Lightning

Bai Yujun sat lost in thought atop the Back Mountain behind her old home, watching the sun set.

The dense forest canopy blocked the advanced helicopters that still refused to give up their search. The roar of rotors swept overhead, the airflow rustling the leaves. Bai Yujun could clearly see the pilots' expressions inside the cockpits.

The helicopters delivered rubber boats, and submersibles entered the water.

Many people in protective suits used equipment to measure the marks in the muddy fields, reconstructing the unknown creature's physical details from footage. They also checked for radioactive substances and whether the Visitor from Beyond the Heavens carried bacteria deadly to Earth, among other things.

The sun set behind distant mountains, and the mountains' shadows stretched endlessly long...

The small figure sat on the mountaintop with her knees hugged to her chest, overcome with melancholy. She remembered running beneath the setting sun as a child, her mother in an apron calling her home for dinner. Every day, she had been like a little mud monkey. Those memories gradually became clear.

It was not that she could not let go, nor that her obsession ran too deep. She merely happened to remember.

Letting go of obsession did not mean casting away memories or abandoning emotions. Perhaps others understood cultivation differently. Bai Yujun was more easygoing—happy when happy, sad when sad, angry when angry. Following the Daoist Principle of Nature, she had no need to draw rigid rules around herself.

She raised a hand before her mouth like a megaphone.

"I'm here~ Come find me~"

Shouting it out felt rather fun. She had clearly called out so loudly, yet they still could not find her. They had groped about in the river without catching a dragon, but had dragged up quite a few exterminating fishing nets