Experiment

For Yin Yunze, praying for rain and praying for water were two entirely different things.

The former was a problem even modern technology couldn't solve, while the latter was something Yin Yunze might already be able to do.

"Lord Fox Immortal, you really..."

Looking at the basin of clear, hot water, Sun Qin showed a trace of reverence.

In Sun Qin's eyes, Yin Yunze conjuring up this basin of clean water meant more than providing some food.

Only after experiencing a drought firsthand could one understand just how important the water once found everywhere really was.

Food could only stave off hunger for a while; a water source was the key to getting the entire village through this crisis.

"Lord Fox Immortal, do you really know the Dragon Lord!?"

Zhao Wan also asked excitedly.

"Of course. I even had a dragon serve me once!"

As he spouted nonsense off the top of his head, Yin Yunze thought to himself that he'd been stubbornly chasing the wrong idea.

After inexplicably becoming this fox immortal, Yin Yunze had actually started thinking of himself as an immortal, even spending a whole day seriously pondering how to summon wind and rain.

Now that he'd come to his senses, Yin Yunze felt as though the clouds had suddenly parted.

The point had never been summoning wind and rain. It was water!

Compared with summoning wind and rain, providing water was unquestionably far, far easier.

As for where the water would come from, Yin Yunze already had a place in mind.

The water source closest to Yin Yunze was, of course, not the tap water in his home!

Yin Yunze didn't know exactly how much water it would take to irrigate an entire village's farmland.

But even at a low estimate, it would take at least dozens of tons of water, right?

Drawing those tons of water straight from the tap, the water bill was only a secondary concern.

The main issue was that such an unusual amount would be far too likely to give people the wrong idea.

Instead, there was a sizable lake a few kilometers from Yin Yunze's home and only a few hundred meters from the company where he worked.

A few tons of water drawn from the lake probably wouldn't be noticed.

Having come up with this preliminary solution, Yin Yunze temporarily returned to reality and set out to test the idea's feasibility on site.

Yin Yunze scanned a shared bicycle and rode it to the shore of the lake.

Under the cover of night, the still, deep surface of the lake looked rather eerie.

After coming into contact with another world and becoming a fox immortal, Yin Yunze was genuinely a little worried that some water ghost might suddenly emerge from the lake.

But he was already here, and he had work tomorrow, so Yin Yunze could only conduct the experiment at night.

So after parking the shared bicycle, Yin Yunze went down to the water's edge.

Yin Yunze passed this lake every day on his way to work, and it had looked fairly clear then.

Now that he was taking a closer look, there didn't seem to be any strange smell either.

Perhaps because it had rained recently, the lake was quite full.

Sitting down by the lake, Yin Yunze dipped his hand into the water, then shifted his attention to that other world.

At that moment, Sun Qin and Zhao Wan, mother and daughter, were still gathered around the large basin of bathwater that had already been left to cool, feeling conflicted.

For the mother and daughter, who had endured more than half a year of drought, using such a large basin of water for a bath felt a little too wasteful, even though Yin Yunze had assured them there would be an ample water supply.

Yin Yunze couldn't be bothered to say much about it.

As a modern person, it was perfectly normal for his ideas to clash with those of people from ancient times. There was no need to force them to do as he wanted over such a trivial matter.

"Wan'er, pray to me."

This time, Yin Yunze didn't have Zhao Wan pray directly for water. He wanted to see what would happen if she didn't specify what she was asking for.

Although he felt it might work, Yin Yunze wasn't confident that he could actually send the lake water over.

The three daily meals before this had either been paid for by Yin Yunze or made by him; essentially, they had all belonged to him.

But whether the lake water could be considered a resource Yin Yunze had at his disposal was a complete question mark.

"Pray for what?"

Unsurprisingly, Zhao Wan was a little confused by Yin Yunze's request.

Yin Yunze patiently explained it to her in detail. "Just ask me to grant you something. You don't need to have anything specific in mind. Simply hold the thought of asking me to grant you something."

But after explaining, Yin Yunze realized it still seemed a little abstract.

Zhao Wan, however, seemed to understand. She nodded, knelt, and prayed, "Please grant me a gift, Lord Fox Immortal!"

Sensing Zhao Wan's prayer once again, Yin Yunze really couldn't sense any specific need this time.

Moreover, this kind of prayer with no specific object seemed easier to refuse than one directed at something particular.

But since this was a test, Yin Yunze naturally wouldn't refuse. He began trying to channel the lake water into that world.

The whole process turned out to be unexpectedly simple, though the way it actually worked also took Yin Yunze by surprise.

It wasn't like the previous times he'd granted food, when he had directly transported the whole thing—or part of it-over.

This time, it was as though Yin Yunze served as a medium, establishing a water channel like a pipe between the lake and Zhao Wan.

Then, through this water pipe, the water flowed into that world.

Most importantly, the whole process didn't consume much power of incense offerings.

"Ah!"

But because it was his first time and he hadn't adjusted it properly, the lake water appeared directly in front of Zhao Wan and drenched her to the bone.

After a startled cry, Zhao Wan stopped praying, and the water channel stopped along with her.

Once Zhao Wan stopped praying, the water pipe created by the prayer ritual instantly broke apart.

Because of this accident, Yin Yunze understood that this kind of continuous granting would automatically stop as soon as the prayer stopped.

"Lord Fox Immortal, what are you...?"

Looking at the soaking-wet Zhao Wan, her mother Sun Qin wasn't angry. Instead, after looking her over, she turned to Yin Yunze with a strange light in her eyes.

"It's just a minor water-moving technique..."

Hearing Sun Qin's question, Yin Yunze was pleased, but pretended to speak casually. "I just discussed it with the Dragon Lord. Making clouds and bringing rain would cause too much of a stir. Since all you need is a water source, why not just move the water directly?"

To maintain his persona as a god, Yin Yunze could only find a way to make his words hold up once he'd said them.

He'd said he had a connection to the Dragon Lord, so unless some true expert came to call him to account, the nine-tailed fox of Qingqiu, Qingqiu Yiren, had a connection to the Dragon Lord!

The moment he finished speaking, Yin Yunze sensed an immediate increase in the amount of incense of faith flowing from Sun Qin and Zhao Wan.

"It's just that I'm not very familiar with this method of moving water yet. Come outside the temple and help me test it a little more, you two."

Though he was only a half-baked fox immortal, Yin Yunze didn't want to be half-baked about something that could cost a god his life.

Having finally found a way out of the predicament, Yin Yunze naturally wanted to experiment more.

But after Sun Qin and her daughter left the dilapidated temple, Yin Yunze discovered that he couldn't leave it.

Only when Sun Qin and Zhao Wan began to pray could he sense where they were.

Fortunately, Yin Yunze was still able to grant things even after the mother and daughter left the temple.

Even outside the temple, Yin Yunze could still open a water channel through their connection of incense of faith.

After repeated trials, Yin Yunze gained a general understanding of this method of moving water.

First, by making adjustments, Yin Yunze could increase or decrease the channel's volume.

But the larger he made the channel, the more power of incense offerings it consumed.

Once its volume exceeded what the incense of faith provided by the person praying could support, Yin Yunze would have to draw on his own reserves.

Throughout the entire process, the person praying also had to remain in a state of prayer.

Of course, being in a state of prayer didn't mean they couldn't move and had to remain kneeling. They only needed to keep the thought of asking Yin Yunze for a gift in their mind.

But this was also the most crucial part: once that thought was broken, the prayer ritual would end, and the water channel would break off.

Of course, Yin Yunze could also choose to keep it open.

But in that case, the process would change from a believer's request to a gift granted by Yin Yunze of his own accord, consuming his own power of incense offerings.

After spending most of the night at it and repeatedly verifying that his idea really did work, Yin Yunze finally went home and slept soundly.