The path outside the back mountain had just begun to thaw from the winter snow, the ground still covered in a thin layer of ice that crunched underfoot.
Wenren Sheng casually tied his hair up high and rubbed his shoe tips back and forth on the ground, wondering if he’d slip and fall all the way down.
If he couldn’t stop halfway, he’d definitely tumble into a ball, getting his clothes all dirty.
Wenren Sheng lowered his head and looked especially fondly at the intricately patterned outer robe he wore.
He had been very poor since childhood. During the years when the clan leader moved away, Wenren Sheng hardly ever touched a single copper coin.
When he wanted to eat steamed buns, he’d go up the mountain to pick some clean, fresh wild fruits, then trade them with a kind-looking vendor for a freshly steamed bun.
After being taken in by the Mountain God, Wenren Sheng treated these hard-earned possessions even more carefully.
He thought for a moment, then took half a step back, deciding to wait for the Mountain God to come and carry him down.
While waiting, Wenren Sheng squatted down in place, picked up a small wooden stick at random, and began doodling circles on the muddy ground to pass the time.
“Sixteen is adulthood, now fifteen… so in one year, I’ll enter the Golden Core Realm.”
Though he was still far from the age to step into the cultivation world, Wenren Sheng could no longer contain his desire to become a great hero. He wished he could don his armor and roam the land dispensing justice starting tomorrow.
He muttered to himself and drew a little dog sitting on the ground.
“That means I have to stick to the Mountain God and train hard this year…”
“Stick to who?”
“Stick to the Mountain God,” Wenren Sheng answered himself. “Although Master is very powerful, Master is the Wenqu Star, and the Mountain God is the Martial God. It’s better to learn martial arts from the Mountain God.”
Halfway through, Wenren Sheng looked up and suddenly met He Mu’s eyes.
“Uh, Mountain God! Y-y-you—”
Wenren Sheng got a huge fright and instinctively tried to back away.
But the slope was steep, and he had been squatting, so he couldn’t control his body well. His figure swayed, he quickly lost balance, and he was about to topple backward headfirst.
“I’m gonna fall!” Wenren Sheng shouted.
Fortunately, He Mu grabbed his hand in time and smoothly pulled him up, allowing Wenren Sheng to escape disaster.
“It’s been years since I talked to anyone, and you react this much?” He Mu smiled, directly picked up Wenren Sheng, and set him down in a flatter spot. “Stay put and don’t move. I’ll take you down with Sword Flight.”
With that, he raised his hand and formed a Sword Art.
There was a clear chime from the nearby valley, followed by a flash of silver light. Wenren Sheng immediately felt a gust of wind pressing against his face.
He hurriedly covered his eyes with his hand and shouted against the wind, “I didn’t react that much! It’s just that the Mountain God always appears so suddenly… cough, suddenly talks to me. It’s scary!”
He Mu smiled without replying. He steadily gripped the Color Kill that was flying toward him rapidly from afar and flipped his wrist to flourish a sword flower.
The wind gradually died down, and when Wenren Sheng opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was the Mountain God’s Amber Gold Sword, which he hadn’t seen in so long.
The sword was the same as before: its plum blossom patterns on the blade glowed with a pearly white light, cold mist swirled around it, and it was forged with exquisite craftsmanship.
Seeing it, Wenren Sheng couldn’t help but think of his own tattered “World’s Number One Divine Sword.”
Ever since he gave it to He Mu, it had made a grand appearance once, but afterward, it never had another chance to shine and was mostly kept by He Mu as a little pendant.
Now, five years later, he wondered if He Mu had kept it.
Something so ugly was probably thrown away long ago.
With that thought, Wenren Sheng pouted in depression.
It was supposed to be their token… but only he remembered!
He hated the Mountain God so much!
He Mu had just stepped onto the Color Kill and was about to bring Wenren Sheng up when he turned back and saw that the Little Ancestor was unhappy again.
He Mu asked in bewilderment, “You were happy just now. Why the long face all of a sudden?”
Wenren Sheng glanced at He Mu’s waist and indeed didn’t see that Little Wooden Sword. His heart felt even more blocked up.
He gave He Mu a resentful look and reluctantly took his hand.
“I’m not unhappy,” Wenren Sheng said as he stepped onto the sword with its help. He casually asked, “What about that super ugly Little Wooden Sword? The Mountain God must have thrown it away already, right?”
He Mu glanced at him.
“You want it back?”
Wenren Sheng huffed lightly and immediately denied it. “I’m fifteen already. Toys like that are too childish; they don’t suit me anymore.”
He paused, looked at the Color Kill under his feet, and said, “I want to use a real sword.”
He Mu lifted two fingers, and the Color Kill flew up steadily.
“Want to learn the sword?” he said while flying the sword. “Sure, I’ll teach you. You can graduate in half a year.”
Before his Ascension, He Mu had been half a Sword Cultivator, but his swordsmanship was too undisciplined—self-taught with no proper lineage or sword ethics. He was kicked out of the Sword Cultivator Sect just after reaching the Soul Formation Realm and eventually Ascended as a rogue cultivator.
But sword skills didn’t require following rules. He Mu was confident he could teach Wenren Sheng.
Wenren Sheng had wanted to respond, but as soon as the Color Kill took off, he panicked.
In the past, going up and down the mountain with He Mu had always relied on his Earth Shrinking Technique; he’d hardly ever flown on a sword.
Even when he had, He Mu had held his small self in low-altitude flight, which felt very safe.
But now, standing behind He Mu, as soon as he looked down, he saw the terrifying hundred-zhang snowfield, the impact hitting him hard.
…So high!
Wenren Sheng grew tense and subconsciously hugged He Mu’s waist, burying his face in his back, not daring to look.
He Mu felt the warm embrace behind him and teased with a light laugh, “Afraid of heights?”
Wenren Sheng let out an “Mm” and whispered, “Falling from here would mean death. It’d definitely hurt a lot.”
“Would I let you fall?” He Mu covered Wenren Sheng’s hand on his waist. “Don’t be scared, Shengsheng.”
He Mu’s palm was very warm, much larger than his own, almost enveloping Wenren Sheng’s entire hand in his fist.
Back when they slept together, He Mu always liked to hold both his hands in his palms, kissing them over and over, saying he smelled like a little dog.
Thinking of that, Wenren Sheng’s heart beat faster, and his earlobes flushed faintly pink.
Would a Mountain God who was so good to him really throw away their important token?
“He probably wouldn’t…” Wenren Sheng murmured to himself.
He Mu seemed to hear it. He slowed the Sword Flight a bit, tugged open his collar slightly, and hooked out a hanging cord with one finger.
“Are you looking for this?”
At those words, Wenren Sheng looked up along the sound. When he saw what it was, his pupils dilated slightly.
At the end of the cord dangled an amber-yellow pearl, and his gifted Little Wooden Sword had been shrunk several times and sealed in its center. It now swayed brightly back and forth before his eyes.
He Mu explained, “Last time I used it, it got covered in blood. I filtered it with the Water Repelling Pearl for a long time. When not in use, I shrink and seal it.”
With that, he turned back and smiled at Wenren Sheng. “Thought I threw it away?”
His thoughts exposed, the flush on Wenren Sheng’s earlobes spread straight to his cheeks.
He reached out to push He Mu’s face randomly and explained in a flurry, “I didn’t! Look at the road! We’re gonna crash!”
“Haha, my Sword Flight never—hey, watch out! Hold on to me!”
“Wah! W-wait… urgh, I’m falling!”
“…”
Yi Jinxiang and Wenren Jing waited at the back mountain entrance until dusk fell, without even catching a glimpse of the two.
The ever-proud and composed Wenqu Star endured it again and again until she nearly crushed the fan in her hand. Finally, she stood up and asked through gritted teeth,
“I really waited a long time, right?”
She was so angry that snake scales burst from the corner of her brow. Wenren Jing was greatly startled and hurriedly covered the eyes of the Rabbits in his arms.
“Y-yes, yes, we waited a long time, but c-c-calm down a bit!”
Yi Jinxiang closed her eyes, exhaled long and hard, and said word by word, “Little bunny brat…”
Before she finished, a deafening boom suddenly erupted from a nearby mountain peak!
The two looked over together and saw a blinding streak of light flash by, accompanied by a young man’s frantic cry of “Save me!” The ancient mountain was cleaved straight through, and half the peak slowly slid down along the cut, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
In the center of the dust cloud, a figure leaped up by borrowing force from the broken mountain!
Then came a few “whooshes” as that person’s toes successively touched several pine trees in the dense forest, hurrying toward Yi Jinxiang’s direction with Lightness Skill.
Yi Jinxiang narrowed her eyes, about to identify the figure, when—whoosh—in the blink of an eye, the person had landed from eight hundred li away right in front of them.
As he landed, a gust of wind blew around him, clearing away the fog completely.
This time, Yi Jinxiang saw clearly: the one who caused that near-disaster was He Mu.
He stood before Yi Jinxiang and Wenren Jing, cradling a ponytail-wearing youth horizontally in his arms—none other than Wenren Sheng.
Wenren Sheng’s arms tightly hooked around He Mu’s neck, eyes squeezed shut, as if he wanted to hang his entire body on him. His mouth still shouted in lingering shock, “So scary!” “The Mountain God is gonna drop me to my death!” He looked truly frightened.
He Mu panted lightly and said softly, “Alright, alright, we’re on the ground now. Come down.”
Wenren Sheng yelled “No!” and hugged He Mu even tighter with his arms.
“Didn’t you say your Sword Flight never hits mountains?” he accused in a teary voice. “I clearly got thrown off just now!!”
He Mu had also broken out in a cold sweat. In trying to make Wenren Sheng happy, he hadn’t noticed the mountain ahead and accidentally flung Wenren Sheng off while turning the Color Kill.
Fortunately, his Lightness Skill was superb; after cleaving the mountain, he caught Wenren Sheng right away.
But it was rough on the kid experiencing Sword Flight for the first time. The psychological pressure was probably huge; he might not want to fly on a sword anymore.
“…………”
He Mu looked up, met eyes with Yi Jinxiang and Wenren Jing for a moment, then awkwardly lowered his head and braced himself to coax the Wenren Sheng in his arms.
“Sorry, Shengsheng. I was wrong,” He Mu said patiently. “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll make it up to you, okay?”
Wenren Sheng shook his head and burrowed deeper into his arms, muttering something that sounded utterly aggrieved.
Seeing this, He Mu sighed helplessly and yielded one more step. “Alright, alright. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll listen to you. Can you come down first?”
Only then did Wenren Sheng snap out of it a bit. He steadied his breathing, rubbed his head against He Mu, and said sulkily,
“…I don’t want to be a Sword Cultivator anymore.”
The rubbing tickled He Mu. He opened his mouth, his gaze shifting up and down, suddenly at a loss for words.
Yi Jinxiang, who had watched enough from the side, finally cleared her throat lightly and drawled,
“Who knew you were so clingy.”
She paused, then added,
“Wenren Sheng, great hero?”
“…”
Wenren Sheng in He Mu’s arms suddenly froze like he was under a body-binding spell, not moving an inch.
Then, a numb sensation shot from his tailbone all the way to the nape of his neck, followed by a scorching heat that nearly burned off his eyebrows, instantly turning his face beet red.
