The Flood Arrives

Huang Si was actually in the Earth Realm right now. He just wasn't in the Biology Department, but in the Robotics R&D Department.

He was working on a major design.

It kept him busier than any artificial intelligence, and Xiao Ke was doing everything she could to assist him.

Every day, Huang Si made large quantities of metal components and tested them one by one, scrapping any that had problems.

The Robotics R&D Department was quite far from the Biology Department, so most of the artificial intelligences had no idea Huang Si was working over here.

Besides, he wasn't using a prosthetic body.

Without one, no one could see Huang Si. Except Xiao Ke.

Once he had the basic framework in place, Huang Si called Wei Ji over.

It was Wei Ji's first time in the Robotics R&D Department. If Huang Si hadn't kept guiding him with his thoughts, he would have nearly gotten lost.

The Earth Realm was enormous, after all. It had many departments, and the artificial intelligences had never even visited most of them.

Huang Si was inside a hangar in the Robotics R&D Department. The hangar was far larger than anyone would expect.

The moment Wei Ji entered, he was stunned.

Beneath the sunlight, the shadow of a gigantic object engulfed him.

He had to crane his neck to make out the whole thing.

"Father God, what is this...?" Wei Ji asked.

"This is the romance of men." Huang Si stood beside him. "Starting today, forget the Biology Department. You're helping me here."

Wei Ji had no idea what he meant.

While Huang Si and Wei Ji busied themselves tinkering with the new device, time in the Green World continued to rush by.

The hands of fate raced forward, and soon the moment of disaster arrived.

One day, Xiao Ke sent an urgent communication.

According to global climate calculations, the flood would arrive before the century was out—in the sixty-eighth year, two years from now.

On Continent No. 1 in the Green World, summer began with a steady drizzle.

Then the rain refused to stop. Instead, it grew heavier and heavier.

There were two great rivers and three smaller ones in the Human Race's settlements.

Days of rain soon left the rivers' upper reaches unable to bear the pressure of the water, and their banks began collapsing one after another.

Of the Human Race's four great tribes, only the God Bow Tribe in the south suffered relatively little, sheltered by Fang Mountain. The rest of the region was plunged into severe flooding.

Even so, the loss of life wasn't especially high.

"Thank you, Ancestral Deities. Thank you, Moon Goddess."

Water had flooded the entire village, but most people had already escaped in the wooden boats they had prepared, reaching higher ground.

Some of the food that everyone in the village had buried earlier was stored here, and now it came in handy.

The many elders kneeling on the ground and murmuring their thanks to the gods were among them.

After rescuing the elderly and children, the able-bodied villagers had gone off to prepare supplies for surviving the disaster.

So only the elderly, children, and some frail women were on the mountain now.

"How can you call her a young lady?" A woman who looked like a shaman chuckled helplessly. "The Moon Goddess is a goddess, too. You can't address her the way you would a human."

"But the Moon Goddess feels so kind to me," an old woman said nostalgically. "If she hadn't taught us to make wooden boats, and the Ancestral Deities hadn't sent down divine instructions telling us to stockpile food, I'm afraid hardly anyone in our village would have survived."

Hearing this, a boy of about ten blurted out, "That's right! The Moon Goddess is so beautiful! No wonder she's a mighty god from the heavens. I've never seen anyone so beautiful!"

The shaman hurriedly made a gesture of prayer, then said, "You must show the gods reverence. Don't discuss their appearance."

The boy's elders quickly scolded him, then led him away.

The same thing was happening in many places across the land.

There had been plenty of warning signs before the flood. The Ancestral Deities had also repeatedly sent down divine instructions, urging people to prepare early, while various gods had descended to teach them all kinds of knowledge.

So when the flood finally came, many places had already taken precautions. Only a small number of people were swept away, and most had managed to survive for the time being.

But in some places, various circumstances had left people facing an immense crisis.

In the Human Race's settlements in the Green World, there was a small village in the Wild River Tribe.

This little village, called Li River Village, stood beside the Li River.

The Li River was a tributary of the Fu River, one of the two great rivers.

The villagers were now at the riverbank, laboring to reinforce the levee with earth and stones.

They passed basket after basket of soil up the line in woven baskets, and those above shoveled it onto the levee with stone shovels and tamped it down.

Almost everyone in the village who was still able to work was here.

They believed that only by raising the levee higher and higher could they endure the rising waters.

Mud covered everyone from head to toe. The pouring rain carved rivulets down their bodies.

They didn't dare stop. They only wiped their faces when mud got in their eyes.

"The water's risen again." Uncle Axe looked at the pole he had planted by the water earlier. "This won't do. We don't have enough hands. Has Xiao Jiu come back?"

Another man looked up the road leading into the village. "Not yet. This is so frustrating. Didn't the headman say he'd help us? If Xiao Jiu finds them, he should be able to bring people over right away!"

A woman named Sister Wood tossed her hair and wiped the muddy water from her face, then said angrily, "You're still counting on the headman? Isn't it his fault we have to build a levee here today?"

Uncle Axe's expression darkened. "You're right. The Ancestral Deities sent down divine instructions back then, telling us to stockpile food, build levees, and make boats to prepare for disaster. But the headman said there wouldn't be a flood, and even drove the shamans away."

Sister Wood shouted hoarsely, "Exactly! Now we don't even know how to make boats. I heard the other villages have them."

"Stop being angry and keep building the levee," a man said. "If we can hold back the water, we'll all survive, and we can save our homes, too."

A middle-aged man sneered. "And if we can't hold it back? Are we supposed to let all the old and young in our families die with us?"

"We should wait for the headman," Uncle Axe said. "He has people and tools. He'll surely save us."

On the road from Li River Village to the area where the headman lived, a boy named Cao Jiu was running in a hurry.

He had dark skin. His arms and legs were thin, but he ran with great strength.

Cao Jiu was only seventeen, but nimble and the fastest runner in the village.

Whenever anyone needed an errand run, they usually gave it to him.

And he always accepted with a cheerful smile.

Cao Jiu was an orphan.

His father was from the village, and his mother had fled there to escape the war.

His mother was in poor health, and she died in childbirth.

Cao Jiu was left in the grass as soon as he was born. His father was trying to save his mother and had no time to care for him.

If a woman in the village who had just given birth hadn't hurried to nurse him, Cao Jiu would have died at birth.

By the village's custom, his father named him Cao Jiu because he was the ninth child of his generation in the village.

The whole village took turns raising Cao Jiu.

When he was eight, his father died.

He was killed while fighting for the headman. Cao Jiu never even saw his father's body; no one brought it back.

After that, Cao Jiu became the child of the whole village.

But now, as he ran back, his face was full of despair.

He didn't know how to face the villagers waiting for him at the levee.

On the levee, Uncle Axe suddenly shouted, "Xiao Jiu! Xiao Jiu's back!"

Hope flared among the villagers, and they all turned to look.

But their smiles froze on their faces.

"Where's the headman? Where are his warriors? Why didn't they come with you?"

"Could it be...?"

Cao Jiu hurried up onto the levee and burst into tears.

"The headman—he took his people and ran! They took everything!"

His words struck the villagers like a bolt from the blue.

They couldn't possibly hold back this flood on their own. But the headman had warriors and all kinds of tools. If he came with them, they might be able to hold back the water and save the whole village.

He was the one who had failed to prepare for the flood. How could he abandon the entire village and flee as soon as it came?

The headman was supposed to protect this whole region. Three villages depended on him. How could he simply leave them behind?