Above the Great Dao

Chen Shi thought to himself, "If Granny Sha can't find me, I'll just grab this big fish and let it take me back to the living realm. But I have no idea when this fish will go back."

Big Gun swam aimlessly, showing no rush to return.

Chen Shi also relaxed and began searching in the River of Oblivion.

The river shimmered with a blue, ghostly glow. On the surface, past boats, like wooden canoes, cast mottled shadows.

On the riverbed, strange corals and rugged rocks stretched out, along with enormous, thick shells. Bone Fish, seemingly the juvenile form of Big Gun, swam around—probably because there were no predators in the River of Oblivion.

After looking around for a long time, Chen Shi realized that other than himself, there were no other skeletons; it seemed this river was devoid of humans.

"Do these shells also travel between the underworld and the living realm?"

Chen Shi lifted a giant shell, but instead of shellfish inside, there was a small boy, around ten years old, who looked panicked and motioned for silence before hurriedly covering himself back up with the shell.

Chen Shi was surprised; he was in skeleton form while this little boy was flesh and blood!

"However, things in the River of Oblivion should be reversed. Big Gun and I have flesh and blood, but once in the river, we turn into skeletons. This boy must have been a skeleton, turning into flesh and blood in the river."

Chen Shi had questions to ask, so he lifted the shell again. The boy, curled up between two shells, looked alarmed, pointed upward, and then tried to close the shell.

Chen Shi smiled and asked, "What's up there?"

Suddenly, a green, oily light shone down from above, sweeping over the riverbed. The boy, no longer caring, grabbed Chen Shi's arm and pulled him into the shell, quickly closing it.

The green light buzzed as it swept past the riverbed, then the light returned to the surface. Peering through the crevice of the shell, Chen Shi saw that the green light came from a passing wooden canoe.

A tall, thin figure stood on the canoe, the green light emitting from its eyes!

Chen Shi's heart skipped a beat, realizing that the figure on the canoe noticed movements underwater and opened its eyes to look!

Such a gaze was terrifying; being noticed by it could likely mean danger!

Chen Shi was about to thank the small boy when suddenly, the boy inside the shell kicked him, pushing him out of the shell.

Chen Shi wanted to turn back to thank him, but the boy had already closed the shell, hiding inside and unwilling to show himself.

"Hello, I'm Chen Shi. I'm not trying to steal your home. I'm here to look for a copper lamp that fell into the River of Oblivion nine years ago. Do you know where it might be?" Chen Shi inquired politely.

An arm extended from the shell, bending at the elbow to point towards the distance.

"Thank you."

Chen Shi followed the direction the boy had pointed; along the way, he saw many shells quietly opening, each hiding children, both boys, and girls, who curiously peeked out at him.

Occasionally, a few adults and even elderly people appeared, though they were fewer in number.

However, whenever a canoe passed overhead, they quickly closed their shells, seemingly terrified of the tall, thin figure on the canoe.

"Buzz!"

Another beam of light shone down. It was the tall, thin figure's gaze from the canoe, piercing through the River of Oblivion and reaching the riverbed, shining on a boy who couldn't dodge in time.

The boy was lifted into the air by the light beam, up out of the river, caught by the tall, thin figure.

Looking up, Chen Shi saw the figure open its mouth, which split its head down the middle, incredibly wide, and swallowed the boy whole.

The tall, thin figure moved its jaw up and down, seemingly unsatisfied.

Chen Shi couldn't help shivering and thus found an ownerless shell, holding it in both hands as he walked underwater. Whenever a wooden boat passed by, he crouched down, covering himself with the shell.

"Who are the people on the boat, and who are these children hiding under the shells?" He was quite curious.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and looked at the children in the shells, a thought flashing through his mind.

"I know, I know why they are hiding in the shells! They are children who drowned in De River!"

Every year, a few children who went swimming in the Yu Belt River, a tributary of De River, would drown, likely with even more drowning in De River itself.

These drowned children, turned into ghosts, drifted to the River of Oblivion, hiding in these shells because they feared the people on the boats!

As for the reason why there were so few adults and elderly, it was because fewer grown-ups drowned!

Chen Shi stared at the riverbed covered in shells of various sizes, muttering, "There are so many people..."

He steeled his mind and continued forward, eventually seeing a strand of light.

The light wasn't very bright, but oddly, its penetrating power was strong; it was visible from a great distance.

Journeying ahead, Chen Shi felt the pressure intensifying around him, causing his bones to crackle, and his leg bones sank into the mud.

The pressure grew as he pressed on, quickly causing the mud to rise to his knees, making each step extremely difficult.

Chen Shi looked up and finally saw the source of the light clearly.

It was indeed a copper lamp, equipped with a handle featuring a plump lamb with short limbs beneath; the handle consisted of the lamb's horns, and atop its back sat a figure—the flame emanated right from this figurine's crown, presumably housing the lamp oil inside.

Such a lamp, peculiarly burning and emitting light underwater, looked extraordinarily eerie.

However, the copper lamp was, at the moment, held in the huge bony hand.

The white skeletal hand, devoid of any flesh, was several times the size of a normal human's hand, with slender joints.

Chen Shi followed the bony hand and saw a huge skeleton sitting on the riverbed; sitting down, it was two or three times his height.

Even stranger was the skeleton's skull, which didn't resemble a human's at all!

It had an enormous head, elongated like a bird's, but without a beak, featuring a long mouth with sharp fangs.

The eye sockets of the skull were large enough to fit an adult's fist.

The nostrils of the skull were also massive.

Seeing this scene, Chen Shi couldn't help but recall the tall figure on the boat.

"This is a fallen tall figure!"

Just as he reached this conclusion, suddenly Granny Sha's voice came, "Xiao Shi! Follow the sound of my drum, I'll guide you back to the underworld!"

Upon hearing her, Chen Shi was greatly encouraged, "Granny is coming to get me!"

Without hesitation, he reached out toward the copper lamp's sheep horn handle.

Just as his hand touched the handle, the tall white skeleton suddenly shook, shaking off the dust that had accumulated on it.