Chapter 1270

"The full moon climbs the slope, the old crow laughs, at the third watch, we boil wine and pour it on the beach.

The old crow brings a red bridal veil, a paper sedan chair, a rotten fishing net, eighteen poles inserted at the whirlpool mouth.

A red bowl holds rouge, the crying marriage song is sung backwards—

The River Earl lifts the red silk, fish carry the sedan chair, the bride catches her breath under the water—"

On the dirt road, the gray-haired shaman with disheveled hair wore a coir raincoat, spinning a rattle-drum, chanting and dancing. The brown dry reeds on the coir raincoat were layered and rising and falling, like feathers, as if he were the old crow spreading its wings in his mouth.

In late May, the sun was scorching, baking the land until it was hot, yellow, and sandy. Ants were moving house, orange and bright.

The thirteen-year-old girl had sweat on her forehead, put on new red clothes, sat in a new bamboo sedan chair, and covered herself with a fishy-smelling fishing net.

Four strong men grabbed the green bamboo poles, gave a shout, and carried them on their shoulders. Amidst the gongs and drums, the bamboo sedan chair bounced as they rushed toward the yellow sand.

The team had about a thousand people, including old people, children, and young people, moving forward majestically. They had already walked thirty miles, and the big river was close at hand. Many old people were sweating profusely, hearing the faint sound of water in their ears and the humid air, gritting their teeth to persist.

"Don't cry, don't cry, don't be sad, don't be sad. Marrying the River God, your girl is going to enjoy happiness! When you go home tonight, wait until next spring, and the River God will send your family a big fat boy! No need for oxen to plow the fields, no need for donkeys to pull the mill!"

The village elder leaned on a cane, walking with the girl's parents on the ridge of the field, talking as he walked. Seeing the girl in the sedan chair shaking violently, he took a piece of half-melted malt candy from his sleeve and stuffed it into the girl's mouth, wiping the sweat from her forehead with his rough hands.

The girl's attention was entirely attracted by the sweetness in her mouth, and she stopped shaking.

"Grandpa Village Elder, if I marry the River God, can I really enjoy happiness?"

"Of course you'll enjoy happiness. Last night, my granddaughter even sent me a dream, saying that she eats big fish and meat every meal until she's tired of it, and the big carp don't even have bones. She asked me to take the opportunity to dig two pounds of wild vegetables and send them over." The village elder took out a bundle of dried wild vegetables.

"Girl, hold on tight. Take this bundle of vegetables to your sister. From now on, you are sisters. If you have anything to do, discuss it."

"Hmm, okay, let's discuss it."

The girl grabbed the rope.

Beyond the nine heavens, the flowing mist was ethereal.

"Doesn't the River Office care about this kind of human sacrifice?"

Liang Qu crossed his arms, riding the dragon and carrying people, looking down at everything happening below, frowning.

In the distance, the yellow sand was rolling, like melted maltose, exuding sweetness and honey, and everyone seemed to be ants attracted by it, swarming in, flocking like ducks.

"Naturally, we care. Human sacrifice is an act of ignorance and should be suppressed." Above the floating clouds, Si Nan replied respectfully, "When you said you wanted to flush the sand, we anticipated this would happen and sent people to various remote villages—"

"What are you doing, what are you doing? Who told you to sacrifice living people? This is nonsense. This is the imperial court flushing the sand, not some River God. Go back, hurry back!"

Shouts rang out.

The people in the sky turned their eyes.

The rushing "ant colony" was blocked by three people wearing soap-blue official uniforms. They climbed over mountains and ridges, panting, their bodies soaked with sweat.

The two sides confronted each other.

The young strong laborers surrounded the village elder, not fearing the prestige of the government at all, and even had the upper hand in local strength. In this remote village, there were actually several Four-Pass martial artists, which was rare.

After a fierce conflict and contradiction, the entire wedding procession scattered quite a bit, sparse and scattered.

Solved?

Liang Qu raised his eyebrows.

He glanced at the calm Si Nan and felt that this matter was not that simple.

Sure enough.

After waiting for two quarters of an hour, the officials were trapped in the crowd. The girl selected for sacrifice was trembling with fear, pulled out from behind the crowd by her parents, and wrapped in a straw mat.

Led by the village elder and the shaman, they took two young people, used the cover of the human wall to bypass the three River Office officials, ran to the mountain forest, split the shrubs, and headed straight for the Yellow Sand River.

The River Chief and the River Earl were completely unaware, still noisy and pushing with the villagers.

Only then did Si Nan explain.

"Prince Huai, this place is called Zhujia Village. Most of the people in the village have the surname Zhu. There are more than 130 households and more than 800 people. It is more than 9,000 miles away from the nearest county town. The place is remote, located between the mountains, and out of reach."

"There is a simple martial art passed down in the village. All men can learn it. The village elder teaches it personally. The cultivation resources depend entirely on hunting in the mountains and self-sufficiency. It was brought by the ancestors of the village elder in the early years, so his prestige is extremely high, and his word is final."

"Because the folk customs are strong, the village also hides many black households who avoid taxes, hiding in the mountain forests. In the 16th year of the Great Shun, an official went up the mountain to hunt on a holiday and discovered it. The people in the village only then learned that the dynasty had changed. After two or three years of trouble, they started paying taxes again."

"It is rumored that a hundred years ago, this village witnessed the River God turning into a green fish passing through, so superstition became a trend. Even if it was stopped today, they would continue to sacrifice on some day when no one was around. The leading village elder even sacrificed his own granddaughter, always talking about marrying the River God to enjoy happiness."

"Has the government managed it?"

"They have. In the past, several county magistrates were quite wise and made efforts, but the results were minimal. First, the place is too far, and ordinary clerks are unwilling to spend effort to travel back and forth. Second, the cost of changing customs is high. After the ban was issued, the villagers ignored it, covered for each other, and it was difficult to supervise."

"Third—the harm of this village is not huge. In decades, only three girls have been sacrificed, and they were all voluntary, believing that being selected is 'enjoying happiness'. Occasionally, the number of children who accidentally drown is more than this. Slowly, it became ineffective, and it was not a great political achievement, so they were too lazy to care."

Liang Qu pinched the bridge of his nose and understood.

He originally thought it might be a re-enactment of the "Ximen Bao story".

Local powerful families, in order to collect money, colluded with witches to deliberately fabricate the situation of the River God marrying a wife to deceive the people.

He only needed to have a "magic duel", imitate the wisdom of his ancestors, and state, "The girl is not good. Please ask the great witch to report to the River Earl and seek a better girl, and send her the day after tomorrow."

Throw the witch, village elder, and powerful families into the river, remove the chief culprits one by one, and he could easily solve it, and by the way, give the River Office officials a little shock of "Prince Huai's wisdom".

It could be said to be calm and relaxed.

As a result, after a long time, it was thorough feudal superstition! The local village elder took the lead, directly sacrificing his own granddaughter to the River God to show piety and "lead by example".

Where can one reason?

In normal logic, this kind of thing is indeed difficult to handle. After a hundred years and several generations of influence, everyone believes in it firmly. If it happens that two sacrifices are "useful", it directly brands the ideology.

It requires long-term education, and the education itself must have a sufficiently correct and logically self-consistent academic foundation to change customs.

The effort to do this is long.

The cost is far greater than the status quo of two or three deaths in decades. How much does it cost to buy a maid in a slave market? Several county magistrates tried to be troublesome and gave up directly.

But—

Now it is not normal logic!

Who said that the "magic duel" classic of the Ximen Bao story cannot inspire people and draw inferences?

Don't sacrifice young girls to me, I'm really not the River God?

No!

Liang Qu showed his cards, he didn't pretend anymore.

"I am the River God, and I oppose this marriage!"

Heavenly thunder shook, dark clouds rolled.

Just a moment ago, the sky was clear for thousands of miles, not a single cloud was seen, and the golden light was bright. In the blink of an eye, dark clouds were dense, obscuring the sky!

The black clouds spread rapidly, the wind whistled, covering a radius of a hundred miles, a thousand miles—like an iron pot, covering the world. The county town, the prefecture town, the mountains, and the fields were all included!

Lightning cut through the sky, opening up branch-like lightning.

The strong wind rolled up sideburns, hunting and flying, black snakes dancing.

Liang Qu rode the dragon and looked sideways: "You girl, you deliberately told me on the boat that there was a River God marrying a wife. Was it to lead me here to solve this matter?"

Si Nan knelt on one knee, drooping her ponytail: "Prince Huai is benevolent and has great supernatural powers. It is naturally a piece of cake. If you didn't want to care, you wouldn't have come in person."

"Hehe, little girl, you are young, but you have a lot of heart."

"I am thirty-eight this year, eight years older than Prince Huai. Your Highness has more talent than the Overlord of the past."

"—" Liang Qu took a deep breath, "Third Prince!"

The little lip dragon came out from his waist, dragon claws against horns.

"Third Prince reporting, standing by at any time!"

Rumble.

Thunder rolled, and heavy rain poured down.

Water columns as thick as fingers fell straight down, whipping the ground like whips. Rainwater mixed with yellow mud, quickly forming a mud pool. Stepping on it was extremely slippery.

Sudden rain on a sunny day, changing without warning.

The dark clouds were extremely thick, and there had never been such darkness.

The village elder and the shaman were pale, the world spinning, at a loss.

The young man carrying the straw mat in the mountains was terrified. The strong wind made it difficult to stand. His straw sandals slipped, his hands couldn't hold steady, and the two of them rolled out with the straw mat.

The girl hidden in the straw mat was thrown out, sliding along the ground with the straw mat. In the dizziness, she couldn't react in time, blankly clawing at the yellow soil, and finally fell straight into the Yellow Sand River!

Splash!

A yellow water flower bloomed.

The Yellow Sand River water was turbulent and urgent, like a tiger in the mountains that eats people without spitting out bones. The girl in her prime sank into it, silent, without even half a struggle.

The river water collided and swirled.

The villagers swallowed their saliva. They saw it clearly and distinctly: the girl fell into the big river.

Was the sacrifice successful?

No bridal veil, no sedan chair, can it count as the River God getting a wife?

The River Earl and the River Chief were sweating profusely.

It's over, it's over, we didn't stop it!

Before coming, Chief Clerk Si Nan specifically warned them to—

Unexpectedly, the girl sank into the river, as if a water gate had been dropped. The surging Yellow Sand River suddenly stagnated, no longer flowing east, completely and thoroughly still in front of everyone. Afterwards, amidst the great horror of the crowd, the river water rose rapidly, a huge water bag bulged in the center, higher than the river embankment, and finally the water bag broke, poured out, and spat out an object onto the river bank like a cough.

Pfft!

The girl was panting, her fear not yet dissipated, her eyes blank, her whole body wet, her head covered in black water grass, as if she had rolled in the mouth of a fierce tiger, vomited out, covered in saliva.

The villagers' pupils dilated.

The girl who should have become the River God's wife!

The fierce beast that just ate people without spitting out bones—in the blink of an eye, it actually spat her out in a hurry, as if it had eaten something dirty!

The crowd didn't know why. The River Earl and the River Chief were dumbfounded. They, who originally blocked the villagers from moving forward, now instinctively wanted to retreat behind the villagers.

"Is it—the River God didn't like her? Or—change one?"

"I think the Li family's girl at the east end of the village is also good. Let their girl go enjoy happiness—"

"I said, I oppose this marriage!"

Rumble.

Thunder roared and cut off the words.

The Yellow Sand River, eighty miles wide from north to south and endless from east to west, rose from the ground in the horrified eyes of all the villagers and officials, hanging in the sky!

Countless water flows climbed, flowed, and shaped, turning into a vast Yellow Dragon, looking down!

Looking around left and right.

What a huge dragon body that was?

Extreme width, boundless.

The dragon body was like a boundless wall of yellow soil, obscuring everything. Birds crossing the river crashed into it, struggling and rolling.

The terrifying oppression dropped a piece of solid lead onto the nerves of the onlookers. Their temples jumped, their pupils dilated violently, and their breathing completely solidified, just like the struggling birds.

Heavy rain poured down.

Silent and dead.

"River God! The spirit has manifested! The River God has manifested!"

Suddenly, the village elder opened his arms, breaking the silence, kneeling on the ground crying bitterly.

"The River God has manifested! The River God has manifested!"

"The River God has manifested! The River God has manifested!"

The lead block slid off. The villagers opened their Ren and Du meridians one by one. Their stagnant brains turned again, matching their worldview, and finally understood everything.

River God!

It was the Yellow Sand River God they worshipped every day!

After a hundred years, it appeared again!

Their held breath became twice as heavy. Their bodies trembled and were excited uncontrollably. Every muscle was twitching and jumping. Blood rushed to their brains, and they almost fainted.

The villagers knelt in the mud, their knees splashing water, raising their hands high to worship, hoarse and exhausted, their veins exposed.

The River Earl and the River Chief looked around, their Adam's apples rolling, and they also carefully knelt down, reaching out and shouting for the River God.

Lightning exploded in the sky again.

The Yellow Dragon's head broke a gap for this thunder light. The water flowed, floating foam, blooming like flowers.

Under the gaze of countless people with trembling pupils, a towering white jade palace slowly crashed out of the dragon's head!

The towering True Prosperity Pavilion stands tall, rising above the wind.

The dangerous railings look down on the flying birds, and the jumping eaves drop the flying monkeys.

Carved beams and painted buildings, pavilions and towers, clouds and mist, waterfalls hanging down.

Its exquisiteness and complexity are hard to describe even with the exhaustion of imagination!

Is this the River God's palace?

Heavy rain poured down, washing the dragon's head.

The white jade palace was on top of the giant dragon's head, the gate towering, sturgeon dancing.

Rainwater gathered into stairs in mid-air, spreading to the river bank along the jade gate, and white jade lotus flowers bloomed.

People waited and watched, eyes wide open.

"Pat."

A furry big palm stepped on the rain stairs, causing ripples.

No.

That was not a palm, it was a foot!

The villagers looked up in astonishment, looking up along the white-haired foot.

Lightning cut through the sky, briefly illuminating the earth, and a three-zhang white ape with an imposing manner, protruding canine teeth, and bright golden eyes came into view!

This—

Is this the River God?

The beating heart skipped a beat.

The villagers subconsciously looked at the village elder and the shaman.

But they saw the village elder already streaming with tears, moving on his knees, crawling to the feet of the white ape: "I don't know if my granddaughter has served the River God well!"

"Never seen, don't know, don't climb relatives blindly."

"?" The village elder looked up in astonishment.

"This god has a wife, and doesn't eat people. Human meat is sour and bitter! Next time you throw people around and marry blindly, I'll beat you!" The white ape snorted, clenched his fists, popped out his index finger, and pointed at the villagers one by one, "If you throw things around again, this god will cause a flood. Whatever village, county, prefecture, you, you, you, all will be flooded! All flooded! Drowned!"

The Yellow Dragon suddenly raised its head, soaring higher.

All the excitement turned into horror in an instant. The villagers trembled, busy kneeling and kowtowing, saying they didn't dare.

The village elder's eyes were muddy, all his thoughts stagnant at this moment, heavy, his heart cold. He was confused, his beard trembling: "Then—then my granddaughter—"

"This god has thousands of changes!"

As the white ape spoke, his body deformed, suddenly turning into a huge green fish.

The villagers, village elder, and shaman widened their eyes.

Right, this is right.

This is the River God!

Exactly the same as recorded by the ancestors.

However, the next moment.

The big green fish turned into a white dragon, then into a big frog, into a carp, everything, and finally returned to the white ape.

Heavy rain poured down, the white ape crossed his arms: "Ignorant people! This god is born of heaven and earth, not a human, how can I marry a human as a wife?

Climbing the dragon and attaching to the phoenix? Wishful thinking!"

The village elder opened his mouth wide, lost his soul, and his whole person withered visibly, as if his essence and spirit had been drawn away.

The villagers were even more shocked and panicked.

Didn't enjoy happiness—

The girl smacked the sweet malt candy, her expression lonely.

"Bang!"

An ingot of silver fell to the ground.

"Just that little money, if you have nothing to do, take it back and build a small temple. Worshipping is enough. Heaven and earth are unkind and treat all things as straw dogs. Except for your parents, who cares about you?

Don't throw things around in the future. Summer is here, the weather is getting hotter and hotter. Children should not go into the water casually. I have a large group of water ghosts under my command, catching one by one. The village should be harmonious and friendly, helping each other.

Otherwise, I will flood you, drown you! Heavy rain, drown your wheat!"

Gods have no form, and are even more moody.

The villagers kowtowed and said yes.

"Humph, this god is so busy, mortals actually cause trouble! Throwing things around!"

"Drown! Drown! Drown!"

Thunder struck again, and the sound drifted away.

The white jade palace sank into the Yellow Dragon's head, and the Yellow Dragon turned around and fell back, flowing east.

The dark clouds in the sky dissipated rapidly, and light leaked out from the hole.

In the blink of an eye.

The weather was clear, the sun was good, and the yellow-green wheat swayed.

The villagers looked around, the fields were all watered.

Everything was like a dream.

Only the village elder was absent-minded.

The shaman jumped up from the ground, rushed forward, and held the gold ingot.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry, build a temple for the River God! Right here, right here!"

The crowd surged like ants, holding the gold ingot together.

Above the firmament.

Liang Qu let go, and the Yellow Sand River, which covered the sky and the sun, returned to the river bed like a tamed dragon, flowing quietly.

The little mirage dragon flew back and coiled around his waist as a belt.

"Wuhu, report to the boss, the Third Prince has successfully completed the organizational task! Requesting credit!"

"Next time for sure."

Si Nan witnessed everything, her heart shaken.

Moving clouds and raining, grabbing yellow sand, white jade palace appearing—

As the Chief Clerk of the River Office, having seen countless river conditions and knowing countless governance methods, she can be sure that in the world of demon dragons, few can do the same! It has nothing to do with strength, nothing to do with realm, it's just impossible!

Liang Qu clapped his hands: "How about it, is it done now?"

Si Nan took a deep breath, suppressed her emotions, and flipped out a booklet: "Your Highness flushed more than a hundred miles of sand yesterday, and there were vibrations within a radius of three hundred miles. There are two more villages with similar stubborn sacrifices."

"There are more?"

"Yes, and it can be foreseen that during the future water governance by Your Highness and the Ape King, there will still be a large number of villages along the way—"

"Sacrificing this, sacrificing that, idle!"