"Nannan, look! What's this?"
The boy was tall and strong, like a mighty Divine Hou, yet he acted deliberately childish, suddenly leaping out from behind a Giant Tree to land beside the little girl.
Pulling a funny face, he held a ring polished from bronze and waved it before her eyes again and again.
Yet he still failed to attract the slightest bit of her attention.
Her tiny figure leaned against the tree, her arms wrapped around her knees. Not a glimmer of life shone in her eyes as she stared blankly at the ground beneath her feet.
It was as though she had sunk into utter deathly stillness, submerged in her own world, with everything outside it having nothing to do with her.
"Xiao Nannan!"
"Xiao Nannan!"
Seeing her like this, the boy called a few more times, but she still gave no response. A faint, dispirited smile crossed his face.
All he could do was reach out with his broad, powerful hand and stroke her head again and again.
He knew that three-year-old Xiao Nannan was still trapped in that terrifying world, where the entire village had been stained blood-red overnight.
Even he could hardly accept it and often sank into that same terror.
Fierce Beasts had slaughtered the village. Whenever he remembered the splashing blood, he too felt an indescribable fear.
"Don't be afraid! Older Brother's here!"
His heart aching, the boy gathered her tightly into his arms. Unspeakable pain and hatred filled his eyes as he looked toward the village.
A colossal coffin had descended from the sky, and the terrifying aura of its nine enormous skeletal dragons had driven the Fierce Beasts mad.
That night, theirs had not been the only village to suffer disaster.
All Seven Villages within four hundred li had been wiped