Chapter 2

Then, amid the curtain of rain, the ugly black fish saw a god in the night, radiant as stars and the moon.

Its god!

"Ying!"

"Ying ying—!!"

Oh, god of the river it revered and longed for!

The god hovered above the river, looked at the last river spirit, sighed softly, and slowly descended.

When he landed in this ugly, dried-up stretch of river, his divine robes vanished. His icy blue hair shortened and turned black, while even his azure eyes deepened slightly, concealing their soul-stealing beauty.

At last—

The god awakened and descended into the mortal world.

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

"...Reduced to this, huh."

Tsk.

Author's Note:

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

He Qinglan: Heh!

Later.

Shui Wuyuan: My wife is the prettiest! Out of over a hundred mouths in one river, I'm the ugliest!!!

Chapter 2

He Qinglan held up the last river spirit in this stretch of river between two fingers.

With a somewhat disdainful glance at the Black Carp's mottled scales and mud-covered body, he moved his fingers slightly. A trickling current flowed from his palm, beginning to wash and mend the Black Carp's entire body.

Then, visibly, the Black Carp that had looked like a dead fish on Shui Wuyuan's Weibo began a magnificent transformation—

Translucent new scales regrew across its body. Its fish eyes, nourished by spirit water, became moist and lively. Even its broken fins and tail fin were covered in a lustrous sheen of water, becoming as beautiful as fine black translucent satin.

It was still a black carp, but this Black Carp now had absolutely nothing to do with the word "ugly." It looked gorgeous, mysterious, refined, and far more impressive. If measured by price, it had gone from being practically given away for fifty cents to a premium fish worth at least a hundred yuan per jin.

"Ying ying ying!!!" River God! Lord River God!

He Qinglan's mouth twitched at the Black Carp's strange cries. He flipped the palm that had been supporting the carp downward, and the water in his hand automatically swirled together into a spherical shape, enclosing the Black Carp in water like a little round fishbowl. It just happened to float on its own.

"Enough. Stop ying-ying-ing at me here." Only after saving the fish spirit did He Qinglan raise his eyes and carefully examine the Qinglan River before him. Then, with a beckoning gesture, fragments of the blue pearl that had shattered earlier flew into his palm.

The Source Spring Spirit Pearl.

Before entering slumber, He Qinglan had condensed this spirit pearl from his own Divine Power to stabilize the river. Wherever a Source Spring Spirit Pearl was located along the Qinglan River, both the creatures in the river and the grass and trees along its banks would be nourished by it. Those living things would then return their abundant vitality to the river, creating an excellent virtuous cycle and allowing the river to flow on for ages.

He had condensed six such Source Spring Spirit Pearls throughout the Qinglan River and placed them in different sections. It could be said that so long as no great natural disaster or calamity struck, the Qinglan River would surely surge unceasingly for millions of years.

Yet he had awakened.

The young man in white lowered his exquisite eyes. In less than a thousand years, he had been forcibly awakened, only to find his own source river riddled with holes and scars.

This stretch of river belonged to the lower reaches of the Qinglan River. After passing through several more cities, it would flow into the sea. Yet now, the water 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 snowy mountain source. Apart from the Source Spring Spirit Pearl in the uppermost reaches, which remained 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.

Five out of six were gone.

That was why He Qinglan had been jolted awake from his slumber and had nearly fainted from overwhelming fury.

His river!

His Huazhou's most beautiful Qinglan River!!

His river of life, praised by countless scholars and poets throughout the ages!!!

Had become what it was now: three great breaks in its flow, two areas of extreme pollution, and one stretch whose spirit field was so chaotic it broke the River God's heart.

The handsome River God, who also loved beauty, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, striving to suppress the urge to sweep everything away with towering waves. But the air that entered his nose was no longer the sweet, moist air once found by the water's edge. The stench of all kinds of piled-up garbage nearly sent the River God straight to the afterlife.

He Qinglan: "..."

Damn it! Humanity, these world-polluting creatures, should all drown.

On the first night after his awakening, the River God was already so angry that he had learned to swear.

Yet no matter how fiercely he cursed in his heart, no matter how badly he wanted to wash away the entire city with river water, the River God ultimately did not flood Bicheng.

Not only because humans were currently the dominant lifeforms of this world, tied to the world's fortune and future, and wiping out an entire area at will might bring down heavenly punishment. More importantly, the Age of Declining Dharma had not yet passed. Though there were signs of Spiritual Energy Revival, spiritual energy in this world was still sparse, at least for now.

Sparse spiritual energy meant his strength was also insufficient.

He had already lost five Source Spring Spirit Pearls, and the Qinglan River had been ruined to the point of nearly disappearing. The River God had to conserve every bit of his Divine Power. At least until he restored the Qinglan River itself and fully recovered his strength, he could not casually flood all humanity.

He Qinglan: "..."

So, he would put it on the tab for now.

After all, it was never too late for a River God to take revenge, even after a thousand years.

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

Amid the Black Carp's joyful ying-ying cries, the fragments of the Source Spring Spirit Pearl that had shattered when the river ran dry began to fuse together on their own. They stopped only after reforming into a translucent ice-blue spirit pearl.

However, this Source Spring Spirit Pearl had not completely recovered. Fine spiderweb-like cracks still densely covered its surface, making it resemble a fragile work of art on the verge of breaking.