5 Seven years later

"Someone stop him! He's taken another steamed bun today!"

The outraged screams of a street vendor could be heard as many people witness a large fat man running after a young child with a ladle in his hand.

The child, who was much smaller and faster than the vendor, turned around and stuck his tongue out at the man before shoving a white bun into his mouth and running off again.

The vendor couldn't catch up and eventually slowed down, hovering over his knees while giving off heavy pants.

Other vendors around him laughed and smiled in his direction, while one woman stepped forward and handed him a cup of cold water.

"You know you're not fooling anyone. Everyone in this street knows that you always make extras for him to take. For such a fierce strong guy you have quite the sweet side." She chuckled out while waiting for him to finish the drink.

The man gave a sigh of relief as he returned the cup, "Speak for yourself, as if we never notice the cake you've been leaving out on your windowsill for him. Pretending not to notice when he cuts himself a slice."

"It can't be helped, I owe him after he got my son medicine that he desperately needed to cure his wife. How could I allow my daughter-in-law's savior to go without any reward, but he's to stubborn to accept anything I give him. Always talking about how he doesn't need anything in return! Hmph! Does he think my family's recipe will be too cheap for his taste?! Now he understands no one makes better cake than me!"

The old man roared out with laughter after seeing the prideful look of anger on the woman's face, he couldn't help but rub the back of his head while thinking of the young child. He too had received help from him before.

Some men once came over to his shop to collect a debt he owed them. Unfortunately at the time he didn't have a lot of money and couldn't pay them back. This was because most of the money he earned went to his children's school tuition. And he wasn't making that much in the first place.

As he was begging the men to give him more time, the kid appeared out of nowhere and helped vouch for him. Even paying for half of his debt. Although he didn't know how such a young man could get so much money, he couldn't question anything about it as he needed the help at the time and he wasn't some hypocrite that would deny another's goodwill.

Of course at the time, he wasn't aware of how the child was well known for pulling many pranks, and the following days of he would find many of his steamed buns suddenly go missing, or maybe his ingredients would get replace with strange substitutes, or have his shop sign be changed to "Bun Uncle".

The child's shenanigans brought him endless annoyance, but the kid himself wasn't so bad. He would even see the child come over to talk and help tutor his children on things they did not understand.

In fact, the kid was well known throughout the street. He was famous for causing mayhem wherever he went but no one ever really minded him as they've known him for too long. Although he's been known as a symbol of chaos, he was also always the first person to volunteer to assist someone when they were in trouble. As such they had very conflicted feelings about him.

"Speaking of which, how is your daughter? I heard her abilities as a seamstress has been getting recognition recently and as such even members of the Xue Family have been hiring her."

"Oh she's doing fine now. My son is more than happy that his wife is healthy again, but I'm more worried about the cause of her sickness in the first place. Her body isn't the toughest and she works way too much causing a lot of stress to build up. I worry this will harm her in the long term soon. Luckily the medicine the boy brought us was strong enough to heal all her fatigue and fix her broken body. I don't know where he got such a thing but even the local doctors can't find anything wrong with her at the moment."

Hearing the woman's words, the vendor was surprised. Such high quality medicine couldn't be something normal. If there was one thing everyone in the street could say about the boy, it was that no one knew his background. They figured he came from a wealthy family, but none of them knew much else other than that. He really was a ball of mystery.

Meanwhile, the boy in question was slowly strolling away from the street toward a private villa hidden in a very isolated area.

Few people were allowed here and as such it was generally a very quiet and peaceful place.

Standing at the entrance of the villa, two men stood there waiting for the boy to reach them. The two men bowed to the boy and said in unison, "Welcome young master! What is the reason you have called for us today?"

The boy was actually Xue Chang, who had been under the curse of Eternal Ascension for seven years now.

Although he was technically fifteen years old, he still retained the appearance of a ten year old child, hence most of the resident here calling him "kid" or "boy".

After Xue Hai left the family to enter a sect on his own, Xue Chang spent two years bedridden in order to recuperate from his injuries. And although his body was not in perfect condition, he was completely able to move around as he wished.

Although Xue Chang felt more than okay with his current situation, the same could not be said about his parents.

With the attempt on his life from the assassins, Zhao Wei was completely enraged and went to the main family house for recompense. In his rampage at the main family house, the people who were after his life were forced to give a hefty compensation. Although he could not kill them as his actions were open to the public eye and they were still part of one family, he did make Xue Chang's uncle suffer quite a bit. Even turning one of them into a eunuch.

But this was all just to vent some of the frustration in his heart. After all, the main cause of concern was the curse Xue Chang had been inflicted with. And who could he possibly blame for that?

As such, after venting some of his anger, Zhao Wei took Xue Chang and his wife over to Water Cloud City. It was a town built near a large lake famous for producing water that was said to exorcise evil spirits and purify curses.

Zhao Wei hoped that this could help Xue Chang in some way or another, but it had no effect on him whatsoever.

As such Xue Chang spent his days traveling around and meeting with the locals to learn more about the city. He liked to help out others and because his parents gave him a hefty allowance he could afford to be a little thrifty when assisting people.

Of course this wasn't all he did the entire time. Xue Chang was completely crippled from cultivating. Because he no longer had an obelisk, he lost the chance to obtain spiritual force. And in a world like theirs where strength was respected as much as ones background, this placed him into a very precarious situation.

So Xue Chang had been working on something in his spare time to protect himself. But this was difficult for him to do thanks to his curse.

The curse turned out to be much worse than he expected. Not only was his body in a perpetual childlike state, but his mind switched between different conditions as well.

He was both the childish Xue Chang who was only ten years old and just wanted to play around and relax, and the Xue Chang who was maturing day by day at a rapid rate in order to live in the harsh world.

Both sides of his mind fought for dominance and as such it was difficult for him to stay as one or the other. He found a balanced equilibrium at the moment, but he still did not like how he did not have full control over himself.

But right now he was very excited. This was because today was a day where his matured and child mind both agreed on the same course of action.

These two guards were people who have been serving him for a while now. He had hired them long ago and kept watch over them to see their personality, spirit, and determination.

Smiling at the two men, he waved his tiny arms and said, "I want to play a little game with you two!"

Bringing the two of them inside the villa, he led them to the open courtyard where many training tools and weapons were neatly placed on the field and in weapon racks.

Curious as to what they're boss wanted them to do, the guards entered the courtyard to catch up with his quick steps.

"You've been serving me for over five years now. You've always stayed loyal and assisted me whenever I needed you and our relationship is very close. But I'm telling you today, I plan on taking some drastic actions soon. And in the future these actions could put serious risk on the lives of me and all who follow me. So this is your only chance to leave! I'll give you some time to think this through. Knowing that soon you may die at any moment, do you wish to still follow me? Knowing that you might face those even stronger than you, do you still wish to listen to me? Knowing that your life might change for worse, do you really wish to stand with me?"

The two guards were surprised by the short speech Xue Chang gave them. They really have known him for quite a while and never before had he sounded so serious as he did now. As such they pushed aside his childlike appearance and carefully took his words into consideration.

Although not many knew much about Xue Chang and his personality, they understood that when he was serious then it was unwise to underestimate him.

As such after an hour of careful consideration, the two guards nodded at each other silently. One of them stepped forward, and clasping his hands together, he gave a bow and said, "Even if we were to die tomorrow, we would still wish to serve you!"

Xue Chang smiled happily at the man's answer. While doing so, he approached the rack of weapons and pulled out a large training saber that was almost as big as he was. Pointing the weapon toward the guards, he said, "Good! Then since you plan to stay with me for the long term, let's see how capable you are!"

With a brilliant smile that stretched across his face, Xue Chang spoke in such a joyous voice that it was as if he was receiving a present from someone.

"Now let's spar!"