Chapter 4: The Emergence of the Drought Serpent

After finishing watering the millet field, the water they carried was barely enough for the three of them to use.

The temperature was outrageously high.

At first, the three of them, relying on their good health, still maintained daily baths, but now they dared not bathe at all, only wiping themselves down briefly. At this temperature, sweat would just evaporate as soon as it appeared.

After watering the field, the three stood silently talking in the courtyard.

The door was wide open, revealing the small path outside. Ye Lu immediately spotted a tall, fairly robust middle-aged man, clearly an experienced farmer.

“Lu, the village elders are calling you over; there’s something important!” From a distance, the man saw the few people in the courtyard and raised his hand in greeting.

Ye Lu squinted, looking carefully before finally recognizing the visitor.

“Seventh Uncle?” It was indeed Ye Lu’s seventh uncle, He Qi. As a clan elder, He Qi spoke with the authority of an elder, since Ye Lu’s biological uncle was his cousin.

He Qi entered the courtyard directly, looked around, and noticed the place was kept quite tidy. He nodded in approval. Good, Lu was slowly learning to manage the household; Shitou must be relieved about his nephew.

After observing, He Qi finally got to the point.

“What is it?” Ye Lu hesitated slightly before asking.

He Qi remained calm and reassured him, “Don’t worry, the master practitioners are all here, as well as the village elders. They just want to ask you some questions since you recently returned from Qiang City.”

Ye Lu’s curiosity deepened. Why would the village need him to get involved?

Though he had seen himself in the water bucket earlier—while he looked decent, he was clearly just a young man approaching adulthood and held no real authority in the village. Yet, they insisted he come forward.

Ye Lu instinctively glanced at Ghost Scholar and the Trickster.

Ghost Scholar furrowed his brows as well.

He Qi’s expression was even more composed as he said, “If you want, your friends can come along. Every household must send a few people. Since the adults in your family are gone, you are the head of the household; bringing someone with you is fine.” The village’s acknowledgment of Ghost Scholar and the Trickster’s presence meant full acceptance of them and adherence to village rules.

“Got it.”

He Qi nodded in satisfaction.

As he left the gate, he seemed to remember something, suddenly turning back to catch Ye Lu’s puzzled gaze. He paused, then spoke as if offering a reminder, “At the meeting, if you encounter anything confusing, just speak out.”

Ye Lu nodded again.

Only then did He Qi depart.

Ye Lu had originally planned to take only Ghost Scholar to the meeting. The Trickster was usually uninterested in such matters, but for some reason, Ye Lu suddenly grabbed the Trickster by the collar.

The Trickster turned, puzzled.

“You’re coming too!” Ye Lu said plainly. He still felt uneasy and thought it best for the Trickster to come along.

It was just right for the whole family of three to attend. No matter what happened, Ye Lu felt reassured.

Following the route from memory, Ye Lu arrived at the village ancestral hall, the usual meeting place. The deep red hall was the tallest wooden structure in the village, with dark red doors edged subtly in black. The plastered walls bore faint floral patterns.

Ye Lu instinctively stared at the patterns, sensing they resembled the millet he had seen before.

Upon entering, a unique oppressive aura made him catch his breath. The place was dark and bloodstained. Ye Lu instinctively looked up at the ceiling. The building was surely made with strange flesh and blood, emanating a vibrant vitality—likely from that formidable cursed plant, the Green Millet.

The initial oppressive aura must have come from another strange entity.

Ye Lu wasn’t quite sure but distinctly felt the difference between the two. Fortunately, the oppressive presence lasted only a moment, seemingly just to assess something. Once it dissipated, the three of them simultaneously felt they had passed some test.

Inside the inner hall, Ye Lu saw dozens of people clustered in small groups, gathered around a few individuals in the center whose presence was more imposing. Most were spirited, while a few less energetic still radiated a formidable aura.

Ye Lu quickly scanned the two middle-aged men standing nearby, one plump and one thin, both dressed in long robes with eerie auras. Next to them stood a strong, imposing middle-aged woman clad in armor, commanding respect and fear from those around her.

They were the village’s two sorcerers, Master Shi and Master He, along with the captain of the guards, He Lan.

Most people wore simple clothing; even He Lan only wore thicker attire. She was frowning, speaking urgently.

The two other sorcerers, including He’s third uncle and several village elders, listened solemnly.

“Lu’s here!” Someone suddenly called out from the crowd, causing a brief pause. He Lan instinctively looked toward the entrance, meeting the gaze of Ye Lu and his companions.

She seemed unconcerned about Ye Lu bringing two others. Initially, she softened her expression toward Ye Lu, then sternly signaled him to come forward.

The crowd parted, allowing Ye Lu to approach the central gathering. Only then did he notice a small, deeply colored table in front of the group, with nothing on it except the corpse of a snake.

The snake’s color was strange, like earth dug from the soil—a dull yellow. Just looking at it made one’s mouth dry. Its scales were rough, and its aura was peculiarly unsettling.

Ye Lu paused, then looked to He Lan, awaiting her words, ignoring the uneasy looks from the Trickster behind him.

The Trickster was no longer relaxed as when entering the hall. His eyes fixed rigidly on the muddy snake on the table, his expression stiff, and the smile at his lips barely raised. Anyone familiar with him would sense something was wrong.

“Lu, you’ve been to Qiang City, right? Is there a drought there too?” He Lan concisely stated her purpose.

Ye Lu immediately recalled Qiang City. Although his stay there was brief and memories somewhat hazy, mostly involving buying cloth and goods at the market, he remembered the anxious expressions on the townsfolk’s faces.

“Yes, drought!” Ye Lu answered firmly.

“At the market, the cloth shop owner looked unhappy and was often talking with the shop assistant about the well water decreasing. The weather itself was strange—less water, more mud. They were even discussing whether to stockpile cursed food and grain.”

Ye Lu’s words caused him to pause in surprise. Indeed, the drought in Qiang City was severe, yet he had paid it little mind.

“No wonder the drought snakes have appeared!” The thinner sorcerer spoke first. Tall and familiar with Ye Lu’s tone, this was Master He.

“Drought snakes appear with the drought. If it’s just them, there’s no need to panic—they’re mostly low-level nuisances. We can grind them into oil, which can also be used as fertilizer. The real concern is what else might be coming.” The plumper sorcerer, known as Master Shi, was a village-hired expert with considerable knowledge. The village only had to provide some Green Millet yearly as compensation.

Master Shi was no longer young and had grown comfortable living in He Village, seemingly ready to settle there for good.

Villagers welcomed this, knowing that having sorcerers made all the difference in these times.

After Master Shi’s words, the atmosphere fell silent.

“The drought snakes are agile and have excellent flesh. One arm-length drought snake can sometimes swallow a nearly grown adult, which makes them common livestock for many powerful strange creatures,” He Lan said after hearing the explanation. The drought snake was the one the guards had discovered earlier that morning.

These snakes could not be allowed into the village. Once inside, the drought worsened, moisture was suppressed, and the land risked turning to useless sand. This was what the villagers feared most.

Thus, He Lan had raised alarm with the village elders.

“What we need to determine now is whether these drought snakes emerged because of the drought itself, or… because of some omen?” He Lan’s voice trailed off as she sighed deeply, her brow tightly furrowed.

No one answered, no one was certain.

Everyone was silent, and the two sorcerers showed no confidence.

He Lan glanced around, then looked at He’s third uncle, who had not spoken since the beginning. The elderly man sat upright, leaning on his cane with eyes closed, seemingly resting.

“Third Uncle, what do you think?” He Lan had no choice but to ask the elder.

Ye Lu listened attentively throughout, his gaze lingering on the drought snake corpse. He had never seen anything like it before, likely unique to this world. He could feel how this strange creature could worsen drought conditions. Intrigued, he even considered studying the corpse.

This drought snake must be earth-elemental, right?

Coincidentally, it matched his specialty, and Ye Lu was curious about how it differed from true earth-elemental creatures.

Lost in thought, Ye Lu suddenly felt his sleeve tugged. He turned instinctively and met the Ghost Scholar’s grim expression and the Trickster’s cold sweat-drenched face.

The Trickster was staring fixedly at the drought snake corpse, his arm hairs standing on end, jaw clenched tightly, as if about to bolt at any moment.

Ye Lu’s heart sank instantly!

The Trickster’s gift was danger perception; his instincts made him extremely sensitive to threats. The last time the Trickster had such a reaction was in the Ling Mountain Living Buddha world, when he saw the black altar containing human-pig sacrifices. He had been drenched in cold sweat and panic-stricken.

The Trickster’s instincts had been right.

That dungeon nearly cost the three of them their lives.

Now, seeing the Trickster like this...

Cold sweat broke out on Ye Lu’s back as well.

He wiped his forehead instinctively, hand clammy, then looked at Ghost Scholar, whose expression was no better—if anything, it worsened.

“Ah Xi, calm down, don’t let your instincts control you!” Ye Lu, though sweating, was the de facto leader of the trio and the first to regain composure. He quickly took control of the situation and soothed the Trickster.

Grasping the Trickster’s wrist, Ye Lu’s warm touch and comforting tone soon calmed him, though the Trickster’s face remained pale and jittery, barely able to speak.

“Danger,” the Trickster squeezed out through clenched teeth. His tone hinted at something horrifying.

“It’s terrifying,” he said, staring at the drought snake corpse. “Behind it, I saw the land all dried and cracked, and monsters crawling out of the earth.”