The Trip Back

Feng Hao silently sat in the cold. The chill was unpleasant but not life threatening. He heard a grumbling sound from beside him. He glanced in the direction of the sound, his glare softening a little when he found that Feng Long had finally awoken.

Feng Hao furrowed his eyebrows when he thought about the amount of time Feng Long had been passed out. The amount of strength that would have been needed to knock him unconscious for that long was worrying.

Feng Long stared blankly at Feng Hao as well as both of the girls, he seemed confused and somewhat bewildered at the new environment.

'Is he brain damaged?' Feng Hao thought the strength needed to make Feng Long pass out could have also damaged his brain.

"Brother Hao, I'm cold" Feng Long said, he wasn't worried in the slightest about the strange situation he found himself in.

Feng Hao relaxed slightly, Feng Long didn't appear to have brain damage, even if he did, it would only be minor.

Feng Hao thought back to a promise he made many years ago. He had promised that he would protect his family's smiles. He was never a burden and tried to lead Feng Long down a better path than his own.

His chest hurt for a moment, thinking about how worried both his parents must be. 'Am I, missing them?' He thought. 'No, impossible, I'm a soldier, I can't let people get close to me, they would only make me weak.'

Feng Hao only promised to protect his family's smiles, never his own. If he ever became a cause of distress to them, then he would leave.

Feng Hao was the kind of person who would protect people he had never met, but try to limit any connection he felt towards others. He knew better than to trust those close to him, especially after what happened the last time he did.

That promise was the only thing that caused him to care about his family. They were a liability, a weakness, but he made the promise to himself knowing those risks.

After a few moments, Feng Hao began to loosen up his body and get it moving again.

Wan Ya had already stopped crying and was looking over at Feng Long. Once he said that he was cold, she started to softly cry again. She was upset at herself for letting the fire die out. She should have woken somebody up to feed the fire so she could sleep, but she stubbornly thought she could do it herself.

Feng Hao tensed up again when he saw Wan Ya jump towards Feng long, hugging him around the neck. Feng Long was stunned, he didn't know that Wan Ya's overactive imagination had turned him into a valiant hero in her eyes.

The only thing that he knew was that Wan Ya was a pretty blond girl who didn't want to play with him.

Feng Long tried to push her way but her grip held firm. "I'm so sorry! a princess should have never let her knight suffer!" Wan Ya yelled. She saw herself as a princess even though she was a nobody from a poor family.

"Me, a knight?" Feng Long said, pointing at himself. Wan Ya was about to answer when Feng Hao stood up. "Let's go, the rain has stopped."

While Feng Long and Wan Ya had been talking, he had stretched and ran the mysterious heaven technique, slightly recovering his strength, although the chill still caused him to involuntarily shiver, he could at least move.

Ming Ai didn't seem tired at all even though she had done almost as much as he had but she looked like she could still run a marathon.

The cold didn't seem to bother her, even more proof that she was a spirit beast. When spirit beasts reached 100,000 years of age, they could make a choice, either grow their power to a million years and become a god or transform into a human and try to reach rank 100 to become a god.

Once a spirit beast became human they couldn't turn back into a spirit beast and, although they became human, spirit beasts had a much stronger physique than most humans so they were overall stronger.

Feng Hao led the way as everyone left the shelter. The long grass was wet and the water got absorbed by their mostly cloth shoes.

The 4 kids made their way to the river and started going down it. Feng Long and Wan Ya, the only 2 people that were mentally kids got fidgety from boredom after the first hour.

After the second hour, Wan Ya began to talk with Feng Long and she realized that he didn't remember saving everyone. Instead of coming to the reasonable conclusion that Feng Long didn't actually save everyone, Wan Ya thought that he got amnesia and decided to tell him about all the amazing things he did but couldn't remember.

After the third hour everyone rested, although Feng Hao and Ming Ai were far stronger than anyone their age should be, Feng Long and Wan Ya were not.

Several more hours of monotony issued, normally Feng Hao would practice one of his skills during this time but he couldn't because he was trying to stay inconspicuous around Ming Ai.

He couldn't act like a child because Ming Ai already knew he didn't act like that, but at the same time he couldn't have his usual stoic attitude because it was be far too strange for someone his age to act like that.

Trying to keep that balance while having meaningless small talk with everyone was difficult, especially around the highly emotional Wan Ya. There was more than one time where she Burst out crying because of hunger or thirst which made things awkward.

There was no food or clean water around so she would just have to bear with it.

Feng Hao struggled to understand more complex emotions, he was a soldier, not a psychologist.

Feng Long had become convinced that he saved everyone and had gained a lot of arrogance. Feng Hao was quick to teach him that too much arrogance was of no good. That quickly made Feng long go from overbearing to a much more tame haughtiness.

The further downstream the group went, the more lively the forest became. Birds were flying overhead and insects crawled, scuttled and flew all over the trees and ground.

Feng Hao thought about how in the future, all of this nature would be destroyed and the space would be used to build houses and industry.

Feng Hao was somewhat happy to have been reincarnated into the first Douluo dalu because it means his butterfly effect would be the strongest so he could make the most difference now, if he was reincarnated into the fourth Douluo dalu, then he couldn't change the future as much because he would already be in the final Douluo dalu, all the damage would have already been done.

The tallest tower of vast sea city came into view. Feng Hao told everyone to start heading towards the main path instead of following the river. If he had gone towards it earlier it would have taken multiple days of walking just to get to the main path because it turned away from the river, now it would be much closer.

It didn't take long before the group was standing before the main enter ace of vast sea city. Their only goal had been to get here so now they didn't really know what to do.

"I remember where my home is, we could all go there," Wan Ya suggested. She didn't understand that her parents were poor and that taking care of one child already required both of them to work for most of the day so taking care of four would be impossible.

"Good idea," Feng Long said. The two of them had bonded over the trip and now saw each other as good friends.

"Let's go" Feng Hao said. Taking a step into the city. He was almost back home.