Yao Suxiu told everyone, "I will hold a Dragon King sacrificial ceremony, and ask the Dragon King to use his divine skills to stop the heavy rain!"
He had no relationship with Shi Feiyang, who played the role of the "Dragon King," nor could he communicate with him, but he did not care. If the attempt to stop the rain failed, he still had excuses, such as the rain being the will of the Jade Emperor, which even the Dragon King could not easily prevent. He could also claim that the villagers had not been devout enough in past sacrifices, disrespecting the divine spirits, and that the Jade Emperor had therefore decreed this disaster to make everyone reflect on their wrongs and even collect more silver coins as atonement.
He ordered each village to contribute, collected a lot of silver coins, and organized a grand Dragon King sacrificial ceremony. He gathered people from far and wide, dressed himself in a Daoist robe, and went through the motions of the Gang Step. He muttered spells and tormented everyone for the better part of the day, telling the villagers, "I have conveyed everyone's requests to the Dragon King. Now, let's see if he will stop the rain."
The villagers anxiously waited, staying in damp, moldy rooms, looking outside at the sky and yearning for the rain to stop. On the third day, the rain miraculously stopped!
Shi Feiyang was unaware that someone was using his name to repair the Dragon King Temple and obviously did not receive any information about the supposed Dragon King sacrificial ceremony. Thinking that the root cause of the flash floods was the persistent rain, he had spent days consulting Daoist books and figured out a method to stop the rain.
The books said, "Clouds are the roots of rain.
To have rain, there must first be clouds; without clouds, naturally, there would be no rain."
Shi Feiyang's True Water Primordial Pill was particularly good at controlling water and creating mist. Every day at midnight, he would expel his inner core into the area where the clouds were densest in the sky, then cast spells to turn all the moisture in the air into mist, gathering clouds toward the location of his inner core using the Dan Qi.
The inner core rotated, constantly drawing in cloud energy. Atop the peak, he cast spells using these clouds to sacrificially refine a Magical Treasure.
After seven days of effort, he had drawn all the cloud energy within a thousand miles into his inner core and created a Magical Treasure named the Mica Tent. Once unfolded, it covered a thousand miles with dark clouds; when retracted, it was only the size of a chicken egg, constantly churning like cotton.
Having collected all the clouds from the sky, any new moisture blown in by the wind was also captured by him, naturally preventing any rain below.
The villagers below thought that the Dragon King sacrificial ceremony had worked, believing that the Dragon King had received their prayers, used his divine skills, and stopped the heavy rain. They all went into the streets cheering and spreading the news. Yao Suxiu's status rose to unprecedented heights; everyone treated him as the spokesperson of the Dragon King, taking his words as if the Dragon King himself had spoken them. No one dared to raise any objections again.
The power of belief is infinite. With the wealthy donating money and the strong contributing labor, the temple was quickly built.
The new Dragon King Temple was erected on the bank in front of Ni Weng Cave, consisting of a single room with blue bricks and black tiles. Inside, three divine statues were enshrined; naturally, the central one was the Dragon King, with a human body and dragon head, wearing black armor and holding a Treasure Bead in his right hand, flanked by turtle and snake generals on each side. The villagers draped a red satin cape over the Dragon King, placed an incense burner and offerings in front, and bowed sincerely.
During the process of holding the sacrificial fasting and building the temple, Yao Suxiu gathered a large amount of silver coins. He was insatiable in his greed, constantly inventing new pretexts to levy contributions: one day marking the Dragon King's birthday, another his ascension to meet the Jade Emperor, and yet another his daughter's wedding...
At first, the villagers participated eagerly, donating money and goods, but as time passed, their enthusiasm waned, and voices of dissent and opposition began to emerge.
Yao Suxiu, with resentment in his heart, devised a venomous plan and claimed that the Dragon King had once again appeared to him in a dream, requesting his presence at the Dragon Palace for a grand feast. The Dragon King expressed his desire to marry, "Originally, the Dragon King had a legitimate Dragon Consort, who passed away many years ago. Now, he wishes to find a few fair maidens from our local villages for selection, wanting to marry four in total. Once at the Dragon Palace, they will all be Dragon Consorts, and whoever gives birth to a dragon son will be made the official Dragon Consort. Such immense fortune should not be missed by anyone!"
The villagers, reluctant to part with their flesh and blood, didn't volunteer anyone, so he took the initiative to name individuals—specifically the families that had raised objections to him. He declared that the Dragon King had taken a liking to their daughters and demanded they prepare to send them off in marriage.
Naturally, these four families were unwilling and had no desire to accept this supposed "fortune." Yao Suxiu, however, insisted that the Dragon King was adamant, and if the marriages were not realized, the Dragon King would unleash a disaster and flood the area completely.
The four families, wanting to flee with their kinsfolk overnight, were anticipated by Yao Suxiu, who, along with the able-bodied men, blocked the village entrance and tied them all up. He gathered everyone to set a date by Alchemy Creek, where he held a "sending off" ceremony. The four girls were dressed in auspicious clothing, covered with veils, their hands and feet bound with ropes, and their mouths gagged with red cloth. After he burned the proposal letter, he threw all of them into the water.
The four girls could neither struggle nor scream as they rolled over and drifted downstream with the current of the river. Their parents and relatives, desperate to save their daughters, tried to break free, but bound and restrained by the strong men, they were forced to kneel on the ground and could do nothing but weep bitterly.
It just so happened that the rain was plentiful this year, and the water in Alchemy Creek was fierce, swiftly carrying the four girls downstream, reaching dozens of miles away in an instant.
Coincidentally, Red Snake, feeling peckish today, wanted to eat some fish, so he came to the creek to hunt stream fish. Suddenly, he noticed a blur of red from upstream. With over three hundred years of Dao Level, he immediately sensed it was a human.
According to his nature, he usually had no need to care about human life or death. Being a Poisonous Snake, from a young age, whenever he encountered humans, their reaction was invariably to shout threats and try to kill him: he had to either flee or bite them to death. As he grew larger, humans became even more fearful and loathsome of him, determined to eliminate him at first sight.
After he developed his Mana, ordinary mortals no longer frightened him, but hunters could still harm him, especially the traps they set in the forest that could injure him if he wasn't careful.
And then there were the human Sword Immortals, who would unleash their Flying Swords to kill him. Some claimed to be from the Righteous Sect, saying they needed to prevent him from harming people in the future, so they must kill him; others were not so principled and merely wanted his snake gallbladder and blood for their medicinal properties, boasting of their miraculous effects... He had been killed several times by Sword Immortals, each time being revived by Queen Mother Grass.
He had decided that humans despised him and had grown to deeply hate them. Previously, when he went out hunting and encountered humans, he did not leave any survivors, even if he didn't eat them, he would bite them to death.
However, because the newly appointed Black Dragon King appeared to have a fondness for humans and even used his Divine Skills to manage floods, saving many humans, Red Snake couldn't understand it. Xuan Turtle was an old-fashioned creature who took the initiative to please humans, but how could the Black Dragon King, filled with such Wisdom, do the same? Nevertheless, the boss instructed that he should avoid people when possible and not kill indiscriminately unless threatened, so he strictly complied.
Deciding not to meddle, he continued fishing underwater, catching another fish soon, eating while coldly watching the bound red-dressed brides drift past him.
Swallowing the fish, he prepared to catch another, when suddenly an idea popped into his head: the boss liked humans so much and even brought him and Xuan Turtle along to save them. This human girl was drowning but still had some life in her, if he could save her, wouldn't the boss be pleased? Might he even reward me?
Thinking it a good idea, he immediately swam quickly, caught up with the red-dressed girl, and brought her to shore.
Red Snake, being large, easily coiled around the girl, flipping and adjusting her to the right angle, shaking her up and down, then slapping her with his tail.
After a few attempts, the girl vomited the water she had swallowed and, once placed on the ground, saw the massive red-scaled, unicorned snake, felt like she had encountered a kin, rushed to embrace him trembling with emotion, and cried loudly, "You are the Red Snake General under the Dragon King! I recognize you, sob... Has the Dragon King sent you to take me to the Dragon Palace?"