novelraw Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Wielding the Spear[
Xie Tianshu scanned the graduate students, eyes narrowing, and asked coldly, “Where’s Cai Yutong?”
“Not found yet,” Xie Jin replied.
“Not found, or did you hide her?” Xie Tianshu’s tone carried a hint of severity.
He had rallied so many, yet mistakes kept piling up. First, the Lab 705 members and Li Weiyi vanished, and now Cai Yutong, a frail woman, had slipped away.
Xie Tianshu suspected Xie Jin, swayed by beauty, had let her go.
“Brother Shu, am I the type to ignore the bigger picture? Cai Yutong really wasn’t at the planting area—ask them,” Xie Jin said.
One of Professor Xu’s students, Sima Tan, wearing rimless glasses and looking refined, stood among the three behind Xie Jin.
Three days ago, under Xie Tianshu’s coercion and promises, he had defected.
He said, “Not long ago, Dr. Qi came to the planting area and took Dr. Cai away.”
Xie Tianshu’s expression softened, sighing, “Ah Jin, beauty’s a rare resource, but compared to survival, it’s just a fleeting toy. Send two men to search the tomb forest. When found, she’s our shared resource.”
Xie Jin’s face shifted, but he nodded.
Sima Tan glanced at Chen Hong, interrogating Gao Huan, and said, “Asking him like that won’t work! Everyone has a weakness. Gao Huan’s is Liu Ying. He’s liked her for three years, pursued grad school for her, and pulled strings to join Professor Xu’s lab.”
Liu Ying was one of the five students brought from the planting area, fair-skinned, with bright eyes, quite striking. On the research vessel, she was the one who asked me to take their group photo.
“You’re classmates, yet you sell her out so thoroughly,” Chen Hong laughed.
Sima Tan said, “We’re no different—don’t mock each other. Everyone has a dark side, and now we’re free to unleash it, no law to fear. Brother Shu, give me half an hour with Liu Ying, and I guarantee Gao Huan will spill everything.”
Laughter erupted around them.
Kong Fan grinned, “Half an hour? Youngsters are confident. Our new Captain Xie said beauties are shared resources—how about including me, Old Kong?”
Laughter roared again.
From departure until now, nearly two months on the ship had been dull, lonely, and exhausting.
Who didn’t crave excitement?
In this lawless place, with no one knowing how long they’d live, boldness grew.
How could they suppress their inner evil?
History’s emperors, victorious, often claimed the losers’ women—how could this group be any different?
Since acquiring the silver-threaded gloves, Kong Fan had tasted extraordinary power, his mindset shifting. He viewed others as a superior views servants.
Servants could be toyed with freely.
Gao Huan cursed, “Sima Tan, you’re a beast! Liu Ying’s my classmate—isn’t she yours too? I don’t know where Li Weiyi is—I really don’t.”
Knowing or not wasn’t always the point.
Liu Ying was the reward Xie Tianshu promised Sima Tan.
Using beauty to sway subordinates and turn enemies was an ancient tactic, nothing new.
Liu Ying, sobbing, ran toward the tomb forest.
But with hands bound tightly, she couldn’t run fast and was soon caught by Sima Tan, dragged toward the medical shack.
Kong Fan, chuckling, followed.
Professor Xu, on the ground, wept and roared, banging his head: “You’re too barbaric! Have you no morals or conscience? Let Liu Ying go—come at this old man instead. Sima Tan, with such depravity, no matter your academic achievements, I won’t let you graduate…”
Xie Jin said, “This old man talks too much. Throw him into the soul sea to feed those ghosts—save our food.”
Two security members looked at the shack, then at Professor Xu, legless and banging his head, feeling pity and guilt.
Their consciences stirred. In just seven days, not only had the environment changed.
The transformation in people’s hearts was staggering.
Then, camel bells echoed faintly from the tomb forest.
Xie Jin’s eyes glinted with bloodshot streaks: “What? Feeling guilty, wanting to be good again? Once you start, there’s no turning back. Throw that old man down…”
“I’ll talk… I’ll talk… Li Weiyi went to the nine-story tower, to the stern. He told me earlier, I swear!”
Gao Huan knelt, kowtowing, tears streaming: “Let Liu Ying go, spare the professor, I beg you!”
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
His forehead quickly bruised and bled.
He hoped to trick these villains into facing the Ghost Bear Emperor, but also genuinely had no choice, praying his pleas would save Liu Ying and Professor Xu.
Zhao Meng rebuked, “Giving up my junior brother’s whereabouts makes you worthless! You think begging will make them turn good? Naive, foolish… Once they bare their fangs, they’re no longer human!”
Xie Tianshu watched coldly, calmly: “Don’t think I don’t know about the stern. Little Huan, you’re so dishonest—you disappoint me!”
His last words were a roar.
He waved.
Two security members tossed Professor Xu, held midair, into the soul sea.
With a splash, countless excited ghost howls and the sound of tearing flesh rose from below.
Professor Xu’s few shrill screams faded to silence.
Gao Huan stopped kowtowing, kneeling in a daze, stunned.
The deck fell eerily quiet.
The bound crowd, trembling, dared not speak, shrinking to avoid Xie Tianshu’s gaze.
Another female student, as beautiful as Liu Ying, was terrified, fingers clenched, holding back tears.
“Lying has a price.”
Xie Tianshu slapped Gao Huan’s face sharply: “Think before you speak next time.”
Then, loudly: “Two more, go in!”
Two security members, with a mix of shame and eager anticipation, entered the shack.
Human nature is always contradictory.
Like clothes on a woman, stripping them all at once is hard, but once it starts, piece by piece, they come off.
Chen Hong disapproved of Xie Tianshu’s “beauty luring” and “sin-binding” tactics: “Pressuring him is less effective than pressuring the first mate. Meng and I are like brothers—I can’t watch the cruelty. I’ll take people to find those hiding.”
…
I fled through the tomb forest with the Yellow Dragon Sword, finally escaping the hair.
A skeleton, trying to revive, could devour my blood.
Terrifying and eerie.
Even with my extraordinary feat, I was no match. Without the Tai Chi Fish and Yellow Dragon Sword, I’d have died.
Luckily, she remained in the ice coffin, not fully awake, her hair’s attack limited to five meters.
Imagine if that “bone demon” broke free—what a horror!
“Senior Brother sure knows how to hide things. Why bury the Tai Chi Fish and Yellow Dragon Sword in her grave? Nearly got me killed.”
I recalled him saying I landed on her grave when I fell onto the ship. Its cushion saved me.
What a cursed fate!
I looked toward the Golden Crow’s glow in the mist, puzzled. With such a guiding light, why did team members get lost? Were there other mysteries in the tomb forest?
About two hundred meters from the Golden Crow, I emerged from the tomb forest at the hull’s edge. Checking my arm, the cut on my wrist had scabbed, nearly healed.
The armored skeletons and various weapons lay scattered nearby.
Director Yang said the lightest black spear needed two people to lift.
Alone, I grabbed the spear near its tip with one hand.
It was heavy but I lifted it.
“One hand stronger than two people?” I was surprised but not thrilled, having just faced the bone demon’s power.
Without the Yellow Dragon Sword, I could only resist briefly.
With it, I could only flee.
Suddenly.
Light footsteps came from the Golden Crow’s direction.
Moments later, Qi Shanshan, in her white physician’s coat, emerged from the mist, looking wary and panicked.
“Li Weiyi… what are you doing here?”
Qi Shanshan glanced around, incredulous.
In nearly two months, this was the first time I saw her without heels, wearing pink sneakers instead. Her gaze shifted to the hazy nine-story tower, sparking doubts. She knew the Ghost Bear Emperor was alive—why come here alone?
I asked, “Dr. Qi, aren’t you afraid of the Ghost Bear Emperor?”
“Big trouble!”
Qi Shanshan, serious, approached me, hand in her pocket gripping a damp medical cloth: “Second Mate Xie Tianshu rallied many for a power grab. The ship’s in chaos. I had no choice but to risk coming here. Didn’t you hear gunshots?”
“Gunshots? They acted already?”
I hadn’t heard them, likely happening while I was trapped in the coffin. Though skeptical of Qi Shanshan, my senior brother was in danger, leaving no time to overthink.
“Splash!”
I flicked my toe, the scorching airflow surging through my leg’s veins, unleashing full force.
The ten-foot black spear flew up, landing firmly in my hand, its tip humming.
Yellow Dragon Sword in one hand, spear in the other, I stood tall, ready to rush to the bow.
Qi Shanshan, now five steps away, saw this, her charming face shocked: “Your injury’s healed… Did Yutong give you Golden Crow blood?”
Only Golden Crow blood could explain a near-crippled arm healing in days, with terrifying strength.
I had no time to explain.
“Come back!”
Qi Shanshan, unsure she could overpower my newfound strength and seeing my wariness, had a new plan.
She quietly tucked the cloth back, pulling her hand from her pocket, speaking with concern: “Weiyi, I understand your worry for your senior brother, but they have guns. No matter how strong you are, a bullet can kill you. We need a plan, to know their numbers and the situation before acting.”