My Healing Games

Chapter 704 The Shrine of Dreams
The ritual to worship the lake god was not wrong; the problem was that the person performing the worship was different from before.

Guan Miao glanced at Han Fei discreetly, then dared not continue speaking, fearing that Han Fei might say something outrageous again.

After the copper coin fell into the water, the wooden boat sped up considerably, and the water ghost in the lake seemed to genuinely only want to collect tolls.

The water flowed against the wooden boat, and the murmuring sound seemed to carry a special melody, making one's heart rise and fall involuntarily with it.

The further they rowed towards the center of the lake, the quieter it became, as if they had entered another space.

Here, there is only a bottomless lake and an endless night.

As their sense of direction gradually weakened, the people on the boat felt subtle changes in their bodies. Although they were sitting on the boat, they felt as if their bodies were slowly sinking.

It was as if I was in a dream I couldn't escape. I could clearly feel my body being submerged in cold water, my vision being overwhelmed by the lake, and my breathing becoming increasingly difficult.

"Don't fall asleep!"

Sitting at the bow of the boat, Han Fei suddenly spoke. He waved his hand and injected Xu Qin's curse into the bodies of his three companions. The excruciating pain from the bottom of their hearts brought them back to their senses.

"The curse I cast on you won't harm you; it's just to prevent you from being drawn into dreams." In this critical moment, Han Fei could only resort to the simplest and most effective method: using a curse to fight poison with poison. Although it would be a little painful, it was much better than dying in a dream.

When Yan Le and the lifeguard were cursed, they only felt excruciating pain, but Guan Miao showed strong unease after coming into contact with Xu Qin's curse.

Blood seeped out from under his headscarf, and fish-scale-like scars fell off. Even more horrifying, black worms crawled out of Guan Miao's wounds.

The insects also seemed to have emerged from the black cocoon. They looked completely different from the butterflies, extremely ugly, as if they were a collection of all the ugliness and disaster in the world.

The lifeguard tried to avoid Guan Miao, but the boat was only so big, so he could only keep curling his body back to prevent the insects from crawling on him.

"Sir, are these parasites on your body? Do you usually like to drink untreated water?" The lifeguard hesitated for a moment before finally asking.

“I don’t know when these things entered my body.” Guan Miao shook his head. He took off the blood-stained headscarf, revealing his somewhat frightening face: “All I remember is having constant dreams, and then my body started to show symptoms.”

"If you've ever dreamed of becoming a fish, your body will grow fish-scale patterns and develop scar-like things. Can dreams really affect reality?"

After examining the elderly people's bodies, the lifeguard was surprised. He thought that dreams could only bring people mental pain and torment, but who would have thought that dreams could also change a person's body.

“Non-stop nightmares affect a person’s heart, spirit and consciousness. The real reason for the physical changes is the cocoon.” Han Fei also had some understanding of dreams: “Dreams seem to have all kinds of cocoons, and each cocoon contains different insects, and those insects are very likely to be people who have turned into them.”

Han Fei remembered that the butterfly created a human pupa, which was made by turning certain unique souls into insects, allowing those corrupt souls to be reborn in another body in this way.

The oars repeatedly splashed water, and the small boat rowed into the darkness for another ten minutes or so, but the island in the middle of the lake that the old man had mentioned still hadn't appeared.

The lifeguard and Yan Le's mother were getting anxious. They were told they would arrive in twenty minutes, but half an hour had already passed.

"Could we have been tricked?" Yan Le's mother stared at Guan Miao, her mouth agape, a grown woman's face appearing in her throat. She didn't care whether Han Fei could disrupt the dream's ritual, only about her daughter's safety. Han Fei had used this to bind her to his side.

"It'll be soon, it should be soon." Guan Miao wasn't entirely sure either. He took out something that looked like a compass from under his clothes, fiddled with it a few times, and found that the needle on the compass was spinning non-stop: "How could this be?"

Guan Miao picked up the flashlight from the cabin, tied it to a rope, and slowly lowered it into the lake.

The light from the flashlight dispelled some of the darkness, allowing everyone to see what was underneath the wooden boat.

"what is that!"

Directly below the small boat, there was a large shadow that seemed to be following it forward.

"too big!"

Roughly estimated, the shadow was more than six meters long, twice the length of the wooden boat.

"A lake monster?" The lifeguard player had never seen such a large fish in a freshwater lake before, and judging from its size, it didn't look like a fish at all!

Everyone on the boat panicked, and Guan Miao froze. He didn't know whether he should put the flashlight back, as the underwater creature seemed to have sensed the light.

The current became noticeably swift, causing the wooden boat to bob up and down dramatically, threatening to capsize at any moment.

"Quick! Turn off the flashlight!"

The underwater shadow rose forward, and Guan Miao heard Han Fei's voice. He immediately pulled the rope back and turned off the flashlight.

Darkness returned to the surroundings, with only a faint light remaining at the bow of the ship.

“That water monster seems to be following the light of the lantern? I think I know why lighting a lantern can break through the water ghosts’ obstruction.” The lifeguard glanced at the lantern at the bow of the boat: “The underwater monster was attracted by the light and swam under the boat. Of course, those water ghosts dare not come over. They are not doing it out of respect for your ancestors, but because they are afraid of that huge shadow.”

Guan Miao had lived by the water for so long, but this was the first time he had ever seen such a giant creature underwater. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "You can't say that. Since my grandfather's generation, there has been a saying that you can guide the way with a lantern. That water monster might be a friend of my ancestors."

"Don't speak, keep quiet." Han Fei also saw the thing underwater. His eyesight was far beyond that of ordinary people, and with the help of the flashlight, he could vaguely see the outline of the giant shadow.

The water was no longer calm. Han Fei stood at the bow of the boat, carefully observing the constantly changing ripples. His expression gradually became serious. After a moment, he shouted to the others, "Hold on tight to the wooden boat!"

Just one second after Han Fei finished speaking, the bottom of the wooden boat was violently struck, and the entire boat was almost capsized!
"Paddle forward! To the island in the middle of the lake!"

Han Fei had already rowed for half an hour, and it would be too late to go back now. They had no choice but to go all in and move forward.

Before the wooden boat could stabilize, Han Fei grabbed the oars and began to row, unleashing his full stamina of over thirty points.

The impact of the underwater monster seemed to be some kind of signal; the darkness was shattered, and clumps of black seaweed quickly fled from all around.

"quick!"

The four people on the boat dared not stop and paddled forward with all their might. The huge shadow was not going to let them go. The collision just now seemed to be just a test.

An indescribable sense of urgency gripped them. All they could do now was protect their only boat; if it fell into the water, the consequences would be unimaginable.

When faced with unknown danger, Yan Le's mother was the first to react. She knew that her daughter could not swim, and once she fell into the water, even if there were many ghosts sealed in her body, it would be difficult to help her daughter escape. In order to prevent the worst situation from happening, she put her hand into her throat and pulled out a blood-stained fleshy sac.

"This is rotting flesh imbued with the aura of 'dreams,' which ghosts and monsters would likely find very appealing."

The fleshy sac is not large, and its skin is similar to that of an orange, covered with white and brown stripes. When touched, it will rhythmically contract and expand.

Yan Le's mother swung her arm and threw the thing far away with all her might.

The stinking flesh sac splattered black blood droplets. Just as it was about to fall into the lake, a huge wave surged up, and a massive black shadow leaped out of the water, its ripped mouth instantly swallowing the flesh sac whole.

"My God!" The lifeguard was soaked by the splashing water. He stared blankly at the spot a few meters behind him, the scene of that dark figure leaping out of the water was deeply imprinted in his mind.

"Paddle fast! Don't just stand there!" Yan Le's mother coughed up blood. She grabbed the rope on the boat and tied Yan Le to the wooden boat. "The monsters at the bottom of the lake are very sensitive to the aura of 'dream'. They have all been affected by the resurrection ritual. Could it be that the dream has prepared a non-human body for itself?"

The brain is the city's largest lake, which is very deep in the center and connected to underground rivers. It is said that you can even reach every corner of the city through those waterways.

If we compare the mind to the brain of a city, then the countless underground rivers are like the nerves and blood vessels extending from the brain. There must be a deeper reason why dreams hold a resurrection ceremony here.

The underwater monster was drawn to the fleshy sac, which bought Han Fei and his companions some time. They paddled forward recklessly, and finally a small island came into view.

The island appeared and disappeared in the darkness, its shape resembling a black eye.

Hope was within reach, and the four of them worked with all their might. Just as they were getting closer and closer to the island in the middle of the lake, the surroundings fell silent again. Danger lurked beneath the surface of the water, but the surface remained calm.

"Did you hear a child crying?" Guan Miao suddenly looked up. His eyes had unknowingly become different from normal people's, somewhat resembling fish eyes, which looked very frightening.

"It seems there really is one..." The lifeguard pricked up his ears and looked in the direction from which the crying came. To the left of the island in the middle of the lake, there was a broken boat overturned on the water. A bamboo basket was hanging from the stern of the broken boat, which was stuffed with a lot of old clothes. The baby's crying was coming from the bamboo basket.

"You worship the lake god by sacrificing babies?" Han Fei glanced at Guan Miao, his hands still busy, maintaining the boat's speed.

"How could that be!" Guan Miao shook his head repeatedly: "The offerings only consist of three kinds of sacrificial animals and..."

"And what?"

“Anyway, we will never sacrifice a baby; that’s too hysterical.” Guan Miao lowered her head, not daring to meet Han Fei’s gaze again.

“Then there’s no need for us to rescue that baby. Who would bring a baby out fishing for no reason? The basket must contain something else.” Han Fei wasn’t heartless; he just always managed to stay rational.

"Is something else pretending to be a baby? But the crying sounds so real." The lifeguard is a good person; otherwise, he wouldn't have become a lifeguard. The salary isn't much, and sometimes he has to risk his life.

"Listen to me!" Han Fei, the backbone of the team, continued paddling towards the island in the middle of the lake without hesitation.

As they passed by the wrecked boat, the old clothes on the bamboo basket suddenly slipped off, and an ugly, scaleless fish jumped out of the basket and fell into the water.

"That fish can even make the sound of a baby crying?" The lifeguard gasped. Just as he was about to say something, a nearby wrecked boat was overturned, its cabin filled with blood and teeth marks, and a large, dark creature was crawling underneath.

If Han Fei and his group had approached that area of ​​water earlier, they would likely have been targeted by those crawling water insects.

"What's wrong with this world?" The lifeguard felt that there was something very wrong with this world. It was like the end of the world for the living. All sorts of strange tales and monsters appeared one after another. There was no safe place at all.

After avoiding the wrecked ship, Han Fei and his group successfully approached the island in the middle of the lake.

Under Guan Miao's guidance, they quickly tied the small boat to the makeshift ferry dock on the shore, and the four of them swiftly disembarked.

"Don't forget anything from the ship, bring it all to the island!"

With his feet firmly on the ground, the sense of crisis in his heart subsided somewhat. Han Fei hugged the statue and looked around.

The island in the middle of the lake can be seen at a glance. Apart from various strange rocks and trees, the most eye-catching thing is a three-story stone house.

"Putting the lake god statue into the shrine will complete the second half of the ceremony, and that should be enough." Guan Miao felt a surge of hope. He hadn't expected that everyone could actually successfully land on the island. In his excitement, he didn't even notice that his voice was noticeably different from before, as if it had been submerged in water, making his pronunciation increasingly indistinct.

Walking along the stone path for worshipping the gods, Han Fei hugged the statue, his expression somewhat strange. He vaguely felt that something was calling to him.

Although his mind was filled with the dream of resurrection ritual, he felt a pang of pain deep inside, as if he were the one being sacrificed and tormented!
The closer he got to the stone house, the stronger the feeling became. However, he couldn't think about so many things at the moment. With Xu Qin and the Rebirth Blade by his side, he was confident that he could deal with most of the ghosts and monsters.

Soon, the four arrived at the stone house. The area was surrounded by locust trees, most of which had withered and died, except for a few that were particularly lush near the stone house.

"Just open the door and go in. The rest of the ceremony will be completed by you alone." Guan Miao clenched his fists, looking somewhat nervous.

"I'll go in alone?"

“Yes, normally only orphans who are participating in the ceremony can board this isolated island. Everyone else waits for him on the boat. After he sets up the statue, everyone goes back together,” Guan Miao said, explaining the village’s tradition.

"Is that really true?" Han Fei grabbed Guan Miao by the collar: "You all come with me."

Pushing open the door of the stone house, a damp, fishy stench hits you.

The stone house was not on the ground; it was completely hollowed out and contained a bottomless pool of water.

Shining a flashlight on the water, you can vaguely see something swimming beneath the murky surface.

"The wooden ladder is on the left wall, and the shrine is on the top of the stone roof, suppressing the entire lake," the old man pointed to the third floor of the stone house.

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing. A rotten wooden ladder hung on the wall of the long-neglected stone house, leading to the top floor of the house.

At the center of the stone roof, which is also the center of the entire mind, a wooden shrine was built.

This shrine seemed to be reinforced every year, and its appearance was different from all the shrines Han Fei had seen before. It was completely black and engraved with water patterns, divine patterns, and dream patterns.

"Just open the shrine and put the statue inside."

It sounds simple, but it's actually quite difficult. The wooden ladder is severely rotten; one wrong step and you'll fall into a pool where something is hidden. The statue is also very heavy; carrying it with one hand is already a struggle, let alone carefully climbing the wooden ladder to the top floor of the stone house.

After pausing at the door for a moment, Han Fei picked up the lake god statue: "All the shrines in the shrine world are symbols. I want to see what kind of shrine 'Dream' has prepared for itself?"

After stretching his arms, Han Fei entered the stone house, gripping the wooden ladder with one hand and climbing up.

The sound of the crack widening echoed continuously on the wooden stairs, and sawdust fell from above, sinking into the deep pool and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)