Rainy Season

Shen Changchuan's strength had greatly improved, and he was in an excellent mood.

Right now, he

even hoped that an opponent would appear before him so he could have a fierce, exhilarating battle to the death.

Shen Changchuan let his thoughts soar,

imagining scene after scene:

He left Great Bay Village and ventured deep into the vast mountain forests, searching for precious Heavenly Treasures, engaging in heart-stopping hunts against Demon Beasts lurking within the mountains. In the end, he obtained precious spirit herbs, while his Cultivation Realm rose at a pace visible to the naked eye.

That life of battling heaven and earth, fighting nature itself, was like the protagonist of a cultivation webnovel from his previous life. It was almost intoxicating.

However,

before Shen Changchuan's boiling blood could turn into action,

a sudden downpour thoroughly extinguished the restlessness in his heart.

It dragged him back to cold reality.

This was not an ordinary rainstorm, but an unceasing rain that went on and on without pause!

Dark clouds that filled the sky seemed to appear from nowhere. Before Shen Changchuan could react, rain began falling from above.

Then,

the rain poured down in torrents, endless and uninterrupted, continuing all the way until today!

When he looked outside,

heavy dark clouds, weighty as mountains, blanketed the horizon and blocked out the entire sky. Even in broad daylight, not a sliver of sunlight could be seen. Wind and rain mingled together, and the whole world seemed veiled behind a white curtain.

More than half a month had passed.

The rain still poured down without rest, as though it intended to drown the entire world beneath this endless curtain of rain, never to stop!

Shen Changchuan was despairing!

He had never imagined

that there could be rain in this world that just kept falling, and falling, and falling, without the slightest pause!

According to the old people in the village,

this was the Rainy Season.

A Rainy Season that lasted one or two months.

That made Shen Changchuan feel even worse.

Although he was inside a broad mountain courtyard, with tall buildings shielding him from the endless rain pouring down from Nine Heavens Above,

during the Rainy Season,

the air was saturated with abundant moisture that filled every corner.

Everything felt damp. The air itself seemed as though it could be wrung dry of water!

Only a little over half a month had passed,

yet Shen Changchuan felt as if an entire year had gone by. He was nearly growing mold all over.

And that was not even the most terrifying part.

What was even more despairing was that

beneath the unceasing, abundant rain, dense swarms of Mountain Leeches crawled out from who knew which corners of the mountains. Taking advantage of the Rainy Season, they emerged and spread through the forests.

At a glance,

from towering trees to low ferns and grass, Mountain Leeches hung upside down beneath leaves like tentacles. Buffeted by the falling rain, they swayed endlessly, stretching and groping in every direction as they searched for prey.

From afar, it looked as though countless feelers had grown beneath the lush forest vegetation, writhing through the torrential rain with claws and fangs bared.

There were so many of them that even on the paths people usually walked through the village, one could often see Mountain Leeches crawling across the ground in their stroke-like shapes.

Heaven knew how terrifying such a sight was

to someone who had never seen anything like it before.

And these Mountain Leeches were not merely terrifying to look at. They were genuinely terrifying!

They hung densely beneath leaves and blades of grass, one end gripping the foliage while the other stretched and extended through the air, probing in all directions.

The instant an animal passed below, they sprang up and fell onto it with a patter,

covering the animal's body in dense swarms,

then desperately burrowing into its skin to suck its blood!

Throughout the process, the animal felt no pain,

nor did it feel anything at all!

Only after a while, when all the blood in its body had been drained, would it collapse as a dried corpse, eventually rotting away beneath the rain!

That sight

was enough to make one's scalp crawl!

Shen Changchuan, encountering these dense swarms of things for the first time in both his previous life and this one, was even more so!

Thus,

when, bored one day, he opened the window and saw Mountain Leeches hanging from the eaves beside it, stretching themselves to their limits and probing continuously as though they were about to leap onto him,

and saw the lush leaves of a large tree outside the window sprouting countless tiny, wriggling "little tentacles" beneath them,

every hair on Shen Changchuan's body stood on end. He could not stop himself from shuddering, and goosebumps rose all over his skin!

That sight was so horrifying

that Shen Changchuan immediately fired five Fireball Techniques in succession, forcibly burning the large tree outside the window to ashes despite the pouring rain!

Shen Changchuan did not stop there.

Suppressing the goosebumps all over his body, he circled the mountain courtyard several times, unleashing Wind Blade Techniques, Fireball Techniques, and other spells in a continuous barrage,

clearing out all the living trees and grass around it.

Only after wiping out all the Mountain Leeches around the mountain courtyard did Shen Changchuan finally breathe a slight sigh of relief.

However, he also knew

that this merely treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

In this damp Rainy Season,

those damned things would eventually keep crawling over along the roads.

The only thing that could stop them

was the dry environment inside the house.

Shen Changchuan could do nothing about that.

After all, he was merely a tiny ant in the Cultivation World. He had no ability to alter the weather.

He could only barely clear out the surroundings of the mountain courtyard.

But even so,

an extremely powerful thought arose in Shen Changchuan's heart, and his eyes turned bloodshot:

"Once this rain ends, I'm cutting down the trees!"

"I'm setting the mountains on fire!"

This terrifying living environment

was something he did not want to experience again in the slightest.

There were simply too many trees and grass around the village.

If he did not want to see those dense swarms covering every tree again,

the environment around Great Bay Village

had to be thoroughly changed!

Meanwhile,

halfway along the road,

inside a cave somewhere in the mountains.

A group of five young people dressed in luxurious clothes had also been blocked by more than half a month of continual rain. They had no choice but to enter the cave to take shelter.

They were currently gathered around a bonfire, loudly complaining.

"Damn it, this shitty environment isn't fit for human beings!"

"Twenty-five days! It's rained for a full twenty-five days! There's still not the slightest sign of clear skies! And those dense swarms of things on the trees outside are truly disgusting! If I stay here any longer, I'll either grow mold or go insane!"

"You have the nerve to say that? Yesterday, you were clearly supposed to keep watch and stop those disgusting things from getting in. Yet when I woke from meditation, two Mountain Leeches were sucking blood from my arm! Is that how you do your job?!"

"Shen Rongguang, cut the crap! How do you know you didn't bring them in when you went outside to take a shit?"

"Shen Zhifei, you!"

"Enough. Stop making a fuss."

Seeing that an argument was about to erupt,

a steady voice rang through the cave, interrupting their dispute.

The speaker was Shen Zhongshan, seated at the center of the group by the fire. Tall and powerfully built, he gave people a sense of security.

He was also the leader of their group.

Shen Zhongshan spoke calmly:

"It's impossible to continue traveling outside. It may be stifling, but stay here properly."

"Those disgusting things are all over the trees and grass outside. The moment you walk beneath a tree, they come leaping at you with a patter."

"Although we cultivators can use spiritual light barriers to keep them out, our spiritual power is not inexhaustible. If our spiritual power runs out before we find a place to settle, you can imagine the outcome yourselves."

As his words fell,

everyone could not help shuddering.

They imagined themselves failing to find a suitable shelter after exhausting all their spiritual power,

their bodies covered in bloodsucking Mountain Leeches before they were finally drained into dried husks.

All of them shivered in dread.

Such a scene was far too terrifying!

"Just endure it for now. Such heavy rain means this place is full of moisture. There is a good chance that spiritual herbs of heaven and earth are growing here."

"As long as we obtain that item and complete that mission, given that person's character, he will not forget us."

Shen Zhongshan's steady voice soothed them.

Everyone gradually calmed down as well.

That was right.

If they could complete the mission of finding that item, that person truly would not treat them poorly, given his temperament.

If they could forge a connection with him, their futures would be secured.

For a time,

the atmosphere became much more peaceful.

"Brother Shan is right."

"Compared to the rewards after success, this little hardship is bearable."

"But Brother Shan, we have truly suffered on this trip. Once the rain stops and we reach the area, how about we find a good place to rest before setting out again?"

"After all, if we're not in good condition, going in and out of the depths of the mountains won't be safe."

Shen Rongguang, sitting to one side, made the suggestion.

As soon as he said this, everyone present turned to look at Shen Kaishan, their eyes filled with expectation.

The meaning in their gazes was obvious.

"Fine."

"Xiaoguang, take out the map and see whether there is any Shen Family territory near the destination. If there is, we'll settle there. We can have some mortals sent into the mountains to search, which will also narrow down our search area."

Shen Zhongshan nodded and did not object.

Indeed,

this rain had tormented everyone badly enough.

They had spent more than half a month inside this cave. Once they reached the vicinity of their destination, they truly ought to find a good place to rest.

"Brother Shan, there's a place nearby called Great Bay Village. It belongs to our Shen Family."

"Who is the cultivator stationed there?"

"A lucky kid at the Qi Gathering Third Level, named Shen Changchuan."

Shen Rongguang checked the map and answered casually.

Shen Family Patriarch Shen Fuxing had more than fifty children in total, which was still considered few among the Shen Family's main branch.

Therefore, aside from descendants of importance or great strength, hardly anyone paid attention to the other unremarkable illegitimate sons.

Shen Rongguang clearly did not know Shen Changchuan's identity.

However, upon hearing this, Shen Zhongshan frowned and spoke.

"Bring the map over and let me take a look."

Shen Rongguang did not understand why,

but he still handed the map over.