I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 162 - 136: Shock After Shock (May Monthly Ticket 1000 Bonus Update)
Lake bottom.
One by one, the stone statues cracked open, revealing mostly shriveled husks of bodies inside. Without the support of the statues, they all limply fell over, thread-like worms pouring out from every orifice, yet the eyeballs of the corpses continued to move from side to side, eerily.
After one statue cracked open, crimson water plants unfurled. Qin Ze, whose entire body was tightly wrapped by the red water plants, suddenly opened his eyes. The pain inside him was unbearable, feeling like his internal organs were turning into nourishment for the plants, being decomposed and consumed.
At this moment, ignoring the backlash of the evil spirits on his body, he broke free from the statue and immediately swam over to Xu San’s statue, chiseling it open with the Ten Victory Stone Dagger he held in his hand.
Xu San’s face still bore the white ghost face mask of the Day Traveling Envoy, emitting a faint glow, under which the thread-like worms couldn’t directly invade his body.
Qin Ze shook Xu San awake forcefully. Once Xu San woke up, the two saw bodies shriveled up all over the place and the collapsing stone walls, not knowing what had happened.
They signaled each other and quickly searched the surroundings.
Not everyone in the statues was completely dead; some hadn’t been entirely corroded by the worms. Qin Ze saw Zhao Qi, Zhang Yuanzhong, and even Qiao Ying, several unfamiliar faces, also breaking free from the statues.
Although these people had thread-like worms drifting from their bodies, they still seemed to have the consciousness of normal people.
Qiao Ying immediately swam to Zhang Yuanzhong’s side, pulling him upward with effort.
Qin Ze motioned to Zhao Qi to follow, and along with Xu San, swam towards the surface.
Rumble!
With a loud crash, the entire Fish Woman Village suddenly collapsed, stirring up a massive amount of silt, instantly scattering everyone.
Qin Ze was tossed around in the lake by the current, unable to steady himself.
During this time, he saw an unfamiliar face just emerging from a statue, covered in thread-like worms that gathered to form a bluish-black human-faced snake, which then drilled into his mouth.
The man strained his legs and widened his eyes, struggling violently, but within a few breaths, he stopped moving, his body twitching as he sank into the silt-covered ruins below.
The Fish Woman was still there, not allowing its offerings to escape so easily. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Qin Ze finally managed to steady himself, dodging those trying-to-attack worms, and suddenly saw pale, swollen severed limbs falling from above.
The water plants on his body seemed to sense something extremely terrifying, retracting quickly into his body, which greatly reduced his ability in the water.
Qin Ze looked up, his pupils contracting suddenly.
He saw a large number of ghastly pale corpses standing upright in the water above him, with open eyes and hair dancing like water plants.
In the center of the corpses, a girl in black wielded a long knife in one hand and a dagger in the other, slashing with force, trying to ward off the approaching corpses.
Sang Mulan!
How could she be underwater, was she here to save him?
Qin Ze frowned, his first reaction was not to save. As a Corpse Recovery Man, and one who died for breaking taboos, he couldn’t break the rules again to rescue a young woman from the water.
The consequences of breaking the rules were unpredictable to him.
But...
Qin Ze thought about how if it weren’t for Sang Que’s willingness to put aside their differences and tell him the Secret Technique of Taming Evil, he couldn’t have suppressed the evil spirits within him so quickly, and would likely have died from the backlash, with no chance of survival.
And Sang Que might have come down to save him; he couldn’t be less than a little girl.
If he turned a blind eye, how could he have any face left to stand in the world?
Qin Ze’s eyes firmed up, and without hesitation, he swam towards Sang Que.
Being a Corpse Recovery Man who died for breaking all the rules, what else did he have to fear?
Moreover, the reason why this young Corpse Recovery Man was determined to break the ancestral rules to recover that young woman who couldn’t be retrieved from the water was because she was the only one who didn’t mind his corpse stench, willing to marry him once he saved enough money.
At that moment, Qin Ze and the ghostly figure of the Corpse Recovery Man seemed to merge perfectly into one body, and the red water plants that had retracted also unfurled again.
Just as Sang Que was about to be suffocated, held by several corpses dragging her away, Qin Ze wielded his Ten Victory Stone Dagger, severing the pale hands reaching for Sang Que, using the water plants on him to wrap around the feet of the corpses nearby, tossing them aside with force.
The red water plants wrapped around Sang Que’s wrist, and it was as if a breath of air was injected into her lungs, alleviating her sensation of drowning.
She glanced at Qin Ze beside her, regained her composure, and together they fought a bloody path through the masses of corpses, swimming towards the lake’s surface.
The released corpses of the Water Ghost still pursued from behind, but fortunately, Qin Ze swam exceptionally well, quickly pulling Sang Que along.
Not far away, Sang Que saw two people in the distance; it was Qiao Ying dragging Zhang Yuanzhong.
Before they got close, the thread-like worms on Qiao Ying gathered into a human-faced snake, arching and shooting out like a bolt of lightning.
Zhang Yuanzhong, quick on the uptake, actually caught the human-faced snake in his hand. Then, a human-faced snake, with a face similar to his, appeared on his shoulder, sneering grimly.
Oof!
Zhang Yuanzhong spat out a series of air bubbles, and at the moment the human-faced snake charged into his mouth, with all his might, he broke free from Qiao Ying’s grip and pushed her away.
Qiao Ying turned her head in shock, only to see Zhang Yuanzhong’s body twitching as he sank into the darkness beneath the lake.
Qiao Ying kicked her legs to chase after him, but the red water plants on Qin Ze wrapped her up, forcibly dragging her away.
Splash!
The three emerged from the lake, the sky outside dimmed, strong winds surged, and the entire lake churned fiercely, as if doomsday had arrived.
Having left the lake, Yin Child’s suppressed power slightly recovered, and Sang Que immediately spread the Evil Mist to its fullest, instant-teleporting Qin Ze and Qiao Ying toward the shore.
In the distance, Sang Que saw He Buning on the shore, her eyes brightening, heading straight to his side.
When they were fifty meters away from He Buning, it was as if Sang Que was struck by a heavy hammer, the surrounding Evil Mist dispersed in an instant, and without the ability to instant teleport, the three fell into the lake again.
At that moment, He Buning was shocked that Yin Child could actually retreat into the Hidden Realm, rendering his arrangements against Yin Child’s Evil Mist ineffective. Raising his eyes, he saw Sang Que, Qin Ze, and a village woman appear out of nowhere and fall into the lake. He Buning’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Evil Mist!
Sang Que didn’t notice the change in He Buning’s expression and, with Qin Ze and Qiao Ying, exerted all her remaining strength to swim to the shore, collapsing onto the ground, coughing up the water they inhaled.
"Sister!"
Xia Chan saw Sang Que from afar, sprinting over with Xuan Yu.
Seeing Xia Chan, He Buning temporarily suppressed the suspicion and coldness in his eyes, softening his gaze slightly, then turned to look at Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu.
Fortunately, Yin Child’s timely appearance saved the two’s lives. Now, Xiao Liu suffered from the backlash of the Ghost Eye, unable to see for nine days, but Xiao Wu was in better shape, without major issues.
Two more people surfaced, it was Xu San and Zhao Qi wearing Day Travel Masks.
Xu San dragged Zhao Qi ashore; Zhao Qi was in a bad state, vomiting violently upon reaching land, spewing blood and large clumps of writhing thread-like worms onto the ground.
Scales rapidly grew from Zhao Qi’s nape and cheeks. Under his drenched clothes, something moved, and clusters of thread-like worms quickly drilled out from his collar and cuffs.
All the worms converged into a human-faced snake, darting up to bite Xia Chan who was nearest to Zhao Qi.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, and Sang Que’s ears buzzed, looking up in shock.
He Buning stood with an old-fashioned flintlock gun, its muzzle pointed behind her and Xia Chan, smoke billowing.
