The Mysterious Card Maker: Starting with Zhang Jiao's Deification

"You talk too much, look at you so capable, would it kill you to talk less!" Baboerben said, tapping Benboerba's head.

"What does this have to do with me? It's my brother who wants to step over us," Benboerba said, sounding somewhat aggrieved.

"Stop talking and hurry up."

The two fish monsters exchanged a glance, then said, "Alright, whatever you say, Big Brother."

The two fish monsters turned around and jumped into the water one after the other. They floated on the surface, waiting for Lin Fan to step on them.

Lin Fan rolled up his trouser leg and tentatively stepped on it, causing Ba Bo'erben's body to sink slightly.

"Big brother, be gentle..." Ba Bo'er's voice was muffled, and a string of bubbles rose from the water.

"Alright, alright." Lin Fan spread his legs and put them on the two fish monsters. Once he was settled, the two fish monsters slowly swam, leaving two long ripples on the calm water.

After about three or four minutes, the two fish monsters stopped at the edge of the ruins. Lin Fan stepped onto the shore and turned to look at the two fish monsters.

Ba Bo'er poked his head out of the water, shook it, and splashed water everywhere: "Big brother, can we stay outside for a while?"

Benboerba nodded in agreement, "That's right, that's right, it's been a long time since we've been out."

Lin Fan looked at the two fish-like monsters blowing bubbles in the water and smiled. "Then you two stay here and keep watch. If anything strange happens, warn me!"

"Alright!" The two fish monsters responded cheerfully, plunged into the water, splashed up a spray of water, and disappeared into the water in no time.

Lin Fan shook his head and turned to walk into the ruins.

The ruins were much larger than they appeared from the shore, but most of them had collapsed. He walked into the relatively well-preserved house directly opposite the entrance.

As soon as I stepped into the room, I heard a series of cracking sounds as the stone slabs broke under my feet, and the air was filled with an unpleasant smell of rotting wood.

Lin Fan covered his nose and looked at the stone platform directly opposite the door. The place where the statue of the god should have been placed was now empty.

"Could it be that not only have the gods disappeared from this world, but even the statues of them have vanished?"

Lin Fan looked at the stone tablet standing beside the platform. He walked over and wiped away the mud and moss on the surface of the stone tablet, revealing its original appearance.

Some of the text on it is no longer legible, and the stone tablet looks quite old.

"Beneath the Bridge of Helplessness lies the River of Oblivion; those who cross forget what they came before... those who enter..."

He looked down and saw densely packed small characters, some of which had been worn away by time.

"The bridge is not a bridge... It disappears when the sun rises and appears when the moon rises."

Lin Fan's finger hovered over the last line of words, his fingertips tracing the cold, engraved lines. He read it aloud in a low voice: "Want... to wait until midnight, when the gates of hell open, and the bridge will appear."

He glanced outside and saw the sun was high in the sky; it would be quite a long time before evening arrived.

"Big brother, big brother!"

Just then, Ba Bo'er rushed in from outside, his voice filled with urgency, and he hadn't even had time to remove the water plants from his clothes.

"What's wrong!" Lin Fan ran towards Ba Bo'er.

"Benboerba! It...it's trapped in a pool of water!" Baboerben's voice trembled, and its fish tail flapped anxiously.

"What kind of water can trap a fish?" Lin Fan said with a smile, completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation, treating it as a game between two fish monsters.

"It's not ordinary water, it's black water, very, very black water! That thing looks just like it's alive." Ba Bo'er was pacing anxiously. "Big brother, you have to go save it quickly."

Lin Fan intended to rely on his mental perception to retrieve Benboerba, but found that he could not sense it at all, as if it was blocked by something.

Lin Fan's face immediately turned serious. He followed Ba Bo'erben and jumped into the water. Ba Bo'erben spat out a bubble and placed it over Lin Fan's head. Although it had a strange smell, at least he could breathe.

Lin Fan grabbed Ba Bo'er's hand and pulled her deeper down, and the surrounding light dimmed.

"It's right ahead!" Baboerben said anxiously.

Lin Fan also saw it at this moment: the bottom of the water was covered by a layer of black water, so black that even light was swallowed up.

In the middle of the Blackwater, a figure struggling could be vaguely seen; that was Benboerba!

Its body was entangled in the black water, and its tail thrashed about desperately, but it was as if it were sinking into a swamp, and the more it struggled, the deeper it sank.

"Big brother! Don't get too close!" Baboerben hurriedly stopped Lin Fan. "This thing can swallow people! That's how Benboerba was swallowed."

Hearing what Ba Bo'erben said, Lin Fan didn't dare to step forward rashly.

Unlike those two fish monsters who could stay in the water indefinitely, if he were trapped, his body would soon become swollen from being submerged.

When he tried to sense it with his mental power, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his mind, and a chilling aura rebounded onto him along with his mental power.

Several whispers reached Lin Fan's ears.

"I don't want to forget!"

"My poor child!"

"Damn it, I haven't killed that guy yet!"

One after another, obsessions flooded into Lin Fan's mind.

Lin Fan frowned and immediately severed his mental energy. When he looked at the ball of black water again, his eyes showed a hint of seriousness.

"What is this thing? Not only can it devour, but it can also affect mental power. And those sounds just now, did they also come from this black water?"

Just as Lin Fan was pondering, Ba Bo'er pushed him away.

Lin Fan then saw that Ba Bo'erben was also swallowed by a ball of black water and sank to the bottom.

"Damn, is this water still alive?!" Lin Fan gritted his teeth and looked at the two struggling fish monsters at the bottom of the water, and his heart was startled.

If Baboerben hadn't discovered him in time, he would be the one sinking to the bottom of the water right now.

After all, Ba Bo'er's visibility in the water was much better than his, and since he dared not use his mental power to investigate at the moment, he was completely unable to detect the strange black water.

"Damn, what is this thing? Obsession, black water..." The words on the stone tablet in the main hall flashed through his mind: "Beneath the Bridge of Helplessness lies the River of Oblivion; those who cross forget what came before... those who enter..."

"What? The River of Oblivion?" Lin Fan's eyes narrowed. "Could it be that this is the water of the River of Oblivion, and those who drank it left their obsessions here, which is why they became like this!"

Before Lin Fan could think it through, several spurts of black water shot out from the bottom of the water towards him, giving him no time to react.

The black water enveloped him tightly, causing him to sink continuously. At this point, there was little air left in the bubbles above his head; if he lingered any longer, he would surely die.

Ba Bo'er saw that Lin Fan was also caught, and her mouth moved as if to say, "Big brother, how come you got caught too? Doesn't that mean we're all finished?!"

Lin Fan ignored Ba Bo'erben's disappointed expression and slowly reached for his pocket with his fingertips.

His eyes changed the moment he touched the card. "The Water of Oblivion!"

"If you want to devour me, then let's see who devours whom!"