Rainy Night

She was the most bewitching woman Chen Jun Tian has ever seen in his entire life. Her luscious silver hair flowed down to her waist smoothly like a waterfall and her loose scarlet satin dress swayed along with the cold night breeze of the night, exposing her delicate soft skin that was as pale as snow. His eyes stared at her in disbelief as the moonlight accentuated her ethereal beauty, reminding him of that one fateful night when he first met her.

Fei Qing Niao was surprised to see his senior brother suddenly dropping the pot onto the ground so he looked towards the direction of the latter's sight. Young master Fei soon found himself staring with wide eyes at the mysterious beauty, feeling as if he had seen her somewhere before but he just couldn't figure it out where. Her figure seemed quite familiar for him.

The woman also noticed their presence as she felt their gazes observing her from a distance. Her almond-shaped crimson orbs eventually made contacts with Jun Tian's grey ones for a brief second but her death-like eyes seemed to have cut through his very soul. Her plump ruby lips slowly curved into a malicious grin then with the blink of an eye, she disappeared without a trace just like she had appeared.

All of a sudden, Jun Tian felt a drop of water fall against his skin, followed by several others but he did not have the heart to seek shelter. His body was like a fountain for the incoming rain and the water made his eyelids heavy so he closed his dull grey eyes as a rattled sigh passed through his parted lips. Qing Niao who was by his side all this time eventually dragged him towards a nearby pine tree to protect themselves from getting wet any further. The two of them sat on a bench-like rock under the giant tree, observing the remaining constellations rapidly being covered by the misty clouds while the pot sat by edge of the crystal clear spring.

The water droplets soon began growing larger and falling more frequently. The light pitter patter of the rain turned into wet thuds as the icy water raced to meet the ground and the sprinkling quickly turned into a heavy downpour. The clouds grew darker and darker and a lightning flash spooked the two young men. The night sky was no longer light up by the stars as they were swallowed in such a blackness that they cannot even see the nearby spring, let alone the rutted path that leads them out of this place.

The rain was falling in crazy chaotic drops as the gusting wind carried them in all directions and since the large pine tree was not a perfect shelter, a few droplets ran down their face. It might be not as cold as it will be when autumn comes to an end but it did not have the warmth of a summer shower. Moreover, in this deprivation of light, the fair porcelain-like skin of the two youths was all the more sensitive to the freezing rain. Even though, the fallen droplets did not pound or sting but it alighted on their faces like soft kisses of ice and ran down to drip from their jaws. The coldness then seeped through their already soaked clothing and chilled their skin furthermore. The bone-chilling cold seemed unbearable in the howling wind and icy rain. The sound of thunder rolled through the area as another lightning bolt split the sky as if it was a typical serenade of the autumn.

"Senior brother Jun..." Qing Niao mumbled while trying to clench his jaw tight to prevent the chattering of teeth. "C-can you use a spell..."

The blue-cladded youth looked at him with furrowing brows as he took out a small metal cube with a blue gem encrusted in the middle of it from his spatial ring. Jun Tian immediately recognised the peculiar object. It was an rare artefact that could control the weather around its user but it needed to be activated by a spell. Luckily, Jun Tian used to own these artefacts when he was young so he knew the spell to activate it but he was a bit triggered by the fact that this idiotic teammate of his waited all these times to take it out.

Even though he was mad, he did not express his dissatisfaction since he was more eager to get rid of this freezing chaos. Jun Tian took the cube then uttered out some unidentifiable words and a few seconds later, it emitted a bright blue glow. At that moment, the heavy downpour quickly died down until there were merely a few droplets falling softly from the night sky.

As soon as the rain stopped, Qing Niao and Jun Tian carried the pot, which was now filled with rainwater, back to their campsite. The breeze blew even colder than before, announcing the coming of winter days. The aroma of the tall grasses after a torrential rain were an intoxicating perfume and the cloudy night above was now filled with blazing stars once again as if it was a sublime painting by the world's most renowned artist, enough to ignite the heart of any passerby.

"What took you guys so long?" Bai Ye Hua looked at the two young masters with her arm crossed in anger. "Why are your clothes wet?"

She did not understand how these two men needed over an hour just to fill up a pot with water. They might not be as robust as young master Ao but they were still martial arts apprentice. Moreover, they were completely soaked by who knows what. Just unbelievable!

"Sorry..." Jun Tian replied as he secretly gave eye signals to Qing Niao who wanted to tell the others about the rain.

"The edge of the spring was slippery so I fell into the water and kind of dragged senior brother Jun along with me..." Qing Niao blabbered nonsense that he made up when he noticed his friend's stare.

The two of them were shocked to find out that the campsite was not soaked by the rain, meaning that there were some mysterious forces behind what they've encountered at the spring. Jun Tian initially wanted to inform the others about it but he decided that it was best not to mention it.

"How careless can you be?" Ye Hua wanted to scold them but she was cut off by the man who was setting up a campfire in the middle of their courtyard.

"Enough complaining!" Ao Xia Ming shook his head then gestured the two young men to bring over the pot of rainwater. "Let's start cooking."

"Where's senior brother Lin though?" Qing Niao furrowed his brows. Come to think of it, it has been almost half a day since he last saw the handsome youth who is always dressed in white silk brocades. He was a bit furious that they had to clean up the courtyard for the whole day while this person was nowhere to be seen and not contributing to their teamwork.

"He's probably at the training grounds." Xia Ming responded while he took the pot and placed it over the campfire that he had set up. "Someone should go call him over."