The cooperation proposal Xu Muchan put forward was clearly beyond everyone present’s expectations. Several senior officials exchanged glances. Finally, the Religious Association representative spoke first.
“How many people? What requirements do you have for the candidates?”
“The Black River Research Institute has been established for so many years. It’s not as though no one has directly confronted the Black River before. But those people… not a single one of them ever came back.”
There was still doubt in his words, but Xu Muchan’s proposal had clearly shaken them. Now the two sides’ stakes had been placed on the scales, and they were carefully and cautiously weighing which side would cost less while offering a greater chance of success.
Xu Muchan answered honestly, “To awaken those gods imprisoned by the Black River and allow them to reestablish contact with humanity, it would be best to choose people who were once favored by the gods and had deep connections with them. The number of gods imprisoned within the Black River far exceeds what you can imagine. We don’t have much time to waste, so the people selected need to find and awaken these gods as quickly as possible.”
“As for the number of people, the more the better. If everything goes smoothly, I have a sixty percent chance of bringing them back safely.”
“And if things don’t go smoothly?”
Someone spoke up.
“The people you’re asking for are currently the backbone of those handling sudden supernatural incidents across the country. If the entire team were wiped out… it wouldn’t just be a devastating loss for the Religious Association. We would also have to face a situation where incidents continued occurring but there would be no one left to deal with them…”
Xu Muchan said, “If things don’t go smoothly, that means we won’t even be able to delay the final flood tide. Once the final flood tide arrives, the only difference between everyone is whether they die sooner or later.”
His tone was far too certain, and his gaze did not retreat in the slightest. Even though he had not undergone ghost transformation at this moment, the faintly flowing black veins beneath his skin nevertheless gave him an eerie aura of a ghost.
Everyone stared at the young man who radiated such a powerful inhuman presence. Under that invisible pressure, they exchanged glances.
After a long silence, the old man sitting beside He Yunyi spoke.
“Your proposal involves too many people and matters. We need to discuss it carefully. How about giving you an answer three days from now?”
Xu Muchan shook his head.
“By noon tomorrow at the latest. You need time to select the people and prepare the ritual site. The longer we delay, the more gods and ghosts will return to the Black River. Its power will grow accordingly, and our chances of success will decrease.”
“If you are unwilling to cooperate, I will leave tomorrow at noon.”
As for where Xu Muchan would go or what he would do after leaving, he did not say. He merely sat tightly pursing his lips in the conference room chair, his entire being like a blade that had been sharpened to a keen edge, impatient to be drawn from its sheath.
In the end, the other side compromised.
“Fine. Tomorrow at noon.”
The meeting soon dispersed. Xu Muchan declined He Yunyi and the others’ invitation to stay overnight at the research institute and instead went to a nearby hotel to get a room.
After taking a shower, Xu Muchan picked up his phone and opened WeChat.
Messages in the group chat had never stopped. He browsed through them roughly and learned that the situation in Jiangcheng had improved somewhat, but the crisis clearly had not been resolved. Work and classes were still suspended.
The school probably felt that resuming classes would have to be postponed again under the circumstances, so they simply started holding online classes.
Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, the two poor students, still had enough time to complain in the group that “the world is practically ending, yet they still have to take online classes to prepare for the college entrance exams.”
He Jiaqi packaged the notes he had organized and sent them to the group, telling the two of them to study properly.
Xu Muchan hardly appeared in the group at all. From time to time, the three of them would @ him to ask about his situation, and their private messages were all filled with concern.
Xu Muchan went through them one by one, lowering his eyes as he composed his replies.
This time, it was not the perfunctory “I’m fine, I’m doing great.” Instead, he seriously listed the dangers they might encounter and how to respond to them. After editing everything into a long string of messages, he sent them to each person one by one.
Almost the instant the messages were sent, the others replied. Notification sounds came one after another, and the conversation list was filled with red numbers.
He did not mention too much about his own situation, nor was he good at saying goodbye. So after sweeping his eyes over the conversation list, he finally put down his phone and did not look at the replies.
If everything went smoothly, they would naturally meet again.
If things did not go smoothly, then there was no need to say goodbye.
When the final flood tide swallowed the entire land, everyone would meet again in the Black River.
Xu Muchan turned off his phone, stuffed it into his schoolbag, and then slept peacefully through the night.
At noon the next day, He Yunyi contacted him and said that after a night of discussion, the higher-ups had ultimately agreed to Xu Muchan’s proposal for cooperation. However, they still had some reservations, and in the end they could only dispatch one hundred people to enter the Black River with him.
“These one hundred people are all elites of the Religious Association. Right now, supernatural incidents are occurring frequently across the country. The Religious Association has already been suffering from a shortage of successors in recent years, and we’re struggling to respond as it is. If we pull out even more personnel, the current situation will become impossible to control. After repeated discussions, this is the greatest loss we can accept.”
A full one hundred people was not a small number.
Xu Muchan said straightforwardly, “That’s not too few. When can they arrive?”
“We’ve already ordered them to head to the capital. They’ll all be here by six this afternoon at the latest.”
Xu Muchan said, “Then we can leave tonight.”
He Yunyi was startled. Clearly, he had not expected Xu Muchan to be in such a hurry.
“Wouldn’t that be too rushed? Don’t we need to make any preparations before heading to the Black River?”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment.
“Have them bring the incense they normally use for worship. We might be able to use it when the time comes.”
“What about other things?”
Xu Muchan said, “If they want to bring them, they can. But bringing them won’t be of any use.”
The gap between humans and gods and ghosts could not be made up by these external objects.
He Yunyi understood what he meant and said that he understood.
“The Religious Association has already begun preparing ritual sites in various places. However, because we’ve spent so much time cracking down on superstition in the past, the higher-ups still don’t want to excessively promote talk of ghosts and gods. So the ritual sites will be established in various places under the name of praying for blessings. When the time comes, we’ll call on the local residents to pray together. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“As long as the statues in which those gods once resided receive offerings, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
After the two reached an agreement, Xu Muchan first went to the hotel to check out, then returned to the research institute.
After handing his luggage over to Jin Qingqing for safekeeping, Xu Muchan quietly waited in the conference room.
At six in the afternoon, Jin Qingqing came to inform him that all one hundred people had arrived.
Xu Muchan followed her to the large conference room and saw a group of people dressed in all kinds of ways, sitting in groups of three or five around the room. When they heard the door open, they stopped talking and turned toward Xu Muchan in unison.
There were both men and women among the one hundred people. Most were young, while a small number were older. All of them carried an imposing presence, clearly showing that the Religious Association had not been perfunctory about this. The people they had dispatched were indeed elites.
At this moment, they were all looking at Xu Muchan curiously.
Xu Muchan swept his gaze over the crowd and spotted Yan He and Pei Rong among them.
Yan He gave him a small wave in greeting.
Xu Muchan pressed his lips together and nodded at him before walking up to the podium at the front.
Without beating around the bush, he announced, “At midnight tonight, we will head to the Black River.”
The large conference room fell silent for a moment before erupting into a buzz.
Clearly, everyone knew very little about this sudden mission and had many questions.
Xu Muchan listened to their overlapping questions from the podium. Only after the noise gradually died down did he speak again.
“There is no need for any preparations. Once you enter, the only thing you need to do is find the gods you used to worship as quickly as possible, reestablish contact with them, and awaken them.”
“As for everything else, you don’t need to worry about it. And do not become curious about or investigate the Black River or the gods and ghosts within it. As long as you accomplish this, I will do my best to ensure your safety. But if you develop unnecessary curiosity and are assimilated by the Black River, then I won’t be able to save you either.”
His voice was cold and quiet, but when Xu Muchan’s eyes transformed into black-and-red ghost pupils, no one present dared to underestimate the young man before them.
Whatever trace of casualness or contempt they had originally harbored disappeared completely, and solemn expressions appeared on everyone’s faces.
“You can arrange the remaining time however you wish. At midnight sharp, gather at Chunhui River behind the research institute.”
After saying this final sentence, Xu Muchan turned around and left decisively.
Only after he had gone some distance did the previously silent large conference room erupt into chatter again.
“So that’s the Ghost King from the legends? He’s quite a handsome young guy. He doesn’t look very old either, but those eyes of his are pretty eerie.”
“Yan He, haven’t you dealt with him before?”
Yan He grabbed Pei Rong and hurried outside.
“No, no, no. No comment. There are less than six hours left. I still need to make some preparations. I’m leaving first.”
Leaving the noisy conference room behind, Yan He dragged Pei Rong around to ask the staff where Chunhui River was.
The staff member told them that Chunhui River was an artificial scenic river, supplied with flowing water diverted from a large river outside the city.
“Why are we gathering at Chunhui River?”
Yan He had been running around everywhere during this period, and the thing he had encountered most often was supernatural incidents caused by water contamination. Now, whenever he heard the words “river” or “lake,” he felt a little traumatized.
Pei Rong, however, remained calm. He shook his head and said, “We’ll know when the time comes. I’m going to call my martial uncle back. If there’s anything you want to leave behind, you should prepare that too.”
Yan He clicked his tongue and muttered, “Do we really need to write a will? Xu Muchan already said that as long as we don’t go looking for trouble, he’ll do his best to keep us safe. It shouldn’t come to that, right?”
Besides, during the previous few dangerous encounters, it had been thanks to Xu Muchan that they had managed to turn danger into safety.
Pei Rong said, “Just in case.”
Yan He rolled his eyes but still followed behind him.
“Fine. But I think we can still trust Xu Muchan a little…”
11:59 p.m., beside Chunhui River.
Along the narrow, elongated scenic river, besides the one hundred elites who would be following Xu Muchan to the Black River, He Yunyi and many unfamiliar faces had also arrived.
Judging by their ages, their positions were probably not low. Clearly, they had come in person to see them off.
However, mixed into everyone’s solemn expressions was also a trace of confusion. Clearly, they did not understand why Xu Muchan had chosen a place like this as their meeting point, much less how he intended to bring one hundred people to the Black River.
But Xu Muchan had no intention of taking the initiative to explain. He merely stared silently at the surface of the river, as though waiting for something.
Only when the time finally reached midnight did Xu Muchan speak.
“The time has come. Let’s go.”