Sprout

No one wishes to remain weak; to become strong is to take hold of one’s destiny. For Xiu Nan, this game had become a second life, an extension of his existence in reality.

Naturally, he was overjoyed—ecstatic, even. To obtain the Sacred Bone Secret Ring and its two formidable powers meant Xiu Nan had taken the crucial first step, and he had done so flawlessly.

“This place isn’t safe anymore,” he muttered.

He rose quickly from the ground. The cave walls were smeared with foul black-and-red substances—blood forced from his pores, filth squeezed from his body, and even fragments of bone stained crimson. The stench was overwhelming; it would not be long before predators from the forest were drawn here. The once-hidden cave was no longer secret. He needed a better shelter.

Xiu Nan left the cave at once, heading to the beach to wash his clothes and cleanse his body. He picked several young coconuts, replenishing his lost fluids. The ordeal had wrung him dry of water and salt.

Afterward, he ventured back into the woods, relying on his survival experience to locate another cave. This one was narrow and uneven, but with the sun nearing the horizon, he had little choice but to settle in for the night.

Tomorrow, he would decide whether to seek out a better, larger cave or spend a few days building a wooden hut.

Moonlight poured down like frost, and the sea breeze was crisp and cool. The flames before Xiu Nan danced, tongues of fire licking at the roasting fish, crackling as fat dripped to the ground.

When the fish was nearly done, he removed it from the spit. He ate with a handful of red berries he’d gathered earlier, making a simple dinner.

Sated, Xiu Nan lay beside the fire.

The night sky was dotted with stars, their silver light flickering. The moon hung silently overhead, a disc of white jade. Wisps of pale cloud drifted below.

He stared at the heavens, suddenly stretching out a hand as if to pluck the moon from the sky. After a moment, his hand fell, futile and empty.

“It feels as though I’ve lived more in these few days than in my whole life... My first flight, my first plane crash, my first time being beaten to death, my first encounter with a tribe of wild men, my first theft of the tribe’s sacred bone, my first suffering of bone-devouring agony…”

Xiu Nan murmured to himself. He sensed something sprouting in his heart, almost ready to break through the surface. Only one step remained—so he resolved to kill someone.

Anyone who bore malice toward him—be it a tribal native or the assassin Iron Yang. The shackles he’d worn for twenty years needed to be shattered by force. Simply put, he no longer wished to be ordinary.

The night passed in silence.

At dawn, Xiu Nan set out at once, heading toward the Senran tribe.

He moved swiftly, having marked the way. He arrived before ten in the morning.

He first hid and observed.

At the tribe’s gate, an old man wearing a bone pendant gestured wildly, clearly agitated. Before him stood a group of five robust natives. The strongest bore a white bone ring on his back, inlaid with the glyph of the Pale-Eyed Vulture.

The others carried crude but deadly weapons—spears and bows.

This was no modern city with advanced medicine; here, a wound could easily become infected, inflamed, and fatal. Whether the injured survived depended purely on fate.

Xiu Nan watched for a while, noting that the tribe’s men seemed fewer than usual. Most had likely been sent out, perhaps to search for the sacred bone.

He felt a pang of guilt, but it soon faded.

A hunting party returned, carrying two trophies—or rather, two wild men. Bound hand and foot to wooden poles, they were hoisted back like wild boars.

The leader shouted.

Children and women poured from the tribe, cheering, eyes fixed hungrily on the new captives. Their gaze showed no difference between the wild men and food.

“Unbelievable…” Xiu Nan frowned.

Then, from the center of the tribe came two shrieks, like pigs being slaughtered, answering his doubt.

“So it’s true…”

He recalled that some natives believed eating parts of the intelligent and strong could confer their abilities—even consuming the organs of kin, making it a tradition or perhaps a religious rite.

Senran tribe practiced live sacrifice; through cannibalism, they fulfilled some bloody ritual of their primitive faith.

Soon, the scent of roasting meat wafted faintly from afar, and Xiu Nan hurriedly covered his nose. For a modern man, this was torture.

After noon, the tribe’s men formed squads and departed, leaving only a few guards behind—not out of carelessness, but because the elder presiding over the rituals remained. He was the tribe’s anchor, his strength formidable.

On another mountain, Xiu Nan could glimpse several Pale-Eyed Vultures; it seemed their roost coexisted with the tribe.

“Should I sneak in?” Xiu Nan hesitated briefly, then resolved. With Jessica’s pendant to warn of danger, his meditation skill for instant escape, and eight extra lives for revival, if he dared not venture forth now, he would be a true coward.

A gentle breeze stirred.

A woman ate contentedly by the road, oblivious as she walked toward her hut.

A blurred figure darted through the shadows.

Deep within the tribe, a wooden hut echoed with aged and youthful voices—a dialogue between elder and youth. Xiu Nan hid outside, eavesdropping.

He understood nothing, but could guess: the boy had just succeeded in forming a ring, and the elder was likely teaching him the beast model.

Soon, the elder emerged. Xiu Nan noticed keenly that the white bone pendant, previously hanging from his neck, was now gone.

He waited until the elder vanished.

Xiu Nan closed his eyes and activated meditation time.

When he opened them again, the world slowed to a crawl. He rushed into the hut—where a boy sat cross-legged, clenching the pendant in his palm, eyes shut in concentration.

“Hand it over!” Xiu Nan snatched it, bolted out, and—with meditation time still engaged—fled eight hundred meters away in an instant.

Only then did the boy in the hut open his eyes, dazed. He looked down—the bone pendant was gone!

“Uli!” The boy screamed.

The Senran tribe erupted in chaos.