Dawn broke, and the first light spread across the sky.

Behind the thin clouds, a purple-whiskered white dragon wound back and forth, its breath rolling slowly across Jianyang Prefecture like low thunder.

Moving clouds and spreading rain was the Immortal Court's responsibility, and there were immortals whose job it was.

What the white dragon was doing wasn't so much making rain as hauling water, carrying water from elsewhere to this prefecture.

If some ordinary wild demon did this, or worse, caused a disaster with it, the Immortal Court would surely kill it. But this one was acting on the Divine Dynasty's orders. It wasn't strictly by the rules, but normally nobody would interfere.

“Stop daydreaming!”

In front of the Earth God's shrine, the old man flung his cane. The wooden cane flew up into the sky and rapped the white dragon on the forehead, not too hard, not too soft.

“Ow.”

Ziyang yelped and sheepishly stopped searching.

Sect Master Shen had gone off with that monk and vanished without a trace, and on top of that there was what the Earth God had said earlier. How was Ziyang supposed to have his mind on making rain? He was only waiting for a chance to slip away.

“Don't forget you still have a job to do.” The Earth God caught his cane again and offered a pointed reminder, then looked away and, supported by the two old page boys, walked toward the shrine.

“They came here together as Dao Friends, after all. It's hard not to worry.” One of the old page boys shook his head and put in a word for Ziyang.

The Earth God's was a very unusual post. He drew a stipend from the Immortal Court, yet he might never in his life set foot in it. Instead he had much closer ties to the Divine Dynasty, and most of the time he worked on its behalf, keeping an eye on things while he was at it.

The current Human Emperor was a man of great resolve, and during his reign the Divine Land had been more or…