Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Demon

"This wound is 10 years old. In these 10 years, I’ve tried many remedies and even steeled myself to cut out the rotten flesh with a knife, but it has always ended up the same. Whenever the wound is almost healed, if it comes into contact with water, or on rainy days, it would rot again."

He let down his trouser leg, covering the shocking scratch marks, and Uncle-in-Law Lord slowly sighed, "I have sought the advice of seniors skilled in the arts of the Yin. They said this is a body invaded by evil Yin energy, extremely vicious, and unless that thing is completely dealt with, this wound will never heal."

The old dockworker once told Yang Xiao that the first thing Uncle-in-Law Lord shouted when he was rescued that night was to not touch his foot, insisting there was a floater in the water!

Having seen these scratch marks for himself, Yang Xiao confirmed the truth of these words, "What exactly did you see that night?"

Uncle-in-Law Lord’s eyes glazed over and his breathing became more rapid, as if he was back on that stormy night, on a wooden boat on the verge of capsizing amid the wind and waves, "That day was the sixth of September, in the Gengyin year. I remember it very clearly."

"We set off from the dock at dusk, just as the sky was getting dark, and normally we wouldn’t sail out after dark, but the weather was good that day, with not a ripple at Old Bull Bay Ferry Crossing." He paused, then looked at Yang Xiao with a bitter smile, "The most crucial point was that a group of people arrived—they found the person in charge and gave him silver, saying they wanted to leave overnight."

Yang Xiao had a hunch, "It was those people from Bai Family Stage."

Uncle-in-Law Lord moistened his dry lips and nodded, "Yes, it was Master Bai and his group. They arrived in the evening, bringing lots of big and small luggage, and hurried onto the boat."

"At that time, all the cabins on the ship were filled, and only the cargo hold on the lowest level was left. They weren’t picky, saying that as long as there was a place to land, it was fine. Right, Master Bai took the manager aside, talked a few words, and secretly gave the manager a big chunk of silver, at least ten taels—I saw it with my own eyes!"

"I was the helmsman who operated the pole on that ship. Later, the manager called me over and asked me to lay down the plank to board the Bai Family Troupe."

"But as they were boarding, two porters who were carrying a chest lost their grip, and the chest actually fell into the water. At the time, the porters were terrified and were about to jump in to retrieve the chest."

"The river there was shallow; it really didn’t require much effort, but Master Bai... Master Bai stopped the porters and said to leave it, they didn’t want it anymore."

"The porters thought Master Bai wanted them to compensate and begged miserably, but Master Bai ignored them and came straight to me, urging me to set sail quickly."

"I found it strange at the time; the chest contained the troupe’s cooking utensils, and they actually abandoned even their cooking gear."

"After Master Bai urged me several times and saw that I didn’t react, he directly gave me a piece of broken silver. After I shouted to the manager, we set sail."

At this point, Uncle-in-Law Lord’s face took on a troubled expression, "But who could have expected, just as the boat reached deep water in the river, the sky suddenly changed, several dark clouds appeared out of nowhere, and torrential rain began pouring down, creating a thick blanket of fog over the water."

"I... I’ve been working the pole at the ferry crossing for 30 years and have never seen such strange weather or such odd mist."

"Within the mist... there was the gray color of the dead. As the fog spread out, even the lights from the docks were obscured."

"I had a bad feeling right then, and sure enough, not long after, the boat violently shook. The impact was so sudden that many people fell down, and chaos erupted in the cargo hold. The worst part was, the boat... the boat came to a complete stop!"

"I often traverse this waterway; the water is deep enough and there are definitely no large rocks on the bottom that could snag us, but I am all too familiar with this feeling—it was definitely hitting something, and that something was very big, extremely big."

"The fog was so thick, I was about to go to the front of the boat to see what was happening when suddenly there was commotion from the front. A crewmember came tumbling and crawling towards me, his face turned pale with fright, yelling that there was something under the water, that it was blocking our boat!"

"It’s the River Dragon King! The River Dragon King is angry! Someone on the ship has broken his rules!"

Yang Xiao had some knowledge of the rules of sailing; all the seafarers who made their living on the water worshiped the River Dragon King and anyone boarding the ship had to follow their rules.

There were many taboos on the ship, for instance, one could not easily take passengers with surnames like Chen or Cheng, and there was something known as "mouth wind," or spoken taboos—dragon, tiger, ghost, dream, overturn, roll, fall, sink; these eight words were famously known as the "Eight Great Taboos" among the sailors.

It was said that if one broke the River Dragon King’s rules, they would be haunted by the River Dragon King, and if the person who broke the rules wasn’t thrown overboard as a sacrifice to it, everyone on the ship would be buried at sea. freeweɓnøvel.com

Uncle-in-Law Lord’s face was pale, and he took a heavy swig of alcohol before he could barely continue, "Speaking of the River Dragon King, the captain and some mates began to interrogate everyone on the ship, asking if anyone had concealed their surname, or said something they shouldn’t have. If so, they better come forward quickly. Each person was responsible for their own actions and should not implicate others!"

"At this time someone with sharp eyes noticed that Master Bai and his group hadn’t come out; they were in the lowest cargo hold, so I led a few mates to search for them."

"But as soon as we reached the cargo hold, we were stunned; the hold was filled with water, the black pressing water had already gone past our knees!"

"The ship was leaking!"

"I sent a mate quickly up to inform the captain, and then led the others towards the depths of the cargo hold, where I could already hear someone crying for help."

"But it was too dark inside, and when we approached, we saw a column of water rising from the ship’s bottom; huge amounts of black water were surging into the cabin, almost all of the White Family Troupe had vanished, only to see Master Bai desperately clinging to someone’s arm, while most of that person’s body was trapped in the watery hole, sinking down!"

"Two mates nearby quickly went to help, but I didn’t move—I felt something wasn’t quite right. If it was a leak from the ship’s bottom, the water should be surging upward, why... why were people sinking downwards? It felt like... like there was something under the water pulling people down."

"In the blink of an eye, that person was pulled down, Master Bai fell backward into the water, yelling "Demon! Demon!"

"He... he immediately grabbed a mate beside him, he had lost his mind, actually... actually saying that we should join him in rescuing the demon!"

"But before he could finish speaking, he suddenly fell down, then his body slid straight towards the hole in the ship’s bottom, and then he was gone."

"I could see clearly then, the thing pulling at him was under the water, no... not some demon, it was a pale, bloated arm."

"It was a water poltergeist!"

"Me and two other mates immediately ran for the outside, but in the end, only I made it out; the water poltergeist dragged away the other two mates as well."

Raising his right leg and touching the deep green fish dragon scale tattoo on it, Uncle-in-Law Lord sighed, "If it weren’t for the protection of the River Dragon King, I probably wouldn’t have escaped doom either."

"You said Master Bai yelled ’Demon’ and wanted you to join him in rescuing the ’demon.’" Yang Xiao seemed to have realized something.

Uncle-in-Law Lord’s expression was strange, "Indeed, that’s what he shouted, he... he seemed to have gone mad."

"Demon... demon..." A second later, Yang Xiao suddenly understood, "No, that’s not what he said. He didn’t say demon, he said ’save the last child!’"