Chapter 88

Chapter 88

Li Miao’s mouth was dry, his limbs were cold, and his head spun.

Good heavens–he had encountered the River God!

This was a legend passed down since antiquity among corpse retrievers and everyone else who made their living on the water.

All things possessed spirit. Amid nature and the heavens and earth, beings other than humans could acquire sentience.

Thus, mountains had mountain gods, and rivers had river gods.

Of course, these so-called gods were different from the vague immortals of myth, who might not exist at all.

In essence, they were still animals. By some fortuitous chance, however, they had awakened part of their intelligence and obtained power that surpassed common sense.

Or to put it another way… they were demons!

They were simply so powerful, the strongest living beings within a fixed territory, that they became known as gods.

The River God spoken of by corpse retrievers along the Chuan River was one example.

It was the most powerful entity in the water along each respective stretch of the river.

Lianghe Town fell under Fubei County’s jurisdiction. Of the county’s twenty towns, it was the most populous and prosperous.

The Chuan River passed north of Lianghe Town, curved around to its west, then continued south all the way to the county seat.

Fubei County covered two thousand square kilometers and had nearly a million residents. The winding Chuan River system within its borders measured roughly one hundred fifty kilometers.

According to legend, the River God of those one hundred fifty kilometers was an enormous, monstrous fish!

When Li Miao was a child, Master had told him stories about Fubei’s River God.

Some were good, and some were bad.

It had rescued drowning children, women, and the vulnerable, but had also inexplicably smashed boats on the river.

After all, if one set aside the awe and fear ordinary people felt toward it and viewed the River God solely through the eyes of a practitioner of the esoteric arts, it was a powerful demon that was neither righteous nor evil–and a wild, untamable animal.

No matter what, the River God possessed immensely powerful and incredible abilities. Everyone who made their living on the water had to revere it and never provoke it lightly.

Li Miao had lost both parents and become an orphan at eight.

Master had adopted and raised him, teaching him corpse retrieval so he could make a living.

In fact, those in folk arcane lineages who worked closely with yin beings–corpse retrievers, coffin bearers, and the like–usually found it difficult to marry and have children.

Many therefore adopted a child and trained him as an apprentice at the same time.

They were both master and disciple, and adoptive father and son.

Few bonds were more secure.

When Li Miao grew up, Master died unexpectedly. He inherited the mantle and became the corpse retriever for the Chuan River near Lianghe Town.

Yet in all those years, he had never truly seen the Lord River God Master had described in his childhood. Eventually, Li Miao came to believe it was merely a false rumor.

After all, Master had claimed the River God’s body might be nearly twenty meters long.

Li Miao was a modern man who watched television.

In the 1990s especially, there were many popular-science and educational channels. The general enthusiasm for learning about, advocating, and promoting science was arguably stronger than it was now.

Li Miao had watched programs such as Animal World and the Science and Education Channel.

They said freshwater fish could not exceed eight meters in length.

That conclusion came from a method of biological estimation called the Heikoff limit.

Li Miao had thought that perhaps, for once, the scientists were right…

But!

Today, at this very moment, he had finally seen it!

The Lord River God of the Chuan River basin in Fubei County.

That colossus prowled the cold depths, radiating dark red light. Its dense demonic aura struck Li Miao from far away through the water, making his heart race and his blood pressure rise.

Though he could not see the Lord River God’s exact appearance or length, a single distant glimpse told him it could not be shorter than fifteen meters!

It might even… truly have reached the legendary twenty meters.

It was enormous.

How could a creature so large live continuously in the Chuan River without being discovered?

Li Miao could not imagine.

He could only conclude that, as the River God, it must possess many wondrous abilities.

At the same time, he was more curious and shocked than ever. What exactly was that mysterious riverbed treasure?

It had not only attracted the nearby fish, shrimp, turtles, crabs, floating corpses, and upright drowned corpses–even the River God seemed to covet it!

But Li Miao knew he could not remain there.
He had already been incapable of handling the horde of floating corpses and upright drowned corpses. Now that the Lord River God had arrived, was he going to stay and become its meal?

Li Miao made a prompt decision. He swam upward as fast as he could while rhythmically tugging the rope three times. Only when he felt Old Cao and me pulling from above did he finally relax.

As he rose swiftly toward the surface, Li Miao glanced down once more.

The enormous black shadow emanating a faint red glow had fully arrived at the spot where the floating corpses and upright drowned corpses had gathered…

Li Miao finished his story.

Old Cao and I were stunned, unable to recover for a long while.

“The River God? Does it really exist…?” I blurted instinctively.

The moment the words left my mouth, they sounded foolish.

Li Miao had just seen it!

That enormous figure radiating a dense demonic aura truly resembled the River God from the corpse retrievers’ ancient legends.

Old Cao took several puffs of his pipe and smacked his lips.

“My grandmaster and master both told me about the River God of the Chuan River in Fubei County. Before Liberation, some ordinary people saw it in the river north of town. But there have been very few reports over the last several decades. I thought it had died of old age.”

Old Cao appeared much calmer about the River God than either Li Miao or me.

Age and experience counted for something!

Li Miao had not expected Old Cao to know about this too.

Surprised, he said, “I thought only those who made their living on the water knew these things. You know about it too, Coffin-Bearer Cao? Do you know anything else?”

Old Cao shook his head. “I’m only older than you, so I’ve heard a little more. Neither of us is an ordinary person, so forgive me for putting this disrespectfully: the so-called River God is simply a fish that has lived for many, many years, awakened its intelligence, and acquired uncanny power.”

Uh…

That was certainly direct. He had identified its essence in a single sentence.

Old Cao looked at me. “When you go home this weekend, Xiao Wu, you can ask Master about the River God. The Immortal Lady surely knows far more than I do.”

Right!

I nodded vigorously.

That was the advantage of having a great master!

Whenever I did not understand something, I could simply go home and ask her.

Of course, I did not want to drag Master into any of this.

I could vaguely sense that someone as formidable as Master had lived quietly in Wujia Village for years because she did not want to display too many of her abilities to the outside world.

Only after taking me as her disciple had she begun accepting a limited number of jobs in the villages and countryside among the surrounding mountains–and her main goal was to give me practical experience.

So whenever I encountered trouble in Lianghe Town, I would only ask Master for explanations and guidance. I absolutely would not trouble her to intervene personally!

As her disciple, I ought to consider her wishes too.

Li Miao gave Old Cao and me a wry warning.

“I think this situation has already gone beyond anything we imagined or can control. I only came to help retrieve a corpse. I never expected to pull up a living corpse… and now every corpse-fiend in the river and even the Lord River God are involved.”

He found the whole thing far too fantastical.

I laughed. “You still have it better, Brother Li. At least you were doing your actual job. Old Cao and I were the ones suddenly dragged into this.”

Li Miao hurriedly apologized.

Old Cao shook his head. “It’s fine. You didn’t do it deliberately. But it looks like we won’t unravel the mystery of the child corpse Xiao Sheng anytime soon.”

His brows were tightly knit, and he looked preoccupied.

I also felt the whole matter was becoming increasingly mysterious.

As I thought, I began analyzing the sequence of events aloud.

“We can now be fairly certain that some external force on the riverbed stimulated the child corpse Xiao Sheng. That is why his three hun souls and seven po souls remained within his body after death, making him seem alive.”

“So what happened to Xiao Sheng may simply have been an accident. After he drowned, he drifted downstream to the east bank, sank to the riverbed, and happened to touch that mysterious riverbed treasure.”

“Then his parents asked Brother Li to retrieve him from the river, and Brother Li discovered he had already become a living corpse.”

“Next, we came to the river to investigate what had affected him. Brother Li saw the dense gathering of aquatic spirits and corpse-fiends, including the River God that arrived last.”

“That leaves us with three important questions.”
As I spoke, I held up three fingers.

“First, what do we do with Xiao Sheng now?”

“Second, should we continue investigating what the mysterious treasure is? If so, how?”

“Third, did the River God take the treasure just now?”

Those were the three issues we currently had to consider.

Clap, clap, clap!

Old Cao applauded with a smile. “Your thinking is very rigorous, Xiao Wu. You’re only in your first year of middle school, yet your reasoning is already so clear. You have a brilliant future ahead of you.”

Li Miao nodded in agreement and praised me as an accomplished young man, making me somewhat embarrassed.

Then we discussed our options.

There was no better solution for the child corpse Xiao Sheng. We could neither send him onward nor destroy him outright. For now, we could only maintain the status quo, using corpse-suppressing arts to keep him temporarily in the Xiao family’s cellar.

Li Miao would inspect him once a day, bring him food, and watch for any changes.

As for the mysterious riverbed treasure, we definitely had to continue investigating it!

People in our profession mainly worked for money; we did not possess so many lofty ideals.

But every matter incurred karmic debt, and people were naturally curious.

Had we not known about an event this significant, that would have been one thing. But since we had stumbled into it, we could not possibly leave it alone. We had to keep investigating. We would need to return home and carefully consider how.

And had the River God taken the object?

After some discussion, we decided it probably had not.

Xiao Sheng had clearly drowned ten days ago.

If the rare treasure had only appeared in the last few days, Xiao Sheng’s corpse would have already decomposed in the water, and he could not have become a corpse-fiend.

Most likely, soon after he drowned, his corpse drifted with the current, sank near the east bank, and came into contact with the rare treasure. His transformation had already occurred then.

If so, every spirit and corpse-fiend in the river–including the River God–must have discovered it long ago.

Thinking back, Li Miao recalled that he really had encountered fewer river-logs on the river near Lianghe Town at night lately. That indirectly supported our theory.

If so much time had passed and he could still see tonight’s spectacle underwater, that meant none of those minor aquatic spirits, floating corpses, upright drowned corpses, or even the Lord River God could take the object!

The thing would likely remain on the riverbed for quite some time.

I gave a wry smile. “Why does this grow more frightening the more we think about it? The River God’s existence alone shocked me. What kind of thing could even the River God be unable to take?”

All three of us fell silent.

After a long while, Old Cao said, “Perhaps it isn’t that the River God can’t take it. Could it be… that the River God doesn’t want to take it yet?”

Of course!

The realization struck me.

Slapping my thigh, I exclaimed, “Could it be like the Golden-Thread Netherbloom we took from the grave-covered hill beside the bridge?”

Li Miao froze and asked curiously, “The Golden-Thread Netherbloom? What’s that?”

He was now in the same boat as us, so I saw no need to conceal it and explained what had happened with the Golden-Thread Netherbloom.

Li Miao frowned in surprise after listening. “So an extremely powerful evil esoteric practitioner has appeared near Lianghe Town? And even Coffin-Bearer Cao, Young Mr. Wu, and Master Yuan Fei couldn’t gain the upper hand against him together?”

“That’s right!”

Old Cao nodded with a bitter smile. “That evil practitioner is extremely powerful and uses uncanny methods. He’s hidden in the shadows now and difficult to ferret out. He remains a constant threat. But our discussion of that mysterious thing on the riverbed reminded me of him. If the floating corpses, upright drowned corpses, and River God have watched it for so many days without taking it, perhaps the proper time has not yet arrived.”

Natural treasures generally needed a fixed period to mature.

Taking one before the proper time greatly diminished its effects.

The Golden-Thread Netherbloom we had plucked was one example.

It was very late by then, and the three of us were tired.

We returned to the Xiao home, gave Xiao Mao and his wife a general account of the situation, and had Li Miao make some arrangements.

Naturally, the couple agreed to everything without objection and thanked us repeatedly.

By then, it was already two thirty in the morning.

There were no more motorcycle taxis for Old Cao and me to take home.

We could only walk back slowly. Watching the stars and chatting leisurely all the way was not bad either…