The afternoon sunlight was just right.
Xu Qing walked out of Red Mountain Academy's gates alone.
Overall, he was in a fairly good mood. At the end of the day, he was not really a child. His mind had long since matured, and he did not care at all what others thought.
A few pedestrians passed along the roadside. Aolai City's streets were not particularly bustling.
Xu Qing walked leisurely, still recalling the meditation method he had learned in class that afternoon.
Thinking over the details of cultivation, he turned into an alley on his way home.
But the instant he stepped into the alley, the scenery around him changed dramatically.
His surroundings transformed wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The sky darkened in an instant, and the entire alley sank into deathly silence and gloom.
"What's going on?"
Did I transmigrate again?!
Xu Qing steadied himself and looked up to find countless thick chains suspended in midair.
These chains were not forged from real steel but formed from a special kind of energy.
He followed the chains with his gaze and saw a ball of light wrapped in layer upon layer of countless energy chains.
A faint voice reached him in broken intervals. "Help me... help me!"
Xu Qing was just about to ask a question and reached forward. In an instant, the gray, gloomy scenery around him shattered like a broken mirror, vanishing with a crash.
Light and shadow flickered before his eyes, and the familiar alley came back into view.
Xu Qing shook his head, only recovering after a while.
What exactly happened just now?
Deep within the Douluo Continent, in a strange space, countless chains tightly entwined a ball of seven-colored light, just like those Xu Qing had seen moments before.
Suddenly, the seven-colored ball erupted with intense seven-colored radiance, and the entire space began to tremble. The chains enclosing it first tightened, but seemingly unable to withstand the energy bursting from the ball of light, cracks appeared along them.
Suddenly, a furious shout rang throughout the strange space. "Wretched beast, you still dare resist!"
Before the words had faded, a middle-aged man abruptly appeared. An enormous hammer manifested in his hand, seven-colored light flowing across its surface as an overwhelming, destructive presence surged forth.
He swept his hand, and the enormous hammer bore down viciously upon the seven-colored ball of light with the force of ten thousand tons.
Clearly, the ball of light was no pushover either.
Seven-colored radiance erupted once more, meeting the hammer's attack head-on. A deafening crash exploded through the space, making the entire space tremble slightly.
There was not a trace of hesitation in the middle-aged man's eyes. Divine power surged around him, all of it pouring into the seven-colored hammer. The hammer swelled enormously once more and again came crashing down upon the seven-colored ball of light.
This time, the seven-colored ball of light clearly had little strength left to resist and was in an utterly wretched state. Even so, it mustered every last bit of its strength, gathering one final strike to collide with the enormous hammer again. Energy churned wildly all around, the space trembling continuously under the impact as the chains clanged.
In the end, the seven-colored ball of light could not withstand the divine power contained within the enormous hammer.
Its radiance slowly receded, and the surrounding chains instantly lit up with golden brilliance, tightly binding and enclosing the seven-colored ball of light once more.
The middle-aged man suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Brother Hao, how are you? Are you all right?" A woman in a pale blue dress hurriedly supported him and asked with concern.
The middle-aged man wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and shook his head lightly. "I'm fine. Damn it, what's wrong with this thing? Hadn't it already accepted its fate? Why did it suddenly start resisting again?"
Suddenly, as though remembering something important, he turned toward the woman and asked, "Third Sister, has there been any word from the Ancient Golden Tree? Has it agreed to cooperate?"
The woman slowly shook her head.
A trace of ruthlessness flashed through the middle-aged man's eyes. "Damn it. Since it refuses to cooperate, we can only find an opportunity to get rid of it."
The woman in blue looked hesitant, but the words reached her lips without being spoken.
The middle-aged man understood her concerns and said flatly, "If Xiao San hadn't stepped in back then and helped it grow, it would never have reached where it is today. Now we're merely asking for its life, and nothing more. Ungrateful thing."
The woman sighed softly and nodded. "Let's hope everything goes smoothly according to Xiao San's plan."
On a street in Aolai City,
A little girl crouched beside the stone steps at the roadside.
Her face was dirty, and her clothes were somewhat tattered, making her look every bit a little beggar.
Yet she had long silver hair that fell loosely around her, and her large eyes were clear and bright, like flawless amethysts.
At first, the little girl had simply crouched there quietly, occasionally looking around in confusion.
But just then, a violent headache abruptly struck her. She immediately clutched her head with both hands, squeezed her eyes shut, and clenched her teeth.
It was as though she was trying her hardest to remember something.
A moment later, she suddenly opened her eyes. All the confusion in them had faded, replaced by clarity and awareness.
She looked around and murmured, "How did I end up here? Damn it, who ambushed me while I was taking human form?"
Just then,
Several thuggish young men sauntered over.
They immediately noticed the silver-haired little girl standing by the roadside with a cold expression.
Though the little girl's clothes were tattered, her rare long silver hair and purple eyes were particularly eye-catching.
"Little girl, where are your parents?"
The little girl's expression remained cold. She had no desire to pay them any attention.
The young men exchanged glances, amusement flashing in their eyes. One of them said quietly, "Silver hair like that is so rare. She might be from another race on one of the other two continents. And look, her eyes are purple too. Looks that unusual would definitely be hot merchandise on the underground black market."
At his words, intense greed instantly surged in the others' eyes, and they all nodded discreetly.
The young man in the lead spoke teasingly. "Hey, little girl, where's your family?"
As he spoke, he reached out to grab her.
But just as his fingertips were about to touch her sleeve, the little girl abruptly raised her head. Her amethyst-like eyes held nothing but bone-chilling cold.
"Keep your paws off me."
Her voice was quiet, yet it carried an inexplicable sense of pressure.
The young man's hand froze in midair. An inexplicable chill gripped his heart, and he instinctively stopped moving.
But the urging of his companions behind him made him steel his nerve again. He scoffed. "Oh, quite a fierce little brat, aren't you? Come along quietly, and you'll get your share of benefits."
Before his words had faded, an invisible force abruptly spread outward.
Bang!
The young man who had reached out gave a muffled groan. His entire body flew backward uncontrollably and slammed heavily into the ground, leaving him in too much pain to get up for a long while.
The others' expressions changed drastically. They hastily retreated, staring in terror at the silver-haired little girl in tattered clothes before them.
"Y-you, who are you?!"
The little girl slowly rose to her feet, her purple eyes sweeping over them as she said coldly, "Come any closer, and it won't be so simple."
Not far away, Xu Qing, who had just emerged from that bizarre alley, happened to pass by and witnessed the entire scene.
He stopped in his tracks, his stunned gaze settling on the silver-haired, purple-eyed little girl.
Fuck! What the hell is going on?