Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Silence.
Deathly silence.
On the dark river late at night, there was only the faint sound of the night wind and the flowing water.
I looked at the black-dog-hair rope clenched in my hands.
Old Cao and I held one end, while the other extended into the water, tied around corpse retriever Li Miao. There was no telling how deep he had already dived.
I kept every instruction he had given us before entering the water firmly in mind and did not dare relax.
Perhaps the oppressive atmosphere made Old Cao worry I was uncomfortable, because he began chatting with me.
He rambled from daily necessities to food, clothing, housing, and travel, then asked about amusing things that had happened at school. In the end, he even hemmed and hawed as he tried to indirectly learn more about Master…
I saw straight through the fanboy’s intentions. I told him whatever harmless stories about my daily life with Master I could, mostly embarrassing incidents in which she had scolded me during training.
Old Cao listened with great interest.
Chatting idly with him really did ease much of my tension.
The seconds and minutes ticked by…
“It’s been seven minutes,” Old Cao said casually.
He was not accustomed to wearing a watch, and I had no idea how he estimated the time so precisely. But I trusted that he was absolutely accurate.
Li Miao had described three possibilities: three rhythmic movements of the rope, chaotic movement, or no movement for ten minutes. In every case, we were to pull him up.
Right now the rope was perfectly still, as if an enormous invisible hand had fixed it in place.
Not even the water’s surface stirred.
An inexplicable unease came over me. “He couldn’t have run into trouble, could he?”
Suddenly!
The rope moved, jerking sharply down beneath the water.
Then it dipped a second time, followed by a third.
At last, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Three rhythmic movements. Good!
Everything had gone smoothly.
“Pull!”
Old Cao and I shouted together, using both hands to haul the black-dog-hair rope out of the water and onto the boat.
I could feel another force rising rapidly at the far end of the rope. Li Miao was swimming upward under his own power.
Nothing had gone wrong.
Two minutes later…
Splash!
Water erupted from the river as a dripping-wet Li Miao surfaced and grabbed the gunwale with both hands.
Old Cao and I swiftly hauled him out of the frigid water and handed him a cup of ginger tea.
Even for a formidable corpse retriever, diving to the bed of the Chuan River late at night was risky.
In addition to possible attacks from corpse-fiends, the cold water and tremendous pressure were deeply uncomfortable.
“Thanks.”
Li Miao accepted the ginger tea and drank slowly.
His voice was steady enough, but undisguised shock filled his eyes. He must have seen something extraordinary below.
Old Cao and I did not question him immediately. We needed to give him a moment to recover.
I could see steam slowly rising from his hair and clothes.
After draining the ginger tea in several gulps, Li Miao told us what he had experienced underwater without waiting to be asked.
“It was far too strange!”
“I saw something unbelievable down there.”
“I’ve been retrieving corpses from the Chuan River for years and have dived for old corpses before, but I’ve never seen anything so bizarre.”
Once he had caught his breath, his voice grew agitated, with a faint trace of fear.
Old Cao and I were both curious. What kind of sight could frighten an experienced corpse retriever this badly?
But since Li Miao made it sound so serious, we suggested returning at once and letting him tell the story slowly once we were ashore.
After all, the Chuan River belonged to those river-logs. There was no reason for a corpse retriever to confront them head-on.
Li Miao agreed and rowed back the way we had come as quickly as he could.
As we passed the stretch in midriver where several floating corpses drifted, I saw from a distance that the old corpse with its mouth open to absorb the essence of moonlight was still there.
The thing seemed to turn its head toward us again, a contemptuous, mocking smile at the corner of its mouth.
But we really were far away, and my view was blurry.
When I rubbed my eyes and looked carefully, the expression was gone.
Still, once might be an illusion, but twice probably was not!
That left me puzzled.
This powerful-looking old floating corpse had kept to itself while we did the same. Why had it mocked us twice?
I grumbled silently, “I’m only cutting you some slack because you’re in the water. Come ashore and I’ll grab you and demand to know what you’re laughing at. What the hell is so funny?”
We reached shore without incident.
Li Miao tied his little wooden boat to a stake, and we stepped gratefully onto solid ground. Only then did he begin recounting the eerie sight he had witnessed during those few minutes underwater…
After entering the water, Li Miao had relied on his experience in corpse retrieval to swim toward the spot where the child corpse Xiao Sheng had surfaced the night before, diving deeper all the while.
With the battery lamp on his head and a knife clenched between his teeth, he vigilantly surveyed the water.
He descended gradually.
One meter, three meters, five…
Li Miao already sensed something was not quite right underwater tonight.
Yet he had encountered no danger, so at first he could not say exactly what was wrong.
When he reached a depth of about ten meters, it struck him.
“Silence! It was too silent–and not just silent, but empty.”
As a renowned corpse retriever within dozens of miles, Li Miao had made plenty of nighttime dives for corpses. Most of the time, the underwater world was very lively–yes, lively!
At night, a corpse retriever could see every kind of fish, shrimp, turtle, and crab swimming through the river.
Some were enormous.
There might be black carp the size of a car, turtles as broad as millstones, and river shrimp as thick as a man’s arm. These river creatures all grew far beyond their ordinary size.
Then there were the many floating corpses.
Some were old and some young, from different eras and of different ages. Their shapes and the degree to which the water had bloated them varied as well, making for a horrifying sight.
Such things never emerged during the day. They all hid in the deepest and most concealed parts of the river.
Only at night, when the living withdrew, did these yin beings become active.
These giant aquatic creatures and floating corpses also occupied distinct layers, with different kinds active at different depths.
Li Miao had long since grown accustomed to them.
But tonight was strange!
From the moment he entered the water, he had dived steadily downward without seeing a single thing.
There were no giant fish, shrimp, turtles, or crabs, and no eerie floating corpses.
The whole river seemed clean and deserted, so empty and quiet that it was unnatural.
Apart from the few floating corpses we had seen on the surface while crossing from the west bank, there truly were far too few things in the water.
“What’s happening? The quieter the Chuan River looks, the more dangerous it might be!”
An inexplicable unease took hold of Li Miao.
But he sensed that such an abnormal situation must have an uncanny cause.
Perhaps he really could find what had turned Xiao Sheng into a living corpse underwater.
Li Miao continued descending…
Ten meters, fifteen, twenty!
He felt that he had nearly reached the bottom of this stretch of the Chuan River.
The river’s depth varied. Near Xiaowan Village, it was probably a little over twenty meters but less than thirty.
A corpse retriever could not measure the water with instruments like a professional hydrologist, but they had their own methods of judging depth.
Li Miao also noticed the water around him becoming visibly murkier. Near the mud and sand of the riverbed, the water was naturally less clear than in the middle layers.
Tall, long strands of strangely shaped aquatic grass swayed around him. Mixed with the sand and silt, they blurred his vision.
After a moment’s thought, Li Miao pressed both hands against his eyelids and silently recited a corpse retriever’s secret incantation.
His vision immediately cleared again.
He could see almost as well as he could on land!
Judging that he had reached the place where Xiao Sheng’s corpse had previously settled, he treaded water and looked down.
What he saw nearly stopped his heart. His scalp went numb and goose bumps rose all over his body. He barely managed not to open his mouth in fright and release the breath he was holding.
At last, he understood why he had seen almost no yin beings during his descent that night.
Floating corpses–dense masses of floating corpses!
Below Li Miao, enormous numbers were packed together in layer upon layer, as though attending a gathering. All kinds of aquatic creatures surrounded the corpses.
There were black carp the size of cars, turtles as broad as millstones, river shrimp as thick as an adult’s forearm, and aquatic pill bugs as large as soccer balls…
For one instant, Li Miao honestly thought he was done for.
So many floating corpses had gathered that they probably represented every corpse within dozens of miles of river. Even though Li Miao considered himself a highly capable corpse retriever, the sight chilled his limbs and made his heart tremble.
Worse still, while terrified, he had not panicked completely. Years of dangerous corpse-retrieval experiences allowed him to retain a clear judgment…
So on his second look, Li Miao noticed that in the lower layers of that densely packed mass, many corpses were not floating horizontally. Instead, they maintained a normal standing posture.
They stood as if they were people on dry land!
He knew what those things were called: upright drowned corpses. They remained standing underwater and were an especially vicious kind of river-log.
“Vicious” described their temperament, not their rank or strength.
By the usual classifications of a corpse-fiend’s power, a walking corpse, a vicious corpse, or a corpse fiend could all be an upright drowned corpse. Each would simply be more ferocious and aggressive than another corpse-fiend at the same level.
Among those upright drowned corpses, Li Miao even saw several wearing clothes from twenty or thirty years ago.
How powerful would a decades-old corpse have to be after sinking in the river for twenty or thirty years and becoming an upright drowned corpse?
Li Miao did not dare imagine it.
For the first time, he felt that remaining calm was not necessarily a good thing. He would rather not have seen so clearly.
“Mother of mercy! Did I stumble into a whole corpse nest? Even a true Red-Boat Oarsman with a complete set of equipment would probably die down here!”
But Li Miao soon realized the situation might not be quite so dire.
He was already close to the river-logs–the uppermost ring of floating corpses was less than three meters below his feet.
Under normal circumstances, they might already have approached and entangled him.
But now, not one floating corpse noticed him.
Even the upright drowned corpses standing in the deeper water did not react. They merely stood there in silence.
Huh?
Li Miao found that strange.
Once his initial fear had passed, curiosity began to grow in its place.
He floated a short distance upward so he could escape more quickly and safely if anything happened, then began observing the vast gathering of river-logs.
Soon, he noticed a clue.
Those densely layered river-logs seemed to be surrounding something!
Li Miao had the distinct impression that something lay at the center of the corpse horde. The river-logs wanted to approach it but did not quite dare, leaving them to form this greedy yet helpless ring around it.
“Could it be some rare treasure?”
The thought immediately occurred to him.
He knew that complex circumstances sometimes gave birth to rare treasures in this world.
Ordinary people were extremely insensitive to their presence.
But mountain spirits, monsters, corpse-ghosts, and other evil things were highly sensitive to them. Whenever such creatures discovered a treasure, they were always the first to gather around it.
Li Miao was now completely certain.
“There really is something extraordinary at the bottom of the Chuan River outside Xiaowan Village! But if it can attract so many corpse-fiends and aquatic spirits, I doubt it’s anything good.”
Unease filled his heart.
After all, the phrase “rare treasure” meant an object that was precious, uncommon, and offered tremendous benefits.
It did not mean the object necessarily belonged to the righteous path in the usual sense.
Many rare treasures contained evil and terrifying power.
If an evil esoteric practitioner or evil being obtained one, it could become an even greater threat.
With that in mind, Li Miao decided to investigate more thoroughly.
Since the aquatic spirits and corpse-fiends were completely ignoring him, he chose to move a little closer…
But at that very moment!
The fish, shrimp, turtles, crabs, and upright drowned corpses, all calm until then, suddenly grew restless.
Li Miao’s heart clenched in fright, and he thought he had alerted them.
He soon discovered that was not the case.
The aquatic spirits, floating corpses, and upright drowned corpses looked… alarmed!
They paid no attention to Li Miao and began scattering in every direction.
Those on the outer edge fled first. Some upright drowned corpses and aquatic creatures in the inner ring remained clustered together and did not completely disperse.
Li Miao naturally realized that the closer they were to the center, the more powerful they were…
“What’s happening?”
He wondered if he could take the opportunity to move closer, but a sudden palpitation seized his heart.
He instinctively turned his head.
To his horror, an indescribably enormous black shadow was swimming toward him through the distant water at astonishing speed.
At first glance, Li Miao thought the thing was at least the size of a large ship!
But it was nighttime and they were underwater. Even with his vision opened through a corpse retriever’s secret art, allowing him to see clearly beneath the surface, objects too far away remained indistinct.
And because it was coming head-on, he could not see how long it was from head to tail.
Still, the tremendous pressure it radiated was the aura of a true colossus. A dark red glow surrounded it, giving off a terrifying presence.
The seemingly formidable aquatic spirits, floating corpses, and upright drowned corpses fled in panic, none daring to approach it.
Stranger still, despite its enormous size and incredible speed underwater, the thing produced almost no waves or currents.
It was as though the water parted automatically around it as it swam, without causing any substantial disturbance.
It defied all reason and radiated an uncanny air.
Li Miao suddenly recalled an ancient legend widely passed down among corpse retrievers.
“C-could this thing possibly be… the legendary Lord River God?!”
He felt as though his heart might stop.