August's even more brutal heat finally arrived, and Harbor City felt like a giant steam basket. Supposedly, this level of drought and heat hadn't been seen since the founding of the PRC—and Harbor City just happened to be right in the disaster zone.
Within just a few days, factories shut down, schools closed, and except for early morning and late evening, the streets were basically empty. The power grid was so overloaded that blackouts could hit any minute. Because of the heat, the city hospitals were packed to bursting—and worse, at least a hundred people had already died from it. If things kept going like this, even bigger unrest was coming.
On top of that, all the city’s pillar industries took a massive hit, but the worst impact landed on agriculture—and within agriculture, the biggest blow was to the medicinal herb cash crops.
Normally, Harbor City sits right by the East Sea, with a mild climate and plenty of rain—perfect for growing high-end Chinese medicinal herbs.
But now, the city’s key cash crop was staring down an existential crisis. Samuel Su hadn’t left the mountain for nearly half a month—he spent every day working with provincial agricultural experts to minimize losses, while the city’s agriculture bureau tried every irrigation trick in the book to help the national-level herb base survive.
But things just kept getting worse. Every water source nearby was tapped dry—even the biggest reservoir was nearly empty. Farmers were about to run out of drinking water, so forget about saving the herbs.
Samuel Su hadn’t fully recovered from his last serious illness, and now he was burning the candle at both ends. He coughed nonstop from dawn to dusk, looked way older, and his hair—which used to be half black, half white—was now totally white.
Today was the first time Ryan Ling and Sophie Su climbed Herb Mountain, and finally saw just how bad the drought really was. Watching Samuel Su and all those hardworking ag experts, Ryan genuinely regretted showing up so late.
After a couple quick greetings with Samuel Su’s crew, Ryan didn’t hesitate—he whipped out the Rain God Token and Snow God Token. If he wanted to save this ten-thousand-mu herb base, he’d need both rain and a cooldown. Only with both could he pull it off.
But to his surprise, activating those two tokens actually took some time—after all, wind, snow, and lightning didn’t just pop up instantly. Plus, the tokens were single-use only. If he wanted to break the heat wave, he had to make sure they’d cover all of Harbor City. So right now, Ryan had to be extra careful.
Anyway, it's already been delayed this long—might as well prep properly and let those suffering herbs wait another two hours.
But right then, a thrilled voice suddenly rang out: "Awesome, the living Bodhisattva who's come to save us is here—maybe our herbs really do have hope!"
Everyone perked up at those words and immediately stood up.
"Who is it?" Samuel Su adjusted his glasses, sounding a bit nervous.
"Who else? It's that expert we've been dying to invite but couldn't get—he's actually come on his own, with the city agriculture bureau!" The speaker was visibly excited.
"Didn't he refuse to come?" Samuel Su froze, glancing at Sophie Su.
Sophie was just as surprised. After last time's drama, why would Drake Long show up again?
"Something's definitely fishy!" Ryan Ling gritted his teeth—this guy's probably here to pour gasoline, not put out the fire.
"Grandpa, don't trust that guy—he's definitely here to stir up trouble!" Sophie rushed to Samuel Su's side.
Ever since the family drama, Samuel Su totally trusted Ryan, but now that the guy had shown up with city officials, he still had to show some respect, at least on the surface.
"Alright, I know what I'm doing. I'll go talk to this so-called master myself!" Samuel Su brushed the dirt off his hands, nodded at Ryan, and led his people over.
Sophie wanted to follow, but Ryan grabbed her arm.
"Don't worry, Drake Long won't do anything to your grandpa—he's here for us!" With Ryan's current power, he could spot danger at a glance.
"Then what should we do?" Sophie hesitated. She'd already guessed that after humiliating Drake Long so badly, he wouldn't just let it go. He was obviously here for payback, and with the Azure Dragon Society backing him, he was definitely prepared.
"Relax, I've got a plan. If he tries anything in front of me, I'm not letting him off easy like last time!" Ryan was busy timing the Rain God Token and Snow God Token, so he didn't have bandwidth for anything else.
Sophie nodded. With Ryan around, nothing would go wrong—but knowing the other side was coming prepared still made her uneasy.
"Man, this Harbor City weather is brutal! Look at these herbs baking in the sun—if Heaven doesn't send rain soon, they're toast!" The voice was unmistakably Drake Long. He wasn't just flanked by the city agriculture bureau, but also by a squad of Azure Dragon Society enforcers—over a hundred people, looking way more like a gang coming to smash the place than disaster relief.
"Yeah, they were doomed—until you showed up, Young Master Long! With you here, we're definitely saved!" The agriculture bureau guys instantly started sucking up.
"We'll see if fate's on your side." Drake Long shot a cold glance at Ryan in the distance, gave a sinister smile, then turned away.
Ryan snorted back. Since Drake was here, they'd just play move for move—but the real priority was prepping, with about half an hour left to go.
If Drake Long really wanted to stir up trouble, he couldn't make much of a mess in just half an hour.
"Young Master Long, please have mercy! This ten-thousand-mu medicinal herb base isn't just the city's financial lifeline—it's the livelihood of all these farmers. The crop was thriving at the start of spring; if it gets ruined now, it'd be a tragedy. If you need anything, just name your terms—we'll do whatever it takes!" Samuel Su pleaded, his brows tight. He didn't want to beg, but seeing the desperate farmers, he had no choice.
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"Boss Su, I've heard so much about you—how'd you end up looking like an old farmer?" Drake Long said, his tone full of mockery and sarcasm.
Samuel Su clearly didn't have time for this nonsense and immediately interrupted, "Young Master Long, please don't worry about me—I'm begging you to help everyone right now! I know you have supernatural powers and can summon wind and rain. Please, use your abilities—I'm begging you!"
He pointed the mirror's white side skyward and chanted an incantation. Suddenly, the suffocating heat eased a bit, and dark clouds started forming overhead. The clouds weren't huge, but they grew darker and soon flashed with lightning and thunder, like rain was about to fall.
Everyone was stunned. After waiting two months for rain, it finally seemed like salvation was at hand. No wonder the crowd was so excited.
Ryan and Sophie both froze—they hadn't expected Drake Long to actually summon a thundercloud, and it looked like rain was coming any second.
The clouds weren't huge, and the rain wouldn't be much, but at least it'd give the herb base a breather.
The crowd erupted in cheers—this was literally life-saving rain, rescuing both the herbs and thousands of farming families.
But just as everyone was celebrating and ready to welcome the rain, the thundercloud suddenly faded away. The lightning stopped, the wind died, and in seconds it was blazing hot again, just as unbearable as before.
"Young Master Long, what happened? Why isn't it raining?" Samuel Su panicked and rushed over.
Drake Long let out a theatrical sigh and shook his head: "There's a monster hiding among you. Unless you catch him, it'll never rain here—everything will dry up and die."
"A monster? What monster?" The crowd was baffled, totally lost.
"It's him—he's the monster! Grab him right now, or you'll never see a drop of rain and everything will wither away!" Drake Long jabbed his finger at Ryan Ling...
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