Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 301 Poyang Dragon Lord, Third Grandfather Zong

Several days later, in the Poyang Lake area of ​​Yuzhang, next to Minzhou.

Two dragons, one green and one white, traveled north along the surging Fu River during its high-water season, leaving behind two shimmering waves. They subdued evil spirits in the river along the way, attracting spontaneous worship from the people living along the banks.

The closer Yan Yunxiao got to Poyang Lake, the stronger her divine power became. Her eyes shone with golden light, and a brand new divine decree was faintly condensing within her body.

If you concentrate and listen carefully, you can also hear the voice of the Great Dao emanating from the mountains and rivers in the divine decree:
"By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:"

I, the Emperor, believe that Heaven and Earth are in their proper places, and Yin and Yang are in harmony. All the gods of mountains and rivers are reverent and respectful. You, the wise and virtuous deity, dwell in this great marshland, nurturing this land, and your benevolence towards the people is ancient and profound.

This person, Ermo, praised the profound transformation and secretly assisted the imperial plan. His achievements were outstanding, and he deserves to be commended and honored.

By special decree, the Dragon Maiden Yan Yunxiao is bestowed the title of "Dragon Lord of Qinglan Lake, South of Poyang." May you forever secure this marshland, ensuring its peaceful flow as before.

Most of them were just polite words to flatter Yunxiao, the Dragon Girl.

However, there is no doubt that the decree issued by the Lord of the State bestowed upon the Dragon Girl a brand new divine position.

However, instead of continuing to bestow new divine domains upon their home base of Minzhou, such as the more important Minjiang River, they allocated them to the neighboring inland Yuzhang Poyang Lake.

Of course, although the emperor had the power to bestow titles upon any earth deity, each title required the consumption of the divine energy of the First Emperor of Han, which was held by the court, and the higher the title, the greater the consumption.

Moreover, like paying officials' salaries, it is a continuous expense, with a fixed expenditure every year.

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the entire land of China, second only to the Five Sacred Mountains and the Four Rivers Dragon Kings in status. Emperor Shaozhi was not so generous.

She was only given a small portion of Qinglan Lake in the south.

Even if she only obtains the title of Dragon Lord of Qinglan Lake, it means that Yan Yunxiao now has the ticket to compete for the title of Dragon Lord of Poyang, and even has the hope of getting her hands on the Tianqian River, one of the four rivers at the northern outlet.

Its potential is much greater than that of the Minjiang River, the largest river in Minzhou.

Such a stroke of good fortune, even if it's an appointment in a different location, makes it hard to feel any resentment.

Wang Cheng felt the powerful pulse of the river connecting with the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, but he still couldn't help but feel a little greedy:

"Sister Axiao, the Tianfei belief is the legitimate religion of Minzhou. If your new divine realm is governed by Minzhou, you will not need to rely on the Great Zhao Dynasty no matter where you go; the folk beliefs will suffice."

But things are different when you leave Minzhou.

Once you reach Poyang Lake, without a foundation of faith among the common people, you'll need the support of the imperial court to maintain your divine status.

"The imperial edict and the eunuch's private instructions are ostensibly to reward you for discovering and promoting high-yield crops, as well as for your merit in slaying the five-colored rat demon and remotely assisting the emperor in protecting the capital."

In reality, this divine position is highly tied to the Great Zhao Dynasty. If you don't make enough contributions in recent years, you will suffer along with the Great Zhao Dynasty once it collapses.

I think Emperor Shaozhi clearly believes he has a chance of immortality and wants to tie you and the imperial concubine lineage behind you to his own war machine.

The so-called credit is probably just a very minor excuse.

The dragon girl looked at her fiancé, who was standing up for her, with unusually gentle eyes. She even gave him a playful wink, a rare occurrence for a human girl her age.

"Okay, you're still here, aren't you?"
That Governor Hu took your empty promises and worked even harder than we do ourselves.

Corn planting should soon reach a large scale, benefiting the people, and the prayers and offerings will naturally be reciprocated.

Once that Virgin Queen and the merchants from the South Seas find potatoes and sweet potatoes, the hilly terrain and red soil of Yuzhang are the most suitable places for these two crops to grow. They will surely grow big and good, so why worry about not being able to sit on the throne?

Oh, right, didn't the emperor also reward you with a huge piece of land?
I've already had Guiling recruit people to plant corn on all the less barren mountain land.

As they talked, they arrived at Jianchang Prefecture along the Fu River. They saw large tracts of fertile fields along the river, ready for autumn planting, and people were also planting corn on the slopes of the nearby mountains.

It is obvious that this was a portion of the land that the emperor bestowed upon Wang Cheng.

The origins of these lands are somewhat mysterious.

The imperial edict stated:

"On the night of the Ghost Festival, the lineage of Prince Yi of Jianchang Prefecture in Yuzhang was infected with a virulent plague. Dozens of men, women, children, and livestock all perished. The Yi vassal state was abolished!"
Half of his land was granted to Wang Fugui, the equally meritorious commander of Zhenhai Guard, to assist Qinglan Longjun in trial planting of high-yield crops.

It's quite normal for officials who are unable to advance further and have no sons or nephews who can enter officialdom through family connections to perform a "great service in saving the emperor" to be rewarded with more money and valuables.

But what's abnormal is the original owners of these lands.

Even if Prince Yi and his entire family died suddenly, ordinary people might just find it a bit strange, at most thinking that the court was using the plague to cover up some kind of terrible evil spirit and avoid panic among the people.

However, when those who are interested hear this news, and combine the time, place, and people involved, they will immediately feel a chill.

—The Assassin's Twenty-Four Solar Terms: The Beginning of Winter, is none other than the reign of King Yi!

This announcement, just like that case where eight bullet holes appeared in the back and the coroner claimed it was suicide, is clearly a deliberate attempt by the imperial court to cover up the truth and make an example of someone.

Wang Cheng had personally interrogated key figures of the Guishan Book Society, and with Lu Yunchen as his immediate source of information, he naturally connected it to the "assassins" who had stormed into Yujing City immediately.

Prince Yi, the prince most closely related to Emperor Shaozhi by blood, escaped the calamity of having his entire clan exterminated.

But none of the family members were spared, not even one of the spoiled brats who was supposed to be killed to destroy their spirit, as initially agreed.

Everything demonstrates Emperor Shaozhi's determination to defend his imperial power and to never allow anyone to touch the sacred regalia of the state.

As they approached Qinglan Lake, Wang Cheng also expressed his concerns:
"Sister Axiao, if we can guess Prince Yi's disguised identity, Guishan Bookstore certainly can too."

The emperor bestowed upon us the divine decree of the Azure Dragon Lord, as well as the estate left behind by Prince Yi after his death.

Regardless of our own thoughts, we'll inevitably draw some of the Guishan Bookstore's firepower to him. On a darker note, the emperor's generosity might be a way of testing the remaining Guishan forces.

Let's see if there are any other Guishan accomplices around Jianchang Prefecture, and see if we can inherit the position of "Grand Justice" from Prince Yi by inheriting property rights, and infiltrate the Guishan Academy.

Even if Guishan Publishing House suffers a major defeat, it will likely lie low for a while, so we still need to be careful.

Wang Cheng was not yet aware that each of the twenty-four solar terms required a corresponding spiritual response, unless one's primary profession was a "Confucian scholar" or a part-time "Confucian scholar" who obtained the spiritual response "Buqi" to break this restriction.

Many high-ranking members of Guishan Bookstore who follow other lineages have to take on part-time jobs.

His official position as Bai Shuilang doesn't actually match the "Winter Begins" (立冬) in the traditional sense; it would be more appropriate to replace it with "Rain Water" (雨水), which corresponds to the Otter Sacrifice Fish (獭祭鱼).

Yunxiao nodded and smiled:
"Sister, I am a Heavenly Rank [Dragon's Blood]. If the Lord of the State dares to bestow a title upon me, I dare to accept it. With the dragon's energy of the Heavenly Barrier River, I dare to strive for the first rank!"
I bet that Governor Hu is probably wishing he could switch places with us; he's probably kicking himself for it right now.

Following their advice, Hu Ruzhen did the same thing in the seven prefectures under his jurisdiction.

However, he didn't have as many fourth-rank Earthly Dragon Gods like Yan Yunxiao to back him up, so he didn't dare to start planting at midnight like they did. To be on the safe side, he started planting just before dawn.

Although they managed to wipe out some of the remaining Five-Colored Rats in the seven major prefectures, they completely missed the opportunity to make a great contribution.

Even without meeting in person, they could imagine each other pounding their chests in frustration, then rallying their spirits to fully commit to the new project.

If he could switch places with them, this governor of seven provinces and a Confucian scholar of the Mind School would absolutely not mind being the emperor's bait and pawn.

Unfortunately, the opportunity cannot be repeated.

"Here we are!"

The time they spent together passed exceptionally quickly, and before they knew it, a vast, clear lake appeared before them.

An invisible wave emanated from A Xiao, and all the aquatic creatures in the entire Qinglan Lake area that had awakened their intelligence were startled and rushed to pay their respects to the Dragon Lord.

The first to appear was the golden apple snail girl who had come ahead to make preparations.

Wang Cheng had only heard of the person before but never seen him. Today, he finally saw the person's true face.

Her transformed appearance was quite beautiful, with fair skin and a slightly plump figure; she looked like the kind of virtuous wife and loving mother who could grace a formal occasion and manage the household perfectly.

"However, although the golden apple snail girl looks like a Dazhao person when she transforms, she seems to be an alien species in essence, right?"
The Franks discovered the New World seventy or eighty years ago, so it's quite normal that they might have unintentionally brought her to Dazhao at some point.

Fortunately, there isn't a second male golden apple snail here yet, otherwise Poyang Lake might all be named "Fu" (meaning "lucky").

Perhaps because his gaze had lingered on her for too long, the Snail Maiden frowned and said with displeasure:
"Although the awakened demonic power of others is associated with many children and good fortune, she is still a virgin and not some casual woman."

"Since you were born with intelligence, you have been well-versed in the 'Four Books for Women' and 'Biographies of Exemplary Women.' Don't you know the meaning of 'Do not look at what is improper'? How could you be so rude?"

"Uh cough cough"

Wang Cheng almost choked on his own saliva when he heard this.

It's truly unexpected that a golden apple snail, known for its "random growth," could also be poisoned by feudal ethics and transformed into a chaste and virtuous woman.

This contrast is truly unexpected.

A-Xiao, standing beside her, smiled slightly, recalling that she had initially wanted to introduce this sister to Wang Cheng to help the Wang family have more children.

Looking back now, it's definitely more appropriate to do it myself!

He transformed back into human form and approached his friend to inquire about the situation in Poyang Lake.

The golden apple snail girl ignored Wang Cheng and revealed all the information she knew to A Xiao:
"Both Guiling and I originally came from this place. We moved to Minzhou after being defeated by Na'ao Jun. No one knows us better than us."

I took a look around this time, and not much has changed since then.

Poyang Lake receives water from five major rivers—the Gan River, Fu River, Xinjiang River, Rao River, and Xiu River—as well as the Boyang River, Zhangtian River, and Tongjin River, making its water area extremely vast.

The lake's main shape resembles a large gourd. The northern section is also known as Luoxing Lake, while the southern section is known as Guanting Lake.

The southern section where we are located also extends to affiliated lakes, such as Jinxi Lake, Qinglan Lake, and Junshan Lake.

There is no truly authoritative Poyang Lake Lord in the entire lake area; every body of water is either occupied by a great monster or teeming with evil spirits.

Poyang Lake is a battleground where people fight and vie for control.

The good news is that, unless a demon is reincarnated and cultivates the divine path, it will not exceed the fourth rank at most. Sister Yunxiao is also a fourth rank, and she is among the strongest. She will definitely be able to keep the situation under control.

There's only one place we need to be extra careful about, and that's the neighboring Junshan Lake!

Seeing the puzzled looks on their faces, she didn't keep them in suspense any longer:
"Many people know that in the twenty-third year of the Zhizheng era, the two warlords, Zhu Shiliu and Chen Jiusi, led a combined army of 800,000 in a battle in Poyang Lake that determined the fate of the entire southern part of China."

But few people know that the great battle took place right next door at Junshan Lake!
Countless soldiers and ghost soldiers perished in the lake's shipwrecks back then, and even now, many sunken ships, cannons, swords, spears, and halberds are still buried at the bottom of the lake, causing frequent disturbances over the years.

The most formidable of them all was a large section of brown cable on Chen Jiusi's ship.

It is said that during the great battle, Zhu Shiliu swung his sword and cut it into three pieces. After the battle, hundreds of thousands of wronged souls attached themselves to it and turned into evil spirits, growing dragon scales and manes!
It often stirs up trouble in the lake.

The common people called him: "Grandpa Zong San."

The golden apple snail paused here, then looked at the two of them with a solemn expression and said:
Some say that its body contains the remnant soul of Chen Jiu Si, dragon energy, and obsession!

He was always thinking about coming back to continue his quest to become emperor.

(End of this chapter)