Yun Shu had rarely seen the little fox react so wildly. Her heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition instantly washed over her.
“Tongzi, what happened?”
The little fox scrambled and threw itself at Yun Shu's feet, its four paws scratching frantically at the floor.
“Host, it's a flood! It's terrifying!”
Yun Shu's brow furrowed tightly, all traces of her usual laziness vanishing instantly. “A flood? Wuling City has had less rain this year than usual, there was no tsunami in the South Sea, and even the water levels didn't rise. Why would there be a flood?”
“Host, I don't know what's going on either! When I checked the system monitor this morning, everything in Wuling City was perfectly fine. But just now, after you sent me to find Xiao Lan to deliver the Body-Tempering Pill, I ran into a flash flood on my way back!”
“This flood came so suddenly! It rushed straight out of the western mountain pass and swept all the way to Wuling City, washing away more than half of the city walls!”
The little fox spun in circles anxiously, its fluffy tail swishing back and forth. “The crops that Feng Chunya and the others just planted have been completely washed away, and even the little fishing village you saved is submerged! I rushed back to warn you, so I didn't have any time to help the villagers.”
Hearing this, Yun Shu knew there had to be something highly unusual about this sudden, unheralded flood. But with the situation so critical, she didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she equipped Trailing Flowing Clouds and flew out of the temple.
The little fox scrambled to keep up with Yun Shu, saying anxiously, “Host, the worst-hit area right now must be Dawan Fishing Village! Even though Feng Chunya brought a lot of Zhenbei Army soldiers to clear the nearby farmland, they're ultimately just ordinary mortals. Without modern rescue equipment, they definitely can't withstand a flood of this scale. If you don't save them, they'll all drown!”
Since the Return Formation of the Mirror of Retrospection was still on cooldown, Yun Shu could only use System Space to teleport to Dawan Fishing Village.
Suspended invisibly in midair, she opened the system wardrobe and equipped the Mystic Sound of the Nine Heavens Set without hesitation.
The Mountains and Rivers Map of the Mystic Sound of the Nine Heavens Set had the best wide-area protective skill among all her outfits.
However, the skill had a cooldown, so she had to use it wisely.
Once she finished changing, she looked down, her mind racing as she calculated how to use the Mountains and Rivers Map to save as many people as possible.
Dawan Fishing Village was completely gone from sight.
The once orderly rows of houses, the bamboo racks for drying fishing nets, and the terraced vegetable plots on the hillsides were now entirely submerged beneath the churning, muddy yellow floodwaters.
Broken beams and uprooted tree trunks floated on the murky surface, tangled with rags and fishing lines.
“Why don't I see anyone?” Yun Shu's heart sank instantly, a heavy dread weighing on her chest. “Could I have arrived too late? Has the entire village already perished...”
“There are people! Host, look over there, there are people!” The little fox suddenly perked up its ears and pointed its paw toward the southeast.
Yun Shu followed its gaze.
Where the water met the sky, a massive deep-blue figure came crashing through the waves—it was a blue whale!
Its back was as broad as a floating island, its deep-blue skin exceptionally striking amidst the muddy floodwaters.
And its back was densely packed with people.
The elderly, women, children, and young men were all huddled together. Some were barefoot, others wore only thin inner tunics, completely drenched and shivering with purple lips.
An old man cradled two children in his arms, using his own gaunt body to shield them from the oncoming spray.
Feng Chunya stood at the highest point of the whale's back, her armor covered in mud. A makeshift cloth bandage was wrapped around her left arm, stained with seeping, dark-red blood. She looked seriously injured.
She shouted at the top of her lungs, “Everyone, move toward the center! Don't crowd the edges! Hold the children tight!”
Only after settling the villagers on the whale's back did she turn her gaze back to the water, searching for anyone else who hadn't been rescued yet.
Suddenly, a weak cry for help drifted over.
It was a young man.
His left arm was locked tightly around a wooden tub. Inside sat a little girl of three or four, her face flushed red from crying as her tiny hands gripped the tub's edge, dirt caked under her fingernails.
The man paddled desperately with one hand, trying to make his way toward the blue whale. However, he was not a strong swimmer, and every oncoming wave pushed him back three chi.
Seeing this, Feng Chunya clenched her fists tightly.
“Give me the rope!”
The lieutenant beside her tried to dissuade her. “General Feng, you already injured your left arm saving the citizens earlier! That father and daughter are so far from the giant fish, and the current is too strong. Our rope will definitely snap under the strain! If you go, not only will you fail to save them, but you'll also drag yourself down!”
Feng Chunya's eyes remained locked onto the bobbing wooden tub and the man who was nearly submerged.
She grit her teeth, her voice turning raspy. “I cannot just stand by and watch our people suffer before my very eyes!”
As she spoke, she shed her armor, snatched the hemp rope from the lieutenant's hands, and swiftly wrapped it twice around her waist, tying it in a dead knot. Then, like an arrow released from a bowstring, she dove headfirst into the turbid torrent.
The moment she hit the water, muddy liquid rushed into her nose and mouth. Feng Chunya held her breath and used her arms to furiously cut through the water, swimming with all her might toward the father and daughter.
Finally, her hand caught the edge of the wooden tub.
“Don't be afraid, I've got you!” She scooped the little girl out of the tub, pressed her against her chest, and quickly unlooped the rope around her own waist with one hand. She wrapped it twice around the girl, securing the child tightly to her own body.
Once she finished, she shouted to the man in the water, “Give me your hand!”
The man strained to reach out his arm, but he was completely exhausted from the water. His lips were pale and blue, his eyes bloodshot, and droplets of water mixed with tears streamed down his forehead.
He gasped out, “General... please... take the child and go... leave me... I... I can't hold on any longer...”
Feng Chunya did not let go.
“The Zhenbei Army will never abandon anyone!”
She study-gripped the father whose life was about to be snatched away by the flood, relying on sheer brute strength to battle the raging current, swimming inch by inch back toward the blue whale.
With every inch she advanced, the rope around her waist grew tighter, cutting deep into the flesh beneath her clothes.
The crowd on the whale's back watched the scene unfold with their hearts in their throats, sweating in anxiety for Feng Chunya.
The lieutenant was the first to snap out of it.
She lunged to the edge of the whale's back, grabbed the taut hemp rope, and pulled it hand over hand. The muscles in her arms bulged, and blue veins stood out from the backs of her hands all the way up her forearms.
“What are you all standing there for?! Pull the rope!”
This shout jolted everyone awake.
Not only did the Zhenbei Army spring into action, but even the gaunt, emaciated villagers rushed forward.
They all grabbed onto the same rope.
“One, two, three, pull!”
The lieutenant chanted the cadence. With every shout, everyone pulled together, hauling the rope back bit by bit.
Rate on N.U.
