Curse? Or Favor?

The sun sank behind the western mountains as dusk fell.

As Big Girl animatedly recounted how she had met the Deception Rabbit, news of the "spirit creature migration" spread throughout the village.

At first, the adults did not believe what the children said.

But some of the village elders were uncertain what to believe when they heard the name "Deception Beast."

Then, toward evening, Li Yu returned from the hunting cabin in the mountains.

After he confirmed that the mountains had indeed been unsettled lately, a wordless panic began to spread through the village.

If it had only been Big Girl's account, the village could have chosen whether or not to believe it.

But once Li Yu corroborated it,

even a one-in-ten-thousand chance was enough to cause concern.

After all, few people in the village had savings, much less the means to make a living elsewhere.

If the spring plowing was disrupted this year, even if everyone ultimately escaped death at the hands of the migrating beasts and spirit creatures, they were bound to be unable to survive the winter.

"I have to go into the mountains again tomorrow, and this time I'm going deeper."

At the dinner table, Li Yu ate as he quietly explained this to Chen Yun.

"Don't go!"

"Didn't you hear what Big Girl said?"

"That Deception Rabbit specifically warned you not to go into the mountains again."

Gazing worriedly at her husband across the table, Chen Yun opposed him for once.

"You're the head of the family. If anything happens to you, it'll be hard for our child and me to survive."

Chen Yun understood that, and Li Yu understood it even better.

But it was precisely because he understood that he was all the more determined to enter the mountains tomorrow.

"I know, but we've spent all our savings, haven't we?"

"If the harvest is poor again this year, we won't make it through the winter."

To ensure Li Boyang was born safely, Li Yu and Chen Yun had spent nearly all their savings.

Even without the spirit creature migration, Li Yu would have had to find a way to save more money, let alone now that they had this on their hands.

"But..."

Chen Yun opened her mouth, then hesitated. In the end, she could not bring herself to urge Li Yu again.

"Yun'er, don't worry. I'll be careful."

"Don't forget, I'm the finest hunter within a hundred li!"

"They're just a few spirit creatures holding a grudge!"

"If they really dare come looking for trouble, my bow and arrows aren't just for show!"

Watching Chen Yun silently put food in his bowl, Li Yu grinned foolishly as usual, seemingly hoping to comfort his wife that way.

"..."

In the room, Li Boyang listened quietly to the conversation coming from outside, unable to suppress a trace of guilt.

If they had not spent so much money on his birth,

with Li Yu and Chen Yun's savings, a poor harvest for a year or two would not have affected their normal lives at all.

Not to mention, it was also because of him that those spirit creatures in the mountains had set their sights on Li Yu.

Li Boyang did not know how much longer Xiluo's deterrence would keep those spirit creatures in check.

But given Li Boyang's character, sitting by and watching it happen was clearly not his style.

That wildcat... hasn't come by for a while, has she?

As he pondered this, the Heavenly Eye between Li Boyang's brows quietly opened and looked toward the mountain god temple on Flying Peak.

Yet, just as with every previous sweep, Li Boyang saw no sign of Xiluo in the temple.

This time, however, Li Boyang did not stop there.

Instead, he continued using the Heavenly Eye between his brows to conduct a careful, thorough search of the area within a hundred li.

Li Boyang took particular care to mark every place where spirit creatures frequently appeared.

With this carpet search,

Li Boyang soon spotted the fiery footprints Xiluo had left behind in a place shrouded in black mist.

After Xiluo transformed into her red leopard form, clouds of fire sprang up beneath her feet.

Those fire clouds not only gave Xiluo the ability to fly,

but also left distinctive footprints where the flames scorched the earth whenever she walked on the ground.

Of course, whenever Xiluo assumed her red leopard form, it also meant she had entered combat mode.

From those jumbled fiery footprints, it was clear

that Xiluo had fought here, and that it had been a fierce battle.

An opponent troublesome enough to give that wildcat a hard time?

Recalling the scene of the red leopard confronting Ruifu, Li Boyang felt a faint sense of danger.

Following the fiery footprints farther, Li Boyang found that Xiluo seemed to have entered a patch of black mist at the end of the trail.

Unfortunately, that was as far as Li Boyang could track her.

When Li Boyang tried to see through the black mist, he was astonished to find that even his Heavenly Eye could not penetrate it.

The black mist shrouded everything, and within it was nothing but darkness.

Interesting. Does this black mist come from Black Cloud Marsh?

As he pondered this, Li Boyang failed to notice that his body seemed to be quietly undergoing some kind of change.

Sizzle...

Ever since Li Boyang had killed Ruifu, Sha Qi from deep within the earth had been pouring into his body in an endless stream, never stopping for twenty-four hours a day.

To keep the Sha Qi from damaging his young body,

Li Boyang chose to circulate it through one cycle in his body before directing it separately into his Dantian, the space between his brows, and the crown of his head.

In theory, Life Primordial Qi was best suited to living beings.

The ominous Sha Qi from outside his body would naturally and inevitably bring Li Boyang all manner of changes and effects.

The Sword Pill in his lower Dantian was not a living organ, so it was affected the least.

Not only that, but Li Boyang even had a vague sense that the Sword Pill was highly compatible with Sha Qi.

The Sword Pill was even fonder of Sha Qi than of his Life Primordial Qi.

The Heavenly Eye between his brows was the next most affected.

It merely showed faint signs of a second stage of development, with nothing discernible for the time being.

Li Boyang would eventually expel the remaining Sha Qi that he truly could not absorb through the crown of his head.

But that did not mean Li Boyang had completely eliminated the effects of Sha Qi on himself.

On the contrary, his meridians and body, which contained and circulated the Sha Qi, were the most affected and changed by it.

Most noticeably, under the influence of Sha Qi, Li Boyang's flesh was continually destroyed and regenerated, gradually leaving the realm of mortal flesh and bone.

His bones became harder, his meridians tougher, and even his flesh and tissues gained an extraordinarily powerful capacity for regeneration...

By comparison, the fact that his skin was merely a little redder than an ordinary baby's was already among the most insignificant of these changes.

Especially when Li Boyang strained to see through the black mist,

the Life Primordial Qi and Qi of Earth Sha in his body inevitably began circulating faster.

And so, an entirely new transformation, one that had never before appeared in this world, was quietly taking place in Li Boyang.