"Ugh, what terrible luck today. I finally got to see the Old Immortal Sage in person, but he wouldn’t give me a divination! I cleared my schedule and came all this way, work’s a mess, and I have to leave tomorrow!"
On the way down the mountain, a middle-aged man in a suit shook his head slightly, looking full of regret.
He’d already been here three days. The crowds before were so big he couldn’t even get a number. Today, he finally saw the legendary Old Immortal Sage, but who’d have thought—the Sage just wasn’t doing divinations today!
That left him feeling pretty bummed out.
"Quit complaining. Just seeing the Old Immortal Sage in person is already lucky enough. But if you want to talk about real luck, it’s gotta be that fat boss over there." Another man nearby sighed and glanced at a fat guy not far away.
The fat man’s face was flushed with excitement. He’d just gotten beaten up, but by a stroke of luck, the Old Immortal Sage had given him a pill—turning disaster into fortune and even curing his impotence. Now he looked absolutely over the moon.
A bit farther back in the crowd, Lynn Chen was supporting Yolanda Fang, who was hopping along on one foot. The mountain path here was rough and uneven, and without shoes, every step on the rocky ground made her feet ache.
"Hey, slow down, slow down! Don’t walk so fast, I’m gonna fall behind!" Yolanda hopped along, calling out to Lynn Chen ahead of her.
"See? Why’d you have to throw your shoe for no reason? You’re just making trouble for yourself." Lynn Chen frowned at Yolanda, looking helpless.
"No way! I just couldn’t stand that girl. It’s one thing to call you a country bumpkin, but she actually dared to call me a country bumpkin too!" Yolanda huffed, full of righteous indignation.
Lynn Chen overheard and shot her a glare. "What do you mean, 'calling me a country bumpkin is fine'?"
"Come on, come on, we’re all sisters here, don’t be so petty! Hahaha." Yolanda Fang giggled, her face full of excitement. "Did you see how that girl looked when the shoe hit her? She was totally clueless!"
"Man, that was satisfying—just thinking about it feels great! If I get another chance, I’ll chuck this other shoe too!"
Yolanda burst out laughing, and a few of the bosses up ahead glanced back at them.
Some of them had planned to come over and chat, but Yolanda had already cursed them away.
"If you throw all your shoes, don’t come crying to me when your feet hurt. I’m definitely not carrying you!" Lynn Chen warned, already anticipating trouble.
Yolanda didn’t bother explaining, just grinned. "If you won’t carry me, fine! I’ll just sit here and wait for Evan Lin to come by and carry me. Maybe I’ll even cop a feel while I’m at it."
"You’re the one copping a feel? More like he’d be copping a feel off you!" Lynn Chen was speechless at Yolanda’s antics and pinched her cheek.
"He can cop a feel if he wants—just as long as you’re okay with it." Yolanda waggled her eyebrows at Lynn Chen. Lynn immediately frowned. "What’s that got to do with me? With that big-talking attitude of his, even after graduation he won’t get anywhere."
"Besides, I’m pretty sure he and I aren’t even from the same world."
Before Lynn Chen could finish, Yolanda plopped her head onto Lynn’s shoulder and imitated her in a mock-serious tone: "Oh, I’m sure we’re not even from the same world. Right, right, you’re a little fairy from the heavens, and Evan Lin’s just a cowherd boy down on earth?"
"Get lost!" Lynn Chen shot back, not in the mood.
"Hey, everyone, look! Over there! By the village!"
Someone up ahead had just been about to turn around and check on Lynn Chen and Yolanda, but out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted something in the nearby mountains. His face changed and he shouted in alarm.
Their group had been walking out of the mountains for quite a while now, getting farther and farther from the village.
At that moment, hearing the shout, a bunch of people turned around—only then did they notice that, at some point, the sky over the mountains by the village had turned completely dark with clouds.
Those rolling black clouds loomed over a torrential downpour that was visible even from a distance. A chilly, damp wind blew over, making everyone shiver a little.
"That doesn’t make sense. I checked the weather before I left today—Zhaoyu Town was supposed to be sunny. And when we left the village just now, the sky was clear. Where’d this rain come from all of a sudden?" someone muttered, confused.
"Could it be the Old Immortal Sage showing off his powers and summoning rain clouds? I heard he’s got some pretty mystical tricks!" someone in the crowd said excitedly.
But others shook their heads in disbelief. "No way. If he could really control the wind and rain, that’d be way too crazy. Fortune-telling, sure, there’s some precedent for that—lots of stories through history. But summoning storms? That’s straight-up myth."
Yolanda and Lynn Chen turned to look too. When she saw the torrential rain over there, Lynn frowned, a little worried about Evan Lin, who was still back in the village.
Yolanda sighed. "That Evan kid really has the worst luck."
"If he’d just left with us, none of this would’ve happened. But no, he had to stay and watch the drama—serves him right." Lynn Chen snorted.
Just then, someone with sharp eyes stared at the scene. At first he was just confused, but then his face turned to shock and he shouted, "Holy crap! What is that? Is that a dragon?!"
A dragon?
Hearing that, a bunch of people changed angles, craning their necks to get a better look.
It was too far away to see clearly, but in their eyes, a sky-piercing column of water looked almost exactly like the legendary dragon!
"Wait...no, look—there’s someone standing up there!" One man was about to say it couldn’t be, but then he suddenly realized: at the head of that soaring water dragon, there was a human figure!
That person was standing way up in the air—like he was riding a divine dragon!
"Oh my god, am I seeing things?!"
"Is that person—could that be the Old Immortal Sage?"
"What the heck is happening over there?!"
Everyone was stunned. Some people were about to whip out their phones and film the scene, but then they saw the black clouds sweeping toward them, bringing a flood of rain—like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens.
Lynn Chen stared, frozen for a moment. She tried to get a clearer look, but the sudden downpour blocked her view.
Yolanda snapped out of it, forgot all about her missing shoe, and grabbed Lynn Chen’s arm, running for cover. "Oh my god, this rain is gonna make me sick!" she yelled.
Yolanda and Lynn dashed off, barefoot and fast. Every step made Yolanda wince, but luckily, just a few paces ahead was flat ground. The rain clouds behind them almost seemed alive, stopping right at the edge and refusing to come any closer.