Mount Taicang, the Crown Prince Summit.
It was the time of the day when the crowds of visitors could no longer linger and were asked to leave the Royal Holy Temple. The sounds of chanting sutras echoed in waves from within the Palace of Xianle, and over a thousand cultivators were conducting their evening lessons with the four state preceptors leading the service beneath the feet of the fifteen-meter-high golden divine statue.
Within the Temple of the Crown Prince, innumerable offering lamps lined the walls on both sides from floor to ceiling. Xie Lian descended from the sky, landed lightly on the altar, and took a seat right before his own statue.
He waved, and a light breeze blew from out of nowhere, making the countless lamps spin gently, their lights blurring. The cultivators looked up and began to whisper in awe among themselves.
The state preceptor, who was sitting slumped with his eyes closed, suddenly blinked them open. "That'll be it for today. You are all dismissed."
The cultivators rose to their feet and left. The other three deputy state preceptors couldn't see Xie Lian's true form, but they could guess that some being had descended, so they also departed the hall and closed the temple doors behind them. Once those tall doors were shut, Xie Lian immediately began to speak, unable to wait another second.
"State Preceptor, did you know about the drought in Yong'an? There's been no word from Father, so did something happen at court? Or is he simply unaware of the exact situation?"
Heavenly officials were not permitted to show themselves before mortals without explicit permission from on high. But there was only one exception to the rule, and that was appearing before high-level cultivators such as state preceptors or religious ministers. Those who had cultivated to certain levels were representatives of heavenly officials in the Mortal Realm, and this was why Xie Lian could speak directly to the state preceptor. The "no prostrating within the Temple of the Crown Prince" rule was thus dictated through the mouth of the state preceptor from Xie Lian.
He had originally thought there was some sort of extreme circumstance—an exceptional issue the king couldn't extricate himself from to handle the disaster in Yong'an, something that had tied his hands, or something that had prevented him from realizing that things were so deadly serious.
Unexpectedly, however, the state preceptor replied, "His Majesty the King is in satisfactory health, nothing major has happened, and he knows very well of what's happening in Yong'an."
Xie Lian was taken aback. "Then how come in all the times Father's visited the Royal Holy Temple, I've never heard him pray for Yong'an once? Not even a word?"
Even if he didn't get along well with his father, he also knew that the king was not a fatuous ruler. While the man revered hierarchy, saw himself as the son of the heavens above the common folk, that didn't mean he was indifferent to the plight of refugees.
The state preceptor replied, "This has nothing to do with His Majesty. I am the one who advised that neither he nor the queen mention Yong'an in their prayers."
"Why…?" Xie Lian demanded.
"Because it's pointless," the state preceptor stated.
Xie Lian was shocked. "What do you mean, 'pointless'?"
He paused for a moment and worked over the state preceptor's words in his mind.
"Are you saying that because I'm a martial god with no control over droughts, telling me would be pointless? I may be a martial god, but I'm also the Crown Prince of Xianle—or did you forget? My people are mired in misery! How can I sit back and do nothing?"
After a thought, he continued, "The priority right now is to save and settle the disaster victims. Please speak to my father on my behalf and tell him to stop constructing these temples; there are already too many Temples of the Crown Prince in this kingdom, I don't need all of them. And those golden statues—they could be melted down to help allocate funds for the disaster. Yong'an is to the west, and they need water, so let's dig a river and divert water from the east to irrigate the crops and nourish the land…"
As he spoke, the state preceptor only shook his head, muttering to himself, "Too early, too early."
Xie Lian didn't understand. "What's too early?"
"Do you understand now why I said you shouldn't ascend too early?" the state preceptor asked. "It's because your people haven't died out yet."
"…" Xie Lian's eyes widened, and his voice grew dark and furious. "State Preceptor! What…what are you saying?! What do you…what do you mean my people haven't died out yet?!"
"You've already become a god, but you can't forget who you were as a mortal; you're unable to let go and differentiate between the two realms," the state preceptor replied. "You're involving yourself, but you are also powerless, and the results will be an utter mess."
Xie Lian was seated upon the altar and the state preceptor stood below; even though it was obvious Xie Lian was the one looking down, when the state preceptor spoke, it was as if he were the one above.
"How can I be powerless? As long as I act, there will be results. Every little bit counts. Even if I can only save one person, that's still better than indifference and inaction. If you will not speak to my father on my behalf, then I will seek him out myself," Xie Lian said.
He shot to his feet, but the state preceptor seized a corner of his sleeve, yelling.
"Come back! Do you know why heavenly officials aren't allowed to show themselves before mortals at will? A law that's existed for thousands of years exists for a reason! Don't do anything foolish!"
Xie Lian whipped his head back. "Then what can I do?! I can't do this, I can't do that; State Preceptor, there are people dying right now in my land! Are gods not called gods because they can save people?! If I don't appear now, then when can I appear?! What will my ascension even mean?!"
The state preceptor held him down, sighing. "Your Highness, hahh, Your Highness. Do you know what I've seen?"
Xie Lian calmed himself before sitting again. "Please enlighten me."
The state preceptor stared hard at him. "I've seen your future, and it's pitch black."
Xie Lian looked him straight in the eyes. "You must be mistaken. I only like to wear white."
"I worry that not only will you be unable to save your people, they will turn around and drag you down from the divine altar," the state preceptor said.
"My people are not like that; they can clearly recognize what is right and what is wrong. If I cannot save them, then there's no meaning to me being on this altar anyway," Xie Lian replied.
It was a good while before the state preceptor sighed again. "What your father has done can't be called right, but it can'tbe called wrong either. You said to allocate funds, but it's not like your father hasn't tried— you can go see how effective that's been. And you said to dig a river to divert the waters—go to that river yourself and determine whether it can be done."
Xie Lian bowed his head. "I understand. Thank you, State Preceptor."
***
Upon leaving Mount Taicang, he headed westward and arrived at the city of Yong'an within the Kingdom of Xianle.
In the twenty years of his life, Xie Lian had never imagined the sun could be so scorching and deadly. With every step, he could feel how unbearably hot and dry the earth was; it was like the air around him was contorted with it. In the blazing sunlight, the land had cracked into broken chunks that looked horrifyingly aged. There was a deep gutter by the roadside that seemed to have been a river once, but now it was dry to the bottom, and the blackened riverbed emitted a strange stench. He walked for a long time and didn't see a single paddy field. Maybe there had been fields once, but at this point they were unrecognizable.
Xie Lian looked around as he walked. That hot, dry breeze blew his long hair into a mess, but he was too preoccupied to care.
Just then, someone suddenly called for him from behind.
"Your Highness!"
Xie Lian turned his head and saw two figures in black approaching in a rush. It was Feng Xin and Mu Qing.
Xie Lian cut straight to the point. "Any news?"
Feng Xin flapped the front of his shirt to fan himself. "Yes. Over the past two years, the whole western territory has been going through a water shortage, and things finally blew up this year. Yong'an is the worst affected —the river's dry and the rain doesn't fall, so the crops won't grow. The wealthier families are still faring all right; as long as there's money, food and water can be bought from elsewhere. However, most of the wealthy have already moved to the eastern territories. Those who are left are either poor or unable to survive the move."
Xie Lian knitted his brows. "The state preceptor said my father didn't just sit back, that he gave the order to send disaster relief, so why is it still so serious?"
"When funds go through government checkpoints, each checkpoint skims off a little bit to line their own pockets, until finally there's nothing left. Of course it's still this serious," Mu Qing said coldly. "If it were up to me, I would've preferred not to send anything at all, rather than feed those parasites."
Xie Lian's breath hitched. Forcing his anger down, he stated, "I will tell those parasites to regurgitate every single penny they've devoured."
"Your Highness, did you forget?" Mu Qing reminded him. "This is not within your purview. Heavenly officials can't interfere in mortal matters. A meter of ice isn't formed by a single cold day. His Majesty the King is the one responsible for the Mortal Realm, this is his duty—if even he can't manage it, how will you fix it when you've already got your hands full of countless prayers from your devotees? If you concern yourself with this and that, in the end you'll only bring problems upon yourself. Besides, that would only cure the symptoms, not the root cause."
Feng Xin blocked out the sun with his hand. "To cure the root cause, there needs to be water. For now, why doesn't Your Highness have the state preceptor tell His Majesty to divert the waters from the east to the west?"
Xie Lian shook his head. "I already suggested that to the state preceptor."
"What did he say?" Feng Xin asked.
"…" Xie Lian was momentarily stumped. "That it's not feasible, more or less. But I realize now that it really can't be done. To redirect the water, we'd need to dig the river, but something like digging a canal would require mass conscription, but who knows how many years that'd take, and it'd only exhaust the people and the treasury. It won't work."
Feng Xin nodded. "True enough. Distant waters can't extinguish nearby fires."
Xie Lian hummed. "But if this can't be solved by mortal means, maybe we can try divine methods. I heard there's been a change of Rain Masters in recent years. The newly ascended Rain Master seems like a reclusive person, but I'll see if I can pay a visit and request that eastern waters be moved westward as rain.
Since Xie Lian's ascension, he never paid any personal visits to any other heavenly officials—aside from greeting Jun Wu—and never tried to purposely befriend anyone, treating all equally within the spiritual communication array. His taking the initiative to pay visits was thus a rare occasion.
Mu Qing, however, objected. "No."
Xie Lian turned to regard him. "Why not?"
"Your Highness, I've investigated thoroughly. The truth is, in these past two years, it's not just Yong'an or the western territory that's been experiencing a shortage of water but the entire Kingdom of Xianle. The eastern territory is close to the sea and is surrounded by lakes and ravines, so it's not as obvious and hasn't become an issue yet. But overall, the amount of water and rain has significantly decreased from previous levels."
Xie Lian's eyes widened as Mu Qing continued, "If we really dug a canal or used rain to move water from the east to the west, it might temporarily relieve Yong'an, but it wouldn't save it completely. It would only help them hang on by a thread. Meanwhile, it could very well doom the eastern territory."
Xie Lian's heart seized. "And most of the population of Xianle, along with its most prosperous places, are in the east… It's more than three times the size of the west and contains the imperial capital. If a drought were to happen there…"
Feng Xin immediately understood as well. "The consequences would be significantly more serious than in Yong'an, and the number of deaths greater!"
Mu Qing nodded, his expression solemn. "It would give birth to a much larger disaster."
Xie Lian took a deep breath. "So, is that what the state preceptor meant when he said what Father did wasn't right but wasn't wrong either? That he made this choice?"
"Which is why, Your Highness, that no one praying for help at your temple was a good thing," Mu Qing said. "Leave it to His Majesty to decide what to do."
Xie Lian didn't respond. He looked back.
The entire time they walked, every person he saw was nothing but skin and bones; men and children had their upper bodies bare, rows of ribs visible and clear on their torsos, and the women had dead eyes and faces empty of life. No one moved much—they didn't have the energy. The foul stench of death hung over everything. It made one want to scream, to escape this decaying earth and return to the glory of the flourishing imperial capital.
It was a long time before he finally spoke. "You two stay here and assist me, deliver as much water as you can. Let me think about this."
"Fine. Go and think it over carefully," Feng Xin said. "Just let me know what to do once you've decided."
Xie Lian patted his shoulder and then turned to leave.
Behind him, Mu Qing said quietly, "Your Highness, do think this through carefully. We can help for ten days, maybe twenty, but not a year or two. We can save one hundred lives but not a hundred thousand. You're a martial god, after all, not the god of water. And even if you were the god of water, you couldn't create water from nothing. If we can't fix the root of this problem, we won't be able to keep it going; our plans are inadequate, like using a cup of water to douse a burning cart of firewood."