radicalducati Chapter 19: Speculations about the Strange
Chapter 19: Speculations about the Strange
"My child, he can't get out."
Madam Shenyuan's voice was hoarse, and she looked down at her abdomen as she spoke.
That face, usually filled with sorrow, now appeared unusually kind.
Mu Yuan's gaze involuntarily fell down as well.
Then... silence.
That's not an abdomen.
It was a hole.
The robes swayed gently with the river, revealing what lay beneath... a hollow, utterly hollow space, with a ring of writhing flesh around the edge, like some ancient wound that had never healed. Black filth slowly seeped from the cave walls and was carried away by the river.
It was as if someone had dug her child out along with his flesh and blood.
"Where is your child?" Mu Yuan asked after a moment of silence.
"On the ship." Lady Shenyuan raised her head, a clear emotion appearing in her eyes for the first time: "Please, Divine Lord, save my child. He has been trapped there for over a hundred years."
After saying that, she knelt down heavily.
A catastrophic anomaly was kneeling before him.
It doesn't seem eerie.
Like a mother with nowhere else to turn.
Mu Yuan didn't speak immediately; he was calculating in his mind.
Just then, the book on water source suddenly turned a page.
[A strange, watery spirit has been detected that is devoutly worshipping its host.]
[Reward Obtained: Rank Seven True God]
[Seventh-Rank God: Underworld Water Official - Canghe River Official]
[Control over any waterways within the jurisdiction of Cangjiang City]
The next second, a jade seal radiating azure ripples slowly appeared in Mu Yuan's palm.
He looked at the jade seal, his pupils slightly contracting.
He got it.
This is a divine tablet left over from the ancient times of the Water Source Book.
As the holder of the Water Source Book, Mu Yuan can bestow his divine position upon others, helping them to become gods... and thus become the righteous god who governs the entire water area of Cangjiang City.
Then, Mu Yuan's gaze fell on Lady Shen Yuan, who was still kneeling in front of him.
Ideas quickly unfolded in my mind.
If he could bring Lady Shenyuan under his command... since she already controlled the city's ring river, it would be equivalent to him bringing the entire waterway of Cangjiang City into his territory without firing a single shot. The increase in merit would be several times, or even dozens of times, greater than it is now.
but not now.
He's only a ninth-rank official now. Even if he manages to subdue a seventh-rank deity and hold the divine position in his own hands, if Lady Shenyuan develops disloyal intentions, she can still turn around and kill him.
The safest time to formally confer the title is after the individual has been promoted to the eighth rank of River Commandant and their jurisdiction covers the area surrounding the city's main river.
Moreover, divine positions can only be bestowed upon souls; living people cannot bear them. Even if they are given one, they can only formally receive the title after death.
The time is not yet right.
Mu Yuan withdrew his gaze and asked, "Was your child on a sunken ship in the middle of the city's ring river?"
"Yes," Madam Shenyuan replied with a hint of urgency.
"Wait a little longer." Mu Yuan nodded slightly. "My current strength needs to recover."
"I will obey the divine decree." A hint of joy flashed in Lady Shenyuan's eyes. "As long as the divine deity can save the child, I will not hesitate to die for him."
Mu Yuan conjured two chairs from the river water and gestured for her to sit down.
The two sat facing each other at the bottom of the river.
"You came from the underworld? How do you know I'm a god? Where have all the other gods gone in this world?"
Three questions were asked at once.
Lady Shenyuan's eyes were somewhat confused.
"The underworld... I know nothing about it. Isn't that just a myth?" she said softly. "As for why I know that the God-King is a god, it's my instinct... and it was my child who told me."
Mu Yuan frowned.
How they came to be is unknown, whether the underworld exists is unknown, and where the other gods are is unknown.
But just as he was about to press for more information, a thought suddenly exploded in his mind.
He froze for a moment.
Then I understood.
Lady Shenyuan is a ghost... not a spirit.
The Water Source Records clearly state: the bizarre resurgence nineteen years ago was due to the shattering of the Underworld, with three of the four Rivers of the Underworld malfunctioning. Only the last River, the Black Water River, carried countless wandering souls into the human world.
Those that flow into the human world from the Xuan River are ghosts.
But the eerie aspect is another matter entirely.
The eerie is a product of the fusion of ghosts and human affairs... They contain the resentment of death, rely on special feng shui locations, and, with the help of human beings, condense their own consciousness.
They possess the essence of ghosts, yet they are not ghosts.
Take this person in front of us, for example.
Lady Shenyuan said that her child had been trapped for over a hundred years.
But the bizarre resurgence has only lasted nineteen years.
In other words, nineteen years ago, Madam Shenyuan was completely unaware of anything.
She was nothing more than a rotting corpse that had been sleeping at the bottom of the city's ring river for a hundred years, a young mother with a dead baby who died a violent death because of some obsession and sank to the bottom of the river.
It wasn't until Xuanhe's ghost rushed into the mortal realm that the corpse was activated, and it began to have consciousness, a face, and the name "Lady Chenyuan".
She knew nothing about her origins because she had no "origins" to begin with.
Her memories are obsessions, not experiences.
This is the bizarre truth of this world.
This is also the truth of this world.
Mu Yuan remained silent for a moment.
At present, it is too early for him to explore the true secrets of this world.
Those questions are too profound... Why did the underworld shatter? Why did three of the four River Styxes malfunction? Where did the other gods of this world go?
Each of them is beyond his current reach.
But one day...
Only when his divine position is higher and his strength is greater will he be qualified to uncover the secrets buried beneath the surface of this world, layer by layer.
even
Rebuild the Underworld Water Bureau.
"Wait a little longer. Go back and wait for me to come find you," Mu Yuan said after thinking for a while.
"How long will it take?" Madam Shenyuan couldn't contain her impatience and couldn't help but ask.
"About a month, though I might come to see you earlier, but when I go back, I'll bring them both with me." As soon as he finished speaking, two Yakshas appeared behind Mu Yuan.
This was an attempt on his part, as the place where Lady Shenyuan was located was, after all, a vast river covering a million square meters.
This was also an attempt by him to explore areas outside his jurisdiction. Most importantly, since the Yaksha was his subordinate, the incense he obtained from killing other monsters would also belong to him.
"Before that, it would be best to clean up the rivers in your jurisdiction, especially the evil energy and resentment in the polluted waters." Now that he had decided to take Lady Shenyuan as his subordinate, he could start purifying and cleaning up the city's ring river in advance.
In other words, their jurisdiction does not currently extend into the city's ring river; otherwise, they could have cleaned it up in one go.
However, even if it was Lady Shenyuan who cleaned it, it wouldn't matter. For ordinary people, as long as the water is clean, they will still offer incense to the river god out of awe and worship. In the end, this incense will still fall on them.
After all, he's the only river god right now!