
In shock, they all retreated.
Some were so scared their legs went soft, unable to move, getting shoved and trampled.
“Chi!”
The fierce soul old man had just approached the bronze ship, about a zhang from the deck, when he was torn apart by a rift that appeared out of nowhere and exploded, turning into a cluster of light particles.
Like a glass crack appearing in space.
It appeared suddenly and vanished suddenly.
The other fierce souls eager to try all showed fear, letting out bursts of eerie cries, and kept away from the bronze ship.
“Some unknown power is protecting the bronze ship—they can’t board.” Li Weiyi called for everyone to stay calm and helped two old professors who had been trampled up together with Cai Yutong.
After the fierce soul old man burst into light particles, they sprinkled toward the sea, immediately inciting many originally muddled lost souls to frantically snatch and devour them, splashing water everywhere.
Not everyone could stay calm; at this moment, people’s hearts were in panic, many still shaken.
Strange, eerie, terrifying—what kind of world was this?
The earlier joy from the dark clouds dissipating was completely gone.
Director Yang couldn’t help sighing to the sky: “In the boundless black sea, billions of souls swim immersed. Under the myriad stars, the ancient mystery ship’s voyage begins. Where is the end, where can we land on shore?”
Someone fiercely twisted their arm, feeling pain, only then confirming the scene before them was real.
“We are no longer in the Arctic, not even on Earth, but have come to the legendary underworld netherworld, or perhaps the ghost wasteland world.” Xie Tianshu’s eyes showed no trace of loss or sadness, but instead gleamed with excitement.
His eyes met with some people in the crowd, feeling the timing was ripe, no need to hold back anymore—they could make their move!
…
The soul sea is boundless, destination unknown, return place unknown.
Li Weiyi’s mood was extremely complex as he said: “Is this the place where Earth’s deceased return their souls? But there are far more than billions of soul spirits in the sea—where did Earth get so many deceased?”
“The vast universe, endless star seas—perhaps all deceased from all planets return their souls here.” Someone stared fixedly at the starry sky overhead, making such a guess.
Whether in the scientific community or religion, most firmly believe Earth is not the universe’s only life-bearing planet.
The sky’s stars were densely packed; viewed amid the light cluster soul rain, they were extremely brilliant and radiant.
But they were extremely close to the sea surface, not as remote as deep space.
Not like stars, more like “gates of light”, “soul passages”, “star sea wormholes”.
Because the densely packed light cluster soul rain flew out from these “stars”, then sprinkled onto the dark sea surface, turning into streams of human souls—all visible to the naked eye.
It was precisely so that someone boldly guessed “all cosmic deceased return souls here”.
