Yi'er Has Also Gone Missing?

Yi'er... had also gone missing?

Shi Yi's encounter with White-Haired Elder Suanni was merely a small interlude. Though it had no intention of harming Shi Yi, it had no intention of helping him either.

Shi Yi had been forcibly driven out by the Willow Deity to gain experience. Without her permission, no person or beast in this vast Great Wilderness would help Shi Yi return to Stone Village.

White-Haired Elder Suanni had no further intention of mooching off Shi Yi's roasted meat. After sitting down to chat with Shi Yi for a while, it dragged its body, nearing the end of its lifespan, away from him.

It was not that it had grown tired of the food. Some things, some moments, were always wonderful the first time. It did not wish to ruin that initial beauty. A small taste was undoubtedly the best choice.

Over the next month,

Shi Yi traveled alone through the vast Great Wilderness. He wanted to find a way out, or return to Stone Village, but the Great Wilderness stretched for hundreds of millions of li, leaving him unable to find either an exit or the road home.

Old Clan Leader Shi Yunfeng had not exactly deceived Shi Yi. Being able to travel several hundred thousand li was already Shi Yunfeng's limit.

In truth, the Great Wilderness extended far beyond hundreds of millions of li. Without a sense of direction, it was impossible to leave the Great Wilderness by foot alone.

At least, it was impossible for someone in the Celestial Passage Realm.

Shi Yi gradually became lost.

He grew increasingly unable to distinguish directions.

They said that when people were forced into desperate straits, they would always unleash a different kind of strength.

Over this month,

Shi Yi fought bloody battles against ferocious beasts time and again, his hot blood splashing across a hundred thousand li of the Great Wilderness.

Of course,

this hundred thousand li of Great Wilderness was only a small part of it. In truth, it did not even amount to one ten-thousandth of the real Great Wilderness. Shi Yi was like a grain of sand dropped into the sea, struggling to survive within the Great Wilderness.

No one knew whether it had all been arranged in advance.

The ferocious beasts that fought Shi Yi were all slightly stronger than him, but not so strong that they could kill him in a single blow. As long as Shi Yi erupted with his full strength, those ferocious beasts would always be the ones to die in the end.

Through the trials of blood and fire, Shi Yi's once somewhat frivolous and lazy disposition gradually became steady and dependable. He also began to carry an aura that made others feel they could trust him.

Five million li away from Stone Village, inside a dry mountain cave in the Great Wilderness.

"Crackle, crackle!" The sound of burning flames.

Shi Yi sat before the campfire. Dressed in a long beast-hide robe, he was filled with confusion about the future.

He had originally thought that he could live out this life peacefully as a Noble Scion.

But things had gone against his wishes.

The clan elders of Martial King Manor had not wanted him, a Double Pupil User and Innate Saint, to settle for mediocrity and become an ordinary Noble Scion, so they had sent him to Stone Village.

The Willow Deity of Stone Village had likewise not wanted him to keep lingering there, and had driven him out to gain experience. It was as if everyone was telling him that he could not be an ordinary person.

This feeling of being bound by fate truly irritated him.

Yet Shi Yi had no power to resist fate. He believed that if he so much as cursed the Willow Deity in private, she might sense her name and extend a willow branch from the void to whip him.

He could not beat her, nor did he dare speak ill of her.

No matter how unhappy Shi Yi was, he could only hold it in.

Fortunately,

Shi Yi's Spiritual Will was no longer what it had once been. Though it still could not be called unyielding as iron, it was at least as firm as a stubborn stone. His state of mind would not shatter so easily.

"Mother, I've been away from home for three years. Have you missed Yi'er?"

As Shi Yi spoke, he gently stirred the iron pot over the campfire with a spatula. Inside the pot was a goose, a Desolate Variant that had possessed seven-colored feathers while alive.

The goose was called the Seven-Colored Goose. Compared to the Eight Treasures Chicken, another Desolate Variant, it was only slightly inferior. Shi Yi had also spent considerable effort capturing it. After catching, slaughtering, and cleaning it, he had stewed it in the pot.

As for the taste, there was no need to say more. With Shi Yi's culinary skills, which stood at the pinnacle of the human world, even if he lost all his cultivation, he could still rely on this craft to earn a decent standing and avoid falling directly to the lowest level as an ant.

The truly powerful aspect of Double Pupils had never been their destructive power, nor their ability to see through illusions. It was the learning and creative ability inherent to Double Pupils. This was also why Double Pupil Users were called Innate Saints.

Double Pupil Users did not seek external things. If they coveted an extra bone and an extra path,

they would ultimately fall into the mortal world!

Only by attaining great enlightenment through the cycle of life and death and casting aside external things that did not belong to them could they have a promising future, rather than being nailed in place by those external things.

Just as Shi Yi was missing his mother, two people returned to Martial King Manor in the Stone Kingdom. They were husband and wife, and the moment they returned, they eagerly went looking for Shi Hao.

Martial King Manor, rear courtyard.

"Hao'er!"

When a woman dressed in a bright red robe saw six-year-old Shi Hao, she could not stop herself from crying. These were not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy at their long-awaited reunion.

"Mother?"

Hearing the voice, Shi Hao turned around and rubbed his eyes, scarcely daring to believe them. The woman in the bright red robe before him seemed to be the person from his memories.

"Hao'er, I'm your mother. Don't you recognize your mother anymore?"

Three years ago, one month before Shi Yi's baptism ceremony,

this woman in the bright red robe had left Shi Hao in Shi Yi's mother's care. Then she and her Husband had left Martial King Manor to search for Shi Hao's grandfather, Shi Zhongtian.

Clearly, this woman in the bright red robe was Shi Hao's biological mother, Qin Yining. She was also Shi Yi's aunt, and she had now successfully returned from outside.

"Mother!"

Six-year-old Shi Hao had lived in Martial King Manor in the Stone Kingdom. Also a Noble Scion, he had not endured the hardships Shi Yi had, wrapped in beast hides and looking like a wild mountain dweller.

Shi Hao wore fine silks and brocades. His little face was plump, and his eyes sparkled with life. One could tell at a glance that he had lived well, unlike his brother Shi Yi, who could only huddle in a mountain cave.

"Hao'er, seeing that you've lived well is enough to satisfy your mother. Little Hao'er, you've grown so fair and chubby in three years that your mother can barely recognize you."

Qin Yining gently embraced Shi Hao, her fair jade-like hand stroking his little face, as though feeling just how much Shi Hao had changed during the three years she had been away.

"Mother, Aunt has always treated Hao'er very well. It's just that after Yi Gege went missing three years ago, Aunt seemed very sad whenever she was alone in private."

Shi Hao nestled in Qin Yining's embrace. Although Shi Yi's mother had never mistreated him, she ultimately could not give him the feeling of having a mother. Like Shi Yi, he missed his own mother greatly.

"Yi'er... has also gone missing?" Qin Yining frowned slightly.

She truly did not know whether this entire Martial King Manor family had something wrong with them. Her Husband Shi Ziling's grandfather had gone missing, and after three years, they had finally managed to find news of him.

Yet another important person from Martial King Manor had gone missing. She knew that Shi Yi had been born with Double Pupils and was the future of Martial King Manor, someone who absolutely could not be lost.

Well, that was just great.

She and her Husband had originally planned to ask several Venerable Realm Old Ancestors of Martial King Manor for help. But now, with them searching for Shi Yi, they probably would not be able to offer any help at all.

Elsewhere.

"Ziling, what did you say? You have news of Old Fifteenth?" A white-haired old man abruptly rose to his feet, his gaze fixed tightly on the kneeling Shi Ziling below.

"Yes, Eighth Uncle. Father successfully hunted a pure-blooded Pixiu cub on the Battlefield of Hundred Clans and obtained its true blood, but when he left the Battlefield of Hundred Clans, he was discovered by an Adult Pixiu guarding outside."

"This pure-blooded Pixiu is extremely powerful. Father was severely injured on the Battlefield of Hundred Clans and was no match for it. He is still being pursued, so I hope my uncles can lend a hand and help."

After Shi Ziling finished speaking, he heavily kowtowed.

The only people who could save his father now were the Old Ancestors seated here.