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Chapter 403 - 372: Fish Fin

Chapter 403: Chapter 372: Fish Fin

Don’t say it, I mean it, don’t say it.

The mutant corpses bombarded by high explosive bombs indeed emitted a complex and diverse seafood barbecue aroma. Particularly, the bombs had shaken down several coconuts, and the fresh, sweet coconut water drenching the seafood made it seem like some sort of Southeast Asian cuisine—if you could ignore where the ingredients came from.

Along with Li Cheng, Zhang Fulu and Sikong Lan also appeared.

The latter saw that a few familiar figures were missing next to Lu Hu, and his eyes immediately turned red.

The Jinyi Guard are also people; they have family and friends, emotions of joy and sorrow, and they may even laugh out loud on a minister’s roof when they hear a Great Ming joke.

Uh... that last part doesn’t count. Nowadays, the Jinyi Guard doesn’t really go eavesdropping on ministers’ family matters anymore.

Li Cheng didn’t pay attention to Sikong Lan’s emotional changes or the constipated expressions on the others’ faces, and suddenly flung a Steel Banner Spear towards the dense forest.

The spear reached its target first, sweeping horizontally towards a corpulent mutant martial artist who was sneaking out of the forest.

[Special Effect 1: Counterattack Moment. After blocking the opponent’s attack, swing the long spear to fly the target away. If it hits the wall, it deals double damage]

Clang!

The martial artist zombie, whose physical strength rivaled Captain America, was knocked back at a speed faster than it approached, breaking several coconut trees before stopping.

Its dark mouth opened to the limit, but what it spat out was not blood or intestines, but...

Whoosh—

A small mutant shot out from the zombie’s mouth, covered in flying fish fins, which vibrated at high speed like dragonfly wings, providing fierce propulsion as it shot towards Li Cheng.

"Watch out!"

Su Konghu and the others only had time to shout in alarm, while Li Cheng remained still, narrowing his eyes. His palm intercepted the small mutant mid-air, swinging it violently into the sand with its momentum.

He then stepped on its neck to prevent it from thrashing and biting.

"A hermit crab, huh..."

The Information Integration Glasses clearly displayed all kinds of data.

This zombie was once a small-built servant of the Tu Family, who mutated with hermit crab traits after infection, having been lurking within the corpulent martial artist the whole time.

"This is not the place to talk, follow me."

Li Cheng thrust his spear downwards, sending the mutant on its way, then flicked the stinking blood off his spear and ran towards the high ground on the island’s east.

The six-legged autonomous artillery he had deployed earlier provided the group with long-range fire support, systematically clearing out the zombies clustered too tightly.

The mutants quickly adjusted their strategy, with some following the artillery’s trajectory to locate the artillery’s exact position on the island, while others dispersed to fan out and pursue the survivors.

It indirectly proved that these zombies, whose heads were corroded by oysters and shells, either possessed a certain level of intelligence,

or something was remotely directing them.

Everyone fought while retreating, and the Hua Mountain Swordsman, Wu Ge, couldn’t help but ask, "Zhang Daoist, didn’t you go to the Tu household inner courtyard to lecture Old Lady Tu?"

"I didn’t go to lecture."

Zhang Fulu shook his head and briefly recounted his experience of stealing from the Tu Family treasury last night.

At that time, he, Sikong Lan, and Li Cheng saw two prophecy paintings depicting a feast massacre at the end of the passage, instantly realizing that the others were in danger and wanting to return quickly.

However, the passage was one-way with no exit, with only extremely complex and incomprehensible circles and lines carved on the stone wall at the end.

The three thought of many ways to escape, including but not limited to digging an upward tunnel—which was impossible due to the rock being harder than volcanic rock;

drawing another picture of the three escaping behind the prophecy paintings—tried and failed;

returning to the starting point to attempt unlocking the nested stone box—but the box couldn’t be opened from the outside.

After several failed attempts, they studied the stone wall at the passage’s end for a long time and finally saw some clues.

Those circles and lines seemed to be a kind of star map.

If each circle was viewed as a star, the upper part included the Three Enclosures (Purple Forbidden Enclosure, Supreme Palace Enclosure, Heavenly Market Enclosure), the North Hemisphere’s never-setting star region,

while the lower part starred map included the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds at -70 degrees declination, only observable in the Southern Hemisphere. This far exceeded the Cangze Ancient Country’s observation abilities.

In these times, with Great Ming’s thriving sea trade, even Australia had been visited by fleets which established the New Port Pacification Office and Colonial Camp. Naturally, wealthy merchants sponsored and hired people to depict the Southern Hemisphere star map.

Zhang Fulu, born on Dragon Tiger Mountain, was quite knowledgeable about the Northern and Southern Hemisphere’s stars and immediately began reconstructing it, removing Luminous Pearls from other places to place into the circles.

However, he quickly began to sweat profusely.

For stars, the naked eye can generally distinguish a magnitude of 6.5 (the smaller the degree, the brighter the star),

but some circles on the star map reached magnitudes of 7, 7.5.

Even more shocking, there’s an astronomical concept called variable stars. A star or star system can have variable brightness due to its physical state changes, like pulsating or eruptive variables.

The star map on the rock wall was clearly not from this era, and who knew which stars were bright or dim during the Ancient Cangze Country period.

Ultimately, Li Cheng stepped in, using a star map app on his phone and the Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method to piece together the star map with Zhang Fulu.

Two notable doubts emerged during this process.

First, the slight deviations in the star map suggested that the observation point was not in the Northern Hemisphere or even on Earth, but on the Moon.

More precisely, at 11 degrees north latitude on the Moon.

Second, the star map was probably drawn in the 14th century BC, evidenced by a supernova near Antares (Scorpius α star).

This event was even recorded on Shang Dynasty oracle bones as, "Seven days already at dusk... new big star joined the fire."

The 14th century BC lunar star map... could it have been drawn by Chang’e?!

Suppressing the doubts, the three of them assembled the star map, and then all the Luminous Pearls shone brightly, causing the entire passageway to shake violently, and the rocks collapsed.

The next second, the three were absorbed into the star map, and in a blink, they returned to the outside world. Right near where the Divine Shedding Scale had been taken by Gray Rain using a drone before.

"Well done."

Li Cheng patted Gray Rain’s little head. Don’t let her fondness for chewing betel nuts and vaping electronic cigarettes fool you; she didn’t mess up the big things.

She hadn’t left the Divine Shedding Scale at the Tu residence; otherwise, the three of them would have had to work harder to escape.

"Hehe."

Praised, Gray Rain beamed an idiotic grin, spinning the Skull Shattering Power Hammer in her hands, almost accidentally smashing Su Konghu next to her.

"Oh right."

Li Cheng turned to Jinyi Guard Lu Hu and took out the Divine Shedding Scale, "Lu Qianhu, what message did you receive to instruct Sikong Lan to steal this scale from the repository?"