"Huh?" Lin Buyan looked at Xu Taiping in surprise. "Xiaohei seems to be able to speak human language!"
Xu Taiping was a little curious:
"How strong would a deity of Primordial Antiquity who can speak human language be?"
"Hmm..." Lin Buyan gave it serious thought. "Among the deities worshipped by the Human Race, fairly strong."
Xu Taiping nodded and said quietly:
"It seems Xiaohei's divine power has grown."
Lin Buyan likewise looked delighted as she said:
"Perhaps we'll get to see the wondrous sight of the Heavenly Hound swallowing the sun today."
Xu Taiping said nothing.
He had a vague feeling that things might not go so smoothly.
"I can talk?"
"I can talk too!"
Xiaohei seemed to realize something then. Its eyes widened, and it ran excitedly around the clearing.
The children in the tribe were the first to learn of Xiaohei's miracle.
The tribe's elders came next.
Soon, the village's able-bodied men, who had gone out in search of water and prey, began to learn of it too.
And so the shaman the village had invited back began leading the worship of Xiaohei once again.
This time, Xiaohei's divine power grew rapidly. Its size soon surpassed lions and tigers, then oxen and elephants.
During this time, Xiaohei helped this tribe unite more than a dozen surrounding tribes, large and small.
The original tribe built a city with towering walls, and the villagers of old became nobles and princes.
The dark-skinned child from those early days had not only gained the name "Yi," but had also become a valiant, battle-hardened general in the city.
What remained unchanged, however, was the Great Sun overhead.
The land scorched to ashes by the Great Sun also grew ever more extensive.
To gain more land, Yi and the companions he had grown up