Chapter 21

Chapter 021

Fuling Province bordered Lu Yan’s own. Coastal, economically prosperous.

Which was why, as their RV wound its tortuous way up the mountain road, Zhou Qimeng retched over an empty plastic bag. “This is more remote than the poorest villages back in Bashu. Is this really a village in Fuling?”

The jolting was about to make him vomit.

Fortunately, having skipped a meal, there was nothing to bring up.

Seven hours had passed since they’d left K City.

Five hours ago, his watch had detected he’d left the municipal boundaries, prompting a message from Su Fufeng asking why he’d gone out of province.

Lu Yan had replied with a single word: Tourism.

He hadn’t bothered disabling the GPS. If things went south, he was counting on the Prevention and Treatment Center to mount a rescue, if only for the value of a rare healing-type.

As the altitude climbed, a visible layer of white mist clung to the surroundings, the temperature dropping noticeably. The road was lined with abandoned villages, ghosts of past prosperity.

The air grew damp, each breath feeling thick and wet.

Lu Yan rather liked the sensation. Coming here felt like coming home.

Ever since merging with Wang Yu, he’d developed a particular fondness for rainy days.

Zhou Qimeng, suspecting his “condition” stemmed from local water, had insisted on the RV for this trip. A two-story model, complete with a stove, sofa, and even a TV.

The mountain road was rugged, but at least it wasn’t narrow. Otherwise, flipping over would’ve been a real concern.

Up front, Chen Shisi suddenly slammed his phone down with a curse. “Dammit! No signal. And I was in the middle of a ranked match!”

According to Zhou Qimeng, confident in his abilities and lured by the low detected pollution reading, he’d come alone last time.

He’d searched for ages, found no pollution source, and ended up… pregnant. He’d fled overnight in a panic.

When pressed on why he’d taken such a seemingly low-risk mission in the first place, Zhou Qimeng had hemmed and hawed until Chen Shisi ruthlessly exposed him. “Got into a forum argument. That hot post a while back—some anon OP claimed the current pollution zone classifications are flawed, based only on lethality. Argued some zones with low readings could stump even a B-Class Awakener.”

“Boss here wouldn’t let it go, DMed the guy to battle it out. The other side eventually dropped the address for Longnu Lake,” the detective explained.

The driver was the detective, Zhou Qimeng’s secretary. Steady and reliable, but purely support-class. His talents lay in infiltration and counter-surveillance; a former corporate spy, his combat ability was roughly half of Lu Yan’s.

Zhou Qimeng’s mood was grim. “Pretty sure I got scammed. I hadn’t logged into the forums in ages. The moment I do, I see this brain-dead post. Just happened to be B-Class. Just happened to be free.”

With the drive dragging on, Lu Yan had cooked a meal: stewed lamb and scrambled eggs with sand onions. The lamb was air-freighted suckling meat from the Peaceful Grasslands, fragrant and tender. The three of them ate like starved wolves.

Chen Shisi’s eyes welled up. “So good… My taste buds degraded years ago, couldn’t tell salt from anything. I could die happy after this meal.”

The detective told him not to jinx it with such ominous flags.

*

By four in the afternoon, the RV finally rumbled to the entrance of Longnu Village.

The topography was peculiar. The village sat in a valley basin, surrounded on all sides by mountains, utterly secluded. At its heart lay a placid, crystal-clear lake, its surface shimmering under the sunlight, breathtakingly beautiful.

The houses were brick, two or three stories. A few long-defunct Mercedes sedans rusted by the roadside, suggesting the villagers hadn’t been destitute.

Not a soul walked the streets. Without the occasional bark of a dog, it would have felt completely deserted. Lu Yan’s senses were sharp; he could feel eyes on them from behind windows. Glancing up, he saw only strange men of varying ages staring back.

Chen Shisi took out a meter and began scanning.

Pollution Reading: 30.

Even a freshly mutated frog-man had a reading of 100. This number was indeed too low to raise alarm.

“Same as last time,” Zhou Qimeng said, stepping out to breathe the fresh air. “The locals, probably because of the pregnancies, don’t like going out or seeing people. They don’t use paper money, extremely xenophobic. I had to use my talent to tweak a few villagers’ memories just to find a place to stay.”

Zhou Qimeng was a special-type Awakener.

His talent was called “Virtual World,” ranked 39th.

In Zhou Qimeng’s mind, reality was a massive RPG. Everyone around him was an NPC—himself included.

His talent allowed him to add “settings” to these NPCs within his limits.

Success depended entirely on the difficulty of the change.

Adding “Zhou Qimeng is from this village” to all the villagers’ memories? Easy.

Adding “Zhou Qimeng cannot die” to himself? He’d mutate into a pollutant from the strain before he managed it.

In Zhou Qimeng’s world, Lu Yan was somewhat odd.

Take Chen Shisi: above his head floated the name “Monk – Chen Shisi,” topped with the title “Shaolin Temple Successor.” Even with a stranger, Zhou Qimeng could glean basic info.

Lu Yan’s title, however, was “Man-Eating Flower Doctor,” which left him puzzled.

Zhou Qimeng wasn’t a stranger to hardship, but Longnu Village’s lodging was abysmal. The damp, low-altitude climate meant the bedding crawled with insects—shelled and shell-less alike. Hence the insistence on the RV.

Lu Yan cut straight to the point. “Where’s the pollution source?”

The system chuckled. [At the bottom of the lake. But I don’t recommend diving in just to become appetizer. Look around the village first. I’ll give you some hints.]

This was where the system proved unreliable, speaking in riddles.

There was no doubt it bore Lu Yan no ill will; it even provided crucial aid.

But Lu Yan had a vague sense that if he died, the system would simply find a new host.

A bit troublesome, perhaps, but he wasn’t the only option.

Just as Lu Jiahe had been chosen by “something” through the Wall of Resentment.

When Lu Yan suggested scouting the area, Zhou Qimeng volunteered to accompany him without hesitation.

The village was small, end-to-end in under twenty minutes. Beyond it lay Longnu Lake.

Lu Yan noticed something: every household’s courtyard had a well. Not an ordinary well. Rusted chains hung over its mouth, descending straight into the depths.

This type was called a “Yu the Great Dragon-Locking Well.”

He stepped into a half-open courtyard overgrown with weeds for a closer look.

Carved before the well was a date: September 1, 2101.

“In legend, these wells were built to suppress flood dragons,” Lu Yan remarked. “With modern plumbing, few dig wells anymore, let alone dragon-locking ones. If it’s not for water, it must be suppressing something.”

“Superstitious nonsense. I think it marks the start of the pollution here, some mutation twenty years ago.”

Zhou Qimeng nodded. “Makes sense.”

At that moment, a tightly shut door creaked open a crack. A middle-aged man with a sallow complexion peered through the gap, his voice cold. “Who are you? What are you doing?!”

Lu Yan produced his Prevention and Treatment Center ID. “I’m with the Center. We received a report of a contagious Pollution Disease outbreak here. We’re investigating.”

His tone was calm, authoritative, somehow convincing.

The man’s expression remained wary. “We don’t need it! Get out! It’s for your own good.”

Zhou Qimeng had no choice but to add a setting to the man’s mind: Zhou Qimeng is my son, home on holiday with his classmate.

The man’s eyes glazed over for a second. The next moment, he flung the door open and backhanded Zhou Qimeng across the face. “I told you not to come back! Why did you return?! You unfilial brat, trying to kill me with anger?!”

Zhou Qimeng: “…”

He fought the urge to slap back. That would “break character,” forcing him to use his ability again. A hassle.

So he swallowed it.

The man was Wang Jianjun. His abdomen was grotesquely swollen, a taut balloon ready to burst.

His blue-black belly was webbed with dark purple veins. Through the semi-transparent skin, no organs or bones were visible—only amniotic fluid. And inside, no longer a fetus, but a three- or four-year-old child.

The child’s form was grotesquely disproportionate, less human and more like a water monkey.

“Dad,” Zhou Qimeng asked, aggrieved, “what’s with your stomach? It’s even bigger.”

Wang Jianjun glanced at the dragon-locking well. “Don’t ask. Come inside first.”

His son, gone for years, had finally returned. Though disobedient, Wang Jianjun was still happy.

He brought out a bottle of ’82 Feitian Moutai, shelled two plates of peanuts as snacks, and switched on a dim, yellow light.

"Boss said it... all our retribution," Wang Jianjun muttered, a sickly flush rising on his cheeks after a few cups. Tears carved tracks through the grime on his face. "We made money offering sacrifices to Longnu, then got distracted by the wealth, forgot our vows. Retribution. Everyone who left this village, made their fortune and didn't come back... they're all dead. Whole families, wiped out. I sent you away to study, came back alone because I had no choice. Why did you have to follow me here?"

"Uncle," Lu Yan cut in, seizing the keyword. "What are these 'sacrifices to Longnu'?"

Wang Jianjun wiped his face with a rough hand. "Longnu Village was isolated. Poor. Twenty years ago, a feng shui master passed through. Said this was land of great potential, held back only because Yu the Great locked a dragon-girl at the bottom of our lake. Her resentment festered. He said if we made yearly offerings of livestock, wealth would flow."

"So we did. We made the sacrifices, left the mountains. Within months, every family struck it rich. Your mother and I moved out to the city. Had you there. Within five years, the village emptied. Once people had money, they never looked back. Then, ten years ago... the dying started. One by one, every year. All drowned. That's when folks sensed something wrong. The village boss said Longnu came to him in a dream. Said we broke our word. The ones who were left... we came back."

"At first, it was almost like a reunion. Laughing, talking. Then, within two years... everyone who returned got pregnant." His voice dropped to a haunted whisper. "Tell me that's not unnatural. One man tried to leave, get to a hospital. His car hit a ghost wall. Drove for three days, ended up right back at Longnu Lake. Couldn't leave."

"Later, he said... every time he tried to leave the mountains, he'd somehow find himself back at the lakeshore. And in the water... a crowd of women, laughing."

As he spoke, his face turned the color of ash, features twisting into a mask of pure dread.

Zhou Qimeng's brow furrowed.

As an Awakener, he had zero belief in ghosts or gods. Anything 'supernatural' was just a pollutant acting up.

But the locals didn't know that. Trapped here, no signal, under constant pressure… it was a miracle they weren't all insane.

He leaned toward Lu Yan, voice low. "I'm betting that so-called 'Longnu' is the pollution source."

Lu Yan clearly thought the same, but his curiosity was hooked on something else.

"Is it only the men who get pregnant?" Lu Yan's gaze swept the room. No women's belongings. Even the shoes by the door were all men's. "Where is Auntie?"

From the moment they'd entered the village, Lu Yan hadn't seen a single female. Even the dogs barking on the roadside had been male.