Chapter 70: Corpse Ship

“Very large… boat… rotten…”

This sentence left Su Li and the other two men staring at each other.

Ding Longyun frowned and said, “A very large boat that’s rotten?”

Su Li didn’t press for details but looked out into the distance. At this point, he could just make out a blurry shadow in the distant fog.

The blurry shadow grew steadily larger and clearer. Finally, they all saw it: a ship-shaped dark shadow had truly appeared in the distant mist.

This ship-shaped shadow was not small, measuring about 20 to 30 meters long. It swayed in the thick fog, sailing toward their location.

The water below churned with hidden currents. The fog above billowed and thickened. An inexplicable sense of dread, impossible to describe, shrouded their hearts. Even though they saw the ship-shaped shadow rapidly approaching, they felt no joy that it might be a rescue vessel. Instead, they felt an ominous sense of foreboding, as if a great disaster was imminent.

“Xuehui, can you see if there are people on that boat?” Ding Longyun asked quietly, his eyes fixed on the swaying ship-shaped shadow in the thick fog. Because of the fog, he couldn’t see the actual appearance of the vessel.

Xu Xuehui just stared silently at the distant ship-shaped shadow, and fear slowly surfaced in her eyes.

“Corpses, so many corpses…” she spoke again, then looked at Su Li as if for help, tugging on his sleeve.

Su Li instinctively grasped her hand. He felt her small hand was ice-cold. He whispered, “Don’t be afraid. Do you mean there are many corpses on the boat?”

Xu Xuehui shook her head. Looking at Su Li, she said, “The boat is the corpses.”

“The boat is the corpses?” Su Li was slightly stunned. He looked at the ship-shaped shadow in the distance again. It seemed to be swaying, but its speed was considerable. It was rapidly closing in on their building, quickly entering the 100-meter range.

As the distance closed, they finally saw the true face of the ship-shaped shadow.

This was no ship.

Instead, it was a formation of countless human corpses piled together to resemble a boat. Most of these human corpses were badly decomposed and had melted like candles. Many bodies had exposed white bones. These rotten, melted corpses had fused together, forming a Corpse Ship that floated on the water. From a distance, obscured by the fog, it looked exactly like a boat.

No one knew how this Corpse Ship was formed, nor could they understand how a ship made of bodies could float and move toward them at such speed.

“How can this be? What in God’s name is that?” Ding Longyun couldn’t help but cry out. In just a short time, the gigantic Corpse Ship had slammed into a balcony on the 30th floor below, making a tremendous sound, and then it stopped.

A wave of nauseating decay and putrid stench wafted up to them.

Gong Xiao instinctively covered her nose.

Su Li gently nudged Xu Xuehui, encouraging her to go back into the apartment, and then signaled to Ding Longyun and Gong Xiao to quietly retreat.

Although all they saw were masses of half-rotted, half-melted human corpses, there was definitely something sinister about this.

Gong Xiao led Xu Xuehui back into the room. Ding Longyun also clamped his mouth shut, even holding his breath, silently watching the Corpse Ship in the night.

Su Li activated the “Peering Rune,” attempting to secretly observe the Corpse Ship.

Unfortunately, either due to the distance or some other reason, his “Peering Rune” failed to capture any information.

“That’s strange. Even ordinary corpses can be peered into. Why is it ineffective this time?”

Su Li thought silently, watching the corpse formation below on the 30th floor. He suddenly heard a loud “boom!” The balcony there seemed to have been struck by some invisible force, shattering instantly.

The explosive force was enormous. Even on the 32nd floor, they felt the building shake.

Following the destruction of the balcony, the front half of the Corpse Ship—many of the rotten, melted bodies—exploded. It was as if an invisible force had detonated inside, tearing the corrupted corpses into fragments of bone and putrid flesh. The scene was utterly chaotic.

Following the explosion, the upper section of the Corpse Ship, formed by a huge mass of human bodies, split open. A large dark shadow emerged from the fissure in the Corpse Ship and slowly began to crawl outward.

Su Li and Ding Longyun both stared wide-eyed at the astonishing sight. They instinctively guessed that the Corpse Ship was extraordinary and was hiding something.

Gong Xiao brought Xu Xuehui back to the room, then quietly slipped out again. She pressed herself close to Su Li, and together they looked out the window. A look of horror crossed her beautiful face.

A mass of dull, earthen-yellow substance crawled out of the Corpse Ship. The substance writhed and rose, slowly emerging from the ship. It looked like an enormous beetle.

“It’s gigantic,” all three involuntarily gasped.

The creature, which looked like a gigantic beetle, had the tail of a crocodile. Its total length, from head to tail, reached eight meters. Its back was covered in a carapace that resembled a turtle’s shell. It had four thick, sturdy limbs. When it rose upright, its height exceeded four meters. Its abdomen bore one large eye, and where its head should have been, there were dozens of bizarre tentacles.

It climbed out of the Corpse Ship formed by the mass of corpses. Its dozens of tentacles opened, their tips bearing suckers that adhered to the exterior wall of the building. Using these tentacles and suckers, it began to climb upward.

Its ascent was slow but steady. It climbed higher. Suddenly, it realized the balcony above was obstructing its path. It raised one of its forelimbs and slammed it against the balcony above.

Su Li and the others watched as the solid concrete of the balcony’s exterior wall shattered like mud before the monster’s force, leaving a huge hole and scattering debris everywhere.

The sheer destructive power made the three of them break out in a cold sweat.

If that thing slammed into one of them, wouldn’t they instantly be crushed into a pulp?

“What kind of monster is that? And is it coming for us?” Ding Longyun was horrified. He watched the massive monster’s climbing path, which was directly toward their location. If its target was them, they were in deep trouble. Given the monster’s terrifying power, neither the security door nor the walls would be able to stop it. They had nowhere to hide.

(End of Chapter)

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