Shen Qingqiu sat upright.
A corpse, f*** f*** f***!
I'd just thought "the water's so clear" and you give me a floating corpse? Don't slap my face so heavily, okay!
Liu Qingge used a pole to hook the corpse closer and turn it over. It was actually a complete skeleton. Because it had been wrapped in black cloth from head to toe with the face sunk underwater, it had escaped his notice earlier.
Shen Qingqiu asked, "Junior apprentice brother Mu, do you know what kind of plague will instantly turn an entire body into a skeleton?"
Mu Qingfang slowly shook his head. "I've never heard of anything like this before."
A boat rowing upstream would fall back if it stopped moving forward. Since they'd stopped for a while, the small boat had retreated a short distance. Liu Qingge lifted his pole again and said to those behind him, "There's more ahead."
Sure enough, five or six corpses floated over. Just like the first one, all of them were skeletons clothed in black.
While Shen Qingqiu was lost in his thoughts, Liu Qingge suddenly stabbed the pole into the rock wall beside them. The thin, brittle bamboo pole was thus inserted into the smooth, seamless stone. Once fixed in place, the boat stopped where it was.
Shen Qingqiu also noticed there was something different and stood up. "Who is it?"
In the depths of the darkness ahead came a rush of rapid breathing. The light at the hull of the boat dimly illuminated a person's figure. They heard a boy's voice: "Who are you people? Why are you entering the city through the hidden river?"
Shen Qingqiu said, "That's what I'd like to ask you."
Even though he was standing on a small and shabby boat, he appeared elegant and refined. With his green clothes, black hair, and long sword hanging from his waist, every movement was like that of an immortal. Additionally, Shen Qingqiu was now very experienced at acting cool and was able to incorporate some of his own style to bluff. As expected, the young man was stunned by his airs and blanked out for a moment, before he shouted, "Leave! Right now entry into the city is not allowed!"
Liu Qingge snorted. "Who are you to stop anyone?"
The boy said, "There's a plague in the city. If you don't want to die, then scram!"
Mu Qingfang warmly said, "Little brother, we're precisely here for that reason......"
Seeing that they weren't leaving, the boy said angrily, "Do you not understand human speech? Leave quickly! Scram, scram, scram! If you don't, don't blame me for being impolite!" He had barely finished talking when a spear gun came piercing over, vigorous enough to be frightening. Liu Qingge laughed coldly and pulled out the bamboo pole from the wall. With a single rising stroke, the opponent was sent flying into the water. Hearing the teenager's curses while splashing in the river, Shen Qingqiu asked, "Shall we fish him up or not?"
Liu Qingge said, "He's got plenty of breath and energy, why should we bother fishing him out? Let's just enter the city." Pulling out the bamboo pole, he continued rowing the boat.
The three of them emerged from the dark river, and the illegal boat floated on the currents back into the darkness. The exit was in the most barren area of the city, in the middle of a shallow swamp. Not a single person was around. They walked towards the center of the city for a while when the tap, tap, tap of someone's footsteps came chasing behind them.
Drenched like a chicken prepared for soup, the young man from earlier rushed towards them and exclaimed, "Why did you enter the city? There's no use in coming in! Before, there were a lot of people who came and said they'd fix the plague. Some monks, some Taoists, some Hua Palace.1 Each and every one of them came in and couldn't leave! You're all looking for an early death!"
