Chapter 60: Dreaming of a Bright Moon

Chapter 60: Dreaming of a Bright Moon

It was late at night, and the sound of the waves brought a sense of calm to the camp. The exhausted sailors had all laid down to rest.

Doctor Zhou lounged lazily in the tent, leaning on Comet, reading a book under the camping light. He absentmindedly stroked Comet's thick, soft fur. Suddenly, Comet rolled over and sat up, staring intently at the tent door.

Qin Sheng called out in a low voice outside the tent, "Doctor Zhou? Are you asleep? I have an urgent matter." There was a hint of anxiety in his voice.

Doctor Zhou sat up, lifted the tent flap, and Comet darted out, standing guard outside. He asked Qin Sheng, "What’s the matter?"

Qin Sheng explained that Qin Mu had been holding the shadow element core, which seemed to have been absorbed by him directly.

Doctor Zhou pondered, "Directly absorbed a King-grade core, huh… He was scratched by a zombie before. Could he be a shadow element psychic?"

This was rare. After all, in his previous life, he hadn’t encountered any humans with shadow element abilities. At that time, it was believed humans had light element abilities, while zombies had dark element abilities.

Qin Sheng looked at him nervously, "Will my brother turn into a zombie?" His voice was low, clearly worried that others might overhear.

No matter how close the relationship or how loyal the subordinates, once someone knew you had been scratched or bitten by a zombie, the first reaction would be fear, caution, and sometimes even preemptive attacks.

He had seen too much of this in the apocalypse. That’s why, when he discovered his brother had been scratched and was unconscious, his first instinct was to keep it secret, to hide it and bring him back home for private treatment.

Doctor Zhou patted his shoulder, "Don’t worry." He picked up a high-powered flashlight and walked out with Qin Sheng to their tent. Outside, he saw eerie, densely packed shadows enveloping the tent.

Qin Sheng grew more concerned, but Doctor Zhou said, "It seems he really has awakened the shadow element ability."

The first shadow element psychic… Was it related to the zombie scratch, or was it due to Qin Mu’s own constitution? After all, he had developed the ability affinity test strips and had never seen anyone test positive for shadow element compatibility among so many people.

Was it that after being scratched by a zombie, the person’s constitution changed?

If everyone who was scratched by a zombie and received timely treatment had this potential, could they all develop this ability?

Would shadow element affinity grant full immunity to the zombie virus? If so, would it be possible to develop a successful zombie vaccine?

There was also the fact that Qin Mu had probably eaten quite a bit of the shadow element crab today. It was unclear if that had any influence.

He would need to find time to test Qin Mu’s compatibility after they returned.

If conditions allowed in the future, they could consider treating large numbers of people who had been scratched or bitten by zombies for further research.

Lost in thought, Doctor Zhou was interrupted by Qin Sheng, who asked urgently, "Shadow element ability? I’ve never heard of such a psychic before. Can we go inside now?"

Doctor Zhou replied, "No need to disturb him. Let him experience this for a while." He curiously reached out and gently poked one of the dense, soft shadow orbs. They seemed to panic and quickly scattered, retreating into darker corners.

Qin Sheng asked, "So, what should I do now?"

Doctor Zhou said, "Should I head back to the ship and get some sleep?"

Qin Sheng hesitated, worried about being too far from his brother.

Seeing his expression, Doctor Zhou suggested, "Then you can sleep in my tent. I’ll take Comet and sleep on the ship." For mutual support, his tent was the closest to the Qin brothers’.

Qin Sheng nodded, "Thank you, Doctor Zhou."

Doctor Zhou took Comet back to the ship. The moonlight quietly shone on the silvery sea, vast and empty. The rhythmic rise and fall of the tides felt like the ocean breathing, layer upon layer, calming his heart.

With this little interruption, Doctor Zhou found it hard to sleep. Drawn by the beautiful moonlight, he fetched a glass pitcher and a manual juicer from the fridge, juicing the cacti fruits he had collected, adding ice, a bit of white rum, and some rock candy syrup. After shaking it well, he had a glass of crystal-clear purple-red fruit wine.

Sitting alone on the stern deck of the speedboat, he slowly sipped his drink, listening to the sound of the waves. It was very pleasant.

No idea what Guan Yuanfeng is up to. Under the same moon, drinking alone, he pulled out the army-green phone from his cargo pants—no signal, as usual. He skillfully opened a video to watch.

Sipping the deep purple iced wine, its sweet and refreshing flavor slid smoothly down his throat—the perfect comfort. But if Guan Yuanfeng were really here, he probably wouldn’t let him drink too much, or maybe he wouldn’t drink for safety reasons himself.

Feeling slightly tipsy to the gentle rocking of the waves, he slowly released the trumpet vine and thorny tendrils from the stern of the speedboat, letting them float along with the seawater.

The plant babies frolicked joyfully, reflecting Zhou Yun’s good mood, spreading out in all directions on the seabed, playing with the sleepless saltwater fish and shrimp, passing through carefree waterweeds and exquisite corals, deftly dodging foraging sea beasts, exploring the endless sea.

Silent except for the rhythmic lapping of waves against the rocks and sand—a soothing sound.

Zhou Yun couldn’t remember when he fell asleep, but in his dream, he floated through the sea, his body light and soft, bathed in the silver moonlight shimmering in the clear water.

He drifted into a vibrant, surreal underwater world, swaying and dancing to an ethereal melody, freely shuttling through it.

The brilliant light was magnificent, with small colorful fish swimming in schools through the splendid coral reefs. Among the reefs, he saw clams lying on the fine soft sand, shyly opening their shells to reveal glittering pearls, which he collected without hesitation.

He saw a giant electric ray hiding in the darkness of the deep sea, its dark green body surrounded by electric light, which made him feel a sense of intimacy. He carefully wrapped the electric lights, keeping them hidden from others.

The electric ray was quite unruly, struggling fiercely. He had to wrap some flower vines around it and even made some flowers bloom for it to see. After a few blooms, the electric ray became obedient, though somewhat listless and lethargic. He carefully wrapped it in several more layers and inserted some needles for treatment.

When he woke up, he found a blanket covering him, and the sun had risen, casting a bright red and golden glow on the horizon.

He was a bit dazed and felt some fatigue, as if all his energy had been drained. Thinking it was due to an uncomfortable night on the lounge chair, he struggled to sit up, turning his head to see Comet poking its head over and licking him, panting. He patted its head, "Did you cover me with a blanket?"

Comet affectionately licked him, and he pushed its head away with a laugh, noticing the phone on the table had already run out of battery and shut down. He put the phone back in his pocket and stood up, intending to make some breakfast for Comet.

However, when he turned around, he was stunned. In the cabin, there were at least seven or eight heavy and huge clams, and besides those, a two-meter-long diamond-shaped sea fish, flat like a fan, with yellow-green skin and dark blue patterns, smooth and scaleless, dragging a tail with an elegant fin.

The fish was motionless, clearly dead.

"Doctor Zhou! Why are you up so early?"

Qin Sheng's voice came, and he stepped onto the boat, walking over quickly, also stunned when he saw the clams and fish in the cabin. "Doctor Zhou, didn’t you sleep last night? I know you're strong, but this is incredible! All of them are mutated. My brother said most mutated saltwater fish are in the deep sea and that we’d fish them slowly today."

When using his psychic abilities, he often felt a lack of energy to sustain continuous use. Sometimes he had to carry some metal-type crystal cores for emergencies. Even so, after using his abilities during the day, it was usually difficult to use them again for battle on the same day. Therefore, he had been exploring how to precisely control the output of his abilities to ensure sustained intensity.

But Doctor Zhou battled mutated killer crabs by day and caught a deep-sea mutated shark at night—both King-level threats. By morning, there were all these clams and stingrays? Was his psychic energy unlimited?

And so many clams—how long would it take to eat them all? It would take half a day just to open them.

He examined them carefully, "White-lipped oyster, Akoya pearl oyster... they’re all so big, and they’re mutated, right?"

Zhou Yun: "..."

He had just had a drink... He glanced at the empty wine bottle and glass on the table, lightly coughing to hide his post-drinking actions, "I was a bit bored at night. How’s your brother?"

Qin Sheng was immediately distracted, a joyful expression on his face, "My brother is perfectly fine. He got up early, afraid of disturbing you, so he didn’t send anyone over. He asked me to organize people to dissect the shark first and make breakfast. He’s practicing Ba Duan Jin on the beach, trying to get a feel for it, and will discuss this psychic ability with you later."

Zhou Yun, seeing his delight, asked, "So your brother really awakened the skill? Is there anything special about the psychic abilities?"

Qin Sheng, "My brother didn’t say much, just that it felt quite mysterious."

Zhou Yun smiled, "Well then, these clams probably aren’t dead yet, no need to rush to open them." Once opened, there’s no way to finish them all, and they’d need to find a way to keep them fresh.

Qin Sheng said, "Put them in the fish hold at the bottom of the boat, add some seawater, and we’ll extract the crystal cores and pearls later."

Zhou Yun nodded, thinking he might get a few more psychic items, which could indeed be auctioned off, but he had other uses for them.

Qin Sheng looked down again at the flat sea fish, "This is a massive electric ray! I thought it was a manta ray, but it’s mutated. Hard to catch since it can release electric shocks."

He took the dagger Zhou Yun had given him and sliced open the heart area of the electric ray, retrieving a massive lightning-attribute crystal core. He was in awe as he held it up and examined it closely. "What a huge lightning crystal core. This could be sold for a lot of valuable things. Lightning City is offering a high price for these, and this is a king-grade one, a rare item. I wonder how much it would fetch."

He looked at the electric ray and said, "If this electric ray were alive, it would also sell for a high price! The research institute is buying them too, and all the major cities are collecting them!"

Zhou Yun: "..." This kid was so used to being poor that he immediately thought of selling anything valuable he found.

He said helplessly, "I need this lightning crystal core. I'm going to give it to someone."

Qin Sheng quickly and carefully placed the crystal core on the table. "You keep this safe. I'll take care of this electric ray and prepare it for breakfast today. The fish meat is tender and smooth, all soft bones. We still have some pickled vegetables and tofu. We can stew them together to remove the fishy smell. It's much more delicious than shark meat. Shark meat, if not for the fact that it's mutated and we're in an apocalypse, I probably wouldn't like to eat it."

Comet understood and wagged its tail, panting. Zhou Yun knew it must be hungry and patted its head. "Let's go, I'll prepare breakfast for you."

A huge pot was set up on the beach, with large chunks of shark meat boiling inside. Onions, ginger slices, garlic, dried radish, and tomatoes were all thrown in. As Qin Sheng said, the taste wasn't really that great, but it was meat.

In the apocalypse, food was scarce, and the young sailors from the Laojie Gang hadn't been able to eat such large chunks of meat for a long time. Especially since this was the legendary mutated fish meat. Fishermen had to hand it over to the city lord's mansion to pay taxes, and they were unwilling to eat it themselves.

However, now they had a whole mutated shark and a whole mutated crab. They couldn't finish it; there was simply too much.

They flipped the huge crab shell over, placed some wood on the outside, and had Comet blast a few fires. The white crab meat inside was soon sizzling, and with some coarse salt sprinkled on, it became incredibly fragrant.

The shark's liver had been cut out whole and preserved, stored in a glass container. Qin Sheng handed it to Zhou Yun and asked, "The fins need to be processed too, so I've soaked them in saltwater for now. This is very expensive, especially since it's mutated. Auctioning this could trade it for a building in Beiming City. Also, the shark skin—I had a hard time opening it from the abdomen. It's very tough, and many psychics would like it."

Zhou Yun wasn't interested. "I don't want any of it. You and your brother can decide what to do with it and exchange it for useful things for your gang members."

Qin Sheng was delighted. Zhou Yun only picked the tenderest pieces of shark meat and a few lobsters to take back to the ship to prepare breakfast for Comet.

When Qin Mu finished practicing Ba Duan Jin and came over, he saw Qin Sheng processing the electric ray and was somewhat surprised. "Where did you get this devil fish?"

Qin Sheng smiled. "You're mistaken. Take another look."

Qin Mu came closer and examined it closely. Seeing the iconic baby-face markings on the belly, he was shocked. "This is a mutated electric ray? How did you catch it? It's so big and mutated? Its skill must be very strong! Who could catch it?"

Qin Sheng: "..." He pointed to the ship. "Who else? Last night, Doctor Zhou, by himself, I don't know how, caught it. This morning, I went to the cabin, and it was full of mutated sea clams, all alive, and this mutated electric ray. There were no fatal injuries, but its soft bones were all crushed."

He whispered to Qin Mu, "If I could choose my opponent, I would never want to fight Doctor Zhou. It's terrifying, an unimaginable way of killing... no, killing fish."

Qin Mu was incredulous. "Doesn't he sleep? And how can water-attribute skills be that powerful? Even if he can freeze water, these mutated electric rays and sea clams are usually in the deep sea! It's not easy to find mutated animals in shallow waters! And how did he even bring these huge, smooth sea clams up to the surface? You can't even fish for them!"

Harvesting sea clams and sea urchins from the deep sea has always been difficult, especially when they're mutated and have skills. Nowadays, with so many mutated sea fish, no fishermen dare to dive deep into the sea anymore.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind: Could it be that high-level water-attribute psychics can enter the seabed without needing to breathe? He had never heard of such a thing.

No wonder Doctor Zhou wasn't afraid of the sea. He must have had some reliance.

Qin Sheng shook his head and whispered to him, "Earlier, when I opened the mutated shark's belly, its mouth, tongue, throat, and intestines were all shredded. The strangest thing was that the shark liver, which Doctor Zhou specifically asked for, was perfectly intact, so tender and whole, as if it was waiting for him."

Qin Mu pondered. "I was wondering last night too. The skin of that mutated shark was so tough. From the outside, it seemed like there were no fatal injuries at all. I thought it was too dark last night and planned to check again this morning to see where the fatal wound was and maybe learn a few tricks."

He thought deeply. "So, this method of attacking from the inside works. No matter how tough an animal is, it still has vulnerable internal organs... and it doesn't always have to be through the mouth..."

Qin Sheng felt a chill. "Brother, what are you thinking about?"

Qin Mu looked at him. "This is valuable combat experience and methods. You should learn and summarize. For example, a harpoon with a chain can pierce through the most vulnerable spot and penetrate the internal organs, destroying from the inside out." He made a millennium kill gesture.

Qin Sheng thought for a moment and shuddered slightly. "It feels a bit not entirely honorable..."

Qin Mu laughed. "What are you afraid of? Yesterday, Doctor Zhou said I looked like a villain, but I think he looks quite like one too."

Qin Sheng: "..."

Qin Mu asked, "Where's Doctor Zhou?"

Qin Sheng replied, "He's on the ship cooking breakfast for Comet."

Qin Mu watched as Qin Sheng melted the lard and fried the pickled vegetables, tossing the tenderest pieces of electric ray into a stew with tofu. He then took two soup bowls, one filled with roasted crab meat and the other with the tofu and pickled vegetable stew, and headed toward the ship.

Zhou Yun had already boiled shark meat and lobster for Comet and was toasting several slices of bread in a makeshift toaster. He had also boiled eggs in plain water.

Turning, he greeted Qin Mu, "I was just asking if you guys wanted some bread. I brought a few loaves, all homemade."

Qin Mu placed the steaming bowls on the table and sat down. "Bread is good. After two days of seafood, I'm craving something more substantial. People are really fickle. In the city, it was hard to get meat or fresh vegetables, but now that we're at sea, after two days of meat, I want staple food again."

Zhou Yun, noticing his vibrant spirit and the absence of gloom on his face, smiled. "Did you really awaken a dark attribute? You're the first human I've seen with a dark attribute. What's your skill?"

Qin Mu shook his head. "Yesterday, I could only summon some dark shadow masses... they scattered around and were a bit uncontrollable. I'm not sure what they're for yet. I was hoping to get your advice. Generally, what skills do dark attribute animals or zombies have?"

Zhou Yun replied, "For example, the zombie king your brother mentioned. Generally, they can manipulate shadow energy, spew plague energy, apply negative status effects, and summon minions. But these minions aren't real creatures; they seem to be shadow energy aggregates."

Qin Mu furrowed his brow and concentrated. After a while, a black shadow condensed in his palm, resembling a fluffy ball of void black rotating in his hand.

Zhou Yun said, "So, this is the downside of not playing games. The comprehension and awakening of abilities require a lot of imagination—what can you imagine? A black fluff ball?"

Qin Mu: "..."

Zhou Yun continued, "Look at your brother; he's very imaginative, like the *Storm Pear Blossom Needle*... full of youthful vitality."

Qin Mu humbly accepted the criticism. "Should I start playing games?" Suddenly feeling like a dull and boring older folk.

Zhou Yun said, "The use of powers is about harnessing the energy your body is attuned to in nature. For example, Xiao Sheng uses metal attributes. Dark energy corresponds to light attributes, seemingly intangible yet everywhere."

He enlightened, "For instance, shadow lash, condensing shadow energy into a whip... capable of draining energy from others."

"Or shadow explosion, I've seen high-level light attribute users release light orbs and flash explosions to cover their escape."

"There's also *peeking*, *lurking*, *contamination*, *corrosion*, and even *dark meteor*, *dark abyss*, *dark sky curtain*..."

Qin Mu: "..."

Zhou Yun pointed at the fluffy black shadow. "Since you're the first person with dark psychic abilities, you get to name your skill."

Qin Mu suggested, "Dark Shadow? Fluff Ball?"

Zhou Yun: "..."

The black shadow seemed to shrink a little.

Zhou Yun almost pitied it. "How about 'Dark Eye'—peeking, seizing opportunities, lurking, hiding."

Qin Mu, clearly aware of the famous line of poetry, agreed. "Alright, let's go with Dark Eye."

Soon, Qin Sheng finished tidying up and strode onto the ship, taking a slice of bread without hesitation. "Great! As expected of Doctor Zhou, living the good life! I've been dying for some real food! The steamed buns we brought are cold and hard; we can only soak them in soup."

Qin Mu laughed. "I was just wondering the same. We brought all sorts of tools, weapons, and medicines, safety first. Doctor Zhou brought all kinds of storage supplies and daily necessities..."

Zhou Yun smiled. "It's rare to be out at sea. If we come across something good but don't have the right storage tools, what a waste."

Indeed, they were out to harvest from the sea. Qin Mu smiled, his fear of unknown sea creatures and wariness of the ocean fading away. He had awakened his powers, and dark crystal cores were so cheap. When he returned, he planned to gather a lot and rapidly improve his powers.

He suddenly felt confident about the future. It was hard to imagine that a month ago, he was a critically ill ordinary person on the brink of death, while his brother was considering becoming a live-in son-in-law to fund his treatment.

Zhou Yun had no clue about Qin Mu's wild thoughts. All he knew was that he had drunk a little alcohol and accidentally caught some sea clams, yet he was now being seen as some kind of invincible, scary monster. He just asked Qin Mu, "What's the plan for today?"

Qin Mu replied, "We should split up and go sea fishing. Before, it wasn't safe to fish from the boat because fishermen often hooked terrifying mutated fish that flipped their boats. With you being so strong now, we can head a bit farther out. I know a spot with some big fish."

Zhou Yun shook his head. "Let's stick to fishing around this island. This boat set you back your life savings. If it breaks, fixing it will cost even more. I have some special bait for fishing mutated fish."

Even Qin Sheng, who had been eating intently, turned his face towards them. "You've got something like that?"

Zhou Yun nodded. Qin Mu said, "Without Doctor Zhou here... this wouldn't exactly be a good thing, right?"

Imagine running into more than two of those mutated fish—what a nightmare that would be.