"Young Master!"
General Xiong San hurriedly ran in from outside the tent, his voice tinged with anger, "These assassins were just working for a reward! We can't torture out who's behind this mischief! The Priests are also out of ideas!"
Wu Wang leaned back in his beast-hide chair, slightly fatigued, a faint glimmer of light flickering in his eyes.
"Kill them, but make no fuss. Remember to have the Priests destroy their residual souls."
General Xiong San's eyes widened. "Kill them just like that? Wouldn't that be letting them off easy?"
"It's better to handle this quietly," Wu Wang waved his hand. "Inform my father of this matter tomorrow. Do not disturb his reunion with my mother."
"Yes!"
General Xiong San bowed to take his orders and turned to leave.
"Wait, General Xiong."
Wu Wang suddenly called out to the old General, his eyes flickering uncertainly.
General Xiong San stood there, dumbstruck. It was the first time he had seen the usually decisive and forceful Young Master show such hesitation.
"Young Master, what's wrong?"
"Someone is already targeting me. We cannot let the mastermind behind this get away easily. Otherwise, how can our Bear Embrace clan stand firm in the Northern Wilderness?"
Wu Wang took a slow breath, the hesitation gone from his eyes as he spoke calmly, "Mutual development must be based on the premise that we do not suffer any losses. After all, in the Northern Wilderness, it's a matter of who has the bigger fist, not who does more good deeds. General Xiong, execute these men immediately, but do not feed their bodies to the wolves. After dawn, spread the word that... my mother executed her unique Praying Star Technique. Under the direction of the omnipotent Star God, following the Way of Cause and Effect, she practiced magic on these assassins' corpses for seven days to trace the origin of the entire incident."
Old Xiong San couldn't help but wonder, "What in the world is the Way of Cause and Effect?"
"Just spread the word as I told you. Did you remember all of that?"
"Got it! Lady Cang Xue taking action, the Star God guiding, the ability of the first day of the seven-day ritual, following the Way of Cause and Effect to find the original cause!"
General Xiong San glanced at Lin Suqing then promptly puffed up his chest.
"Young Master, rest assured, I can't possibly be that foolish!"
Seeing Wu Wang nod, the brawny man burst out of the tent, his loud shouts causing a bit of a commotion.
Lin Suqing stood by, lost in thought. When she looked up at Wu Wang, she saw him sinking into the beast-hide chair.
The starlight was dim, lighting up his lean face, but there were some shadowy areas that it couldn't brighten.
"Young Master, is something the matter?" Lin Suqing asked softly.
"It's nothing."
Wu Wang responded, closing his eyes and forming the seal of a Priest's prayer with his hands, whispering, "May those who perish because of my decision today find peace under the guidance of the Star God."
Infinite heavenly venerable, Great Emperor Jade, Namo Gatlin Bodhisattva, Einstein, the highly revered one of relativity. Although they had no jurisdiction over the Great Wilderness.
Lin Suqing didn't quite understand Wu Wang's prayer. Those who kill should be killed in return; there was no need for any mercy towards assassins who had come to kill him.
Could it be that the Young Master's heart was actually incredibly tender... Was it this tenderness that she did not deserve to enjoy? Self-seclusion often happens in an instant.
But the developments that followed far exceeded Lin Suqing's expectations. If they had to be summarized in a phrase, it would be—carnage and chaos.
The corpses of this wave of assassins were hung around the outskirts of the Royal Court, with large numbers of Priests praying around them. The rumors spread by General Xiong San, with the aid of the Star God Cult, quickly spread everywhere.
On the sixth night of the hanging corpses, the wolf cubs in the animal pens around the Royal Court were restlessly pacing.
In the middle of the night, a large number of shadows fell from the sky, aiming straight for the dozen or so corpses, but they were surrounded by the Bear Embrace clan elites who had been awaiting them.
Starlight sealed the paths, arrows crisscrossed.
A battle ensued for nearly an hour. Dozens of the attackers were captured, while the rest were annihilated. Their origins were thoroughly interrogated and repeatedly verified without error: the Bear Embrace clan's neighboring clan—the Hair Race.
The Hair Race, mainly composed of the Human race and the Hair Race, excelled in commanding beasts and worshiped the Star God and the Beast God. Although this clan's overall strength wasn't among the top ten in the Northern Wilderness, it was by no means weak. Moreover, they had a history of friction with the Bear Embrace clan over boundary disputes and harbored long-standing grievances.
Their plan had been seamless. They had placed a bounty through a power in the Western Wilderness via a trade caravan. The witches from the Rain Mistress Nation who had been caught were a 'professional team' that frequently carried out assassinations, making it nearly impossible to trace the employer's roots.
But who would have thought that the Praying Star Technique possessed such mysteries as the Way of Cause and Effect!
At first, the leader of the Hair Race and their high priest vehemently disbelieved this news. But when rumors began to spread within their clan and strange celestial phenomena frequently occurred, they eventually couldn't sit still.
What was even more fatal was that their dispatched suicide warriors hadn't died and, worse, couldn't withstand the Young Master's interrogation techniques. Dozens of confessions, varying in detail, all pointed towards the Hair Race leader and high priest.
「Half a month later.」
The Bear Embrace clan invaded the Hair Race without a declaration of war, splitting their forces into three for a surprise attack.
「One and a half months later.」
This clan war ended swiftly with the defeat of the Hair Race.
Following Lady Cang Xue's suggestion, the Bear Embrace clan divided part of the Hair Race's original territory equally among several other nearby powerful clans.
—This was, of course, Wu Wang's arrangement.
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down; blessings fall upon the strongest. Since Brother Xing Tian had the ambition to compete with the Heavenly Emperor, it was quite good for their Bear Embrace clan to follow behind, sip some soup, and steadily make their way in the Northern Wilderness.
After the war, Cang Xue convened and presided over the Seven-Day Ritual council, which officially removed the Hair Race from the Northern Wilderness. The former members of the Hair Race became refugees, permitted to be assimilated by other clans under the Star God's protection.
A medium-sized clan vanished into thin air within two months.
It's worth mentioning that the casualties among the Bear Embrace clan members who participated in the war were actually not high.
The spectating Large Family Clans had expected a drawn-out war lasting at least half a year. However, it turned out to be a one-sided advance by the Bear Embrace clan, with the Hair Race completely powerless to fight back.
Ballistas in formation, the Praying Star Technique that influenced local weather, and the new type of repeating crossbows wielded by the giant wolf cavalry became the focus of attention for all clans.
Unfortunately, the new repeating crossbows were kept under tight wraps by the Bear Embrace clan, who declared to the outside world that they were 'nonexistent,' 'toys,' 'how could such things exist,' and 'it's all just our tribe members boasting and spreading false rumors.'
When the conflict with the Hair Race was completely resolved, the designer of these crossbows and tactics, in his riverside cabin, took up his brush and wrote a single large character:
[Strive].
Lin Suqing, who was grinding ink beside him, frowned and pursed her lips, asking in a low voice, "Just like that, such a large clan is gone?"
"What else?" Wu Wang put down his wolf-hair brush, sat back in his chair, and smiled. "A clan that has never produced a Sun Ritual practitioner will always be a marginal power in the Northern Wilderness, liable to be devoured by other forces at any time."
Lin Suqing, still hesitant, voiced her concerns, "What if it wasn't the Hair Race that came that night, but another powerful Large Family Clan... wouldn't we have suffered great losses, like inflicting a thousand wounds on the enemy at the cost of eight hundred to ourselves?"
Wu Wang then elaborated, "I hesitated for a long time before making this decision, but I had no choice. This is a responsibility I must bear. If I were an ordinary member of the Bear Embrace clan and was ambushed, I would simply retaliate with my own strength. But I am the heir to this clan's leadership. Being assassinated is not merely my private affair."
Seeing Lin Suqing's partial understanding, Wu Wang continued, "If a clan's Young Master is assassinated and it's treated as if nothing happened, that clan will inevitably be seen as weak by other powerful tribes, and disasters will follow one after another. The Hair Race might well have had the support of other Large Family Clans; otherwise, they wouldn't have lost their minds and constantly tried to pick fights with us. Appropriately flexing our muscles is necessary to deter the forces that can truly threaten us. This is the way of survival in the Northern Wilderness."
After a pause, Wu Wang smiled. "Why am I telling you all this? Go back to your room and cultivate."
"Oh," Lin Suqing responded, tiptoeing quietly towards the door.
Before she left, she thought of something else, turned her head, and asked, "Young Master, what about that sealed puppet?"
"Cremated." Wu Wang replied without lifting his head. "It's quite pitiful, having its self-consciousness erased just after being born."
Fire… Lin Suqing pursed her lips, bowed her head, and retreated. She had thought Wu Wang would spare the puppet's life.
Wu Wang rested for a while, calming his slightly fluctuating emotions.
He stood up, picked up the brush, and with a stroke that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand catties yet landed as lightly as a feather on snow, he wrote another character after [Strive]: [Immortal].
The last time his parents returned to the clan lands for a reunion, Wu Wang had already told them he wanted to go to the Human Domain to venture out and see the world. His father was strongly opposed; his mother expressed some worry. However, as long as his mother agreed, convincing his father wouldn't be difficult.
After the battle with the Hair Race, the Bear Embrace clan should enjoy a long period of stability. Another Star God's blessing was unlikely to occur anytime soon, and the Big Wave Tribe still stood as a buffer before them.
The time was ripe to seek a path to immortality and a cure for his strange illness.
It was time to make preparations for the Human Domain, to head to the Northern Wilderness market and purchase a "starter pack," showcasing the modest wealth of an ordinary Northern Wilderness clan.
Thus, three months later, Wu Wang's carriage burst forth from the Royal Court, accompanied by a vast horde of giant wolf riders, heading towards a seaside market.
...
"Husband, Husband?"
Who?
Wu Wang 'opened' his eyes to find a hazy aurora before him; he was sitting under a tree. Looking down, he saw a pair of tender little hands. He was clad in a fur short-shirt and shorts, resembling his attire around the age of seven or eight.
A dream?
"Husband, do you like me?"
A clear call suddenly sounded beside his ear. Wu Wang abruptly looked up to see a little girl standing before him, slowly bending down. He couldn't see her face or discern her figure, yet he could see the sweet smile at the corner of her mouth.
"That settles it then. We are husband and wife now."
Husband and wife? How did we become husband and wife?
Wu Wang's eyes widened as he suddenly realized something. He tried to raise his hand to grab the little girl before him but felt too weak to lift his arm. A slight tingling numbness came from his shoulder; the little girl had bitten him there, revealing two sharp teeth.
In the next instant, the little girl vanished, and a blurry, graceful figure appeared. This figure was tall and slender, with almost perfect curves. Her most distinctive feature was her long hair that fell past her waist, yet her face and attire remained unclear.
Who are you? Wu Wang asked in his heart, unable to make a sound, now overcome by an immense yearning to see her face clearly, to know her origin.
Who on earth are you!
After this question, Wu Wang suddenly saw her bright eyes, saw the tenderness and endless affection within them.
The vague figure suddenly dissipated. Broken images flashed before Wu Wang's eyes, along with those calls, sometimes near, sometimes far:
"I won't make you wait too long..."
"Husband..."
"Wait for me... wait for me..."
Wait!
On the swiftly moving carriage, Wu Wang suddenly opened his eyes. His body was tense, his forehead beaded with sweat, and his eyes momentarily struggled to focus.
"Young Master? Are you feeling hot?" Lin Suqing's voice came from beside him, like a rope thrown to him, pulling him out of a mire.
Slowly exhaling, Wu Wang immediately called for the carriage to stop. He had Lin Suqing take out the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone he carried with him and hastily sketched three scrolls.
The first depicted the dream scene: a lush Great Tree, a small lake reflecting starlight, and dazzling auroras fluttering everywhere.
The second captured the outline of the little girl.
The third, however, was a pair of eyes—eyes so uniquely warm they defied detailed description, akin to almond eyes yet even more tender.
After completing these three drawings, Wu Wang felt completely drained, sitting stupefied, unable to regain his composure for a long time.
Had he forgotten something? At the age of seven or eight, had there been a gap in his memory?
Wu Wang strained to recall, searching repeatedly, but he came to a definitive conclusion—his memory was intact, with no gaps whatsoever.
So what... what was going on? It was impossible for him to dream without reason! Considering his Praying Star Technique, he could barely be considered 'strong' in the Northern Wilderness; it was unlikely he would simply dream.
"What's wrong, Young Master?" Lin Suqing asked anxiously from the side. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"How did I fall asleep?"
"You just... fell asleep like that," Lin Suqing seemed a bit flustered. "After you got on the carriage, you started meditating, and as you meditated, you started snoring."
Wu Wang carefully recalled the moments before he fell asleep.
Lin Suqing said with concern, "Is it because you've been pushing yourself too hard in your cultivation? You must be careful. Being overly eager in cultivation is the biggest taboo; an unstable state of mind can easily induce a heart demon."
A heart demon? Had he always been so eager to understand the origin of his strange ailment that cracks had begun to appear in his Dao heart?
Wu Wang rubbed his brow, staring at the paintings before him, his Spiritual mind unable to find peace for a long time.
This could be a heart demon, or perhaps… it was the root cause of his bizarre illness!
With the clues and information he currently possessed, he couldn't reach any valid conclusions.
A flame emerged in his palm. Wu Wang burned the three paintings to ashes and instructed Lin Suqing to act as if she had seen nothing.
Clutching the necklace he kept close to his skin, Wu Wang considered contacting his mother, then released the necklace. I should first determine if a heart demon is at play before seeking Mother's help. I can't rely on her for everything.
"Young Master," a guard reported from the side, "we are not far from the market. According to the rules agreed upon by the clans, large groups of personnel cannot approach the market."
Wu Wang asked, "Suqing, how are the arrangements on that end?"
"They are ready."
"Mm," Wu Wang took a beast-bone mask from his robes and put it on. Throughout the remaining journey, he continued to ponder this sudden Dream Realm.
Wu Wang was certain he had never seen the owner of those almond eyes before. Upon careful comparison, he also ruled out the Star God. The Star God's eyes were rather narrow, likely phoenix eyes.
To be frank, Wu Wang had seriously considered many times that perhaps he had caught the fancy of a wealthy Star God matriarch and had been "blessed" by her in some way that prevented him from contacting other women. He had even mentally prepared himself: if the Star God came to claim him and he couldn't defeat her, he would die for his principles, defending his right to choose a mate!
But now, things seemed to have become... rather strange.
He raised a hand to touch the spot on his shoulder where he had been 'bitten,' but there was no wound, nor any related memory.
If—and this was just a hypothesis—his strange illness was truly caused by the woman in his dream leaving some kind of mark, curse, or other bizarre thing on him... and if the Northern Wilderness's contemporary strongest Sun Ritual practitioner, as well as his grandmother who had lived for over six hundred years, were powerless against this curse, then this woman's identity...
Could she be on par with the Star God? That's impossible, completely unreasonable, too far-fetched.
The last scene from his previous life was him piloting a Spaceship into a Wormhole that had suddenly appeared near Blue Star. Then, with a POP, the Spaceship exploded, and he was gone. He vaguely sensed his soul drifting through endless darkness, drawn away by some vortex.
In this life, he fully recovered his past life memories at the age of three, and his memories from before that age were also completely intact.
Wu Wang was absolutely certain that he had never met that girl in his past life or this one!
It must be a heart demon. This has to be a heart demon, right? But, not counting the Praying Star Technique, I'm still only in the Qi-gathering realm… Ah, this is so troublesome!
His head ached.
The sound of waves crashing against the shore came from afar. The edge of his vision filled with pure azure, and he saw the glittering sea at the horizon.
Four Frost Wolves dashed wildly, barging straight into the bustling market, attracting countless gazes.
A short while later, Wu Wang temporarily suppressed these chaotic thoughts. Surrounded by more than ten guards, he entered the largest circular tent in the market.
The interior of this tent reminded Wu Wang of a circus performance venue he had seen in his past life. The hundreds of seats surrounding the central circular stage were completely empty, and all entrances had been sealed by fierce guards.
As soon as his party entered, more than ten scantily clad women with voluptuous figures from various races came forward to greet them, calling out coquettishly, "My lord, this way, please."
Wu Wang nodded slightly. A guard by his side tossed out two bags of gold and silver—trivialities. Just some colored pebbles, after all.
Before long, Wu Wang was seated in the centermost position of the front row. Various delicacies were laid out before him, and he was gently swirling a glass goblet.
Lin Suqing stood quietly beside him and said to those on stage, "You may begin."
DANG—
A sturdy man with bull horns, emitting a strong scent of blood, struck a golden gong and shouted, "The 632nd Northern Wilderness Treasure Auction officially begins!"
Wu Wang sat there, still earnestly trying to recall and ponder.