Chapter 7 : Recalling the Memories

Qu Chi did not move and his two black eyes similar to cold stars were staring at Meng Zhong Guang.

Meng Zhong Guang showed some doubts and ordered: "… Quickly go."

Qu Chi still remained immobile.

Xu Xing Zhi reacted slightly more quickly then Meng Zhong Guang: "This time, although you didn"t protect me, I will not deduct your candies. However, make sure there is no repeat of this mistake in the future."

Meng Zhong Guang: "…"

Qu Chi happily asked: "Really?"

Xu Xing Zhi affirmed: "Really."

Qu Chi"s figure moved and instantly disappeared in front of them.

Immediately, the forest once again echoed out several weak screams.

After chasing away Qu Chi, Xu Xing Zhi looked at the Animal Hide Man who was dying and said with a frown: "This person came after me?"

Only when Meng Zhong Guang and Xu Xing Zhi was left alone, the former showed an unusually innocent look with his hands behind, as if the mud on the ground had nothing to do with him: “… Yes."

Xu Xing Zhi understood instantly.

In this case then he f.u.c.king deserved it.

After Xu Xing Zhi became quiet, Meng Zhong Guang disposed the Asura(1) looking face he had from just now until nothing was left. He carefully stepped next to Xu Xing Zhi" side: "Senior Brother… Was I too reckless just now?"

Just now, this big wolf kept a straight face as he cracked the bones of others and now he changed his face into a puppy. Seeing this, Xu Xing Zhi felt very guilty.

Meng Zhong Guang was a character written by him. When Xu Xing Zhi first created the setting, he swung his brush and wrote how he was bloodthirsty, violent, p.r.o.ne to anger and was a tyrant. This was all set up by him as the nature of Meng Zhong Guang.

In the end, it"s still Xu Xing Zhi"s fault, so he was not fearful of him but in fact, his conscience was somewhat hurting.

… Son, I"m sorry, it"s Dad who made you this way.

Moreover, Meng Zhong Guang who had lived in the wilderness for more than ten years much had been accustomed to the days where it"s kill or be killed. Now that his territory had been invaded, it was not difficult to understand his cruel reaction.

Besides, they suddenly came to capture him. Most likely, they wanted to use him to deal against Meng Zhong Guang.

If he was captured, his situation would not be better. He might even die in their hands.

In addition, being kind and soft-hearted to the enemy who came to bully him on their own initiative was also inconsistent with Xu Xing Zhi"s style of conduct.

In terms of cruelty, yesterday he killed the razor monster with a dagger that original purpose was to kill Meng Zhong Guang, and the technique he used was not that kind either.

However, although Xu Xing Zhi could understand, this did not mean that the original owner who brought Meng Zhong Guang up from childhood could understand.

Xu Xing Zhi made a look of indifference and kicked the Animal Hide Man in his face with his toes. “I have use for him, keep his life.”

Immediately, he quietly stepped further away from Meng Zhong Guang.

Behind him, the light in Meng Zhong Guang"s eyes dimmed and his fingers squeezed tightly. There was a strong sense of regret in his eyes.

… If it weren"t for this b.a.s.t.a.r.d that dared to hold Senior Brother in front of him, he would never have had lost control of his emotions and be so ruthless, spoiling his image in front of Senior Brother.

Meng Zhong Guang silently organized his bad mood and once again faced the sky and whistled.

Receiving the summon, the Skeleton Girl soon appeared from the bamboo forest on the other side.

She avoided Xu Xing Zhi as she strolled to Meng Zhong Guang.

Meng Zhong Guang whispered a few words to her and she responded with a “Yes”. She calmly lifted up the garbage-like Animal Hide Man and headed to the inside of the tower.

During this period, she did not make any eye contact with Xu Xing Zhi.

Xu Xing Zhi was considerate enough to not look at her. He turned his sight to the forest where Qu Chi was cleaning up the remaining enemies. He was pondering in his own thoughts.

… Xu Xing Zhi did not intend to kill Meng Zhong Guang for the time being. As such, his first priority in the wilderness was to survive.

He clearly remembered that the "Knowledge of the World" told him that Meng Zhong Guang and his group were planning to escape from the wilderness to return to the real world for revenge.

And Meng Zhong Guang and his people were not the only gang in the wilderness.

Xu Xing Zhi was also clueless about the situation with the other branches; such as where they were located and the size of their forces.

More importantly, where was the exit of the wilderness? How do you even escape from the wilderness?

Xu Xing Zhi knew in his heart that his appearance in the wilderness was too abrupt. For Zhou Bei Nan to suspect that he was a spy was more than just a reasonable thing. Meng Zhong Guang, however, was willing to take him in and trusted him in every way. Most likely, the reasons was that his head was drowned by the old friendship between Senior and Junior Brothers.

If he took these questions recklessly to Meng Zhong Guang and aroused his suspicion, the one being pressed onto the ground and having his spine broken one by one would be him.

In short, Xu Xing Zhi needed a reliable source of information.

At present, this was a source of information that came knocking on his door. It was another question as to whether it"s reliable or not reliable. But something was better than nothing.

When the Skeleton Girl left, Meng Zhong Guang turned back to Xu Xing Zhi"s side and gently asked: "I planted this forest. Does it look familiar to Senior Brother?"

… To be honest, Xu Xing Zhi really did felt a little familiarity after staring for a while.

In the fragmented memory of the original owner, it seemed that there really had existed such a brilliant redwood forest as bright as fire.

This redwood forest seemed to have induced a certain section of Xu Xing Zhi"s memory. At first, the memory clip was only as big as a copper coin, but with the pa.s.sage of time, it gradually enlarged and cleared up.

A sudden burst of intense vertigo paralyzed Xu Xing Zhi"s five senses instantly.

Xu Xing Zhi stood unsteadily and fell backwards.

In his trance, he heard someone calling him Senior Brother frantically again and again.

It seemed that a sampan emerged from the vast sea of knowledge and a complete picture appeared in Xu Xing Zhi"s mind.

… This was Xu Xing Zhi"s first completed fragment of information from his broken memory.

The late autumn redwood trees had dyed a ripe persimmon red all over the mountains.

The unbroken mountain stretch was named Ling Qiu. The chain of mountains were like a woman"s pair of beautiful eyebrows, lined up layer by layer.

The clouds converged at the end of the sky and at the edge of the flat sh.o.r.e water. A young boy was sitting at the foot of a blue rock at a source of the stream.

He used reed gra.s.s to make a long coat. His hands held a fist-sized, peculiar-coloured fragrant fruit and he was gnawing at it like it was an ordinary wild berry.

A blast of spiritual energy rippled towards him but the young boy remained unmoved. He continued to bury his head and slowly bit away.

As the wind pa.s.sed, two elementary junior disciples from Ying Tianchuan landed in front of the young boy.

The clothing color of Ying Tianchuan"s disciples were all uniform. This made it easy to ident.i.ty them. It was a purplish blue as the base colour coupled with bronze clouds pattern on the shoulder sleeve.

As to why they can be identified as the outer disciples, their hands held a white oak long spear; this was unlike the higher ranking disciples of Ying Tianchuan who all had a long steel spear made of evil matters and bones(2).

Facing the young boy, they both pursed up their eyebrows.

The taller disciple pointed at him with his spear and unpolitely said: "Where did you get the Fuyu fruit you"re holding from?"

The young boy wiped the juice from the corner of his mouth and pointed to the west side.

The shorter man was suspicious: "Inside of Ling Qiu is a beast called ‘Yong"(3), and Fuyu fruit is its favourite food. This fruit only bears seeds every five years and there are no more than 100 of them. If anyone dares to s.n.a.t.c.h this fruit so valued by ‘Yong", it will suck all of the water and blood in the person"s body before it stops… Who are you to actually compete with ‘Yong"?"

The young boy slowly took a bite on the fruit and said ambiguously, “I want to eat it. If it doesn"t give me it, I"ll grab it.”

The taller man looked at the young boy and found that besides his delicate and beautiful appearance like a woman, he had no spiritual energy at all. He looked like an ordinary child even though his tone of voice was somewhat disdainful: “Huh, what a grand speech.”

The shorter man nudged at the taller man"s arm and motioned at him to look at the boy"s feet.

The tall man took a breath of cold air when he looked closely.

Five to six Fuyu fruits were pierced into a string by a vine and bound around the boy"s ankle. It was shaking and tangling and the two pairs of eyes were coveting it.

Seeing the situation, the taller man immediately softened his att.i.tude: “This Young Master?"

The young boy merely glanced at them as he gnawed at the core of the Fuyu fruit and swept the soft juicy pulp into his mouth.

The taller man did not want to beg to this unlucky child who came from nowhere, but considering their current situation, he had to suppress his contempt and said, “… Young Master, we are disciples of Ying Tianchuan. I wonder if you have ever heard of the name Ying Tianchuan?"

The young boy refused to say yes or no and did not answer.

The shorter man continued the conversation regardless. He held his spear as he clasped his hands together respectfully. "There are four Immortal Sects in this world. One of them is Ying Tianchuan, which we are part of. Every two years we will hold a tribute, consisting of a variety of sacrifices, to honor the Eastern Emperor. However, this ceremonial ritual later turned into a compet.i.tion between the four sects. If you are able to get the most sacrifices within a limited time period, then you will be able to sacrifice to the Eastern Emperor. The top-ranked disciple who offers his tribute to the Emperor will then have the opportunity to become an inner disciple…"

He pointed to the Fuyu fruit on the boy"s ankle, and his eyes couldn"t help but revealed a greedy look: "There exist Fuyu fruits on the Ling Qiu Mountain, but us and our disciple brothers lack the spiritual strength and do not dare to set foot into the "Yong"s" territory. This Young Master, could you share one Fuyu fruit with us?"

As soon as the young boy lifted his leg, a Fuyu fruit broke away from the vine and fell into his hands.

He wiped the fruit and sweetly said, “It"s not as tasty as the rumors say, but I won"t give it to you.”

Both the tall and the short man frowned together: “Why?”

“I don"t like either of you.” The young boy bit a puffy Fuyu fruit with a clear voice that contained a kind of naivety and arrogance. “I grew up in the mountains and don"t really know much about etiquette, but at least I know that when asking for something, you should kneel down and beg me, instead of standing up straight in front of me."

The two men faces immediately changed.

"Do not refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!"

The young boy ignored them and jumped down from the blue rock and stepped on the water.

In merely an instance, the taller man brandished his spear and aimed to slam it into the young boy"s neck.

The spear was pointed at the young boy, but the young boy was not afraid. His beautiful peach eyes swept over the two, and with a bit of contempt, he said: "This is my fruit, I don"t wish to give it to you."

The taller man with the spear didn"t listen to him and instead ordered the shorter man: "Go, take the fruit."

The shorter man bent down and made a greedy gesture to steal the fruit.

The young boy"s lips perked up with laughter and pinched his fingers together.

The corner of his eyes flashed a scarlet cinnabar and the cinnabar mole on his forehead also lit up brightly.

Under the earth mantle, there was a rustling sound as if there were countless strange snakes swimming beneath it, and the surface soil on the ground was moving up and down. It seemed that a monster might break out at any time.

The shorter man staggered and he deeply stabbed the white oak spear into the ground before he was able to stabilize himself. He panickedly said, “… Is the ‘Yong" coming?"

The tall man gritted his teeth: “Let"s do it! Take the Fuyu fruit and we"ll go!”

The shorter man stretched out his hand, but he heard spiritual energy whistling through the air. A three-inch flaming knife flew and pierced through the sky. It embedded itself to the short man"s sleeve with enough force to make the man"s entire boody fly backward and nailed securely on a nearby redwood tree!

The young boy couldn"t help being shocked. The tightly clinging index finger and thumb were immediately separated, and the red glow at the edge of his eyes and forehead dispersed.

He looked around for the owner of the flying knife.

The shorter man was nailed so hard that he swatted at the flames on his sleeve in panic. The taller man immediately withdrew the long spear pointing to the void: “Who is it? Which basta…”

The word “b.a.s.t.a.r.d” had yet so be spoken and he was also hit by a three-inch flying knife that pierced into his sleeve. His body flow and pinned him to another tree trunk. The long spear in his hand rolled down and fell into the stream beside the young boy.

The tall and short disciples tried their best to free their sleeves from the flying knife but their spiritual energy was closely sewn between their sleeves and tree trunks. They could not even tear their sleeves off.

The taller man choked back his fear and shouted, “Who is it?”

His ending word trembled irrepressibly.

After a while, a mocking voice came from the top of the deep and dense forest: “… I am your conscience. You haven"t spoken to me for a long time. I"m very sad."

The taller man was more than just fl.u.s.tered and he shouted, “Who"s playing tricks there? Get out here if you dare! Don"t you dare try to make any trouble!”

Before the culprit came out, dozens of three-inch flying knives flashed brightly as they shot out of the woods and plunged into the trunk of the tree. The blades made a detailed human sketch of the two men.

When the two were so scared that their legs were shaking, a white shadow came down slowly from the forest accompanied by jingling bells.

The person stood empty-handed with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore snow-white clothes, wearing a dark black cotton cloud cap, and his long hair was simply pulled up by a moire hairband. He tiptoed lightly and landed in front of the gurgling stream.

A hexagonal bell was tied to the wrist of the person, which was the source of the jingling sound.

Just now, the two tall and short men who were both angry, after seeing the man"s appearance, were even more frightened than they had just been: “… Xu… Senior Brother Xu?”

The young boy stood curiously in the stream, looking up at the young and handsome young man.

The young man, who was called “Senior Brother Xu” by the two men, walked slowly to the stream. He reached out his right hand and turned his palm upside down before making a grasping motion. The knives that nailed the two brothers flew back to him. The blade then melted into a bamboo fracture fan.

He shook the fan in his hand twice, his eyes containing a smile.

The curiosity in the young boy"s eyes grew.

The tall and short brothers fell from the tree to the ground, their shirts were torn and grey.

The shorter disciple"s cuff was burnt black by the fire and his hands pleaded urgently: "Senior Brother Xu, don"t get us wrong, we only saw that this child has Fuyu fruits with him, so we wanted to show concern…"

The youth walked to the side of the boy and bowed his head. He happened to see the Fuyu fruit that had been strung up by vines next to his ankles.

Perhaps the youth was born too handsome, the young boy was somehow shy and unconsciously hid his feet behind him.

When the youth saw the treasured fruit that had been casually strung up together, his eyebrows flicked.

He boldly touched the young boy"s soft hair casually and patted again. He asked them: "Let me ask you, is this child a ‘Yong"?"

The young boy"s lips twitched but he resisted the discomfort of being touched and did not move.

Both the tall and the short dared not to make any noise.

The youth asked patiently again: “I"m asking both of you, is this a ‘Yong"?”

The taller man answered in a weak voice, “No…”

The youth lightly flicked the end of his robe. He loosened his grip on the young boy and waded across the stream before coming to the two disciples. He stooped down and asked, “If he is not a ‘Yong", then why do you care about him? When something gets to someone else"s hand, it belongs to them. Both of you are good, why don"t you point an iron spear at someone"s neck? I ask you, is it “want” or is it “rob?"

The shorty was about to cry: “Yes, it"s robbing…”

The youth"s face was congealed. He clapped the fan together and tapped them on the heads of two disciples with the handle of the fan. He scolded them and said, “Rob, rob. Robbing the possesion of others is really promising. Is that what Zhou Bei Nan taught you?"

The author has something to say:

Senior Brother"s diary:  On a certain year, a certain month, a certain day, a certain location, I picked up a harmless little Zhong Guang. I am happy.

Zhong Guang"s diary: On a certain year, a certain month, a certain day, a certain location, my future wife came knocking on my door. I am happy.

Footnotes: