BXBX NOVEL Chapter 457 - Natural Disaster
Chapter 457 - Natural Disaster
However, Li Huowang knew it was not a normal solar eclipse. He had seen one in the other world when he was a primary school student.
A solar eclipse wouldn\'t blot out the sun completely and would always leave a ring of light.
Dum, dum, dum!
The rhythmic sound of rapid drumbeats echoed, and Lu Zhuangyuan used his trained voice as a performer to shout, “The Heavenly Dog has eaten the sun~! Beat the drums and make some noise to scare it away~!”
Everyone could no longer stay calm, and they started panicking at Lu Zhuangyuan\'s words.
Li Huowang opened the window and jumped down before heading toward the source of the sound. It didn\'t take him a long while to see Lu Zhuangyuan. He was with his group of disciples and was beating and playing instruments with lanterns in hand.
“Stop! Everyone stop!” Li Huowang snatched Lu Zhuangyuan’s gong.
“Young Daoist, I know you\'re amazing, but you don’t know what\'s happening right now! The Heavenly Dog has eaten the sun! The last time this happened, my third uncle brought along the entire village to beat the drums and play instruments to chase away the Heavenly Dog!”
Li Huowang frowned at Lu Zhuangyuan\'s nonsense. “What you\'re trying to do is useless! Hurry up and gather everyone in the village to hide in the Bai Family Estate! Don\'t forget to do a head count!”
“What are we going to do if the Heavenly Dog swallows the sun because we didn\'t chase it away with our instruments?”
“Just go! Say something stupid like that again, and I will burn your instruments!”
Lu Zhuangyuan wanted to argue but decided against it after seeing Li Huowang\'s stern look. He turned around and walked away with his disciples to gather everyone else. They brought their lanterns to the Bai Family Estate.
Li Huowang finally had the time to ask Zhuge Yuan.
“Senior Zhuge, is this really a Natural Disaster? Are you sure it\'s not something else?”
Li Huowang had experienced so many bizarre things in this crazy world that he could no longer feel surprised by anything.
Zhuge Yuan looked up and reminisced before replying, “It should be a Natural Disaster. I remember reading about it once, and there was one Natural Disaster that had the same phenomena where the skies have gone completely dark.”
“Senior Zhuge, have you read anything about it? How about the Sun-Devouring Heavenly Dog?”
“No, but what matters isn\'t the details of the Natural Disaster. It\'s when they happened. Do you remember when was the last Natural Disaster?”
Li Huowang looked up at the dark skies and reminisced. "Last year."
Last year\'s Natural Disaster involved the disappearance of "Decay."
Everything in the world would no longer decay and rot. It was exactly why Li Huowang could still remain calm. It was a "Natural Disaster," but it didn\'t really affect Li Huowang and the others, except for the death of the Abbess, which was notably impactful.
“Correct, but Natural Disasters usually happen once every ten years. Why do we have two Natural Disasters in just two years? Junior Li, something is definitely wrong here.”
Li Huowang\'s heart tightened at Zhuge Yuan\'s remark.
“Does that mean that in the Baiyu Capital—”
"Junior Li," Zhuge Yuan interrupted with a serious look. "You\'re a Strayed One that is already cultivating the "Truth." It’s best if you don’t talk about those things anymore, or...”
Li Huowang understood what Zhuge Yuan was trying to say, so he went silent. He stood quietly and thought about the many different possibilities until Lu Juren came running over with a lantern, informing him that everyone in the village had already gathered at the Bai Family Estate.
Li Huowang looked up at the empty space above him. “Senior Zhuge, I think we should focus on holding out through this Natural Disaster first, regardless of what\'s happening over there. There’s no reason for me to think too much about it, as I can’t really do anything.”
“No, no. All of us should take responsibility for everyone’s lives. Let me think about this for now,” Zhuge Yuan said, tapping his head with his fan and sinking deep into his thoughts.
Lu Juren took a deep breath and cast a nervous look at Li Huowang.
Li Huowang didn’t say anything and started walking toward the Bai Family Estate. Li Huowang saw that everyone was kneeling and praying toward the darkness. It wasn\'t exactly a strange sight, as ordinary people would seek salvation during moments of extreme fear, especially in the face of such a bizarre phenomenon.
“Xiaohai, do we have enough food?” Li Huowang asked. He concluded that they ought to bunker up in the Bai Family Estate and wait for the Natural Disaster to pass.
“Senior Li, don’t worry. We have enough food. We still have last year\'s rice in the granary. We can last for two to three years. We also have a well in the estate to drink, so we\'re going to be fine.”
Li Huowang nodded and took the bell from Chun Xiaoman’s waist.
He rang it loudly to get everyone’s attention.
“Everyone, don’t panic. It’s just a Natural Disaster. It\'ll go away soon; we just need to wait for it to go away.”
Despite Li Huowang\'s words, everyone was still afraid.
Fortunately, they looked slightly reassured by his words.
Li Huowang noticed their fear and instructed Yang Xiaohai to slaughter a cow for a meal. Everyone’s attention was instantly shifted to whether or not they should actually slaughter a cow for a meal, and they seemed to have forgotten their fear.
“Boss Hong Zhong is amazing! I didn\'t expect that you\'d be able to divert their attention so easily!”
Li Huowang ignored the taunting Sitting Oblivion Dao illusion and looked at Zhuge Yuan, asking, “Senior Zhuge, how much effort do you think the Surveillance Bureau had to use to repel Natural Disaster? They were established to repel Natural Disasters, but I still have my doubts on whether they could actually do that or not.”
The appearance of a Natural Disaster meant that the Simings were fighting over each other to take the Heavenly Daos.
Having witnessed Doulao’s incredible powers, Li Huowang doubted that an organization filled with normal people could repel Natural Disasters. Or maybe they were just lying?
“They do have their methods, but I’m not sure if they could do it in time. They must have used up a lot of their resources against the Sitting Oblivion Dao at the time.”
Li Huowang didn’t know what to say. He had hated how the Surveillance Bureau thought that the lives of others were meaningless, but at the same time, he was hoping that they\'d soon resume operations.
They were evil and had killed many people, but they were indispensable to this world. Many people would die without them.
“Senior Zhuge, you said that something is definitely wrong because of the short interval between Natural Disasters. What do you think? Can the Surveillance Bureau handle this?”
“It should be fine, but the Liang Kingdom’s Surveillance Bureau is working together with the imperial family, so I don’t really trust them. Even if the Liang Kingdom is fake, ancient laws say that the Surveillance Bureau cannot collaborate with any factions or powers. They absolutely cannot help the imperial family to invade other countries and steal land. Those fall under the jurisdiction of the military, after all.”