Chapter 97: 95. The God of Anhai (Combined)

95. The God of Anhai (Combined)

"Cough, cough, cough!" Drake leaned against the shore, coughing violently. Seawater sprayed from his nostrils and mouth with every cough, and his eyes burned painfully from the irritation of the salt water. He knelt there, soaked to the bone, on the beach being washed by the waves.

Drake looked up at the person who had just dragged him out of the water. It was the young man he had seen during the day yesterday. The other person was the same, soaked through by the seawater, but he was still able to maintain a standing posture.

"Are you looking for me?" The young man's breathing gradually steadied. He stared at Drake and asked calmly.

Drake did not know how the young man had guessed his purpose. He nodded, shifted his body, and sat on the beach, letting the cold night seawater wash over him. "I didn't get a chance to ask you some things yesterday..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the young man, as if he had already known what he wanted to ask, smiled and replied immediately: "Saving you, there is no other reason; it is just to repay a debt of gratitude."

"Repay a debt? I remember your name is Li Nuowei, right?" Drake was surprised. "Have we met?"

Li Nuowei smiled, then reached out to pull Drake up from the ground. He pointed to a summer cottage located near the beach and said, "Let's go there and talk."

Drake paused for a second, nodded, and followed on the young man's left side.

As they walked, Li Nuowei answered Drake's previous question: "You might not remember me, but I will always remember your kindness. I will do everything in my power to keep you alive."

"Am I going to fall into some huge danger?" Drake asked.

"Wasn't what just happened dangerous enough?" Li Nuowei asked back with a hint of playfulness, then said, "Of course, the dangers you encounter will be more than just these."

Upon hearing this, Drake thought of the Jiaoren Disease and immediately pressed: "What exactly else do you know? What kind of trouble have I fallen into, and why did I suddenly fall into this pit?"

Li Nuowei did not answer him immediately. He skillfully found the spare key hidden in the crack of the door frame at the entrance of the summer cottage, opened the door, lit the lamps and the stove, and then he and Drake took off their soaked clothes to dry them by the stove.

While waiting for the clothes to dry, Li Nuowei, bare-chested, drank some of the house's direct-drinking water and said slowly: "Falling into the pit is the fate of your bloodline; it has nothing to do with whether or not you accepted this investigation mission. As for what trouble you've encountered, I think you should already know, otherwise you wouldn't have thought to come looking for me."

Drake frowned. Since the other party knew about the "investigation mission," he must know his identity as a Mysterious Investigator, but he still had to make a final confirmation: "Tell me, what is my current trouble?"

Li Nuowei laughed, seemingly having seen through Drake's mood, and said meaningfully: "For instance, something like the Jiaoren Disease..."

Hearing this, Drake secretly clenched his fists. Only then did he almost completely believe that the other party truly understood his situation entirely.

"What exactly is the Jiaoren Disease?" Drake asked seriously. Even if he had only looked at the materials sent by the Xuanmi Group, he knew that the Jiaoren Disease was definitely not as simple as some strange epidemic that humans could understand.

Li Nuowei crossed his arms, his eyes fixed on the firelight of the stove, and spoke slowly...

Yu Lianyun, Shang Wei, and five C-rank Mysterious Investigators from the branch organization boarded the small island described in the Jiaoren Disease materials. The island did not cover a large area, roughly the size of a comprehensive university with complete facilities.

Nowadays, no one lived on the island, but there were still a few houses and an ancestral hall that showed traces of having been lived in and used. It was said that when fishermen from nearby who went out to sea passed by the island, they might borrow the houses to build a fire and cook, and during the New Year holidays, fishermen would also borrow the ancestral hall here to pay respects, burn incense, and set up rituals for the New Year.

Because there were experiences of ordinary people going to the island and returning safely, Yu Lianyun and the others speculated that if one only engaged in some daily activities on the island, it should still be safe.

If they, the Mysterious Investigators, went ashore to search, they might trigger some hidden taboos and fall into danger, but as long as they were extra careful and attentive, there shouldn't be too much danger.

The houses on the island had almost been dismantled. There were six houses left that could still be used. After Yu Lianyun assigned the personnel, they formed groups to investigate house by house.

Soon, Yu Lianyun and the others all found a special symbolic mark in the rooms. Some were made into bronze ware and placed on old wardrobes, some were woven into knots and hung by the bedside, and others were carved directly onto tables and walls.

Regarding this symbol, Yu Lianyun, who was not a local, did not understand it, but Shang Wei, who had grown up in this harbor city since childhood, 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 its surrounding coastal cities, there have always been people who believe in a deity called the 'God of Anhai'."

"What kind of deity is the God of Anhai?" Yu Lianyun was a bit curious. To facilitate her investigations in the Shenzhou Region, she had already memorized most of the gods, immortals, and demons in the mythology systems widely circulated across the Shenzhou land. She knew that most coastal residents in the Shenzhou Region tended to believe in gods like the "Sea Mother" or the "Dragon King," but this "God of Anhai" was clearly not a popular deity; it sounded more like a local one.

Shang Wei smiled and said: "The God of Anhai is not a deity known to people in the Shenzhou Region; it counts as a local deity. Its specific image seems to be a large fish with four limbs and a human face."

"Sounds... quite easy to imagine, huh." Yu Lianyun smiled, then asked curiously, "Are there still many people who believe in this God of Anhai now?"

"Not many anymore. At least in Liuhua Port, in these 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: "Are there any stories about this God of Anhai?"

Shang Wei furrowed his brows, looking as if he were trying hard to recall, and said: "The stories were all things I heard from the old people in the village when I was a child. I don't remember the details very clearly either. I remember the story went roughly like this..."

A long time ago, a huge water monster roamed the nearby sea. It would randomly hunt ships passing by at sea. Occasionally, when it encountered a fishing ban and couldn't attack ships to fill its stomach, it would even extend its demonic claws toward humans and livestock living on land. Its appetite was quite huge, which once caused the humans living in the nearby coastal cities to be trapped in the shadow of great fear every day.

Until one day, a meteor fell from the sky, a divine star descended into the world, and immediately after, a huge human-faced fish appeared. In a few moves, it swallowed and eliminated the water monster that was plaguing the people. From then on, there were no more incidents of ships being attacked by water monsters in the nearby sea.

Later, some people claimed that this human-faced fish was an envoy sent from heaven, a divine fish specifically helping them stabilize the sea. Thus, some people built an ancestral hall for the human-faced fish and began to worship it earnestly.

And miraculously, after people worshipped it earnestly, those coastal towns and villages would have favorable weather for crops every year, with no worries about food or drink, no worries about fishing catches, and from time to time, treasures would appear on the beach for anyone to pick up.

People believed this was the God of Anhai's response to their devout worship, so they became even more fanatical and worshipped the God of Anhai very much.

"If this God of Anhai is really so miraculous, how could it suddenly 'fall from grace' and now have almost no one worshipping it?" After hearing the story, Yu Lianyun laughed a little. This story was similar to most mythological stories, all about how these deities helped humans who encountered natural or man-made disasters in ancient times, and then everyone helped build temples and ancestral halls to thank the deities, only for everyone to end up believing in materialism as they kept worshipping.

To this, Shang Wei just smiled and replied: "Who knows? I only heard from the old folks that it was just very suddenly, after a certain period, that the faith decreased significantly."

Yu Lianyun nodded, then joined the other Mysterious Investigators who had finished searching the other houses, and together they stepped into 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, and the deities worshipped were similar.

"Eh!?" However, just when everyone thought they would also come up empty-handed, a Mysterious Investigator detected with an instrument in the woodshed behind the ancestral hall that a hollow area was hidden under the pile of firewood.

Everyone's expressions suddenly turned serious. They moved the firewood away together. During this time, those pests hidden in the firewood were like guards protecting this secret passage. As the Mysterious Investigators cleared the firewood, the snakes, insects, rats, and ants hiding inside launched attacks on them one after another.

Fortunately, everyone was agile and cautious enough, so they were all safe and sound, and no one suffered serious injuries. At most, one Mysterious Investigator who was afraid of snakes was so frightened that they let out a "seductive" scream and then sprained their foot.

It was understandable; even "battle-hardened" Mysterious Investigators had things they were afraid of.

Thus, the sprained-footed Mysterious Investigator, Yu Lianyun, and two other members stayed behind in the woodshed, waiting at the entrance of the secret passage for Shang Wei and the other two Mysterious Investigators to return from their investigation below.

Opening the metal door hidden by the firewood, the passage was not narrow at all; it was very spacious, and there was more than enough room for three or four people to go down together.

Shang Wei, with two C-rank Mysterious Investigators, entered the secret passage after preparing the exploration equipment. With the help of night-vision equipment and the light of flashlights, the three of them could easily see the scene under the secret passage.

Judging from the stacked stone bricks and the oil lamp brackets mounted on the walls, this secret passage had a considerable age, filled everywhere with an ancient charm.

After a little 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.

Just like that, lighting lamps along the way, Shang Wei and the others walked to the end of the tunnel.

This was a black temple. Its spatial layout was not the conventional square, nor was it round; it was almost irregular, but eerily, it was filled with a strange sense of coordination.

All around the temple were dense black pipe openings, surrounding a stone statue of a blind harmful beast standing in the center of the temple.

Although Shang Wei had never seen what the God of Anhai looked like, he recognized it at a glance. The hideous deity stone statue in front of him was that so-called God of Anhai, a giant fish with a dull human face and human-like limbs.

Just by looking at it, Shang Wei felt the urge to retreat, and his two teammates felt even more dizzy and broke out in cold sweat because of it.

Their nerves seemed to have become sensitive, and suddenly they felt as if they could hear some kind of sound they shouldn't have been able 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 by no means a normal deity, but rather an existence closer to the likes of an Alien God.

In this way, the organizational nature of the Anhai Divine Society was worth reconsidering.

"Brother Wei, look there. Isn't there a stone slab with characters carved on all four sides of the stone pedestal under that statue?" A Mysterious Investigator forced himself to calm down. He dared not look directly at the tall stone statue anymore, but instead turned his gaze to the object under the statue, and doing so indeed had some effect; the Mysterious Investigator's mood calmed down quite a bit.

Shang Wei and the other person followed suit, and indeed their state of mind calmed down quite a bit; then, the few of them stepped forward together to surround and read the text carved on the four sides of the stone pedestal beneath the stone statue.

"I sacrifice to you the eyes that look directly at the light."

"I sacrifice to you the wise and sharp brain."

"I sacrifice to you the devout and living heart."

"Begging for your mercy and forgiveness, to withdraw the divine punishment cast upon my village, and to drive away the plague and suffering."

Shang Wei and the other two people deciphered the ancient text left on the stone slab; every word and every sentence allowed Shang Wei and his companions to quickly confirm the true organizational nature of the Anhai Divine Society, which was undoubtedly evil.

"Withdraw the divine punishment, and drive away the plague and suffering?" Shang Wei and the other two Mysterious Investigators' expressions changed, and Shang Wei said in shock, "So the Jiaoren Disease was spread by the God of Anhai through some means, but why?"

"Haa-da... hwei-ke..."

Suddenly, Shang Wei and the other two Mysterious Investigators seemed to hear a low, strange roar, and their expressions immediately became alert; they turned on their flashlights, illuminated the surroundings of the temple, and shone them toward the various black passageways.

Subsequently, Shang Wei saw a flash of a dark cyan hind claw and a fish tail, but when he shone his flashlight toward the other openings, he discovered that he did not see the "owner" of that claw and fish tail again.

"Ah!" The next moment, Shang Wei heard a cry of alarm from the Mysterious Investigator beside him; the man was pale, his eyes were bulging with bloodshot veins, and he was desperately pointing at a spot while shouting, his flashlight having fallen to the ground.

Shang Wei looked in the direction the screaming Mysterious Investigator was pointing; although he could not immediately shine the flashlight's beam onto it, he saw a pair of bright eyes hidden in the darkness, which were swaying before his eyes like light bulbs, but when the light shone toward them, that pair of "light bulbs" blinked and vanished without a trace.

"Go!" Shang Wei did not hesitate at all and immediately ordered a retreat.