Long River Eternity

Yang An transformed into a stream of water, flowing slowly along the corner of the wall. The entire Water God Palace was built of ice crystals, and a puddle of transparent water in the corner would not attract anyone's attention at all.

Yang An slipped into each closed room through the crack in the door to check what was inside. Finally, he found a room that looked like a study.

After making sure that no one was in the room, Yang An changed back into human form and began to search through the desk and bookshelf.

After searching for a long time, I finally found a large box in a corner. Inside was a box full of account books. One book for each year, each extremely thick. The box contained a hundred books in total, representing the accounts for the last hundred years.

Yang An picked up a book at random and flipped through it. The account book recorded all the taxes and expenditures of the entire continent that year, from large-scale allocations for disaster relief to small-scale allocations for repairing the city gates of a certain city, no matter how big or small.

Yang An flipped through it roughly and didn't find any problems. He then took out another book and flipped through it, but still didn't find any problems.

Yang An flipped through one book after another until he had read half of the account books. Dozens of account books were scattered around Yang An. Yang An rubbed his tired eyes, his face full of confusion.

Yang An looked around at the account books scattered around, wondering if he had missed anything.

Suddenly, Yang An spread each of the stacked account books flat on the ground. Looking at the books of varying thickness on the ground, Yang An's eyes lit up. He stood up and arranged all the account books in order of age.

Although each of the account books in front of him was quite thick, the thickness was actually getting thinner year by year. Yang An looked at this strange phenomenon and fell into deep thought, wondering what caused this phenomenon.

Yang An picked up the earliest one and the latest one, compared them, verified every item in them, and finally found a clue in the records of Donghuang's taxes.

Yang An discovered that in the past hundred years, taxes in the Eastern Wilderness had actually decreased by 10%, while taxes in other areas had been increasing at a slow pace, but with little change. How could this be?

Unlike the modern times where Yang An lives, fiscal revenue basically increases every year, and may double in just ten years. However, in this ancient era when cultivators are everywhere, a hundred years pass like a flash. It is already a great achievement if taxes can increase fiscal revenue by one percent, let alone a ten percent reduction.

Yang An was deeply puzzled. Taxes came from the people and industries of the Eastern Wasteland. Could it be that the Eastern Wasteland had lost 10% of its residents in the past hundred years? Impossible. If it lost 10% in a hundred years, wouldn't there be no one left in a thousand years? What about ten thousand years?

The only explanation is that Gonggong and Donghuang Taiyi colluded to report false accounts.

"This..." Yang An looked at the account book in his hand, his face full of disbelief. Gonggong and Donghuang Taiyi were so brave.

Just as Yang An was shocked by his discovery, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from outside, followed by Zhu Rong's voice echoing throughout Tianshui City: "Gong Gong, I have repeatedly wanted to send troops to suppress the South China Sea monsters in the past few years. As my son, you not only refused to help me, but you also withheld my military pay. What exactly do you want?!"

Yang An suddenly felt that something was wrong. He put the account book back into the box, restored everything to its original state, destroyed all traces of himself, and then turned back into a puddle of water and left the study.

At this point, Gonggong no longer cared about the father-son relationship, and his angry voice echoed throughout the city: "Zhurong, you have been aggressively pursuing military expansion, attempting to start a war with the sea monsters. The sea monsters have already signed a ceasefire agreement with the Taoist master. Even if there is a conflict with us, it is small-scale and will not escalate to the level of war. It is your own willful behavior, which has nothing to do with others. The military pay I pay you is also based on the standard of no war. What is wrong with that?"

Zhu Rong sneered, "What a joke! How can I allow others to snore beside my bed? The sea monsters have repeatedly invaded my borders and attacked the fishermen along the coast, causing widespread complaints and making life miserable for the fishermen. If I don't start a war, those sea monsters will think I'm afraid of them!"

Gonggong sneered in response, "From what I've heard, some of your coastal fishermen have been overfishing, causing a sharp decline in the nearshore fish population. Some greedy fishermen have even ventured far from the mainland to catch fish in the deep sea, only to stray into the siren's territory and ultimately perish. I don't think you're doing this for your people, but because you simply can't stand anything to do with water. You can't stand siren's, and you can't stand me either."

At this time, Yang An had already returned to the guest room. Yang Nian and the other two were lying on the windowsill, watching Zhu Rong and Gong Gong confront each other in the sky.

Seeing the three people lying neatly on the windowsill, not even noticing that he had come in, Yang An suddenly felt a little amused and helpless, saying, "Are you three lying here watching the show?"

Hearing Yang An's voice, the three of them turned their heads. Ye Tingxue said innocently, "What can we do? We can't just go up and stop the fight."

"Aren't we here to stop the fight?" Yang An said with a wry smile.

"I want to live a few more days. If you want to go, you go." Ye Tingxue shook his head frantically.

Yang Nian tapped Ye Tingxue's head and said, "What are you talking about? Xiao An, you're not allowed to go either. If these two people start fighting, how terrifying will it be? Will you be able to come back alive if you go up there?"

At this time, Shi Gang, who had already turned his attention back to Zhu Rong and Gong Gong, waved excitedly and said, "Stop arguing, stop arguing, I feel like a fight is about to break out."

Ye Tingxue and Yang Nian hurriedly turned their heads away, and Yang An also walked quickly to the window to pay attention to the situation in the sky.

Zhu Rong was slightly startled when he heard Gong Gong's words, but then he stopped being angry and laughed: "Hahaha, so this is how I am in your mind. In that case, let me see how much progress you have made as the Lord of a Realm."

After saying that, Zhu Rong pressed his big hand downwards.

"Heavenly Fire Burns the City"

A sea of ​​fire fell from the sky, dyeing the entire sky red.

"Raging Sea"

Gonggong waved his hand, and water from all directions rushed together like wild horses, forming an endless ocean that rushed straight into the sky. The vast ocean and the sea of ​​fire collided violently in mid-air, with a deafening roar and billowing white mist rising into the sky.

In a flash, the vast ocean and sea of ​​fire vanished, leaving only a vast mass of water vapor in the sky, which gradually condensed over Tianshui City. Soon, the entire city was enveloped in a gentle drizzle, the rain falling softly. However, as soon as the raindrops came within a meter of Zhurong, they were instantly vaporized by the scorching heat emanating from his body. Zhurong smiled faintly, his gaze fixed on Gonggong: "Not bad, come again!"

At this moment, Gonggong condensed a trident with a flashing cold light in his hand, rushed towards Zhurong, and shouted: "If you want to fight, go to a place where there is no one, and don't hurt the people in the city!" His voice was like thunder, shaking all directions.

Seeing Gonggong gathering his magical weapon, Zhurong grasped his hands, and the renowned Zhurong Halberd appeared in his grasp. Gonggong swung the halberd at Zhurong, and Zhurong immediately met it. The halberds collided, sending sparks flying. However, Gonggong's immense force, like a mountain, crushed Zhurong, sending him flying backwards, his form arcing through the air.

After sending Zhurong flying, Gonggong turned without stopping, darting northwest. Zhurong steadied himself in mid-air, his gaze piercing, and without hesitation, he pursued him. The two figures vanished rapidly across the sky, leaving the people of Tianshui City dazed and trembling, their gazes gazing upwards, silently praying for a swift end to the battle.

Seeing the two walking away, Yang An jumped out of the window and flew in their direction without hesitation. Yang Nian and the other two saw Yang An chasing after them, so they also jumped out of the window and followed Yang An.