Chapter 88: The Gate to the Ghost Lake

My mind was a little dizzy. In the mist, where were the faces of the people under the water? Where were the mists of the evil spirits?

However, the gushing blood made everyone extremely worried. While I was faint and weak, I was carried into the cabin by everyone.

“Water…” I whispered, and immediately someone brought me a bowl of water. I took it and drank it down, and a wave of coolness rushed to my brain, finally allowing my dizzy and swollen brain to clear up a little.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and realized that all these reactions were just the aftereffects of using my heavenly eyes too much. I would be fine after a little rest, but what I saw… my heart sank again!

“Chengyi, what did you see? What the hell is going on?” Seeing that I was feeling a little better, Ji Feng couldn’t help but ask. After all, two people from the Lake Guardian Sect had died here, and Ji Feng was too curious to know the reason.

“Unless you are a senior master, anyone, including me, who goes into the water will die. Something terrible has happened here.” I tried to organize my words and tell him in a way that he could accept. I was afraid that he would get emotional and even more afraid that he would collapse after learning the truth.

Even I, seeing all this, had a bit of a breakdown inside.

Hearing me say this, Jifeng’s face looked a little better, and Xiao Chengqian rubbed my temples and eyebrows in a particularly “silly” way, and then said, “Don’t be so slow. If you’re going to say something, say something specific. What did you find out?”

What exactly did you find? I smiled wryly, asked Ji Feng for a drink, took a sip, and lit a cigarette before I had the courage to tell him everything: “Lao Xiao, do you remember the first time we saw the ghost Rakshasa in that county? Cheng Zhen said that he found a yin vein flowing from the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts. That was the first point. Then, do you remember when we first entered the lake, and suddenly the fog came, how did those ghosts come up?”

Xiao Chengqian frowned and said, “How could I forget? The fog came from under the water, and so did the ghosts. Are you saying…”

“Yes, in fact, the matter is very simple. The ghosts trapped in the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts have already destroyed the great formation and opened a passage to the outside world. The place where the yin vein is headed should be the place where the passage reaches!” I said simply, and I was exhausted after saying this.

The consequences of this are terrible without me saying it. The yin vein is spreading, and the ghosts in the lake are slowly emerging through this yin vein. Now we know that the end of this yin vein is in that county, and we don’t know if it will continue to extend. Even if this yin vein does not continue to extend, if one day, those ghosts reach that county through this yin vein, the places they pass through…

At this thought, my face turned pale again. Everyone present understood what this simple explanation meant. Even Xiao, who was usually so carefree, was a little panicked. He was originally rubbing my head, but when he heard me say this, he suddenly lost his mind and rubbed my eyes with his hands.

I shook off Xiao Chengqian’s hand and smiled wryly. Before I could say anything, Ji Feng already asked with a trembling voice, “Are there many ghosts down here?”

“What I saw was limited, it was already densely packed. This place is equivalent to a door, a door to the outside world of a lake of ghosts. You should know by now why they died, right? They fell into the ghost nest.” I shook my head and said to Ji Feng.

Ji Feng leaned against the side of the boat, his face even more dismal than mine. He muttered, “It’s over, it’s over… didn’t we kill all the ghosts that were besieging our village? If the higher-ups don’t intervene, our village will be the first to be destroyed, and it will become a ghost village! No, it won’t work. Even if it becomes a ghost village, we will still defend it! We are the descendants of the Lake Guardian, and yes, repairing the formation is the best way to do it.”

After saying that, Ji Feng rushed towards the outside of the cabin, but I grabbed him. The truth of this matter was revealed, and it almost made Ji Feng delirious!

Because behind this matter is despair. How long has the Great Array of Nature existed? It has been around for hundreds of years, and it has always attracted ghosts within a radius of hundreds of miles (just a rough estimate). How many ghosts have accumulated in it? What would be the consequences if they all came out?

There must be a secret in the middle of the natural formation, but that is not the key I can think of now. The key is that there is not completely no good news in this. The good news is that these ghosts, as far as I know, are all ghosts that are inexplicably controlled and do not have a strong sense of autonomy. If we can find the key to controlling them, then there is still a chance!

The key should be the monsters, the kind that feed on ghosts, and there is also a chance left by my master in the formation. Now, there is only one way to go, and that is to enter the formation.

Once I had figured this out, I said to Ji Feng, “The great formation naturally needs to be repaired, and things are not without a chance of turning around. If you trust me, you should wait outside the natural great formation, find a safe place to wait, and don’t go near the three pillars. Wait for us for three days. The area here is not too big, and three days should be more than enough. If we don’t come out in three days, you should leave, go in another direction, and go find help! If we come out after three days, you can safely repair the formation.

“Mmm!” Ji Feng nodded heavily.

I originally wanted him to go to Jiang Yi for help. After all, Jiang Yi should be the biggest force in the circle. But I didn’t say it in the end, because the forces behind the Shuhu lineage were originally complicated. They also had their own power, and it might end up involving Jiang Yi. But because I couldn’t completely trust Jiang Yi, it was best not to get involved.

This is the only way to deal with things for the time being. The two boats left the dangerous “gate” and rowed to another relatively safe place. I returned to our boat, and Ji Feng and the others would wait here for three days.

It’s only three days, and they should be able to hold out with their food and supplies!

After everything was settled, we finally set off towards the natural formation. Hui Gen was rowing the boat in silence in the front, taking off his shirt. The tangled muscles bulged out with the boat’s sliding, creating a good-looking line full of strength.

Like every one of us, in the end, we are not weak, but can we really rely on our own strength? Can it guarantee that nothing will happen to us in the formation? No one has an answer, but we know that the “gate” of the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts has opened, and our hearts are even heavier.

I squatted in the cabin, gnawing on the dried meat in my hands and swallowing the hard biscuits. Outside the boat, the crescent moon had already climbed into the sky. Due to the delay in the journey and some other matters, we were finally able to enter the natural formation just as night was falling.

My eating style is not very good-looking, I eat like a wolf, without any image, but everyone’s eating style is like this, including a few girls. Lao Li’s school has always believed in the theory that you can only do things well after you have eaten enough. Almost everyone at the scene, except for Lu Shan and Tao Bai, can be related to Lao Li’s school, and naturally they have also been influenced by this theory.

Lu Shan and Tao Bai were naturally influenced by us and also became like this. What we didn’t want to say was that we were afraid that this was the last supper, so it was better to be a full ghost than a hungry ghost!

“Brother, I’m going to row in.” Hui Gen’er’s voice suddenly came from the front. I was struggling to swallow a piece of dry bread when I suddenly heard this. My mood was heavy, and I even coughed!

Then I stood up and looked out of the boat. Was it already here? I knew that once we passed this black mountain, we would officially enter the center of the natural formation, the legendary Little Hell, the center of the ghosts.

After gulping down a mouthful of water, I felt like I had gulped down a mouthful of wine. It was quite a heroic feeling, like the wind was blowing coldly over the Yi River, and the hero was gone forever.

“Come in, eat your fill, then go in! Once we’ve eaten, we’ll be ready to fight!” I shouted at Huigen.

“Coming.” Hui Gen’er replied, threw down the oar, and came in to grab the dry biscuits and eat them.

I still got into the habit of putting my hand on Hui Gen’er’s bald head, looking at the boy wolfing down the biscuits with some affection. He wrapped his mouth in biscuits and said to me, “Brother, I suddenly want to eat cake.”

“Haven’t you stopped eating since then?” I suddenly felt a little sad.

“There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome in life. Master is in my heart, so why should I always be at odds with cake? Just now, I was about to row in, but suddenly I thought, if I went in, I might die, so I might as well make peace with the cake.” Huigen said to me with a silly look.

“Haha!” I laughed and touched Hui Gen’er’s bald head, and then said, “Make up, even if you don’t die, you can make up! You can’t eat meat anyway, so it’s a good thing you don’t eat cake anymore.”

People can always keep another person in their hearts, but let go of the emotions of the moment. True feelings are always attached to that person, not the emotions of the moment.

For example, Hui Gen’er’s feelings were for Hui Dajie, and the cake was just a passing emotion.

Outside the boat, the crescent moon was faintly visible, and below the boat, the water was rippling. The road ahead… that was the road I had to walk.