Leave, Now!

These past few days.

Whether it was the battles between several Tribal Clans and ferocious beasts, or the clash between Shi Yi and the Pure-Blooded Pixiu, none of it had caused the white pillar of light to waver in the slightest.

The black sphere within it naturally remained completely unharmed.

By now.

Among the visible contenders for the Mountain Treasure, only Shi Yi remained.

Yet he was in no hurry to seize the Mountain Treasure. Instead, he opened his Double Pupils again and carefully surveyed his surroundings, wary of some hidden interloper waiting to swoop in and reap the rewards.

And so.

Half a day passed before Shi Yi finally began slowly drawing out the black sphere inside the white pillar of light—the so-called Mountain Treasure.

It was a time-consuming and lengthy process. He could not move during it, or the Mountain Treasure would instantly return to its original position.

No wonder it was so strange.

These Mountain Treasures were not naturally formed treasures of heaven and earth. They had all fallen from the Upper Realm, and these special formation restrictions existed precisely to prevent someone from grabbing a Mountain Treasure and fleeing.

The great powers of the Upper Realm cast down Mountain Treasures for people to fight over, wanting the creatures of the Lower Realm to slaughter one another over them until the strongest being emerged.

Deep within the Great Wilderness.

"Are we really just going to watch? Watch a human youth take away the Mountain Treasure nurtured by the Great Wilderness?"

"What do you mean, nurtured by the Great Wilderness? Don't you understand where these things came from? They were all thrown down by great powers of the Upper Realm."

"No matter where it came from, it is undoubtedly a treasure. I, Qiongqi, cannot stomach handing such a great opportunity to a human youth."

"Even the Vermilion Bird isn't fighting for this Mountain Treasure. Either it isn't worth much, or it's a trap. It definitely isn't anything good! If you want to fight for it, go ahead."

"How pedantic. You're the Heaven Swallowing Sparrow. In terms of bloodline potential, you are no worse than the Vermilion Bird, yet all you do is compare yourself to it."

"Hmph, calling me pedantic when you've always wanted to surpass Zhu Yan. But in a one-on-one fight, you've never been its match."

And so.

These two terrifying creatures somehow began arguing, trading insults and disparaging each other, while ignoring Shi Yi, who was extracting the Mountain Treasure.

They certainly would not simply pass up something everyone was fighting over. But since the Vermilion Bird and Zhu Yan, both among the Four Great Ferocious Beasts, had stopped competing for it, their desire for it had greatly diminished as well.

It was like an antique vase everyone coveted, only for the two strongest people present to suddenly decide they no longer wanted it.

The others were no fools. They would naturally wonder whether the antique vase was fake, or whether it concealed some trap they did not know about.

Besides.

Behind Shi Yi, the Double Pupil User, his Dao Protector had yet to appear. These two terrifying beings absolutely did not believe that a Young Supreme with Ten Celestial Passages like Shi Yi had no Dao Protector behind him.

Wasn't it just a Mountain Treasure?

There were plenty of Mountain Treasures in the Great Wilderness.

This time.

They could let Shi Yi have it and avoid forging a deadly enmity.

Intelligent beings were not stupid. A Young Supreme with Ten Celestial Passages like Shi Yi was destined to become a god in the future, far beyond what creatures like them, trapped within the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm, could imagine.

Thus.

With concerns and apprehensions from all sides, Shi Yi obtained the Mountain Treasure without incident. But to his surprise, he discovered another layer of sealing restrictions on it that he could not open at all.

"Teacher," Shi Yi called softly.

The next moment.

From one of Shi Yi's Ten Celestial Passages, a luminous willow branch extended, wrapped around the Mountain Treasure, and withdrew again, like a homebody reaching out to take her delivery before returning inside.

"This is an inheritance from the Upper Realm. It contains countless cultivation methods and Treasure Techniques, but few of them will be useful to you. There is only one cultivation method and one Treasure Technique worth learning. One cannot chew more than one can swallow. Wait until you reach the Venerable Realm before trying to cultivate them," Willow Deity's voice sounded in Shi Yi's mind.

Since Willow Deity had said so.

Shi Yi did not ask further.

He was already exhausted from primarily cultivating the Original True Understanding and the Willow Deity Method, while also studying Kirin Steps and the Suan Ni Precious Technique.

If he started cultivating more techniques and Treasure Techniques, he would only become someone who knew everything but mastered nothing—the next Murong Fu.

Several more days passed.

After Shi Yi had rested, he headed out of the Great Wilderness, walking east toward the rising sun, intending to return and question the people of Martial King Manor about why they had forgotten him.

Yet just as he was about to leave the Great Wilderness.

He happened to encounter the group from the small town earlier.

Aside from the Flood Dragon Clan and the Snow Clan, the other Tribal Clan teams had already returned to their respective clans. The Flood Dragon Clan and Snow Clan had traveled together this far, but it was nearly time for them to part ways as well, each heading home to find their mothers.

"Tian Gege, you don't know this, but deep in the Great Wilderness, beneath a sky filled with thunder seas, a human expert fought that Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast—an already mature Pixiu—for ten days and ten nights."

"And that wasn't all. Those ten blazing suns were even more shocking."

"Grandfather said they were Cavern Heavens, but I don't believe it. How could anyone possibly have Ten Celestial Passages?"

A group of beautiful young Snow Clan girls chirped nonstop around Shi Yi.

Perhaps out of jealousy.

As they were about to part ways.

A Flood Dragon Clan youth snorted coldly. "Hmph, a human expert like that is someone a country bumpkin like him could never hope to reach. Look at him—who knows what he's been doing? Even his Beast Hide clothes have become tattered. Outside the Great Wilderness, he'd just be a little beggar."

Everyone present.

Whether the beautiful Snow Clan girls, the Flood Dragon Clan youths, or the clan elders who had brought them out for training, none believed Shi Yi was that human expert. They only assumed he had been chased by some powerful ferocious beast, leaving his Beast Hide clothes and boots torn to shreds.

"A little beggar? Perhaps."

Shi Yi shrugged without anger. In his previous life, he had been an unwanted little beggar too. It was not that he had no parents; his parents simply did not want a useless child who was bad at studying.

He dropped out in his second year of middle school and began working illegally at thirteen. He was cheated out of his money and left homeless, truly becoming a little beggar for a time.

He struggled desperately to survive until he was eighteen. Once he no longer had to work illegally, he thought his fate had finally turned around. Yet the sweatshop crushed him until he could barely lift his head.

From seven-thirty in the morning until ten at night.

Sometimes he even had to work overtime until eleven or twelve, becoming nothing more than a cog in the factory. Life's hardships thoroughly ground away every impractical dream held by a boy who once had aspirations.

But fortunately.

Shi Yi still believed that hardship would eventually be followed by sweetness, that his bitter days would one day pass.

Thus.

Shi Yi endured year after year. In the end, a global nuclear war broke out before he ever saw that day when bitterness turned to sweetness. All he received was an ultimate burst of light and heat falling from above.

That day.

Tens of millions of people, along with Shi Yi, were reduced to ash, leaving this world without any pain.

Several more days passed.

Shi Yi continued eastward, toward the rising sun, and finally stepped out of the boundless Great Wilderness that stretched for hundreds of millions of miles. He arrived in the Stone Kingdom, home to hundreds of millions of Common People.

The Stone Kingdom was vast, with boundless territory. In terms of land area alone, this ancient kingdom was several times larger than all the nations of Shi Yi's Azure Blue Planet in his previous life combined.

Martial King Manor was located in the imperial capital of the Stone Kingdom, only a thousand li from the Stone Kingdom's imperial palace. Calling it close at hand would not be an exaggeration.

The moment Shi Yi entered the Stone Kingdom, he sensed a gentle power. He understood that it was the Human Emperor's Imperial Dragon Qi, protecting the people of this land.

Hundreds of millions of Common People had Faith in the Human Emperor, and the Human Emperor protected hundreds of millions of Common People.

The two complemented one another.

Neither could exist without the other.

Yet.

At its core, the so-called Human Emperor was equivalent to an artificial ancestral spirit.

The hundreds of millions of Common People of an ancient kingdom believed neither in gods nor immortals, only in the Human Emperor.

Honestly.

Shi Yi liked a kingdom like this. Gods and immortals were unreliable and selfish. Only the Human Emperor was truly worthy of trust.

A day later.

Stone Kingdom, Martial King Manor.

"You Disaster Star, get out of Martial King Manor! This is not a place for you!"

"Aunt, I—"

"What do you mean, 'I'? You're a calamity-bringing jinx. So many people died because of you alone."

"Sister-in-law, stop it. I'll take Hao'er and leave. We won't cause you any more trouble."

"Leave, now!"

"Fine, we'll leave now."

Shi Yi had only just entered the gates of Martial King Manor when he saw a woman dressed in crimson robes pulling a tearful youth toward the exit, their backs looking so lonely and helpless.

Yet before Shi Yi could ask what had happened, another woman dressed in crimson robes suddenly threw herself at him, causing the mother and son preparing to leave Martial King Manor to stop in their tracks.

"Yi'er! My Yi'er! You're finally back!"

"Mother, don't do this. What exactly happened?"

Just as Shi Yi was about to push away the woman who had thrown herself at him, two soft calls came from behind him.

"Yi Gege!"

"Nephew?"