Turning around, Shi Yi saw Shi Hao, his face etched with grievance, tears streaming like tiny pearls, and Qin Yining, whose expression was three parts unfamiliar, six parts aggrieved, and one part hopeful.
"Mother, Aunt, Brother, I've just returned and don't yet know what's happened at home. Let's sit down, and you can explain everything to me properly," Shi Yi said, gently patting the back of the woman in the red robe clinging to him, soothing her emotions. He signaled with his eyes for Shi Hao and Qin Yining to join him and talk.
"Yi Gege, I'm sorry, it's all my fault—"
Shi Yi cut Shi Hao off. "A real man doesn't keep saying sorry. Let me understand the situation first, then we'll talk."
"Nephew, if, after learning the truth, someone must leave the Martial King's Manor, I beg you, let it not be Hao'er. He truly knows nothing," Qin Yining said, biting her red lips, her eyes filled with pleading.
As a mother, she could endure hardship herself but couldn't bear to see her child suffer.
"Is it that serious?"
Shi Yi realized that, in his absence, the Martial King's Manor must have undergone unimaginable upheaval. Otherwise, his beautiful aunt wouldn't speak with such resolve.
"Yi'er! My Yi'er! Mother missed you so much!"
Yu Yuexian clung tightly to Shi Yi, deaf to all sounds, blind to all others. In her world, there was only Shi Yi—more precious to her than life itself. He was the candlelight in her heart. Without him, her world had plunged into darkness. Time and again, she had tried to run into the Great Wilderness alone, only to be dragged back.
"Mother, don't worry. From now on, Yi'er won't leave again!"
Shi Yi didn't know what else to say, only continuing to comfort his mother, Yu Yuexian. What could he do? He was saddled with a mother who doted on him to an extreme.
At that moment, a teenage girl stared at Shi Yi with unbridled joy.
"Young Master Yi is back?"
She was A'Man, Shi Yi's personal maid. In the years he'd been away, enduring hardships in the Great Wilderness, she had remained by the side of Shi Hao's aunt—Shi Yi's mother, Yu Yuexian.
"A'Man, prepare some tea. Your young master has trekked billions of li through the Great Wilderness and hasn't had a single sip of decent water!"
Though Shi Yi had been away for five years, he felt no hesitation returning home. He directed his maid with familiar ease.
"Yes, Young Master Yi."
A'Man wasn't stunningly beautiful, but she possessed an indescribable charm—not the seductive allure of a vixen, but a gentle, soul-soothing beauty. In this dog-eat-dog world, if Shi Yi had to name someone with true inner beauty, A'Man would be his first choice.
Not that she was unattractive—her features were refined. She was the kind of woman who seemed plain at first glance but grew more captivating the longer you looked.
About half an hour later, Shi Yi learned the full scope of events from his mother, Yu Yuexian.
The situation was grim.
The Martial King's Manor, the Rain Clan, and Demon Spirit Lake had suffered devastating losses in high-end combat power due to this incident. Multiple Venerable Realm experts had fallen, including the Martial King, the Rain King, and even the supreme lord backing Demon Spirit Lake.
The cause of it all?
Naturally, it stemmed from the Great Demon King, Shi Zhongtian—Shi Hao's grandfather. In the Hundred Clans Battlefield, he had slain a juvenile Pixiu, taking its true blood to perform a baptism for Shi Hao.
Humans killed beasts, beasts killed humans—nothing unusual there. But Shi Zhongtian, Shi Ziling's father and the Great Demon King, hadn't anticipated the chain of events that would follow.
First, the adult Pixiu hunted Shi Zhongtian, nearly devouring him several times.
Avenging one's child was only natural, justified by both emotion and reason.
At this juncture, Shi Ziling and Qin Yining, realizing Shi Ziling's father was being pursued by the adult Pixiu, found themselves unable to save him. They returned to the Martial King's Manor to seek aid.
As one of the Martial King's Manor's patriarchs, Shi Zhongtian shared blood ties with the other patriarchs, including the Martial King himself—brothers bound by the same lineage.
Thus, through the Martial King's efforts, the Manor forged an alliance with the Rain Clan and Demon Spirit Lake.
The three factions decided to each send two Venerables to rescue Shi Zhongtian: the Martial King and Old Eleven from the Manor, the Rain King and a clan elder from the Rain Clan, and Shi Ziteng's master (Shi Yi's father's mentor) along with another elder from Demon Spirit Lake.
Six Venerables, acting in unison. On paper, their combined strength was more than sufficient to save Shi Zhongtian from the jaws of an adult pure-blood Pixiu.
And indeed, there was no issue—initially.
But greed corrupted their hearts. Saving Shi Zhongtian wasn't enough. They sought to slay the Pixiu, dividing its true blood and treasure bones among the three factions.
Did humans need a reason to kill beasts?
Did they?
Perhaps not.
So, at the outset, the six Venerables from the Martial King's Manor, Rain Clan, and Demon Spirit Lake beat the Pixiu mercilessly.
After recovering briefly, Shi Zhongtian joined the fray, piling onto the Pixiu.
Rescue?
That goal had long been forgotten.
The battle darkened the heavens and shook the earth.
Barring any surprises, the adult Pixiu would meet the same fate as its juvenile offspring—gutted, its true blood extracted, its treasure bones stripped. Such was the law of the jungle.
But humans had friends, allies, kin. And a pure-blood creature like the adult Pixiu had its own comrades, allies, and kin.
Just as the Pixiu teetered on the brink of death, legend has it that Bi'an and Yazi—two of the Dragon's Nine Sons—appeared.
Bi'an and Yazi, bearing the blood of a true dragon, were far stronger than the Pixiu. Though they resided in the Lower Realm's Eight Domains, they hailed from beyond the Desolate Domain.
The Eight Domains of the Lower Realm: Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, Yellow, Cosmos, Universe, Flood, Desolate.
Bi'an and Yazi came from the Heaven Domain. Close friends of the Pixiu, they rushed to the Desolate Domain from the farthest reaches upon learning of the juvenile Pixiu's death.
They might have struggled to locate the Pixiu, but its battle—shaking the heavens and earth—drew them straight to it.
Discovering yet another shameless human ambush, Bi'an and Yazi were truly enraged.
As expected, no matter how much time passes, humans remain utterly despicable.
With Bi'an and Yazi's intervention, the Pixiu's certain death was overturned. Sensing the tide turning, the Rain Clan and Demon Spirit Lake Venerables tried to flee.
But just as the Pixiu couldn't escape when surrounded, Bi'an and Yazi had no intention of letting these Venerable Realm blood meals slip away.
No number of mortal meals could compare to the nourishment of a Venerable.
The first to fall were Demon Spirit Lake's two Venerables, including Shi Ziteng's master.
At this point, defeat was inevitable. Allies or not, when disaster struck, each fled for themselves.
The Pixiu, alone, pursued the true culprit, Shi Zhongtian—the one who had killed its only child.
Meanwhile, Shi Ziling, who had guided the group, and Shi Ziteng, who had come to assist, became burdens to Shi Zhongtian.
Shi Ziteng aside, Shi Zhongtian couldn't abandon his son, Shi Ziling, to flee. He fought the Pixiu desperately.
In the end, he was no match. Not only did he perish in its jaws, but Shi Ziling and Shi Ziteng couldn't escape either. The Pixiu chased them down, biting them to death and swallowing them whole.
In this world, miracles were scarce. As the saying went: humans needed no reason to kill beasts, and beasts needed no reason to kill humans. It was fair.
On the other front, Bi'an and Yazi, pursuing the Martial King's Manor and Rain Clan, each killed a Venerable. But instead of finishing them off, they waited for their prey to call for help.
At this time, two Martial King's Manor patriarchs guarding Stone Village, without even time to bid Shi Yi farewell, rushed to save their brothers.
The Martial King, Shi Zhongtian, and the other Manor patriarchs were all siblings by blood.
The Rain Clan and Demon Spirit Lake were no different—their patriarchs, kin as well, couldn't stand idly by.
In short, it was like the Gourd Brothers saving their grandpa—one after another, they went to their doom, until all were wiped out.
Two years later, Demon Spirit Lake had been obliterated by Bi'an and Yazi. The Rain Clan's survivors, to preserve their lineage, merged into the Stone Clan—effectively the Martial King's Manor.
Theoretically, Shi Yi—eldest and foremost, both grandson and direct heir—had become the preeminent figure in the Martial King's Manor, unmatched in status.
"Two years, and so much has happened!"
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