Xia Gun worked in the Flood Prevention Bureau. Emperor Shun valued him highly because of his work ethic and efficiency. Because of his duties, Xia Yu grew up rarely seeing his father. When he was nine years old, a beautiful woman moved next to his house.

Immediately after moving in, matchmakers frequently visited the woman’s house. The men who caught sight of her beauty experienced love at first sight. Alas, the woman rejected all the matchmakers to the men’s heart break.

Many men would stand near the woman’s house, hoping to catch a glimpse of her otherworldly visage. Unfortunately for them, the woman rarely left her house. The only one who saw the woman frequently was Xia Yu.

Xia Yu would sneak into the woman’s house when no one was looking. The first time he snuck in, he froze upon seeing the woman stare at him. Part of it was out of guilt, and the other part was because of the woman’s beauty. As a nine-year-old, Xia Yu had no lust or love toward the woman’s beauty, only pure appreciation.

The woman introduced herself as Wudang and said that Xia Yu could visit her when he had the time. Enticed by the woman’s beauty, Xia Yu spent all his free time with Wudang. While there, Wudang would teach Xia Yu all sorts of knowledge.

As Xia Yu grew older, he realized that his neighbor wasn’t an ordinary person. That notion only increased when he learned knowledge outside of human understanding, such as when Wudang imparted to him the Sacred Cloud Scripture.

She revealed to Xia Yu her true identity: Sacred Mother Wudang, one of Saint Recloud’s disciples. That day, she officially accepted Xia Yu as a student and continued to impart knowledge onto him.

While Xia Yu learned, Xia Gun ascended the ranks of the Flood Prevention Bureau until he became the leader. As leader, Xia Gun continued to recruit martial artists to deal with demons, but no matter how many martial artists he recruited, they could not stamp out the demons and halt the floods.

Xia Gun knew in his heart that blindly recruiting martial artists would yield no progress, so he devised a method to build dikes and stop the floods. He took inspiration from Nuwa creating humans out of water and mud, and used clay to build the walls.

He didn’t immediately popularize the method. Instead, he tested it in a local area first. After building the clay dike, it stood strong for over a year without any signs of damage. Satisfied, Xia Gun brought the method to Emperor Shun. With the ruler’s consent, Xia Gun popularized the method, and soon, all of humanity no longer had to fear the flood caused by monsters.

As more and more humans built dikes, the Flood Prevention Bureau no longer had to respond to each and every crisis. The years passed and their members slowly became idle. Nine years later, Xia Gun returned home and spent time with his wife and son, who had grown into a capable man of eighteen.

But the happy times did not last long.

In the tenth year after Xia Gun popularized the clay dike, the first dike he built cracked and the water tore through the wall. That was only the beginning. Soon after, the other clay dikes shattered under the mounting pressure, and the floods returned.

With years of no floods, many people had settled the once-flooded lands because of the rich ground that could foster healthy crops. The land was once a boon, but now, it resulted in the loss of more people than before the clay dikes were built. It was the single most tragic and largest loss of human life in Emperor Shun’s reign.

Discontent erupted among the people, and soon that emotion turned into hatred. The people demanded appeasement, and Xia Gun, who proposed the use of clay dikes, became the target of everyone’s hatred.

To appease the people, Emperor Shun had no choice but to behead Xia Gun, leaving Xia Yu, who had only experienced the warmth of a father for a scant year, fatherless. Because of Xia Gun, the surname Xia became almost taboo among humans, so Xia Yu had no choice but to forsake his surname, becoming only known as Yu.

Yu swore that one day he would reclaim the name Xia and make it the most honored name.

Although the people were pacified, Xia Yu and his mother could no longer live in the capital as everyone knew their identity. So, under the contempt and scorn of their neighbors, Xia Yu and his mother moved to a rural village, where no one recognized them. Xia Yu’s teacher, Sacred Mother Wudang, followed after them.

It would be a lie to say that Xia Yu did not grow to resent Emperor Shun and the people. Although his father carried some of the blame, he had still created ten years of peace from floods. Yet, one mistake erased all of his merits and caused his death.

Sacred Mother Wudang noticed Xia Yu’s growing gloominess, so she took Xia Yu to travel the entire world of humans. Because it was not safe to leave a widow alone, Xia Yu’s mother traveled with them.

Through his travels, Yu’s resentment slowly disappeared. He experienced the life of the common people, especially the people living in fear of the floods. He was lucky, born in the safety of the capital, but these people weren’t. Every day, they would have to live in fear, knowing that the next day may be their last.

For these people, Xia Gun’s clay dikes were light, a beacon in the dark. Finally, after living their entire lives in fear, they no longer had to fear the flood. However, the brighter the light, the greater the darkness when it disappears. The clay dikes’ destruction directly plunged most of these people to their icy deaths, igniting a deep and dark hatred in the survivors’ hearts. Now, even if another method was developed, many would not trust it, living in fear for when the new method eventually fails.

Yu would never forgive these people for causing his father’s death, but he would not blame them either. With the shackles binding him unchained, Yu grew as he traveled the world, learning under Sacred Mother Wudang.

During the travels, he met a woman called Tushangshi, or the Lady of Mount Tu. Although Yu wanted to marry her, he held back. He didn’t want to have a child with Tushangshi and then abandon her for years. Before Yu would even consider marriage, he must halt the floods plaguing humanity.

Decades later, Yu returned to the capital. His teacher had left, having already taught him everything he needed. He bought a house and left his mother there while he joined the Flood Prevention Bureau. No one connected him to his father, Xia Gun; they knew him as Yu, the clanless man.

Before he died, Xia Gun taught everything he knew to Yu, but it wasn’t enough. Yu combined the teachings of his father, the experience from his travels, and Sacred Mother Wudang’s teachings and proposed a channeling method. Ever since Xia Gun’s beheading, the other officials in the Flood Prevention Bureau dared not propose new ideas, lest they also be executed should their proposal fail. Emperor Shun, who had been troubled by the floods, immediately granted Yu the power to oversee the project.

To aid in his endeavors, Yu promoted many people, but the two most outstanding ones were Boyi and Houji.

Yu led his team all over the land and dug up new channels or widen the existing one, so that the excess rivers would flow into the seas. Naturally, many monsters and demons appeared and interfered with the digging of the channels, delaying Yu’s progress. Only after slaying all the hindrances did Yu finish the project.

The work took decades, but it only diminished the effects of the flood. Yu was not satisfied.

Although the channels redirected some of the excess water, when the water levels reached a certain point, it would still overflow. He needed something to block the water. Yu expanded on his father’s greatest work, the clay dikes, and created the world’s first dam. Like his father, Yu also tested the effectiveness of the dams.

Yu built several dams at key points to control the water levels. He used clay as well as materials like wood, stone, and iron to prevent monsters from breaking it. After ten years passed without any sign of damage, Yu slowly expanded the number of dams, but he never let down his guard. At each dam, he would station a guard.

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Sure enough, a monster arrived at the dam ten years after it was built.

Although the guard failed to stop the monsters, it made Yu realize that there was a mastermind behind the monsters and demons. First, they lulled the humans into a false sense of peace before destroying the structures to maximize the damage.

Yu had seen his father’s design. Even if they failed, they should have lasted much longer than ten years. One was a coincidence, but all of them? This was a conspiracy. A part of him grew angry at Emperor Shun for failing to bring the truth to light. Still, he suppressed his anger for the greater good of humanity. The most important thing was uncovering the mastermind.

After learning the truth, he started popularizing using dams to control the water level. In addition, he created a new squad in the Flood Prevention Bureau, whose task was to hunt down the mastermind.

The hunt took decades. Through the years of pursuit, Yu learned that the controller of the demons was the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey. Among the many animals and demons, primates were unique; they did not belong in any category ruled by the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan.

Despite Yu’s careful plans and his secret maneuvers, the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey always escaped. In fact, no one had actually caught a glimpse of the monkey. They had only learned that it was the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey after interrogating the demons they captured.

Frustrated, Yu sought aid from his teacher, Sacred Mother Wudang.

“Okay, I’ll divine the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey’s location for you,” Sacred Mother Wudang said. Since she first met Yu, this was his first and only request to her. The immortal pinched her fingers, but the more she pinched, the more her expression darkened. “It’s just a demon that hasn’t even reached the Profound Immortal Realm, how can it escape my deductions?”

No matter how hard Sacred Mother Wudang tried, she couldn’t locate the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey. Finally, she sighed. No wonder her student was pushed to the point of asking her. Not even she could overcome the method the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey used to obscure the heavenly secrets.

But just because she couldn’t, didn’t mean her teacher didn’t have the ability.

Sacred Mother Wudang left to seek Redcloud Ancestor’s advice. When she returned, she told Yu, “In heaven and earth, there are four celestial monkeys. The first is the Six-Eared Macaque, born with ears capable of discerning all things, knowing past and future. The second is the Long-Armed Gibbon, whose arms can seize the sun, moon, and stars and distinguish fortune and misfortune. Third is the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey, who understands human affairs, knows of light and darkness, and possesses the ability to avoid death and lengthen its life. The fourth has not been born yet.

“Unless you have reached an extreme realm in cultivation, you will not be able to deduce the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey’s location. Even without his conscious effort, the heavenly secrets will protect him,” Sacred Mother Wudang said. She raised her hand and a translucent scarf appeared in her hand. “This is the Heaven Obscuring Scarf. Since you can’t divine the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey’s location, you need to make his ability ineffective against you. This will make it difficult for him to detect you, but you must remember that you must not harbor any murderous intent toward the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey. Otherwise, not even the Heaven Obscuring Scarf will be able to help you.”

Yu looked at the translucent scarf in his teacher’s hand with reluctance. Part of his motivation to kill the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey was to avenge his father. The monkey was the direct reason for his father’s death. How could he not avenge this hatred? But compared to the lives of millions of people, Yu ultimately chose to compromise.

He decided to seal the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey forever, never to see the light of day. The thought of capturing the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey alive and then deciding to execute him crossed Yu’s mind, but he ultimately gave up. If he chose such a plan, it meant that he harbored murderous intent, and the Heaven Obscuring Scarf could not conceal it.

When Yu returned, he ordered Boyi and Houji to take charge of the operation to encircle and kill the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey while he retreated into the dark. Although Boyi and Houji were confused, they obeyed Yu and used a two-pronged approach. They knew that the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey was a slippery one, so they each led a squad and used their own methods to target the mastermind in order to increase their chances.

Yu waited. He hid in the dark, waiting for a chance. Boyi and Houji failed many attempts, but he finally confronted the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey in their eighth attempt.

“Stop!” Yu shouted as he stared down the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey.

The Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey stood twenty meters tall. Black fur covered his entire body, except for the exposed red cheeks at his rear. One eye radiated a pure white light, while the other resembled the deepest abyss.

“Surrender, you are finished,” Yu said, his grip tightening. A part of him hoped that the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey would resist, so he would have an excuse to fight. Who knows, he might accidentally exert too much strength and kill his hated foe.

To Yu’s surprise, the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey shrunk until he was only a little over two meters tall. “I give up.”

He calculated many outcomes, but the sole outcome Yu failed to calculate was the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey surrendering without even a fight. Although angry, he did not allow it to cloud his judgment. Yu took the shackles he prepared ahead of time and bound the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey’s hands and feet together.

Yu returned triumphant to the capital and presented the prime culprit behind all the floods for the world to judge. Without the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey, floods would still occur, but not to the same extent.

Emperor Shun wanted to behead the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey, but Yu objected. As the primary force behind the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey’s capture, Emperor Shun was still very willing to listen to Yu’s suggestions.

“The Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey has wreaked havoc among humans for too long. Killing him so easily will only hurt him for a short time. He should be chained to the seafloor and contribute his body to calm the waters forever. Let him atone in the watery depths forever,” Yu said.

Emperor Shun nodded and gave Yu the right to preside over the matter.

Yu took the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey to the largest body of water in the land, and the source of most of the rivers leading to the sea. He commissioned craftsmen to forge a pillar and installed it on the lake floor. He personally chained the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey to the pillar and inscribed countless Dao Script into the pillar and the surrounding space.

Once Yu finished, the Dao Script lit up, and the array took effect. From now on, whenever the water level rose too high, it would gather and condense here. As long as the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey did not die, he would have to bear the power of the floods for the humans.

Of course, this wouldn’t eliminate the floods once and for all. At most, it just reduced their danger, but even that made a world of difference.

Yu’s duty was not finished yet. Without the leadership of the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey, the monsters and demons causing trouble were like a pile of loose sand. He led the Flood Prevention Bureau and mopped up these remaining nuisances. After that, he continued to build dams and channels until floods became a rarity.

For his accomplishments, Yu’s name spread far and wide among humanity, gaining a great reputation. As his prestige grew, Emperor Shun grew wary of Yu. His wariness increased after Yu revealed his surname to the world. His actions also vindicated his father, Xia Gun, of his mistakes.

Unlike Emperor Shun’s birth or the birth of the previous rulers, there was no miraculous sign or features denoting the next ruler of humanity, so Emperor Shun wanted his son, Shangjun, to inherit his throne. But Yu’s prestige was too great, and almost overshadowed even himself.

So, Emperor Shun attributed Yu’s accomplishment to the gods, indirectly raising the prestige of the Heavenly Courts. When the end of his reign arrived, Emperor Shun named Shangjun the next ruler of humanity.

Before Shangjun could rule for long, the officials and people grew dissatisfied. He only had the ability to maintain the current state of humanity and could not advance it like the previous rulers. It would have been fine if Xia Yu had not achieved so much, but in front of his prestige, Shangjun had no choice but to abdicate and pass the throne to Xia Yu.

Shangjun could have forcibly maintained his crown, but the end result would not change and would make him bear the reputation of a tyrant for ages to come.

When Yu ascended the throne, people called him Yu the Great. He had two powerful supporters, Boyi, one of the main helpers of calming the floods, and Houji, a man who would later form the School of Agriculture.

Yu the Great’s first act as emperor was to rewrite the boundaries of the human territory. They still used Zhuanxu’s five territories based on the five elements, but he now split them into nine provinces: Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Liangzhou, and Yongzhou.

He wasn’t done. Yu the Great cast nine cauldrons out of bronze and scattered them throughout the nine provinces. He wanted to use them to anchor the Karmic Luck of humanity. However, the nine cauldrons failed to live up to his expectations. Yu the Great thought long and hard to solve the problem.

One day, he brought an entourage to visit the Dragon Clan of the East Sea. He talked privately with Ao Guang, with no one privy to what negotiations happened behind closed doors. The only thing they knew was that Yu the Great returned to his territory and ordered his army to capture the nine sons of the Dragon Ancestor: Qiuniu, Yazi, Chaofeng, Pulao, Suanni, Bixi, Bi’an, Baxia, and Chiwen.

When the Dragon Ancestor was alive, his nine sons were exiled from the Dragon Clan because of mutations that made them look different from pure dragons. This exile had saved their lives—for a time.

After Yu the Great captured them, he sealed each one into the nine cauldrons. Only then did the nine cauldrons exhibit their intended effect and anchor humanity’s luck. From that day onward, the rulers of humanity addressed themselves as dragons, and dragons became the symbol of imperial rule.