Guarding the River of Time-Chapter 257 - 251: Moon Within the Shell, Painting Within the Bone—Who’s Peeking at His True Face?

Chapter 257: Chapter 251: Moon Within the Shell, Painting Within the Bone—Who’s Peeking at His True Face?

When Su Mu’s gaze fell inside the shell, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he froze on the spot.

Even his breathing involuntarily became a bit more rapid.

The inner wall of the shell was black and very smooth, and what shocked Su Mu was that a portrait appeared on the inner wall. The portrait was white, so it stood out clearly against the black background.

What was terrifying to Su Mu was that this portrait was none other than himself!

So, when Su Mu saw it, he was extremely shocked and dismayed.

Since he traversed to this Otherworld, he has always been on this river and never left. The one he interacted with the most was Nannan, but since Nannan lived with him every day, it was impossible for her to put his portrait in this shell unreasonably.

Moreover, it took a lot of effort for him to open the shell, something that Nannan was incapable of doing, so the possibility of Nannan making this was immediately ruled out.

If Nannan is excluded, then Su Mu really couldn’t think of anyone else...

In his contemplation, Su Mu reached out his right hand, and the moment he touched the portrait, a chilling sensation came from his fingertips, shocking Su Mu as if he had been electrocuted.

The portrait had a granular feel, not like it was painted, but more like... nailed in!

Immediately, Su Mu opened his Divine Sense and carefully observed, only to discover that his portrait seemed to be nailed together with tens of thousands of tiny white nails!

After discovering the eerie aspect, Su Mu’s brows furrowed tightly.

What?

Could it be that someone is cursing me?

Because nailing a person is a very bad practice, extremely inauspicious.

But, I never left this river, and I have no enemies or grudges against anyone, right?

Could it be!

Could it be done by those Cross River Men I’ve robbed?

Because apart from living with Nannan, the people Su Mu dealt with most were the Cross River Men coming and going, collecting crossing fees.

Although he sometimes self-deprecates it as "robbing," strictly speaking, isn’t he just normally collecting crossing fees?

Right? 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He’s guarding this river, maintaining its order, collecting a bit of crossing fee, isn’t that reasonable?

Furthermore, he is bound to the River Guardian System, and this river is the first river he’s guarding and will be the first one to be successfully refined.

Even though, at this stage, this river might not entirely belong to him, it ultimately will, and although the refining progress is only twenty-five percent, rounded up, this river is essentially his!

It’s just a matter of time!

So, it’s his river, collecting some crossing fees, what’s wrong with that?

Why would someone secretly nail a little person and curse me?

As the saying goes, people need to earn more in their startup phase, what’s wrong with that?

This river is Su Mu’s first panel in his startup phase because it’s the first river he plans to refine, so collecting crossing fees isn’t too much, right?

Later, when Su Mu has completely got back on track, refining the second river, the third, the one hundredth, the one-thousandth, more powerful rivers, by then, he wouldn’t have to collect crossing fees for every river, he can be more generous.

Certainly, there will be numerous rivers more powerful than this one!

Therefore, Su Mu feels there’s absolutely no problem with himself.

Just don’t know which narrow-minded Cross River Guy bore a grudge and nailed me into this shell, extremely ominous and petty!

He’s been collecting crossing fees for so many years and has never raised the price, always just collecting a piece of treasure.

Moreover, now Su Mu also provides an escort service, safely taking you to your destination and bringing you home in peace, isn’t the service complete?

...

After calming down for a bit, Su Mu’s Spiritual Power burst forth, ready to pull out all the nails from there.

However, he found that, inexplicably, his Spiritual Power seemed to be swallowed when it landed there, transferred to another space, feeling like punching cotton, with no force at all!

Su Mu switched his approach, focusing on one of the nails, pulling with all his might.

Yet it was totally futile, extremely strange, but unfortunately, Su Mu’s power was too overwhelming; even though 99.999% of his Spiritual Power was swallowed and transferred, that tiny remaining force still managed to pull out the white nail.

Su Mu looked at the nail in his palm, very slender, and the material seemed similar to bone; this is a Bone Nail!

Nailing Su Mu’s portrait with Bone Nails, what kind of vicious curse is this?

It’s really ominous!

Next, when he prepared to pull out the second Bone Nail, he found the difficulty increased by hundreds or thousands of times!

No matter how he exerted himself, he couldn’t pull it out.

Moreover, there were densely packed tens of thousands of Bone Nails here, and if it took so long to pull out just one, then what’s the point?

This would delay him for a long time, at least ten days to half a month, yet it isn’t certain that he could pull them all out.

Maybe it’s some Cross River man’s prank, after all, he’s been sailing smoothly all this while, not affected in any way.

Moreover, having become an Immortal King, if he could be cursed by something like this, then what does being an Immortal King even mean?

Su Mu put away the only Bone Nail he pulled out, then picked up the shell, walked to the bank, and threw it towards the river: "Screw you!"

After throwing away this ominous thing, Su Mu dusted off his hands, feeling much better.

I really made a fuss over nothing, thinking this shell was some treasure, who knew it was such an ominous thing.

.....

Su Mu adjusted his mood and continued today’s river patrol.

Perhaps the ominousness was completely gone, or was it a psychological suggestion?

Luck was particularly good!

He had just gone out for a few minutes when he saw in a low-lying water area, dozens of crocodiles were brawling fiercely.

Su Mu transformed into a justice messenger, stopping the riot, instantly earning ten-thousand Favor Points, so satisfying!

.....

At this moment, Su Mu stepped on the water surface, with his hands behind his back.

In front of him, fifty-five crocodiles of different sizes were neatly lined up, looking at Su Mu with fear, waiting for his lecture.

"Who started it?"

Su Mu looked at the dozens of crocodiles and asked.

Because these big crocodiles were having a brawl, the small fish and shrimp in this part of the water had no living space, even hundreds or thousands of fish were killed, making this area foul with overturned fish bellies everywhere.

...

Being scolded like this by Su Mu, all these crocodiles shuddered, trembling.

Crocodiles from both factions looked at each other, there wasn’t a specific initiator, right?

This was a war!

"You."

"What are you looking at? It’s you."

Su Mu pointed at the largest crocodile with blood-red scales and shouted.