Xie Tianshu scanned the master's students, his eyes narrowing as he asked in a cold voice, "Where is Cai Yutong?"
"We haven't found her yet," Xie Jin said.
"Haven't found her, or did you hide her away?" Xie Tianshu's tone carried an edge of severity.
He had secretly rallied so many people, yet one mistake after another kept cropping up. First, those people from Lab 705 and Li Weiyi had vanished without a trace, and now Cai Yutong, a frail and delicate woman, had managed to disappear into thin air as well.
Xie Tianshu worried that Xie Jin couldn't resist a pretty face and had let Cai Yutong go on purpose.
"Brother Shu, am I the sort of man who forgets the big picture? Cai Yutong really wasn'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 a pair of rimless spectacles on the bridge of his nose and looked quite refined. He was one of the three standing behind Xie Jin.
Three days ago, under Xie Tianshu's intimidation and inducements, he had chosen to submit.
"A short while ago, Doctor Qi paid a visit to the planting area," Sima Tan said. "She was the one who took Dr. Cai away."
Xie Tianshu's expression eased slightly, and he sighed. "Ah Jin, beautiful women are indeed a scarce resource, but compared to survival, they are at most a passing plaything. Send two men to search the forest of graves. Once she's found, she will be our shared resource."
Xie Jin's expression shifted, but in the end he nodded.
Sima Tan glanced toward Chen Hong, who was interrogating Gao Huan, and advised, "Questioning him like that is useless! Everyone has a weakness, and Gao Huan's weakness is Liu Ying. He has liked Liu Ying for three years. It was for her sake that he took the graduate entrance exam, and later pulled strings to enter Professor Xu's lab."
Liu Ying was one of the five students just brought back from the planting area. Her skin was very fair, her eyes remarkably bright, and her looks were quite striking. Back on the research ship, she had been the one to ask Li Weiyi to help take a group photo.
"You're classmates, yet you sell him out so thoroughly," Chen Hong said with a laugh.
Sima Tan replied, "Pot calling the kettle black; neither of us should laugh at the other. Everyone has a dark side in their heart. It's just that we finally have the chance to unleash it without fearing the penalties of the law. Brother Shu, give Liu Ying to me for half an hour. I guarantee that whatever you ask Gao Huan, he'll confess honestly."
Roars of laughter erupted around them.
Kong Fan grinned. "Half an hour—young men certainly have confidence. But our new Captain Xie said it himself: beautiful women are a shared resource. Why not count old Kong in?"
Laughter broke out once more.
From their departure until now, they had been aboard the ship for nearly two months, steeped in monotony, loneliness, and exhaustion.
Who didn't crave some excitement?
Now that they had arrived in this lawless place where no one held authority, coupled with the fact that no one knew how many days they had left to live, their audacity had naturally grown.
How could the evil and wickedness in their hearts be suppressed?
Throughout history, when emperors emerged victorious, they inevitably seized the women of the defeated. How could this lot be any different? How could they rise above it?
Ever since Kong Fan obtained the silver-thread gloves and tasted the sweetness of supernatural power, his mindset had undergone an unconscious shift. Looking at the people gathered here, he felt the haughty superiority of a master looking down on slaves.
They were just slaves; he could toy with them however he pleased.
Gao Huan cursed, "Sima Tan, you're a real beast! Liu Ying is my classmate, isn't she yours too? I don't know where Li Weiyi went! I really don't know!"
Whether he knew or not, at times, was beside the point.
Liu Ying herself was a favor Xie Tianshu had promised to Sima Tan.
Using beautiful women to win over subordinates and turn enemies to one's side had existed since ancient times; it was nothing new.
Liu Ying was already crying in terror, running toward the forest of graves.
Yet with her hands tightly bound behind her back, she couldn't run fast at all. Sima Tan quickly caught her, dragging her toward the nearby medical tent.
Kong Fan chuckled and followed them inside.
Professor Xu lay sprawled on the deck, weeping as he slammed his head against the ground and bellowed, "You barbarians! Do you have no morals or conscience left? Let Liu Ying go! If you have a grievance, take it out on this old man! Sima Tan, with character as depraved as yours, no matter how good your academic achievements are, I will never let you graduate..."
Xie Jin sneered, "This old fossil has far too much to say. Throw him into the Soul Sea to feed the dead souls, so we don't waste the ship's rations on him."
The two security group members looked toward the medical tent, from which screams, pleas, and the sound of tearing clothes continuously spilled, and then at Professor Xu, whose legs were broken as he battered his head against the deck. They found it hard to bear, a deep sense of guilt stirring within them.
Their consciences were troubled. In a mere seven days, it seemed not only the social environment had transformed!
The change in the human heart was far more shocking.
Xie Jin said in a low voice, "What? Has your conscience awakened? Looking to become good people again? Once you start down certain paths, there is no turning back. Throw the old bastard over..."
"I'll talk... I'll talk! Li Weiyi went over to the nine-story deckhouse! He wants to go to the stern! That's what he told me earlier, I swear it's the truth!"
Gao Huan fell to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly as he pleaded through tears, "Let Liu Ying go, spare the professor! I beg you! I'm begging you!"
*Thud! Thud! Thud...*
His forehead was soon bruised dark purple and bleeding.
Naturally, he harbored the thought of tricking this wicked crew into feeding the Ghost Bear Emperor, but at the same time, he truly had no other recourse. He genuinely pinned his hopes on his desperate begging to save Liu Ying and Professor Xu.
Zhao Meng snapped, "Giving away my junior brother's whereabouts leaves you with no value at all! You think dropping to your knees and begging will make them turn over a new leaf and spare us? Naive! Foolish... Once men bare their fangs, they cease to be men!"
Xie Tianshu watched all of this with cool detachment. "Don't think I don't know what's happening back at the stern. Xiao Huan, why are you being so dishonest? You've disappointed me too much!"
That last sentence was roared out.
He gave a wave of his hand.
The two security group members hoisted Professor Xu into the air and cast him straight into the Soul Sea.
With a loud splash, the ferocious souls beneath the Bronze Ship erupted into excited howls, followed by the gruesome sounds of flesh being ripped apart.
Professor Xu gave only a few piercing screams before falling completely silent.
Gao Huan stopped kowtowing, remaining prostrate on the deck, utterly frozen in a daze.
From the medical tent not far away, the sounds were no longer as chaotic or frantic; they had settled into a different, more rhythmic cadence.
Yet the deck was deathly quiet.
The bound captives were all overcome with dread. Not a single person dared to make a sound; some even curled their bodies inward, shrinking away from the gazes of Xie Tianshu and his men.
Another female student, whose looks rivaled Liu Ying's, was trembling with terror, her fingers clenched tight. She wanted to weep, yet could only strain with all her might to choke it back.
"Lying comes at a price."
Xie Tianshu slapped Gao Huan's face with crisp smacks. "Next time you speak, think it through before opening your mouth."
The next instant, he called out loudly, "Two more go in!"
At once, two security group members stepped into the medical tent, their expressions a mix of sheepish shame and feverish anticipation.
Human nature was forever contradictory.
Moral baselines were like the clothes on a woman's body: stripping them all off at once was difficult, but once they started peeling away one by one, how could she not end up completely bare?
Chen Hong looked down on Xie Tianshu's methods of winning people over with women and binding them through shared guilt. He said, "Interrogating him is less useful than questioning the first mate. Meng-ge and I are as close as brothers; I can't bear to watch the cruel scene that follows. I'll take a few men to ferret out the ones who are hiding."
***
Clutching the Yellow Dragon Sword, Li Weiyi sprinted through the forest of graves, finally shaking off the hair.
A skeleton, seemingly returning from the dead, had actually tried to devour his blood.
It was terrifying and bizarre.
Even though Li Weiyi had cultivated supernatural abilities, he was still no match for her. If not for the Daozu Taiji Fish and the Yellow Dragon Sword, he certainly would have perished there.
Fortunately, she had remained lying in the ice coffin and did not seem to have fully awakened, and the hair's attack range was only fifty feet.
He didn't dare imagine what a horrifying disaster it would be if this white-boned demoness actually broke free.
*Senior Brother really knows how to hide things. Why on earth did he hide the Daozu Taiji Fish and the Yellow Dragon Sword in her burial mound? I was nearly done for.*
Li Weiyi recalled his senior brother saying that when he fell onto the Bronze Ship, he had landed right on her mound. It was thanks to the cushion of her grave that he hadn't plunged to his death.
What a cursed stroke of fate!
Li Weiyi looked toward the glow cast by the Golden Crow's remains through the nether mist. He couldn't quite understand: with light clearly guiding the way, why had expedition members still lost their way in the forest of graves? Were there other mysteries and unknowns hidden within it?
About two hundred meters from the Golden Crow's remains, Li Weiyi emerged from the forest of graves and reached the bulwark. He raised his arm to look; the cut on his wrist had already scabbed over, nearly healed.
The group of armored skeletons and various discarded weapons lay scattered quietly not far away.
According to Director Yang, the ten-foot black spear was the lightest among them, yet it still took two men to barely lift it.
With no one around, Li Weiyi cast aside all hesitation. He gripped the black spear near its tip with one hand.
It felt quite heavy to the touch, yet he hoisted it up nonetheless.
*My single arm has far more strength than two men combined?* Li Weiyi was surprised, but he didn't feel overly excited, having just witnessed how formidable the white-boned demoness was.
Without the Yellow Dragon Sword, he could only have held out against her for a brief moment.
Even with the sword, he had been forced to flee in panic.
Suddenly, light and brisk footsteps approached from the direction of the Golden Crow's remains.
A moment later, Qi Shanshan, dressed in a white physician's coat, hurried out from the nether mist, looking somewhat panicked and alert.
"Li Weiyi... what are you doing here?"
Qi Shanshan looked around, finding it unbelievable.
In nearly two months, this was the first time Li Weiyi had seen Qi Shanshan wearing a pair of pink sneakers instead of high heels. He glanced toward the nine-story deckhouse that loomed like a mirage, doubts rising in his mind. Doctor Qi clearly knew the Ghost Bear Emperor was still alive—how had she dared to venture near this area alone?
Li Weiyi said, "Doctor Qi isn't afraid of the Ghost Bear Emperor?"
"Something terrible has happened!"
Qi Shanshan wore a grave expression as she walked toward him, slipping a hand into her pocket to grasp the damp medical swab inside. "Second Mate Xie Tianshu joined forces with a large group and launched a mutiny. The Bronze Ship is in total chaos right now. I had no other choice, so I braved the danger and fled over here. Didn't you hear the gunfire just now?"
"Gunfire? They made their move early?"
Li Weiyi hadn't heard any gunfire, guessing it must have happened while he was being dragged into the ice coffin. Though he still harbored suspicions toward Qi Shanshan, his senior brother's situation was bound to be critical, leaving no time to deliberate further.
*Whoosh!*
Flicking his toe, the scalding current surged wildly through the meridians in his leg, unleashing his full power in an instant.
The ten-foot black spear flew up, landing firmly in his grip, its tip ringing with a sharp quiver.
With the Yellow Dragon Sword in one hand and the long spear in the other, Li Weiyi stood tall and resolute, preparing to rush to the prow immediately.
Qi Shanshan, who had advanced to within five paces of him, witnessed this sight, her charming, lovely face filled with shock. "Your injuries have healed... Did Yutong give you Golden Crow blood to drink?"
Aside from Golden Crow blood, Qi Shanshan couldn't think of any other possibility that could allow someone whose arm was virtually ruined to recover within days. What was more, his strength was terrifyingly immense.
Li Weiyi had no time to explain to her.
"Come back!"
Qi Shanshan had no confidence in subduing a Li Weiyi who was this formidable, and seeing the clear wariness in his eyes, a new thought instantly crossed her mind.
She quietly slipped the medical swab back into her pocket, withdrew her hand, and murmured with deep concern, "Weiyi, your Sister Shanshan understands your worry for your senior brother, but they have guns. No matter how strong you are, a single bullet can still take your life. We have to plan this out carefully. Before we act, we need to at least clarify the situation and know how many people they have."
Chapter 15