Chapter 17: Sea Voyage Record Three
The night was deep, and the warm wind of Huacheng blew, just like a sunny spring in March.
In the underground parking lot of Happy Neighborhood, in a dim little room, several people with bellies as big as drums lay on the damp concrete floor, cradling their stomachs with both hands, twisting their bodies back and forth while emitting low, suppressed groans of pain.
Those individuals appeared to be of different ages. There were scruffy homeless people, well-dressed office elites, an elderly man with white hair, and even a elementary school student carrying a backpack… At a glance, it seemed almost impossible to find any commonality among them.
At the other end of the little room, a square table was stacked with long benches, and a young girl in a peacock green qipao with her hair styled up sat at the top. She crossed her long legs, her embroidered peach blossom slippers gently swaying at the tips of her toes, as she skillfully twirled a long smoking pipe engraved with a magpie.
With a disdainful gaze, her mouth curled into a mocking smile, and a pair of dark green eyes glinted with a cold light in the darkness.
“Move! Keep wriggling! Don’t say I didn’t warn you; if you get restless now, it will be much more uncomfortable than it is now! Miscarriage and all that could even get you killed!”
“Uh… ah…”
Accompanied by painful groans, the man dressed like an office elite struggled to raise his head and look at the girl looking down on him, tremblingly squeezing out words through his teeth, “Jumeng, you are regarded as a Cataclysm Grade urban legend. Naturally, we are no match for you…”
“But if you think you can force us to divulge anything with this method, that’s impossible!”
His tone carried a sense of determination, as if prepared to face d*ath.
Honestly, this group of people also felt quite aggrieved. Who would have known that after the calamity was gone, an urban legend like Jumeng would still be entrenched in Huacheng?
If it weren’t for the high veracity of the video showing the Black Emperor killing the calamity, they might have suspected that the calamity had not died at all, but was instead hiding in the dark, collaborating with Jumeng to set a huge trap to ensnare various heroes.
At first, they didn’t even know which deity had attacked them; they were swept up in a storm, bitten by countless magpies, and by the time they realized what was happening, they were already lying in this small room, suffering from “contraction pains” with swollen bellies.
During this time, perhaps only a display of fearlessness would barely preserve their last shreds of dignity?
“Oh? You’ve got quite a tough bone and mouth!” Jumeng shrugged, “But who said I wanted to extract anything from you? For the likes of you little minions, I don’t even need to force anything.”
“You’re from the nameless assassin group from the Vulture Nest, right? Under… by the way, how many generations has the old man in the mountains been passed down? Fifteen or sixteen? It can’t possibly be seventeen, can it?”
Noticing the fleeting look of surprise in the man’s eyes, she paused and continued, “Forget it, I can’t be bothered with you! In any case, I didn’t bring you here to interrogate you, but just wanted to teach you a little lesson, to show you some moral etiquette…”
“It’s clear that the calamity has already died; I don’t understand why you all came to Huacheng! Do you have to dig up the grave and scatter the ashes to feel at ease? You don’t even understand the principle of resting in d*ath; aren’t the dead the greatest?”
“…” The man gritted his teeth and remained silent for a few seconds before harshly retorting, “You may speak as if you’re righteous, but if the calamity really is dead, what are you doing in Huacheng?”
“Of course, I’m here to pick up the pieces! Are you that stupid?” Jumeng rolled her eyes, “That guy used to count as my ally… Now that she’s dead, should I not be the first to inherit her legacy as her ally? Or should I wait for those lowly, unqualified urban legends to divide it up?”
“From now on, this Huacheng is part of my Peach Source. Do you have any objections?”
The nameless assassin group members were silent.
Just then, the door to the little room suddenly opened, and a large eye rolled and bounced its way from outside into front of Jumeng. Then, accompanied by a squelching and fleshy sound, it split in two, extending a mouth filled with sharp teeth to whisper in Jumeng’s ear.
The members of the nameless assassin group stretched their necks to listen but returned empty-handed.
The sounds made by the eye were very quiet, and they couldn’t make out the words; their skill in lip-reading was useless against such a strange organ.
“Oh?” After listening to the eye, Jumeng raised an eyebrow and nodded, “Got it, I’ll go right away; you lead the way!”
Saying that, she jumped down from her high chair lightly, glanced at the members of the nameless assassin group on the ground, and tossed them a phrase, “You all just enjoy the pleasure of being mothers! I have things to do and can’t play with you for now.”
With that, she followed the eye and left the room, while behind her, faintly echoed the group members’ curses.
——
People always tend to pray to the deities at specific times and places…
Not long after the Qixi Festival, the Peach Source scenic area, which had made a considerable profit, faded away with the festive atmosphere, entering the off-peak travel season. Jumeng’s workload suddenly decreased by more than half.
So, three hours after the video of the “d*ath of the calamity” was released, when she left Tangcheng after dropping a letter, Yuan Ye didn’t send her a friendly reminder urging their master to return as he usually did. Instead, he learned from the letter that their master was going to assist the deceased calamity in Huacheng and secretly sighed that their master remained as devoted and righteous as ever.
In fact, after the news of the calamity’s d*ath spread, the first to cause trouble in Huacheng were not the members of the nameless assassin group; counting back, they had all been suppressed by Jumeng’s hands in the fourth wave of spiritual ability users or urban legends…
Before them, local fence-sitter urban legends, members of the Solar Eclipse Society gathering intelligence, and small spiritual energy organizations that heard about the news of the calamity’s d*ath and planned to sneak into Huacheng had already suffered under Jumeng’s hands.
From various “guests,” in front of her, there were no worthy enemies that could compel her to unleash her ultimate powers—“appealing for funding”—not even a single opponent worth her full efforts!
Just then, upon receiving intelligence about the fifth wave of enemies—the urban legend emerging from the city edge of Huacheng, which had escaped after the calamity’s ascendance and possessed part of the “Hydrocarbon Deity” powers—Jumeng felt a true rival that could stretch her limbs finally appeared…
——
On the outskirts of Huacheng, in a river valley located near the border between Huacheng and Moon City.
Accompanied by the low rumble of an engine, the headlights of the Aston Martin DBS pierced through the night like two swords as they flashed along the winding mountain roads, followed shortly by a long screeching sound.
The car door opened, and a figure dressed in white jumped out, landing steadily on the edge of the cliff amid a flurry of pale golden talismans. Looking deep into the depths of the river valley, they were suddenly filled with horror.
Gray-black smoke shrouded the valley, and the roaring river water had turned pitch black for some reason, rolling with menacing twisted forms resembling giant lizards, massive fish, or creatures with shellbacks and writhing tentacles, as if ancient beings were resurrecting and returning to the earth.
They migrated in droves, their huge bodies colliding against each other, igniting a series of flames and creating billowing, acrid smoke. The entire river valley seemed to be filled with a strange, living oil, rushing towards Huacheng with the flowing water.
Without a doubt, that was a Hundred Demons Walk, provoked by the large urban legend that had been lurking in Huacheng for many years yet fled after the calamity’s ascent.
However, it was unclear why this creature had left for just over ten days and returned to Huacheng again, with the intensity of spiritual energy fluctuations vastly increased, subtly approaching the level of a calamity.
Why… why had this fellow suddenly become so much stronger? Li Xuan thought uneasily.
“Hiss—!”
Seeing such a scene, Li Xuan, who rarely smoked, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag to calm himself with the nicotine and smoke’s stimulation, but could not help but exclaim, “d*mn! Why am I starting to miss the calamity at a time like this?”
He had long known that whenever he was on night duty, urban legend incidents occurred frequently in Huacheng, certainly caused by the calamity behind it.
To be honest, the urban legends in Huacheng had never resulted in civilian deaths during their incidences; the most serious injury occurred when a timid girl was scared and jumped from the third floor, breaking a leg, which wasn’t that severe. Other night association operators in different cities might not care…
But he, Li Xuan, the righteous outstanding graduate of Dachunyang Palace, how could he just sit back and do nothing? At most, he wouldn’t be overly harsh against those urban legends…
It couldn’t be more lenient! Otherwise, over time, it would surely lead to complacency and relaxation against urban legends.
Although those urban legends wouldn’t cause killings under the calamity’s reign, what if one day calamity just disappeared like it did now? Or if urban legends from outside Huacheng invaded?
By then, would Huacheng’s urban legends still be as “friendly” when the calamity reigned as the King of Urban Legends?
Thus, Li Xuan always regarded the torment that the calamity brought him as a special form of training.
Earlier, he received news from his colleagues in Moon City about a gas explosion at a coal mine near the Huacheng and Moon City border, with numerous urban legends surging out of the mine carrying tons of coal into the river valley heading straight for Huacheng. He sped to the scene.
But now, seeing the horrifying scene in the valley, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that he had never relaxed his guard, and had brought Mushroom along with him.
While thinking this, Li Xuan discarded the cigarette b*tt and extinguished it, then turned and pulled open the car door, gesturing to the girl in the passenger seat wearing a floral coat and disheveled hair, “As the number one operative of the Huacheng Night Association, this task seems a bit tricky. I can’t handle it alone, so I’ll have to trouble you.”
With similar pseudo-calamity spiritual energy fluctuations, whether it was Hydrocarbon Deity or whatever deity, as long as it was within Huacheng, it couldn’t be Mushrooms’ opponent!
After all, that’s what the master said, and he hoped he wasn’t bluffing… Li Xuan thought.
Upon hearing this, Mushrooms, rarely leaving the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau, slowly raised her head and blankly looked at Li Xuan, producing a puzzled sound, “Ah?”
In the next moment, her face turned pale, cold sweat beading on her forehead, breathing hurriedly, her chest heaving violently, and then she suddenly “vomited” all over the ground.
Observing the mixture of dried leaves, wood shavings, and insect carcasses that made up her vomit, Li Xuan’s stomach churned, and his mouth twitched violently.
“…”
Although he was well aware of Mushrooms’ strength, no one had told him that one of the reasons she rarely left the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau was that she was severely car sick…
Just now, she hadn’t vomited on his beloved car purely by luck.
It was genuinely good luck!
After all, aside from not knowing of Mushrooms’ severe car sickness, Li Xuan also didn’t know how terrifying her vomit could be, which could easily ruin his beloved car…
The grotesque vomit poured from Mushrooms’ mouth and fell onto the cliff of one side of the river valley, sliding down the steep, jagged rock face into the depths of the valley, where colorful fungal threads quietly spread in its wake.
“I didn’t expect you… Hey, what a pity, you can’t sit in a car; your life will miss out on a great joy.”
While saying this, Li Xuan pulled out a tissue from his pocket and handed it to Mushrooms. Just as she took it and was about to shove it in her mouth, he was about to stop her when he suddenly sensed a fierce spiritual energy fluctuation coming from behind and heard a wailing sound, his body stiffening slightly.
Turning around, he saw dense fungal threads had already covered the cliff of the river valley side where they were located, and then extended down into the groups of coal mine urban legends, and suddenly, colorful giant mushrooms shot up from the ground, with translucent mucus slowly dripping from their caps.
As the mucus dripped onto the bodies of the coal mine urban legends, they instantly fell into an indescribable frenzied state, beginning a brutal self-inflicted massacre, as if caught in some twisted fantasy.
Piteous screams echoed continuously.
With the group of rushing urban legends breaking apart and fleeing, the fragmented Hydrocarbon Deity initiating the Hundred Demons Walk finally revealed its form beneath the rolling river water.
Beneath the turbulent water, a massive black dragon-like figure glided past, casting a long shadow and exuding terrifying spiritual energy fluctuations that instantly turned the once-clear river water into pitch-black murkiness.
In a direct confrontation, Mushrooms might defeat the incomplete Hydrocarbon Deity, but could not stop its escape, which would pollute Huacheng.
“…”
Is this kind of urban legend something I can deal with?
No, even if I couldn’t, I have to go!
This is still just a tributary; if I don’t stop it, once that fellow enters the main channel, the entire water area of Huacheng will probably be doomed.
With that thought, Li Xuan’s gaze sharpened, urging his spiritual energy, controlling the floating talismans around him with one hand while lifting the still-recovering Mushrooms under his arm with the other to pursue.
At that moment, a cacophony of piercing magpie cries echoed from afar.
The sky was filled with magpies, like black clouds, sweeping in from the horizon.
“Yo? Where did this little newcomer come from, trying to trigger a Hundred Demons Walk here? Did you ask for my permission first?”
From afar, a crisp voice pierced through the howling wind, resounding across the whole valley, followed by an alarming storm surging in the winding river valley…
