First Meeting with Xiao Wu

Deep within a lush green bamboo grove stood a simple wooden cottage in quiet solitude.

In front of the cottage, a little girl who looked only four or five years old squatted on the ground, teasing a palm-sized blue butterfly with a twig.

The little girl wore a pink dress, her jet-black hair braided into a scorpion braid that hung down her back. Her smile was innocent and pure, her large eyes curved into crescents, and her clear laughter echoed through the valley.

Yet the aura faintly leaking from her body—far surpassing that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast—could not deceive Tang Ling's eyes.

A hundred-thousand-year Soft-Boned Rabbit: Xiao Wu.

According to the system's prompt, this innocent, lively little girl would enter Notting Academy six years later and meet Tang San. In the end, while being hunted by Spirit Hall, she would sacrifice herself and become a stepping stone on Tang San's path to godhood.

"Sacrifice." Tang Ling silently repeated the word, with no extra emotion in his eyes.

He had already figured out this world's rules very clearly.

A soul beast's sacrifice meant offering all of its cultivation, soul bones, soul, and even its life to another person without holding anything back.

The recipient of the sacrifice gained enormous benefits, while the one making the sacrifice perished in both body and soul, leaving behind only a wisp of a remnant soul.

"Mom!"

Xiao Wu spotted A Rou from far away. She gave a delighted cry, tossed aside the twig in her hand, and ran over.

She threw herself into A Rou's arms, rubbing her little head against A Rou's chest. Then she noticed that her mother was covered in blood, and her expression immediately changed.

"Mom! What happened to you? You're hurt?!"

A Rou gently stroked her daughter's hair and smiled tenderly. "It's all right. Mom's fine. This benefactor saved me."

Only then did Xiao Wu turn to look at Tang Ling. Her gaze held both curiosity and wariness.

"Who are you?" Xiao Wu blinked her large eyes at Tang Ling.

Tang Ling looked into her eyes. "I'm Tang Ling, just someone passing through."

"Passing through?" Xiao Wu tilted her head. "This is the core region of Star Dou Forest. Humans don't just pass through here. Do you think you're fooling a three-year-old?"

The corners of Tang Ling's mouth rose slightly. He could not help but complain inwardly, Aren't you a three-year-old yourself?

"So you saw through me already?" He simply went along with her words, his tone carrying a hint of teasing. "Then I'll drop the act and tell you the truth."

He bent down slightly until his gaze was level with Xiao Wu's, a faintly inscrutable smile on his lips.

"I came here to find you."

Xiao Wu's little face immediately tensed.

She took half a step back and spread her arms before A Rou, like a small beast guarding its nest.

"What do you want?"

A Rou grew somewhat tense as well.

Although Tang Ling had just saved her life, a profoundly powerful expert coming specifically to the core region to find her daughter instinctively made her uneasy.

Looking at Xiao Wu's large, guarded eyes, Tang Ling suddenly asked a completely unrelated question.

"Xiao Wu, do you believe in fate?"

Xiao Wu paused. "What fate?"

"Some people are destined to meet. Some paths are destined to be walked."

Tang Ling's gaze was as calm as a deep pool.

"For example, six years from now, you'll leave Star Dou Forest and go to the human world to study. Then you'll meet a boy named Tang San. You'll become the best of companions, grow alongside him, and fight at his side. For him, you'll sacrifice your life, your soul bones, your soul—everything you have."

Xiao Wu's eyes widened more and more, her little face filled with confusion.

"Sounds like something made up, doesn't it?" Tang Ling bent down until he was level with her.

"Since that's the case, let me tell you a story."

"A story?"

"That's right." Tang Ling casually sat down on a stone before the cottage, relaxed as though he were sunning himself in his own courtyard. "It's a bit of a long story. Do you want to hear it?"

Xiao Wu hesitated for a moment.

Though she was young, she was perceptive. She felt that this man who had appeared out of nowhere was full of mysteries. But her mother was beside her, and he had just saved her mother, so he probably was not a bad person.

"All right." Xiao Wu sat across from Tang Ling, propping her cheeks up with both hands. "But it had better be a good story. If it's not, I won't listen."

"Don't worry." A nearly imperceptible smile flickered in Tang Ling's eyes. "This story... is quite fascinating."

He cleared his throat and began.

"Once upon a time, there was a sect called the Ba Shu Tang Sect."

"There was an outer disciple in that sect. He had first arrived as an infant, picked up outside by one of the Tang Sect's elders. Seeing how pitiful he was, the sect not only did not abandon him, but kept him in the outer sect, painstakingly raising him. When he got a little older, they gave him cultivation methods, food to eat, and a place to live."

Xiao Wu rested her chin in her hands and listened intently, blinking her large eyes.

"This orphan gradually grew up in the outer sect. According to the sect rules, outer disciples could cultivate many internal arts and mental techniques, but the orphan was not satisfied. So he secretly slipped into the scripture repository and stole the Tang Sect's supreme manual, the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record."

Xiao Wu's tiny brows furrowed, displeasure appearing on her face.

"Isn't that stealing? How could he do that?"

"You're right, this was stealing." Tang Ling spoke evenly and continued telling Xiao Wu the rest of Tang San's story in Ba Shu.

Xiao Wu's mouth hung wide open after she finished listening, her little face filled with disbelief.

"H-He could do that? The sect raised him, and he actually... Isn't that..."

Her cheeks puffed up in anger as she searched for a fitting word. After holding it in for a long while, she finally found one.

"Isn't he just an ungrateful wretch?!"

"An ungrateful wretch?" Tang Ling raised an eyebrow, the smile at the corner of his lips deepening. "You're right. That's exactly what he is."

Xiao Wu nodded heavily, both little fists clenched tight, her face full of righteous indignation.

"A wretch like that deserves a good beating!"

Just then, Xiao Wu seemed to think of something. She raised her head to look at Tang Ling, her eyes shining with seriousness.

"Big brother, you came all the way here... You're not looking for that ungrateful wretch, are you?"

Tang Ling looked into her clear, wide eyes and slowly nodded.

"That's right. I came here to find him."

Xiao Wu sprang to her feet, her little fists clenched tightly, her expression earnest.

"Then I'll help you find him! Once I grow up, I'll beat that ungrateful wretch senseless and ask him why he had to be so awful!"

Her voice echoed through the valley, crisp and resolute.

Meanwhile, in Holy Soul Village.

Inside that crude wooden hut, Tang San, still wrapped in swaddling clothes, suddenly shuddered from head to toe.

A strange feeling rose from the depths of his heart without warning, as though something immensely important was leaving him. He could neither explain nor define it, yet it made his very soul tremble.

System! What's going on?!

Tang San shouted within his sea of consciousness.

[System Notification: Host, please remain calm. The system has not detected any abnormalities.]

Impossible!

I clearly felt... something disappearing!

[System Notification: Following a comprehensive scan, all of the host's indicators are normal. The fate line is stable, and mission progress is normal. Please do not be paranoid.]

Tang San fell silent.

He remembered the help the system had given him in his previous life, when he had been in the Ba Shu Tang Sect.

It had never made a mistake.

Otherwise, there was no way he could have stolen the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record at such a young age in the Ba Shu Tang Sect.

He took a deep breath and suppressed that trace of unease in his heart.

Perhaps he really was overthinking it.