Around the hatch of the boarding hall, the hull of the ship had long been riddled with countless cracks from the bear-like creature’s earlier collisions, teetering on the edge of collapse. In this latest attack, the bear-like creature smashed into the hatch and nearby hull with a single blow, tearing a two‐meter high gaping hole.
Thankfully, the area had been tightly blocked by various cabinets, tables, and chairs that managed to hold back the creature for a brief moment. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Weiyi hurled every explosive made by Cai Yutong in one wild throw. At that moment, who could even care about the consequences?
“Boom!”
“Rumble!” …
The enormous explosions forced the bear-like creature to retreat temporarily. The cabinets and tables blocking the hatch burst into flames amid the blasts. Windows in the boarding hall shattered one after another, as biting wind and flurries of snow flooded in, only adding to the raging fire.
The shock wave from the explosions sent members of the security team who had retreated into the restaurant at the back of the boarding hall—along with Cai Yutong and the short-statured trainee—flying, some slamming to the ground and losing consciousness.
Li Weiyi himself, caught in the shockwave, was blasted backward and his body slammed into a wall; pain stabbed through him as if his entire body were falling to pieces. A wall of raging flame spread outward, scorching and searing.
Before Li Weiyi had time to regain his footing, he saw the massive bear-like creature shattering any obstacles in its path as it burst forth from the raging inferno. It reached out with one enormous hand and ripped off the arm of a security team member who had hurled acid.
The poor fellow cried out in agony as his arm was torn away, blood spurting everywhere. The security team member, in unbearable pain, fired his electric gun at the creature’s belly. It made no difference.
Instead, the creature grew even more enraged. It bared its blood-soaked jaws and, with one huge bite, severed the man’s head. As though feasting on a human snack, its second bite tore away the chest cavity, which it chewed and swallowed whole.
Then it let out a deafening, earth-shaking roar. The roar shook Li Weiyi’s ears until blood began to trickle, and his mind spun in dizziness. At that very moment, he realized that the creature had hurled the half-bodied security team member aside.
Its eyes had turned blood-red; burning, matted hair covered its body like a demon’s, and it glared at him with wrathful intensity. Its size was like a towering mountain; blood-red eyes, and sharp teeth stained with gore and flesh—anyone faced with such doom would lose strength in their legs and quake in utter terror, unable to rise.
After that brief, terrifying glance, Li Weiyi’s whole body shuddered. Clenching his teeth, he rolled agilely and dashed toward the stairs. In truth, ordinary people escaping death would have retreated into the restaurant and banded together with the security team, Cai Yutong, and the trainee, forming a human barrier.
They wouldn’t need to outrun the beast, merely outpace each other. Li Weiyi scoffed at such selfish cowardice. Besides, he had other plans.
He believed that the bear-like creature was not without its weaknesses, and that he, too, was capable of striking back. Its size, though monstrous, was actually its flaw. On this scientific research vessel, the passageways were narrow and the creature could hardly move; the stairs and lower compartments were even tighter.
Perhaps here lay his chance to counterattack. Inside the restaurant, those remaining listened as the creature’s clamor gradually faded. The short trainee, hiding in a corner, trembled with relief and worry, “Brother Li has lured the bear-like creature away!”
Cai Yutong crawled up from the ruins, still with a ringing in her ears and her long hair in disarray. She looked at the security team and said, “Why are you just standing here with your weapons? Go and give him a hand!”
The security team exchanged glances, at a loss for words. They were all elite warriors, yet none had ever faced life and death. When the shadow of death loomed, how could any human not be afraid?
After all, that bear-like creature could shatter even the ship’s alloy hull. What use was their firepower when one impact could reduce everyone to bloody pulp? Xie Jin, unwilling to show cowardice, growled, “We were meant to ambush from the restaurant.
But Li Weiyi lured it somewhere else, upending our plan.” …
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
The bear-like creature’s might exceeded Li Weiyi’s estimates. Although the research vessel was cluttered with obstacles and the corridors were narrow, to the creature they were like paper. With one strike, it smashed doors and walls to pieces.
Wielding his sword in one hand and gripping the banister of the stairs with the other, Li Weiyi leapt to the next lower compartment like a nimble primate. In the next moment…
“Boom!”
The creature flipped the entire corridor, crashing into the next compartment and stomping the floor into a depression. It let out a low, hoarse snarl as it searched around. Hidden above a cluster of mechanical devices, Li Weiyi crouched and drew his sword, holding his breath and focusing sharply.
He noted that the creature was bleeding from its wounds. Clearly, it had been hit several times by a rifle before and was seriously injured. This was undoubtedly good news!
The Yellow Dragon Sword was sharp, but being a cold weapon, it might not easily penetrate the beast’s skin and bone defenses. However, its massive eyes would certainly be vulnerable to a precise thrust. With a huge gap in strength and speed, he had only one chance.
Just as Li Weiyi was about to strike, he noticed that the creature abruptly raised its head from below, having detected him and already swinging its massive claw. It was the scent—bear’s sense of smell is two thousand times that of a human, and this creature’s smell must be even keener.
It had long since locked onto Li Weiyi’s position by scent. The creature’s paw, as large as a fan and weighing like a thousand jin, would not only completely crush him if it hit him directly, but even a mere graze would surely tear chunks of flesh from him.
Li Weiyi deduced that aside from its enormous build and its glaring eyes, the third weakness of the bear-like creature was its likely underdeveloped intelligence—otherwise, it would not have chosen solely to attack the boarding hall hatch, but would have sought another entrance. Thus, with this third weakness in mind, Li Weiyi chose to crouch near the ship’s pump equipment.
Only by leveraging the machinery’s force and the supreme intellect that set humans apart from all other creatures could he hope to contend with the beast. In the instant the creature’s massive paw swung toward him, Li Weiyi powered his legs and leaped to the side.
“Thud!”
The gigantic paw smashed and broke the pump pipes. Immediately, high-pressure seawater erupted in a jet, striking the creature’s head. Having landed on the ground, Li Weiyi raced with both feet and hands pressed to the floor, slipping away behind the creature to avoid the water jet.
In that fraction of a second before his sight and sense of smell returned, he thrust his sword with pinpoint accuracy. His sword, swift as lightning and graceful like the Yellow Dragon, found its mark.
“Splutter!”
The creature’s right eye was pierced, and blood burst out like arrows. A roar filled with pain, anger, and rage echoed throughout the scientific vessel, shaking the walls. After landing his successful hit, Li Weiyi immediately turned to flee.
However, his speed still paled in comparison to the creature’s ferocity. In its fit of rage, the creature wildly swung its claws. One of its massive limbs brushed past Li Weiyi’s left arm.
With a ripping sound, the fabric of his left sleeve was torn open, revealing a deep wound on his upper arm down to the bone, from which fresh blood gushed relentlessly. As Li Weiyi moved swiftly, his balance was lost. The force of the blow sent him sprawling to the ground, sliding back toward the stairs.
Half of his body on the left throbbed in pain, nearly numbing him. Next to the creature’s terrifying might, a human’s strength was as fragile as a stalk of wheat, easily snapped with a mere flick. Leaning against a wall, Li Weiyi crouched, gritting his teeth as he endured the pain.
Using torn scrap from his broken sleeve, he hastily bandaged his wounded left arm to stave off too much blood loss. Then he picked up his Yellow Dragon Sword that had fallen at his feet.
After a moment of agonized growls and screams with the creature clutching at its eye, it charged at Li Weiyi with furious determination, as if intent on tearing him to shreds. Li Weiyi knew there was no point in trying to simply run—it was too fast.
Instead, with one hand on his sword, he forced himself upright, his eyes defiant and cold. Whether monstrous beast or demon, nothing could shatter his courageous resolve to fight to the death.
He let out a fierce shout and, in that single moment of unleashing his full might with a sweeping sword strike, “Whoosh—” The blood that had splattered earlier from his left arm began to evaporate and rise, transforming the dim corridor into a world shrouded by a pale red mist like a blood-warped domain.
The floor, the walls, the pipes—all underwent slow decay and rot. Behind him, from within the endless swirling blood mist, an ethereal figure appeared as if from nowhere: the graceful silhouette of a bride in an ancient, grand red wedding dress. Tall and lithe, with a slender, jade-white neck and a belt of jade around her waist.
The wedding dress was elaborate and resplendent, woven with patterns of dragons and phoenixes in gold and silver thread, with lotus designs at the cuffs and hem that spread out like phoenix wings. Yet underneath a red satin bridal veil, with copper coins hanging from its four corners, her immortal beauty was hidden.
The entire figure was blurred, as if half-phantom, half-real; a beauty so eerie it sent shivers down one’s spine. How had she appeared? And why had the surroundings turned as grim as a haunted realm?
This spectral bride seemed as though she were formed from Li Weiyi’s own coagulated blood, or perhaps she was an eternally haunting new wife following him—an apparition no one else could see. As Li Weiyi’s sword swung forth, her graceful jade hand rose elegantly as if to strike down.
“Slish!”
Even though Li Weiyi had already steeled himself for death at the claws of the bear-like creature, that single sword strike miraculously flung the beast several meters into the air, its blood spurting like a fountain. In midair, along the creature’s neck and belly appeared a horrifying sword mark over a meter long.
Li Weiyi seemed to have expended every ounce of strength as he staggered backward, barely managing to lean against the wall. He looked on in horror at the crashing beast… None of it could be real!
“How could my mortal strength possibly fling it away with one sword strike? What in the world just happened?”
Li Weiyi panted heavily, his left arm wound leaking blood profusely as everything before his eyes blurred. The blood mist, the decay, the ghostly atmosphere, and the bride in the red bridal veil had all vanished, as if they had never been there.
“Roar… Awooo…”
The bear-like creature struggled to rise, its roar now less resounding and more trembling. As it cautiously advanced toward Li Weiyi once more, its steps grew hesitant.
“Junior Brother!”
As Li Weiyi, nearly faint from blood loss and piercing pain, heard his senior brother’s furious voice, the next moment was filled with the thunderous report of gunfire.
“Bang!”
“Bang!” …
Zhao Meng was truly enraged—his eyes bloodshot—with his hands clenching a shotgun loaded with buckshot. He fired repeatedly, forcing the bear-like creature to howl in pain as it staggered back into the darkness.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs,” Zhao Meng said as he reloaded and retreated, pulling Li Weiyi along behind him.
The two ran one after the other toward the fourth deck where the upper level lay. Though the shotgun was powerful, it was clear the bear-like creature was no ordinary beast—the creature’s defenses and stamina surpassed any scientific understanding, and it continued to let out deep, guttural roars from behind.
The two of them finally reached the boarding hall, where the hatch had earlier been breached by the creature into a huge hole. Cold, furious winds rushed in, cutting at their faces like knives. It was unbearably cold!
Under the sunlight earlier, the world had seemed so different—a whole other realm. Now, the blood on Li Weiyi’s left shoulder and his sodden clothes were at risk of freezing into icy crystals in an instant. Zhao Meng carried a military-green shoulder bag strapped to his chest, which looked rather bulky, as if it contained something important.
His tiger-like eyes brimmed with a final, resolute determination as he looked at Li Weiyi and said, “Senior Brother, from now on I may not be able to watch over you. You have to take care of yourself.” Without a backward glance, Zhao Meng burst out of the boarding hall.
He ran across the deck, climbed over the railing, and leapt off the scientific vessel. Not once from beginning to end did he show the slightest hesitation in bidding farewell to Li Weiyi.
“Senior Brother…”
Li Weiyi chased after him onto the deck. Outside, the wind roared like a vengeful spirit, nearly blowing a person away. He did not know why Zhao Meng had chosen to act this way, but he understood that if he did not catch up, it might be their final parting.
Watching Zhao Meng’s figure slowly disappear across the icy plain, Li Weiyi’s heart sank. Without thinking further, he leapt off the several-meter-high railing and fell onto the hard, frozen ice. Hearing the sound of heavy footsteps behind him, Zhao Meng, some tens of meters away, suddenly stopped, turned, and ran back.
“What are you doing coming after me?”
Zhao Meng shouted in anger.
“After Master’s death, besides you, I have no other kin! We will live or die together,” Li Weiyi replied.
Tears welled up in Zhao Meng’s eyes as he looked up at the sky, a helpless sigh escaping him. …
“Awooo!”
The bear-like creature’s roar came from the deck above on the scientific vessel. It leapt off the ship, and with a loud thud, landed not far from Li Weiyi and Zhao Meng, steadily closing in. In the dim light, the creature’s teeth gleamed snow-white and razor-sharp; one eye burned red, while the other continually oozed blood.
From the gash running over a meter along its neck and belly, blood cascaded, staining the ice red. The creature was not immortal—it was grievously wounded—but its single surviving eye remained fixed on the shoulder bag on Zhao Meng’s chest.
“Good! If we are to die, let our senior and junior brothers die together, and if we are to live, we live together.”
Zhao Meng raised his shotgun, his expression fiercer than that of the bear-like creature. Li Weiyi gripped his Yellow Dragon Sword tightly, his gaze as sharp as the sword’s edge, like a drawn bowstring, ready to strike.
Suddenly, A baby’s cry rang out from beneath the sea—a low, somber sound that echoed throughout the entire Arctic, making even the glaciers and snowy ridges tremble. It sounded like crying, yet also like laughter. In fact, it wasn’t just one baby’s cry; several echoed from different directions, in a manner so eerie it sent chills down the spine.
The bear-like creature across from them immediately recoiled in terror, trembling as it fixed its gaze on the area behind Zhao Meng. It dropped into a crouched position, its previous fierceness utterly gone. Li Weiyi and Zhao Meng slowly turned their heads.
There, suspended midair, was a baby’s head the size of a house. Its disheveled black hair cascaded down as it laughed—a wide, eerie smile stretching from its mouth all the way to its ears. Its dark red tongue, several meters in length, swayed.
Its neck extended like a stately pillar plunging down into the icy sea.
“Thud!”
In the next instant, a second baby head appeared, crashing through the scientific vessel’s deck and rising all the way to the top, the tenth compartment, as if challenging the sky itself.
“Splash!”
A third baby head burst through an ice cover some ten meters away, appearing behind Li Weiyi and Zhao Meng with a low, haunting cry. Then the fourth, the fifth… All nine infant heads—each as large as a house—had emerged from the sea.
They hovered in midair in a gruesome display. Their necks, long and twisted like scaly tendrils, slithered around the vessel, squeezing and deforming it as they began to break it apart. Hidden beneath the sea, the creature’s huge, damaged body started to heave and overturn the slowly crumbling research vessel.
A chorus of screams, cries of terror, and crashing sounds filled the ship. Until this point, Li Weiyi had no knowledge of the Nine Infants’ existence. Now, witnessing the spectacle, it was as though he had fallen into a chaotic world of demons and restless souls—a ghostly wasteland, the shock of which overwhelmed him like never before.
As all nine sets of bone-green eyes fixed eerily upon him, terror filled Li Weiyi’s heart. At the same time, Zhao Meng bitterly murmured, “If we hoped to use the Buddha’s relics to ward off calamity, it turns out it was all sheer delusion from the start. We should never have dared to be so lucky.”
All nine infant heads cackled with a bizarre, demonic laugh. Like nine swift pythons, they charged at Zhao Meng.
“Whoosh!”
Not sure whether it was Li Weiyi’s blood that had imbued the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish, or for some other reason, the Chan Sect leader’s token that hung around his neck suddenly burst forth with a dazzling blue radiance. The blue glow shone like the resplendent Aurora Borealis, shooting straight up into the heavens and instantly flooding the world.
The nine infant heads attacking Zhao Meng simultaneously emitted piercing, unnatural shrieks as they were repelled by the burst of blue light from the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish. At the same time, the shoulder bag on Zhao Meng’s chest trembled violently and burst into flames.
Inside the bag, both the golden coffin and silver coffin containing the Buddha’s relics shattered, releasing a red glow that shot toward the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish hanging on Li Weiyi’s neck. … Brothers, that was an incredible display.
Old Fish says that on the first day of his book’s release, it ranked first in sales, hit number one on the trending list, and collected eighty thousand bookmarks.
(The chapter ends.)