Chapter 18: A long gown made of human skin
Shi Xiaoyin's face flushed red. She looked at Xie Liang and said, "Without the bride, we will probably die here."
Xie Liang patted her shoulder and comforted her: "You have to struggle before you die. Don't be so discouraged."
"Lu Baixing has a high fever and can't get up. Even I have a low-grade fever now. Everyone on the ship, except you, has contracted this plague-like disease. This morning I went to see those who died last night. There was no good place on their bodies. The raised bumps on their skin were oozing pus."
Shi Xiaoyin rolled up her sleeves as she spoke, revealing the wheat-colored skin on her wrists, which were dotted with bumps that looked a bit like the pimples on a toad's back.
She pointed to the bump on her hand and said, "This is the same bump that looks like the ones on the dead people. It will soon turn into abscesses and fester. I don't want to die like this. It's too ugly."
"Why am I the only one who hasn't caught any of this? I live in the same cabin with Hu Bing and the others. Carrots are so burned that I can't get out of bed, and Hu Bing is just trying to stay up and sit up." Xie Liang stretched his body and said, "I really don't feel any discomfort."
Shi Xiaoyin looked at him and sneered. She stared at Xie Liang intently, from head to toe, and from toe to head, looking him back and forth several times.
Xie Liang couldn't help but interrupt her eyes that were looking back and forth at him: "Why are you looking at me like that? It's scary."
"What are you afraid of? You're a man and I'm a woman. What can I do to you?"
"...I feel even more scared when you say that." Xie Liang said this with his arms crossed over his chest, pretending to move a few steps to the side to distance himself from Shi Xiaoyin.
Shi Xiaoyin laughed when she saw him like this: "What are you doing? I'm not kidding you anymore. Seriously, do you think there's a possibility..."
"Impossible, don't even think about it." Xie Liang said firmly.
"Hahaha... I'm dying of laughter. What are you thinking? I mean, is it possible that the young man has already chosen his bride on the ship?"
Xie Liang lowered his arms and said, "Of all the women on this boat, except for the bride you mentioned, whom I haven't seen, you're the most beautiful. And you're the only woman still standing—are you talking about yourself?"
Shi Xiaoyin smiled happily after hearing this: "Thank you for praising me for being pretty, but I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about you."
Xie Liang frowned: "Are you kidding me? I'm a man."
Shi Xiaoyin looked at him and said seriously, "I'm not kidding. You're the only one who's alright among the Adventers, and you're the most beautiful and handsome person I've ever seen. There's no reason for him not to like you."
Xie Liang looked down at his dirty clothes and said objectively: "Although I admit that I am somewhat pretty, you are too outrageous. I am a man."
"When it comes to love, there's no distinction between men and women. I think he just likes you."
He suddenly remembered the dream he had on the boat. Could that strange man be the young man? Adding to what Shi Xiaoyin said, he couldn't help but start to doubt. Could it be that this young man really had grown up crooked?
The difficulty of this dungeon was close to the level of wiping the whole team. Xie Liang thought: If this boy really likes him, should he accept it or not... or...
"But... I'm a man... I should like women..."
Xie Liang didn't quite believe that the boy would like a grown man like him, even though Shi Xiaoyin didn't like him.
Shi Xiaoyin rolled her eyes at him and said, "What are you thinking? I'm just asking you to put on a show. If it's really as I said, and that young man really likes you, then that would be great."
"Uh... I'm not sure what the situation is yet. We'll see what happens once we get to the island."
The sailors were putting the boat's steps on the sandy beach, and the two decided to wait until they left before following them.
Now, apart from these mermaid sailors, only Xie Liang and Shi Xiaoyin can still walk, and the other descenders are lying in the cabin, dying.
The sailors ignored these intruders and carried the boxes on the ship towards one direction of the island.
Xie Liang and Shi Xiaoyin followed the sailors stealthily towards the island. About half an hour later, the sailors stopped at the top of the mountain.
There was a stone house on the top of the mountain. In front of the house was a huge circular pit, like a crater. The sailors placed the box on the edge of the crater and arranged it in a circle. After placing it in a circle, they turned around and walked down the mountain.
Xie Liang and Shi Xiaoyin took the opportunity to run to the edge of the deep pit to check.
"I can't see clearly..." said Shi Xiaoyin.
"It's too deep in here, of course I can't see clearly."
"Where are they going? Are these boxes used to commemorate the young man?"
Xie Liang looked at her blankly: "Is that young man in this pit?"
Shi Xiaoyin: ...
Not long after, the sailors returned, carrying the dying Adventers on their backs.
Xie Liang hid behind the box and whispered, "They don't look like they're going to kill them."
"Of course not. Why not kill him on the boat? Why bother carrying him to the top of the mountain to kill him?"
Xie Liang: ...
Then the sailors stripped the delirious invaders one by one, threw them on a flat stone like a large plate, and then arranged them in order.
The adventers lay naked on the flat stone, looking like slaughtered white pigs placed on a large plate.
"What are you doing? I wonder if those people are still alive." Shi Xiaoyin said with some concern.
"I think they're still alive. There are still many dead people lying on the ship. It's obvious that they only brought up the living ones. You were right just now. These sailors are worshiping the young man. They are sacrificing these adventers to him as food."
Shi Xiaoyin stretched out her hand and fanned her nose: "These stinky men can be used as food!"
Xie Liang quickly smelled the smell on his body. Uh... there was indeed the smell of sweat and other miscellaneous smells. Anyway, it was so smelly that he couldn't stand it.
"Well, I'm a stinky man too."
"I didn't say anything to you. What should we do now? Rush out?" Shi Xiaoyin reached for the long whip at his waist with his right hand, looking like he was ready to fight to the death.
"Wait a little longer and see what they are doing first."
After a while, the sailors came towards the crater one after another. Xie Liang quickly pulled Shi Xiaoyin to hide behind a large rock nearby.
They opened all the boxes and took out a blue-green gown from one of them.
I don't know what material the blue-green dress was made of, but from a distance it was glowing softly, like the ripples on the sea, or the light reflected by the scales on the back of a bluefin tuna.
"Why didn't we see any clothes like this in the boxes we opened at the bottom of the warehouse before?" Xie Liang said.
"You were almost fainted from the smoke at that time, how can you still remember it?" Shi Xiaoyin looked at him suspiciously.
"I remember, there really isn't one."
"Look at the color of this clothing. Doesn't it resemble the skin color of those exploded Adventers? And that shimmering luster, doesn't it look like the light reflected by scales?"
"You mean this dress..." Shi Xiaoyin hesitated to speak.
"It's probably what you think."
The more Xie Liang looked at it, the more horrified he felt—these sailors had actually made clothing out of their own skin. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes that their skin was the same color as the clothing, who would have thought that this blue-green gown was actually made of human skin?
They folded the clothes neatly and placed them on a square stone platform, forming a three-point straight line: there were open boxes around the crater, under the boxes was a square stone platform, and under the stone platform was the Adventer.
"It's outrageous. Look at those men. Which one of them is edible?" Shi Xiaoyin said with some concern as he glanced at the naked descenders.
Xie Liang stared at the Adventers lying on the flat stone for a long time and said, "Their abdomens are still rising and falling, so they should still be alive."
Shi Xiaoyin looked at the sky and said, "Today is already the sixth day. If we don't complete the mission tomorrow, this instance will be restarted."
"What will happen if we restart?" Xie Liang asked.
"We'll be torn to pieces by the wind here, and we'll die of cardiac arrest in the real world."
Xie Liang nodded and said nothing more.
The sailors moved the surrounding stones to build a bonfire fence half a person's height, and threw some firewood, coal and other combustible materials into it. After lighting it, they sat around the bonfire, as if praying. From a distance, their lips could be seen moving constantly.
At this time, Shi Xiaoyin's stomach rumbled at an inopportune time, and Xie Liang looked at her following the sound.
"Why are you looking at me? It's almost evening. I haven't eaten anything all day. It's really miserable!" Shi Xiaoyin said angrily.
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