Chapter 164 Fish Spirit, Changgui

"Let's go outside first and talk about it later."

Chen Mo waved to the two women behind him, signaling them to step outside first.

Before the words were even finished, the thing took another step forward.

Its webbed feet stomped and splashed the water on the ground, sending up murky spray and a foul stench.

Without hesitation, Liu Ruyan grabbed Fang Yingxia's arm and pulled her outside.

"Then be careful."

Chen Mo did not turn around, and slowly retreated.

In the darkness, the monster was hunched over, its arms hanging down almost to its knees.

The gills on its neck opened and closed, oozing a viscous liquid that hissed softly in the silence.

At this moment, Liu Ruyan and Fang Yingxia had already retreated to the entrance of the main room.

"They ran away..."

The fish monster's eyes darted around, sweeping over the two of them, and a gurgling sound rolled from its throat, clearly indicating that it was enraged.

"You ran away again... Why did you run away!"

It suddenly leaped forward, attempting to bypass Chen Mo and head straight for the door.

Chen Mo was prepared. He took a step to the left, his sword already drawn, and used the power of his waist and hips to slash at the monster's chest.

The blade cut in half an inch, but it felt like chopping into waterlogged rotten wood—both tough and slippery.

The fish monster let out a miserable cry, staggered back two steps, and the wound on its chest opened up, gushing out dark red blood with a pungent stench.

Taking advantage of its retreat, Chen Mo quickly retreated, and within two or three breaths he had already flashed outside the main room.

The monster wasn't very strong; it was just rather disgusting-looking.

With outsiders present, he did not intend to use the Shadow Puppet. It would be inconvenient to dodge attacks inside the house, so it was better to go outside where it was brighter.

In the courtyard, Fang Yingxia was setting up a formation, while Liu Ruyan held a Mauser pistol, pointing the muzzle towards the entrance, her eyes cold.

Chen Mo had just retreated to the threshold of the main room when the thing chased after him.

It moves extremely fast, its two long arms reaching forward alternately, like some kind of amphibian reptile, its spine wriggling under its skin, each segment clearly visible.

Seeing that he was almost in the yard, the fish monster panicked and lunged forward with both front paws.

The pounce was fierce; the dark blue claws grazed Chen Mo's clothes and slammed into the ground, cracking the bluestone slab with a "crack."

The sunlight shone directly on its arm.

The scales, which had originally shimmered with a bluish-green luster, immediately began to emit white smoke and quickly turned black and peeled off, as if they had been burned.

The fish monster let out a miserable cry and withdrew its claws, quickly retreating into the shadows inside the threshold, only daring to lie in the shadows of the doorway, panting heavily.

The gills on both sides of its neck opened and closed wildly, making a rapid hissing sound.

The autumn sun shone brightly, turning the courtyard a golden hue.

It lay on the inside of the threshold, howling at Chen Mo, its turbid eyes filled with madness and resentment.

"It's cold...come in..."

Chen Mo stood in the courtyard looking at the monster and suddenly realized something.

Old Liu once said that this thing doesn't go out during the day; it only knows how to hide indoors.

It turns out it wasn't that they didn't want to come out.

Instead, they can't get out.

Fang Yingxia was setting up her formation when she saw the creature lying at the doorway and was taken aback: "Is it afraid of the sun?"

"I guess it's because they're afraid of the sun, which makes things easier."

Chen Mo looked up at the direction of the roof, took out a palm-sized paper figure from his pocket, and tossed it into the air.

"go."

The paper figure unfurled in the wind, swayed and floated up, casting a small, moving shadow in the sunlight.

Fang Yingxia's eyes widened: "What is this?"

Liu Ruyan explained in a low voice, "The art of paper-making."

The paper figure flew higher and higher, reaching the rooftop in the blink of an eye, transforming into a life-sized paper puppet.

The tiles were smashed in rows, and the broken tiles crashed into the main room.

Sunlight pierced through the gap into the dimly lit main room, cutting through the darkness and illuminating the broken tiles and dust on the floor.

In less than a few seconds, a large section of the roof collapsed in the center.

The fish monster thrashed wildly inside the house, roaring repeatedly, wanting to come out but also afraid of the sunlight in the yard.

Finally, he had no choice but to scramble and crawl under a square table in the corner.

That was the only shadow in the room.

"superior."

Following Chen Mo's command, the paper puppet leaped lightly, and the paper blade in its hand swiftly fell towards the table.

It only took one cut.

The eight-immortal table split in two, rotten wood scattering everywhere. Cola Novels, a professional novel website, provides the most comfortable reading experience.

The sunlight shone down without any obstruction, falling directly on the fish monster.

It let out a miserable cry and could only cower beside the shattered table, curled up in a ball, its two long arms covering its head, its whole body emitting white smoke.

The scales peeled off quickly in the sunlight, revealing the grayish-white flesh underneath.

The flesh began to fester and melt again, and black blood flowed down the body, like a piece of rotting flesh melting under the scorching sun.

Liu Ruyan stared at the mass of things, her gun still in her hand.

Chen Mo stood in the courtyard, watching expressionlessly.

After a while, the fish monster suddenly moved.

It raised its head, its face now bare of scales, revealing a man's face underneath.

The face was swollen and pale, but one could still vaguely make out what it looked like before it was born.

"I don't want to eat Er Ya's..." The fish monster suddenly raised its head and looked at Chen Mo, a glimmer of clarity appearing in its murky eyes. "I don't want to... but I'm hungry... it's so cold down there... only by eating will I stop feeling cold..."

His mouth opened wider and wider, and black water began to gush out of his throat.

Black liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth and onto the ground, carrying a putrid stench.

"Watch out..." Its eyes suddenly widened, Chen Mo's image reflected in its pupils. "It's awake..."

After he finished speaking, the fish monster fell silent.

The sunlight shone on it, and the body slowly sank down, like a melting candle, until only a pool of dark sludge and a pool of murky, foul water remained.

Sunlight shone on the muddy ground, causing steam to rise and a foul stench to permeate the air, attracting several greenbottle flies to hover around it.

Chen Mo waited for a while, and only after confirming that the thing was no longer moving did he step into the main room.

Something is reflecting light in the mud.

It is a scale.

It is about the size of a palm, grayish-green, and has sharp, knife-like edges.

The scales were still covered in black mud, but after wiping the mud off, dark patterns were revealed underneath, like ripples on water.

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.

A faint, lingering aura of power remained on those scales.

It's clearly not this fish monster; it doesn't have that kind of power.

It is likely that the corpse was contaminated by these scales and thus came back to life.

Or rather, it was these scales that gave birth to this thing through that corpse.

He handed the scale to Fang Yingxia: "Mission credentials."

Fang Yingxia took it, let out a long breath, and felt cold sweat bead on her forehead.

Liu Ruyan put away her gun, walked to Chen Mo's side, looked at the mud puddle, and then looked at him.

"What...is this thing?"

Have you ever heard of someone acting as an accomplice to a tyrant?

Liu Ruyan thought for a moment and said, "The souls of those who are eaten by tigers cannot find peace. Instead, they become accomplices of the tigers, luring more people to be eaten by them. Such people are called 'changgui' (伥鬼).

Chen Mo nodded.

"That's the land-based way of saying it; there are similar things in the water."

He pointed to the scales in Fang Yingxia's hand.

"The place where this person drowned is inhabited by something else. That thing is very powerful, so the soul of the dead cannot leave and the body cannot decompose. When it was hit by that thing's evil energy, it turned into this state."

Fang Yingxia recovered and stood up, leaning on the edge of the well: "You mean... he became that thing's accomplice?"

"More or less," Chen Mo said, his gaze falling on the muddy shoal. "The big guys in the water don't dare to come ashore, so they can only send these 'evil spirits' up here to capture people and take them back alive."

"It's just that this beast has somehow developed a bit of intelligence, and it's hiding at home. Otherwise, the residents in this area would probably all be in trouble."

Liu Ruyan frowned slightly. "So what did he mean by what he said before he died?"

"I don't know, but I guess some terrifying thing has woken up."

Liu Ruyan was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you know what that thing is?"

Chen Mo shook his head. "However, those who can raise such accomplices must have at least a hundred years of cultivation. Snakes, eels, and catfish are all possibilities."

"If we're lucky, it might be a dragon."

Fang Yingxia was taken aback. "Jiao? The jiao from the jiaolong?"

"Um."

"What...what if it's a dragon?"

Chen Mo glanced back at her. "Then we'll have to report it to the Suppression Bureau. Otherwise, do you really want to fight them?"