The plane landed at Jiangcheng Airport.
Because the entire city had entered a wartime state, the airport, usually bustling with crowds, was now eerily deserted. The vast majority of civilian routes had been suspended, with only a few specially authorized military routes still operating normally. The departure hall held only solemn-faced government personnel hurrying about, and Xu Muchan’s group was among them.
Because they had to rush to Dongyang District to provide support, after getting off the plane, Jiang Fang and the others only had time to give Xu Muchan a contact number and tell him to contact the person coming to pick him up before hurriedly boarding a military Jeep and heading for Dongyang District.
Xu Muchan called the number. The other side answered quickly enough, but because of the shortage of personnel and the suspension of air routes, they said that the earliest they could come to pick him up would be tomorrow afternoon. After confirming the time with them, Xu Muchan thought it over and decided to go home first.
At a time like this, getting a taxi back into the city was basically impossible. Xu Muchan asked several airport employees for help before finally managing to get a ride on a supply vehicle heading into the city.
By the time he finally returned to Oak Manor, it was already late at night.
Only a handful of villas in the enormous residential compound still had their lights on. The villa complex, which normally had beautiful surroundings and exorbitant prices, seemed more like an isolated island at such a special time. Xu Muchan carried the bag of supplies an employee had stuffed into his hands when he got off the vehicle and entered the house. Looking at the familiar furnishings, his tense body finally relaxed.
He placed the bag containing the food on the kitchen island, then went to take a hot shower. Afterward, he casually cooked himself a bowl of instant noodles and ate it before returning to his room to rest.
Once he lay down on the bed and the familiar scent filled his nostrils, Xu Muchan belatedly realized that, out of habit, he had entered Wei Xilou’s room.
He lay on his back and slowly pulled the blanket over his head, allowing the lingering scent in the room to completely envelop him.
Xu Muchan tried hard to empty his mind, attempting to convince himself to get a good night’s sleep, but his overly active brain simply refused to stop. The Black River, Ouyang Yuping, and the whereabouts-unknown Wei Xilou took turns occupying his thoughts, and until well into the latter half of the night, Xu Muchan never truly managed to fall asleep.
Instead, the sound of drizzling rain came from outside the window.
It was still early spring, and Jiangcheng’s temperatures had not yet warmed up, but the rainfall had already become plentiful. Perhaps because his state of mind was different, the pattering rain striking the ground and windows seemed to carry a frequency that was irritating and unsettling.
Irritated, Xu Muchan threw off the blanket and sat up, but then it was as though he suddenly realized something. He abruptly turned his head toward the window—
Outside the window in the deep night, there was only the faint orange glow of the streetlights at the entrance.
It was not raining outside.
Yet that sound, resembling raindrops striking the ground, never stopped.
Xu Muchan quietly walked to the bedside, pressed his lips together, and opened the tightly closed window to look outside—
In the dim night, countless tall and twisted figures were arranged in a long procession, moving forward. Their faces were extremely indistinct, and their deformed bodies looked as though they had been drenched by rain. Water droplets continuously fell from them with a steady drip, drip, drip. Because there were so many of them, the dense sound of dripping water sounded just like a rainstorm.
Black streams of water gathered beneath the monsters’ feet, winding into twisting rivulets that moved forward together with the long procession.
The scene looked like the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons described in tales of strange and supernatural creatures.
The enormous ghostly shadows were like endless rolling mountains. The towering buildings of reinforced concrete looked as tiny and fragile as sheets of paper against them, to the point that they created a bizarre inversion of perception in any observer—
As though they were the true inhabitants of this world.
And those fragile modern buildings, paper-thin in comparison, along with the even tinier humans within them, were merely fantasies born from an illusion.
Standing behind the window, Xu Muchan held his breath and watched this scene. The procession formed by countless ghosts and evil entities stretched so far that its end could not be seen. He did not know how long he waited. By the time the edge of the dark night sky had begun to reveal a hazy blue, the end of the procession finally passed by Xu Muchan’s window.
Drip, drip, drip…
The sound of water falling like rain gradually faded into the distance. Xu Muchan watched the winding procession disappearing toward an unknown destination. After only a moment of hesitation, he joined the end of the procession without the slightest further doubt.
Xu Muchan’s transformation into a ghost did not attract the attention of the other creatures in the procession. Compared with those tall, grotesquely deformed monsters, his figure was considerably smaller, and his jade-like skin also appeared completely out of place. Fortunately, he had attached himself to the very end, so he did not attract much attention.
He quietly followed at the rear of the procession, moving forward as it wound along. As the hazy deep blue of the sky grew brighter and brighter, and a smear of red was about to leap above the horizon, Xu Muchan suddenly heard the violent sound of waves surging toward him from afar.
The hazy deep blue froze in place.
The orange-red glow that was about to emerge from the horizon stopped at the moment between appearing and not yet appearing.
In the view ahead, continuous mountains and an enormous, low-hanging moon appeared together. A black river surged out from the foot of the mountains, dividing an entire stretch of land into two riverbanks.
The destination of this nocturnal procession was actually the Black River.
Xu Muchan had come here several times in his dreams before, so this place was not entirely unfamiliar to him. But back then, he had always stood on the opposite bank, able only to gaze across the broad Black River at the mist-shrouded shore.
Now, he was among them, and he could finally see the scenery on the opposite bank clearly.
Countless inhuman beings, impossible to distinguish as either gods or evil entities, gathered along the shore. Their grotesque bodies bowed down in the direction of the mountains and the silver moon, yet they made not the slightest sound.
There was only the steady sound of dripping water.
The falling droplets gathered together, eagerly returning to the Black River.
At the rear of the procession, Xu Muchan imitated their movements and knelt down, while secretly lifting his eyelids and carefully observing his surroundings.
He discovered that the bodies of the monsters ahead were beginning to melt, like ice creams slowly melting in the heat. Their facial features and bodily outlines became increasingly blurred at a speed visible to the naked eye. It could be predicted that before long, they would return to their original state and melt back into the Black River.
Of course, there were also many monsters whose appearances remained extremely clear. They used powerful claws or tentacles to seize and devour nearby monsters. With each monster they devoured, their own blurred bodies became a little clearer.
The act of devouring their own kind to maintain themselves made Xu Muchan realize that perhaps not every inhuman creature willingly wished to merge with the Black River.
Xu Muchan suddenly remembered the inexplicably missing Goddess Jinhua.
At the time, in order to decipher the message Goddess Jinhua had left behind, he had even entered Wei Yao’s dream. The scene he had witnessed in Wei Yao’s dream was extremely similar to what he was seeing now.
Xu Muchan’s heart skipped a beat. He carefully controlled his emotions and, taking advantage of his inconspicuous size, nimbly moved among the constantly melting monsters, trying to find a familiar figure.
The land on the opposite bank of the Black River seemed vast beyond all boundaries. White moonlight pierced through the mist floating in the air, making everything appear unreal and dreamlike.
After weaving through it for a long time, Xu Muchan’s movements gradually slowed without him realizing it. His bare feet had somehow become covered in thick black river water. The water seemed to possess a life of its own, clinging to the surface of his skin and attempting to crawl upward.
Realizing this, Xu Muchan stopped moving. His drifting black hair shook off the droplets clinging to his skin, and the sound of drip, drip, drip immediately rang out around him.
Xu Muchan pressed his lips together and stared at the black current beneath his feet.
It seemed that he could not stay here for long. If he remained too long, he might end up like those monsters that had lost their consciousness, ultimately merging completely with the Black River.
But he had searched everywhere for so long and had found neither any trace of Goddess Jinhua nor any clue related to his brother.
Unwilling to give up, Xu Muchan bit down hard on his lower lip. His red pupils shifted as his gaze swept over the distant mountains.
The towering mountains stood motionless and majestic. Unknown gigantic trees clawed wildly at the mountaintops, while the enormous, low-hanging moon hung from their branches.
That was the source of the Black River.
Xu Muchan’s gaze shifted. He stopped searching blindly and instead tried to move toward the distant mountains.
A gaze that seemed almost tangible suddenly pierced toward him.
Xu Muchan instinctively sensed danger. The long hair drifting wildly behind him rose like a cluster of wary snakes, their ends poking upward.
Yet after looking around, he still could not find the source of that gaze. Xu Muchan’s eyes returned to the distant mountains, and he resolved to move forward while keeping his focus on that tangible gaze.
He did not know whether it was merely his imagination, but the distant mountains seemed to have begun moving slowly.
But the dense mist hung before him like a thin veil, making it impossible for Xu Muchan to determine whether the mountains were truly moving or whether the shifting mist was creating an illusion.
He pressed his lips together and continued forward.
At some point, all those inhuman creatures kneeling on the ground began turning their heads toward him.
Amid the strange silence, an arm stretched out and blocked his path.
That arm was exceptionally huge and exceptionally hideous. At first glance, its gray-black skin looked like the bark of a withered tree.
Xu Muchan’s gaze climbed upward along the arm from below, and then he saw the owner of that arm—
It was actually Goddess Jinhua, whom he had been searching for all this time but had never been able to find.
Goddess Jinhua’s body was countless times larger than it had been at the Wei residence. Her enormous body leaned down from above, and a face with only a single vertical pupil emerged from between her disordered hair, quietly staring at Xu Muchan and firmly blocking his way.
That familiar voice sounded directly inside his mind.
The rest of Goddess Jinhua’s arms supported her enormous body. Only one arm pointed toward Xu Muchan’s back.
“Go back. That place… you can’t go…”
Xu Muchan met her gaze but did not obediently turn around.
Goddess Jinhua, whom he had searched everywhere for only to have her suddenly appear before him, made Xu Muchan think of a possibility.
In the end, he asked with certainty, “Wei Xilou sent you to stop me? Where is he?”
Goddess Jinhua maintained the same posture and repeated once again,
“Go back.”
Xu Muchan narrowed his eyes and studied Goddess Jinhua before him. His gaze returned to the arm blocking his path, resembling a withered branch. Then, looking over the top of that arm, he gazed toward the mountains behind the mist.
This time, he could be certain.
It was not an illusion.
The distant mountains really were moving.
Or, more precisely, they were not mountains at all.
They were countless inhuman beings even larger than Goddess Jinhua before him.
They lay dormant in the distance like mountain ranges, quietly watching this land—
And perhaps watching him as well.
The slow beating of his heart suddenly became thunderous.
Even after becoming a ghost, his heartbeat had become extremely slow. This was the first time Xu Muchan had felt such a violent heartbeat after transforming into a ghost.
He took a step forward, ignoring Goddess Jinhua’s attempt to stop him, and stared at the distant mountains as he shouted, “Wei Xilou!”
His anguished voice shattered the tranquility on both banks of the Black River. Countless echoes of “Wei Xilou” spread outward like ripples on water.
The slow movement of the mountains stopped.
An incomparably enormous figure slowly emerged. Several enormous gray arms suddenly thrust out from the shadows, supporting the excessively huge body as it leaned forward—
The enormous body, impossible to describe in human language, hung over Xu Muchan like a dark cloud. Even that face, which should have been so familiar, had become strange because of its excessively enormous proportions.
A scarlet vertical pupil opened on the gray face, looking down at Xu Muchan like a dangerous abyss.
Just being watched by it, Xu Muchan already felt an overwhelming pressure. Although his skin after transforming into a ghost was practically indestructible, he could clearly feel a sharp pain, and cracks even began to faintly appear across the smooth surface of his skin.
But even so, Xu Muchan still did not retreat.
At some point, Goddess Jinhua had already prostrated herself on the ground. Her trembling voice sounded inside Xu Muchan’s mind. It was both a reminder and a warning:
“Do not look directly at the Black River.”
The information revealed by her words made Xu Muchan’s heart tremble.
This time, Xu Muchan obeyed her. He closed his eyes, yet stubbornly raised his face toward the enormous visage above him.
Under the immense pressure, his skin split and bright red blood flowed out. A thin stream of blood passed over his brow bone, ran straight across his entire right eye, and wound down half his face like a bloody tear. Finally, it gathered at his chin and, with a soft drip, disappeared into the black current.
Xu Muchan licked his dry lips, only to taste the metallic tang of blood filling his mouth.
The overwhelming sense of presence told him that the colossal being above had not left. But the pain throughout his body made him understand even more clearly that the terrifying god before him was the “Black River” Goddess Jinhua had spoken of, not his brother.
Xu Muchan’s eyelashes trembled violently. Blood hung wetly from them, making even the simple act of opening his eyes difficult.
But in the end, unwilling to give up, he opened his eyes a narrow slit. He did not dare look directly at the face above him. Instead, he looked toward the distant mountains.
The heavy mist had dispersed at some point, allowing him to clearly see that the colossal being silently watching him was connected to the mountains below its waist.
Goddess Jinhua said that it was the Black River, but Xu Muchan stubbornly believed that Wei Xilou had been trapped by the Black River.
“After leaving the ghost domain of Immortal Village, I’ve been trying to find you, but I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
Xu Muchan’s voice was soft, trembling with the effort he was making to restrain himself.
“I guessed before that you hadn’t come back. Maybe something had held you up. I just never thought that the thing trapping you would be the Black River.”
His words, spoken almost as if to himself, scattered into the wind.
The god looking down from above gave no response.
The blood seeping from his skin grew heavier. His blood-soaked eyelashes could no longer bear the weight, and Xu Muchan closed his eyes again. Relying on instinct, he raised his head toward that expressionless face above him. Only after a long while did he speak again.
“Will you eventually become like those things and merge with the Black River?”
There was still no answer.
Xu Muchan stubbornly pressed on, one question after another.
“Will you come back?”
“How can I help you?”
“Wei Xilou, say something!”
After receiving no response for so long, Xu Muchan’s voice became shrill. The pain his body was enduring had already become numb, while his mind grew increasingly tense. The loss he could not bear to face pushed his reason to the verge of collapse.
“If you dare to die, I’ll die too.”
The long black hair behind him suddenly surged outward.
Xu Muchan disregarded everything and opened his eyes wide, gritting his teeth as he shouted.
The moment he saw the face above him clearly, an enormous palm reached over and completely covered him.
Unwilling to surrender, Xu Muchan attacked the gigantic palm that had completely enveloped him. His black hair actually pierced through the palm and between the fingers, spreading densely across the gray-white back of the hand like a spiderweb.
Another gray-white arm slowly reached over. It seemed to intend to brush away those fine strands of hair, but as though wary of something, it slowly withdrew again.
In the end, the enormous gray-white palm gently closed, lifting the tiny person in its palm to the boundary between deep night and dawn.
Then the palm turned downward—
As Xu Muchan’s body fell, he heard Wei Xilou’s voice beside his ear.
“Ah Chan has grown up. You can take good care of yourself now.”