Chapter 98: The Water Ghost (Water Monkey)

I had only just submerged myself when my hand reached down along the girl’s lower leg. Do not think I was taking the chance to be indecent; at that moment I had not opened my Demonic-Corpse Eye, so I could see nothing in the water and had to find my way entirely by feeling.

I was stunned. In barely a few seconds, yet another thick, tail-like thing had somehow appeared coiled around her leg.

If I did not open the Demonic-Corpse Eye and determine what it was right then, the girl would likely collapse from exhaustion, and then it would be over.

When the eye opened, everything brightened at once. The river’s mirrored surface came fully into my sight, and I no longer felt that blurred sting I used to have before this eye awakened; beneath the water it was as clear as being on land.

I saw two green tails, each as thick as an adult’s arm, winding around each of the girl’s legs. They kept her from swimming away; all she could do was struggle and waste her strength, making it look like a tragic drowning.

Every three or four minutes I surfaced, because I did not want people above to think something bad had happened to me down there.

Tracing that green tail, I saw a creature I had never seen before, though it was eerily similar to the water specters in the folk stories my grandmother told me when I was young.

The Water Ghost, also called the Revealed-Face Ghost or the Water Monkey, is described with a grotesque monkey-green face, teeth bared like knives, a sickly green body with a long tail, webbing between hands and feet, immense strength in water, and on land it is said to be far weaker than an adult human.

These are not true ghosts. They are simply beings unknown to people. Yet Water Monkeys are exceedingly vengeful, highly capable of banding together, and narrow-minded: one wrong step can get you in their way. If you offend them, they will pursue you to the ends of the earth to finish you.

My grandmother once told me a tale of a place where three young boys drowned at once. When their bodies were recovered, the sight was unbearable. Their swollen forms were covered with horrifying bruises. Their calves bore obvious crushing marks, mud packed their faces, and all three wore expressions of unbearable pain. Even some elders then muttered that this might have been the work of Water Monkeys.

The pond where those three had died was remote and seldom visited, and a great part of it was choked with tall aquatic plants. All three boys could swim, and there was no undertow, no whirlpool. So the most likely explanation was that a Water Monkey lived there—the legend of the Water Ghost.

The parents, torn between anger and fear, could do nothing. Life had gone out there already; all they could do was return home and carry on with the burden of living.

Watching the Water Monkey lie still beneath the water, I felt the urge to strike it and see who between us was stronger.

But rescue came first. I could only tug at the creature’s tail with brute force, yet it was too slippery; there was no way to untangle it. In a fury, I surged my special power into my arm and brought a horizontal slash down on both tails. I cut both of them through cleanly, without a single drop of blood.

The girl was saved. What troubled me now was that the Water Monkey under the water had lost its tails and would surely retaliate. Yet I also had to escort this girl safely to shore. What a cruel bind.

I chose reason. First I had to get her within five or six meters of the bank, then have those above pull her up with a rope. So I swam for the shore as hard as I could.

I could feel the creature below me, shifting in the current. Its face was so monstrous—more terrifying than any vengeful spirit I had heard of.

In old books, I had read that Water Monkeys guard some kind of giant submerged tomb and live in colonies. But here, in this riverbed, I saw only two. Could their home be elsewhere? Could there be an unknown ancient tomb hidden somewhere along this river?

“Someone up there—throw me a rope, quick. I need her to climb up from here!”

By then I had reached the edge and called to the police on the bank to drop a rope down.

If they did not, there was no way out except a staircase about a hundred meters away. Everywhere else, the bank rose three to four meters in brick. Without my abilities, I could not scale it; but if I used abilities, my identity would be exposed.

At last the rope came down. I looped it around the girl’s waist and signaled for her to be pulled up while I watched the terrifying water behind me.

“Look! What is that green monster? Young man, it’s charging at you—move away! Be careful!” someone yelled; I couldn’t tell who, perhaps an older woman, but her tone was frantic.

Before I could react, something slippery grabbed my calf and pulled me under. I looked down—this had to be that same green, strong, terrible Water Monkey.

The policemen, who had never imagined such a creature lived in the water, drew their pistols and fired in a wild burst at it.

The bullets had no effect. Those that struck its hide simply failed to bite through.

At that moment the creature seemed to go mad with rage. Its fierce drag pulled me toward deep water, and at last with one savage surge it carried me toward a branch of the Zhensha River.

All along, I kept my calm, though shaken. Even I, a First-Generation Demonic-Corpse King, could not die by a little Water Monkey. I wanted only to understand where it was taking me, and whether there were more of them there.

At last it stopped. To my shock, we had already passed beyond Z City—well over ten li away.

The creature was formidable. In no more than half an hour, it had dragged me ten-plus li through the water, and both of us were still submerged.

The Water Monkey did not bother checking whether I was dead. It hoisted me over its shoulder and broke the surface.

At that moment the water’s surface was black as ink. All around were gigantic banyan trees, their branches weaving into one another, dense leaves shutting out the sky and making a wild, natural marsh.

I thought no one had ever come here before. Neither boats nor people could enter. Even the pull of the mud alone could drag a whole ox into the marsh and drown it in five minutes.

For a slick-skinned creature like a Water Monkey, though, this black swamp of rotting leaves was the most perfect natural refuge.

I had expected them to be weak on land, but I was wrong. The Water Monkey was just as formidable on ground as in water, and carrying a youth of over a hundred jin was nothing for it.

The one thing that puzzled me was where it intended to take me. As I wondered, I heard hoarse screams coming from the high branches far away.

I had never heard a sound like that. It was eerie—like an old woman’s wail.

...What became of the boy and where was he dragged, and what was that terrible howling? What strange things would happen next? To learn what followed, read the next chapter—let the atmosphere draw you inside it completely.