My Friend Has Been Dead for Three Days and Isn't This Pale

“Wang Fatty, Xu Daizi, you two go and fetch the recent demon and monster records for Yin Mountain County,” Gu Qingfeng ordered his only two subordinates.

Wang Fatty scratched his head and asked, “Lord Gu, what are you planning to do?”

“I’m going to give Old He a surprise. Now stop wasting time and get to it.”

“Oh, okay.”

Before long, the two returned with a thick volume of records.

“Lord Gu, this is this year’s demon and monster record. It documents all the anomalies and supernatural events in Yin Mountain County over the past year.”

“Alright, leave it here. You two can go about your business now. Don’t disturb me.”

With that, Gu Qingfeng began poring over the records.

He focused on the unsolved cases with clear leads.

For him, facing demons and monsters wasn’t the issue—what he feared most was when they hid, making them impossible to find. So, he prioritized the ones that were easiest to locate.

Gu Qingfeng flipped through the records at an astonishing speed, his sharp eyes and photographic memory allowing him to process a page every second.

After the time it took to burn a stick of incense, he had finished the entire volume.

Now he had a clear picture in his mind.

There weren’t many cases that met his criteria. This wasn’t because there were few demons and monsters, but because the ones that were easy to find were scarce.

In total, there were only a handful.

For example, in the northern outskirts of Yin Mountain County, in a desolate wilderness, people often reported seeing an ancient mansion. The mansion covered a vast area but was styled in a way that seemed centuries old. Some travelers had accidentally wandered in and never returned.

Later, their families came searching for them, but no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find the mansion. It seemed to vanish, not appearing every day.

Another example was in the southern part of Yin Mountain County, where late at night, the sounds of wedding music could occasionally be heard. Some brave souls even snuck a peek and saw a group of sedan bearers carrying a red bridal sedan chair, accompanied by a matchmaker leading a wedding procession.

The catch was, no sane person would choose to hold a wedding at midnight.

Then there was Qingshi Town, a subordinate town of Yin Mountain County. Outside the town was a deep, icy pool with water so cold and dark that no one could see the bottom. Legend had it that many years ago, a promiscuous woman who had cheated on her husband drowned in that pool. Since then, the water had grown even colder, and any child who played near it would be dragged away by a water ghost. A demon hunter had once gone to investigate but couldn’t see anything due to the depth of the pool and left empty-handed.

Gu Qingfeng sorted through these cases in his mind and finally settled on one—the water ghost in Qingshi Town’s deep pool!

This was the easiest to locate. Unlike the mansion that appeared and disappeared unpredictably or the wedding procession that had no fixed location, the pool was stationary, and it was certain that something was lurking within.

The only reason the demon hunter had given up was because the pool was too deep, making it impossible to find or deal with the water ghost. Some had even suggested draining the pool, but that would have been a massive undertaking, far too difficult to execute.

But for Gu Qingfeng, this was a piece of cake. With his spiritual senses and the soul power of a grandmaster, finding the water ghost would be a breeze.

As for why Gu Qingfeng was in such a hurry to hunt down demons and monsters, it was all to give He Fenghua a surprise. *You want to play games with me?*

*Then I’ll play a game of “using the wolf to hunt the tiger” or “borrowing a knife to kill someone.”*

*You handed all the demons and monsters of Yin Mountain County over to me, thinking you could laze around?*

*Well, I’ll send those demons and monsters right to your doorstep!*

Once he had chosen his target, Gu Qingfeng wasted no time. He summoned his subordinates and headed straight for the deep pool in Qingshi Town.

The three of them rode at full speed, taking several hours to reach their destination.

By then, the sun had set, and the sky was dark—the perfect time for demons and monsters to come out.

Wang Fatty looked at the still, lifeless pool before them and gulped nervously.

“Lord Gu, if the water ghost doesn’t come out, what are we going to do? We can’t just dive in, can we? This pool is bottomless. If we go in, we’ll barely be able to use half our strength, while the water ghost will be in its element. And if it comes to a fight, we won’t be able to hold our breath for long.”

Xu Daizi chimed in, “And with the water in the way, even talismans and exorcism tools won’t work. Lord Gu, in my humble opinion, we should find a way to lure it to the shore—”

Before he could finish, Xu Daizi glanced at Gu Qingfeng and froze, his words catching in his throat.

“L-Lord Gu, what are you doing?” Xu Daizi stammered, staring in shock as Gu Qingfeng stripped off his shirt and pants.

“What does it look like? I’m going in to find the water ghost. What, did you think I was going for a swim? Alright, step aside. I’m diving in.”

With that, Gu Qingfeng pushed the two aside and, under their stunned gazes, plunged into the water.

Splash!

A wave over a meter high erupted.

Gu Qingfeng disappeared beneath the surface, leaving Xu Daizi and Wang Fatty standing there, dumbfounded.

In the pool.

The water was icy cold, bottomless, and pitch black.

It was as if a black hole lurked within, devouring all light. When Gu Qingfeng first entered, there was still a faint glimmer, but the deeper he went, the darker it became. Soon, he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.

The sound of gurgling currents filled his ears.

Every now and then, something slimy brushed against his skin—whether it was a fish or seaweed, he couldn’t tell. The cold, slippery sensation would have given anyone goosebumps.

For someone with thalassophobia, this environment would have been utterly terrifying.

But Gu Qingfeng felt nothing. He was fearless, his body incredibly strong. The icy water that would have chilled others to the bone felt like lukewarm bathwater to him.

As for the lack of light, he didn’t care. With his spiritual senses and soul power, he could see even more clearly than he could on land.

The slimy things brushing against him? He could see them now—they weren’t fish or seaweed, but strands of black, ink-like hair, slithering like water snakes.

There was quite a bit of this hair, appearing every so often. Judging by the amount of shedding, the water ghost was undoubtedly bald!

With his extraordinary perception, Gu Qingfeng effortlessly pinpointed the water ghost’s location.

At the very center of the pool’s bottom, a cold, sinister aura swirled.

Just as Gu Qingfeng was about to swim toward it, the aura suddenly surged toward him. Even though they were still far apart, the water ghost seemed to have detected him.

Gu Qingfeng realized it must have been the hair. If he wasn’t mistaken, the hair was alive, drifting through the water like fish, helping the water ghost sense any living beings that entered the pool.

As Gu Qingfeng pondered this, suddenly—

The water churned violently!

A pale, bloated woman’s face appeared right in front of him!

Their faces were inches apart, staring directly into each other’s eyes.

Gu Qingfeng was startled—not by the sudden appearance, but by her complexion. She was *really* white, the kind of white that comes from being waterlogged for too long.

*My friend’s corpse wasn’t even this white after three days.*