Zhongshan Shenzhu Chi

Chapter 81 Lingyi

"You want me to name the mountain lord?" the giant snake replied.

The little fox nodded vigorously.

Its two tails swayed gently in the air, fluffy like two balls of cotton that had just been dried in the sun, as if they would be blown away by a gust of wind.

"Do you want it?" The giant serpent turned to look at the mountain king.

In fact, none of the monsters in Zhongshan have names; they only have nicknames.

Only I was born with the name "Candle".

"I see all the humans down the mountain have names—" Qinghu said somewhat sullenly, "Why weren't we born with names?"

"That's because they need a name, but since you want one, I'll give you one."

The giant snake raised its head and looked up at the drifting white clouds in the sky.

The little fox imitated its behavior and also looked up.

After watching for a while, it raised its tail high again, aligning it with the white clouds.

He was blowing air out of his mouth.

The tip of its tail danced among the clouds, carried by the wind she stirred up.

"Naming is a difficult thing." The giant snake glanced at the little fox who was playing by itself.

And then there's Lord Qinghu, who keeps peeking at me; our eyes meet, but I immediately look away again.

She can interact with humans, so she should be able to understand some simple words, but not anything too profound.

Green Tiger, Green Tiger.

Mountain Lord, Mountain Lord.

The giant snake glanced at the mountain lord again, and their eyes met once more. It immediately looked away and pulled its head to the side.

"The big cat needs to cultivate military formations and strife, and military formations emphasize strict adherence to orders—"

"Order one, order ceremony."

"Lingyi should be better off, after all, she is the tigress of Zhongshan. She just commanded the Golden Apes and the others to kill a giant alligator."

"The great snake swam out of the Luo River and came to the side of the green tiger. It raised the tip of its tail and wrote the two characters 'Ling Yi' in front of its eyes."

"What does this candle mean?" the mountain lord asked.

"Strictly obey orders and maintain dignified demeanor." The giant snake flicked its tongue, expressing its understanding.

"Is this how I am perceived by you now?" The mountain lord stood up, stretched out its front paws, and imitated writing its own name next to the words written by the giant snake.

The strokes are slightly smaller than those of a large snake, with horizontal and vertical lines, and each stroke is executed extremely slowly and carefully.

A small, pinkish-white paw quietly squeezed in and added "Nine Lotus" after the mountain lord's name.

The handwriting is graceful, and the last stroke of the lotus even extends to draw a small cloud.

The mountain king paused, staring at the words he had written with the little fox. A hint of warmth unexpectedly appeared in his cold and aloof aura.

"Well written, better than mine." The blue tiger raised its paw, about to grab the little fox's head.

But she jumped away to avoid it.

The giant snake saw it all.

The little fox wasn't hiding from the tiger's claws, but from the mud that had gotten all over it.

She also loves cleanliness.

It seems that both of them are quite satisfied with the names they chose.

The giant snake swam away.

The little fox dodged the mountain tiger's claws several times, then turned around and saw that the snake had already gone far away, so it quickly hopped and jumped to catch up.

Unable to jump off the cliff, she leaped onto the serpent's body and sat on its open scales.

They climbed onto a cliff.

The mountain lord followed.

"Candle, what are you going to do?"

"The landscape painting is finished. I've been studying it underwater these past few days and have determined the locations of several water intake points."

"

The giant snake flicked its tongue, and the twelve landscape paintings flew out from between its scales, circling around its head and body.

He carefully flipped through the thin booklet that Zhao Qingyan had given him, even while he was submerged in the Luo River.

Almost every conceivable drought relief measure was recorded in the document.

Some are mild, others are extreme.

For example, some officials even suggested a complete overhaul of the plants in Zhongshan—replacing them all with drought-resistant plants that can store water.

The official noted that this suggestion would not be feasible in less than twenty years.

But this is a world where cultivators exist.

The giant serpent is the god of Zhongshan.

As long as it persists in implementing this measure without wavering, Zhongshan will present a completely different appearance within a year.

Huai Nian wouldn't do that.

Birth, aging, sickness, and death, honor and disgrace, rise and fall—all follow their own natural laws. The creatures of Zhongshan, and indeed, the creatures of Yongningzhou, will struggle to survive.

All it needs to do is create an environment that allows creatures that yearn to live to survive.

"Will the drought really be that bad?" the mountain king asked.

"Didn't you go to the Snake God Valley to ask?" the giant snake asked, regaining its senses.

"It doesn't feel necessary. Since the shackles were broken, we can sense that the Serpent God is not in good condition."

"Instead of disturbing the tranquility of the valley under the pretext of investigating the cause of the drought, let's do as you say."

The mountain king followed closely behind the giant snake, speaking calmly.

They don't know when it started, but they stopped questioning the candle's decisions.

Even the Golden Ape King, who used to be at odds with the giant snake, now obediently follows Zhu's orders, cultivating in the valley day after day.

He would occasionally go and spar with the black bears.

Did it begin with the distribution of the medium, or with the serpent emerging from the valley?

Qinghu pondered.

The little fox slid off the snake's body, jumped onto its head, circled the tiger's ears, and chased its own tail.

My thoughts were disrupted.

On second thought, it's not really that important when it started.

Just follow along.

The blue tiger shook its ears, as if to attract the little fox's attention, and then dodged the attack.

The snake, tiger, and fox, though slow in their movements, quickly reached the first water-fetching point.

The earthworm demon was already waiting here.

The giant snake tilted its head slightly forward, transmitting the structure of the water-fetching point to them through its spirit.

Upon receiving the order, the lizards, now at least twice their original size and over two meters long, burrowed into the ground.

Intertwined hundreds of meters underground, they exert their innate soil-controlling abilities.

There was no movement on the ground.

But the giant serpent could sense that along the underground river, huge cavities were being created to store and draw water.

"Just enough to organize 108 water collection points—" As the giant serpent pondered this, twelve landscape paintings surrounding its head and body unfolded before its eyes.

The 108 water collection points can cover the entire Zhongshan Mountain.

Some are deep in the dense forest, while others are at the foot of the mountain.

All that's left is to wait —

The giant serpent stood silently in place, its heart calm.

The mountain serpent stood behind the giant snake, wagging its tail, while the little fox clung to the tip of the tail, spinning around with a whooshing sound.

A bird brought a letter.

The cry came from the human race's Autumn City.

The giant snake turned its head slightly, and the wind tore open the letter, spreading the paper out in front of its eyes.

It was a bumpy road, to say the least.

After writing the letter, Tu Die didn't know who to send it to. She went to the door and knocked on the scale, but there was no response.

They simply ordered it to be sent directly to Xia'an City.

City Lord Li Zhengming was completely bewildered upon receiving the letter. He muttered to the red serpent statue for a long time, but received no response.

Since Zhao Ying and Zhao Qingyan were not in the city, they could only go to the old master of the Wen family.

The letter was then delivered to the new village, and Zhong Yan kept nagging about it for a long time. In the end, he had no choice but to throw it away with the wind.

In the end, the message was caught by a bird and delivered into the deep mountains.

"Interesting—why is Yongning's main city still plagued by fog ghosts while being entangled in righteousness?" After reading it, the flames burned the letter, turning it into ashes.

The giant snake turned around.

No matter how much trouble the people of Yongningzhou cause, it has nothing to do with it.

As long as it doesn't affect drought relief, let them be.