Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 39: Corpse in the Cold Pond
Lu Zheng looked at the grinning Liu San and asked, "Why are you here?"

Liu San chuckled, "Didn't the scholar ask me to do something serious? I heard that Daliu Village was haunted, so I came to take a look. I was thinking of bringing some people to deal with the water ghost in this pond."

When Liu San saw the domineering scene of Lu Zheng easily subduing Huang Shu, he also had an idea in his mind and wanted to do something serious and not let people look down on him all the time.

Lu Zheng was speechless for a moment. I asked you to do your job, but you brought people here to catch ghosts. You, a group of young people, are really ignorant and fearless.

Lu Zheng looked towards the deep pool and asked, "Is there really a water ghost?"

Liu San said: "There should be. We are not planning to go into the water to see if it is safe. We have prepared the ropes, but the water is very deep and cold. We are still thinking about how to go into the water safely..."

Liu San brought Lu Zheng to the edge of the pond. As for Huang Shu who was following beside them, he simply ignored him and pretended not to know him.

He didn't want others to know that he had been involved with a monster and had used magic to win money from the gambling house.

Liu San waved his hand and said, "Brothers, please make way and let the scholar have a good look!"

The young men moved aside with curiosity on their faces.

When someone saw Huang Shu, they couldn't help but murmur, "The scholar is out, and he brings a dog with him..."

"What are you looking at? That's a weasel!" someone said.

"Huh? How can there be such a big weasel? It might have become a spirit!" someone said suspiciously.

Liu San couldn't help but stare, and said loudly: "Can the thing that the scholar keeps beside him be an ordinary pet? What is it called... a spiritual beast, yes! It is a spiritual beast!"

Everyone looked surprised when they heard what he said, and they felt that Lu Zheng was even more mysterious and powerful.

Facing everyone's conversations and gazes, Huang Shu followed Lu Zheng silently, pretending that he heard and saw nothing.

Such a heavy yin energy... Huang Shu came to the edge of the pond and couldn't help muttering to himself.

He had passed by here to drink water before and didn't notice any evil spirits here, but now there was a strong evil spirit.

Lu Zheng also felt the presence of evil spirits here, but many people had died here before, so the existence of such an aura was normal and did not mean that there were really water ghosts in the pool.

Maybe there are no ghosts here, or maybe there are other evil monsters.

Lu Zheng looked at the deep pool. The water was dark and bottomless.

"How deep is the water?" Lu Zheng asked.

Liu San, who was standing nearby, replied, "It's hard to say. Even the seven-zhang-long rope we brought can't reach the bottom."

"What happened to the person who drowned before?" Lu Zheng asked again.

A young man from Daliu Village came out and said, "Everyone in our village knows this pond is very deep, so children are not allowed to play there. Adults only draw water from the shallow end. Normally, no one drowns here. But not long ago, people fell in and drowned one after another... When they were pulled out, they all had marks on their bodies, like fingerprints. The villagers said they were dragged in by a water ghost and drowned."

"No one saw it with their own eyes?" Lu Zheng asked.

"That's not the case..." Everyone shook their heads.

They were just guessing, no one had ever seen a water ghost with their own eyes.

At this time, Huang Shu next to him shook his paw, pointed at himself, and then pointed at the pool, indicating that he was willing to go down and find out what was going on.

Seeing this, Lu Zheng thought for a moment and nodded, "Be careful."

Huang Shu nodded heavily, then dived into the pool, swimming flexibly towards the bottom of the pool.

Soon, Huang Shu's figure disappeared into the deep pool.

After a while, Huang Shu emerged from the pool again, swam quickly towards the shore, and then went ashore.

His fur was shiny and didn't get wet at all even after going into the water.

Huang Shu's eyes flashed with a strange color, and he looked at Lu Zheng, hesitant to speak. Lu Zheng said, "No problem, go ahead."

Huang Shu whispered, "There was indeed a ghost down there. It almost caught me, but it wasn't as strong as me and couldn't do anything to me. I couldn't move well underwater and couldn't catch it, so I had to swim up."

Except for Liu San, it was the first time for the other young men to hear a weasel speak human language. They were all shocked, but when they thought about it being Lu Zheng's spirit beast, they quickly felt relieved.

Huang Shu continued, "It's too dark down there, I can't see clearly, but I seem to have a faint glimpse of a body under the pool."

Upon hearing this, Liu San asked the villagers from Daliu Village nearby, "Are there still bodies? Haven't you fished out all the people yet?"

Someone said, "Except for the few who drowned earlier, there haven't been many people missing in our village recently. They're all here!"

The others also nodded, indicating that there were still people left in the village, and all the drowned people had been fished out, so their number was known.

Lu Zheng said, "I'll go down for a while!"

He took a few steps back, put down the bookcase on his back, and began to take off his clothes.

Seeing this, Huang Shu quickly retreated about ten feet away.

The bookcase emitted a faint halo, and strands of righteous energy were released, clearing away all the evil and foul air nearby.

The young men saw it clearly and felt the cold aura around them disappear, all of them looking surprised.

Liu San seemed calm and explained to others, "This is the scholar's aura, which can drive away all evil spirits. Don't be so ignorant!"

Some people were in awe: "Tiandi Xiucai is different. Even the box he carries books on is a treasure!"

Liu San said, "The words on the box were written by the scholar himself. They are very elegant. I'm telling you, don't harbor any evil intentions, or else the elegance of that elegance will strike back at you and you'll suffer!"

The young people thought to themselves that they were not stupid enough to be disrespectful to scholars.

Lu Zheng didn't care about what everyone was saying. He took off all his clothes except his underwear and shorts, and walked into the water barefoot.

The water temperature in the pool was relatively low, but Lu Zheng's physique was no less than that of an average person, so he quickly adapted to the water temperature and swam directly to the bottom of the pool.

Everyone stared at the pool with wide eyes.

Lu Zheng opened his eyes and swam in the water. The cold pool was dark, but his eyesight was not bad, enough for him to see the surrounding environment clearly.

Soon, Lu Zheng saw a dark shadow rushing towards him.

Before he got close, Lu Zheng felt a strong evil aura blowing towards him.

This is a first-level ghost, and a relatively powerful one.

But for Lu Zheng, first-level ghosts made no difference.

He went straight for the other person and caught him easily.

The water ghost was restrained by Lu Zheng and could not break free, so he attacked Lu Zheng again.

Lu Zheng exuded a sense of righteousness, which made the water ghost feel extremely hot and quickly retracted his hand.

Then, Lu Zheng grabbed the water ghost with one hand and continued to swim downstream.

Below, there was a corpse hanging in the depths of the cold pond. The corpse was bound by iron chains at the waist and abdomen, and a heavy iron was hung to prevent it from floating to the surface.

Seeing this scene, Lu Zheng's expression turned cold and anger rose in his heart.

But he quickly calmed down, swam down, grabbed the chain, and dragged the ghost and the corpse to the shore.

(End of this chapter)