Cangmang Mountain Range, Stone Village
"To rest in peace…"
Shi Yi wasn't sure how the old suanni had detected him, but its request gave him pause. What if this old beast is luring me in for a trap? His hesitation didn't escape the suanni's notice. Without a word, it coughed up a golden horn, its surface etched with dense, intricate runes.
"This is the horn I shed in my youth, inscribed with the complete Suanni Treasure Technique. Consider it payment. I ask only that you honor my body after my death, granting me a peaceful rest in the earth," the suanni said, its voice heavy with finality.
With those words, the suanni fell silent. Its towering, majestic golden form dimmed, collapsing as its final breath faded. The light in its body vanished, leaving only stillness.
"Liu Shen, is the old suanni truly dead?" Shi Yi asked cautiously.
Though his double pupils had confirmed the suanni's life force was gone—99.9% certain of its death—he refused to gamble on that 0.1% chance. Consulting Liu Shen, his ultimate safeguard, was the only way to be certain.
"Its final battle was its sublime end. It has left this world," Liu Shen replied, her tone even. She didn't understand Shi Yi's excessive caution but saw it as a virtue. Her own lack of vigilance had once led to betrayal—a knife in the back that nearly ended her. Caution was a lesson hard-learned.
"Liu Shen, don't archaic species and pureblood beasts despise humans for stealing their treasure techniques? They'd rather destroy their treasure bones than let them fall into our hands. Why would the suanni give me a horn with its technique?" Shi Yi pressed.
"Perhaps to repay a debt of kindness—a meal shared. It didn't want to owe you," Liu Shen said, her voice still calm.
"Liu Shen, if I—" Shi Yi began, but before he could finish, the glowing willow branch above him vanished.
Shrugging nonchalantly, Shi Yi summoned his six volcano-like passages, their radiant energy propelling him toward the heart of the Cangmang Mountains like a living furnace.
A dozen breaths later, he stood before the suanni's body. He examined the palm-sized golden horn, weighing his options for a moment before tossing it into one of his passages. The horn now rested beside the bone fragment inscribed with the Primordial True Explanation.
Shi Yi had no time to study the Suanni Treasure Technique now. Having accepted the horn, he felt obligated to honor the suanni's dying wish: to rest in peace.
Burying a body sounded simple, but the task was daunting. The suanni's corpse, even collapsed, spanned dozens of meters, its full height reaching a hundred. A shallow grave wouldn't do—a mere hundred-meter pit would be unearthed by passing wild beasts or variants, desecrating the body. Only a thousand-meter-deep chasm, hidden from casual scavengers, would ensure the suanni's remains stayed undisturbed.
"This is going to be a slog," Shi Yi muttered, his head aching at the thought. Unless he abandoned all honor and reneged on his promise, he had to see this through.
___
One Month Later
Covered in black mud, Shi Yi clambered out of a seemingly bottomless pit. His six volcano-like passages glowed behind him, casting a comical yet absurd light on his filthy figure.
"Pfft! What kind of nonsense is this? While my little cousin feasts in Martial King Manor, I'm out here digging holes like a savage!" Shi Yi spat out a mouthful of dirt, grumbling.
It had taken a full month, sustained by his passages' ceaseless absorption of heaven and earth's essence, to dig a thousand-meter pit. Not with his hands, of course—he'd stomped, relentlessly, using the incomplete Qilin Treasure Technique, Qilin Step, to carve out the chasm. If a qilin were alive to witness this, it would likely die of rage, mortified at the technique's use—not just an insult to the art, but to its very legacy.
"Old suanni, I kept my promise," Shi Yi said, his double pupils peering into the pit's depths, confirming the suanni's body lay secure. Hovering in midair, he raised his unremarkable right foot.
"Qilin Step!"
The void trembled, the earth split. An eight-magnitude earthquake seemed to rock the Cangmang Mountains, sending boulders tumbling. The thousand-meter pit, painstakingly dug over a month, collapsed in moments, burying the suanni's body beneath countless tons of earth and stone. It became one with the mountains, never to be disturbed.
This, surely, was what the suanni had desired: born here, died here, and now eternally part of the Cangmang Mountains.
___
One Day Later, Stone Village
"Shi Yi, you're back! Liu Shen said you were off training. Didn't expect you to be gone for two or three months," Old Patriarch Shi Yunfeng said warmly, grasping Shi Yi's arm.
Though Shi Yi was an outsider, his noble bearing was evident, and he bore the Stone surname. In a village where everyone was a Shi, he didn't feel like a stranger at all.
"I'm fine, Patriarch," Shi Yi said, shaking his head.
Fine, yes, but frustrated. Digging for a month had nearly turned him into an earthworm.
"Things haven't been peaceful in the Cangmang Mountains lately. There's talk of a humanoid beast in the depths, stomping the ground so fiercely we couldn't sleep at night," Shi Yunfeng said, a trace of fear in his voice. The disturbance had kept the village's hunting team grounded for a month, wary of crossing paths with the creature.
"Don't worry. It won't happen again," Shi Yi replied, his smile perfunctory.
Noticing the half-hearted grin, Shi Yunfeng mistook it for exhaustion. Realizing he shouldn't keep the weary boy talking, he said, "Shi Yi, rest well. Stone Village is always your home."
Without giving Shi Yi a chance to explain, the patriarch signaled a tall, sturdy woman to escort him back to his village hut.
Shi Yi didn't resist. After a month as a burrowing earthworm, he craved rest. He'd almost forgotten he was human—a noble scion, no less.
Minutes later, the robust woman—using brute strength and sheer obstinacy—dragged Shi Yi to his modest hut. Simple and unadorned, it was built by the villagers to shield him from wind and rain. Normally, a child his age would live with adults, but Shi Yi had refused. Raised sleeping beside his mother, he could handle solitude but not cohabitation with others.
"Yi'er, you're home! Tell us what you want to eat, and I'll whip it up. By the time you wake, it'll be ready," the woman said. Despite her imposing frame, she wasn't unattractive. Her skin, though not pale, was a healthy wheat tone, and her curvaceous figure was striking—a veritable juggernaut of a woman.
"Thanks, Aunt Hu," Shi Yi said, gently ushering her out and swiftly shutting the door.
"Yi'er, Hǔ Niū misses you!" Aunt Hu called, pounding on the door.
"I know, Aunt Hu. I'll visit her when I wake," Shi Yi replied.
Satisfied, Aunt Hu's footsteps retreated. Her husband had perished to a beast, leaving her with her daughter, Hǔ Niū. While Stone Village's young men were decent, Aunt Hu had her sights set on Shi Yi, the outsider with the same surname. During his absence, she'd feared her daughter's future husband was lost, nearly betrothing Hǔ Niū to another. Now, with Shi Yi back, he remained her top choice. She believed her late husband, Shi Linhu, would agree.
If there was a chance to leave the wilderness, Aunt Hu hoped Hǔ Niū could see the wider world beyond the Great Wilderness.
As her footsteps faded, Shi Yi surveyed his humble abode. A wave of unspoken bitterness welled within him. Once clad in silks, he now wore coarse cloth, reduced to burrowing like a worm in the mountains.
Sigh. Shi Hao, while you revel in the luxuries of Martial King Manor, do you ever think of your cousin, suffering out here in the distant wilderness?
_
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