novelraw Chapter 299: The Putrid Swamp Mystery
Chapter 299: The Putrid Swamp Mystery
The Iron Cross squad quickly disappeared into the thick green miasma outside the church.
"Well done."
Brewer walked over to Lin Jie's side and offered sincere praise.
White Ghost also emerged from the shadows of the confession booth.
His head, covered by a white ceramic mask, gave a slight nod in Lin Jie's direction before he tossed the ammunition pouch he had just stolen from the Iron Cross captain's waist onto the ground.
Lin Jie slid Serene Heart back into its holster. His face showed no joy of victory, only a faint weariness born from intense mental concentration.
"We don't have time to celebrate," he said calmly. "Purify the node quickly, then leave. The smell of blood will soon attract more 'guests'."
No one objected.
The three swiftly returned to the altar.
This time, uninterrupted, they quickly rearranged the three silver plates that served as the guiding medium.Then, under his precise command, Brewer and White Ghost simultaneously poured mercury and sulfur into the simple alchemical array.
"Hum—"
The three silver plates lit up with a soft white glow.
The light formed a stable triangular force field, firmly enveloping the Madonna and Child statue that emanated a corrupt aura at its center.
The thick, green viscous liquid continuously flowing from the statue's eyes seemed to have met its nemesis, emitting a sizzling sound.
Foul-smelling black smoke was forcibly extracted from the statue's body, then rapidly dissipated into nothingness under the illumination of the white light.
The entire process lasted nearly ten minutes.
Finally, when the last drop of black "tears" flowed from the statue's eye sockets, the nauseating, corrupt stench filling the entire church cleared away.
Although the surface of the Madonna and Child statue was still covered in green mycelium and cracks, the fluctuation within it that served as the spiritual node had been neutralized.
The first node was purified.
At the exact moment the node was purified, the marble base beneath the statue emitted a faint *click*. A hidden compartment, concealed by dust and mycelium, sprang open.
Inside the compartment lay a small package, tightly wrapped in wax paper soaked in waterproof tar.
Lin Jie carefully retrieved the package and opened it.
Inside was a partial diary.
A diary with messy handwriting, written in French by an unknown priest.
"The diary of the local community priest before the catastrophe," Lin Jie said, quickly skimming through the contents and reading the key information to Brewer and White Ghost. "...Most of the diary is boring prayers and community trivialities... Here we go."
Lin Jie's gaze settled on the later pages of the diary.
"...Today, a geologist from distant Russia named 'Dmitry Ivanov' visited my church. He looked deeply troubled, as if something weighed on his mind."
"He told me he was secretly commissioned by Mr. Delacroix to survey the mineral resources of this swamp. But deep within the marsh, near an area locals call the 'Gallowsman's Hole,' his strange instruments detected extremely anomalous readings... not belonging to any known mineral..."
"...He seemed very uneasy about it. Before leaving, he left a simple map he had drawn himself, leading to that hole, with me."
"He asked me that if... if he didn't return from the depths of the swamp, I should give this map to 'someone trustworthy'..."
The diary ended abruptly there.
And tucked into the very last page was a crudely drawn map in pencil, covered in various strange symbols and contour lines.
"It seems the 'Gallowsman's Hole' is most likely the source of this plague," Lin Jie said thoughtfully.
Brewer nodded in agreement.
With a new lead, the trio didn't linger. They quickly left the church permeated with an ominous aura and returned to the flat-bottomed boat moored at the shore.
Then they started the steam engine and headed at full speed towards the "Gallowsman Swamp" marked on the map.
The "Gallowsman Swamp" was a forbidden zone that local residents of the Delacroix area spoke of with fear.
Legend had it that during the Civil War, this place was used for lynching deserters and spies.
Countless wronged souls were hanged from the massive cypress trees deep in the swamp.
Their resentment mixed with the swamp's own miasma, creating a uniquely terrifying domain.
As their flat-bottomed boat entered this area, the surrounding environment changed significantly.
The river channels became increasingly narrow and winding, tangled like a labyrinth.
The green miasma in the air thickened, reducing visibility to less than ten meters.
Enormous, grotesquely shaped cypress trees rose from the near-black river water, their branches draped with slowly swaying aerial roots and the skeletal remains of unknown animals.
Silence.
Even the roars of the infected Stumblers had vanished here.
All life seemed to choose silence before this swamp permeated with an aura of despair.
"Watch the water."
Brewer, who was on lookout duty, suddenly warned in a hushed voice.
Lin Jie's gaze immediately shifted to the turbid water surface.
He saw, beneath their flat-bottomed boat, massive, submarine-like black shadows over ten meters long gliding silently alongside them.
"Armored crocodiles"—infected and grown to an abnormally huge size!
And above their heads, in the gloomy, miasma-shrouded sky, enormous birds with wingspans exceeding three meters, resembling prehistoric pterosaurs, began to circle.
Their feathers had fallen out completely, revealing rotting, pus-oozing skin beneath.
Their razor-sharp claws were clutching bloody, mangled biological remains.
"Carrion vultures"!
Assassins lurked underwater.
Scavengers circled in the air.
They had intruded into a three-dimensional ecological hunting ground ruled by mutated creatures.
"Slow down," Lin Jie calmly ordered. "Maintain silence. We are not their target. Do not provoke them."
He had a strong premonition.
The reason these powerful mutated creatures were merely "escorting" them and not attacking immediately was that they were all waiting.
Waiting for a stronger, more delectable prey to appear in this swamp.
Sure enough.
As their flat-bottomed boat carefully navigated around a natural maze formed by the massive roots of a cypress tree, a violent explosion of spray, like a depth charge, erupted in the center of the relatively open waterway ahead!
"ROAR!!"
A roar mixed with pain erupted from beneath the water!
Immediately after, a crocodile king over fifteen meters long, covered in rock-hard bony armor, surged out of the water!
Its body was covered in deep, bone-exposing wounds of various sizes.
One wound stretched from its left eye all the way to its jaw, nearly cleaving half its skull open.
And the culprit responsible for this was currently locked onto its neck with two rows of dagger-like teeth.
It was a European hunter team, also looking battered, consisting of one man and one woman!
They had clearly been locked in a fierce struggle with this swamp overlord for a long time.
The man, built like a bear and covered in wounds, was using his own body like a reef, stubbornly resisting the giant crocodile's frenzied death roll.
The woman, agile as a cat and wielding two ice-blue short blades, moved like a top-tier acrobat across the broad back of the giant crocodile, repeatedly thrusting her blades into the gaps of its hard bony armor!
Lin Jie's expression changed slightly.
"Stop the boat. Everyone, take cover."
Understanding Lin Jie's intent, Brewer quickly backed the flat-bottomed boat into the natural shadows of a mangrove root system and shut down the steam engine that emitted a faint rumble.
They became front-row spectators to this bloody "dragon-slaying" spectacle.
They also became the patient oriole hiding deep in the grass, waiting for the mantis and the cicada to exhaust each other.