Granny Sha's face was full of worry. Even if Chen Shi wasn't eaten by the Great Gun Fish, he would still be lost in the River of Forgetfulness and couldn't return. She couldn't explain this to Chen Yin either!
"Without the rope, he can't come back from the River of Forgetfulness... It's all my fault for being greedy, wanting to use this child to find that treasure in the river, and now I've harmed him! If I had known, I would have just told him where the ancient temple was."
She was filled with regret, but what's done is done. Regretting wouldn't help now. The only thing to do was to check if Chen Shi was really dead.
If he wasn't dead, she could still try to save him.
If he was dead...
"Then I'll have to apologize to Old Man Chen with my life!"
Granny Sha bit her right index finger, using her blood to draw a talisman in the air, specifically a Soul-Summoning Talisman.
Strangely, her blood floated in the air, not falling, as if held by some mysterious force.
As her finger moved, she drew a talisman three feet long and only two inches wide.
At the top was the Decree of the Three Pure Ones, and below were the Three Souls and Seven Spirits text, simple in form.
Drawing a talisman out of thin air was an amazing skill, a dream for any talisman master, yet Granny Sha seemed like an ordinary old lady with nothing extraordinary about her.
The power of the Soul-Summoning Talisman was incredibly strong, instantly crossing the realms of the living and the dead, reaching the Underworld!
Granny Sha knew she had made a big mistake, so unlike her usual soul-summoning spells, this time she used her own heart's essence blood to draw the talisman.
The heart's essence blood was extremely pure and powerful, very limited in quantity, just enough for one talisman, but its power was extraordinary.
If Chen Shi was truly dead, even if he was taken to the Hall of Yama, with this talisman, she could snatch his soul back from the King of Hell!
However, the talisman burned away, and Granny Sha still couldn't summon Chen Shi's soul.
"He's not dead, that's good, that's good!"
Granny Sha breathed a sigh of relief, then stomped her foot, and suddenly her shadow on the ground grew in all directions like branches, from which five green-faced, fang-toothed ghost kings emerged, standing in the air, ready for orders.
With a thought, the five ghosts howled and flew away.
Moments later, countless bricks and stones flew over, and in a short time, they built an altar by the Virtue River, each side three zhang six long and one zhang two high.
The five ghost kings held large flags, standing at the five corners of the altar, representing the five elements.
Granny Sha took out King Wen's Drum.
This drum was a peculiar instrument, like a drum but not a drum, like a gong but not a gong, with one side covered in skin and the other open, with ropes inside to hold.
The rustling drumbeats Chen Shi heard in the Underworld last time came from this instrument.
Granny Sha shook King Wen's Drum, and suddenly a strong wind blew, and the surface of the Virtue River turned dark as if night had fallen, and even the sunlight couldn't penetrate this darkness.
"I've summoned countless ghosts from the Underworld in my life, offending many Underworld messengers and ghost kings. This time, I'm afraid many old enemies will notice and seek revenge! But I can't worry about that now!"
Granny Sha shouted, and the drum sounded, as a blue stone path spread from the altar into the river.
This little old lady used her power to create a path connecting the realms of the living and the dead, trying to bring Chen Shi back from the River of Forgetfulness in the Underworld!
"Little Shi!"
Her voice reached the Underworld, "Follow my drumbeats, I'll guide you back to the living world!"
Meanwhile, inside the Great Gun Fish's mouth, Chen Shi held tightly onto a fishhook, which was deeply embedded in the soft flesh beside the fish's throat bone.
The throat bone was like the fish's back molars, crushing down like two massive iron blocks, each crush sending sparks flying and numbing Chen Shi's arms!
But he didn't dare let go, because he was in the fish's mouth, and the other rows of teeth were trying to bite him and throw him out.
If he let go, he would be cut into countless pieces!
Earlier, when the Great Gun Fish lunged down, he leaped into its mouth, avoiding being bitten in half.
However, his situation was dire. If the fishhook came loose, he would still be crushed!
Suddenly, he saw a flash of blue light, and all the fish's flesh disappeared, leaving only the giant fish bones swimming in the water.
Chen Shi raised his hand and saw his own arm had turned to bone, all the flesh gone.
He looked at himself, and he was a skeleton!
"Did I enter the River of Forgetfulness?"
Chen Shi was shocked.
The fishhook was initially hooked in the Great Gun Fish's flesh, but now that it had turned to bone, the hook came loose. Chen Shi grabbed the hook, feeling a sinking feeling.
The rope had broken.
"How do I get back... Granny Sha is amazing, she'll have a way. For now, I need to find the bronze lamp she dropped!"
Chen Shi took off the iron chain from his body, tied the heavy fishhook to it, hooked it onto the Great Gun Fish's throat bone, and with renewed energy, swam out through the fish's gill bones.
The fish couldn't trap him without its flesh.
Strangely, the Great Gun Fish showed no interest in Chen Shi, who was also in a bone state, swimming past him without swallowing him.
"If the Great Gun Fish can swim from the living world to the Underworld, it must be able to swim back."
Chen Shi thought, "If Granny Sha can't find me, I'll catch this fish and let it take me back to the living world. But I don't know when it will return."
The Great Gun Fish swam aimlessly, showing no hurry to return.
Chen Shi relaxed and searched the River of Forgetfulness.
The river glowed with a blue light, with boats passing above, casting shadows down.
The riverbed was full of strange corals, jagged rocks, and huge shells, very thick, with small bone fish swimming around, likely the young form of the Great Gun Fish.
These fish were small, probably living in the Underworld's River of Forgetfulness because there were no predators.
Chen Shi looked around and saw no other skeletons, thinking there were no humans in this river.
"Can these shells also travel between the living and dead worlds?"
Chen Shi opened a giant shell, finding no flesh inside, but a panicked little boy, about ten years old, who quickly motioned for silence and closed the shell again.
Chen Shi was surprised, seeing himself as a skeleton, yet the boy was flesh and blood!
"But in the River of Forgetfulness, things are reversed. I and the Great Gun Fish have flesh and blood, but in the river, we become bones. This boy must be a skeleton, but in the river, he's flesh and blood."
Chen Shi wanted to ask questions, opened the shell again, and the boy curled up between the shells, panicked, pointing upwards, and tried to close the shell.
Chen Shi smiled, "What's up there?"
Suddenly, a green light shone down, sweeping the riverbed, and the boy quickly pulled Chen Shi into the shell, closing it hurriedly.
The green light swept over the riverbed with a buzz, returning to the surface. Chen Shi looked up through a crack in the shell and saw the light came from a passing wooden boat.
A tall, thin figure stood on the boat, and the green light shot from its eyes!
Chen Shi's heart skipped a beat, thinking the figure on the boat sensed movement below and looked down!
The gaze was terrifying; if caught, it would be dangerous!
Chen Shi was about to thank the boy when he was kicked out of the shell.
He planned to thank him, but the boy had already closed the shell, hiding inside.
"Hello, I'm Chen Shi. I'm not trying to take your home. I'm looking for a bronze lamp that fell into the River of Forgetfulness nine years ago. Do you know where it is?" Chen Shi asked politely.
An arm reached out from the shell, pointing in a direction.
"Thank you."
Chen Shi followed the direction the boy pointed, seeing many shells quietly open, each hiding a child, boys and girls, peeking out curiously.
Occasionally, there were adults and even elderly people, but fewer in number.
Whenever a boat passed above, they hurriedly closed their shells, seemingly terrified of the tall figure on the boat.
"Buzz!"
Another light shone down, the gaze of the tall figure on the boat, piercing the River of Forgetfulness, reaching the riverbed, illuminating a boy who couldn't hide in time.
The boy was lifted helplessly in the light beam, out of the river, caught by the tall figure.
Chen Shi looked up and saw the figure open its mouth wide, almost splitting its head in half, and swallowed the boy whole.
The figure moved its jaw, seemingly unsatisfied.
Chen Shi shivered, found an empty shell, and used it to cover himself as he walked underwater, squatting down when a boat passed to hide under the shell.
"Who are the people on the boat? And who are these children hiding under the shells?" He was curious.
Then he stopped, looking at the children in the shells, a thought flashing in his mind.
"I know! I know why they're hiding in the shells! They're the children who drowned in the Virtue River!"
The Jade Belt River, a tributary of the Virtue River, drowned several swimming children each year, and the Virtue River probably drowned even more.
These drowned children became ghosts, drifting to the River of Forgetfulness, hiding in the shells out of fear of the people on the boats!
As for the few adults and elderly, it's because fewer adults drowned!
Chen Shi looked at the shells of all sizes on the riverbed, muttering, "So many people..."
He steadied his mind and continued forward, finally seeing a glimmer of light.
The light wasn't very bright, but its penetrating power was strong, visible from afar.
Chen Shi moved forward, feeling increasing pressure, bones creaking, legs sinking into the mud.
The closer he got, the greater the pressure, soon up to his knees, each step a struggle.
Chen Shi looked up, finally seeing the light source.
It was indeed a bronze lamp, with a handle shaped like ram horns, a short, stout sheep below, and a figure sitting on the sheep's back, with the lamp flame coming from the figure's head, probably fueled by oil inside.
Such a lamp was eerie, especially since it burned underwater, shining brightly, marking it as extraordinary.
However, the lamp was held in a giant skeletal hand.
The hand was fleshless, several times larger than a human's, with long fingers.
Chen Shi followed the skeletal hand, seeing a large skeleton sitting on the riverbed, even seated, it was two or three times his height.
The most peculiar part was the skull, not human-like!
It was a long head, like a bird's, but without a beak, with long fangs.
The eye sockets were large enough to fit a grown man's fist.
The nostrils were also large.
Seeing this, Chen Shi thought of the tall figure on the boat.
"This is a fallen tall figure!"
Just as he thought this, Granny Sha's voice came through: "Little Shi! Follow my drumbeats, I'll guide you back to the living world!"
Chen Shi was thrilled, "Granny's come to get me!"
Without hesitation, he reached for the bronze lamp.
As soon as his hand touched the ram horn handle, the tall skeleton trembled, shaking off the dust.