Chapter 366: Fish Fins

Don't say it—you really shouldn't say it.

The mutated corpses bombed by high-explosive rounds indeed emitted a complex, multifaceted seafood barbecue scent, especially since the blasts had knocked down several coconuts, their fresh, sweet juice drenching the seafood like some Southeast Asian delicacy—if you could ignore what the ingredients were.

Alongside Li Cheng appeared Zhang Fuluang and Brother Sikong.

The latter noticed several familiar figures missing from beside the Land Rover, and his eyes instantly reddened.

The Brocade Uniform Guards were still people—they had family and friends, felt joy and sorrow, and would laugh out loud on the rafters of ministers' homes upon hearing a Great Ming joke.

Uh—that last part doesn't count. Nowadays, the Brocade Uniform Guards no longer sneak around eavesdropping on ministers' affairs.

Li Cheng paid no mind to Brother Sikong's emotional shift or the others' grim, constipated expressions; he suddenly hurled his steel flag spear toward the dense forest.

The spear, launched later but arriving first, swung horizontally to strike a rotund warrior-mutant who had ambushed from the trees.

【Effect 1: Counter Moment. After blocking an attack, swing your spear to launch the target airborne; if it hits a wall, deal double damage.】

Clang!

The warrior-zombie, whose physical strength rivaled Captain America's, flew backward faster than he had charged, crashing through several coconut trees before stopping.

His jet-black mouth stretched wide—but instead of blood or organs, what spilled out was—

Shhh—

A small mutant shot out from the zombie's mouth, its body covered in flying-fish fins, all of which vibrated rapidly like dragonfly wings, generating violent thrust to propel it hurtling toward Li Cheng.

"Watch out!"

Su Konghu and the others barely had time to cry out—Li Cheng didn't dodge or retreat; his eyes narrowed slightly, his palm intercepted the small mutant mid-air, and with the momentum, he flung it hard into the sand.

Then he stamped down on its neck to prevent it from struggling or biting.

"A hermit crab, huh."

Within his Information Synthesis Glasses, clear data streams appeared.

This zombie had once been a short servant of the Tu family; after infection, it mutated with hermit crab traits and had been hiding inside the rotund warrior all along.

"This isn't the place to talk. Follow me."

Li Cheng thrust his spear downward, ending the mutant's life, then shook off the stinking blood from its shaft and sprinted toward the high ground on the island's eastern side.

The six-legged self-propelled artillery he had deployed earlier provided distant artillery support, methodically clearing out zombies clustered too densely.

The mutants quickly adjusted tactics: some followed the trajectories of the shells, racing into the island's interior to locate the artillery's position; others scattered into a fan formation, chasing the survivors.

This indirectly proved one thing: these zombies, whose skulls had been invaded by oysters and shells, either still possessed some intelligence,

or were being remotely controlled by something behind the scenes.

The group fought as they retreated; the Huashan swordsman Wu Ge couldn't help asking: "Master Zhang, weren't you supposed to be reciting scriptures for Madam Tu in the inner quarters?"

"I didn't go recite scriptures."

Zhang Fuluang shook his head and briefly recounted what had happened after he broke into the Tu family's treasure vault the night before.

At the end of the corridor, he and Brother Sikong and Li Cheng had seen the two prophetic murals depicting the birthday banquet massacre, instantly realizing others were in danger and rushing back.

But the corridor was one-way—no exit, only an intricately carved wall at the end, marked with incomprehensible circles and lines.

The three tried numerous escape methods, including—but not limited to—digging a vertical tunnel upward—the rock was harder than volcanic rock, impossible;

painting a new mural behind the prophecy showing their escape—tried, useless;

returning to the starting point to search for a key inside the nested stone box—the box couldn't be opened from the outside at all.

After repeated failures, the three studied the wall at the corridor's end for a long time—and finally discerned a pattern.

Those circles and lines were a star map.

If each circle represented a star, the upper half included the Three Enclosures (Purple Forbidden, Supreme Palace, and Heavenly Market)—the northern sky's never-setting constellations,

while the lower half contained the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds at declination -70 degrees, visible only from the southern hemisphere—far beyond the observational capacity of the ancient Cangze Kingdom.

In this era, Great Ming maritime trade flourished; expeditions had even reached Australia, establishing the New Harbor Pacification Office and colonial outposts. Naturally, wealthy merchants funded astronomers to chart the southern skies.

Zhang Fuluang, trained at Longhu Mountain, understood celestial patterns of both hemispheres well; he immediately began reconstructing the map, plucking luminous pearls from elsewhere and placing them into the circles.

But soon he began sweating profusely.

For most people, the naked-eye limit for stellar magnitude is 6.5 (lower magnitude = brighter star),

yet some circles on the map had magnitudes of 7 or 7.5.

Worse still, astronomy includes the concept of variable stars—stars or stellar systems whose brightness changes due to internal physical states, like pulsating or eruptive variables.

The rock wall's star map clearly wasn't from this era; who knew which stars were bright or dim during the ancient Cangze period?

In the end, Li Cheng acted, using his phone's star map app and his multi-threaded mental domain technique to help Zhang Fuluang complete the star map.

During this process, two notable anomalies emerged.

First, by reverse-engineering the map's minor discrepancies, the observation point wasn't in the northern hemisphere—or even on Earth—but on the Moon.

More precisely, at 11 degrees north lunar latitude.

Second, the map was drawn around the 14th century BCE, evidenced by a supernova explosion near Antares (Alpha Scorpii).

This event was recorded on Shang dynasty oracle bones: "On the seventh day, Yi Yi evening, a new bright star appeared alongside Fire."

A lunar star map from the 14th century BCE… Could this have been drawn by Chang'e?!

After suppressing their doubts, the three completed the star map—then all the luminous pearls blazed brightly, the entire corridor trembled violently, and rocks collapsed.

The next instant, they were sucked into the star map; in a blink, they reappeared outside—right beside the divine molt scale that Huiyu had previously taken out via drone.

"Well done."

Li Cheng patted Huiyu's small head; despite her chewing betel nut, dabbling in abstract art, and vaping, she was never clueless when it mattered.

If they'd left the divine molt scale inside the Tu mansion, escaping would've taken them much longer.

"Hehehe."

Huiyu grinned foolishly at the praise, wagging her tail like a dog, spinning her skull-crushing power hammer—nearly crushing Su Konghu with a single swing.

"Oh, by the way."

Li Cheng turned his head to look at the Embroidered Uniform Guard Luhu, took out that piece of divine slough, and said, "Commander Lu, you had Brother Sikong go to the storehouse to steal this scale—what information had you received?"

(End of chapter)