The flood was like a moving wall of water, crashing down with a deafening roar. In an instant, the space between heaven and earth was filled with nothing but a violent, muddy, grayish-yellow torrent. Trees were uprooted, and half-broken house walls tumbled in the raging waves.
Yun Shu naturally saw the flood peak as well, but she did not act immediately. It was not that she did not want to, but that she could not.
If not for the Great God's interference, she could indeed have protected the people of this world as they slowly grew. However, life was unpredictable, and the current situation no longer allowed her to do so.
Without even thinking, she could guess that if she acted now and used her outfit skills to control the flood, what awaited her would definitely be an even more severe disaster. She did not have many life-saving skills, and they had cooldowns once used. She simply could not afford to waste them.
Therefore, she had to wait for the right moment.
With this in mind, she looked at Shen Jue in the water. Since the book's male lead dying would cause this novel world to collapse, she might as well bet on whether the Great God would actually let Shen Jue die.
Perhaps the terrible setting where the world would collapse if the male lead died was not just tying her hands.
The Great God wanted a small world where the unreal turned into reality. Now that the people of this world had transformed from paper people into real human beings, it was equivalent to being halfway successful. Would it really be willing to let this world collapse and allow all its plans to go to waste?
She knew that betting with the future of the entire world was undoubtedly a crazy move, but she had no choice.
If she won this bet, she would have an effective bargaining chip to constrain the Great God, and many things would become much easier to manipulate.
Before long, the waves had surged several zhang high.
“Everyone, run to the high ground! Quick!”
Shen Jue's voice was incredibly hoarse.
As the floodwaters crashed down, blotting out the sky, he caught sight of a figure three zhang downstream being swept away by the current. It was the soldier who had just boasted about his proficiency in the Body Tempering Technique.
The soldier tumbled and struggled in the waves, his arms flailing wildly, unable to grab onto anything.
Seeing this, Shen Jue dove into the water without hesitation.
The water was full of turbulent currents. Broken wood, shattered tiles, and porcelain shards washed from who-knew-where grazed his cheeks as they flew past.
He swam toward the soldier, relying on sheer, brute force.
The floodwaters surged again, wave upon wave, pressing him down into the water for a full three or four breaths before he could resurface.
Groping through the turbid floodwaters, his hand finally gripped a cold, stiff arm.
The soldier had swallowed several mouthfuls of water. After being dragged to the surface by Shen Jue, he coughed violently, his face entirely devoid of color.
Once he recovered slightly and saw it was Shen Jue, astonishment filled his eyes, quickly replaced by anxiety.
“General Shen, don't worry about me!” His voice was interrupted by the roaring waves, coming out in fits and starts. “I... I'm just a common soldier. If I die, I die. Hurry and save yourself!”
Shen Jue, however, used a rope to bind the soldier to his back. Turning his head, he said word by word, “As the commanding general, no reason will ever make me abandon my own men!”
Gritting his teeth, he swam toward the high slope.
The soldier's eyes grew hot, his nose stinging with emotion. His lips trembled as he tried to say more, but before he could speak, another wave crashed down directly over their heads.
Both of them were forced down into the icy depths.
The air in his lungs grew scarcer, and his chest felt as if it were about to burst, but only a single thought remained in Shen Jue's mind.
He had to swim up. He could not die here!
After an unknown amount of time, there was a loud splash.
His head finally broke the surface. He gasped heavily for air, water cascading from his hair like a waterfall.
The high slope was less than two zhang ahead. The Zhenbei Army soldiers on the slope leaned halfway out, tossing a rope over.
“General Shen, grab the rope!”
Hearing the shouts from above, Shen Jue grabbed the thrown rope and wrapped it around his waist.
The people on the slope pulled together.
Seven or eight strong arms tightened the rope simultaneously, the hemp cord stretching into a straight line in their hands.
The Wuling commoners nearby who had been rescued by the Zhenbei Army watched this scene. Gritting their teeth, they rushed forward to grab the rope, pulling backward with all their might.
Shen Jue could feel a massive pulling force around his waist, dragging his entire body forward.
He kicked his legs desperately, paddling forward with both hands.
Closer, even closer.
The high slope was right before his eyes. Shen Jue slapped his hand onto the edge of the muddy bank, his fingers sinking deep into the soil.
Someone from above immediately reached down and grabbed Shen Jue's arm, followed quickly by a second hand, then a third.
Five or six people leaned down at the same time, dragging and pulling to rescue Shen Jue and the soldier on his back from the water.
Shen Jue lay prone on the ground, his chest heaving violently as the rain beat down on him. He gasped with an open mouth.
“General, are you alright?”
The surrounding crowd immediately swarmed over, their messy footsteps squelching on the muddy slope.
Several faces, pale from being soaked in the rain, crowded close to Shen Jue, their eyes filled with deep anxiety.
“I'm fine,” Shen Jue said, waving his hand.
He reached down to untie the rope around his waist. The hemp rope, swollen from the water, had knotted into a tight bind. He tugged at it twice but could not loosen it. A nearby soldier hastily drew a dagger and sliced it open.
The moment the rope fell away, Shen Jue turned over, carefully lowered the soldier from his back, and laid him flat on the muddy ground, supporting the back of his head.
The soldier's condition was not good.
His lips were purple, his eyelids tightly shut, and his entire face was completely bloodless. His chest barely showed any sign of movement.
Shen Jue said, “Quick, get the physician over here!”
His voice was drowned out by the sound of the rain.
But someone immediately took up the call, passing it back line by line: “Physician! Where is the physician? Quick!”
The military physician arrived quickly. He squeezed through the crowd, fell to his knees beside the soldier with a thud, and opened his medical chest without a second word.
He then ripped open the soldier's soaked tunic, overlapped his hands on the man's chest, and began pressing down in a steady rhythm.
Turbid water spilled from the corner of the soldier's mouth. He regained consciousness, slowly fluttering his eyes open.
The physician pulled back his hands, sat down hard in the muddy water, and wiped the rain and sweat plastered across his face.
He looked up at the sky, then down at the soldier who had just escaped death, exhaling a long sigh of relief.
“Fortunately, the celestial book of medicine that the Divine Lady bestowed upon Physician Lin contained a treatment for drowning...”
Just as he was feeling thankful, the raging floodwaters below the high slope rose by several more inches.
It was as if even their last shred of hope was about to be stripped away.
The despair in everyone's eyes was on the verge of overflowing.
Someone collapsed to the ground, covering their face and weeping bitterly. “Is Heaven truly leaving us no way to survive?”
“We just want to live. Why is it so hard...”
Many began to sob quietly.
On the contrary, Yun Shu, who had been observing calmly all along, noticed several clues. This particular flood peak was far milder than the previous ones, as if it were holding back due to some reservation.
It seemed her guess was correct. The Great God was also afraid of accidentally killing off the male lead and causing the world to collapse.
The moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived!
Rate on N.U.
