Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 350 The Determination for Revenge

The typhoon that raged all night finally turned into a light drizzle the next morning.

The coastline of Izu Oshima was left in a mess, and the air was filled with the salty smell of the sea.

Young fisherman Takuya Kobayakawa stood under the eaves of his house, looking at the still turbulent sea outside with a worried expression.

The fishing boat was badly damaged in last night's typhoon and needs repairs, but more importantly, the sea conditions are so bad that it's impossible to go out to sea to fish.

"This awful weather... I wonder how long it will last." Takuya sighed, his voice filled with worry about making a living.

For fishermen who rely on the sea for their livelihood, every time they are unable to go out to sea, it means a sharp drop in income.

His father, Goro Kobayakawa, an old fisherman whose face was etched with the marks of time, sat silently on the steps by the door, a cigarette in his hand, his brow furrowed even more deeply in the swirling smoke.

"Dad, this can't go on." Takuya sat down next to his father. "The boat needs repairs, and the family's money..."

Goro took a deep drag on his cigarette, slowly exhaled, and sighed heavily, "There's nothing we can do, Takuya. When the sea gets angry, we can only wait."

He paused, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon, and said, "Moreover, the sea... sometimes its temper is not just about wind and waves."

Takuya noticed a fleeting fear in his father's eyes, an emotion he rarely saw in his resolute father.

"Dad, are you thinking about... things from the past again?"

Goro's body trembled almost imperceptibly. He remained silent for a long time, so long that Takuya thought he wouldn't answer, before he spoke in a hoarse voice that seemed to drift from a great distance: "Yes... I remembered some things... things I shouldn't have remembered. It was probably... more than forty years ago, around Showa 33."

His gaze became distant, as if piercing through the mists of time, returning to the summer when the nightmare began.

“Back then, I was about your age, maybe a little younger.” Goro’s voice lowered. “At first, everything was the same as usual. Until… until some of the people who came back from the sea started talking nonsense.”

"lies?"

"They said... at sea, in the thick fog, they saw a ship. A very large ship, but dilapidated and rusty, like an old ferry that hadn't been used for decades. It appeared silently on the sea and disappeared in the blink of an eye." Goro's voice carried a hint of coldness. "At first, everyone thought it was just their imagination or a mirage. But more and more people talked about it, and the descriptions became more and more detailed... that ship was very strange."

Takuya held his breath, knowing that what his father was about to say was probably the legend that had always been kept secret on the island.

Goro continued, "Back then, a few fishermen pulled up a stone statue from the waters near the volcanic island. The statue was very old and covered with incomprehensible patterns. They said... it was the statue of Lord En no Ozuno, the founder of the ancient Shugendo sect."

"En no Ozuno?" Takuya had heard of this name before; it was a legendary figure in Japanese mountain worship.

“Yes, En no Ozuno. When the stone statue was salvaged, we thought it was a good thing, that it might bring good fortune. At the time, there were NHK people filming some kind of documentary on our island. They heard about it and became very interested, so they brought their equipment and went to film it.” Goro’s breathing became rapid. “But… but that’s where the strange things started!”

His eyes were filled with an indelible fear: "The film that the TV station people shot back, after it was developed... was all wrong! According to the people who helped out and secretly looked at the film... the stone statue in the footage was distorted! It was alive! Its eyes... seemed to be looking at people outside the camera lens! Moreover, in many clips, even though it was a sunny day when it was shot, there would be large snowflakes in the footage, and inside the snowflakes... you could see a dark, ancient well, and... and something that looked like a woman's long hair floating around!"

Takuya felt his hair stand on end.

"Then, something started to go wrong on the island." Goro's voice trembled with tears. "Many people... seemed to be possessed. The men started walking unsteadily, sometimes even crawling on the ground like worms... The women kept looking in the mirror, combing their hair, over and over again, their eyes fixed on the ground... They were all muttering a strange name... 'SADAKO'..."

"Back then, everyone on the island was in a panic. Everyone said they had been haunted by something unclean. Then...then Mount Mihara erupted!" Goro suddenly raised his voice, then quickly lowered it again, as if afraid of being overheard. "That wasn't an ordinary volcanic eruption! Before and after that, people on the island died one after another! Before they died, they all screamed...that they saw a well, and something...climbed out of the well!"

As Goro finished speaking, he took a big gulp of cold tea, his hands still trembling violently.

"The NHK staff were terrified. They destroyed all the film footage, as well as related notes and materials. What they could destroy, they sealed up and took away."

He gripped Takuya's arm, his knuckles turning white with force, his eyes filled with pleading and lingering fear: "Takuya, remember this! Don't touch anything deep in the ocean! Some taboos, once broken, can bring utter destruction! Last night's typhoon... I felt it was somewhat similar to that ominous feeling from years ago..."

Takuya was deeply shocked by his father's story and his current state. He had never heard such a detailed and terrifying version before.

Previous rumors were fragmented, but today, it was as if his father had opened Pandora's box, revealing to him the bloody truth of that deliberately forgotten, horrific history.

He gazed out the window at the still gloomy sea. Beneath the rolling waves, it seemed, truly lay the rusty ferry his father had spoken of, the twisted stone statue, and the ancient well from which terrifying beings could crawl. A chill crept up from the depths of his heart.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Takuya went over and opened the door, where he saw a group of people whose demeanor was clearly different from that of ordinary tourists, and whose faces were all somber. One of them had bloodshot eyes that contained endless grief and violence, which made Takuya noticeably nervous.

"You are……"

“We’re here on the island to conduct a folk culture survey,” Jiang Jin said, trying to keep his tone calm. “We heard that your family is a long-time resident of the island and would like to ask you about some things from many years ago.”

He invited Takuya and Goro, who had come out after hearing the commotion, into the house and cut straight to the point: "What we want to know is about the stone statue of En no Kakuzu that was salvaged from the island around 1944. Do you know where that statue went afterward?"

When the old fisherman Goro heard the words "En no Kakushi Statue," his body visibly trembled, and his face instantly lost all color, as if he had heard some extremely terrifying taboo.

His cloudy eyes stared in terror at Jiang Jin and the others, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word for a long time.

“Dad…” Takuya looked at his father with concern.

Under the silent gaze of Jiang Jin and the others, Wu Lang said in a hoarse, intermittent voice, "Who are you people... the stone statue... that... that's an ominous object... we can't mention it... we can't..."

"Where is it?!" Yu Tianlun suddenly took a step forward, his voice hoarse and low, like the roar of a wounded beast, and the blood red in his eyes seemed to intensify.

Xu Yinqiu's death was like a red-hot iron, branding him deeply and robbing him of his former calmness and patience.

Li Shang walked over coldly. As a sorcerer, his eyes were filled with a sinister aura that made people tremble with fear!
Goro shuddered in fright, almost blurting out, "Back then... after the incident... a few elderly people on the island who were still conscious... were afraid it would bring more disaster... so they... sealed it... under an abandoned shrine near a sea cave in the Pof Harbor... saying they would use the shrine's power... to suppress it..."

Pōfu Port, abandoned shrine, sea cave!
Having obtained the crucial information, Jiang Jin and his group did not linger. Jiang Jin nodded to the trembling father and son as a thank you, and then quickly led his team away from the Kobayakawa residence.

Walking on the muddy road, the atmosphere in the team was extremely tense.

Lian Xuan and Lian De followed silently behind, Gao Gongwei vigilantly observed their surroundings, Li Shang was expressionless, seemingly plotting something, and Yang Jian remained indifferent, as if everything outside was irrelevant to him.

Yu Tianlun walked at the very front, his back straight yet carrying a sense of precarious madness. His eyes remained a terrifying blood red, his clenched fists were white at the knuckles from the force, and his nails were almost digging into his palms.

Xu Yinqiu is dead.

The woman who followed him without hesitation, silently treated the wounded, and offered him a cup of hot tea when he was most exhausted, with deep admiration and trust in her eyes, died silently in the cold bathroom. He couldn't even see her one last time, and he couldn't protect her!
Endless regret, raging anger, and excruciating pain gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes.

He hated the cruelty and horror of Sadako Yamamura, and he hated his own powerlessness even more!
How he wished reality could be like those passionate Japanese manga, where the anger caused by the death of a loved one could unleash a burst of power, allowing him to instantly break through his limitations and possess the immense power to take revenge.

But harsh reality told him that this was impossible. A reincarnator is not a Super Saiyan.

LV4 is a qualitative leap for any reincarnator, a sign that they have truly entered the higher levels of reincarnation.

However, for someone like him who had once touched that realm but then fell from it for some reason, climbing back up was far more difficult than for someone who had never reached it before!
The traumas of the past and the hidden dangers left by the fall acted like strong shackles, firmly locking his path forward.

Otherwise, Su Yuan, who was exceptionally talented back then, wouldn't have thought that his future was ruined after weighing the pros and cons, and ultimately went to extremes, so resolutely... to divorce him and even expel him from the team.

That failed marriage was another deep, unhealed wound in his heart. Now, Xu Yinqiu's death was like stabbing that old wound in again and rubbing salt into it.

He hated it! He hated this damned, chaotic world! He hated this terrible curse! He hated his own weakness!
But he couldn't fall down, he didn't even have time to wallow in grief.

He is the leader of the regiment, he still has surviving members to lead, and he also wants to avenge his fallen comrades!
He must find a way to break the curse and find the power to fight Sadako, no matter the cost!
The sealed statue of the small horn may be the key.

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the direction of Po Fook Harbor, where his last hope lay!

(End of this chapter)