Chapter 88: Encountering The Ghost Ship Again
When Lin Yan dove underwater again, the Forbidden Woman had already avoided the area where Zhang Qiling’s blood was spreading in the water, intending to bypass him from another direction and head straight for Wu Xie. No one knew exactly what this Forbidden Woman was, but she was as flexible as a swimming fish in the water, her scattered black hair concealing her form, making her look like a large black jellyfish in the water.
Zhang Qiling noticed the Forbidden Woman’s intention and, disregarding his wound still bleeding, intercepted her path first. Perhaps driven desperate by Zhang Qiling, after several attempts, the Forbidden Woman finally lost patience and attacked him.
Her black hair, which had been floating with the current in the water, instantly shot toward him like sharp arrows, intending to entangle Zhang Qiling and drag him to the seabed. Zhang Qiling remained calm; after the Forbidden Woman’s hair wrapped around him, he grabbed it with his other hand and used his knife to sever her hair strand by strand. As more and more hair was severed, the Forbidden Woman let out a muffled wail in the water.
Lin Yan swam to Zhang Qiling and gestured for him to go up first to catch his breath. Zhang Qiling shook his head, still staring intently at the Forbidden Woman, gesturing that the crisis was not over. Without completely solving it, without a ship, they wouldn’t get far before being caught up.
He looked at Lin Yan and gestured to him: Find a ship first! With a ship, they could escape!
Lin Yan looked at him, somewhat confused. Wasn’t this just one Forbidden Woman? Chop off the hair, then chop off the head, and it would be solved, right? Why insist on running?
Seeing Lin Yan hesitating to go up, Zhang Qiling gave him a complex look, but still gestured with his eyes: This Forbidden Woman cannot be killed!
Lin Yan was puzzled. Sea Monkeys could be killed, so why not the Forbidden Woman? Could it be that Zhang Qiling knew her? Seeing Zhang Qiling’s complex expression, Lin Yan almost couldn’t hold back a gasp: You don’t actually know her, do you?
Zhang Qiling hesitated, then nodded: She might be Huo Ling from twenty years ago.
Good grief, good grief! Lin Yan almost forgot to hold his breath and choked himself. So, from that archaeological team twenty years ago, the missing Wu Sansheng and Zhang Qiling were still alive, Xie Lianhuan’s survival was uncertain, and there was a mysterious third person mixed in the team; Chen Wenjin had no news so far, and Huo Ling… had become the Forbidden Woman? Good grief, basically the whole team wiped out! So many from the Nine Gates died, possibly even direct lineage, and no investigation in these twenty years? If they had investigated, they should have known about this underwater tomb long ago; how could this tomb still be here now?
This is just ridiculous!
So the question is—Lin Yan tentatively looked at Zhang Qiling: Then this Forbidden Woman… should we take her back? Does her family know she’s here?
Zhang Qiling hesitated. Though with Lin Yan’s help, there was a high chance they could bring the Forbidden Woman back, but considering she was coming for Wu Xie, he still shook his head and gestured for Lin Yan to go up and find a ship first.
At this moment, Fatty struggled over to their vicinity, poked his head down, and gestured for them to go up first. What was going on? Could there be danger on the sea level too? After all the heart-pounding events along the way, Lin Yan was almost like a startled bird.
Fatty mouthed the word “ship.”
Holy crap, they really found a ship? Since they found a ship, there was no need to fight the Forbidden Woman here! Lin Yan tugged at Zhang Qiling, gesturing for him to go up first to catch his breath and take Wu Xie onto the ship; he figured he could hold off the Forbidden Woman himself.
Zhang Qiling hesitated, then nodded and surfaced first to find Wu Xie. Fatty originally wanted to wait for Lin Yan to go together, but Lin Yan felt that since he was injured, it was better to go up early, so he told him to withdraw first. Thus, Fatty slowly followed behind the two, pulled one in each hand by Zhang Qiling, treading water as they headed toward the ship.
When Lin Yan faced the Forbidden Woman alone, for some reason, she froze like she had been paused. If not for her hair still swaying slightly with the water ripples, one might think that area of space-time had been locked. If she wasn’t moving, could he just turn and leave?
He glanced behind; the three hadn’t swum far, so Lin Yan surfaced first to catch his breath, planning to catch up after they boarded the ship.
When he came back down, he realized the Forbidden Woman was a bit closer to him? Good grief, playing red light, green light with him here? Did this Forbidden Woman have time for games? He backed away slightly and saw the Forbidden Woman didn’t follow.
So, did the Forbidden Woman only advance when not being watched? To test this, he stared at her while retreating toward the three, swimming several meters without any movement from her. This mechanic was clever! But why did the Forbidden Woman only act this way with him?
Lin Yan didn’t notice that the little zombie, which had been sleeping on his head and completely forgotten by him, had opened its eyes at some point and was watching the Forbidden Woman. When he surfaced, the little zombie couldn’t keep staring, giving her the chance to advance; otherwise, with the little zombie’s deterrence, the Forbidden Woman couldn’t get a step closer.
If Lin Yan knew, he might sigh: Was this the hierarchy deterrence between zombies? No, was the Forbidden Woman even a zombie? The little zombie wasn’t originally this powerful, but it had absorbed some of Lin Yan’s blood earlier, causing some magical changes on its body; the details would have to wait until they safely returned to shore.
Lin Yan still didn’t know it was the little thing that had been ying ying ying in his arms earlier helping him out, and he was still laboriously swimming backward.
After catching his breath several times, the Forbidden Woman was getting closer and closer to him. Perhaps because Wu Xie was farther away, Lin Yan felt that as time passed, she grew increasingly restless, her surrounding hair frequently stirring the seawater, as if she would rush forward the moment he looked away.
This was bad; the Forbidden Woman was now just two or three meters from him, a lunge away from catching up. If he could kill her, that would be fine—he could endure being entangled by her hair and stab a dagger into her head—but Zhang Qiling probably planned to come back later to take her away. Fair enough; the Huo family was part of the Nine Gates after all, they had to give an account to others, though he didn’t know what status Huo Ling had in the Huo family.
This was a real pickle! Couldn’t fight her properly, couldn’t just leave properly; it could really annoy someone to death!
Meanwhile, as Wu Xie and Fatty were pulled by Zhang Qiling toward the ship, they realized the ship wasn’t far from them. The reason Wu Xie and Lin Yan hadn’t seen it earlier was that it was off to their side and rear; they had to face away from the sunset to spot it.
They originally thought to call for help from the people on the ship, but after looking for a while, there was no one on the deck. This was very strange! When they finally clambered aboard with great difficulty, the stove on the ship was still hot, but there was not a single person! This meant there had been people on the ship within the last half hour, but when they arrived… they were gone!
Did this person vanish into thin air?
Thinking of the various legends about ghost ships on the open sea, Fatty and Wu Xie shivered, feeling cold air rising from the top of their heads.
