On the Ark.

Everyone turned to look at the skyfire.

"Why do you all look at me like that?" Tianhuo frowned, somewhat displeased. "Do you all think I'm weak?"

"No, it's just..."

Before Lin Ye could finish speaking, Magellan suddenly exclaimed "Eh!", interrupting him.

"what happened?"

Magellan showed the computer to everyone with some confusion: "I was talking to you just now and I didn't even notice that the footage from the drones set up in the Ursus tent suddenly stopped."

"That's it?" Everyone gathered around and found that the screen was indeed black.

"How could this happen?" Lin Ye asked. "Is there no signal?"

"The signal bars are still full," Magellan said while operating the camera. "I wonder if there's something wrong with the camera. I'd like to go check it out."

"How could it break down at a time like this... Wait, did the screen move?" Chūmaru noticed something.

"No, it's always been black."

"Mingming moved slightly, didn't you see it?"

Chūmaru's words drew everyone to the computer screen, where they stared at the black screen.

There's clearly nothing there.

Lin Ye was just about to say that.

But the camera suddenly moved, and the black screen disappeared.

"what happened?"

“I moved the drone,” Magellan said. “It wasn’t that the lens was broken, but that something was blocking it.”

"How could it suddenly be blocked?"

“I’m not quite sure either…” Magellan said, turning the drone’s camera around.

The next second, a scarlet pupil suddenly appeared on the screen.

……

……

Author's note: Twenty-eight chapters still owed.

Chapter 333 The Inconsistent Time of Death

The eyes that suddenly appeared in front of the camera startled everyone.

Chanmaru exclaimed "Holy crap!" Magellan's hand trembled, almost dropping the computer, and Lin Ye bit his tongue. Even Skyfire, Blue Poison, and Frostleaf couldn't help but take a step back.

"What the hell is this?" Chūmaru's eyes widened. "Who is this?!"

No one could answer, because it's very difficult to recognize a person with just one eye. But this particular eye gave off a bad feeling; even knowing it couldn't see through the camera lens, everyone still felt like they were being watched, and their hearts pounded with unease.

"Are they Ursus soldiers?" Skyfire was the first to calm down and asked, "Have they returned?"

"I don't think...it seems quite like it."

As Magellan spoke, he continued to control the drone's movement. As the camera slowly panned backward, the owner of the eye gradually appeared on screen. Soon, everyone saw an ordinary-looking, expressionless man. Compared to the terrifying eye, the man's face was much more normal, yet it still exuded an inexplicable eeriness.

“This person… I think I’ve seen him before.” Skyfire frowned, thought for a moment, and said, “He’s from Ursus.”

Anyone could tell that, because the man was wearing an Ursus military uniform.

“But why is he like this?” Skyfire asked. “Where are the others from Ursus? Where is Silversword?”

Again, no one could answer the question. Magellan maneuvered the drone around the man, whose eyes followed the drone's camera. Finally, everyone noticed something was wrong with him: his expression was too blank, his eyes empty, like a soulless shell.

"Something seems off about this guy." Even Chūmaru noticed something was wrong and guessed, "Has he been hypnotized?"

"Most likely." Blue Poison nodded slightly, but there was still some doubt in her voice. "But why did he come back? What about the others?"

“It’s best to go and ask him now.” Lin Ye straightened up and tucked the Maple sword back into his waistband. “I’ll go and break his hypnosis; maybe then the truth will come out.”

Tianhuo said, "I want to go too."

“Everyone has to go,” Lin Ye said. “We can’t leave anyone behind alone. But just to be safe, Magellan, use the drone to scout the tent again and see if anyone else came back with him, or if there’s anything strange, so we don’t 'step on a landmine' when we go over there.”

What was the strange thing? Lin Ye didn't say it explicitly, but he left everyone with plenty of room for imagination.

Magellan nodded, then carefully maneuvered the drone to scout inside the tent, especially the corners.

The Ursus soldier's gaze remained fixed on the drone; his body remained still, only his neck moved. When the drone moved behind him, his neck twisted to its limit. At that moment, Lin Ye sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted, "Stop! Magellan, stop!"

Magellan was a beat too slow, and the drone moved back a little more.

Then, something shocking happened.

The soldier continued to turn his neck, and even when he reached his limit and encountered resistance, he did not stop.

With a crisp "snap," his head fell onto his shoulder and then remained still.

He broke his own neck!

"Damn it!" Lin Ye couldn't help but curse, "This is actually allowed?!"

The others were clearly not expecting this to happen either.

"Hurry over there," Lin Ye said immediately. "Check on that guy's condition. We absolutely can't let him die! He's our only lead!"

Everyone understood the urgency in Lin Ye's words and immediately followed him out of the tent. Of course, Lin Ye made sure everyone was following before rushing out; even though he was eager, he didn't lose his mind. Although the Lungmen tent and the Ursus tent were less than two hundred meters apart, in this environment, two hundred meters was enough for many things to happen.

Therefore, he made sure everyone stayed close to him and never strayed more than three meters away.

Even now, he still doesn't know if [Maple] has the ability to resist that mysterious power, but it's the thing they can rely on most right now. So, Lin Ye used [Maple] to protect the group back to the tent in Ursus. Although they were careful with every step, paying attention to this and that, they only took about a minute to cover the two hundred meters.

Rushing into Ursus's tent, the group immediately spotted the soldier they had seen on camera. He was still in the same position as in the footage, sitting on a folding chair with his head turned 180 degrees to the back of the room. His back faced the tent's exit, and as they entered, they could see his still-open red eyes.

Lin Ye immediately rushed forward, after all, he was the only one among everyone present with medical experience.

Although he knew there was little hope, he still wanted to bring the soldier back. The fact that he could return here after being hypnotized meant the soldier might know what had happened.

However, when Lin Ye's hand touched the soldier's neck, his body stiffened instantly.

Tianhuo, who was following behind Lin Ye, looked at him with some confusion: "What's wrong?"

"...He is dead."

“I know he’s dead. His neck was broken. How could he not be dead?”

Lin Ye's voice trembled slightly: "That's not what I meant..."

Everyone gathered around Lin Ye, and upon hearing his words, they all looked puzzled.

Lin Ye took a deep breath.

Even though he kept telling himself to stay calm, to stay calm, that they were facing the deep sea and nothing that happened was surprising.

But when his hand touched the soldier, he found himself unable to calm down.

Lin Ye looked around at everyone, then said softly, "This corpse is already cold."

"It's completely cold?"

“Yes.” Lin Ye slowly released his hand, looked at the still open eyes, and said slowly, “His time of death should be about an hour ago.”

Everyone's eyes widened.

“Although the temperature is very low right now, so judging the time of death from body temperature may be inaccurate, but…” Lin Ye said slowly and deliberately, “he definitely did not die two minutes ago.”

One hour after death...

So what did they see in the footage two minutes ago?

……

……

Author's note: I didn't feel anything special writing this chapter. I plan to write another chapter late at night, which may be posted very late. If you can't wait, don't wait. (By the way, I feel like this style is well-received but not commercially successful. Everyone says it's good, but the sales figures have dropped terribly. It's unbearable.)

Chapter 334 The Gaze of the Deep Sea (3K5)

The rain was pouring down harder and harder, and the wind was howling as if it would turn the whole world upside down.

Inside the tent, however, it was like another world, with an oppressive atmosphere that made it hard to breathe.

Chōmaru had already moved the soldier's body down and laid it flat on the ground. He straightened the soldier's neck and covered his unclosed eyes. Then he whispered a few words. Although Lin Ye didn't hear them, he could guess that they were probably blessings like "Rest in peace."

“This must be the sentry on duty tonight.” Tianhuo, who was squatting next to the body, looked at the mud on the soldier’s trousers and said slowly, “He must have been standing in the mud for a long time.”

Magellan looked at Skyfire: "So, he wasn't in the tent before the incident?"

“Yes.” Tianhuo nodded. “Dr. Lin Ye has also verified it, right? His time of death was an hour ago, which doesn’t match the time the soldiers in this tent disappeared. That means he was already dead before the anomaly occurred.”

"...Since he's already dead, what exactly were we seeing in the footage just now?"

“That’s his corpse.” Lin Ye’s expression was somewhat complicated. “Thinking about it carefully, when we saw him in the footage, it’s hard to say he was alive. He was already dead then, but his body was being controlled by some kind of force, which also explains why he broke his own neck.”

It's bizarre, absolutely bizarre.

Lin Ye had absolutely no idea why. If his life were a novel, then the first half and the second half were clearly written by different authors. Although his previous experiences were equally dangerous, at least he had faced enemies he could see and touch. But from here on, he had no idea what he was facing anymore. This feeling of having energy but not knowing where to direct it was extremely uncomfortable.

"Um... what should we do next?" Magellan asked softly.

“We still need to go to the shore to find a boat,” Tianhuo said. “At least we need to know where those people went.”

"What if they actually go to sea?"

"Then..." Tianhuo didn't know how to answer.

If those people really do go out to sea, should they chase after them? Putting aside the fact that they don't know what they'll be facing, going out to sea in this kind of weather is practically suicide.

And the only clue has been lost.

...No, it hasn't broken yet.

Lin Ye squinted at the corpse lying flat on the ground.

The most crucial question they haven't figured out is why this corpse returned here instead of disappearing with the others. If the force controlling this corpse is something from the deep sea, why would it bring the corpse back?

Not only Lin Ye, but others were also pondering this question, but none of them could come to a conclusion.