Chapter 100: The Storm in the Clouds

As it burst through a patch of cloud, the sunlight hit it full force, revealing scales the color of fresh snow, crackling with electricity. White. Blinding white. A storm dragon, massive and terrifying, with eyes like lightning and claws that sparked with every movement.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” Bai Yue screamed.

“I DON’T KNOW!” Cāng Jì’s voice was strained, panicked. “IT’S NOT—IT’S NOT ANYONE I—”

The storm dragon veered toward them, its massive form blocking out the sun.

Cāng Jì banked sharply, too sharply. The world tilted. Bai Yue grabbed for Han Shān, for Zhēn, for anything. The cubs wailed. Gū Gū’s tea set finally spilled.

“HANG ON!”

Another violent turn. The storm dragon matched them move for move.

“CĀNG JÌ!”

The voice boomed across the sky, deep, rumbling, crackling with static.

Cāng Jì froze mid-flight.

For one terrifying second, they hung suspended in the air.

Then the storm dragon was upon them.

“CĀNG JÌ, YOU GOLDEN MENACE, IS THAT YOU?!”

Bai Yue’s brain short-circuited.

The storm dragon pulled up at the last possible second, its massive form sliding past them with inches to spare. The wind from its passage nearly knocked them off Cāng Jì’s back.

Cāng Jì let out a roar, half fury, half relief.

“LÉI CHEN?!”

The storm dragon wheeled around, circling back to hover before them. Up close, it was even more massive than Cāng Jì, broader, thicker, built for power rather than speed. Its white scales crackled with electricity, and its eyes, those lightning eyes, were fixed on the passengers on Cāng Jì’s back.

“You have GOT to be kidding me,” the storm dragon—Léi Chen—rumbled. “The rumors were true? You actually went back for the lowlanders?”

“They’re not lowlanders, they’re—” Cāng Jì stopped. “Wait. You know about this?”

“Your sister hasn’t shut up about it since you left.” Léi Chen’s massive head tilted, scanning the group with obvious amusement. “The cursed female who makes spicy soup. The cubs who climb everything. The grandmothers with the stick.”

Gū Gū raised her stick threateningly, though her hand trembled slightly. “I’ll show you a stick, you overgrown lightning bug!”

“And the stick,” Léi Chen confirmed, sounding almost impressed.

Cāng Jì’s jaw tightened. “What are you doing here, Léi Chen? You are supposed to be in the northern peaks.”

“Plans changed.”

“What does that mean?”

Léi Chen’s eyes flickered toward the clouds behind them. “It means—”

Another crack of thunder split the sky.

Not from Léi Chen.

From somewhere else. Somewhere closer.

Léi Chen’s head snapped up, his expression shifting from amusement to something far more serious. The electricity along his scales intensified, casting sharp shadows across the clouds.

“We need to move,” he rumbled.

“Why?” Cāng Jì demanded. “What’s going on?”

“There’s no time. Just—”

The clouds behind them erupted.

A massive bolt of lightning struck exactly where they’d been hovering moments ago. The thunder was deafening, a bone-shaking, soul-rattling boom that made Bai Yue’s ears ring and her vision blur.

Cāng Jì didn’t wait for an explanation. He dove.

Down, down, down, into the clouds, into the white, into the chaos.

Wind screamed past them. Visibility vanished. Bai Yue could barely breathe, let alone see. She clutched Zhēn so tightly she was afraid she might hurt her, but the baby was calm, impossibly, terrifyingly calm, staring at the whipping clouds with her big purple eyes.

“CĀNG JÌ!”

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere.

“CĀNG JÌ, WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Another voice. A woman’s voice. Desperate. Furious. Familiar.

“LÉI CHEN! IF YOU’VE LOST HIM, I’LL—”

The clouds parted.

And there, in a pocket of clear sky, hovered a figure.

Smaller than Léi Chen. Dark scales shot through with veins of gold. Eyes that burned like embers.

Cāng Yáo.

“THERE you are!” she shouted, her dragon form banking toward them with obvious relief. “I’ve been looking everywhere! Léi Chen, you absolute—”

She stopped.

Her massive golden eyes fixed on the group on Cāng Jì’s back.

On Bai Yue.

On the tiny bundle in her arms.

“Is that—”

The words died in her throat.

For a moment, the sky was silent. The wind seemed to hold its breath. Cāng Yáo just stared at the baby, her dragon form completely still, her eyes wide with something Bai Yue couldn’t quite read.

And in that moment of stunned silence, the clouds behind them lit up again.

Another bolt. Closer this time. So close that Bai Yue felt the electricity in the air, making her hair stand on end.

Léi Chen roared, wheeling around to face whatever was coming. His white scales blazed with light, casting long shadows across the clouds.

“GO!” he bellowed. “I’LL HOLD THEM OFF!”

“Them?!” Cāng Jì shouted back. “Who is—”

“GO!”

Cāng Jì didn’t argue.

He dove again, taking them deeper into the clouds, away from the lightning, away from the chaos, away from whatever was hunting them.

Behind them, the sky exploded with light and thunder.

Bai Yue clutched Zhēn tighter, her heart pounding, her mind reeling. Who was attacking them? Why? What was happening?

She looked back, but there was nothing to see, just clouds and flashes of light and the distant roar of thunder.

“CĀNG JÌ!”

The voice cut through the wind.

Not Léi Chen’s.

Not Cāng Yáo’s.

A new voice. Deep. Ancient. Terrifying.

A voice that made Cāng Jì’s entire body go rigid beneath them.

“CĀNG JÌ, RETURN AT ONCE!”

The clouds around them seemed to freeze. The wind died. Even the thunder faded to an ominous silence.

Cāng Jì stopped flying.

Just stopped.

Hovering in the middle of the cloud layer, his golden scales dimmed, his wings motionless.

“That’s—” he whispered, his mental voice barely a tremor.

“Who?” Bai Yue demanded, her voice shaking. “Cāng Jì, WHO IS THAT?!”

But Cāng Jì didn’t answer.

He just hung there, frozen, as the clouds behind them began to part.

And through the gap, something emerged.

Massive. Dark. Ancient.

Eyes like molten gold.

Scales like forged steel.

A dragon so large that Léi Chen looked small beside it. A dragon so old that its presence alone made the air itself feel heavy.

“CĀNG JÌ.”

The voice rumbled through them like an earthquake.

“YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO.”

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