Chapter 385: The Legend of the Transforming Dragon! The Golden Carp! The Female Corpse!

At Guanyu Village...

It was said that, long ago, a golden carp passed through this place, attempting to transform into a dragon. Truly, it was a wondrous and divine event.

But such legends were common; at least eight or nine villages near Wei City claimed the same story. Nothing strange about that; they were just trying to make themselves look good.

The tale of the carp leaping the dragon gate had long been told among the people of Wei City, in countless versions.

Some said that the golden carp had cultivated great merit and earned the chance to transform into a dragon, but was stopped by a Daoist, which drew down heavenly tribulation and destroyed all its cultivation.

Others claimed the golden carp was actually a descendant of a true dragon, and that the “Daoist” was no man at all, but a great demon in disguise, who had come to sabotage the carp out of personal hatred.

To speak of this golden carp legend, one had to mention the Wei River.

The Wei River was a branch of the Xia River, and it was said that when the bloodline of a true dragon was scattered, a third of it fell into these tributaries, awaiting a destined soul to awaken it.

The Wei River ran swift and wide. With such favorable waterways, Wei City enjoyed convenient irrigation and thriving dockside trade, with much of the credit going to the Wei River itself.

When the golden carp first appeared in the Wei River, it caused quite a sensation. The elders said it was a child of the dragon, and if it could leap past the Dragon Gate, it would become a true dragon.

Of course, such things were the stuff of folk tales, each retelling grander than the last.

Now, Guanyu Village was nothing more than an ordinary fishing village. Gone were the days when nobles and dignitaries flocked here to witness the “golden carp.”

When Li Yanchu first heard the story, he didn’t believe a word of it. He even suspected the villagers had made it up as a gimmick. Where would so many dragon-transformation stories come from, anyway? A fish leaping over the Dragon Gate?

He shook his head slightly. There were no true dragons left in this world.

Still, fame left its mark, and the village’s reputation lingered. Even now, young lords and ladies often came by boat to enjoy the scenery and borrow a bit of that fabled fortune.

It was, admittedly, a beautiful place; the mountains were clear, and the waters were bright. Most of the village houses were built along the riverbank, where a long row of willow trees grew.

Among the common folk, beliefs about willows differed: some said they were trees that attracted ghosts, others said their branches could drive spirits away, with each strike shortening the branch.

When Li Yanchu arrived at Guanyu Village that afternoon, he used his Qi Sight to examine the willows and found nothing unusual.

Aside from the two pale-faced villagers who had come to fetch him, no one else was in sight.

He thought,

I should’ve brought Lady Yun along, she’s basically a walking spirit detector.

Unfortunately, Lady Yun had now become the innkeeper’s beloved little sister... and thus, a traitor.

Still, Li Yanchu’s primordial spirit was powerful and his magical power deep, and he possessed both the Qi Sight and Spirit Eyes, two superior methods of detection.

Dealing with a haunting like this should be nothing more than a flick of his hand. All he needed to do was find the female ghost.

As for combat ability... He had

just

slain two third realm Yang Spirits, the third realm being the very ceiling of mortal power, as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Countless grandmasters and Daoist spiritual masters had spent their entire lives trapped in the Yin Spirit Realm, dying of old age without ever breaking through.

But Li Yanchu had killed two third realm Yang Gods in succession. His state of mind now carried a kind of unstoppable, world-crushing momentum.

How could Daoist Master Li possibly feel fear? Whatever problem he encountered, he would simply crush through it head-on.

However, Guanyu Village was large, with at least a hundred or two hundred residents.

And as a fishing village, there was water everywhere: wells, water tanks, irrigation channels, and, of course, the Wei River. Each and every one of these places could be hiding a resentful ghost.

Even with Qi Sight and Spirit Eyes, it would take time to search thoroughly.

So, Li Yanchu began by questioning the villagers who had been having nightmares: where they had been recently, what they had done, hoping to find some clue among their answers. But their replies were almost identical:

Eat, sleep, fish... and sleep in their own homes at night.

After listening for quite a while, he found nothing of real use.

His gaze shifted toward the Wei River. In villages like this, built beside rivers, most likely the culprit was a water ghost. And that matched the villagers’ descriptions of the apparition: a soaked, dripping woman.

Li Yanchu decided to begin his search from the river itself.

In the study of the occult, water was considered extremely yin, capable of suppressing evil. But for those who drowned, their deaths were miserable, their spirits unable to enter reincarnation. They could only escape their suffering by finding a replacement, a new soul to die in their stead. This made them quite different from land-bound spirits.

That was why water often hid filthy, dangerous entities. Sometimes, sailors would see their dead loved ones standing at the prow of a boat, or a drowned child might be pulled from the river, only for the rescuers to find dark bruises shaped like fingers around the ankles.

Or perhaps, when someone dove underwater, they would suddenly feel something tugging at their legs, dragging them down. That, without question, was the work of a water ghost seeking a substitute.

Because of this, the Qi Sight was greatly limited when probing underwater.

Li Yanchu walked to the riverbank, divine light flickering in his eyes.

Qi Sight

!

His perception sank downward. Unlike the ease of scanning through air or land, this felt slow and resistant like plunging into a quagmire.

Still, Li Yanchu’s primordial spirit was exceptionally strong, far more condensed than that of most advanced second-realm cultivators. He pressed deeper, breaking through the dense resistance layer by layer.

The Wei River was no shallow stream; it was vast and deep. At last, he discovered, far below the surface, a thick cluster of yin qi. There was no trace of blood-qi yet, meaning it had not harmed anyone. But if left unchecked, that might not remain true for long.

Li Yanchu’s eyes lit up. He took out the Water-Dividing Pearl that the old beggar had once given him and jumped straight into the river.

As for why he didn’t use a Water-Repelling Talisman, the reason was simple: those things were consumables. If he could save one, he would. Even a cultivator had to budget carefully to get by.

A soft, gentle force spread from the pearl, wrapping around him, and the surrounding river water instantly parted in two.

The villagers of Guanyu Village cried out in astonishment.

“Did my eyes just play tricks on me? Did Daoist Master Yanchu really split the water apart!?”

“Heavens, that’s a divine miracle if I ever saw one!”

“Damn it, Ergou, you really know how to pick! You brought us a living immortal!”

Ergou was one of the two young men who had gone to Qingyun Temple to beg for help. His older brother was Dagou.

At this moment, Li Yanchu couldn’t hear the villagers’ exclamations. He continued to sink deeper and deeper into the river.

Finally, he found the cluster of yin qi he had sensed before. It surrounded the lifelike, perfectly preserved body of a woman. A terrifying wound split her chest open, and the flesh around it turned outward as though slashed by a saber.

From her appearance, she must have once been a lady of noble birth; her hair ornaments and clothing were all finely made, carrying an air of refinement and wealth.

Li Yanchu frowned, and couldn’t help recalling the female corpse he’d once discovered in the pond behind Yang Family Town of Mount Jiuxuan, that one had belonged to a mighty cultivator of the third realm.

“It can’t be that much of a coincidence... can it?”

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Divine light flashed in his eyes as he activated Spirit Eyes.

The corpse before him did not contain any vast, surging yin qi. She had simply died with a deep grievance, and after sinking into the river, the yin qi had gathered and lingered around her, preserving her flesh from decay.

Corpses like this were extremely dangerous. If brought to shore and exposed to the living’s yang qi, they could easily reanimate and turn malevolent.

Fortunately, this one had not yet become a floating corpse. If any fishermen had discovered and hauled her up, it would have brought disaster upon the entire village.

The river depths were cold and lightless, and under such conditions, suddenly coming face to face with a lifelike woman’s corpse staring back at you with open eyes would have made anyone’s scalp crawl.

But to Li Yanchu, this was nothing more than a small scene. His nerves were as solid as iron.

He strode forward, seized the female corpse by the waist, and carried her upward, emerging from the river and landing on the shore.

The watching villagers erupted into an uproar.