Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 38: Habaek makes rain, Liujun gets his head shaved

Dark clouds covered the bright moon, and the sky and the earth became dark.

Ren Yuan and A Yao shrank their bodies, held their breath and hid on the bridge, watching the eel continue to stretch out its huge body.

This yellow eel was ridiculously large, the part above the water alone was five feet tall, and its waist was thicker than the trunk of Liu Zhongjun's tree.

And it is obviously a real entity with flesh and blood, not an illusion like that of Mr. Hu Sanye that looks good but is useless.

"This is Tian Liangzi's true form." Senior sister whispered in Ren Yuan's ear.

Ren Yuan nodded, thinking that if this was made into fried eel shreds, it would be enough for the whole village to eat for a year.

After it stuck half of its body out of the river, it stabilized itself, exhaled a long breath, then opened its bloody mouth, lowered its head and took a deep breath!

Suddenly, a strong whirlwind arose on the surface of the river. A thick column of water rushed up into the sky and was sucked into the mouth of the giant eel.

What a great eel sucking water!
The stomach capacity of the big yellow eel was amazing. It could absorb a whole meal's worth of food without stopping.

It sucked the water level of Jiuqu River down by one foot before it shut up and went ashore. With its bloated belly, it meandered towards the highest peak of Fangxian Township - Huangling Mountain.

Ren Yuan and Senior Sister followed from a distance behind, watching the big yellow eel climb to the top of the mountain with difficulty, raise its head high, purse its mouth into a slit, and spray water mist towards the sky.

What a great eel spraying water!
The endless water mist was blown up to the sky by Tianliangzi, floating and spreading across the night sky.

Soon, raindrops began to fall. The raindrops became denser and denser, turning into fine raindrops, moistening the grass and trees on the hills, and of course, more of them fell on the yellow rice fields...

"What a simple and unpretentious rain-making by Habaek!" Ren Yuan in the distance was very shocked. The monsters in the countryside were real. If we can't make clouds and rain, we can use direct spraying...

"Just tell me if it's raining or not." The senior sister held up the umbrella she had prepared long ago.

"Yes." Ren Yuan also quickly hid under the umbrella. Although he was not afraid of rain, he thought that there was the saliva of the eel spirit in it, so it was better to avoid it.

"But this amount of rain may not be enough?" As he spoke, the rain became noticeably lighter. It probably only lasted for a while.

"So he will go back and forth three times before dawn to barely spray enough for a rain." Senior Sister whispered: "Then he will go back and rest for a while, and come again five days later..."

"It's really a strenuous job." Ren Yuan couldn't help but sigh. His bad feelings towards Tian Liangzi were somewhat reduced. Although he forced her to marry him, at least he really did it.

"Sister, how about we wait for the last rain?" He suggested, "Otherwise it will affect the harvest of the common people."

"Okay, that's a good opportunity for us to be more fully prepared." The senior sister readily agreed.

~~
A few days later, at the mountain temple.

After Ren Yuan finished the offerings in the main hall, he went to the backyard carrying a jar of wine.

He first lit a stick of incense in front of the old willow tree. Wisps of smoke rose up, and thousands of willow branches trembled slightly, making the sound of deep inhalation.

Then he removed the mud seal and placed a full jar of wine on the altar.

Liu Zhongjun is a tree-turned demon. He doesn't even eat vegetarian food, let alone blood. He only eats wind and dew, and breathes in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Therefore, he is extremely pure and has no desires or requests.

Later, I learned how to drink from the last temple priest, or the master in the eyes of my senior sister. Only then did I develop this only hobby.

But Liu Zhongjun didn't dare to drink the wine today. Since the boy surnamed Ren came to the temple, it obviously felt that its branches were much sparser.

The branches and leaves rustled against each other, making a sound similar to human voice.

Ren Yuan could already understand what it was saying, and laughed, "What? You said that those who show kindness to others for no reason are either traitors or thieves? How can that be true?"

He quickly defended himself, "I'm just saying thank you for troubling you so many times before."

The leaves rustled, and Ren Yuan said, "I really don't have any other intentions, so just drink it without worry."

The old willow tree then lowered a branch and slowly stirred the wine jar. Wine is yang in nature, so ghosts and gods cannot drink it directly. It needs to be stirred with yin wood to turn it into yin wine before it can be drunk. Willow belongs to the Five Ghosts Wood, which has a very heavy yin energy, so Liu Zhongjun can process it himself.

After that, Liu Zhongjun began to enjoy the drink happily. When he was happy, the branches of his body swayed slightly, as if he was dancing.

But it can drink too much. After drinking one jar, it just started to get drunk. Using its branches to absorb the last drop, it rustled its leaves again, meaning, "Is there more?" Let's have another jar.

"Yes, yes, yes. Today you can drink as much as you want." Ren Yuan said with a smile.

Before Liu Zhongjun could feel happy, he heard the boy change the subject and rubbed his fingers, saying, "But there is one thing I have to trouble you for..."

Rustling, Liu Zhongjun stretched out two willow branches, and you knew what he was planning.

"Two may not be enough..." Ren Yuanzhuang said as if he was embarrassed: "We need to make a fish basket this time."

Liu Zhongjun had no choice but to add eight more and said rustlingly that there couldn't be any more.

"I'm afraid ten won't be enough." Ren Yuan still shook his head.

The rubbing sound of branches and leaves became faster and louder. It was Liu Zhongjun angrily questioning him, how big a fish do you want to catch? Is it not enough?!
“About ten feet long…” Ren Yuan lowered his head and touched his two index fingers together.

"Get out!" An angry curse rolled out from the roots of the tree.

As he spoke, Liu Zhongjun stretched out his branch, rolled up Ren Yuanlai and threw him out of the wall.

"A willow branch and a jar of wine!" Ren Yuan shouted in mid-air: "There are thousands of jars of aged wine in the wine cellar of Xiejiazhuang. They are all yours. If it's not enough, I will buy more for you..."

Just when Ren Yuan was about to fall flat on his face, the willow branches wrapped him up again and pulled him back into the yard.

~~
The tenth day after the autumnal equinox is also the day when He Bo brings the last rain.

Tian Liangzi appeared on Jiuqu River as usual, but he came later and later, and looked far less energetic than before.

In fact, Bu Yu was not that tired, as he had gotten used to it over the years. The main reason was that the new wives he married were very nice, and Tian Liangzi was overjoyed and worked too hard day and night, which led to this.

It is very dedicated that he can come here today.

But when he thought that after this rain, he would be able to rest until next spring, he perked up and hurriedly sucked water and sprayed water, striving to get enough rain as soon as possible so that he could return to his gentle hometown...

As daybreak approached, he had finally experienced enough rain this year, and he slid down the mountain tiredly, and couldn't wait to dive into the river.

Who knew that before he could stretch his body and swim freely, he bumped into a head and saw stars!

The big yellow eel immediately became alert and hurriedly lowered its head to drill into the mud at the bottom of the river, but it bumped into a solid screen wall again...

At this time, he finally saw clearly that he had entered an eel cage.

No matter how flexibly he changed direction, he could not escape from the huge cage.

But Tian Liangzi was not panicked at all. He sprayed out a mouthful of water and, with the huge reverse thrust, rushed backwards towards the cage mouth, ready to get out the same way he came in.

Who knew that there was actually a circle of willow branches around the cage mouth, blocking his way like inverted teeth...

Helplessly, he shrunk himself into a small eel as thick as a rolling pin, and tried to get out of the cage through the gap. However, the cage also shrank at the same time as him and became a normal-sized... eel cage.

"Haha, we got him!"

At this time, someone lifted the eel cage. Amid the sound of splashing water, Tianliangzi rolled uncontrollably in the cage. For the first time in his life, he lost control of his own destiny.

Is this what it feels like to be caught in a yellow eel cage? He thought to himself that his life was complete.

ps. I decided to post it after midnight (mainly because there are too few chapter reviews at 8 am, haha.)
(End of this chapter)