Chapter 86: The Fish in the Lake

The problem is underwater? I looked down at the clear but deep lake, and except for the occasional fish, I didn’t see anything unusual. But the more quiet it was, the more eerie it felt… My gaze lingered on the water, and my whole body involuntarily felt a little cold, as if a monster would pop up from under the deep water at any time, dragging me into the water when I wasn’t expecting it, and then…

Thinking about this, I quickly withdrew my gaze, not daring to look under the water again. After entering this place, since everyone’s lives were on my shoulders, I myself became more and more timid and cautious!

The two boats were tied together and swayed slowly on the water. At this time, the monsoon had eased a little, and we were able to speak normally. We learned from him, in a halting manner, what had happened in the short ten minutes after we left.

Where did the problem with the formation lie? The people of Hucun sent people to inspect the area more than a hundred times, and although they didn’t know every detail, they knew most of it.

“I was anxious. After all, the ghost Rakshasa had gone to the village, so I discussed with everyone that we should go to the place with the most serious problem first and repair it there. Perhaps that would be more helpful to the village. So, we went there. But it was a huge mistake. If it weren’t for…” When he got to this point, Ji Feng became agitated again. He held his head in his hands and pulled his hair desperately. Cheng Yuan had to comfort him for a long time before he calmed down completely.

From a broad perspective, Ji Feng was not wrong. Just as when you have to urgently produce something, when you face a machine with many problems, you should first repair its most serious problems, so that it can barely function, and then slowly repair the details. Who could have predicted that an accident would occur?

The most serious problem is the three connected piles. From the surface of the water, there is nothing wrong with the piles, and the entire structure has a delicate arrangement underwater. Therefore, to find the specific problem, you can only go underwater.

“This is where they rushed to go. Who would have known that there would be a problem in less than a minute.” Ji Feng had calmed down a lot by now, but when he said this, his hand holding the wine flask couldn’t help but tremble. He took a big gulp of wine.

“What’s wrong? Did you see what made it?” I felt a little heavy in my heart. It happened in less than a minute! The two people who sacrificed themselves were Taoist priests after all. I can’t imagine…

Ji Feng shook his head and said, “I didn’t see what it was either. Because at first it was calm, but suddenly they both shot out of the water, looking at us, as if they were struggling desperately, but they didn’t even have time to say a word, just… just…”

“Were they pulled down?” I tried to speculate. This method is somewhat similar to the way water ghosts in the river find victims to take their place, but as a Taoist priest, how many ways are there to deal with this kind of problem?

“Yes, they were pulled down! They were pulled down in an instant!” Ji Feng looked a little frightened, and then said, “Chen Xiaoge, is it like a water ghost? But no, they were holding blood calamus in their hands. Not to mention a water ghost, even if there were ten or eight of them, they would have been scattered! Then, we didn’t react at the time. After all, they didn’t say anything. They just suddenly surfaced. When we reacted and tried to jump in to save them…”

Ji Feng couldn’t continue, and just kept drinking a few sips of wine. Another man added, “When we were about to jump in to save them, who would have thought that they would float up on their own? When they floated up, we first saw blood spreading across the lake, and then their bodies floated up and down. Many fish in the water surrounded them and nibbled on their flesh!”

The man sighed heavily and couldn’t say anymore! His eyes were red. I didn’t see this scene with my own eyes, but just thinking about it is a very painful and tragic thing!

The fish here have teeth? I thought of the clothes on the two corpses, full of holes, small blood holes, coagulated blood… I’m afraid it’s true.

“Then, we pulled them up. It was true that they were already dead. It took less than half a minute… When we pulled them up, they were cold all over, not the cold of the dead, but a colder feeling! It was like pulling ice cubes, even colder, cold to the core! We had no idea what had happened down there.” Ji Feng put down the wine pot, his eyes somewhat blank, and said in a dazed manner.

My second cigarette was also at the end, and after listening to this somewhat painful change, I stubbed it out and said, “Let’s go. Take us to that place. I’ll open my heavenly eye and take a look.”

I vaguely felt that this incident was related to something, and I had to investigate it. Because I had opened my third eye since I was six years old, the insight of my third eye could be said to be relatively high. Perhaps I could discover something if I opened a third eye there.

“Still going?” A man next to Ji Feng’s face showed a hint of fear, but it was no wonder. After all, after experiencing such a terrifying scene without knowing the reason, anyone would have a slight fear of the place where the incident occurred.

Ji Feng looked at me, saw my relatively calm expression, and immediately made up his mind. He patted the bench under him heavily and said, “Go. Chen Xiaogong said to go, so we’re going. As long as we don’t go into the water, we should be fine.”

I went to the boat where Jifeng and the others were. Xiao Chengqian loved to watch the “hustle and bustle” and also came to the boat, while our boat was rowed by Huigen.

As soon as I jumped on board, my face turned very ugly. Since the boat was swaying, perhaps in the swaying, the hand of one of the corpses swayed out from the bow of the boat and rested on the side of the boat, where it swayed back and forth. As a result, many of the pale fish in the lake kept jumping up from the water, as if they wanted to swallow the meat again.

The hand had already been gnawed by more than a dozen blood holes, and the fish were still not stopping. When they saw that people were back, they kept jumping up and down in the water. Look at the lake water on the side of the boat, and there is also a small group gathered there!

My face immediately turned gloomy, and a wave of anger burst from my chest. These two young people sacrificed themselves so pitifully, but do their corpses deserve this treatment?

But before I could get angry, I saw Ji Feng, who had also seen the scene, suddenly twist his angry face, pick up the oar, and start desperately hitting the fish that kept jumping out of the water. He smashed the oar into the water like crazy, driving the fish away.

I dragged the corpse’s arm back into place, but saw Ji Feng swaying on the side of the boat, about to fall overboard. I grabbed him.

With a loud crash, the oar fell on the wooden deck of the boat. Ji Feng sat down on the bow of the boat, looking at me with a displeased expression and said, “Thank you.”

I patted him on the shoulder, understandingly, but said nothing. My eyes fell on the bow of the boat. Just now, Ji Feng had been frantically messing around, but he had jumped onto a pale white fish on the bow of the boat!

I didn’t like this kind of fish, so I picked up the oar and smashed the fish to pieces with a loud ‘pop’. At that moment, I discovered the most amazing thing in the world: the fish actually let out a strange cry!

Fish can scream? This is really unbelievable, but the sound was so ethereal that it seemed to be ringing directly in my head. Could it be…

I frowned, and the next moment my eyes opened wide. Sure enough, as I had expected, a black cloud of energy floated up from the fish. I walked up to it and grabbed it, and the positive energy from my body directly dispersed it.

I withdrew my heavenly vision and looked at my hand in a daze. Then I turned to everyone and said, “The fish in this lake are ghosts too!”

Everyone looked at me in shock, and Xiao Chengqian asked me with uncertainty, “Are you saying…?

“Some residual spirits have attached themselves to the fish in the lake. You know that ghosts can also possess animals. After all, when they possess animals, the resistance of their spirits is almost negligible compared to humans! But God’s creations always leave a trace of kindness. Although animals have weak spirits, their blood and qi are more vigorous than ours. Their yang bodies are stronger than ours, and coupled with the limitations of their brains, ghosts generally do not possess animals. But…” I didn’t say it, but I felt a terrible feeling in my heart. Think about it, there are ghosts in this lake!

“But the situation is different for the remaining spirits. It is better for them to possess a living creature than to dissipate completely! These fish are contaminated by the evil spirits, so it is the most suitable for the remaining spirits to possess them… And ghosts are eager for flesh and blood because flesh and blood can bring warmth. They live in endless coldness, so once they have a body that they can possess, they naturally want to gnaw on some human flesh to dispel the pain of the fish’s body, which is also extremely cold.” Xiao Chengqian talked about a legend and speculation in a classic text, which talked about the feelings of ghosts in hell, but it cannot be taken as real evidence.

However, it also happens to explain why the fish in this lake are so bloodthirsty! I picked up the fish that had been smashed to pieces, opened its mouth, and found that the fish had teeth as fine as rice in its mouth. The invasion of yin energy has completely changed the fish here.

What about the natural formation?