What time is it now?
It's almost four in the morning.
After Ruixian finished answering, she turned her head away again. Zhang Leshan lowered his head and pondered:
"Lotus Maiden? At the fourth watch?"
"Was it someone arranged by Madam Song to pick you up? I got drunk at the boat shop last night, and my head is spinning like it's being stabbed with needles and swords. Rest a little longer. If He Nu comes to take you out, don't worry about me."
After Zhang Leshan finished speaking, he closed his eyes slightly, as if he was carefully sensing something. Ruixian was stunned when she heard this, then turned around to look at Zhang Leshan. She frowned and looked out the window in the direction of the shipyard. She opened her mouth, but did not say anything.
Neither of them spoke for a moment, and a slightly tense atmosphere spread through the small cabin.
After about ten minutes, Ruixian finished tidying up and stopped. It was the fourth watch of the night outside, and there was no one around. The cabin was completely quiet.
"Splash splash..."
Soon, the sound of paddling came from outside the quiet cabin. It was still dark and the riverbank was very quiet. The sound of paddling seemed close, but it actually carried quite far.
In the extremely quiet cabin Zhang Leshan listened to the sound of paddling approaching from afar, followed by the sound of a few clappers being struck. He vaguely remembered that the small boat had been moored near the shore last night.
As time went on, the sound of paddling became more and more obvious, and the sound of clappers hitting the water grew closer and closer. He suddenly felt the boat slowly rising. This rising sensation was so slight that it would be completely unnoticed if one were not paying close attention.
Ruixian listened to the approaching voice, her brows furrowed more and more, but looking at Zhang Leshan with his eyes closed, she dared not speak. For a moment, in the quiet cabin, apart from the sound of paddling and the tapping of bamboo clappers outside, there was only the sound of the two breathing.
"Splash, bang..."
The two sounds grew closer, and Zhang Leshan sensed that the small boat was rising higher and higher.
He was deep in thought:
"Lotus Maiden? At the fourth watch?"
"Huh? Why is there no sound from anyone?"
Anticipating this, Zhang Leshan suddenly opened his eyes.
"Bang bang..."
Just then, the faint sound of bamboo clappers rang out from outside the cabin, and the two people inside, who were in complete silence, suddenly gasped for breath.
Ruixian quickly got up, and Zhang Leshan also slowly got up. He gently pulled Ruixian's Ruixian and then put the embroidered shoes on her feet.
Ruixian was quite surprised to see that the official was actually putting embroidered shoes on her. She thought that in the brothel, she and the official were at most in the same boat. After all, business is business, and she knew that Zhang Leshan was likely just a passerby in her career.
However, putting shoes on a woman was a serious ethical matter in ancient society, and it was extremely rare even in brothels. Not to mention Zhang Leshan's status, which made him far superior to her.
After putting on her embroidered shoes, Ruixian got up and was about to leave the cabin when Zhang Leshan, who was sitting in the cabin, watched her back.
"My lord, Madam Song has found me a good husband. He's a merchant in the city, but he fell ill a couple of years ago. I'll be going to marry him soon."
Just as Ruixian was about to lift the curtain, she turned back to Zhang Leshan and said something out of the blue.
"Clam?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Leshan seemed to snap out of his daze. When he met Ruixian's large, bright eyes, she turned her head away.
All I remember is how her eyes were brimming with allure and Wuxian just now!
Ruixian lifted the curtain and stepped out of the cabin. Zhang Leshan, in the quiet cabin, kept a close eye on the scene after the curtain was lifted. Through Ruixian's back, he could only barely see a dim lantern outside, swaying in the wind.
"Bang bang..."
Zhang Leshan remained motionless in the cabin. The sound of the bamboo clapper rang out again, spreading across the quiet riverside. The scene so close at hand was obscured by the curtain lowered by Ruixian. A glint of light flashed in his eyes, then quickly disappeared.
After the sound faded into the distance, Zhang Leshan could no longer resist lifting the curtain. It was just before dawn outside the cabin, and a thick fog was spreading along the riverbank, making it difficult to see each other clearly even when they were close together.
Looking into the distance, one can still see the faint outline of a small awning boat, with a young woman of about sixteen standing at the bow, holding a lantern.
As Zhang Leshan focused his attention, a gust of river wind suddenly blew by, carrying with it the sound of singing. The lotus maiden was singing in a local dialect, and before Zhang Leshan could even look, the awning boat had already disappeared into the mist.
Strangely enough, just as the awning boat disappeared, the upstream river wind carried the songs from the boat, and I could faintly hear incomprehensible local dialect.
After disembarking, Zhang Leshan noticed that the small boat's waterline was damp, indicating that the boat had indeed risen slightly, a subtle sign of the morning's gentle Rising Tide.
"At the fourth watch of the night, the lotus maiden, the Rising Tide..."
Zhang Leshan sat in a chair in the backyard of the government office, muttering these words over and over. There was no one in the room, only the dim oil lamp illuminating his face.
"Splash..."
Suddenly, Zhang Leshan's eyes snapped open, a divine light emanating from them. The thick stack of local gazetteers on the table began to turn pages rapidly without any wind, before suddenly stopping on a particular page.
Zhang Leshan's gaze fell on the book that had opened automatically.
The top is completely blank!
"Haha, there's definitely something fishy going on!"
Zhang Leshan looked at the blank page in the book without getting angry; he already knew what was recorded in the book!
"The numerous rivers inside and outside Zhuzhou City ensure ample irrigation for agriculture, facilitate extensive commercial exchange, and support the service industry..."
But do rivers only bring benefits and no drawbacks? With extremely limited and primitive productive forces in ancient times, how did humans subdue the ferocious rivers?
"When I first entered the city, I saw green moss on the stone bridge. The stone bridge is three meters above the water. If it weren't constantly submerged in water, how could green moss grow on the stone?"
"The riverbank would Rising Tide unexpectedly at the fourth watch of the night, soaking even the boat lines."
"The rivers inside and outside Zhuzhou City are all flowing, and flowing rivers are uncontrolled rivers. Why does the local gazetteer only record the benefits brought by the rivers and not the flooding in Zhuzhou City?"
"With so many rivers in Zhuzhou City, flooding would surely cause great chaos. Why is there no record of this in the local chronicles?"
Xu Long's question was answered in Zhang Leshan's dream.
Indeed, the current Zhang Leshan is Xu Long. He has fully read the memories of Zhang Leshan, the official in charge of the government office, by using the function of the Dream World Fragment. Transforming into Zhang Leshan's appearance is a trivial matter for someone of his cultivation level.
With his cultivation level, even among cultivators, no one could see through his true nature; in the mortal world, he was even less afraid of having his illusion exposed.
Xu Long looked at the blank page in the local gazetteer and couldn't help but sneer. He had already found the gazetteer's record of the flooding in Zhuzhou City in Zhang Leshan's dream.
Zhang Leshan naturally found the record of Zhuzhou's past flooding in the local gazetteer, but why is there a complete blank in the gazetteer now regarding the flooding incident?
This is getting more and more interesting!
Xu Long recalled the wine cup he left in the boat shop, and the embroidered shoes he put on Ruixian on the small boat.
He is now slowly clearing up his earlier doubts, having left coordinates on both the shipyard and the small boat using his telekinetic and Power of Oblivion.
Xu Long's Power of Oblivion is unique in the world. Power of Oblivion and indestructible, and only Xu Long himself possesses this terrifying energy.
Because the energy originates from his body, it has a very close connection with him. As long as he secretly uses the Power of Oblivion to assign coordinates, he can find it no matter where he is!
This morning, he could still feel the connection between himself and the Power of Oblivion in the small boat, but after the strange sound appeared, he felt his connection with the Power of Oblivion gradually weaken.
As the awning boat disappeared into the thick fog, he could no longer even feel his connection to the Power of Oblivion!
He had secretly tried to deduce the nature of annihilation using his control over the Power of Oblivion, but his deductions were blocked by some powerful force.
A powerful force separated Xu Long from his own Power of Oblivion!
This has never happened before!
Xu Long, sitting on the chair, frowned. He now knew that something was wrong at the boat shop. Madam Song's rejection last night and Ruixian's farewell this morning, in his opinion, the biggest mystery was still the awning boat that disappeared into the thick fog!
But now that he had lost contact with the Power of Oblivion, Xu Long felt that things might not be so simple. Long before he arrived in Zhuzhou City, he had sensed the watchful eyes of those watching him in the shadows. Although he used a diversionary tactic to lure them away, the blank page in the annals of the continent made him rethink things.
Xu Long's strong intuition told him that the fifth fragment of the small world he was looking for was closely related to the awning boat, and that Ruixian's Power of Oblivion from her embroidered shoes remained on the awning boat after she boarded it.
That's why he put shoes on Ruixian!
Good heavens, men really are all scoundrels! All that talk of deep affection and disregard for hierarchy is just a pretext for ulterior motives!
After pondering for a long time, Xu Long carefully sensed the Power of Oblivion he had left behind, but it seemed to be blocked by some kind of force.
He calmed himself down. Should he simply use the Curse Speech Technique again?
Curse Speech Technique is an extreme method Xu Long uses to deduce major events; he doesn't want to use it unless absolutely necessary.
Because although the power of Curse Speech Technique deduction is so strong that, with Xu Long's cultivation level, it's practically unparalleled in this world:
A rudimentary version of "words become law"!
However, the backlash from using the Curse Speech Technique was extremely fierce. Everything has two sides; danger often coexists with opportunity. Xu Long couldn't care less about anything else at the moment; the isolated Power of Oblivion had already made him feel a faint threat.
Xu Long silently recited the incantation, forcibly deducing the location after his Power of Oblivion was isolated. The Curse Speech Technique was indeed a great supernatural power. As soon as the secret technique was used, Xu Long felt a faint pressure of the law descending on him.
He dared not stop, continuing to use the secret technique, and the laws of heaven and earth continued to operate. At this moment, he was bearing immense pressure from this world!
The oppressive force of the laws of heaven and earth was extremely terrifying to the person casting the Curse Speech Technique. Xu Long felt a agonizing pain, as if his bones were being pulled out and his marrow was being cleansed, as the terrifying operation of the laws even pressed down on his soul.
Despite the immense pain, Xu Long became even more lucid. The reason why the strong are strong is because they are always fighting—fighting against the heavens, fighting against the earth, and fighting against other people!
The relentless struggle has forged the most tenacious body and tempered the most resilient soul!
Despite the pain, Xu Long dared not stop his secret technique. Finally, after a few minutes, he once again felt the Power of Oblivion that had been blocked!
" Curse Speech Technique, Deduction!"
Xu Long took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. He stopped his secret technique, and the oppressive force between heaven and earth suddenly dissipated.
But he knew this was only temporary; such a secret technique for glimpsing heavenly secrets could not be used casually, and various signs of backlash would follow.
However, Xu Long was overjoyed. After using Curse Speech Technique to deduce the Power of Oblivion that had been blocked for a period of time, he could forcibly feel his own power again.
That Power of Oblivion is indeed indestructible and indelible!
Who dares to sever my, Xu Long's, influence?
The Power of Oblivion within him surged wildly. With the doors and windows tightly shut in the room, the oil lamp on the table suddenly flickered erratically, its flames twisting and turning, stretching Xu Long's shadow on the wall into a ghostly figure.
Xu Long's disheveled hair moved without wind, and a strange light flashed in his eyes, as if it could penetrate the backyard wall, the Zhuzhou City, and the endless wilderness and rivers.
"Found it!"
The Power of Oblivion cannot be erased!
In the next instant, Xu Long's figure vanished from the room, and the wildly flickering flames on the table suddenly returned to normal.
Instant Transmission!
In an instant, he arrived above the river. Looking at the winding river on the ground, he recalled the mysterious sounds of paddling and the tapping of bamboo clappers, as well as the folk songs that faintly appeared in his ears with the river breeze.
Most importantly, the awning boat disappeared into the thick fog!
"You can't isolate me now."
Xu Long knew that the awning boat was there to take Ruixian to bathe and cleanse herself, and that the Power of Oblivion on the embroidered shoes would remain on the awning boat as Ruixian boarded. Recalling the previously isolated Power of Oblivion, he knew it must be related to the fifth fragment!
As soon as Xu Long had this thought, his figure disappeared. He channeled the Power of Oblivion within his body, forcibly sensing the Power of Oblivion he had left behind. He had already sensed the general direction.
It's heading downstream!
As you travel downstream from Binhe, more and more rivers converge, eventually forming a mighty mass in several major rivers.
The surging river flows southward with unstoppable momentum!
As Xu Long traveled south along the river, he could already feel the intense Power of Oblivion ahead, and ahead lay the enormous lake he had passed before arriving in Zhuzhou City.
"Boom..."
The massive flow of water, carrying silt, poured into the lake. The turbid red water and the clear, emerald green lake water intertwined, creating a long buffer zone between the water and the sky. All around, there was nothing but torrents and flowing water.
From the air, Xu Long could see small covered boats moored on both sides of the lake, with dim lanterns hanging from their roofs.
At this time, only the lotus-loving women were at the bow of the awning boat, while the rowing women who had been picked up by the awning boat had already been sent back to the riverside boat shop.
Xu Long arrived at the lake and finally saw the awning boats that had made mysterious noises on the riverbank earlier. No one knew that all these small awning boats were moored in the lake.