C16 Save Me

My tears blurred my vision as I reached out, only to find that Old Master Jiaang's figure had vanished, leaving behind only the lingering smoke from the pipe on the boat.

I docked the boat along a deserted riverbank. The Ghost Dragon King may have been the sovereign of the waters, but it had one fatal flaw—it could not set foot on land.

After carrying the undecayed female corpse ashore, I knelt before the Weak Water River, bowing my head repeatedly. Without Old Master Jiaang's sacrifice and the protection of his spirit, I would never have survived this ordeal.

I vowed to the Weak Water River that I would return one day to recover Old Master Jiaang's body and slay the Ghost Dragon King myself to avenge Grandpa Jiaang.

After several deep bows, I rose to my feet, drained and sorrowful. It was then that I heard an old woman's voice behind me, "Young man, I never thought you'd actually manage to retrieve my daughter."

Surprised, I spun around to see Mrs. Jin emerging silently from the woods behind me. I wasn't overly shocked, though, as this was our prearranged meeting spot.

What puzzled me was Mrs. Jin's lack of emotion upon seeing her daughter's body. She had seemed so grief-stricken before us previously.

And wasn't she the least bit astonished to see her daughter's body, unspoiled after more than two decades?

"Young man, where is Mr. Jiaang's man?" Mrs. Jin inquired, glancing around curiously.

"Grandpa Jiaang... he's passed away," I replied, my voice heavy with sadness.

Mrs. Jin sighed, gave my shoulder a reassuring pat, and said, "Death is irreversible, just like with my daughter. Her spirit lingered and her body remained intact until today; now she can finally find peace."

"Mrs. Jin, what exactly happened to your daughter? Do you know why her body didn't decay?" I asked, bewildered.

With a sigh, she responded, "Twenty-three years ago, my daughter was abducted. The ignorant villagers, mistaking her for a living sacrifice, offered her as a bride to the creature in the water."

"That's... that's utterly preposterous. Is the Ghost Dragon King the reason her body remained preserved?"

"Yes, that monster has been by my daughter's side day and night. The Yin Qi has permeated her body, preventing it from decaying for over twenty years... Oh, my poor daughter," Mrs. Jin lamented. Overcome with grief, she collapsed onto her daughter's body and wept bitterly.

Once her tears had subsided, Mrs. Jin composed herself, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. She took my hand in hers, her expression warm with gratitude, and thanked me.

She handed me a check, generously adding an extra two hundred thousand as a burial fee and compensation for Old Master Jiaang.

Mrs. Jin mentioned that someone would soon arrive to collect the body and advised me to head home early to rest. I nodded in agreement, clutching the check for six hundred thousand, and made my way toward West River Village.

I hadn't gone far when I heard Mrs. Jin's mournful cry behind me: "My dear daughter, I'm taking you home now..."

With a heavy heart, I sighed. But in that instant, I faintly heard a young woman's voice pleading, "Save me... Save me..." I spun around to find the corpse's eyes seemingly fixed on me, as though she were still alive.

As someone who can hear the whispers of the dead, I wondered why this preserved corpse was reaching out to me with those words.

I sensed there was more to this than met the eye. After walking some distance, I stealthily slipped back into the woods and tiptoed around to a spot hidden from Mrs. Jin's view.

From my concealed vantage point, I watched the woman and the corpse for a long time but noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

I was about to leave when a chilling realization struck me. I focused intently on Mrs. Jin's back and was astonished to see that the shackles that once lingered there had vanished.

I racked my brain and recalled that the shackles, symbolic of the balance between life and death, had disappeared right after the corpse had uttered "save me."

Shackles shortening usually signaled impending death, but for them to disappear while the person remained unharmed was unprecedented in my experience.

Throughout my life, I had only seen one type of person without shackles: the deceased.

What was happening here? I was utterly baffled.

Yet one thing was clear to me: Mrs. Jin was no ordinary woman. She was harboring a secret too profound to speak of.

The more I dwelled on it, the more frightened I became. I had this nagging feeling that if I lingered any longer, something terrible would happen. So, I hastily and quietly made my exit.

But in my panic, I inadvertently stepped on a dry twig, which snapped with a sharp crack.

I shuddered and picked up my pace, only to hear a chilling, eerie chuckle from behind me.