# 878
Chapter 879: Soul Pollution
The moment his voice fell, the seawater inside the stomach wall churned violently. A wild and fierce force erupted from within Chen Yangrong's body. In terms of cultivation realm, he was only half a step away from breaking through the peak of Klein, reaching the Human Apex.
Within the wildly churning seawater, the anglerfish's dim light flickered uncontrollably. Its own realm was not high, and under the impact of Chen Yangrong's power, it was already tottering on the brink.
Feeling this terrifying surge of power, Lin Qiye's brow furrowed slightly.
"His mind has been completely eroded by that mass of flesh." Lin Qiye's gaze swept over the stomach wall enveloping Chen Yangrong's body, and he said quietly to Jialan, "I can sense an extremely bizarre and violent divine power flowing continuously from the giant beast's corpse into his body. His current realm must have been forcibly elevated by the divine power of this corpse as well…
An Qingyu had heard from members of the Church of the Ancient Gods that the more powerful a deity, the more easily their divine power could influence the temperament and thoughts of their agent. Though Chen Yangrong was not an agent, he imagined the underlying principle was the same.
Under such an immense flow of divine power, his subconscious mind and thoughts had been thoroughly affected."
"You mean, his current thoughts aren't actually his own?" Jialan asked, puzzled.
"Mm. If what he said just now was true, then in the end, he's just an ordinary fisherman who happened to wander in here. How could he, within four days, become bold enough to claim he would escort an entire pantheon of gods back? That's too great a change in temperament!
If I had to guess, the one who truly wants to escort the Cthulhu Faction deity back… is it."
Lin Qiye raised his hand and pointed at the stomach wall above their heads.
"This giant beast? What connection does it have with the Cthulhu mythos?"
"Still unknown… Perhaps it was a creature that once worshipped the Cthulhu mythos with extreme devotion, or perhaps… it is actually a member of the Cthulhu mythos."
Within the wildly surging seawater, the giant beast's stomach wall had swallowed most of Chen Yangrong's body. Only his head and the chest pierced by the long blade remained exposed.
His drifting hair floated in the seawater. He lifted that weathered, elderly face and gazed into the void above, and in his eyes, a faint reflection of a blood moon appeared…
He spoke slowly:
"The blood moon… is about to descend again…"
…
Fishing Village.
The sky grew dark, the dusky sunset obscured by heavy clouds. Before night had fully fallen, the world was already shrouded in gloom.
The originally calm sea suddenly stirred up a cold, fierce wind. Waves were churned dozens of meters high and crashed heavily against the shore. The shattered spray turned into a blood-tinged rain that scattered over An Qingyu and Chen Gou.
Chen Gou collapsed to the ground, his body contorting in agony. His hands covered his ears as he frantically slammed his forehead against the earth.
"Stop talking! Stop talking… My head is going to split open!"
As if utterly unaware of pain, the force of his forehead striking the ground grew stronger and stronger. Blood dripped down his face and fell to the earth, yet still he did not stop, as if he intended to bash his own head apart!
An Qingyu's brow furrowed tightly. He grabbed Chen Gou's shoulder forcefully, stopping his self-harm.
"Chen Shu, what did you hear—"
Before An Qingyu could finish his question, he froze on the spot.
On Chen Gou's blood-smeared face, both eyes were crimson as blood. He stared dazily at the dark sky overhead, and in his pupils, a reflection of a blood-red moon glowed with a sinister, bizarre light.
"I hear it…" Chen Gou murmured to himself. "The voices of 'them'…"
An Qingyu was stunned for a moment, then quickly activated his Forbidden Ruins. A grayish hue dyed his eyes as he began rapidly analyzing Chen Gou's body.
In the distance, he saw a crimson thread extending from the depths of the sea, splitting into two. One strand had merged into Chen Gou's bloodline, continuously devouring his spirit and flesh.
The other strand pierced through the endless sky, extending toward some unknown destination.
"Soul pollution?" The instant An Qingyu saw that thread, his brow knit tightly.
He took a deep breath. Those gray eyes stared intently at the crimson thread, as if trying to analyze its existence. But the next moment, his eyes suddenly erupted in sharp pain, as if a needle had been driven into his eyeballs. He couldn't help but shut his eyes tightly.
"Ah…" An Qingyu groaned softly, clutching his head. His expression twisted in agony as well.
After dozens of seconds, he finally recovered. He forced his eyes open and gasped weakly, as if completely exhausted.
Just now, the moment he had tried to analyze the crimson thread, the bizarre force of pollution had attempted, through his gaze, to invade his heart and mind. Fortunately, An Qingyu's reaction was quick enough to retract his sight in time. Otherwise, he might have been polluted by that bizarre force just like Chen Gou.
But he didn't understand—Chen Gou was just an ordinary fisherman. Why had he suddenly become entangled with such terrifying pollution?
An Qingyu looked at Chen Gou writhing and screaming on the ground, then turned to gaze at the crimson thread extending from the seabed and its second strand splitting off to fly toward the sky, into an unknown direction. As if having thought of something, his pupils contracted sharply!
"…My wife died of illness several years ago. My son left this fishing village years ago to make his way in the outside world…"
"…A few days ago, my father and I went out to fish. We encountered a storm… I was lucky enough to be pulled onto another villager's boat, but my father wasn't so lucky…"
These two sentences from Chen Gou suddenly echoed in An Qingyu's mind. At that instant, he thought of a certain possibility.
"Bloodline? This soul pollution, it seeps through bloodlines?" An Qingyu murmured.
If his speculation was correct, then the blood thread extending from the seabed came from Chen Gou's father, who was also the true source of this soul pollution.
And this bizarre soul pollution, through some mysterious connection in the bloodline, was influencing his descendants—including Chen Gou, who still lived in the fishing village, and Chen Lu, his grandson who had long since left the village.
The dreams Chen Gou had been having these past two nights were not simply dreams. Just as he had said, they were his father transmitting some kind of message to them through the bloodline.
The deceased. The pool of blood. The crimson moon. The kneeling worship…
As if realizing something, An Qingyu suddenly looked up at the sky. Before he knew it, at the edge of the heavy clouds, a corner of a blood-red moon had quietly peeked out.