Chapter 222 - 216: Volcanic Snake Island
She’d swallowed an energy stone, endured terrible agony, and lived. But for all that, she couldn’t feel the slightest ripple of its power.
Jiang Si was bitterly disappointed, and she felt incredibly cold.
’Without the body heat from these women, I’m afraid I would’ve frozen to death long ago under these thin blankets.’
Jiang Si looked at the pale-faced mother and daughter, gesturing for them to get under the blankets and warm up.
The mother and daughter got under the covers. With the body heat of all three of them, it was much more bearable.
Jiang Si looked around. The Blue Whale had flipped the cruise ship over, leaving only its stern sticking out of the ice.
Thousands of corpses from the cruise ship were strewn across the ice. They were already freezing into the surface, forming a thin, gruesome sheet. Soon, that sheet would thicken into a solid layer, sealing them here forever.
But a flicker of joy rose in Jiang Si’s heart. With the cruise ship here, she could get her bearings and find her way back to Qin Shen and the others.
But for now, their top priority was staving off the cold.
Of the other survivors Jiang Si had freed, only half had made it when the cruise ship flipped. Exposure and the lack of strength to find food claimed many more, leaving only a handful clinging to life.
Jiang Si’s gaze swept over the surrounding corpses again and again. She suddenly stood up and said to the mother and daughter, "Strip the clothes off of them."
The mother’s name was Bailiman, and the daughter’s was Aisar.
They were very obedient to Jiang Si. Ignoring the cold, they immediately got to their feet and began stripping the clothes from the corpses.
Jiang Si, meanwhile, shaped a piece of ice into a lens. Using it as a magnifying glass to focus the sunlight, she soon had a corpse burning.
Everyone was clearly desensitized to the sight of dead bodies.
Seeing Jiang Si set a body on fire, the other survivors weren’t scared. Instead, they looked excited and dragged another corpse over, trying to make the fire burn longer.
Jiang Si took the clothes Bailiman and Aisar had stripped from the bodies and held them in front of the fire to dry.
Once the clothes were mostly dry, she divided them between the two, and they all bundled up tightly.
They looked bulky and awkward, but at least they weren’t cold anymore.
Jiang Si finally had a moment to consider how they were going to get out of there.
’It’ll take a long time to walk to Hot Spring Bay, and we might run into dangers that’ll slow us down.’
’But with the cruise ship here, we might still be able to find some useful supplies among the corpses.’
GRUMBLE...
Aisar’s stomach rumbled loud enough to shake the heavens. Jiang Si had only eaten a single raw fish herself, and she was starving too.
The other survivors, smelling the roasting flesh, could no longer control their urge to eat it.
Jiang Si had seen this kind of thing before, but that didn’t mean she could accept cannibalism.
’The fish in the sea are still pretty easy to catch right now.’
They were all coming up to the surface to breathe, and some of the carnivorous ones were even tearing at the corpses frozen in the ice.
Jiang Si was suddenly reminded of the giant-toothed shark she had encountered here before.
’If that giant-toothed shark shows up, we won’t have a boat to escape on.’
’We have to get out of here. Fast.’
Jiang Si immediately found a piece of clothing and fashioned it into a makeshift net. While the fish were still easy to catch, she began scooping them out of the water one after another.
’Ocean fish can be eaten raw, as long as you don’t eat a poisonous one.’
Watching Jiang Si pull up fish after fish, the would-be cannibals came to their senses. They began to copy her, scooping up fish one after another.
Jiang Si found some rope and threaded it through the mouths of the fish she’d caught, tying them together on a long string.
Bailiman and Aisar kept pace with Jiang Si, stringing together their own long line of fish.
There were big ones and small ones—enough for the three of them to eat for several days, if they were careful.
Jiang Si found an iron cup and melted some snow, passing the warm water around for everyone to drink.
She then deftly sliced up one of the fish, preparing it like beautiful, translucent sashimi. Even raw, it looked appetizing.
One large fish was enough to fill the three of them.
Jiang Si’s thoughts returned to how they could leave this place and travel faster.
’The icebreaker and snowplow on the cruise ship are useless now.’
Suddenly, Jiang Si spotted a suitcase floating just beneath a thin, newly-formed layer of ice.
Jiang Si immediately grabbed a makeshift tool and began smashing furiously at the ice.
The suitcase shot to the surface.
Working together, Jiang Si, Bailiman, and Aisar managed to lift the waterlogged suitcase and open it.
The suitcase was filled with women’s clothing and cosmetics. Jiang Si picked out a few useful items and dumped the rest aside. Then she stuffed the empty case with all the tools and bedding they could use to build a tent or an igloo.
With the suitcase packed full, Jiang Si hung the string of fish from its handle. She turned to Aisar and Bailiman and asked, "Are you two coming with me?"