By early afternoon, the emerald melon plains merged into a broad belt of swaying silver reeds and weeping willows.
Ahead, the Mother River unrolled across the land-wide plain like a ribbon of molten sapphire, spanning more than two miles from bank to bank. Under the radiant summer sky, the wide waterway teemed with life. Long strings of flat-bottomed timber barges, cedar rafts, and multi-masted grain catamarans glided smoothly downstream, their white linen sails catching the warm valley breeze.
From the deck of the Tranquil Ripple, Lin Xiao peered over the gunwale in his sapphire slime form.
“Now this is a proper river,” Lin Xiao murmured, letting his jelly-like body sway in sync with the gentle air currents. “Not a single pirate flag, not a single blood-drinking water monster demanding toll tribute, and look at those barges—they’re moving faster than canal boats without a single engine.”
Gu Qingfeng rested his elbows on the cedar rail, a dry chuckle escaping his lips. “You should have seen this stretch two hundred years ago, Boss. The Black Water Galleon Sect ran fifty fortified toll fortresses along these bluffs. If a mortal fisherman didn’t hand over three-quarters of his catch, they’d tie an anchor to his ankles and toss him to the river ghouls. The water was so foul with corpse-foul fog that cattle wouldn’t drink from the shallows.”
