Zhu Yan

Just as Bai Yixin stowed away the White Bone Cube and departed with his aura suppressed, barely an hour had passed before a figure flew in from above the clouds. The newcomer also sensed that something was amiss with the lake, but finding nothing, they shot off into the sky and left.

In the days that followed, Bai Yixin used the lake where he had found the White Bone Block as a center point, searching outward in all directions.

Perhaps his persistence paid off; after wandering for an estimated three or four months, he finally found something about three or four thousand miles away from that lake.

It was a collapsed mountain range. As Bai Yixin traveled on the wind, carefully searching for lingering traces of battle among the fallen peaks, he discovered a massive basin.

No, it could not be called a basin; it was a vast, dried-up lake.

Flying a circle around the parched lake, Bai Yixin discovered a creature lying at the very bottom. It was covered in dirt and motionless, as if it had been sealed away for a very long time. Had its eyes not been glowing faintly, one would truly suspect it was nothing more than a mud statue.

Bai Yixin approached cautiously, golden lightning coiling around his body, while a crescent of Silver Moon quietly appeared in his palm to guard against any unforeseen accidents.

The lake had dried up, and the mud at the bottom had baked as hard as iron. The lower half of the creature was buried within the mud, as if sealed inside stone, making it difficult to pull free.

The mud statue was only a foot long, yet it possessed three heads and six arms, resembling a monkey.

Bai Yixin circled the mud monkey once, then surveyed the surrounding environment.

The surrounding mountains were all snapped off, as if something had swept across them; the entire range had been ruined, with every mountain body reduced to only its lower half.

"Roar, roar! I never expected to actually find it!"

A smile spread across Bai Yixin's face.

The monkey-like creature, only a foot long, widened its eyes and watched the human walking toward it with visible nervousness.

Bai Yixin casually took out a prepared whole roasted cow and tossed it toward the creature.

The creature seemed starved; it snatched up the roasted cow that landed beside it and devoured it ravenously. In the blink of an eye, it had consumed all the beef—which was over ten times its own size—leaving behind only a pile of bones.

It seemed unsatisfied, gazing at Bai Yixin with wide, expectant eyes, revealing a look of longing.

Although it looked adorable, Bai Yixin did not lower his guard in the slightest. His arm glowed, and with a wave of his hand, a sheet of runes appeared, sending a wave of fluorescent light toward the creature.

The rain of light washed over it, causing the mud monkey to become crystalline and nearly transparent.

This was an application of Bone Text used to probe the true state of an enemy.

"It has indeed suffered heavy injuries; the danger can be temporarily dismissed." Bai Yixin nodded slightly.

"Zhi zhi..." The three-headed, six-armed creature chirped softly, waving all six arms at once to beg Bai Yixin for more food.

"Do you remember what you are?" Bai Yixin took out a roasted Golden-Bearded Fish and handed it over.

The foot-long little monster's large eyes went round. It pondered while wolfing down the food, but eventually, a look of confusion appeared on its face. It even forgot to eat, rubbing its head vigorously in frustration, seemingly very dissatisfied with itself.

The creature's old skin was caked with dried, hard mud.

As one arm shed a few pieces of hard skin, it revealed shimmering fur, brilliant and lustrous like golden silk, far more pleasing to the eye than the dust-covered old skin.

It was clear that it was very weak, as if it had only just awakened; it hadn't even been able to pull out the leg that was sealed in the mud. Moreover, it frequently wore a dazed expression, scratching its ears and cheeks as it struggled to remember something.

"Crack."

The monkey-like creature suddenly erupted with brilliant golden light, its entire body cracking as a series of snapping sounds echoed out. All the old skin fell away, revealing its true form.

In the process, its three heads and six arms blurred, rapidly transforming into one head and two arms, returning to a normal appearance.

Bai Yixin watched this scene, feeling a bit envious of the Zhu Yan's transformation technique of three heads and six arms. If he could learn it, his combat power would at least skyrocket several times over.

But unfortunately, the complex runes within its body were impossible to see clearly, blocked by some mysterious power.

Zhu Yan—or rather, the Furry Ball after its transformation.

It was round and plump, like a golden fist, resembling a golden ball of fur. It was brilliant and golden, and its pair of large eyes were exceptionally spirited, flickering with a soft glow every time it blinked.

"Wow, this fur is so soft!" After realizing the Furry Ball posed no threat to him, Bai Yixin scooped it up, rubbing and kneading it with both hands, golden radiance flowing between his fingers.

"Zhi zhi zhi..." The golden ball struggled vigorously, staring with its very large eyes and chirping incessantly.

"Zhi... wu!" Bai Yixin casually pulled a chicken leg from his backpack and stuffed it directly into its mouth. It immediately stopped screaming; like a starving ghost reincarnated, it hugged the food and rolled around in his palm, gnawing away rapidly.

Bai Yixin watched the golden tail swinging in front of him and gave it a tug, but the golden ball remained unmoved, hanging there while hugging its food and gnawing away, not paying him any mind at all.

Bai Yixin chuckled as he swung it back and forth like a pendulum.

Finally, the golden ball grew angry, though not because of that, but because the food was gone and it realized Bai Yixin was being inconsiderate by not giving it more.

"Hahaha..." Bai Yixin laughed happily and handed it another piece of dried meat. The golden ball immediately stopped caring again; whether he tugged at it, kneaded it, or dangled it by its tail, it didn't mind, simply hanging there with its little claws clutching the food, burying its head to gnaw.

"Heh, how interesting. Little Furry Ball, come back to the village with me. I believe Little One and the others will really like you."

Bai Yixin tugged the golden Furry Ball's tail, lifted a ten-to-twenty-thousand-jin boulder with his other hand—a prop he used for weight training—and took to the sky, flying in the direction of Stone Village.

The wind roared as Bai Yixin descended near Stone Village, right beside a waterfall hundreds of meters high.

This was the place Bai Yixin used for his daily training, surrounded by several boulders of varying sizes and weights.

Bai Yixin casually tossed the ten-to-twenty-thousand-jin boulder onto an open space, then carried the still-munching Furry Ball in his other hand and walked toward Stone Village.

When the people of Stone Village heard the familiar sound of the boulder colliding with the ground, they all knew Bai Yixin had returned.

As soon as Bai Yixin reached the village entrance, a group of children surrounded him, their eyes filled with wonder.

"Little Bai, Little Bai, what is this? Is it a monkey that just opened its eyes? It's so golden and bright it makes my eyes ache."

"This little guy can really eat! You can pull its tail and it doesn't even get mad, it just knows how to bury its head and chow down!"

"Alright, alright, I'll let you play with it in a bit. I'm taking it to show Grandpa Chief right now."

Bai Yixin felt a bit helpless, though a smile still lingered on his face. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have acted so young; appearing a bit more mature would have saved him from this awkwardness.

But perhaps that wouldn't have worked on this group of children anyway. No matter how old one's mental age was, if the bone age was young, then one was simply a child. In the eyes of these older kids, he was likely still just a little tot who needed looking after.

Even though they were currently the two strongest in Stone Village, they were also the two youngest.

Bai Yixin was nearly seven, and if one counted the few months Shi Hao had "lost" during his early childhood, he was already six.