Chapter 10: Strange Tales on the Ship

For the next two days, Li Youyi did not get out of bed, looking sickly.

In reality, he was completely immersed in the exploration of the extraordinary realm, and the number of silver trace veins in his body had increased to thirteen. This meant he had thirteen routes for moving Qi.

After many attempts thereafter, he could not find a way to increase the silver trace veins again.

Fortunately, the thirteen trace veins had initially covered his entire body. Using them as channels for the scorching Qi flow to nourish his flesh, tendons, and bones, Li Youyi had completely transformed in just two days. His hearing and vision were sharp, his five senses were keen, and his physical functions had increased to an unknown level.

His body seemed to have endless power, as if he could kill a cow with one punch.

The recovery speed of his left arm injury was incredibly fast; the wound had initially healed and scabbed over, and he could perform simple lifting and grasping. As long as he didn't exert too much force, there was no pain.

Such a self-healing speed was completely beyond common sense and incomprehensible.

Li Youyi estimated that under the nourishment of the scorching Qi flow, he would fully recover in another two or three days.

If it weren't for the need to hide his strength to avoid being suspected of really having swallowed the Buddha’s sarira, Li Youyi would have wanted to go outside immediately to test his current physical fitness. He felt that his current speed and strength would probably startle even himself.

However, he had been getting hungry very quickly these two days, with a voracious appetite, and no matter how much he ate, he couldn't get full.

This formed a sharp contrast with Professor Xu in the hospital bed next to him, who had no appetite. Therefore, most of the meals sent by the students to Professor Xu ended up in his stomach.

"Since I can't open up any more silver trace veins, I’ll stop exploring the extraordinary realm for now. I’ll go outside to see what the situation on the bronze ship is like... and find something to eat by the way."

For the past two days, he had only heard people say things like "the bronze ship is huge and sometimes gets lost in the fog," "the tomb forest is eerie, with strange sounds from time to time," "the Jin Wu corpse is as huge as a mountain, its brilliance illuminating the darkness, and its heat resisting the bitter cold," etc., but he had no concept of it in his heart.

With his injuries healing and extraordinary power to rely on, Li Youyi felt more confident and no longer had the confusion and anxiety of two days ago.

A person’s self-confidence either stems from sufficient capital, comes from superior strength, or possesses a solid backing, and is by no means like a castle in the air where someone encourages you to be confident and you immediately become confident.

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down; Li Youyi didn't want to be pushed to the forefront because he was too special, so he still acted like a normal patient, pretending to sit up with difficulty, his feet slowly searching for the ground.

"Little Brother Li, why are you getting out of bed? Do you need help?"

Gao Huan’s injury wasn't too serious; the sprain on his neck had recovered, and his broken right arm was still bound with wooden boards and wrapped in gauze. It just so happened that he was also getting up, preparing to relieve himself.

Li Youyi walked out of the medical tent with Gao Huan.

When he saw the scene on the bronze deck outside, even though he was mentally prepared, Li Youyi was still greatly shocked, and a chill rushed straight to his forehead along his spine.

It was like the underworld, filled with tombstones, grave mounds, ghost flags, and prayer flags, with ghostly mist swirling, and visibility severely limited. Above was the dark, gloomy cloud, very close to the deck, pressing down on his head, giving people an extremely oppressive and stifling feeling.

They had said earlier that one could only see three or four rows of grave mounds within their field of vision, and entering the tomb forest was like being in a maze.

Li Youyi’s eyes had been nourished by the scorching Qi flow, so he could see further.

Seven or eight rows of grave mounds were all in his field of vision, and the mist didn't block his sight within a hundred meters.

However, the deck was five hundred meters wide, and it still had a mysterious and profound feeling of "being in this mountain, but the clouds are too deep to know where," making people feel awe.

The only light source was the Jin Wu corpse that the research team members kept talking about. It was said that viewing it up close was extremely shocking; it had been dead for endless years, yet its feathers still had an extremely high temperature, and its light was brilliant.

But Li Youyi, separated by the distant ghostly mist, could only see a large patch of dark red light.

Like a dark red mountain, he couldn't see the outline or details of the corpse.

"At the very beginning, there was no fog at all on the bronze ship. It was only after we set sail that the ghostly mist became thicker and thicker."

"I heard that many strange things have happened. Some people in the tomb forest have encountered a camel caravan of ghosts, the camel bells ringing, and in the end, the caravan walked into a tombstone with a ghost flag and disappeared."

"Others say that once, while walking in the tomb forest, they heard the sound of chains and the harsh sound of claws scratching metal from deep underground. I’m afraid there is an unknown great terror sealed inside this ship, but I don't know how to get in; there’s simply no entrance to be found."

"We definitely fell into the legendary underworld. Remember the giant beast Nine-Infant that flipped the research ship? It was captured by a golden claw. I tell you, it was definitely the divine claw of the Kunpeng."

"How big is the Kunpeng? I don't know how many thousands of miles it is; Zhuangzi saw it with his own eyes when he dreamed of traveling in the underworld."

"The underworld is terrifying and vast. It invaded Earth during the Xia and Shang dynasties. At that time, the gods on Earth thought it was a demon that had run out of the North Sea. No one could have thought that the underworld was hidden in the microscopic world."

After relieving himself, Gao Huan pulled Li Youyi to talk about some messy myths and legends and his own conjectures. When asked where he knew them from, he would name some obscure books, all of which Li Youyi had never heard of.

After finding some food in the kitchen tent and filling his stomach.

The two passed by a patch of small new graves, and Gao Huan felt a bit melancholy: "When we set off, the entire Longji had a total of 117 people, and only 82 survived, of which more than a dozen were seriously injured."

On the deck, a total of three medical tents were set up.

The medical tent where Li Youyi and Gao Huan were located was close to the ship’s side, just one of them.

"Being alive is not necessarily a blessing." Li Youyi thought of the near future, where everyone on the ship might break out into conflict due to the shortage of food and water, and then step by step move toward destruction, and his mood became very heavy.

The microscopic world must be different from Earth. If there is no land to dock, relying on the current supplies, they won't last long.

Li Youyi heard that the research team members used ropes tied to iron buckets to try to fetch water from the dim, invisible sea, and it took more than a hundred meters to find the sea surface.

But they encountered a huge, strange force that almost pulled the team member fetching the water down. They tried many times, and it was always like this.

They could hear the sound of waves, but they couldn't fetch the water up.

There were unknown dangers in the sea.

"You are so right!"

Gao Huan looked around and whispered: "I heard that in order to solve the problem of food and water, the top management decided to conduct tests and experiments on the blood in the corpses of the Jin Wu and the Black Jiao. Dr. Cai performed the operation herself, and the test results were given yesterday. I don't know if it can be drunk directly."

"I also heard that Xie Tianshu proposed using those who were seriously injured for experiments. If successful, the seriously injured might be able to recover. If it fails, it can also save a lot of food and water."

"But this proposal was collectively opposed by the top management. In my opinion, it will be implemented sooner or later. When there is not much food and water left and the living environment deteriorates, they will hypocritically ask the seriously injured for their own wishes. In fact, the seriously injured have no other choice."

"When the seriously injured are used up, it will be our turn, the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Everywhere is cannibalism, and the hierarchy of three, six, and nine is clearly divided."

Li Youyi said: "Perhaps there is another way."

Gao Huan was very curious and asked: "What way?"

Li Youyi pointed to the tall grave mounds in front.

He saw Cai Yutong leading more than a dozen research team members, digging up the gray-white soil on the grave mounds, and laying it out on the deck near the ship’s side into three plots of land about half an acre in size.

Next to the land, several bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and seeds of various vegetables were prepared.

Several buckets of Black Jiao and Jin Wu corpse blood were fetched and prepared on the side.

Gao Huan laughed loudly: "Dr. Cai still has a way. That’s right, we can experiment with plants first. And the water on the research ship is still relatively sufficient; we can completely plant some vegetables and melons and be self-sufficient."

Cai Yutong heard the laughter and looked at the two, then walked over with a cold face: "Who let you leave the medical tent? The wind on the deck is so cold, your body is weak, can you take it? You just got a little better, and you started messing around?"

"She’s talking about you!" Li Youyi whispered.

Gao Huan was stunned, meeting Cai Yutong’s gaze, and explained with a stutter: "I... I’m not that weak, I’m not messing around, I just came out to pee..."

"It’s none of your business."

Walking to within a step or two, Cai Yutong gave another lecture and warning, wishing she could send Li Youyi back to the medical tent with her eyes.

This senior sister’s personality was a bit strong.

But she was the one who gave blood and took care of him, so in front of her, Li Youyi really didn't have much temper.

After letting her scold him enough, Li Youyi said in as gentle a tone as possible: "Senior sister, your emotions have been unstable recently. If you have any pressure or need help, you must tell me in time. Perhaps I can help."

Li Youyi felt that the reason Cai Yutong was so "hostile" was likely because the pressure from those leaders was too great. Maybe someone had already forced her to use living people for experiments.

Gao Huan clearly misunderstood, and followed up by saying: "Drink more hot water, pay attention to keeping warm."

By the time Cai Yutong reacted, the two had already slipped away quickly.

"Too scary! Little Brother Li, take my advice, no matter how beautiful or how good her figure is, you can't have a female doctor." Gao Huan said with lingering fear.

Li Youyi smiled: "You’ve misunderstood this greatly. We are just alumni, and we’ve only known each other for a few days."

"Alumni? Can a simple alumnus care about you so much? She has said more to you than to everyone else combined, and she even fed you fish soup. I have a large group of classmates on the ship; look at who sent me fish soup? Let alone feeding me!" Gao Huan said.

"Senior sister is cold on the outside but warm on the inside; that’s her personality."

Li Youyi looked at the dark red light spot in the distant mist that looked like a mountain, unable to restrain the curiosity in his heart: "I want to go see the Black Jiao corpse and the Jin Wu corpse."

In his mind, he recalled the strange scene on the bronze ship he saw when his body kept shrinking after falling into the Arctic Ocean.

At its clearest, the bronze ship was the size of a fishing boat, right before his eyes.

He clearly saw that there were two powers, celestial brilliance and ghostly mist, covering the ship. The celestial brilliance was located at the stern of the ship, where there was a unique and gorgeous ancient-style building, like a palace where gods lived.

What was there?

"Let’s go together; I haven't seen them with my own eyes either. Those are the legendary two great divine beasts. You say, how did they die? Why are they still emitting light and heat after death?"

"It’s too incredible. This ship must come from some brilliant and magnificent wild world, and it may be taking us there."

Gao Huan was quite excited and walked with Li Youyi toward the dark red light spot at the stern of the ship, and said again: "Actually, with your special relationship with Dr. Cai, you should quietly inquire about the real news. If the blood of the Jin Wu and the Black Jiao can really be drunk, let’s drink a few cups first. This is no different from eating immortal pills and spiritual medicine, right? Maybe the arm will recover as before the next day."

Li Youyi said: "I really don't have any special relationship with Senior sister! Besides, if the blood of the Jin Wu and the Black Jiao could be drunk directly, why would Senior sister take people to reclaim land for planting?"

Gao Huan had another high opinion: "Women, don't listen to what she says, and don't look at what she does. You have to make her fall in love with you wholeheartedly, and then she will lose her mind and tell you the truth. Who can prove that Dr. Cai didn't drink it secretly, and then tell everyone that Jin Wu blood can't be drunk and Black Jiao blood can't be drunk."

"Youyi, brother is a few years older than you, and I know the true face of these women too well. On weekdays, she is happy with you, and the classmate relationship is deep, but when you are injured and lying in bed, there is no fish soup for you."

Li Youyi felt that Gao Huan was too obsessed with fish soup, and said: "Actually... fish soup, you are not seriously injured, you can go to the kitchen tent yourself. The classmates are all busy, so it’s inevitable that they didn't take care of you."

Gao Fish Soup thought about it carefully and reluctantly accepted Li Youyi’s speculation.

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 11 =====