704 Worms

 

The stone house on the island was over 100 years old. According to legend, this was where the Lake God lived. When the villagers had any problem, they would prepare the sacrifice and throw it into the well in the middle of the house, and the Lake God would solve their problems.

The villages around the lake had this legend. However, no one had seen the real Lake God before. This was probably just a legend. Holding the rotten rungs, Han Fei was exceptionally careful. It was unclear when the wooden ladder was built. The surface was smooth and covered in green moss. The part closer to the water had completely rotted away. The rungs there were covered in small bite marks.

“Shush. Don’t influence him.” Guan Miao placed his finger on his lips. He didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly. The stone house was extremely quiet. Everyone was concerned about Han Fei. They prayed that he could complete the ritual. Han Fei reached the second floor easily. The wooden ladder felt like it was about to crash then. The nails that connected it to the wall loosened, and the ladder creaked noisily. It swayed too.

Han Fei lowered his head to look. Something was surfacing in the bottom of the well. His heart raced. The premonition of death reappeared. “There’s something calling for me inside the water.” People would have the urge to jump down when they were at a high spot. There was a voice in his head telling him to let go and embrace the water.

Han Fei shook his head to chase away the creepy thoughts. He grabbed the wooden ladder and continued to climb. As Han Fei approached the altar near the roof, the calm water underneath suddenly bubbled. A few bubbles broke through the surface.

“Give me the flashlight.” Yan Yue’s mother had a very bad feeling. She grabbed the flashlight from the lifeguard, retreated, and shone the light at the well.

“Do you want to kill him?” Guan Miao immediately stopped her. “The light will attract the things underwater. You’ll disturb the Lake God!”

“I just want to see what’s underwater. If it’s dangerous, we can warn Han Fei.” Yan Yue’s mother argued.

“He’s carrying the figurine on the ladder. The ritual has reached its latter half. If he gives up now, the three of you will end up like us, becoming a half-fish, half-human monster!” Guan Miao’s voice was low, but his tone was stern. He didn’t hide it anymore. He removed his shirt to show Yan Yue the severity of stopping the ritual. “Do you want to become like me?” The old man’s thin body was painted with water patterns. Strange scales grew among the patterns. The creepy thing was while the old man breathed, the scales and patterns expanded and constricted with his breathing. “Everyone who has participated in the ritual has turned into this. This is our one chance to rectify it.”

After Yan Yue’s mother saw Guan Miao’s body, she stopped insisting. The lifeguard was stunned. He pulled Yan Yue’s mother away and switched off the flashlight.

Han Fei on the ladder didn’t care about them. He was focused on the altar. In his memory, all the altars were placed on land or sacrificial table. Stability was the focus. This was the first time he encountered an altar that was situated so precariously. This abnormality grabbed his attention. The closer he got to the altar, the more anxious he felt. There was something very scary inside the altar. Using all of his limbs, Han Fei hung tight to the old and slippery wooden ladder. When he was climbing to the third floor, a black worm crawled out of the back of the wooden rung.

Han Fei didn’t fear this. He hated these strange creatures. “Kill it!”

The kitten appeared to understand Han Fei. It jumped out of the backpack and swatted the worm into the well. The worm didn’t float on the surface but immediately sank to become part of the lake. The moisture in the air thickened.

“You’re quite useful.” The kitten was quite proud to be praised by Han Fei. But it soon returned to its arrogant self. But it volunteered to lead the way for Han Fei.

“Be careful. The ladder is quite fragile.”

As they climbed upwards, more carvings appeared on the wall. Most of them were carved with nails. Han Fei had no idea what these carvings meant. Suddenly, a horrible sound came.

Creak…

The sound came from the back and inside of the ladder. It sounded like needles were piercing through the ladder. Even the kitten stopped. It growled at the top, and its fur bristled.

“This is not good.”

A black worm crawled out of the gap in the ladder. It was followed by more black worms. They dominated the upper half of the stone house. They even built a lair at the bottom of the lair. There was no light in the stone house. The black worms were all hidden in the dark. A normal person would have freaked out and slipped.

Even though Han Fei didn’t want to admit it, he was a bit anxious. It was not a fear of death, but his body felt revulsion toward these black worms.

“These worms look different. They are from different species. They are the ugliness of the world. However, they all built a communal lair under the altar. This proves that they are generated by the same thing.” Han Fei didn’t dare to move recklessly. He carefully observed the kitten and the black worms. Soon, he noticed something interesting.

The worms would make this strange sound when they faced the kitten. They were not afraid of the kitten but the nine black patterns on the kitten. Something similar to the worms resided inside the black patterns. However, the thing was strong, unlike these worms, which were incomplete.

The kitten hesitated for a while before it continued to climb. The ugly worms voluntarily parted for it. The kitten saw this and immediately attacked. The nine ghost tattoos crawled over the sewn-together skin. The worms touched by the kitten would die. Their bodies shriveled, and their darkest presence would be absorbed by the nine ghost tattoos.

A ‘rain of dead bodies’ fell. This would be a horrible experience for a normal person, but Han Fei was not affected. He followed behind the kitten and glanced at Guan Miao by the door.

With these black worms around, almost no one would be able to reach the altar. In other words, the people who came to deliver the figurine would die. However, this village had the culture of sending people to deliver the figurine annually. Han Fei heard from Guan Miao that they would find an orphan to deliver the figurine. Guan Miao didn’t say the orphan would return safely or not. In the village, no one would care when an orphan went missing.

‘No wonder they have the ritual every year. This altar and the animal sacrifices are just a front. The orphan who delivers the figurine is the real sacrifice! They are conducting live sacrifices!’ Han Fei saw the carvings on the wall. He understood that these carvings were left behind by the orphans before they died. It was the sign of their final struggle. Some of the orphans were kind. They wanted to warn the others when they were bitten by thousands of worms. They left the warnings on the wall. However, they were too high up. When their successors saw the warnings, it would already be too late. Seeing the signs on the wall, Han Fei didn’t find trouble with Guan Miao but continued to climb upwards.

Han Fei came to the third floor and saw the familiar human cocoons under the altar. The cocoon was carved with human faces. They were made from human souls.

“These black cocoons look the ugliest, but they are made from the mutation of human hearts.”

Han Fei was only two meters away from the altar. The wooden ladder would disintegrate at any moment. His every step was very careful. Compared to Han Fei, the kitten was very courageous. After it absorbed the presence of the black worms, it turned its focus to the worm lair under the altar. Before Han Fei could stop it, the kitten did something dangerous. It leaped from the wooden ladder and landed on the worm lair. The dangling altar was fixed to the roof with several chains. The doors didn’t appear like they had been opened before.

Han Fei carefully maintained his body balance as he moved. However, the wooden ladder still snapped slightly. From the start, the person who built the wooden ladder didn’t want anyone to get close to the altar. This last stretch was impossible to pass.

Sensing the collapse of the ladder, Han Fei jumped towards the altar. He grabbed the chain with one hand and pulled himself up. Han Fei hugged the chain and turned back to look. The wooden ladder had completely crumbled. The wooden pieces fell into the well. The murky water splashed everywhere, shattering the silence.

The expression of the trio at the door was different. The lifeguard was worried and scared; Yan Yue’s mother looked thoughtful but also thankful; Guan Miao had a complicated expression. He stopped holding his hands together.

Han Fei leaned on the chain. He wanted to see what was inside the altar. He reached and tried to open the altar door. The dried cocoons fell, and a horrible stench gushed out. Inside the altar was a human head that was so rotten the facial feature was not recognizable anymore. The human head was facing away from the door and faced a mirror inside the altar. The back of the head was cracked to form the pattern of a giant butterfly.

When Han Fei opened the altar, the mirror reflected Han Fei’s face. The rotten head immediately changed to take on Han Fei’s appearance!

“Lake God!” Guan Miao suddenly shouted and chanted something. However, he barely got far before he was stopped by Yan Yue’s mother. “Han Fei, be careful of the water!”

Yan Yue’s mother moved fast, but she was still too late.

The energy was gathering in the middle of the well. The water rippled, and a giant shadow appeared underwater!

Han Fei was sitting before the altar. His attention was fully grasped by the head inside the altar. “Mirror, altar, and head. Is this Dream’s fourth resurrection ritual? But who is he trying to resurrect?”

The kitten could no longer contain the power inside the ghost tattoo once it consumed the worm lair. The nine ghost tattoos spiraled out of control. The threads on its body unraveled.

The ghost tattoos on the kitten seemed to sense something. The kitten’s sharp claws grabbed the underside of the altar and easily tore it open. Then, it smacked the butterfly pattern on the back of the head.

The head and the mirror shattered at the same time. A blood cocoon about the size of a human heart was hidden inside the head. The blood cocoon wasn’t big, but it was carved with the names of many souls. It was far more imposing than any cocoon Han Fei had met.

Just as the kitten was about to absorb the blood cocoon, the water cracked open, and a gigantic shadow leaped out of the water!

Everyone was shocked.

“Is there really a water monster here?”

The monster was like fish and snake combined together. Each of its scales was a wailing human face. Endless water ghosts weaved behind it. Its presence was like a tsunami.

“Dream’s fourth ritual is not to revive itself but this creature inside the lake?”

There were two mutation routes for the cocoons. One was to gather all the beauty in the world and become the perfect humans like the Butterfly; the other was to gather all the death and misfortune to become a monster like Big Sin.

This fourth ritual should be Dream’s insurance. If it couldn’t be reborn as humans, then a monster was not bad too.

Han Fei was reminded of the giant cocoon under Ziggurat. Dream did succeed in the end. But it was unclear whether it became a perfect human or a monster.

Han Fei stepped on the chain and pulled out Rest in Peace. He was going to buy time for his precious pet.

“This thing has consumed so many humans. It can be considered a butcher, right?”