Chapter 27 Bronze Box
The moonlight shines on the river surface, and the breeze makes the water sparkle.
The pitch-black Azure was speeding across the river, and the fluorescent light flowing between the runes was even more eye-catching in the night.
At this time, in the bottom cargo hold, among the many messy cargoes, there was a bronze box covered with rust, with strange patterns engraved on it. The patterns were intertwined, vaguely forming a ghost face.
This patterned ghost face opened its mouth wide, as if it had a strange magical power that would devour the soul of anyone who stared at it.
The bronze box shook slightly.
Bang! The box fell off the pile of goods, rolled a few times and stood on the ground.
A puff of gray smoke floated out of the ghost face's open mouth.
A suffocating and eerie laugh sounded in the silent cargo hold.
“Hehehe…”
"Soul...time...node...sacrifice, open..."
An unknown language and vague words seemed to have struggled across the world and came out from the bronze box.
The gray smoke swirled, invisible and intangible, passing through the hull and the magic circle, constantly approaching the area where the passengers were.
The gray smoke entered a guest room, but the monk inside was unaware of it, still sitting cross-legged on the ground, moving his true essence and absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. It circled around the monk and suddenly entered his mind.
This cultivator was only at the Great Perfection of the True Essence Realm, two realms away from the Spiritual Platform Realm involving soul cultivation. Although his soul was much stronger than that of an ordinary person, there was no essential difference.
Still fragile and powerless, especially when facing the gray smoke, an attack on the soul, it has no power to resist.
The gray smoke easily devoured the monk's soul. Although he looked unharmed on the outside, only a shell was left, and he was completely dead.
Gray smoke emerged from the mind, swirled around, and then went into the next room.
Be it monks or mortals, passengers or crew members, the gray smoke accepted everyone and devoured their souls as soon as it met them. After devouring more than a hundred people, the gray smoke seemed to have reached its limit and began to drill into the cargo hold.
Faces kept appearing in the rolling gray smoke. They were all the people whose souls had just been devoured. Their expressions were hideous and terrifying, with anger, pain, unwillingness, and fear...
Full of evil, negative vibes.
The gray smoke returned to the cargo hold and entered the bronze box. The bronze box emitted a faint light, and part of the pattern on it seemed to come alive and twisted slightly.
“Hehehe…”
The eerie and terrifying laughter was heard again from the silent cargo hold.
…
The next morning.
A shrill scream broke the usual silence of the Azure.
Then there was a knock on the door and a staff member came in.
"What happened?"
"Routine inspection!" He then hurried away and knocked on the next door.
Bai Donglin, who had just finished his morning exercise, frowned slightly. They had been sailing on the Nujiang River for five days. The weather was calm and no accidents had occurred during these five days.
He just wanted to spend these eighteen days safely and reach Bian Erqi Territory as soon as possible. He didn't want any unexpected twists and turns to happen.
Unfortunately, it seems that things did not go as planned, and something happened. He opened the door, called Liu Dafu and Zi Xiaoling, and walked to the deck where the noise happened.
At this time, the deck was full of people, and uniformed staff were maintaining order. Bai Donglin saw Captain Wang Lufei among the crowd.
It seems that something really big has happened, even the captain was alarmed.
As the three approached, they heard the captain asking questions.
"Were all these bodies found in Area C? Who was the first person to discover the bodies?"
"Captain, ninety-three of the bodies were found in Area C, and the remaining twenty-four were found in Area B3, which is adjacent to Area C. The first person to discover the bodies was Zhang Ergou from the kitchen. He asked his roommate to get up to prepare breakfast, but found that his roommate's body was already cold."
"We have received the report and have checked the entire ship. We have found a total of 117 dead bodies. The cause of death is unknown!"
"Did anyone hear anything last night?"
"We have already questioned the tenants around the deceased, and they all said no. Even those who shared the dormitory did not hear any noise, as if these people had died of natural causes."
The captain snorted coldly when he heard this. There were only more than 3,000 people on the entire ship. How could more than 100 people die naturally at the same time? The possibility of food poisoning was also ruled out. Moreover, the deaths were so concentrated that it was obviously man-made.
As a cultivator who has reached the great perfection of the Divine Bridge Realm, he naturally has many methods.
Circulate your mind and recite the mantra silently.
"Eye of the Void! Open!"
With a light shout, the captain's pupils turned golden, emitting an inch of golden light. He carefully observed the corpse from top to bottom, and finally stared at the corpse's forehead.
The captain stopped the spell, his eyes returned to normal, but his expression became more and more solemn.
The soul was actually devoured completely. After a person dies, the soul dissipates between heaven and earth, and the true spirit returns to the mother river.
Even so, some soul aura or even soul fragments will remain in the corpse.
However, these corpses were empty inside. This was definitely not a natural disappearance, but rather the result of an attack targeting the soul.
Was it a master above the Lingtai realm? Or was it a demon? Or was it an evil cultivator practicing strange secret techniques? No matter which situation it was, it was not optimistic. To be able to kill 117 people silently overnight, his strength must be higher than his.
The captain paced back and forth, thinking about what to do. It would take another thirteen days for the Azure to reach the Silver Snake Wharf. The distance was too far and he could not count on support from the wharf.
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I have to make more preparations and not be careless. There are many monks with strong backgrounds on the ship. If something unexpected happens, I might not survive!
Wang Lufei immediately ordered his men: "Keep all the bodies safe and put them in the ice storage. Disperse the crowd and ask the passengers to stay in their rooms."
"Order the crew to return to their respective posts and not to discuss the matter."
"yes!"
The left and right deputies received the order and withdrew.
The captain took out two Wanli Sound Transmission Talismans and sent in a message for help. The talismans spontaneously combusted and turned into two white lights, one in the south and one in the north, which disappeared in an instant.
After doing this, he called several guard captains into the captain's room to discuss the night patrol matters in detail.
Bai Donglin and the other two watched everything from a distance. Liu Dafu had a serious look on his face, Bai Donglin had a blank expression, and Zi Xiaoling was still eating osmanthus cake heartlessly, her little mouth puffed up like a squirrel.
"Brother Liu, what do you think?" Bai Donglin asked, seeing that he looked serious.
"Brother Bai, this matter must be... ahem, I mean we might be in trouble."
"He was able to kill so many people silently on a ship with so many cultivators. I knew a few of them. They were all experts in the Yuantai realm, but their deaths were no different from those of ordinary people."
"Moreover, this kind of indiscriminate killing may not be done by a normal monk!"
Bai Donglin's expression changed, as if he had thought of something.
"You mean..."
"Yes, this is very much like the style of demons and monsters, and they may be the most troublesome kind."
Liu Dafu narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he was thinking of some unpleasant experience.
Although Bai Donglin has not come into contact with many monsters and demons, he knows one thing: everything has a cause and an effect, but monsters and demons are not among them. The only purpose of their existence is to kill and destroy.
This kind of indiscriminate killing, in such a strange way, is indeed the style of demons and monsters.
Unscrupulous, powerful, weird attacks, and full of hatred for all life.
If I'm not mistaken, then everyone on the Blue has indeed encountered a big problem, and they could lose their lives if they're not careful! "Brother Bai, from today on, can the three of us live in the same room? That way we can take care of each other."
Liu Dafu asked a little embarrassedly. Bai Donglin was very powerful and it was much safer to stay with him. Not only himself, he was also afraid that he could not protect Zi Xiaoling well.
"That's fine."
Bai Donglin nodded in agreement. He was certainly not afraid of death, but he had been with Liu Dafu for such a long time that they still had some feelings for each other. Helping him was just a piece of cake.
As for whether Zi Xiaoling would care.
After all, this is a special period, and we monks should not be too fussy about details.
"Mmmmm~ The osmanthus cake smells so good! So delicious!"
(End of this chapter)