Zhongshan Shenzhu Chi

Just as he was about to leave, Huai Nian immediately realized something was wrong.

I didn't feel anything when I was going against the current, but now, these dark clouds that have been hanging over the sky for so long... seem to be heading straight for me?

The torrential rain is like a celestial river bursting its banks, the downpour almost forming a continuous white curtain.

If we add to its powerful, unbroken flow downstream, it will surely create towering waves that will engulf both banks.

At that time, all living things on the shore, whether human or animal, will be swallowed by the great waves.

Thinking of this, the large snake, which had just swum a hundred meters and was still within Zhao Ying and Li Zhengyuan's sight, turned back.

"What are your orders, Lord Mountain God?" Li Zhengyuan asked solemnly.

—River, people, separation.

Three words were melted into the soil, and the giant snake raised its tail, pointing to the sky.

"Can you speak?" Zhao Ying frowned. Although she understood what those three words meant, thinking was a painful thing.

The woman left Central Continent because there was too much scheming and no one left who did anything productive.

I thought that once I arrived in Yongning Continent, I could have a good fight with the Four Immortal Sects, but I never expected to encounter a mountain god who doesn't speak but only writes, and whose meaning I have to guess.

"Are you really going to transform into a dragon through water?" Li Zhengyuan also frowned, his brows almost furrowed into a knot.

—No, just in case.

Whether it was because Zhao Ying's words had an effect or not, the giant snake wrote a lot of words this time.

—I left the Longhe River to dredge the downstream area.

"It seems it really can't speak." Zhao Ying looked up at the giant snake, only to see that its vertical pupils remained unchanged, showing no change regardless of how close or distant objects were. "And it can't see anything either..."

"What kind of dragon does this mountain god belong to? Why have I never heard of it before?" The woman put away her spear and murmured to herself.

"Please wait here with Lao Zhao. I will arrange for the cultivators to go downstream and evacuate the people!" Li Zhengyuan was so grateful that he almost knelt down.

After saying that, he ignored Zhao Ying's indignant expression, disregarded the energy consumed, and lightly flew up, simultaneously crushing the communication jade talisman.

The giant snake remained in the water, its enormous body pushing aside the torrential rain.

Dark clouds loomed overhead, and the feeling of stagnation in its heart grew stronger, as if everything in the world was urging it to hurry down the river.

The yin and yang vortex within the body began to rotate at some point, the two energies perfectly balanced, neither too much nor too little, slowly eroding each other.

But the snake could now clearly sense that something was missing from this cyclone.

After a fruitless search, it melted into four large characters on the shore.

—Do you know the season?

Zhao Ying was already thinking about how to "execute" Li Zhengyuan when she suddenly saw the handwriting. After thinking for a moment, she replied, "Now? It's the Lesser Heat now."

Lesser Heat...

It's been almost two months since I left Zhongshan.

I wonder how well the fox has done with the geomantic analysis of Zhongshan's watercourses.

The giant serpent murmured to itself, gazing at the sky.

Although unseen, one can imagine the streaks of silvery lightning, hanging like ancient trees in the dark clouds.

If, by going downstream, the surging waters alter the water system of Zhongshan, then the losses would outweigh the gains.

We need to find a way to disperse the momentum.

Thinking this, the giant snake turned its head to look at the human-shaped silhouette standing upright on the shore, like a green bamboo.

This woman gave it the impression of being invincible at first glance.

That is, a Golden Core cultivator above the third realm... I wonder if she has a way to deal with it.

But then I thought about it again, and realized that with its current knowledge, it would be difficult to explain such a mysterious thing as the dispersal of power.

You should figure it out yourself.

At worst, we can walk a bit and then stop.

Thinking this, the giant snake turned and sank to the bottom of the water, coiling itself into a ball in the dark riverbed, its muscles twisting together, thus trapping itself firmly.

On the shore, only a woman with a blank expression remained.

Just now, the mountain god turned his head and looked at her quietly for a long time, as if he wanted to say something but stopped, as if he wanted to reveal a shocking secret when no one was around.

Zhao Ying even slowed her breathing, and had made all the mental preparations, just waiting for the mountain god to speak.

But it didn't say anything, and just turned and ran away!?

"Are you kidding me!" The woman looked around, only to find herself alone on the empty shore. In her anger, she snapped.

He crushed the stones with one foot, then tossed his ponytail aside, leaned against a big tree, crossed his arms, and stared intently at the surface of the Longhe River.

The heavy rain continued incessantly, the wind rose and the waves surged, causing the Long River, one of the sources of the Luo River, to rise steadily.

While staying on the shore and keeping watch on the mountain god, Zhao Ying had unknowingly moved uphill twice.

With dark clouds overhead, one cannot discern the rising or setting of the sun or moon; one can only judge the situation by observing the flow of energy and physical sensations.

Fifteen days have passed since the riverbank was destroyed.

"This mountain god of Zhongshan doesn't look like he's about to die at all!"

The woman looked up at the dark clouds that had hung so low they seemed to touch her forehead.

"This celestial phenomenon... does it mean it doesn't want to extend its lifespan by transforming into a dragon?"

"Having foreseen the secrets of heaven, and having gathered strength at the northernmost tip of Yongning Continent to transform into a dragon ahead of schedule, and possessing such power, why choose to be a mountain god on Zhongshan Mountain?"

Seeing that the Longhe River was about to overflow her boots again, Zhao Ying took a third step upwards.

Each step is one meter, and now the Longhe River has risen by a full ten feet.

"What kind of dragon is it?" Zhao Ying gritted her teeth, her heart churning with a mixture of surprise and wariness, just like the Dragon River before her.

Although she had never been to the East Sea, top-tier dragons such as the Azure Dragon, Yinglong, and Ancestral Dragon were born through destiny and did not belong to any clan.

Only through the trials and tribulations of life, and the tempering of hardship, can one's destiny solidify into a divine soul.

However, the Azure Dragon is green in color, the Yinglong has wings, and the Ancestral Dragon, though chaotic, usually appears with a black body and red eyes.

Who exactly was that powerful dragon-type being, with a crimson body and eyes like stars?

The more Zhao Ying thought about it, the more she felt that her brain was not working properly. She couldn't help but tap her head with her hand to manually change her thoughts and turn to humans and demons.

In the end, the relationship between humans and demons is either one where the east wind prevails over the west wind, or the west wind prevails over the east wind.

Now that the dynasty is in decline, the East Sea Dragon Clan, which used to consider itself a friendly neighbor, has brazenly squeezed into Yunxi Continent to seize water transport.

All the powerful figures were eager to make their move, waiting to see how the battle between the Dragon Clan and Yunxi Continent would ultimately unfold.

Not only that, they were even waiting for the Yongningzhou matter to be resolved.

"A drought, a war..." Zhao Ying's face was now as gloomy as if dark clouds were pressing down on her.

"I wonder how much longer this mountain god can live. What if it fails to transform into a dragon this time? Will it have to find another way to survive?"

Just then, a continuous rumble of thunder echoed through the sky, extinguishing all thoughts in her mind.

Its silvery-white light shone like the sun in the sky, illuminating all rivers and streams.

The dark clouds, like a thin layer of ice covering the water, were smashed into countless cracks by a thunderous punch.

The giant snake, coiled at the bottom of the water, sensed something, swam out of the water, and looked up at the sky.

"boom--!"

A bolt of lightning, three feet thick, crashed down, aiming straight for the snake's throat.

"Little—" Zhao Ying hadn't finished speaking when she saw lightning strike the red snake.

The moment the lightning touched the crimson scales, it seemed to encounter some insurmountable chasm, and was immediately shattered, transforming into countless silver-white lightning snakes that roamed the crimson snake's entire body.

"My entire body is subjected to the ravages of the sun every day... Can this little bit of lightning really take me away?" Huai Nian put away the snake's tongue and raised his head to the sky.

Although it cannot see it, it can sense the power of thunder brewing deep in the sky.

"I said wait a minute, so wait a minute."

"boom--!"

A thunderclap struck, its sound like the continuous explosion of firecrackers in front of every house on New Year's Eve.

The river and the earth trembled together under the might of heaven.

A short while later, the thunder stopped abruptly.

Under Zhao Ying's horrified gaze, the red serpent, having endured the heavenly tribulation, stood silently on the river surface. Heavy rain fell on its body, instantly staining it red, which flowed down slowly like blood.

Even the river surface seemed to have been dyed red.

"This!" Zhao Ying's eyes widened in surprise.

This trip to Yongningzhou has broadened my horizons.

She had never seen a demon who resisted the heavenly tribulation and was covered in blood because of resisting the flood... No, it was indeed the Zhongshan God!

Downstream.

As the thunder in the sky gathered its power, the giant serpent approached the riverbank and melted two large characters out of the tip of its tail.

The lightning snakes that ravaged its body surged onto the ground, almost reaching its feet.

Zhao Ying clapped her hands together, took out a black spear, and stomped it into the mud to dispel the thunder.

"Please wait a moment while I ask."

After saying this, the woman crushed the communication jade talisman, whispered to the other end for a moment, and replied, "Li Zhengyuan said, in seven more days..."

"No, half a day."

"After sunrise, you need not worry, you can go straight downstream to the east and become a dragon in the water."

——?

The giant snake carved a question mark in the damp soil.

"Your waiting here shows your concern for all living beings." Zhao Ying recalled the image of the giant snake, which had been struck by lightning but remained silent and covered in blood, and her heart tightened.

A feeling of guilt welled up inside her, and she spoke very softly, "But we humans cannot use your mercy as leverage... to force you to endure the heavenly tribulation."

"What is this woman saying?"

"My use of a question mark doesn't mean I have a problem, it just means I think you have a problem... Why did you say I'm going east to transform into a dragon?"

The giant snake looked at the humanoid silhouette that seemed to be curled up in front of it, and a long-lost feeling of speechlessness suddenly arose in its heart.

It had no idea what was going on in this woman's mind.

Fortunately, she gave a specific time.

The giant snake, not wanting to get entangled with someone it couldn't understand, turned and swam into the middle of the Dragon River.

The lightning that struck it, besides causing a slight numbing sensation, probably served to polish its scales.

Although it's not visible, the snake scales must be shiny and gleaming now.

Having recaptured a city and secured a water source, coupled with the imagined majestic appearance of the giant serpent "glowing all over," the serpent's mood finally improved somewhat.

On the shore, Zhao Ying looked at the giant snake's blood-red scales, which resembled blood itself, and the Dragon River's surface, which had been "dyed" red. She gripped her spear tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white.

"If those great figures in Zhongzhou had the same magnanimity as this mountain god... even just a little bit of his magnanimity would prevent the world from falling into such chaos."

Some people appear like gods from afar, but are like beasts up close.

Some demons, though fierce and tyrannical from afar, are revealed upon closer inspection to be the backbone that holds up the world.

The woman murmured to herself, deciding to travel to Xia'an City ahead of schedule to see her nephew and also to have more contact with this mountain god.

The sky remained overcast, the rain continued, and the world was shrouded in a dim, hazy light, making it impossible to distinguish between sunrise and sunset.

The twelve two-hour periods of the day flow by like water.

A thunderous roar erupted, like a long whip lashing through the air, striking the giant snake in the river with devastating force.

One, two, three.

Lightning exploded, and silver dust covered the river surface.

Finally, the energy of sunrise was sensed by both humans and snakes.

The giant snake suddenly plunged into the water, and the thunder abruptly ceased.

On the shore, Zhao Ying finally let out a long sigh of relief, the breath that had been suffocating her all night. Her high chest heaved violently as she gasped for breath, as if she had just struggled out of the water.

"The fire has finally started..."

Zhao Ying looked at the surging waves of the Long River flowing eastward, her eyes filled with complex emotions, and murmured softly.