The Dragon King

The water of the Black River wasn't actually black.

Far from it. In this stretch of the Longyou Circuit, where yellow sand shrouded the land all year round, a river this clear was a gift from heaven.

The river flowed from west to east, winding along and nourishing the fertile fields and people on both banks.

Yet this very river had now changed beyond recognition.

Half a mile from the riverbank, an indescribable stench hit them.

Even though the Demon Suppression Bureau's men had seen all kinds of things, they couldn't help wrinkling their noses when they caught the smell.

Even so.

The investigation still had to be done.

They dismounted and led their horses, making their way toward the riverbed step by step.

The closer they got, the stronger the stench grew, making their heads spin.

The once-clear water had turned a strange color. A dense layer of white fish bellies floated on the surface, great and small, stretching as far as the eye could see.

"Holy shit..."

Zhao Hu was the first to lose his nerve. He retched, then clamped his sleeve over his mouth and nose.

Liu Chen looked grim, too. He waved a hand. "Bear with it and search carefully. See if you can find any clues."

The others acknowledged him, spread out, and began searching along the riverbank.

Soon.

They came up empty-handed.

There wasn't a trace of demonic aura, let alone any sign of the Yellow Battalion.

Normally, demonic creatures left behind traces of their aura when they caused trouble.

But here, apart from the stench, there was nothing.

Either the creature was skilled enough to conceal its aura completely.

Or...

There was another reason the river had turned this way.

As he pondered, the corner of his eye caught sight of wisps of cooking smoke rising nearby.

There was actually a small village beside the riverbank.

It wasn't big, perhaps only twenty or thirty households. Its rammed-earth walls and thatched roofs looked dilapidated.

"These people... haven't run away?"

The river stank like this. Could anyone even survive living beside it?

As soon as he spoke, a stooped old man came out of the village carrying two wooden buckets. He trembled as he walked straight toward the river.

Everyone watched as the old man reached the bank and lowered his buckets into the oily water, where dead fish floated.

"..."

Zhao Hu's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"What the hell? Have these people gone mad?!"

Without a second thought, he rushed over in a few strides, snatched the rope from the old man's hands, and dumped the half-bucket of filthy water back into the river.

"Old sir! Do you have a death wish?!"

"This water's so foul it'll kill you if you drink it!"

The old man jumped at the sudden commotion. But when he saw the burly man in the Demon Suppression Bureau's uniform, his cloudy eyes held not the slightest gratitude—only resentment.

The old man shot him a look, said nothing, picked up the bucket from the ground, and went to draw water again.

This time, not only Zhao Hu but Liu Chen and the others who had followed were dumbfounded.

"Hey! You old man!"

Zhao Hu was so angry he jumped up and down. He stopped him again. "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf? You can't drink this water!"

The old man finally lost patience. "If I don't drink this, what am I supposed to drink?"

"If I drink water from this river, maybe I'll die slowly."

"But if I don't..."

"I'll die of thirst in a few days. You tell me—which should I choose?"

"..."

They looked at one another, unsure what to say.

The Longyou Circuit was a thousand miles of yellow sand, with droughts nine years out of ten.

Ordinary people had only two things to rely on to survive in this land.

Either they relied on the heavens.

Or they relied on the river.

In most places, even digging a hundred feet into the ground might not turn up a single drop of water.

Liu Chen said nothing. He simply handed the water flask in his hand to the old man.

The old man froze for a moment, then took it, unscrewed the cap, and tipped his head back to gulp down a large mouthful. Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Thank you."

"Old sir, we're with the Demon Suppression Bureau. We've come to investigate the strange changes in the Black River. Please, tell us what you know."

At the mention of the Demon Suppression Bureau, a faint glimmer finally appeared in the old man's cloudy eyes.

He raised his head and studied them carefully. At last, his gaze settled on the Horizontal Blades at their waists.

"Ah, officials..."

The old man sighed, set his bucket on the ground, and plopped down on a rock by the river.

"It's not that I won't cooperate. There's just nothing much to say."

"Our Longyou has always been short on water. The villages along the Black River depend on it for everything."

"Half a month ago, for some reason, it started flowing backward for three days."

"After that, it flowed the right way again, but it turned into this. Every fish in the river died, and the water became fishy and foul."

"Earthquakes are common in Longyou, but for the water veins to dry up... most likely, the Dragon King is angry."

The Dragon King?

Jiang Yuechu raised an eyebrow.

The others were taken aback, too.

Liu Chen furrowed his brow. "What do you mean by that?"

The old man pointed to the yellow earth beneath his feet. "We people in the Longyou Circuit depend on the heavens for our food. But when it doesn't rain, we can only rely on the earth. The water underground is a gift from the Dragon King."

"The villages and towns nearby all offer incense to the Dragon King. We never slack off when it comes to the annual sacrifices. The weather hasn't always been perfect these past years, but we've never seen the water veins run completely dry like this."

"If it weren't for what happened a few days ago..."

He stopped halfway through, suddenly clamming up as if afraid of saying too much.

Liu Chen frowned.

This sort of thing wasn't uncommon in the Great Tang.

So-called Dragon Kings were, for the most part, demonic creatures.

The local people were ignorant and enshrined them as gods, hoping for good weather and abundant harvests.

Deep in many mountains and marshes, there were such "Mountain Gods" and "River Earls," who received the incense of the locals and protected the land and waters around them.

As long as they didn't harm people, the Demon Suppression Bureau usually turned a blind eye.

But with things as they were now...

"Before us, did a group dressed like us come by?"

Liu Chen changed the subject.

"I think... a few men did. They were dressed like officials, too. They asked a few questions, then followed the riverbank upstream."

They went upstream?

Liu Chen exchanged glances with the others. He already had a good idea what had happened.

The men from the Yellow Battalion must have discovered something and gone upstream to investigate.

"Thank you, old sir."

The old man waved them off, no longer paying them any attention.

He filled both buckets himself, looped the rope over his shoulder, then slowly walked back toward the village without looking back.

Zhao Hu watched him go and opened his mouth, seeming to want to offer a few more words of advice.

But the words reached his lips and died there.

Without thinking, he touched the water flask at his waist.

There were eight of them. They had ridden day and night from Liangzhou Prefecture, and the water they carried would only last until the mission was over.

How could they possibly spare enough for an entire village?

Liu Chen watched the old man's receding figure in silence for a long while before finally speaking.

"Let's hear it. What do you think?"

Old Wang sighed. "What else is there to think?"

"That Dragon King the old man mentioned is almost certainly the demonic creature occupying this place."

"The weather must have been good before because the people offered it enough incense. Now, something must have happened to the creature."

Zhao Hu spat.

"What kind of bullshit Dragon King? It's just a beast squatting on the water veins."

"If you ask me, we should charge in and chop its head off!"

"Chop its head off?"

Old Wang shot him a look and said irritably, "Do you know where the creature is? Do you know what realm it's at?"

"Every one of those Yellow Battalion men was good at investigating, yet now they've vanished without a trace, dead or alive. You think this is a game?"

"You..."

"That's enough."

Liu Chen cut them off with a sharp bark.

Rather than stand here making baseless guesses, they might as well follow the tracks of those who had gone before and investigate upstream.

Liu Chen drew a deep breath, determination flashing in his eyes.

"Everyone, mount up!"

The eight Crimson-Eyed Stallions turned and raced upstream along the riverbed.