Jiuying

The research ship's cabins were arranged three below and seven above, with the deck located on the fourth level of the cabins. The dining hall, the boarding hall, and the work area were all on this level. The people who had just been enjoying the view on deck hurriedly squeezed into the boarding hall. Although it was Li Weiyi's first time facing such an emergency, he showed extraordinary composure, staying calm in the face of danger. He ushered all the expedition members through the hatch and was the last to leave the deck, locking the hatch tightly behind him. In just those two short minutes, the purple-black bear-like creature had already crossed three or four kilometers of ice plain and arrived beneath the Longji. "Whoosh—" With a single leap. Its massive, powerful body vaulted onto the ship's rail several meters high and landed heavily on the deck with a thud. The floor of the boarding hall trembled. Up close, its entire body was covered in long fur, like a layer of purple-black iron armor. Its eyes were larger than human fists and colored purple-red. The teeth in its mouth were sharp, like a saw. Its facial features had already begun to approach those of a human. Even through the thick special glass, one could feel its ferocious terror, and even Li Weiyi felt chills rising in his heart. Fortunately, the cabin windows were small, so there was no need to worry about it breaking in through them. "Boom!" The bear-like creature suddenly charged and slammed into the just-closed hatch. The entire boarding hall resounded with a crackling din, and the special glass developed numerous cracks. Many expedition members screamed. The boarding hall was in chaos. Some took the stairs, some took the elevator, fleeing to the higher cabins. The hatch of the Longji polar research ship used alloy material and a multi-layer design to keep out the cold and resist wind pressure. Even though the purple-black bear-like creature had immense strength, it still could not smash it open directly. But Li Weiyi noticed that the hull structure around the hatch had begun to deform. It was only a matter of time before it was broken open. "Move everything usable over here and block the hatch!" Li Weiyi shouted. The boarding hall was noisy and chaotic. Everyone just wanted to escape this most dangerous area as quickly as possible, and no one responded to him. The cabinets and equipment on the research ship were all designed to resist waves and were connected in a fixed manner. Li Weiyi finally managed to detach a storage cabinet from the boarding hall and was about to push it over to block the hatch when he heard Xie Jin, who had just arrived, shout, "What are you doing?" Xie Jin and seven security group members had taken weapons such as stun guns, protective shields, and tear gas and rushed into the boarding hall. They were tall and sturdy, with firm, sharp eyes—elites selected through layer after layer of screening. "He's trying to tear the ship apart?" someone joked with a laugh. "Just a bear, and you're scared like this?" ... "Boom!" The purple-black bear-like creature rammed for the fourth time. The area around the hatch was severely deformed and showed signs of tearing. The deafening sound was like artillery shelling the hull. The eight security group members, including Xie Jin, once they clearly saw the enormous creature outside the window, even though they were elites, were all frightened pale and felt suffocated and terrified. As if suffering bloodline suppression. What kind of bear was this? It was simply like a prehistoric monster, enormous and hideous, completely beyond comprehension. If it were captured on film and reported... "Click!" The sound of a shutter rang out inopportunely in the boarding hall. The short student who liked to recite poetry and tell myths had actually not fled, but was taking photos by the window. Facing everyone's gazes, he awkwardly put away his camera and explained, "My field is ecology and environmental biology. This is absolutely a new species never before seen on Earth, a truly earth-shattering discovery. With this discovery, our polar expedition will surely cause a sensation across the nation... the whole world..." "Boom!" The fifth impact came. The hull around the hatch cracked and tore, and the largest crack grew as wide as a palm. Cold air poured in, and everyone in the boarding hall was horrified. "I'll help you push." The short student shuddered in fright and hurriedly ran to Li Weiyi's side. Together with him, he pushed the storage cabinet over to the hatch to block it. But this was clearly not enough. Xie Jin had already come to his senses and hurriedly ordered all the security group members to go detach and move the cabinets, desks, and chairs. This bear-like creature was simply like something mutated by nuclear radiation; it was not something the weapons in their hands could fight at all. Once it broke in, everyone on the research ship would be nothing but its flesh-and-blood rations. "Rumble, rumble!" The sound of the propeller rose outside. While the bear-like creature was ramming the hatch, the helicopter had already been pushed out of the hangar. At this moment, the helicopter hovered in midair. Zhao Meng, wearing sunglasses and holding a rifle, aimed at the purple-black bear-like creature. "So the ship has an American-style scoop net. Now we're safe—just a false alarm." The short student relaxed and let out a cheer. The bear-like creature on the deck was very perceptive. Sensing danger, the fur over its entire body stood on end like foot-long steel needles. It rose up on its hind legs and roared with a hiss toward the distant helicopter. Its voice surpassed that of lions and tigers, high and shrill like a startling thunderclap. "Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and the bear-shaped creature was hit in the head. Before the people on the ship could cheer, the bear-like creature's even more furious roar echoed across the ice plain. It tore a metal device off the research ship and hurled it into the air, trying to knock the helicopter down. Fortunately, the helicopter climbed a step ahead and narrowly avoided it. Blood seeped from where the bear-like creature's head had been struck, but it was not badly hurt—only slightly wounded. "Even a rifle can't punch through its skull. Is it even carbon-based life?" The short student's scalp went numb and his legs trembled without stop, his earlier confidence in the American-style scoop net gone. Li Weiyi's face showed worry. This bear-like creature was highly intelligent and capable of fighting back. If the helicopter were hit, the consequences would be unthinkable. His senior martial brother was on the helicopter. Li Weiyi looked around and spotted the weapons on Xie Jin and the others. He said anxiously, "Why haven't you used the tear gas yet?" Without waiting for a reply, he had already snatched one from Xie Jin's body, opened it, and thrown it out through the crack in the hatch. In an instant, thick smoke billowed outside. Although Xie Jin was displeased, he also knew the situation was critical and it was no time to flare up. He merely ordered, with a dark face, that everyone use all the tear gas. On the helicopter, Zhao Meng grew furious too and pulled the trigger again and again. "Bang! Bang! Bang..." The bear-shaped creature had already learned its lesson and knew the power of bullets. It no longer took them head-on with its body, but dodged swiftly. It could sprint three or four kilometers at the fastest speed of a cheetah, and its jumping and dodging reflexes were naturally just as quick and sharp. Fortunately, Zhao Meng was a superb marksman, and with the interference of the tear gas, before two magazines were emptied, he successfully drove it away from the research ship. Li Weiyi rushed to the helipad at once and helped Zhao Meng and the others push the helicopter back into the hangar. "It hasn't left. It's watching from a distance and could launch a second attack at any moment." Zhao Meng's expression was extremely grim. The Longji was a research ship and carried quite limited ammunition. Only three bullets were left in the magazine. "Now we can only trust in heaven! Just now, up in the sky, I saw dark clouds and fierce wind in the distance. A blizzard is coming." Zhao Meng warned Li Weiyi to be careful, then hurried off to the bridge to discuss borrowing a gun with the captain. There was still a shotgun in Lab 705. But whether it could do any harm to that bear-like creature, Zhao Meng had no confidence at all. ... * * * The bridge was located on the tenth level of the cabins, also the highest level of the entire research ship. When Zhao Meng entered the bridge, Captain Gao Xin, second mate Xie Tianshu, and five research group leaders including Professor Xu had already gathered inside. The atmosphere was very heavy. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the electronic chart and the seabed monitoring system screen ahead. On the screen was displayed a three-dimensional image of the marine life beneath the ship. One could see it. A marine creature larger than the Longji was slowly keeping pace with the ship in the seawater a hundred meters below, moving in the direction the research ship was traveling. It had to be two hundred meters long, with nine thick tentacles. It was unimaginable what kind of powerful undercurrents such a giant could stir up while moving underwater. "First a mutated bear-like creature appears, and now another one at the bottom of the sea. How can Earth have such enormous life forms?" Everyone on the bridge was stunned. "Could it be a giant squid?" "This is many times bigger than a giant squid!" "The largest known marine creature, the blue whale, is only about thirty-some meters long and nearly two hundred tons. But before this, it's like a newborn baby. This deep-sea giant, I'd say, is at least ten thousand tons." ... Professor Xu was a biology expert. He straightened his glasses and stared at the screen, shaking his head. "Look, each of its nine tentacles is tipped with a head shaped like a human's. Its body and trunk are like a giant ox. It's incredible—absolutely another new species never before seen on Earth." "That is Jiuying." At the door of the bridge appeared an old man wearing a dark blue Zhongshan suit. He was the head of Lab 705. No one knew his name; everyone called him Director Yang. "Jiuying?" Professor Xu had never heard of such a creature. Director Yang walked into the bridge and stood before the screen. In a low voice, he said, "Jiuying is a fierce beast from myth and legend, recorded in the 《Huainanzi · Benjing Xun》. Legend has it that it lived in the North Sea, that its cry was like an infant wailing, that it had nine heads, devoured people on sight, and could spew water and breathe fire. But I never imagined it would be this enormous." Just then, one of the research group leaders was about to rebuke him for "not talking science, but theology." Director Yang bowed deeply to everyone and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, everyone! These fierce beasts were most likely drawn here by that thing in Lab 705. I am sorry for leading you all into danger." Zhao Meng was a straightforward man and had long been holding back a bellyful of anger. "What on earth is your Lab 705 researching? Today you must give everyone an explanation." Captain Gao Xin clearly knew some of the inside story. He looked at Director Yang. "The situation is already very dangerous. Both sea and land are being targeted by abnormal fierce beasts, and no one knows what we will face next. I think we must tell them the truth." Director Yang nodded. "Everyone, come with me to Lab 705... you'll see for yourselves." ... * * * Li Weiyi returned to his own cabin and, from a wooden box under the bed, took out an ancient sword a little over four chi long. It was heavy in his hand, with an ebony scabbard. He drew the sword out half a chi, revealing a blade of brass-like material. Li Weiyi knew very well that this sword was by no means cast from brass. It was the Chan Sect's treasure, second only to the Daozu Taiji Fish. From childhood on, he had never once seen the old sect master sharpen or polish it, yet it always stayed sharp and never showed the slightest rust. The Daozu Taiji Fish was the token of the sect leader; in his view, it held only symbolic meaning. The Chan Sect's true number-one divine weapon had to be this Yellow Dragon Sword. He sheathed the sword. Sword in hand, Li Weiyi went downstairs to the boarding hall. Although Zhao Meng had told him he need not consider himself a member of the security group, since he had enjoyed the treatment of a security group member, he could not just hide away when danger came. And how long could he hide anyway? When the nest is overturned, no egg stays whole. The hatch of the boarding hall had already been tightly blocked with cabinets and desks and chairs. Most of the security group members were guarding here, holding various weapons, ready for battle. Seeing Li Weiyi come down the stairs, they all showed looks of surprise. "This college student has some guts and a sense of responsibility!" For the first time in over a month, they gave him a positive assessment in their hearts. The light dimmed, and the sky hung gloomy and gray. A blizzard was coming. Beyond the broken cabin windows, the wind went from a whisper, gradually turned into a roar, and then swept across the entire ice plain.