Chapter 158: Cold Light
Chapter 158: Cold Light
Zuo Zhicheng carefully turned the diary’s pages, starting from where he last left off in the tower study. He continued reading.
…
“Even the Demon Lord of the Northern Demon Sect might not pull this off. This isn’t something any existing Dao Arts can achieve…”
…
“Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure—these are the Heart. Insight, penetration, perfection, excellence—these are the Spirit. Where the Heart and Spirit go, the body follows. The Heart Mind… such an incredible power. The Martial Artist’s path of Spirit Refining seems even vaster than we imagined. This could be an era-defining discovery. Sadly, I am no Martial Artist…”
“The stupid Jiangshi keep pushing me to study their mutations. Little do they know their problem isn’t purely physical. The source blood, that primordial lineage, doesn’t just alter the flesh—it can change the Life Grove and even affect the Heart Mind. To keep this from them, though, I must research it secretly, find a way…”
“Number One experiment succeeded. But the artificial Life Grove lasted only ten minutes before the test subject collapsed completely. Was it due to this place’s unique environment? Or… does it not want such things to exist…?”
“The Island has changed. Though only I noticed, the shift happened. I feel someone watching me—in every empty corner, every dark Shadow. Time is running out. At this critical moment, nothing can hinder the experiment.”
“Number Twelve failed again, as usual. Is the subject’s spirit too weak? Too bad these Ghouls have powerful bodies but insufficiently strong minds. I’ve decided to test on myself. If I fail…”
The words after “fail” were a mess of scribbled-out text. Zuo Zhicheng couldn’t make them out. He guessed Yilezi had written down research notes to prevent all his findings from being lost upon death, only to cross them out after surviving. Now, their contents were lost. All Zuo Zhicheng could do was keep reading.
“Did I succeed? I don’t know. I should be dead… so why? I can’t understand. Maybe the Island isn’t what I thought… Maybe this is no sacred land, but the Underworld.”
“It’s coming…”
…
Seeing this, Zuo Zhicheng’s eyes flickered with surprise. Every page after “It’s coming” had been ripped out. Nothing remained.
‘What happened? What is the Island’s secret? Why did Yilezi think he had died? Why didn’t he show any similar signs during our fight?’
‘And who is ‘it’? That dragon shadow?’
Zuo Zhicheng had thought the diary would clarify everything. Instead, it made things more confusing, lending a dreamlike quality even to his memories of the Island.
Then, Zuo Zhicheng recalled Quinlin’s last words before dying.
“You don’t understand… Time’s run out. Didn’t you see the quake earlier? Yilezi must’ve triggered it as he died… Never thought… he lied to us all along. We’re already ghosts of the Underworld.”
“Yes… That’s it. I see now. Hahahaha… We’ve long been ghosts of hell.”
Zuo Zhicheng contemplated: ‘If Quinlin told the truth, and Yilezi caused that quake… Does that mean the secret he discovered can manipulate weather phenomena on that scale? Or did that secret unleash the dragon-shadow creature, causing the tsunami and storm?’
‘But if he had such power, why not kill us easily while alive? Why wait until after death?’
‘And ‘ghosts of hell’… does that mean they were already dead? Just like Yilezi wrote in the diary?’
Frowning, Zuo Zhicheng thought of the high-tech base beneath the Island.
‘If ‘it’ refers to whatever that dragon-shadow represented, that force clearly didn’t want the Island’s secrets uncovered. But it seemed… passive. Only Yilezi could activate it?’
He shook his head. Too many holes in that theory. It didn’t hold. He recalled the female corpse found at the pier: “Did someone survive inside that high-tech base? Did they activate some super-weapon?”
But even that seemed unlikely. It didn’t match the initial excavation and occupation of Pirate Island.
Zuo Zhicheng shook his head again. The torn pages had cost him a chance to learn the Island’s mystery. He could only hope the other documents held clues.
He began flipping through them. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He stood up. He frantically searched every single pocket inside and outside his clothes. The two randomly grabbed files lay scattered on the table. But one thing was missing.
“The gun?”
“Why is the GUN gone?” Zuo Zhicheng strained to recall his every recent action.
With his current mind and spirit, he could recall every bite of breakfast from weeks ago without missing a beat. He clearly remembered Yilezi hadn’t taken his pistol when dumping him into the Blood Pool. Afterwards, the gun should have stayed in his pocket.
‘Did it fall out during the storm?’ He doubted his own memory momentarily, but all his pockets had secure buttons. Since the buttons were still fastened, the gun couldn’t have fallen.
‘Stolen?’ Yet, over the following days on the ship, he’d checked nearly everyone’s belongings. No trace of the pistol. It was as if the gun had never existed.
‘The files are here, the gun is not. Both were obtained on the Island. The only difference: one belonged to that female corpse; the other belonged to Yilezi.’
Another unsolvable riddle. Yet Zuo Zhicheng sensed, deep down, the disappearance of the gun and the secret uncovered by Yilezi and the others on the Island were vitally connected.
He now focused on the two acquired documents. One glance revealed both were penned entirely in the Great Qi Language. They also described a rare martial art.
A sword technique called the Cold Light Rippling Sword. The two files: one detailed its forms and moves; the other contained its core principles, including meditation methods guiding its practice from the Self Aspect, through the Human Aspect, and finally to the Dharma Aspect.
Seeing this, a mysterious smile touched Zuo Zhicheng’s lips.
‘Interesting. Just when I desperately needed new martial arts to train, I randomly grab two files from a desk… and they contain Authentic Transmission Martial Arts written in the Great Qi Language, perfectly suited to my Heart Mind attributes. That’s not just a coincidence. It’s… unsettling.’