After Zuo Xiaoduo grew up, he heard his parents tell this story many times. Both husband and wife found it utterly miraculous... they clearly hadn't wanted another child...
And so Zuo Xiaoduo's name had followed naturally.
But he was their own child, after all. Watching him grow day by day, how could they not love him? When Zuo Xiaoduo was three or four, Wu Yuting had a sudden fancy: if one day she and Zuo Changlu grew old, wouldn't it be wonderful if their two children could depend on each other and never part?
But Zuo Xiaonian overheard them discussing it once.
That was also how Zuo Xiaonian learned of her origins: she wasn't her parents' biological child. Yet from the age of seven or eight, the little girl actually began considering herself the Zuo family's daughter-in-law...
Zuo Xiaoduo grew older year by year. How could he not understand what Zuo Xiaonian was thinking? Perhaps love and all that had nothing to do with it... right? Surely it was simply that Zuo Xiaonian couldn't bear to leave this family, and wanted to repay their parents for raising her... right?
So despite her exceptional talent, Zuo Xiaonian refused to go cultivate with any sect, no matter what. Whatever the sect, however lofty the cultivator who came to persuade her, Zuo Xiaonian rejected them outright.
I'm staying right here. I belong to this family. I'm not going anywhere!
Wu Yuting and Zuo Changlu had long since regretted it until their guts turned green.
They had held their daughter's future back!
Who could have imagined a little girl could be so stubborn?
Had Zuo Xiaonian's cultivation not continued to advance just as quickly, Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting would probably have felt even guiltier.
And it was precisely because of this that Zuo Changlu had spoken so sternly when Zuo Xiaonian once again proposed marrying Zuo Xiaoduo!
The door banged.
Zuo Xiaoduo had left.
Only then did Zuo Xiaonian breathe a sigh of relief, feeling her face grow a little hot.
Leaning against the back of the door, her pretty face flushed rosy. She touched her chest, recalling how Zuo Xiaoduo had come within a hair of planting his paw on it, and blushed even redder. "If you dare put your hand there, you're dead!" she murmured.
"Two worlds... what two worlds!" Zuo Xiaonian's pretty face grew redder and redder. "Hmph, coward!"
After losing herself in thought for a while, she finally hurried out too. After all, she was at the crucial point of breaking through the Yin-Yang Boundary and couldn't afford to slack off; she still had to go train hard at the Star Martial Academy.
When she stepped outside, her face once again assumed its distant indifference, keeping everyone a thousand miles away, as cold and clear as the moon over its frigid palace.
Right at the doorway, she vanished in a flash.
"Blood from the fingertip, flawless jade, the yin-yang fish, the heart of the stars..."
Zuo Xiaoduo muttered to himself as he went out.
He had to admit, this world was pretty wonderful.
At the very least, flawless jade wasn't as expensive as it was in the dream world; the most valuable stones on the Star Soul Continent were Star Soul Stones. Things like jade were merely somewhat prettier stones, worth practically nothing.
As for the heart of the stars, that was even easier: it was Star Soul Jade! His dad's shop had heaps of it.
There were high-grade pieces and low-grade ones, but... at his current stage, he didn't seem to need anything of too high a grade.
Besides, his dad's shop had plenty of the stuff.
Convenient!
As for blood from the fingertip? One cut would do it! And those yin-yang fish-I can draw them!
Hahahaha...
For just eight thousand Star Yuan, Zuo Xiaoduo bought the piece of superior white jade he had picked out long ago, almost transparent and as big as a palm-leaf fan. Counting his secret savings and the ten thousand Zuo Xiaonian had given him, Zuo Xiaoduo actually had seven thousand left over.
He immediately felt rich enough to throw his weight around.
Then he carried it to his dad's Star Soul Stone shop.
"Changlu Star Soul Stone Shop."
Mm.
That was the little shop's name, perfectly suited to his dad's laid-back personality-named directly after himself, simple, straightforward, and practical.
"Pup?" Zuo Changlu was unloading a delivery, and looked quite pleasantly surprised to see his son come in. "Perfect timing. Come help carry this inside."
"..."
Zuo Xiaoduo curled his lip. What perfect timing. He had arrived just as a delivery was being unloaded. His luck... truly had no equal. He might as well accept his fate and get to work!
It was an entire heavy-duty truckload, nearly a thousand tons. Star Soul Stone was far denser than even high-grade jade; a fist-sized piece weighed over a hundred jin.
So although the truckload of Star Soul Stones didn't look like much, it was extremely heavy.
The neighboring shopkeepers all came over to help.
"Dad, you and the uncles can carry the small ones. I'll take the big ones."
Drenched in sweat, Zuo Xiaoduo scrambled to do more of the work, carrying everything into the shop on his back. Finally, there were several enormous Star Soul Stones weighing tens of thousands of jin each. Father and son panted heavily as they shifted them off with several people's help, leaving everyone so exhausted their tongues hung out.
"We should've had Sister Xiao Nian come..." Zuo Xiaoduo's tongue lolled out. If Zuo Xiaonian had been there, she could have lifted the entire truckload off with one hand.
"Heh..." Zuo Changlu rolled his eyes at his son. "If you'd amounted to anything, even if you'd only reached martial warrior by now, you could have unloaded it all by yourself without getting out of breath, Lord Junior Martial Disciple."
Zuo Xiaoduo felt his breath catch. "Dad, I have my pride too," he said miserably.
"...A junior Martial Disciple who's cultivated for five years still wants his pride? Have you no shame..."
Zuo Changlu scoffed. "Out with it. What are you here for? Let me make this clear first: I have no money! If you want money, go ask your mom."
Zuo Xiaoduo looked thoroughly aggrieved. "I just wanted to come help you out... watch the shop for a while."
Zuo Changlu snorted. "No need to help... school starts the day after tomorrow, Lord Martial Disciple. You're still marking time in the Martial Disciple class, standing like a crane among chickens. I'm so proud of you."
Zuo Xiaoduo looked ready to cough up blood.
This was a sore spot for him. Most Martial Disciples were children of eight, nine, or ten, but Zuo Xiaoduo was seventeen and still marking time in the Martial Disciple class. Held back for five years, he had already become a huge joke.
He really did stand like a crane among chickens. Zuo Xiaoduo was not only the oldest but also the tallest; even his tallest classmate only came up to his shoulder... it was humiliating.
The shopkeepers who had come to help immediately burst out laughing.
One of them offered some encouragement. "I reckon Xiaoduo's a late bloomer. He'll definitely graduate! Don't you agree, Xiaoduo?"