Only after Qi Shanshan had completely bandaged Li Weiyi's wrist did she finally straighten up. Setting down the shears, she said, "I ate her!"
Standing behind her, Qin Ke gave a start of fright.
Lately, she had often heard members of the expedition group saying that their food supplies would soon run out, and that horrifying acts of cannibalism might break out in the future.
Qi Shanshan turned around to face Li Weiyi, who sat watching her calmly, and huffed in annoyance, "All you care about is your Senior Cai—it's almost enough to make me jealous! Rest easy, she's completely safe."
She knew very well that Li Weiyi hadn't asked offhandedly.
He was testing her.
That was why her answer was so earnest. She continued, "None of you have any sharp eyes. Days ago, I noticed Xie Tianshu and Kong Fan meeting in secret all the time. This morning, right after the gloom-clouds scattered and the rest of you were studying the ancient script, the two of them crept suspiciously into the kitchen tent.
"I didn't dare follow them, and I couldn't be sure what they were planning, but I knew something was wrong. Just to be safe, I grabbed Yutong and hid away.
"If nothing happened, great. If something did go wrong, at least we'd have a head start in hiding."
Li Weiyi detected no flaw in Qi Shanshan's gaze or expression, and her explanation was watertight. He quickly rose to his feet with a self-deprecating smile. "Don't answer so seriously. It makes it feel like an interrogation."
"Weren't you interrogating me?"
Pouting with feigned annoyance, Qi Shanshan turned and walked toward the exit of the medical tent.
Li Weiyi followed her, intending to apologize. After all, when he first crashed onto the Bronze Ship, she had essentially saved half his life. And during the earlier clash with Lab 705, had she not thrown her cross pendant to help him, it was hard to say whether he or Han Qin would have emerged victorious.
Qi Shanshan suddenly spun around, and Li Weiyi, hot on her heels, collided straight into her. She let out a dainty gasp of pain, furrowing her brow, and lightly patted his chest. "Why are you walking so fast? You hurt me!"
Then her tone grew serious. "I still have something to tell you. Your senior brother's injuries are grave. The bones in his arms and knees are comminuted fractures, and his blood vessels and nerves have suffered catastrophic damage. Given our current medical resources on this ship... you need to be prepared. Even if he pulls through, I'm afraid he'll be bedridden and paralyzed for the rest of his life."
With soft warmth pressed against his chest and the other party showing no hurry to step away, Li Weiyi had zero inclination to indulge in it. He hurried back inside the medical tent, mobilizing the scorching qi from the sole of his right foot up to his palm, intending to channel it into his senior brother's wounds.
Yet as soon as his hand pressed against him, he halted.
The hot qi could only circulate through silver trace veins. Senior Brother Zhao had no trace veins within him; forcing it inside would likely inflict secondary trauma.
It would be like striking him with a palm strike.
*Senior Brother also practiced the Yuxu Breathing Method. Once he wakes up and continues cultivating with it, he might develop that miraculous hot qi on his own. But...*
*With both of his legs broken like this, can scorching qi still emerge from the soles of his feet?*
A suffocating weight settled over Li Weiyi's chest, as heavy as a thousand-jin boulder. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. He even wondered if feeding Senior Brother Zhao the blood of the Black Flood Dragon might heal his wounds.
Yet recalling Xie Tianshu's monstrous form, he simply could not bring himself to make such a choice on his senior brother's behalf.
Right then.
From far away toward the bow, outside the medical tent, the faint, plaintive voice of a woman singing drifted on the wind.
"A broad river flows wide with surging waves,
The wind wafts the scent of rice blossoms to both shores.
My home sits right upon the bank,
Used to the boatman's work songs,
Used to the white sails upon the water..."
...
Who was singing?
Just as Li Weiyi and Qi Shanshan stood bewildered, Qin Ke realized something. "It's Liu Ying! We searched for her earlier but couldn't find her, and we assumed she had hidden in the forest of graves..."
"Not good!"
Li Weiyi and Qi Shanshan dashed out of the medical tent, one after the other.
Wrapped in a grimy, filth-stained blanket, Liu Ying sat perched upon the bulwark at the bow, her legs dangling over the edge into empty air.
Her face, her legs, and the shoulders and arms left bare outside the blanket were covered in purple bruises and cuts.
Her eyes held only hollow despair, steeped in memories of home, her parents, and the safe, lawful society she had once known. Tears streamed down her cheeks. The ocean wind whipped her long hair into disarray, rendering her weeping melody hoarse and low, until she was practically murmuring the final line: "Everywhere... shines... the sunlight of peace..."
Hurried footsteps rushed up from behind.
Without a single trace of reluctance, she leaned forward and fell.
Li Weiyi saw her plunge with his own eyes, barely a dozen paces away, but the bulwark was already empty.
Qi Shanshan and Qin Ke caught up, panting heavily.
Qin Ke rushed to the edge of the bulwark, but she didn't dare look down. Anyone could imagine that Liu Ying was already being torn apart and devoured by the restless souls drifting in the seawater. Helpless tears cascaded from her eyes like rain.
Qi Shanshan stepped forward to comfort her. "After enduring something like that, how could she go on living? It's all right, don't be afraid. With Weiyi here, nothing like that will ever happen on this ship again. He will protect us."
Li Weiyi's heart was laden with grief and fury. Gripping his longsword, he turned without a word and walked toward the forest of graves shrouded in nether mist.
Passing by the dying Chen Hong, he abandoned any notion of leaving him for Senior Brother Zhao to take revenge in person. A single punch smashed through Chen Hong's chest. Then, hoisting the limp body, Li Weiyi hurled him into the sea like a sack of trash.
Did scum like them still count as human?
They were worse than garbage.
...
Except for Xie Jin, the other four who had fled were all dragged out of the forest of graves.
One had buried himself in the grave earth, leaving only his nose and mouth exposed.
Yet his breathing and heartbeat remained. As long as Li Weiyi was close enough, nothing could escape his heightened hearing.
Upon learning that Liu Ying had jumped into the sea, Gao Huan and several of Professor Xu's students beat the two security group members who had abused her within an inch of their lives. In the end, amidst a swelling wave of fury, the crowd shoved them straight into the Soul Sea.
Faintly, Li Weiyi caught the distant chime of camel bells from the depths of the forest of graves again. He promptly ran the Yuxu Breathing Method, restoring his mind to pristine clarity, deep suspicion rising within him.
As for the remaining two mutineers, they naturally received severe beatings as well.
Yet they were not cast into the Soul Sea.
Someone proposed that they could be used for experiments.
After Xie Tianshu mutated into a flood dragon form, bizarre and terrifying though he appeared, he had acquired genuine supernatural power. Perhaps he could live for a century or several centuries, just like the demons and monsters of legend.
Compared to supernatural power and longevity, what did sacrificing a normal human appearance matter?
The truly strong never suffered from aesthetic anxiety.
Li Weiyi did not object. He held the same view as Zhao Meng.
Once a person bared their fangs, they were no longer human!
This was not a case of the dragon slayer becoming the dragon; it was simply that toward one's enemies, not an ounce of mercy or soft-heartedness could be spared. Such people would never feel gratitude. They would only nurse deep resentment in the dark, waiting for a moment of weakness to strike you dead without a burial.
Besides, Li Weiyi wanted to test the carcass blood of the Black Flood Dragon to determine whether there was any hope of saving his senior brother.
...
Too much had transpired in a single day.
After disposing of every corpse—either thrown into the sea or buried—everyone was completely exhausted.
At first, no one could sleep. They built campfires and huddled close together, terrified that another uprising might erupt.
Moreover, Xie Jin had still not been found. Like a thorn lodged deep in their flesh, his absence left them on edge.
Yet past midnight, weariness finally took its toll. Aside from the two keeping watch, the rest fell asleep right by the fire.
Li Weiyi walked alone to the far end of the Bronze Ship, stopping beneath the carcass of the Black Flood Dragon.
Wearing the dragon-patterned thumb ring on his left thumb, he stroked the dragon blood that had frozen into purplish-red ice crystals at the severed wound. In an instant, the chilling air frosted his fingers white.
The dragon-patterned thumb ring indeed reacted, its carved dragon scales glowing faintly.
The very first words Xie Tianshu had uttered after his flood dragon mutation were: "This severed arm of mine is all thanks to you. Neither the Black Flood Dragon's blood nor the dragon-patterned thumb ring could make it grow back."
Back then, Li Weiyi had already suspected that Xie Tianshu's demonic transformation had relied on the aid of the thumb ring.
Their experiments on the two expedition members that afternoon had corroborated his theory.
The first had drunk the dragon blood without wearing the ring, and his skin had swiftly ruptured and burst.
In the end, he bled to death.
The second had worn the ring before drinking the blood and successfully survived. When his own blood was used to soak the ring, the flood dragon mutation began shortly thereafter.
Of course, no one dared let him complete the transformation into a monster. Just as the metamorphosis neared its end, they pulled the ring off him.
With the mutation violently interrupted, his death was far more gruesome than the first subject's.
Nearly all of his flesh and blood had exploded outward.
"No matter what, this remains a way to save Senior Brother," Li Weiyi muttered softly under his breath.
The nether mist drifted somberly.
Illuminated by the distant radiance of the Golden Crow carcass, the Sea of Graves and Forest of Steles before him radiated an uncanny eeriness amidst the silence.
A familiar wisp of perfume drifted toward him on the breeze.
Though Li Weiyi's sense of smell was not quite as exaggerated as the Ghost Bear Emperor's, it was far beyond that of ordinary mortals.
He knew who was coming.
His waiting here had been for her all along.
Silently, Li Weiyi slipped behind the massive carcass of the Black Flood Dragon. Gradually, light footfalls approached, and a tall, slender silhouette passed by the carcass, quickening her pace toward the nine-story deckhouse.
Stepping out from the shadows, Li Weiyi watched as that familiar, graceful back slipped into the passage between the deckhouse and the bulwark, heading toward the stern.
Along the zhang-wide passage stood countless human-shaped stone figurines with varying expressions, made all the more sinister by the nether mist. Yet Qi Shanshan showed not the slightest fear, weaving effortlessly between them.
On the first floor of the deckhouse, every cabin door was cast from bronze, standing over a zhang tall. Heavy beyond measure, they were impossible for mere mortal strength to budge.
Halfway down the passage, the nether mist began to dissolve.
In its place spread an ethereal haze of celestial radiance, like sheer silk and drifting smoke.
The bronze vessel, previously resembling a ghost barge of the dead, seemed transformed—as though it had become a jade hall or palace barge belonging to immortals.
The stern and the bow were two entirely different worlds.
Chapter 20