Transforming into a Flood Dragon

Seven days later, the sky was dim. Though it was clearly noon, layer upon layer of dark clouds blanketed the heavens, while dead trees swayed unsteadily in the cold wind.

Without warning, lightning tore across the sky, followed by a muffled peal of thunder. Rain began to fall...

Yu Chen stood impassively by the Clearwater River. The Yin Windmill pinned atop his head to secure his hair slowly turned, stirring invisible currents around him and deflecting the falling rain.

As he watched the churning Clearwater River, his mind involuntarily sank into it. Snake Shamanic Script flickered without end, forging an unseen connection with the black snake a hundred li away. Together with it, he flowed downstream from the mountain lake.

The Way of water flowed without cease, nourishing all living things; thus, it possessed virtue.

Its foremost virtue was the Dao: vast and boundless, benefiting all things without contention, dwelling where others loathed to dwell. This was to possess the Dao.

Second came righteousness. Water always flowed downward, never defying its formed course. Whether square or long, it must follow principle. This was to possess righteousness.

Third was courage. A river flowed on without rest, unafraid even when plunging through a hundred-zhang mountain gorge. It gurgled on endlessly, never pausing through the changes of years and months. This was to possess courage.

Next came propriety. Water was colorless and pure, cleansing all things. It was also adept at transformation, changing with the times. This was to possess propriety.

Last was law. It settled upon uneven heights, measured what was much and what was little, and required no cutting or shaving to become straight. It permeated every crevice, like keen discernment. This was to possess law.

Thus, the Confucians said: when a gentleman encountered water, he must observe it.

Yet at that moment, Yu Chen could not see the slightest trace of water's virtue. Guided by the black snake, flash floods surged forth. Trees were ripped up by the roots wherever they passed, while vegetation and mountain rocks were easily overturned. Countless animals that had failed to flee in time were swept into the waves, following the roiling muddy torrent downstream into the Clearwater River, where it was faintly about to spill over into the fertile fields along the banks.

Sensing this, the black snake prayed silently. A snake-shaped mark appeared between Yu Chen's brows. His spirituality answered some inexplicable summons, and his mana merged with that spirituality before leaving his body and entering the black snake.

Although Yu Chen was not skilled at controlling water and had not grasped the true meaning of any Shamanic Script related to rivers, so he could not assist the black snake in manipulating the current, he wielded Snake Shamanic Script. He could help the black snake stabilize its body, suppress the roiling bloodline and violent, chaotic consciousness within it, allowing it to devote more attention to controlling the floodwaters and avoid destroying the fertile fields.

With Yu Chen's aid, the black snake brought the muddy waves rushing toward the fields back under control. Its tail lashed out, and the waves abruptly veered, rejoining the Clearwater River and battering the riverbed. Muddy water churned, sweeping away the offerings placed along both banks and leaving behind dark, fertile river silt.

For a time, cries of alarm rang out one after another from the distant high ground. Yu Chen, noticing this, stirred his thoughts. Mist rose and transformed into hazy clouds that coiled around the black snake, making its body, which occasionally broke the water's surface, appear incomparably sacred.

After a while, Yu Chen sensed wisps of Incense and Fire Prayer Power rising from the riverbank and gathering upon the black snake. At once, he knew his scheme had succeeded.

Half a month earlier, after Yu Chen had dealt with the two members of the White Lotus Sect, he had agreed to help the black snake transform into a flood dragon when it came to find him again. In return, however, he needed to leave behind a piece of Shamanic Script upon it.

The black snake, whose lifespan was nearly at its end, had not failed to notice the issue with the Shamanic Script. Yet it did not know where the problem lay, and with no time left to delay, it could only agree.

At this moment, Yu Chen was also relying on the power of the Shamanic Script to cast his own strength into the black snake's body, through a method similar to the spirit-riding and god-invoking methods recorded in the Free and Easy Treasure Scroll.

Beyond that, Yu Chen had the black snake discuss matters with the Huang Family. When the black snake unleashed the flood, the Huang Family would bring the nearby commoners to watch from the bank and worship the black snake, regarding it as the water god of the Clearwater River.

The reason for doing this was also one of Yu Chen's tests.

In the game world Yu Chen had experienced in his previous life, there had been many players who took the path of a serpent becoming a flood dragon by unleashing floods. All manner of methods had long been devised. Therefore, Yu Chen knew full well that flood dragons and serpents did not necessarily have to follow the path of calamity when unleashing floods. As the human path rose to prominence, dragons and serpents alike came to be regarded as symbols of rulers and noble figures. Moreover, the water gods of the five lakes and four seas were mostly dragonkin such as flood dragons, serpents, and carp.

Therefore, so long as serpents upheld a "kind heart" while unleashing floods, protected the fields, and received worship, they could enter the divine path even as they unleashed the flood, borrowing the power of that path to molt into flood dragons.

Now that part of his mind and power had merged into the black snake's body, Yu Chen could clearly feel the wisps of Incense and Fire Prayer Power gathering from the riverbank, continuously driving the black snake's bloodline transformation amid the flood.

Moreover, unlike the insights and understanding of water, flooding, and the path of a serpent transforming into a flood dragon that had arisen when the black snake previously controlled the flood, new realizations also surfaced within Yu Chen's heart.

Having vaguely touched upon some of the mysteries of water's five virtues, Yu Chen gained new insights into Snake Shamanic Script as well, even comprehending certain concepts that transcended the serpent itself.

Those two from the White Lotus Sect really were good people! As he felt the black snake's unceasing transformation, Yu Chen felt a slight measure of gratitude toward those two White Lotus Sect disciples, whose corpses had vanished who knew where.

The specific information regarding a flood dragon serpent's Spirit Transformation, along with the corresponding ritual, had all been provided by those two cultivators. They had even completed the preliminary preparations, leaving Yu Chen only to fill in the gaps. He hardly needed to do anything more.

As for the thoughts of the Huang Family, they were even simpler. As the local landowners, they were not themselves followers of the White Lotus Sect. Furthermore, during the time the man in green and the old man had "parasitized" the Huang Family, they had done quite a few things that disgusted the family so deeply that they wished to have the two torn apart by five horses.

Under such circumstances, unless the Huang Family intended to throw in their lot with the White Lotus Sect entirely, worshipping a water god for mutual benefit was their best choice.

Thus, when the black snake unleashed the flood, although the Huang Family had a poor impression of Yu Chen, a cultivator, and the black snake, an aberrant creature, due to the White Lotus Sect, they still gathered the nearby commoners at the bank to offer incense.

At first, these commoners had gathered only out of respect for the Huang Family.

But once they saw that a mountain flood had truly appeared, every one of them was scared out of their wits. Then, after they saw the river water that had originally been rushing straight toward the fields suddenly change course, leaving the fertile land untouched and merely carrying away the offerings while depositing fertile river silt, their praises and prayers could no longer be stopped.

"Lord River God above, please bless my family with peace and safety this year, free from disaster and calamity."

"Lord Dragon King, please bless my family with a bountiful harvest this year! Better yet, let my boy marry a wife this year!"

Seeing this, the farmers and commoners fell to their knees one after another, praising the black snake with utmost devotion and regarding it as a great deity that protected both banks and brought bountiful harvests. Their actions stirred resonance among those around them. More and more people joined their ranks, and purer, more abundant prayer power flowed into the black snake's body.

A faint yet sacred radiance of prayer power spread through the black snake's blood vessels and meridians into its heart, continuously stimulating its pulse. Wave after wave of blood flowed out, wave after wave flowed in! Every beat of its heart drove the prayer power to merge with its blood, dyeing that blood with a trace of holy brilliance.

The sublimation of its blood brought changes to the black snake's exterior. Sacred patterns gradually emerged upon its dark scales. These patterns became new channels, carrying prayer power toward the black snake's "seven-inch" point and dyeing a patch of dark scales there pale gold. The patterns on those scales continued to reverse as they grew, their direction exactly opposite to that of the surrounding scales.

Once the dragon scale formed, dragon nature was born. The black snake's transformation into a flood dragon was more than halfway complete. It raised its head and let out a long cry. Waves churned as prayer power, drawn by the call, steamed upward and transformed into layer upon layer of radiance that gathered around its body.