279: Chapter 275: Thunder and Fire 279: Chapter 275: Thunder and Fire The weather today was originally warm and sunny.
But now, unexpectedly, dark clouds have begun to blanket the sky above this area, hiding even the sun’s shadow.
What’s truly odd is that it appears to be only this part of the sky that’s like this.
Standing here and looking into the distance, one can still see bright sunshine pouring down from the horizon, just a bit further away.
The startled cry from their companion made Ye Cheng and his group raise their heads involuntarily to gaze at the sky.
The clouds were dense, a ceiling of darkness, the entire sky was now a heavy mass of black.
Under such a scene, one couldn’t help but feel an indescribable sense of suffocating heaviness.
“What’s going on?
How did the weather change so abruptly without any warning?”
“Last night, I made sure to check the weather forecast, and there was no mention of a storm in the area near the Capital City.”
“Look at that, it’s so strange.
Aside from our current spot where the sunshine is completely blocked, just a few hundred meters forward and the sky’s brightness has returned to normal!”
…
The group began to whisper among themselves, with a buzz of speculation.
Even Young Master Ye, who had been incessantly mocking Chen Hai in the civilian’s houses ahead, was now knitting his brows in confusion.
The TV weather forecast is not always accurate.
Sometimes, sudden weather changes catch everyone off-guard; it’s not incredibly common, but it does happen now and then.
If the entire nearby area was covered in dark clouds, Ye Cheng and the others wouldn’t find it odd.
But now, only the space they occupied was shrouded, preventing any sunlight from penetrating.
To consider such scenery routine and harbor no suspicion would indeed be strange.
They looked at each other, lost for an explanation after much guessing, unable to come up with any reasonable cause for the abnormal weather they were witnessing.
At this moment, a few steps away, inside the plain and dilapidated house, it seemed as if a terrifying presence, too fearsome to behold directly, was beginning to rise.
This sensation was enigmatic and no less marvelous.
After all, presence is something intangible and invisible; you cannot see it nor touch it.
Those who never experienced it might doubt whether such a presence mentioned in tales truly existed.
In the territory of the king of all beasts, the tiger, ordinary wild animals would flee with tails between their legs upon entering.
Only creatures as fierce as itself could ignore the tiger’s intimidating presence and truly enter its domain.
Beings at the top of the food chain typically possess a unique aura, with just their presence alone enough to deter those lower in the hierarchy.
Whether it was Ye Cheng’s group or Tian Mingjian,
almost at the same moment, they all felt as if some top-tier terrifying being was slowly awakening inside the house before them.
This feeling was inexplicable and indescribable.
Under the dominance of the invisible aura, those standing outside the house were breaking out in cold sweats, a sudden, indescribable fear gripping their hearts.
The one who was affected the worst, with sweat pouring down his forehead, suddenly went weak at the knees and knelt on the ground.
“This is…” Ye Cheng and his companions managed to resist the invisible aura and did not kneel down.
But at this moment, they too were visibly shaken, faces completely drained of color!
“Has the boss been in retreat for over half a year and is he about to come out?”
“It must have been you lot, shouting outside this house, that disturbed the boss.”
“Let’s hope the boss has had some breakthroughs during his retreat.”
“Otherwise, if your careless actions have caused him to abort his cultivation and exit the retreat prematurely, you’ll have to face the consequences…”
Although Tian Mingjian also looked unsettled by this invisible force,
he glared fiercely at Ye Cheng’s group, excitement on his face as he began to bluster.
He had already witnessed some of Chen Hai’s abilities.
The tasks that Chen Hai entrusted to him before the retreat were still fresh in his mind.
His boss’s serious retreat, remaining behind closed doors for more than seven months in this very house.
With such an extended period of cultivation, how much more formidable could he become if he really had made a breakthrough?
Just the thought of it made Tian Mingjian almost uncontrollably excited.
“Stop the nonsense and shouting.”
“My colleague merely felt a little faint and lost balance momentarily, that’s why he knelt.”
“Do you really think your boss Chen Hai, who hasn’t even shown his face, could frighten my colleague to his knees?”
“Do you actually believe he became immortal after just a few days into his retreat?”
With a face full of discontent, Ye Cheng rolled his eyes.
Dragging his overwhelmingly heavy body, he and the people beside him struggled to lift the guy who had collapsed to the ground with shaky legs and feet.
Then, they took steps forward until they were nearly twenty meters away from that house.
It was only when they felt that the indescribable invisible pressure had lessened at this spot that they finally stopped.
Ye Cheng’s words were nothing more than a lame duck’s stubbornness.
Anyone could see that the invisible pressure they felt was somehow related to Chen Hai, who had yet to appear inside the house.
Despite his immense dissatisfaction with Chen Hai, even knowing this was probably the truth, he simply refused to admit it.
“Crackle and snap…” Dark clouds filled the sky, and within those layers of ominous clouds, bolts of lightning flashed momentarily.
In the next instant, the lightning struck, precisely hitting the decaying house before their eyes.
“Boom, boom, boom…” Only then did the sound of thunder reach the ears of Tian Mingjian, Ye Cheng, and the others.
Ye Cheng and his group, already a good distance away, were merely terrified by the sight.
Tian Mingjian, guarding the door of the house, nearly lost his wits at that moment!
After all, when those bolts struck, he almost thought the lightning would hit him directly.
No sane person would want to envision the tragic scene of being struck by lightning.
Tian Mingjian was no exception.
At the first moment of realization, he rolled and scrambled out ten to twenty meters, emerging close to Ye Cheng and the others.
At this moment, he seemed to have temporarily forgotten that his boss was still inside that dilapidated house.
All he could think of was getting as far away from the building as possible.
Of course, this didn’t mean that his loyalty to Chen Hai had waned.
His actions were merely reflexive, a natural response of a normal person to impending danger.
“Boom, boom, boom…” The thunder continued.
The initial lightning was just the beginning.
The electric light flickered, and Thunder Light radiated in all directions.
The old tiles on the roof were shattered into pieces, and that was the least of it.
In places where the lightning struck, many tiles were directly reduced to dust.
Thunder and fire often go hand in hand.
At first, the thick roof beams were just scorched black by the lightning.
But in an instant, the thunder and fire ignited the wooden slats and planks on the roof rapidly.
These suburban traditional houses were made of wood to begin with.
Once the flames rose, they spread rapidly, turning the entire house into a blazing inferno in the blink of an eye.
Countless bolts of lightning continued to fall from the dark clouds in the sky.
The sight was truly terrifying.
Standing twenty meters away, watching the scene unfold, Ye Cheng, Tian Mingjian, and the others had thought about putting out the fire before it grew.
But the relentless lightning, striking only the old house’s roof, made them fearful and hesitant.
In less than three to five minutes, the lightning stopped, the dark clouds dispersed, and the bright sun reappeared.
By then, the entire house had turned into an inferno.
Ye Cheng and his group had driven there, but they certainly didn’t have fire extinguishers in their cars.
As for the location of small streams, Tian Mingjian knew there was one about a li away from there.
Faced with this situation, they were at a loss as to how to begin saving the house from the flames!
“Young Master Ye, distinguished sirs, I can live without the house.
Let it burn, but my boss is still inside!”
“Please show some kindness and help find a way to rescue him…”
Tian Mingjian was frantic, pleading politely with Ye Cheng and the others.
“Weren’t you acting all brash before, even pulling a gun on us?” One of Ye Cheng’s companions sneered with schadenfreude.
But as soon as he finished speaking, he received a piercing glare from Ye Cheng.
“Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda.”
“No matter what grievances I have with Chen Hai, in a situation like this, we must save the person!”
With a wave of his hand, Ye Cheng took the lead and sprinted towards the house engulfed in flames.
Flames shot skyward as flaming beams and planks fell from the roof incessantly.
The group had just reached the front door and had not yet figured out how to save anyone.
Suddenly, the raging flames before them parted to each side as if by command.
A slender figure, like the monarch of the flames, emerged unhurriedly from inside the house.