I was curious.
"After entering the city, remember not to run around all over the place, stay close to me obediently." Before setting foot into Daizhou City, he pointed at my head with his finger and warned me seriously.
"Mn, got it," I stuck out my tongue. I guessed that it must have been my lively running around the city last time that left a deep impression on him.
"Let's go in."
With a slight movement of his left hand, the city gate, which was half-closed by the wind, slowly opened, making a dull and heavy sound, welcoming the two unexpected guests.
The situation in the city was worse than I imagined.
Water, water everywhere.
Apart from the rain bucketing down from the sky, there were also rivers of accumulated water winding on the ground, which was dark, shallow, and unbearably dirty. Few buildings and houses on both sides were still intact. Some structures had lost their roofs, some had half of their walls collapsed, and some were reduced to mere rubble, standing alone in the midst of the torrential rain and cold wind.
Was this dismal scene all due to this rain?
The further we went, the deeper the accumulated water and the faster it flowed.
Although his magic kept all the dirty water at least half a step away from us, I still saw that the deepest part of the water had reached up to my waist. Occasionally, some miscellaneous household utensils and clothing drifted past us, and occasionally there were corpses of drowned livestock emitting a foul stench.
"This city... has been destroyed like this by the heavy rain?!" I turned to ask him.
This scene made me feel ill. I recalled the small town I visited on that autumn day, so beautiful and full of life. Both were cities meant for human habitation, so why was there such a stark difference in their fates?!
This Daizhou City was full of... the smell of death.
It was rare to see him frowning for such a long time. From entering the city until now, his brows hadn't relaxed once.
"Just a furious storm is not enough to destroy the entire city to such an extent..." He looked at the badly damaged and chaotic streets before him and shook his head.
"Then why..."
I barely began my question and was cut off by him.
"Hush!" He put his finger to his lips, signaling for me to be quiet.
"Help... someone… save us..."
In my confusion, a cry for help from an unknown direction came to my ears.
The voice was not loud, it sounded exhausted and seemed to be mixed with sounds of weeping.
He alertly followed the sound, quickly hastening towards a courtyard on the front left that was on the brink of complete collapse.
When we arrived at this ruin that could no longer be called a courtyard, I couldn't help but be shocked.
An old woman over fifty years old was somehow sitting paralyzed in the water, with only her shoulders and above exposed. Collapsed rubble and bricks were scattered all around, and a thick and heavy beam from the collapsed house was just about half a foot above her head, blocked by the remnants of the walls on either side.
Waa… waa… waa…
There was a crying baby in a brown wooden basin floating unsteadily on the water. The old woman was tightly grasping the edge of the basin with both hands for fear it would be washed away by the water.
But as the current became stronger and stronger, the splashing water waves hit the old woman's face, making her cough uncontrollably, and her grip on the basin began to loosen.
The situation was dire.
I broke free from his grasp and was about to go help the old woman up, but he stopped me.
"I'll handle this."
He dipped his finger into the water a little and commanded softly, "Open!"
Before the lingering sound faded, a path half a meter wide appeared before us. The water that was still turbulent just now, like a little soldier following orders, split apart obediently on either side, no longer daring to cause trouble.
After the water receded, I discovered that a bulky wooden beam, similar to a door frame, was pressing on the old woman's leg. No wonder she couldn't stand up or move.
He hurried forward, instructing me to pick up the child in the wooden tub. He then crouched down, moving the wooden beam away from the old woman's leg and carefully pulling her out from under the tottering house beam.
The old woman, having narrowly escaped death, was terrified. After confirming that both she and the child were really safe, she hurriedly kowtowed to us: "Many thanks, hero, for the rescue! Many thanks for saving us, benefactor! No, no, many thanks to the immortal for saving us! Many thanks, immortal, for saving us!"
From the old woman's rambling, I knew she just regarded us as ordinary people with strange arts. Although all mortals liked to talk about immortals all day long, once an immortal truly appeared in front of them, how many people would believe it?
"You need not thank us, madam." He helped the old woman up carefully, then asked, "When did the continuous torrential rain in Daizhou City start?"
After the old woman took the crying baby from my hands with great gratitude, she replied with a bitter face, "Our Daizhou City has always had favorable weather, but this time, I don't know if it's because the heavens are blind or if some demons and ghosts are playing tricks. Since the eighth day of last month, there have been heavy rains in the city and fierce winds outside the city. In just ten days, the entire city was almost completely destroyed. What a calamity!"
"What about the other people in the city?" I couldn't help but interrupt. Throughout our journey here, besides the old woman and the baby, we hadn't seen anyone else.
"Those who are able-bodied, young, with families to take care of, if they can walk, they've left. Many lost their lives for nothing, drowned, crushed to death... cough..." The old woman shook her head with a sigh, then burst into tears again. "My poor son and daughter-in-law... I don't know how they are doing now... Before the disaster, they went to gather herbs outside the city, and there's been no word from them since. They left me, an old woman, alone to take care of my grandson... I was afraid they wouldn't find me when they came back, so I dared not leave the house... Today, luckily Immortal appeared to save me, otherwise this old woman would have gone to meet Yama long ago... sob..sob..sob..."
"Abominable..." Indistinct words came out of his throat.
Just that one word was enough for me to know he was angry.
The old woman stopped crying, wiped her eyes, and continued, "I've heard others say there is a monster outside the city. Some even claim to have seen the monster flying into the city in the middle of the night to make mischief. Many houses collapsed because it bumped into them. I don't know if it's true or false. If there really is a monster, I beg Immortal to subdue it. That wretched thing has killed so many people over this time!"
He remained silent, casually plucked a leaf from a broken tree nearby, blew on it and released it.
The dark green leaf spun around and expanded, turning into a small boat in a flash.
"This boat will safely take you and your grandson out of Daizhou City," he said as he stepped forward and helped the stupefied old woman sit steady in the boat. "Once the rain stops, you can return to the city."
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