Page 49

[Brother Shan liked hiking in the wild and calling on everyone to protect the plants and animals in the mountains, not to chop down trees indiscriminately. Our Immortal Pretty Boy called on everyone to protect rivers and stop littering.]

[The moment you put it that way, I suddenly understood. So they followed each other because they were both... environmentalists?]

[I'm dying, Boss Water lost because his goal was too lofty! This just goes to show that money really isn't omnipotent, hahahaha!]

Boss Water, who had rarely been laughed at online, could not laugh at all right now.

His gray eyes were fixed dead on the number one among He Qinglan's followers. He did not blink for a full five minutes.

And during those five minutes, that one never became two. His name never appeared among Down-and-out Lanlan's followers.

"Hehe."

Boss Water gave two cold laughs and directly unfollowed River's Clear Ripple.

Then he turned and walked into his luxurious dressing room. From among hundreds of expensive outfits, he selected the most splendid, dazzling silver suit studded with tiny diamonds, then put on a limited-edition watch worth tens of millions, a custom-made tie clip, and finally handmade leather shoes. After draping an eight-figure fortune over himself, the Rain God looked at his expensive, domineering reflection—down to every strand of hair—and sneered.

"Defeated opponent, down-and-out empty mountain, and you dare compete with me for followers?"

Mountain Shaman, who was using the power of the earth to perform Earth Escape, suddenly shuddered all over, seized by an inexplicably bad feeling.

And that bad feeling unfortunately came true when he reached the Qinglan River—

The sun had clearly set, and it was already past nine at night, yet before the Crystal House by the river stood a terrifying being glowing so brightly he could blind people's eyes!

But that was not even the most terrifying part. The most terrifying part was that this guy had the arrogant face of the Rain God. He stood before the Crystal House's door like a gate guardian, blocking Mountain Shaman's path to seeing his friend.

"Well, if it isn't Mountain God Shaman?" Shui Wuyuan stood by the door with his arms folded across his chest. "Long time no see. You look even more shabby than before."

"Did you come here to acknowledge me as your boss?"

Shui Wuyuan looked rather wickedly at the Wushan Mountain God. "I remember someone saying that after I beat him flat, the next time he saw me, he'd call me boss."

"Yet when I passed by to find him next time, he had gone to sleep."

"Originally, I thought there probably wouldn't be another chance to meet. After all, he was only a defeated opponent. There was no need to pay him too much attention."

"But now that we're here and we've met, you might as well fulfill that earlier promise."

"If your memory is so bad that you've forgotten what happened before, I can fight you right now and help you recall those days. How about it?"

Mountain Shaman: "..."

Just what kind of rotten luck had he run into today, to bump straight into this grown-up little bastard with a black heart and cruel hands?!

And his old friend was even leaning by the window, watching the entire scene with wide dark-blue eyes... His embarrassing old history could no longer be hidden.

He Qinglan lay by the window in silence.

He was beginning to doubt the conversation he had just heard.

What defeated opponent? What calling him boss next time? How did he not know about such a thing?!

In the end, the Mountain God was not foolish enough to fight the Rain God when he knew full well that he was no match for him.

But he was just as stubbornly determined not to open his mouth and call Shui Wuyuan boss.

What kind of joke was that? By calculation, he was two thousand years older than this brat. Even though Shui Wuyuan had grown stronger and stronger with every battle until his strength surpassed Mountain Shaman's, before that, Mountain Shaman had beaten this brat several times and even shown mercy!

So calling Shui Wuyuan boss was impossible—impossible in this lifetime. Even when dark clouds floated conspicuously over his head and ice pellets and rain pelted down on him together, Lord Mountain Shaman remained as unmoving as a mountain!!

And after listening to Shui Wuyuan's bragging, He Qinglan finally understood what Mountain, Wind, and Thunderclap had concealed from him back then—

After he had been the first to seal away his power and beat Shui Wuyuan senseless, the other gods had stopped indulging Shui Wuyuan too. One after another, they knocked him flat.

But this brat was ruthless and resilient. No matter how often he was beaten down, he neither cried nor made a fuss. He simply trained desperately, then continued challenging gods to spar. Later, he fought his way back through them one by one, from the weakest to the strongest.

And before He Qinglan and the others went to sleep, Shui Wuyuan had already fought his way up to Mountain Shaman, Earthfire, and Thunderclap, who ranked among the top ten in strength.

He had been on the verge of reaching the peak, yet when Shui Wuyuan emerged from seclusion, every one of the top ten gods in strength—including Mountain Shaman—had gone to sleep.

It would have been stranger if Shui Wuyuan had not been driven mad with anger.

What Mountain Shaman, Earthfire, and Thunderclap had concealed from He Qinglan was the matter of being beaten back by Shui Wuyuan afterward, then forced to call Shui Wuyuan boss.

How humiliating would that have been for gods if it got out! Of course they had to hide it from He Qinglan, whose strength had been overwhelming back then and who had faintly stood alongside Deep Earth as number one.

Unfortunately, that dark history the three gods had hidden for thousands of years was still dug up thousands of years later.

This showed that if one wished others not to know, one had best do nothing oneself. It worked on gods too.

And for Shui Wuyuan, this was probably the finest demonstration of "when the Rain God slaps your face, a thousand years is not too late."

He Qinglan looked at the rain still falling over Mountain Shaman's head and finally could not bear it. "Enough for appearances' sake... Don't be so petty."

Shui Wuyuan instantly rolled his eyes upward. "I'm not human."

He Qinglan: "...Then do you want me to say you're really a dog?"

Shui Wuyuan: "...Hmph."

In the end, the Rain God gave Down-and-out Lanlan some face and stopped the rain.

Yet Mountain Shaman did not relax just because the dark clouds over his head had dispersed. Instead, he walked to He Qinglan's side even more warily, eyeing Shui Wuyuan as though he were a scheming weasel.

"Why are you suddenly being so obedient? Are you holding back some bad trick, planning to bully River?! As long as I'm here, you should give up on that idea! River will not—"

Splash, splash.

The little dark cloud gathered again.