Chapter 18

Chapter 18

For the Fuzhu’s massive size, the breach in the city wall was not particularly wide.

It forced itself through with a heavy stride, scraping against the sides until a large section of the surrounding brickwork collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Once inside the city, the Fuzhu tossed its antlers.

The buildings on either side instantly crumbled, their roof tiles scattering in every direction.

A rain-soaked soldier, unable to dodge in time, was struck in the thigh by a flying shard of tile.

He let out a blood-curdling scream and collapsed face-first onto the ground. His leg was bent at a sickening angle, and blood sprayed across the pavement.

The Fuzhu’s hooves, as white as pure jade, trod upon the bluestone streets of the city.

It lowered its head, huffing a rank, foul breath over the fallen soldier.

Then, with a cruel deliberation, it opened its mouth slowly to bite down, wanting to savor the sight of human terror.

Paralyzed in the rain, the soldier had lost all ability to react. He lay there like a stone, waiting for death to descend.

At that moment, a silver flash pierced through the curtain of rain.

The Fuzhu dodged nimbly. A long spear slammed into the bluestone ground with a sharp thud, its wooden shaft shattering under the sheer force of the impact.

The Fuzhu looked up, catching sight of Han Lie withdrawing his hand.

This Monstrous Beast possessed intelligence comparable to a human’s and knew how to hold a grudge against those who harmed it.

With a stomp of its hooves, it changed direction, intent on impaling Han Lie upon its antlers.

“Watch out!”

The soldiers atop the wall cried out in alarm.

Han Lie spoke in a low voice to Xu Tan, “The Fuzhu loves antler-play and is incredibly bellicose. I’ll lure it away.”

With that, he broke into a sprint along the city wall, distancing himself from the other soldiers.

He wanted to try and lead the Monstrous Beast away.

Seeing that he still dared to run, the Fuzhu let out a deer-like cry.

It truly did give chase.

The rain grew heavier, and the armor weighing Han Lie down severely hampered his speed.

Just as he was about to leap down from a broken section of the wall, his footsteps suddenly faltered.

The bead hanging around his neck grew hot.

Han Lie jerked his head up to look at the dark clouds shrouding the sky.

The clouds seemed to be churned by something, forming a massive vortex.

Just as the Fuzhu’s antlers were about to pierce his back, two enormous wooden pillars suddenly descended from the cloud layer.

They looked like… chopsticks.

The Fuzhu was also startled by this strange sight, its four hooves slipping as it actually tumbled to the ground.

In the next instant, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, the Fuzhu that had been rampaging through the city was pinched by the two wooden pillars descending from the heavens.

The Fuzhu’s terrified bleating echoed throughout Yunwu County City.

Its four hooves struggled wildly, but it was snatched up by the Divine Shadow in the sky-like someone picking up a morsel of food-and carried into the dark clouds.

The moment the Fuzhu’s cries vanished, the torrential rain abruptly weakened.

It turned into a fine drizzle, and as a gentle breeze brushed past everyone’s faces, the dark clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed.

Han Lie snapped out of his tension, only then realizing that his hands were covered in blood from drawing his bow.

All the defending soldiers knelt as one, kowtowing toward the sky.

“We thank the Supreme Deity for our salvation!”

Meanwhile, in the endless darkness of the far west, a pair of blood-colored pupils snapped open.

Two plumes of white mist exhaled from scaled nostrils, and a deep male voice spoke with a hint of confusion.

“Hmm?”

“The Rain Calamity, Fuzhu, has vanished.”

***

The Four-Horned White Deer, which had just been so overbearing as it smashed through the city wall, now had its body frozen stiff. It was held by the tips of a pair of extra-long hotpot chopsticks and dropped into something.

Where was this?

Who was this giant woman in front of it?

The Fuzhu slumped down, its strength failing.

Qin Ying picked up the empty yellow peach can. She cautiously tightened the lid first before looking at the little thing she had put into the jar with her chopsticks.

“It shouldn’t be able to break out, right?”

Qin Ying wasn’t quite sure about the combat power of this little creature. She thought about finding some tape to wrap around it a few more times for reinforcement.

However, she noticed that the little white deer, which had been so arrogant in the box world, remained motionless after being put into the jar.

Qin Ying couldn’t help but bring it closer to inspect. “Did I not control my strength and squeeze it to death?”

She shook the jar.

Following the motion of her shaking, the Fuzhu inside bumped against the glass wall.

Immediately, a tragic, muffled bleat echoed inside the jar.

Qin Ying didn’t know why this deer was making sheep noises out of fear. Even less did she know how much pressure her clear, watery eyes-enhanced after eating the Danghu-exerted on the Fuzhu.
The Fuzhu had completely dropped its previous arrogance, its four legs scrambling frantically inside the glass jar. The bottom of the jar was smooth, and as its hooves slipped and skidded, it slammed its head hard against the glass.

Qin Ying was startled by its sudden burst of ‘liveliness.’ Instinctively, she snatched off her right slipper and pointed it at the creature.

“Don’t you dare start thrashing around!”

If this thing managed to break out of the jar, she’d swat it to death with her slipper first to save herself the trouble.

To the Fuzhu, Qin Ying’s slipper was no different from a massive mountain. When someone threatens you with a mountain, what can you do? Naturally, you get scared half to death!

The Fuzhu let out another bleat, and a thunderous boom instantly shook the sky. Dark, heavy clouds piled up abruptly overhead.

Sitting behind her counter knitting a sweater, Aunt Hong gave a sudden shudder. On the counter, her phone happened to be playing an interview. The director of the Meteorological Bureau was speaking to a reporter, his voice brimming with confidence.

“The city has been experiencing persistent high temperatures. After research and discussion, we have decided to conduct cloud seeding to induce artificial rain and lower the temperature.”

“For this operation, we will launch 160 rain-enhancement shells and 39 rain-enhancement rockets…”

On Aunt Hong’s phone, the director continued explaining their artificial rain plan while the broadcast showed a live feed of the field operations. Sitting behind her counter, Aunt Hong couldn’t see the sky outside suddenly turning pitch black.

She listened to the news while picking up her knitting needles again. “Well, isn’t that something?” she remarked, surprised. “Artificial rain is quite the marvel. They just shot those things up and it’s raining already?”

She didn’t take the thunder seriously. She looped the red yarn around her pinky and had just finished a stitch when a sudden commotion erupted outside.

“It’s raining! Run!”

“Huh?”

Aunt Hong stood up to look outside and was immediately pelted in the face by a fine spray. She dropped her knitting needles and hurried to close the door and move her stock inside. She let out a shout, calling for her husband to come help.

The couple was stunned the moment they stepped out of the shop. The sky was filled with thunderclouds, hanging so low and heavy it felt as if the entire sky might collapse on them. In the time it took for them to hesitate, the wind began to howl and the rain intensified.

A massive cyclone was forming in the sky. Standing in the path of the wind, the rain was so heavy it left people gasping for breath.

Even Aunt Hong’s usually silent husband couldn’t help but grumble as he hauled crates. “Good grief, is some immortal undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation?”

Compared to her ‘cultivation-path’ husband, Aunt Hong was a woman of science. She spat out a leaf that had plastered itself against her mouth.

“Cultivation my foot! This must be those shells from the Meteorological Bureau. They definitely fired too many!”

In the phone broadcast, the director of the Meteorological Bureau had no idea what was happening. He stood there dazed, drenched by a sudden downpour. Was cloud seeding supposed to have this kind of effect?

Setting aside his sudden professional identity crisis, the entire city had been thrown into chaos by the sudden torrential rain.

Once the goods were moved inside, Aunt Hong’s husband pulled down the rolling shutter and expertly brought over wooden boards to block the water. The infrastructure and drainage in the Old Town were poor; the area flooded whenever it rained, so everyone was well-practiced in this routine.

Aunt Hong’s hair, which she had just permed and dyed yesterday, was already limp and flattened. The hair dye was running, leaving red streaks down her face. Suddenly, she slapped her thigh and rushed toward the second floor of her house in a panic.

Right then, a violent gust of wind and rain swept through. A pair of purple lace-trimmed panties slipped from their clip on the drying rack, brushing past Aunt Hong’s fingertips. They fluttered in the wind like a small flag.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! My undies!” Aunt Hong cried out in her thick hometown accent as she leaned out the window, shouting at her flying underwear.

“My clothes!”

Qin Ying gripped the glass jar, watching helplessly as her laundry flew away from the window. The more the jar in her hand shook, the heavier the rain became. She hadn’t yet realized why this was happening.

Viewed from above, the thunderclouds were rotating with Qin Ying’s house as the center. This was also where the rain was heaviest. Like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion, a pillar of water-which could no longer be called mere rain-was pouring down directly onto Qin Ying’s home.