Chapter 98: Sea God Of Anhai
“Cough cough cough!” Drake supported himself on the shore, coughing madly. Seawater sprayed from his nostrils and mouth with the coughing sounds. His eyes were red and stinging from the saltwater irritation. He knelt on the beach, drenched all over, as endless waves washed over him.
Drake looked up at the person who had just dragged him out of the water. It was the youth he had seen during the day yesterday. The other was likewise soaked through by seawater, but the youth could still maintain a standing posture.
“Are you looking for me?” The youth gradually steadied his breathing. He gazed at Drake and asked calmly.
Drake did not know how the youth had guessed his purpose. He nodded, shifted his body, sat on the beach, and let the cold nighttime seawater wash over his body. “Yesterday, I didn’t have time to ask you some things…”
Before he could finish speaking, the youth seemed to already know what he wanted to ask and immediately smiled in response: “Saving you, no other reason, just to repay kindness.”
“Repay kindness? I remember you are called Li Nuowei, right?” Drake was surprised. “Have we met?”
Li Nuowei smiled, then extended his hand to help Drake up from the ground. Afterward, he pointed to the Summer House located nearby on the beach and said, “Let’s go there and talk.”
Drake paused for a second, nodded, and walked side by side with the youth on his left.
While walking, Li Nuowei answered Drake’s earlier question: “You may not remember me, but I will always remember your kindness. I will do my utmost to keep you alive.”
“…Am I going to fall into some huge danger?” Drake was silent for a moment, then decided to ask a different question first.
“Wasn’t the situation just now dangerous enough?” Li Nuowei countered with a hint of teasing, then said, “Of course, the dangers you encounter will not be limited to these.”
Hearing this, Drake immediately thought of the Mermaid Disease and pressed: “What exactly else do you know? What trouble have I gotten into, and why did I suddenly fall into this pit?”
Li Nuowei did not answer immediately. He skillfully found the spare key hidden in the crevice of the door frame at the Summer House doorway, opened the Summer House door, lit the lamps and furnace in the small dwelling, then together with Drake removed their soaked clothes and placed them by the furnace to dry.
While waiting for the clothes to dry, Li Nuowei, bare-chested, drank the direct drinking water in the room and slowly said: “Falling into the pit is due to the fate of your bloodline. It has nothing to do with whether you accept this investigation mission or not. As for what trouble you have run into, I think you already know, otherwise you wouldn’t have thought of coming to find me.”
Drake furrowed his brows tightly. Since the other knew about the “investigation mission,” he must inevitably know his identity as a mysterious investigator. But he still wanted to confirm one last time: “Tell me, what is my current trouble?”
Li Nuowei chuckled, seemingly having seen through Drake’s state of mind, and said meaningfully: “For example, Mermaid Disease and such…”
Hearing this, Drake secretly clenched his fist tightly. Only now did he almost completely believe that the other truly fully understood his situation.
“What exactly is Mermaid Disease?” Drake asked seriously. Even if he had only seen the information sent by the Mysterious Group, he knew that Mermaid Disease was absolutely not some weird epidemic that humans could understand so simply.
Li Nuowei hugged his arms, his eyes gazing at the firelight of the furnace, and slowly began to explain…
Yu Lianyun, Shang Wei, and five C-level mystic investigators from the branch organization boarded the small island described in the Mermaid Disease information. The island was not large in area, roughly the size of a well-equipped comprehensive university.
Currently, no one lived on the island, but several houses and an Ancestral Hall were relatively well preserved, and there were traces of people having lived and used them. It was said that fishermen sailing out nearby might use the roofs here to make fires and cook when passing the island. During the New Year holidays at the beginning of the year, some fishermen would even use the Ancestral Hall here to worship, burn incense, and set up rituals for New Year’s sacrificial offerings to heaven.
Because there were experiences of ordinary people going to the island and returning safely, Yu Lianyun and the others speculated that as long as they just carried out some daily activities on the island and did simple investigations, the island should still be safe.
However, as mystic investigators searching the island, they might still inadvertently trigger certain hidden taboos and fall into danger, but they believed that with extra vigilance, there should not be too great a risk.
The houses on the island had almost all been dismantled. Six houses that could still be used remained. After Yu Lianyun assigned personnel, they split into groups to investigate house by house.
Soon, Yu Lianyun and the others found marks of a special symbol in each house. Some were made into copper vessels placed on old wardrobes, some were woven into rope knots hanging by the bed, and others were directly engraved on various vessels.
Yu Lianyun, who was not from the local area, did not recognize this symbol, but Shang Wei, who had grown up in this seaport city, had a clear impression of it. He explained to the puzzled Yu Lianyun: “This is the mark of the Anhai Divine Society. In Liuhua Port and the surrounding coastal cities, there have always been people who believe in a deity called the Sea God of Anhai.”
“What kind of immortal is the Sea God of Anhai?” Yu Lianyun was somewhat curious. For convenience in investigating the Shenzhou region, she had memorized most of the immortals and demons in the widely circulated mythology system of the Shenzhou Continent. She knew that most coastal people in the Shenzhou region tended to believe in deities like “Sea Mother” and “Dragon King,” but this “Sea God of Anhai” was clearly not a popular deity, more like a niche local deity.
Shang Wei smiled and said: “The Sea God of Anhai is not a deity familiar to people in the Shenzhou region. It is a local deity. Its specific form seems to be a big fish with limbs and a human face.”
“Sounds… pretty easy to imagine.” Yu Lianyun smiled, then asked curiously, “Are there still many people who believe in the Sea God of Anhai now?”
“Not many. At least in Liuhua Port these past ten-plus years, I haven’t seen anyone worshipping this deity for a long time.” Shang Wei pondered and shook his head.
While continuing to explore the houses, Yu Lianyun asked: “Is there any story about this Sea God of Anhai?”
Shang Wei furrowed his brows, looking like he was trying hard to recall, and said: “The stories were told to me by the elder in the village when I was little. I don’t remember the details clearly, but I remember the story was roughly like this…”
Long ago, a huge water monster sea beast roamed the nearby seas. It would randomly hunt passing ships on the sea. Occasionally during fishing bans, when it could not attack ships to satiate itself, it would even extend its demonic claws toward humans and livestock living on land. Its appetite was enormous, which once plunged the humans living in the nearby seaside cities into great fear and shadow.
Until one day, a meteor fell from the sky, a divine star descended, and immediately after, a huge human-faced big fish appeared. In just two or three moves, it devoured and eliminated the water monster sea beast that harmed the people. From then on, ships in the nearby seas were no longer attacked by water monster sea beasts.
Afterward, people began to call this human-faced big fish the envoy sent from heaven to save the human world, a divine fish specially helping sea folk to pacify the sea. Thus, more people began building Ancestral Halls for the human-faced big fish and seriously offering worship to it.
And miraculously, after people seriously worshipped and offered to it, the coastal towns and villages would have favorable weather year after year, no worries about food and drink, no worries about catch, and treasures would occasionally appear on the beach for anyone to pick up.
People believed this was the response of the Sea God of Anhai to their pious worship, so they became even more fanatical and greatly adored the Sea God of Anhai.
“If this Sea God of Anhai is really so miraculous, how did it suddenly ‘fall from grace,’ with almost no one sacrificing to it now?” After hearing the story, Yu Lianyun laughed a little. This story was just like most mythological stories, all about how these deities helped ancient humans facing natural disasters and man-made calamities, then everyone built temples and Ancestral Halls to thank the deities, but eventually everyone switched to believing in materialism.
In response, Shang Wei just smiled and said: “Who knows. I only heard the elder say that very suddenly, after a certain period, the faith drastically decreased.”
Yu Lianyun nodded, then met up with the other mystic investigators who had searched the other houses, and together they entered the Ancestral Hall on the island.
Arriving at the Ancestral Hall, it was indeed similar to the Ancestral Halls and temples in inland coastal cities, with similar enshrined deities.
“Eh!?” However, just when everyone thought they would find nothing, a mystic investigator detected with an instrument that there was actually a hollow area hidden under the firewood pile in the woodshed behind the Ancestral Hall.
Everyone’s expressions immediately turned serious. They moved the firewood together. During this, those evil beasts hidden in the firewood acted like guards of the secret passage. While the mystic investigators cleared the firewood, the snakes, insects, rats, and ants residing inside launched attacks at them.
Fortunately, everyone was alert and cautious enough, so they all escaped danger without anyone suffering serious injuries. At most, a mystic investigator afraid of snakes was so startled that he “gracefully” screamed and twisted his ankle.
It was understandable; even “battle-hardened” mystic investigators had things they feared.
Thus, the ankle-twisted mystic investigator, Yu Lianyun, and two other members stayed in the woodshed, waiting at the secret passage entrance for Shang Wei and the other two mystic investigators to return from investigating below the secret passage.
Opening the metal iron door hidden by the firewood, the passage was not narrow, quite spacious. Three or four people going down together still had plenty of space.
After preparing exploration equipment, Shang Wei led two C-level mystic investigators into the secret passage. With the illumination from night vision equipment and flashlights, the three of Shang Wei could easily see the scene below the secret passage.
From the stacked stone bricks and the oil lamp brackets mounted on the walls, this secret passage had quite some age, filled everywhere with an ancient flavor.
After a brief thought, Shang Wei decided to light the oil lamps along the way. Sometimes a bright fire source was more convenient for illumination than a flashlight.
Lighting lamps all the way, Shang Wei and the others slowly walked to the end of the tunnel’s destination.
There was a black temple. Its space layout was not the conventional square or round, but almost irregular. Yet eerily, such a temple was precisely filled with a strange sense of coordination because of this.
Around the temple everywhere were densely packed black pipe openings, surrounding a stone statue of a crouching harmful beast standing in the center of the temple.
Although Shang Wei had never seen the appearance of the Sea God of Anhai, he recognized it at a glance. The hideous deity stone statue before him was that so-called Sea God of Anhai, a gigantic fish-like creature with a dull human face and humanoid limbs.
Just one look made Shang Wei want to retreat, while his two teammates felt even dizzier, breaking out in cold sweat.
Their nerves seemed to become sensitive. Suddenly, it was as if they could hear some sound they were not supposed to hear, feeling that something unknown was hidden in those dense black pipes.
Shang Wei shook his head, trying hard to calm his emotions. He had already determined that the owner of this stone statue was absolutely not a normal deity, but an existence more akin to the abnormal god class.
In this case, the organizational nature of the Anhai Divine Society was worth re-evaluating.
“Wei Bro, look there. Aren’t there stone slabs engraved with text on all four sides of the stone pedestal under that stone statue?” A mystic investigator forced himself to calm down. He somewhat dared not look directly at the tall stone statue anymore and instead directed his gaze to the item below the stone statue. Doing so did have some effect; the mystic investigator’s state of mind calmed considerably.
Shang Wei and the other followed suit, and sure enough, their states of mind gradually calmed. Then the few of them went forward together and began to gather around to read the four sentences engraved on the four-sided stone slabs of the stone pedestal under the stone statue.
“Sacrifice to you the eyes that gaze upon light.”
“Sacrifice to you the enlightened sharp brain.”
“Sacrifice to you the pious living heart.”
“Beg for your mercy and forgiveness, withdraw the divine punishment descended upon our village, dispel the epidemic and suffering.”
Shang Wei and the other two interpreted the ancient text left on the stone slabs. Every word engraved there, every sentence formed, made Shang Wei and the others feel uncomfortable. It gave them no room for argument and immediately confirmed the true organizational nature of the Anhai Divine Society as evil.
“Withdraw divine punishment, dispel epidemic and suffering?” Reading to this point, Shang Wei and the other two mystic investigators on site all changed expressions. Shang Wei said in shock, “So Mermaid Disease was spread by the Sea God of Anhai through some means? But why?”
“Hai Da… Hui Ke…”
Suddenly, Shang Wei and the other two mystic investigators seemed to hear some low, eerie roar. Their expressions immediately became alert. They turned on their flashlights, illuminating the surroundings of the temple, shining into each black passage.
Then, Shang Wei saw a fleeting dark greenish-black rear claw and fish tail, but when illuminating other openings with the flashlight, he found no further sight of the “owner” of that claw and tail.
“Ah!” The next moment, Shang Wei heard an exclamation from the mystic investigator beside him. His face was ashen, eyes bloodshot, desperately pointing at a spot and shouting. His flashlight dropped to the ground.
Shang Wei looked in the direction pointed by the screaming mystic investigator. Although he could not immediately shine the flashlight light on it, he saw a pair of bright eyes hidden in the darkness. They swayed like lightbulbs before his eyes. When the light shone, that pair of “lightbulbs” blinked and vanished.
“Go!” Shang Wei ordered a retreat without any hesitation.
Please collect and vote or whatever. Posted a summary at the end of the third volume. If interested in learning about the story creation, go back and take a look.
