Chapter 7 The 7th Pier

The seventh pier wasn't completely disconnected from the previous one; about a third of the bridge surface remained connected. Wu Qiang, who was in the lead, carefully walked along the remaining bridge surface.

Having been at this bridge for a while, he had also noticed something strange. He often felt like he was being watched.

That voyeuristic gaze was cold, resentful, and sent shivers down his spine.

However, he remembered Li Bai's warning: never look down at the water. If he didn't look, there would be no danger. He was good at taking advice.

Taking small, careful steps, Wu Qiang finally crossed the severely damaged bridge surface and stood on the seventh pier.

This was the last pier. Through the misty haze, Wu Qiang could already see the scenery on the other side. The lush green trees and the various flowers and plants were the taste of freedom that Wu Qiang had been dreaming of.

"Wu Qiang!"

Hearing someone call, Wu Qiang subconsciously turned his head, but as he turned his body, the scene before him stunned him.

The fog had become so thick that it completely obscured the figures of Lü Zhangyuan and Li Bai, leaving only two blurry outlines.

"Wu Qiang, come quickly, we need to hurry."

Li Bai's voice came from the opposite side, and anyone could hear the urging. The figure raised a hand and waved at Wu Qiang.

"What's going on?" Li Bai looked at the empty pier. What she feared had happened after all.

Lü Zhangyuan's face was pale. "I... I don't know what happened. I looked down to steady the wooden planks, but when I stood up, Wu Qiang was gone."

"Wu Qiang definitely didn't fall off the bridge, otherwise I would have seen it out of the corner of my eye, and... and I didn't hear a splash either," Lü Zhangyuan emphasized, regaining his senses.

A living person had disappeared in an instant. Li Bai had been looking in the direction of Blackwater Village, calculating when the team would arrive, and hadn't paid attention to the movements here.

Li Bai thought for a moment, then began searching her body. She took out the bridge map she had found from the soldiers.

After examining it, Li Bai gradually discerned some clues. The drawing of the last pier was the most complex. Around the pier were marked nine human-like symbols, drawn in a style similar to a child's simple drawing.

But strangely, these symbols were all made with dashed lines.

Next to these dashed-line figures was a large exclamation mark.

And at the very bottom of the pier, where the river surface should be, there were countless things like water plants waving around, the strokes were very chaotic, and one could feel the tension in the heart of the person who drew the picture.

Obviously, that team of soldiers had also encountered trouble here.

"What are these nine human figures?" Lü Zhangyuan frowned, looking again at the bridge surface, where the wooden planks Wu Qiang had moved were still there, but the person had completely disappeared.

Slowly, the look in Li Bai's eyes changed. She stared at the dashed-line figures and seemed to have found the problem. Dashed lines meant that these people were fake, non-existent, and surrounding the pier... Li Bai noticed the twisted hands and feet of the little figures, and then a terrifying guess came to her mind.

"Da sheng zhuang..." (human sacrifice during construction)

Li Bai suddenly realized what was going on with this last pier. It was rumored that it was very difficult to build a bridge over some evil rivers. No matter how well the preparations were done, no matter how strong the piers were, they would soon collapse.

If such a situation was encountered, the people responsible for building the bridge would secretly find some people from the yin industry. These people were proficient in this way and could discern the feng shui taboos of this place, and then calculate what kind of birth date could resolve them. The last step was to find a living person with this birth date nearby and sink them into the river, or tie them up and bury them in the bridge pier to make a human pillar.

Generally, burying one person was enough, at most a pair of young boys and girls, but in this last pier, nine living people had been sacrificed in one go. Li Bai didn't dare to think about how evil the things under the water were.

"Li... Sister Li, what do we do?" Lü Zhangyuan panicked a little. After all, so much time had passed, and the Blood Maiden Shehuo team would arrive soon.

After a moment of silence, a look of determination appeared on Li Bai's face. "You wait here, I'll go find him and bring him back."

"Bring him back? How... how do we find him? We don't even know where he is, and besides, he's now..." Lü Zhangyuan stopped here, looking at the empty pier. At this moment, they were very close to the other side, and the feeling of being so close to a way out but unable to touch it was particularly desperate.

Perhaps to reassure Lü Zhangyuan, Li Bai gave him a reassuring look. "I have a way. Things aren't as bad as you think. Wu Qiang isn't dead, he's just trapped by those things."

"Trapped..."

Without giving Lü Zhangyuan a chance to ask more questions, Li Bai tore open her already tattered coat and roughly tied several pieces of cloth together to make a rope several meters long. She tied one end around her waist and threw the other end to Lü Zhangyuan. "Hold the rope tight. I might disappear in a while too, but don't be afraid. If you feel two slow and one fast pulls on the other end of the rope, then pull outwards to show us the way."

Li Bai's words seemed to take Lü Zhangyuan a while to digest. "Then, Sister Li, if the rope doesn't send two fast and one slow, what do we do?" Lü Zhangyuan stared at Li Bai's face.

"Then don't worry about us. The one pulling the rope on the other side is no longer me." Li Bai was very calm at this life-or-death moment. "At that time, I hope you can calm down. I won't be killed by those things quickly. I will do my best to buy you time on that side. You can loosen the rope, but I suggest you just throw the rope into the river, those things fear water."

"In short, you still have a choice and a chance. Don't give up. My friend Yao Shunyu is a trustworthy person. He will definitely be able to escort the Blood Maiden team successfully. You find him, and he will definitely have a way to take you away."

Just as Li Bai picked up a wooden plank again, preparing to try to walk over, Lü Zhangyuan's voice suddenly came from behind. "Is it worth it?"

Li Bai was stunned for a moment. "What did you say?"

"I said, is it worth it? To risk your life for a stranger, weren't you and Wu Qiang strangers to begin with?" Lü Zhangyuan asked, "No one will blame you for giving up on him."

"I was the one who asked you to lay the bridge. I should do my part if something goes wrong. As for whether it's worth it..." Li Bai looked at Lü Zhangyuan's injured shoulder. "Then what about you? Why would you rather take a knife for Yao Shunyu than betray him?"

Lü Zhangyuan opened his mouth, unable to speak for a moment.

The next second, Li Bai suddenly smiled. "Just because you took that knife for my friend, I will protect you and keep you alive. Don't lose hope, Lü Zhangyuan."