The Enigma of the Yishui Monster Chapter 7

After Ethan Zhan and Bai Yuting heard about the little monkey, they wanted to talk to him. Ethan Zhan doubted whether the little monkey knew something about the death of Master Liu, especially his words "Go to hell" full of resentment, which should not come from such a young child.

I asked those little hooligans about the monkey's address, and they said it was in Wangjia Village by the Yi River. There weren't many people in the village, and their family lived in the southernmost part. It was easy to find. There was a small house in a large wasteland, and there was a coffin at the door. It was an empty coffin fished out of the river, and the monkey's mother used it to collect water. The family looked very evil.

In addition, Bai Yuting also asked them about those little beggars.

The thugs were hesitant at first.

Oliver Bai saw something and took out the silver, "Tell the truth, I won't tell anyone what you said."

A few thugs looked at each other, and finally couldn't resist the power of that large ingot of gold, so they told the truth.

It turned out that the three young men who died that day were not really beggars, but three small thugs who pretended to be beggars and begged for money. They lived in a dilapidated temple in the south city.

"Living in a dilapidated temple?" Ethan Zhan was a little confused, "Don't you have a home?"

"It's a wild child. There is a horse belly temple in the south of the city. It was built by local fishermen for the horse belly immortal. It used to be popular, but later it became deserted because the place was too remote. There is also a mass grave behind the place. Normally, people in the city don't dare to go there, but it is a good place for those wild children who have no money. They can settle down and make money."

"Making money?" Oliver Bai was puzzled.

"Many unclaimed bodies are thrown in mass graves. If you go around and search the dead, you can find some treasures. At worst, you can cut off your hair and sell it to buy a few meals."

These were the only clues provided by the ruffians. When asked why the body disappeared, why the county magistrate died, and where the body went, they had no idea.

Oliver Bai rewarded them anyway, and turned back to discuss with Ethan Zhan where to investigate.

"It's dark now, right?" Ethan Zhan asked Oliver Bai.

Oliver Bai looked at the sky and said, "It's almost time."

"Let's go to the little monkey tomorrow morning. It would be best if we can talk to him. Otherwise, let's go to the Mafu Temple first?" Ethan Zhan suggested.

Bai Yuting thought it was feasible and nodded in agreement.

The two of them first took Max Xiao and Leo back to the inn, leaving the two children to rest. After all, it was not appropriate to take children to a mass grave at night.

After making all the arrangements, Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan went out and walked towards the Yishui River.

"If only Gongsun were here, he could examine Master Liu's body." Ethan Zhan muttered to himself, "to see how this horse's belly killed someone."

"There aren't many ways to die of bleeding from all seven orifices. Most are poisoning, but there's no reason why the local coroner can't find out."

"They are dead." Ethan Zhan smiled. "I think other coroners would not dare to look at the bodies."

"So, the first people who died at the yamen gate really had a good deterrent effect." Bai Yuting looked up at the sky... It was already night, and there were thick clouds in the sky, and the new moon was barely visible.

This kind of town is very deserted and dark at night.

"No moon?" Ethan Zhan suddenly asked.

Bai Yuting raised his eyebrows and looked at Ethan Zhan in surprise.

Ethan Zhan just smiled and said, "I can't see anything, but I can feel the light. It's very dark tonight, there is no light at all."

Oliver Bai nodded. Gongsun had written before that Ethan Zhan was not seriously injured, but was only temporarily blind. In other words, Ethan Zhan's purpose was to make him temporarily blind, not to hurt him... Why would you make someone temporarily blind? What was the purpose?

The Mafu Temple is in the south of the city, while Bai Yuting and his men are in the north of the city, so they have to cross the river.

When we arrived at the bank of the Yishui River, we found that the boats were tied to the ferry, and there was no one on board. There was a light on in a teahouse not far away, and the sound of people talking could be heard faintly from inside.

"Maybe the boatman is resting there." Oliver Bai led Ethan Zhan to that place. From a distance, they heard someone talking, a girl's voice, "Hey, it's not like we don't want to give you money. We said we have to hurry on our way. Big brother, can you please take us across?"

Oliver Bai raised his eyebrows slightly, the voice sounded familiar...

"It looks like the girl I met on the way here." Ethan Zhan couldn't see her, but he remembered her voice very clearly.

When they arrived at the tea stall and looked inside, they saw Sanfeng and Sifeng standing by the table with their bags on their backs, and three or five big men sitting in the tea stall, some eating noodles and some drinking tea.

The two girls seemed to want to ask everyone to take the ferry across, but the boatmen refused.

Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan lifted the door curtain and came in. Oliver Bai said, "Boatman, hire a boat to cross the river."

"Well..."

When the boatmen first saw the two girls, Sanfeng and Sifeng, they didn't take it to heart and thought of sending them away. But now that they saw Bai Yuting and Ethan Zhan also wanted to cross the river, they became troubled.

"My two lords, our boat does not cross the Yi River at night. This is a rule." The waiter patiently said to Oliver Bai, "If the horse belly fairy sees our boat at night, he will come to capsize our boat!"

Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan couldn't help but frown.

"Has anyone of you ever been capsized by a horse?" Sifeng said dissatisfiedly, "Are you trying to fool us with this?!"

"No..." Several boatmen were helpless, "I really don't dare, don't you want to earn money?!"

Seeing the helpless faces of the boatmen, Oliver Bai guessed that they really had some taboo. He thought, would there be any brave men willing to take the risk if there was a huge reward? If not, then he would have to wait until tomorrow morning.

After thinking about it, he took out a silver note from his pocket and handed it to the boatman, "Do you want to go?"

When several boatmen looked at the silver note, their eyes turned red, and they became hesitant and looked at each other.

"Damn it, the brave will die of overeating while the timid will die of starvation!" At this time, one of the sturdy dark-skinned men stood up and said to Oliver Bai, "Give me your banknote, I will take it home to my wife and children, and I will ferry you across later. It's worth dying! It's better than letting the children suffer with me."

Oliver Bai nodded and handed him the banknote, "I won't let you die."

"Okay." The man took the silver and told a few of his brothers around him to help take care of the family in case he didn't come back.

Several brothers nodded in agreement.

Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan came out of the tea stall to wait for the first ferry.

The man was a man of his word and lived not far away. After returning home to give the silver note to his family, he came to the ferry and paddled his boat out.

Oliver Bai pulled Ethan Zhan onto the boat, and the three phoenixes and four phoenixes followed suit.

"Hey!" The boatman stopped the two girls, "Why are you two here too?"

Sifeng muttered, "Together!"

The boatman looked at Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan, neither of them said anything nor tried to stop him.

Sanfeng and Sifeng hurriedly got on the boat. The boatman didn't say anything and rowed the boat away from the shore and headed to the other side.

The guy stood at the stern and rowed carefully, Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan sat beside him, making sure that if anything really jumped up, they could kill it with one knife.

The third and fourth phoenixes sat in the boat, looking at Ethan Zhan and Oliver Bai curiously, guessing their identities.

Ethan Zhan asked the boatman, "What is this big brother's name?"

"Oh, just call me Lao Si!" The boatman smiled, "Sir, are you crossing the Yi River late at night to do some business in the south of the city?"

Oliver Bai nodded and asked, "How long has this legend of the horse's belly been around?"

"Wow... that's old." The fourth child sighed, "I heard it from my grandfather, and my grandfather heard it from his grandfather!"

"So many people are talking about the horse belly. Have you ever seen a living one?" Ethan Zhan asked with a smile.

"How could that be possible?" The fourth brother shook his head. "To be honest with you, sir, many of us didn't really believe it before... Yishui has always been quite peaceful. But this year, I don't know who offended that old man Ma Fu, and so many things happened."

"How many strange things have happened?"

When the fourth brother heard Ethan Zhan's question, he told him all the strange things that had happened in the past few days, just to give himself courage.

Bai Yuting was sitting at the bow of the boat and noticed some piles of weeds floating by, scattered in clumps, so he wanted to take a closer look.

"Sir, that's a dead rat." The fourth brother asked Bai Yuting not to look at it because it was quite dirty.

"Why are there so many dead rats?" Bai Yuting suddenly thought of the swarm of rats that ran through Chengli in the afternoon.

"I don't know what went wrong with those rats. In the afternoon, they first came out from the other side of the Yi River, then ran around like crazy, passed through the city, and then jumped back into the Yi River. Many of them drowned... In the evening, a large group of them floated up. The government plans to bring people to fish them out and burn them tomorrow morning, otherwise there will be an epidemic."

As he was saying this, Oliver Bai felt Ethan Zhan gently tugging at the corner of his clothes.

Oliver Bai looked at him.

Ethan Zhan pointed to his ear.

The fourth brother wanted to say something, but Oliver Bai waved his hand gently at him.

The fourth brother was stunned.

At the same time, amidst the rushing water, there seemed to be other paddling sounds...

Before he could understand what was happening, Lao Si saw Bai Yuting reach out and grab his sleeve and pull it back... In a flash, Lao Si stumbled and fell to the stern of the boat, and there was a loud "crash".

Something huge broke through the water...

"Ah!" Sifeng and Sanfeng saw a big fish jumping out of the water, opening its mouth wide to bite them. If the boatman had not been pulled away by Bai Yuting, the fish would have been bitten.

Bai Yuting also frowned when he saw the big fish.

This thing looks like a fish, but it is fat, has a mouth full of fangs, and its body is extremely smooth with some tiger stripes. It has a dorsal fin on its back that looks like a fan.

"Oliver Bai, bow your head..."

Oliver Bai was still unsure whether it was a fish or not, when he heard Ethan Zhan's voice behind him. He could already feel a slight chill coming from behind him... This icy sword energy could only be emitted by Ethan Zhan's Juque, so he ducked down suddenly.

The three and four phoenixes saw that Ethan Zhan was holding a long cloth bag behind his back. At this time, the blue cloth bag had been opened, and the hilt of a black ancient sword was exposed. Ethan Zhan drew the sword with his hands behind his back...

A cold light flashed, and Juque circled in the air and passed through the air. The sound of the dragon's roar made people shudder.

As the white light passed, a "swish" sound was heard, which was the clear sound of flesh being torn by a sharp blade.

A big bloody hole appeared on the side of the big fish. With a "bang", it fell sideways and slowly sank to the bottom of the river, with a string of blood bubbles bubbling up.

Oliver Bai stood up straight, raised his hand to gently catch a few strands of falling black hair, and turned back to look at Ethan Zhan.

Ethan Zhan waved his hand and threw it downwards... The blood drop on Juque fell back into the water. With a clang, the sword returned to its sheath. Ethan Zhan tilted his head and said, "I'm sorry."

Oliver Bai threw away his hair and replied calmly, "What did you call me just now?"

"Uh..." Ethan Zhan blinked, "Did I call you just now? I said fish! Lower your head."

Oliver Bai shook his head and reached out to help up the dumbfounded Old Four, "Are you okay?"

...

It took the fourth brother a long time to come back to his senses, "Mom... Mom! You, you just hit the horse belly fairy?"

"It's just a fish." Oliver Bai said to Lao Si, "Keep rowing."

"Oh..." The fourth brother ran tremblingly to continue rowing the boat. This time, he saw nothing else along the way except a large number of dead rats.

After the boat reached the shore, Oliver Bai gave Lao Si some more silver and asked him to find an inn in the south of the city to stay for the night. It would be safer to row the boat across the river early the next morning.

The fourth brother was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. He took the silver and went to the town to find an inn. Before leaving, he told Ethan Zhan and Oliver Bai how to get to the Mafu Temple.

The third and fourth phoenixes seemed to be in a hurry to get on with their journey. They thanked the two men and ran away in a hurry.

Ethan Zhan and Bai Yuting followed the route told by the fourth brother and walked towards the nearby mountain. From a distance they could already see the looming ancestral hall on the mountain.

"What was that just now?" Ethan Zhan asked Oliver Bai, and Oliver Bai described the fish to him.

"Isn't it said that the horse's belly also has tiger stripes? Could it be that this strange fish is mistaken for a horse's belly?"

"It's about right." Oliver Bai lowered his head and noticed a high stone in front of him. He wanted to tell Ethan Zhan about it, but he heard a sound in the grass by the roadside.

He was stunned and Ethan Zhan had already tripped and leaned forward.

Oliver Bai quickly stepped forward and scooped up a handful... and caught it safely.

At the same time, a wild cat jumped out from the bushes, holding a mouse in its mouth. It was startled when it saw Oliver Bai and Ethan Zhan. It stood stupidly in the middle of the road, staring at the two with its green eyes.

"Are you okay?" Oliver Bai asked while supporting Ethan Zhan.

"No." Ethan Zhan was a little embarrassed. He stood firm and was about to speak when he heard a sharp cat cry.

In the middle of the night, the cat's cry sounded particularly miserable and extremely scary.

Oliver Bai turned around and saw the cat lying on the ground.

"What is that?!" Ethan Zhan heard the sound.

Bai Yuting pulled him forward a few steps, took out a lighter from his bosom, lit it, squatted down to watch... He saw that the wild cat was holding the dead mouse in its mouth. It was already stiff, and blood was oozing out of all its orifices.

Ethan Zhan poked Oliver Bai's shoulder, "What's wrong?"

Oliver Bai stood up, "The cat is dead...it seems that the dead mouse is poisonous."

"Alas..." Ethan Zhan sighed softly.

Bai Yuting came back to his senses and turned to look at him, wondering why he was sighing.

Ethan Zhan scratched his throat with his fingers and said, "Cats and mice are really enemies. They died together."

Oliver Bai coughed.

Ethan Zhan blinked, "What color is the rat?"

Oliver Bai looked up at the sky, put away the fire starter, and grabbed his wrist, "Let's go..."