The people standing behind Xu Muchan exchanged glances. They were just about to ask him something when they saw the short hair resting against his shoulders suddenly begin to grow wildly like weeds.
In the blink of an eye, it fell all the way to the ground, spreading and writhing in every direction like a mass of snakes.
But what shocked them even more was the exposed skin on his body.
The faintly flowing black veins beneath his skin had already made him look sufficiently sinister. Now, the jade-like texture of his skin made his inhuman nature even more obvious.
They only had to look at his back to clearly feel the difference between their species.
That sense of being fundamentally different from their own kind caused many people present to tense instinctively.
Xu Muchan, however, paid no attention to the faint gasps behind him. He stepped into the river first.
The ends of his long hair trailing behind him also dipped into the water, shattering the reflection of the white moon on the surface.
The water rippled with shimmering waves. The fragmented light flickered, its color growing deeper and deeper, while more and more ripples appeared. Faintly, from all around them, came the sound of waves that seemed as though they did not belong here.
Only then did Xu Muchan turn around and urge them, “Stay behind me.”
His face, turned toward them beneath the moonlight, glowed with a lustrous sheen. His features were more exquisite than a meticulously carved work of art.
Yet no one present had the leisure to admire such beauty. They were all transfixed by those strange black-and-red eyes.
Within his pitch-black eye sockets, the scarlet pupils did not blink. Web-like substances resembling fungal mycelium flowed out from his eye sockets, covering half of his face.
Eerie, beautiful, and terrifyingly powerful.
Even though they had already known that Xu Muchan was the Ghost King, perhaps because his human appearance looked far too harmless, many of them had never truly understood the power represented by the title “Ghost King.”
For a moment, no one moved.
By then, Xu Muchan had already walked to the middle of the river. When he still heard no movement behind him, he turned around again in confusion.
Black water flowed past his sides. His long hair cascaded behind him like a waterfall, and for some reason, his slender figure seemed much taller than before.
Everyone standing on the riverbank simultaneously felt an intense pressure.
For the carefully selected elites of the esoteric schools, this kind of pressure was all too familiar.
Only extremely powerful gods or evil entities could possess such terrifying oppressive force.
It made people fearful and wary, but at the same time, it gave them a sense of security.
Someone this powerful had fortunately chosen to stand on humanity’s side.
Before Xu Muchan could urge them a second time, the esoteric-school elites who had come back to their senses no longer hesitated. They stepped into the river and walked toward Xu Muchan.
Once everyone had gathered, Xu Muchan gave them one final instruction.
“Stay close. Don’t fall behind.”
Then he continued forward.
The elites following behind him waded through the viscous water. Occasionally, they would turn around to look back, only to discover that the people who had originally been standing on the riverbank to see them off had already become extremely blurry.
Clearly, judging by the distance, they had not traveled very far. Yet the figures of the people on the bank had become extremely distorted, like indistinct shadows swaying on the other side of the riverbank.
The longer they stared, the more those black shadows seemed to transform into some kind of bizarre thing.
Once they realized the danger, those who had turned around immediately withdrew their gazes, no longer daring to look around. They focused solely on Xu Muchan’s back.
The artificial scenic river, which had originally been of limited length, seemed to have lost its boundaries. The slender river stretched endlessly into the distance, with flat, open land on both sides. The modern buildings that had originally surrounded them had long since disappeared.
Only the moon overhead continued to follow them.
Under the moonlight’s guidance, the slender river gradually became shallower.
At first, the water reached their waists. Gradually, it dropped below their ankles, and in the end, only a shallow puddle remained.
Instead, the surrounding mist grew denser. White fog drifted through the air, and even the moon became hazy and indistinct.
Everyone’s hearts were filled with questions, but Xu Muchan did not speak, so no one dared to recklessly say anything.
Only when Xu Muchan, walking at the very front, stopped did he say:
“We’re here.”
The young man pointed ahead with his slender fingers.
Everyone followed the direction of his finger and saw that the flat land ahead suddenly gave way to towering mountains.
The mountains stretched endlessly into the distance, more magnificent than the Roof of the World. Unfamiliar giant trees spread their branches atop the peaks, with the white moon hanging among them.
The mist drifting ahead was scattered by the wind. At the foot of the mountains, countless twisted figures whose faces could not be seen were crawling and struggling, yet not a single sound came from them.
The only sound that could be heard was the roar of surging waves.
It was the sound of the Black River.
Noticing that someone wanted to turn their head and look toward the Black River, Xu Muchan warned them, “The direction of the waves is where the Black River is, but try not to look directly at it. If you stare for too long, it will bewitch your mind.”
Those who had already turned their heads to look immediately turned away.
Xu Muchan looked at those twisted black shadows.
“They’re trapped by the Black River. Be careful. As long as you don’t disturb them, there shouldn’t be any danger. Find the gods you once worshiped as quickly as possible. Once you find them, you can place the incense you brought in front of them. It can strengthen your connection with them.”
Everyone nodded in unison to show that they understood.
Seeing this, Xu Muchan said, “Then split up and act separately. If you encounter danger, just call my name. I’ll be able to hear you.”
After giving his final instructions, he entered the mist first, his figure quickly blending in with the twisted black shadows.
Yan He had originally wanted to follow Xu Muchan with Pei Rong, but after only a few steps, they lost sight of him.
Standing where they were and gazing into the distance for a moment, Yan He frowned and muttered,
“Where did Xu Muchan go?”
Pei Rong took out some incense and lit it.
“Forget about that. The important thing is to get down to business first.”
The esoteric-school disciples selected for this group came from different sects, so naturally, their methods of summoning gods varied as well. Some took out ritual implements and began dancing on the spot, while others lit incense, knelt on the ground, and muttered prayers.
Yan He looked around, then stopped wasting time as well. He lit three sticks of incense, bowed once toward each of the four directions, then lit the yellow talisman he had prepared long ago.
The yellow talisman quickly burned. Its gray-white ashes fell to the ground, forming a gray line that seemed to guide the way.
“Let’s go. We’ll find Judge Cui first.”
After Xu Muchan left with the one hundred elite disciples of the esoteric schools, the people who remained behind were not idle either.
The ritual sites established according to Xu Muchan’s instructions had been prepared at the fastest possible speed. Most were opened by well-known Daoist temples or Buddhist temples around the country under the name of praying for blessings and dispelling disasters.
After the news spread, there were plenty of people online who felt that these Daoist and Buddhist temples were taking advantage of the opportunity to promote superstition, and they openly condemned them.
But if some people did not believe, there were naturally others who did. Some had genuinely seen ghosts and evil entities after being affected by the Black River, while others perhaps simply wanted to find some peace of mind.
In any case, within a very short period, large numbers of ordinary people began flocking to the Daoist and Buddhist temples where the ritual sites had been established.
This prayer for blessings and dispelling disasters was also different from those in the past. Not only were large numbers of armed police deployed to maintain order, there were also no lectures or elaborate religious ceremonies. Everyone simply lined up in long queues, received three sticks of incense, sincerely made a wish, and then inserted the incense into the enormous bronze burner in the center of the square.
The incense in the bronze burner burned batch after batch, the layer of ash growing from shallow to deep, then from deep to shallow again.
Ordinary people seeking peace of mind came and went, but the incense in the burner never once went out.
And behind the bronze burner, in a courtyard invisible to ordinary people, were countless statues of gods.
They stood there silently, surrounded by drifting clouds of incense smoke.
A ritual site had also been established in Jiangcheng. After Wei Yao heard the news, he immediately dragged his whole family along to offer incense.
Before they left, Old Master Wei specifically had someone carefully load the statue of Goddess Jinhua into the car as well.
Wei Yao was puzzled.
“Why are we bringing Godmother out too? Godmother doesn’t need to come with us to be worshiped, does she?”
Old Master Wei Wei glanced at his grandson, who had no idea what was going on, then shook his head and instructed him, “When you worship later, be sincere. Think more about all the good things your Godmother has done for you. You’ll still be relying on her to protect you in the future, understand?”
The Wei family was, after all, a long-established local power in Jiangcheng. Although their information was not as well connected as that in the capital, they had still received bits and pieces of information.
After hearing about the situation, Old Master Wei had decided to send their own Goddess Jinhua over as well, so she could benefit from the incense.
There was no need to explain all this in such detail to the younger generation.
Wei Yao muttered quietly, “Of course I understand. I’m very respectful of Godmother.”
The family drove toward the temple. Before they even reached the place, they saw several extremely long lines.
Wei Yao and his parents got out of the car and obediently joined the end of one of the queues.
Old Master Wei, meanwhile, took Goddess Jinhua’s statue along another route.
Although the lines were long, they moved quickly. Perhaps because so many things had happened one after another recently, the atmosphere in the queues was particularly gloomy and silent.
As Wei Yao moved forward with the crowd, he idly spammed messages in the class group chat. Everyone else was doing the same, coming with their families to offer incense and pray for blessings.
But the queues were simply too long. Even though they knew they were all in the same place, there was no way to find one another in the crowd.
“I wonder what Xu Muchan is doing.”
Wei Yao sent a message in their four-person group chat, when suddenly he heard a wave of gasps erupt from all around him.
He raised his head in surprise and looked around, only to see columns of smoke spiraling upward above the temple in front of them, shooting straight into the sky.
If there had not been the slightest trace of wind at the scene, he would almost have thought they were tornado funnels.
“What is that?!”
Countless tornado-like columns extended downward from the sky.
The elite disciples of the esoteric schools, who had been busy weaving among the countless black shadows, all stopped and looked upward.
The columns of air resembled upside-down funnels, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, spiraling down from the horizon.
And on the bank of the Black River, where mist had originally been drifting, rain suddenly began to fall in a fine drizzle.
“It’s raining?”
“How can it rain here?”
Someone incredulously stretched out a hand to catch the rainwater. Watching the transparent liquid gather in his palm, he murmured in disbelief,
“It really is rainwater…”
Countless similar exclamations rang out.
Those silent, crawling black figures seemed to have been affected. Their towering bodies slowly began to move.
Yan He stared at the blurred face of Judge Cui in front of him. Suddenly, he pointed at part of his body and exclaimed to Pei Rong, “Look over there. It looks like the rainwater is washing the black stuff away…”
Three sticks of incense that had already burned halfway were inserted in front of Judge Cui.
Strangely, the incense did not go out under the rain. Instead, it burned even faster, while the smoke that drifted from it seemed almost conscious, winding itself around the god’s enormous body.
And Judge Cui’s originally indistinct face gradually revealed its original colors beneath the washing rainwater.
It was like a statue covered in mud, slowly revealing its original appearance beneath the relentless washing of rain.
Yan He seemed to realize something and immediately ran toward the left.
Sure enough, every blurred black shadow with incense placed before it was gradually revealing its original appearance under the rain.
Their enormous and grotesque bodies looked savage and terrifying. If not for the sticks of incense inserted before them and the smoke lingering around their bodies, their horrifying appearances would hardly have allowed anyone to associate them with gods.
Pei Rong, who had gone to check the other side, caught up with him. His tone was much more relaxed.
“Xu Muchan’s method really works.”
Yan He looked up at the countless gods who had revealed their true appearances and murmured,
“I finally understand why the ancients always spoke of gods and ghosts together.”
At least along the bank of the Black River, there seemed to be no difference between them.
The fine rain continued to fall, with no sign of stopping.
Transparent rainwater mixed with the viscous black liquid, winding its way into the Black River.
Whether it was because it had sensed the changes on the riverbank or not, the Black River had clearly become turbulent.
The surging water repeatedly slammed against the bank, sending up waves that were fully as tall as a person.
Standing quietly at the foot of the mountains, Xu Muchan sensed the Black River’s confusion.
Ever since absorbing that drop of the Black River’s source, he had clearly felt his connection with the Black River grow much stronger, while the oppressive force it exerted on him had decreased considerably.
At times, he even had the illusion that he himself was a part of the Black River.
Standing at the foot of the mountains, he could sense not only the heartbeat deep within the mountains, but also hear the Black River’s voice.
Amid the sound of waves crashing against the bank, countless voices—men and women, young and old—overlapped and merged into a single voice, repeatedly asking:
“Why?”
It was neither anger nor sorrow, but simple confusion.
As though it were asking Xu Muchan why he was unwilling to join it, and why he wanted to stop the final flood tide from arriving.
Xu Muchan did not answer.
The countless voices did not pass through his eardrums. They rang directly inside his mind. The chaotic noise almost seemed capable of bursting his head apart.
Amid the intense dizziness and pain, he saw the mountains nearby begin to move—
A familiar figure slowly rose from among the mountains, its emotionless scarlet vertical pupils looking down from high above.
It was a familiar figure, but an unfamiliar aura.
It wasn’t his brother.
For an instant, disappointment flashed through Xu Muchan.
But what he felt even more strongly was a sense of danger.
His body instantly retreated as he shouted to the others,
“Retreat!”
The young Ghost King’s commanding voice echoed across the Black River.
Everyone who heard the order immediately stopped what they were doing and quickly regrouped.
Xu Muchan led the way at the front, reminding them as they walked,
“If you don’t want to die, absolutely do not look back.”
The people following him swallowed hard, struggling to suppress the urge to turn around.
They could clearly feel that something behind them was watching them. That gaze, like a thorn in their backs, was filled with an indescribable power of seduction.
It made people involuntarily want to turn around, crawl forward, and bow in worship.
Fortunately, Xu Muchan’s repeated reminders were like an anchor in a storm, always helping them regain their clarity of mind in time.
The group clenched their teeth and held their necks stiff as they followed closely behind Xu Muchan.
After walking an unknown distance, Xu Muchan finally stopped and said softly,
“We’re here.”
He stopped and gestured for the people behind him to continue forward.
The group followed his instructions and continued onward.
The path looked no different from anywhere else, but once they crossed a certain boundary, their figures suddenly became blurred.
The people farther behind witnessed this scene and could not help crying out in alarm.
Amid the continuous exclamations, the clearly visible group gradually transformed into indistinct black shadows.
In the end, only Yan He and Pei Rong remained, having deliberately fallen behind.
When Yan He passed Xu Muchan, he stopped and asked hesitantly,
“Did we stop the flood tide?”
Xu Muchan’s gaze passed over his shoulder and looked back.
“If nothing unexpected happens.”
Then he urged them again.
“Go.”
Yan He nodded and continued forward with Pei Rong.
But just as he was about to cross that invisible boundary, he suddenly realized something—
Xu Muchan had not followed them.
There was not the slightest sound from behind. Xu Muchan was still standing where he was.
The feeling of being watched from behind remained intensely strong.
Yan He did not dare to turn around, so he called out loudly,
“Xu Muchan? Why aren’t you coming?”
Xu Muchan looked at his figure and smiled.
“I still have some personal business to take care of.”
Yan He did not understand what personal business he had, and it was inconvenient to ask further. He could only say,
“Is it dangerous?”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“I’m not sure. But if everything goes smoothly, the threat of the final flood tide should be completely resolved.”
Then he suddenly said, “Ah,” and added,
“I forgot to mention this earlier. If school resumes afterward, could you help me apply for a long leave of absence? When I came to the capital, school happened to be suspended, and I forgot to ask for leave.”
Taking leave meant there would eventually be a time to return and cancel the leave.
For some reason, those words gave Yan He a little reassurance.
He waved toward the back and said,
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Also, my luggage is being kept at Jinqingqing’s place. I’ve asked her to hold onto it for me. If I never come to collect it, have her send it back to Oak Manor when she has the time.”
Yan He agreed as he always did. Only after confirming that Xu Muchan had no other instructions did he press his lips together and step across that invisible boundary.
The figures of the two men gradually became blurred.
Xu Muchan withdrew his gaze and turned to face the enormous deity that was already within arm’s reach.
Countless arms extended from both sides of the deity’s enormous body, bracing themselves against the damp earth. In the gaps between those arms were countless gods and spirits that had broken free of their restraints after being washed by the rain. They shrieked as they struggled free, desperately trying to escape.
The waves of the Black River continuously battered the banks, the thunderous sound of the surging water sounding like one accusation after another.
Amid this chaos, Xu Muchan walked step by step toward the enormous deity.
Above him, the deity likewise bent its arms and lowered its body to look at him. Within its scarlet vertical pupils, the black eyeballs crowded together, filled with the same confusion.
Xu Muchan’s black hair hung down behind him, drifting and testing the waters as it reached toward the nearest arm. It tentatively wrapped around it.
The arm instinctively moved backward to avoid it, but for some unknown reason, it eventually stopped and allowed the snake-like black hair to wind around it and climb upward.
The rapidly growing black hair covered one arm after another.
When it finally began climbing onto the enormous body, the deity suspended above seemed to realize only belatedly that it should struggle.
A human-like expression resembling distress appeared on its enormous, expressionless face. It looked troubled as it stared at the black strands wrapped around its arms.
The strands seemed far tougher—and far more troublesome—than it had imagined.
The arms bound by the hair lost their flexibility and became difficult to move.
If it wanted to regain its freedom, it would inevitably have to break the tangled black hair.
But before the thought of breaking free could even fully arise, it hesitated first.
Seeing that the deity above remained motionless, a smile appeared on Xu Muchan’s upturned face. He gently stroked the nearest arm and asked softly,
“Big Brother, do you trust me?”
The deity watching him from above did not answer. Its scarlet vertical pupils remained troubled as they stared at the increasingly abundant black hair climbing over its body.
The excessively luxuriant black hair had almost woven itself into a gigantic net, nearly completely enclosing it.
Yet even so, it still could not bring itself to struggle free.
The black hair lifted Xu Muchan upward until he was almost at the same height as the deity normally was. Only then could he touch its cheek.
His fingers gently touched the skin that held no warmth. Xu Muchan stared into that scarlet vertical pupil that was almost enough to trigger a fear of gigantic creatures, and softly said again,
“You have to trust me. Don’t resist. This time, let me protect you.”
The enormous vertical pupil shifted.
The black eyeballs jostled and slid toward Xu Muchan one after another.
At the end of its gaze were the violently surging waters of the Black River, the gods and spirits shrieking and fleeing in all directions, and the young man rushing toward it—
Black hair swept over everything, binding the unstoppable young man and the incomparably enormous deity within the same net.
The dormant black hair seemed to have received some kind of command. All at once, it plunged into the deity’s hard skin.
Like a nest of snakes that had caught the scent of blood, they disregarded everything else and poured all their strength into burrowing deeper inside…
The enormous deity let out a painful roar and instinctively swung its limbs, struggling desperately.
Xu Muchan lunged forward and hugged it, his voice gentle as he soothed it, while black fungal threads poured from his eyes like flowing water.
The black strands writhed continuously, drawing strength from the deity’s enormous body.
They then transformed into thick black liquid that poured from the young man’s eye sockets.
Endless black liquid accumulated inside the cocoon woven from the strands, gradually submerging the enormous deity along with the young man desperately clinging to it.
The enormous black cocoon hung above the Black River, continually contracting like a beating heart, becoming smaller and smaller.
The mountains trembled incessantly.
The Black River below seemed to sense something. Its surging waters rose higher and higher, gradually spilling over both banks, showing signs of flooding.
The rapidly swelling black torrent repeatedly crashed against the invisible barrier. At first, it came with overwhelming momentum, carrying the force to destroy heaven and earth.
But gradually, as though it were running out of strength, its fury began to subside.
The rising floodwaters slowly receded.
The mountains remained standing.
The Black River gradually returned to calm.
The black cocoon that had remained suspended above finally shrank until it was only about the size of a car. The densely packed strands of hair wrapped around its exterior continued to writhe.
Eventually, as though unable to bear the weight any longer, it fell downward and sank into the Black River.