Bursting with Vitality

Stone Village lay within the Primeval Mountain Range, surrounded by lofty peaks and vast ravines, with endless mountains rising in grandeur.

Early in the morning, the rosy clouds shone brilliantly, scattering down like flecks of gold. Bathed in their light, people felt pleasantly warm.

A group of children, ranging from four or five years old to their teens, numbering several dozen, trained their bodies in the open space before the village beneath the morning glow, their grunts and shouts ringing out. Their young faces were filled with earnestness. The older children moved with the force of tigers, while the younger ones mimicked them with convincing form.

A middle-aged man built as powerfully as a tiger or leopard wore beast-hide clothing. His skin was bronze, his black hair hung loose, and his bright, keen eyes swept over every child as he carefully instructed them.

"The sun has just risen, and all things are beginning anew. The breath of life is at its strongest. Though we cannot feast on rosy clouds and consume the vital breath as in the legends, training our bodies beneath the dawn glow still brings enormous benefits and fills the body with vitality. The day's plan lies in the morning. Rise early and work hard every day—strengthen your tendons and bones, invigorate your blood, temper your sinews—only then will you have the means to survive in this Primeval Mountain Range." The middle-aged man standing at the front wore a stern expression as he earnestly warned them. Then he shouted, "Do you understand?"

"Understood!" the children answered loudly, full of vigor.

Prehistoric creatures often roamed the mountains. From time to time, enormous wings that blotted out the sky swept overhead, casting vast shadows across the ground. Wild beasts stood atop the peaks, swallowing the moon as they howled, while all manner of venomous insects crept and lurked about, terrifying beyond measure.

"Understood!" called a little fellow in a babyish voice, clearly distracted and half a beat late.

He was a very small child, only one or two years old, having learned to walk merely a few months ago, yet he too was training his body. Clearly, he had come on his own and mixed in with the older children; he plainly should not have been part of this group.

"Hmph, hmph, ha, hey!" The little fellow cried out as he swung his tiny arms with all his might, copying the older children's movements. But he was far too young. His motions were crooked and clumsy, his steps unsteady as he swayed from side to side. Together with the white milk stains lingering at the corners of his mouth, he made people laugh.

The older children watched him and pulled faces at one another, easing the solemn atmosphere of the morning training considerably.

Little Dot was fair, tender, and pretty, with large black eyes that darted about. He looked like a little white porcelain doll, utterly adorable. His childish movements and babbling sounds were charmingly naïve. Even several elders seated cross-legged atop huge boulders in another area, breathing in and out the essence of heaven, smiled at the sight.

Even the towering, burly adult men, bare from the waist up with gleaming, bulging muscles, looked over with smiles. They were the strongest people in the village, its most vital force for hunting and guarding it, and they too were training their bodies. Some wielded white bone clubs polished from the skeletons of unknown giant beasts, while others held broad swords forged from black metal, swinging them with all their strength until the wind roared like thunder.

The environment was exceedingly harsh, filled with primeval savage beasts and venomous insects. For food, for survival, many men died prematurely in the Great Wilderness before they even reached adulthood. To live, they could only make themselves stronger. Working hard in the morning was a habit everyone had cultivated since childhood, whether adults, elders, or children.

"Focus!" the middle-aged man responsible for urging and guiding the children shouted. The children hurriedly became serious again and continued training amid the soft, radiant morning glow.

"Whew... ngh, I'm tired." Little Dot let out a long breath and plopped down on the ground, watching the older children train. But before long, his attention wandered. He got to his feet, swaying as he rushed toward a Five-Colored Sparrow hopping about nearby. He stumbled and fell flat on his bottom several times,

but he did not cry. Puffing up in indignation, he grunted and whined as he crawled back up to chase it again.

"All right, stop training!"

With that loud shout, all the children cheered. They rubbed their sore arms and legs, then scattered in a rush and ran home to prepare for breakfast.

The elders all smiled and rose from the boulders. The adults, sturdy as tigers, laughed and scolded their own children, then carried their bone clubs and broad swords briskly toward their homes.

Stone Village was not very large. Altogether, it had more than three hundred men, women, elders, and children. Its houses were built from massive stones, simple and natural.

At the village entrance stood a huge lightning-struck tree trunk more than ten meters in diameter. At that moment, the only willow branch on its main trunk had lost its luminous glow beneath the morning light and appeared completely ordinary.

"Oh, there's even earth-dragon meat! Give me a piece!"

These children were lively and restless. Even while eating, they could not sit still. Many carried clay bowls out from their homes and gathered together.

The vegetation around Stone Village was lush, and savage beasts were plentiful. Yet despite living beside the mountains, the villagers' food could not be considered abundant. There were only coarse wheat cakes, wild fruit, and the small amounts of meat in the children's bowls.

In truth, insufficient food had always been a grave problem for Stone Village. The mountains were extremely dangerous, and those strange beasts and ferocious birds were too powerful and terrifying. Every hunt could cost someone their life.

If they had a choice, the villagers would not have wanted to enter the mountains. Entering the mountains meant that bloodshed and sacrifice might follow.

Food was exceedingly precious to them and could not be wasted. Every child understood this from a young age: hunger, food, hunting, life, and blood were all bound together.

At the village entrance stood the courtyard of the old village chief, Shi Yunfeng, built from piled giant stones and right beside the charred, enormous Willow Tree. Before the stove in the courtyard, white liquid boiled in a clay pot, its milky fragrance filling the air. He was simmering beast milk, occasionally adding medicinal herbs and other ingredients, slowly stirring it with a wooden ladle.

Before long, the old man called out, "Little Dot, come eat."

Little Dot had lost his parents when he was half a year old and had grown up drinking the milk of countless beasts. Now he was more than a year old. An ordinary child should have long since been weaned, but he still drank with great relish and refused to stop, often becoming the target of the older children's teasing.

"Ngh, whew... I can't run anymore." He had been stubbornly chasing that Five-Colored Sparrow and was already panting for breath. Now he sat down on the ground with a plop.

"Little Dot's drinking milk!" the older children jeered.

"You little monkeys, weren't you all once his age too?" the old village chief scolded with a smile.

"We weren't still drinking milk at one and a half, heh heh."

Faced with the older children's teasing, Little Dot gave a guileless smile. His bright black eyes curved into crescents, and he did not care in the slightest. Sitting before the clay pot, he scooped up milk with a wooden ladle and drank with great delight.

After breakfast, several very old men from the village came together to the courtyard of the village chief, Shi Yunfeng. Though their hair and beards had long turned white, they were still full of vigor.

"Something hasn't been right lately. Massive creatures have been passing through every night, making far too much noise. Something must have happened deep within the mountains."

"Mm, I was startled awake several times last night. My skin and bones went cold. Some primeval savage beast or great beast must have passed through here."

The elders spoke one after another. Some frowned while others sank into thought, discussing the recent ominous signs and feeling that something unusual had occurred.

"I think something extraordinary may have appeared in the depths of the Great Wilderness, drawing the attention of some ancient remnants from the surrounding regions and sending them rushing over," the old village chief, Shi Yunfeng, said after considering it.

"Could a mountain treasure have appeared?" An elder's eyes instantly widened, his beard and hair bristling as shock filled his face.

The others also showed strange expressions, their eyes burning with excitement. But soon, the flames in their eyes died away. Such a thing was not for them to obtain. It lay in the deepest reaches of the mountains, where no one could enter.

Over all these years, no one had ever managed to go in and come back alive. All kinds of formidable species roamed the mountains. Even if everyone in Stone Village ventured in together, they would not stir so much as a single wave.

"Village chief, it has been quite some time since we entered the mountains." At that moment, a burly adult man walked into the courtyard. He was the leader of the hunting party and would also become Stone Village's next village chief.

"Things have been unsettled lately." The old village chief, Shi Yunfeng, frowned.

"But we truly do not have much food left," Shi Linhu said. He was exceptionally tall, over two meters in height, with a broad sword weighing more than three hundred jin on his back. He was built like a man-bear, his bronze muscles bulging in slabs all over his body like serpents and pythons slithering beneath his skin.

"The children need to grow. We cannot let them go hungry; we must think of a way," an elder said.

"Though the nights are restless, nothing unusual has happened during the day. I'll take some men out. If we are careful, there should not be a problem," Shi Linhu said.

In the end, several dozen young and strong men gathered at the village entrance. Led by the village chief, Shi Yunfeng, they came before the lightning-struck tree beside them and solemnly prayed to the Old Willow Tree.

"Guardian Spirit, please bless the clansmen. Let the children bring back plump prey and return safely. With devout hearts, we will worship and provide for you generation after generation."