"In the summer of Da Shun's seventy-eighth year, the Dragon Ape of the Huai River Water Palace battled. A Flood Dragon suddenly erupted, swimming upstream ten thousand li to strike directly at Southern Zhili. The Martial Saints were all restrained; Jianghuai shook, and the realm roiled. The Southern Border bandits seized the opening to invade northward, while the remaining Northern Court raiders also watched for a chance to look south. Yet the Northern Court had only just suffered calamity and chaos, compounded by internal strife in the royal court; after ten days of turmoil, it was pacified.
"Only the war in the Southern Border dragged on. Lingnan was then covered in miasma, snakes and vipers filled the roads, and the Mayfly Blood Collection and Blood Concealment Gu techniques ran rampant. The troops had grown weary and could advance no farther, as though trapped in a mire. The King of South Sea's battle wounds had become a chronic illness, half of Lingnan Province had fallen, mournful commoners covered the land, and starving corpses clogged the roads.
"At the critical juncture, Liang Qu, Xingyi Marquis of Pingyang, shouldered his halberd and requested leave to go. Upon reaching Lingnan, he had barely entered battle before shattering the sharp and piercing the strong, beheading fifteen Grandmasters and capturing one alive. He then cast a spell to summon clouds, bringing three days of ceaseless rain and nourishing two hundred li of land. The enemy was tormented by summer heat and poison, ravaged by thirst and hunger.
"Soon after, at noon, the Marquis charged into the enemy formation alone and pierced through its central army. Within arm's reach, he captured Nine-Poison Red Water and subdued Nine-Poison Black Water. Wherever his spear tip reached, thirty-eight Grandmasters offered up their heads; the rest were wounded and scattered in