The Star of Puppets Kasantiya

(PS: The early part mainly introduces the protagonist's background. If you only want Huohuo's content, skip straight to Volume Two: The Xianzhou Arc.)

Reading without using your brain makes everything more fun.

The place where brains are stored.

Under a bright sky, at a street corner in a bustling city, two ugly-looking men stared at the green-haired foxian tied up before them. One of the burly men let out a greedy laugh:

"Boss, a little foxian like this should fetch a high price on the black market, right?"

The other man smoked as he sized up the foxian before him.

"She came from the Xianzhou Luofu. She should be worth at least a hundred thousand credits."

"Heh heh heh, little fox, don't be scared. You'll be going somewhere nice soon. Hahaha!"

The bound foxian looked to be only a teenager. Her hair was green, her clothes had begun to unravel, and her face was filled with terror, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"Please, don't sell me! My mother is still looking for me... Sob..."

The foxian sobbed as she spoke. She had originally gone out traveling with her parents, never expecting to be kidnapped. Little Fox felt as if her life had reached its end, and an emotion called fear welled up inside her.

But the two men threatened her menacingly:

"Shut up! Keep crying and don't blame us for cutting out your tongue!"

"Oh? Whose tongue are you going to cut out?"

A young voice came from the alley, startling the two men.

"Who's there? Come out!"

The two men spoke harshly. From the depths of the alley, the figure of a boy slowly emerged.

"Tch, just a kid! Get lost, or don't blame me for cutting you up too! You're delaying my business!"

The boy merely smiled and walked fully out of the alley. However, he was dragging behind him a man who appeared to be unconscious.

"Wait, Boss, isn't that our client?"

The two men looked toward the unconscious man. Upon closer inspection, he was indeed their client.

"What did you do to him?"

The two men drew their weapons and advanced on the boy.

"Nothing much. Under Kasantiya law, anyone engaging in human trafficking, slave trading, or related activities within Kasantiya is sentenced to... death."

The boy smiled, tossed the unconscious man aside, and conjured a pitch-black scythe out of thin air before grappling with the two men.

The boy hefted his scythe and swung out a black slash, sending one of the men flying straight into a wall, where he was stuck so firmly that even scraping him off would be difficult.

He spun around and kicked the other man away, then pressed the bottom of his scythe against the man's stomach. Taking advantage of the opening, he quickly approached the bound Little Fox.

"What's your name?"

The boy asked with a smile as he cut through the rope around the foxian girl's wrists with one stroke of his scythe.

"I-I'm Huohuo... Thank you... Be careful!"

Seeing the man trying to launch a sneak attack from behind, Huohuo cried out in alarm.

The boy was still smiling. He dodged the attack with a flash, then punched the man in the waist, severely injuring him.

"Urgh!"

The man collapsed and clutched his aching side, but he continued cursing:

"Damn it! A Pathwalker!"

"I'm truly sorry. You came to Kasantiya for a trip, right? These slave traders haven't shown their faces in a long time. As compensation, I'll cover all your expenses in Kasantiya."

The boy reached out and helped the girl up, brushing the dust from her ears.

Huohuo was timid and had long since been scared silly by what had happened. No matter what the boy asked, she only nodded foolishly.

Looking at the silly girl, the boy held his head and laughed bitterly.

"Good grief. You just happened to run into me. If I hadn't been here, you'd have been sold."

Huohuo looked at the boy who had saved her. Golden light shimmered in her eyes, while his short white hair fell casually behind his head. With his refined features, he almost looked like a girl.

"Thank you. Um, what's your name?"

Huohuo asked in a clear, lively voice.

Only then did the boy realize that he had forgotten to tell her his name.

So he forced an awkward yet polite smile and answered:

"My name is Bai Sheng. You can call me Asheng, or you can call me Big Brother. How old are you?"

"I... I'm fifteen."

(PS: Don't argue with me, thanks! I'm honestly begging you to let me off.)

"Hmm, that's good. You're old enough."

The boy spoke as he rubbed Huohuo's hair. He had to admit, a foxian's head felt incredibly comfortable to touch—even better than the finest fur.

Huohuo looked at him in confusion and asked:

"Old enough for what? Don't catch Huohuo, please!"

Upon hearing that, Bai Sheng burst out laughing. Seeing the little girl clasp her hands and beg him to let her go, he found her unbearably adorable. He pinched her little cheeks and said:

"What are you talking about? You're old enough for the case to be filed. We'll send those human traffickers to court. A death sentence isn't something to joke about. It'll count as giving you some payback, too. The Star of Puppets is actually quite fun."

While Bai Sheng pinched Huohuo's soft, doughy cheeks, he gave a look to the guards hidden in the shadows, signaling them to take away the human traffickers.

"Oh oh, I know now. Big Brother, will you let me go already?"

Huohuo spoke with a childish lisp. That was how it was between children: they could make friends quickly. At least, that was how it seemed to Bai Sheng.

Afterward, to make up for Huohuo's fright, Bai Sheng took her around to have fun. They continued until the sun sank into the horizon, only stopping then.

"All right, I'll put all the expenses from your family's outing on my tab. I'll take you to find your family."

"Th-thank you..."

"It's nothing! Here, take this. I made it myself, so don't look down on it."

Bai Sheng gave Huohuo a jade pendant engraved with two fish.

"It keeps you safe. Keep it, little crybaby."

"I'm not a crybaby!"

"All right, all right, you're not one... Welcome to the Star of Puppets, Kasantiya!"

Ten years later...

"Your Highness, to the left!"

A soldier in heavy armor shouted to the youth beside him.

The youth looked at the enemy before him and swung the enormous pitch-black scythe in his hand to the left, piercing a needleworm the size of a human.

"First Squad, break through the left wing! Second Squad, cover the right wing! Release all the puppets! The rest of you, whoever's still alive, charge with me! Wipe out all these stinking bugs!"

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone answered in unison. Blue threads appeared in the armored soldiers' hands, and one armored puppet after another materialized in midair.

The youth charged at the very front line. His scythe was like the descent of the Grim Reaper; every swing claimed the lives of dozens of Stingbugs.

Upon closer inspection, a thread of cyan light flowed from each dead insect into the scythe.

Across this vast stretch of scorched earth, needleworms swarmed in numbers too dense to count.

"Your Highness, the mother bug is three thousand meters away. Should we deploy the long-range Orbital Cannon?"

The youth killed a needleworm that lunged at him and turned around to shout:

"Do you want to die? The Orbital Cannon's blast radius exceeds three thousand meters! I might survive, but what about you?"

However, the soldier only smiled as he controlled the puppets to carve a path for the group.

"Your Highness, without you, we'd still be slaves in that company. We have no family and are loyal only to you. Once we kill this mother bug, His Majesty should finally see you in a better light. Brothers, send His Highness to the rear! It's our turn to take the field!"

Before the youth could speak, three burly soldiers and three puppets lifted him up. The youth did not understand why they were doing this and struggled desperately, yet he could not bring himself to kill them.

"Let me go! You're disobeying a military order!"

"Then we'll have to trouble Your Highness to slowly count the military orders we disobeyed at our graves next year! The soldiers of Kasantiya do not fear death! Take care, Bai Sheng!"

"You... Urgh..."

Before he could finish, the youth was struck on the back of the neck and passed out.

One group escorted the youth away, while another charged fearlessly toward the mother bug...

"Kasantiya! Rise high and never die!"

As flames soared into the sky, the mother bug, nearly half the size of a planet, was reduced to ashes under the bombardment of the Orbital Cannon...