Chapter 1362

The fire line blazed hot, scorching the earth, baking people until sweat streamed from their foreheads and their brows gleamed. Heaven and earth turned ash-white, a pale blue fluorescent river of light encircled the body, and the surging tide's roar wailed in the ears.

Liang Qu raised his wine cup high; before him hung two suns in the void, behind him rode the holy image on horseback.

Tens of thousands of people crawled and knelt in worship, praying for this year's abundant harvest, peace, and joy.

From June sixth to July twelfth, from the eastern head of the Huaijiang to its western tail.

Sailing upstream, the way is blocked and long.

The wine cup fell, spilling wine upon the Great River.

All clamor subsided into silence, a wistful emptiness welled up in the heart.

【River Dominion Degree: 21.4 (River Favor Degree: 92.0499)】!

The utmost frenzy of emotion, after being worn down over a month's time, had already become vast and empty.

"Now I, I lack nothing!"

Sunset, moonrise, sails unfurled, clamor rose upon the dust.

"Good, good, again, again!"

"Throw him down, throw him down."

"Oh dear, will it work or not, will it work or not after all?"

The pleasure barges raced across the Jianghuai waters.

The holy carriage returned to Southern Zhili, officials drank wine and offered praise, the Feathered Guard of Heaven bared their arms and wrestled for show; on the broad deck, a new Bing fire film was projected, and the blue glow from the jellyfish spun by the Dragon Spirit Gauze Empress shone upon their faces.

When the fun ended, sorrow came; the daytime clamor gradually faded, leaving behind the desolation after a great celebration—today was the last of the merriment, and tomorrow at dawn, all would have to return to the proper duties of the procession; everyone clung to this final moment to indulge themselves.

Yet even so, the lingering vines of unfulfilled intent still grew from the cracks in the joy, twining around the heart, and Liang Qu was no exception—more so than this time participating in the rites, becoming the "protagonist" Holy Emperor.

Communing with the Ze Ding, the tide's sound rose and fell.

Strip after strip of beautiful, radiant light flickered, moving and stirring the soul.

Far from the crowd, arriving at the hazy realm between moonlight and shadow, Liang Qu leaned against the ship's rail, blowing in the river wind, and reread once more the harvest of this month-plus of sacrifices, pondering in silence.

"Altogether thirteen sacrifices; the first gained the most favor, nearing three hundred; the second, over two hundred; the third and fourth, just over a hundred each; by the fifth, it was exactly one hundred.

Even when reaching the Huaijiang's middle reaches, where feedback was best, and the especially distinguished royal envoy vessel, favor did not rebound—five, six, seven, eight through twelfth were all exactly one hundred; only the last dropped to forty-something, severed at the waist—"

Over more than ten years.

Having endured countless great and small sacrifices, and seen all kinds of favor degrees, aside from when the Refined Refined Ze Ling bestowed favor, he had truly never encountered a complete integer, let alone eight consecutive integers—it could not be accidental.

The number one hundred, being just so, is tied to the upper limit of favor an individual can obtain, and in Ze Ding's hints, there are two details.

【Sacrificing the Huaijiang, utmost correct principle, heaven and earth resonate————】

The luminous information from the first sacrifice was very complete, adding "utmost correct principle, heaven and earth resonate" compared to before; the exact one hundreds lacked "heaven and earth resonate"; the last lacked "utmost correct principle."

Liang Qu stroked his chin.

"The imperial court's arrival represents a certain greater completeness, a more perfect recognition of sacrifice; combined with the sacrificer's strength and scale, the normal obtainable upper limit is exactly the individual's upper limit of one hundred. Breaking the upper limit requires a more special state.

At the same time, this recognition in principle exists with numerical limits—only twelve times a year, or perhaps only twelve times from beginning to end, after which there is none? Why, with the same scale, did the first few already achieve heaven and earth resonance? Is it because it's new?"

The number twelve is very meaningful.

The Chong Wang told him that twelve is the earth number, cycling and renewing; thirteen then corresponds to heaven, from earth to heaven. The symbol of decay and rebirth. This is for the myriad philosophers.

Ten is the heaven number, flowing without cease; ten and three, from heaven to Dao. The symbol of returning to the source, of opening up and becoming true. This is for the Supreme Exalted.

The Wu Sheng is thirteen; reaching thirteen means "awakening"—

Being limited to twelve times a year means there is still opportunity afterward, as long as the Holy Emperor comes, one can ride this "express lane"—this has basis, and the favor drawn according to dominion degree is available only during the Yixing River God sacrifice, clearly once a year.

Limited to twelve times—this means this year's "utmost correct principle" boost has been used up in one go.

"If on land utmost correct principle can be achieved, can it not happen once more in water? Or even twice?"

Liang Qu licked his lips; he had not forgotten that he had already become the boss of water beasts, still the little lug of the Eastern Sea—if he could come once, it would be equivalent to doubling!

Time-wise, one could argue: on land it is summer, so underwater it could be winter.

However, the orthodox principle on land is the Holy Emperor; the orthodox principle in water————

Wait, could it be himself?

The current master of the Long Gong is him, only his strength is not up to par—he has not formed a crucible, nor gained the world's recognition.

"Ah, time is too short, winter is still far off, horizontally or vertically, there is no opportunity."

His mood still could not help but feel excited.

Having sacrificed for over ten years, none were as exhilarating as this year.

Ascend in Broad Daylight!

Liang Qu rubbed his hands; now he no longer strains to think of ways, only wanting first to enjoy the fruits of victory.

Twenty points dominion degree!

Since the first favor was completed, linking the position fruit, Liang Qu felt as if he had found a store, but nothing in the store could be afforded; now, after enduring countless hardships, he finally lit the first product!

Chang You!

【When things reach extremity they reverse, when affairs reach extremity they change, the calamity monkey as lure, transform disaster into priority.】

【Strange beasts cause floods, their voices like lamentations, flood disasters spread widely】

【Chang You Fruit】

【Authority: Flood Slaughter】

【Aspect: Disaster】

【Disaster becomes prolonged rain, rivers and lakes overflow, Chang You moves, the three rivers boil and surge.】

【Acquisition Rite: Consume ten points dominion degree, can link Chang You Fruit.】

【Refinement Rite: Swallow the river, spit the river.】

【Advancement Rite: Lock the waves, calm the vast sea, suppress flood disasters, store away flood slaughter, to pacify the four directions, can advance to govern the aspect fruit one Wu Fruit】

【Boundary Ritual: Changyou Fruit, Heyu Fruit, Huashe Fruit, Ying Fruit, gathering the Four Disasters, the Water Sovereign as king, can guide the Bright Flood Boundary.】

It's really not easy.

Wandering back and forth, I've been mixing in the Jianghuai River for over a decade, even drove away the flood dragons, only today did I gather enough ten points, not the Holy Emperor, I don't know how long it will still take.

If this position fruit is exchanged out——

Gaze shifted downward.

【Consume one position fruit, ten million water marsh essence, to advance the Marsh State, perfect the Huai Vortex Water Sovereign's supreme domain, seize out—Marsh State (Small).】

【Water Marsh Essence: 38,670,000】

Essence is present, position fruit is present, simply everything is ready, a perfect connection.

From vortex aperture to vortex palace, then to Marsh State (False) (Small).

Each advancement is immensely significant.

Looking at the two suffixes of the current Marsh State, Liang Qu feels even more that removing (False) is far more important than removing (Small), using a small position fruit to exchange for this maneuver, I don't know how exaggerated it will become.

But, 【Marsh Spirit Ascension Condition: obtain sixty points of river dominance, one hundred points of river favor, fully merge with the Marsh Spirit Water Ape Great Sage (Deep Orange)】

"Hiss————"

Liang Qu scratched his head.

"Not enough, still not enough, no matter how, it's not enough."

One or two, all are big consumers of dominance points.

Sixty points dominance for ascension, lacking a full forty.

Exchanging out the position fruit can add combat power for use, after using it he can still add ten million essence, returning to ten points dominance.

Exchanging out Marsh State (Small) obviously means it's gone for good.

However, the existence of Marsh State, according to his personal understanding.

The Martial Sage opened a corner, a furnace on earth, transformed into a rainbow one realm, this Marsh State (Small) is very likely the "miniature furnace".

This for his own realm breakthrough, perhaps offers tremendous help, previously opening Marsh State, knocking on the Heavenly Gate, Liang Qu felt it played a tremendous role.

If it opens, will it directly break through the Martial Sage's thirteenth level?

Accumulated resources and merits all went to the Boundless Sea.

Now finally able to incline toward the realm, but the wallet is empty as can be.

"Oh heavens, oh earth.

Give me a hundred dominance points, crush me to death!"

Water birds skimmed across the sky.

No response.

"Ah."

Liang Qu gazed at the moon, sighed long and long, on the Bing Fire day, the moon in the sky is much brighter than usual, "Life's disappointments often occupy eight or nine out of ten, observe within a month, the full moon only on the fifteenth and sixteenth days, thus knowing insufficiency is the ultimate principle of all things———"

Gazing at the Marsh Spirit's radiance again and again, he never regarded the favor gained from sacrifice as dominance, Liang Qu was unwilling to use the surging dominance.

"Let it be for now."

The joy of surging dominance was utterly shattered before the Marsh Spirit's universal ascension demand.

Perhaps at the Great Hunt assembly, maybe can exchange out Changyou to surge combat power.

Damn it, earning even a bit of coercive dominance is really not easy.

Relying on Moon Spring Island and fighting seems also to have a limit, in the past few months after defeating the Little Horse King there was no reaction, was it not intense enough when not fighting flood dragons? Not enough sensation?

"The Long Gong River God sacrifice should go online, only focusing on developing the land River God sacrifice, in winter can we hold one."

"I don't know when the immortal elixir Your Majesty mentioned can be obtained, I also feel embarrassed to urge, let me first have a midnight snack."

Moonlight flowed like mercury.

On the tower ship's deck, the Holy Emperor gazed at the round moon, then lowered his eyes to overlook the entertainment of the Celestial Feather Guards on the deck.

Since his ascension, it has been a long time since such ease and pleasure, as if all worries and pressures have vanished, leaving only pure joy.

At midnight, the bustle gradually ceased, the Celestial Feather Guards took turns on duty, resumed standing guard, although the Holy Emperor said, cease at dawn, but everyone is not a child, insist on punctuality, only dragged away by parents, midnight is that tacitly understood node.

After looking for a moment, the Holy Emperor exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, as if refining his internal blood and qi once, returned to his seat, personally ground ink, spread paper, wrote letters, his reverent attitude rarely seen.

Holding the wolf-hair brush, suspended at the beginning.

For a long time.

Ink marks delayed.

"May the ancestral venerable immortal master, whose Dao laws penetrate the mystery, whose virtue blesses all directions, the junior has long not received your clear instruction, yet the heart constantly remembers it, like gazing at the North Star. Now————

It happens to be the Huai King Liang Qu————or add one————"

The brush tip stopped.

Splish-splash.

The Holy Emperor rolled paper into a ball, urged it to ashes, turned to another page, rewrote.

"May the ancestral venerable————"

Night deep, people quiet.

From busy on the east of Huai River to the west of Huai River, from March sixth busy to July sixteenth.

Fat fish, fists, Da He Li snoring loudly, fat fish snoring, suddenly brows furrowed, long whiskers erected, pointing at the front.

"Bold! I am the Demon King! Third Prince, wipe the fish fins for this king!"

"Hiss, this king's fish fins! Good you, Third Prince, harboring ill intent, envying virtue and talent, drag him away, dragon head chopper?

You also qualify? Dog head chopper!"

Pa—!

Da He Li raised its head, bleary-eyed, rubbed the fur on its head, looked around once, then flopped back down to sleep.

The plan went awry; originally Pingyang was the first stop, but then came the interlude of Liang Qu's self-cultivated Position Fruit and the River God Sacrifice — the time meant for staying here to study the immortal island turned into touring the fief upstream and downstream, all to stick to the plan as much as possible.

The imperial carriage went to Nanzhili, did not return the same way, but rested half a day in Nanzhili, then headed south, continuing the tour of the world to inspect conditions; everything would wait until the return.

This both secured the subsequent arrangements — merely delaying the return to the imperial capital slightly — and roughly corresponded to the time the immortal pill would be obtained, allowing observation of what followed.

The tour plan took an extra detour, yet no one found it odd; they even thought it only natural, and not going would have been a pity.

"Work, work! What a life of toil."

The Sage Emperor would not return to Pingyang until autumn at the earliest; during that time Liang Qu naturally need not host him personally, so he naturally returned to the Yellow Sand River to continue flushing sand.

He rolled his shoulders.

"Plop."

The Sand River surged on; two days passed.

【Obtained a wisp of Red Qi; if fused with the essence of ten thousand water marshes, a spirit fish will be born, capable of sublimating Favor.】

【Heaven and Earth Long Qi: Twenty-one】

【Dew Seeds: Four】

Whether it was a psychological effect or not, with the two suns gone from the sky, the stifling heat that had pressed on everyone until they could barely breathe receded by more than half.

Inside the Marsh Cauldron, red Long Qi circulated.

Red Qi appears year after year; by now it feels nothing new, and spring's Dew Seeds have also increased.

Liang Qu merely glanced and withdrew his focus, continuing to govern the rushing Yellow Sand River before him, intent on making up the progress lost in the first half of the year as fast as possible — but today was different from the past: he had barely flushed half a li when a thread of mental unease seized him, like the sudden impulse when hunting a tiger.

"Hm?"

Liang Qu frowned.

A Flood Dragon's thoughts would not be uneasy without cause; it was all instinct and Heaven's warning — he dared not relax his vigilance and hurriedly looked inward.

The root sea was still cracked, the little sun still intact, the embryo unchanged; for now there was no sign of the insufficient offerings and embryo collapse Su Wang had spoken of.

"Strange——"

Liang Qu stopped flushing sand, at a loss for a moment.

The Yellow Sand River rushed forward, gradually slowing.

Commoners on both banks carried away silt, bustling exceedingly; Si Nan sensed the river's condition and turned to look at once. Liang Qu stared at the Yellow Sand River before him — with the Boundless Sea "sealed," his water-control efficiency had dropped considerably.

"Could it be the immortal refused His Majesty?"

"Shouldn't be; the relationship hasn't thinned to that extent — it's just refining an immortal pill, and the materials were what I seized from the Southern Frontier by my own ability; if it really came to that, His Majesty would have told me long ago about so major a matter."

Recalling the scene of his own enfeoffment, Liang Qu shook his head, dismissing each possibility.

He pondered for half a day but could not find the problem; in the end he communed with the Marsh Cauldron again.

"The mental clutter just now seemed to appear exactly when collecting the Red Qi."

"Could it be the Marsh Cauldron?"

Liang Qu's heart tightened.

Carefully recalling, that sense of mental unease seemed to stem from having missed something; he hurriedly reviewed all the brilliance from June to July.

"Where could the problem lie? Sacrifice? Favor? Rule Degree?"

He flipped through them one by one.

Yet no matter how many times he looked, he discovered no problem.

Suddenly.

Liang Qu sprang away from the harvest, abruptly turning his gaze to one object.

【Chang You Fruit】

【Authority: Hong Sha】

【Category: Calamity】

【Calamity brings prolonged rain, rivers overflow their banks; Chang You causes the Three Rivers to boil and surge.】

All this information was unimportant. Liang Qu quickly scrolled down, finally fixing his gaze on the Advancement Rite, pupils rapidly dilating.

【Advancement Rite: Lock waves, pacify the vast ocean; suppress the sea, calm flood waves; subdue water calamities, store away Hong Sha, to pacify the four directions — can advance to Governance-Category Position Fruit: Wu Fruit】

In a flash.

A thought cleaved his mind, as if unveiling a grand curtain. The tangled thoughts vanished without trace; his body felt as if shocked by electricity, goosebumps rising in dense profusion.

"Lock waves, pacify the vast ocean; suppress the sea, calm flood waves——"

"Subdue water calamities, store away Hong Sha."

Wind blew his hair tips; Liang Qu widened his eyes, reciting the oath word by word, staggered two steps, and pressed his hand to his forehead.

Suddenly.

"So the oath was like this, so the oath was like this — no wonder, haha, hahahaha!"

His shoulders began to shake, as if suppressing laughter; finally unable to hold back, he burst into loud laughter, laughing until his strength gave out.

The river wind howled vast and wild.

The Yellow Sand River widened until both banks were visible; muddy silt fell rustling from the riverbed; the fields on both banks had already been harvested of wheat, leaving bare stubble.

A single leaf blocking the eye hides Mount Tai.

He just happened to be governing the Yellow Sand River!

Seize the Position Fruit, advance the Marsh State, realm growth.

Seize the Position Fruit, strengthen himself, take first place in the Great Hunt.

These twenty points of Rule Degree — beyond the two simplest, most direct paths, there was clearly a third path to take!

Turn the Minor Position Fruit into a damn Middle Position Fruit!

Under heaven, is there any river more ferocious than the Shahe River? His actions perfectly matched the saying: "Locking the waves to calm the vast sea, stabilizing the sea and subduing the flood, subduing water disasters, returning the flood's malevolence, to bring peace to the four directions." He merely took charge of cleaning the riverbed above and below, and the issue was the scale of his governance!

"Am I a pig? I was hung up for so many days, yet I didn't think of it at all—I forgot it completely!"

Liang Qu punched his own head.

Rice bowl, so damn frustrating.

For a full little over a month, he himself hadn't even noticed, still trapped in the mental inertia of struggling to advance from a minor position!

If successful, the minor position would become a medium position—medium position requires fifty connection points, naturally allowing him to reverse his oath and directly become fifty points of dominion!

Combined with the remaining ten points, it would just be enough to advance to Refined Refined Ze Ling! If the winter sacrifice succeeds, saying he couldn't gain more than ten or so points, to regain the lost Chang You—

His heart endured the violent pounding, his tongue dry, his whole body feeling the dizziness that comes after excessive blood loss.

Liang Qu seemed to see a broad, smooth road—even if this path succeeded, it would merely mean Chang You returns to dominion, wasting ten million essence in the middle—

This damn thing is truly the real daytime ascension!

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