Chapter 610 It's Going to Be Chaotic Again
It was Jiang Cheng’s first time witnessing the Heavenly Lord statue move.
He had only ever heard others speak of it, never experienced it firsthand.
Although he had joined the Heavenly Lord Daoist Sect, deep down, he harbored a sliver of doubt about whether the Heavenly Lord truly manifested divine power.
But now, that doubt no longer had a place.
The Heavenly Lord statue on his chest not only moved, but it also spoke.
"The Heavenly Lord has manifested!" Jiang Cheng wept with joy, exclaiming, "We're saved, we're saved! Everyone, heed the Heavenly Lord's words: cling tightly to the nearest pillar!"
The merchant ship was small, with only ten crew members. Everyone frantically grabbed onto the vessel.
Then, they watched as a colossal golden hand descended from the sky, reaching into the Yellow River. It gently cradled the boat from beneath, then lifted the entire vessel into the air.
Jiang Cheng and the crew members cried out in unison, "Ahhh!"
The massive golden hand moved them slowly, then gradually accelerated...
It started slowly, but grew faster and faster.
Before long, their speed reached two hundred kilometers per hour.
Soaring through the sky at such a speed, the thrill was immense.
Jiang Cheng could only open his mouth and bellow into the wind and rain, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
They soon arrived at the Yongji Ancient Ferry Dock.
The colossal golden hand gently lowered the ship beside the dock.
The dazed crew members snapped to attention, quickly grabbing ropes and leaping onto the dock to secure them tightly to the mooring posts.
Jiang Cheng and all the crew jumped ashore. As their feet touched solid ground, they finally broke down, sobbing aloud to release the raw emotion of their survival. Then, in unison, they bowed towards the sky, proclaiming, "Thank you, Heavenly Lord, for saving our lives!"
Li Daoxuan, however, had no time for lengthy thank-yous; he was swamped.
The larger his territory, the more places he had to manage, and the more people he had to save.
Outside the diorama box, a dense map of place names sprawled before him. He casually tapped one, then swiftly pressed the "North, South, East, West" buttons, scanning the area to check if anyone was in distress or if any farmlands were at risk of flooding.
He used to curse his limited field of view, but now he felt it was overwhelmingly vast, leaving him overwhelmed and unable to manage everything.
To hell with it, he thought. He'd rescue as many as he could. Those he couldn't save, well, they could only blame their ill fortune.
After all, he was doing his best.
His gaze shifted southward from the Yongji Ancient Ferry Dock.
He scanned along the Yellow River banks, searching for anyone in need of rescue.
As he shifted his view, a small ferry crossing came into sight.
The name of this crossing was Fenglingdu.
This was a place of great renown.
It was here that the heroine Guo Xiang first met Yang Guo, fell in love at first sight, and thus lost a lifetime of happiness.
Fenglingdu, crossing half a life, you never turned around!
The Fenglingdu crossing was relatively narrow. After the Yellow River's water level rose, this section of the river became somewhat overwhelmed. The surging currents simply couldn't pass through the constricted channel, and the river was beginning to back up, with water levels steadily climbing.
Li Daoxuan saw at a glance that something was wrong; the Yellow River... it looked like it was about to burst its banks.
"Damn it!"
Water was already beginning to spill over the edge of the riverbank...
If that section of the embankment gave way, the river would surge straight through Fenglingdu.
Guo Xiang and Yang Guo would likely both perish beneath the waves!
No, wait, it was the ordinary people of Fenglingdu who would all die.
Li Daoxuan quickly grabbed a washbasin and frantically scooped a basinful of water from the Yellow River, but it was utterly useless.
Even though the Yellow River was two hundred times narrower inside the diorama box, it still spanned several meters. Li Daoxuan couldn't stop the Yellow River from breaching its banks with a mere washbasin, let alone a water pump.
Reinforce the embankment!
A thought flashed through Li Daoxuan's mind. He rushed to his balcony, found a modular wooden flowerpot made of individual slats, and with quick, practiced movements, disassembled it, scattering the wooden pieces across the floor.
Then he hurried back to the diorama box, carefully placing the wooden slats one by one against the section of the riverbank most likely to breach.
At that very moment, the villagers of Fenglingdu were scrambling to evacuate.
Li Daoxuan could see the Yellow River was about to breach, and naturally, so could the people of Fenglingdu. Villagers, dragging their children, were hastily gathering their meager valuables, preparing to flee.
But even if people could run, and their portable possessions, their homes couldn't.
Should the Yellow River burst its banks, the entire ferry town would be submerged, every house destroyed... they were destined to become homeless.
The villagers felt a deep reluctance to leave.
Yet, they were helpless.
Just then...
Someone shouted, "Look, up in the sky! Up in the sky!"
The people of Fenglingdu looked up, then witnessed a sight they would never forget: a colossal golden hand, clasping a long, immense wooden block, descended from the heavens.
The wooden block, like a gigantic dam, landed with a thud along the riverbank. The golden hand then pressed it firmly into the earth, securing it snugly against the bank.
One block wasn't enough to hold back the river. Soon, a second descended, then a third. Enormous wooden blocks dropped one after another, forming a protective barrier along the vulnerable section of the riverbank, as if adding a massive fence to the Yellow River's edge.
The river's waters were stabilized!
Only tiny gaps between the wooden slats still posed a slight risk of seepage.
But the colossal golden hand immediately retrieved a strange, soft, multicolored mud, quite beautiful to behold, and pressed it into the gaps, sealing them completely.
The risk of a breach was, without a doubt, eliminated.
The people of Fenglingdu watched, dumbfounded, forgetting even to cheer.
"What a Divine Miracle!"
"That's Dao Xuan Tian Zun performing a divine spell! I've been to Puzhou City once and heard of this deity's power."
"We're saved! Our homes are safe, at least."
"Fenglingdu is saved!"
Li Daoxuan sighed, panting, "Damn it, disaster relief is no easy task."
However, he couldn't rest yet. He quickly moved on to survey the next areas: Dragon Gate Ferry, Qichuan Ferry... the little people in various places were all shaking their heads, watching the Yellow River's surging waters.
Equipment along the riverbanks was hastily moved to higher ground, and all boats moored in the river were violently rocking.
The entire world within the diorama box seemed to sense the Yellow River's formidable power.
Li Daoxuan thought to himself, "This isn't good!"
If the upper reaches of the Yellow River were this strained, what would become of its middle and lower sections?
He feared that great turmoil was about to engulf the land again.
He was right. In Chongzhen's fifth year, the Great Ming Dynasty, having just suffered a devastating drought, was immediately struck by widespread flooding. The Yellow River burst its banks multiple times, causing countless deaths among soldiers, civilians, and merchants. People were displaced, begging for food everywhere, with nowhere left to turn, they could only gather and rebel.
A new round of chaos had begun.
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