Chapter 12: Ancient Path of the Chixian

"This ocean is the place where the souls of all the dead in the universe return? Doesn't that mean the Netherworld from myths and legends doesn't not exist, but exists in the microscopic world?"

After the terror and shock, everyone expressed their own opinions and discussed heatedly.

"Using scientific methods, one cannot find the three souls and seven spirits in the human body, perhaps because the three souls and seven spirits are too small and exist in the microscopic realm in some special state. After a person dies, the three souls and seven spirits lose their carrier and naturally return to the microscopic soul sea before our eyes."

"That's right! A person's soul is born in the womb. The soul must be smaller than the fetal egg, otherwise, how could it be contained?"

Someone raised a question: "Are we really on the microscopic level of Earth? Is Earth the Netherworld where all living beings in the universe return? I feel that at such a microscopic level, Earth's material state actually no longer exists; we might... not be on Earth anymore."

"Or rather, we have come to a special interface completely distinct from the macroscopic universe. We might really not be able to go back!"

The three words "cannot go back" were too despairing.

It meant the future was uncertain, life and death were unpredictable, and the atmosphere became oppressive.

There were always fierce souls roaring in the sea, and strange cries like thunder sounded from the deep sea from time to time, making people's hearts unsettled, secretly wondering if demons inhabited the soul sea?

As the bronze ship moved forward, more fierce souls flew toward the deck like moths to a flame, but all met their doom.

The power protecting the bronze ship was very strong; they couldn't break through.

This was the only thing that made people feel temporarily at ease!

Amidst the gloom and worry, there were naturally optimists.

Gao Huan, with his hands wrapped in white bandages, stood at the very front of the bow and said excitedly, "I said we must have fallen from the Arctic Ocean to the Netherworld; now you believe me, right? The Arctic Ocean is the ancient Northern Sea! You say, a Kunpeng thousands of miles large couldn't stretch itself in the Arctic Ocean, but in this boundless soul sea before us, it should be able to flip the world upside down at will, right?"

"Also, do you know why there is the saying of the 'seventh day' after someone dies? Because after seven days, the soul can never go back! The distance from Earth to the soul sea is seven days."

A third-year graduate student was extremely superstitious, full of myths, legends, and conjectures. If it were before, everyone would have secretly laughed, but now, everyone's scientific faith had collapsed, and they could only rely on his messy guesses to explain everything before them.

Li Youyi had no interest in their various groundless speculations; he would take things as they came. After cultivating the extraordinary method, he was no longer as lost and confused as when he first woke up.

Life had a goal to pursue, motivation, longing, and a direction to strive and move forward.

Cultivate the extraordinary.

Further extraordinary.

He wanted to know, at the end of the extraordinary, how strong could a person become? Would it be like in myths and legends, flying through the sky and escaping the earth, having the strength to move mountains, driving the stars...

Even if he really had come to the Netherworld, the Ghost Wasteland Realm... so what?

He and Cai Yutong took the two elderly professors who were injured in the trampling and prepared to go to the medical shed for examination and treatment.

At this time, the bronze ship was already very close to the stone peak pillar tablet in the sea, only a few kilometers away.

One of the elderly professors with a leg injury wiped his glasses and finally saw the four character symbols on it, exclaiming in surprise, "These characters are completely different from the inscriptions on the bronze ship; they are very similar to oracle bone script and bronze script, and share the same origin as Chinese characters."

Although the two of them were not professionals, they were both enthusiasts of ancient scripts and had been studying the inscriptions on the bronze ship for the past few days, trying to decipher them.

The other elderly professor, who had been trampled in the chest and looked ashen, was being supported by Li Youyi. He stared at the stone peak pillar tablet for a moment and said, "It's even earlier than the period of oracle bone script and bronze script. The evolution of characters has traces to follow; it should be possible to decipher them."

The professor with the leg injury said, "I think it's somewhat similar to the characters on the 'Cangjie Bird Track Inscription'; they might exist in the same period."

There were twenty-eight bird track characters on the "Cangjie Bird Track Inscription," which were said to be the original forms of the pictographic characters created by the ancestor of civilization, "Cangjie."

Li Youyi's heart was shaken: "These four carved characters share the same origin as Chinese characters? Doesn't that mean that in the extremely distant past, ancient Chinese humans had reached here?"

"I'm afraid so... Let's decipher them first to see what the four characters are."

The two elderly professors had an extremely keen interest in the characters and were in no rush to check their injuries, each taking out ancient script books, fountain pens, and notebooks from their bags to discuss and study seriously.

Before long, they reached a conclusion.

They wrote four characters in the notebook—"Ancient Path of the Chixian."

"Ancient Path of the Chixian!"

There were quite a few people gathered around, all confused and puzzled.

Why would a stone peak pillar tablet in the sea be carved with such inexplicable four characters?

The bronze ship's sails were fully spread, fast as a galloping horse, and it had already reached the bottom of the stone peak pillar tablet. Viewing it from close range, one could feel the majestic and grand oppressive force of the peak tablet even more clearly.

It didn't know how many years it had stood in this vast soul sea; it was steep and precipitous, difficult for even apes and cranes to cross, so towering and eternal. In the sea, there shouldn't have been such a stone peak with flat surfaces, or perhaps some being of great power had brought it here.

The four characters carved on it were chiseled out by a divine axe and heavenly blade, every stroke like a crack in the earth.

The professor with the leg injury, while putting away his fountain pen and brown leather notebook, said, "The 'Chixian' is not the county in a city or county as you understand it!"

"Regarding the Chixian, the earliest record is in the 'Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Mencius and Xun Qing,' where Zou Yan called the ancient name of China the Chixian Divine Land."

"Legend has it that in ancient times, the land ruled by the Flame Emperor was called the Chixian, and the land ruled by the Yellow Emperor was called the Divine Land. In ancient China, the name Chixian Divine Land was derived from this."

Gao Huan exclaimed, "In other words, the meaning of Ancient Path of the Chixian is the road leading to the Chixian Divine Land? The direction back to Earth?"

Li Youyi looked back at the stone peak pillar tablet carved with the four characters "Ancient Path of the Chixian," which was moving away. Further away, lead-black ghostly clouds shrouded the sky and the sea level, and the soul sea seemed to break off there, with no light shining in.

The bronze ship had sailed out from the black ghostly clouds.

Li Youyi said, "With this stone peak pillar tablet, the wanderers who fell into the soul sea will be able to find the way home in the future. The Ancient Path of the Chixian must be the path the bronze ship has traveled over these seven days; the ghostly clouds must hide many secrets we cannot know today."

In his mind, the scene of the Nine Infants being snatched away from the ghostly clouds by a golden giant claw appeared, and every time he recalled it, he was deeply shocked.

"Unfortunately, the bronze ship is not under our control. If it turned around, perhaps we could return to Earth," Director Yang said meaningfully, his gaze falling on Li Youyi.

Li Youyi sent the two professors to the medical shed, and shortly after, Zhao Meng arrived.

"Come with me."

Zhao Meng, his rifle never leaving his hand, pulled Li Youyi to a secluded spot beneath a grave mound, his expression grave the entire way.

Seeing no one around, Zhao Meng said with extreme seriousness, "After the ghostly clouds dispersed, everyone's fantasy of returning to Earth was shattered, which means the greatest constraint, the law, has completely disappeared, and some people who were itching to move no longer have any scruples. I predict that a riot will soon break out on the ship. Youyi, remember every word I say next clearly."

"First, you are too heavily injured; in the riot, I'm afraid I won't be able to protect you. Tonight, after everyone is fast asleep, collect more food, and then in the depths of the grave forest, find a grave mound to bury yourself and the food shallowly, and be sure to hide well. By the way, don't go to the nine-story ship building; it's very dangerous there."

"Second, I buried the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish and the Huang Long Sword in the grave mound where you fell onto the bronze ship. There is a string of bone wind chimes hanging on the tombstone in front of the grave; look for it carefully, it's easy to identify."

"Third, I don't know when this riot will break out, nor do I know how many people are plotting in the dark, so although I have united a group of brothers and made some arrangements, I... really don't have any chance of winning."

Zhao Meng grabbed Li Youyi's right shoulder, his eyes intense and complex: "Three days! We'll set a limit of three days. Within three days, no matter what sounds or movements you hear, do not come out, even if they threaten me with my life."

"Three days later, I will come to the grave forest to find you and call your name. That will mean the situation is under my control."

"If after three days you don't hear me calling you, it means I'm already dead! At that time, you should know that the situation is already extremely dire... but no matter how difficult the situation is, you must understand that you absolutely cannot hand over the Dao Ancestor Yin-Yang Fish. If you hand it over, you're dead for sure!"

"Also, don't trust anyone. Without the constraints of law and morality, in the face of survival, interests, and desire, people have no bottom line, and morality, shame, and dignity may all be worthless. In the face of torture, even the toughest hard man has no guarantee of holding out."

Li Youyi could feel his senior brother's care and worry, and said, "Is this why you made a three-day agreement with me in advance? Because you are worried that you will fall into their hands and won't be able to hold out under torture?"

"Who dares to guarantee they can hold out without having experienced torture? If it really comes to that, having this three-day agreement at least gives me a buffer in my heart," Zhao Meng said with a bitter smile.

Li Youyi hesitated, considering whether to tell him now that his injuries had already healed and that he had cultivated the extraordinary method his master spoke of.

His senior brother was naturally trustworthy.

But the people around his senior brother might not be trustworthy, otherwise, he wouldn't have said "don't trust anyone."

In the end, Li Youyi decided to keep it hidden for the time being; when the time came, he could instead become a surprise force for his senior brother.

"Brother Meng, Brother Meng, the backup generator has been repaired, haha!"

Chen Hong ran over, dancing with joy, his body covered in oil stains.

He was the technical personnel responsible for equipment operation on the scientific research ship and was personally interviewed and recruited by Zhao Meng; in other words, he was Zhao Meng's absolute confidant. Li Youyi was no stranger to him and had already met him several times.

The two stopped their secret discussion.

Li Youyi looked happy: "With electricity, doesn't that mean the cold storage can be reactivated?"

"That's natural; now the biggest crisis is temporarily solved. The food on the ship is enough for us to eat for at least a few more months." Chen Hong was beaming with joy, very sunny and optimistic.

Over the past few days, Zhao Meng had been leading people to rush to repair the cold storage and generator. Because only in this way could they fundamentally prevent conflicts from breaking out due to food shortages.

"Let's go, take me to see."

Zhao Meng's gloom dissipated quite a bit, and he was in a great mood, rushing with Chen Hong toward the overturned and broken scientific research ship.

Li Youyi looked at their departing backs, a smile appearing on his face: "In this world, there is never a lack of builders of civilization; no matter how difficult the situation, there are always people mending and patching."

Civilization and morality were born to constrain human nature, to allow humanity to go further. Not like in the primitive era, where people killed each other, enslaved the weak, and cannibalized their own kind.

Facing adversity.

Kind and brave people often choose to use civilized methods to heal the common home of all, to counter the destruction of primitive human nature. Like Cai Yutong, who cultivated and planted, and Zhao Meng, who rushed to repair the generator.

Self-interested and ambitious people are driven by primitive human nature, mostly choosing to trample on civilization without ever thinking of building it.

Ordinary people can only be followers.

Li Youyi walked alone into the eerie and terrifying grave sea monument forest, deciding to first retrieve the Huang Long Sword and the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 13 =====