I traveled through the Cretaceous period and farmed with the ever-changing dog egg.

Water monkey: People often tell legends about water monkeys.

The next day, Lin Chaoyan went down the mountain for a stroll. This piqued the curiosity of others, so a group of six people, led by Lin Chaoyan, who exuded an ethereal and otherworldly aura, arrived at Tianshui Village.

"Grandpa, is it true that there's something in your village's river that eats people?" Qiu Shenji was immediately turned away and squatted on the ground, covering his nose and snorting.

"Grandma, I heard..."

With a bang, the door slammed shut, and Han Dong was also met with a closed door.

Lin Chaoyan had no solution to the problem, so she simply decided to wander around the village.

Walking along the village path, leading Gou Dan, she twirled a bamboo stick with her fingers in a fancy manner. Just then, an old man with a gloomy face, a fierce expression, and eerie eyes came over and called out to her.

"Who allowed you to come here? Get out of here! You're not welcome in our village!" The old man cursed at Lin Chaoyan.

"...Grandpa has a story! I love listening to old people tell stories. It's a pity! Everyone seems unwilling to pay attention to me! Everyone seems to be afraid of something. Grandpa, what are you afraid of?" Lin Chaoyan, who has always been a fan of good-looking people, was not intimidated by the old man.

Instead, he tried to get the kind-hearted man in front of him to tell her about the strange things that had happened in the village.

The old man was stunned for a few seconds by Lin Chaoyan's unpredictable behavior! "Who exactly are you?"

The girl in front of him looked to be fifteen or sixteen, but she possessed a composure beyond her years. He was bewildered by the dim-witted chicken on the ground.

"Those who want to hear the story!! If this story interests me, maybe I can even help you solve it." As long as it's not a ghost, Lin Chaoyan isn't afraid of any strange beast.

The old man looked the girl up and down, ignoring her aloof and otherworldly aura.

"Do you know that spreading rumors and discussing this matter will result in being exiled three thousand miles away by the government?" A strange emotion flashed across the old man's cloudy eyes.

"Oh! You can tell me quietly, and I promise I won't tell anyone else." You've already come to me, but you're not willing to say anything. Isn't this just pointless and unnecessary? Lin Chaoyan held Gou Dan in her arms, ready to listen carefully.

"If that's the case, young lady, please come with me!" The old man led Lin Chaoyan to the riverbank, gazing silently at the dark riverbed. He seemed to be brewing something, or perhaps waiting for something.

"A story like this has been circulating in the nearby villages for a long time. Our village relies on the river for its livelihood, and we live a relatively prosperous life. But I don't know when it started, but every summer, several people in the village would drown in the river. When their bodies floated to the surface, there would always be a bluish-black handprint on their ankles..."

It is a mysterious creature, said to live in deep water, and is the incarnation of a water ghost. Its figure has never been truly captured by anyone.

However, its infamous reputation is widely known among the people. On the edge of Tianshui Village, there is a wide river with unfathomable depths. The old folks often use the story of the creature living deep within this river to frighten the children.

However, this story now seems to have become a fact and a taboo subject in the nearby villages. It is not content with merely living in the river.

It repeatedly appeared in the lives of the villagers, bringing disaster and death.

It first appeared on a hot summer day. Niu Dan, the son of the Niu family at the edge of the village, and a few friends went swimming in the river. They played and frolicked, enjoying the coolness of the summer day.

“Bull's testicles! My grandfather said the river will eat children.”

"Tch! Cowards! Those are just lies to fool cowards like you."

"But..."

"But what? Chen Shitou, how can you be such a bastard? You might as well go home and have your father change your name to Turtle Son." The young boy's innocent face was filled with arrogance.

"Hahaha... Bull Egg, he should be called Turtle Grandson because his father was also a coward."

"Hahaha……"

The other children nearby immediately started to jeer, making Chen Shitou both embarrassed and angry.

"No, I'm not, I'll go then..."

Just as the group was having a great time, dark shadows began to approach them from the bottom of the lake.

Suddenly, Niu Dandan felt something grab his foot. Before he could even cry for help, he was dragged underwater at lightning speed. Looking down, he saw a dark, blob-like creature with a pair of blood-red eyes and a tail with five fingers wrapped around his ankle.

He struggled frantically, but the thing only tightened. Soon, Xiaoming's friends also realized something was wrong, and they struggled to swim to shore with terrified expressions.

"What should we do? The river ate the cow's testicles."

"Woooooooo..."

The children burst into tears, but by the time the adults arrived, it was too late. Niu Dan had been dragged to the bottom of the river by the water monkey, and it wasn't until three days later that it was found floating on a shallow beach downstream by passing villagers.

A dark, purplish handprint was clearly visible on the ankle. This incident terrified the villagers, who began to believe that the legend was not unfounded. They dared not approach the river again, fearing they would become the water monkey's next target.

At first, everyone was very wary, but as time went on, people had many unpleasant arguments over the water source. The victim-blaming theory began, since nobody believed there was anything in the river anyway.

"Village chief! If we don't go near the river, what will we eat and drink?..."

"Exactly! Not everyone can dig a well. We have to shamelessly go to someone's house to fetch water, and then we get a lecture from that arrogant person..."

"Who knows, the child might have slipped and gotten tangled in the seaweed and died... You can't cut off our livelihood because of a child..."

After a month of calm, everyone's mentality had become unbearable. The village chief couldn't withstand the pressure and ultimately chose to let them go.

.....................

At this moment, the villagers' thought was that at worst, everyone should travel in groups and not be left alone!

However, the creature did not stop there. Soon after, seemingly waiting for the villagers to lower their guard, it reappeared in a nearby village and killed another person. This time it was an elderly woman named Granny He from the neighboring village.

She was washing clothes by the river at the time, and with each splash, water sprayed everywhere. The women were laughing and chatting, talking about whose husband and whose young widow.

In front of everyone, Grandma He was quickly pulled into the water by a dark shadow.

"Ahh..."

A collective scream erupted, and people scattered. Some women, not seeing their footing, even fell into the river and onto the steps…

When the villagers arrived, Grandma He was nowhere to be seen on the lake; she hadn't even blown a bubble.

On the ground lay a series of strange footprints, each of varying depths and containing only three toes. The villagers were furious and decided to seek out a shaman to exorcise the evil spirits.

This exorcism ritual added another life to the creatures in the water, and he claimed it was the anger of the river god, which the villagers deeply believed in.

The day before the sacrificial ceremony, the villagers began to busy themselves. They came from surrounding villages to prepare for the ceremony.

Some people were responsible for building the altar, some for preparing various offerings, and others for setting up the venue. A mysterious and eerie atmosphere permeated the entire village.

On the day of the sacrificial ceremony, the sun shone brightly under a cloudless sky, yet this could not soothe the hearts of the villagers. Dressed in their finest attire, their faces were filled with unease. The massive altar by the river was adorned with vibrant colors, and a dazzling array of offerings were laid out before them.

One by one, plump cattle and sheep were led to the altar, offerings to the river god. As the ceremony began, drums thundered and horns blared. Villagers, holding incense, prayed devoutly. They begged the river god for forgiveness, hoping for peace to return to the village, favorable weather, and abundant harvests.

The priest wore a terrifying mask with a red face and fangs, and hummed a strange tune.

“$%*&￥*% Ah…”

She kept dancing bizarrely, the decorative tassels on her body swaying wildly with her movements, and the wooden planks under her feet creaked with each jump.

As the shamanic dance reached its climax, the villagers' hearts were in their throats.

However, what they didn't know was that the sorcerer in front of them was actually a charlatan. His so-called exorcisms and shamanistic rituals were nothing more than a performance of superstition.

After the priesthood ended, the crowd dispersed, inviting the priest to drink and eat. Only a few disciples remained to tidy up the scene.

At this moment, the disciple closest to the river suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He turned around to look at the river but saw nothing.

"What's wrong, junior brother! Did you see something that eats people?... "

"Senior brother! You're making fun of me again..."

"Hahaha...Junior brother! You can't learn from those fools..."

"That's right! Junior brother, what are you afraid of! There are no demons or monsters, these people are just scaring themselves..."

After joking around by the river for a few days, they were preparing to leave one by one. The last disciple to leave heard something and instinctively stretched his neck to look into the river.