By the willow-lined shore, jeers and laughter erupted from the crowd.

"Your daughter? You dare say Sister Yan is your daughter! Take a look at yourself, and then think about what Sister Yan looks like. Are you even worthy?"

Aunt Zhou was shoved to the ground. She covered her face in shame. "I was mistaken. I mistook her for someone else. I’m sorry..."

She truly had just mistaken the person. For a fleeting moment, the young woman’s profile had looked so much like her own daughter’s that she’d lost control and rushed forward to grab her.

But this was like poking a hornet’s nest. The group of powdered-faced young masters she had disturbed were infamous dandies in the city. They spent their days in idleness, doing nothing but keeping courtesans, parading beauties, and generally causing trouble.

Now, with Aunt Zhou suddenly appearing like this, wasn’t it just the thing to trigger their perverse sense of excitement?

What was this? This was ready-made entertainment!

One of the young masters, dressed in green, lifted his foot to kick Aunt Zhou right in the chest. He put immense force into the kick, as if trying to kill her with a single blow.

The beautiful courtesans accompanying them shrieked in alarm, which only made the powdered-faced young masters clap and laugh even louder.

Just as the green-clothed dandy’s foot was about to strike Aunt Zhou’s chest, as the courtesans covered their faces, unable to watch, in that instant between life and death, a hazy, spectral shadow suddenly rose from Aunt Zhou’s back.

It was the Paper Soul Puppet, triggered for the second time!

The Paper Soul Puppet enveloped Aunt Zhou and, in that same moment, used its Earth Escape ability, pulling her down into the ground.

And so, this was the scene that unfolded before everyone’s eyes: in broad daylight, a thin, haggard old woman, with a paper rat on her back, suddenly burrowed into the earth under the watchful eyes of the crowd and vanished.

It was, to say the least, an incredibly bizarre sight.

More passersby cried out in shock. The dandies’ mouths hung open, their bodies trembling with uncontrollable fear.

As for the green-clothed dandy who had tried to kick her, he had used too much force and ended up pulling something in his groin. CRACK! His legs shot apart, and he slid to the ground in a strangely twisted split, his upper body bowing forward.

"AHHH—"

The green-clothed dandy let out a bloodcurdling scream, and his companions scattered in all directions.

And it was in that very moment that everything changed.

At that instant, dark clouds gathered in the sky. The once bright and clear world was suddenly filled with the howl of a sinister wind.

The weeping willows along the shore thrashed wildly. Thick roots burst from the ground like crazed serpents rearing their heads or furious dragons whipping their tails.

RUMBLE—

The ground split open. The people on the shore—whether rich or poor, whether they had come intentionally or were merely passing by, whether they were the wealthy patrons on the painted barges paying fortunes for a smile, or the songstresses like Hong Xiao who sold their songs...

...none could escape the disaster of the earth-shaking, heaven-swaying cataclysm.

The ground by the willows fractured, and massive waves churned on Bibo Lake.

People screamed as they fell into the lake or into the fissures in the earth. Others were violently snatched up by the willow roots and dragged underground. The unlucky ones were instantly splattered, their blood staining the ground.

The waters of Bibo Lake seethed as if boiling. Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals, their bodies bright red, scrambled and tumbled out of the water. They could overcome the waves, but they couldn’t make it to the shore.

If they did reach the bank, they were immediately ensnared by the willow roots and dragged underground as well.

Many mortals had never known that so many Water Demons lived in Bibo Lake.

In that moment, a massive pillar of water shot toward the sky. And bursting out from within it was an enormous Flood Dragon with scales of ashen-gray!

The length of the Flood Dragon’s body was impossible to measure at a glance. Its appearance made the waves part and the sinister wind rage even more furiously.

You might think this Flood Dragon was a majestic sight.

But in the next moment, a mournful draconic cry was heard.

AROOO—

The dragon’s roar was desolate, miserable, and filled with panicked rage.

"What Demon Fiend is this? How dare you attack me?"

"Y-You... What kind of abomination are you?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Ah! Spare—"

The plea died on its lips, the Flood Dragon’s cry cut off abruptly.

Was the Flood Dragon crying out "Spare me"?

No one would ever know. From within the sinister wind, countless Wind Sabers had appeared and flown out.

Even the Flood Dragon’s scales could not block these seemingly thin and fragile Wind Sabers. Wherever they passed, countless gashes instantly split open on its Dragon Body.

The Flood Dragon could no longer speak, its mournful cries the only sound echoing through the sky.

Heavy, dark-red Dragon Blood rained down from the sky. THUD, THUD, THUD! It crashed into Bibo Lake, stirring the waves. The Water Demons that had been struggling to escape the water now went into a frenzy.

"Dragon Blood! The Dragon Blood is mine!"

"If I drink Dragon Blood today, I will surely Transform into a Dragon tomorrow!"

"SQUEAK... SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!"

Demons that could speak human words were, after all, a minority. Most Water Demons could not talk, but their madness was no less intense.

Some Water Demons were boiled to death directly in the seething waters of Bibo Lake. Others simply could not withstand the weight of the Dragon Blood. They had surged forward, intending to bathe in it, only to be burned to death by it instead.

Yet even so, the Water Demons in the lake continued to rush madly toward the Dragon Blood.

’To bathe in Dragon Blood today, what regret is there in death?’

Hahaha—

The demons cried and howled, they shrieked and screamed.

The Flood Dragon in the sky could never have imagined that while he once reigned as king of the Aquatic Race, the moment he fell, every Little Demon below would want nothing more than to tear him apart and devour him.

But it wasn’t just the demons who were frenzied.

The catastrophe at Bibo Lake had happened in an instant. Though it takes long to describe, in that short time, it had merely caused the City God to ascend from his City God Temple and a great seal to rise above the Prefecture Magistrate’s Office.

In the next moment, a figure in an official’s robe arrived, riding the seal. Without a word, he produced a Long-necked Jade Bottle, and a powerful suction force poured from its mouth.

In the sky, the downpour of Dragon Blood began to change direction, large streams of it being sucked into the Jade Bottle.

The City God immediately roared in anger, "You insolent Fang Jintai! Bibo Lake is in turmoil, yet instead of suppressing the chaos, you come to snatch Dragon Blood?"

Fang Jintai, clad in his green official’s robe, replied coolly, "The disturbance here is so bizarre that even a Flood Dragon can be sliced to a thousand pieces. I am merely a minor Sixth Grade official; what ability do I have to suppress this? The City God, on the other hand, is so compassionate. Why are you not suppressing it? And why are you also collecting Dragon Blood?"

Indeed. At some point, a colossal Ma Mian had split off from the City God’s body. The Ma Mian galloped from the direction of the City God Temple, covering a hundred feet with every step, and in a flash, it arrived at the shore of Bibo Lake.

It opened a gloomy-looking sack and was also shamelessly and frantically collecting Dragon Blood!

And it wasn’t just these two. There were also the many Cultivators in the city.

Seeing the deluge of Dragon Blood, who could resist coming to collect some?

It was just that the others lacked the grand presence of those two. Some weren’t fast enough, or were too far away, and could only watch from a distance as the Dragon Blood rained down, unable to rush over for a piece of the pie. They could only beat their chests and stomp their feet in frustration...

As for Song Ciwan, who had been at the epicenter of the catastrophe from the very beginning, she was dodging the lashing willow roots while using her rapidly improving Escape into the Night skill, summoning the Heaven and Earth Scale to collect the scattered drops of Dragon Blood from the sidelines.