Chapter 58: Racing Through the Storm

That way, most of the wind and rain would stay outside.

With the vines blocking the worst of the storm, the howling wind and pounding rain grew softer.

Yue Mingxuan looked around his temporary shelter and noticed that this cave seemed larger than a normal one.

Because of the poor light, he couldn’t see the full space clearly.

He reached into his medicine pouch and pulled out a fire striker.

Thankfully, it had been tightly sealed and hadn’t gotten wet.

Striking it alight, he slowly inspected the inside of the cave.

It didn’t seem like a natural formation there were clearly signs of craftsmanship.

A few stone benches had been carved from rock and on one of them sat an old oil lamp.

Yue Mingxuan walked closer curiously and tried lighting it with the flame from his fire striker.

To his surprise, the lamp still worked.

The small flame flickered, casting a soft glow across the damp cave.

He brushed the dust from the stone bench and raising a small cloud of gray powder.

It was clear that no one had lived here for a long time.

Yue Mingxuan then sat down on the cold stone feeling exhausted.

His entire body has been soaked with rain water and it was dripping from his sleeves and hair pooling around his boots.

The stone bench was in the middle of the cave and sitting there, the sound of the storm became faint and distant, like a memory.

Even though the rain no longer hit him directly, his clothes clung wetly to his skin.

He muttering to himself while he took off his outer robe and wrung it tightly until the water streamed out and draped it over another stone bench to dry.

Listening to the muffled rain outside, Yue Mingxuan’s thoughts began to wander.

The damp fabric of his inner shirt clung uncomfortably to his body.

“If only there were a hot spring here,” he murmured to himself, “I could take a proper bath.”

Once he cured Shang Qinghua’s poison, he was definitely going to demand a hefty reward.

He sneezed while rubbing his nose.

This kind of weather was truly miserable, he climbing a mountain in the middle of a thunderstorm just to collect a herb was a special kind of torment.

His long hair that was whipped into a tangled mess by the wind and rain stuck to his face and neck.

With a sigh, he twisted it up into a loose knot and leaned against the cave wall.

He then closing his eyes to rest for a while.

Outside, the rain intensified.

Shang Qinghua rode hard through the storm, racing his horse across the flooded paths until he reached the foot of the back mountain.

But there, the animal refused to go any farther, rearing and snorting in fear.

Clicking his tongue in frustration, Shang Qinghua dismounted and began the climb on foot.

The mountain path was treacherous, the trees had fallen under the storm’s assault and the branches scattered across the muddy road.

The once simple trail was now slick and steep.

The umbrella he had brought was useless and even the straw raincoat clinging to his shoulders was soaked through.

The downpour grew heavier still, turning the world into a blur of white water.

Against the force of nature, even someone as powerful as Shang Qinghua seemed small and helpless.

He stopped for a moment, scanning the endless sheet of rain before him.

There was no trace of Yue Mingxuan, he doesn’t where he need to start looking for him.

Regret flickered across his face; he should have brought more people.

But the roaring rain drowned out even his thoughts and his calls were lost in the storm.

“Yue Mingxuan! Yue Mingxuan!” His voice echoed against the thunder, carried by inner strength.

He didn’t care that the effort drained him, or that the cold poison in his body flared painfully.

In this weather, he shouldn’t have even left his chambers, let alone used so much power but none of that mattered now.

No answer came.

Only the endless crash of rain.

The entire world seemed to mock his helplessness, every drop of water a reminder that even he, Shang Qinghua, was powerless before the storm.

Under such overwhelming power of nature, human strength meant nothing.

Even someone like Shang Qinghua whose powerful, intelligent, and fearless was rendered completely useless before the will of the heavens.

The wind howled without rest and the rain lashed against his body like countless sharp threads.

To save his strength, Shang Qinghua had even taken off his only straw raincoat.

He kept shouting Yue Mingxuan’s name again and again as he ran through the storm, his voice nearly swallowed by the endless roar of the rain.

He didn’t know how many hills he had crossed.

His fingers had turned pale and wrinkled from the cold water when suddenly, through the pounding rain, he thought he heard a faint response, Yue Mingxuan’s voice calling back to him.

His heart leapt.

He took several quick steps forward, but the next instant, the sound was gone again, buried under the roar of the storm.

Inside the cave, Yue Mingxuan froze.

For a moment, he thought he was imagining things.

But as he listened carefully, he realized it really was Shang Qinghua’s voice. It’s sounds hoarse and strained, but unmistakably his.

That fool… why would he come here in weather like this?

Yue Mingxuan had never known what it felt like to be truly valued by someone until this moment.

His chest tightened and he realized his face was already wet not just from the rain, but from something warmer.

Without even stopping to put on his half-dried robe, he pushed aside the vines at the cave’s mouth and ran into the storm.

When Shang Qinghua saw Yue Mingxuan running toward him through the rain, for a second he thought his eyes were deceiving him.

Maybe he had gone mad, so it’s make him hearing things, seeing things.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep