Little Brother

"Little brother, you wouldn't happen to be such a heaven-defying prodigy yourself, would you? Traveling across over a hundred thousand li of the Great Wilderness all alone, without any adults to protect you?" The beautiful and spirited woman smiled, tucking back her dark, glossy hair to reveal ears as white and crystalline as an elf's. Her momentary charm was ethereal and moving.

"Traveling over a hundred thousand li alone? They must be so powerful. Aren't they afraid of running into Archaic Remnants?" Little One asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

The group looked at one another, believing his words, for those eyes were too pure, without a trace of impurity; they were naturally prone to evoking goodwill and trust. For a child to traverse a hundred thousand li of savage mountain ranges alone—how astonishing was that? How could one just run into such a person so easily?

Suddenly, the young woman moved. Her white robes fluttered, and with a twist of her slender waist, she arrived before him like a supple willow branch. Her fair, jade-like arm swept out, striking toward Little One.

Little One was startled. Why did she suddenly attack when they were talking so well? But his reactions were lightning-fast. For the past year or two, he had been constantly struggling against the natural might of the wilderness, tempered by mountain floods and locked in fierce battles with raptors. Once he moved, his aura changed completely.

Little One's large eyes shone with astonishing beams, like two small torches. His figure moved like a divine crane spreading its wings, tracing an elegant trajectory. He reached out his right arm and, with a bang, grabbed that crystalline, lotus-root-like arm. Then, with a violent tug, he pulled the beautiful woman, causing her to stumble and her body to lower. Who could have imagined that a child could possess such world-shaking divine strength with a single arm? He was so young, his large eyes still blinking, yet once his movements unfolded, they were as swift as thunder!

Everything happened too fast. Little One spun his body with extreme speed, pressing against the back of the beautiful woman as she was about to fall. His left arm banged as it locked around her snow-white, jade-like neck, while his right fingertips glowed with flickering runes, pressing against her heart—ready to pierce through at any moment.

All these actions were completed in the blink of an eye, smooth and swift as lightning, leaving the entire group stunned. What was the status of this white-clad woman? To think she had suffered a loss at the hands of a child.

"Big sister, why did you want to hurt me?" Little One's voice was childish, appearing very confused, but his eyes were bright. He wasn't looking at the white-clad woman, but rather staring at the old woman and the others.

His animal-hide clothes were tattered and stained with dark red beast blood. Even his small hands were covered in dried blood, and as they pressed against her snow-white, crystalline chest, they left behind several dirty little handprints.

The same was true for her swan-like, snow-white neck; several dark, smudged fingerprints were left behind, forming a sharp contrast with her fair, smooth skin.

Not far away, several young men wore strange expressions, while the old woman smiled kindly and said, "Child, we have no ill intentions."

"Shoo!"

Sheets of runes appeared on the white-clad woman's crystalline skin, dense and packed like a heavenly book, branded into the void. Her entire person was enveloped in radiance, and she slipped away like a fish, breaking free from Little One's control.

Little One was startled. This woman was truly extraordinary; she was slippery and hard to hold. Her delicate, snow-white body was as nimble as a fish in water—he couldn't catch her, and she had swum away in an instant.

"Little brother, you are truly not simple." The young woman smiled. She was genuinely shocked; to have been briefly held by a child—if this were to spread, given her status, it would certainly cause a sensation.

The moment the beautiful woman swam away, Little One relaxed. He did not pursue, looking at her with an innocent expression, and asked, "Big sister, what are you doing?"

"I just wanted to see little brother's strength. It is truly astonishing. You are so young, yet I felt potential as vast as the sea," the white-clad woman nodded.

"Oh, is that so?" Little One revealed a smile, laughing sheepishly, and said, "Big sister, I'm sorry."

The group looked toward the area above the beautiful woman's chest; the crystalline skin exposed there bore very obvious fingerprints, as did her snow-white neck.

The beautiful woman smiled, showing neither embarrassment nor anger. With a gentle wave of her slender hand, flowing light shimmered, and all traces vanished instantly.

"My name is Xia Youyu. What is your name, little brother?"

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

"This name..." Everyone was stunned.

"It has spirit. A good name!" Xia Youyu smiled brightly.

The old woman also revealed a kind smile and said, "The child is truly not simple. Regardless, even if Youyu was careless, being able to catch her in an instant is still very astonishing."

Xia Youyu tucked back her dark, glossy hair. Her fair, glowing face, elf-like crystalline ears, and bright, watery eyes made her look ethereal and moving. A glow of light flashed in her palm, and an object appeared—it looked like neither gold nor stone, carved with intricate, complex patterns.

"What is that?" Little One asked curiously.

Xia Youyu reached forward and placed it in his hand, saying, "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'."

"Heaven Mending Pavilion?" Little Shi Hao was confused, not knowing what kind of place that was.

"Then you must have heard of the Deer-Hunting Academy? Taking the meaning of 'heroes hunting the deer,' this academy specifically recruits prodigies from this vast land to guide them in their cultivation. The Heaven Mending Pavilion, the God King Palace, and others are on par with it."

Little One thought for a moment, did not ask further, and expressed his gratitude earnestly.

The people nearby were all shocked. They had not expected Xia Youyu to give this token to a child who looked like a little savage; this was no ordinary item.

Finally, Little One bid them farewell, stating he needed to continue tempering himself. He mounted the Unicorn and rode off across the mountain range. Throughout this, Furball remained listless, its large eyes dull, looking like an ordinary little mountain beast.

"Youyu, you were ordered to travel to the Western Frontier, and you only had eight tokens in total. This was the last one, and you just gave it to this child?" a middle-aged man asked.

A young man sighed, "Holding such a token to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion means one's status rises to the heavens in a single step. Various precious medicines, runic secret techniques, and the like will be prioritized for them. Such a token is worth a fortune!"

"Indeed, Youyu. The Rain Clan of the Stone Kingdom wanted to beg for this last token in your hand to pave the way for one of their very powerful descendants to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion. Won't you reconsider?" the middle-aged man said.

"Given their status and position, their descendant shouldn't be too bad. Passing the trials to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion shouldn't be a problem. As for the precious medicines the token can claim, would their clan be lacking in those?" Xia Youyu said dismissively.

"These ancient clans care about face," the old woman said.

"Then they can beg for one from someone else. My journey to the Western Frontier is over, and the tokens are all gone," Xia Youyu smiled.

The middle-aged man warned, "The Rain Clan is very strong and cannot be easily offended, especially in the coming years. They are destined to be extremely glorious because they are the maternal family of that child from the Shi family."

The old woman frowned upon hearing this and said, "How about this? I will go and request another token. There are some princes one truly cannot easily offend."

"Regardless, that child just now was not simple. I feel that if I hadn't acted, someone from the Deer-Hunting Academy would have discovered him and snatched him away. If that happened, the Heaven Mending Pavilion would regret it," the white-clad woman said. Their search for the five-colored divine egg of the Archaic Remnant was just something they were doing along the way; it was not the ultimate goal of their trip.

"Is he very strong?" someone nearby asked.

"His potential is astonishing. A shake of his small arm possesses at least tens of thousands of jin of divine strength," Xia Youyu said, her moving smile fading, speaking with gravity.

"So young, and his physical body alone has that much divine strength?" The others couldn't believe it, and at the same time, they realized why the white-clad woman had been pulled into a stumble and nearly fell.

"Hmm, I estimated it. If this seemingly simple little fellow wasn't hiding his strength, the combined force of his two arms shaking would be at least ten thousand jin—pure physical strength!" the old woman added seriously.

"What?!" The group gasped.

"This can't be, right? Ten thousand jin of divine strength from shaking his arms? That is approaching the extreme limit for the cubs of Archaic Ferocious Beasts!"

"This is absolutely a world-shaking prodigy, worthy of being snatched and cultivated!"

A swing of one arm exerting forty or fifty thousand jin of force, and a swing of both arms yielding ten thousand jin of divine strength—this was merely their conjecture, not a true understanding of Little One's bottom line. Yet, even so, they felt quite shocked, causing the group to sigh and exclaim in succession. "Eh..." the old woman frowned, feeling as if she had overlooked something; silver runes flickered in her pupils, resembling a galaxy in the midst of disillusionment.

Suddenly, she raised her head, and two astonishing beams of light shot from her eyes. "We misjudged!"

"How did we misjudge?" a young man beside her asked.

The old woman took an eggshell from her bosom; it was as delicate as jade, crystalline and lustrous, with five-colored patterns and shimmering light—it was precisely a fragment of the eggshell from that Archaic Remnant.

"I was negligent just now, but I have only just realized. That child and the little mountain beast on his shoulder both carry an aura that feels familiar. At first, I thought they were stained with the blood of many beasts, the stench of fierce birds and savage beasts, but now, upon careful reflection and sensing, it should be the aura of an egg laid by a descendant of an Archaic Divine Bird."

Everyone was startled upon hearing this.

"No way, that child ate the egg of an Archaic Divine King's descendant? That's too shocking!" A young man's mouth hung wide open, enough to swallow half a fist.

"A little fellow who looks harmless to humans and animals is actually so daring as to go into the nest of an Archaic Remnant to take an egg?"

"Could it be that the Archaic Remnant was also killed by him?"

"Impossible, that must have been killed by his elders."

The group could hardly believe it, and upon learning this result, they all clicked their tongues in wonder.

If such a situation were told, few would believe it; a mere child dared to venture deep into the nest of an Archaic Remnant to commit such an astonishing feat.

While they were shocked, they also felt a wave of regret, finding it incredibly pity-inducing. That was the egg of a divine bird's descendant; if it had been hatched and raised, one could definitely have glimpsed some of the secrets of the Archaic Divine King's precious techniques.

Such a precious egg was just eaten by that child and the mountain beast!

How wasteful could one be? What kind of family could produce a child capable of doing such a thing?

"That's not right, that little mountain beast also ate the five-colored bird egg. Could it also be extraordinary?" A middle-aged man in the group raised a question.

The others were stunned upon hearing this; how could an ordinary little mountain beast withstand the essence and spirit of an Archaic Remnant? It would inevitably have been struck dead.

"A fist-sized little beast... I vaguely saw that the soles of its feet were crimson," another person said.

The old woman was moved, as if she had recalled something. "Could it be the legendary Zhu Yan?"

Legend has it that whenever this fierce beast is born, there will inevitably be great chaos, and the world will suffer the disaster of war and constant fighting; it is a sign of great misfortune.

Everyone was dazed, having encountered such a strange little fellow, and the whole group had misjudged.

The white-clad woman leading them chuckled, her long black hair fluttering in the wind, her fair skin shimmering with an alluring luster, her eyes rippling as she said, "This child is not simple. Let us consider this a good connection made."

"I hope he can enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion; he must not be snatched away by others!"

In the distant mountains, Little One rode the Unicorn at a gallop. It transformed into a streak of silver light, traversing mountains and ridges, pushing its speed to the limit. The forests on both sides retreated with a whoosh, and soon they were hundreds of miles away.

The fist-sized Furball had completely revived. Its gray-white fur shimmered, turning golden once more, and its pair of dull, lifeless eyes instantly lit up, mischievous and clever, leaping about on little Shi Hao's shoulder.

Little One grabbed its tail and held it upside down. "No more running around, and no more causing trouble! You are only allowed to stay by my side!"

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

Little One told him about the situation just now and took out the talisman plate. He did not need to hide anything from Shi Lin; he trusted Wang Quan deeply.

"The Heaven Mending Pavilion, is it?"...

Twenty-one days had passed since leaving Stone Village. The long journey was more than half over, and they were less than one hundred thousand li from the Second Ancestral Land of the Shi Clan. They would arrive in a few more days.

Over the next few days, Little One and his companion hacked through thorns and thistles, advancing through the Great Wilderness. They encountered batch after batch of powerful beasts and, after experiencing dozens or even hundreds of bloody battles, were finally approaching the borders of the Stone Kingdom. Two children, within a month, had traversed endless mountain ranges, fought numerous fierce birds and strange beasts, and charged straight through three hundred thousand li. This was absolutely an astonishing feat. If word of this spread, it would inevitably cause a huge uproar, shocking even those ancient families with deep foundations.

When the most powerful Archaic fierce beasts like the Bian and Pixiu trained their young, it was no more than this. Such dangerous trials are easy to speak of, but to truly put them into action is a life-and-death struggle.

Ordinary children, let alone traveling three hundred thousand li alone, might encounter danger and be eaten by wild beasts after just three hundred or three thousand li.

The Western Frontier had too many wild beasts. Everywhere were dense, ancient forests devoid of human presence, filled with evil beasts and fierce birds; it was a most terrifying primordial land.

Let alone children, even a group of adult experts traveling together would find it difficult to cross, as they could be eaten by an Archaic Remnant that suddenly lunged out at any moment, leaving not even their bones behind.