This time, Lei Wujie nodded.

“Good!” 

Suddenly, the forlornness on the man’s face disappeared. The corner of brows curved into a sharp slant, his sleeves snapped a resounding snap then, without any warning whatsoever, a red flash shot out from the man’s sleeves. Lei Wujie’s eyes went wide. In that instant, his eyes were filled with the sight of a fiery red sword soaring into the heavens and dying the clouds crimson.

“So that’s beautiful? So that’s a sword?” Lei Wujie gasped in a daze.

“Do you wish to learn the sword?” As the man said that, the crimson sword descended, stabbing right into the earth before Lei Wujie.

Lei Wujie stepped forward, gripped down on the sword and, in a shaking voice, said, “I do!”

“I won’t die. I still have a lot of places to go with this sword!” Lei Wujie suddenly yelled, the saying of a certain flashy monk drifting into his thoughts at that instant. Immediately, the slideshow-esque stream of recollections disappeared. The two fingers of Lei Yunhe had already barrelled their way to the front of his chest. His first wave of sword qi had been broken, but who was to say that there couldn’t be a second! Lei Wujie waved his sword once more. This time, there was no thunderous boom, just an instant burst of red light!

Lei Yunhe’s eyes went wide, then he sighed. The expression Lei Wujie had on right now just seemed so nostalgic to him, like an old friend paying him a visit. “Just like it was with us all those years ago…” His fingers were pointed outwards as before. Suddenly, he retracted one of them and with the other, forced the sword qi downwards.

Yet despite that, Lei Yunhe unexpectedly retreated. With a single step, he retreated back to the windows and opened it softly. Peering out, he sighed,  “It has been a while since I’ve seen such youthfulness. Seems like some things just don’t change in the martial world -I’ve been cooped up in this tower for far too long.”

Lei Wujie was drenched in sweat, his chest heaving from the sheer effort of breathing. Behind him, the image of a Garuda was on the verge of collapse. The red in his eyes was slowly dissipating as well. At the end of the day, his Blazing Arts was defeated by just a single finger.

“In that case, let me recover that youthful energy.” Lei Yunhe closed his eyes, suddenly thrusting his left arm into the sky in the process.

“Let me recover that sense of power!” He muttered to himself.

In an instant, the skies turned dark and cloudy!

“What’s going on?” Exclaimed a surprised Tang Lian below the tower.

The book attendant, Fei Xuan, furiously calculated with his fingers, “Why? Why is this happening? What is causing this phenomenon?”

On the other hand, it was the tea stall’s waiter who wasn’t surprised. He merely grumbled to himself, “That’s the second time the skies have turned cloudy today, are you going to rain or not?”

Sikong Changfeng quietly stood there watching, but the spear behind him was already ringing loudly.

Within Snow Moon City, the various elders had already walked out of their individual halls to peer at the sky, each with a thought of their own.

“What’s so interesting about a bunch of dark clouds, master?” A confused Luo Mingxuan asked of his teacher as he saw her walk out of the hall suddenly.

Still the image of a teenage girl despite being over thirty, the Immortal Maiden Luoxia softly answered, “Not only are the clouds dark, there is thunder as well.”

Having just said that, a crack of thunder reverberated throughout the horizon. Like the sound of tens of thousands of horses galloping, the booming thunder rang deafeningly in the ears of those who heard it. Still standing at the side of the window, Lei Yunhe seemed almost otherworldly as the unannounced rain and wind blew down on him.

“So that’s what an immortal looks like!” Lei Wujie’s jaw was already as low as his muscles would allow it.

“Kid, thanks to you, I’ve entered the Unfettered Heavens Realm.” Lei Yunhe declared all of a sudden.

“Hmm?” Even though Lei Yunhe said that, Lei Wujie wasn’t scared at all. That was because there wasn’t a single shred of killing intent within the man right now. Instead, there was a kind of…that’s right, like what he said, a sense of freedom!

“Rise!” Lei Yunhe howled.

The heavens boomed and the rain poured.

“Descend!” Lei Yunhe raised his left palm and declared.

Nine bolts of lightning descended with a crack of thunder right into Lei Yunhe’s waiting hand!

“With the Nine Heavens Thunder, I will shake the heavens and earth. With a single finger, I will tear asunder ninety thousand miles!” As he spun his palm around slightly, the lightning his palms danced like a toy.

By now, Tang Lian couldn’t tell if it was sweat or rainwater that was staining his clothes. Everyone thought that, after his recent ordeal, his cultivation level was already above that of the Guardian Elder’s. Yet when faced with this scene, he himself wasn’t sure if he could stand up to the man’s Nine Heavens Thunder, not to mention Lei Wujie who was still on the fifteenth floor. He whipped his head around and shouted, “Third Esteemed Teacher!”

“What’s the matter? So you’ve finally decided to call me Third Esteemed Teacher, now that your friend’s in grave danger.” Sikong Changfeng wasn’t all that flustered however. Slowly and leisurely, he yelled in the direction of the tower, “Congratulations to Brother Yunhe for re-entering the Unfettered Realm! But this Tower of Ascension of ours…that costs a mountain of silvers to build, so I humbly ask that you, Brother Yunhe, hold back a little. Should those lightning bolts really strike, I don’t think the tower will survive.”

“Third Esteemed Teacher!” Tang Lian hurriedly called out,  “Now is not the time to be worrying about your tower!”

High above in the tower, Lei Yunhe chuckled as he replied, “So what if I wreck this tower?”

Sikong Changfeng thought about it for a good long while, then simply said, “Just take it that I’m begging you…”

“Bah.” It was his only daughter, Sikong Qianluo, that voiced out what everyone was thinking right now.”

“Hahaha.” Lei Yunhe bellowed into the heavens. With a wave of his left hand, he sent the lightning bolts back into the horizon. The clouds immediately parted and the rain ceased -everything was as before, like nothing ever happened. Turning around to Lei Wujie, the man said, “You wish to ascend to the sixteenth floor, then bring that person to see your master?”

Lei Wujie nodded, though it seemed like he wasn’t about to step past this fifteenth floor any time soon.

However, Lei Yunhe, seemingly changed character entirely, said as such, “Very well. At that time, I will pay a visit to Lei Hong. There’s something I wish to ask him.”

“What exactly?”

“Does that b*stard really think that I’m dead or something? Or does that b*astard just not wish to see me?” Just like that, the man’s otherworldliness disappeared like his lightning bolts.

“Huh?”

However, Lei Yunhe no longer paid him any heed, instead yelling out at the sky, “Ah Li!”  

Suddenly, a shrill squawk resounded throughout the horizon in a manner most unusual! Everyone raised heads and could only see a gigantic yellow crane blotting out the sky as it rose into the horizon. In an instant, it flew up to the Tower of Ascension. Stepping out of the window, Lei Yunhe landed atop the crane who continued circling around the tower.

“An immortal, an immortal’s up there!” The people below yelled and furiously kowtowed.

Sikong Changfeng turned around to Tang Lian, “All those years ago when I called down the rain with a single spear, was I just as majestic?”

Not at all shy about saying so, Tang Lian coldly snorted before answering, “Not even a single bit.”

“Sigh, I’ve lost. The world calls me a Spear Immortal, but that’s nothing compared to the majesty of calling down a storm and riding around on a crane.”

On the other hand, the scholar, Li Fansong, and his book attendant companion, Fei Xuan, both wore a look of absolute shock. Pointing at the crane, the attendant said to Li Fansong, “Junior martial uncle, isn’t that…”

However, Li Fansong merely raised his hand to interrupt the attendant as he shook his head lightly.

“Ah Li, have you been waiting long for me?” Lei Yunhe gently patted the crane on its head.

The yellow crane let forth a long squawk.

“I once broke Mount Cangshan with a single finger. With two, I severed the Heavens and Earth. But with three, I was unable to defeat the Blue Firmament Sword, and even lost an arm in the process. Now that I’ve returned to the Unfettered Realm, how about we pay that sword another visit?” Lei Yunhe muttered to himself and, without even waiting for the crane to respond, gently patted the crane’s wings. “Let’s go. To Mount Qingcheng.”

The air around them trembled. With a long squawk trailing behind him, Lei Yunhe flew off towards the west riding atop a yellow crane, just like a real immortal would.