Autumn rain had lingered over Divine Water Immortal City for several days. The damp chill was like invisible vines, winding strand by strand around the skin until even the marrow seemed steeped in cold.
Heavy clouds pressed down on the city walls that afternoon, sluggish as lead. It looked as though another downpour would arrive before long.
Su Fan entered a teahouse in the city, chose a table by the window, ordered a pot of Spirit Tea, and sipped it unhurriedly.
Wisps of tea vapor rose, blurring the expression in his eyes.
Suddenly, several muffled peals of thunder rolled across the sky. Fine rain, thin as ox hair, began drifting down at an angle, pattering against the green roof tiles and splashing into tiny sprays.
The world fell silent in an instant. Only the curtain woven from rain and the dripping of water droplets from the eaves remained, tapping at the afternoon's languor.
Su Fan had just lifted his teacup and taken a sip when his ear moved almost imperceptibly.
At that moment, a conversation among several cultivators at another table on the second floor caught his interest.
"Have you heard? A ruthless figure came up from a Lesser World and made a complete mess of the Celestial Race in 'Shenxiao Heaven'..."
"We really haven't heard about that. What exactly happened?" a cultivator beside him asked.
The person who had spoken first began explaining.
"Apparently, the Celestial Race in the Lesser World was slaughtered by that demon lord until corpses piled into mountains and blood flowed like seas, so they sought help from their kin in the Great World. The Great World sent more than a dozen Integration Stage elders from their race, but that demon lord wiped them out too.
"Later, the Celestial Race of 'Shenxiao Heaven' hired the