I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Chapter 127 Living Body Forging?

Murphy wasn't particularly interested in the crudely constructed dam.

After walking around the sand table for a short while and roughly examining the structure and layout of the dam, I shifted my attention away.

Instead, they looked at the so-called "water" with some curiosity.

Murphy crouched down and brought his head close to the shrunken, blood-red river.

Looking down at the deep red liquid, he found it to be remarkably similar to the pus and blood on the giant snake outside.

They all seemed to be cursed—

and many more?

Murphy suddenly stopped moving.

It immediately stood up, walked to the area where the water flowed past the dam of flesh and blood, and carefully examined the blood in the river that had passed through the dam.

Yes, that's right.

The curses in the blood had all disappeared.

No—it doesn't seem to have disappeared.

Those curses weren't really wiped away; they were just temporarily hidden away by something.

Under the high magnification of his spiritual vision, Murphy could see an extremely thin, transparent membrane in the blood.

Those curses were wrapped in layers upon layers of membranes, compressed into indistinguishable particles.

From the outside, the curse appeared to have vanished.

But in reality, they are all there, just packaged up.

Murphy put on his portable microscope, bent down, and carefully scooped up a handful of bloody water from the river that had just passed the dam. He aimed the lens at the dark red liquid in his palm and began to observe it intently.

However, the magnification of this microscope is too low.

Although it had a vague idea, the equipment in its hands could only show it the general shape.

I dare not draw conclusions based solely on a blurry image.

So it looked away from the microscope and turned to the artifact dealer, asking, "Do you have a microscope with even higher magnification? The higher the better."

The Relics Merchant stood beside the sand table, his gaze, hidden behind his mask, thoughtfully observing the blood-red river and...

A dam with corpses.

He was clearly deep in thought, only snapping out of it when Murphy suddenly asked him a question.

However, he didn't ask any more questions. He just nodded and reached into his old satchel to rummage through it.

The handbag doesn't look big, but it has clearly been designed to maximize its capacity.

After he reached inside, his entire forearm was submerged in the bag. He rummaged around inside for a while before finally pulling out a head-mounted microscope that was much larger than the simple microscope Murphy was holding.

Murphy took the head-mounted microscope, turned it around in his hand, found the size adjustment knob, and adjusted it to fit the size of his stone head.

After putting it on, it aimed the lens at the pool of blood in its palm and began to observe it again.

Just as Murphy had guessed.

Those curses were not removed.

Instead, it's like a capsule containing medicinal powder, which can be released at any time under specific circumstances.

Murphy straightened up, temporarily pushed the microscope to his forehead, and walked around the sand table following the direction of the water flow.

He would stop every few steps, scoop up some blood from the river, examine it under a microscope for a moment, and then continue walking until he reached the end of the laboratory.

The place resembled a river flowing into the sea, with a large expanse of water deliberately created at the end of the river channel, its shape mimicking the curve of the coastline.

However, the laboratory eventually came to an end, and the simulated sea area was cut off by a wall after extending for a certain distance.

Several pumps were mounted on the wall, and the blood that flowed into the sea was eventually pumped away.

Then it flows along a thick metal pipe to the other side of the laboratory wall and disappears behind the wall.

Murphy's gaze followed the direction of the pipe for a moment, then turned back to look at the direction where the river began.

It guessed that the end of that pipe might be the starting point of this model, forming a general water cycle.

Murphy first walked to the simulated sea area, scooped up some water from the sea, and observed it carefully.

In water samples taken near the shore, the curse remained sealed in a capsule.

It travels outwards along the coastline, taking samples at regular intervals, until it is almost at the edge of the sea.

The situation changed drastically.

Near the pump's intake, all the capsules in that area spontaneously ruptured, releasing the curses inside back into the water.

It's as if a dividing line separates the sea into two distinct areas.

Murphy wasn't sure what the specific reason was.

Perhaps some special adjustments were made to the bottom of this sand table model?

Murphy turned back and went upstream again from the edge of the sea.

Overall, the curse is suppressed in most areas of the river, except for the more distant sea area and some places with unique terrain in the river channel.

After Murphy reached the dam, he went upstream against the current.

The sampling and observation process was repeated.

In the waters above the dam, the amount of curses increases in a step-like manner.

For a long stretch of the river, the amount of curses remains at a stable level, but as you move upwards to a certain point, the amount suddenly increases.

Then it maintains this value until it reaches a specific location, at which point the curse level suddenly spikes again.

Finally, at the very end, Murphy saw the source of the blood-red river.

At the other end of the sand table, where the river begins, is a model of a mountain made of gray rock.

And in a gap in the middle of this mountain peak.

It was continuously spewing out deep red blood, flowing down the ravines of the mountain, converging at the foot of the mountain into a formal blood-red river, and then meandering downstream.

Strangely, there was blood near the mountain peak, and a whole circle of blood that had just gathered at the foot of the mountain.

Murphy took samples and observed them repeatedly, but he couldn't detect any curse, not even in the capsule.

While Murphy was still pondering why this was happening, the relic merchant who had been silently following it around in a circle suddenly spoke up.

The heritage merchant followed Murphy in circles, never uttering a word, simply trailing behind in silence.

But when he saw the model of the mountain spewing blood, he suddenly stopped, and said in a tone of sudden realization, "No wonder it looked so familiar, isn't that Surjan?"

Murphy whirled around to look at the relics merchant: "What do you mean?"

"Yes, literally. Apart from the slight difference in proportions, the overall shape of this river is exactly the same as that of the Surjiang River."

As he spoke, the relic merchant somehow pulled something out of his expanded bag and handed it over.

That was a map.

Murphy took it and unfolded it; it was a detailed map of the water distribution.

The rivers, lakes, and seas on the map are all outlined with extremely fine ink lines, demonstrating a very high level of detail. However, no place names are labeled on the map.

Murphy held the map down a little so the ruins merchant could point it out to him.

The relics merchant stepped forward and found a river on the map that originated from the mountains to the north, meandered southward across most of the continent, and finally flowed into the South China Sea.

"Here it is."

The relics merchant said, "With the most tributaries, the largest flow, and the widest drainage area, this river should be the largest river on this continent, counting from beginning to end."

After pointing out the general course of the river, the relics merchant moved his finger up a bit and tapped lightly twice on a spot in the middle of the river.

"This is roughly the location of the dam, which is considered human territory. But to be honest, I haven't been there for a long time, so I'm not sure about the latest situation."

Murphy's gaze returned to the model of the dam in the sand table, built entirely of flesh and blood.

South China Sea.

Does it remember the South China Sea as a sea of ​​blood?

The various items dredged from the South China Sea, whether seafood or minerals, all possess some strange and eerie effects.

Isn't this just like a so-called "curse"?

Different curses have different effects; some make people cold, some make them lose their minds, and some cause physical mutations.

That Sur River is just like the Kulun River, which Murphy is currently in charge of.

They are both rivers that have been cursed and polluted.

The river was cursed somewhere upstream.

Then the cursed river flowed past the dam.

The dam treated the river water in some way, sealing the curses in capsules and suppressing them, keeping them dormant in most of the downstream river.

Finally, when they reached the mouth of the South China Sea, all the remaining curses were released under certain triggering conditions, turning the entire South China Sea into a sea of ​​blood.

Murphy had a bad feeling.

The Kulun River that he was dealing with, the dam under construction, and the spiritual beings of various intelligent races being filled into the dam.

Could this be a modified version of the corpse dam in front of us?

The materials may be different, but the principles and functions may be the same.

They were all used to seal and suppress the curse in the river, preventing it from overflowing and causing disaster downstream.

If this hypothesis is correct, then the missing persons case I encountered a few days ago was not just a simple case of a few traffickers engaging in smuggling.

Murphy didn't quite understand the intricacies of politics.

But it still understands the simplest truth.

The dam on the Sur River, built with corpses, has existed for so long that it's impossible for the higher-ups in humanity to be unaware of its situation.

Now that they know the situation with the Surjan Dam and what role it played in suppressing the curse—

So, the construction of this new dam on the Kulun River, and the almost undisguised human trafficking.

Were these events carried out under the instruction or at least tacit approval of this group of high-ranking humans?

Those people who were bought and sold, their spirituality extracted, were the fragments of their souls filled between cement and steel bars.

In the eyes of those in power, they may simply be the bricks and stones needed to build another "corpse dam".

To purify a cursed and polluted river, throwing in some lives would probably be a worthwhile deal for them.

The costs are borne by the people below, while the benefits are the water security of the entire basin; it makes sense on paper.

As for whether those who were placed there were willing or not, no one would ask them, and no one knew.

Murphy wasn't entirely sure what the ultimate goal of these high-ranking humans was.

Whether it's truly resorting to any means to purify the curse, or whether it's trying to achieve some special purpose, it currently has no way of knowing.

But in any case, there was one thing it already knew.

If that's the case, Murphy's construction plans along the Cullen River might not go so smoothly.

It was genuinely hard to believe that its large-scale renovations along the riverbank, carried out without any scruples, would not attract the attention or resistance of those people.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away.

Inside the lord's mansion in the capital's satellite city, the lights were on.

This was a small banquet, not a grand one, but of a respectable standard.

The crystal chandelier in the hall cast a warm yellow light, making the silverware on the table gleam.

Seated at the head of the table was a middle-aged man wearing a dark robe. His face was well-preserved, and his exact age was impossible to discern.

He was cutting the food in front of him with a small silver knife.

A subordinate dressed in plain clothes quietly walked in through a side door, walked around a few chairs, bent down and whispered a few words in the middle-aged man's ear.

As the middle-aged man listened, his hands gradually stopped moving.

He placed the knife on the edge of the plate, picked up a napkin to wipe his fingers, and then turned his head slightly to look at his subordinates.

"Stone craftsman, are you going to modify the dam?"

He repeated his subordinate's words and asked with a half-smile.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Uh—it's absolutely true."

The subordinate lowered his head slightly, his tone very certain.

"That stone man seems a bit different from others, as if he has gained some opportunities from the previous era. Our people there saw some unusual signs, which is why they reported it."

"Um----"

The middle-aged man stopped smiling, but the curve of his lips didn't completely disappear.

He folded his napkin and placed it on the table, picked up his crystal glass, took a sip, and then said slowly, "Interesting. Was the mission at the dam completed?"

"The main body is complete; there are just a few things left to install."

The subordinate answered truthfully, "However, we can't be sure if the stone golem will continue to be built up. It seems—it doesn't seem to have the intention to do so."

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment, tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice, and then shook his head: "Ignore it."

He put down the crystal glass, rubbed the rim with his fingers, and continued, "Some people are even more anxious than us. We don't need to worry about the dam for now. Let's see how the Vatican handles it. We'll just wait and see, and then reap the benefits."

He lowered his head, indicating that he understood.

The middle-aged man picked up the silver knife and resumed cutting the food, without even lifting his eyelids.

"Him? He's not important."

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