Chapter 13: Red-Clothed Fairy

After the gloomy mist dissipated, wisps of ethereal fog still lingered in the grave forest, but it no longer shrouded the sky and earth as before. Visibility became clearer and more expansive, giving the sensation of walking through a mass grave.

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

Ancient and heavy stone steles stood tall, significantly taller than Li Wei, who walked below them.

Some steles had ghostly flags planted in front of them, while others had dark banners standing, fluttering with strange sounds in the wind.

Who exactly was buried here?

Why were they buried on a ship?

Was it to bring them home to rest, or was it a unique burial custom?

How did they die? Who built these graves and erected these steles for them? And where did the builders go?

The bronze ship was mysterious in every aspect, surely holding an ancient and tragic story. It was unknown who could have forged it, how magnificent it once was, or why it had been dormant on Earth for a thousand years.

Was it now returning to its origin?

Or was it continuing its ancient voyage?

Filled with curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, Li Wei searched the grave forest for half an hour until he finally heard the sound of wind chimes.

"Ding-ding!"

The bone wind chime hung on a bluestone stele over three meters high, its sound clear and pleasant.

Though described as made of bone, it was actually as translucent as jade, engraved with undecipherable secret symbols.

The thread connecting the chimes was woven from silver, enduring for a thousand years without breaking.

On the bluestone stele was a portrait, painted with unknown pigments, yet it hadn't faded at all; it was vibrant, striking, and lifelike.

In the painting, auspicious clouds were colorful, and a celestial maiden was exquisitely beautiful.

She appeared like a fairy maiden standing on the clouds, gazing down at the human world, dressed in a vibrant red robe, with beautifully coiffed hair adorned with golden ornaments. Her exquisite eyes were so lively, one might imagine her stepping out of the stele.

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

Li Wei's gaze returned to the bone wind chime; he wanted to take it down and examine it.

This should also be considered an imperishable item, right?

"Whoosh!"

He pushed off with his legs and leaped up.

Suddenly, a hot current surged from the sole of his right foot, making his body feel light. He shot up through the air, surprisingly landing on top of the over three-meter-high stele.

He wobbled but stood steady.

Li Wei held his breath, looking down from a height equivalent to a floor, feeling utterly bewildered.

After cultivating extraordinary abilities, could he now scale walls and traverse rooftops?

This feeling was too wonderful; anyone would feel a surge of excitement and vigor.

After calming himself, Li Wei reached out to take the wind chime. However, as soon as his hand touched a bone piece of the chime, a wave of dizziness swept over him. Before his eyes, an incomparably beautiful celestial maiden in a red robe seemed to appear.

Her graceful and stunning figure seemed to layer upon layer, pressing down on him.

"Thud!"

Li Wei fell from the bluestone stele, his head reeling as if he had been riding in a car on a bumpy mountain road for several hours.

"This thing is indeed eerie; it can't be touched!"

If it were that easy to take, the bone wind chime would have been taken by other expedition members long ago; why would it still be here?

However, Li Wei was a person with intense curiosity and a strong desire to explore, which was why he couldn't resist risking an attempt.

He circulated the Jade Void Breathing Method, directing the hot current from the sole of his right foot along the silver meridians toward his head. Moments later, the dizziness vanished, and he recovered.

Li Wei bowed respectfully to the portrait on the bluestone stele: "Junior had no intention of offending you, esteemed senior, please do not blame me... Hmm, Junior needs to retrieve the Dao Ancestor's Tai Chi Fish and the Yellow Dragon Sword, which will likely mean offending you once more. As a celestial immortal, surely you wouldn't take offense at a mere mortal, would you?"

After bowing three times with solemnity, Li Wei climbed onto the massive grave mound behind the bluestone stele.

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

Li Wei searched inch by inch through the gray-white grave soil. Finally, at the top of the mound, he felt a hard metallic object. Brushing away the soil, it was indeed the Dao Ancestor's Tai Chi Fish.

One green fish eye and one red fish eye, both only the size of a bean.

Just like before, it was merely an ordinary ancient ornament, without any special spiritual aura.

"Is this fish eye the Buddhist Sarira they all desire? Is its microscopic form truly a planet?"

How could it be activated?

Before Li Wei could put the Dao Ancestor's Tai Chi Fish back around his neck, the wind chimes on the bluestone stele suddenly rang loudly. A sense of danger that made his hair stand on end assailed him, like daggers in his back, enveloped in cold.

This is bad...

"Hiss-hiss!"

There was no time to escape at all.

From the grave soil below, many strands of black hair grew out, wrapping around his legs.

"Is this a reanimated corpse? But I clearly just bowed... Is this senior too petty?"

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

Li Wei channeled the hot current from the sole of his right foot, directing it to all thirteen silver meridians throughout his body, unleashing his strongest power to tear and struggle.

He only managed to resist for the duration of a single breath.

With a thud, he was pulled down by the black hair, falling to the ground and sinking towards the bottom of the grave soil.

It's over!

What in the world is happening?

Senior Sister Cai and her team dug up graves and created disturbances, doing much worse, yet they didn't provoke such a calamity. He was just here to retrieve his own belongings; how did he stir up such a terrifying evil entity?

Did he truly accidentally encounter a stingy ghost?

"Brother Meng, Lao Liu and the others have been exhausted these past seven days trying to fix the generator. You need to tell Captain Gao to arrange two good meals for them. We should celebrate today, no matter what, right?"

Chen Hong followed behind Zhao Meng, advocating for the engineering team members.

"Of course, they deserve the most credit."

Zhao Meng stepped into the cold storage compartment, and his expression instantly changed.

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

The compartment was messy and dimly lit, but Xie Jin's cold, smiling eyes were still clearly visible.

"Bang!"

An approximately 1.8-meter-tall, burly security team member, ambushed on the left side of the door, swung a steel pipe, smashing it hard against the compartment's doorframe. If Zhao Meng had reacted even a moment slower, his skull would have been crushed.

"It's an ambush, quickly leave!"

Zhao Meng warned Chen Hong, immediately exited the cold storage compartment, and was about to raise his gun to retaliate.

Another security team member, ambushing outside, leaped out, wrapping his arms around Zhao Meng's upper torso and arms from behind, letting out a low growl, intending to slam Zhao Meng against the bulkhead.

Zhao Meng had practiced martial arts since childhood and served in the army for many years, so his reactions were incredibly fast.

Before being slammed, his legs kicked the bulkhead first, exerting sudden force, causing both him and the security team member behind him to fall heavily to the ground.

After breaking free, Zhao Meng quickly rolled over and delivered a punch like a hammer.

"Thud!"

The punch landed on the face, knocking out the security team member who had just embraced him. Blood flowed from the man's mouth.

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

Zhao Meng had no time to reach for his gun; he rolled forward and kicked the man in the groin. Amidst a scream, the steel pipe clattered to the ground, and the security team member's legs trembled as he knelt.

As Zhao Meng picked up the steel pipe, he elbowed the man in the temple, causing him to fall sideways to the ground.

He instantly dealt with two skilled ambushers.

Before Zhao Meng could fully stand up, a third hidden person rushed out and used a taser gun, hitting him in the back.

"Buzz-buzz!"

Zhao Meng trembled all over, his muscles numb, unable to move his body.

Directly in front, Xie Jin rushed forward, leaped off the ground, and drove his knee into Zhao Meng's chest with his full body weight.

This was a flying knee strike!

If it connected, Zhao Meng's ribs would surely break and his heart would be shattered.

In this desperate life-or-death situation, Zhao Meng tore free from the taser behind him, rolled to the side and tumbled away. Even though his entire body was weak and sore, driven by a powerful will to survive, he bit his tongue, forced himself to stay alert, and threw the steel pipe in his hand.

With a "thud," the steel pipe struck the hand of the third ambusher, and the taser immediately fell to the ground.

Zhao Meng seized the opportunity to pick up the rifle from the ground, chambered a round, and aimed it at Xie Jin, who had just landed, his face cold and ruthless, his eyes revealing pure killing intent.

"Thud!"

"Crack..."

From the shadows behind him, Chen Hong, holding a rebar wrapped in black cloth around his hands, struck Zhao Meng's right arm near the shoulder with all his might.

The sound of bone fracturing rang out.

Even Zhao Meng's formidable and robust physique, like an iron tower, couldn't withstand it. He roared in pain, his body sinking, and the rifle clattered to the ground.

He struggled not to fall, slowly turned around, his lips trembling, and looked at Chen Hong with an expression of disbelief.

No one knew Zhao Meng's strength better than Chen Hong, so he couldn't hold back in his attack.

It had to be quick and ruthless.

Chen Hong's face no longer held any trace of his usual cheerful smile; only seriousness and coldness remained. He swung the rebar again, striking Zhao Meng's supporting knees.

"Thud!"

His kneecaps shattered, and his legs broke backwards.

Zhao Meng could no longer stand up, nearly fainting from the pain. Chen Hong threw the rebar to the ground, then picked up the rifle. After checking the number of bullets, he finally felt completely at ease.

Looking at Zhao Meng's pale face and his angry, bewildered, unwilling eyes, Chen Hong was greatly displeased and reprimanded him: "I know what you want to say, but isn't it all your fault?

"Didn't I suggest that you lead our brothers to get rid of Gao Xin, then become the captain of the research vessel, or even the entire bronze ship? At that point, everyone on board would have to listen to us. Whatever we tell them to do, they'd have to do it. If we tell them to kneel, they wouldn't dare stand."

"Those useless old, weak, sick, and disabled people should all be killed as early as possible; they're just wasting food."

"As long as we control the supplies and their distribution, we can do whatever we want and survive until the end. But..."

"You're too pedantic! You have no ambition or ruthless temperament; you're still bound by old rules and conventions. Since you wouldn't take the initiative, I had to. I don't want to die."

Xie Jin, looking somewhat wary, glanced at the rifle in Chen Hong's hand and chuckled: "Well done. With Zhao Meng dealt with, the rest of the crew on the ship are nothing to fear. Give me the gun, and I'll commend your top merit to my cousin."

"It's better if I keep this gun for now."

Chen Hong was not foolish; he naturally wouldn't hand over the gun. While guarding against Xie Jin, he unbuttoned Zhao Meng's outer coat.

After unbuttoning the coat, he saw a soft purple leather armor underneath. On the chest was a blood-colored five-fingered handprint pattern, with some strange scriptures in the palm, resembling the symbol of a mysterious organization.

His fingers felt a cold sensation upon touching the soft armor.

"This must be the corpse-skin armor he removed from those skeletal humans. The leather armor has not decayed for a thousand years, so it must be a treasure. No wonder he could break free from the taser."

Chen Hong was delighted. He stripped the corpse-skin armor from Zhao Meng and put it on himself.

The corpse-skin armor seemed capable of changing size; his physique was far less imposing than Zhao Meng's, but it fit him quite snugly after he put it on.

Xie Jin knew there was nothing he could do about Chen Hong for now, so he suppressed his anger and said gently, "Quickly search him. Is the Buddhist Sarira on him?"

After searching, Chen Hong's face showed disappointment: "It seems the Buddhist Sarira is still on his junior brother."

Zhao Meng, who had originally resigned himself to his fate, heard this and his eyes immediately turned dark with rage. He roared, "Chen Hong, if you dare harm my junior brother, I will ensure you all die without a whole corpse!"

Chen Hong gave him a pitying look: "If you can stand up, I'll believe you. Brother Meng, you taught me to be bold, to dare to fight and strive, not to be an impotent rage-filled person. How could you forget that yourself?"

Xie Jin walked over, stepped on Zhao Meng's chest, twisting his foot with full force, and sneered as he leaned down: "You're so agitated, it seems the Buddhist Sarira must be with him, isn't that right?"

Zhao Meng, drawing strength from who knows where, tried to prop himself up with his uninjured hand.

But how could he resist Xie Jin?

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

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

Naturally, he found nothing.

"Tie them all up and take them to the deck. Oh, by the way, have any of you seen Cai Yutong?" Xie Jin didn't have Xie Tianshu's grand ambitions; in his eyes, capturing Cai Yutong was more important than anything, not even for the Buddhist Sarira.

A security team member said, "She and the graduate students seem to have gone to the cultivation area; they didn't eat the breakfast that contained the drug."