The Scorching Sun Department discovered that the Mountain Lord was accompanied by a Rakshasa Bird, but they didn't dare to act rashly.

Cai Qidong actually thought of pulling some strings—using the connections he made last time, he wanted to go to the Celestial Master Mansion for help.

Obviously, even if the Mountain Lord was in a disembodied state, he wasn't someone an ordinary Taoist could handle; with the Mountain Lord's level, he was definitely worth inviting the Old Celestial Master for.

Unfortunately, Cai Qidong was a step too late—the Old Celestial Master could finally spare a bit of time recently, but he'd already been booked by another commandery.

Rumor has it, it's related to some big project in Divine Land—something that will affect the development of several commanderies for decades to come, impacting literally hundreds of millions of people to some degree.

Cai Qidong asked about it—it turns out headquarters had made the appointment with the Old Celestial Master years ago, but he was always tied up with other matters. Now that he's free, he rushed over to handle it.

Cai Qidong wanted help with the Mountain Lord. According to the records, considering what the Mountain Lord had done in the past and since reappearing, the Scorching Sun Department's assessment was that his biggest threat would be fighting with the West River Dragon God—and the collateral damage could affect others.

Aside from that, the Mountain Lord himself doesn't actually pose much threat to ordinary people. At least in terms of Scorching Sun's priority ranking, he's nowhere near the level of absolute priority.

As Spiritual Energy resurges, more and more individuals with strong personal power are bound to appear or reawaken.

The Scorching Sun Department couldn't possibly add all of them to the "Submit or be exterminated" list.

Honestly, the Rakshasa Bird that's been tagging along the Mountain Lord probably has a higher "capture or eliminate" priority than the Mountain Lord himself right now.

From Scorching Sun's point of view, in theory, after the Mountain Lord's revival, at worst he's guilty of harboring and shielding the Rakshasa Bird as it harms people.

It's just that this guy is a natural high-priority subject for scrutiny.

At present, sending Wen Yan to talk to the West River Dragon God had actually become the top priority for handling the Mountain Lord situation.

Cai Heizi had coaxed and flattered Wen Yan for ages, and, without Wen Yan even doing the job yet, already promised: as long as Wen Yan went to talk to the West River Dragon God—after just the first conversation, as long as it didn't end in a blowup—that'd be considered a great achievement. One time, Wen Yan could choose any treasure he wanted, and claim extra bonuses too.

Wen Yan didn't say much—he was pretty scared, too.

He'd encountered so many things before—even the Soul Devouring Beast, he was able to get information about, since the Soul Devouring Beast couldn't instantly kill him.

But with the Mountain Lord, they didn't even dare give information face-to-face. If the Mountain Lord sensed it, he'd probably react with malice, and most likely kill Wen Yan on the spot.

Now the Mountain Lord had appeared by the riverbank. Even though the waters beside Virtue City weren't part of King Guilong's turf, what if the Mountain Lord contacted King Guilong first?

What if the two of them started fighting?

Of course, it might not even be the worst-case scenario if they fought.

Even worse would be if the two of them didn't fight—but managed to cut a deal instead.

The next day, in the Scorching Sun Department, someone was on monitoring duty as usual. Of course, to be safe, they only reviewed recordings, never watched the live feed.

They were worried that monitoring live might get noticed by the other side.

Some of the especially powerful beings are extremely sensitive to surveillance—but nowadays there are cameras everywhere in the city, which dulls that sensitivity to some extent.

Watching the recordings avoids those issues—it's a good way to evade supernatural detection.

They confirmed that, during the day, the Mountain Lord was wandering everywhere with a young girl, spent half the day at the library reading up on a few hundred years of recent history, and a few popular science books.

Then in the afternoon, they hailed a car and made a trip to the Dragon Mother Temple—walked around for a while, then left.

At night, they didn't come to the riverbank.

Once this was confirmed, Wen Yan finally went to the same riverside spot where he'd gone underwater last time.

He had barely entered the water when he saw a big grass carp over a meter long swimming toward him at full speed.

The big grass carp stared at him with wide eyes.

"Boss, any instructions?"

"..."

Wen Yan didn't know quite how to respond at first.

"Where'd you learn that from?"

"Last time some boss came to the riverbank, I heard someone say it like that."

"I don't really have any instructions. Just do your job well. Even if there's only one spot here, if you do well enough, the West River Water System is huge, and there might be more positions elsewhere."

Classic motivational speech, and the big grass carp's heart blossomed with happiness.

He'd originally thought, after hearing that Old Turtle got left behind, that spot would definitely be Old Turtle's. That damned Old Turtle—and who knew what he was left behind for, anyway.

The big grass carp was honestly a bit discouraged, since even the Dragon King had his eye on Old Turtle.

He'd heard that the Sea Dragon King always took turtles as Prime Ministers; turtles were especially valued—and even among humans, Old Turtle seemed to count as a National Second-Class Protected Animal.

But a big grass carp like him? If someone caught and ate him, it wouldn't even be illegal…

Now, after Wen Yan's motivational speech, he perked up at once, completely energized.

Right! The West River's waters are huge! If he couldn't outdo Old Turtle, or the National First-Class river dolphin, maybe he could still beat out those wild Water Gods elsewhere?

The big grass carp started swimming back and forth like he'd been injected with chicken blood.

Wen Yan didn't know if the big grass carp was on something—or just weird. He didn't ask further.

"Where's Old Turtle?"

"Yes, Boss. I'll go get him right away."

The big grass carp flipped his body and darted away, quickly returning with Old Turtle in tow, both of them rushing through the water.

Old Turtle was totally dizzy and cursing as he was dragged along. When he saw Wen Yan, he finally shut up.

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