Free Web NovelChapter 159: Chapter 158: Evil Shadow, The Stage
On the riverside mudflats, a small mountain of seventeen or eighteen bodies lay piled up, each one bloated and pale from soaking in the river. The wind blowing off the river was biting, yet it couldn’t disperse the thick stench of decay.
The men of Xu Hengjiang’s Ghost Camp had all backed away. Only Gu Shouyu, wearing a homemade cotton-gauze mask, squatted alone by the pile of corpses, his head buried in whatever he was recording, utterly oblivious to the pungent stench.
"What’s the situation?"
Fu Juemin covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief as he walked over to ask.
Gu Shouyu looked up at the sound of the voice. Seeing it was him, he hastily closed his notebook and scrambled to his feet.
"You’re here."
Gu Shouyu pointed to a corpse at his feet. "This Water Demon Mother... is dead!"
"Dead?"
Fu Juemin’s brow furrowed, and he immediately looked down where Gu Shouyu was pointing.
On the riverbank, scattered with large, smooth pebbles, lay a bizarre-looking corpse.
It was about 1.3 or 1.4 meters long, with a head of filthy black hair like tangled seaweed. Its skin was a ghastly white, and its chest was slightly developed, making it look somewhat like an adolescent girl.
Its entire lower body, however, was a hybrid of a snake and a fish, covered in grayish-blue, fingernail-sized scales. The face was even more unsettling—bulging eyes that were all whites with pinpoint pupils, no nose, and a gaping mouth filled with fine, terrifying teeth like curved, sharp spikes.
"Didn’t we agree you’d wait for me before making a move?"
Fu Juemin’s voice was tinged with cold. He stood right beside the Water Demon Mother’s corpse, yet even now, he hadn’t felt a Demon Soul Seed enter his body. It was obvious that because the creature had been dead for too long, its Demon Soul had dissipated. He had completely lost the chance to absorb this Demon Soul Seed.
Gu Shouyu took off his mask, about to explain, but Xu Hengjiang walked up from the side, shaking his head. "We didn’t kill it. The thing was already dead before we made a move."
As he spoke, Xu Hengjiang used a branch to flip over the Water Demon Mother’s limp corpse, which had been lying on its side.
Only then did Fu Juemin see the one or two gruesome, fist-sized holes on the front of the Water Demon Mother’s lower abdomen. The organs inside looked as if they had been brutally ripped out by something.
"That’s right! It was already dead when we got here!"
Gu Shouyu quickly added, "And it seems to have died fighting another of its kind, a fellow Demon Species..."
Clutching his notebook, Gu Shouyu babbled on, his expression alight with excitement. "I’ve only ever read accounts of Demon Fiends fighting amongst themselves in the records at Jigu Garden. This is the first time I’m seeing it with my own eyes... This is invaluable to my research... truly invaluable..."
Fu Juemin ignored the bizarrely excited Gu Shouyu and slowly crouched down.
’A fight with another Demon Species?...’
His eyes flickered as he stared at the fatal wounds on the Water Demon Mother’s abdomen. The longer he looked, the more familiar the lacerations became.
An image gradually formed in his mind: a gaunt, ferocious figure with arms that hung past its knees. He mentally compared its claws to the wounds...
When Fu Juemin gently held his palm over the wound, the few Demon Soul Seeds inside him trembled slightly. A sliver of a cold and familiar Demon Fiend aura instantly shot through him like a line of ice.
’Water Monkey!’
Fu Juemin rose from beside the Water Demon Mother’s corpse, his expression impassive.
He was certain that the fellow Demon Species that had killed this Water Demon Mother was the very same Water Monkey from the Luan River Basin!
It had beaten Fu Juemin to the punch, devouring the most vital flesh from the Water Demon Mother... and maybe even its Demon Soul!
’It’s followed me all this way, from the Luan River to the Minjiang River Estuary, and now to Shenghai...’
Fu Juemin gazed at the endlessly surging, turbid river water, his heart sinking.
In a daze, he thought he saw a pair of eyes like ghost flames in the churning foam on the river’s surface, staring at him coldly, filled with venomous hatred.
Fu Juemin subconsciously activated [Yao Ling]. His intangible senses seeped into the river, stretching as far as they could, but he found nothing.
Ever since he arrived in Shenghai, the effectiveness of [Yao Ling] had been greatly diminished, even though its power was supposed to grow in tandem with his [Life] Attribute.
But Shenghai was nothing like the Luan River. It was too big, vast and densely populated. The Huangling River met the sea here, its waterways a tangled mess... Most of the time, [Yao Ling] was of very limited use.
"We were lucky this time."
Fu Juemin pulled his gaze from the river’s surface and spoke slowly. "Pay out the reward money as promised."
He glanced at the Water Demon Mother by his feet and added coolly, "Bag the corpse and take it with you. And... the remains of that Iron-Maned Demon Boar we buried earlier, dig them up too."
"Dig it up again?"
Xu Hengjiang frowned from the side.
"You don’t have to dig it up if you don’t want to, but post a guard at the burial site."
Fu Juemin’s eyes glinted as he said slowly, "Before, I couldn’t find a buyer. Now, I have one...
Send someone to contact Shen Yijun. Tell him I have two high-grade Demon Corpses, but I’m only trading for arms!
And make it high-quality equipment. I don’t need him for run-of-the-mill goods..."
Big Cat nodded. After giving these instructions, Fu Juemin took one last, deep look at the turbid river surface in the distance, then turned and headed for the shore.
"Let’s move on to the next target."
"Yes."
With a persistent "rival" like the Water Monkey lurking in the shadows, eyeing him covetously, Fu Juemin felt he needed to pick up the pace.
To this day, he had never forgotten the sight of Li Tong, his Dragon Elephant power fully unleashed, battling that beast by the river.
.....
「Lunar calendar, the fifteenth day of the eleventh month.」
It was the time of "Lesser Cold," but one could hardly feel the seasonal chill on the streets of Shenghai’s Old City God Temple Street.
After a rare week of continuous sunny weather, the pale-golden afternoon sun mixed with the bustling energy of the crowds, steaming the streets in a cozy warmth.
Having been hyped for half a month by tabloids and major newspapers alike, the "Shenghai Martial Arts Association," an event held once every five to ten years, officially kicked off today.
The auspicious hour for the opening had long passed, and the ceremony was over. The streets were still littered with shredded lettuce and red firecracker scraps from the earlier lion dance.
The square in front of the Old City God Temple was packed solid with crowds that had flocked from all directions, surrounding it several layers deep.
Dozens of large, apricot-yellow banners fluttered in the wind from tall flagpoles. Each was emblazoned with the four large, ink-black words "Shenghai Martial Arts Association," written in flamboyant calligraphy.
By now, the first round of selections for the Shenghai Martial Arts Association had begun. Inside the venue, the ceaseless sounds of gongs, drums, and fists whistling through the air were punctuated by thunderous cheers erupting from the crowd.
Outside the venue, opportunists were cashing in on the excitement: street performers found open spots to break bricks and brandish spears; vendors set up stalls selling bruise balms and Supplements; bookies established gambling rings for the betting crowds; hawkers weaved through with carts, crying out their wares of cigarettes and melon seeds... There were even stages set up where storytellers in respectable long gowns, accompanied by professional "enactors," gave real-time "broadcasts" of the spectacular fights. Three parts performance to seven parts embellishment, they gave the common folk who couldn’t squeeze inside plenty of extra gossip and excitement.
Fu Juemin stood on a high platform, looking down from a distance at the clamorous scene below.
"Zhao Jigang didn’t come?"
"He showed his face at the opening and then left."
Big Cat, at his side, replied, "I heard he originally wanted to postpone this Martial Arts Association until next year, rent out the entire racecourse, and make it a huge spectacle...
Now that his plans have fallen through, he feels he’s lost face and is probably in no mood to stick around."
"Trying to keep up appearances when he’s broke..."
Fu Juemin shook his head, then narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on the main stage of the Martial Arts Association in the distance. "Let’s go," he said, his tone flat. "They’ve gone to the trouble of setting the stage. Now they’re just waiting for me, the ’main character,’ to appear.
Let’s go see just what kind of show this bunch intends to put on."
With that, Fu Juemin led Big Cat and Kitty down from the platform and strolled toward the center of the Martial Arts Association grounds.
