I Went Crazy Killing in the World of Gods and Demons - Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Xie Qingling immediately crouched down and asked, “What is it?”

“Too many,” Dai Xingyu said. “I can’t carry them all by myself.”

Xie Qingling’s heart sank. She exchanged a glance with Shen Huaizhou, and both saw the same foreboding in each other’s eyes.

Removing their outer gowns and untying the bindings until only their form-fitting black undersuits remained, Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou dove into the river together.

Their postures were precise, movements swiftthey appeared extremely proficient.

Once submerged, their slender figures moved with such graceful agility that they seemed like two fish naturally belonging to the water.

Dai Xingyu stared blankly for a moment before realizing what had just happened.

If both of you can swim, why did you only order me around?

How unfair!

So annoying!

Grunting in displeasure, Dai Xingyu followed them into the river depths.

By then, Xie Qingling had already reached the riverbed.

The murky water and dim light slightly obstructed her vision, but as a Spirit User, she could still “see” numerous burlap sacks lying on the silt-covered riverbed.

Luo Yuancheng lay sprawled over the pile of sacks, clutching them tightly.

She swam over, hoisted two sacks in one breath, and began ascending.

These sacks were excessively heavy. Even for a Spirit User, making repeated trips through the resistant water left Xie Qingling feeling somewhat fatigued upon surfacing.

Hearing her panting, Shen Huaizhou reminded, “You can use ‘Spirit’ to hold your breath. It’ll conserve energy.”

Xie Qingling asked, “How long can one hold their breath using ‘Spirit’?”

“If it were me, purely using ‘Spirit’ for breath-holding without any other movements or defenses, I could last about a day.” Shen Huaizhou glanced at her. “But you? Ten hours at most.”

Xie Qingling retorted, “Why? I’m also a natural-born Spirit.”

“Because you’ve been a Spirit User for too short a time.”

Xie Qingling fell silent for a moment before asking, “How long have you been one?”

“Almost three years.”

“Oh.” Xie Qingling pursed her lips. The gap accumulated over time wasn’t easily bridged.

Using the method Shen Huaizhou taught, she dove down again.

This time, not needing to hold her breath made it significantly easier. She moved through the water as freely as a fish.

Trip after trip, she continued.

Xie Qingling surfaced, dove again, resurfaced, and dove once more…

Over and over.

After four or five rounds between the three of them, they finally cleared all the sacks from the riverbed and incidentally retrieved the “drowned” zombie Luo Yuancheng.

The sacks that had formed a small mountain on the riverbed were now laid out in two long rows on the shore.

By this point, all three were nearly exhausted.

An ordinary person could never have completed such heavy labor.

Xie Qingling counted: twenty-eight sacks in total.

The sacks were tightly tied, making it impossible to discern their contents from the outside.

Dai Xingyu murmured, “Why does this scene feel so eerie…”

Xie Qingling remained silent, quietly crouching down to untie the first sack placed before her.

Inside lay a skeleton.

The skeleton was clad in tattered red garments, its bones eroded by silt that had also stained the crimson fabric brown, resembling dried blood or mud, making its era indistinguishable. Additionally, the burlap sack contained numerous heavy stones, whose weight contributed to the sack’s overwhelming heaviness.

Upon opening the second sack, they found another skeleton, similarly accompanied by stones.

This skeleton also wore ragged red clothes, even more threadbare than the previous onemere shreds of crimson cloth trembling as they clung to the bones.

Then came the third sack, which again held a skeleton and stones.

And again, it was dressed in red.

This time, the red garment appeared relatively newer, with faint traces of embroidery still visible, though the specific style was unclear.

With each sack they untied, the trio grew increasingly horrified.

Dai Xingyu and Shen Huaizhou joined in, unfastening the remaining sacks. Without exception, each contained stones and skeletons, all clad in red attire.

The only variation lay in the condition of the red garmentssome old, some new, suggesting they spanned different time periods.

For a moment, the three fell into a heavy silence.

Twenty-eight bodies in total.

These might have been living people, stuffed into sacks along with stones, and sunk into the river.

This was a prolonged, large-scale murder, persisting for untold years!

“This is insane…” Dai Xingyu murmured, “Why… why so many deaths…”

Xie Qingling circled the twenty-eight corpses before stopping at one sack.

She spread her removed long skirt on the ground, emptied the skeleton from the sack onto it, and knelt beside it, studying it intently.

After a silence of several seconds, Shen Huaizhou asked, “Is there something special about this skeleton?”

“The clothing is very new,” Xie Qingling replied. “The other skeletons’ garments show signs of erosion from river silt, but this red dress is pristineso new that you can even see the embroidery patterns.”

Closing her eyes, her expression unreadable, she said, “Mandarin ducks playing in water, twin lotus flowers on one stalkdoesn’t that seem familiar? This is a wedding dress.”

“A wedding dress?!”

“A wedding dress?!”

Shen Huaizhou and Dai Xingyu exclaimed simultaneously.

Were all twenty-eight of these bodies brides?

No, that couldn’t behow could so many brides have been drowned in the river?

The sacks were filled with stonesthis was unmistakably blatant murder!

The trio’s faces darkened with grim realization.

At that moment, the voice in Xie Qingling’s mind resounded.

[“I roam the Nine Rivers with you, as stormy winds stir the waves; I wander the river isles with you, as melting ice drifts downstream. The cruel River God, the fickle River God, demands a beautiful bride each year. Year after year, fair maidens enter the riverfor twenty-eight years, He has yet to find a suitable beloved, and His patience has worn thin.”]

[“Dissatisfied with this year’s offering, He demands yet another pleasing sacrifice from humanity. O humans, present your most sincere submission and your most beautiful bride.”]

[“If you fail to offer another beautiful bride within a month, you shall incur the River God’s wrath.”]

Xie Qingling’s face turned pale as she asked Dai Xingyu, “Dai Xingyu, have you sensed any traces of Ghouls so far?”

“No, it’s not Ghouls.”

“This incident wasn’t caused by Ghouls,” Xie Qingling said. “It’s a deitya brutal one.”

Dai Xingyu and Shen Huaizhou exchanged glances. The matter was already clear, and they spoke in unison: “The River God taking a bride?”

“It appears so.”

“This disaster was triggered by a Sacrifice, and it’s highly likely more people will die…” Xie Qingling gazed at the twenty-eight corpses laid out on the ground and said, “And these so-called bridesI suspect their final fate was to be devoured by some creature.”

Xie Qingling carefully extracted the skeleton wearing the vibrant red “mandarin ducks playing in water” wedding dress from its garments and arranged it properly on the spread-out skirt. She meticulously positioned each bone according to the human skeletal structure.

“The clothing on this skeleton is new, yet only bones remainnot a trace of flesh or blood remains. This isn’t right. While erosion from mud and river currents accelerates decomposition of bodies in water, some soft tissues should still be present. These bones are completely cleanfar too unnatural. It looks less like natural decay and more like something licked them clean.”

Imagining the scene, Dai Xingyu felt his scalp crawl.

Suddenly, Xie Qingling froze mid-motion while handling the bones, her body stiffening.

“I think I know whose body this is,” Xie Qingling murmured, lifting her head to look at Luo Yuancheng lying nearbyalready stiffened in death.

Only then did Shen Huaizhou and Dai Xingyu remember these corpses had been discovered under Luo Yuancheng’s guidance. Were these all people Luo Yuancheng knew? The remaining three men and one woman?

“It’s Li Jiaothe woman among the four remaining,” Xie Qingling pointed to the empty space where the leg bones should have been. “The records mention she was missing a segment of her right leg bone, which matches perfectly. Li Jiao was disabled and usually wore a mechanical Prosthetic Limb to get around.”

Li Jiao, forty-five years old, had been a corporate manager. Seven years ago, she and her eight-year-old daughter were in a car accident. The daughter died in the crash, and Li Jiao’s right leg was amputated, leaving her disabled.

After two years of depression, Li Jiao quit her job and, despite her disability, became a mountaineer. Since taking up climbing, she seemed to have rediscovered meaning in life and became more cheerful.

All this was documented in the personal files of the five hiking companions. This was Li Jiao, who had gone missing a month ago.

Both Shen Huaizhou and Dai Xingyu had reviewed their files. Xie Qingling’s reminder made everything click into place.

Staring at Li Jiao’s stark white bones gleaming under the moonlight, Dai Xingyu felt a complex mix of emotions. To become like this in less than a monthit seemed to confirm Xie Qingling’s words: she had been completely consumed by some creature.

While feeling regretful, Dai Xingyu was also deeply puzzled: “Really… after having an amputation, one should just stay put and properly enjoy the hard-won life… Why insist on going out to climb mountains…”

His tone didn’t sound like blame, just deeply distressed.

Xie Qingling didn’t say anything.

Deep sighs echoed by the riverbank, mingling with the sound of flowing water against the shore, making them indistinct.

“Out of the five-person group, we’ve found two. Three remain missing,” Xie Qingling said. “We still need to keep searching.”

Who knew whether they were dead or alive.

She pressed both hands against the ground, attempting to use the Soul Return Technique to control these skeletons, hoping to find new clues.

But this time, none of the twenty-eight skeletons responded to her.

Silence, no response, as if they were asleep.

Shen Huaizhou asked, “What’s wrong?”

“No response. Normally, my Soul Return Technique can command all Spirits attached to vessels, whether skeletons or corpses…” Xie Qingling stared at her own palms, lost in thought for a moment.

“They’ve been devoured!” Xie Qingling suddenly realized something, gritting her teeth, her voice chillingly cold. “Their souls have all been devoured!”

Damn it!

How could such a thing exist?

What River God? It doesn’t deserve to be called a deity at all!

Xie Qingling sighed and said, “Dai Xingyu, contact the department head first and brief him on the situation here. If I’m not mistaken, this matter is going to be quite significant.”

Dai Xingyu nodded and began contacting Ling Fang.

Meanwhile, Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou turned their attention to Luo Yuancheng’s corpse.

Xie Qingling asked, “Should we burn it?”

Before setting out, each of the three had prepared their own boxes. If she remembered correctly, Shen Huaizhou had packed a bottle of gasoline.

At the time, she found it confusing, but now she understood its purpose.

It seemed Shen Huaizhou wasn’t dealing with this kind of situation for the first time; he had anticipated this scenario beforehand.

“Yes, corpses that have undergone Corpse Transformation can’t be left as they are.”

“Then let’s proceed.”

Shen Huaizhou glanced at her again, feeling somewhat strange inside.

This new employee was ordering around senior staff members far too naturally.

After remaining silent for a long moment, Shen Huaizhou ultimately said nothing and followed Xie Qingling’s instructionspouring oil, lighting the fire, and disposing of Luo Yuancheng, who had undergone Corpse Transformation.

Xie Qingling asked him, “Was Luo Yuancheng’s Corpse Transformation related to that creature in the river?”

“Possibly, but not necessarily,” Shen Huaizhou replied. “His remains were found in a valley surrounded by mountains, with a river flowing nearbyprecisely a Yin-gathering location. Corpses placed in Yin-gathering spots after death can also undergo Corpse Transformation. Of course, it could also be the work of an unknown creature.”

“Regardless, we need to drag that thing out, kill it, and the matter will be resolved.” Shen Huaizhou crossed his arms, his coldly handsome face stern, enunciating clearly: “Remember, if Fierce Ghosts run rampant, then slay the ghosts; if monsters cause chaos, then subdue the monsters; if deities commit evil, then slaughter the gods.”

“Exactly my thoughts.”

By now, Dai Xingyu had finished reporting the on-site situation to Ling Fang.

Dai Xingyu said, “The director said he’ll hand over matters in Future City, have the Logistics Department send someone to cover the shift, then come out of the city to support us. He wants us to continue investigating this matter until the truth comes to light.”

“This is a very serious incident.”

If not resolved, more people would die in the future.

Xie Qingling said, “First, let’s leave a marker here for the Logistics Department personnel to handle the follow-up when they arrive.”

“As for us…”

Xie Qingling looked up at the dark mountain peaks outlined against the sky. The dense forest stretched upward, blocking out the moonlight, and unknown creatures seemed to be making various noises among the trees. Rustle, rustle, rustlethe sound of wind blowing through leaves.

A gust of wind passed, causing the tree canopy above to surge like waves, carrying the roaring wind into the distance. The distant mountains stood quietly behind the forest like dark eyebrows.

A lone moon hung high in the sky.

Xie Qingling felt like the three of them were standing in a prison surrounded by mountain peaks.

She lowered her head and said in a heavy tone, “We need to find out who’s behind this.”

“Right now we only know about the Spirit receiving the Sacrifice, but we haven’t found the humans responsible for the Sacrifice yet.”

“Let’s find them first.”

The fickle River God still wanted to continue demanding satisfactory Offerings from humans.

Within a month, another beautiful bride needed to be offered up.

It had been almost a month since Li Jiao’s death.

There might be another bride whose life was hanging in the balance.