Chapter 69: The Gate of Death Has Forty

  At this moment, the old coffin's expression was extremely tense. I clearly saw that things were more sinister than I had anticipated. I hastily asked: "Was the Water Ghost Granny and her family murdered?"

  The coffin maker sighed: "This is an old saying in our area, it was decades ago, the Water Ghost Mother and her family were wronged, they were framed by someone. That person even used a lot of power to capture the Water Ghost Mother and her family, publicly criticized them, and prepared to execute them. Later..."

  I said: "What happened later?"

  The old coffin said: "Later, the husband of the Water Ghost Wife risked his life to send the Water Ghost Wife and her son out, but he himself was beaten to death. The Water Ghost Wife was in unbearable pain and wanted to escape, but her son was caught again and also beaten to death."

  It is said that when the Water Ghost Granny left, she also took her son's head with her. After this matter passed, on the doors of those people who had harmed the Water Ghost Granny to death, a large bloody handprint appeared. Almost every household door had a blood handprint appear.

  On these bloody handprints, everyone felt the resentment brought by the Water Ghost Granny. And after that, some people said they occasionally saw the Water Ghost Granny. But she had already gone mad.

  Someone saw the Water Ghost Granny appearing by a river, holding a head and repeatedly washing it. However, the head was already rotten beyond recognition. In the end, the Water Ghost Granny washed away all the flesh on that head, leaving only a skull.

  And then, the people who killed the Water Ghost Granny began to die one after another for no reason. Some died in their own beds, staring with a pair of eyes as if they were staring at something. Others died sitting on chairs, just like that.

  Every single person who died had an extremely terrifying death. And on their hands, a small bloody handprint appeared, like that of a child's.

  In just one month, most of these people had died. At this time, a figure appeared in the mysterious gate, who was none other than the Water Ghost Granny. From then on, the Water Ghost Granny began to wander around this area, appearing from time to time and killing someone each time she did.

  Because she had harmed too many people, countless Xuanmen masters were prepared to capture her. However, the Water Ghost Granny's methods were bizarre and she could actually control the water ghosts, narrowly escaping each time.

  At this point, the coffin let out a sigh: "No one in the Xuanmen has a good ending. In the end, it's all just empty."

  I knew what he was talking about and couldn't help but sigh. I said, "You just said the torrential rain is only the first step, something even more terrifying is yet to come, what do you mean by that?"

  The coffin old man shook his head, turned around and looked at the water below the mountain, saying: "This rainstorm is caused by the Water Ghost Granny. She used the Water Ghost to set up a big killing array in these rivers. If I'm right, this river below should be the last stop of the Water Ghost Granny."

  "She walked a total of forty water ghost death gates in the nearby river, each of which was a must-kill gate. These forty death gates almost included our entire generation. Calculating it, these forty gates just surrounded our area with a circle. Now, the death gates are activated, heavy rain falls from the sky, and floods appear in the river, connecting all the rivers together."

  I stared blankly: "All rivers are connected?"

  The coffin old man nodded: "All the rivers are connected, so the water ghost's death gate will start to urge. Once the death gate is urged, all of them will become a dead land."

  I said: "Put it in simpler terms, what will happen?"

  "The coffin maker said, 'For example, newborn babies can't survive, livestock will get epidemics, there will be severe droughts or sudden floods. Anyway, this place is no longer habitable for humans. If we continue like this, everyone will die.'"

  I'm shocked, is it really that serious?

  The old coffin maker said, "Moreover, the water ghost's layout is extremely secretive, and outsiders can hardly crack it. To crack it, one must find the location of the 40 death gates and use Feng Shui techniques to turn them into life gates. Then, build a large river in the life gate, allowing the outside water to flow in from the life gate; otherwise, the calamity of this area will kill everyone."

  I heard this and felt a sense of crisis. Then I looked around at the vast expanse of floodwater, which was slowly receding. Although it was slow, the water level would eventually return to normal. But what's frightening isn't the flood itself, but what happens after the floodwaters have receded.

  I finally thoroughly understood what the waterway is. The waterway, I'm afraid it refers to this flood. The flood will connect all 40 water gates of death, which is the waterway. After the waterway is formed, there will be a mournful sound, and the mournful sound probably refers to the howling voices of those water ghosts.

  The waterway is complete, all the dead doors are connected together, and the water ghost makes a howling sound. After one howl, this area will become a human hell. These were the three sentences that the Water Ghost Granny recited before she died.

  This old woman is dead, yet she still set up such a big trap, it's simply harming people.

  In silence, I led the villagers to turn around and head back to the village. This matter can't be panicked, things have already happened, and now no matter what we do, it's all useless, we can only take it slow. But in my heart, I feel a bit guilty, after all, it was because I killed the Water Ghost Grandma that she, before her death, prematurely triggered the Water Ghost's demise.

  If it weren't for me, this water ghost might have been stuck in a dead end and wouldn't have fallen so quickly.

  After returning to the village, everyone's face was a bit tense, but no one said anything more. The villagers continued with the funeral, crying and mourning. I and Coffin Old stood at the door every day, sighing at the floodwaters that had receded a lot.

  It's been about four or five days, and the floodwaters have receded a lot. The mountain where the Water Ghost Grandma died has reappeared. And what shocked us at the same time was that there were some corpses hanging from the branches of the trees on the mountain. These corpses were still fresh, as if they had been washed down by the floodwaters.

  The old coffin saw these corpses, his eyebrows immediately furrowed, and then he shook his head constantly. I don't recognize any of these corpses, they can't be from the nearby village, but were brought by the floodwaters.

  A few more days passed, and the surrounding mountains gradually emerged one after another. On a certain night, I was sleeping soundly when I suddenly heard a loud gurgling of water. I opened my eyes abruptly and looked out the window to see that in the midst of the floodwaters, a large patch of dense fog had appeared, and within that fog, there was a faint human figure slowly emerging step by step.

  I rushed out of the house immediately, but found that the figure had disappeared without a trace.

  The next day, Coffin Old told me that the figure was a water ghost raised by Water Ghost Granny. The canal is just like this, not only are all the death doors connected, but also all the water ghosts in these rivers and canals have been connected. All the water ghosts will go to the nearest death door.

  The scene I saw last night was indeed the Water Ghost advancing towards the Gate of Death.

  And also in these days, I often saw some boats appearing on the water. These boats were very strange, and the people on them were even stranger.

  I saw a man who was driving a very large boat, but the boat was open. The feeling it gave people was that it looked like a whole big wooden board, rather than any kind of boat.

  The man on the boat stood upright at the stern, but he didn't row. Instead, he waited for the boat to drift downstream with the current. The boat then floated away with the current, and the man at the stern was still leisurely smoking a cigarette. I saw that there were several incense sticks inserted on the boat, which burned slowly.

  Those few incense sticks were surrounded by even more densely packed incense sticks.

  The old coffin maker told me that those people were corpse carriers. The boat was for the dead to sit in, not for the living. At the time, I felt something was off: "Why hadn't I seen these people before?"

  The coffin maker said: "Ferryman of the dead only appears in waters where many people have died. It's not that no one sits on their boat, but rather, they don't sit living people."

  "Isn't this seat for living people?"

  The coffin maker nodded, continuing to stare at the water. At this moment, some bad thoughts appeared in my heart. Because I found that there was not only a corpse in the water, but also some other strange people.

  After this heavy rain, many such people appeared on the water surface, what does it portend?

  In the blink of an eye, several days have passed, and the water level has dropped even lower. The mountain road has finally been exposed. However, those mountain roads had long since become rotten and muddy, making it impossible for people to walk on them.

  And during this period, through my observation, I have become even more certain of one thing. On the surface of the water, many people appeared, many strange people. These people suddenly appeared out of thin air after the heavy rain.

  These people are obviously not ordinary people, but Xuanmen insiders. Various Xuanmen heroes emerge at this time.

  I couldn't help but feel a thrill in my heart, it seemed that the death of Water Ghost Granny had attracted these people. This also meant that these Xuanmen people were also going to intervene in Water Ghost Granny's affairs.

  The old coffin said: "In the Xuanmen, such a major change has occurred. People from various orthodox sects will definitely send someone to investigate and won't just sit back and do nothing. So your previous worries were unnecessary. This matter isn't your fault. Although Water Ghost Granny was killed by you, the Water Ghost Formation was set up by Water Ghost Granny herself a long time ago."

  After listening to Coffin's words, I felt a little more at ease.

  Finally, after more than half a month, the water level has thoroughly dropped. The river has reappeared, and everything around it has returned to its original state. However, after being flooded, entire mountains have become unrecognizable.

  At this time, Coffin Old and I should have left. That morning, the two of us packed our bags and walked out of the village. As soon as we left, a white mist suddenly drifted across the mountains and fields. In the blink of an eye, the sun was blocked by the white mist.

  At this time, a mournful howl echoed from all directions.

  The canal is completed, and a sad voice rises. The sad voice has finally risen.