Chapter 66: Legend
Curiosity is a great driving force for human progress, and at the same time, a major factor leading to death.
“Xiaoxiao, are you going to the lunch gathering?” Zhang Xiaoxiao answered a voice message from her friend while eagerly flipping through books.
After listening to the voice message, she immediately typed a reply to her friend: “No, I still have some things to finish. You guys go ahead.”
After replying, Zhang Xiaoxiao threw her phone onto the desk piled high with books and read occult books from Xiangcui University Library, neglecting food and sleep.
As Zhang Xiaoxiao flipped through the book, she cursed herself for being crazy.
The female killer’s jumping onto the tracks and committing suicide was long past, but for some reason, she couldn’t sleep for several nights. As soon as she closed her eyes, her mind was filled with images of that last train, fantasizing about how cruelly and sharply the female killer had killed everyone.
Although it was a fantasy, every scene was incredibly real, as if it were right in front of her. There were moments when she even thought that if that strange youth hadn’t been on the train, if that youth hadn’t said those strange words, if she had endured the couple’s foul language to get back to school faster… perhaps she would have died on that fatal subway.
Her head would have been chopped off by a cold boning knife, her horrifically mangled head would have been wrapped in a luggage bag with those annoying people, and her corpse would have been thrown into the cold and damp underground to be gnawed raw by something dark and detestable.
Trapped in such a chilling and bloody nightmare, Zhang Xiaoxiao felt she had to do something, and the first thing she could think of was to find the truth of that bloody night.
Why did that cold and stunningly beautiful female killer kill all the passengers on that train, when they had no grievances with each other?
She thought about looking for the youth who left the subway with her that night, but the thought of the youth perhaps not being human made Zhang Xiaoxiao rationally abandon this shortcut.
As a future graduate student admitted to the world-class school, Miscato University, Zhang Xiaoxiao had her own systematic approach to collecting, organizing, and processing information. She thought she might be able to find the answer herself, even if it might not be easy.
If the largest library in Cuizhu City was the library in the city center, then the library with the longest history and the richest collection would undoubtedly be the Xiangcui University Library. What was unknown was that the Xiangcui University Library seemed ancient enough to contain even some strange, heretical, and rebellious cult texts within its vast sea of books, like insidious traps hidden in darkness, waiting for naive, ignorant, and eager students to fall into a realm where death and danger were visible.
Zhang Xiaoxiao did not expect to find so many strange cult texts detailing ancient anomalous events in the school library. At this moment, she was not only trying to find the truth but also marveling and excited by the horrifying legends and ancient rituals recorded in the books, feeling as joyful as discovering a new continent or finding El Dorado, yet also uneasy about the knowledge of forbidden unknowns she was venturing into.
If the female killer’s slaughter was not accidental but had another purpose, then her actions must have followed a pattern and logic.
Zhang Xiaoxiao checked the number of missing persons in Cuizhu City over the years, starting from the completion of Subway Line 3. She found that there had been missing persons related to the subway every year, and the incidents were concentrated on October 26th each year, the very day the “Death Subway” event occurred.
It appeared that those who had mysteriously disappeared after boarding Cuizhu City’s Subway Line 3 on October 26th had most likely met a tragic end under the blades of the female killer or the mysterious forces behind her.
The patterned and logical slaughter immediately made Zhang Xiaoxiao think of the eerie legends circulating in the mundane world. Only evil magic rituals born from some dogma and precepts would possess such an abnormal and bizarre “elegant” aura.
After sifting through mountains of books that trampled on human ethics and were detested by gods and men, Zhang Xiaoxiao finally, in an ancient book titled “Fish Transformation Miscellaneous Notes” written by the historically famous mad scholar “Ye Gong,” uncovered the evil secrets buried beneath Cuizhu City.
The mad scholar “Ye Gong” did not write much in his lifetime, and his grotesque and insane works contained too much sinister and detestable content. Already not accepted by the public, his books naturally met the fate of being abandoned by the masses. After Ye Gong’s death, his books were nearly burned as heretical objects, and very few original manuscripts and copies survived.
This “Fish Transformation Miscellaneous Notes” was a work of Ye Gong’s that had not been circulated publicly. Even though what Zhang Xiaoxiao held in her hand was a copied manuscript by a “fan” of Ye Gong’s, it showed its preciousness. Perhaps this book in her hand was the only surviving manuscript of Ye Gong’s unknown works, worth a thousand gold.
Zhang Xiaoxiao carefully opened the book, as if pushing open a forbidden door. In its all-encompassing and wildly imaginative records of the bizarre, she learned that the book was likely written in Ye Gong’s later years, when he was exiled to the Southern Barbarian Sea Land. He processed and compiled legends passed down through generations of local fishermen, stories they had personally witnessed, and their own experiences.
In the book, there was a section titled “Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea.” From the beginning of the story, Zhang Xiaoxiao learned that when Cuizhu City did not yet exist and was still the Southern Barbarian Sea Land, fishermen living in this region had a legend about a strange creature called the “Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea.”
The existence of mermaids is not uncommon and is often mentioned in various mythical and strange fiction. Because of their special ability to shed pearls when they cry, and with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish, they are often portrayed as victims in stories due to their exquisite beauty and delicate physique. However, the alternative mermaid recorded in “Fish Transformation Miscellaneous Notes” was not at all like the commonly known image, and in some aspects, it was even completely opposite.
Although the Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea possessed exquisite and mystical beauty and a sweet singing voice, her captivating song would attract passing sailors and fishermen, drawing them like bewitched individuals into the misty sea area where the mermaid hid. Then, neither the people nor the ships led into the mist by the song ever emerged from it again. No life that entered that misty sea area ever came out alive.
However, nothing is absolute, and it wasn’t that no one survived the Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea. The story also mentioned a girl who went out to sea with her father and survived after entering the mist. It was said that she even killed the mermaid with her own hands, and this statement seemed to be true, because ever since she returned to land, people no longer spoke of mermaids harming people.
But even though no incidents occurred at sea, after the surviving girl returned to the fishing village, troubles began to slowly emerge in the village. Villagers disappeared one after another, and with the village running out of able-bodied workers, people began to spread rumors of monsters at work, causing the village chief great anxiety.
As the days in the fishing village became increasingly tense and anxious, a nun happened to pass by. She immediately recognized the anomaly in the village. After being treated to lunch by the village chief, the nun decided to do the village chief a small favor by finding the monster and expelling it.
The nun was indeed powerful. After inspecting the village, she quickly made a discovery, identifying the girl who had survived the Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea as the culprit behind the village’s troubles, stating directly that the girl was not human.
As expected, the accused girl lost her composure upon hearing the nun’s accusation. Her face turned grim, and in an instant, she transformed into a massive, indescribable flesh mountain formed by the interlocked bodies of countless men and women.
The nun unleashed her magic power and fought fiercely with the flesh mountain monster. Both sides sustained injuries; the flesh mountain monster was covered in flying flesh and blood, and the nun had an arm bitten and gnawed off by it.
After a fierce battle, the flesh mountain monster was ultimately defeated and fled in disarray.
Seeing the monster repelled, the terrified villagers were extremely grateful to the nun and curiously asked what kind of monster it was.
The nun explained that it was a very ancient, formless demon. Because it often appeared in female form, it was also called the Gluttonous Daughter. It could transform into whatever it ate. The mermaid that ate people at sea was it, because it ate the real mermaid. The person who caused the villagers’ disappearance in the village was also it, because it took the form of the surviving girl and infiltrated the village. This time, it escaped, and it would transform into something else to harm others. To prevent further harm, she decided to track down the demon and thoroughly deliver it.
Upon hearing the nun’s intention, the villagers expressed their admiration and gratitude, and hoped she would subdue and deliver the demon soon.
However, what followed was not a profound and thought-provoking ending as in traditional strange tales. Zhang Xiaoxiao only witnessed a suffocatingly desperate conclusion.
The nun died on her way to deliver the Gluttonous Daughter, and this was seemingly the work of the Gluttonous Daughter.
After the nun’s death, the Gluttonous Daughter returned to the village. The villagers were greatly horrified to see the demon that had harmed countless people return. Brave villagers stepped forward, but after a desperate struggle, they were all defeated and perished. Only a group of weak and cowardly villagers, fearing death, swore their lifelong loyalty to the Gluttonous Daughter in exchange for a chance to live.
The Gluttonous Daughter agreed and even “kindly” set three stipulations with the villagers, stating that as long as they offered her enough food annually, she would not harm other villagers and would also bless their village with continuous wealth.
To ensure the quantity of tribute was sufficient, the villagers did not dare to present the corpses of the elderly who had passed away normally. The food she wanted had to be fresh and from the young and strong. Therefore, the Gluttonous Daughter would also specifically select an executioner from among the villagers who were gradually becoming her followers at regular intervals, exclusively to slaughter prey for her.
Since the villagers did not want their own people to be among those offered as tribute, they actively repaired roads and opened up trade markets, attracting more and more outsiders to the village. They then took the opportunity to kill or kidnap these outsiders and present them as tribute to the Gluttonous Daughter, who lived in the cold and damp underground.
The Gluttonous Daughter disliked eating heads, so she later specifically instructed them that future tributes must be processed before being presented.
The villagers, while fearing the Gluttonous Daughter’s might, were also greedy for the protection the Gluttonous Daughter brought.
Ultimately, the villagers who succumbed to their desires completely became followers of the Gluttonous Daughter, upholding the agreement with her for generations. The Gluttonous Daughter also kept her promise and never attacked the villagers again.
Being able to bring wealth and protection to the village without harming their lives, under such sweet promises, as generations of villagers changed, their attitude towards the Gluttonous Daughter gradually shifted from fear and curiosity to obedience and reverence. They regarded the Gluttonous Daughter as a true deity, offering sacrifices and worshiping her, thus elevating the Gluttonous Daughter to a divine status.
In his book, Ye Gong stated that he himself had visited the rumored village to investigate. He found that the people there lived very prosperous lives without troubles. However, every night, he would see the villagers holding a cruel and bloody ritual around a bonfire with numb expressions.
As he was observing from afar, he could not clearly discern what the villagers were doing at the time. But Ye Gong vaguely saw someone seemingly tied to a platform resembling an operating table. On the platform, the person struggled like a fat fish on a cutting board. Then, an executioner dressed in black appeared, raised his cleaver, and swung it down at the bound person on the platform.
Seeing this scene, Ye Gong, being a madman, rushed out of his residence to witness a scene that would invigorate his spirit. But everything seemed like his hallucination; the site of the ritual left no trace. He saw no corpses, nor did he see villagers dressed in strange attire. They were all in their usual plain clothes, as if nothing had happened.
Ye Gong was not deterred and was even more intrigued. One night, after the villagers had fallen asleep, he went to the village cemetery where the dead were buried. After digging open one grave after another, he was shocked and excited to discover that beneath each tombstone lay an incomplete corpse. The bodies beneath the tombstone, except for their heads, had nothing left of their bodies…
After reading the story of the Sea Mermaid of the Ghost Sea, Zhang Xiaoxiao felt a chill run down her spine. She finally confirmed the anomalous factors hidden beneath Cuizhu City and identified the dangerous organization behind the female killer. The members of that organization were the descendants developed from that village, and the organization was a group born from that village.
Zhang Xiaoxiao felt an inexplicable panic. She lowered her head and scanned her surroundings, feeling as if someone were secretly peeping at her.
She didn’t know how large that organization had grown after hundreds of years of development. Perhaps their personnel had already spread throughout the entire city. Realizing the truth, she felt that everyone around her might harbor ill intentions, and she might also become a target of that organization for knowing too much.
“They absolutely cannot know about this,” Zhang Xiaoxiao thought. She frantically stuffed the “Fish Transformation Miscellaneous Notes” into her schoolbag and ran out of the library without looking back. She ran under the sun, but like a headless fly, she didn’t know where to go, feeling surrounded by enemies and with no escape…
“Maomao!” Xin Mother burst into Xin Junmao’s room and saw her son falling from the bed, covering his eyes and screaming. Panicked, she hurried forward to check her son’s face.
She gritted her teeth and opened her son’s hands that were forcefully covering his face, wanting to check his eyes. But after finally managing to see the condition of her son’s eyes clearly, she asked with complete bewilderment, “Your eyes are fine, what are you screaming about?!” The more Xin Mother spoke, the more annoyed she became.
However, Xin Junmao said painfully, “These… these are not my eyes.”
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