In the early spring of May and June, it was the season for sowing in Heshan Town.
As long as you approached the farmland, you could hear loud and clear mountain songs; the farmers enjoyed themselves with it, looking every bit like they were living in a time of peace and prosperity.
The farmland stretched so far that there was no end in sight; Heshan Town at this time became extremely quiet, with only some children and elderly people cooling themselves in the shade of the trees.
A tea stall had stopped near the official road, and the vendor hawked tea in a voice no less loud than the farmers, immediately attracting more than a dozen people.
The price for each bowl of tea was not expensive, all brewed from roasted barley.
A rich fragrance spread out.
Old Li wiped his hands clean, then walked slowly into the stall.
The not-large place had seven or eight long benches set out; the farmers sat on them, dealing with the tea as they could, resting for a moment before having to get busy again.
Old Li greeted some familiar farmers, unable to stop himself from complaining aloud.
"This damned weather is getting hotter and hotter. Clearly it was still winter not long ago, how come there isn't even the slightest breeze now?"
A somewhat younger farmer, A-Liang, took over the conversation: "Ah, so long as the Yu River doesn't dry up, a hot spell will actually make the grain harvest faster."
"That's true."
Old Li thought of the white, gleaming silver coins the government would hand out when they came to collect the grain at rice-ear time, and at once could not help but smile from ear to ear.
Heshan Town had low taxes; every year the government provided the rice seed, so at most you had to work hard and could still earn enough silver to build a house and start a family.
The few of them drank tea and chatted idly; soon the porcelain bowls were almost empty.
Just at that moment, from a corner came an unfamiliar voice: "Elder, a few months ago in the cold of winter, did the weather ever turn warm?"
Old Li looked somewhat surprised; at some point, a man had appeared in the corner, looked like he had already been in the sugar-water shop for quite some time.
Seeing the other's Jianghu attire, he didn't take it to heart.
In the past two years, martial artists traveling all over Xiangxiang had grown more numerous, and armed escorts were even more often seen.
"No, not at all, in fact, I felt the winter was even colder."
Hearing this, Ren Qing frowned; for the weather to show anomalies must certainly signify some omen, could it be related to the marshlands?
Old Li noticed the black cloth on Ren Qing's arm, the kind worn for a relative's funeral, and was a little curious as to why he would be so far from home, but tactfully didn't ask.
Ren Qing noticed the others' glances, and did not deliberately conceal the black cloth.
Half a month ago, Madam Chen's lifespan had run out; in the end, she was buried in the backyard of the village.
He felt mixed emotions about it.
No matter how open-minded Ren Qing tried to be, she was still the mother of his previous body; even on her deathbed she had been instructing him in all those trifling matters.
Ren Qing had almost been unable to resist taking out corpse food to extend Madam Chen's life.
But in the end he still respected the old woman's wishes.
The people of this world viewed the death of relatives very openly; after all, the limit of lifespan was set there, no one could live past fifty.
The relatives in the village did not weep or wail; they very solemnly buried Madam Chen beside Old Ren's grave mound.
After Ren Qing had worn mourning cloth and kept vigil for seven days in accordance with the rules, he set out for the marshlands.
Going to the marshlands was partly because of a shortage of sand resources, and partly because the Restraint Officers' Hall was truly too short of manpower.
After Shui Hulu's death, the Great Dream True Person had advanced to the Yang God realm, the little man in the bottle remained inside the Stomach within the Stomach, causing the same-body head in the jar to be unable to leave.
Sun, because his figure was so large and different from ordinary people, was also not suited to appear in the outside world.
The Restraint Officers' Hall had only Song Zongwu and Li Tiangang left who were at the Yin Runner realm and could be deployed.
Although the Restraint Officers' Hall had several Restraint Officers who had undergone three arcane mutations and reached the Ghost Envoy realm and might gradually advance to Yin Runner, that was a slow remedy for an urgent need.
Originally Ren Qing had intended to keep quietly developing, but then unexpectedly discovered that in the ghost market, aside from Great Dream weapon-forging, none of the other shops were charging lifespan for transactions anymore.
Such a situation indicated that after the Great Dream True Person reached the Yang God realm, the Butterfly Dream Technique's lifespan-extending effect very likely no longer worked.
While distractedly chatting with Boss Liu, Ren Qing took a sip of tea to calm himself.
Reasonably speaking, for a Yang God realm powerhouse like the Great Dream True Person to also daily manage the ghost market was indeed making things difficult for them, why not...
Ren Qing planned to find an opportunity to obtain the Butterfly Dream Technique, and then use it to seize control of the ghost market.
So after looking at the tasks posted on the bulletin, he decisively accepted one.
The task only said to head to the north of Heshan Town.
Since there was still ample time, Ren Qing decided to first check the nearby area to see if there were any anomalies before setting out; it would not be too late.
The two got on more and more congenially; Old Li also became increasingly talkative.
"By the way, young hero, how should I address you?"
"My surname is Ren, given name Qing."
A-Liang leaned in to interject: "Brother Ren Qing, with such broad knowledge, you must have been to quite a few places."
Ren Qing didn't mind the smell of sweat on the farmer, and while topping up A-Liang's tea replied: "Not too many, mainly around Sanxiang City."
A-Liang's face showed envy, and then he asked: "Recently the Yu River has risen quite a bit for no reason at all; Old Li has been saying it's the Dragon King turning over the earth, Brother Ren Qing, what do you think?"
Ren Qing's tone paused for several breaths before replying: "It's indeed possible, small rivers and lakes are prone to producing Dragon Kings."
Old Li laughed and said: "That's what I've been saying."
"It hasn't rained for more than half a month, yet the water level keeps rising, and it's so muddy, must be the Dragon King turning over the earth."
At first Ren Qing hadn't paid much attention, thinking it was due to sandification at the source of the Yu River.
After all, the Yu River's branches were widespread; somewhere upstream might border the marshlands.
But from their conversation, he learned that the Yu River was actually a stagnant-water river, without any distinction between upstream and downstream; previously the river water had been clear to the bottom.
Ren Qing couldn't help frowning.
Could it be due to an underground river?
If there was an underground river near Heshan Town that led to the marshlands, he would have to warn the Restraint Officers' Hall to be careful.
After resting for a bit, the farmers went back to the fields to sow, and the vendor moved the stall to attract more business.
Ren Qing headed toward the so-called Yu River.
If the Yu River were to affect Heshan Town's environment, it could very likely cause a sharp reduction in Xiangxiang's grain harvest.
Xiangxiang was mostly hilly; Heshan was one of the few places suitable for large-scale sowing. If they had to find a new area, it would inevitably require Restraint Officers to move mountains and divert rivers, too much trouble.
The sound of flowing water was like a waterfall.
Ren Qing arrived at the Yu River's main branch, several li from the town.
The Yu River was not small in scale; waves endlessly washed against the riverbed.
The river water was slightly yellowish; Ren Qing couldn't help reaching in to touch it, and found it obviously contained sand and gravel, definitely evidence of sandification.
In the middle of the Yu River was a boatman rowing with oars; he noticed Ren Qing on the bank, and assumed he wanted to take a boat.
The boatman guided the small boat toward the bank.
But just as he came close and was about to call out to ask, Ren Qing suddenly jumped into the rushing Yu River and disappeared without a trace.
"In broad daylight, seeing ghosts..."
The boatman was startled, instantly feeling caught in a dilemma.
The river surface showed no ripples; the man could have been swept who knows where, his actions really looked like he was seeking death.
As the boatman's mind whirled with thoughts, a massive black shadow, about ten meters long, loomed over the river.
"Dragon King... my lord?!!"
The shadow sank into the riverbed; with a flick of its fish tail it swam quickly upstream.
Ren Qing's kun form was like a fish in water; he could feel the current dragging him forward, his speed becoming faster and faster.
But there were few fish in the river, and the water plants were sparse, this was why Heshan Town's residents didn't have the habit of fishing.
He reached the spot where the current was fastest.
Using the Kunpeng's senses, Ren Qing quickly locked on to the source at the river bottom, but strangely, the river water seemed to be appearing out of nowhere.
Fins swaying, he swam toward the target.
But what appeared before him was not an entrance to an underground river, only a jumble of water plants, from which the river water gushed out.
With his double pupils scanning, it seemed far too ordinary.
Ren Qing, on alert, extended the Dragon-Snake Spine to push aside the water plants.
What appeared before his eyes was actually several huge rocks; water overflowed from the gaps between them, giving a very inexplicable feeling.
Ren Qing swung the snake spine to coil around the rocks and bit by bit moved them aside.
The riverbed was exposed before him.
When he saw the object in the crevice, his pupils contracted sharply.
The source was actually a finger joint; flesh still clung to the white bone, the bone showing a ghastly pale color tinged with light green.
Three Dream Seeds simultaneously appeared on Ren Qing's forehead.
In his vision, the Yu River became exquisitely detailed; he could even detect several aquatic insects clinging to the rock wall.
Ren Qing examined the finger bone closely, his expression growing increasingly grave.
The finger bone was melting.
Melting at an extremely slow rate.
Each particle of bone dust, fine as motes, would form a surge of water mixed with sand and gravel; this one finger joint alone could increase the Yu River's water volume by several times.
This was why, despite so long without rain, the water level had risen.
But the finger bone was not a Supernatural Remnant, nor any kind of magical artifact.
How could it produce such an anomaly?
As Ren Qing was momentarily dazed, from maintaining the kun form for so long the Kunpeng's Supernatural Remnant began to erode his body.
He imprisoned the Supernatural Remnant in the Prison Within the Abdomen, then used the Dragon-Snake Spine to bind the finger bone, and headed toward the surface with it.
When the finger bone was exposed to the air, it stopped melting; the Yu River immediately grew calm, glittering in the sunlight.
The sand and gravel gradually sank to the bottom, and in moments it would return to being clear to the bottom.
Ren Qing examined the finger bone carefully.
The death time was about a month ago; it should be from a woman, the green tinge in the bone probably from cultivating a technique controlling plants.
"Lu Xiaoyu? No, the bone's mutation is relatively light."
He took out Sun's feather to contact Li Tiangang, then swam toward the boatman he had seen earlier.
The boatman stared fixedly at the suddenly stilled water surface, looking rather at a loss, could that man just now really have been the Yu River's Dragon King?
"Boatman, let me ask you something."
Ren Qing's voice suddenly sounded, startling him so much he almost fell into the water.
"Y-yes, sir..."
The boatman replied respectfully.
He saw Ren Qing half-submerged at the water's surface, with traces of mutation still on his face, this only reinforced his certainty.
"Half a month ago, was there anyone acting strangely who passed by the riverbank?"
"..."
The boatman thought hard for a long time, then said hesitantly: "There was indeed one; it was too late at the time to see clearly, but they seemed to be wearing blue-green clothing."
"Got it, thanks."
Ren Qing dived back into the water, not even noticing the boatman bowing with his head knocked against the gunwale.
Blue-green clothing was probably just the boatman not seeing clearly; in fact, that Restraint Officer's technique had gone out of control, wrapping their whole body in plants.
But if the corpse turned to flowing water on contact, and if their bones were scattered around Heshan Town, then once it rained...
Ren Qing looked up at the clouds gradually gathering in the sky, and shook his head with a wry smile.
This time, trouble was big.