In the rain

The day after, as he already approached the vicinity of the sect, he noticed the humidity levels rising as well as the clouds that have been growing denser since morning floating lower to the ground.

He took out the cloak and put it around his shoulders, and put the bamboo hat on his back over the head, fastening it with the ribbons under his chin feeling slightly nostalgic and mysteriously somehow wondrous.

Since immortals would usually shield themselves from any natural phenomena like rain or snow, cold and heat with a domain of Spiritual Qi, resembling a bubble, he forgot how it felt to make preparations such as these.

Not long after, the sky started showering the earth with raindrops.

Wu long stopped in a clearing and just stood there, taking in the feeling of water droplets gently tapping the bamboo hat he was wearing and the cloak on his shoulders. He listened as the rain washed over everything, eventually falling to the ground, forming puddles of water that then turned into tiny streams. This long forgotten experience of feeling the rain so close and directly was for some reason very enjoyable.

He stretched out his hand from under the cloak slightly, only enough for half of his palm to escape the shielding the bamboo hat created, allowing the raindrops to fall on his hand.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The sound of the rain was relaxing and the distinct fragrance one heard when standing in the rain was calming his mind.

The cool water droplets touching his hand's skin were soothing and enjoyable.

Being mortal again he experienced something new. Although it could be argued that it was not a new experience because he was mortal once in the distant past and felt these sensations then, there was a distinct difference as he was experiencing them as the current Wu Long, so the feelings and thoughts he gained were unique to this moment in time and could not be brushed off as the same ones he had before. They could not be called better or worse, simply different.

—

As Wu Long was lost in the moment, on a distant mountain cliff was a girl wearing the disciple robes of the Yin Yang Unity Palace standing in the rain and looking into the distance.

If she were standing in the streets of any town nearby she would be recognized as a top beauty, but by the sect standards of this peculiar sect that included heavy considerations into one's appearance when selecting disciples she would be about average. And despite the beauty, she was shockingly not memorable. In fact, the reality of her standing there was quite blurry as one would only notice her if they specifically looked for her, if any sect disciples were to be nearby, they would not notice her.

Despite standing in the rain without any cover no raindrops fell onto her, as if the raindrops were naturally avoiding her, afraid to taint her existence. There was also no Spiritual Qi fluctuations or dome around her, indicating that she was not shielding herself.

In her eyes, that looked ordinary at first glance but if examined closely felt as if piercing through any lies and seeing all truths, were mixed emotions of longing, as if there was something she wanted, envy, as if that something was in someone else's possession, and interest, as if she was studying how that someone obtained it.

This was the second time she looked like that this week as just a few days ago she was standing near the sect training fields and was staring at a handsome disciple who seemed dazed with the same intense envy.

After some more time, she slowly stretched out her hand, and took a deep breath while closing her eyes. The raindrops that avoided her started to fall on the tip of her jade-like palm, and she took a deep breath.

She stood there for a few moments, eventually opening her eyes that now contained a slight puzzlement looking at her palm that was covered in rainwater. She shifted her eyes to look back into the distance, a hint of a smile appearing on her lips. This smile created an indescribable charm around her, as she looked on with eagerness and anticipation.

—

Wu Long spent a few dozen minutes just taking in the wondrous feeling, when he noticed that there were multiple presences approaching him.

The direction the presences were coming from was different than where he came from, but that was because of the arc he made in his route, as the direction the presences were moving to, they were the same as his destination, the mountain trail entrance of the Yin Yang Unity Palace.

Wu Long continued to try to preserve the feeling that was rapidly fading as his attention was instinctively following the presences that were approaching him.

He soon recognized that the disruptors of his peaceful moment were human, and were coming in two slightly scattered groups, one was behind the other. The main cluster would pass some distance from him, but two people would directly collide with him if they continued moving straight.

There also gradually emerged indistinct sounds of swords clashing and shouting voices coming from the two main groups in the distance.

When the first person approached his location, they were greeted by a beautiful sight of a young man standing in the rain with a hand stretched out of his cloak to feel the drops of water as if taken out of a masterpiece painting. Although the bamboo hat would often obscure the face of the wearer, his handsomeness could be identified from the lower part of his face that was visible.

The person who arrived was dumbfounded to see this scene but also recognized the insignia on Wu Long's cloak.

"Hurry and get away from here, it is not safe here, we are being chased!"

A female voice called out to him.

At this point Wu Long retrieved his hand to the cloak, opened his eyes and looked at the approaching figure with a slightly dissatisfied expression, allowing her to see his face to which she responded with widening of her eyes.

The first 'disruptor' of the tranquil moment was an exceptionally beautiful young woman in white robes. The robes were of the same design as what Wu Long was currently wearing, but instead of the yellow linings, ornaments and sash he had, she had blue ones with gold threaded lines sprinkled into the blue and a few extra ornaments that other disciple robes in the sect didn't have. As he did not recall seeing this type of uniform he was able to roughly guess her status as a rarely seen and highly valued Core Disciple.

But despite her illustrious status she was in quite a sorry state now, as she was soaking wet from rain, her robes tattered, stained with blood and dirt in many places. Though the blood did not seem to be hers as there appeared to be no wounds on her.

She was in the 1st level of Qi Manifestation Realm, quite a high realm considering she was only a little over 20. But despite her high cultivation she did not give out a feeling of pressure, which was quite common in the Yin Yang Unity Palace as while they do train combat prowess, it is not the main focus of the sect members.

Wu Long lowered his hat again so his appearance was not apparent.

Seeing Wu Long not move after her warning she grunted in frustration and stopped not far from him.

"Hey, do you hear me? I'm saying that you might get hurt as…"

She stopped speaking as the second person wearing black robes with scarlet red linings, ornaments and sash with gold threaded linings that seemed remarkably similar to the ones on the robe of the female disciple before despite the complete difference in the design of the robes, arrived at Wu Long's location and stopped at a distance from them. His cultivation base was in the 8th level of Qi Condensation Realm and he too looked relatively young.

There was an ox-tailed sword (Niuweidao, a type of chinese curved single-bladed heavy weapon with a broader tip) in his hand that looked slightly larger and heavier than usual. While his cultivation was significantly lower than the female core disciple, he gave much stronger pressure indicating that he was focusing on combat prowess.

There would occasionally be people like these two, while others would take decades cultivating to that realm, they would achieve it in years. A mortal sect would occasionally have from one to about five (if it was a big sect) of those people, that was how rare they are, if talking about the mortal world. These are people with high cultivation talent that would essentially be guaranteed to reach the highest cultivation realms of their environment. Although, the higher the cultivation environment, the more this talent becomes common, as even higher cultivation talent would be required to reach the heights there.

But in the environment that they are destined to dominate, they are always called 'superior talents'.

Suddenly, a signal flare went up from where the main group was.

It seems they judged that they were in a close enough range for the signal to be noticed from the sect despite the weather.

A few moments later, a second signal with a slightly different burning pattern, color and sound went up from the direction of the sect indicating that the sect protectors took notice of the situation.

Seeing this signal the expression of the man in black robes darkened and the female core disciple sighed in relief instead.