Little Brother

"Little brother, you wouldn't happen to be another peerless prodigy, would you? Did you cross more than a hundred thousand li of the Great Wilderness all by yourself, without an adult protecting you?" the beautiful, lively woman asked with a smile. She gathered her dark hair, revealing ears as white and crystalline as an elf's. For an instant, her charm was otherworldly and captivating.

"Someone crossed more than a hundred thousand li all alone? They're amazing! Weren't they afraid of running into Primordial Remnants?" Little One asked, eyes wide with surprise.

The group exchanged glances, believing him. His eyes were so pure, not a trace of impurity in them, that they naturally inspired affection and trust. A child capable of crossing a hundred thousand li of desolate mountains alone would be astonishing. How could they just happen to meet one?

Suddenly, the young woman moved. Her white robes fluttered as she twisted her slender waist, gliding forward like a supple willow. Her fair arm swept toward Little One.

Little One was startled. Why had she suddenly attacked when they'd been talking so pleasantly? But his reactions were lightning-fast. For nearly two years, he had been contending with the might of nature, tempered by mountain floods and locked in fierce battles with fierce birds of prey. The moment he moved, his entire bearing changed.

His large eyes shone like two little torches. His body spread like a divine crane taking flight, tracing an elegant arc as he reached out with his right arm. Thud! He seized her glistening, lotus-root-white arm, then yanked hard, making the beautiful woman stumble and bend low. Who could have imagined that a child could wield such astonishing strength with a single arm? He was so young, his big eyes still blinking, yet when he moved, he was as swift as thunder!

It all happened in a flash. Little One pivoted at Extreme Speed, pressed himself behind the beautiful woman as she began to fall, and clamped his left arm around her jade-white neck. Runes shimmered at his right fingertips as he pressed them to her heart, ready to strike through.

Every movement was completed in the blink of an eye, flowing seamlessly and as fast as lightning. The group was astonished. Who was this white-robed woman, that she had actually suffered a momentary loss at the hands of a child?

"Big sister, why are you trying to hurt me?" Little One asked in his childish voice, looking utterly confused. But his eyes were bright. He wasn't looking at the woman in white; he was watching the old woman and the others.

His animal-hide clothes were ragged and stained with dark-red beast blood. Even his little hands were streaked with dried blood. As he pressed them against her crystalline white chest, he left several grimy handprints behind.

Her swanlike, snow-white neck was no different. Several black fingerprints stood out starkly against her smooth, pale skin.

A few young men nearby wore strange expressions, but the old woman spoke kindly. "Child, we mean you no harm."

Whoosh!

Runes appeared across the white-robed woman's translucent skin, dense as the characters in a heavenly book and imprinted in the air. Light enveloped her as she slipped away like a fish, escaping Little One's grasp.

Little One's heart skipped a beat. This woman was truly extraordinary. Her smooth, pale body moved with the fluid grace of a fish in water—impossible to hold on to. In an instant, she had slipped free.

"You really are something, little brother." The young woman smiled, genuinely astonished. A child had managed to seize her, if only for a moment. If word got out, it would cause a sensation, given who she was.

The moment the beautiful woman slipped away, Little One relaxed. He didn't pursue her. Looking at her with an innocent expression, he asked, "Big sister, what are you doing?"

"I only wanted to test your strength. It's truly astonishing. You're so little, yet I can feel potential as boundless as the sea within you." The woman in white nodded.

"Oh, I see." Little One smiled brightly, then gave an embarrassed little laugh. "I'm sorry, big sister."

Everyone looked at the exposed crystalline skin above the beautiful woman's chest. The fingerprints were all too obvious, as were the marks on her snow-white neck.

The beautiful woman smiled. Neither embarrassed nor angry, she gently swept her hand, sending shimmering light across her skin. All the marks vanished at once.

"My name is Xia Youyu. What's yours, little brother?"

"My name is Hao Tian," Little One replied in a clear voice.

"That name..." Everyone fell silent in surprise.

"What a bold name! A good one!" Xia Youyu smiled radiantly.

The old woman also gave him a kind smile. "You really are no ordinary child. No matter how careless You Yu was, the fact that you managed to seize her for even an instant is astonishing."

Xia Youyu gathered her glossy black hair. Her lovely face was luminous and fair, her ears as crystalline as an elf's and her eyes bright and limpid, lending her an otherworldly charm. A flash of rosy light appeared in her palm, revealing an object neither gold nor stone, engraved with intricate patterns.

"What's that?" Little One asked curiously.

Xia Youyu stepped forward and placed it in his hand. "Little brother, keep this safe. When the time comes, you can give it to your elders and have them take you to the Heaven Mending Pavilion."

"The Heaven Mending Pavilion?" Little Shi Hao was puzzled. He had no idea what kind of place that was.

"Then you must have heard of Deer-Hunting Academy. Its name means that heroes compete for supremacy. The academy specializes in recruiting prodigies from this vast land and guiding them in their cultivation. The Heaven Mending Pavilion and the God King Palace stand alongside it."

Little One thought for a moment, then asked no more. He thanked her earnestly.

The others were all surprised. They hadn't expected Xia Youyu to give this talisman token to a child who looked like a little savage. It was no ordinary item.

At last, Little One said goodbye and explained that he was going to continue tempering himself. He mounted the Unicorn and rode across the mountain range. All the while, Furball remained listless, its big eyes dull, looking like an ordinary little mountain beast.

"You Yu, you were ordered to travel to the Western Frontier, and you had only eight talisman tokens to begin with. This was your last one, and you just gave it to that child?" a middle-aged man asked.

A young man sighed. "Carrying a token like that into the Heaven Mending Pavilion means rising to the top in a single step. All kinds of precious medicines, rune arts, and secret techniques will be given priority. A token like this is priceless!"

"That's right, You Yu. The Rain Clan of the Stone Kingdom wanted that last token of yours for one of their exceptionally powerful descendants, so he could enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion. Won't you reconsider?" the middle-aged man asked.

"Given their status, their descendants are probably no ordinary people. Passing the trial to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion shouldn't be a problem. And could their clan really be short of the precious medicines they'd get from a token?" Xia Youyu said dismissively.

"Ancient clans like theirs care about face," the old woman said.

"Then they can go ask someone else for one. I've finished handing out my tokens on this trip to the Western Frontier." Xia Youyu smiled.

The middle-aged man reminded her, "The Rain Clan is powerful. We can't afford to offend them lightly, especially in the years ahead. They're destined for great glory, because they're the maternal relatives of that child from the Shi family."

The old woman frowned at that. "In that case, I'll go ask for another token. There are some lords we really can't afford to offend."

"Whatever the case, that child was no ordinary one. I think if I hadn't acted, someone from Deer-Hunting Academy would have spotted him and snatched him away. The Heaven Mending Pavilion would regret it if that happened," the woman in white said. Their search for the five-colored egg of a Primordial Remnant had only been a detour, not the true purpose of their journey.

"Is he really that strong?" someone nearby asked.

"His potential is astonishing. Just a swing of his little arm must have carried at least tens of thousands of jin of divine strength." Xia Youyu's captivating smile faded, and she spoke gravely.

"He's so young, and his flesh alone holds that much strength?" The others couldn't believe it. Now they understood why the woman in white had stumbled and nearly fallen when he pulled her.

"Mm. I estimated that if the little fellow looks as simple as he seems and isn't hiding his strength, then a swing of both arms would give him at least ten thousand jin of divine strength. Pure physical strength!" the old woman added solemnly.

"What?!"

"That's impossible! Ten thousand jin of strength with a swing of both arms? That's nearly the extreme trial younglings face when trained by Primordial Remnants!"

"He's an astonishing prodigy. We must seize him and cultivate him!"

They had only guessed that one arm could wield forty or fifty thousand jin of force and that both arms together could wield ten thousand jin of divine strength; they didn't truly understand Little One's capabilities. Even so, they were deeply shocked, and the group couldn't stop marveling. "Huh..." The old woman frowned, feeling as though she had overlooked something. Silver runes flickered in her eyes, like a river of stars appearing and vanishing.

Suddenly, she raised her head. Two dazzling beams shot from her eyes. "We were wrong about him!"

"How were we wrong?" a young man beside her asked.

The old woman took a piece of eggshell from her robes. It was as smooth and delicate as jade, glistening with light and marked by five-colored patterns. Flecks of rosy radiance shimmered across it. It was a fragment of the Primordial Remnant's shattered shell.

"I overlooked it before. Only now have I realized. That child and the little mountain beast on his shoulder carry a familiar scent. At first, I thought it came from all the beast blood they were covered in—the stench of vicious birds and beasts. But thinking it over and sensing it carefully, I believe it's the scent of an egg laid by a descendant of an ancient divine bird."

The group was startled.

"No way. Did that child eat the egg of a descendant of an ancient divine king? That's incredible!" A young man's mouth hung open wide enough to swallow half a fist.

"That harmless-looking little fellow was bold enough to take an egg from a Primordial Remnant's nest?"

"Could he have killed that Primordial Remnant too?"

"Impossible. That must have been done by his elders."

The group could hardly believe it. When they realized what had happened, they were all left speechless.

Few people would believe it if they heard the story: a mere child had dared to enter a Primordial Remnant's nest and do something so astonishing.

Along with their shock came a wave of regret. That had been the egg of a divine bird's offspring. If it had been hatched and raised, they could certainly have glimpsed some of the secrets of a Primordial Divine King's treasured art.

Such a precious egg had been eaten by that child and the little beast!

What a waste! What kind of family had raised a child capable of such a thing?

"Wait, the little mountain beast ate some of the five-colored bird egg too. Could it be extraordinary as well?" asked the middle-aged man among them.

The others were stunned. How could an ordinary little mountain beast withstand the essence, energy, and spirit of a Primordial Remnant? It would surely have been overwhelmed and died.

"That fist-sized little beast... I vaguely remember seeing red soles on its feet," another person said.

The old woman's expression changed, as if she had remembered something. "Could it be the legendary Zhu Yan?"

It was said that whenever this vicious beast was born, great disorder would follow. The world would be plunged into war and armies would march in every direction. It was an omen of great calamity.

Everyone stared blankly. They had actually encountered such a strange little fellow, and every one of them had failed to see through him.

The white-robed woman at their head chuckled. Her dark hair fluttered in the wind, her luminous skin gleaming with a bewitching sheen as her gaze flowed. "That child is no ordinary one. Let's consider this a good connection."

"I hope he makes it into the Heaven Mending Pavilion. We mustn't let anyone else snatch him away!"

Far off among the mountains, Little One galloped on horseback. The Unicorn became a streak of silver light, racing over mountains and through valleys at its utmost speed. The forests on either side whooshed past, and soon they were hundreds of li away.

Furball, which was only the size of a fist, had completely recovered. Its gray-white fur shimmered and turned golden once more. Its dull, lifeless eyes lit up in an instant, and it bounced about playfully on Little Shi Hao's shoulder.

Little One grabbed it by the tail and held it upside down. "No wandering off again, and no causing trouble. You're only allowed to stay by my side!"

At that moment, Shi Lin flew over from another direction.

Little One told him what had happened and took out the talisman token. He didn't need to hide anything from Shi Lin; he trusted Wang Quan completely.

"The Heaven Mending Pavilion?"...

They had been away from Stone Village for twenty-one days. They had already covered most of the long journey, and the Second Ancestral Land of the Shi Clan was less than a hundred thousand li away. They would reach it in just a few more days.

Over the next several days, the two children hacked through brambles and pushed onward through the Great Wilderness. They encountered wave after wave of powerful beasts and fought dozens upon dozens of bloody battles. At last, they were nearing the border of the Stone Kingdom. Two children had crossed boundless mountain ranges in a month, battled countless vicious birds and beasts, and charged straight through three hundred thousand li. It was an astonishing feat. If word got out, it would cause an enormous stir and shock even the ancient clans with deep foundations.

Even when Bian, Pixiu, and the strongest Primordial Remnants trained their young, the trials were no more arduous than this. Such a perilous trial was easy enough to talk about, but putting it into practice meant nine deaths out of ten.

Ordinary children couldn't travel three hundred thousand li alone; even after three hundred or three thousand li, they might encounter danger and be eaten by a vicious beast.

The Western Frontier was crawling with vicious beasts. Dense old forests stretched everywhere, with no sign of human habitation. Savage beasts and fierce birds of prey prowled all around. It was the most terrifying primordial wilderness.

Forget children—even a group of adult experts traveling together would struggle to cross it. At any moment, a Primordial Remnant might suddenly emerge and devour them, leaving not even a bone behind.