In Lingyue City, not far from the Tianhe Alliance, a cowherd boy dressed in coarse linen stood before a snack stall, holding out a gold coin to the stall owner's wife.
"Hello, ma'am. Please give me a candied hawthorn skewer."
"Coming right up~"
The stall owner's wife took the gold coin, picked up a candied hawthorn skewer from the pile of straw, and handed it to the cowherd boy. After accepting it, he thanked her with a smile, then turned and mounted the Big Cyan Ox parked nearby. Sitting cross-legged on its back, he held the candied hawthorn in one hand and a whip in the other, gently urging the ox forward at a leisurely pace.
Yet what was exceedingly strange was that, despite the sizable ox weaving through the bustling street, not a single person showed any displeasure toward the cowherd boy riding it. They even unconsciously avoided him whenever they passed by, as though they could not see him at all.
The cowherd boy looked around ten years old. His appearance was rather spirited and impish, yet his demeanor was mature beyond his years, and his eyes radiated wisdom that absolutely did not belong to someone his age. He bit off a piece of candied hawthorn, puffed out his cheeks as he chewed, and observed the passersby while letting out a sigh.
"Has this world changed so much in merely ten years?"
Curiosity filled the cowherd boy's eyes. Over the past few years, he had ridden his ox through various cities across Central Continent and discovered that every place was vastly different from the world he remembered.
During his travels, the cowherd boy had gradually learned that all these changes to Zhongzhou Continent were because of a man named Xiao Yan.
"Xiao Yan... Xiao Yan? Could he be