Yu Nian's eyes tightened. She said to Liu Mo, "Stop him."
But Feng Qun seemed to find some hidden strength. The moment Liu Mo's tail wrapped around him, he took out a dagger from his trouser leg and stabbed Liu Mo hard.
Liu Mo winced in pain and threw Feng Qun back into the water.
Feng Qun was a good swimmer since childhood. In the blink of an eye, he had swum two or three meters away. Seeing the figures of the people behind getting farther and farther, he felt secretly happy. But suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his calf. He didn't pay much attention at first, thinking it was just seaweed tangling his foot. When he looked down, he saw a cloud of red blood mist suddenly rising on the water surface. The strong smell of blood filled his nostrils. He was startled and looked tremblingly towards the bottom of the water. The blurry red shadow gradually enlarged until a bloody face as big as a millstone rushed towards him. The venomous eyes stared fixedly at him.
Only then did Feng Qun realize that what was wrapped around his ankle was not seaweed at all, but a rotten and blackened hand.
His foot trembled instantly. He hurriedly shouted towards Yu Nian, "Save, save me..."
But before he could finish his words, the thing underwater suddenly opened its huge mouth. Its terrifying fangs bit down hard on Feng Qun, breaking his body in half at the waist. It swallowed the lower half of his body whole and made continuous chewing and biting sounds.
Feng Qun's cry for help was drowned in his throat. His eyes dimmed in an instant. His pale face was full of horror and disbelief.
He died right in front of everyone.
Feng Qun's blood dyed the surrounding water red. The huge monster let out a low growl of extreme pleasure from its throat, then turned in a different direction and slowly swam towards the others.
The villagers who witnessed this scene were so scared that their legs went weak. Seeing the monster approaching them, they were both shocked and terrified, feeling that their end was near. They started to panic and made a commotion.
Yu Nian's expression gradually darkened. She tightened the iron chain in her hand and said to everyone, "Don't panic. There's a spell barrier on the raft. It can't get in for now. Quickly pull up the thing under the iron chain."
The villagers felt a bit more at ease. They gritted their teeth and pulled hard. The cold aura behind them was getting closer. Just as the monster rammed crazily against the raft, the iron chain suddenly made a loud "click" sound. The force that had been resisting on the other end of the iron chain suddenly disappeared. At the same time, the monster behind them suddenly vanished.
Everyone felt much more relaxed. They worked together to pull the thing up.
It was a complete human skeleton. The other end of the iron chain had actually passed through the shoulder blade of its shoulder and was tightly bound to the shackles on its wrists and ankles.
After years of being washed by the flowing water, the clothes outside the skeleton were already in tatters. The long hair on its head was sparse. Judging from the size of its skeleton, it should be a thin woman.
The villagers took a look at the bones and vomited one after another.
The reservoir was the water supply source for the whole Ningyuan Village. Did they drink water that was like the bath - water of a dead person for all these years?
Qian Lin's face also looked a bit bad, but not because of fear, but sadness. "Who is she? What on earth did she do wrong to be subjected to such torture?"
Yu Nian looked at the wounds on the knee bones of the skeleton and was silent for a moment. "She is the last goddess."
"What?!"
He Zhiping suddenly widened his eyes. "Isn't the goddess a living deity worshipped by Ningyuan Village?"
Yu Nian's gaze swept across the stunned young villagers and finally landed on an older boatman.
The boatman's lips were pale. His hands were shaking constantly at his sides. In his eyes, one could see fear, confusion, and even guilt, but no trace of doubt.
Yu Nian stared at him for a moment and said calmly, "The so - called successful cultivation and ascending to immortality are all excuses you made, right? The young goddess actually died at the hands of you believers, right?"
The boatman suddenly looked up and shook his head doubtfully. "What are you talking about? I... I don't understand."
As soon as he finished speaking, the originally calm water surface suddenly rippled violently. It seemed as if the bone - crunching monster would leap out of the water the next second and chew him to pieces.
The boatman's legs went weak and he knelt straight down in front of the bones. "Goddess, spare my life! It was the village head's family who killed you. It has nothing to do with us! You are the goddess, with boundless divine power and admired by thousands of people. But you failed to cure the village head's mistress, so he got angry... At that time, I had old and young in my family. Under the coercion of the village head, I joined the others to tie you up and throw you into the reservoir!"
After he said this, everyone fell silent. No one had expected that such an ugly murder was hidden beneath the peaceful village.
Yu Nian looked coldly at the boatman. "The goddess is a human being, not a god. The so - called boundless divine power and admiration from thousands of people are just excuses you made for your own evil desires."
Suddenly, all the ropes binding the bamboo rafts broke. The rafts began to shake violently. Yu Nian looked around and saw many blurry shadows suddenly appearing in the thick fog. They gathered together and staggered towards them with extremely heavy resentment.
Yu Nian had never looked so serious. The current situation was neither an evil formation nor an illusion. Back then, the village head joined the villagers to drown the goddess alive at the bottom of the water. Fearing that the goddess's soul would come back for revenge, he spent a lot of money to invite a sorcerer to suppress it with a soul - suppressing talisman.
But the village head and the sorcerer at that time ignored one thing. The goddess was wearing a red dress when she died. She died at midnight. People who died by drowning usually had a heavy resentment. And this reservoir was surrounded by mountains on all sides and rarely saw sunlight. It was a place of extreme yin where evil spirits were very likely to gather.
The soul - suppressing talisman not only failed to suppress her, but also greatly increased her resentment. By now, it was extremely difficult to eliminate.
The black misty shadows around were getting closer. They were in extremely distorted postures, struggling and screaming. A gust of cold wind blew by, carrying extremely shrill and painful cries.
Feng Chengyuan frowned and listened for a while. He felt that the sound was too uncomfortable, as if a person was standing alone at the end of the world, surrounded by boundless darkness.
Qian Lin threw two talismans around. The golden light briefly made a gap in the surrounding fog, but then it was filled by the newly emerging black mist.
The boatman was almost scared out of his wits. He kowtowed frantically to the bones. "Goddess, spare my life. Goddess, spare my life. I don't want to die!"
While everyone was in a daze, Lu Yao, who had been silent all this time, stood up unsteadily. A look of deep sorrow actually appeared on his wooden face. "She's not called the goddess. She has a name. Her name is Qi Wan."
The boatman was stunned. He looked blankly at the boy full of deathly aura, feeling extremely familiar. After a while, he pointed at him tremblingly. "Aren't you the youngest son of the Lao Lu family? Didn't you die in a car accident in a foreign land... You..."
Lu Yao seemed not to hear what he said. He walked towards the skeleton on his own. He took off his coat and gently covered the bones. Then he stared at the skeleton for a long time and hugged it tightly in his arms. He said nothing, but his shoulders were shaking violently.
Just then, the black mist that had been blocked outside by Yu Nian's golden talisman light suddenly stopped. All the shadows suddenly disappeared.
Not far away, there was only a thin and small figure standing still. The red - dressed girl looked emaciated, with red - rimmed eyes looking at Lu Yao. "I've waited for you for a long time. Why did you come so late?"