paranoianovel Chapter 38 Water Ghost
Chapter 38 Water Ghost
The moon is obscured by darkness, and evening clouds cover the sky, obscuring its light.
A chilling wind howled, and the streets were eerily silent.
Ji Laosi, who looked anxious, chuckled. His body swelled up violently, and a foul stench wafted into the nostrils of the father and son.
With seaweed on his head, limp muscles, soaking wet, and pale skin, Ji Laosi looked nothing like a human being; he was clearly a vengeful ghost of a drowned man!
Mr. Chen took out coffin nails, intending to nail the water ghost to the ground, but unexpectedly, the water ghost suddenly got up and crashed into Mr. Chen, knocking him down.
The hand, filled with yin energy, gripped Chen's father's ankle, instantly turning his once vibrant legs dull and withered.
The coffin nails fell to the ground, the clanging sound continuing. Chen's father, whose once vibrant spirit had returned to its dazed state.
Just as the water ghost was about to completely pin Chen's father down, Chen Qinghe, who had lost his composure, grabbed a broom in a panic and swung it at the water ghost's head.
Even as the broom broke in two, the water ghost felt no pain whatsoever. Instead, its mockery was utterly evident.
Chen Qinghe's rapid and heavy breathing rose and fell in his nostrils. His eyes were bloodshot and his whole body was trembling. He disregarded everything and grabbed the water ghost, dragging it towards the door.
"The Corpse Carrier"
Unbeknownst to him, Chen Qinghe activated his innate ability.
The arrogant water ghost was frozen in place and then instantly appeared behind Chen Qinghe.
Two hands gripped Chen Qinghe's neck tightly, and her swollen body pressed firmly against Chen Qinghe's neck and back.
An indescribable chill spread rapidly down Chen Qinghe's back and throughout his body, while endless resentment constantly affected him.
"It's so cold..."
"What should we do next...?"
"No... I can't stay at home..."
This was the only thought remaining in Chen Qinghe's mind.
He grabbed the coffin nails from the ground and rushed out the door. In his haste, he didn't even have time to glance at his father.
Feeling the increasingly tight grip on his neck, Chen Qinghe felt dizzy and disoriented.
He instinctively went to the riverbank, only to see a dark, covered boat hanging in the middle of the lake.
He could vaguely see someone waving at him from above, signaling him to come closer.
Hehe..."
The feeling of suffocation grew deeper, but the icy river water beneath his feet instantly pulled Chen Qinghe back to reality from his daze.
"This damn thing is affecting me..."
With a fierce determination, Chen Qinghe bit his tongue hard. His pure blood energy, upon encountering the water ghost, was like pure white snow in spring. In just a moment, his pale and bluish hands became brittle and bony.
The mournful wails of ghosts surrounded Chen Qinghe's ears, while the three people on the boat stood up and glared fiercely at Chen Qinghe.
His kind and gentle face transformed into a sinister and terrifying ashen one, and his lean and well-proportioned body became extremely swollen.
In the blink of an eye, the ship that had been far away suddenly appeared in front of Chen Qinghe. The water ghosts on the ship, with disheveled hair and baring their fangs and claws, headed towards the alley entrance.
However, no matter how hard they tried, they could not leave the river even a little bit.
"So, you can't get ashore without finding a scapegoat..."
As Chen Qinghe thought this, his hands never stopped moving. He sprayed his blood essence onto the coffin nails, then poured it back into his back.
Wisps of black energy seeped out from the coffin nails, and the feeling of being plunged into a quagmire was transmitted to Chen Qinghe through the coffin nails.
'Buzz'
Unable to hold on any longer, Chen Qinghe's vision went black, and his legs gave way, causing him to collapse to the ground. Behind him, Ji Laosi, with a coffin nail stuck in his right eye socket, stared at him with a face full of resentment.
"It seems this is the end of it..."
"I, a transmigrator, am about to die the moment I used my cheat ability..."
"I hope that cheapskate father of mine won't forget me..."
Chen Qinghe was an orphan who escaped from a welfare home, and he had suffered countless hardships along the way.
After being transported to this world, I felt the warmth of family for the first time. Although this warmth sometimes felt cold.
Even so, he flocked to it like a duck to water, as if drinking sweet rain.
With no other options left, Chen Qinghe closed his eyes and awaited death. For some reason, the image of that untouched bowl of garlic-infused pork belly and the fish soup that he and his cheap father had devoured completely resurfaced in his mind.
"call out"
The sound of something cutting through the air pierced the silent night, and a sharp steel claw gripped the back of Ji Laosi's neck and pulled him backward.
The sharp steel claws gripped Ji Laosi's flesh tightly, tearing off large chunks of blood and flesh with just a pull.
Chen Ming coughed violently, and drops of blood could be vaguely seen spurting out. The rope in his hand tightened rapidly, and the crimson token in his right hand emitted a golden light.
The token, about the size of a dagger, was engraved with the words "Zhenwu." Yet, when this token struck Ji Laosi, it felt as if it were a caltrop crushing him.
In just a few blows, Ji Laosi was beaten until his skin was torn and blood was flowing freely. Then Chen Ming took out several talismans to suppress evil spirits and stuck them all over Ji Laosi's body.
Ji Lao Si seemed to be frozen in place, even his fierce and ferocious expression was preserved.
Chen Ming used blood to make talismans and inscribed them on the inside of the jar.
Pointing the jar at Ji Laosi, Chen Ming lightly tapped the bottom of the jar, and the six-foot-tall Ji Laosi was actually taken in by the fist-sized jar!
Three sticks of incense drifted away with the jar floating in the river. However, the jar did not sink to the bottom, but remained steadily afloat on the surface.
As the incense burned out and the wisps of smoke completely dissipated, the violently trembling jar finally and reluctantly disappeared into the river.
Chen Ming, who had been able to maintain some clarity, gradually became confused again. In a daze, he carried Chen Qinghe on his back and hurried home.
...
When Chen Qinghe fully woke up, he found himself lying on his own bed. He first touched his neck, then looked at himself carefully in the bronze mirror for a moment before feeling relieved.
Clang, clang, clang...
The urgent knocking on the door started again.
This time, before Chen Qinghe could get up and open the door, Chen Ming pushed it open himself.
A large crowd gathered in front of the old wooden door.
"What happened...?"
"Uncle Chen, Uncle Chen..."
"The old fishmonger... Tong Huai'an... is dead..."
"He died in his own home... Judging from the manner of his death, his neck had been severed... The house was not only muddy, but also reeked of a nauseating stench of decay."
"It smelled like a rat that had been dead for three days and three nights..."
The neighbors all chattered away, revealing everything about Tong Huai'an's family. They all looked tense and fearful.
He skipped his business early in the morning and went straight to Chen Ming's house.
In fact, this kind of scenario, where a water ghost comes ashore to find a scapegoat, has already occurred dozens of times in Niujia Village.
While people wouldn't say they felt no fear, it was certainly a common occurrence.
What truly terrified the neighbors was that the scapegoat would search for one after another until there was no one left nearby.
All of this led to a group of people gathering and completely surrounding the Chen family's residence.
Chen Qinghe, who had been listening nearby, seemed to have thought of something and began to dry heave into the swill bucket without paying any attention to what was happening.
...