In the Clear River stretch of the Azure Waves River, Xuanming considered the river Divine's request for a moment, then agreed.
The Previous River God had died protecting the people, a worthy death. Whether out of sympathy or principle, Xuanming could not stand idly by. He ought to help them complete the final stretch of their journey.
Several years earlier, a Flood Dragon had swept through the waterways. To protect the people on both banks, the Previous River God had exhausted his divine body, perishing along with his cultivation.
He had given his life to deliver the people from calamity, facing death as though simply returning home.
Yet before overwhelming power, his sacrifice had accomplished nothing. The river Divine had held out for only a moment before dying horribly at the Flood Dragon's hands. After his death, his resentment had soared to the heavens and lingered, refusing to disperse. The remnant thoughts of his many subordinate divines and the resentment of the cultivators who had helped fight the dragon had likewise proved difficult to dispel.
After the flood, the various Daoist lineages had held several blessing assemblies to deliver the resentful spirits and dissolve their Resentment. Their efforts had achieved widespread results, but they had delivered only the majority of the dead.
A small number of spirits remained entangled in Resentment, wailing all day, unable to find release. The Previous River God suffered most of all. His Resentment clung like maggots burrowing into bone, impossible to wear away or eradicate completely. It erupted once every year, its inky darkness polluting part of the river and leaving the Clear River's aquatic creatures in unspeakable misery. It was not fatal, but it certainly tormented them!
Even when a Saint Embryo Realm Daoist cultivator from the Purple Dawn Sect personally held a Grand