Yue Ran went out early in the morning.
He hadn't slept the entire night so as soon as the sky cleared up, and dawn broke he went out.
The north territory being on the edge of the world seemed to receive sunlight later than anywhere else.
The storm had already calmed down before dawn. The sky was clearing up with the sun finally making its appearance,
Yue Ran's breath fogged up before him with each exhale.
In the distance almost an hour from their shelter he finally saw a beast that was roaming about alone.
A wolf beast it was, upon closer look Yue Ran saw its body, already corrupted from its limbs, the corruption spreading up to its body.
But the unusual thing wasn't its corruption but how it turned out to be alone,
This was pretty unusual for their kind, they were not the type to be lone predators or to be found wandering alone.
Shuangwei was known for its wolves as much as its other specialties, so he knew a lot about them through books.
They were not a spiritual beast nor a monster but the sheer size was almost baffling.
Getting corrupted wasn't a rare occurance in the north which was a border between the demon realm and the mortal.
With the gates opening every hundred years or so, many demons would escape from being killed during the hunt and take on other beasts as their host, hence forming a demonic beast or commonly called as "corrupts" by the northerners.
The northern wolves could grow even larger than an average male.
Like the one he found that seemed to be about the size of a healthy young cultivator.
There wasn't anything remarkable or different about them except their size but the way it behaved caught yue ran's eyes, it looked around with every single step it took, it was jumpy and visibly very alert almost as if it was hiding or running from something.
Normal beasts weren't usually this vigilant, unlike spiritual beats who had greater intelligence or corrupted beasts who knew nothing but pure instinct and blood thirst
Normal beasts, on the other hand were the weakest with minimum intelligence that even mortals with a few additional numbers could easily kill and hunt them.
The one he encountered seemed to be in the process of corruption.
It hadn't spread very far from its limbs but they were spreading steadily.
This must be why it was alone, probably chased out from its pack for their safety.
There in one of its legs was a shadow almost like smoke, swirling around which was the core of the corruption. it was beginning to consume the beast's consciousness rotting its body while replacing them with itself like a huge parasite.
This was his first time seeing a beast being corrupted so he watched a little longer from a distance.
It didn't seem old, only two or three days from being corrupted maybe.
The smoke-like shadow was none other than the demonic life force.
Stopping his wandering thoughts a single sentence emerged in his mind.
'It shouldn't taste that bad'
Thought Yue Ran, contemplating for a moment on whether he should take this one or search for a different beast.
he himself had eaten various kinds of meat in the past which he never would've imagined to be edible so this beast didn't seem too bad for him, after all if the corrupt couldn't be purified he'd just cut it off.
However, he had not explored his tastes again after having grown accustomed to not eating and settling with his master as they reached his master's peak.
His master had never carried any food along with him and had barely a copper when he took yue ran in.
He could survive without food of course but that wasn't the case for the kid he took in.
despite having an amazing aptitude, Yue Ran still had to actually cultivate it and before all that he had to eat well in order to grow and survive.
After all simply being born with amazing aptitude did not exempt him from his bodily needs as a child.
His master was a clueless man, evident from when he served Yue Ran who at that time was still a kid, burnt meat.
From a wild boar he had caught and roughly prepared.
He seemed to try his best but sometimes efforts didn't mean good results.
Serving a starving child some burnt meat without proper preparation wasn't the wisest thing, as it left him clutching his stomach for a week.
And in his case presently, there are a few variables to be kept in mind ,
Despite the situation being quite similar to the past one major change was in fact the child's identity.
The child he took in wasn't human unlike when he was taken in by his master, so he should have no trouble consuming some...exotic meat.
As long as it was cooked and cleaned well there shouldn't be a problem, plus, he was actually a great cook.
Yue ran's eyes analysed the meat on its body, the beast was perfectly healthy if whatever happening below its body were to be ignored.
He could get quite a lot of meat from this and there was no guarantee of finding another beast soon so it only seemed more and more logical despite the swirling shadow at its feet.
And its fur was particularly enviable. One of the north's best materials were the "frosted breath wolves" even if this one wasn't the famed beast, its fur weren't inferior.
Even the fur of common wolves from the north were sold at high prices compared to furs from anywhere else because of its quality, length and size so more reason to choose this beast.
Not to mention, the child would soon be in need of a cloak, he couldn't lend his forever, so this was everything he needed to make a rough cloak.
His cloak would obviously be a loose fit on the child so he had to make one particularly for him.
.
.
.
It didn't take long for him to kill the beast, after all it was already exhausted. Not even managing to put up a proper fight,
Dying after a single strike that was made using only a talisman, a small explosion was all it took for it to drop on the snow bed.
Putting his hand away in a graceful motion, he walked closer, the beast with the corruption eating away at its mind and the explosion rupturing its organs laid resigned to its fate it laid on the cold bed without moving.
Blood trickled down from its orifices.
Staining the snow.
Its life only a breath away, it still tried to cling but to no avail, wheezing while trying to breath but no matter how much it inhaled it could to fill his already shattered lungs.
Maybe it was cursing life or maybe it was thinking of its old pack like humans who had death just outside their doors.
Yue ran, stared down before pulling out his sword from his spiritual realm and stabbing its skull.
Skinning a live wolf would just be unpleasant, the noise and the small body movements, he would rather skin a corpse
Since he preferred silence and no one knew silence better than the dead.
As he began skinning the beast his brows furrowed at the strong musty stench coming from the open corpse of the beast.
He had not smelt anything this strong in a while so it took him a moment to readjust himself.
"Bothersome" he murmured,
skinning the wolf with precision and speed.
The blood stained his fingers along with his sleeves.
Noticing the mess he paused for a moment, lifting his head with his face facing towards the sky, his eyes closed gently,
As he exhaled deeply.
.
.
Upon his return he found the child sitting on the floor, the cloak already folded and kept on the edge of the carpet.
His hair spread on the floor, reflecting light as sun brake through flooding him with its light as the door opened.
He had his eyes closed,
Half his face was covered beneath the mess called hair.
The folding was clumsy and asymmetrical, the edges of the cloth sticking out from underneath.
After the door opened the warmth from inside slipped through bringing in cold wind instead.
feeling a sudden gush of the freezing wind the boy flinched raising his head, his hair shifted and fell from his body, revealing his eyes, that seemed dazed and confused at the cold not noticing yue ran's brief gaze before he promptly looked away
The boy's eyes seemed soft and warm resembling buttercups blooming in the wild in the Fengnan territory all year round, the Fengnan territory was situated in the southwest part of the world, a territory broken up into many islands small and large, Fengnan was overseen by the whispering gale sect and was under their protection.
His eyes that made a person think of the sun, and spring
Contrasted much with his other features that resembled a desolate frozen place.
The scratches on his face showed his struggle for survival before being found, his chapped lips parting slightly as he raised his trembling eyes to look towards the source of the cold as his small frame trembled.
His face was clear, and the light resting on his small figure revealing him in front of the immortal
Unlike last night when there was barely anything in the sky to illuminate his surroundings concealing the boy's appearance except it's most striking feature.
The white hair
But now he could confidently name all the hues and shades on the boy.
He wore a bluish robe its original colour despite being buried beneath blood stains and dirt from who knows where, it still revealed itself with pride despite the worn down condition hinting at its owner's high status perhaps.
Yue Ran had looked away and was placing the fur on a faraway table that had been frozen from years of stillness, he blew away the dust before placing the fur on the table.
His thoughts still pondered on the boy's condition,
Even his skin didn't seem translucent any longer, it was now full of life with blood flowing normally, with his open wound being treated.
However, the child was still- as a twig.
which seems to be caused by prolonged starvation.
He carried various cuts on his foot.
When he found him, he wore nothing for his feet which seemed strange considering the quality of his clothes.
His lips looked painful as they trembled, blood clotting and with skin flakes coming off and poking out it looked uncomfortable and must've felt even more so, but Yue Ran carried no ointment. And he did not want to go through the trouble of healing him again just after he had brought back food for the child which he obviously had to cook as well so he just let the child in that state.
Since it wasn't something of immediate concern he didn't bother himself with it.
The skin and meat had already been cleaned in the snow before he returned so it no longer carried a strong scent confirming this Yue Ran walked towards the door once more.
Closing the door he happened to look towards the boy's direction and in that brief moment their eyes met again.
While yue ran had looked away, the kid after looking at him had not removed his gaze and was already staring at him for a while before being caught.
The child's eyes were filled with innocence bright and clear something that felt distant from how he found him on the previous night.
But the expression of pure innocence couldn't be mimicked so easily, it could even be said to be impossible and on top of that, deceiving an immortal was even more difficult so it was impossible for him to be deceived unless the opponent was someone stronger or at his level.
In the silence nobody made the effort to break the silence, tension stretching and the atmosphere within the room grew more stiff and before anyone had realized the atmosphere had already turned awkward.
Yue Ran of course, stayed oblivious to the fidgeting child and his awkwardness,
While for the child this moment was like walking on broken egg shells as he quickly began fiddling with his thumb underneath the folds of his robes
After getting caught, he had immediately turned his gaze away but with this prolonged silence, he pulled courage from within himself lifting his chin slightly to look at the immortal who was looking down on him from above.
*Thump*
he stared, at first he was just staring at his back, the long hair like obsidian that fell like streams of water, flowing with ease as they swayed with every movement, subtle and obvious depending on what the other did.
*Thump*
He must've forgotten to blink, as his eyes started to sting being open for what felt like a long time for him when only a couple minutes passed, every single breath he took seemed slowed.
The immortal was someone he never could've imagined or seen even in his dreams, his eyes like phoenix, with a soft touch of red eyes so common yet the boy found himself unable to look away, he never knew how beautiful the earth truly was before he saw yue ran's eyes.
That resembled the mud on fields basking underneath the sun before being planted with rice.
Smooth sharp nose with lips that drew his face like a priced portrait.
A masterpiece spoken in legends and histories.
However, what left the boy frozen weren't his eyes nor the hair that could hold an abyss, it was the small but deep mole resting beneath his left eye, perhaps a simple dot on many men, but for the boy, stunned from his presence it felt like a precise use of the brush, created with extreme care.
Giving Yue Ran a feeling of elegance and grace that seemed to be with him since birth.
Untouchable he seemed.
Unreachable
like a far away sun,
Beautiful
Like the light that enveloped the world.