Chapter 13: The Red-Clad Immortal Maiden

After the ghostly clouds dispersed, although wisps of nether mist still drifted in the grave forest, it was no longer as sky-covering and earth-shrouding as before, and the field of vision became clearer and wider, giving a feeling of walking in a mass grave.

The grave mounds were all seven or eight meters high, scattered and distributed.

The stone tablets were ancient and heavy, a head taller than Li Youyi, who walked below them.

Some had ghost flags stuck in front of them, others had yin banners standing, making strange sounds in the wind.

Who exactly was buried here?

Why were they buried on a ship?

Was it to bring them back to their roots? Or was it a unique burial method?

How did they die? And who built the graves and erected the tablets for them? Where did the builders go?

The bronze ship was full of mystery everywhere, and it must have an ancient and tragic story. He didn't know who could cast it, didn't know how glorious it once was, and didn't know why it had been silent on Earth for a thousand years.

Was it now returning to the place where it started?

Or was it continuing to embark on an ancient journey?

Li Youyi, full of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, searched in the grave forest for half an hour before finally hearing the sound of wind chimes.

"Ding ding!"

The bone wind chimes were hanging on a blue stone tablet more than three meters high, the sound crisp and pleasant.

Although they were said to be made of bone, they were actually as crystal clear as jade, with unrecognizable secret symbols carved on them.

The string connecting the bells was woven from silver thread, which had not decayed or broken for a thousand years.

On the blue stone tablet was a portrait, and he didn't know what kind of pigment was used to draw it; it hadn't faded at all, was bright and eye-catching, and lifelike.

In the portrait, the auspicious clouds were colorful, and the heavenly maiden was beautiful and transcendent.

She looked like an immortal maiden standing on the clouds looking down at the human world, in bright red clothes, with beautiful hairpins, and those wonderful eyes were so vivid that one felt she could walk out of the stone tablet.

"Could it be that a peerless immortal maiden of the past is buried in the grave?"

Li Youyi's gaze returned to the string of bone wind chimes, wanting to take them down to study.

This should also count as an immortal object, right?

"Whoosh!"

He exerted force with his legs and leaped up.

Suddenly, that scalding airflow surged from the soles of his right foot, his body became light, and he broke through the wind, jumping up to the top of the stone tablet more than three meters high in one go.

He stood firm, swaying.

Li Youyi held his breath and looked down at the height of a floor, feeling it was inconceivable.

After cultivating the extraordinary method, was he now able to fly over walls?

This feeling was too wonderful; anyone would feel their heart surging and their spirits high.

After calming his mood, Li Youyi reached out to take the wind chimes. But the moment his hand touched the bone pieces of the bells, a sense of dizziness struck him, and a peerless red-clad immortal maiden seemed to appear before his eyes.

Her slender and stunning figure, layer upon layer, kept pressing down on him.

"Bang!"

Li Youyi fell from the blue stone tablet, his head dizzy, as if he had been riding in a car on a bumpy and rugged mountain road for several hours.

"This thing is indeed bizarre; it cannot be touched!"

If it were so easy to take, the bone wind chimes would have been taken by other scientific researchers long ago; how could they have waited until now?

It was just that Li Youyi was a person with extremely heavy curiosity and a desire to explore, which was why he couldn't help but take the risk to try.

He performed the Jade Void Breathing Method, mobilizing the scalding airflow from the sole of his right foot along the silver pulse marks toward his head. A moment later, the dizziness vanished, and he recovered.

Li Youyi bowed respectfully to the portrait on the blue stone tablet: "Junior had no intention of offending, please do not blame me, senior... um, junior needs to retrieve the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish and the Yellow Dragon Sword, I'm afraid I have to offend you again. Senior is an immortal from heaven, surely you won't lower yourself to the level of a mortal?"

After Li Youyi bowed three times cautiously, he climbed onto the huge grave mound behind the blue stone tablet.

"Senior brother shouldn't have buried them too deep... Found it!"

Li Youyi felt inch by inch in the grayish-white grave soil, and finally, at the top of the grave mound, he touched a hard metal block. He brushed away the soil, and it was indeed the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

One cyan fish eye, one red fish eye, both only the size of beans.

Just like before, it was just an ordinary ancient ornament, with no special spirituality visible.

"Is this fish eye the Buddha's sarira that they all want to get? Is its microscopic form really a planet?"

How should it be activated?

Before Li Youyi could put the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish back around his neck, the wind chimes on the blue stone tablet suddenly rang loudly, and a sense of danger that made his hair stand on end struck him, like thorns on his back, with cold air enveloping him.

Not good...

"Ssh ssh!"

There was no time to escape.

In the grave soil below, many black hairs grew out, wrapping around his legs.

"Is this a corpse coming back to life? But I clearly bowed just now... Is this senior too petty?"

The black hair grew extremely fast, wrapping from his legs to his waist, spreading to his hands and head.

Li Youyi mobilized the scalding airflow from the sole of his right foot, surging toward the thirteen silver pulse marks all over his body, erupting with the strongest power to tear and struggle.

He only held out for the time of one breath.

With a bang, he was pulled down by the black hair, falling to the ground, and sank toward the bottom of the grave soil.

It's over!

What on earth is going on?

Senior Sister Cai and the others dug graves and built grounds, doing much worse things, and didn't provoke such a disaster. He was just here to retrieve his own things, how did he provoke such a terrifying evil object?

Did he really accidentally encounter a stingy ghost?

"Brother Meng, Brother Meng, Old Liu and the others have been exhausted these past seven days rushing to repair the generator. You have to tell Captain Gao to arrange two good meals for them; we have to celebrate today no matter what, right?"

Chen Hong followed behind Zhao Meng, asking for credit for the members of the engineering and technical team.

"That's natural, they deserve the first credit."

Zhao Meng stepped into the cabin where the cold storage was located, his expression changing instantly.

He saw Old Liu and several other members of the engineering and technical team all lying on the ground, unconscious, with only Xie Jin standing inside with his hands behind his back.

The cabin was messy and the light was dim, but one could still clearly see Xie Jin's cold and smiling eyes.

"Bang!"

A security team member, 1.8 meters tall and sturdy, ambushed on the left side of the door, swung a steel pipe, and smashed it hard against the door frame of the cabin. If Zhao Meng had reacted a beat slower, his skull would have been shattered.

"There's an ambush, leave quickly."

Zhao Meng reminded Chen Hong and immediately exited the cold storage cabin, about to raise his gun to fight back.

Another security team member ambushed outside jumped out, hugging Zhao Meng's upper torso and arms from behind, letting out a low roar, intending to slam Zhao Meng against the cabin wall.

Zhao Meng had practiced martial arts since he was a child and had served in the army for many years; his reaction was extremely fast.

Before being slammed, his legs stepped onto the cabin wall first, exerting force suddenly, and together with the security team member behind him, the two fell heavily to the ground.

After breaking free, Zhao Meng quickly flipped his body, and a fist like a hammer slammed down.

"Bang!"

The fist landed on the face, knocking out the security team member who had just hugged him, blood streaming from the man's mouth.

The security team member holding the steel pipe rushed out and swung heavily again.

Zhao Meng didn't have time to find his gun; he rolled his body forward and kicked him in the crotch. Accompanied by a scream, the steel pipe clattered to the ground, and the security team member knelt down with his legs trembling.

While picking up the steel pipe, Zhao Meng elbowed him in the temple, knocking him sideways to the ground.

He solved two ambushing experts in an instant.

Before Zhao Meng could stand up completely, the third person in ambush rushed out and used a stun gun, hitting him in the back.

"Ssh ssh!"

Zhao Meng's whole body trembled, his muscles numb, and his body was unable to move.

And directly in front, Xie Jin rushed over, jumped off the ground, and carried his own weight to knee-strike Zhao Meng in the heart.

This was a flying knee strike!

Once it hit, Zhao Meng's ribs would definitely break, and his heart would shatter.

In this desperate situation, Zhao Meng broke free from the stun gun behind him and rolled sideways. Even though his whole body was sore and weak, under his strong will to survive, he bit his tongue, forced his spirit, and threw the steel pipe in his hand.

With a "bang," the steel pipe hit the third ambusher's hand, and the stun gun fell to the ground instantly.

Zhao Meng took the opportunity to pick up the rifle on the ground, loaded the bullet, aimed at Xie Jin who had just landed, his face cold and ruthless, killing intent exposed in his eyes.

"Bang!"

"Crack..."

In the shadow behind him, Chen Hong held a steel bar, his hands wrapped in black cloth, and used all his strength to smash it into the position near Zhao Meng's right shoulder.

The sound of bone breaking rang out.

Zhao Meng's tower-like, mighty, and strong physique couldn't hold out either, and he let out a low roar of pain, his body sinking, and the rifle clattered to the ground.

He tried hard not to let himself fall, slowly turned around, his lips trembling, and looked at Chen Hong with incredulous eyes.

No one knew Zhao Meng's strength better than Chen Hong, so he couldn't show any mercy when attacking.

It had to be fast and ruthless.

Chen Hong's face no longer had any sunny and cheerful smile, only seriousness and coldness, and the steel bar in his hand swung out again, smashing into Zhao Meng's knees that were supporting his body.

"Bang!"

The kneecaps exploded, and his legs folded backward.

Zhao Meng could no longer stand up, his pain nearly causing him to faint. Chen Hong threw the steel bar to the ground, turned to pick up the rifle, checked the number of bullets inside, and only then felt completely at ease.

Looking at Zhao Meng's pale face and his angry, confused, and unwilling eyes, Chen Hong felt very displeased and scolded, "I know what you want to say, isn't it all your fault?"

"Did I not suggest that you lead the brothers to kill Gao Xin and then become the captain of the scientific research ship yourself, or even the captain of the entire bronze ship? At that time, everyone on the ship would have to listen to us; whatever we told them to do, they would have to do. If we told them to kneel, they wouldn't dare to stand."

"Those useless old, weak, sick, and disabled people should have been killed early on; they waste food."

"As long as we control the supplies and the distribution rights of the supplies, we can do whatever we want and live to the end. But..."

"You are too pedantic! You have no ambition or the temperament of an overlord, still constrained by those old rules and regulations. Since you won't take the initiative, I have to do it; I don't want to die."

Xie Jin looked at the rifle in Chen Hong's hand with some trepidation and smiled, "Well done, now that Zhao Meng is taken care of, the others on the ship are nothing to fear. Give the gun to me, and I'll ask my cousin to give you the first credit."

"It's better to keep this gun with me for the time being."

Chen Hong wasn't stupid; naturally, he couldn't hand over the gun, so while guarding against Xie Jin, he untied Zhao Meng's coat.

After the coat was untied, inside was a purple leather soft armor. On the chest was a blood-colored five-finger handprint pattern, and there were strange scriptures on the palm, like the symbol of some mysterious organization.

Touching the soft armor with his fingers, there was a cold feeling.

"This should be the corpse clothing and leather armor he took off those skeletal humans. The leather armor hasn't decayed for a thousand years, so it must be a treasure. No wonder he was able to break free from the stun gun."

Chen Hong was very happy, took the corpse clothing and leather armor off Zhao Meng, and put it on himself.

The corpse clothing and leather armor seemed to be able to grow larger or smaller; his physique was far less robust than Zhao Meng's, but after putting it on, it was quite form-fitting.

Xie Jin knew there was nothing he could do about Chen Hong for now, so he had to suppress the anger in his heart and said warmly, "Hurry up and search, is the Buddha's sarira on him?"

After Chen Hong searched him once, a look of disappointment appeared on his face: "I'm afraid the Buddha's sarira is still on his junior brother."

Zhao Meng, who had already accepted his fate, heard this, his eyes instantly becoming deep and angry, and he roared, "Chen Hong, if you dare to hurt my junior brother, I will make sure you die without a whole corpse."

Chen Hong looked at him with pity: "If you could stand up, I would believe you. Brother Meng, you taught me to be daring and to fight, not to be an incompetent angry person. How did you forget it yourself?"

Xie Jin walked over, stepped on Zhao Meng's chest, twisted his foot with all his might, leaned over, and sneered, "You're so excited, it seems the Buddha's sarira must be with him, right?"

Zhao Meng didn't know where he got the strength, but he used his uninjured hand to try to prop up his body.

But how could he compete with Xie Jin?

Chen Hong said, "Forget it, why bother with a cripple? We haven't fully grasped the situation yet, don't waste time here."

Xie Jin stared at Chen Hong, who walked out with the gun, squatted down, and searched Zhao Meng again.

Naturally, he found nothing.

"Tie them all up and take them to the deck. By the way, have you seen Cai Yutong?" Xie Jin didn't have as much ambition as Xie Tianshu; in his eyes, capturing Cai Yutong was more important than anything else, and he wouldn't trade her even for the Buddha's sarira.

A security team member said, "She seems to have gone to the planting area with those graduate students and didn't eat the breakfast containing the drugs."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 14 =====