Qi Family Gang (21)

The two men were now somewhat listless, all their energy spent on trying not to scratch their blisters.

Blisters... When did the blisters first appear?

Gu Xiang Kai couldn't remember. But ever since they drank that strange creek water, everyone's symptoms had emerged. Or rather, worsened.

Water...

Rainwater...

Blisters...

Transformation!

In a flash of insight, Gu Xiang Kai understood another layer of the rainwater's meaning of transformation.

...

In the room.

Headman Qi and Manager Wu stared wide-eyed at the human skin in Jiang Siyan's hand.

“This is… Old Seventh!”

They knew their comrades better than the scavengers, recognizing at a glance that it was indeed the missing Zhao Laoqi.

“Only him was found.”

Headman Qi said nothing, both men's eyes filled with fear as they looked at the human skin.

“This… this is…?”

Nan Yue explained, “It was like this when we found it, in the mud.”

Headman Qi was a man who had seen his share of storms, but he had never witnessed such a bizarre death. What's more, the Qi Family Gang members were all hot-blooded men; to die so ignominiously, unnoticed, trampled into the mud by their own companions...

It was too terrifying.

“A-Nan, have you noticed something?”

Headman Qi was a smart man. Nan Yue had spoken to him privately, partly to avoid alarming the others. The other reason was likely that she had something she wanted to tell him.

Nan Yue nodded, voicing her suspicions. “There’s something in the deep pool, which is why our horses disappeared. If this rain continues, the water will likely spread up quickly, and then whatever is in the deep pool will be released, and none of us will survive.”

Manager Wu, listening nearby, suddenly asked, “That’s not right. If this rain is also caused by whatever is in the deep pool, why didn’t it rain last night? If it wanted to trap us, it should have kept us from leaving the village at all.”

After all, they had still gone into the rainforest for a while; if they were lucky, they could have actually left.

“Old Black!” Headman Qi suddenly called out, “Old Black was swallowed, and everything on him was swallowed too.”

The bronze bridle and Bagua mirror were not ordinary objects. Swallowed along with the horse, they likely delayed the creature's plans in the deep pool. Otherwise, it surely would have wanted to trap the Qi Family Gang as early as possible, and have the water rise as quickly as possible.

“Exorcism items are useful,” Nan Yue affirmed, “but they must be items that inherently exist in this pollution world.”

The tools they had exchanged were useless; not even anti-allergy ointment or Jiang Siyan’s ability could get rid of the blisters.

“How long do you reckon until the water floods up?” Headman Qi asked after a long silence, his voice hoarse beyond belief.

Nan Yue thought for a moment. “If this rain continues for another two days, it will reach Fish Fry Village.”

“Headman, what exactly is the origin of that bronze bridle and Bagua mirror?”

Headman Qi gave a weary smile. “They’re just objects that have been passed down for generations; they gained their exorcism properties simply by being old.”

Nan Yue fell silent. So, their effect was far from enough to suppress whatever was in the deep pool.

“What could be in the deep pool…” Headman Qi murmured to himself, “It must be sentient, knowing to trick us all this way, to trap us here…”

“A dragon god.” Manager Wu suddenly spoke, his voice somewhat shrill. “A flood dragon emerges from the deep pool; it must be a dragon god!”

“Nonsense!” Headman Qi suddenly cursed. “A dragon god is such a spiritual deity; even if it required blood sacrifice, it would never use such underhanded methods.”

Manager Wu fell silent. The horsemen held deep reverence for deities and knew that many places had their own worshipped wild gods.

It wasn’t uncommon for many wild gods to be brutal and demand blood sacrifices. But a sacrificial rite, that was a village’s own belief; they wouldn’t usually find outsiders to be sacrificial lambs. For a god they believed in, their own sacrifice showed true sincerity. But an unknown deity in the deep pool, clearly tricking unrelated people from a thousand miles away, truly flaying them and devouring them whole—how could that be a righteous god?

“If you ask me, it’s probably just a giant fish. Doesn’t Fish Fry Village worship fish?”

Headman Qi and Manager Wu bickered for a moment, then Headman Qi asked, panting, “Do you and Shaman Zhu have any good ideas?”

“None, what methods could there be, unless there’s an exorcism item?” Nan Yue thought of the copper coin.

“Headman, there’s a rumor in the gang that you have a copper coin imbued with dragon qi from a thousand years ago…”

Headman Qi’s expression changed. “I told you lot to stop slacking off and spouting nonsense!”

Nan Yue’s lips twitched. Headman Qi’s temper was still as explosive as ever.

Headman Qi cursed a few times before saying, “Those are just legends! The legend says my Qi family ancestor was a coin official during the Zhou Dynasty era, in charge of the palace’s finances. The Great King Ji Si of the Zhou Dynasty then bestowed a King’s Coin upon our ancestor, and this King’s Coin has been passed down through generations.”

“It continued until my great-grandfather’s generation, when the world became chaotic. In these turbulent times, everything was coveted, and I don’t know where they hid the King’s Coin.”

Nan Yue sighed upon hearing this. “No wonder they later started the horse gang business.”

Headman Qi grunted twice. “In chaotic times, greenwood trades are easier to do.”

So, unless Headman Qi’s great-grandfather was still alive, no one would know where the King’s Coin was.

But strangely, Nan Yue had a premonition, one accumulated from her experience doing purification missions as a scavenger.

She felt the King’s Coin must be somewhere, because the King’s Coin was the key to breaking the situation.

If they found the King’s Coin, they might have a sliver of hope.

“So, nothing we say now matters,” Headman Qi said, slumping to the ground. He rubbed his face with his large, fan-like hands.

“And since that monster could make the horses go into the deep pool like they were enchanted, why didn’t it trick us into going too?”

Headman Qi’s complaint struck Nan Yue’s mind like a bolt of lightning.

Yes, why?

Transformation. Energy also undergoes transformation.

Why didn’t the creature in the deep pool rain as soon as the Qi Family Gang arrived at Fish Fry Village?

Two possibilities: one, it also needed to receive goods. That is, the five jars of strange white rice that had transformed from water.

Another possibility was that, at the time, it didn’t have the energy to bring down such heavy rain.

If, according to Manager Wu’s guess, what was in the deep pool was truly an ancient creature like a flood dragon, then according to folklore, it should be able to summon rain on its own.

This point certainly aligns with ancient people’s imagination of dragons.

There was just one thing: the rain it brought down wasn’t ordinary rainwater, but rain with a strong aquatic fishiness, just like the water in its deep pool.

And this was also a kind of transformation; this creature had likely resided in the deep pool for over a thousand years, the deep pool was it. It needed to transform itself into rain, and that also required energy.