The Sun family was pitiable, too. Their future daughter-in-law had been falsely accused of being a reincarnated drought demon, and a perfectly good girl was burned alive. Her youngest son, Zhang Xiaosan, went to seek justice for his fiancée, only to be severely beaten by the villagers.
To treat Xiaosan's injuries, the Zhang family had drained their entire savings, yet he showed no sign of recovery.
"The scholars have seen much of the world, so what they say must be right! Yes, it can't be wrong!" Old Zhang nodded heavily, as if trying to convince Old Sun to agree with him.
"How could the words of learned men be wrong! The Divine Maiden is all-powerful. The sweet dew she sends down... yes, the sweet dew will surely heal my son's wounds!"
He suddenly covered his face with both hands, tears seeping through his fingers, and murmured softly, as if speaking both to Old Sun and to himself, "If only the Divine Maiden could... handle the matter of the drought demon too!"
His third daughter-in-law's experience was not an isolated case. According to what people in the town said, in the border counties around them, several people had been burned to death this past month—men and women, old and young alike.
Old Sun, seeing how Old Zhang’s back had hunched even lower, couldn't help but sigh. "The higher-ups are supposedly looking into it, from what I hear. But these things are done behind closed doors in the villages. As long as one village keeps its mouth shut, outsiders can hardly find out."
So although the authorities had arrested a few people, they were all locked up. "If the victims' families won't tell the truth, the officials are in the dark too. If the Divine Maiden ever passes through our area, old brother, you could try begging her!" If she were willing to step in, the Zhang family might yet see justice.
He looked up at the sky again, thinking the same thing as Old Zhang: both hoped the Divine Maiden would somehow learn of the drought demon's doings.
They were still at war with Nanyue, and some of the village's men had enlisted. Old Zhang's second son, the most skilled fighter of the family, had joined the army. Otherwise, if all three brothers had gone to demand answers together, his eldest and youngest might not have been beaten so badly.
Just as Old Sun was thinking how fortunate it was that Old Zhang's eldest son wasn't badly hurt, he suddenly saw a black dot in the cloudless blue sky, slowly growing larger. That dot gradually turned into a dazzling emerald color—a carriage made of jade floating in the sky!
And beside it, white horses with wings flapping like giant birds. "It matches! Everything matches!" Old Sun muttered to himself.
The Divine Maiden—the Divine Maiden really was riding a celestial horse-drawn carriage to save them, the common people who suffered!
"Z-Zhang! Look! Look up in the sky!" Stuttering with excitement, Old Sun's voice came out all strained.
Old Zhang, who had just calmed himself, heard Old Sun's oddly pitched shout and instinctively looked up.
What he saw was a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
The sky was still the same sky, blue as if freshly washed, not a single cloud in sight. But in that blue, something was moving.
He squinted, shading his eyes with his hand, trying to focus. At first he thought his eyes, tired from working under the sun, were just playing tricks on him, conjuring floating black specks.
But the speck grew larger and clearer, until it became a flying carriage.
The carriage was a lustrous emerald, like the color of a river in spring, its surface gleaming with a moist sheen under the sunlight.
In front, two white horses pulled it. Wings sprouted from their flanks, white wings that flapped steadily, not like birds in a hurry, but as if swimming through water.
There seemed to be people on the driver's seat. By now, Old Zhang was even more excited than Old Sun, like a drowning man who had suddenly grabbed a piece of driftwood.
He flapped his arms, grabbing at Old Sun. "Little brother, look... is that the Divine Maiden's carriage?"
So high and so far away, Old Zhang couldn't see clearly. He was afraid his imagination was running wild, creating an illusion.
But the scene before him was too real. This old man could even see the carriage's curtain fluttering back in the wind, and behind that curtain, it seemed there was a figure—surely the Divine Maiden, seated behind the drape!
"Old Zhang, that up there must be the Divine Maiden's carriage!" Several years younger than Old Zhang, Old Sun had sharper eyes, honed by years of hunting.
Not only did Old Sun see the people, he even noticed that one of the two on the driver's seat held something in his hand and was tilting his head back to drink.
Yu Huaixian, who was just drinking from his water bag, had no idea he was being watched by the people below.
The carriage in the sky was soon spotted by all the farmers working in the fields, including Old Zhang and Old Sun.
"Divine Maiden has come!" The shouts, one after another, gathered into a chorus, drifting in fragments to the ears of Yue Fuguang, who was resting with her eyes closed.
"He Jin, where are we now?"
"Your Excellency, we've reached the villages near Huacheng," replied He Jin. Seeing Yue Fuguang awake, she set out some pastries and tea.
After returning home, He Qisha had loaded Yue Fuguang with plenty of good food before their departure. The pastries and flower tea He Jin now served were parting gifts from three days ago.
Yue Fuguang looked out through the carriage window, seeing a sight very different from what others perceived.
Besides the slightly parched soil, the withered plants, and the commoners bowing down to her, she also saw faint strands of black-red energy and streaks of deep crimson.
The deep crimson was easy to explain—they were not far from Lancheng, where a great battle was raging, making blood-soaked energy natural.
But what was strange was the lingering aura of resentment and malice drifting from villages and towns along the way.
Yue Fuguang frowned. Unable to figure out why, she decided to ask the system after finishing today's rainfall.
Seeing the thousands of people below gazing up at their carriage, Yue Fuguang pulled back her wandering thoughts. Time to get to work!
Below, Old Zhang and Old Sun, still looking up at the sky, clearly saw whirlwinds gathering clouds from all directions.
Within a few breaths, those clouds turned from white to black. They didn't have to wait long. Soon, fine, dense drops, as if someone were spinning silk from the heavens, fell rapidly from above.
Old Zhang instinctively reached out his hand.
A coolness touched his palm.
In his hand lay a few droplets of water, so clear that each one reflected his old, weary face a thousand times.
The rain grew heavier. Old Zhang remained old, but the weariness on his face slowly dissolved in the falling rain.
By the field, someone dropped his hoe with a clatter and stretched out his hands to catch the celestial rain.
Old Sun's legs went weak. He wanted to kneel, but didn't quite manage. He just tilted his face upward, his mouth open, watching the jade carriage slowly drift westward, growing smaller and smaller until it shrank to a tiny glint and melted into the curtain of rain.
"Oh no, in my daze, I forgot to let you beg the Divine Maiden!" Old Sun exclaimed.
Old Zhang, startled from his trance by the sound of his neighbor's dropped hoe and Old Sun's words, was already beyond caring.
Staggering, he turned and ran toward home.
Old Sun shouted after him, "Old Zhang, what are you doing?"
The Divine Maiden had sent down sweet dew. The crops were already looking much livelier. If they didn't clear the weeds now, the rain-fed weeds would grow even bigger, competing with the crops for both soil nutrients and water.