He stepped into the water little by little, his whole body gradually disappearing beneath the surface.
Beneath the water, he didn’t feel any suffocation; the Calamity Protector Water Official Talisman’s ability ensured he would never drown again. In the water, he didn’t need to hold his breath—he could breathe directly.
After walking a few ters, Wen Yan steadied himself and looked around. It was dim, currents surging in the darkness, nothing else in sight, just a deathly silence.
He walked along the riverbed for dozens of ters, almost reaching the deepest spot. He still didn’t feel anything special—the riverbed wasn’t much different from solid ground, not even any big stones.
He turned back, walked out of the water, and felt mostly normal—except for the strong chilly yin energy, like ghosts always trying to invade his body. Otherwise, there was nothing else unusual.
Climbing ashore, Wen Yan looked at the water stains on himself, noticing they didn’t flow back into the river, and as for the Grave Walkers, they didn’t sense anything odd about the water on him either.
This sparked an idea in Wen Yan’s mind.
"Wait here. Let try first—see if there’s a way. If we go together, even if we end up sowhere else, we can stick together. If I leave you here, I’m afraid I might never co back after going under."
Wen Yan rummaged in his bag and pulled out six black iron fragnts—the ones left behind when the Sacred Fire War Spirit died, indestructible pieces of iron.
He’d been thinking: even though the Grave Walkers had been controlled, as long as they didn’t touch the water, they could still be pulled back, and once they returned, there seed to be no negative effects.
So, was it possible to take them along, as long as they didn’t touch the water?
These guys were all ghosts. Give them a small piece of jade and they could attach themselves. If the jade was good enough, even if they crowded together, it shouldn’t be a problem.
The only one with an actual body was the Paper Man Butler.
Sealing was even simpler—there were extra sealing bags. If that wasn’t enough, toss so herbs out to free up more bags.
If all else failed, just hold it in your mouth, or swallow it for the ti being and spit it out later.
But he needed to test this first. Wen Yan didn’t want to experint on others, but using the Sacred Fire War Spirit’s black iron fragnts—who cared about those.
Wen Yan had always felt sothing was off with those black iron fragnts—they were just inert for now.
He grasped one iron fragnt and dipped it into the river. Instantly, it was like pressing red-hot iron into water—sizzling sounds rose up, black smoke kept seeping out, and then tattered remnants of souls drifted forth and vanished into the river.
Wen Yan shook his hand in the water—the black iron fragnt quickly lost its color, turning a silvery white as if it had been bleached.
Only the rune on its surface still remained.
"Heh, I knew it had issues. No wonder my Yang Fire couldn’t destroy it. The iron’s made up entirely of human souls, and there’s no trace of resentnt either. I really wonder how those bastards managed to brainwash them."
He picked up another fragnt, slipped it into a sealing bag, and rinsed it in the river—no reaction at all.
After ten minutes of testing, still nothing.
Wen Yan held up the thick sealing bag and sighed.
Ti to give folklore a taste of modern industry.
Sealing plastic bags!
Waterproof and oxidation-resistant, plus they can survive deep freeze temperatures.
These sealing bags ca standard in the manor—lots of the food was kept in vacuum sealing bags in the cold storage.
Lord Zhu didn’t care about environntalism—he just wanted things to work well.
The sealing bags probably couldn’t handle very high temperatures, but cold was no issue. At worst, the seals would lose so effectiveness.
Just put on more layers, big and small—should be fine.
Wen Yan grabbed a little sealing bag and stress-tested it underwater for half the day. Even when it obviously started leaking, the iron fragnt inside still didn’t react much.
Only when he tore the opening wide and let more water seep in, did the iron fragnt have a violent reaction with the river water.
He repeated the experint four more tis, and after washing all six black iron fragnts to a silvery white, he finally felt at ease.
Finally, he glanced at the Black Mountain Stone Sculpture, thought about it, and decided to let it be.
The Black Mountain Stone Sculpture was connected to a special title, and you only earned it after purification. Who knew if tossing it in the river counted as purification? Better not risk it.
He took out a Blood Warm Jade from his pocket—this was the one the curator had originally given him, now completely drained of power, useful only as a decent piece of jade.
He’d never wanted to throw it away, now it could finally co in handy.
He had Lin Jue and the warhorses take the initiative to go in—limited conditions, so they’d have to squeeze together.
Soon, the white jade turned jet black, exuding a chilling, sinister power.
The Paper Man Butler folded himself up, made himself look like a shirt, stuffed into a sealing bag, then added a few more big sealing bags around it—that was done as well.
The trickiest one was the Little Fire Seed. Wen Yan opened his mouth, shoved it in—he wasn’t afraid of being burned, but other things might not fare so well.
Finally, Wen Yan flexed his arms, dragged the huge Big Fire Basin along with all the stuff inside, and entered the river, gradually disappearing beneath the surface.
He walked along the riverbed, heading in the direction he’d judged, step by step.
The massive, deadweight Big Fire Basin happened to be useful—it kept Wen Yan from being swept away by undercurrents.
With every step closer to the yet-unrendered areas, those places started "glitching" in and out, flickering erratically.
At the sa ti, the Doomsday Computer in the Scorching Sun Headquarters began to flash madly, the chassis howling like a banshee.
Where the keyboard had only occasionally responded, now it began to jump erratically, typing away in a frenzy.
At that instant, the whole Scorching Sun Headquarters network began to lag. Everyone in video etings froze on the screen at once.
Within a minute, a line of people rushed to the Doomsday Computer room, watching the flickering screen and listening to the howling case, as if it might explode any minute.
"No idea what’s happening, but suddenly it went like this.
Then the whole headquarters’ external network got hijacked, all the bandwidth saturated.
No, now it’s not just headquarters—it’s the whole city’s bandwidth maxed out.
Still spreading—speed’s especially fast.
The whole commandery now...
Way too fast."
Yet, after only a few minutes, everything suddenly went quiet.
The familiar blue screen appeared.
The Doomsday Computer crashed.
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