Stranger Danger

Chapter 416: Corpse Ship

When he looked at the source of the noise, he realized that the bronze mirror had rolled off the dressing table. It was headed straight toward him.

Ye Qing’s nerves grew taut. If the bronze mirror came too close, he was absolutely going to send it flying with his fists, to hell with the consequences.

He didn’t think he was being overly sensitive or cautious. Even now, he couldn’t help but recall his experience two hours ago with trepidation and fear, and the culprit behind it all was headed straight toward him. Of course he was nervous about it.

It was then Ye Qing noticed something shocking. As the bronze mirror continued to roll toward him, the surroundings began changing drastically. The furniture aged, the floor grew tattered, the beads on the curtain turned dim and dirty. Dust and cobwebs were everywhere.

Ye Qing realized with a start that the room wasn’t what it seemed to be. From the start, everything he saw… was an illusion?!

Ye Qing swallowed as he did his best to wrestle his shock. He felt tense enough to break a muscle.

The bronze mirror stopped when it was about one meter away from Ye Qing. Then, it fell to the ground face up and produced a line of bloody words on its surface:

“Take the mirror and head to the third floor.”

Not again. Please don’t tell me that I’m caught in an illusion again!

Ye Qing frowned deeply as he caressed his chest. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt the Annon Sutra.

But why is it telling me to go to the third floor? Is the fog gone?

Ye Qing hesitated for a moment before poking his demonic thought out of the door. He was right. The fog had disappeared before he knew it.

As Ye Qing let out another sigh of relief, a rebellious thought suddenly entered his mind: should I try to run away from this mirror now that the coast is clear?

Unfortunately, the bronze mirror formed a new line of bloody words before he could take action. It was as if it could read his thoughts:

“If you wish to live, take the mirror and head to the third floor.”

Ye Qing bowed his head thoughtfully for a moment. In the end, he decided to obey the mirror’s command and picked it up with his left hand.

The bronze mirror felt a little cold to touch, and it looked shiny and new like it was cleaned very often.

His thoughts were simple. One, he wanted to live very much. Two, the pipa player’s advice, while not entirely truthful, did help him survive a fatal crisis. He was inclined to believe that the bronze mirror wasn’t asking him to leave this safe room for nothing. And three, after everything he had experienced so far, he was fairly sure the bronze mirror could kill him with ease. To reject its offer was to commit suicide.

His earlier impulse to give the bronze mirror the slip was just that, an impulse.

With that in mind, Ye Qing put away the bronze mirror and cautiously opened the door. When he looked left and right and confirmed that the fog had indeed disappeared, he let out a third sigh of relief and stepped out.

The rooms on the second floor didn’t look too different from what he remembered. Most of them were locked, and not a peep could be heard just like as before.

Ye Qing didn’t hurry to the third floor. Instead, he went back to the room he forced open earlier and peeked inside.

It looked like a mini war had been waged inside the room. The furniture and items were all crushed, the walls were covered in deep marks, and there were a few strands of black hair on the ground. It must’ve been quite the fierce struggle.

“Heh…”

Having satisfied his curiosity, Ye Qing turned a corner and found a staircase leading up to the third floor. However, he was certain it didn’t exist when he ran around the second floor a couple hours ago.

He sent his demonic thought over to the staircase, but he wasn’t able to sense anything out of the ordinary. Ye Qing wasn’t surprised by this. Since arriving at this place, his demonic thought had become far less effective than what it used to be. For example, he had scanned the bronze mirror’s room thoroughly as soon as he entered the place, but he never saw through the illusion until the mirror lifted the spell itself.

Ye Qing still didn’t go to the third floor even though the way was open to him. Instead, he leaped back down to the stage, dashed through the exit, and appeared on the deck. Who knows, maybe there was another way out.

It was dark and foggy outside of the ship, but the fog itself felt different from the one that flooded into the ship. Although it was still terrible and icy, it lacked the anomalous, rotten, evil energy that it exuded earlier.

Ye Qing lifted an eyebrow and threw a punch. The Burning Wind roared and scattered large patches of fog. The corpses floating on the lake were revealed once more.

Nothing had changed. The corpses were still floating face up, and they were still wearing an eerie, bone-chilling smile on their face.

“Should I ask the Annon Sutra about this?”

Unfortunately, as soon as his fingers made contact with the piece of vellum, his heart immediately started racing unnaturally. When he removed his hand, the strange sensation disappeared immediately.

Ye Qing understood why. It meant that the ship contained one or multiple Strangers who were powerful enough to sense the Annon Sutra should he use it. If he ignored its warning, he would most likely lose the Annon Sutra and his life.

“Sigh…”

Ye Qing shrugged, but he wasn’t too disappointed. He figured this might be the case since almost everything he encountered in this place seemed capable of killing him.

What should I do? Is there really no other option but to go to the third floor? Ye Qing frowned deeply while staring at the lake.

Reluctant to give up, he was just about to take another spin around the ship when suddenly, he saw a thick fog rising from the bottom of the ship. There were silhouettes pacing back and forth inside the fog.

“Again?!” Ye Qing cursed under his breath and dashed back into the ship immediately. He jumped to the second floor and dashed down the corridor to hide in the bronze mirror’s room, but…

“What the fuck?”

The room was gone. Literally, gone. Ye Qing found himself staring at a blank wall where there should’ve been a room. He swore loudly, “Motherfucker! She’s forcing me to go to the third floor!”

Ye Qing had no doubt that the female Stranger had hidden the room to prevent him from going back in.

“Fine, dammit!” Ye Qing uttered through gritted teeth and ran up to the staircase leading up to the third floor. By now, the first floor was completely engulfed, and the fog was pouring up the second floor rapidly. Ye Qing glanced at it once before dashing up the third floor.

Unlike the second floor, the third floor only had one room. The board set on top of the room looked pretty intact, and the words “Eternal Longing” were etched on it. It was an excellent name.

In this world, there were certain tunes that shared a common name, and “Eternal Longing” was one such name. It was interesting that the owner of this room had decided to name their room this way.

Ye Qing was dashing toward the room when he suddenly skidded to a halt. It was because the room was pitch black until he got to a certain range, and it suddenly lit up like someone had lit the candles.

“What are you waiting for, scion? Come in!”

A warm, gentle voice came from inside the room. It was as graceful as the spring wind blowing across green waters, and as crisp and refreshing as a mountain spring. If this was anywhere else, Ye Qing would’ve thought that the speaker was a soft woman so devastatingly beautiful that she could topple states and countries with her looks alone.

But this was a ghost ship. He would sooner believe that the speaker was a pink skeleton than an actual human. Even if she was human, he wouldn’t be surprised if she was a monstrous man-eater. Possibly literally.

Indecision gripped Ye Qing for a moment. The woman inside the room didn’t urge him to make a decision either. She patiently waited for him to make up his mind.

Unfortunately, time wasn’t on his side. Already, the fog was pouring up the third floor and creeping toward him.

Screw it! If this kills me, then so be it!

Throwing all caution to the wind, Ye Qing pushed the door open and stepped inside. But to his surprise, he didn’t find a pink skeleton or a blue-faced ghost. What he found… was a painting.

A painting that was floating in the air.

There was a woman inside the painting. She wore a white dress and held a peach flower in her hands. She was standing next to a blooming peach blossom forest where countless pink petals fell.

Her white dress looked like snow, and the peach flower fire. The blend was as phantasmal as it was beautiful.

The woman was showing only half her face. Even so, Ye Qing could tell that she was incredibly beautiful.

“Please take a seat, scion!” The woman in the painting offered.

“Dare I ask who you are, miss?” Ye Qing saluted her and asked warily.

“I am Longing. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Scion Ye.” Longing gave him a small bow and repeated gently, “Please, take a seat. I promise I will tell you everything that’s happening on this ship.”

This time, Ye Qing did as she requested and asked another question, “You know who I am, Miss Longing?”

Longing answered, “Your name is known to me from the moment you set foot in the Boat of Longing, Scion Ye.”

“The Boat of Longing? A good name,” Ye Qing paid the woman a compliment.

“Thank you.” Longing smiled gently. “However, the Boat of Longing has a different, more notorious name. You might even recognize it.”

That piqued Ye Qing’s curiosity. “Oh? What is it?”

Longing said slowly, “The Corpse Ship.”

“The Corpse Ship?” Ye Qing frowned for a second. Then, his eyes gradually widened into saucers, and disbelief colored his expression. He was so shocked that he shot to his feet and blurted, “This is the Corpse Ship?”

“That’s correct,” Longing confirmed.

“I’m… inside the Corpse Ship?!” Ye Qing repeated stupidly. That was how shocked he was.

The Corpse Ship was both a ship and an Anomaly. It was ranked pretty highly in the Pacification Bureau’s case files, and it was named the “Corpse Ship Incident”.

The reason it was named the “Corpse Ship Incident” was because witnesses claimed to see a huge ship surrounded by an entourage of corpses. Often found in rivers and lakes, a huge fog would spread, and anyone who was unfortunate enough to be caught inside the fog would disappear every time it manifested. When next it reappeared, the victims could be found swimming among the sea of corpses as one of them. That was why it came to be known as the Corpse Ship.

The Corpse Ship’s threat level and anomaly level was extremely high. It had vanished entire towns and villages in the past. Although the Pacification Bureau spared no effort to search for the Corpse Ship and end its threat once and for all, the results were mediocre at best.

For one, the appearance of the Corpse Ship was completely random. It didn’t appear at the same location either. Anywhere with a lake or a river could be visited by the Corpse Ship. Although the Corpse Ship’s appearance was always accompanied by a thick fog and endless bodies, it hardly helped the Pacification Bureau to narrow their search at all.

Two, the Corpse Ship was beyond dangerous. Countless Pacification Bureau elites had ventured into the Corpse Ship accidentally or intentionally, but no one had ever lived to tell the tale. It was a huge loss to say the least.

The Pacification Bureau had tried dispatching Grandmasters to resolve the case before, but when they entered the fog, they couldn’t find the Corpse Ship no matter what they tried. It was almost as if the ship was intentionally hiding from them.

As a result, the strong couldn’t find the ship, and the weaklings weren’t strong enough to solve the case. Over time, it became a cold case that not even the Pacification Bureau could do anything about.

Ye Qing was shocked because he had read about the case before. He was especially horrified learning that he had stumbled into an Anomaly that had supposedly no survivors.