Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 499 - 398 Just Accept it (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

Chapter 499: Chapter 398 Just Accept it (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

"Say farewell?" Li Xuan was taken aback: "But as far as I know, Your Highness’s divine enthronement requires waiting until the fifteenth day of the first month, when the Emperor sacrifices at the Temple of Heaven, to be completed."

The enthronement of deities is not the same as that of officials; it must be announced to the great heaven and sovereign earth.

Ao Shuying slightly nodded: "By rights, that should indeed be the case, but I cannot wait that long. There is news from the south, these past few days there has been constant heavy rain upstream of the Yangtze River, I fear that floods may occur, I must hurry back to check."

"I have already informed His Majesty, due to the urgency of the situation, His Majesty has given me permission to skip the Temple of Heaven sacrifice on the fifteenth day of the first month."

Li Xuan couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows: "May I ask Lord, what is the reason for this heavy rain and flood? Is it severe?"

This is because his family makes a living on the Yangtze River, so he can’t help but be overly concerned.

If this were his previous world, a naval commander naturally wouldn’t be concerned about floods.

But in this world, there are groups of big demons in the Yangtze River, and many floods are actually caused by these demons.

The tidu of the caojiang navy, that Li Chengji served as, had the duty of suppressing all kinds of demons and spirits in the Yangtze River.

Li Xuan’s question about what caused the flood is to ask whether it was the work of water demons.

"It is not clear yet, but the heavy rain upstream of the Yangtze River has lasted for almost twenty days, from the twenty-first day of the last lunar month until now, the water level of the Yangtze River has risen by twelve feet, and many places are beginning to face danger."

Ao Shuying was frowning, her eyes full of worry: "Actually, the cause is no longer important at this point, at this moment, whether it is natural disaster or the work of demons, those water demons and sea monsters will join in, stirring up storms and making waves."

"Don’t you know, Li Xuan? Your father, Earl Chengyi, is already in Nanjing organizing military forces, preparing to march upstream of the Yangtze River to wipe out the demons. Yesterday, the Emperor and the cabinet were also discussing whether to order your father to command the navy stationed along the Yangtze River to be on alert in Jiangling."

Li Xuan honestly did not know about this, he has been stuck in the Artifact Refining Pavilion these past two days and has only been busy dealing with the matter of the Crown Prince’s brain tumor. His information in Beijing is not as well-informed as in Nanjing.

His heart sank again, he was, after all, born in Earl Chengyi’s mansion, and having heard and seen much, he had a relatively good understanding of the situation along the Yangtze River.

Since the cabinet was preparing for the Southern Zhili Navy to garrison in Jiangling, the situation seemed extremely dire.

"Thank you for your information, Lord!" At this moment, Li Xuan bowed again: "I have heard that the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Tongtian River are full of demons, and it will inevitably be dangerous for my father to lead troops to crusade against them. I kindly ask Lord to look out for my father when you have spare time."

"Of course, my Longjiang dragon clan and your Chengyi Li Family, have been in alliance for years."

However, Ao Shuying looked hesitant in what followed, and she began to hesitate: "That, um, this, how should I put it? Recently, cough cough——"

She originally wanted to talk to Li Xuan about the ’King Consort’ matter. Recently, not only were statues of Li Xuan erected in dozens of Immortal Master Shuide temples along the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but this trend also spread to many other branches north and south of the Yangtze River.

Ao Shuying tried her best to stop it and issued two ’divine decrees’ in a row to abolish them, yet her efforts had little effect these days.

It was only after she conducted an investigation that she discovered that the construction of Li Xuan’s statues caused a sharp influx of pilgrims to the temples of Immortal Master Shuide, leading to a significant increase in income from incense money.

Looking into the reason for the increase in incense, she found out that there was a legend spreading among the common people recently.

It was probably about Li Xuan, the current Earl of Jingan, a great scholar, who had travelled to Poyang Lake and saved Immortal Master Shuide who was trapped at the bottom of the lake. After experiencing a series of sorrows and joys, the scholar and the beautiful dragon finally became a couple.

The versions in different places varied slightly, but the general storyline was the same.

Interestingly, ever since the court enthroned her as the Immortal Master Shuide, each year they used various channels to promote her reputation. But up to now, her believers did not exceed one million in number, and the incense in various temples was scarce, all relying on the funding from the court for day-to-day expenses.

But after the legend of the talented scholar and beautiful dragon began to circulate, her followers began to swell dramatically, with the temples of the Immortal Master Shuide frequented by masses of pilgrims. Suddenly, people felt, this Immortal Master Shuide became approachable.

Ao Shuying could figure it out with just the tip of her dragon claw. It must be her brothers who were up to mischief with this legend.

Ao Shuying could even imagine what that group of scoundrels, led by Ao Gun, would do next. After things settled down, they would definitely persuade her father, the Dragon King of the East Sea, to take the right to enforce family law from her, since she was already ’married’ and no longer part of Ao’s family.

But as things stood, there was nothing Ao Shuying could do.

This was the awkward predicament she found herself in as a goddess. Those temples were all controlled by local temple stewards, who had been quite devout and respectful to her over the years.

Although Ao Shuying could punish them and forcibly abolish Li Xuan’s statues, making them return to their previous impoverished days, doing so would greatly damage people’s feelings toward her.

So she came today to discuss with Li Xuan. She wanted to suggest that since things had reached this point and there was no going back, why not just reluctantly accept this title of ’King Consort’?

It would only be a nominal title, and there would be no need for him to have any real relationship with her.

Ao Shuying was thinking that to take without asking is to be a thief, and to take by force is to be a robber. Although she was powerless to reverse the situation, she still felt she should inform Li Xuan.

After all, receiving the world’s incense together with Li Xuan would bring not only many benefits but also many future troubles.

But at this moment, when the words came to her lips, Ao Shuying became extremely embarrassed, and after hesitating for a long time, she was unable to say anything.

Li Xuan looked at her, her face red and her ears flushed, he couldn’t help but feel puzzled: "Miss Yuanjun, are you not feeling well?"

He wondered if the Dragon King had suddenly uttered a sound, and then coughed abruptly. Could she be sick?

"I came to apologize for what happened on New Year’s Eve. I have to leave now. If you need me, just burn some incense in the temple of the Immortal Master Shuide outside the city. But no, you can’t go there yourself, have someone else do it."

Ao Shuying couldn’t utter it after all, her face flushed. Without waiting for Li Xuan to reply, she directly transformed into a dragon and soared into the sky.

"Miss Yuanjun, wait, I still have something to say to you, Miss Yuanjun? Miss Yuanjun?"

As Li Xuan watched her figure, he grew more worried. He noted that even her scales had turned red. A black dragon was turning into a mix of black and red. There must be something wrong with her health, right?

Given this situation, would she really be okay handling the flood disaster upstream of the Yangtze River?

Besides, he also had some methods to discuss with her about dispersing rain clouds.

There are methods of artificial rain dispersal in the modern world which might be beneficial to Ao Shuying.

And helping Ao Shuying was to help his father at the same time.

But the more he called out, the faster the Black Dragon flew. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

As soon as the transformed dragon left, Li Xuan woke up his sleeping housekeeper, Li Dalu: "Did any message come to the house recently?"

He had been in the Tai Grand Emperor’s Mausoleum in the north and on the Meng Wu Plains before. Both of these places didn’t have any post stations under the Jin Dynasty’s control, so he couldn’t receive any message symbols there.

Similarly, he couldn’t get them while he was in the Artifact Refining Pavilion of the Liudao Division these past few days because it was semi-enclosed. Ling energy disturbances were dangerous for artifact refining, so all places of artifact and elixir refining strictly prohibited message symbols.

"Yes, we have." Li Dalu woke up with a start: "Just this morning, it said there were major floods on the Yangtze River, and your father is preparing to go into battle. You don’t have to worry. The messenger of the message symbol couldn’t find you, so it dropped it into the mansion."

※※ ※※

Meanwhile, on the south side of the Jinling Bagua Island, the place was filled with warships. Battle flags spread everywhere, and shouts echoed through heaven and earth.

Standing on a seven-story warship, Ear Chengyi Li Chengji was looking down at the river in front of him.

At this time, a total of twelve naval camps and nearly 1,900 warships of all sizes had gathered there. More than 36,000 naval soldiers were practicing warfare strategies, preparing for the final battle.

However, looking at the performance of the ships in front of him, Li Chengji couldn’t help but frowning slightly.

In recent years, the Yangtze River water system has been peaceful under his control. The navies from various places had not experienced war for many years. The lingering impact of the previous rebellion of the Jianling descendants, which involved many local naval leaders, left the navies from different places significantly harmed.

At this moment, only the three Jinling naval camps directly under his control were up to par, while the rest of the naval camps — the Chao Lake naval camp, the Tai Lake naval camp, the Yangzhou naval camp, and so on — showed inadequacy in their warfare strategies.

Fortunately, the condition of those ships was pretty decent. Over the years, under his strict control and suppression, no one dared to tamper with the naval equipment. Therefore, all local naval camps almost all had new ships, seven-tenths of them new at least, and they were fully equipped with weapons.

As Li Chengji gazed intently, his eldest son, Li Yan, hurriedly came in.

"Father!" Li Yan’s face turned grave: "Message from Min River, Xiangyue’s seal has been broken. Although Xiangyue’s main body is still under seal, it’s very likely to have formed an avatar."

"Really?" Li Chengji’s eyes suddenly became as cold as ice.

Xiangyue was an ancient giant water demon, one of Gonggong’s servants who knocked down Buzhou Mountain. It’s said that this demon snake had nine heads, devoured numerous people, and flooded wherever it went. Its water was more dreadful than flood water, bitter and spicy, lethal to whoever drank it. The blood that flowed out from it would make the land infertile as soon as it touched the soil.

In ancient times, Xiangyue was first slain by Dayu. After it resurrected and caused chaos again, it was sealed in the Min River by the unification of the Great Qin nation during the Warring States Period.

Li Chengji had never seen Xiangyue, but he knew it was an ’Extremely Heavenly Level’ giant demon. Even one of its avatars would be extremely terrifying.

"Investigate who dared to break Xiangyue’s seal so audaciously. But first, we need to get rid of the water demons upstream as quickly as possible, and disperse the clouds and rain. Go and urge the Ministry of War in Nanjing to issue military orders as quickly as possible."

According to Jin Dynasty’s system, the Five-Armies Dudu was responsible for training and commanding soldiers, while the Ministry of War was responsible for military supplies and troop mobilization.

To march east, Li Chengji must receive approval from the Ministry of War in Nanjing.

"Also, send people to check on Wu Zhiqi to see if there’s any movement at Tongbai Mountain in Henan. Judging by the clouds and rain, it seems likely to expand to the north."

Wu Zhiqi was a powerful demon of Huaishui. It had a monkey-like figure, golden eyes, and snow-white teeth. It was quick and sharp. It was one of the three giant water demons controlled by Dayu during the water control. Before being sealed, it was also ’Extremely Heavenly Level’.

Li Chengji looked in the direction of the north, his heart filled with worry.

One Xiangyue was enough to cause headaches. If another Wu Zhiqi were added, it would be hard for the Court to stop this disaster even if it mobilized all its forces.