allonlinenovel Chapter 758: A strange dream and a crisis of losing control of emotions
Chapter 758: A strange dream and a crisis of losing control of emotions
An Qingyu's wrist felt hot where Chen Gou had grabbed it, as if blood was seeping from a small cut made by an oyster shell.
Chen Gou's nails almost dug into his flesh, and he stared at him with cloudy eyes.
He gasped in his throat like a bellows. "The day my father passed away, the altar in the Sea Dragon King Temple shook, and all the dried fish on offer fell to the ground."
"For seven days after he left, I dreamed every day of him climbing out of the sea, dripping with water, his knees banging on the rocks and bleeding—"
"He climbed up to the old banyan tree at the entrance of the village and kowtowed to the moon in the sky."
Chen Gou suddenly let go of his hand and rubbed his forehead with his knuckles.
"The moon is usually white, but in my dream it was red as if it were splashed with blood."
"My father kowtowed and called my name, saying, 'Gouzi, you should kneel too. If you don't, the Sea Dragon King will take your soul.'"
"I was so scared that I ran in the opposite direction, but my feet felt like they were filled with lead. I turned around to look at him, and his face..."
His Adam's apple rolled violently twice, and he suddenly began to retch.
An Qingyu followed his gaze and looked over - the moon had just climbed up to the top of the old banyan tree at the entrance of the village.
The silvery white mass in the twilight seemed normal, but An Qingyu stared at it,
I actually felt a faint red mist rising from the edge of the moon, as if someone had drawn a line in the sky with a blood pen.
"An Qingyu!"
Lin Qiye's voice came over mixed with the sea breeze.
When An Qingyu turned around, the corner of his black windbreaker was lifted by the wind, revealing the bronze handle of the demon-subduing nail on his waist.
Wu Hen followed behind him, shaking the dogtail grass in his hand happily.
But An Qingyu noticed that the boy's thumb was hooked on the talisman paper in his trouser pocket - that was his usual action when he was nervous.
Chen Gou stood up suddenly, and oyster shell fragments fell down from his trouser legs.
He took two steps back, his soles rustling over broken coral. "Here comes the man in the black windbreaker... I've said everything I need to say."
"Wait." An Qingyu stretched out his hand to stop him, but saw Chen Gou stumbling towards the village as if being pushed by something.
He ran to the alley entrance and turned back. The wind tore his words into pieces: "Let Black Windbreaker go... to the reef behind the Dragon King Temple... there's..."
Before he could finish his words, his figure was blocked by the blue brick wall.
Lin Qiye walked closer, and the coolness of the demon-subduing nail seeped through the fabric.
He didn't say anything, just stared at An Qingyu's red wrist, his brows slightly furrowed.
Wu Hen came over and flicked the tip of An Qingyu's nose with his dogtail grass: "What's going on? What's that troublesome thing about Old Chen's family at the village head?"
"I just heard the old lady selling dried fish say that her father hasn't even reached his seventh day since his death, but he's gone crazy already?"
An Qingyu repeated Chen Gou's words verbatim.
When talking about the "Red Moon", Lin Qiye tapped his fingers twice on the Demon-Subduing Nail - this was his habit when thinking.
Wu Hen's dogtail grass suddenly stopped shaking, and half a piece of talisman paper slipped out of his trouser pocket: "Red Moon?"
"Last time in Mirror Lake Town, I encountered that blood-eyed mirage. The moon was also red when it created the illusion."
"Dream, Red Moon, Sea Dragon King."
Lin Qiye looked down at his watch, which had just passed seven. "As usual, let's check the Demon Suppression Division's files first."
"What the hell is this file?" Wu Hen stuffed the talisman paper back and kicked away a piece of broken shell at his feet.
"I just heard some fishermen chatting at the dock. They said the tide has been strange these past two days."
"Normally, you can see the reef at low tide, but at three o'clock this afternoon, the sea water hasn't receded even half a foot." He tilted his head to look at An Qingyu.
"Are any of those memory fragments you mentioned earlier related to the sea?"
An Qingyu's temples began to throb again.
He thought of the sea of blood in the fragments, and the hoarse voice saying "the end".
His Adam's apple moved: "There is fire, blood, and..."
He suddenly stopped because Lin Qiye's hand was pressing on the back of his neck - that was their team's secret signal, indicating that there was something unusual around them.
The three of them held their breath at the same time.
A sweet and fishy smell wafted in the sea breeze, like the gills of fish that had been soaked for three days.
Wu Hen sniffed and quickly pulled out all the talisman paper. "This smell... is a bit like the miasma vomited by the miasma in Jinghu Town, but even stronger."
Lin Qiye took off his windbreaker and draped it over his arm, clutching the demon-subduing nail in his hand, which shone with a cold light. "Let's go to the Sea Dragon King Temple."
"Wait." An Qingyu pulled him back.
"Chen Gou said his father told him to wait for the man in the black windbreaker, maybe there's a clue in the reef behind the temple." He touched the back of his neck, where the hairs were still standing up.
"I always feel that... those memories didn't come out of nowhere. They might be related to this incident."
Wu Hen divided the talisman paper into three stacks and stuffed two stacks into An Qingyu's pockets: "Alright, the three of us will form a temporary team.
Let’s go to the reef behind the temple first. If there is something there—” He grinned, revealing a fang.
"It's a good opportunity to try out the new 'Sea-Breaking Talisman' I drew."
Lin Qiye didn't respond, but just threw the windbreaker to An Qingyu: "Put it on."
Seeing An Qingyu stunned, he added, "The sea breeze is cool."
An Qingyu put on a windbreaker, the fabric still carrying Lin Qiye's body temperature.
When the three of them walked towards the beach, the moon had already risen completely.
This time, without squinting, An Qingyu could clearly see that the red mist at the edge of the moon disk had become thicker, like a ball of blood that could not be dissolved.
Wu Hen suddenly stopped and pointed at the sea: "Look!"
The moonlight shining on the crest of the waves should have been as bright as silver scales, but now it was dark red.
What's even more strange is that the sound of waves hitting the rocks has changed - it's no longer "splash", but "plop plop".
Lin Qiye's demon-subduing nail began to hum.
An Qingyu touched the short blade at his waist, and the metal handle was covered in sweat.
Wu Hen's talisman paper rustled in the wind, and he muttered quietly: "This is not the sea at all, it's clearly..."
"It's a closed loop." An Qingyu suddenly spoke.
Those fragments of memory suddenly surged up - a piece of black jade floated in the sea of blood, with strange patterns carved on the jade.
A hoarse voice said, "The closed loop will be broken, and the blood moon will be the guide."
His throat tightened. "Chen Gou's father appeared in my dream. It might be the remnant in the closed loop that is delivering the message."
Lin Qiye turned and stared at him, his eyes blazing with fire: "What else do you remember?"
"I don't remember clearly..." An Qingyu pressed his temples.
"But it is certain that this closed loop is related to the sea and the red moon."
He pointed to the sea and said, "The tide level Wu Hen mentioned is wrong. It may be that the closed loop is being maintained."
Wu Hen stuffed the talisman paper into his pocket.
He pulled out his phone and flipped through the photo album. "The last time I was at the Demon Suppression Division, I was looking for closed-loop cases. There was a closed-loop in a fishing village in the South China Sea that was maintained by a block of black iron on the seabed."
"At that time, fishermen often dreamed of the dead, saying, 'The Dragon King wants to take the soul.'"
He scrolled to a blurry photo and asked, "Look, does the pattern on this black iron resemble the black jade you mentioned?"
An Qingyu moved closer.
The piece of black iron in the photo is bumpy and the patterns are indeed somewhat similar to the black jade in my memory.
When he looked up, Lin Qiye had already walked towards the reef behind the temple.
The wind lifted the hem of his shirt, revealing the spare demon-subduing nails pinned to his lower back.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Wu Hen chased after him.
"At least wait until I check the 'Sea Breaking Talisman' again!"
An Qingyu followed and walked forward.
The smell of the sea became stronger and stronger, and he could hear his own heartbeat hitting the buttons of Lin Qiye's windbreaker.
The moonlight stretched the shadows of the three people very long, overlapping them, like a piece of cloth soaked in blood.
When we reached the edge of the reef, the sea water suddenly receded.
The originally submerged reef was exposed, and its surface was covered with dark red seaweed, swaying in the wind like countless hands.
Wu Hen's talisman paper burst into flames, and he cursed, "Fuck, there's something wrong with this seaweed!"
Lin Qiye's demon-subduing nail pierced into the nearest reef. With a "dang" sound,
Amid the crisp sound of metal colliding, cracks appeared on the reef, and dark red liquid gurgled out, and the fishy and sweet smell instantly became so strong that it was choking.
An Qingyu took two steps back and the sole of his shoe hit something round.
He bent down and picked it up - it was a shell with a piece of jade stuck inside, and the pattern was exactly the same as the black jade in his memory.
"Captain Lin!" he shouted.
“Look at this!”
The moment Lin Qiye turned around, a column of water suddenly exploded on the sea surface.
Half of the blue-black scales were revealed in the dark red water curtain.
Wu Hen threw all the talisman papers out and shouted, "I told you that the 'Sea Breaking Talisman' needs to be checked in advance!
This isn't black iron, it's a dragon!
An Qingyu clenched the broken jade tightly.
The moonlight became redder, so red that it seemed like blood could drip out.
He heard that hoarse voice ringing in his ears again: "Lin Qiye is here, everything should be over..."
Lin Qiye's demon-subduing nail was still stuck in the reef. When the blue-black scales brushed past his left arm, a bloody hole was cut in the cloth.
He pulled out the nail with his backhand, and the bronze tip pushed aside the dark waves swept by the dragon's tail. He turned around and shouted at An Qingyu: "Retreat behind the reef!"
"Get your ass back!" Wu Hen jumped up on the reef and slapped three sea-breaking talismans on the dragon's head.
When the talisman paper touched the scales, purple smoke rose. The beast swung its tail in pain, and the splashing blood waves wrapped in broken corals hit An Qingyu.
He stumbled two steps, and the broken jade in his arms suddenly became hot, burning his palms red - the sea of blood in the memory fragments surged.
He saw himself standing on the same reef, holding a whole piece of black jade in his hand, and shouting at the dragon, "Break!"
"An Qingyu! Catch it!" Wu Hen threw out half a stack of thunder-suppressing talismans, which blew the dragon's head to one side.
An Qingyu instinctively reached for the short blade at his waist, but found nothing - the spare handle of the Demon-Subduing Nail was in Lin Qiye's windbreaker pocket, poking his thigh.
He pulled it out as if possessed by a ghost, and the coolness of bronze ran from the palm of his hand to the back of his neck.
"Use this!" Lin Qiye's voice mixed with the dragon's roar hit his ears.
When An Qingyu looked up, he saw that the captain's eyes were not burning with fire.
It was a kind of ruthlessness that he had never seen before - as if he wanted to tear the blood moon that enveloped the fishing village apart, skin and bones.
The dragon's tail swept over again.
An Qingyu raised the demon-subduing nail, and the broken jade in his palm was so hot that it almost burned through his flesh.
The black jade in his memory suddenly overlapped with the broken jade, and those obscure lines came alive before his eyes, crawling along the nail body towards the dragon scales.
He heard himself shouting, "Break the loop!"
The moment the tip of the bronze nail pierced the dragon's eye, the entire sea surface exploded.
The dark red sea water condensed into a blood mist, and the smelly wind blew into the nasal cavity.
Wu Hen was thrown over by the gust of wind and groaned as he hit the rocks.
Lin Qiye rushed over and grabbed An Qingyu by the back of the collar, and the demon-subduing nail drew a semicircle above their heads to block the flying scale fragments.
The blood mist dissipated very quickly.
When the moonlight came down again, the dragon disappeared, leaving only a piece of black jade half a person's height embedded in the center of the reef.
The lines on the jade were still bleeding, dripping into the cracks in the rocks, making a "sizzling" burning sound.
"The closed loop... is broken?" Wu Hen climbed up, holding his lower back, and the talisman paper was scattered all over the floor.
"Oh my god, Anzi, that move you just made...it was like you were cheating!"
An Qingyu loosened his grip on the jade, and a dark blue mark was imprinted on his palm, which was exactly the same as the pattern on the black jade.
He stared at the black jade, and his memory suddenly seemed to be torn apart - on a stormy night, he knelt on the same reef,
Lin Qiye stood in front of him, covered in blood, and shouted in a hoarse voice, "The loop is closed, hurry up!"
In another scene, Wu Hen rushed into the blood mist holding a talisman paper, shouting "An Qingyu, don't fucking sleep!"
"An Qingyu?" Lin Qiye put his hand on his shoulder.
"You're as white as paper."
An Qingyu turned around and saw that the wound on Lin Qiye's left arm was still bleeding. Blood droplets dripped onto the black jade and suddenly green smoke rose.
His throat tightened. “Have we…been here before?”
Lin Qiye's fingers gently pressed on the back of his neck - that was the code word for "safe".
But this time, An Qingyu didn't feel relaxed. Instead, she panicked: "I remembered... the last time we closed the loop."
"We failed, so we're locked in a loop."
"Chen Gou's father appeared in his dream, and it was the regret of the previous round..."
"Fuck!" Wu Hen squatted down and turned over the black jade.
"So this broken jade is the key to the cycle?"
"We broke it when we failed last time. Is that why Chen Gou's father dreamed of 'The Sea Dragon King Reclaiming Souls'?"
Lin Qiye didn't respond, but squatted down and used the demon-subduing nail to pick away the blood stains on the surface of the black jade.
Three blurry characters were engraved on the jade body, mostly covered by blood and rust: "Ye...Qing...Hen..."
"It's the first letter of our name." An Qingyu's voice trembled.
"We set up the closed loop. To trap... what?"
The sea suddenly rose again.
This time the waves were very light, and they sounded like sobbing as they hit the rocks.
Wu Hen picked up the last half of the talisman paper and suddenly laughed: "No wonder Chen Gou said, 'The man in the black windbreaker is here, it's time to end it.'"
"So we are the key to this closed loop—to break the trap we set ourselves."
Lin Qiye tore off the corner of his clothes to wrap around the wound, and blood quickly soaked the cloth: "No matter why the closed loop was set last time, it's broken now."
He looked up at the red moon, which had faded back to silver. "Go to the village to see Chen Gou. His father's regret should be gone."
An Qingyu followed him into the village, the black jade feeling hot in his pocket.
When passing by the old banyan tree, Chen Gou was squatting under the tree, holding a faded cloth bag in his arms - it was his father's relic.
Seeing the three people coming, he raised his head, the turbidity in his eyes dissipated and said, "I dreamed of my father."
“He said… he said the Dragon King no longer accepts souls and asked me to offer his dried fish back to the temple.”
Wu Hen squatted down and patted his shoulder: "Provide it. Remember to put a few more skewers. Your father must be greedy down there."
Chen Gou smiled, revealing his gums with a missing front tooth.
An Qingyu looked at his smiling face and suddenly recalled the stormy night in her memory.
At that time, Chen Gou's father also laughed like this, stuffed the last half of the dried fish into his hand in the blood waves, and said, "Take it, and walk carefully."
Lin Qiye placed his hand on the back of his neck, and this time there was a little more warmth in the signal.
An Qingyu turned around and saw that the fierceness in the captain's eyes had dissipated.
Only a hint of his familiar, deeply hidden tenderness remained: "Next round, we won't fail again."
The sea breeze blew over, carrying the aroma of dried fish.
Wu Hen had already rushed to the front and bargained with the old lady selling dried fish: "Two strings? Grandma, you are ripping me off! Last time I bought three strings in town for this price!"
An Qingyu touched the black jade in his pocket, and the heat subsided, leaving only a piece of cool jade.
He suddenly understood what the hoarse voice meant by "the end" -
It's not about death, it's about breaking the cycle, remembering everything, and starting over.
The moon was completely white.
The shadows of the three people overlapped and were stretched out by the moonlight, like a clean cloth, waiting to be stained with a new story.