Chapter 2

Then, beneath the curtain of rain filling the sky, the black ugly fish's eyes saw a deity in the night, like stars and a bright moon.

Its deity!

"Eee!"

"Eee eee—!!"

Oh, the river deity it revered and yearned for!

Above the river, the deity looked at this last surviving spirit of the river and sighed softly before slowly descending.

When he landed upon this ugly stretch of dried riverbed, the deity's divine robes vanished. His ice-blue hair shortened and turned black, and even those deep azure eyes grew a few shades darker, concealing their soul-stealing beauty.

At last—

The deity awakened and descended into the mortal world.

Then the young man in black hair and plain clothes bent down and picked up the black ugly fish that was excitedly flopping all over the ground.

"...Reduced to this state."

Tsk.

Author's Note:

Shui Wuyuan: You think I'm mocking all humanity? No, I'm mocking a certain River God.

He Qinglan: Hmph!

Later.

Shui Wuyuan: My wife is the most beautiful! Out of a whole river of hundreds, I'm the ugliest one!!!

He Qinglan extended two fingers and lifted up the last river-born spirit in this stretch of river.

With some distaste, he glanced at the mottled scales and mud-covered body of the black ugly fish. His fingers moved slightly, and a trickling current flowed from his palm, beginning to wash and mend the black ugly fish's entire body.

Then, visibly to the naked eye, the black ugly fish that had looked like a dead fish in Shui Wuyuan's Weibo began a magnificent transformation—

Fresh, crystalline scales grew back over its body. Its fish eyes, nourished by spiritual water, became moist and lively. Even its broken fins and tail fin were coated in a lustrous watery sheen, turning as beautiful as fine black translucent satin.

Though it was still a black carp, this Black Carp now had absolutely nothing to do with the word "ugly." It looked gorgeous and mysterious, vastly more refined, grand, and high-class. If measured by price, it had probably gone from being practically thrown in for fifty cents to a premium fish worth at least a hundred yuan per jin.

"Eee eee eee!!!" River God! Lord River God!

He Qinglan's mouth twitched as he listened to the Black Carp's strange cries. His palm, which had been supporting the carp from below, flipped downward, and the water in his hand automatically swirled together into a spherical shape. It enclosed the Black Carp in water, like a little round fish tank—except it came with its own hovering function.

"Enough. Stop eeeing at me here." Only after saving the fish spirit did He Qinglan raise his eyes to carefully examine the "Qinglan River" before him. Then he beckoned, and the fragments of the blue pearl that had shattered earlier flew into his palm.

The Source Spring Spirit Pearl.

Before He Qinglan entered his slumber, he had condensed this spirit pearl from his own Divine Power in order to stabilize the river. In the regions of the Qinglan River where the spirit pearls lay, both the creatures in the river and the plants along its banks would be nourished by them. Those living things and plants would then feed their vigorous vitality back into the river, forming an excellent virtuous cycle that allowed it to flow on and on for ages.

He had condensed six such Source Spring Spirit Pearls throughout the entire Qinglan River, placing them in different river regions. It could be said that unless some immense natural or man-made disaster occurred, the Qinglan River would surely flow without cease for tens of millions of years, its waters surging onward.

Yet he had awakened.

The young man in white lowered his exquisite eyes. In less than a thousand years, he had been forcibly roused, only to wake and see his source river riddled with wounds and holes.

This stretch of river belonged to the lower reaches of the Qinglan River. After passing through several more cities, it would merge into the sea. Yet now, the waters here had dried up, the riverbed had broken apart, and the spirit pearl had shattered.

And this was not even the first Qinglan River spirit pearl to break. He had ridden the waves all the way from the snow mountain source. Apart from the Source Spring Spirit Pearl in the uppermost reaches of the Qinglan River, which remained completely intact, three of the five Source Spring Spirit Pearls beyond the middle reaches had shattered, one had turned pitch-black, and one had vanished without a trace.

Of six, five were gone.

That was why He Qinglan had been jolted awake from his slumber—and then nearly fainted from sheer fury and shock.

His river!

His Huazhou's most beautiful Qinglan River!!

His river of life, praised by countless scholars and poets throughout all of history!!!

Had become what it was now: three stretches of severe broken flow, two places of extreme pollution, and one place where the spiritual field was so chaotic it made the River God's heart ache beyond measure.

The handsome River God, who loved beauty as much as he possessed it, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, struggling to restrain the urge to sweep everything away with towering waves. Yet what entered his nostrils was no longer the sweet, moist air by the waterside of old. The rotten stench of all kinds of garbage piled together nearly sent Lord River God off in one wave.

He Qinglan: "..."

Damn it! All humans, those world-polluting creatures, should be drowned.

On the first night after awakening, Lord River God had already been angered into swearing.

However, no matter how much he cursed inwardly, no matter how much he wanted to wash away this entire city with river water, Lord River God ultimately did not flood Bicheng.

Not only because humanity was now the dominant lifeform in this world, tied to the fate and future of the whole world, and casually wiping out an entire area might very well invite heavenly tribulation. More importantly, the Age of Declining Dharma had not yet passed. Though there were signs of a Spiritual Energy Revival, the spiritual energy in this world was still sparse, at least for now.

Sparse spiritual energy meant that his power was not quite sufficient either.

He had already lost five Source Spring Spirit Pearls, and the Qinglan River had nearly been ruined as well. Lord River God had to use every shred of his Divine Power sparingly. At the very least, before the Qinglan River itself was restored and his strength had fully recovered, he could not casually drown all humanity.

He Qinglan: "..."

So he would put it on the tab for now.

After all, when a River God took revenge, a thousand years was not too late.

He Qinglan sighed again and poured the River God's power within him into the shattered Source Spring Spirit Pearl.

Amid the Black Carp's joyful eeeing, the fragments of the Source Spring Spirit Pearl that had broken apart due to the river's severed flow began to fuse together on their own. Only once it had become a crystalline ice-blue spirit pearl again did they stop.

However, this Source Spring Spirit Pearl had not been fully restored. Tiny spiderweb cracks still densely covered it, making it look exactly like a fragile work of art on the verge of shattering.