Chapter 267: Evil Dragon
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Yes, Sir!"
The constables following Xu Ren were rewarded heavily by him. With a ferocious stance, they went up, grabbed the sorcerer and tossed her into the water.
The sorcerer struggled but alas, she was only a skinny only woman being thrown into a deep river. After a few shrieks, she sank into the water and was no longer seen.
"This..."
The people who were giving their offerings were shocked.
Although they had seen unreasonable tortures by the officials before, most of these tortures were only executed on the weak and poor people. None of them would dare to go against a god.
But now, did the newly appointed district minister just sacrificed the sorcerer to the Water God?
Within seconds, the timid ones among them started to feel the jitters.
"Oh? The sorcerer is not back. Could she have forgotten about us? How about someone go down and take a look?"
After saving the two children from becoming sacrifices, Xu Ren smirked.
No one dared to look at him in the eye.
"Bloop! Bloop!"
At this moment, the calm water began to bubble.
A black shadow emerged and bubbles floated up, together with blood and a few drapes of cloth. It was a horrific scene to behold.
"Wa! Wa!"
A child's cry was heard, and it was ear piercing.
"It's the Water God! The Water God is enraged!"
The villagers were panicking. Some of them looked at Xu Ren with hatred.
'Hmph! If not for my low rank, I would've wiped out all of such evil offering practices!'
Xu Ren was composed and his thoughts were clear.
Since he had brought people with him to interrupt the offering practice, he would have been prepared.
At this point in time, at the opposite side of the river, a black shadow flashed as Fang Yuan leapt into the water.
He was extremely quick and went straight to the River God. At that moment, he could see how the River God looked like.
It was about 10 feet long, completely black with a flat head and 4 legs. It was an andrias, a variation of a salamander.
"Wa! Wa!"
The andrias had eaten the sorcerer and wanted to send a wave of water to flood the people ashore. As soon as it saw Fang Yuan, it was stunned and let out a crying sound of a baby.
"It's horrible!"
Fang Yuan's eyes glittered. "Water spear technique!"
"Whoosh!"
His control over water was delicate and powerful now, and the water spear that he conjured was a sky blue and was much more hardy than before.
"Wa! Wa!"
The andrias knew that the water spear was powerful. With a shriek, many white pearls were spat out of its mouth.
As the pearl glittered, the imagery of the spirits of a young boy and girl appeared. However, the two children had bloodshot eyes, sharp teeth and claws and were protecting the andrias.
"Are these servant spirits?"
Fang Yuan was stunned.
There was a saying from a long time ago which goes 'Being a servant for the Tiger'. This saying meant that the powerful spirits would eat people and capture their souls, turning them into their own servants.
This was the case for the andrias.
Furthermore, seeing all the pearls in front of him, the number of killings the andrias had done was shocking.
Seeing this, Fang Yuan was shocked. "Demon, you've sinned. Even if the heavens would let you off, I wouldn't!"
In reality, after understanding that the trend of the realm was the downfall of the demons and the uprising of the humans, all of Fang Yuan's actions were pro-humans. Since the andrias had killed numerous humans, its fate energy would be weakened and it would surely meet its downfall. Therefore, there would not be further complications after killing this andrias, and there was no need to worry about any backing that it might have.
This was taking actions according to heaven's will, which would make things simpler. If one were to go against heaven's will, it would not be just doubly hard, but one would have to be prepared to face tribulations from the heavens as well.
"Shake!"
As he mustered his demonic strength, a ripple emerged from the tip of the water spear.
The spirits of the young boy and girl were stunned and froze at their spots.
"Ah!"
As the spirits were destroyed, the water spear continued on and struck on the body of the andrias, penetrating through. It continuously shrieked in pain, and its Yin Spirit emerged. "You cannot kill me! I am the official Heizi River God, appointed by the Imperial Court!"
"Go f*ck yourself!"
Fang Yuan's Yin spirit emerged and struck its claw out, crushing the andrias's Yin Spirit within his hands.
"Bloop! Bloop!"
As soon as the Yin Spirit was dead, the andrias lost its breath and started to sink down.
The many spirits among the pearls floated around. If left untouched, they would become a group of water spirits and would trouble people.
"Sigh..."
Fang Yuan released a water current and collected all the pearls together.
"It seems that these pearls are made from the bones of people. In every pearl, there is a sealed spirit in it. It must have used a demonic fire to smelt these pearls and transform them into powerful servant spirits..."
As he thought about the techniques he had browsed through before, he released his spiritual will and fiddled with the bone pearls.
"Crackle!"
After an explosion, the demonic energy of the andrias was wiped off the bone pearls, and the spirits in the 49 pearls were released.
"Contain!"
Although the technique was different, Fang Yuan could still attempt the general technique of containing spirits. Quickly, he pointed his finger at the many spirits.
"Wa! Wa!"
Most of the powerful spirits were unwilling to be contained, but alas, they were too weak to fight back. Since all of them had marks from the first time they were smelted into the pearls, they did not have the strength to resist. Soon, all of them were contained in their pearls, and the pearls were strung together to form a lace.
"Although this is cruel, it will be rather useful..."
Fang Yuan shook his head, sighed and looked into the water.
He could see a few red runes glowing, and it was as though they formed a talisman.
"The Imperial Order? And the many years of cultivation of the andrias?"
Thinking about it, he did not directly take the Imperial Order over. Instead, he used his technique on it and the talisman hardened, forming a block of jade which landed in his hands.
"It doesn't seem powerful... Could it be due to the fact that it is only a title of Da Chu Country?"
Comparing it to the Water God of the Qi Lake, Fang Yuan could tell the difference. "A real god has to be appointed by the heavens as well for it to be authentic! If it was like this Water God, it is only a fake and can only be appointed by the heavens based on its luck. If the andrias could harness all the spiritual energy in Heizi River today, I would not be able to defeat it so easily..."
"However, since the trend of the realm is towards the people dao, it would be extremely easy to gain the appointment from the heavens if I were to protect humans!"
This was the trend of the realm.
To allow a few righteous gods to become strong and powerful so that they could support the human Dao!
One would have to experience it for oneself in order to know the slow but influential power of the heavens!
It would be all these accumulative events that would lead to the trend actualising.
"In the next 10 years, there would be many heroes and Energy Souls among the humans! Also, the demons would experience internal conflicts among themselves and will go down... This is fate!"
Fang Yuan's thoughts ran wild. If he could go with the flow of the trend, he would benefit from it.
Of course, firstly, he had to occupy the andrias's underwater mansion.
The underwater mansion was a huge cave with a few strong currents of water outside to protect it.
"Hmm... It is a rather good mountain range and the spiritual energy is rather concentrated here. It is a good place for me to stay for a while! The only thing about this place is that the protective currents are a little weak. I'll improve the protection of this place later!"
A black snake was a water snake, and therefore, it was extremely versatile underwater.
After examining the place, Fang Yuan decided to clear the corpse and bones from the mansion before returning to the surface of the river.
"Benefactor?"
Xu Ren had already chased the villagers away and instructed for the constables to stand guard from afar. He was waiting all by himself by the riverbank.
Seeing Fang Yuan emerging from the river, he gave off an anxious look. "How's the Water God?"
"I've killed it! It has sinned too much and deserved it!"
Fang Yuan continued. "I'll prepare to stay here for the time being. Continue on with the plan and have me take over this Water God!"
"Mmm, I know what to do!"
Xu Ren nodded his head.
He had no objections to removing an evil god and replacing it with Fang Yuan.
At least, Fang Yuan would not demand offerings. This point was enough to convince him that Fang Yuan was better than then andrias. Even if people were to question his actions, he could explain himself.
To Fang Yuan, it was beneficial for him to make use of the officials to cover up for the fact that he wanted to snatch the underwater mansion for himself.
"When you return, know your duties. Take good care of the carp in the backyard pond... She owes me something. If I return and she is no longer there, I can only go after you for what she had owed me..."
Fang Yuan laughed and ignored the pale Xu Ren. Turning around, he leapt into the water and disappeared in a splash.
...
In the Golden Court Lake.
Beneath the lake, there was a Dragon Palace.
The dragon palace was extremely big like a giant's country. On the jade square in the centre of the palace, there was a black water dragon!
The water dragon had a horn, 4 limbs and 3 claws on each limb. Its eyes were bloodshot and it had the vibes of a dragon. It was not just a black water dragon, but an evil dragon!
It was the Golden Court Dragon God! A powerful demon from the heavens! The king of demons! Even the An River Dragon God or the Water God of Qi Lake would have to pay their respects to him.
"Greetings, Dragon God!"
Outside the dragon palace, there was a flash and a tortoise guard escorted a demon in.
The demon stood on its legs and was hairy, with golden fiery eyes and a ferocious look. However, as soon as it saw the evil dragon, it paid its respects.
"Mmm, it's you, monkey!"
The black water dragon opened his eyes, and the monkey demon could feel an immense pressure on him. "What are you here for, Monkey God?"
"Hehe... I am only here because the An River Dragon God had tasked me to send a letter of a wanted fugitive!"
The monkey demon plucked a strand of its hair and blew it, and an image appeared in mid-air. The image of a beautiful lady appeared. If Fang Yuan was here, he would have found her extremely familiar.
"The An River Dragon God must capture this lady!"
The monkey demon chuckled.
"Mm, I will inform those under me about it..."
The black water dragon flicked his claws as though he was asking the monkey to be dismissed.
"Dragon God!"
The monkey demon refused to be dismissed. "I have something else to say!"
"Please carry on!"
"The demons on land feel that you are a little overboard to allow humans to fish in the Golden Court Lake! Although the humans give you plenty of offerings for many years to come, do you feel anything different in recent years?"
The monkey demons appeared solemn. "The scarcity of resources and energy from the heavens have led to conflicts among us demons... but instead, the humans are thriving and if this continues, I'm afraid..."
"Hmm, I understand!"
However, the Golden Court Dragon God shook his head, as though he felt that the monkey demon was worrying too much.
After the monkey demon had left, he sighed. "Nobody would know the heaven's intentions..."