One Step to Heaven

Little Leaf Village was merely a small village with just over thirty households. Among the countless villages in the Azure Wolf Dynasty, it was utterly insignificant—not even marked on the map.

For some unknown reason, the land where the village stood was completely unsuitable for growing crops. Nearly all the villagers made their living raising livestock. Year-round, they fattened their animals and sold them in town in exchange for the supplies they needed to get through the year.

The Azure Wolf Dynasty lay north of the Chen Dynasty, and its climate was relatively colder. In this bitterly freezing season, snow and ice blanketed the land, making it extremely difficult for people to travel. For those in a village like Little Leaf, who relied on raising livestock, this season was an unquestionable disaster. If people had nothing to eat, their livestock certainly wouldn't fare any better.

A despairing shadow now hung over the entire village, with its few dozen households. Large numbers of livestock had frozen or starved to death, practically cutting off the villagers' means of survival for the coming year.

Shan Wazi's family was one of the ordinary households in Little Leaf Village. They raised five beef cattle, thirteen pigs, and more than a hundred chickens and ducks.

With the arrival of winter came disaster for his family. By now, nearly two-thirds of their livestock had died, and the rest were barely clinging to life. There was no telling when they might breathe their last.

There were three people in Shan Wazi's family: his parents and Shan Wazi. But only his parents were at home; Shan Wazi worked in town and was unable to return for most of the year.

"Mother, what are we going to do? We were counting on selling the livestock next year to get the