From Paper Craftsman to World-Suppressing Immortal

At the Wuhe ferry crossing, members of the body retrieval team were preparing to go into the water to retrieve a body when Zhang Zhixuan suddenly spoke, stopping them.

Everyone turned their heads, looking at Zhang Zhixuan with puzzled expressions, wondering why he wanted to stop them.

Zhang Zhixuan pointed to the corpse in the water and said calmly, "Take a closer look. There's not just one floating corpse in the water; there's another one standing up below."

The expressions of the body retrieval team members changed, and they all looked in the direction he was pointing.

The heavy rain had just stopped, and the mist on the river had not yet dissipated. The body floated face down on the gray water, swaying gently with the waves. The crowd stared at the water for a long time but could not see anything different.

The leader of this corpse retrieval team is surnamed He. He is in his forties and has been in the corpse retrieval business the longest and has the most experience.

Captain He was leading his team to retrieve the body as usual when Zhang Zhixuan, an amateur, suddenly stopped them, which made Captain He somewhat unhappy.

But he was always a calm and cautious person. After Zhang Zhixuan said that, he squinted and looked at it for a long time, but he couldn't figure it out.

Captain He thought Zhang Zhixuan was deliberately causing trouble for their body retrieval team, so he turned to Zhang Zhixuan and said, "Sir, that's just an ordinary river drifter. I've been doing this for over twenty years, and I can tell what's going on in the river."

"I'm not talking about the one floating on top. There's another one below that float, and it's standing upright." Zhang Zhixuan's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear and distinct, and there wasn't a trace of joking in his tone.

There was a moment of silence. The members of the body retrieval team looked at each other. Some twitched their lips, while others shook their heads.

At that moment, a young man pushed through the crowd and walked out from behind the crowd.

The young man had tanned skin and a muscular build, clearly someone who made a living on the river. He walked up to Zhang Zhixuan, glanced at him sideways, and said mockingly, "You mean there's something standing up under that river float?"

"right."

"I grew up by the Wu River. I used to fish in this river naked. I worked as a corpse retriever for almost ten years. What kind of floating corpses haven't I seen?"

"River floats are horizontal, while upright floats are vertical. What you're describing—one horizontally on top of the other, two corpses stacked together—what kind of nonsense is that? Where did you come from? Are you deliberately trying to cause trouble for our corpse retrieval team and scare us?"

The young man rolled up his sleeves, revealing a long scar on his arm, patted his muscular chest, and said with an air of authority: "Let me tell you, no matter what kind of drifter you are, once you're in my hands, you'll have to obediently come ashore with me. You, you're dressed quite well, but I bet you've never even been in the water before?"

Several members of the body retrieval team nearby laughed, and one of them chimed in, "Erhu is right. We've been doing this for so many years, do we need outsiders to teach us?"

Captain He glared at Erhu, but didn't say anything more. He simply waved politely to Zhang Zhixuan, saying, "Young sir, please move aside, we need to get to work."

After Captain He finished speaking, he gestured for Erhu to go down into the river to retrieve the body.

Erhu took off his jacket, revealing his dark and muscular back. He ignored Zhang Zhixuan, took a few steps down the stone steps into the water, and then jumped into the river with a "plop," splashing a large spray of water.

He was indeed a good swimmer; once he entered the water, he swam like a fish and reached the water skimmer in no time.

Erhu turned around and waved to the people on the shore, shouting triumphantly, "Look! That's it! That kid was just making a fuss, nothing more!"

Erhu turned back and grinned at the shore. After speaking, he took off the corpse-retrieval hook hanging from his waist and was about to reach out to grab the clothes of the floating corpse. However, the moment his fingers touched the corpse, something strange happened.

The once calm water surface suddenly churned with black foam, and Erhu's smile froze instantly, his eyes widening as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

"what!"

A piercing scream shattered the silence of the ferry crossing.

All the people saw was a pale, swollen hand suddenly emerging from under the floating corpse, gripping Erhu's arm tightly. The fingernails of that hand were black and long, digging into Erhu's flesh like claws, and blood instantly stained the surrounding river water red.

"Uncle He... there's something down there..."

"Help...help me..."

Erhu struggled desperately, kicking his arms and legs wildly, but the strength of that hand was astonishing, dragging him little by little down to the bottom of the river.

More and more black foam appeared on the surface of the water, and Erhu struggled violently, starting to choke on water.

From a distance, everyone could see that his face was turning purple from being choked by the river water, and his struggles were growing weaker and weaker, and he was about to sink.

"Erhu, hold on! I'm coming to save you!" Captain He was so anxious that he dove into the water and swam quickly towards Erhu.

He swam up to Erhu and was about to reach out to pull him up when he suddenly screamed.

The next second, Captain He disappeared underwater and was never seen again.

At this moment, everyone on the riverbank was terrified, and even the members of the body retrieval team stared at each other, completely at a loss.

"It's all over, it's all over, even the captain is done for, it's all ruined..."

"Don't just stand there! Jump into the water and save them! Any later and they'll both drown!"

Someone shouted, but no one answered. Even the captain of the body retrieval team was caught on the spot. Anyone who went into the water at this time was simply courting death.

We only have one life, who isn't afraid of death?

At this critical moment, Zhang Zhixuan took off his outer garment, kicked off his shoes, and strode to the stone steps.

Just as Zhang Zhixuan was about to go into the water, his arm was suddenly grabbed. He turned around and saw the old boatman: "Young man, don't try to be a hero. Didn't you see how well-behaved that swimmer was? Don't go and get yourself killed!"

Zhang Zhixuan didn't have time to explain anything further, so he patted the old boatman's hand and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

After saying that, he summoned the Xuanwu puppet from his Hundred Industries Mustard Seed Pouch, lay down on the huge tortoise shell of the Xuanwu puppet, and drove the Xuanwu puppet to quickly slide into the water.

The people on the shore were stunned.

Someone rubbed their eyes, thinking they had misread it. What had that person just done? Like magic, they conjured up a giant paper turtle and carried him into the water?

The moment Zhang Zhixuan entered the water, the River Patrolman's passive skill was automatically activated. Water affinity and underwater breathing took effect simultaneously, and the coldness of the surrounding river water had no effect on him. This body of water seemed to have become a part of him.

Zhang Zhixuan opened his eyes in the water, and even though the underwater environment was dark and murky, he could see clearly.

Sure enough, there was a corpse standing under the upside-down water skimmer in front of them.

However, this time the floating boat was different from the one I encountered at the Linshuigu Canal ferry crossing last time.

This upright float has no head!

Beneath the corpse floating on the water's surface stood a tall, swollen-white body, its imposing stature almost standing in the silt at the bottom of the river.

Zhang Zhixuan noticed that the broken neck of the standing drifter was black and rotten, revealing the white cervical vertebrae. The edges of the broken neck were also covered with dark red scabs. The clothes he was wearing were even more bizarre, as they were a tattered Qingman Dynasty soldier's uniform.

At this moment, the drifter's ten fingers were bent like claws. With one hand, he grabbed Erhu's ankle and pulled him into the river. With the other hand, he grabbed Captain He's neck and pulled him into the water as well.

What's even more chilling is that the headless corpse had a huge mouth in the chest cavity, full of fangs.

At this moment, it was exhaling black gas with its mouth opening and closing, and the black gas was like small snakes, drilling into the mouths, nostrils and ears of Erhu and Captain He.

Erhu and Captain He had no strength left to struggle; their eyes rolled back, and they were clearly beyond saving.