I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

At this moment, the groom of the Hai family also removed his mask.

Lu Ban saw that it was a fish.

The groom had no human head, only the head of a fish, with eyes that emitted an eerie light, a body covered in scales, and webbing between his fingers, making him exactly like the corpse in the cave.

He didn't say anything, he just jumped.

He jumped into the mud.

Chapter 077 The Night of Return of the Soul

Lu Ban saw that the groom had transformed into a fish-man, wandering in the muddy sea, while on the other side, the bride's body was also undergoing a transformation.

The shape of her head changed, her clothes tore apart, revealing a body that was hardening and growing scales. In just a few seconds, the bride had become a fish-man like the groom.

The Hai family may not have been normal humans from the beginning, but rather fish-men like they are now.

Under the influence of some kind of reproductive force beyond nature, the people of the Sea Clan were able to gradually intermarry with humans and gradually become like ordinary humans. However, despite this, their ancestors still retained many characteristics of fish, such as their protruding eyes and wrinkled faces.

Those walking corpses in the fog are probably the ancestors of the Hai family.

They were cursed so that even in death, as long as they remained in the mist and guarded the stone statue, they would not decay.

The Hai family was able to resist the sea disaster brought by the incarnation of the Black Queen Mother by relying on the power of this bloodline, as well as the extraordinary power of the Qilang Dance contained within the bloodline.

However, at some point, about twenty years ago, the Hai family obtained something that represented the incarnation of the Black Queen Mother. This thing had the same effect on ordinary people as Drizzt, only tormenting their will. But for the Hai family, it could completely revert them to their ancestral form, making them look like their ancestors.

Since then, the Hai family has lived in seclusion, wearing masks to suppress the incarnation of the Black Queen Mother, trying to find a way to break this atavism. In order to conceive the next generation, they must use this method to infuse the bride with the mud, making her the same fish-man.

This is the secret of the dry town.

The groom of the muddy sea and his bride, entangled by tentacles, have come together.

A worship of heaven and earth.

A piercing buzzing sound erupted from the tower. The numb and mechanical townspeople's eyes lost their color, becoming pure white. They seemed to be undergoing some kind of transformation, their bodies contorting, as if something gestating within them was about to burst forth.

Two worship the high hall.

*Pfft*

Those Haijia people who danced the Praying Wave Dance and wore masks were the first to undergo the mutation. Their bodies swelled up, their masks fell off, and their fish heads became ferocious and terrifying. Their limbs began to become thinner and longer, and the webbing between their hands and feet became clearly visible. Even their skin turned greenish-blue and dark black.

Centered on this, more townspeople began to mutate. Their eyes started to bulge out, the shape of their heads changed, and one by one they tore off their clothes, turning into half-fish, half-human creatures.

This entire town has now become a world of monsters.

The husband and wife bow to each other.

The bride and groom, now transformed into fish-men, stood facing each other. The ends of their limbs began to split, and their five fingers turned into countless tentacles made of mud. These tentacles intertwined, gradually merging the two into one.

At this moment, outside the town of Kushui, hundreds and thousands of those bulging-eyed walking corpses gathered together. A gash gradually opened on their heads, revealing no brains inside, only black, foul-smelling sludge and tentacles made of that sludge.

More and more people jumped into the mud. Unlike the bride and groom, these people began to disintegrate as soon as they came into contact with the mud, as if they themselves were made of the mud and became part of this huge mud.

[Attend the Hai family wedding in Kushui Town and witness the union of the bride and groom 1/1]

In Lu Ban's vision, indifferent gray system text appeared, indicating that this was the true union of the bride and groom.

However, following those words, another line of cold text appeared.

[Survived until the end of the wedding: 00:59:59]

This scene will continue for at least another hour.

At that moment, Lu Ban saw something reflecting sunlight in the center of the tentacles of the tower's open mouth.

Despite being surrounded by sludge reeking of metallic stench, and despite the mentally disturbing scene tormenting his will, Lu Ban could still see clearly.

In a filthy world, there stands a pure white statue.

Without a doubt, Lu Ban's first instinct told him that this was the [Black Queen Mother's Merciful Statue]!

"The silt seems to have spread out."

Drizzt said he saw the pool of silt overflow as people from the town jumped in, surging in all directions, swallowing up stones, trees, buildings, everything, and merging into one.

Countless faces emerged from the silt, perhaps the faces of all the Hai family members from ancient times to the present, all those swallowed by the silt. At this moment, their souls are boiling in the sea of ​​silt, returning to reality.

"Let's leave the town quickly and get outside. Escaping for an hour shouldn't be too difficult..."

Trist wanted to tell Lu Ban to run away quickly, but to his surprise, the people around him had already disappeared.

Looking ahead, Drizzt saw that Lu Ban was walking towards the tower in the mud.

"Are you crazy?!"

He couldn't understand Lu Ban's behavior; he only saw Lu Ban take a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument) out of his bag.

"I must take that idol away."

Lu Ban replied.

"...You want to save this town? You want to save this sea? Don't dream. We are just witnesses, just insignificant worms, with no power to change this world that is destined to go crazy."

Drizzt looked at Lu Ban and, for some reason, thought of some of the naive chosen ones he had encountered who believed they could bring something better to the world.

Lu Ban did not answer.

Drizzt hesitated for only a moment, but soon sighed again.

He was one of those naive people, too.

“If you can take the statue, you can indeed stop the current spread of silt and at least save the lives of people outside this area, but it will be difficult for you to come back.”

He checked the bullets in his revolver.

"But I have a way, as long as you're willing to trust me."

"Of course I believe you."

Lu Ban nodded, and then, under Trist's gaze, walked towards that crazy and chaotic world.

You'd better cover your ears.

Lu Ban didn't turn around, but only roared. Amidst the intertwined shouts of the souls, his voice seemed somewhat insignificant.

"Cover your ears?"

Trist quickly did as instructed.

The next moment, in that chaotic world, Lu Ban put the suona to his lips.

"It's such a joyous occasion, how can it be without the accompaniment of suona horns?"

He played the suona.

It was a melody that could hardly be called a tune. Any elementary school student could play a more beautiful melody than Lu Ban. He was just playing the suona as he pleased, relying entirely on instinct.

However, as soon as that awkward, unpleasant, and utterly inelegant melody was played, the once boiling sea of ​​silt momentarily froze.

The all-consuming silt actually spread outwards from Lu Ban, making way for him.

Just as the sages in the classics parted the sea, the foul-smelling silt that reeked of metal opened up a road that stretched endlessly for the land.

Drizzt stared in disbelief at the scene. A terrifying aura emanated from Lu Ban's suona, so intense that Drizzt, who knew nothing, felt a deep-seated tremor and fear. In fact, the horrific mud paled in comparison to the malice emanating from the suona.

Blood flowed from Lu Ban's nose, eyes, and ears, but it was quickly replaced by tender green shoots. These shoots grew intertwined and continued to grow, greedily absorbing nutrients in the sunlight, and even extending their tendrils into the wriggling mud.

Under the pale sunlight, amidst the murky mud, and above the jarring melodies, these terrifying new green shoots blossomed into pure white flowers.

Lu Ban could sense that some great being was responding to him from an extremely distant place, resonating with him, and connecting with him. With him as the vessel, some kind of change transcended time and space and was descending upon this world.

He interfered with, resisted, and confronted this world, this being within the silt.

In just one more minute, he will become some kind of vessel, a window through which something cruel, magnificent, and indifferent will descend.

But he had already arrived next to the statue.

Lu Ban stretched out one hand and firmly grasped the statue.

[Item Obtained: Statue of the Black Queen Mother's Compassion]

The next instant, Lu Ban was swallowed by endless silt, and his figure could no longer be found.

Chapter 078 Standing Tall on the Earth

In the dark, foul-smelling, and nauseating mud, Lu Ban could sense that those murky, alien things were trying to infiltrate him.

From his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears, from every pore, the silt tried desperately to penetrate his body, altering Lu Ban's physiological structure and turning him into a half-fish, half-human monster.

As the silt gradually eroded Lu Ban, green plants slowly grew inside him, using the silt as nutrients to resist the mutation.

In Lu Ban's mind, countless voices came through the silt.

"...I just want to be a human being, an ordinary human being..."

"...I wonder if Pisces will be happy after marrying him..."

"...I don't want to stay here, I don't want to become like you..."

"...I don't want to die, I want to live. Yes, I'll do anything to live..."

"...Twisted desires inevitably lead to twisted results. It turns out everything was true. It turns out everything was predestined..."

"...Poor child, I only had time to see him one last time..."

"...Destroy everything, destroy everything, hahahahaha..."

Countless voices, men and women, young and old, in different languages, intertwined and wove together. These words were like independent wills, gathering in this filthy sludge, trying to burrow into Lu Ban's mind, trying to turn Lu Ban's consciousness into that chaotic state as well.

From ancient times to the present, the consciousness of all those who have died in this mud is now intertwined within it, forming the will of this mud.

Countless desires merge into one, ultimately only reversing everything and bringing destruction to all things.

The mental pollution, far exceeding the limits of human endurance, spread through Lu Ban's mind.

Around his body, lush green vegetation blocked the silt, forming a cocoon-like structure, but the silt still kept seeping in through the gaps.

Outside the mud, in the already dilapidated Hai family mansion, Trist watched helplessly as Lu Ban obtained the statue, and then watched him be swallowed by the mud.

The tower had transformed into a monster of silt, from which countless tentacles of silt spread. In the now-blackened pool of water, the massive silt extended dark hooves and slowly rose to its feet.

It was like a colossal beast from ancient legends that destroyed cities; its imposing presence undoubtedly made it a superhuman being that surpassed all humankind.