Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Outside the old wooden house in Five Dragons Village.
Qin Shiyu stared at the scene before her, completely petrified.
Disbelief filled her beautiful eyes.
How was this possible?
Was she seeing things?
That was the black mist of the calamity! According to the Hall of Anomalies’ research, it was incomparably terrifying. Even anomalies had no power to resist it.
The five flood dragons of Five Dragons Mountain had reached SS-class, yet all of them ultimately died.
Qin Shiyu had personally experienced the mist’s horror moments ago. Her Sovereign Seal could suppress every anomaly in the village, yet it had been utterly powerless against the black mist.
But a terrifying existence like that had been knocked down by one swing from Li Que. Even the black mist had scattered!
She blinked instinctively and stared at the piece of firewood in his hand.
It was ordinary wood. It did not even qualify as an anomalous entity.
And that had worked?
Qin Shiyu was truly dumbfounded. Then she recalled how seriously she had reacted when the Village Guardian mentioned the black mist outside the village office, while Li Que had dismissed it without concern.
At the time, she had wondered whether Li Que was unafraid of such a thing.
Now it seemed…
He truly was not afraid!
Black mist?
It could not even withstand one strike from Li Que!
Just how powerful was he?
He had accomplished something five SS-class flood dragons could not.
Could he be SSS-class?!
“No. That can’t be right…”
She immediately shook her head.
An anomaly wielder at that level did not exist in this world!
Even within the Hall of Anomalies, such a level was treated as nothing more than legend.
No one had ever reached it in reality.
Besides, successfully completing an SSS-class containment ritual would inevitably trigger massive disturbances-earthquakes, windstorms, changes in the heavens, and more. There was no way such an event could have escaped detection all these years.
Could Li Que possess some other unknown quality that allowed him to destroy the black mist so easily?
Countless theories raced through her mind, but she could confirm none of them. Her gaze toward Li Que grew ever more complicated.
What were the origins of this seemingly ordinary, mild-mannered teacher?
He possessed power at the very pinnacle, yet hid himself inside a small school in Mingjiang City. He clearly understood everything, yet seemed to deliberately play the fool.
What was his goal?
She could not understand or see through him. He was far too mysterious.
Li Que, meanwhile, watched the unconscious Gao Shen warily.
He had held back. Why had the man collapsed?
Was he really that fragile?
Had Li Que accidentally killed him? Gao Shen might have tried to assault a female teacher and deserved punishment, but an actual death would still create a great deal of trouble!
Li Que set down the piece of firewood and checked. Thankfully, Gao Shen was still breathing.
Only then did he relax. The man was merely unconscious.
“Ms. Qin, if the police ask questions later, you’ll have to testify for me. I was intervening to help someone in danger, not committing intentional assault.”
Qin Shiyu’s expression grew complicated. As expected of a supreme expert-he had destroyed the black mist and still had the composure to joke.
“Here, put on my coat.”
Li Que removed his coat and handed it to her.
Half of Qin Shiyu’s blouse had been torn away, exposing a broad expanse of pale skin. Only now did she notice. She hurriedly covered herself, her face flushing crimson.
She accepted the coat. “Thank you… Teacher Li. What should we do next?”
Li Que was considering the same question.
“Not fully dead! It isn’t fully dead! Find it! If it eats the goats, you can’t stop it! If it eats the goats, you can’t stop it!”
The Village Guardian waved his arms and shouted urgently, pointing in a direction outside the village.
“Don’t panic. Everything’s fine.”
Li Que tried to calm him. The Village Guardian was already mentally unwell, and seeing Li Que strike someone had probably frightened him further.
Yet the moment Li Que reassured him, the Village Guardian truly stopped shouting. A foolish smile spread across his face as he stared blankly at Li Que.
“Come help me carry this man inside.”
Li Que pointed at Gao Shen on the ground.
They could not leave him outside. For now, they would throw him into the kitchen and tie him up.
The Village Guardian limped over to help. Before long, Gao Shen had been dumped inside the kitchen.
“Ms. Qin, I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with staying here tonight.”
She was a key witness and could not leave.
Qin Shiyu wanted nothing more. She nodded immediately. “All right.”
“I’ll check on Xiaoyu first.”
Li Que pushed open the door to the main hall. Qin Shiyu followed beside him, while even the Village Guardian stood foolishly in the doorway and peered inside.
Two candles cast a dim yellow glow across the room. Lin Xiaoyu sat quietly before the shrine, an air of serene holiness surrounding her delicate face.
The dragon horns that had emerged from her forehead were gone.
The painting on the shrine had disappeared as well, leaving behind only a pile of ashes.
Qin Shiyu was instantly stunned. Her pupils contracted, and all color drained from her face.
“She… became a god?!”
The Hall of Anomalies had studied the Water God’s Authority for many years, so Qin Shiyu understood what had happened almost immediately.
Lin Xiaoyu had obtained another Water God’s Knot, but she had been unable to contain it on her own.
Now the five dragons had helped her complete part of the containment ritual. She had become… a demigod!
Countless thoughts raced through Qin Shiyu’s mind, stirring towering waves in her heart.
At last, she understood why Li Que had come to Five Dragons Mountain.
He had come to make Lin Xiaoyu a god!
Her expression became extraordinarily complicated.
The Hall of Anomalies and the Eclipse Organization had fought over the Water God’s Authority for years, making countless plans along the way.
Yet Lin Xiaoyu was the one who ultimately received the true sacred inheritance.
How could anyone be so fortunate?
Worse, Qin Shiyu still could not understand how the ritual had been completed.
This was a ceremony involving SS-class flood dragons and the Water God’s Authority. According to the Hall of Anomalies’ plans, even Frost, the strongest candidate, first needed to expend enormous effort fusing with the Water God’s Scale.
Only then could she barely earn the five dragons’ acknowledgment. Attempting the ceremony directly should have provoked their wrath!
A successful ritual should also have required an elaborate, meticulously designed process and preparations on a grand scale.
Several S-class anomaly wielders would have been needed to stabilize the site, and the entire process should have taken months.
Yet the scene before her was impossibly simple.
There was nothing here.
Only two candles had been lit.
Less than half a day had passed.
And it was done?
How had they possibly accomplished this?!
Behind them, tears streamed from the Village Guardian’s eyes as he grinned foolishly.
“The dragons are back! The winds and rains will be gentle again! The dragons are coming back!”
He suddenly turned and raced into the village, shouting as he ran.
“The dragons are back! Dawn has come!”
He ran from one end of the village to the other, announcing the good news to its residents.
Throughout Five Dragons Village, countless walking-corpse villagers toppled stiffly to the ground. One after another, they dissolved into pus and vanished.
“They’re back… The dragons are back… Five Dragons Village is saved…”
Outside the village office, the deathly pale village chief slowly turned toward the old wooden house at the end of the flagstone road.
A trace of clarity seemed to return to his eyes.
Then he dropped to his knees.
Two trails of pus ran from his eye sockets as he struck his head heavily against the ground.
“Five Dragons Village pays its respects to Lord Dragon God!”
He never rose again. His corpse rapidly decayed until even his bones crumbled into ash.
…
Every anomaly in the village vanished over the course of a single night.
Only the Village Guardian remained. He sat on an old tree stump at the village entrance, laughing and weeping in his madness. He set out a bowl of water with three chopsticks standing upright inside it and called the lost souls home across the empty mountains.
“Come home. Everyone, come home… If you’re coming, come quickly. Don’t linger before the mountain or behind it…”
…