Darkness of the Raging Rain

Today, Magic City was struck by a torrential downpour the likes of which had not been seen in decades.

Above Shilan High School, a deafening roar echoed incessantly.

Luxury sedan after luxury sedan drove in and out of the school gates in an orderly fashion.

Chu Zihang rubbed his hands together, standing at the entrance of his classroom, peering out with an expectant look, as if waiting for something.

With every car that pulled up to the school gate, his anticipation grew a fraction more.

Under normal circumstances, a school like Shilan High School would never allow private cars to drive right up to the entrance.

But in such severe weather, it was hard for parents not to grow anxious.

With the rain coming down this hard, what if their "little princess" or "little prince" caught a cold?

And so, the normally closed school gates were breached by a few hurried parents, and cars began to swarm in like a hive.

In such extreme weather, even a school like Shilan High School struggled to maintain any semblance of decorum; parents and students alike were as chaotic as headless flies, with the cars being nothing more than "flies" that were a bit larger and noisier.

Each car, no matter how high-end or expensive, emitted a harsh, grating noise, though these were quickly drowned out by the dense and heavy sound of the rain.

The turf was churned into a muddy mess, and rivulets of yellow silt flowed along with the water.

Honestly, in the face of a natural disaster like this rainstorm, these wealthy people were even more impatient and erratic than the average person.

Chu Zihang, however, was not impatient; he waited patiently as the rainwater washed down from the eaves, truly giving the impression of the Milky Way falling from the heavens.

He opened his flip phone, received a text message, and felt a sudden sense of relief.

The next moment, he looked toward the end of the corridor and found a lower-grade student calmly watching him.

Chu Zihang knew who that was. The person's name was Lu Mingfei, a boy who had been completely unremarkable until a few days ago, when he used a single glance to scare two "big brothers" who were brawling on campus into a state of petrified shock.

Since then, the rumors surrounding Lu Mingfei had become increasingly absurd.

Some said Lu Mingfei had been possessed by a ghost and had become terrifying.

Some said Lu Mingfei's personality had undergone a drastic change, turning him into someone exceptionally cold and aloof.

Some said that for every extra word you spoke to Lu Mingfei, you would feel your neck grow colder.

In short, the current Lu Mingfei was like the poster boy for a cold-blooded assassin who never cracked a smile.

Now, whether it was Lu Mingfei's own classmates or the seniors in the higher grades, anyone who happened to run into him would give him a wide berth.

In fact, this wasn't due to some sixth sense, but rather a biological instinct for self-preservation.

Now, he, Chu Zihang, was also experiencing the power of that gaze.

In an instant, he felt a sharp, indescribable edge hidden beneath that calm exterior.

The rainstorm drenched the entire Shilan High School in a blurred, leaden gray.

Chu Zihang felt a moment of disorientation as he looked at Lu Mingfei again. He was soaked to the bone, wearing cheap sneakers, his school uniform jacket stained with uneven patches of color, and his wet hair plastered against his forehead. He looked even more inconspicuous than usual, perhaps even disheveled.

Looking at him like this, Lu Mingfei really didn't seem like anything special.

However, when their eyes met again, Chu Zihang once more saw that heart-stopping calmness.

It wasn't emptiness, nor was it numbness, but rather a kind of... ultimate stability, or perhaps an extreme form of self-confidence.

It was this calmness that made Chu Zihang's heart contract violently once more.

Based on his intuition, his sixth sense, he could say with absolute certainty that beneath that calm lay a razor-sharp edge.

It was as if a peerless, lethal blade had been forcibly shoved back into a rough, worn-out leather sheath, locked away behind this seemingly mediocre shell and those overly calm eyes.

Chu Zihang's spine stiffened quietly as he realized, on a deeper level, the immense and indescribable "presence" emanating from the other boy.

Beneath the calm facade, energy was being stored to the absolute limit.

"Hello, may I ask if you are Senior Chu Zihang?"

Lu Mingfei walked over and greeted him casually.

Chu Zihang remained standing where he was, still stunned and motionless; the sound of the rain outside and the commotion downstairs seemed to fade into the distance in an instant.

The rain continued to wash over the world with a frenzy.

Chu Zihang finally snapped back to reality, and what he ultimately felt was the faint glimmer of a peerless blade just a fraction of a second before it was drawn from its sheath.

That light possessed a calmness that was restrained to the extreme.

But Chu Zihang hadn't expected Lu Mingfei to greet him. While he wasn't exactly the school's "cold-faced god," he was certainly not someone one could approach casually.

In the past, male students in particular had always treated him with a sense of distance, as if facing a towering mountain.

In the past, the aura Chu Zihang possessed—the kind that could make all the girls in school scream, somewhat similar to Second Pillar—was swallowed up without warning by the calmness of Lu Mingfei.

It was like a drop of water falling into the ocean; one couldn't even hear the sound of a splash.

Or perhaps Lu Mingfei's current aura was simply too unique—so unique that it made someone as distinct as Chu Zihang appear entirely ordinary by comparison.

Seeing this, he felt a sense of bewilderment.

Chu Zihang gave a rare cough and responded earnestly, "Hello, junior. Is there something you need?"

"Junior, has anyone ever told you that your gaze is a bit frightening?"

Facing this sudden concern from Chu Zihang, Lu Mingfei chose to ignore it entirely, speaking to himself instead: "Senior, it seems this rain won't be stopping anytime soon."

Chu Zihang did not feel offended; instead, he seemed to heave a sigh of relief inwardly and continued solicitously: "Of course. The weather forecast said this typhoon's trajectory was very strange. It struck without any warning, so no one was prepared."

"I see. So it's a typhoon."

Lu Mingfei remained expressionless.

It was as if the typhoon before them was something entirely insignificant.

He knew very well that the shift in this typhoon's path was actually caused by Odin.

That was why the various high schools in the Magic City hadn't even had time to suspend classes.

Chu Zihang didn't know what had come over him—he was usually never this talkative—but he added another remark: "Junior, most of the traffic in the Magic City is paralyzed right now, especially around our high school area. I'm afraid your parents won't be able to drive here to pick you up."

"How about this? In a while, my father will come to pick me up. Why don't I have him drop you off?"

Duyang of the Dragon Clan glanced at the heavy rain that seemed to be swallowing the entire world and agreed without a moment's hesitation: "Thank you, Senior. I would be very happy to ride in the same car as you."

Chu Zihang was stunned again, not expecting the other party to agree so crisply and cleanly, as if he had been waiting for him to say those very words.

But it didn't matter; his father was coming to pick him up, so what was the harm in giving a classmate a ride?

Could a car really not fit a third person?

Duyang looked up at the sky again, which was growing increasingly gray and dark—it was that very thing... the Darkness of the Raging Rain!