landbeastnovel Chapter 39 Deep in the Swamp
Chapter 39 Deep in the Swamp
The middle-aged man quickly approached.
After seeing the man's face clearly, Yu Xun lowered his guard and sheathed the short knife he had drawn.
"Old Tian, what are you doing here? Weren't you still on vacation?"
Tian Yong nodded, turned slightly to the side, revealing two people, one tall and one short, behind him.
"I brought my wife and kids out to relax, who would have thought... we'd run into this?"
Tian Yong looked helpless and shrugged.
"Sigh." Yu Xun sighed and continued, "Did you run into any colleagues from the bureau on your way here?"
"I didn't see them, but I checked the time, and they should be arriving soon."
quack!
In the distance, a loud croak of a frog rang out.
Even though everyone present was quite a distance away, they still felt some discomfort in their eardrums.
A small number of people even experience symptoms such as dizziness and tinnitus.
"what!"
"dad!"
Huang Yong's wife covered her ears and screamed, grabbing his clothes and burying her head in his back.
The child instinctively called out "Dad," and quickly crossed his legs, running to Huang Yong's side and clinging tightly to his leg.
"It's okay, it's okay."
Huang Yong comforted the mother and son.
Yu Xun glanced at it a few times before turning his attention back to Chi Le.
At that moment, Chi Le was looking in the direction from which the frog croaking was coming from.
The only high ground in the entire marshland.
"Ah Le, what did you find?"
Chi Le snapped out of her daze, focused her gaze, and shook her head.
I don't know if it's because of my own nature or the blessing of Qingshan Temple.
Chi Le has a very strong perception of the bizarre world, or things that have been tainted by it.
It's like he can instantly sense the unique, chilling aura emanating from someone who has entered a bizarre world.
Even if the distance is far, even if the other party is in a complicated alley, as long as he concentrates, he can still sense traces of them.
For example, there's Lü Liangwei, whom Yu Xun searched for in the old alley.
Chi Le found the other party using this ability.
And now, he could clearly sense that high ground in the distance.
An aura of strangeness far exceeding any other strange world I had sensed so far.
A chilling, eerie atmosphere, carrying a peculiar, muddy, and foul odor, swirled and coalesced.
If I'm not mistaken, the final boss of this swampy area is on that high ground.
Should we go take a look?
Current incense offerings: 0
[Architecture: Side Hall]
[Remaining construction time: 00:46:43]
[Architecture: Mountain Gate]
[Remaining usage time restored: 00:46:43]
Without the imperial edict of "incense offerings," his only two reliances in this treacherous world are the local earth god of Changxi Village.
Without a "mountain gate" as a "bridge," even if one has incense offerings to summon the local earth god, it is still impossible to achieve anything.
He couldn't get there either, and could only stare blankly inside the Green Mountain Temple.
There was no incense offering, and no thugs.
Chi Le's sense of security has decreased significantly.
Curiosity about the unknown drove him deeper into the mire, but reason told him that he was in a bad state and needed to hold on.
"Ah Le, I plan to go deeper into the area."
Seeing that Chi Le had come to her senses, Yu Xun said.
"There are probably still quite a few people trapped in the deep swamp. Time is precious, and waiting for colleagues here is too time-consuming."
Yu Xun's gaze was intense, while Chi Le's curiosity slightly outweighed her rationality.
"OK."
After receiving Chi Le's nod of agreement, Yu Xun spoke to Huang Yong.
"Old Huang, I'm leaving these people to you. I plan to take a closer look."
"Without waiting for the main force, in this area, let's say... this."
"If you, a newbie, were to face me, you'd be nothing but bones."
Huang Yong held up two fingers and gestured a few times in front of Yu Xun.
Chi Le also saw the gestures Huang Yong was making.
two?
Does it refer to the boss at both ends?
Or are the demons entrenched in the highlands of the swamp at least second-tier?
"It's nothing, I'm just going to take a look. I'm off."
Yu Xun turned around and followed Chi Le as she walked inside.
Watching the two figures gradually disappear into the mist.
Huang Yong shook his head.
These two brothers have very similar personalities.
But who is the tall, thin, and well-proportioned young man next to Yu Erdi?
"A colleague from the Special Operations Bureau?"
"His face is unfamiliar; I've never seen him before. Could he be an ordinary person caught up in this, a friend of Second Brother Yu?"
"I hope Second Brother Yu can protect his friend and prevent anything from happening."
Huang Yong withdrew his worried gaze and addressed the group of people who had merged into one.
"Everyone, be quiet and don't wander around. The authorities will be here soon!"
……
Chi Le headed towards the higher ground, venturing deeper into the marshland.
The fog that surrounded them grew even thicker.
The road beneath my feet was originally half asphalt, half mud and half sewage, a mixture of the real world and the strange world.
It's now very difficult to see asphalt roads; all you see are puddles of water with bubbles rising to the surface.
This is no longer integration; is this bizarre world replacing the real world?
[If left unaddressed, will this eerie area on Changxing Street become an integral part of that eerie world?]
Will it transform into a bizarre, isolated world separate from the real world, or will it remain connected to the real world, becoming a forbidden zone for ordinary people?
If left unchecked, will the eerie fog overflow, causing the strange phenomena to spread and expand into the surrounding area?
[Ultimately, the eerie influence has permeated the area, enveloping two streets, a district, or perhaps... the entire city of Jiangcheng?]
Letting her thoughts wander, Chi Le once again lamented how little she knew about this bizarre world.
"...Are there many records of this kind of 'backroom' phenomenon in your Special Affairs Bureau?"
Chi Le chose a starting point and asked Yu Xun.
Yu Xun, who was focused on being alert to any possible disturbances around him, was startled by Chi Le.
After a brief respite, Yu Xun replied.
"Not many. A few years ago, many colleagues had never even witnessed an incident in the back room."
"Quite a few in recent years?"
"Yes, the frequency of these occurrences has increased significantly in recent years, for example..."
The bushes on his right suddenly twitched, and Yu Xun immediately stopped talking, holding his short knife horizontally in front of his chest, on high alert.
Later, it turned out to be a false alarm and there was no threat, so Yu Xun continued.
"Take Jiangcheng for example. In the past, my colleagues would encounter two or three such incidents a year at most, and sometimes none at all."
"Even if you happen to run into one, the area covered by the back room is at most the size of a room, unlike now where it covers an entire street."
"Just now..." Yu Xun recalled the detailed records he had seen in the documents and realized that he hadn't remembered them. "Just three or four years ago, the number of incidents in the back room started to increase, and each time the scope of the incidents was getting larger and larger."
As he spoke, Yu Xun stopped and looked down at his feet with a puzzled expression.
"This is……"
He lifted his foot, and the top of his shoe and the sole of his foot were covered with thick yellow slime.
It looked like a glob of phlegm that someone had spat out at some point.
If you look closely, you can see a few round, black dots, each about the size of an egg, that he crushed in the slime.
"What the hell is this thing?"
Yu Xun grinned, his tone tinged with disgust.
quack!
quack!
Several pairs of murky, deep yellow eyes with horizontally square pupils emerged from the mist.
"Forget about the shoes for now, let's focus on these things."
Chi Le said to Yu Xun, and the Qingshan Temple panel appeared in front of him.
[Architecture: Mountain Gate]
[Remaining usage time restored: 00:33:16]