Zanxing turned her head and saw the young man in white, carrying a spear, walking toward her in the night.
Despite the light drizzle, his posture remained graceful as he sat down beside Zanxing, looking at her with some suspicion. “What happened?”
“Nothing much,” Zanxing replied helplessly. “I had a nightmare and couldn’t sleep, so I came out for a walk. There’s nowhere else to go in Heishi City, and I remembered that when I went to Yue Mountain earlier, I still owed the Dragon Fish a handful of feed. So, I came to pay my debt.” She shifted the umbrella slightly toward Gu Jiusi. “Why did you come out?”
He studied Zanxing for a moment, as if trying to discern whether she was telling the truth. After a while, he said, “The hairpin I gave you earlier had a part of my soul attached to it. Although my soul was mostly destroyed in the Ten Thousand Killing Formation, a trace of it merged with your energy. So, I can sense when something’s going on with you. I saw you leave Heishi City and thought something might’ve happened.”
“I see,” Zanxing was a little surprised.
“Why aren’t you using the rain-repelling spell?” Gu Jiusi moved the umbrella closer to her. “This umbrella barely shields anything.” He had noticed this back when they were on Mount Gufeng. Zanxing didn’t seem to like using spells for light or to repel rain. Most of the time, if she was cold, she would light a fire, and if she was hot, she would add more clothes. It was as if she preferred experiencing the sensations of an ordinary person.
“I’m used to being an ordinary person. By the way, do you want to feed it?” Zanxing said casually, pulling out another handful of pellets from her sleeve and tossing them to the Dragon Fish. This time, the Dragon Fish didn’t dive underwater. It tilted its head back and swallowed the magic cores whole.
Gu Jiusi was silent for a moment. “Is that… a fish?”
“Not just any fish, it’s a carp, one that leapt over the Dragon Gate,” Zanxing thought for a moment. “Speaking of which, there’s a tradition where I come from. People say if you make a wish to a carp, your dreams will come true.”
“A wish?” Gu Jiusi paused, seemingly reminded of something. He glanced at Zanxing. “I remember there’s a pool in your Chaos Hall. They say you specifically had it dug for your favored concubine. Supposedly, if someone places demon bones in the water and makes a wish to them, it will come true.” He let out a soft scoff, his tone filled with displeasure. “You really know how to be considerate.”
Zanxing froze for a moment, then remembered the story of Water Lord in the hall. She wasn’t sure what nonsense the Lantern Ghost had told Gu Jiusi back then, but she could only explain seriously, “That pool wasn’t dug by me, it was his own doing. I only found out after it was already made. I thought it would be too troublesome to fill it in, so I just left it there. After all, the hall is pretty empty.”
“You still cared so much about that sickly guy, running all over to find spiritual herbs and pills to help him recover,” Gu Jiusi said, his tone accusing.
Zanxing replied, “He was coughing up blood in my hall all day. If it were you, you’d find him medicine too—otherwise, your conscience would haunt you. It’s unsettling to watch someone like that.”
Gu Jiusi let out a derisive laugh, but his expression remained unhappy.
Zanxing continued, “You shouldn’t hold a grudge. I threw quite a few spirit stones into the wishing pool that Water Lord dug, making wishes there every day.”
“What did you wish for?”
Zanxing looked at him. “I wished for your safety.”
He froze, not saying anything for a moment.
“I just thought, Hong Su is an ordinary person. Even for the sake of their reputation, the Taiyan Sect would protect her, and the people of the Chihua Sect wouldn’t bother a regular girl. But you’re different. Those people would probably be quite happy to see the fall of a prodigy. I kept thinking, after you let me escape, what kind of punishment would you face? And before I could return to the sect, I kept wishing that nothing would happen to you and that you’d wait for me.” She rambled on, sincerely, as if she were revealing every piece of her heart to him. “I just kept wishing that we could meet again soon.”
The young man lowered his eyes. After a while, he said, “You’re such an idiot.”
“What?”
“What could possibly happen to me? I’m the sect leader’s younger martial brother. Of course, he’d protect me,” his voice was clear in the cold, silent night, utterly unconcerned. “Besides, even if he didn’t, my cultivation is high enough that no one could do anything to me. You should worry more about yourself.”
The rain fell steadily on the paper umbrella, dripping off the edge and slowly soaking into the ground.
Zanxing sighed, then suddenly turned around and hugged him tightly.
Gu Jiusi froze, caught off guard by her sudden action. For a moment, he was bewildered. After a brief pause, he lowered his head slightly and looked at the person holding him around the waist, burying her head in his chest, refusing to let go. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Zanxing mumbled, burying her face deeper into his chest. Gu Jiusi was always neat and clean, his clothes soft and warm, so she snuggled in closer, whispering, “It’s just a bit cold.”
The young man’s face turned slightly red. After a moment of hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her a little tighter. A wave of warmth passed between them. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he pretended to stay composed as he said, “Yeah, with all this rain in Heishi City, it is pretty chilly.”
Zanxing replied, “Then let me hold on for a while longer.”
He raised an eyebrow, suspicious. “Yang Zanxing, are you deliberately taking advantage of me?”
“Yes.”
“…You really are honest.”
The rain in Heishi City went on for a long time.
At first, it was just a light drizzle, then it turned into a steady patter, and eventually, it became a torrential downpour. The waves of Mingming River swelled several times larger than usual, and even the city’s embankments seemed too low to contain it.
And it wasn’t just Heishi City. The rest of Douzhou was drenched as well.
The downpour felt endless, as if someone had poked a hole in the sky, and the water spilled down in torrents, flooding everything in sight.
Floods broke out everywhere.
It seemed like overnight, rivers surged from all directions, rampaging through the land, destroying fields and homes, engulfing everything in their path.
In Lixiu River near Pingyang Town, the once-calm waters were now nothing but a murky rush. From the window of the Good Fortune inn, all that could be seen were muddy waves.
The speed at which embankments were being built couldn’t keep up with the rising water. The forbidden barrier around Gufeng Mountain was lifted, and the townspeople had already begun relocating to higher ground. In such dire times, all previous rules were abandoned.
Hong Su sat in the courtyard of Miaokong Hall, gazing at the persimmon tree.
The tree had once flourished, but ever since Zanxing had disappeared, it had grown poorly, bearing only a few scattered fruits. Now, it didn’t produce any at all. At first, Hong Su thought it was because Zanxing’s departure had taken the luck of the place with her. But it seemed it wasn’t just the persimmon tree—the spiritual herbs and plants on all of Gufeng Mountain had been withering.
This had become especially obvious in the past two years. Word around the sect was that the new disciples could hardly find any good herbs on the mountain anymore.
Hong Su overheard other disciples murmuring that it was because Gufeng Mountain was running out of spiritual energy.