pertwk Chapter 22 The Zombies of Qinglan Lake
Chapter 22 The Zombies of Qinglan Lake
Eliminating all the strange occurrences in Cangjiang City is a long and arduous task.
One person's efforts alone are far from enough.
The strange resurgence was happening much faster than he had anticipated; he could never clear it all by himself. On this path, he needed help, he needed a plan, and he needed to gradually regain control of the waterways of Cangjiang City.
Perhaps this is precisely the significance of the Water Source Book.
To regain control of the underworld's water department, one step at a time.
The position of the seventh-rank Cangjiang River God offered by Lady Shenyuan was merely the first territory.
The Book of Water also records more deities, each representing a former system, and each one needs to be opened and determined by hand.
Mu Yuan snapped out of his thoughts and turned to walk towards the nearest ghostly aura point.
After walking for less than ten minutes, a wide-open park came into view.
Qinglan Lake is the largest urban lake in Cangjiang City. The lake is 800 meters wide, with clear blue water and rows of weeping willows along the shore.
However, when Mu Yuan looked down, he didn't see any scenery.
It was a vast expanse of malevolent energy churning at the bottom of the lake, dark and heavy, pressing down beneath the surface like a huge clump of silt, solidified and unyielding.
【Mist-Based Water Detection Technique】
With a thought, the mist silently spread, seeping into the lake bottom along the water's surface.
Mu Yuan's senses spread outwards, and the bottom of the entire Qinglan Lake unfolded layer by layer before his eyes, clear as a mirror.
There are many things submerged at the bottom of the lake.
Countless strange creatures lurked in the black mud, some resembling human figures, others twisted tree branches, and still others simply a condensed mass of black mist, densely packed and filling the entire lake bottom.
The malevolent aura surrounding them was converging towards the center, being silently absorbed by several high-level, eerie creatures, in a quiet and orderly manner, like a deliberately maintained order.
Mu Yuan glanced at them and quickly counted them.
Three highly skilled and bizarre creatures.
Dozens of intermediate-level.
The low-level ones are countless.
"wrong."
His gaze suddenly stopped.
A drowned ghost caught their attention.
It was wrapped in dozens of drowned souls, which coalesced into a bloated black shadow, its malevolent aura so thick that it almost solidified.
The most bizarre thing is its hair; black threads are quietly spreading out of the lake bottom, climbing up the silt and rock crevices, all the way to the lake shore.
Looking in that direction, on the opposite shore of the lake, a middle-aged man caught Mu Yuan's attention.
He walked mechanically, his expression blank, as if being led by something, step by step toward the lake.
Someone was calling him from the side, but the man seemed deaf and didn't turn his head.
My soul has been bewitched.
Mu Yuan raised his hand.
Exorcism
Golden divine power condensed at his fingertips, shooting out like a bullet that silently pierced the man's brow.
The man was startled and froze on the spot. Looking down, he saw that half of his foot had already stepped into the lake water.
His face turned deathly pale instantly, and he stumbled and fell to the ground, only managing to utter a sound after a long while.
"How...how did I get here...?"
The thing at the bottom of the lake noticed.
"Who is it!"
A roar came from underwater, shaking the surface of the water. Then, a black, malevolent aura, like a python emerging from its hole, surged toward Mu Yuan, carrying with it the stench of decay and blood.
The moment they touched him, their protective aura spontaneously erupted, and the golden light silently spread out. The malevolent energy dissipated upon contact with the light, like ice cubes falling into hot water, without even causing a ripple.
Cross-water warfare detected.
[Water Source Book Quest Triggered: Subdue the 800-meter water area of Qinglan Lake]
[Detected Qinglan Lake on the outskirts of Cangjiang City. A ghostly domain has formed in the center of the lake, and Yin energy is thriving at the bottom of the lake. There are three high-level water ghosts and a large number of mid- and low-level water ghosts.]
[Rewards for completing the mission: 2,000 merits, promotion to the eighth-rank Righteous God River Guard, and additional ninth-rank divine position: Minor God of Qinglan Lake]
A glint of light flashed in Mu Yuan's eyes.
Territorial expansion has always been a gradual process, done piece by piece.
The Cangjiang River channel is the first step; this lake in front of us is the second step.
Qinglan Lake is located in a scenic area with a densely populated surrounding population.
Once the strange phenomenon at the bottom of the lake is completely eliminated, the daily merit points will surely increase again.
Moreover, the mission rewards are enough to secure a promotion, and also come with a new divine position.
This is a fair deal.
Cooperation with the Bureau of Abnormalities cannot be achieved through mere words.
The sun is shining brightly now, and sunlight has a certain suppressive effect on the yin energy, making it a good time to take action.
Mu Yuan did not hesitate.
Its form dissipated, transforming into an invisible water shadow, and quietly sank to the bottom of the lake along the underground current.
The water was completely still.
The bone-chilling cold of the lake water hit you the moment you stepped in, carrying with it a strong aura of resentment and malevolence. The stench, the decay, and the indescribable sweetness were all mixed together, so intense that it seemed to have accumulated over decades.
The abnormal bureau has cleaned it up more than once.
But it was never truly clean.
It's not because the monsters here are particularly difficult to kill.
It's because every time it's finished, not long after, new strange things will emerge from the bottom of the lake, like endless leeks, one crop after another.
Over time, the monsters became too afraid to come out and instead hid at the bottom of the lake.
The Bureau of Abnormal Affairs had no way to deal with them, so they could only set up perimeter security to prevent tourists from getting close.
But Mu Yuan saw something that the Bureau of Abnormalities had not seen.
At the deepest part of the lake, beneath the silt, a massive array of talismans lies dormant, sealing off the entire Qinglan Lake, allowing only entry and no exit.
No wonder it's never clean.
No wonder the more we fight, the more strange things appear.
At this moment, Mu Yuan's gaze passed over the dense array of strange creatures and the layers of malevolent energy, landing on the very center of the lakebed.
There is a coffin there.
It was pitch black, firmly nailed down by six nails, and suppressed in the mud. All the evil energy and resentment around it were slowly gathering towards it, like a pilgrimage or a tribute.
The surface of the coffin was covered with dense runes, gleaming with an eerie luster, clearly indicating that it was no ordinary object.
Mu Yuan stared at one of the exposed nails, his brows slowly furrowing.
He recognized him.
Soul-Suppressing Nails.
It's the same thing as the one Zhou Gang gave him before.
Zhou Gang once said that the Soul-Suppressing Nail was left behind by the former director of the Bureau of Abnormalities, specifically used to suppress the Myriad Souls Water Corpse, which possessed the potential for calamity. One Soul-Suppressing Nail suppressed the Myriad Souls Water Corpse for decades.
The coffin in front of us was pressing down on six pillars.
Six times the amount.
What's inside?
With a thought, the Water Source Book came to life, and the information inside the coffin appeared before his eyes.
[Corpse-Nourishing Coffin: High-Level Magical Artifact]
[Function: Continuously absorbs external malevolent energy and resentment, infusing it into the creature within the coffin to promote its transformation]
Mu Yuan took a deep breath.
The Soul-Suppressing Nail is merely a low-level magical artifact, while this broken coffin is a high-level one. They are a whole level apart.
Someone is raising animals here.
Who did it? When did they put it down? What was their purpose?
The mist-seeking technique continued to penetrate deeper, seeping into the cracks of the coffin little by little, until finally the contents inside were clearly visible.
It was a corpse.
Stiff, withered, with skin that had an eerie iron-gray hue, his arms were crossed and pressed against his chest, his fingernails were pitch black, and he exuded a chilling aura.
On its back, two withered wing bones are faintly visible, resembling some kind of wing that has not yet fully grown.
[Half-Calamity: Flying Zombies]
[Danger Level: Extremely High]
[Abilities: Telekinesis, Superhuman Strength, Flight, Gravity Control, Indestructibility]
Zombie.
It's still a flying zombie.
Mu Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.
Flying zombies are extremely rare among zombies, requiring the absorption of a massive amount of malevolent energy to evolve to this level.
Once the transformation is complete, their combat power will approach that of the Calamity level, and they will be as swift as the wind, making them impossible to kill by ordinary means.