Special Operations Team File, Number Thirty-Five.

Code Name: Sacrifice.

Have you heard of sacrifice?

There's a saying, never live next to a newly built temple.

Not a Buddhist temple, but a shrine to the local gods.

There are immortals in the temple, all alone. After the temple is built, ten young, strong lads from the village will definitely die and be taken to the temple. To do what? To serve the immortals, to carry their sedan chairs.

Those are the gods in the temples on land.

What about those in the water?

"It's better now. Twenty or thirty years ago, when building bridges or crossing rivers, there had to be sacrifices, for fear of offending the River Lord. When drilling for the bridge, you had to use a drill. Sometimes, even the modern large drills would come loose. Isn't that strange? And you couldn't pull them up no matter what."

"At this time, you had to have water ghosts go down, those who were good swimmers and not afraid of death, to retrieve them."

"You call them engineering divers now, but thinking back thirty years ago, they were called water ghosts. They were all good swimmers, and they usually came back up. Besides, they all had thick hemp ropes tied around their waists, so they could be pulled up."

"Usually? What do you mean?"

"Hehe, usually means there are exceptions. Look, back then, such a big drill, for drilling into the ground, couldn't be pulled down even by a dozen people. It could come loose in the water, isn't that strange? Could it be something, I mean maybe, maybe something quietly untied it..."

"You know, when fishing, you can encounter ferocious fish that specialize in biting off the bait on the hook."

"Over time, they treat the people who come to fish as food deliveries. Sometimes, the drill is like a fishhook, but you don't know what the fishhook is attracting."

"Under normal circumstances, the things in the river aren't fierce. A little glutinous rice and wine will do the trick. But sometimes, there's really no way. You can't pull the thing up, and you can't get away. You can only cut the thick hemp rope around the water ghost's waist. Generally speaking, the drill can be pulled up and the bridge can be built. This is called sheng ji (living sacrifice)."

"And sometimes, the river water is so big and turbulent that it seems like it's going to slap people into the water."

"At that time, you also need a sacrifice. Glutinous rice, wine, and, and..."

"Hehe, do you two know? Actually, it's a bit of a pity that those water ghosts with bad tempers aren't the best choice for a sheng ji. The best choice is actually... hehe, heh, hahaha..."

...

The sun had just risen, and sunlight fell on the water.

Zhang Tao, having changed his Taoist robe for ordinary clothes, patrolled the Huai River with his fellow disciples from the Celestial Master Mansion in the Huai River region, aboard a sightseeing boat. However, the water surface was unusually calm, with nothing to be seen, making the whole thing rather dull and boring.

The reason they had to make this trip was a message on their Shizu's (grandmaster) phone.

Without orders, the forces of the Celestial Master Dao cannot be mobilized.

However, since a Dao friend of the current Celestial Master mentioned a possible hidden danger, they would still habitually send a few elite disciples to conduct a preliminary inspection. If there was indeed a problem, they would go through the Celestial Master Dao's procedures again to mobilize the corresponding forces and resolve the internal hidden danger.

But now, looking out over the clear sky, the water was calm, and the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) compass in his hand didn't detect the slightest problem. Clearly, there were no evil spirits. But Zhang Tao dared not be negligent. He was able to stand out among his fellow disciples and receive the true teachings because he was meticulous when doing serious work.

The old man steering the boat chatted with another Taoist.

The boat was rented from a fishing village along the Huai River. The people there were simple and honest, relying solely on the Huai River for their livelihood, fishing, and occasionally carrying passengers. The old man was very talkative, and he chatted with his senior brother for quite a while without stopping.

Zhang Tao, on the other hand, was constantly using magical artifacts to survey the water's surface.

Another Taoist couldn't help but laugh, "Junior brother, it's obvious at a glance that there's not the slightest trace of evil on this river surface. Are you planning to survey the entire Huai River water system by releasing spells like this? Where do you have so much magical power?"

Zhang Tao simply said, "It's my duty."

At the same time, he pointed his fingers together on the Bagua compass and activated another incantation.

But this time, when the incantation landed, waves suddenly appeared on the entire river surface.

It was as if the entire river surface was surging, and a wind and waves rose from the ground. The boatman, who had been chatting and laughing with them, changed his expression and almost ran to the side of the boat, staring at the undulating river water. He forcefully took a bag from the boat.

Inside was white glutinous rice. When the glutinous rice was scattered into the water, the waves on the surface calmed down slightly, but soon became even more violent, as if they had been enraged.

The old boatman's face was pale. This time, he poured all the glutinous rice in.

He also picked up a bottle of Erguotou (a type of strong liquor) in a green bottle next to him and poured it all into the river.

He knelt on the ground with a thud and kowtowed, "Huai River God, Huai River God, you are generous. I have been making a living on the river for generations, and I have never violated your will!"

His face was pale, and he was obviously extremely frightened.

Zhang Tao stared intently at the surface of the water. He had Taoist power and could feel something was about to come out.

A crack appeared in the middle of the river, and a sedan chair swayed out of it.

Under the blood-red sedan chair were seven pairs of sedan bearers, dressed in white clothes, with powder on their faces, as thick and white as putty on the walls. There were large patches of red rouge on both cheeks. When they raised their heads, under the white putty were bluish-white, bloated faces, with strange and eerie smiles on their faces.

Zhang Tao clenched his palm, "They're dead people, water ghosts..."

"Under the age of thirteen, virgin boys and girls, wearing this kind of clothes, they were deliberately thrown into the water."

He retreated sharply, operating the Bagua compass in his hand, wanting to activate a talisman.

He heard a low scream behind him, and just as he picked up the talisman, he felt a tremor in his palm, and he almost couldn't hold the Bagua compass. He lowered his head and saw a bluish-white hand tightly gripping the Bagua compass in the other direction. On the bluish-white, bloated skin, two eyeballs were raised strangely, staring at Zhang Tao, grinning.

Crack, crack.

The Bagua compass shattered directly.

...

Zhang Tao's senior brother activated a talisman in time.

The evil-warding talisman directly hit the sedan bearer who reached out his hand. Accompanied by the sound of sizzling, the sedan bearer fell into the water. One of the Taoists ran to steer the boat, but no matter how they went, no matter how they accelerated, they always seemed unable to escape. The sedan chair followed unhurriedly behind.

Zhang Tao took a picture with his mobile phone, but when he opened it, the photo was empty, with nothing in it.

He sent a message to his sect, and then suddenly thought of the senior who had reminded them to come here. In an emergency, he gritted his teeth and, relying on his memory of the number, sent a request message to that senior.

...

In a dream.

Vast and enormous pillars of water crashed down.

Wei Yuan didn't know how many times the dream body had been shattered by the Huai River Water God, and he had struggled to reunite. After failing countless times, Wei Yuan's anger also rose, and he finally couldn't help but curse.

The golden-eyed, white-faced Wuzhiqi only laughed more wantonly, and the Huai River water veins in his hand lashed out again. Wei Yuan experienced all kinds of miserable situations all night long. Sometimes he didn't even know if this was his dream or Wuzhiqi's dream.

It wasn't until early in the morning that chains reappeared on Wuzhiqi's dream body.

This night of torment finally came to an end.

Wei Yuan opened his eyes blankly.

He decided that he would never try to dream again in the future. He had to rely on talismans and meditation to maintain a state of dreamless sleep. After getting up early and washing up, he saw that the flower shop across the street was still closed. He didn't get to see the Heavenly Maiden. Wei Yuan sighed and opened his phone, boredly scrolling through the Heavenly Maiden's emoticons.

Thinking of her peaceful and aloof expression, and how she carefully added emoticons after chatting, he couldn't help but smile. At this moment, his phone prompted that a new message had arrived.

Wei Yuan saw a line on the application: "A disciple of the Celestial Master Mansion requests help from the senior!"

Wei Yuan's expression froze slightly, and he approved the request.

Then came an online call—

"Senior?! Sorry to bother you, I am a disciple of the Celestial Master Mansion. As the senior said, I am investigating in the Huai River and have discovered traces of evil, cough cough cough..."

Accompanied by the sound of water and painful coughing, the young disciple's voice was intermittent:

"...Discovered seven pairs of virgin boys and girls wearing ancient costumes..."

"It's a primitive blood sacrifice, a blood sacrifice to the Huai River God, and, and the Huai River God has responded."

Faintly, he could also hear the panicked cries of an old voice.

"We're doomed, we're doomed!"

"We've run into the Huai River God's patrol!"

ps: Second update today...

Thanks to Cool Hao for the generous reward, thank you very much~