153: Chapter 153 Sanmenxia

The sharp blade sliced across his throat, cut through his esophagus, pierced the stomach wall, and thrust out from his back.

Fresh blood gushed from his mouth, nose, and eyes simultaneously, pooling into a dark red puddle on the ground.

"Hahahaha, I won't tell you anything! This is the backbone of a Sword Cultivator! The faith of the Guiliu Society!"

Liu Zhou collapsed to the ground, his expression twisted in an extreme manner.

"What the hell..."

Lu Xingyun stood frozen in place, completely caught off guard that the other party had chosen to commit suicide with his sword. He had assumed Liu Zhou intended to fight to the death, which was why he hadn't stopped him.

Li Xiuyuan looked at the corpse on the ground with a calm expression, though a flicker of deep contemplation crossed his eyes.

The only living witness who could provide clues was gone just like that.

For now, he could only go to Maojin Ferry to take a look.

He did not continue using Xu Wenxi as bait. Liu Zhou already held a high position within the Guiliu Society; if he were to go missing without a trace, that group of people in the Guiliu Society would inevitably realize something was wrong and would not send anyone else.

"Let's go. To Maojin Ferry."

Maojin Ferry is located on the middle reaches of the Yellow River and has been an important ferry crossing connecting two provinces since ancient times.

At the first light of dawn, a thin layer of mist floated on the river surface. The mountains on the opposite bank appeared and disappeared within the fog, resembling a watercolor painting smudged by water—vast and desolate.

Li Xiuyuan led the group along the riverbank to search. After walking less than a mile, they discovered the ferry boat Liu Zhou had mentioned in a secluded river bend.

The boat was not large; it was an iron-hulled ferry that had been out of service for many years. The hull was covered in rust, with the section above the waterline coated in dark red corrosion, resembling a sunken corpse salvaged from the riverbed, floating silently on the murky water.

Li Xiuyuan leaped onto the deck first. The iron plating beneath his feet creaked and dipped slightly, with stagnant water washing over his soles.

The cabin door was left ajar, and the edges of the door curtain had rotted into tatters, swaying listlessly in the morning breeze.

He lifted the curtain.

A thick, pungent scent of blood mixed with damp rot rushed towards them. Li Xiuyuan had long since grown accustomed to such odors, but Lu Xingyun and the others behind him couldn't help but step back; the smell hit them like a physical punch.

Lu Xingyun quickly formed a hand seal, drawing a talisman in the air to disperse the stench.

Inside the cabin, it was indeed completely empty.

However, the blood covering the floor indicated that someone had been here, and they hadn't left long ago.

The surroundings were carved with dense, intricate array patterns, drawn with cinnabar mixed with blood. The lines were complex and neat, clearly the work of an expert well-versed in this craft.

Those array patterns had lost their luster, looking like dried wounds, silently recounting what had once happened here.

Lu Xingyun and the others immediately began investigating the scene, while Li Xiuyuan spread out his Spiritual Sense, enveloping the entire ferry boat from end to end.

A moment later, his Spiritual Sense discovered something in an inconspicuous corner of the cabin.

In the corner were a few photographs. Picking them up to look, the first photo showed Song Guanchao's legs. Those limbs that had belonged to a human were gone, replaced by two blue-gray lower limbs covered in scales.

The next one was Song Guanchao's left hand. The left arm had been severed at the shoulder and replaced with an arm from an aquatic creature, with sharp claws growing from the tips of the five fingers, resembling the webbed claws of some aquatic species.

The third one was Song Guanchao's torso. This one was the most shocking, as his entire abdomen had been hollowed out, resembling a door panel that had been removed. Judging by the position, that was where Song Guanchao's Dantian should have been—the core where a cultivator stores spiritual energy and refines their cultivation. Now, only a bloody, hollow cavity remained.

And inside this cavity, someone had stuffed a round, red Inner Core.

The Inner Core was roughly the size of an infant's fist, entirely crimson, with a dull luster flowing across its surface.

This Inner Core's origin was unknown, but to grow to such a size, it must have belonged to a Rising Beings of at least the Fourth Realm.

Lu Xingyun leaned in to take a look and was immediately overcome by a churning sensation in his stomach, nearly vomiting on the spot. "This is too disgusting!"

Li Xiuyuan glanced at him. "If it's disgusting, why are you still looking?"

The subsequent photos recorded the grafting process from different angles, but notably lacked any images of the head or right hand replacement.

The final photo was a long shot of a river section.

The photo had been taken quite casually, as if it were a snapshot, with no regard for composition or lighting.

However, the features of the river section were very distinct: the mountains on both banks were steep, the river channel narrowed here, the current was swift, and reefs were faintly visible protruding from the water's surface.

Li Xiuyuan pulled out that photo and handed it to Lu Xingyun. "Have the Jiantian Bureau check which stretch of water this is."

Lu Xingyun took the photo, snapped a picture with his phone, and sent it to his colleagues at the bureau.

Soon, there was a reply.

"Found it. It's Sanmenxia."

Lu Xingyun said.

At the same time, Lu Shuang, who was still investigating the scene, suddenly seemed frightened by something. She recoiled violently, her back slamming against the cabin wall with a dull thud.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiuyuan looked up.

Lu Shuang's face had turned slightly pale. She said, "I just used the Lu family's unique perception technique to see what happened here through the array patterns."

"The head transplant was a success... Song Guanchao has truly become a half-demon... At his neck, it's the head of that Loach. I saw Family Head Lu Bingxi stitching it on himself..."

Lu Xingyun hurriedly waved his hands, his expression already looking poor. "Stop, stop. Don't tell me the details or anything; I don't want to hear it."

Although the people present were considered knowledgeable and experienced, they had never truly seen something as bizarre as a half-demon. Especially after Lu Xingyun had seen those photos, he could already visualize what Song Guanchao looked like after the head transplant.

"This last photo is of Sanmenxia. Could it be that the right hand he intends to replace is at Sanmenxia?" Xu Wenxi asked, looking at the long-shot photo of Sanmenxia.

Li Xiuyuan stared for a moment and said, "No, Sanmenxia should be the place where he transforms into a dragon."

"In the Xia Kingdom's Yellow River, at Sanmenxia, there is the story of King Yu wielding his axe to split the mountains and tame the flood demons. In ancient times, the Yellow River flooded, turning the Nine Provinces into a swamp. King Yu was ordered to tame the waters and traveled to Sanmenxia carrying his divine axe."

"At that time, Sanmenxia was a series of overlapping peaks with rocks as hard as iron, causing the floodwaters to be blocked with nowhere to go. King Yu immediately glared, brandished his axe, and split the mountains. After three strikes, the mountains collapsed and the rocks shattered, opening three gates: God, Ghost, and Man."

King Yu splitting the three gates also meant unlocking the shackles of the Yellow River's water veins, allowing this great river to surge eastward, nourishing the thousands upon thousands of living beings along its banks.

From then on, Sanmenxia became an extremely unique existence on the Yellow River. When spiritual energy had not yet revived, this place was merely an ordinary water conservancy hub. Now, it has become the most suitable place for a dragon transformation.