The downpour had come abruptly and departed just as fast.
In merely half an hour, the rain cleared and the clouds parted. A warm sun emerged from drifting clouds, while translucent droplets on leaves sparkled in the brilliant sunlight.
Huang Tian strolled back along the path at an unhurried pace. As he walked, his soaked clothes dried rapidly.
This was no spell, merely a simple application of spiritual power.
By the time he walked out of the hills and returned to the park, his clothes were completely dry.
The elderly folks who had been in the park earlier had all dispersed long before the storm hit. The entire park was now deserted, save for a few puddles lingering on the ground.
Crossing the park, Huang Tian found his electric scooter. Quite a bit of water had pooled on the seat cushion. He raised his hand and brushed lightly over it, and his spiritual power immediately evaporated the water completely.
He swung his leg over the scooter, inserted the key, and twisted the throttle. The scooter accelerated smoothly from slow to fast.
Basking in the faintly cool breeze, Huang Tian rode all the way to a supermarket near his residence, picking up some fruit and daily necessities inside.
Yet just as he walked out of the supermarket, a rather pretty, tall girl jogged up to him, her face slightly flushed.
"H-hello... I just saw you and thought you have such a great aura. I was wondering if I could add you on Feixin so we can get to know each other?"
Huang Tian froze for a second before realizing he was being hit on.
Still, as a handsome guy who had been good-looking since childhood, he had experienced this plenty of times. He offered a polite smile. "I'm sorry, I have a girlfriend."
The girl's fair face flushed even deeper, the blush spreading down to her ears and neck. She stammered hastily, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Then she whipped around, covered her burning cheeks, and hurried away.
"How did it go? How did it go?"
Under a nearby camphor tree stood a chubby girl, who asked the moment the young woman jogged over.
The young woman replied sheepishly, "Ugh, he already has a girlfriend! That was so embarrassing..."
The chubby girl glanced back at Huang Tian, who was mounting his electric scooter by the supermarket entrance. Certain he couldn't hear them from that distance, she said, "It's fine, it's fine. You thought he had a great vibe and looked handsome, but no matter how handsome a guy on an electric scooter is, how good can he really be?"
Hearing that, the young woman instinctively looked toward Huang Tian. Just at that moment, Huang Tian glanced over at them as well. As if struck by an electric shock, she instantly lowered her head, her ears burning as she mumbled, "Actually... he really is super handsome."
The chubby girl slapped her forehead, speechless.
On the other side, Huang Tian chuckled softly and twisted the throttle, his electric scooter setting off at an unhurried pace.
He didn't think much of this little encounter; it was merely a mild diversion in daily life.
However, it did make him realize that since he was already refined and handsome, cultivating immortality had added a composed aura to him, raising his charm considerably.
"You punk, with that face of yours, you could make a living anywhere! I'm so damn jealous!"
His college roommate's words flashed through his mind, and Huang Tian's mood grew even better. In this world, who wouldn't want to be more attractive?
Parking the scooter beneath his apartment building, Huang Tian carried the two bags upstairs toward his apartment.
*Click~*
The door opened. Huang Tian set the bags on the wooden table, retrieved an apple, washed it with water, and dried it with a paper towel.
*Crunch~*
He bit off a large chunk of the apple; its sweet-and-sour flavor made his mouth water.
"An apple now and then isn't bad at all."
Even if apples were reputed to be the most boring fruit, eating one occasionally was quite pleasant—especially when sliced in half, which instantly elevated the flavor to another level.
Having eaten the apple and feeling slightly full, Huang Tian leaned halfway against the headboard and turned on his "switch."
"...Szz... szz..."
He paused. "Again?"
The day before yesterday, he had heard the crackling "szz" sound from another world for the first time, and subsequently obtained a cultivation method from that world's sect, the Thick Earth Sect.
"Is it another world this time, or still the one where the Thick Earth Sect is located?" Huang Tian wondered to himself.
The static lasted for a shorter time than before. After continuing for about ten hours, around one o'clock in the morning, Huang Tian's ears caught the faint murmur of human voices.
It was thousands, tens of thousands of people chanting in unison! The thunderous roar resounded through the clouds and surged straight into the heavens, setting Huang Tian's ears buzzing.
Yet perhaps because it was separated across worlds, what exactly they were shouting remained indistinct.
Huang Tian's brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed. He forced himself to calm his mind and maintain the state of meditative oblivion.
Gradually, the voices grew clearer and clearer.
"...Azure Heaven... Yellow Heaven..."
"The Azure Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven shall rise! In the year of Jiazi, great fortune under heaven!"
Countless people chanted in unison, their voices laced with fanaticism, hope, and intense fury.
At a certain moment, an epiphany struck Huang Tian. His eyes snapped open. Following a golden-yellow "sound line," his sight penetrated space-time and the world barrier, revealing a tragic, savage scene:
The setting sun was blood-red, war banners fluttered in the wind, and horns sounded desolately.
Across the vast plains, a yellow torrent violently clashed against a red torrent, churning up endless bloody spray.
Tens of thousands of Yellow Turban soldiers with yellow cloth wrapped around their heads wielded dagger-axes, spears, bamboo pikes, and hoes. Expressions of mingled rage and terror plastered their faces as they struck down viciously against Han soldiers clad in black armor.
The armored Han warriors either charged forward with spears or rammed with heavy shields, knocking Yellow Turban troops to the ground, whereupon another Han soldier would immediately step up with a ring-pommel saber to cleave off their heads.
Yet before that Han soldier could rejoice, a rusted iron dagger-axe stabbed into the top of his foot. A monkey-thin Yellow Turban youth darted nimbly into his chest, slipping a dagger past the armor to plunge it accurately into his throat.
The next instant, however, the youth was kicked to the ground. With a sickening thud, a sharp crossbow bolt pierced his left eye, drawing a shrill scream.
With another wet thud, the boy's head flew off his neck, spinning several times in midair before tumbling onto the dirt, where it was ruthlessly trampled under the boots of soldiers clashing from both sides.
Across the battlefield, spears, blades, and swords clashed; crossbow bolts whistled through the cold air; flesh and blood were hoisted on long lances; horse hooves crushed human bones; roars, weeping, and agonizing shrieks mingled...
It was like a living purgatory on earth.
Huang Tian drew a soft breath, his heart awash with mixed emotions.
*So, this time it's the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Han dynasty?*
*The Azure Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven shall rise!*
It was precisely the words "Yellow Heaven"—Huang Tian—in that slogan that allowed Huang Tian on Blue Star to pierce the barriers of space-time and witness this brutal battlefield.
*Last time I heard the voices from the Thick Earth Sect, I could only listen and not see. But this time, I can see the battlefield's scenes crystal clear.*
*What's the reason?*
*Is it because my cultivation has improved?*
*Or is it that, from the perspective of space-time, the late Han world is 'closer' to Blue Star than the Thick Earth Sect's world, making the cross-realm signal more stable?*
Unable to figure it out, Huang Tian simply put the thought aside and continued observing the slaughter between the Yellow Turban Army and the Han army in the late Han world.
Yet as time passed, a sudden, inexplicable intuition welled up within him:
*It feels like... I can follow this sound line and cross over into the late Han world?*
Chapter 6