C23 – Strange Tales by the Lakeside
by UntamedS
‘Don’t ah ah ah ah!!!’ Liu Jingyun howled shrilly.
She desperately slammed towards Marcus, but it was already too late, the dagger pierced into Zhuo Yu’s skin, cutting through the flesh, and just an inch further was the human’s vibrant heart.
The tears that she had stored in her eyes finally fell, and Liu Jingyun couldn’t bear to close her eyes.
However, the system’s death broadcast didn’t sound.
‘What are you afraid of?’ Zhuo Yu’s slightly weak voice rang out, ‘As the captain, I won’t die first.’
The little girl opened her eyes in disbelief and found Marcus just frozen in place, the tip of the blade no longer able to advance by half a point.
–He was broken through the chest by the blade of the axe.
And this time, the axe was stained with holy water.
As soon as Marcus was attracted by the fresh human blood, Asha realised that he was going to take a shot at Zhuo Yu, so he followed closely behind trying to stop the other party, and when the dagger pierced into Zhuo Yu’s body, Asha slashed the axe down as well.
Zhuo Yu knew that Asha would come, he seized this most critical moment, and smashed the bottle of holy water mixed with the priest’s blood into Asha’s axe.
The bottle exploded, and the holy water poured over it like it was possessed.
With this blow, Marcus would never be able to come back to life.
The sound of corrosion and smoke rang out, the blade of the axe went from his back to his chest, Marcus’ cloudy eyes still had disbelief in them, he looked down to his chest, the sharp tip of the blade emerged from his heart, and a gurgling of fishy bloo-d flowed down, he didn’t have the strength to hold the dagger any longer, and with just a little bit of dislodgement, it fell to his feet.
Zhuo Yu and the crocodile freak were just half a step away, and Marcus had no way to attack anymore.
In this fight, it was Zhuo Yu who won.
“It’s good for you to die.’ Zhuo Yu sighed, ‘In fact, you yourself don’t even know that you are a Yin Corpse, right?”
“When you watched the exorcist’s throat being slit, your eyes were so fanatical about his blo-od, and when you held the holy water and wanted to execute Asha, you were so evasive about it, and even subconsciously took a few steps back when the spell lit up, all of this was seen by me.”
“Your behaviour has long betrayed your weakness, Mayor” Zhuo Yu flashed him a smile, ‘You can go on your way in peace.’
The BOSS pulled out his axe, and the unsupported Marcus fell to his knees, his chest had been corroded by the holy water with a large hole that would never heal again, this time, he was completely dead.
Liu Jingyun, who still had not come back to her senses, shook her head, ‘I thought …’
‘Things will always be reversed until the last moment.’ Zhuo Yu patted the little girl’s shoulder, ‘Your psychological quality needs to be strengthened.’
Liu Jingyun’s face reddened as she remembered her own performance just now, she was indeed in a state of confusion.
‘However.’ Zhuo Yu’s words turned, ‘You’re already stronger than most people la, look, you’re the only one who survived this film.’
‘Haha … hahahahahaha …’ Liu Jingyun suddenly covered her face, she rubbed her tears with her palm and let out a refreshed laugh, like she had finally ended a long nightmare, and all that was left was only hope and motivation to live.
She survived.
Zhuo Yu looked at Asha, the BOSS’s blue eyes were extraordinarily gentle at this moment, and it seemed like fifty years of thoughts were hidden inside, but he didn’t say anything, he just hugged him tightly, as if he was hugging the most important treasure in his life.
‘Hey, you’re too strong.’ Zhuo Yu patted Asha’s arm, ‘I’m still a patient.’
Hearing him say that, Liu Jingyun, who had come to her senses from the celebration of the aftermath, remembered Zhuo Yu’s injuries that could be described as horrific, and Asha immediately let go of his hand and observed Zhuo Yu’s right arm.
His entire arm was purple, the subcutaneous bruising was quite severe, and the more to the end, the more exaggerated the skin breakage was as well, to the palm of his hand, it had already revealed white bones, with not a few pieces of good flesh left.
‘Well, after both legs are crippled, the arm is also crippled.’ Zhuo Yu got out of that extreme emotion of wanting to protect Asha and his own perfectionism started to bubble up to the surface.
This wasn’t really like him, when would he ever sacrifice himself for someone else?
His right arm, which was well-proportioned and strong, and which he was quite happy with, had just become tattered and torn to the point of being unbearable to look at.
‘There must be a cure on the film set!’ Liu Jingyun could only comfort Zhuo Yu in this way.
[Plot reached: the traveller who returned to the Golden Lake was taken as prey by four exorcists, and with the help of the Crocodile Monster, he defeated these priests, and at the same time, he really learnt the truth of that year. The Mayor of Spring Town wasn’t a good man, but the leader of a cult, and the traveller decided to do God’s work for him, and on the fifth night at the Golden Lake, he killed the murderer and fulfilled his long-cherished wish. The shadow that shrouded the Golden Lake finally dissipated.]
[Storyline 100% complete, rating: S]
[Pre-quest: Please dismantle the Church of the Fountain and bring peace back to the Golden Lake. Achieved.]
[Final Mission: Please fulfil the wish of the Golden Lake.]
The audience here couldn’t help but feel emotional.
[The plot line of ‘Strange Tales By The Lakeside’ has finally been cracked ah ……]
[How to say, my mood is a bit complicated.]
[Yeah, I’ve been watching this film from a student’s perspective before, thinking that it’s a blo-ody film about a homicidal maniac slaughtering people indiscriminately, but I didn’t think that in a different perspective, the homicidal maniac is the real victim, and that those seemingly innocent students are in fact the descendants of the evil cultists, and that even if they didn’t do anything, they still enjoyed the resources of the church and the money made from taking people’s blo-od, and that’s the original sin of their family.]
[Yeah, they’re not innocent.]
[Have you noticed that the BOSS k-ills all the people who are sent in by the Mayor, the ones who are looking for trouble, and the ones who are greedy for eternal life?]
[I’m the one who’s watched the film six times, and I can only say that I’ve got my long-cherished wish, and I’ve finally watched the entire story line, which is completely different from what I thought it would be.]
[So the bet, everyone lost, right?]
[I didn’t lose!]
[I didn’t lose! Hahahahaha I picked Zhuo Yu to live to the end, if only I had even picked Liu Jingyun at that time, I would have made more money that way.]
[I’m envious. I didn’t realise Zhou Wu was so bad.]
[I’m now very optimistic about Zhuo Yu as a new actor, even though he’s disabled, he’s really done what no one else can do, let’s not talk about it, I’m going to open a special post in the Starflame forum, so I can encourage everyone to come and watch the replay of this film.]
[Silently forming a fanbase +1]
[I don’t know if the faces of the people who were mocking Zhuo Yu and wanted to see him die hurt.]
[Well, I’ve been punched in the face, and I’ve turned from a hater to a fan.]
Within the screen, Zhuo Yu, who was looking at the system’s new task, was somewhat silent.
“Wish?” He sighed, “The Golden Lake really has a mind, it seems that the Seven Day Talk is more than just a story, I’m afraid it’s a historical fact.”
The Golden Lake, also known as the Fountain of Youth, had been searched for and fought over for a thousand years, and it wasn’t easy for things to calm down, but the owner got involved in the strife again and died by the lake. If it had no thoughts or emotions, it wouldn’t have transformed Asha into a guardian and Marcus into a Yin corpse.
In the end, if the Golden Lake was human, then he must be someone who just wanted to live a good life.
Zhuo Yu also understood at this moment why he felt touched when he read the Seven Day Talk.
Because he understood the Golden Lake.
His role was that of an ordinary man living peacefully with Asha, but he possessed the deed to the Golden Lake, just as the Golden Lake possessed the ability to make people live forever, and they were both poor, ill-fated people who harboured a secret, attracting covetous people.
“I probably understand your heart’s desire.” Zhuo Yu sighed, feeling his role similarly levelled out, as he had also told ‘Zhuo Yu’ that he would fulfil his heart’s desire.
Now that Marcus was dead and Asha was still alive and well, ‘Zhuo Yu’ had no more complaints.
Now, Zhuo Yu wouldn’t be swayed by the character’s emotions.
“This film isn’t over yet, let’s wait until the seventh day.” Zhuo Yu tore off his tattered sleeve and rested the injured arm on the armrest, ‘Alas, it seems that after acting there’s a new goal, I still have to heal this arm.’
[Warm Tip: Please rest assured, actors, that any injuries you suffered during the film can be repaired by the system free of charge after the end of the film, without being charged flame points].
Liu Jingyun also received the message, and she raised her eyebrows in joy, ‘Great, your injury can be fixed!’
Zhuo Yu was also slightly relieved; he looked at Asha, his tone was full of concern, ‘In that case, you can cut this arm of mine off, it’s too much of a nuisance, leaving it unattended has the potential for necrosis and infection, it’s better to amputate it.’
Asha reacted after a long while, his hand holding the axe handle was a bit at a loss, he simply couldn’t lay his hands on it; making him hurt Zhuo Yu, it would be better to chop off his own arm, but he didn’t have a reason to refute the other party, what Zhuo Yu said was right.
He stumbled, lifting the axe and putting it down again, he simply couldn’t be more torn, and if he took off that crocodile mask, Zhuo Yu would be able to see his squeezed face.
“Well, no matter how many people you ki-ll, you’ll always be a good baby to me.” Zhuo Yu couldn’t help but laugh, then signalled Liu Jingyun with his eyes, “You do it.”
Liu Jingyun swallowed and nervously took the axe.
The next afternoon, the entire Spring Town was in a panic.
Because they saw the hanging body of the town mayor on the stop sign at the entrance of the town, the mayor died in a miserable state, scaring them so much that they called the police. However, the police found nothing and only circled around the town a few times before leaving hopelessly.
Those who had ghosts in their hearts understood that something big had happened.
It was unimaginable that Bishop Marcus could die. Some believers worked tirelessly overnight, wanting to leave this hellish place. The church was ultimately not as important as life. The bishop was already dead, who knew what would be next? The other half of the believers were holding their ground and had even started a power struggle, hoping to become the next bishop.
But sadly, these congregants didn’t know what the seven-day curse meant.
On the sixth night, the flesh-eating torture came.
The Beals family was one of the most prestigious families in Spring Town. After all, it was a remote town with very few wealthy people, and Morrison Beals often bought luxury cars and properties, in the eyes of the townspeople, they had always been synonymous with luxury.
Mr Morrison was now sitting on a leather sofa, dialling the phone with his heart pounding.
He gulped nervously, his dialling fingers trembling slightly as he typed in the number that was silently on his mind, word for word.
“Hurry up and pick up …… Hurry up and pick up ……”
Morrison’s other hand clutched a necklace with the symbol of a spring, as if he wanted to inject faith in it like a devout kiss.
Soon, the call connected.
“Who is it?” A female voice came from the other side of the phone.
“Ellie? Is that you? You know what happened in town today!” Morrison asked impatiently, ‘You’re telling me this is the Bishop’s little trick, aren’t you?’
“Heh …..” Ellie’s voice was a little distorted, and even then Morrison could hear the coldness in it, “You mean about Mayor Marcus? No ah, he’s really dead.”
“You!” Morrison didn’t know about the mayor’s family business, he was in a hurry, ‘Mrs Ellie, he was your husband!”
“What do you want to hear from me? Is it the news that he’s alive? Or my cries of pain?” Ellie sneered, but there was more relief in that laugh, “Sadly, it’s neither, he’s really dead, and I’m very happy about that.”
A beep sounded, Morrison’s call was hung up on.
“That stinking bi-tch!” Morrison had a dizzy spell and was held up by his wife.
“What to do, it seems that Bishop Marcus is really dead, then our family’s Jack ……” his wife was full of sorrow, and by the end of her words, she had begun to sob.
Morrison clenched his back groove teeth: “Marcus said he would guard Jack, we just promised Jack would go to the Golden Lake, this matter is completely his responsibility!’
The wife huffed, “who cares about who’s responsible? Will Jack have …… ooohhhh ……”
“Don’t cry! That kid is in bad shape, even Nina didn’t come back, I’m afraid they all died up there, damn damn Marcus, using our kids as bait!’
Morrison hammered his fist on the table, ‘He has always been jealous of our family’s wealth, look, even if we contributed our son, he went to the Golden Lake to hold a ceremony yet he didn’t call on our Beals family? This old thing just hates when other people’s families are complete because his own son is gone!’
“I can’t believe you’re still thinking about your broken church, Jack is dead!”
“Yes, Jack is dead, but we’re not.” Morrison’s eyes also reddened at this moment, the blow of losing his child made this middle-aged man seem like he had aged several years, his face was covered with fatigue and sorrow: ‘Take advantage of the darkness, quickly pack your bags, Spring Town can no longer be stayed in, we will leave in the morning.’
The wife knew there was no other way, they didn’t dare to go to the Golden Lake, they couldn’t even collect their son’s body, they could only get away from this horrible land first.
She wiped away her tears and went up to the first floor, wanting to receive both the clothes and the bankbook into the suitcase, but a rustling sound caught her attention, causing her to look out the window.
Only to see several twisted, swollen, and inhumanly shaped monsters shambling in the streets draped in moonlight.
In a flash, the corpses, which resembled the view of giants, found their prey through the window.
Screams pierced the night sky, and that was only the beginning.
A large number of Yin corpses poured out from the Golden Lake, they followed the guardian’s whistle and travelled all the way to Spring Town not far away, some of the congregants who fled quickly were intercepted by the Yin corpses on the way, and more congregants who were still packing up their fine things were still ignorant of this.
In the beginning, only a few broke into the town, but in about half an hour, there were more than a thousand of them roaming the streets of the town.
The Yin corpses had expended a lot of energy to reproduce only last night, so each one of them was hungry, like wolves and tigers, and their ferociousness was even greater than before, they just wanted to have a good meal and include the humans in their bellies.
The information Zhuo Yu took away from the mayor’s house came in handy, and the Yin corpses themselves had memories, like the one that infected Mu Ying, who was a businessman who once spent a huge amount of money to buy the qualification for immortality, and was the partner of Mayor Marcus.
After his death, he also remembered that he was conned, which was why he went to seek revenge on Nina.
These Yin corpses were too far away from the Golden Lake, and their recovery and vitality were greatly reduced, but against ordinary humans, it was still an unquestionable massacre.
All the houses of the families that were recorded on the list were broken into by countless Yin corpses in one night, all the townspeople who were involved in the church were met, and ear-piercing wails and bloo-dshed covered the entire town.
The townspeople who had never heard of the Church of the Fountain were spared, but many of them hid under their beds in fear of the strange sights outside their windows.
They called the police, but the content of the alarm was unbelievable, what ‘a large number of dead bodies swarmed into the streets to eat people’, ‘zombies surrounded the city’, ‘the living dead appeared’. For the police, it was a prank.
At first, they didn’t pay any attention to these false police reports, but when there were hundreds of alarm calls, the police realised that something was wrong.
When the convoy of police cars arrived at Spring Town, everyone was stunned by the sight before them.
They were already too late, it was like the town was swept away, the streets were splashed with human blo-od, human limbs and arms were everywhere, and some of the broken meat was mixed with the internal organs and hung on the trees by the street.
Hell was not as chilling as this scene.
The police in these small places had never encountered any major cases in their entire lives, at most they had only dealt with an unusually large number of missing cases here. They had never seen such a bloo-dy scene before, and they were all gasping for breath , even vomiting bile.
This was no longer a case they could handle.
The captain of the police force immediately informed his superiors, and then evacuated the townspeople who still survived, enduring the nausea to do a death census.
More than 200 people died in Spring Town overnight, and many people disappeared, only to find out after investigation that they died on the way to escape Spring Town, all of this was too unbelievable, it was like a story that only existed in a film.
The viewers who witnessed the massacre also recovered the ‘original intention’ of watching this film.
[Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.]
[The scale is huge. I’ve never seen hundreds of people k-illed.]
[Okay, that’s enough. Originally, ‘Strange Tales by the Lakeside’ was meant to be about bl-oodshed, but I didn’t expect it to be like this. What’s the point of killing a few young actors? Just slaughter the town. Zhuo Yu is even more ruthless than us, hahaha]
[You per-verts, don’t you feel sick and horrible?]
[What a relief, Aren’t you happy? The ones who died were all evil believers; they deserved to die; it doesn’t matter how many were eaten.]
[It actually makes a bit of sense.]
[Zhuo Yu is really a strange guy; usually actors don’t make a horror incident so big that it’s hard to wrap it up. It’s like the classic question in horror movies: who can survive when the army bo-mbbards a home with fire, arrows, or bullets? This is a conflict in worldview that can easily trigger bugs. His actions will definitely attract the attention of the military in the film world. Is it possible that he did it intentionally?]
[Analyst Big Brother is here again; what you said before is 100% correct; Zhuo Yu really wasted his arm to protect the boss].
[Big brother, give me an ID; I’ll go to Starflame Forum to follow you.]
[It doesn’t matter if you follow or not; I now want to know what Zhuo Yu is playing at.]
Zhuo Yu, who was in the limelight, was currently sitting on the highest building in Spring Town, tightly wrapped in Asha’s arms, and the two of them just watched the slaughter for half of the night.
“It’s long overdue.”
Zhuo Yu was in a good mood as he looked at the bloo-d-colored ground. “If we had kil-led these evil people earlier, there wouldn’t have been so many Yin corpses in the Golden Lake. I’m afraid that most of them were tricked into coming here in the name of immortality. Handing over huge amounts of money in exchange for turning into monsters.”
He knew that if he hadn’t returned to the Golden Lake after fifty years, the evil deeds of the Church of the Fountain would continue for another hundred years. What could be more tempting than immortality, which was the most enticing bait in the world and also the most dangerous trap?
If he hadn’t surveyed the plot and failed to discover the mayor’s trick, Asha wouldn’t have known that there was a church in the town of Spring Town and wouldn’t have known that he died because of the church’s plot, so he wouldn’t have used the Yin corpses to ki-ll innocent townspeople.
However, the reality was very frightening. Among the so-called ‘innocent people’ in the town, there were actually two to three hundred of them who were the perpetrators back then.
As the villain in the film ‘Strange Tales by the Lakeside’, Asha may not have ki-lled as many people as the Church of the Fountain.
“The Yin corpses have returned to the Golden Lake, haven’t they?’ Zhuo Yu asked.
Asha closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, then nodded.
“In fact, when the police reinforcements come, they will be able to find out the truth once they check the security camera footage. The ki-llings were done by thousands of Yin corpses; it would be a mess if this spreads out. This matter is destined to die out; at most, the army will be stationed at the Golden Lake.’
Zhuo Yu was well aware of how the government was going to settle the matter. The first was to collect the survivors and collectively muffle their mouths, not allowing them to make a sound. The second was to destroy all the evidence, not letting the matter of the Yin corpses leak out half a bit. The last thing was to send the FBI to investigate the truth and use the favorable parts to study it themselves.
If they were to learn about the power of the Golden Lake, there would be no peace in the Golden Lake.
But Zhuo Yu wouldn’t let that happen.
“Someone.” Asha suddenly said:.
Zhuo Yu looked downwards and found that a man with a duck-tongued cap had infiltrated the town that had long been evacuated and blockaded. He was holding a camera, and it looked like he was a reporter who had a personal connection with the police department and had come to grab the story first.
He had to say that this guy had a lot of nerve.
This was the lure of fame.
“Spring Town is cleaned up; we should go.” Zhuo Yu patted Asha’s shoulder with his one-sided arm. “Take me down; I’m going to leave the world with a surprise before I go.”
The reporter named Polk wasn’t unafraid; his legs were shaking and his heart was trembling, but the thought of being the first to publish the ‘Spring Town’ tragedy made him thrilled, and he abandoned his fear.
He knew it would cause a sensation, and even if he was banned from reporting it, he would get a large amount of hush money from the government.
“Hello.” A clear voice rang out, startling the reporter, who was extremely nervous and was taking pictures non-stop.
The person who came was none other than Zhuo Yu.
“I think you need this.” Zhuo Yu smiled soothingly at the reporter, handing over the information stored in the grid space to the reporter in one breath, hinting, “Before being a reporter, you should be more of a human being with a backbone; you know what you should do and what you shouldn’t do, right?”
“This… is”
The reporter subconsciously looked at the papers with the evil magic patterns printed on them, and he immediately stared with wide eyes, and when he looked at Zhuo Yu again, he only saw a pair of chaotic, pitch-black eyes.
By the time he came back to his senses, the Asian man who had handed him the information had already disappeared.
‘Right. I’m a man with a backbone. I won’t submit to authority.’ The reporter put the information away in a daze and murmured nervously, ‘I want to expose the ugly truth here!’
After Zhuo Yu finished explaining things, he laid on Asha’s shoulder, once again experiencing the feeling of near-flight. He happily cheered a few times and said to Asha, “What I gave him was not only Marcus’ files but also my own timeline and the sins of the Fountain Church, including the incident where we died in Golden Lake.”
“I believe that in any darker world, there must be a glimmer of light. Even if only one person believes in us and prays for us, what I have done will not be in vain.”
Zhuo Yu and Asha welcomed the moonlight and returned to the gentle silence of the Golden Lake.
They had one last day to do the most important wrap-up in the entire film.
Looking at the plot within the screen, the debugging staff lowered his head to an impossibly low level and crouched humbly on the ground, afraid that he would be implicated.
There was no joy or anger visible on the magistrate’s face; he just sat quietly on top of his silver throne, stroking his not-so-long beard.
“So good, so good.” The old man sighed deeply and switched off the screen of The Strange Tales by the Lakeside with his eyes closed. ‘In this contest, it is I who have lost.’
The debugger was inwardly apprehensive; he tried, ‘It’s not your defeat, but the Soul Hunter Union is too useless; in the end, they’re just a C-ranked union; it’s normal for them to lose to a special boss.’
The magistrate snorted coldly, scaring the debugger into silence once again.
“Number one, I lost to you again; why, why can a sinful person like you become the head and be equal to me!’ The calmness on the old man’s face finally crumbled. ‘You still want to cultivate actors of your own forces now? What a good thought!”
“Zhuo Yu, I’ll remember this name.”
The old man’s sharp eyes swept over the debugger. ‘As a crew member on the set, taking bribes privately, you know what will happen to you, right?’
The debugger’s eyes widened in shock. ‘But… it was you who made…’
Without waiting for the debugger to finish, the magistrate snapped his fingers, and flames from the sky rose out of nowhere, engulfing the man whole and bringing him back to the source of the flame.
Only after venting did the old man turn the film screen back on; he was going to watch the film properly as an audience.
He was silent for a moment, then sent a comment.
[Actually, it’s quite good.]
He quickly got a response.
[Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to see such a complete film; the plot is 100% cracked, and even the religious people who didn’t show their faces got their punishment!]
[This gore lover is very satisfied; good job, Zhuo Yu and Boss.]
[Cool! It’s a blast to watch! If it’s all about quality films like this, who the hell would love to watch those crappy one-day reunion movies?]
[The cast list is at the bottom of the screen; if you’re interested, you can follow Zhuo Yu at the dj~]
[Wow, he’s got a fan base so soon?]
[Isn’t this star treatment?]
[Is he not a star? This movie has become the top spot in the high difficulty zone, and with a little more views, it can enter the high scoring movie list. Is there any newcomer who can become so popular?]
[He’s a newcomer purple star.]
[What’s the fan base? I have experience managing fan sites for the Flying Sickle Warriors so I’m here to test the waters.]
[I’m going to go and dig up all the fans of the Flying Sickle.]
[I’m following, so if Zhuo Yu has a new film in the future, I’ll be the first to watch, hahaha.]
Inside the screen, the sky has already brightened; the sixth night ended in an extremely blo-ody way; the Yin corpses were full of food and were all sleeping at the bottom of the lake.
Zhuo Yu stretched his back and was pushed by Liu Jingyun in his wheelchair to the lake for a walk.
“There’s still one last day left; we’ll be able to get out of here without any problems, right?” Liu Jingyun knew that everything had been set right by Zhuo Yu, but the system still had no intention of informing them to leave.
“There’s no rush; there’s still something left to resolve.”
“What is it?!”
Zhuo Yu smiled. “You’ll know soon enough.”
Unlike the calmness of the Golden Lake, the city government could be said to be busy as hell.
The Spring Town tragedy had obviously been blocked by the police, but God knows where the paparazzi came from; he actually filmed the scene clearly and also published the information of the Fountainhead Church as well as the list of people they had victimized.
The most interesting thing was that the mayor of the town forcibly maimed the former owners of the Golden Lake and k-illed them at the edge of the lake just because he wanted to compete for the right to use the land.
Yes, the information published by this reporter was quite measured, and there was no mention of the Yin corpses and monsters in it, as well as the efficacy of the Fountain of Youth. If these were also made public, society would become very unstable.
But even so, the news burned like wildfire, and while officials were able to stop the newspapers from printing more, they couldn’t stop the masses.
A number of people in Florida had already formed an early morning parade to protest the current state of the cult, laying flowers in honor of all those who had died and making bulletin boards, and soon more than just Floridians knew about it.
And the scandal reached the governor’s ears, and even New York, and already it was causing an uproar. The people living in peace never imagined that in the dark corners of the earth, there lurked the existence of these k-illers and maimers of their fellow human beings.
As for the officials, they knew that there existed cults in many remote places, but these fools couldn’t turn over any big waves, so they didn’t bother to manage them, leaving the soil for these evil people to survive.
But no church had ever had so many people die in one night and even be eaten by monsters.
The city government had already contacted the military, intending to send troops to clean up those Yin corpses and, at the same time, bring back samples of the Golden Lake’s water for testing. When the police searched for evidence, they found books and materials with the words ‘Fountain of Youth’ in the homes of many believers, which led them to conclude that the Golden Lake must have power.
This matter was handed over to a captain who had won many military honors, and after assembling his troops in the morning, he set out for the Golden Lake in the afternoon.
It was a squad of about five hundred people; they were well equipped, and their armored vehicles were sturdy to the core. Everyone carried a large number of hot weapons. In front of absolute firepower, those monsters were nothing more than paper tigers.
It was true that many supernatural forces existed in this world, and it wasn’t the first day that the Captain had come to solve this kind of trouble.
But what he didn’t expect was that there were actually humans in the middle of this kind of lair filled with monsters.
Zhuo Yu seemed to have known they were coming, so he sat straight in his wheelchair without the slightest thought of trying to hide. The captain and the team came to the shore of the lake, and they weren’t mindless and reckless; the captain wanted to negotiate in exchange for information rather than firing directly.
‘Who are you?’ The man cautiously aimed his g-un at Zhuo Yu before opening his mouth to ask.
Zhuo Yu was not nervous as he said slowly, ‘The former owner of this land.’
‘Are you …… Zhuo Yu?’
The Captain naturally had information about these events, he tensed up, unlike the civilians who took to the streets, he had been given more information than that, there was a guardian of this lake, and his infamy had been circulating in Spring Town for a long time.
“Where’s your accomplice? Not calling him out?”
Asha and Liu Jingyun, who had been cleaning up the wreckage around the lake and burning those town objects to the ground, came to his side.
The Captain was shocked by the BOSS’s tall and unusual size, his grip on his gun tightened and he said in a deep voice, ‘Since you appeared before me, do you have any claims? I’ll let you know in advance, this place is already owned by the government, it’s state property, if you want to hinder our actions, then I can only order for open fire.’
Zhuo Yu laughed out coolly, “I’m not that shallow, in fact, I just want to play a game.”
The Captain sensed a hint of bad luck, “What are you talking about?”
“You also want to gain the power of the Golden Lake; it can’t be hidden from me. Since you have something to ask for, you also have to lose something in exchange. Do you agree?”
The man frowned. “You don’t have the right to trade; it’s only a matter of a second before I k-ill you.”
‘Is it? Look at the lake.’ Zhuo Yu wasn’t afraid in the slightest.
When the captain heard him say that, he took a closer look at the surface of the golden lake. A layer of something like an oily film floated on top, as well as yellow fat and broken limbs.
Those Yin corpses actually vomited everything they ate into the lake.
“Do you want to see a magic trick?” Zhuo Yu held a bottle left behind by Marcus in his hand, filled with a liquid that emitted a fishy odor. “I can make the water burn; what do you think?”
Not only could the fat spat out by the Yin corpses be burned, but the corpse oil of the Yin corpses was even better; Zhuo Yu had already tested it.
Because after the Yin Corpse he dissected disappeared, he was thinking that this thing must have a weakness as well and was planning to steal Zhou Wu’s flint to try to see if it could be burned by fire. Although it was delayed by the plot, early this morning, he had satisfied his curiosity after all.
His suspicions were also confirmed. Flames naturally restrained Yin corpses because their bodies were extremely flammable; lit corpse oils simply wouldn’t go out easily; they would burn until nothing was left.
“You want the water of the Golden Lake, right?” Zhuo Yu tapped his cheek with his index finger. “Then did you know that this water can make people live forever?”
“What?!”
“I’ll take your men in exchange; sacrifice them all, and I’ll give you a bottle. How about it?”
Zhuo Yu’s tone was low and moving, as if this really was a perfect deal, and he was afraid the captain would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn’t take advantage of this. Those black, stone-like eyes that seemed to be able to suck the soul were also increasing this bargaining chip.
It had to be said that the captain’s heart was moved.
He didn’t know what kind of cards Zhuo Yu had in his hands that he could actually make a deal with him so calmly, and it seemed that if he really made up his mind to fight against him, not only that unknown card, even the thousands of Yin corpses would be a great hindrance.
Just as he was about to reply, Zhuo Yu interrupted him: “Hahaha, I’m not interested in seeing your greedy ugliness; just now it was just a joke; did you really believe it?”
The captain snapped out of the temptation all of a sudden; he was furious, his face reddened, while the soldiers behind him had started to stare at him with suspicion.
This cunning fellow was actually disintegrating the trust of the army!
“If you can live forever with just a sip, then any random creature here is immortal.’ Zhuo Yu shook the Seven Day Talk in his hand at them. “The greedy person who takes the lake water will be cursed for seven days; I’m trying to save you.”
The captain no longer wanted to talk to this dangerous man; he was afraid that the more he talked, the more unstable his mind would become. “What do you want?”
“I told you, I’m saving you.”
Zhuo Yu fumbled for a lighter, which he had shunted from Spring Town, and when he thought about how he got to the film set and then looked at the lighter, he couldn’t help but laugh. It was quite a start and finish.
“There are many unseen places in the world where atrocities go on all the time in people’s blind spots. Asha and I are the best examples.” Zhuo Yu clicked and lit the flame. “Actually, the message of the church is what I conveyed to the reporter. You can say I wanted to warn the people, seek justice, and let people know the truth about my own death, or not.”
“But really, I’m just sick of law enforcers that never come in handy in films.”
“It’s good fun to see your shocked expression.”
Zhuo Yu sneered and waved his hand, throwing the lighter into the lake.
“Stop ！！！！” The captain’s eyes widened in anger, but the flame had already touched the top of the oil film, and black flames rose up to the sky, covering the entire lake in an instant, blazing in the midst of his desperate cries.
The fire was so terrifying that it reminded the captain of the ‘Greek fire’ in history, where the Greeks used special oil to make the flames burn on the surface of the water, making their navy almost unstoppable.
And so it was.
They couldn’t get half a step closer to that black fire.
“You might be wondering why such a small amount of oil can burn such a large area of flames.” Zhuo Yu badgered, ‘I won’t tell you; after you are held accountable by your superiors, you can think about what to say.’
Because disappearing into this world was the wish of the Golden Lake, it would voluntarily evaporate into thin air in this flame.
Zhuo Yu meditated in his heart.
The last night of the seven-day ended with the death of one’s most beloved.
If the Golden Lake disappeared, Asha would lose his power as a guardian, and he would eventually return to dust, going where he should go.
Zhuo Yu wrote the ending to this story.
“I’ll miss you.” He removed the crocodile mask with one hand and caressed Asha’s face. “After all, it’s really hard to meet someone who’s to my liking, so if we meet again next time, remember not to be so nice to me; I prefer men who are challenging.”
He angled his head and kissed the boss on the missing half of his lips.
[Final Quest: Complete the Golden Lake’s Heart’s Desire. Achieved.]
[Congratulations to actor Zhuo Yu. This film is officially finished; the projection screen has been closed.] [Please step into the flame and disengage from the set in five minutes.]
[Countdown: 4:59…4:58…]
The boss picked up Zhuo Yu, Liu Jingyun followed behind, and the three of them stepped into the flames without any fear. A large amount of water vapor rose up in the air. In the interweaving of black and white, the lake was disappearing, turning into smoke and drifting towards the moon sky.
When the system broadcast ended and the surrounding scenery was about to turn into nothingness, Zhuo Yu’s tone suddenly turned cold.
‘Who the hell are you?’
Asha froze for a moment, then his azure eyes turned silver, and he let out a light laugh.
“As expected, you’ve seen it.”
TN:
This was long and the last chapter of this arc is just as long, i’m halfway done with it so see ya tomorrow ✌️
Thank you for the update~