In his dream, Xu Muchan heard the sound of roaring waves again.
Half-conscious, he realized that it was the sound of the Black River.
He didn’t resist it. He was just about to follow the sound toward its source when a cold presence suddenly restrained him.
A familiar presence.
Wei Xilou.
Half asleep and half awake, Xu Muchan desperately tried to open his eyes, but he couldn’t even muster the strength to lift his eyelids.
The cold presence lingered against his cheek for a moment.
Then Xu Muchan suddenly woke with a sensation of weightlessness.
He abruptly sat up in bed and discovered that light was shining through the curtains.
It was already morning.
Xu Muchan sat blankly on the bed for a while before finally getting up to wash and get ready.
There were still two days before school started.
With nothing to do at home, his mind kept returning to Wei Xilou and the Black River. After a while, his temples even began to ache faintly.
So he simply took out his textbooks and workbooks and started reviewing what he had missed.
Once he shifted his attention to studying, his anxious and restless thoughts gradually settled down.
Two days later, school started.
Early that morning, Xu Muchan walked into the classroom with a gloomy expression and sat down.
Beside him, Wei Yao yawned and glanced at him, his face practically screaming that they were both suffering from the same problem.
“You didn’t sleep well either?”
Xu Muchan looked at him and saw two dark circles hanging beneath his eyes.
Wei Yao clearly still had a lot to say, but just then, the class bell rang.
Their homeroom teacher, Wan Zheng, walked into the classroom right on the bell.
He looked around at a classroom full of students who were completely lacking in energy and clearly hadn’t mentally returned from their vacation.
He turned around, updated the countdown displayed beside the blackboard, and then began his motivational speech for the new semester.
The homeroom teacher talked so passionately that spit practically flew everywhere, while Wei Yao rested his head on his hand and nodded off at his desk.
Xu Muchan hadn’t really been listening either.
He lowered his eyes and drifted off into his thoughts.
It wasn’t until Wei Yao nudged his chair with his leg again that he came back to himself and realized morning self-study was already over.
“Why do you look even more exhausted than me?” Wei Yao asked, studying him.
Xu Muchan didn’t answer and instead shook his head before looking at Wei Yao.
“What happened to you?”
“I’ll tell you outside. It’s not convenient here.”
Wei Yao sneakily pulled him toward the hallway.
After finding a quiet corner where no one was around, Wei Yao finally spoke hesitantly.
“It’s just… ever since we came back from Yundong, I’ve kept dreaming about Godmother. She’s become really strange in my dreams. She just stares at me the whole time, like she wants to tell me something. But no matter how hard I try to listen, I can’t understand her…”
Although Wei Yao had already experienced quite a few extraordinary things, he was still badly startled every time he saw Godmother’s true form.
The first time he dreamed of Lady Jinhua, he was so frightened that he spent the entire night parkouring around in his dream.
When he woke up the next morning, his entire body ached, and he could barely walk.
The experience had genuinely scared him, so that very day he returned to the old family home, sincerely offered incense to Lady Jinhua, and presented her with offerings.
He thought perhaps he had been neglecting Godmother lately and hadn’t worshipped her sincerely enough, so she had come to remind him.
Because he didn’t want his family to worry, he hadn’t mentioned the matter to anyone.
He had assumed that would be the end of it.
But on the second night, he dreamed of Lady Jinhua again.
He was still afraid this time, but he was too exhausted to run very far.
After running for half the night, his legs became unbearably sore, and he could only collapse onto the ground.
He looked at Lady Jinhua in the distance and asked what exactly she was dissatisfied with.
But Lady Jinhua’s enormous body remained crouched on the ground. The vertical pupils in her eyes stared fixedly at him.
She didn’t chase after him.
She didn’t say anything either.
“I spent the whole night staring at her, and her staring at me. It went on like that for two nights. Then last night, Godmother appeared again, but this time she only looked at me once before turning around and leaving.”
“It wasn’t until I woke up this morning that I finally started to get it.”
Wei Yao frowned.
“I think she was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand her. And ever since I woke up this morning, I’ve felt like there’s a cat scratching at my heart. I can’t sit still.”
“I was originally planning to go to Grandpa’s place after school today and see what exactly is going on with Godmother. But I feel so uneasy right now that I had to tell you first.”
Xu Muchan studied Wei Yao and, sure enough, found that his expression was unusually agitated. His entire demeanor was restless and on edge.
“Didn’t you hear anything Lady Jinhua said?”
Wei Yao ran a hand through his hair. “No. Her voice was really distorted and garbled. I even felt like it wasn’t a human language at all. I couldn’t understand a word…”
“You don’t think something happened to my godmother, do you?” Wei Yao asked, making a wild guess.
Xu Muchan said, “Hard to say. Let’s go take a look together after school.”
Seeing that Xu Muchan was willing to go back with him, Wei Yao’s expression finally relaxed a little. He patted Xu Muchan on the shoulder.
“Then it’s settled. We’ll leave together after school.”
After barely surviving until evening self-study ended, Wei Yao sprang to his feet like a compressed spring. He impatiently grabbed his backpack and pulled Xu Muchan toward the door.
“Come on, come on, come on! The driver is already here. I’ve already told my parents I’m staying at the old residence tonight.”
Wen Dajiang saw the two of them hurrying out and chased after them, complaining loudly.
“Where are you two sneaking off to? Why aren’t you taking me?”
Wei Yao already had a refusal on the tip of his tongue, but when he saw Wen Dajiang practically volunteering for trouble, his eyes shifted and he suddenly had an idea.
He freed one hand and hooked it around Wen Dajiang’s shoulder.
“Fine. Then we’ll go together. Don’t regret it later!”
Wen Dajiang only realized belatedly that he’d gotten himself onto a pirate ship, but by then it was too late to escape.
The three of them got into the Wei family’s car and headed toward the old residence.
The old residence was in the suburbs. The surroundings were peaceful and secluded, but the location was remote.
With only Old Master Wei and the servants who took care of him living there, the place was extremely quiet.
Especially at this hour, when the old man had already gone to bed.
Only the butler, who had been notified in advance that they were coming, was waiting at the entrance. He had originally intended to ask the three boys if they wanted some late-night snacks, but Wei Yao waved him off and hurriedly dragged the other two inside.
“No need to worry about us. I’ll take care of it myself!”
By the time he finished speaking, he’d already disappeared from sight.
“I only came to offer incense a couple of days ago.”
When they reached the shrine where Lady Jinhua’s statue was worshipped, Wei Yao first respectfully offered a stick of incense.
Then he turned to Xu Muchan.
“Can you tell anything?”
Xu Muchan walked around the statue once and shook his head.
“Lady Jinhua isn’t here.”
“She’s not here? Then where did she go?”
Wei Yao looked completely baffled.
Remembering how Lady Jinhua had seemed to be saying goodbye the previous night, he became even more confused.
“Why did she suddenly leave? Could something really have happened to her?”
Xu Muchan couldn’t explain it either.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “Let’s see what happens tonight. If you dream about Lady Jinhua again, maybe you can ask her.”
Wen Dajiang, who had been listening nearby in utter confusion, timidly raised his hand.
“What are you two talking about? Your godmother ran away from home?”
Wei Yao impatiently pushed him back down.
“More or less. It’s too complicated to explain right now. You two are sleeping in my room tonight. The bed in my room is huge—two-point-two meters wide. It’s more than enough for the three of us.”
Wen Dajiang finally realized that something was seriously wrong. He turned around and tried to run.
“Forget it. I’m picky about beds when I sleep. I should just go home.”
Wei Yao snorted and hooked an arm around his neck, dragging him back.
“Trying to run? Too late!”
The two bickering boys, along with a contemplative Xu Muchan, returned to Wei Yao’s room together.
Wei Yao’s room was actually a suite, and it was indeed quite spacious.
The three of them took turns showering. Then Wei Yao lay down in the middle and asked,
“So… we’re just going to sleep like this?”
Xu Muchan placed a strand of hair in his hand.
“Hold onto this. If you dream, I’ll be able to enter your dream.”
“That amazing?”
Wei Yao examined the strand of hair.
It was very long and didn’t look like Xu Muchan’s hair.
Xu Muchan hummed in acknowledgment. He glanced at the time and urged him,
“It’s getting late. Go to sleep.”
Wen Dajiang leaned over from beside them and glanced at the hand Wei Yao had closed around the strand of hair.
“Um… can I have one too?”
Wei Yao opened his eyes and rolled them at him.
“Just go to sleep. If I actually give you one, you’ll start screaming and making a fool of yourself later.”
Wen Dajiang immediately wanted to fire back, but after thinking about it, he decided the idiot actually had a point.
So he meekly closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
They had assumed that cramming three people into one bed would make it difficult to fall asleep.
In reality, it wasn’t long before all three of them gradually sank into a deep sleep.
In the quiet room, the sound of surging waves suddenly arose.
Bright moonlight streamed through the curtains that had been left open, casting rippling, watery shadows across the walls.
The shadows spread outward in circles like ripples.
Xu Muchan seemed to sense something and abruptly opened his eyes.
The glaring white light made him raise a hand to shield his eyes.
Only then did he realize that the blinding light was actually coming from the moon overhead.
The familiar, enormous moon immediately made Xu Muchan realize where he was.
He turned and looked around.
Sure enough, he saw Wei Yao standing on the riverbank.
Wei Yao didn’t look fully conscious. His tall figure stood at the edge of the river, staring at something on the opposite bank.
Xu Muchan followed his gaze.
There, crouched on the ground, was Lady Jinhua.
Lady Jinhua’s body had become unbelievably enormous.
Her crouching form was like a small mountain. Her pale skin was as white as snow beneath the moonlight, and long black hair hung in front of her face.
Her single eye gazed from afar toward the opposite bank.
Her rotten snake tail coiled behind her and slapped against the ground, betraying a hint of restlessness.
Xu Muchan heard a strange sound coming from across the river, as though Lady Jinhua were speaking.
As he listened, he hurried forward and pulled Wei Yao back from the edge of the Black River, where he’d gotten far too close.
Wei Yao looked dazed and vacant. He offered no resistance as Xu Muchan pulled him back.
His lips, however, kept moving slightly, producing a strange sound.
Xu Muchan frowned and listened carefully.
He discovered that the sound Wei Yao was making was exactly the same as the sound coming from across the river.
It seemed to be a repeated rhythm rather than a language humans could understand.
Yet after listening carefully for a while, Xu Muchan felt as though he could understand bits of it.
Lady Jinhua had been intermittently conveying the same message to them:
“The tide is coming… Leave…”
It was the tide again.
Xu Muchan raised his eyes toward the opposite bank, only to discover that Lady Jinhua’s enormous form was gradually fading, flickering like a shadow.
Behind her were even more enormous creatures resembling shadows.
He didn’t know when they had appeared.
The moment they realized Xu Muchan had noticed them, the enormous creatures all turned their gazes toward him.
Even across the broad Black River, Xu Muchan could clearly feel the pressure emanating from them—and their hostility.
Perhaps influenced by the enormous creatures on the opposite bank, the Black River, which had been relatively calm, suddenly began to boil.
It bubbled like a pot of boiling water, gurgling and churning, before enormous waves several meters high surged upward.
Xu Muchan instantly transformed into a ghost and dragged the dazed Wei Yao backward.
The waves crashed onto the ground before gradually flowing back into the Black River.
At that moment, all the enormous creatures on the opposite bank gathered along the shore.
Their strange eyes stared toward Xu Muchan as they emitted distorted, garbled sounds.
The sounds were very similar to the roar of the Black River, yet there was a distinct difference.
Xu Muchan only heard a few words before it felt as though a red-hot iron rod were stirring inside his brain, sending a wave of dizziness through him.
He desperately shut off his senses, trying to resist the hypnotic quality of those voices.
Just when he was about to lose his ability to hold on, an even more enormous figure appeared on the opposite bank.
It was larger than all the monsters along the riverbank combined.
Black mist obscured its body and face, but its immense size radiated an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Xu Muchan watched as the enormous creatures that had gathered scattered like a swarm of startled insects.
In the end, only that colossal figure remained standing on the opposite bank.
Across the wide Black River, Xu Muchan met its gaze.
Even though he couldn’t actually see anything clearly, Xu Muchan felt an overwhelmingly strong sense of familiarity.
His eyes widened.
He opened his mouth, about to say something—
“Holy shit, I’m going to die!”
Wei Yao’s ghostly howl suddenly jolted him awake.
Wei Yao was flailing wildly, completely panicked.
Wen Dajiang, who had been pinned beneath him, struggled to speak.
“I’m the one who’s about to be crushed to death! Get off me!”
Wei Yao belatedly realized there was someone underneath him.
He scrambled and rolled his way upright, rubbing his aching neck as he said fearfully,
“My neck hurts so bad. It feels like someone literally strangled me awake.”
Xu Muchan sat up in bed and looked at his neck.
There really was a very obvious mark around it, as though someone had grabbed him.
Wen Dajiang was talking too.
“I was sleeping perfectly fine, and then I felt someone flip me right off the bed…”
He suspiciously examined Wei Yao.
“Are you sure that wasn’t you?”
Wei Yao looked deeply wronged.
He pointed indignantly at his own neck.
“Look at my neck before you say that.”
Wen Dajiang’s expression turned horrified.
“Then your house is haunted!”
Wei Yao was still affected by what he’d experienced in the dream. He frowned and muttered,
“Not exactly. Ah, it’s too hard to explain right now…”
The two of them continued bickering and talking, driving away the eerie, chilling atmosphere.
Thinking of the figure he’d seen in the dream, then looking at the two miserable brothers standing barefoot on the floor, Xu Muchan fell strangely silent.
He didn’t tell Wei Yao that it might have been one of their ancestors who had strangled him.
Wei Yao scratched his head and climbed back into bed.
“Did you understand it? I still didn’t understand anything.”
But this time, he was certain that Godmother really had been trying to convey some kind of message to him.
Xu Muchan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and lied.
“No.”
Explaining the tide to Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang would be too troublesome.
And it was probably better not to involve them in it.
Xu Muchan thought of the enormous creatures looming indistinctly across the Black River.
Their forms were hazy like smoke, making it impossible to see what they actually looked like.
But judging solely from their size—which was comparable to Lady Jinhua’s—he knew they were definitely not benevolent beings.
Xu Muchan had a vague suspicion.
They might very well be… gods like Lady Jinhua.
And the even more enormous figure that had appeared at the end looked very much like his brother.
All sorts of thoughts raced through Xu Muchan’s mind, with countless possibilities surfacing one after another.
In the end, he had no choice but to force himself to stop thinking about it for the time being.
For now, he needed to sleep.
The next morning, on his way to school after waking up, Xu Muchan deliberated for a long time before finally contacting Yan He.
After learning that Yan He had already returned to Jiangcheng, Xu Muchan thought it would be easier to explain things in person, so they arranged to meet on Friday afternoon.
They chose a Japanese restaurant near Nanming.
Yan He looked much more haggard than before, clearly having been running around nonstop lately. He stuffed sushi into his mouth as he studied Xu Muchan.
“What is it that you had to meet in person to tell me?”
Xu Muchan said, “There’s something I want to confirm. Back at 101, I heard you mention that you also worship a Judge?”
Yan He nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Have you summoned the Judge recently?”
Yan He laughed.
“The Judge is a deity. You can’t just summon him whenever you feel like it. Normally, we worship him carefully and only call upon him when something major happens. Why are you suddenly interested in the Judge?”
Xu Muchan slowly turned the water glass in his hand.
“Lady Jinhua, whom the Wei family worships, has disappeared. Before she left, she left some information for Wei Yao and mentioned the Black River tide… I suspect her sudden departure is related to the Black River tide.”
At the mention of the Black River tide, Yan He’s expression became serious.
The Black River tide was precisely why he’d been running around everywhere lately.
The prediction system had predicted a massive tide, and a large number of people had been dispatched to various locations to verify the situation.
Although they ultimately confirmed that the system had malfunctioned and issued a false alarm, the matter concerned the safety of countless people, so no one dared to let their guard down.
Even now, they were still traveling around and conducting investigations to make sure that an actual tide wouldn’t occur.
It was only within the past two days that Yan He had finally been able to take a shift off and rest.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have had time to meet Xu Muchan.
“My martial uncle should still be stationed at the temple. Wait a second. I’ll call him and have him check.”
Yan He was remarkably decisive.
He put down his chopsticks and immediately called his martial uncle.
The other side quickly agreed.
Yan He hung up and said, “Give it a little time. We should have an answer in about half an hour.”
Xu Muchan nodded and took a sip of barley tea.
Yan He hurriedly picked up his ramen and wolfed down a few more bites.
Only after he’d eaten his fill did he put down the bowl and look thoughtfully at Xu Muchan.
“You found something else too, didn’t you?”
Xu Muchan indeed had another suspicion.
However, it had no evidence to support it, so he spoke somewhat hesitantly.
“Last night, I entered Wei Yao’s dream. I saw the Black River in his dream, and Lady Jinhua was on the opposite bank… Besides Lady Jinhua, there were countless enormous creatures resembling her on the other side of the river. I have a feeling that the Black River is somehow calling these deities to it…”
Although he didn’t know its purpose, Xu Muchan had indeed felt an intense attraction whenever he encountered the Black River.
It was like the pull of the ocean on a river.
Yan He’s brows drew tightly together.
“That doesn’t sound like a good sign…”
Xu Muchan felt the same way.
He then asked about the earlier false alarm.
“Are you sure the predictions were all wrong?”
Yan He nodded.
“We sent people out to investigate at the time, but we didn’t find any excessive yin energy at the predicted locations, nor did we detect any ghost domains.”
Xu Muchan said, “But there have been quite a few situations like that before.”
Yan He nodded.
“Exactly. So, just to be safe, the people we’ve sent to the various locations haven’t been withdrawn yet. They’re still monitoring everything in real time in case something unexpected happens. So far, I haven’t heard of any abnormal incidents.”
Hearing this, Xu Muchan could only temporarily suppress his doubts.
Just then, Yan He’s phone rang.
He answered it and exchanged a few words with the person on the other end.
His expression suddenly darkened, and he even glanced at Xu Muchan.
“Are you sure there was no response?”
He repeatedly confirmed it.
A faint voice came from the other end.
It was an old man, and his tone was extremely solemn.
“Yes. This has never happened before.”
Yan He spoke with him for a few more moments before ending the call.
He looked at Xu Muchan.
“We couldn’t summon Judge Cui. Judge Cui has always been worshipped by our temple, and our relationship with him is fairly good. Whenever we have something that requires his help, even if he can’t personally come, he’ll still respond in some way. But my martial uncle said they summoned him three times this time, and there was absolutely no response. It’s very abnormal.”
Xu Muchan’s expression wasn’t good either.
“Looks like Lady Jinhua isn’t an isolated case…”
If he took the speculation one step further, perhaps all these deities had gathered on the opposite bank of the Black River.
Including his suddenly missing brother.
Perhaps Wei Xilou was there too.
But Xu Muchan couldn’t understand why they were being summoned by the Black River.
And judging from how hard Lady Jinhua had tried to convey a warning through Wei Yao, she clearly hadn’t gone there willingly.
Then was his brother also trapped by the Black River, which was why he couldn’t return?
Countless thoughts flashed through Xu Muchan’s mind before gradually settling down.
He looked at Yan He.
“Can you tell me the locations where the tide was previously predicted? I’d like to go take a look over the weekend.”
With the crisis resolved, the prediction map wasn’t exactly top-secret information.
Yan He said, “I’ll ask around. I’ll send it to you later.”
After thinking for a moment, he added, “I’m off anyway. I’ll go with you. If you go there alone and something happens, there’ll be no one around to help you.”
Xu Muchan had originally planned to go alone.
Hearing this, he couldn’t help laughing.
“Did you forget? I’m still the Ghost King.”
Yan He made a hissing sound and muttered, “I actually did forget. Mainly because it’s really hard to associate you with the Ghost King when you look like this.”
Xu Muchan was wearing his school uniform neatly, and the backpack sitting on the chair was stuffed full of books.
At a glance, he looked exactly like a well-behaved, model student.
It was hard not to feel like he needed a little extra looking after.
In the end, Xu Muchan didn’t refuse Yan’s company.
After all, there should still be research institute personnel investigating the predicted locations for anomalies.
Having Yan He with him would probably make dealing with them much more convenient.
By the time they finished the food on the table, Yan He had received the map showing the predicted tide locations.
He handed his phone to Xu Muchan.
Looking at the screen covered in red circles, he clicked his tongue.
“This is it. Doesn’t it look terrifying? If the Black River tide really appeared in this many places, it wouldn’t be much different from the end of the world. Good thing it turned out to be a false alarm.”
Xu Muchan carefully examined the map and discovered that half of Jiangcheng was also within the red circles.
“Let’s go here first over the weekend. And here too. These two locations are relatively close.”
Yan He readily agreed.
Then he glanced at Xu Muchan and, after all, couldn’t resist asking the question that had been bothering him.
“Why do you suddenly want to go to these places? You don’t actually suspect that a tide is going to happen there, do you…?”
The possibility was genuinely terrifying.
Yan He didn’t want to believe it, nor did he dare to.
Xu Muchan didn’t answer directly.
“Let’s go take a look first.”