Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Zhang Haiyan retreated to the original gap.

He tried to breathe calmly as he took off his military uniform and pants. He was left only in his shorts since his other clothes were soaked in blood.

The pottery fragments were embedded in his flesh and he wouldn’t be able to get them out for a while. He moved a little and found that it hurt a lot, but it wouldn’t affect his movements.

He believed what He Jianxi had said. Even though the man had caused all kinds of troubles, the past few incidents made Zhang Haiyan feel that He Jianxi was really lucky. He even began to suspect that He Jianxi was a walking bodhisattva sent by the heavens. When this whole thing was resolved, he would probably turn into a plume of smoke, laughing as he disappeared.

If there were more than a dozen people in this cargo hold, then that proved a few things.

First, there were more killers on the ship than he had expected. The killers he had found in the steerage area and third-class cabins were only some of them.

Second, this cargo hold was a trap so that they could launch their counterattack.

He wouldn’t be worried about Miss Dong if it was one on three, but it was impossible for anyone to deal with more than a dozen people by themselves. He was the only one in history who could do it.

But Zhang Haixia hadn’t been very impressed with him when he did it. It was the concept of winning small in the casino a dozen times in a row. There was a chance that it would happen, but it would never happen a second time.

That was why Miss Dong had erased her presence. She had stepped into a trap now, so she needed to protect herself instead of hunting the killers.

Of course, he had to help Miss Dong. It didn’t matter whether he wanted to hijack the ship or leave by lifeboat, he couldn’t let the people who killed his Southern Archives colleagues win. Otherwise, the entire ship might be blown up to hide the evidence of the plague.

But he wasn’t completely sure that he would win. In fact, he was considered an interloper to both the killers’ and Miss Dong’s plans. But even if he and Miss Dong had a tacit understanding, the two of them wouldn’t make a big difference in this cargo hold.

But He Jianxi’s existence changed things.

If Zhang Haixia had been around, he would have been able to smell a lot of things. He and Zhang Haiyan would have definitely been moving slowly by now, approaching those people who were emitting an odor. The two of them would kill their opponents one by one until they had killed them all.

But He Jianxi didn’t have that kind of tactic understanding with him. To be honest, those killers were very skilled. Although many opponents couldn’t get used to the fact that Zhang Haiyan attacked half a second earlier than they expected, it was difficult to kill them instantly if he couldn’t manage the same thing in the dark.

And since this was a trap, the other party must’ve had a way to communicate with each other in the dark. If he couldn’t kill the opponents quickly, then they would surround him after his third or fourth try.

Zhang Haiyan’s mind raced. When a person named Wu Xie talked with him many years later, he would always point out that Zhang Haiyan could use more subtle tricks on such occasions. But Zhang Haiyan’s behavior at the time was more in line with his own heroism.

Zhang Haiyan decided to go all out. He counted the blades in his mouth with his tongue and walked towards the area He Jianxi had pointed out.

The fine hair on the human body had the ability to sense objects, including other people’s temperature, heartbeat, and breathing. As long as the distance was close enough, the hair could feel something even if the consciousness didn’t sense it.

It may sound ridiculous, but after Zhang Haiyan took off his clothes, he used the hair on his body to sense the airflow around him.

He soon felt the first killer in the dark and used all his strength to spit a blade in that direction

But at that moment, something embarrassing happened. Just as he rushed forward, lights suddenly came on in all four directions.

They weren’t the artificial lights in the cargo hold, but spotlights. But they weren’t the kind of lights that cameras had, either. Instead, they were spotlights that were used to send signals at sea and could stay lit for twenty seconds.

The sudden bright lights almost made Zhang Haiyan go blind.

The killer on the opposite side had been ready for this and kept his eyes closed. But when he opened his eyes, he suddenly saw a naked man rushing towards him.

The two people immediately clashed. After exchanging three blows, the lights went out again.

The flashing lights almost made Zhang Haiyan go blind and he didn’t know what was going on. But when the lights immediately came on again, Zhang Haiyan realized that this was their tactic. They were controlling the lights in this dark space.

When the lights turned on again, Zhang Haiyan could no longer see, but the killer could. He walked around Zhang Haiyan and stood behind him.

Zhang Haiyan quickly tried to hide, but he couldn’t see the cargo box that was off to the side. He slammed into it directly, scattering the goods inside across the ground and feeling as if he had injured his internal organs.

The lights went out again.

Zhang Haiyan’s eyes immediately felt more comfortable. He quickly closed them and ran to go hide, but he had already lost his sense of direction. He slammed into a box of goods again. It was so heavy that it shattered when it hit the ground and he was also sent rolling.

The lights came on again.

He squinted and took off his glasses, smearing his blood on the lenses so it wasn’t as bright as before. When the killer didn’t immediately come at him, Zhang Haiyan looked around and suddenly realized that the goods he had slammed into weren’t actually goods. They were corpses. Their faces had turned blue and they appeared to have undergone antiseptic treatment.

There was a familiar smell of disinfectant, which was the same kind they had smelled on Flower Reef.

Is this the place where they hid the missing South Sea spies?

Zhang Haiyan steadied himself first and then blended in among the cargo boxes. He could see human shadows everywhere. He didn’t know how things were on Miss Dong’s end. As the lights went out again, Zhang Haiyan pushed more boxes to the ground. Whether they could see or not, he would make it difficult for the killers to walk around.

When the lights came on again, Zhang Haiyan had pushed more than a dozen boxes to the ground. Not all of them contained corpses, but there were six or seven of them.

The corner of the cargo hold was now a complete mess. The killers stepped on the goods and rushed towards him from all sides, but Zhang Haiyan had finally adapted to the lights. He licked the blades under his tongue and decided to risk it all.

At this moment, he suddenly saw a corpse in front of him.

He was stunned. He recognized the face of that corpse. It was Zhang Ruipu. Why is he on the ship? And why is he dead?

Then he saw another corpse next to Zhang Ruipu.

He didn’t recognize the face at first glance, but then he took another look at the corpse.

His blood ran cold and his brain buzzed. “Zhang Haixia!” He shouted.