Her gaze swept across faces weathered or young, curious or devout. Due to dehydration, everyone’s complexion looked unwell—chapped lips, wind-bitten skin. The hair of men, women, and children, whether coiled or loose, was either caked with dust or greasy and matted, the result of too long without water to wash.
Yue Fuguang couldn’t tell from their clothes or expressions which among them were commoners of Dayan. But suddenly a glimmer sparked in her eyes. Delicate, pale fingers reached out the window. “Wind, come! Clouds, come!”
A whirlwind rose from the ground, lifting the carriage curtains embroidered with lotus blossoms. As the fabric whipped in the wind, Yue Fuguang saw the vast swaths of dark clouds swept in by the gale.
“Rain, come!” Her voice, neither loud nor soft, reached the ears of the people lining the road, following the wind and clouds.
They looked up at the sky, which had long withheld rain. For the first time in over half a year, the blazing sun was no longer overhead. In their dull and vacant eyes, a light seemed to flicker, reflected in the thickening clouds that now filled the sky—and in the warm, drizzling rain that soon fell upon them, drop by drop.
This was the life-saving water they had begged the heavens for, over six months, to no avail.
“Long live the Divine Maiden!”
“Long live the Divine Maiden!”
The people along the road opened their mouths to welcome this sweet dew, their eyes truly lit by the rain striking their bodies. Those who could rekindle their hope for life because of this rain were her own people. As for those who weren’t lit up…
Yue Fuguang rubbed her wrist. That only meant one thing—this rain hadn’t fallen on their own fields!
“Little Pearl, I think I’ve spotted which rats are hiding among the people!”
Good heavens, quite a crowd had come. That single rain had exposed those spies with their top-notch disguises! The one who came up with this idea must be a huge… well, a clever little thing!
Everyone knew that local folk, after a long drought, would be overwhelmed with joy and awe when they saw blessed rain falling from the sky. If you didn’t cry with excitement, people might say you were reserved. But to show expressions of shock, envy, and grim determination? That was another story.
If it were raining on your own land, why would you envy anyone? As for the look of grim determination... Yue Fuguang really wanted to snort at them.
When Dai Yuxing, He Jin, and the other guards heard Yue Fuguang’s words, they wordlessly moved closer to her carriage. Yu Huaixian leaped onto the carriage, replacing the driver. To be safe, he insisted on personally driving for Yue Fuguang.
Meanwhile, Wei Shouyi, Shen Jian, Feng Tang, and Wu Yong silently signaled the front-clearing and rear-guard guards to prepare for first-level combat readiness.
Along the way, they had left behind many escorts to help oversee the petitions of the common people blocking the road. By now, Yue Fuguang’s guard had dwindled by more than two hundred since they set out.
But she swept her gaze over the bad guys hidden among the crowd. A hundred or so of them. Advantage is mine!
Just as the thought “advantage is mine” zipped through her mind like a shooting star, she looked up and saw the dense red dots marked by the system in the distant mountain forests.
[Master, see that? Not only are their people mixed in with the commoners, but there are plenty in the forest ahead too. I’ve roughly counted—close to a thousand.]
Yue Fuguang stared at the red dots and asked, “Even if they’ve hidden a thousand in the mountains, isn’t a ratio of 2.3 to 1 still in my favor?”
Exactly. Shen Jian and Wei Shouyi rested their hands on their sword hilts, staring at the distant rocks. In their hearts, they thought: the soldiers under their command are no pushovers. Each one is a soldier handpicked by them, no worse than those spies.
[Master, look at the positions of those hidden among the people. They’re clearly planning to take Dayan’s civilians as hostages.]
Yue Fuguang carefully replayed the scenes she had just witnessed. She frowned—the system was right. Beside them were either elderly people, children, or frail women—all easy to control and basically unarmed.
If these people actually threatened her with ordinary civilians, then, to protect her image and avoid harming innocents, she really would have to hold back.
“So what do you suggest we do now?” She could let them go for the moment, but these people were clearly here to “invite” her. And now that they had seen her rain-controlling ability firsthand, they would never give up on such a treasure.
After all, everyone else was suffering from drought. Only Dayan had stored water and now could make artificial rain. One gain, one loss—Dayan’s national strength had suddenly leaped up two tiers compared to its neighbors. Which other state could just sit by and do nothing?
[Master, why don’t you demonstrate your power a little? Scare them off?] If the spy weren’t so close, the system itself would have loved to strike them with lightning.
Yue Fuguang had originally wanted to “control with voice,” but she noticed some people had their hands resting on those next to them.
If things went wrong, these people might panic and lash out. Even one death would sully her divine image.
She absolutely could not let anything that might harm her reputation happen before her eyes!
When dealing with mortals, the Divine Maiden must achieve total dominance.
“Little Pearl, what do you think I should do to scare these mortals?”
It wasn’t like she was going to jump out right now and perform some martial arts display. That would be embarrassing and ridiculous!
“Master, only immortals can fly. How about you give it a try and fly?”
Fly, huh? Yue Fuguang stroked her chin, seriously considering how feasible the system’s suggestion really was.
She couldn’t fly on her own, but inside her storage ring she had not only an interstellar flying hoverboard and flying shoes she bought from the marketplace, but also a pair of flying boots from the cultivation world.
The hoverboard was the first to be ruled out. Sitting down didn’t have the same imposing presence as standing—though, technically, the hoverboard was meant for standing. Yue Fuguang admitted she didn’t have the courage!
Besides, she had an idea for an entrance “effect.”
It had to be the cultivation world’s “Step-by-Step Lotus Boots.” These shoes not only allowed mortals to soar through the sky by consuming spirit stones but also created a lotus with every step, making the wearer appear ethereal and divine—a perfect way to max out the “awe factor.”
That was precisely why these boots, with only those two functions, were outrageously expensive. If it weren’t for a 90% off sale and her desire to make a grand impression, Yue Fuguang would never have spent 28,000 for shoes originally priced at 280,000.
Yue Fuguang had no idea that, after hearing the system’s suggestion and waiting in vain for her reply, the crowd couldn’t help but wonder: had the young master already regained more of her abilities as a celestial being?
After all, for mortals, the sky was a place they could never reach, yet it often appeared in their dreams and fantasies.
Was there any human who didn’t long for the ability to soar through the heavens?
That longing was perhaps even greater than their hope for rain—if not more!
“Alright, then,” she said.
The crowd heard Yue Fuguang’s words, and in the next moment, a radiant light shot out from her carriage. That brilliant, shimmering glow stood out starkly against the dark, rain-soaked wilderness, catching everyone’s attention.
Those who had been kneeling with their heads bowed were suddenly blinded by the flash of light. When they looked up, they witnessed a scene they would recall countless times for the rest of their lives, each time unable to stop themselves from gasping in awe.
Even in their old age, whenever the elders of the Helian Mountains talked about the goddess of those days, they would inevitably bring up the sight they had seen that day.
What had they seen?