Chapter 129: Chapter 129
William stepped off the boat, feeling reassured by the weight of copper coins in his arms.
He had been weathered by the constant River Wind, and a satisfied smile came upon his wrinkled face as he thought about buying things at the market before heading home.
"Hehe!" He chuckled, thinking of his wife and children’s faces when they saw the gifts.
Suddenly, drums and gongs sounded from the pier, and three small boats adorned with red cloth and flowers left the pier, heading towards the center of the river.
William hesitated for a moment. How could these wooden boats dare to sail on the River Water?
A familiar boatman nearby explained to him, "Don’t worry, those are boats going to offer sacrifices to the River God; they won’t encounter any dangerous creatures."
"While you were away, something big happened in Yukou Town. Did you see that huge tree in the center of the river? That is the River God!"
William had already noticed when he was on the water - right opposite the pier in Yukou Town, a strange twisted black tree emerged.
That place used to be a water area, and William has crossed there many times. There was nothing beneath the water, not even a reef, how could a huge tree suddenly appear?
Moreover, the tree had no leaves, and its bare, twisted branches reached for the Vault of Heaven. It looked sinister no matter how you look at it.
The tree was covered with various red cloths, silk fabrics, as well as some tribute items like melons, pig heads, and bags, all hung on its branches.
The boatman continued, "It seems that on the afternoon you left, the Divine Tree rapidly grew from the river. Over the past few days, as long as offerings were made to the tree, the boat journey would be safe, and no monsters would attack."
He laughed and said, "Our Yukou Town’s future will be prosperous, all thanks to the Divine Tree’s blessings!"
William frowned and retorted, "That thing is the River God? Nonsense, it doesn’t look like the River God at all!"
If there really was a River God in the river, William believed it must be the dark line in the water that saved his crew that day! Others may not have seen it clearly, but he didn’t doubt himself - it was a Flood Dragon!
The boatman was startled and hurriedly covered his mouth. "Don’t talk nonsense. If the Divine Tree hears your blasphemy, it might stop protecting Yukou Town, and you’ll be branded a sinner!"
Now more irritated, William argued, "You guys are doing... How did the old schoolteacher put it? Oh yes, Evil Worship! You’re inviting disaster..."
The boatman shoved him away, "You shut your mouth! If you dare to say anything offensive to the Divine Tree again, believe it or not, we’ll all beat you up!"
William looked around; indeed, the normally friendly boatmen nearby had gathered with hostile gazes.
He snorted and left, but he couldn’t help thinking to himself: A bunch of fools, when disaster strikes it’ll be too late for you to regret.
Suddenly, he heard a roar of waves accompanied by people’s cries. He turned around and saw a huge wave in the center of the river - the giant Divine Tree had actually moved!
Little Loach continued his relentless pursuit, and the strange creature in front of him seemed to be desperate. Suddenly, it changed direction and charged straight towards a massive monstrosity in the water.
The enormous creature was twisted and dark, its true form obscured in the water.
For some reason, it curled up and stayed motionless, extending a long, thin tail above the water surface.
The strange creature slammed into the massive figure, and Little Loach saw a faint red electric net spread from the point of impact. The enormous creature then slowly began to squirm.
Little Loach could no longer find the strange creature’s trace.
His Brother was furious, "It must be you who hid my delicacy! Hand it over now!"
He roared in the water, launching his attacks with his two Whiskers, while the Sword Pill in his mouth spun rapidly, accumulating a terrifying power.
The Divine Tree in the center of the river suddenly moved, gently swaying and causing massive waves. The three small wooden boats were instantly capsized.
Drowning cries were heard from the dozens of people on board as they desperately tried to swim back to shore. But the "Divine Tree" suddenly struck, and with a loud crash, the people vanished.
William was also taken aback. He looked at the Divine Tree, which was now neither a tree nor a serpent or an octopus, stirring and churning the river with its tentacle-like branches, causing chaos in the water.
Unbelieving, the people on the pier stared at this scene, their faith shattered by the brutality of the River God they worshipped.
Soon, people panicked and scattered. William hurried home, but the river water rose rapidly, flooding the banks, and it seemed a terrible flood was coming.
The monstrous creature in the center of the river continued to churn, raising the water level time and time again!
William’s heart raced, his mouth dry as he thought of his wife and children at home, not knowing if they could escape this calamity...
Little Loach didn’t know what the creature before him was, but he knew it was at least a third-level beast. It was so massive, its snake-like tentacles stirred the water, even though its movements seemed slow.
What he didn’t know was that the enormous creature swallowed a strange plant that would grant it great benefits and even more power once digested, allowing it to completely dominate a river region.
However, the plant had a strong paralyzing effect, and after consuming it, the creature couldn’t bear it any longer and became immobilized in the center of the river. Its tail stuck out of the surface to be worshipped by the people of Yukou Town as the Divine Tree.
Because of its presence, it frightened away other creatures in the river, hence the apparent safety after worshipping it.
The strange creature Little Loach was chasing was even stronger than the plant. Seeing that it couldn’t escape him, it made up its mind to use its own Divine Powers to help the enormous creature detoxify.
It didn’t hope for the giant creature to deal with Little Loach, only that... with such a massive piece of meat in front, Little Loach would be tempted to eat it and spare its life.
Little Loach’s Whiskers slashed through the air, cutting off the thick tentacles of the enormous creature with every strike. However, the creature was too large, and with a loud thud, Little Loach was hit by the massive force, sending him flying out of the water and high into the air, creating a huge splash as he fell back down.William, who was on the shore, happened to turn his head and saw this scene. He felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and a strong hope flashed in his eyes: I didn’t see wrongly! I can’t be mistaken!
He saved our entire boat last time, and now he will save the whole Yukou Town.
It’s that Flood Dragon!
In William’s eyes, the scene of Little Loach being sucked up was transformed into the River God Flood Dragon leaping from the water, then diving into the water and fighting with that monster!
The water had already submerged the knee, and William used his hands and feet to climb onto the roof of a nearby house. In the process of jumping from roof to roof, he saw several familiar boatmen still struggling to escape in the water.
William pointed at them and shouted, "I told you that damned Divine Tree is an evil demon, but you didn’t believe me! Open your dog eyes and look: The real River God is here! He will definitely take away your evil deity, hahaha..."
The boatmen shivered but didn’t dare to retort. William ran away, dancing and yelling, "Wife, Eldest Daughter, my good boy, wait for me, I’m coming back."
Underwater, Little Loach was furious: This damned inferior food not only wouldn’t surrender, but it even dared to fight back?
It had long been impatient with this back-and-forth fighting and wanted to end this quickly, so it could continue searching for the truly delicious food in this world!
It roared and opened its mouth to spray out forcefully!
Sword Pill and Fire Pill flew out, intertwined with each other.
The two tiny pearl-like pills rapidly grew larger during their flight, with the Fire Pill sending out fierce flames, causing the surrounding River Water to bubble and emit white smoke; while the Sword Pill shone with a cold chill that resembled moonlight.
Both of them grew to the size of two zhang, and mysteriously overlapped with each other!
Flames ignited on the outside of the Sword Pill, and the two pills combined into one, heavily hitting the massive creature.
If this process were infinitely slowed down, one could clearly see that the moment the two pills combined and touched the massive creature, the flesh and blood at the point of contact disappeared silently, shattered and annihilated by the terrifying sword energy in the Sword Pill.
Immediately after, the raging flames from the Fire Pill further melted and expanded the wound.
A huge two-zhang-diameter pill ball shot a terrifying four-zhang deep wound into the massive creature!
Not only that, but it went straight through from one side of the body to the other.
All of this was completed in an instant, as the massive pill ball hissed and flew out from the other side of the massive creature’s body before quickly shrinking and splitting back into two pills, returning to Little Loach’s mouth.
While the massive creature had been ferociously strong, it had lost all its power after this terrifying blow and writhed painfully in the water, attempting to escape, but its body began to disintegrate and collapse from the huge tunnel-like wound, and new wounds burst like spiderwebs.
The massive creature suddenly recalled the whispers it had heard underneath the boat, from human beings, ’All the gifts of destiny are already secretly marked with a price!’
At first, it thought that the little creature had saved it from the poison, a fortunate gift, but it turned out that the secret price marked was so expensive. It was its own life!
With its dying struggles, the massive creature swung out a tentacle toward Little Loach, who promptly slashed it off with its whiskers. Then Little Loach thrust its whiskers forward, accurately piercing the creature’s brain hidden deep inside its body, giving it a fierce stir. The massive creature stopped moving entirely, its body sinking to the bottom of the water.
Little Loach didn’t pay any attention to the massive creature, and instead scanned its surroundings.
Where is my human delicacy? Where is my delicious spirit creature?
Infuriated, Little Loach swam back and bit off a section of the tentacle, wrapping its whiskers around and retrieving all the severed parts.
Nothing could be wasted, considering that this thing had made it lose a precious delicacy.
At Yukou Town, as the massive creature sank to the bottom, the flood that surged onto the pier began to recede.
William had already led his family onto the roof of their home. Holding his son and daughter’s hands, he looked into the river and said with devotion, "Watch carefully; the River God might appear again."
"Remember the River God’s appearance; it is only this River God in the river that can protect and bless us."
Those boatmen who had just argued with him were slow to react and couldn’t climb onto the roof in time. In the end, they all clung onto a flagpole in a line, one above the other.
The floodwaters washed a small section of the massive tentacle onto the pier.
This small section was still as big as two people when compared to the massive creature.
As the floodwaters receded, the section slowly drifted towards the River with the flow. It bumped into the flagpole, causing it to shake violently and nearly dislodging those boatmen.
The boatmen were already frightened, wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves.
Suddenly, they saw a long, thin, pale golden whisker floating in the floodwaters, coiling around the small section of the tentacle and swiftly pulling it back into the river.
Immediately after, a terrifying mouth opened in the River Water and swallowed the chunk of tentacle in a single gulp.
Then the black linear figure twisted in the water and disappeared.
The boatmen stared open-mouthed, not daring to make a sound.
William declared with determination, "I will go find the Clan Elder and rally the town to build a temple for the River God!"