Xiaojun blinked slowly, gathering all his strength to look around. As he opened his eyes, a bright light entered and pierced his pupils, causing an intense burning sensation.
Xiaojun pressed hard on both his eyeballs, even rolling around to endure the stinging pain. He screamed loudly, but the scream faded away without reaching any end. The pain wouldn't go away, driving Xiaojun to forcefully remove his eyes. As his left hand pulled out his left eye, the pain began to subside, so Xiaojun abandoned the idea of removing his right eye.
His right eye slowly opened; the light that entered this time was gentler. His vision was slightly obscured by blood from his right pupil, which he had pressed on. Xiaojun looked in every direction, finding only an empty, meaningless expanse.
"Where is this?" Xiaojun asked himself. He stared at his left eye, now detached in his left hand. A moment later, his head throbbed. At first, Xiaojun ignored it, but it grew increasingly painful, as if being stabbed by a thousand knives simultaneously. His memories collided and shattered, leaving only the image of a 5-year-old little girl beside him. Xiaojun couldn't see her face clearly because it was covered by clouds.
"Who is that child?" Xiaojun held his heavy head, trying to remember despite the agonizing pain. His head throbbed again, showing a glitched image of the 5-year-old girl being decapitated. Instantly, the room turned black and was filled with blood.
"What does that mean?! Why was that child decapitated?!" Xiaojun's eyes widened. The more curious he became, the stronger the pain grew. He screamed while banging his head downward. The impact was so hard that it cracked the floor of the room, as Xiaojun slammed his head once more.
Crack!
The empty room cracked and then shattered like glass, reflecting Xiaojun's desperate face and the few remaining memories. Xiaojun's vision was pitch black at first; after a moment, he slowly opened his eyes and saw two people in front of him. It was Zhen Ji and Nan Yun, who were looking at Xiaojun like a monster, their eyebrows furrowed and their bodies in a wary stance, ready to attack.
Xiaojun looked at the backs of his hands. His right hand held a sword made of ice, which made the surrounding temperature cold. He felt something on his face—a mask. His left hand slowly removed the mask, revealing a silver eye with sharp pupils like a fox's, staring at Zhen Ji and his younger brother Nan Yun.
At first, Xiaojun simply looked at them like a lost brother and sister. But when Nan Yun emitted a killing intent that made Xiaojun feel threatened, he immediately drew his sword in front of Nan Yun.
As Xiaojun moved toward Nan Yun, the surrounding trees became coated with ice crystals. Xiaojun's movement couldn't be detected by either Zhen Ji or Nan Yun. When the sword was drawn, Zhen Ji and Nan Yun trembled in fear, sweating profusely; even Nan Yun's legs went weak instantly.
"Who are you two? Why are you so eager to fight me when your bodies are already like rotten fruit, so disheveled?" Xiaojun said flatly, looking at the two of them. Xiaojun seemed like a different person; he was no longer just a 6-year-old child.
"X-Xiaojun, you cannot break our agreement! Don't you feel any pity for your little sister, Xiao Mei?" Zhen Ji mustered the courage to speak in front of Xiaojun, who was still holding his sword. Zhen Ji pulled Nan Yun behind him, along with Zhou Ying, who was still lying unconscious on the ground.
"Huh? Little sister? Xiao Mei? Who is that? Xiaojun? Who are all these people? All I know is that I was being attacked by hundreds of blood moon wolves while trying to go back into the forest." Xiaojun spoke calmly but with curiosity. Xiaojun grew a very translucent silver fox tail, and the silver fox mark along his meridian path was visibly glowing. His right hand, which was holding the ice sword, lowered and made the sword disappear.
A few seconds later, Xiaojun experienced a throbbing in his head. It was so strong, as if he were being stabbed by thousands or even hundreds of knives simultaneously. He held his head, moving it in circles.
Zhen Ji and Nan Yun, watching this, grew more wary and stepped back a few paces while carrying the twin siblings, Zhou Ying. Xiaojun screamed loudly, emitting a white light like silver. That light shot high into the sky, signaling that the predator was beginning to rise.
"Damn it! If I weren't so badly injured, I could definitely take Zhou Ying and Nan Yun away from here!" Zhen Ji cursed himself for not being able to protect his younger siblings.
"Nan Yun! You prepare to leave and carry the unconscious Zhou Ying back to the house! Please call Bai Ming to help me if I don't return within 30 minutes!" Zhen Ji measured his words carefully in an uncertain situation, prioritizing his younger siblings' safety by protecting them as they went home safely.
"Yes! Okay, brother!" Nan Yun carried his younger brother on his back and ran as fast as he could toward the house. Only 300 meters remained; it wouldn't take Nan Yun long to get there, but that was only if he didn't encounter any other obstacles.
"Good! Nan Yun and Zhou Ying have gotten far away. I have no other choice but to use this. Even though it's still in the development stage, I'm forced to use it. There's no time left!" Zhen Ji took out a silver mirror that he had bought that afternoon at the capital's black market. He also took out a night moon leaf. He combined the two and then pointed the mirror toward Xiaojun, who was still in the midst of a massive energy explosion.
At first, nothing happened, but after a fraction of a second, the mirror reacted by releasing a large chain that began to writhe and bind Xiaojun's hands and feet. Several times the chain broke before properly binding Xiaojun. The mirror also used its user's energy to release a strong chain. The greater the user's energy, the stronger the chain—perhaps strong enough to lock down a high-level beast.
Zhen Ji had already lost a lot of his energy while fighting the blood moon wolves, so the power he released wasn't enough to lock Xiaojun. Zhen Ji desperately gave his life energy to the mirror to increase its binding power. His body began to emit a very strong death energy. Xiaojun was just moments away from being sealed, but Zhen Ji had already lost his vision. He began to lie down weakly. In the dimness, he saw Xiaojun also lose consciousness at the same moment.
The two of them lay collapsed in poor condition. The environment, once filled with animals and bamboo plants, was now destroyed. All that remained were piles of blood moon wolf corpses and holes from the fierce battle. The silver light that had shot high into the sky slowly began to fade, returning to the darkness of the night.
"Big brother seems to have succeeded!" The twin Gu siblings who saw this thought that their brother had successfully dealt with Xiaojun. They had entered the Gu family courtyard, and the protector had shielded them from the lurking danger. Nan Yun, carrying his younger brother Zhou Ying, immediately went inside the house to call the Gu family's private physician.
"Physician Wo Lang, where are you! Hurry and help Zhou Ying!" Nan Yun shouted loudly. His voice echoed throughout the house, causing their second and first brothers to come out.
"Nan Yun, what's wrong with you, making noise like this in the middle of the night?" Bai Ming, the second brother of the Gu family, came out of his room rubbing his still-sleepy eyes. How surprised he was to see his younger brother injured; he even cracked the floor just from his emitted energy.
"Nan Yun, who injured your twin brother?" Bai Ming asked in a heavy tone, his face showing deep anger as he moved recklessly out of the house. Meanwhile, their eldest brother remained calm. He took medicine and immediately began healing the injured Zhou Ying.
"Nan Yun, what happened? Where did you two come from?" asked Gu Yang Xu, the eldest brother of the Gu family. He was the clearest thinker in situations that might cause others to raise their anger.
"The two of us were sent by father to help big brother Zhen Ji at the bamboo forest over there. He was being chased by a pack of Blood Moon Wolves. When we arrived there, big brother Zhen Ji was carrying an injured person. That person was wearing a fox mask. Big brother Zhen Ji had used a demon concept curse to defeat the wolves, but he had reached his limit. So the two of us helped fight them. Since the wolves were endless, we were forced to retreat. Big brother Zhen Ji carried the person wearing the mask, and the two of us—Zhou Ying and I—were ordered by big brother to protect the rear and the front.
"I guarded the front, and my younger brother Zhou Ying guarded the rear. We managed to walk about 200 meters from that place, but Zhou Ying was hit by one of the wolves' attacks and was thrown to the ground, making big brother Zhen Ji and me angry. Just as we were about to attack them, suddenly the surrounding air froze, and then all the wolves froze and shattered into nothing. At that moment, we saw the person big brother Zhen Ji had been carrying standing before us, holding an ice sword. I intended to attack him if he dared to touch big brother Zhen Ji, but... that person suddenly appeared in front of me with his sword drawn." Nan Yun explained to Yang Xu.
Yang Xu's face turned pale when he realized that the person Bai Ming was about to face was a dangerous monster. He accelerated the healing of his younger brother Zhou Ying and hurried to catch up with Bai Ming and Zhen Ji to prevent chaos.
"Nan Yun, you take care of your brother. I will go get the others!" Yang Xu rushed quickly, teleporting to reach the place Nan Yun had mentioned.
When Yang Xu arrived, he only saw chaos—many Blood Moon Wolf corpses and scattered bamboo stalks. He looked around for Zhen Ji and Bai Ming.
How surprised he was to see both of his younger brothers lying on the ground. There he also saw a fox spirit carrying the person Nan Yun had mentioned. He paid his respects to the fox spirit.
"Forgive me for disturbing you, Senior!" Yang Xu bowed before the fox spirit. His focus now was only to take his younger brothers home. Cold sweat dripped from his face to the ground. He held his breath as the spirit gazed at him.
"Take them both away, and never disturb this child again," the fox spirit replied. Then it disappeared from Yang Xu's sight.
Yang Xu could finally breathe a sigh of relief once the spirit had left. "Hah... Finally. Damn it, my two foolish younger brothers had to go and get involved with a creature like that."