Chapter 109: Suppression

The ancestor of Yalong Mountain demands a man every month as an offering.

Logically, Liu Changxi’s fate should have been the same as the other men we had seen before—trapped in the formation as a reserve of “life force.”

When he first entered, Li Yue had said she saw several ghostly hands dragging Liu Changxi inside through the Spirit-Seer’s Mirror.

Yet now he was still alive, and there was this turtle shell on his neck.

That explained a lot.

I boarded the boat, and Li Yue followed.

The boat swayed noticeably, seeming unstable.

“Shh… squat down, don’t make a sound. I’ll take you where you want to go,” Liu Changxi whispered, his fear barely contained.

I crouched inside the boat, and Li Yue did the same beside me.

The rocking lessened considerably, and the boat gradually steadied.

Liu Changxi hunched over and began to row.

The gentle lapping of water filled the air. Li Yue looked pale and anxious; I shook my head to signal silence.

Whoever had saved Liu Changxi, he certainly meant us no harm now.

One cannot hide what lies in the eyes. Liu Changxi’s gaze was filled only with fear toward us.

Everything would become clear only once we passed through this hidden river and reached the person who had saved Liu Changxi.

I lowered my gaze to the turtle shell. I hadn’t paid it much attention before.

But now, looking closely, it seemed heavy with an overwhelming presence.

Its aura faintly suppressed the human energy emanating from us.

Suddenly, I understood why Li Yue and I could venture so far without incident.

Besides the corpses in the formation inside the mountain’s belly, there were ghosts lurking.

Otherwise, we wouldn’t have witnessed Liu Changxi being dragged away by spirits.

The reason nothing happened to us was the turtle shell.

Some unknown force rendered us “invisible” to the ancestor of Yalong Mountain.

The sound of water began to fade.

Our vision dimmed significantly. Liu Changxi crouched in the boat as well.

Now there was no need to row; the current gently carried us forward.

“Are you taking us to Changyuan Village?” I asked.

I noticed a subtle relief on Liu Changxi’s face, signaling we had passed the most dangerous area.

He nodded. “There’s a good man in the village. He wasn’t always that way, but he saved my life. I want to escape with his help.”

His face flushed with agitation as he spoke.

Li Yue’s expression darkened.

Liu Changxi gave a bitter smile. “I never wanted to treat the Liu family’s wife and her daughter that way. He’s the village chief. I dare not speak or refuse. Now no one dares to harm the Liu family’s wife. We’re going to take the blame and face punishment. Otherwise, our parents and children won’t survive at home.”

I didn’t bother to discern the truth of Liu Changxi’s words; it was meaningless to us now.

Li Yue still looked doubtful.

Liu Changxi forced a smile and changed the subject. “That stretch just now was terrifying. There’s something underwater—a dragon.”

“Now that we’ve passed that hidden river, we can go straight to Changyuan Village,” he said.

My pupils constricted. “A dragon?”

Dragons don’t really exist. Even without much education, I knew they were creatures of legend.

Liu Changxi was a mountain man. To put it bluntly, he was capable of cruel deeds. Even as a simpleton, he would regard any strange creature underwater as something fearsome and worthy of respect.

“Yes… The man told me the dragon belongs to the ancestor. The ancestor is somewhere in that mountain path. Anyone who enters the village gets devoured by the ancestor. Ghosts guard the gate on the mountain path, and below lives the dragon. Only by wearing this pendant are we safe.”

“Protection,” Li Yue suddenly said.

I nodded. That made sense.

The mountain’s interior passage leading directly to Changyuan Village was like the cave at Severed Head Cliff.

A ghost guarded the gate at the mountain path’s entrance as well.

For some unknown reason, the ancestor of Yalong Mountain had not fully awakened.

Otherwise, even with the turtle shell, we wouldn’t have made it this far.

We must be grateful to the formation that spat us out directly into the mountain’s belly.

At that moment, I sensed something was amiss.

The boat—

It seemed to have stopped moving forward. Though still gliding, it was drifting backward.

This was definitely not the downstream we had been following.

Moreover, the boat hadn’t turned around.

“Liu Changxi, does this river split or have places where the current reverses?” I asked.

His face instantly turned ashen. He slumped in the boat and said, “It’s over. The man told me if the boat turns back halfway, it means something has discovered us.”

I didn’t reach for my talisman brush this time but held a Fighting Talisman instead.

The space was too cramped for the brush to work.

Looking around in the dim light, I could barely see anything—not even the rocky walls of the mountain’s interior.

I lowered my head and tapped the mark on the back of my hand.

The pale skull showed no reaction, and the accompanying spirit gave me no signal.

I frowned. If that was the case, whatever it was must be beneath the boat.

To confront it, I first had to see it. That meant I had to enter the water.

I took a deep breath and grabbed the boat’s edge.

Then Li Yue suddenly said, “It’s not under the boat.”

Her gaze fixed intently on the bow—the direction we were supposed to be heading. But now the boat was drifting backward.

An empty expanse stretched out; I could see nothing.

Yet Li Yue’s vigilance made me tense my arms.

She raised the Spirit-Seer’s Mirror and suddenly sliced her middle finger across its back.

Blood welled up, leaving a long crimson streak.

Suddenly, the mirror blazed with an intense blue light!

Our boat became dazzlingly bright in an instant.

What chilled me to the bone was a pair of ghostly pale hands clutching the wooden edge at the bow.

A woman with hair disheveled behind her head and a deathly pale face stared directly at us.

She was slowly moving forward.

The boat was being pushed by her.

Liu Changxi screamed in terror, a sound that echoed through the hidden river.

The woman’s ghostly face remained deathly pale as she slowly raised her head. Her hands stopped pushing the boat and instead grotesquely elongated, reaching for Liu Changxi’s neck.

Liu Changxi trembled violently, pushing with his hands and legs, but his body remained rooted, unable to escape.

The ghost’s calmness was unnerving, as if she was unafraid even after being discovered.

And her other hand reached out toward us!

My face darkened. I raised my hand abruptly, hurling the Fighting Talisman!

At the same time, the ghost’s hand lengthened rapidly, nearly grasping Liu Changxi’s neck.

Then I noticed Li Yue hadn’t dodged either; her actions mirrored Liu Changxi’s.

My heart burned with alarm—this ghost was trouble.

Serious trouble.

The Fighting Talisman struck her chest but immediately soaked up water and fell into the river.

Suddenly, her hair began to grow wildly long.

A strange force seemed to bind my body—I couldn’t move at all.

A peculiar, overwhelming fear surged inside me, magnifying uncontrollably.

I finally understood what Liu Changxi and Li Yue had been feeling.

The ghost’s hand choked Liu Changxi’s neck.

Her other hand was about to grasp Li Yue.

I saw Liu Changxi’s eyes glaze over, his neck crooked as if broken by the grasp.

Suddenly, a chill spread across my chest.

At the same time, a pale shadow emerged on my wrist, rushing straight toward the ghost!

Only then did a flicker of fear show on her face.

She vanished without a trace.

The binding force on me disappeared.

I collapsed in the boat, gasping for breath.

The accompanying spirit floated to the bow, a palm-sized skeletal figure swaying as if on patrol.

Li Yue’s trembling voice whispered, “Such terrifying spiritual oppression. Her soul is far too strong. Without the Spirit-Seer’s Mirror, we wouldn’t have seen her. That’s her ghostly veil. Liu Changxi… is dead.”