The Mystery of the Dragon God on the Huanyu

Si Dehao was also very friendly toward their attitude. Hearing this, he nodded. Turning back into the bedroom to change his clothes, a trace of disdain flashed in the depths of his eyes. *Hmph, what's there to be proud of? So what if they are transcendents? Aren't they willingly acting as my dogs for a bit of profit?*

*So what if I'm an ordinary person? To someone like me, transcendents and weird anomalies are no secrets. As long as I'm willing to spend money, transcendents are easily within my grasp. But truly smart people don't want to become transcendents. Just looking at that terrifying mortality rate shows they are a bunch of pitiful wretches with a today but no tomorrow.*

Although he was an illegitimate son, he was the youngest son favored most by his father. He lacked nothing in terms of wealth, power, and status; he could have whatever he wanted. He would have to be crazy to actively turn himself into a short-lived wretch just out of admiration for so-called transcendent power.

However, he was indeed a bit unlucky today. Such a fine yacht had actually encountered a weird anomaly, forcing him to temporarily flatter those two people so they would work diligently to quickly resolve this anomaly.

Sacrifice was a major event. Previously, his father had personally presided over it. This year, his father handed this matter to him instead of his other older brothers and sisters, which was enough to prove how much his father valued him.

Therefore, he absolutely could not make a mistake. As long as he completed the task perfectly and let his father see his capability, with his father's backing, the entire Si family would be in the palm of his hand!

Four cleaning ladies carrying tools entered the living room, quickly cleaning up the wine on the coffee table, taking away the carpet stained with wine and blood, along with the wine glasses.

Du Zhiwei hid among them. After the Jiaoren helped her change her identity and appearance, she immediately requested that Brother Lou turn her into a cleaning lady responsible for this first floor.

A cleaning lady was a type of person very easily overlooked, and her actions were very free. With this identity as a cover, her situation would be much safer, and she could closely observe Si Dehao and the others to formulate her next strategy. Her identity at this time also belonged to the Black Faction. Excluding her, the members of the Black Faction should currently number 123.

Having changed his clothes, Si Dehao walked out of the bedroom and left the door with two bodyguards.

On the other side, Xu Qian, one of the six members of the Red Faction who had transformed into a cleaning lady, gathered her courage to glance at the situation inside the room. The small living room was modern, luxurious, yet understated. However, on a side cabinet sat a wooden altar, inside of which three burning incense sticks were planted in an incense burner. Due to the angle, she couldn't see the statue of the deity enshrined inside the altar.

She could only mutter in her heart. *I heard rich people are very superstitious. Could it be the God of Wealth enshrined inside?*

Soon, the four ladies finished cleaning and immediately pushed their carts away. On the corridor covered with thick, high-grade carpet, walking made absolutely no sound.

On the corridor walls were exquisite reliefs of flowers and grass. Every few steps hung a wood-framed oil painting under glass. The colors were vibrant, and the contents of the paintings had a high degree of similarity, all themed around the vast sea, occasionally decorated with islands or sandy beaches.

There was a quiet sea, a sea in heavy rain, a sea when wild winds howled, and a sea when tsunamis rose. There was a sea with underwater volcanic eruptions, as well as underwater scenery where schools of fish patrolled, or seaweed formed forests, or underwater deserts.

And looking closely, every single painting had the faint silhouette of a dragon—looming, sometimes like swaying seaweed, sometimes like a winding sea serpent, leaving viewers uncertain and giving rise to infinite imagination, serving as the finishing touch.

People who liked these paintings would probably be happy to spend an entire afternoon finding those little easter eggs from these sea scenes.

Xu Qian still remembered that voice saying the top-floor corridor had a problem, so she was currently stealthily observing the paintings on the corridor.

Just then, the cleaning lady walking at the very front suddenly said: "The fog outside is too strange."

Hearing this, Xu Qian immediately said: "Yes, too strange. By the way, did you all hear that voice just now?"

"We heard it. That voice said we are all part of the Black Faction."

"Do you think there are really ghosts, or is someone playing tricks?"

"Hard to say. With the Dragon God existing in this world, maybe there really are little ghosts. But it doesn't matter; we have the protection of the Dragon God, so those little ghosts won't dare come near us."

"That's right. When we go back later, let's properly worship the Dragon God. Pray for the Dragon God's protection."

Du Zhiwei's imperceptible steps paused slightly, then she nodded along with Xu Qian. Today was their night shift; when they had free time, they would return to the breakroom.

Xu Qian sat down on the breakroom sofa with a cup of water to rest. She had been locked in that storage room for a whole day without food or water. She didn't dare eat or drink to her heart's content to avoid exposing her abnormality, only daring to stealthily take a few candies from the breakroom and put them in her pocket to replenish her energy later.

Needless to say, this yacht was truly luxurious. Even the cleaning ladies' breakroom was very well-decorated. Not only was there coffee, a water dispenser, and snacks provided, but even the sofa was very comfortable to sit on, clearly a luxury item at a glance.

However, just as Xu Qian took a sip of water, she saw the other two ladies put down their cleaning tools and walk toward a small door in the corner of the breakroom. Du Zhiwei immediately followed them upon seeing this.

Before Xu Qian realized what was happening, she saw the leading lady stop and look at her. "Why are you sitting down? Didn't you say just now you wanted to worship the Dragon God with us?"

Doubt appeared in the eyes of the other lady: "Usually you are the most active in worshiping the Dragon God, worshiping morning, noon, and night. Now that something has happened, why aren't you worshiping?"

Xu Qian tensed for a moment. Her instinct was to stand up, but she immediately forced herself to stay still, took another large gulp of water, and then slowly stood up, saying: "Cough, my throat is a bit uncomfortable, so I'm drinking some water to soothe it. Besides... besides, as you said, I'm usually the most active. I'm so devout and have the Dragon God's protection, so I'm not panicked at all."

Once these words were spoken, the lady nodded: "That's true. It seems I must learn more from you in the future, worshiping the Dragon God morning, noon, and night. We can't just worship when something happens; otherwise, it'll be too late if the Dragon God feels we aren't devout enough."

Speaking of this, she seemed a bit frightened, clasping her hands toward the empty air and muttering a few words before hurriedly opening the small door and entering.

Xu Qian was the last to enter, only to find that this custom-designed small room was extremely tiny, lacking even a window, which felt a bit suffocating.

Inside sat an altar, and within the altar was a statue of the Dragon God dressed in black robes with two horns on his head. Painted in bright red, yellow, and green colors, it didn't look particularly special.

She copied the posture of the person in front of her, kneeling on the cushion, bowing respectfully to the statue, then taking three incense sticks from the cabinet, lighting them, and placing them in the incense burner.

In the next second, Xu Qian smelled a foul, pungent stench, which instantly brought to mind images of fish and shrimp piled up on a beach, rotting under the sun and attracting countless buzzing flies.

She instinctively raised her head, only to see that the Dragon God statue before her had changed its appearance at some point. The humanoid Dragon God with two horns had turned into a black dragon—a black dragon so decayed that many of its black scales were cracked and peeling off. Under the remaining scales, every crevice was packed with thick pus, with greyish-green fluid oozing out, and white maggots faintly squirming in the black pus!

The moment Xu Qian saw the god, she felt dizzy, and a wave of intense nausea welled up in her heart.

"Ugh!"

This dragon was so disgusting, lacking any of a dragon's majesty and grandeur. Xu Qian even refused to admit this monstrous thing was a dragon. How could this be a dragon? This was absolutely not a dragon!

"What's wrong with you?"

The doubtful voice of the person beside her pulled Xu Qian back from that bizarre environment. That putrid stench seemed like a fleeting illusion; when she listened again, only the thick scent of incense smoke rushed at her face.

Xu Qian felt her dizzy brain clear up a lot. When she looked up again, the Dragon God statue had changed back to its previous majestic humanoid appearance.

Yet for some reason, a voice in Xu Qian's heart was warning her not to look. Therefore, with eyes full of disgust and fear, she quickly lowered her eyelids, not daring to look again.

Someone scolded in an unpleasant tone: "What's going on? Why did you retch? Isn't this offending the Dragon God? Careful, the Dragon God might bring punishment upon you!"

Xu Qian had also read a few horror novels and knew she absolutely could not expose her abnormality at this moment. Thus, with a pale face, she clutched her stomach.

"I don't know. Maybe I haven't been resting well lately, and my stomach caught a cold. It's my fault, I wasn't careful."

She then fearfully clasped her hands, lowering her eyes to the statue and saying: "This believer didn't do it on purpose. It's really just my body failing me. Please don't blame me, Dragon God, please don't blame me."

Seeing she was still so devout, the other two ladies were satisfied, pulling her out of the small room and showing concern for her health.

"The weather has been cold lately, you must take care of your body."

"Is your body very uncomfortable? Does your stomach hurt?"

"Sigh, with such a strange thing happening today, who knows when we'll get this month's divine water. Otherwise, just one drop of divine water in your stomach would guarantee you'd recover from any illness."

Du Zhiwei's first task was to protect herself from being discovered. The person she replaced was also of a quiet character, so she didn't speak much, only chiming in once or twice occasionally.

Divine water?

Xu Qian pricked up her ears while outwardly still clutching her stomach in discomfort. "Sigh, getting old, one has to accept it. If I were still eighteen, I definitely wouldn't be like this from just a bit of wind."

These words struck a chord with the other two middle-aged ladies.

"Indeed, getting old. When I was young and my family was poor, to save water money, I washed clothes by the river in winter. Even when my hands froze red, it was fine. After forty, if I catch a bit of cold wind the night before, I easily get a headache and fever the next day. But now it's fine. Ever since we became believers of the Dragon God and received his protection, our bodies have been getting better and better. Although not as good as when we were eighteen, it's much better than before."

"Isn't that right? When I went back to my hometown recently, my family was particularly surprised, praising me for looking ten years younger!"

"Unfortunately... our Huanyu only operates two months a year, so people like us only get two drops in total during these two months. The team leader has it a bit better, getting four drops over the two months. Look at her face, she looks like she's in her twenties. If she goes out for a stroll, who could tell she's over forty?"

"If she didn't have a thing with the supervisor, how could she have become the team leader? But even after pleasing the supervisor like that, she only gets two more drops of divine water than us. If we're talking about who's truly formidable, it has to be that person who climbed up to become the Chief Mate. I heard the Captain and the Chief Mate get a whole cup of divine water every month during these two months!"

The two of them went off-topic again, no longer caring about Xu Qian's discomfort, but instead saying with faces full of longing: "Divine water is truly a good thing. If only we could have a bit more."

"Yes, if only we had a bit more."

Xu Qian didn't know what this so-called divine water was, but seeing their longing expressions, she suddenly felt a bit of dread.

The entire Huanyu was under the Jiaoren's control. Among them, the six members of the Red Faction, the Black Faction's Si Dehao, Hai Qin, Du Zhiwei, and the others were his key observation targets. Therefore, he had long noticed Xu Qian's abnormality.

*Click*, the breakroom door was opened, and the Jiaoren's figure openly entered. Yet, none of the cleaning ladies in the breakroom noticed anything unusual, continuing to eat melon seeds and chat.

Xu Qian sat in the corner, trying to pretend her stomach was unwell. Du Zhiwei sat beside her, playing her role as a quiet and simple character. She was the only one who saw the Jiaoren, and her eyes widened slightly upon seeing him enter.

*Shh...*

The Jiaoren's nearly translucent white finger was placed against his pale lips, signaling Du Zhiwei not to show any abnormality.

Then, under Du Zhiwei's shocked gaze, his fishtail swayed as he "walked" over to Xu Qian's side.

Out of the corner of her eye, Du Zhiwei bypassed the oblivious Xu Qian and quickly lowered her head.
Fear points +200
+150
...

The Jiaoren glanced at the top of Du Zhiwei's head, then focused on Xu Qian's eyes: "Tell me, what did you discover in that small room just now?"

Xu Qian's eyes grew vacant. "I saw..."

She slowly opened her mouth, describing in detail what she had discovered in the small room. Perhaps the mental pollution of that decaying black dragon was too intense, for even though she was under the Jiaoren's mental control, her vacant face still showed deep disgust and fear.

Beside her, Du Zhiwei, who had her head lowered, trembled as she held her cup. She hadn't seen any of these abnormalities in the small room earlier. Why was only the lady beside her seeing them? Was that also an illusion created by the Jiaoren?

In a position Du Zhiwei couldn't see, an interest not belonging to his character flashed in Shen Lou's eyes. Although he had indeed prepared some small surprises for the Red Faction, he hadn't prepared this part.

Just a day earlier, he had learned the secrets of this yacht by hypnotizing Si Dehao, so he naturally knew those large and small Dragon God statues on this ship were not simple. However, when she looked at the statue before, she hadn't seen those abnormalities. This Red Faction girl was just an ordinary person, yet she could see them... Was it because her spiritual sensitivity was too high?

The Jiaoren kept this in mind, then said in a low voice: "Remember, do not speak the evil god's name directly. For whenever it is spoken, it will be sensed."

Xu Qian muttered: "Do not speak the evil god's name directly. For whenever it is spoken, it will be sensed."

By the time Xu Qian's eyes regained their vitality, the Jiaoren had already left. Just like the others around her, she completely failed to notice that a Jiaoren had visited the breakroom.

Only, a thought naturally popped up in her mind. She seemed to have heard before that the names of deities could not be called out casually; believers always kept the names of deities on their lips precisely because the deities would sense it. That Dragon God statue was too sinister; at a glance, it didn't look like a righteous god, probably some kind of evil god. In the future, she had better not casually say the words "Dragon God." Right, she also had to remind the other five people.

Lost in her thoughts, Xu Qian didn't notice the water cup in the hand of the lady beside her trembling slightly, causing ripples to dance in the cup.

Du Zhiwei knew very well that the Jiaoren's last sentence was definitely not said casually. But if the Dragon God illusion was fabricated by him, why would he make an unnecessary warning?

Thinking about it carefully now, he had purposely come to the breakroom, and after hearing the lady beside her speak of the Dragon God statue's mutation, he immediately issued a warning, as if... he was wary of something.

But he was already so strong, what could he be wary of? It couldn't be that a god really existed in this world, right? Not only a righteous god, but also an evil god, and the Dragon God worshiped by Si Dehao and the others on the ship was one of them?!

So the decaying dragon covered in pus and maggots that the lady spoke of was real?! The divine water that could strengthen the body and restore youth, which those ladies mentioned in a few words, was also real?!

Du Zhiwei originally thought her worldview had already collapsed when she heard of Mr. System and saw the Jiaoren, but she didn't expect it could collapse even more thoroughly.

If gods truly existed, then what kind of existence were Mr. System and the Jiaoren, who swore allegiance to that Weird Anomaly Queen?

She had a feeling before boarding the yacht that the Jiaoren and Mr. System saving her was just incidental; their true target was this yacht. Even without her, they would have acted against the Huanyu.

And whether the Jiaoren knew beforehand or not, in short, he definitely knew now that Si Dehao and the others enjoyed the evil god's protection, yet he only issued a warning and didn't take any action to withdraw. What was his backing?

What the Jiaoren relied on was definitely that Weird Anomaly Queen. From the silhouette, she must be extremely powerful; otherwise, so many terrifying, twisted monsters wouldn't submit to her. Then she... could she also be a god? At least she definitely possessed the power to confront an evil god; otherwise, she wouldn't have let her subordinate tweak the tiger's whiskers.

And after binding with the Biwenlu app, she had also become one of that Queen's people... No, it was more appropriate to say she was an ant groveling at the feet of that powerful existence.

Du Zhiwei's thoughts wandered, and she couldn't help but clutch her chest.
Fear points +300
+250
...

Because the scale of the investigation on the yacht was very large, the six of them didn't dare go to the deck to meet at night. Si Dehao gathered the 30 distinguished guests together, speaking of their current difficult situation.

The 30 distinguished guests were all from top elite clans. Precisely because they knew supernatural forces, weird anomalies, transcendents, and even faintly knew some hidden secrets of the Huanyu existed in this world, they had appeared on the Huanyu.

Otherwise, with their status, what delicious food or entertainment couldn't they have? They were all people making millions every second; why would they suddenly run out to the open sea for two months in this harsh winter?

Therefore, when they heard they were inside a weird anomaly, each of them panicked. One had to know that due to the Si family's rules, they hadn't brought any bodyguards when boarding the Huanyu!

Si Dehao spent a lot of effort, and since the Si family's reputation had been quite good over the years, he barely managed to reassure these difficult guests.

There were only two Level 5 transcendents on the yacht, both of whom were Si Dehao's bodyguards. After midnight, one of his Level 5 bodyguards led a group of stout crew members to search the entire Huanyu, attempting to figure out the rules of this weird anomaly and resolve it.

Unfortunately, after a night passed, they found no clues.

Time quickly reached the next morning. A broadcast spreading across the entire yacht broke the early morning silence. The Captain stated that there should have been 130 people on the ship, but currently, the Black Faction only had 124. Six little mice who should have been in the bottom cabin had mingled among them.

"Please pay attention to the people around you from now on. Once there is anything unusual, report it immediately!"

The six members of the Red Faction scattered across the yacht, who were thinking about how to gather, felt their hearts tighten upon hearing this broadcast.

Xu Qian had worked the night shift, only getting off work at four in the morning. She finally managed to fill her stomach while the other ladies were eating breakfast, then took her room card back to the dormitory according to the information on her identity card.

The yacht was very large, capable of carrying over a thousand people. But to stimulate demand, there were only 30 guests on board. Therefore, the workers here not only ate well but also lived well; even basic positions like cleaning ladies and security uncles lived in single rooms.

Because she was too tense, Xu Qian couldn't sleep. Not daring to go out, she searched her dormitory, silently memorizing the identity information she could find. It wasn't until seven in the morning that she pretended to be hungry and went to eat breakfast, pondering how to gather with her teammates.

To fit her character better, she suppressed her fear and went to the small room in the breakroom to offer incense to the statue, keeping her eyes lowered to avoid looking at it during the process.

The daytime shift wasn't the same group from last night. Someone spoke in a sarcastic tone: "You worked the night shift, yet you still got up early this morning to offer incense. It really makes us all look bad. Too bad the supervisor can't see it; no matter how well you perform, you won't be promoted to team leader."

Xu Qian had looked through the original owner's chat history on her phone this morning, knowing that although the original owner had a good temper, she wasn't the type to stay silent when bullied.

Therefore, with a stern face, she said: "My stomach wasn't well yesterday, and after I worshiped... the god last night, it got much better, which is why I came to worship again this morning. I don't have as many schemes as you."

The other person was displeased by the retort, but before she could say anything, someone nearby asked curiously: "Are you telling the truth?"

Xu Qian nodded with a devout expression, completely attributing her "overnight recovery" to the Dragon God.

The others clearly liked hearing such stories. Hearing this, some clasped their hands toward the empty air, shouting that the Dragon God had manifested his power, while others hurriedly squeezed into the small room to offer incense to the Dragon God statue, praying for his protection.

Xu Qian's grandmother believed in gods, and before she passed away, an altar was always placed in her house. When she was young, she frequently saw the old lady bowing devoutly before the statue. She was originally used to it, but thinking that these people were worshiping a Dragon God statue that might have another disgusting and ugly face, she felt that the devout faces of these people when worshiping the god revealed a trace of gloom and creepiness.

Had they ever seen the hidden other side of the Dragon God?

Just as Xu Qian was lost in thought, someone suddenly approached her. "Right, my sister Lan Juan seemed to borrow two thousand yuan from you last time, didn't she? Here, I'll return it on her behalf."

Borrow money?
"Oh, okay."

The money was already presented before her. Xu Qian, still thinking about the statue, instinctively replied. But just as she wanted to take the money.

The other person suddenly pulled her hand back, while her other hand grabbed Xu Qian's arm like an iron clamp, an excited light flashing in her eyes.

"You are not Liu Lan!"

"Someone come quickly! I caught a Red Faction member who snuck in here! My sister never borrowed money from her! She agreed, so she's definitely not Liu Lan!"