THE SCION FROM XIAO, CLAN OF THE BRIGHT SMILE

A few hours prior to the happenings in the hidden warehouse.

Cheng Hao was in no hurry to reach his new residence. His steps were in tune with his melody, and he'd occasionally sway from side to side as he hummed.

Right then, the leaves rustled, and the golden snake shot out from a bush on the side of the road. The serpentine dragon elegantly landed on the boy's left shoulder.

"Cheng Hao, the Mysterious Light-Shadow Ancestor should have landed himself an inheritance from a higher world. The Twin Star system was then put in place to safeguard and nurture promising talent worthy of it. Though the Spark might have sated your needs for resources and treasures, my recovery will quicken if we can get our hands on them. "

Cheng Hao nodded knowingly.

"The fact that the Reverend bothered highlighting the position and requirements is his way of hinting that there is a candidate already... and that not only is that kid in a rival faction, but they are probably also ahead by a mile in terms of cultivation. I wouldn't be surprised if they had attained the Advanced Stage and even completely condensed their Core. They are most likely pushing for the Superior Stage. In the old man's eyes, even if the Sect were to unite in the goal of nurturing the two of us, I would just be a stepping stone for them and the faction backing them."

"I'm honestly surprised there would be another youth in a god-forsaken land that can somewhat hold a candle to the talents of higher worlds." The child with golden eyes clicked his tongue and pursued his lips. "Then again, there are the events from a thousand years ago. Even though the environment might not be the best, the influx of resources from higher Realms is not to be understated."

Goldy frowned as if he were pondering, but ultimately his wise eyes unfocused and he lazily stretched. Sounding like a purring cat, the small dragon yawned and then comfortably scratched its belly with the pointy end of its scaly tail. It then pried, "But you'd hardly need a few months to catch up anyway? Why not ditch the old man and join the other side? By that time, no matter who came first, there'd be no one foolish enough not to favour you and drop the kid."

"...this land, and this very Sect, is rather bizarre. I'd feel too uncomfortable being tied down here. I need the freedom to act as I see fit. A loose agreement with a hidden power is leagues above formally joining the warring of factions. And as you pointed out, even Ageless Realm byproducts wouldn't make much of a difference to me now." The golden-eyed child shrugged, "I know you're apprehensive about your weakness, but as you are now, the amount that Liu Biao kindly financed us will be hard to digest in a few weeks. Especially for the current you. Mind your greed, Heaven Devouring Dragon. What we have will be more than enough until next month comes. After that, we'll see. There are still those ruins, for example- Mm?"

Cheng Hao's steps came to a sudden stop.

Goldy had similarly noticed.

The summer song had died down.

"...somebody is coming our way." Cheng Hao noted. Then, he muttered in astonishment, "These... the footsteps of a child?"

He turned around and, sure enough, a small figure in the distance could be seen running anxiously, trying to catch up with them.

"Oh? To be inside the walls of the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect's fortress he must have passed the exam… And for him to be coming our way, it must be that Lao junior's doing. That fellow clearly isn't normal. Twin Star worthy, perhaps?" the golden dragon was also reminded of this point.

"...you're ridiculously lucky, you snake bastard. You at least acknowledge it, right?"

"Tch, says you, Youngster Li- Hao. Youngster Hao." Goldy beamed as if he were already delighting himself in the treasures of higher worlds, hidden in the depths of the Sect. Then, as if intoxicated, a small tongue moved to pursue his lips, "Now then, my sweetest meal ticket, won't you hurry up and meet with grandpa?"

"Primordial, Karma, invisible. Any of it rings a bell?"

"..."

...

"Haa, hoo, cough!" The purple-haired child desperately gasped for air. Evidently, the sprint had taken a big toll on his tiny body. The cold ground below was biting into his back, his regal robes dirtied as he lay supine on the paved road. A few steps to the side stood Cheng Hao, looking pained as the priceless cloth was sullied before his eyes.

"Thank, thank you so much for waiting!" Initially unable to stop huffing and puffing, he had only been able to mutter those few words after resting for a while.

"Might I aid with anything? I could entertain you with a glass of water, perhaps?" Cheng Hao eyed the newcomer with curiosity as he handed over a goatskin.

The first things that got his attention were the crystalline, green eyes shining like emeralds. Incomparably radiant, bright.

Framing them, like ornaments encasing a jewel, were long, fluttering eyelashes a deep violet, and thin, arching brows. Cascading on his chest and rising and falling as he heaved were strands of long hair of that same purple, with hues of vibrant blue as they approached the tips.

The proportions of his face were immaculate, their flawless symmetry a delightful arrangement.

Every single feature of his was harmonious, an adeptly refined gemstone given breath.

Cheng Hao, however, only felt stab after stab to his chest. Unknowingly, his eyes narrowed, and his heart painfully stirred as a deep melancholy overcame him…

Meanwhile, lips a darker shade of purple voraciously gulped down the water. It felt like an eternity had passed by the time the child stopped with a weary groan. Then, with a slight blush at his unbecoming behaviour, he went to immediately hand the goatskin back. However, he found the golden-eyed boy lost in a daze.

Awkwardly, he hesitatingly raised and lowered his hand repeatedly, only catching the other's attention after clearing his throat.

"...Yes?" Cheng Hao raised an eyebrow.

With a bow of his head, the youth spoke, "Many thanks again, uh..."

"...it's Cheng Hao. Cheng Hao."

With a yawn, Goldy slithered out of the boy's pockets and landed atop his head.

"Hey, Youngster Hao. What should we do with this brat?"

Immediately afterwards however, as soon as the dragon focused his lazy gaze on the emerald-eyed youth, his eyelids twitched noticeably. He couldn't help but sport a deep frown, "That's odd? Now, now, doesn't this boy look familiar? Hey Stupid Hao, why do his features look just like-"

"Snake!" a crystalline outburst interrupted the golden dragon's words.

As Goldy had been rambling on and on, the emerald-eyed child had been nervously looking back and forth between the golden-eyed child and the one-foot-long snake. In the end, breaking out of his stupor, he had actually pointed at the golden dragon, his screams echoing in the dead of night.

'Such a nice youth, to be worrying about others… Ahh, it warms my heart to see that this generation has actually grown up to be so thoughtful!'

…Not.

Goldy's eyes widened like quail eggs, his minuscule, toothless jaws dropped to the ground.

Cheng Hao's eyebrows shot up, his gaze growing indescribably complex.

Something was terribly wrong with this scene.

...

As a young scholar wandering a higher world, Xu Ling had a sudden and strange encounter with the Primordial.

In a bid to flee from an enemy, he had chanced upon the perimeter of a gargantuan death zone, a mountainous range traversing a whole tenth of that higher world. With his pursuer right on his trail and his back against the wall, Xu Ling had been forced to venture further and further inside.

Unbeknownst to them both, that mysterious ground was the lair of a being from an olden Era.

The abode of a sleeping primordial dragon.

And it just so happened that, when Xu Ling's pursuer got too close, the dragon had twitched in his sleep. A fierce avalanche had followed, drowning the man in a hail of debris and killing him instantly.

It had happened in his lethargy, but it sowed enough strong karma for Xu Ling to finally be able to See. The Veil lifted: the beast that extended far beyond the horizon, its sinuous body tens of thousands of miles long, possibly more than the young Xu Ling had even travelled in his lifetime, reflected in his starry eyes.

With the passing of the years, the beast had endlessly lamented his abysmal luck to be dragged along in that kid's quest. To Xu Ling, it was the start of it all.

There is no doubt that, without the golden dragon's guidance in his past life, Xu Ling would have had no chance to accomplish the smallest portion of what he had.

A touching story.

Now then.

How could this child that, mind you, neither Cheng Hao nor Blindlight had ever even seen before, possibly notice the golden dragon?

The Primordial had hidden deeply after Xu Ling's fall. It couldn't even have been a month or two since Cheng Hao had finished playing around with the Spark and located his companion, forcefully bringing him to his side. Since then, the two had stuck together.

For this reason, if such a bond truly existed, it would have to have been from before then.

A connection from more than a thousand years earlier.

'…Has he truly come?'

"Fellow disciple! Fellow disciple! There's a snake on your shoulder! Watch out!"

Hearing the eight-year-old boy warn him again and again, Cheng Hao felt a whirlpool of emotions rampaging in his chest. However, he couldn't act upon his suspicions yet. Or rather, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to bear the misery of being wrong this once.

Ultimately...

'The best course of action would be to act oblivious and panic. Then, I should just shrug my shoulders a little. Blindlight should guess what's up and will fall off his own accord, slither his way out of view, and that would be the end of it... but then there's this sudden hitch; a hunch that this is an opportunity I should not miss?'

Suddenly, Goldy felt a cold shiver run down his tiny spine: once he looked at Cheng Hao, he found the golden-eyed youth staring back intently... Goldy gulped and shed a drop of cold sweat once he noticed the thin, crimson lips twitching just barely-

'Hey, hey, hey! Twitching be damned, you're just outright smirking now! At least don't make it obvious you brat!'

The poor, one-foot-long snake could only watch as a delicate and small palm was raised in the air before immediately striking out!

"Ah. A snake. Scary." Cheng Hao unenthusiastically exclaimed as he took half a step back and his palm blurred...

'This is for sending me to challenge the final boss halfway through the story, you golden worm bastard!'

PAM!

The sound from the slap had even the purple-haired youth wince. Within the blink of an eye, the miniature dragon had disappeared like magic.

It had face-planted at a considerable distance of more than seventy feet away, amidst the bushes.

'His teeth would have cracked. Again, if he had any.'

"Ahh! That was close, man!" Cheng Hao artfully heaved and let out a sigh of relief, now again fully immersed in his eight-year-old persona.

He was both 'shocked' and 'terrified' that he had not noticed the dangerous beast resting atop his shoulders. His gaze fell upon the startled green-eyed youth and bowed 'gratefully': who knew what kind of 'dangers' could have befallen him had he not been warned!

As soon as he got to slap the damn snake, a burst of energy had flooded his body. He was feeling especially refreshed, so his gratefulness wasn't all an act.

"Many thanks, fellow disciple, for your aid! I'm Cheng Hao, a humble disciple of the Sect starting today! Very, very nice to meet you. What's your name, fellow disciple?"

Naturally, although Cheng Hao's face was full of gratitude, he had already secretly grasped the golden lotus hairpin in his hand, ready to strike at the first notice of any danger.

Thrown off by seeing Cheng Hao this friendly all of a sudden, the young boy didn't hesitate to bow and struggled to respond in a similar manner. "T-This humble disciple is called Li, Li of Xiao... I doubt however that Disciple Cheng Hao has ever heard of such Clan, as I... herald from afar."

Xiao Clan.

"Afar?"

"Yeah. Well, it took me six months to get here. I have only arrived in the sect grounds today."

'Six months? If I had to chart a path to THAT Plane, it would probably take seven months to travel…'

"What a coincidence! I also only got here today! But it really took you six months? You weren't alone that whole time, were you?"

"...well, a committee of trusted elders accompanied me and dropped me off. After all, I joined the Sect as per my esteemed Clan Master's order. "

'...And that's why it only took you six months.'

Of course it did!

After all, 'He' would naturally figure out a better way...

Cheng Hao fought back the urge to cry: to this day, Xiao stood strong!

He had never once doubted, but this confirmation was so, so precious.

They had to have suffered a huge blow after the rebellion against Tian failed. Fortunately, they could not be forced from their Clan Grounds. The countless gifts the Jade Emperor had granted his most beloved Clan over his long reign would have been more than enough to brave the retaliation of a deeply scarred Nine Heavens. It would have been beyond foolish for Tian not to call for a truce. Especially so because it was Tian, the cold, calculating despot.

Cheng Hao's gaze fixated on the pair of emeralds with extreme interest.

"Xiao Li of Xiao."

"Mm? Yeah?"

Why was it that the more he entertained the notion, the more increasingly sure he became that this "Li" was in fact a precious Young Master of the Xiao Clan?

"Xiao Li of Xiao..."

"Yes?"

Was it the regal robes?

Maybe... No. No, it was not the regal robes.

"Xiao Li. Of Xiao."

"...yes…"

Was it the emerald eyes? The vibrant violet in his hair and the deep purple of his lips?

No. Not quite. It was beyond suspicion and confirmation now. It had become an axiom.

A melody of a thousand years ago.

"Li. Of Xiao."

"...yes. What's wrong?" Xiao Li felt a shiver run down his spine. Secretly, he clenched his fist.

"Eh-Eheheh," the emerald-eyed boy let out a crystalline laugh and smiled cheekily to overcome his uneasiness, "Could it be that the snake from earlier bit your tongue off, fellow disciple? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Cheng Hao blinked. And smiled.

How unfair.

You're just too unfair, Xiao Lan of Xiao.