The four of them quietly returned to the bottom of the climbing wall and removed their safety harnesses.
Xi Zhongcang looked up at the high ceiling and, relying on his years of accumulated spatial sense, roughly determined the direction from which the sound was coming.
“Come on, let’s go check out something else,” he said in a low voice, trying to sound casual, as he led the group up the narrow staircase.
The stairwell was very dark, and the wooden planks underfoot thumped with every step. Cheng Xu clenched his fists tightly, his palms were sweaty, and he was filled with unease.
When they arrived at the upper floor, all they found was an ordinary tea room.
The tea room was completely empty; there wasn't a single table, a single teacup, or even a single tea leaf.
The dim light shone into the empty room, giving it a gloomy and desolate feel.
Most importantly, the strange, clearly audible sound seemed to have disappeared.
The group looked at each other, then split up to observe.
Xi Zhongcang looked around the tea room, trying to find some clues. He knocked on the walls and stomped on the floor, but still couldn't find anything unusual.
"Strange, judging from the direction the sound is traveling, it should be here," he muttered to himself.
Cheng Xu and his father also found nothing.
Could it be a hidden mezzanine? They even moved between the corridors, carefully observing the specific height of each floor of the passenger ship. However, with the naked eye alone, they could not perceive any extra space between the two floors.
Xi Xi carefully surveyed her surroundings. Suddenly, her gaze was drawn to three paintings on the wall behind the ordering counter.
She slowly walked to the painting and examined it carefully.
The first painting depicts a sea amidst wind and snow.
A fierce wind howled, whipping up towering waves. Dark clouds filled the sky, and large, fluffy snowflakes drifted down. On the distant horizon, a small boat swayed precariously in the waves, seemingly about to be swallowed up at any moment.
The second painting depicts a sea filled with lightning and thunder.
In the pitch-black night sky, streaks of lightning, like sharp swords, ripped through the heavens and illuminated the entire sea. The waves, reflecting the lightning, shimmered with an eerie light, carrying an aura of world-destroying power.
The third painting depicts a turbulent sea under the sunlight.
The seawater is a deep blue, with surging waves crashing against each other and splashing high into the air. It is the most ordinary of the three paintings.
Xi Xi stared at the paintings, the more she looked, the more familiar their style seemed. She moved closer to the frames, wanting to examine them more closely. Just then, a strange sound reached her ears!
"Come here!" Xi Xi tried to push the ordering counter that was in the way, but in the end, to save trouble, she used the counter to support herself and jumped over it.
The sound seemed to come from a painting; it was the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, the sound of howling wind, and the sound of seagulls struggling in a storm!
The crowd gathered around, listening intently. Sure enough, various sounds from the sea entered their ears clearly, mingling together.
"What's going on? How can there be sounds coming from the painting?" Cheng Xu stared wide-eyed, his face full of disbelief.
He initially thought it was the panting of some creature, but it turned out to be the hollow sound of the vast ocean. Xi Zhongcang tapped the wall with his knuckles: "It seems that the sound downstairs is being conducted through solids."
Mr. Cheng frowned and fell into deep thought. He stretched out his fingers and gently stroked the slightly rough oil painting, gazing at this work that was no different from any other painting.
Xi Zhongcang moved one of the paintings, attempting to remove the three paintings from the wall one by one.
Just then, Xi Xi noticed some engraved words on the edge of the picture frame—GH!
This is clearly the NPC from the rare storybook that Liu Yunyan and Liu Enxi encountered earlier!!
Xi Xi was briefly taken aback, but then she fully remembered the NPC named Gui Hua. She rubbed the ring and tried to contact Liu Yunyan.
However, no matter how she called out, there was no response from the other side.
Oh no… Xi Xi suddenly realized something.
They originally thought that once Liu Yunyan and the others arrived, the cruise ship's exit and movable gangway would reappear, and they could escape at that time and be safe.
This is troublesome.
Xi Xi quickly went to the window, where the light blue ice layer resembled a clear lake. She activated the light screen camera and scanned the surroundings, trying to determine the exact location where her mother and the others might have arrived.
However, things always take unexpected turns. Just as Xi Xi was making her plans, the passenger ship once again became a dangerous vessel. This time, no matter how they tried to deceive her with their hearts and words, it was all in vain!
The water in the cabin was rising higher and higher, already above their ankles. In some places, the floor had collapsed, revealing a raging torrent of icy water beneath. They had to carefully navigate around these dangerous areas, each step fraught with difficulty.
When the four finally reached the stern deck, they found the sliding doors locked. A huge, sturdy padlock hung on the iron door.
"Get out of the way!" Xi Xi took out a sickle and used the rotten water to dissolve the iron lock.
Then, Cheng's father kicked the door open and told everyone to leave quickly.
The ship was still gradually collapsing, and the accumulated water surged wildly like a ferocious beast awakened, splashing high into the air and hitting everyone with icy coldness.
The group ran desperately forward, each step feeling like a race against death.
However, the ship collapsed much faster than they had imagined. Large chunks of the deck beneath their feet began to peel away, as if torn apart by an invisible hand, plunging into the icy waters cracked at the bottom of the ice cave, splashing high into the air.
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