Abyssal Rain Season

"Rumble, rumble."

"Whoosh..."

The long-brewing Abyssal Rain had finally arrived, marking the onset of the Abyssal Rain Season and ending the drought that had lasted three full years. The Abyssal Rain would fall without cease for an entire week. As for the weather after that week, well, that depended on what mood the great Abyss was in.

Usually, it was three years of drought followed by a week-long rainy season, then another three years of drought. But in Er Dongsheng's memories, there were sometimes several months of bone-chilling cold mixed in, with snowfall and the like, just to change the atmosphere...

When Er Dongsheng had first arrived in this body, the rainy season had already ended. With the original owner's intelligence, storing water resources had never even crossed his mind. He had muddled through more than a decade like that. To that guy, having water or not made no difference. But Er Dongsheng had suffered for it, enduring three whole years without water.

Although most demons barely needed water, especially Abyssal Species like him, who could get enough moisture from ordinary food, the problem was that he had a human soul. He wanted meat soup. He wanted bone broth. More than anything, he wanted soup made from unknown bird eggs. But ahhh, he simply had no water.

He wanted even more to take a bath. Though he had discovered long ago that the dusty gray scales covering his body had incredibly powerful self-cleaning abilities and did not need washing at all, he still wanted a bath.

Unfortunately, over the past three years, he had gone out searching for water sources. But limited by his strength, he had not dared venture too far. Using his cave as the center, he had traveled twelve or thirteen days in each of the four directions, yet still failed to find the legendary lakes or rivers. Left with no choice, he had given up and returned to the cave, planning to continue exploring once he grew strong enough.

Standing not far from the cave entrance, drenched from head to toe by the rain, he held a small wooden basin in his hands, while a stone feeding bowl sat at his feet. Calling them a wooden basin and a stone basin was generous—they were merely large chunks of wood and stone hollowed out in the middle.

The wooden basin was for collecting a little rainwater to satisfy his craving, for drinking and making soup. The stone basin was for collecting water to bring back, boil, and soak in for a hot bath.

"Glug, glug." After gulping down several large mouthfuls, the thirst born of long-term water deprivation vanished without a trace.

This was bliss. Every inch of his body trembled with exhilaration. You never cherished something until you lost it—three whole years. No, it should have been more than a decade, counting the memories of this body. He had not drunk water this freely in over ten years.

Speaking of age, Abyssal Species, whether ordinary creatures or Abyssal Species, were all long-lived races. So long as no outside force intervened, living several thousand years was perfectly normal. In any case, the Abyss had seen all manner of deaths, but never one from simple old age.

There was once a legend in the Abyss. Long, long ago, a great Demon Lord led a vast horde of demons and Abyssal Species into the Sunlight Plane. There, they encountered a creature called a god, said to wield the laws of time. After slaughtering countless demons, this formidable fellow sacrificed most of his lifespan and cast a spell called Time Prison at the Demon Lord. Supposedly, any creature imprisoned within would rapidly lose the remainder of its life.

And then... then there was no then. All anyone knew was that the Demon Lord stared at the fellow in astonishment and asked, "What were you doing just now? Mutilating yourself?"

The god coughed blood and died.

Though that might have been a joke, the extraordinarily long lives of Abyssal creatures were an undeniable fact.

By that logic, the teenage Er Dongsheng was merely a newborn little fellow.

The powerful demons of the Abyss were solitary creatures, and even the young ones were no exception. Er Dongsheng was one such demon. According to his memories, he had lived alone for nearly all of the past decade or so, so he had no way of knowing what the outside world was like.

Finding it too troublesome to heat the water, Er Dongsheng simply carried the stone basin beside the fire, leaned against the flames, and lay down in it. He did not know why, but he always felt that he somewhat liked fire and disliked water.

"Probably because I haven't seen water in so long!"

He soaked contentedly in the water. The current brushed over his body, soft and silky, like a maiden's hand gently caressing him. The faint disgust he had felt earlier was instantly thrown to the back of his mind.

"Fucking comfortable. Now this is living!"