Young Master Cheng

If Luo Cheng had opened his eyes at that moment, he would have surely discovered that the ground where he fell had suddenly split open into a massive fissure. A swirling black hole within the crack swallowed him in the blink of an eye, and shortly after, the black hole vanished along with Luo Cheng, as if they had never existed at all.

However, the earthquake was real, not a hallucination. This was because the day happened to be May 12, 2008.

(Once again, I offer my condolences to the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. I hope every victim is as lucky as the protagonist, reborn as a human and rising above others. Of course, I send this good fortune to those whose real lives are not going well; I hope we, too, can have a chance to take control of our own destiny.) In a dream, a stumbling Sanbao found himself in a thick fog. Not far away, a sturdy youth and a strange, blood-red bird were tearing at each other. Both were covered in blood and gore, and it seemed the strange bird had the upper hand. As the youth began to falter, Sanbao wandered over in a daze.

"You beast, how dare you harm a human! I'll beat you to death, I'll beat you to death..."

With a pfft sound.

Sanbao used every ounce of his strength to lift his arm, then brought it down heavily onto the head of the strange bird...

The two and the bird became a tangled mess...

Ugh...

"It hurts so much, my whole body feels like it's falling apart. There shouldn't be any pain after death, right? Could it be that I'm not dead yet?"

The first sensation Sanbao felt upon waking was pain—a piercing, bone-deep agony from the inside out. Only then did he realize he might not be dead. Based on his years of medical training, jumping off such a high cliff should have left him with no chance of survival.

"Young Master Cheng, you're finally awake? Thank the heavens, I thought...!" Under the bright moonlight, a weak voice suddenly emerged from the grass not far away.

Although he didn't know what language was being spoken, to his surprise, Sanbao could understand it perfectly.

Sanbao turned his head and discovered an elderly man with white hair lying in the grass a few meters away.

The old man was dressed in black, looking much like an assassin from a martial arts drama, but his wrinkled face revealed that he was likely an octogenarian. Moreover, judging by his ashen complexion, his condition was probably no better than Sanbao's own.

"Where is this place? I remember the spot where I jumped off the cliff was a stretch of reef. How did it turn into a grassy field? This clearly isn't the bottom of Luo Family Mountain! Where have I ended up?" Sanbao struggled to recall what he could.

It would have been better if he hadn't tried; the moment he started thinking, Sanbao felt the world spinning, as if countless steel needles were stabbing into his brain. He had no choice but to stop his train of thought.

"I should at least help this old gentleman up; he should know what happened~" Ignoring the pain throughout his body, Sanbao struggled to crawl up and slowly paced toward the old man.

Is this day or night? It's not dark enough for day, but too bright for night. Sanbao looked up and saw that the moon in the sky was huge and round.

This, where is this place?

Why is the moon so big? Could this be the legendary underworld?

"Ah, what is this thing?"

Just as Sanbao stood up, he discovered the corpse of a giant, strange bird beside him. It looked like an eagle or a hawk, but it was much larger than an ordinary eagle, and its entire body was covered in crimson feathers, though they were currently in a chaotic mess.

Not only that, but the grass around the strange bird was also stained blood-red, and the entire area was a scene of utter devastation, covered in scattered feathers. Sanbao let out a startled cry.

But as soon as he spoke, Sanbao shocked himself.

"Why has my voice become like this?"

Sanbao realized his voice had become incredibly childish, like that of an eight or nine-year-old boy. Furthermore, although he could understand the language he was speaking, it had absolutely nothing to do with the Chinese he used to speak.

"Young Master Cheng, don't be so jumpy. I'm severely injured, and we can't stay in this place for long. We need to find somewhere safer..." the old man said, filled with sorrow.

"Young Master Cheng?" This title almost drove Sanbao mad. It felt like no one had ever called him that, yet it also felt like everyone had always called him that. Sanbao's mind was in a complete muddle.

"Old man, who... who are you? I don't think I know you, do I?" Setting aside his confusion, Sanbao reached the old man and slowly helped him sit up before asking.

"Cough, cough. What? You don't recognize me? Young Master Cheng, I am Shisan. Heavens! How could this happen? Could it be that the Blood Fusion damaged your soul and caused you to lose your memories? Sigh, but it's fortunate you survived at all..."

The old man sighed deeply while coughing softly.

"Old man, I think you've made a mistake. I'm just suffering from a broken heart, unemployment, and perhaps a broken spirit, but I haven't lost my memory~" Sanbao, also aching all over, sat down beside the old man and shook his head.

→

Although the world was cold and indifferent, Sanbao still felt a sense of sympathy for such a frail old man, especially on a night like this in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it was a feeling of shared misfortune.

"Sigh, alright then. I won't say any more. Now is not the time for talk. I need to regulate my breathing; you think about where we should go to hide in a moment..."

The old man pointed to a mountain peak a few miles away and said, panting for breath.

"Old man, what kind of strange bird is this thing that looks like an eagle but isn't, and a hawk but isn't? How is it so huge? And yet, I have a feeling I've seen it somewhere before. It's truly strange."

This was clearly the same strange bird Sanbao had encountered in his dream, though he couldn't quite recall it.

"Sigh, I see you really have lost your memory if you don't even recognize the Crimson Flame Eagle that performed the Blood Fusion for you~" The old man gave a bitter smile and, looking utterly hopeless, stopped speaking altogether.

Of course, this was just Sanbao's interpretation; in reality, the old man was closing his eyes to practice his internal arts.

"Alright, alright, old man, don't be so sad. I'll try to think more and see if I can remember anything!"

Seeing the old man looking so despondent, Sanbao felt a strange sensation arise from nowhere.

Sanbao had a feeling that the old man wasn't lying to him, yet he truly couldn't remember anything. Could it be that he really had lost his memory?

Think...

Think harder...

"Right, I am indeed Young Master Cheng, living in a very secluded small courtyard in Lanjing City. I have one subordinate, a guard and servant named Shisan, who seems to be this old man..." Suddenly, a fragmented memory appeared in Sanbao's mind.

"Ah, it hurts~" Just as Sanbao tried to recall more, his brain began to ache again, and he had to stop.

"Reincarnation?"

This thought suddenly popped into Sanbao's mind.

Looking down, he realized: "This is actually real." Because the "self" he was now was clearly not the self from before; this body was obviously that of a mere eight or nine-year-old brat.

No wonder, no wonder...

In just a fleeting moment, Sanbao understood many things.

"Have I really been reborn? This isn't a dream, is it?" He bit the tip of his tongue, and the sharp, clear pain let Sanbao know that he was indeed not dreaming.

"Awoo..."

Following the faint, intermittent sounds of wolf howls drifting from outside the valley, Sanbao felt his hair stand on end. Good heavens, what kind of wretched place was this to have a pack of wolves approaching?

"Um, Shisan, I've remembered who I am. You don't need to be sad anymore, but it seems there's a pack of wolves in the distance. What should we do?" At the thought of possessing a brand-new life, a faint sense of excitement stirred in the depths of Sanbao's heart.

Even an ant clings to life, let alone a human. Before, Sanbao had jumped off the cliff because he had no other choice, but now that he had been granted a new life, how could he not be overjoyed?

"It is of no concern. Those beasts are merely testing the waters; they won't be coming over so quickly. This is the territory of a Crimson Flame Eagle, and they dare not approach recklessly. In another quarter of an hour, I will take you away from here!" Shisan remained unmoved, speaking in a calm tone.

"That's good, that's good~" Toward this most familiar stranger—Shisan—Sanbao felt an instinctive trust.

A Crimson Flame Eagle; he must be referring to this dead bird. But looking at its size, it must have been a creature that could tear tigers apart and trample lions while it was alive. Could it be that Shisan, this old man on the verge of death, killed it? Heavens, what kind of world was this?

"Alright, let us go," while Sanbao was lost in his wild thoughts, he was suddenly scooped up by a withered, claw-like hand around his waist, and with a whoosh, they sped toward the mountain peak ahead.

"Shisan, I didn't expect that even at your age, you would be as strong as an ox and as swift as a hare when you run," Sanbao exclaimed in wonder.

Shisan looked like an old man of seventy or eighty, yet once he started moving, he was extremely agile, even more uncanny than a clever monkey or a nimble hare.

"Young Master Cheng, are you mocking me, or have you truly lost your memory?" Shisan gave a bitter laugh.

"I only remember Lanjing Villa and you; I can't recall anything else~" Sanbao answered honestly.

"Sigh, at least you remember this old servant; it was worth it for me to risk my life to bring you here," Shisan said, feeling both a sense of loss and a touch of comfort.

Soon, the two arrived at the foot of the mountain. Sanbao looked up to see a pitch-black mountain standing several thousand meters high, with various shrubs of different heights covering the entire mountainside. The massive dark shadow stood between heaven and earth, and combined with the howling wind and wolf cries, it made Sanbao feel an immense pressure.

He felt that, beneath this vast sky, he was truly far too insignificant...