Chapter 132: The Passage

Inside the white coffin, a blue face was pressed against the coffin’s crack. The face had blue skin and sharp fangs, looking more like a ghost than a human.

Now this scary face was stuck in the coffin’s door seam. Its two eyeballs rolled around wildly, seeming to desperately squeeze its way out.

Seeing this, Jiang Qing’s back was covered in cold sweat. Even though the coffin was tightly locked with chains, she was still extremely scared in her heart.

At that moment, a hand lightly tapped her shoulder. She let out a cold shout and turned around to strike with her palm. Zuo Zhicheng caught it gently.

“Ugh, you scared me to death.”

Zuo Zhicheng ignored her and said directly, “Someone is coming. Hide over here.” As he spoke, he pulled Jiang Qing, and the two of them moved past the coffin’s location to hide in a corner on the other side of the warehouse.

Soon after, a noisy sound could be heard. In Zuo Zhicheng’s Infrared Vision, he could see three pink human bodies slowly approaching. This meant their Physique Strength was pink, which was the strength of the first stage of Innate Primordial Breath.

This level of strength was slightly stronger than an ordinary person’s, but in a fight, even Jiang Qing could probably handle them.

The three people all seemed to be from Great Qi. As they walked over, they kept shouting.

“Damn, those foreigners did this on purpose, right? Everyone else is dividing up the people and goods, but they make us move this coffin.”

“What can we do? We joined later.”

“Stop complaining and hurry up. I’m starving.”

As they spoke, one fat person and one short person grabbed each end of the coffin. Then a dark, skinny man pushed the middle part. The three of them wobbled as they dragged the coffin out of the warehouse.

With their shaking, the ghoul inside struggled more and more fiercely. From time to time, it let out growling sounds, and its strange face kept squeezing back and forth in the coffin crack, seemingly eager to get out.

However, faced with this scary sight, the three Great Qi people seemed used to it.

The fat man standing at the back complained, “This bastard is too annoying. All this noise, when will it end?”

The dark, skinny man in the middle said, “He’s been crazy for a long time. After being sunk in the sea for so long, who wouldn’t go mad?”

The short man in front asked fearfully, “Do you know why he was sunk?”

“Who knows?” the fat man cursed. “But that fake foreigner is really cruel. I thought if you can’t die, you wouldn’t fear anything. They actually came up with this kind of torturing method.”

Zuo Zhicheng watched the three figures wobble away, analyzing their conversation in his mind. It seemed these three were also ghouls, and the ghoul in the coffin had made some mistake, so it was locked in the coffin and sunk to the bottom of the sea.

‘This seems to be some kind of punishment within their group…’

A few minutes after the three left, Zuo Zhicheng tapped Jiang Qing’s shoulder, signaling she could stand up.

“Most of them went to help with the passenger ship. Stay close to me. Let’s find a place to get off the ship.”

The two of them sneaked around the steel ship. Using Zuo Zhicheng’s skills and Infrared Vision, they avoided over ten ghouls’ sight and reached the deck at the back of the steel ship.

The ship was docked in a place that looked like the inside of a cave. It seemed to be in a cave on a sea island.

Zuo Zhicheng told Jiang Qing to put on her Diving Suit. Then he hooked the grappling claw onto the railing. He said slowly, “Next, I need you to hold the rope. You don’t need to climb. I will lower you down bit by bit. Remember… absolutely do not make any sound, especially when your body enters the water.”

Jiang Qing nodded nervously. “I understand.”

Next, Jiang Qing climbed over the railing, grabbed the rope, and was lowered down bit by bit by Zuo Zhicheng until she dropped into the water. Then Zuo Zhicheng looked around and, after making sure no one was there, quickly climbed down the rope himself.

While treading water, he gave the rope a light shake, and the grappling claw at the other end flew down. He caught it tightly before it could make a sound hitting the water.

Zuo Zhicheng waved his hand, signaling Jiang Qing to dive and follow.

In the cave where they were now, besides the steel ship and the passenger ship they had been on, four or five other passenger ships were also docked at this cave port.

The inner side of the port was also inside the cave, lit by torches placed by the pirates. Zuo Zhicheng could vaguely see that there seemed to be several passages leading outside.

To avoid being spotted by the pirates on the dock and ships, Jiang Qing, under Zuo Zhicheng’s direction, swam with him from one shadow to another, getting closer and closer to the dock.

When they surfaced again, Zuo Zhicheng used his Infrared Vision to look toward the dock. He saw large and small light dots flashing in the dark. This close observation finally allowed him to clearly estimate the pirates’ general strength.

‘Over one hundred ordinary people, over sixty pink ones, over thirty purple ones, four orange ones…’ Zuo Zhicheng’s eyes were fixed on several people on the dock, especially the four whose Physique Strength was marked as orange. Their orange Physique Strength distribution rates were 15%, 24%, 29%, and 38%.

The strongest one had a Physique Strength above Zuo Zhicheng’s. That was a Western man with short blond hair, a fierce face, and a height over two meters. He was the one standing on the deck, directing the pirates to move goods and escort passengers.

Zuo Zhicheng had to be glad about his choice. If he had stayed on the ship and fought them head-on before, the chance of death would have been too high.

Now, seeing the strength they showed made Zuo Zhicheng wonder. This level of strength was strong enough for them to become overlords anywhere, even enough to briefly take over the Xinlu government.

Why would such a powerful force hide at sea and be content with being pirates?

Just then, Jiang Qing tapped Zuo Zhicheng’s shoulder and pointed underwater, saying, “I think I see a hole down there.”

“A hole?” Zuo Zhicheng thought about it. Even if they wanted to go ashore now, there were too many people on the dock. They probably had to wait until the pirates finished moving the goods. If there was another passage leading directly to the island, it would be much more convenient.

“I’ll go down and check. You stay here and don’t be seen.”

Seeing Jiang Qing nod, Zuo Zhicheng took a deep breath and dived underwater.

Under the water, Zuo Zhicheng looked in the direction Jiang Qing had pointed. There did seem to be a dark hole-like passage. So he moved his hands and swam toward that passage.