Thriller Cruise

[Ding! The Spirit Realm map is activating. You will enter the Spirit Realm in thirty seconds. The Spirit Realm you will enter this time is "Thriller Cruise," serial number: 015.] [Difficulty Level: S] [Type: Solo (Lethal)] [Main Quest: Survive for five days.] [Remarks: Non-Spirit Realm items cannot be brought in.] [Introduction to Spirit Realm No. 015: In 1900, a cruise ship belonging to the Irish Commonwealth set out to sea on a secret mission. On its return voyage, the cruise ship vanished mysteriously, becoming an unsolved enigma for the Irish Commonwealth.] "Holy shit, an S-rank dungeon..." Zhang Yuanqing winced, wondering in exasperation whether he had forgotten to pay the Goddess of Luck her dues last night. The Black Heart's Disguise Character Card function would definitely fool the Spirit Realm. Matching into an S-rank trial, then, was not because of him; Beast Haas had been due for an S-rank Spirit Realm all along. Even though Beast Haas was a peak Saint, the probability of matching into an S-rank was still very low. He remembered that back when Fu Qingyang was in the Saint stage, A-ranks were the norm; only after clearing A-rank dungeons continuously for half a year was he likely to trigger an S-rank once. Beast Haas was no Fu Qingyang, so the odds of him getting one every six months were slim—more likely once a year. His luck was truly rotten to run into this. *A Level 6 S-rank Spirit Realm... Even I might be in mortal danger. But why is the trial set in the year 1900?* In the Second District, the background of a Level 6 Saint trial corresponded to the early Song dynasty or the late Tang dynasty. In the First District, it should correspond to the mid-Middle Ages—an era where vampires, werewolves, witches, and bounty hunters ran rampant. Why on earth was the setting 1900? As the thirty seconds expired, Zhang Yuanqing's vision blurred, rippling like water as he was about to be teleported into the dungeon. *Knock, knock!* After knocking twice, Zhang Yuanqing pushed open the heavy, brass-clad door. Stepping inside, his gaze swept across the luxuriously decorated private room. Catherine sat silently on the sofa in a long black dress, her exquisite, stunning features veiled beneath a layer of frost. "You failed!" Catherine said in a heavy voice. There was no trace of coquetry in her eyes or brow. In this moment, she finally exuded the majesty and oppressive aura of a Dominator-level big shot; otherwise, Zhang Yuanqing might have thought she was merely a little tramp who knew nothing but how to sway her hips and seduce men. Zhang Yuanqing gave a cold, impassive hum of acknowledgment. "Bacchus has returned to the Spirit Realm. Hecate probably isn't dead yet, but falling into Heaven's Punishment's hands is no different from being dead." Catherine curled her lips into a dangerous smile. "They're both done for. How come you aren't dead?" *Is that something a human being would say?! If I were the Demon Lord, I'd stuff your mouth so full you couldn't speak...* Zhang Yuanqing maintained a cold, aloof posture. "If the purpose of seeing me was to assign blame, then I believe I can leave now." Catherine narrowed her eyes and gazed deeply at him. "Our investigation revealed that after Jumang left the Heaven's Punishment building last night, he did not head straight to the distress scene. Instead, he drove to the Dessen River and traveled along the riverside road for fifteen minutes. And the moment he arrived at Dessen River Park, all nearby surveillance cameras malfunctioned, capturing nothing. "There were two commercial vans at the battle site, yet inside were only Jumang and a yin corpse—none of the other members of the Five Elements Alliance support team. This was a meticulously planned trap. Jumang knew in advance that an ambush awaited him last night. "Sect Master Tongtian, explain to me: why did Jumang know beforehand? Who leaked the operation? And explain further: why did both Bacchus and Hecate stumble, while you returned completely unscathed?" *As expected, she's asking about this...* Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself. Anything the Hunter Guild could dig up, Heaven's Punishment naturally could as well. But regarding this matter, the Operations Department had not pried deeply, granting him a great deal of leeway. Primarily, as far as Heaven's Punishment was concerned, no matter what methods or means Jumang had used, as the ultimate beneficiaries, they were entirely satisfied. There was no need to split hairs over minor details. In the Hunter Guild's eyes, however—dammit, a traitor had emerged among them! And who could that traitor be? Only so many people had known about the operation. If one had to single out a traitor, it would undoubtedly be Sect Master Tongtian, the outsider. Zhang Yuanqing had prepared a contingency plan long ago. Glancing at the spacious bath, he curled his lips in a sneer. "Do you need me to jump in there to tell you?" Without giving Catherine a chance to nod, he spoke rapidly: "Explain what? Explain just how useless Hecate and Bacchus are, or how useless your Hunter Guild's intelligence work is? You think I leaked the information? Ha! Then why would I even come here? Think I haven't lived long enough? Or did you think I just couldn't bear to leave a little tramp like you?" His tone was biting and malicious, paired with a sneer so punchable it begged for violence. This was the taunting technique Zhang Yuanqing had learned from Zhai Cai, the Sole-Inheritance Knight. Strike first and seize the initiative! Catherine's face darkened. Zhang Yuanqing's expression grew even darker than hers. Walking to the sofa, he planted his hands on the armrest and leaned down until his face was practically pressed against Catherine's, saying coldly: "You think I sold out Bacchus and Hecate and caused the mission to fail? Bacchus had a Dominator-grade item, yet from start to finish, the fight didn't even last ten minutes! Catherine, stop spending all day spreading your legs for men and use that brain of yours to think: why was that? "Because that bastard had Dominator-quality items, and more than one! Your Hunter Guild's intelligence-gathering ability is no better than garbage, and you still dare to come interrogate me? You people nearly got me killed! If my level weren't lower than yours, I'd have sent you back to the Spirit Realm already, you fucking bitch!" Veins bulged on his forehead. His expression was both sinister and contorted in rage. The feeling of aggrieved, explosive fury was so rich and genuine that it didn't look like acting in the slightest. Basic operating procedure for an Illusionist. Seeing Sect Master Tongtian flare up, Catherine actually calmed down. Pondering for a moment, she asked: "Jumang has Dominator-quality items? What kind of items?" Zhang Yuanqing snorted. "Six black talismans that can form a formation and conjure chains, and a short dagger with black and white sides." A short dagger with black and white sides... It sounded somewhat familiar to Catherine. Immediately after, as if recalling something, her expression turned slightly peculiar. Without a word, she picked up her phone and tapped and swiped across the screen for a moment. "Is it this dagger?!" She turned the phone screen toward Sect Master Tongtian. On the screen was a photo. The original image appeared to be a photo of someone holding a blade, but the wielder had been cropped out, leaving only a hand and a dagger with black and white sides. It was none other than the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade! "Yes, that's it!" Zhang Yuanqing nodded, then assumed a puzzled look. "How do you have a photo of it?" Catherine wore a look of realization. At that moment, her phone chimed with an incoming message. After reading it, Catherine turned the phone toward Sect Master Tongtian again: "Black paper talismans?" "That's them." Zhang Yuanqing nodded, his gaze darting toward the surveillance camera on the ceiling. Evidently, the Hunter Guild's President and the two Vice Presidents were currently behind that camera, watching this conversation unfold. Catherine already had her answer. She had seen the Demon Lord use the two-sided black-and-white dagger; it was called the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade. As for the black paper talismans, though their name was unknown, their previous owner had been Yuanshi Tianzun, and the owner before that had been a Dominator of the Nihility Sect. Yes, Catherine had confirmed that the two Dominator items Jumang wielded were the legacy of Yuanshi Tianzun. In the Five Elements Alliance support team, there was a swordswoman named Guan Ya who, according to intelligence reports, had been Yuanshi Tianzun's girlfriend. Furthermore, the direct superior of this team was Fu Qingyang. It was common knowledge that Fu Qingyang and Yuanshi Tianzun shared an intimate bond; within the Five Elements Alliance, their fortunes rose and fell together. Recently, the Hunter Guild had even gathered scandal gossip regarding Fu Qingyang and Yuanshi Tianzun, allegedly leaked to Heaven's Punishment members by a Night Wanderer in the support team. Based on these two connections, it was hardly surprising that Jumang could borrow Yuanshi Tianzun's items. "Those items are all Yuanshi Tianzun's legacy," Catherine explained briefly, then continued questioning him: "How did you escape?" "I hid inside Hecate's dream." Zhang Yuanqing's answer was airtight. "Hiding in a dream... A smart move!" Catherine nodded slightly and probed, "How do you think Jumang knew he was about to be ambushed?" "Either through stargazing or divination." Zhang Yuanqing offered a guess fitting his Second District persona. Catherine nodded, asking no more. Picking up the handbag beside her, she fished out a bank card and said, "Though the mission failed, the Hunter Guild never mistreats its members. There are five hundred thousand Federal Dollars in this card—compensation from the organization." Watching Sect Master Tongtian leave with the bank card, the brass door with its excellent soundproofing swinging shut behind him, Catherine lifted her eyes toward the surveillance camera and said: "President, Vice Presidents, do you believe Sect Master Tongtian leaked the intelligence? I still cannot understand how Jumang knew in advance that we were going to ambush him." No one answered her. But a few minutes later, Catherine's phone chimed with an incoming message. Unlocking it with her fingerprint, she checked the message. It was a video—one that had gone viral on the Heaven's Punishment forum some time ago: the footage of Yuanshi Tianzun taking on three peak Saints single-handedly. Catherine didn't need to click open the video, for she already understood. No one had leaked the operation. The reason Jumang had seen through the ambush in advance was the result of stargazing by the Night Wanderer in his team. Yuanshi Tianzun possessed an astrolabe that assisted with stargazing! That astrolabe had allowed him, a novice who had ascended to Stargazer for merely three months, to possess stargazing capabilities comparable to a veteran Stargazer. And that astrolabe, without a doubt, was now in the hands of the Five Elements Alliance support team. *** As the scene shifted from blurry to clear, Zhang Yuanqing saw a view where the sea met the sky in a single hue, the azure ocean reflecting the azure sky. He stood on the deck of a cruise ship, facing the ocean breeze and bathed in sunlight. His clothes had not changed, and when he felt his face, that had not changed either. It was not a role-playing dungeon. The cruise ship was enormous, so large that Zhang Yuanqing could not take it all in at once. On the deck, several sailors dressed in naval uniforms and carrying firearms patrolled about, while deckhands carrying hoses, buckets, brushes, and other tools were busy washing down the deck. Zhang Yuanqing activated Astral Travel. His spirit detached from his body and floated up into the sky. Looking down from above, he finally saw the full picture of the ship: it was a small-to-medium cruise ship, about fifty meters long, its hull coated in white paint, with two decks in total. Two thick funnels rose from the ship, billowing rolling plumes of black smoke. Under gentle sea breezes, the steamship sailed across the ocean, leaving a ten-meter-wide wake of deep blue water in its path. At the bow, sailors were washing down the deck with brushes and hoses, while up on the tall crow's nest, a lookout in a naval uniform with a rifle slung over his back had a cigarette dangling from his lips, lazily keeping watch. *A cruise ship from over a century ago... 1900. Just five years after the First Sino-Japanese War ended, fourteen years before World War I, and sixteen years after the First District opened... Mmh, this was also the beginning of the Irish Commonwealth's decline.* Zhang Yuanqing reviewed the knowledge he had learned from textbooks. *Everything on the ship appears normal...* He shifted his gaze toward the far end of the horizon. The ocean surface was equally devoid of abnormalities. *The Spirit Realm introduction said this cruise ship mysteriously vanished on its return voyage and became an unsolved enigma. My main quest is to survive for five days, which means the ship will disappear within five days.* *This is an Aberrant dungeon, and the hallmark of Aberrants is all sorts of bizarre beasts. Uh, don't tell me we'll run into deep-sea monsters on the return voyage? I have thalassophobia, dammit...* While grumbling internally, Zhang Yuanqing lowered his spirit body and returned to his physical form. He planned to scout for information first. There had to be a reason behind the ship's disappearance; it could not be as simple as suffering a shipwreck or a monster attack, or it would not warrant an S-rank difficulty. "Hey there, brave soldiers!" Zhang Yuanqing stopped two patrolling naval ratings and smiled. "Do you know who I am?" The two sailors snapped to attention, saluted, and barked: "Yes, Lieutenant Haas!" *Lieutenant? What rank is a lieutenant? Whatever, as long as I'm not a regular private!* This was outside Zhang Yuanqing's wheelhouse. As a military ignoramus who had not even played kriegspiel, he could barely distinguish the hierarchy between corps commander, division commander, and commander-in-chief. "Who holds the highest rank on this ship? Where can I find them?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.