Rain Prayer

Yes, they had already prayed several times, yet not a single drop of rain had fallen. Could this time truly succeed and make Heaven send down life-saving rain?

It was not only the children whose eyes had dried up from weeping. Their mothers, too, slightly raised their heads at this moment, gazing at the still-clear sky with despair growing in their hearts.

As the sun climbed higher and higher, the heat became ever more unbearable.

There was not a shred of shade here. Kneeling like this, no one could endure it for long.

And the first to fail were some of the elderly.

"Father, Father!" Seeing his old father's body tilt before he collapsed to the ground, the young couple beside him immediately cried out.

"Why aren't you helping your old man over there?" Someone swallowed helplessly. Though he was so thirsty that he truly did not want to speak, seeing how foolish and slow-witted this family's son and daughter-in-law were, he could only remind them.

Watching the man be dragged away with a trace of envy but even greater despair, the speaker continued to sit blankly where he was, enduring the blazing sun as he knelt toward the altar and prayed.

"Merciful Dragon God, please, open Your eyes and look upon us common folk! The sky will not rain, the earth has dried up, the crops have withered, and we have no way to live! If You are truly divine, please show mercy and send down a rainstorm!"

"No, I can still do it. I can still pray for rain!" The elderly man dragged into the shade woke after a moment. Opening his eyes and discovering that he had been taken far from the altar, he hurriedly scrambled up in panic, staggering and crawling back toward the crowd.

It