Chapter 265: Chapter 265: The Body Ashore (15)_1
Finally, they reached the forest behind the small town. It was extremely peculiar; this temple area didn’t have a single drop of rainwater, as if some force had isolated the water.
Chu Hao and Liu Zhenqiang were dumbstruck. This was a miracle, wasn’t it?
The Water Drought-Demon stood on the water’s surface, pointing to a temple on the slope above.
The Dragon King Temple, the only temple in town, was a place where the townspeople prayed for blessings and hoped for offspring.
Chu Hao was stunned. It wants me to go up there? Heh. As if the Divine Master Bi Wang would follow its orders!
Chu Hao spoke up, "You want my help?"
The Water Drought-Demon nodded its head, still standing as if it were an upright corpse.
Chu Hao said warmly, "Ahem... Since that’s the case, let’s talk about the reward. As a Taoist Master, my dealings are always fair and just. I deliver services equivalent to the payment received. For our first collaboration, how about I give you a ten percent discount?"
Liu Zhenqiang was flabbergasted. Damn, he’s really negotiating with this kind of thing? How audacious can he be?
The Water Drought-Demon was also stunned, producing a creaking noise.
Chu Hao waved his hand. "I don’t understand you. Speak human."
"DING! Host has successfully shown off, obtaining 400 Pretentiousness Points."
Incredible! Does the Host even realize what that thing is?
The Water Drought-Demon was clearly angered. The wind blew its long hair aside, revealing a face full of pulsating, oozing sores—gruesome and terrifying.
When it opened its mouth, its fierce, sharp fangs were revealed. Its mouth was filled with revolting corpse-worms and squirming stalks of Jing Ji.
An ordinary person seeing this would surely be scared to death.
Liu Zhenqiang couldn’t catch his breath and fainted from fright.
"’What a useless oaf,’ Chu Hao cursed."
However, when he shone his flashlight into the water, he couldn’t help but gasp.
Many dark shapes appeared in the water. Only under the flashlight’s beam did he realize that they were Water Corpses, standing one after another. They stood on tiptoe on the riverbed, walking through the water towards the fishing boat.
This water is deep enough to drown someone?
Chu Hao knew this was bad. The current situation is too troublesome. On land, even a thousand Water Corpses wouldn’t scare me, but if I’m dragged into the water, not even Zhao Yun could save me.
Chu Hao jabbed Liu Zhenqiang in the buttocks with his sword.
Liu Zhenqiang screamed and woke up, clutching his buttocks in pain.
"’If you don’t want to die, row quickly!’ Chu Hao said."
Liu Zhenqiang, terrified, started paddling with a boat pole.
However, something grabbed the pole, and he couldn’t pull it out.
Chu Hao grew angry. "’Do you take this Taoist Master for a mere decoration?’"
He took out the Holy Buddha Wooden Fish and struck it, setting off a series of system notifications for exterminating Water Corpses. The fishing boat began to move once more.
When he looked up, however, the Water Drought-Demon was nowhere to be seen.
It ran away?
After waiting a bit, the fierce current began to recede, and the water, which had been deep enough to drown a person, returned to knee-level. It seemed the creature was truly gone.
Chu Hao furrowed his brows, looking towards the tombstones at the temple, and said, "Let’s go home."
Liu Zhenqiang shivered. "’Th-that thing... it left?’"
"’You want it to come back?’ Chu Hao asked."
"’Of course not.’"
The two returned to the courtyard. Truthfully, it was very peculiar. Previously, the water in town had been high enough to drown a person; the entire town must have been submerged.
Yet, their courtyard only had a small amount of standing water.
It was already one o’clock in the morning, and Liu Zhenqiang, scared out of his wits, didn’t dare to go back alone.
At this time, Ju Desheng and Zhang Qin’ai were both awake, worried about Chu Hao’s safety. Seeing him return, they heaved a sigh of relief.
"’Ah-Hao, are you all right?’ Zhang Qin’ai asked."
Chu Hao asked, a strange expression on his face, "Our courtyard wasn’t flooded?"
Zhang Qin’ai, looking completely puzzled, said, "No. Although the rain was heavy, it only reached the threshold."
Liu Zhenqiang cried, "’Brother Hao, we... we must have seen a ghost!’"
Zhang Qin’ai and Ju Desheng were bewildered. Once Chu Hao explained what had happened, their jaws dropped. One could only imagine their shock.
Chu Hao said, "There’s probably a reason this Water Drought-Demon came ashore. We’ll go check out the Dragon King Temple tomorrow."
「The day began to brighten.」
The rain had lessened considerably, but it showed no signs of stopping.
In the town, people gradually started to emerge, everyone holding umbrellas and wearing raincoats.
"’The Water Corpses are ashore! The Water Corpses are ashore!’"
Early in the morning, shouts from outside startled all the townspeople. A crowd was heading towards the banks of the Yellow River.
Chu Hao, who had been fast asleep, was woken up by a panicked Zhang Qin’ai. "Ah-Hao," she exclaimed, her voice full of alarm, "so many Water Corpses have appeared on the banks of the Yellow River!"
Chu Hao got dressed and went to the edge of the Yellow River, where by now, seventy percent of the townspeople had gathered.
On the bank of the Yellow River, one body after another appeared. These corpses were very swollen; some wore ancient clothing, and others modern attire.
Liu Zhenqiang, pushing his way into the crowd, let out a terrified scream.
He saw that a few of the bodies belonged to the people he had gambled with the night before; they were all dead.
Terrified, Liu Zhenqiang fell to his knees before Chu Hao. He trembled as he begged, "Master Chu Tian, you have to save me!"
He now realized that if Chu Hao hadn’t appeared last night, he, too, might have become one of those corpses.
There were twenty-three bodies in total, all drowned and in various states. Some had been submerged for a long time, beyond recognition.
A woman from the town cried out in alarm, "Isn’t that... isn’t that Little Zheng? He’s been missing for three months!"
One of the corpses was Little Zheng, a local who had gone out fishing three months ago and had never returned.
Someone else exclaimed, "’HISS! Isn’t that Second Madman?’"
One corpse, an old man, was the old madman from a nearby village. This madman, erratic and noisy, was often heard shouting in the village and had reportedly been missing for nearly half a year.
Most of the bodies had been dead for a long time, but after a heavy rain, they were all washed ashore!
The townspeople were terrified by this eerie occurrence.
Although the townspeople occasionally fished out bodies while fishing, it was nothing compared to the shock of this event.
The town’s ritual master arrived. He was a sixty-year-old man who walked unsteadily and was the only "master" in town.
The old man, dressed in a Taoist robe, had people set up an altar and began to chant incantations.
An eighty-year-old man exclaimed in terror, "It’s just like forty years ago! Back then, this situation lasted for three days. The River God must be angry!"
The River God is angry?
In ancient times, there was a belief that the River God provided fish and shrimp for people’s sustenance, and in return, people had to sacrifice cattle and sheep to the River God at regular intervals.
If the sacrifices stopped, the River God would become angry and bring unrest.
This was a very old belief, but some still held to it.
The local police arrived and sealed off the scene. With so many bodies, the situation was likely beyond their jurisdiction; they could only wait for instructions from their superiors.
There were three people in the crowd. Wang Ku said with some excitement, "It’s here! The Water Drought-Demon is here!"
Bai Jiangming gasped. "Is this Water Drought-Demon powerful?"
Wang Ku laughed. "Would I be looking for it if it wasn’t formidable? Get your people over here quickly. We’re capturing the Water Drought-Demon tonight!"
Bai Jiangming nodded. It was his first time dealing with such a creature, making him both expectant and excited. He took out his phone to tell his people in Anli City to come over with all sorts of equipment.
Bai Jingyu looked towards Chu Hao and the others, then sneered. "Just you wait. You slapped me; I’ll have your hand chopped off."