The Aeon

Xue Chang could feel a hint of pain prickling at his arm. Opening his eyes to the bright light of the afternoon, he found himself lying on a bed in a small cottage. Looking over at his side, he saw a young child pinching at his arm playfully while staring at his face.

Staring into each other's eyes, the young girl shouted out wildly while running out of the room. The screech was unexpected so it made his heart jump in shock, and as his furious heartbeat calmed down overtime, he was able to get a better look at his condition.

The cottage was made of wood with only a single window illuminating the dark space. His bed was at the feet of the opening and it shined rays of light upon his body. Looking down he could see bandages and medicinal paste covering him from head to toe. The stump that was left of his arm had been carefully covered by a thick leafy gauze.

It was clear to him that he was brought here by someone and they were taking care of his health. But he didn't see any signs of Tian Hai or Tian Kai around which caused him to worry a little.

Suddenly, three people entered the room along with the girl.

The one at the front of the group was an an old wrinkled woman who wielded a thick wooden cane. She gave off an ancient feeling that seemed to match her age. With grey hair falling loosely to her side and a hunched covered in a green cloth, the odd image of a grandma turtle surfaced into his mind.

The old woman was accompanied by a couple, a man and a woman, who he assumed was the young girl's parents. It seemed that they were the ones who had been taking care of him this entire time.

Staring him down, the old lady approached him slowly and opened her mouth to speak. Her eyes twinkled with a mysterious light and he felt an ominous feeling in the air.

"How dare you scare little Wanwan! Die!"

"Mother no!"

"Grandma yes!"

Chaos ensued as the young couple quickly stepped forward to stop the old lady from unleashing a series of slaps across Xue Chang's face, as the little girl named Wanwan, cheered on from the side.

Noticing the gaze directed at her, the little girl grinned while sticking out her little tongue at him.

The ominous feeling faded instantly as he realized what happened. It seemed the little girl was quite mischievous and wanted to pull a prank on him. Although he was a little surprised, he couldn't deny it was a good trick.

With his knowledge and expertise in childish pranks, he was sure that if the parents didn't do anything to stop the old lady, she definitely would've beaten him into a sorry state.

While he should've been mad, a tinge of respect for meeting someone in the same occupation as him brewed in his heart. Looking over at the little girl, a curt nod of acknowledgement was given.

Once everything finally calmed down, Xue Chang sat up in the bed under the watchful glance of the couple. With a slight cough, he looked over and asked about the situation.

"You're in my house, I am the village's physician and I've been the one treating your injuries. You were very lucky to have been brought here by two boys, your injuries were so serious that if left untreated for just another minute it could've resulted in your death."

"Wait, two boys?"

"Yes, two young men brought you over here. They were also heavily injured but wished for me to check up on you first. They're in the next room over recovering well. If you are curious about their well being."

Although he didn't get descriptions of the two men, he was positive they were his two guards. Only they were aware of his position in the forest, and he couldn't imagine some random villagers passing by such a dangerous area and be willing to save a half dead child.

The world just wasn't that kind of place.

"I'm sorry to say that it appears you and your big brothers were attacked by some wild beasts along your travels. And sadly enough, we couldn't save... your arm."

The physician's words made Xue Chang look down at his stump and sighed.

"It's okay, I'm more than grateful for your help anyway. I think I'll go check up on my brothers and see how they're doing."

And without another word he got up from the bed and left the room. Although the little girl and old woman stared daggers at him, he only smirk in response. He mused on how he was much too mature to deal with these childish pranks. Completely forgetting the problems he caused in Water Cloud City.

After he exited the room, the old lady couldn't help but release a sigh of relief.

"Despite losing so much, it seems that child hasn't given up on life yet, that's a good thing indeed a good thing indeed."

Despite their little antics, even the old lady felt worried over the child. When Tian Kai and Tian Hai brought Xue Chang over from the forest, his body was beaten, broken, and withered. If it wasn't for the physician barely being able to detect the tiniest trace of a heartbeat, they all would've thought the two boys had gone mad and were carrying around a corpse.

But what frightened them even more was how quickly he recovered. Despite saying that he was able to save Xue Chang, the physician really did not do much. All he did was close the external wounds and stop the bleeding. But internal injuries and trauma were out of his expertise. And even when working on what he was known for, he predicted that Xue Chang would need at least a month before being able to even regain consciousness.

Yet he only took three days before being able to walk again! Of course the man wouldn't know about Xue Chang's unique situation. That's why Xue Chang did not care much for the man's earlier words. He did not believe he would die just yet thanks to his powerful life force.

Only way he could've been killed was if he was completely destroyed outright.

But no matter how serious his injury would be, if he wasn't killed from it directly then he wouldn't die later.

Moving toward the room where his guards were said to be, he heard chatter coming from behind the door.

"-and although the large group of beasts outnumbered us greatly, my brother and I didn't give up and fall to despair. We used every last bit of our strength to finally break through the horde and reach the forest center where our little bro was!"

The voice, that clearly belonged to Tian Kai, went on to talk about his exploits while woos and gasps of astonishments came from the other party. Xue Chang could clearly tell that he was speaking to what seemed to be a group of young ladies.

Tian Kai then went on to talk about "his heaven defying fight" with the demonic beast, in order to 'brother'.

Hearing his guard getting cheered on by a bunch of girls while he was the one who undoubtedly did the most work, a feeling of overwhelming jealo- disappointment overtook him.

No, he wasn't jealous of his guard who was at the peak of his youth while he still had the body of a child, no he wasn't extremely annoyed at their antics and wanted to ruin it all for them. He was just protecting his subordinates from unscrupulous people who clearly only wanted them for their strength. Yep, he was making sure they would only get together with the one fated for them. Yep.

All thoughts of maturity he had before disappeared as he slapped his own face a few times to get some tears flowing. And once he was done with that, he quickly pushed the door open into the room and wailed loudly.

"Big brother! I'm sorry for always disturbing you whenever you drink, please don't hit and throw me out into the forest again! I swear I'll be good this time, forgive me!"

Tian Kai paused his story as he watched Xue Chang enter into the room. Even Tian Hai, who wasn't saying much but still enjoying the company of the women around him, had his jaw drop to the ground.

What the hell young master?! You've woken up already, and not only that but what's this about us hitting and throwing you into the forest while drinking. We wouldn't even have the strength to do that even if we wanted to!

The brothers wanted to shout these words out loud, but it was already too late.

Looking up, varied expression could be seen across the girls' faces. From confusion, curiosity, pity, and disgust. All of the reverence and awe they had before had completely disappeared and was now replaced with disregard.

Within seconds the group left the room leaving only Xue Chang and the brothers left there.

Visible tears could be seen welling up in Tian Kai's eyes as he exclaimed, "Young master whhhhyyyyyyyy! I was so close, so close! I bit more and I'm sure I would've stolen the hearts of a couple of girls here, yet now all my efforts are ruined!"

Turning over the look at Tian Hai, Xue Chang was also disappointed to find him frozen in shock. He was clearly a little more dejected than before but he didn't care too much about it.

"Quit your whining already, you're lucky I did what I did else you would've been in trouble."

At his words, the brothers ears perked up as they looked at him quizzically.

"Don't think too lowly of this village, it's hiding many secrets. Even if you screamed at the top of your lungs about your 'deeds' that many people wouldn't have come to visit you. It appears there is a power in this place that now has its eyes on us. Bringing me back here so injured must've made them a bit suspicious, especially since we weren't very quiet during our fight."

Tian Hai nodded his head silently as a serious expression returned to his face, "You're saying those people were spies sent here to examine us?"

"That's right, what kind of expert wouldn't be worried about some mysterious warriors suddenly arriving at their home." Of course Xue Chang glossed over the fact that some of those girls were probably real fan of theirs, after all sending too many spies would be too obvious, they would need some normal people to blend in with. But he decided it was best to just say they were all fakes.

"We can't risk causing a scene or ruckus here, especially as in our current state it wouldn't be impossible for them to kill us and claim our work for themselves."

"But even so they wouldn't be able to kill us so easily. Although we aren't very powerful we aren't pushovers either." Tian Kai couldn't stand the idea of having to lay low just cause some village gangster was keeping watch over them. They should be just as worried of causing a commotion as they were since they clearly wanted to stay in the dark.

But Xue Chang's next words shut them both up completely, "That's why I told you not to underestimate this village. Within that group of girls, at least two of them were in the first level of Qi refinement."

No matter how powerful Tian Hai and Tian Kai had gotten recently, they still couldn't even picture themselves surviving a single attack from a cultivator much less two of them. Looks of anger and annoyance could be seen on the younger brother's face and the eldest clenched his fists so tightly they began bleeding.

They've practice their martial skills for so long yet in the face of such power they couldn't even speak back. What was the point of all their effort? They believed that they had gotten much stronger. But just as their confidence had rose, this event came along and brought it back down.

Xue Chang could see their indignation. Looking out the window in their room he whispered quietly to them under his breath. "Don't be impatient, it won't be long now until you can look at people like that in their face and laugh at them without fear. I can already see it so clearly. I said it once before, I don't plan to stay like this."

Although his words just sounded like consolation to the brothers, it did make them feel a little better. Yet what they didn't know was that when he said he could see it so clearly he wasn't talking about the sight of them laughing at cultivators.

Although he stared directly at the azure sky right above him, what reflected in his eyes was something unbelievably greater than that.

It was the aeon.