Dark clouds churned like ink. The wild winds before the storm left the vast city of Longxiang County swaying precariously.
The signboards before shops, the banner poles hung outside them, even the roof tiles atop buildings—all rustled and rattled in the gale.
A crash of thunder rang through the heavens, and bean-sized raindrops began to fall in a patter.
Before long, it became a torrential downpour. The majestic rain turned the entire county city into a city of water.
Meng Zhao held a pale blue oil-paper umbrella. While everyone else on the streets ran about in panic, seeking shelter from the rain, he strolled along at ease as though he were wandering through his own garden.
Whenever rainwater came slanting down on the violent wind, about to dampen Meng Zhao's clothes, an invisible force of energy would stretch across before him.
No matter how the water splashed, it could not wet so much as a fraction of his body. Only mastery over one's energy to the point of perfection, coupled with deep and inexhaustible Internal Energy, could grant such carefree elegance.
Following the information Yan Congke had left him, Meng Zhao quickly found a residential house in a neighborhood on the northwestern side of the county city.
The people living here were likely ordinary folk. The houses were neither particularly good nor particularly poor, each a detached dwelling with its own small courtyard.
After he knocked for quite some time, Yan Congke finally came out and opened the gate, tugging at his waistband, a fresh lip-shaped red mark on his face.
Upon seeing Meng Zhao, he showed not the slightest embarrassment.
"Uh, I was busy with something just now, right at the critical moment. I really couldn't spare the time, and with the wind and rain so heavy, the knocking