Chapter 376: Chapter 186: Spring Breeze and Rain Technique (Part 2)

"Surrender at once!"

"Damn it, this is going too far!"

Zhao Rui’s body swelled in an instant as he activated his Purple Mansion Primordial Venerable Body, transforming into a hundred-meter-tall giant. With a single bound, he soared over the sky-blotting net and sprinted into the distance.

His enormous feet slammed into the ground, stamping several massive, ten-meter-long footprints into the earth.

With each step Zhao Rui took, his body shrank. After five steps, he had fully withdrawn his Dharma Aspect, reverting to his original form and vanishing from his pursuers’ sight.

"After him!"

The three pursuing women hastily executed their Light Body Techniques and gave chase.

This time, the trio’s pursuit was far more formidable than that of the middle-aged woman from before.

Zhao Rui weaved and dodged, but he still couldn’t shake the three women off his tail.

After all, they had every advantage: favorable timing, terrain, and numbers.

This chase continued for another hour. The commotion was so great this time that Zhao Rui’s performance had already alerted all the powers, big and small, throughout Weishui City.

While they knew the Yun Mansion was hunting someone, the disturbance had been minor, leading everyone to assume the target was already captured.

Now, with Zhao Rui causing such a ruckus, they instantly realized this newcomer was a force to be reckoned with.

The Yun Mansion hadn’t managed to capture him.

Several powerful experts began projecting their gazes in his direction.

Zhao Rui felt several mysterious, unfathomable auras sweep over him.

Although they didn’t trigger a system notification, Zhao Rui knew these gazes were anything but ordinary.

"Spring Breeze and Rain Technique replication progress: ninety-nine percent!"

"Spring Breeze and Rain Technique replication progress: one hundred percent! Replication successful. Reward: one Advancement Point!"

Hearing the system’s notification, Zhao Rui was overjoyed. He immediately immersed his consciousness, comprehending the mysteries of this Cultivation Technique even as he ran.

In a mere instant, the entirety of the Spring Breeze and Rain Technique materialized in his mind, ingrained in his very muscle memory.

’Rain Technique, Transformation Realm!’

Zhao Rui formed a Magic Technique with his hands. His figure flickered and merged directly into the surrounding rain, vanishing completely in an instant.

The three pursuing women abruptly lost all sense of Zhao Rui, much to their horror.

"How did he disappear?"

"With the Ancestor’s Technique active, how could he possibly disappear?"

The three of them quickly split up to search in different directions. Moments later, they returned, shaking their heads in failure.

"Let’s go. We must report to the Ancestor and ask for instructions."

The leader of the group, the eldest grandson’s wife, spoke with a grim expression. She then conjured a cloud and rode it through the mist back toward the mansion.

"Who in the world is this man?"

The remaining two women glanced at each other, both seeing an almost imperceptible, strange look in the other’s eyes.

"Could he be a remnant of the Great Shang? After all, that’s where Little Seven came from."

"Let’s go back and see what the Ancestor says!"

The two exchanged a look, speechless, then flew off together after the eldest grandson’s wife.

「Yun Mansion, council hall.」

After listening to the reports from the middle-aged women, the white-haired matriarch’s expression stiffened. She immediately formed a series of Hand Formulas, her Divine Soul leaving her body to travel abroad.

After circulating her energy for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, she finally whispered in astonishment, "He was actually able to evade my Spring Breeze and Rain Technique?"

"Ling’Er, who exactly is this person?"

This time, the matriarch was genuinely interested in Zhao Rui.

For a young man to be able to decipher her Spring Breeze and Rain Technique in such a short time, hide his tracks, and vanish into the vastness of Weishui City... his performance was truly extraordinary.

"An-Ancestor, his identity... I can’t really say. But in any case, he’s not our enemy."

Mo Ling’Er didn’t know what had happened, but she still did her best to absolve Zhao Rui of any blame.

However, her efforts were a little too late.

"Not an enemy? Could he be one of the Song people from the Central Plains? Or perhaps, someone from the Huaxia Realm?"

The matriarch’s eyes flashed with insight, and in an instant, she had guessed Zhao Rui’s origin.

’Interesting. I never expected to find someone of such transcendent talent among these Song people.’

The matriarch stamped her Dragon-Head Walking Stick on the ground. Her figure faded like a bursting bubble, slowly vanishing from sight.

"He’s actually worthy of the Ancestor taking action personally!"

"Ling’Er, this friend of yours is quite the surprise."

"With the Ancestor’s approval, Ling’Er’s marriage is practically a done deal."

The middle-aged women below began chattering amongst themselves, but Mo Ling’Er, the subject of their gossip, didn’t hear a word.

’He must hate my guts by now!’

Mo Ling’Er hadn’t expected things to escalate this far, nor had she anticipated Zhao Rui being this formidable.

Not only had her aunts failed to capture him, he had even evaded the Ancestor’s Divine Techniques.

’How did he improve so quickly?’

Mo Ling’Er felt a pang of frustration. She had only wanted her ancestor to capture him and have a little fun with him, that’s all.

...

On the boundless plains, Weishui City could be seen in the distance, standing like a colossal beast upon the landscape.

It radiated an overwhelming, oppressive majesty.

Zhao Rui fled away from Weishui City, pushing his Body Technique to its absolute limit.

’Next time I see Mo Ling’Er, I’ll fuck her and then kill her! I won’t go easy! That bitch!’

Zhao Rui muttered viciously.

He never would have imagined that Mo Ling’Er was actually from the Yun Mansion of Gui Xu Great Zhou.

He certainly never would have guessed she was also the Witch Venerable of the Gui Xu Great Merchant, the power that currently occupied the Central Asian States.

The overlapping identities were honestly a bit beyond his imagination.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that she had repeatedly entangled and deceived him.

Her only goal had been to capture him.

’We had no history, no grudges. What the hell is wrong with her?!’

Zhao Rui sped forward. Suddenly, a fine drizzle began to fall from the sky, arriving with an abrupt pitter-patter.

’Spring Breeze and Rain Technique?’

Zhao Rui’s eyes sharpened. With a flicker of his body, he unleashed a Magic Technique, and the dark clouds overhead instantly vanished.

The clouds scattered and the rain ceased, leaving the sky bright and clear.

A sky that never saw a sun once again revealed a clear, azure brilliance.

"The Rain Path Divine Techniques are a secret passed down in my Yun Mansion. Where did you learn them?"

Just then, an ancient, resonant voice echoed from all around—above, below, left, and right—rumbling thunderously in Zhao Rui’s ears.

"Oh? I learned it from the weather forecast!"

Zhao Rui replied with a casual lie.

"Toying with me? It has been a long time since anyone dared to do such a thing!"

As the voice faded, the same old matriarch he had seen at the gates of the Yun Mansion emerged slowly from the swirling clouds, leaning on her Dragon-Head Walking Stick. As she stepped forward, her silver-white hair began to turn black.

The features of her face, even her wrinkles, began to slowly transform.

Her once-stooped figure gradually straightened, becoming graceful and slender.

In a mere instant, the old matriarch had transformed into a middle-aged woman who appeared to be in her thirties.

This scene gave Zhao Rui quite a start.

’What kind of ability is this?’

’Is it like the Eight Desolates and Six Harmonies, Only I Am Supreme Skill, capable of restoring one’s youth?’

’Or is it like Emperor Shitian from Wind and Cloud, who absorbed the blood of a Divine Beast to achieve immortality?’

Zhao Rui’s eyes instantly burned with greed.

"How audacious!"

Zhao Rui was so lost in imagining the Supreme Divine Skill that his gaze had become fixed and focused.

Seeing his expression, the now-younger matriarch was displeased. She struck out with her palm, and an immense gale instantly transformed into countless tiny Wind Vortexes and Wind Blades that shot toward Zhao Rui.

Zhao Rui stood his ground, unafraid. He countered with a palm strike of his own, unleashing innumerable Wind Vortexes and Wind Blades as well. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The two Palm Forces collided, instantly creating a violent, turbulent squall.

Zhao Rui felt the flow of True Qi around his body stagnate, as if the turbulence was about to throw him off balance.

"So you really did steal my Yun Mansion’s Martial Arts!"

The middle-aged woman snorted coldly and charged directly at Zhao Rui.

The two of them instantly clashed.

Zhao Rui opened all the Acupoints he had previously cleared. Infinite True Qi instantly flooded his Meridians, and two types of Exotic True Qi with different properties surged from within his Dantian.

Fire and Ice True Qi poured out of him in a continuous stream.

After exchanging dozens of blows and getting a clear look at Zhao Rui’s Techniques, the woman suddenly jabbed a finger toward his wrist.

Zhao Rui adapted mid-combat, bringing his palms together preemptively.

His Ice Palm Force and Fiery Palm Force fused between his hands. A sudden blast of True Qi, containing both powers, shot toward the woman.

Unflustered, the woman kept her finger extended. A beam of light the thickness of a finger materialized at its tip.

The beam shot out as fast as lightning, striking the exact point where the two masses of ice and fire True Qi converged.

It instantly dispersed the two masses of Exotic True Qi.