Chapter 21

Qi Shanshan did not stand back up until she had completely finished bandaging Li Youyi’s wrist. As she put down the scissors, she said: "I ate her!"

Qin Ke, standing behind her, was startled.

Because recently, she had often heard expedition members saying that food would soon run out and that, eventually, the horrific act of cannibalism might occur.

Qi Shanshan turned around and looked at Li Youyi, who was sitting there watching her calmly. She said irritably: "You only know how to care about your Senior Sister Cai; I’m starting to get jealous! Don't worry, she is very safe."

Of course, she knew that Li Youyi hadn't asked casually.

He was testing her.

So she answered very seriously, adding: "You all lack insight. A few days ago, I noticed Xie Tianshu and Kong Fan frequently interacting with others. This morning, after the ghost mist cleared, while you were all there studying the ancient characters, those two sneaked into the kitchen shed."

"I didn't dare follow them, and I couldn't be sure what they were going to do, but I knew it definitely wasn't right. To be safe, I could only take Yutong and hide."

"It’s best if nothing happens, but if something does, we can at least hide."

Li Youyi did not find any flaws in Qi Shanshan’s eyes or expression, and her answer was watertight. He quickly stood up and smiled: "Don't answer so seriously; it feels like an interrogation."

"Aren't you interrogating me?"

Qi Shanshan looked a bit angry as she walked out of the medical tent.

Li Youyi followed, wanting to apologize; after all, when he first fell onto the bronze ship, she had saved half his life. During the earlier clash with Laboratory 705, if she hadn't thrown the cross pendant to help, it would have been hard to say who would have won between him and Han Qin.

Qi Shanshan suddenly turned around, colliding head-on with Li Youyi as he chased after her. She let out a soft "Ouch," frowned, and patted his chest: "Why are you walking so fast? You bumped into me!"

"I still have something to tell you. Your Senior Brother’s injuries are very serious. His arm and kneecap are shattered, and his blood vessels and nerves are severely damaged. Given the current medical conditions on the ship... you need to be mentally prepared. Even if he pulls through, I’m afraid he might be bedridden for the rest of his life."

With the warmth and fragrance of her in his arms, and the fact that she didn't seem to want to leave, Li Youyi felt no mood for it at all. He quickly returned to the medical tent, channeling the scorching Qi from the soles of his feet to his palms, wanting to try injecting it into his Senior Brother’s wounds.

But as his hands pressed down, he stopped.

The scorching Qi could only flow through the silver meridians; his Senior Brother had no meridians, and once injected, it would likely cause secondary damage.

It would be like striking his Senior Brother with a palm technique.

"Senior Brother has also studied the Jade Void Breathing Method. As long as he wakes up and continues to cultivate according to the breathing method, perhaps he can cultivate that mysterious scorching Qi himself. But..."

"With his legs broken like this, can the scorching Qi still be born from the soles of his feet?"

Li Youyi felt a tightness in his chest, as if a thousand-pound boulder were pressing down on it. In an instant, many thoughts flooded his mind. He even considered feeding his Senior Brother the black dragon blood, thinking his injuries might be healed.

But thinking of Xie Tianshu’s monster-like appearance, he really couldn't bring himself to make that decision for his Senior Brother.

At this moment.

Outside the medical tent, from the direction of the bow, a woman’s faint singing drifted over from afar.

"A great river flows wide,

Wind blows the scent of rice flowers on both banks,

My home is on the shore,

Accustomed to the boatman’s chants,

Accustomed to the white sails on the river..."

Who is singing?

Just as Li Youyi and Qi Shanshan were both bewildered.

Qin Ke thought of something: "It’s Liu Ying! We looked for her earlier but couldn't find her; we all thought she had hidden in the death mist graveyard..."

"No."

Li Youyi and Qi Shanshan rushed out of the medical tent one after the other.

Liu Ying was wrapped in a filthy blanket, sitting on the gunwale at the bow, her legs dangling in the air.

Her face, legs, and the shoulders and arms exposed outside the blanket were covered in bruises and wounds.

Her eyes held a hollow despair, a memory of home, parents, and that former stable, law-abiding environment. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and the sea wind blew her long hair up, making the mournful song sound even hoarser and lower. Finally, she almost recited the lyrics: "Everywhere... there is... peaceful sunshine..."

Rapid footsteps sounded behind her.

Without a shred of hesitation, she jumped down.

Li Youyi saw her jump with his own eyes; he was only ten steps away, but the gunwale was already empty.

Qi Shanshan and Qin Ke chased after them, panting.

Qin Ke rushed to the gunwale but didn't dare look down; she could guess that Liu Ying was surely being devoured by the wandering souls in the sea. Her tears fell like rain, uncontrollably.

Qi Shanshan walked over to comfort her: "After what happened, how could she live? It’s okay, don't be afraid. With Youyi here, such things will never happen on the ship again; he will protect us."

Li Youyi felt heavy-hearted and indignant. Carrying his long sword, he walked toward the graveyard filled with death mist without saying a word.

Passing the dying Chen Hong, he no longer had the thought of letting his Senior Brother take revenge himself; he threw a punch, piercing through his chest. Afterward, he picked him up and threw him into the sea, as if tossing away a piece of trash.

Can they still be considered human?

They are worse than trash.

Except for Xie Jin, the other four who had escaped were all caught in the graveyard.

Some had buried themselves in the grave soil, leaving only their mouths and noses exposed.

But their breathing and heartbeats were still there; as long as the distance was close enough, they couldn't escape Li Youyi’s hearing.

When they learned that Liu Ying had jumped into the sea, Gao Huan and those students of Professor Xu beat the two security members who had bullied Liu Ying half to death. Finally, in a surge of public indignation, they pushed them into the soul sea.

Vaguely, Li Youyi heard the camel bells in the graveyard again. He immediately practiced the Jade Void Breathing Method to restore his consciousness to clarity, a deep doubt arising in his heart.

As for the other two, they naturally didn't escape a severe beating.

But they weren't thrown into the soul sea.

Someone suggested they could be used for experiments.

After Xie Tianshu’s dragon-like mutation, although his appearance was strange and frightening, he had gained solid, extraordinary power. Who knows, he might be able to live for a hundred or even several hundred years, like the demons in legends.

Compared to extraordinary power and longevity, what did sacrificing a normal human appearance matter?

The strong never have appearance anxiety.

Li Youyi did not object; he held the same view as Zhao Meng.

Once a person shows their fangs, they are no longer human!

This isn't about the dragon slayer becoming the evil dragon, but rather that one cannot have the slightest pity or mercy for an enemy. The other side won't appreciate it; they will only hide their resentment in their hearts and wait until you are weak to ensure you die without a burial place.

Besides, Li Youyi also wanted to experiment with the black dragon’s corpse blood to determine the possibility of saving his Senior Brother.

Too many things happened in one day.

After dealing with everyone’s corpses, either throwing them into the sea or burying them, everyone was exhausted.

At the very beginning.

Everyone couldn't sleep at all; they lit fires and gathered together, fearing another similar turmoil.

Moreover, Xie Jin could never be found; it was like a thorn in their side that hadn't been pulled out, making it hard for them to feel at ease.

But by the second half of the night, they were ultimately too tired. Except for the two people responsible for keeping watch, everyone else slept right there by the fires.

Li Youyi came alone to the other end of the bronze ship, walking beneath the black dragon’s skeleton.

Wearing the dragon-patterned thumb ring on his left thumb, he touched the dragon blood that had congealed into purple-red ice crystals on the severed part of the skeleton. In an instant, the cold air froze a layer of white frost on his finger.

The dragon-patterned ring really did react; the dragon scale patterns on it lit up slightly.

After Xie Tianshu’s dragon-like mutation, the first thing he said was: "This severed arm of mine is thanks to you; neither the black dragon’s corpse blood nor the dragon-patterned ring could make it grow back."

At the time, Li Youyi guessed that he must have had the help of the dragon-patterned ring to mutate into a demon.

In the afternoon, when he used those two expedition members for experiments, it confirmed his guess.

The first one didn't wear the dragon-patterned ring; he drank the dragon blood, and his skin soon burst open.

In the end, he died from excessive blood loss.

The second one wore the dragon-patterned ring, drank the dragon blood, and successfully survived. He then used the blood in his body to soak the ring, and before long, he began to mutate like a dragon.

Of course, no one dared to let him successfully transform into a demon; as soon as it was about to succeed, they immediately took off the dragon-patterned ring.

The mutation was interrupted, and he died even more miserably than the first subject.

His flesh and blood almost completely exploded.

"No matter what, this is a way to save Senior Brother."

Li Youyi whispered.

The death mist was eerie.

The graveyard of steles before him, under the light of the Golden Crow skeleton in the distance, exuded a sense of eeriness amidst the silence.

A familiar scent of perfume drifted over with the wind.

Li Youyi’s current sense of smell, while not as exaggerated as the Ghost Bear Emperor’s, was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

He knew who had come!

Waiting here meant he was waiting for her.

Li Youyi silently hid behind the massive black dragon skeleton. Gradually, light footsteps sounded, and a tall figure passed the black dragon skeleton and walked quickly toward the nine-story ship building.

Li Youyi stepped out of the shadows and looked over.

That familiar, graceful back had already walked into the passage between the ship building and the gunwale, heading toward the stern.

The ship building passage, a fathom wide, was filled with stone figurines of people with various expressions; the death mist was thick, adding to the terror. But Qi Shanshan was not afraid at all, moving through it freely.

On the first floor of the ship building, all the cabin doors were cast from bronze, over a fathom high; one didn't know how heavy they were, but they certainly couldn't be pushed open by human strength.

Halfway through the passage.

The death mist gradually dissipated.

Replacing it was a misty, immortal radiance like smoke and gauze.

This bronze ship, which looked like a ghost ship of the dead, seemed to have changed, as if it had transformed into an immortal’s jade palace.

The stern and the bow were two completely different worlds.

(There is one more chapter, as promised to the readers in the book review section.)

(End of chapter)