Chapter 11: The ghostly clouds dispersed, the Ghost Wasteland Realm

Of the six people from Laboratory 705, apart from Han Qin, who held a shotgun, and the middle-aged woman wearing glasses, the other four were all slightly advanced in age.

They were still in the same place as before.

Seeing Qi Shanshan, Li Youyi, and Gao Huan returning from the direction of the nine-story ship building, Director Yang hurried to meet them and apologized, "Thank heavens, it's great to see you back. I forgot to tell you earlier that there is unfathomable danger at the stern; you must not let curiosity get the better of you and run over there."

"This is very likely a funeral ship!"

"The ancient-style garden at the stern may not be the ship owner's living quarters, but could be the ship owner's tomb."

He could forget something like this?

Li Youyi and Gao Huan no longer had any favorable impression of Director Yang and responded with perfunctory and polite words.

Qi Shanshan, however, put on a different face in front of Director Yang and said with a smile, "Thank you for the reminder, Director! These two boys, even if they had the heart, wouldn't have the guts. Just looking at the rows of human figurines near the nine-story ship building is enough to make one's hair stand on end. Eh! Haven't the immortal objects on these skeletal humans all been taken by everyone? Director, what are you still researching?"

Director Yang said, "Researching the cause of their deaths! And I believe the most important treasures on them are not those immortal objects at all, but these armors and weapons. Unfortunately, they are too heavy; no one can lift them."

"They are probably the legendary heavenly soldiers and generals. These armors and weapons must be divine weapons; how could we mortals use them?" Qi Shanshan said.

Li Youyi looked at the zhang-long ancient spear on the ground. Its entire body was as black as ink, and although the shaft was covered in rust, the spear tip remained sharp, its cold light fully exposed.

If it weren't for the many eyes present, he would really have liked to lift it to test what level of strength he had reached after cultivating the extraordinary method.

He should be able to lift it.

After Qi Shanshan and Director Yang exchanged pleasantries, the three of them headed back to the medical shed at the bow.

Li Youyi couldn't help but ask, "Dr. Qi, what are the immortal objects you mentioned earlier?"

Qi Shanshan, with her hands in her pockets, didn't look back: "They are just some accessories, clothing, and the like on those skeletal humans, such as dragon-patterned thumb rings, three-headed snake bracelets, cross pendants, scripture belts, silver-threaded gloves, etc. They haven't decayed after a thousand years, so they must not be ordinary items."

"The moment those skeletal humans were discovered, everyone scrambled to take them all. Since then, everyone has hidden them tightly; no one knows how many good things they have actually obtained."

"What I just mentioned are only the few items discussed the most over the past few days, which many people have seen."

"It is said that when Xie Tianshu took off the dragon-patterned thumb ring, there was a faint sound of a dragon's roar, which was very miraculous. There are also claims that after Kong Fan obtained the two silver-threaded gloves, his arm strength increased greatly, allowing him to lift objects weighing three or four hundred jin."

Li Youyi said, "Kong Fan? Chef Kong? With his build, he can lift three or four hundred jin?"

Qi Shanshan nodded slightly, her beautiful eyes filled with envy, and she sighed, "Now you know why everyone is so eager to find the Buddha's sarira and why they are targeting you so much, right? No matter how good these treasures are, they are far inferior compared to the Buddha's sarira."

"Slap!"

Gao Huan slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Oh my, what have I missed? So many thousand-year-old immortal treasures, and I didn't manage to get a single one. Li, we shouldn't have gotten injured!"

Li Youyi remained calm and said, "An innocent man is guilty of his own treasure. Who can say whether it's a blessing or a curse?"

The Ghost Bear Emperor was still alive and could make a comeback at any time.

On the bronze ship, human hearts were no longer what they used to be. People were worried about the impending shortage of food and water while coveting the treasures in each other's hands, and the conflicts were becoming increasingly acute.

Furthermore, many people felt that Li Youyi had swallowed the Buddha's sarira and were eyeing him covetously.

This was the fifth day since they fell onto the bronze ship!

From now on, for every day that passed, the possibility of conflict and danger would increase by one point.

Driven by survival, greed, jealousy, and desire, there must be many people secretly gathering strength and plotting. Li Youyi had only gone out for a walk and could clearly feel the dangerous atmosphere.

It would only take a fuse to ignite everything.

While Li Youyi kept his guard up with twelve-fold vigilance, he mobilized the scalding airflow to nourish the injury on his left arm with all his might.

Two days later.

The seventh day since everyone fell onto the bronze ship.

At nine o'clock in the morning, outside the medical shed, there were bursts of exclamations, a noisy scene, and the sound of running footsteps everywhere.

"The sky is brightening, the ghostly clouds are gradually dissipating."

"That's great, are we about to reach land?"

Everyone in the medical shed was awakened.

Li Youyi was also filled with joy. After tidying up a bit, he quickly got out of bed and went to the deck.

The outside was already crowded.

The thick, pitch-black ghostly clouds in the sky had indeed become thin, drifting like gauze, and the starlight above could be vaguely seen.

"The sea, I see the seawater!"

A young scientific researcher lay against the railing, pointing at the bottom of the ship, cheering wildly.

After everyone gathered around, they indeed saw the sea surface more than a hundred meters below, with waves stacked upon waves. But because the ghostly clouds hadn't completely dissipated, they could only vaguely see the general outline.

It was enough to make people excited.

It was like a blind person regaining their sight, or like the dawn arriving after an eternal night, bringing infinite hope and longing.

"What is that? A steep mountain peak standing in the sea?"

Someone rushed to the very front of the bow and pointed into the distance.

"Not a mountain peak, it looks like a stone pillar... more like a stone tablet with words carved on it."

"My god, how can such a tall square stone tablet stand in the sea? Just the part exposed above the water must be over two thousand meters."

"How is this any different from a stone peak?"

Li Youyi followed the crowd toward the bow.

The ghostly clouds above were almost completely dispersed.

The ocean was pitch black.

Dozens of kilometers in front of the bronze ship, the stone tablet rose straight from the ground into the sky like a majestic mountain peak. Even from a great distance, one could feel its imposing aura.

In the boundless ocean, it appeared extremely lonely and abrupt, and of course, even more majestic and magnificent because of it.

Carved on it were four vigorous and powerful strange characters, deeply embedded in the stone, as if chiseled by a heavenly blade, extremely clear.

"Such strange characters, why do they look like some kind of symbols?"

"Is this still Earth? I've never heard of any sea area on Earth having such a stone peak pillar tablet."

Many people had still held onto fantasies, thinking that once the ghostly clouds dispersed, they would see a familiar sea and then return to their motherland, their homes, and their campuses.

After the fantasy was shattered.

Some scientific researchers who missed their families intensely began to cry hoarsely.

Cai Yutong stood on the periphery of the crowd, looked up at the completely dispersed sky, and said, "Don't you think the starry sky is a bit too low? And... it doesn't look like the Milky Way, not like the starry sky we are familiar with."

As soon as she finished speaking, a bizarre thing happened.

"Whoosh!"

In the starry sky, hundreds of millions of light clusters fell, like dense rain, falling one after another toward the boundless sea surface.

The light clusters nearby could be seen clearly; they seemed to be... human-shaped.

Everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events, not knowing why, and felt only a chill down their spines.

The starry sky was raining people!

"Come and see, what's in the sea?" Gao Huan waved his arms vigorously, calling everyone.

After the ghostly clouds dispersed, they could finally see the sea surface clearly.

In the pitch-black ocean, it was a scene of terror, with densely packed people swimming inside.

Not just in front of them, but also in the distance.

Countless.

Their bodies were translucent, emitting a faint glow, with men, women, old, and young, mostly the elderly. Some floated on the surface, others sank to the bottom.

They were not people with flesh and blood, but more like wandering souls.

The vast majority of the wandering souls had dull eyes and were muddled. There were also some extremely active ones, shuttling through the sea to prey.

"Jie jie!"

"Roar!"

One elderly man with disheveled long hair and a withered face, sensing the many gazes from the ship, looked up and let out a fierce, ear-piercing shriek, leaped out of the seawater, and jumped toward the deck, which was over a hundred meters high.

How had anyone encountered such a strange event?

In terror, they retreated one after another.

Some were so scared their legs went weak and they couldn't move, getting pushed and trampled.

"Ssh!"

The fierce soul elder had just approached the bronze ship, about a zhang away from the deck, when it was torn apart by a trace mark that appeared out of thin air, exploding into a cluster of light particles.

It was as if a crack had appeared in the space like glass.

It appeared suddenly and vanished suddenly.

Other fierce souls that were eager to try all showed expressions of fear, let out bursts of strange cries, and fled far away from the bronze ship.

"There is an unknown power protecting the bronze ship; they cannot get on board." Li Youyi called for everyone to stay calm and, together with Cai Yutong, helped up the two elderly professors who had been trampled.

After the fierce soul elder exploded into light particles and scattered into the sea, it immediately triggered a frantic scramble and swallowing by many wandering souls that had been muddled, splashing water everywhere.

Not everyone could remain calm; at this moment, hearts were filled with panic, and many were still in shock.

Strange, bizarre, terrifying—what kind of world was this?

The joy of the ghostly clouds dissipating earlier had vanished completely.

Director Yang couldn't help but look up and sigh, "In the boundless black sea, the souls of hundreds of millions of living beings swim. Under the starry sky, a ship that has been a mystery for ages sets sail. Where is the end, and where can one land?"

Someone pinched their arm hard and felt the pain, only then confirming that the scene before them was real.

"We are no longer in the Arctic, or even on Earth, but have come to the legendary Netherworld, or perhaps the Ghost Wasteland Realm." There was not a trace of disappointment or sadness in Xie Tianshu's eyes; instead, they revealed an excited glow.

His eyes met with some people in the crowd, and he felt that the time was ripe; there was no need to worry about anything anymore, and they could take action!

The soul sea was boundless, with no known destination and no known place to return to.

Li Youyi's mood was extremely complicated, and he said, "Is this the place where the souls of Earth's dead return? But there are trillions of souls in the sea; where would so many dead from Earth come from?"

"In the vast universe and endless star sea, perhaps the souls of the dead from all planets return here." Someone stared at the starry sky above and speculated.

Whether in the scientific community or religion, most people firmly believed that Earth was definitely not the only life-bearing planet in the universe.

The stars in the sky were dense, and viewed amidst the light cluster soul rain, it was quite brilliant and dazzling.

But they were extremely close to the sea surface, not as unreachable as the deep universe.

They didn't look like stars, but more like "Gates of Light," "Soul Channels," or "Star Sea Wormholes."

Because the dense light cluster soul rain was flying out from these "stars" and then falling onto the pitch-black sea surface, turning into human souls—all of this could be seen with the naked eye.

It was precisely because of this that some people came up with the bold speculation that "the souls of the dead from the universe all return here."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 12 =====