Chapter 26: Getting off the ship

Returning to the medical tent, everything was normal.

Li Youyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Cai Yutong, Gao Huan, Old Liu, and others knew Li Youyi's purpose for entering the tomb forest and had been waiting outside. Seeing him return, they thought he had already succeeded and asked about the situation one after another.

"That skeleton demon is no small matter; she can already walk out of the grave. With my current strength, even if I use all my means, I can only stand on equal footing with her."

Li Youyi's face was full of worry; being unable to eliminate the opponent meant that the opponent could do whatever she wanted to a certain extent. If she really attacked the scientific expedition members, it would be impossible to guard against.

What's more, there was also a ghost figure riding a camel who didn't know if his soul had flown away and scattered.

"You're injured?"

Cai Yutong saw the bloodstains on Li Youyi.

"It's fine."

Li Youyi instructed: "Notify everyone that no one is allowed to enter the tomb forest from now on. If you hear camel bells, put on earplugs immediately. Also, be careful to guard against Dr. Qi."

"What happened to her?"

Cai Yutong was concerned about Qi Shanshan's safety.

Li Youyi pondered for a moment and said uncertainly: "She might have been possessed by the skeleton demon!"

Cai Yutong's expression was a bit gloomy; although she had expected that Qi Shanshan might have had an accident, the current result seemed even harder to accept.

"It might not necessarily be possession; I feel her state is very strange," Li Youyi comforted.

"Brother Youyi, the First Mate is awake!"

Qin Ke rushed out of the medical tent and shouted happily from afar.

Li Youyi's spirit lifted, all kinds of worries and distracting thoughts in his mind vanished, and he walked quickly into the medical tent.

The two fellow apprentices had a laugh and a recount.

Zhao Meng sat up and said distressingly: "Have I transformed into a giant now? I see my height is at least three meters, and my legs are almost as thick as water vats!"

Li Youyi said: "If I had any other way, I would never have easily fed Senior Brother flood dragon blood."

Zhao Meng felt the guilt in Li Youyi's heart and hurriedly laughed loudly: "I think it's quite good; my whole body is full of strength, perhaps I can catch a tiger with my bare hands. How about we fellow apprentices spar a bit? Do you have the guts, kid?"

Zhao Meng didn't shed his shell, nor did he show any signs of skin immortalization.

It seemed that everyone's changes were different after drinking Jin Wu blood and Black Flood Dragon blood.

Even like Li Youyi, his appearance didn't change at all.

Li Youyi asked: "Sparring is unnecessary; I have an urgent matter I want to ask Senior Brother. Does Senior Brother still remember Senior Sister Jianan?"

Zhao Meng's mind instantly conjured up a peerless figure he could never forget in this life, and he said: "Why do you suddenly mention Senior Sister?"

"I remember Senior Sister stayed in the sect for three years, but I was too young at that time, and I can't remember many things. Where exactly is Senior Sister from? Why did she never return to the sect later? Did something happen?" Li Youyi asked.

"Not three years, it was two and a half years."

Zhao Meng recalled every bit of the past: "Senior Sister had the best relationship with you, but it's a pity you were too young at that time and didn't remember anything. If you were a little older, Senior Sister would definitely be the woman you would never forget in your life; she was too outstanding, not like someone who should belong to the human world."

"Stop recalling your youth; I'm asking about serious business," Li Youyi said.

Zhao Meng said: "You tell me what your business is first?"

"I can't explain it in a few words here."

The reason Li Youyi asked about Senior Sister was because the language used by the red-clothed Qi Shanshan and the ghost figure on the camel to communicate was the same as Senior Sister's hometown language back then.

Li Youyi was young at that time, but he wasn't without memory.

He had learned that kind of language from Senior Sister, so he could understand the general idea of their conversation.

Zhao Meng said: "Master said Senior Sister came from a minority tribe overseas, and she went home after leaving the sect. Later, I went to sea many times and went to countries around the world to look for her, but I couldn't find that mysterious minority tribe no matter what."

"Didn't you ask Master?" Li Youyi said.

Zhao Meng said: "I asked, how could I not ask. But Master advised me to stop asking, told me to give up the idea, and even scolded me, saying I was a dirt monkey on the mountain and wasn't worthy of Senior Sister. I'm wronged; I just wanted to see Senior Sister one more time, don't you want to?"

"I naturally want to too! But I feel that we might be able to see Senior Sister in this world," Li Youyi said meaningfully, thinking of many things in an instant.

……

Two days later.

Li Youyi stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the crimson sea surface, his mood becoming increasingly heavy.

He had entered the tomb forest many times to look for the red-clothed Qi Shanshan and the ghost figure named "Yu Tuonan," but had found nothing. He guessed that the two evils had hidden in some grave mound to recuperate from their injuries.

There were too many graves, and there was no way to dig them all up to search.

What if a third evil was dug up...

As the bronze warship sailed rapidly, there were more and more coffins on the sea surface, becoming denser and denser, almost converging into a coffin-sea land bank in front. It was a pitch-black mass, blocking the shipping lane.

Making the ship's sailing speed become unprecedentedly slow, almost as if it were about to stop.

The coffins were of all sizes, and their shapes and forms were different.

The large ones could even reach hundreds of meters, the coffin wood pitch-black, carved with demon patterns, wrapped in chains the thickness of a basin, not knowing what kind of corpse was buried inside.

In some places, thousands of coffins were piled together, turning into a "floating island," growing purple-red vines. The roots of the vines didn't know where they were rooted.

The entire coffin sea was abnormally quiet.

It was unknown whether it was originally this quiet, or if it only became this quiet after the bronze warship sailed here.

Li Youyi said to Gao Huan beside him: "You come and explain, what place is this in myths and legends? Where do these coffins come from?"

"We've sailed all the way here; the number of coffins we've seen is at least millions, if not ten million? And that's just what we've seen."

"They seem to be driven by some unknown force, all converging here."

Gao Huan opened and closed his lips, thought for a moment, and said calmly: "Perhaps they all fell from the macroscopic world, just like us... There are many planets in the universe; surely Earth is not the only one with life. After those life forms are buried, perhaps because of some special reason, they fell into the microscopic world!"

After Zhao Meng woke up, Gao Huan was the first to drink Jin Wu blood.

He shed his mortal shell and transformed as if he were an immortal spirit, his whole body's skin as white as warm jade. Like Cai Yutong, his physical strength increased quite a bit, comparable to those peak-state athletes.

But...

His height shrank by a large margin.

He was originally only 1.65 meters, and now he was not even 1.5 meters.

Except for the surname Gao, he had nothing to do with the word "tall."

"Eh! Master Li, why is there a red figure on the sea surface below?" Gao Huan said in surprise.

Li Youyi's eyesight was far stronger than his, and even from hundreds of meters away, he could see clearly that the figure jumping and moving away on the floating coffins was "Qi Shanshan."

She actually got off the ship?

A pair of flame light wings grew on the red-clothed Qi Shanshan's back, and she was holding someone in her arms. In an instant, she had landed on a huge floating island of coffins.

She looked back at Li Youyi at the bow of the ship and pointed with her finger at Cai Yutong in her arms.

Afterward.

She rushed into the depths of the floating island of coffins without looking back, disappearing into the Nether fog.

"That's the red-clothed skeleton demon?"

"Dr. Cai was captured by her?"

"What does she want to do? Leaving the bronze warship, she's a skeleton, so it doesn't matter, but how can Dr. Cai survive?"

……

Gao Huan followed Li Youyi closely, heading toward the medical tent and the direction of the broken scientific expedition ship.

"She did it on purpose, wanting to lure me off the ship."

Li Youyi found the rope tied to the side of the ship used for scooping water; it was clear that the red-clothed Qi Shanshan had gone down from here.

How did she dare?

Did she know what place this was?

"Youyi, something big is wrong, Dr. Cai was attacked by Dr. Qi..."

Zhao Meng, Old Liu, and a group of people rushed over with hurried expressions.

Li Youyi said: "I know, they have already left the ship."

"When she left, she said a very strange sentence. If Li Youyi wants to know who he is, I can give him the answer; tell him to come and find me," Zhao Meng repeated word for word.

"Who am I?"

Li Youyi frowned; he had never thought about this question before. But with the appearance of the skeleton demon and the so-called "Dao-protecting wife," everything became confusing.

A person must have a place of origin.

His hand gripped the rope tightly, quite hesitant.

It wasn't that he didn't dare to leave the ship, but he knew that there was a more terrifying ghost on the ship, and he was very worried that after leaving the ship, Senior Brother and the others would encounter accidents.

And if everyone left the ship, the road ahead was unknown.

This coffin sea was too gloomy, and no one knew how many dangers existed. Once the bronze warship sailed away, they would lose all hope.

"It stopped... the bronze warship seems to have stopped completely..." Gao Huan lay on the side of the ship, looking at the sea surface.

"Clang clang!"

In the tomb forest, camel bells and wind roared, rushing toward the side of the ship.

"Be careful!"

Li Youyi stepped forward quickly, mobilized the cold and hot air currents in his body, formed a heaven-turning palm seal, and slapped a palm toward the Nether fog cloud group flying out from above the tombstone.

With a bang.

The terrifying power in the Nether fog cloud group sent Li Youyi flying out of the side of the ship.

The human ghost figure rode the camel, and amidst the deafening camel bells, leaped high over the side of the ship, slashing the ghost flag in the air toward Li Youyi's waist and abdomen, wanting to directly hit him so he would fall and die on the sea surface.

The danger was extreme; Li Youyi couldn't care that he was falling in mid-air, pulled out the Huang Long Sword carried on his back, and swung his sword to block.

"Bang!"

The two forces collided.

Li Youyi's internal blood surged, and he fell at a faster speed.

What was even more fatal was that the camel bell sound and the ghost flag came again; the human ghost figure was not afraid of falling at all, determined to put him to death.

In this near-certain-death situation, the spring eyes at the center of Li Youyi's feet gushed wildly, air currents filled all twenty-six trace meridians in his body, and he performed the Huang Long Ascending to Heaven.

Taking the first step, like stepping on a cloud of wind, he stabilized his falling momentum.

Taking the second step, his figure dodged the ghost flag, reaching the same height as the human ghost figure.

Taking the third step, Li Youyi had already appeared above the human ghost figure's head.

In the human ghost figure's shocked eyes, the offense and defense changed.

"Go die."

Li Youyi held the sword with both hands, the yellow light on the sword edge erupted, and he slashed down heavily with one sword.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 27 =====