In the dark depths, a massive tree washed down by the flood lay slanted against the riverbed, its branches spread wide. Seven pale corpses were caught on its limbs, bobbing in the undercurrent.
Black Snake fixed his attention on one of them. Something seemed wrong with it in his special vision.
He lashed his tail, snapping several branches that held the corpses. One after another, the bodies broke free and swayed upward. Then he lunged at the seventh.
Before he could strike it, the corpse actually drifted out of the way.
Rather than floating up, it drifted downstream along the riverbed. Black Snake immediately took offense. Recovering the bodies was supposed to help my cultivation. If you run away, what happens to my cultivation?
He suspected this thing was not what they had been searching for. No matter. He would beat it to death first.
He suddenly accelerated. The seventh corpse sped up too, but it was slower than Black Snake and took the impact squarely.
He tensed his entire body, gathered his strength, and delivered another fierce ram!
It was slippery, its skin slick as a catfish's. It had no hair and wore no clothes.
It even dared to fight back, its icy hands clawing incessantly at his scales.
He rammed it again and again, pinning it against a rock and pounding it viciously to scatter its sinister aura. Whatever happened, he absolutely could not let the corpse escape.
On the river's surface, the young men rowed their boats, tied ropes around the bodies, and towed them ashore.
As they worked, they suddenly noticed muddy water churning in one spot. Remembering the eerie old tales the elders told, they were scared out of their wits and rowed desperately toward shore.
Even the man responsible for retrieving the bodies lay