The river was very wide.
Two boats traveled one behind the other, their hulls swaying slightly from time to time.
They had already left the central urban district.
They had entered the suburbs.
The buildings on both banks had changed from towering skyscrapers to low, one-story houses. Endless thickets, hilltops that flashed past now and then, abandoned villages devoid of people, and graves that no one tended.
The farther they ventured toward the edge of the city, the more sinister and terrifying it became.
Aside from Ye Fei and the Old Monk,
even the Little Monk felt as though a massive stone were pressing down on his chest. The gloom and oppression left him almost unable to breathe.
"There are ghosts here."
Liu Jianxiang glanced at the thin mist gradually rising from the river.
Faintly,
strange noises drifted up from beneath the water. They sounded like someone whispering, or like bones breaking and flesh tearing.
Suddenly,
out of the corner of his eye, he saw something apparently rise from the water several meters away.
But it vanished in a flash.
It quickly sank beneath the water again.
That thing seemed to be... an intact human scalp with the skull stripped away, still carrying a large mass of thick, long women's hair.
"Fuck!"
Liu Jianxiang shuddered all over.
He instinctively turned to look at the fishing boat more than thirty meters away.
Fortunately,
the three people aboard were still there.
Only then did he slightly relax. He shifted his attention back to the helm. The journey was only one-third over, and they still had some distance to go before leaving the city. Hopefully, everything would remain safe.
Splash, splash—
The sound of the hull parting the river water was exceptionally clear in the quiet surroundings.
That made Liu Jianxiang instinctively worry