By the time we nded before the vast ke ahead, the downpour was so intense that it obscured our vision.

  Standing several feet away from the shore, he gazed intently at the misty ndscape, his eyes sharp and penetrating, as if they could pierce through all mysteries.

  With nothing else to do, I mimicked him, widening my eyes and scanning the surroundings with great focus.

  Unfortunately, all I could make out were blurred shades of gray, bck, white, and green, tangled together in a chaotic mess. I saw nothing remotely suspicious.

  “Sha Luo,” he called my name. “Stand behind me.”

  “Oh.”

  His serious demeanor made me step behind him without hesitation. But curiosity got the better of me, and I cautiously peeked out, asking, “Uh… is something wrong?”

  Without looking back, he pressed a hand against my head and pushed it back into pce. “Do not step even half a foot away from behind me!”

  It seemed serious.

  I dared not ask further and obediently hid myself behind him.

  Then, a long incantation—one I had never heard before—flowed smoothly from his lips, deep and intense, each sylble packed with urgency.

  Almost immediately, a razor-sharp current of energy swept past on both sides, slicing through the air like an invisible bde. It didn't touch me, yet I could feel its cutting force with startling crity.

  His arms stretched out to either side, and the fierce currents of energy originated from his open palms.

  I stole a gnce upward and gasped in amazement—

  The falling rain, which had been scattered and chaotic, was now drawn together, twisting like strands of tightly wound rope. It spun rapidly in the air before splitting into two streams, each flowing precisely into his waiting hands.

  Even the clouds above seemed to respond, gathering directly over us and swirling into a massive vortex. The unrelenting storm winds surged from all directions, growing stronger and wilder with every passing moment.

  So this is what they mean by "winds rise and clouds surge"—a breathtaking dispy of nature's fury and power.

  I was so mesmerized that I forgot to close my mouth.

  The spectacle continued for nearly half an hour.

  As the two "rain ropes" in his hands thinned from thick strands to mere threads and finally disappeared altogether, the heavy storm clouds vanished without a trace.

  The sky, which had remained dark for so long, slowly brightened.

  The rain had stopped.

  In an instant, the world fell into perfect calm.

  He let out a soft breath and withdrew his hands.

  "Can I come out now?" I peeked out cautiously.

  He chuckled and gnced back at me. "Yes, you can."

  Hearing his approval, I immediately sprang out from behind him.

  The tension from before had kept my entire body rigid without me realizing it. Now that it was over, a dull ache spread through my limbs, making me feel sore and stiff.

  I took a few steps forward, stretching my arms and kicking my legs to loosen up.

  With the rain gone and the sky finally clear, I could at st see the body of water before me—the ke known as Duan Lake.

  The ke stretched vast and endless, its size surpassing the lotus pond of Fulong Mountain by thousands—no, tens of thousands—of times. The deep emerald water y utterly still, smooth as a mirror, so eerily quiet that one might mistake it for a frozen expanse of jade-green ice, untouched for years.

  Strange.

  I rubbed my eyes.

  Even the small lotus pond in Fulong Mountain would ripple with the slightest breeze. Why was this ke so unnaturally motionless?

  I couldn't figure it out, nor did I feel like dwelling on it.

  Turning back to him, I asked, “Did you make all the rain disappear?”

  “Not disappear,” he said with a smile and a shake of his head. “I merely recimed what should never have been here in the first pce.”

  Oh.

  Realization dawned on me at once.

  He was the Water God of the heavens. Anything reted to water naturally fell under his command.

  "Does that mean Daizhou City is completely safe now?!" I asked eagerly.

  The rain had stopped, the winds had died down, and the source of the disaster had been subdued. Surely, this unfortunate city had finally escaped its misery.

  "Solving the symptoms doesn't cure the root cause."

  Leaving those words behind, he bent down, scooping up a small lump of wet earth and spreading it across his palm. Then, without warning, he plucked a strand of my hair and embedded it into the damp soil.

  "Now, blow on it," he said, holding the muddy creation in front of me.

  I scratched my head, utterly confused. But without questioning him, I took a deep breath and blew hard onto the strange, bckish lump.

  As soon as I closed my mouth, I noticed something extraordinary happening to the unremarkable lump of soil—a tiny sapling sprouted from the "earth," emerging at a steady pace, full of life and vigor. Though small, it was lush with branches and leaves.

  Tiny dewdrops clung to the tender green foliage, glistening like specks of light.

  Curious, I leaned in closer. So those shimmering dots were actually droplets of dew!

  “What… what is this?” I cautiously nudged the delicate little sprout with the tip of my fingernail, marveling at it.

  He didn't answer. Instead, he cupped the tiny pnt in his hands, walked to the edge of the ke, and murmured something under his breath. Then, with a decisive motion, he tossed it into the air and commanded, “Go!”

  I hurried after him, eager to see what would happen next.

  The sapling-turned-energy spun in midair, tracing graceful arcs before rapidly transforming into an oval-shaped light. It shimmered with a soft green glow, rising higher and higher. With each foot it ascended, its radiance expanded outward tenfold, stretching wider and wider—until at st, it became a colossal luminous ring, rge enough to envelop the entire ke.

  In the blink of an eye, the massive glowing ring plummeted from the sky, nding with perfect precision along the ke's edge. The moment it made contact, dazzling pilrs of light shot straight up, piercing the heavens, seamlessly enclosing Duan Lake within their radiant embrace.

  For the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, the awe-inspiring spectacle continued. Then, as the luminous pilrs faded away, towering trees erupted from the very spots where they had stood. Majestic and dense, the trees grew in perfect unison, their branches intertwining to form an impenetrable wall of verdant guardians, standing resolute along the keshore.

  I stared, utterly transfixed, unwilling to miss even a second of this once-in-a-lifetime marvel. My heart pounded in exhiration—I wanted to scream in excitement. How had he done it?! With nothing more than a handful of dirt and a single strand of my hair, he had created this breathtaking phenomenon!

  “How… how did so many trees grow all at once?” I pressed a hand against my chest, trying to steady my wildly thudding heart, before turning to look at him—calm and composed, as if this was nothing remarkable.

  “The city was flooded not only because of the torrential rain but also due to Duan Lake's colpsed embankment,” he expined, stepping forward. Tilting his head back, he admired the newly born forest of towering trees before gncing at me with a smile.

  “Now, I have reforged the embankment with trees. For the next hundred years, the waters will not overflow.”

  Then, to my astonishment, he added, “You pyed a crucial role in this. Without your vital energy, I wouldn't have been able to ‘grow’ such mighty guardian trees in so short a time. Sha Luo, whenever I control water in the future, I'll need you by my side to assist me.”

  Was he… praising me?!

  I was both surprised and delighted.

  Surprised because, after all these years, this was the first time he had praised me so openly.

  Delighted because of what he said at the end—according to his words, from now on, he would always keep me by his side and never leave me alone on Fulong Mountain again?!

  He struck the tree trunk in front of him three times, as if testing its stability. Only after that did he return to my side and say, “Let's go back.”

  “Mm!”

  I could guarantee that my smile at this time was brighter than the summer sun at its peak.

  He still held my hand in silence, leading me back the way we came.

  Twice along the way, he turned to look at the ever-more-distant Duan Lake.

  But I was too busy savoring his praise to notice the lingering wariness in his eyes.