For the next few days, a terrified Zhou Yi hid within the stone sphere, refusing to let his consciousness leave.
Zhou Yi was now extremely cautious.
The golden light he had last time had consumed all his faith. If the being in the gray fog attacked again, he would be powerless.
He had resolved not to leave the stone sphere again until his faith had accumulated to a sufficient level.
Compared to Zhou Yi, the other island residents had been busier in recent days. The resources plundered had not yet been distributed.
The lumber could be used to renovate many houses, and the saplings and crops planted on the mountain needed regular watering.
The fishing team's boatload of fish also needed to be dried as quickly as possible.
The islanders were constantly busy.
The only two people and their dog who had the most leisure on Sanyin Island
were Chen Gan'er, Chen Xingye, and Chen Xingye's black dog.
As Chen Xingye rowed, he said with a bitter face,
"Uncle Gan, it's just the two of us. Are we going out to sea to fish? Didn't the fishing team catch a lot of fish last time?"
Chen Gan'er, half lying on the fishing boat, said leisurely,
"What do you mean two people? Isn't Xiao Hei still here?"
"If we don't go out to sea to fish now, we'll have to go up the mountain to dig the land and water the crops, or repair the house and dry the fish. It's better to be leisurely here on the boat." Chen
Xingye said,
"But I want to go to the back mountain to see if the saplings I planted yesterday have grown taller. "
Chen Gan'er changed into a comfortable position and lay down, shaking his head,
"How can it be so fast? Tree growth is a very long process."
Chen Xingye continued,
"But we have no catch. I'm afraid my father will scold me if we go back empty-handed."
Chen Gan'er waved his hand and said,
"Don't worry, we've got plenty of food these days. If you're going empty-handed, then so be it. Just say we were unlucky today and didn't catch any fish." As the two chatted,
Xiao Hei,
standing nearby
, suddenly barked furiously. The sudden barking startled Chen Gan'er, who angrily barked, "You idiot, what are you barking for? You scared me! I was the one who brought you back to Sanyin Island. Did I bring you back just to scare me?" Xiao Hei continued barking, occasionally pawing at Chen Xingye with his paws. Chen Gan'er frowned and sat up. Chen Xingye stopped paddling, and both sensed something was amiss. Sure enough, they looked in the direction of Xiao Hei's barking and spotted a dark shadow faintly beneath the surface of the water not far away.
The Dead Sea is originally black, and the black shadow sank under the water, so the two had not noticed it until now.
Chen Ganer picked up a half-broken big knife from his side without saying a word, and Chen Xingye also gripped the oar in his hand.
Both of them were cautious and alert.
Sailing on the Dead Sea, one often encounters all kinds of strange things. As the captain of the fishing team, Chen Ganer naturally encountered them too.
The two stared closely at the black shadow under the sea.
The black shadow rose and fell with the waves, and it did not look like a living being.
From time to time, a piece of clothing could be seen on the part that emerged from the sea with the waves.
Chen Xingye said nervously:
"Uncle Gan Er, it looks like a dead person."
Chen Ganer frowned even deeper, "Strange, how could the corpse not sink into the Dead Sea?"
It is a well-known fact that corpses will automatically sink into the sea when they enter the Dead Sea.
Chen Gan'er clenched his knife and whispered,
"Row over and take a look."
Chen Xingye froze. Shouldn't he have run now?
Perhaps sensing Chen Xingye's confusion, Chen Gan'er said,
"If it were anything else, we'd have been fleeing, but this is a corpse!"
"This breaks the established rules. We must understand. I'm sure your father would have made the same decision if he were here."
This was a violation of the rules of the Dead Sea, a matter of utmost importance.
Hearing this, Chen Xingye slowly rowed the boat toward the shadow.
As the boat approached, the shadow continued to rise and fall with the waves, unresponsive.
This brought a sigh of relief to Chen Xingye, and just as he was about to speak,
Chen Gan'er lowered his knife and, with a powerful hand, grasped the corpse's clothing and lifted it aboard.
This action left Chen Xingye dumbfounded. Although he knew that Uncle Gan was bold, he didn't expect him to be so bold that he dared to take advantage of the unidentified corpse floating on the Sea of Death.
The corpse looked like an old man with a long white beard. His face was pale, and there was no sign of decay on his body.
Although he looked like an old man, his figure was not hunched, and his height was almost the same as that of the tall Chen Gan'er. He
was wearing a gorgeous black robe with gold thread and silver edges. Even after being soaked in sea water for so long, there was no sign of curling. It was obvious that it was not an ordinary thing.
There was also a red gourd hanging around his waist, and no one knew what it was.
The fatal wound on his body was a big hole on his neck. It looked like his neck was pierced by a round object.
Chen Xingye looked up at Chen Gan'er and said,
"Uncle Gan, what should we do now?"
Chen Gan'er looked at the corpse in front of him and said in a deep voice:
"Go back to the island and call your father and the elders."
...
On the beach, several Chen clan elders gathered around the corpse.
A heavy look settled on their faces. A corpse not sinking in the Sea of Death was unheard of.
Chen Huaigu said gravely,
"This corpse didn't sink in the Sea of Death. It must have done something in life that earned it its rejection. Such an ominous occurrence could be a harbinger of something far greater."
Chen Qiufang agreed.
"Every time the rules of the Sea of Death change, it's not a good omen. We must be prepared."
Chen Xuanlin gazed at the corpse before him, forming a hand seal with his fingers, and silently began to invoke the Soul Summoning technique.
A moment later, a strange look crossed his eyes. "Not a single trace of soul remains in this body."
Upon death, most of a person's spirit sinks into the ground or the seabed, but a wisp of soul remains within the corpse.
However, even after using Soul Summoning, he didn't sense any spiritual presence from the corpse.
This struck Chen Xuanlin as quite odd.
He then explored the corpse, finding no objects besides the red gourd at its waist.
The gourd looked ordinary, yet felt light in the hand, made of neither stone nor wood.
The mouth of the gourd had a pinhole-sized hole, suggesting it couldn't hold anything.
Chen Xuanlin's eyes lit up.
This reminded him of the storage gourd mentioned in the Chen Clan Chronicles.
As Chen Xuanlin activated Soul Summoning and channeled his soul power into the bottle, a flash of red light appeared, and a pile of items appeared on the beach.
This sudden red light startled the other elders.
Then, Chen Huaigu exclaimed, "Storage gourd! This is the body of a cultivator!"
Apparently, he had also recalled the description of the storage gourd in the Chen Clan Chronicles.
Hearing that it might be the body of a cultivator, everyone became interested in the gourd's contents.
Chen Ganer also followed Chen Xuanlin with curiosity and squatted beside the pile of items, looking through them carefully.