The cart moved. It really moved.

Ma Tianzheng watched as the curtain opened wider, and the cart accelerated the more it opened.

Did it move faster the brighter the sun shone?

They’re deceiving me! This had to be a lie!

Ma Tianzheng roared, “Pull it shut!”

This was typical misguided shouting. Yet, new drivers learning to drive were so used to being yelled “Pull it shut!” abruptly by Zheng Daniu that they’d developed a conditioned reflex. The moment they heard “pull it shut,” regardless of who shouted it, they yanked the curtain down instantly.

The cart’s power immediately weakened. It coasted forward on momentum alone, then came to a stop.

The driver steering the plow looked back, “Hey, what’s going on?”

The driver controlling the sunshade said sheepishly, “The priest suddenly yelled ‘pull it shut,’ I thought it was Daniu shouting, so I really did it.”

Everyone: “…”

All eyes fixed on Ma Tianzheng.

Ma Tianzheng was still leaning out the window, craning his neck to stare at the sunshade on the rooftop. His face showed disbelief, “It’s true. Once the curtain is closed, it stops. It really is like this.”

“People from outside have no clue,” the villagers shook their heads.

In the past, outsiders thought they were ignorant. Now, they thought outsiders were ignorant.

The driver pulled the sunshade open again. The cart started once more and moved forward along the cement road.

Soon, Wangjia Village came into view.

The villagers hopped off to begin working. The two drivers waved at them, “We’ll be back to pick you up in an hour.”

The villagers waved back, “Alright, one hour is enough!”

The cart rotated on a large circular concrete platform, turning around. Ma Tianzheng remained foolishly seated, refusing to get off.

Two villagers asked, “Priest, aren’t you getting off?”

Ma Tianzheng pointed at the moist ground outside, the wild grasses sprouting everywhere around the village, the trees showing new leaves and tender buds. He exclaimed in astonishment, “What’s happening with your village? Why is everything so lush?”

The two villagers chuckled, “That’s because the Deity invited the Dragon King to send rain to our village.”

“The Dragon King?”

Ma Tianzheng was stunned. He hadn’t even processed the whole “Miao Ri Star Official” business, and now there was a Dragon King?

They’re lying to me! They must be deceiving me!

The drivers said mysteriously, “The Saint Lady told us the Dragon King wasn’t really willing to bring rain here. But the Deity grabbed him by the neck with one hand, hauled him to our village, and ordered him to bring rain. The Dragon King didn’t dare resist. Held by the Deity like a little snake, he obeyed meekly. Ah, it’s a pity none of us could see it. Only the Saint Lady witnessed the Deity manifesting.”

Ma Tianzheng: They’re lying! They have to be lying to me!

“Hey, priest, if you’re not getting off, we’re heading back to Gaojia Village now.”

Ma Tianzheng: “Could this humble priest ride your cart to Gaojia Village?”

“Of course!” The two new drivers grinned. “Hold tight! Don’t stick your head out the window again. You made us drive so cautiously, scared a tree by the roadside would knock your head clean off.”

Ma Tianzheng pulled his head back inside. He stopped craning his neck; it was genuinely getting stiff, and he couldn’t bear the strain much longer.

The vehicle finished turning around and drove toward Gaojia Village.

Ma Tianzheng’s thoughts wandered aimlessly; he was completely unable to concentrate, his mind filled with random fantasies.

Since childhood, he had studied the Dao for forty years, but he had never witnessed a deity manifesting. In his youth, his faith in the Dao had been steadfast, yet as he grew older, he increasingly doubted that deities truly existed. But today…

Today! His faith in the Dao! That long-lost belief began to reawaken.

The vehicle quickly arrived outside Gaojia Village. The driver steering chuckled: “Look, the Dragon King! Priest, you’re lucky; the Deity captured the Dragon King again to bring rain.”

This startled Ma Tianzheng, instantly rousing him from his wandering thoughts. He leaned his head out of the car window and looked into the air; a low cloud hovered above Gaojia Village’s farmland, and from it emerged a massive dragon’s head. Opening its huge snarling maw, it sprayed a fine rain down…

“There really is a Dragon King!”

Ma Tianzheng roared: “There really is a Dragon King! This humble Daoist saw it, saw it with his own eyes. Forty years, a full forty years.”

As he roared, he began wailing: “My faith in the Dao had already started wavering; this humble Daoist almost quit believing that deities exist. Waking from midnight dreams, this humble Daoist often doubted all he’d learned in life, nearly becoming a heretic breaking from the Dao. Finally… finally, this humble Daoist beheld a divine visage…”

Li Daoxuan was just then holding a bowl of Hechuan lamb noodles, slurping joyfully. During rain-making, his gaze had to be there, as rain couldn’t fall where his sight wasn’t.

Just after he slurped an extra-long lamb noodle into his mouth, he spotted the public sun chariot return. Then a Daoist in Daoist robes, clutching a dust whisk, leapt swiftly off the chariot. Wailing tearfully, he dashed toward the rain-making spot.

“Eh?”

Li Daoxuan murmured: “Another wild figure has appeared, and it’s a Daoist.”

Actually, during the Ming Dynasty, many scholars favored Daoist robes, so wearing them didn’t necessarily denote a Daoist. But this person differed from scholars—he wore Daoist robes paired with multi-eared hemp shoes, had a Daoist bun on his head, carried a dust whisk, sported a tattered Bagua symbol on his vest, and yes, bore a three-foot Longsword on his back…

He was unmistakably a Daoist at first glance, a wandering one whose steps covered all corners of the realm.

Normally, when a wild figure arrived, Li Daoxuan wouldn’t interact directly right away. He’d observe first, gradually assess the wild figure’s character and traits before deciding whether to “manifest divinity.”

But since this was a Daoist, the situation changed.

Hey, this profession!

What would happen when a divine being encountered a “true deity”?

Li Daoxuan’s playful spirit surged instantly; he had to have some fun with this one.

Seeing the Daoist about to run directly beneath the “Dragon King,” Li Daoxuan abruptly switched off the medical nebulizer and yanked the dragon’s head out of the box.

As Ma Tianzheng kept sprinting, he watched the rain suddenly cease; the dragon’s head swiftly retracted into the cloud and vanished.

“Eh?”

Ma Tianzheng froze: why did the Dragon King leave as soon as I arrived?

Li Daoxuan plucked a “Nezha” figurine from his toy shelf, dipped it smoothly into the box, paused at the entry point, then swished it across the air…

Ma Tianzheng cried: “Prince Nezha! Ahhh, flying so fast! So fast!”

Swoosh, Prince Nezha orbited once and disappeared; then Li Daoxuan retrieved it from the box.

Ma Tianzheng stood dazed for a full five seconds before suddenly having an epiphany: “The Dragon King saw Prince Nezha coming and feared being attacked, so he fled.”