Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

In the compartment of the ship called Rusheng, the blood-soaked officer suddenly trembled and opened his eyes. The severe pain made him want to groan, but even the slightest movement was painful. The blood that had pooled under his body had slowly dried. For some reason, a large blood scab had formed over the wound on the back of his head.

He got up and opened a nearby cabinet door, where a mirror had been placed. He wanted to look at the back of his head, but found that he couldn't see it. He touched it with his hand and found that it was a terrifying wound. He knew he wouldn’t survive.

He looked out the window and happened to see Zhang Haiyan walking towards the center of the reef, carrying a bucket of disinfectant water. Based on the onlookers and the dust flying through the air, he already knew what was going on. After thinking about it, he took out a sealed steel tank from the cabinet and walked calmly towards the deck.

The people on the deck were all focused on the reef, so he blew a whistle to get their attention. Several sentries noticed him coming up and found that he had been seriously injured.

“Lieutenant, did Zhang Haiyan do this to you?” The sentry from before asked.

When the lieutenant only squinted at him, the sentry added, “Your mortal enemy?”

The lieutenant tried to make a sound. “Zhang Haiyan?” He looked to where the reef was and tried to keep himself from falling. “Get the boat ready, we’re going to leave.”

When the sentry nodded, the lieutenant added, “All the people here are already infected, so go and take some antibiotics. We’ll leave these laborers here. There’s no time to deal with them. Don’t attract their attention. Have twenty people bring submachine guns and dynamite. They’ll be following me to get the plague water. Sink all the ships except for ours.”

The sentries went to grab their guns, and soon, twenty people were lined up. As they went down to the reef, the lieutenant felt that the wound on the back of his head was bleeding again.

I won’t fail you. I will bring it back to you no matter what happens! He swore silently through clenched his teeth. He didn’t know where the strength came from, but he managed to walk faster than usual.

When everyone saw the blood-covered lieutenant coming, they quickly got out of the way and stood on both sides. His blood dripped steadily on the ground as he walked forward, and soon, the group of people reached the entrance of the hole.

“I’ll go down and get the plague water. Everyone else, arrange the explosives.” The lieutenant ordered calmly.

Some of the workers saw the explosives in their hands and started retreating.

Meanwhile, Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia had reached the bottom of the plague shipwreck. As they investigated, they made sure to sprinkle the disinfectant water everywhere.

The ship had been completely calcified, and the coral reefs had grown in from the holes to cover the inside. The ship’s hold was totally deformed, but hundreds of sacks could be seen hanging from the beams of the original ship.

These sacks used to hold the corpses back then, but now the corpses should have completely decomposed. Due to the rapid influx of outside air and oxidation, the sacks quickly turned black.

There was a pool of coal-black, fungus-like threads under each sack, which was actually caused by liquid dripping from the rotten corpses. It had all flowed to the low-lying part of the ship and pooled in the center.

These black ink stains were like a huge solar radiation map, and the pool was the sun in the center.

They walked up to the edge of the pool, and Zhang Haiyan said quietly, “This is the essence of the entire ship, the concentrated liquid of all those who died from illness.”

The water in the pool was surprisingly clear, and they could see their reflections along with the light from their lanterns.

Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia looked at each other and silently agreed to pour the disinfectant water into the pool.

Suddenly, there came the sound of a gun cocking behind them. The two immediately dodged and rolled into the darkness, finding that the place where they had just been standing was riddled with holes.

They turned their heads and saw that the lieutenant from before had brought a group of people with him. They were all basically firing indiscriminately into the darkness. Zhang Haiyan immediately dropped to the ground, but just when he was about to fight back, the other side fired two or three rounds at the same time. He rolled over, stepped on the coral reef, and climbed up one of the beams, but the bullets followed him all the way to the top.

The lieutenant had already walked to the edge of the pool, squatted down, and filled a jar with corpse water. He then sealed the jar, turned around, and left.

His subordinates gave up attacking Zhang Haiyan and immediately lit all the bundles of dynamite before tossing them everywhere. There were a few professionals highly skilled at setting up explosives, who put the heaviest bundles beneath the keel’s crucial point. Once they were done igniting all the dynamite, they quickly evacuated.

Zhang Haiyan knew that the situation was bad. He thought about cutting off all the fuses with his blades, but when he looked around, he realized there were hundreds of sparks. He shouted, “Shrimp, let’s go!”

The two rushed to the exit together, but were met with a heavy barrage of bullets and had to retreat. They heard more gunshots ring out, indicating that someone had hit the scaffolding outside the hole. It fell with a loud crash, making it impossible for them to climb up. The fuses behind them were still hissing as the sparks got closer and closer to their target.

“I should have hit that bastard one more time to make sure he was dead!” Zhang Haiyan fumed. “That was so stupid of me!”

He immediately turned around, picked up a few of the explosives nearest to them, and then threw them into the depths of the ship. Once a small space had been cleared, he grabbed a few sacks and handed them to Zhang Haixia. “Use these to protect yourself from the explosion. Our fate is in God’s hands now.”

Zhang Haixia looked at the sacks, shook his head, and then asked, “Do you want to return to Xiamen?”

“I do!”

Zhang Haixia grabbed all the sacks and put them on his back as protection. He then pushed Zhang Haiyan into the corner before he opened his arms to cover him. “That’s good.”

“What are you doing?”

“Zhang Haiyan, I don't want to go back to Xiamen. I don’t miss anything about it. You’ll go back for me.”

Before he had finished speaking, there was a loud noise and a huge blast of air pushed Zhang Haixia onto Zhang Haiyan. Zhang Haiyan’s head seemed to slam against something, and he knew nothing more.