Chapter 10: Folk Occult Arts — Searching for the Corpse with a Gourd (Part II)

One diver illuminated the slowly sinking gourds with a waterproof flashlight, while the other captured the descent with underwater recording equipment.

The search and rescue team on the boat stared at the video feed on their screens, their faces etched with disbelief. As rescuers, they frequently recovered drowning victims and had witnessed many bizarre occurrences, but this was a first for them.

Zhang Junjie had the rescue team reroute the signal to his phone, watching the gourds slowly descend on the small screen.

"This is absolutely cursed!"

Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that, without any external force, gourds could sink to the bottom of the lake.

After about ten minutes, both gourds reached the bottom, settling onto the black silt. However, the divers had yet to locate the bodies of the two children.

Seeing this, Zhang Junjie held the phone out to Li Chengfeng, asking in confusion, "Where are the two children?"

"Don't be impatient. Keep watching."

Li Chengfeng didn't even glance at the phone. His gaze remained fixed on the churning surface of the water, where he caught sight of a dim, greenish light flickering in the depths. There was something unclean in this reservoir.

Zhang Junjie refocused on the screen, but when he saw the image, he let out a startled cry and dropped his phone to the deck. A child’s head had pushed through the silt, slowly emerging.

The rescue team members watching the video also screamed, the more timid ones jumping back in fright.

Under the water, the two divers were shining their flashlights on the gourds, faces full of confusion as to why the children were missing, when suddenly, the silt on the lakebed shifted. A child's head emerged from the mud, startling both divers.

Though the divers were experienced in recovering bodies and were used to grim sights, they quickly regained their composure and continued filming the gourds with their lights.

The gourds began to move upward, as if pulled by a mysterious force that dragged the corpses from the deep silt. Even though the divers were brave, watching the bodies slowly crawl out of the mud made their scalps prickle and their hair stand on end.

About five minutes later, the body of one child had fully emerged from the silt, pulling the other child’s body along with it. The second child’s hand was gripped tightly around the first child’s wrist.

The flashlights shone on their faces; their mouths, noses, and ears were filled with silt, and their eyes were wide open, frozen in expressions of sheer terror, as if they had seen something horrific before they died.

The rescuers on the boat and Zhang Junjie, standing beside Li Chengfeng, felt their legs go weak.

As the two gourds continued to rise, the two children's bodies followed, as if they were still alive, trailing closely behind the gourds as they drifted toward the surface. The ascent was slow, taking about twenty minutes for the gourds to finally break the surface.

The moment they breached the water, the gourds shattered, and the two pallid corpses floated on the surface. The two divers surfaced shortly after; when they were pulled onto the boat and removed their masks, their faces were ghostly pale.

"That... that was too cursed. I’ve lived for decades, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this."

"How is it possible to pull bodies buried deep in the mud using only two gourds?"

"The way those kids crawled out of the silt... it was damn terrifying."

If a person gets stuck in deep silt, it is nearly impossible to crawl out. These bodies were buried twenty meters deep in the mud; even manual excavation would have been difficult. To have them drawn out by mere gourds was impossible, yet it had happened. It was too eerie, too magical, too cursed.

Zhang Junjie looked at the floating bodies, then turned to Li Chengfeng. He swallowed hard and said apologetically, "Mr. Li, please forgive my earlier offenses."

"It's alright. I don't blame you; you were acting with good intentions," Li Chengfeng said calmly. His eyes remained fixed on the water, where that flickering green light continued to pulse in and out of sight.

"There is something unclean in this reservoir. Stay away from it in the future."

"Understood!"

"Dig a hole and bury those two chickens."

"Understood!"

After giving his instructions, Li Chengfeng turned to leave, never mentioning payment.

Zhang Junjie already viewed Li Chengfeng as a man of god-like abilities. He had never seen such a method of corpse-finding in his life. He had heard rumors of reclusive folk masters who possessed secret techniques more profound than those of the Taoist schools. Though young, Li Chengfeng clearly possessed such skills and was no ordinary man.

Seeing him leave, Zhang Junjie hurried forward and bowed. "Mr. Li, may I have your contact information?"

"Forget it. I don't want to get involved in these kinds of things. I am a Feng Shui master, not an occultist."

It was dusk by the time Li Chengfeng returned to the old city district of Qingzhou. With only a dozen or so yuan left in his pocket, he ate a bowl of ramen at a roadside shop.

When he arrived back at his shop, Suiyuan Hall, he found two women standing at the door: Ye Wushuang and Ye Mengyao, who had kicked him out of the Ye residence two days prior.

Seeing them, Li Chengfeng’s expression darkened. Why were they here?

Ye Wushuang saw him, her tone as overbearing as ever. "You damn wretch, where have you been? You’ve made us wait here for so long!"

"What business is it of yours where I go? I never asked you to wait for me."

Seeing their insolence, Li Chengfeng did not show them any courtesy.

Ye Wushuang was incensed, pointing a finger at his nose. "You damn thing, is that any way to speak to me? Do you believe I’ll tear that filthy mouth of yours apart?"