I rode my three-wheeled vehicle straight towards town.
Along the way, I passed several small streams, all polluted and turned into foul-smelling ditches.
The monstrous entities that appeared this time were truly dangerous.
It took me about half an hour to reach the town.
The town was as deserted as yesterday, with only a few pedestrians.
You must understand, our town is the largest in the vicinity, with a permanent population of over ten thousand.
Yet now, the entire street appeared desolate.
I drove my three-wheeled motorcycle directly to the water pier.
According to the master from yesterday, this was where the stone Buddha and stone ox were discovered.
When I got off my vehicle and reached the pier, I saw it was covered in talismans, with burnt paper ashes, incense sticks, and candles scattered everywhere.
Looking at the river beside it, I noticed it was the dry season, and the stone ox and stone Buddha in the river were nowhere to be seen.
However, the water here emitted a foul odor.
The water quality looked very bad.
The river surface was covered with dead fish and shrimp.
"Damn, the entire river is polluted."
I sighed.
Furthermore, I felt a faint trace of Yin, corpse energy emanating from the water.
I stood on the pier, lost in thought.
My experience in dealing with such aquatic Yin malevolence was extremely limited.
Just as I was pondering a solution,
a middle-aged man arrived at the water pier with several young people.
As soon as they arrived, the middle-aged man spoke:
"Take samples here. We must find the source of this major pollution incident."
"Understood, boss."
"Boss, in my opinion, this must be caused by the pig farm upstream."
"Right, right, that's the only factory nearby."
"..."
Hearing their conversation, I glanced over.
They were holding bottles and jars, appearing to be environmental protection department staff.
But I paid them no mind. After standing there for a while, I prepared to leave.
However, at this moment, the middle-aged man leading them called out to me:
"Young man, could you tell me how long this river has been polluted? Do you know what caused it?"
"About two or three months! Are you from the environmental department?"
I asked back.
The leading man nodded:
"Yes, I'm from the provincial level. This major pollution has received high attention from the superiors.
To ascertain the cause, we were transferred from the province.
Young man, do you have any clues to provide us?
Anything that benefits the country and its people, our department will report truthfully, so that this major pollution can be cleaned up as soon as possible..."
Seeing that the leading man seemed decent and dedicated to his work,
I continued:
"I heard that the reason for the river's pollution is that the Buddha statue and stone ox in the river were smashed, releasing evil spirits, which caused this.
Conventional treatment methods might not be effective."
After speaking, I lit a cigarette for myself.
The group was stunned.
Some of the younger ones immediately retorted:
"Brother, what you're saying is too superstitious."
"We tested it with pH strips, the pH level reached 9.8, the water has become alkaline, the pollution is extremely severe, it must be caused by exceeding emission standards."
"..."
These environmental workers chattered, using technical jargon to refute me.
Frankly, I didn't understand much of it.
I just smiled at them:
"It doesn't matter, you continue your investigation! I will take action anyway."
With that, I left the pier, no longer bothered.
The river had flooded the stone Buddha and stone horse, so I had to investigate.
But now was not the time, so I had to wait until night to explore.
As for what's next, I need to visit the other villages to check on their basic conditions.
Especially the place where Hai Zhu was attacked by the Silver Carp spirits last night, I had to go and see it.
As I left the pier, the environmental bureau staff watched me with strange expressions.
Afterward, I drove my three-wheeler to the surrounding villages.
The situation was basically the same as in my village.
All water systems were polluted, and even the water in the wells had become fishy and foul.
Now, the people in the villages could only drink water from paddy fields.
Even the mountain springs had a fishy smell.
Furthermore, I visited several villages, and in each of them, people were holding funerals.
Except for one case of natural death, the rest were drownings.
Either they drowned in the streams or in the wells.
The incidents had made everyone in the surrounding villages panic-stricken.
Some villagers were already packing their belongings and leaving.
They intended to flee the village and reside elsewhere.
The situation was more serious than I had imagined; I had to resolve it tonight.
Around three in the afternoon, I arrived at the place where Hai Zhu was attacked last night.
This was a large reservoir.
But now, the reservoir was covered with dead fish and shrimp, and the fishy smell could be detected from a distance.
I stood by the reservoir, looking at it.
I noticed that heavy corpse energy was emanating from the reservoir.
Occasionally, there were underwater currents.
It was evident that there were malevolent entities lurking beneath the reservoir.
"Young Master Qin, this is it. There is a large group of Silver Carp corpse spirits in the water, and their numbers are very large."
Hearing Hai Zhu speak, I nodded, "Hmm."
"Alright, we'll start here tonight."
As soon as I finished speaking, cries for help sounded from the other end of the reservoir:
"Help! Help! My husband fell into the water!"
Looking up, I saw a middle-aged woman shouting.
And in the reservoir beside her, a man was struggling.
He bobbed up and down, on the verge of drowning.
However, this was what ordinary people saw.
Beyond that, I saw more of the truth.
Dark energy swirled around the man.
The man was entangled by the dark energy in the water, being dragged down.
He was ensnared by the evil spirits in the water.
"Hmph!"
I let out a cold snort and rushed over.
Dare to harm someone in front of me, these aquatic fiends clearly didn't take me seriously.
I gathered a breath of Dao energy and ran forward at extreme speed,
my speed so fast that I became a blur.
By the time I reached the shore,
the man had already been dragged into the water.
"Husband, husband, help! Help!"
The middle-aged woman cried hoarsely, standing on the shore, helpless.
I ignored her, drew out an Eye-Opening Talisman, and released it instantly:
"Hurry as the law commands, open!"
The talisman was released, and my Heavenly Eyes opened.
This allowed me to see clearly in the water.
Then, I leaped in.
With a "plop," splashing water, I submerged.
As soon as I entered the water, I felt a chilling energy sweep over my entire body.
At the same time, I saw dark-robed corpse fish swimming around me in the water.
In addition, ghostly figures roamed in the water.
Faintly, I saw the man who had fallen in being grabbed by the legs by several ghosts and pulled forcefully towards the bottom.
No matter how much the man struggled, it was useless.
I ignored the corpse fish and swam towards the man.
My speed was very fast.
In a flash, I approached the bottom of the water.
The bottom was dim, and visibility was very poor.
Fortunately, with my Heavenly Eyes, I could roughly distinguish objects and Yin spirits.
I discovered a monster with a fish head sitting on a submerged rock at the bottom.
Black energy permeated and coiled around its body, making it look extremely strange.
On its sides, lines of corpse fish circled it, guarding it.
The middle-aged man was being dragged by those ghosts towards the fish-headed, human-bodied creature...