Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 713 - 697: Flood at East Lake Port
Upon leaving the Riverfront Village instance, the sky was already bright, but the small courtyard remained quiet.
It wasn’t until Jiang Yuan had harvested the crops in the field, planted what needed planting, and watered them, all with Granny Huang’s soul helping to remove the weeds sprouting in the herb garden, that the courtyard members showed their true forms and slept soundly.
Xie Chenyuan was still floating in the water, docked next to the Carefree Lotus;
Under the pavilion, Leng Yutang revealed the true form of an Angry Fire Bear, his fiery fur meticulously managed, with not a trace of ferocity, making him appear even more naive and adorable.
"Drunken state, remaining time: five hours and thirteen minutes..." Jiang Yuan leaned in for a closer look, discovering an icon next to the blood bar above his head. Clicking to expand, he could see when he would sober up.
Tsk-tsk, it seems that table of Flood Dragon Meat really got them excited.
It’s a pity there are currently no other teleportation methods available; otherwise, he would have sent some to his Otherworld disciples, Wanli and Old Dog, to try.
This time returning to the real world took quite a while. Over about three months, Jiang Yuan traveled from the south by train, randomly choosing a small town to stay for seven or eight days, experiencing local customs and traditions like a resident.
As a result, even after entering the Wilderness World, he hadn’t yet gotten back into the swing of things.
What should he do?
Go to the Old Dragon Cave to farm the World Tree Mine Cave? Or continue farming Mysterious Cave points for more item exchanges?
Click to view all tasks.
[Main Quest: Build a Seventh Level Home. Reward: Void Detector Blueprint]
[Task 4: Brew a collection of ten types of Spirit Wine Illustrated (0/10). Reward: Random single-use specific speed-up item +1]
The main quest is lacking quite a bit. Besides the lengthy brewing process for Spirit Wine, each type requires different raw materials. Given the current speed, it won’t be completed until the end of the month.
Side quests, however, are piling up.
Currently, besides the Daughter of Fortune’s traitor-catching task, which should be completed tonight, there’s Qu Luming’s Avatar Task. After giving him premium incense, he needs to wait three days. Today is the last day, and it will automatically complete at dawn.
The others can’t be rushed and should be left to fate.
"Oh well, let’s just go to the Mysterious Cave," he thought to himself. Unlocking such a large piece of land at Level Seven made exchanging for enough automatic sprinklers more worthwhile. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
Flashing into the Mysterious Cave, he habitually opened the shop to see any newly listed items, and Jiang Yuan’s eyes lit up—a fully automatic sprinkler! And two of them at that!
Suddenly getting two of the most desired items, he clicked to purchase without hesitation.
-400,000 points!
The points account suddenly drained, dropping back to a pitiful 60,000 points, but with a flash of light, the two fully automatic sprinklers were in the Storage Bag. At this moment, diligence is rewarded with tangible results!
Jiang Yuan was so pleased; the feeling of not wasting any time and being able to buy the item immediately was exhilarating.
Immediately exiting the Mysterious Cave instance again, he used the new tools to cover the Level Five and some of the Level Four farmland. Starting tomorrow night, he wouldn’t need to worry about watering these 200 plots or small animals like birds and squirrels wreaking havoc.
With the gratifying rewards from busy hard work came motivation, and he eagerly delved back into the Mysterious Cave in full swing.
After all, his body no longer felt tired, and whenever his Physical Strength Bar was depleted, he replenished it with Spirit Tea. The Tea Workshop continuously brews various types of Spirit Tea daily, faster and more convenient than food for replenishing physical strength, ideal for farming instances.
Without paying attention to how long he had been busy, he heard a buzzing vibration, and a prompt appeared in his view—[Celestial Sword Sect Vice Sect Leader Ouyang Qing calling, do you wish to connect?]
Hmm? Jiang Yuan felt a bit strange; what could the old gentleman suddenly want? Could something have happened?
His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly connected.
Sure enough, the other party spoke in an urgent yet polite tone after a brief exchange: "Mr. Jiang, originally I shouldn’t trouble you, but this matter is significant and beyond what the Celestial Sword Sect, together with other Sects, can handle. So I can only ask for your help to see if you can offer any assistance."
"Please don’t worry, take your time to explain," Jiang Yuan hurriedly asked, "What’s happened? Is it the Haoyue Sect..."
The Void Refugees of Haoyue Sect were temporarily residing at the Celestial Sword Sect. The disciples were not of high Realm, yet Qin Yunfan, as a Second Layer Soul Emergence Realm Cultivator, was considered an unparalleled master in the Human World. Could it be a conflict has arisen between the parties?
"No, no, no, everyone at the Haoyue Sect is well-behaved and very amicable with us, and they are doing their utmost to help, but it still feels like a drop in the bucket."
Ouyang Qing sighed heavily and patiently explained: "The issue starts from two days ago. Summer rains were frequent, and the heavy downpour recently had rivers and lakes swelling significantly. But the Celestial Sword Sect assists in river management and dike reinforcement annually, so flooding had never occurred.
However, two days ago, just as the torrential rain ended, the river began rising, surpassing the highest water level recorded in previous years!
Moreover, it was nightfall when the Wilderness descended; the flood suddenly spread and breached the dike. The Celestial Sword Sect and Haoyue Sect ventured forth to rescue the people, working busily until dawn when the Wilderness Ascended, yet the flood didn’t stop—it only grew larger!
In the middle of the night, the flood struck, causing massive casualties among the people.
We were overwhelmed and then received a distress call from a small sect at the southernmost tip of Central Province; they too suffered from the flood. Some cultivators risked their lives to trace the source of the flooding, discovering it originated from East Lake Port.
The exact reason is still unclear; I remember Mr. Jiang mentioning East Lake Port when tracing Mingchuan’s background. I thought since he had visited there, he’d surely be more familiar with the place than us strangers. Could I bother Mr. Jiang to make a trip to East Lake Port?
If the cause of the flood can be found and resolved, the merit would be boundless!"
East Lake Port?
Jiang Yuan vaguely recalled that the people there worshiped a demon cultivator, who seemed to be a giant catfish, self-proclaimed as the Water Virtue Star Monarch?
"Alright, I’ll head there now. If you need any help due to the severe disaster, just ask. Whatever I have, I can send over." He was a bit unsure, so he needed to hurry over for a look.
Two days ago, the Celestial Sword Sect suffered from the flood. If this flood spread from East Lake Port, such a long stretch must be submerged, and if the source truly is East Lake Port, the fate of the people there might be grim!
"For now, it’s manageable, especially with Daoist Qin from Haoyue Sect exercising his divine powers, easing our efforts considerably. However, the crops, due to be harvested soon, are all submerged, resulting in no yield. I fear that without sufficient grain supply in a month or two, the disaster victims will struggle greatly."
Ouyang Qing paused before reassuring, "I’ll personally confer with the Court along the disaster-stricken path to see how much relief grain the government can allocate. If it proves insufficient... we’ll have to find means to purchase grain from unaffected areas; we can’t watch so many people starve to death."
Jiang Yuan nodded, "I still have grain stock. Lives are paramount, ask freely if in need. I’ll head to East Lake Port and keep in touch with any developments."
In the real world, he experienced the calamity of flooding as a child.
To this day, he feels heartache when seeing online memorials for martyrs who sacrificed themselves in flood rescue efforts, still recalling the fear of facing overwhelming floods then.
Thinking of those disaster-stricken people, Jiang Yuan felt genuine anxiety for them.
Time is life; with no luxury to delay, he took out a Teleportation Scroll and directly arrived at East Lake Port.
"Damn! Is this really East Lake Port?" Holding caution as he teleported, he moved on the Dragon Roar Sword, and as he flew in the sky, looking down only to see a vast ocean, his heart chilled instantly.
The last time at East Lake Port, it was a bustling scene.
Now, the dock had vanished; the houses built by the mountain were engulfed by water, and even the mountaintops were unseen—nothing but water everywhere.
"Immortal! Immortal, save me!" The old beggar, starving to the point of blurred vision, woke again from a dreamy daze where the taste of the delicious roast chicken he last ate lingered, before glancing up to see someone seemingly flying in the distant sky!
His frail cries for help startled the weary people around him, who, having not drunk a drop in three or four days, were weak with hunger. Witnessing this, someone murmured quietly, "It’s useless; no one can see us. Otherwise... we’d have been eaten by a monster in one gulp the night before."
"We must try something; otherwise, we’ll all starve to death!" The old beggar knew the divine bird used a Blinding Technique, rendering them unseen by passing monsters, but if no rescue came, dying of hunger was worse than being eaten in one gulp.
At least a quick gulp meant instant death, not dying slowly and painfully from starvation.
"Immortal, save us! Help us!" He drew out a cracked bowl from his bosom, clanked it against a stone beside him, attempting to draw the other’s attention.
Since he could fly, maybe like the Little Immortal who gave him roast chicken, he had great skills, perhaps able to break the divine bird’s Blinding Technique.
Jiang Yuan hadn’t expected such a massive flood to engulf the surrounding towering mountains; had all of East Lake Port’s residents perished?
The impact was significant; he steadied himself and let the Dragon Roar Sword fly lower, trying to utilize the system’s identification details to search the water surface for clues.
What caused such a major flood, the demon cultivator worshiped at East Lake Port? Didn’t he claim to be the Water Virtue Star Monarch? Enjoying the people’s incense without acting at a crucial moment?
"Clank, clank, clank! Immortal! We’re here!" The old beggar saw the figure nearing, and the excitement increased his fervent clanks, rallying the people to join in desperate cries for help.
"It seems... there are cries for help?" Jiang Yuan vaguely heard pleas but the sound seemed muffled, smothered by something, preventing clear recognition of the origin, so he slowed down to listen and watch carefully.
[Fish Star: Fish Star produced while the demon cultivator Purple Mist Catfish cultivated at Zeyang; a one-time-use bubble, effective for avoiding water]
Finally, a detail flashed in his vision.
Jiang Yuan sighed in relief, thinking it wasn’t in vain from the incense; the urgency likely prompted the creation of a huge Water Bubble to protect East Lake Port’s residents.
If breaking the water bubble now, how to rescue the refugees? Settling them in the Riverfront Village instance seemed unsuitable...
He pondered, taking materials from the Storage Bag, beginning to craft paper boats on-site.
Crafted from advanced tung oil paper, the boats wouldn’t be wetted by water, letting them rest on the boats while clarifying the matter before deciding on accommodations!
