Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 45 Pink Warhammer, Hexagonal Killer

Beneath the dress was a close-fitting dark blue sharkskin camisole that covered the girl's petite and delicate body from head to toe.

The water-based garment seemed to pulsate slightly as if it possessed a life of its own, surrounded by a ring of blue precious light, clearly far more sophisticated than the outfit worn by the pearl-diving girl, A-Xiao.

However, this little girl hasn't developed much yet, and is far less voluptuous than that older sister with heterochromia; she's rather plain and uninteresting.

Wang Cheng felt that even glancing at her small frame was disrespectful to his aesthetic sense.

"Senior Brother Wang, isn't this water-resistant garment that Uncle commissioned from [Second Cobbler] for Shushu at a high price quite nice?"
Each of the thirty-six water-diving classes has its own unique skills, but water skills are always number one.

How about we have a race to see who can swim to the shipwreck first?

After saying that, Han Shushu plunged into the water.

The girl appears delicate and is terrible at math and astronomy, but she is determined to outdo Wang Cheng in her field of expertise.

A sharkskin suit completely covered her body, and her feet were transformed from normal human feet into large fish fins.

With a flick of its tail, it disappeared into the sea, its movements graceful and its speed extremely fast.

The Earthly Officials, including the Second Leather Craftsman, the Coroner, the Executioner, and the Paper Craftsman, are collectively known as the Four Minor Yin Gates, and are most skilled in sewing corpses and making leather.

Aside from requiring careful maintenance and not being worn continuously for more than ten days, this kind of "leather armor" is far superior to ordinary water armor and is highly sought after among the various water officers who roam the seas.

Even when swimming in the water near the coldest part of winter, you don't feel cold at all.

Wang Cheng couldn't afford such high-end gear for the time being, so he took off his clothes to reveal a set of ordinary water jackets that hugged his body and perfectly outlined his muscle curves.

Although he mainly cultivated internal cultivation methods, the combination of internal and external methods led to the same goal: a strong physique with both strength and flexibility.

With a "plop," he jumped into the water.

Han Shushu, who was swimming ahead, didn't know that it was only after entering the sea that she truly entered Wang Cheng's territory.

May the vast ocean protect you, and may you never drown!
Once underwater, he is a fish, so he doesn't need to breathe and can roam freely in the vast East China Sea.

In addition, the demonic power [Turtle Head Body] he obtained from Haizhu Gui caused his strength to suddenly increase to 300 jin in the water.

An invisible force surrounded Wang Cheng, propelling him as he swung his legs and arms, creating swirling vortices that increased his speed.

He easily overtook Han Shushu in front of him and was the first to reach the deck of the sunken ship.

He didn't mean to compete with a young girl; it was mainly because he lacked the ability to do so.

The boatmen on the water cheered excitedly, and Han Shushu's men had no choice but to submit to the fourth master of the "Zhi Sui Tang Guan" family.

He was convinced that Yuegang would definitely have a place for him in the future.

Underwater, Wang Cheng had already observed the entire sunken ship up close.

A large hole was torn in the hull, and a clean-edged gash was ripped open in the midships by some sharp object. It didn't seem like the ship had run aground and sunk; rather, it looked like it had encountered some kind of enormous sea monster.

Thanks to the watertight compartment, it didn't sink on the spot and managed to escape to the vicinity of this small island, but it still couldn't avoid the tragic fate of being buried at sea.

More than two hundred years have passed, and the wooden merchant ships are covered with seaweed, barnacles and all sorts of parasites. Most of the cargo on board has long since rotted away after being soaked in seawater.

Only a batch of corrosion-resistant porcelain remained lying quietly at the bottom of the hold, while some pieces were scattered in the silt on the seabed due to the impact of the capsizing.

This is where those salvaged porcelain pieces came from; the patterns and craftsmanship look exactly the same.

After a rough estimate in his mind, he figured that although these few hundred pieces of Yunmeng blue and white porcelain, intended for export, were not exactly imperial treasures, they should be able to fetch more than 20,000 taels of silver.

"According to the agreement, we will get 30%, which is a whopping six or seven thousand taels of silver!"
Add to that the brokerage fees collected from selling goods through Fenglinzhai, and they can make a fortune again.

Wang Cheng was immediately in a great mood.

Of course, besides the valuables, the most indispensable thing in this shipwreck is the evil spirits left behind by the crew members who died!
Han Shushu, who arrived late, swam to his side.

Even when comparing his best swimming skills with the leather goods of the second cobbler, he still lost. Deep down, the girl had even more faith in Wang Cheng, her "cheap senior brother."

That's how officials in the Water Rank were. They didn't have the sequential promotion and political sophistication of officials in the Heaven Rank, nor did they rely on seniority. Whoever had the ability had more say.

Scanning the interior of the ship, the humanoid figure moved slowly under the suppression of the light from the [Tail Wing - Shadowless Mirror]. A jade talisman hanging around her neck lit up, allowing Wang Cheng to hear her voice:

"Perhaps it was because they were just a step away from escaping to shore, only a few dozen feet away, but they sank with the ship and died in such a place. The obsession in the hearts of the dead was too deep, which is why everyone, including the corpses, became evil spirits."

I counted them and there were seventeen or eighteen in total. They weren't very decomposed, and you couldn't tell they were ancient corpses that were hundreds of years old.

But its entire body is integrated with marine parasites, with dense barnacles and corals that make people's scalp tingle just looking at it.

Its appearance alone is enough to kill people with trypophobia.

Despite her seemingly frail appearance, Han Shushu showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, she enthusiastically explained the situation to Wang Cheng amidst the terrifying atmosphere:
"Senior Brother Wang, the [Deadly] is the most common evil spirit in all kinds of water bodies; it is everywhere in rivers, lakes, and seas."

Under normal circumstances, after a corpse sinks to the bottom of the water, as it decomposes, gas will gradually swell inside its body. This gas will stretch the person until their face is grotesque and their lips are turned outwards, turning them into a terrifying giant.

As more and more corpse energy accumulates in their bodies, the corpses will gradually float to the surface, first the upper limbs, and then the lower limbs.

Therefore, if a person who dies in various bodies of water cannot be found for a while, they will float to the surface on their own after three to five days.

Furthermore, because women's and men's pelvises are different, these floating corpses have another characteristic: 'men face down, women face up,' meaning the ones facing down are men, and the ones facing up are women.

At this point, she suddenly lowered her voice:

"Finally, there is another type of corpse that will remain upright in the water, maintaining a walking posture, with the body slowly moving forward with the waves, as if walking underwater."

They leave a clear trail of footprints in the dried-up riverbed, walking step by step towards the deepest part of the water, and then turning in a different direction to continue walking.

Especially in the Zhuohe River, during the dry season, the riverbed is covered with these kinds of footprints.

If you look into the water while passing by in a boat, you might just bump into the dead bodies face to face and see them smiling at you!

After saying that, he suddenly turned his head and made a cute, crooked face at Wang Cheng, then turned around and crawled into the sunken ship through the hole.

Wang Cheng had to admit that this little girl did indeed have a talent for telling ghost stories.

I didn't think much of it at first, but now I can't help but start to overthink, worrying that if I turn around, I'll find a swollen, dead face right behind me.

At this moment, Wang Cheng's eyes flashed, and he suddenly shouted in a low voice:
"Junior Sister Han, watch out!"

The light overhead illuminated the entire ship, leaving no evil spirits to hide.

But when Han Shushu swam in, Wang Cheng discovered that what was hidden there was not just evil spirits. Not far in front of the girl, a cluster of sea anemones suddenly moved.

[A rare find] It was immediately obvious that it was an anemone crab larger than a millstone.

The pincers were attached to sea anemones, which were used for camouflage and protection, and they blended perfectly into the parasite-infested ship planks.

As Wang Cheng issued the warning, he swiftly retrieved a [Black Serpent Black Water Talisman] personally drawn by his master, Shen Yuting, from his waist pouch, and silently recited in his mind:
"Red head, black face, eight heads, snake body. It spews black qi from its mouth, coiling around Kunlun. It controls all transformations, and can even subdue the Thunder God. By decree!"

In a flash of inspiration, the talisman spontaneously combusted in the water without fire. Suddenly, a black snake-like shadow sprang from the shadows in the cabin, coiling around the anemone crab and freezing it in place.

However, it turned out that Wang Cheng's worries were somewhat unnecessary. Han Shushu personally demonstrated to him what it means to judge a book by its cover.

The timid girl seemed shy and petite, pitiful, weak, and helpless.

While Wang Cheng was chanting incantations while holding the talisman, she had already taken out two heavy bronze war hammers from her waist pouch. The main body of the hammers was made of enamel and fired in a cute pink color that exuded a girlish charm.

The hammerhead is slightly larger than an egg, and it is engraved with a cinnabar talisman – [Heyan Shagui Zhuan].

Don't be fooled by fictional novels; the largest practical warhammer on the battlefield was roughly this size, definitely not as exaggerated as a watermelon.

Bang!Bang!Bang!
Using the seemingly chaotic yet actually orderly "Chaotic Cloak" hammer technique, he wields his double hammers to stir up wind and thunder, churning the seawater; his small body contains immense energy.

With a few thuds, the immobilized crab was smashed to pieces.

Once the fight started, it couldn't be stopped. Han Shushu single-handedly smashed the heads of those who were suppressed by the [Shadowless Wall] from the outside in, sending bodily fluids and rotting brain matter flying everywhere.

This time, those who fell were never able to get back up.

Perhaps because they hadn't been able to eat humans for so long, the group of evil spirits were already extremely weak and had no power to resist this violent little girl.

Wang Cheng originally wanted to remind Han Shushu that he wanted to eat crab roe and not to get it dirty for him.

He opened his mouth, nearly swallowing a mouthful of the century-old corpse soup filled with floating black and yellow brain matter, and quickly stepped back, silently uttering to himself:
"A wolf in sheep's clothing, terrifying indeed!"

(End of this chapter)