「Early the next morning.」

The morning clouds rolled slowly across the sky as sunlight gradually blanketed the small Hongshi Town. After collecting her wages, Tang Xiaoxiao bought a pound of ribs, a pound of lean meat, and a large fish weighing two and a half pounds.

After also stopping by the apothecary for some medicine to treat external wounds, she glanced at her now-empty coin purse. But she didn’t feel a sting of regret, instead heading home cheerfully.

“Sis!” Tang Shitou’s eyes went wide as he stared at the big bag of ribs and fish, practically drooling as he bounded forward.

Tang Xiaoxiao shot him an annoyed glare and asked:

“How is that young man doing?”

“Same as before…” Tang Shitou scratched his head and replied, “He’s still unconscious. I took a look, and his injuries are terrifying… Do you think he was hit by that big meteor yesterday?”

“It’s possible. No, it’s very likely.”

Tang Xiaoxiao first started decocting the herbs, then said to Tang Shitou:

“In a bit, you’re going to feed that big brother his medicine. I’m going to start on the food. Our older brother should be back soon… You hear me?”

“You got it!” Tang Shitou replied crisply.

An hour later, when the herbal medicine was nearly done decocting, Tang Xiaoxiao handed the bowl to Tang Shitou and started preparing the fish and ribs. He, in turn, scampered into the small hut, only to jump back in fright.

“Ah!” He stared wide-eyed. “You’re awake?”

On the bed, Lu Xuan patted his still-aching head and curiously sized up the eleven- or twelve-year-old boy before him. A single thought was all it took for him to piece together most of what had happened.

He sat up with some difficulty and gave a gentle smile.

“Hello…”

“Don’t get up, don’t get up!” Hearing the commotion, Tang Xiaoxiao rushed to the doorway and shouted. She took the bowl of medicine from Tang Shitou’s hands and hurried forward.

“Your injuries are severe. You can’t make any sudden movements, or you’ll tear your wounds open…”

She beckoned Little Stone to help and, without giving him a chance to object, began spooning the thick medicinal paste into his mouth.

Lu Xuan was utterly bewildered but didn’t resist, swallowing the pasty medicine mouthful by mouthful, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Once the bowl of medicine was finished, he finally had a chance to speak:

“Um…”

“Shh!” Tang Xiaoxiao wiped the sweat from her brow and instructed, “You need to talk less right now.”

“Right, right!” Tang Shitou piped up. “You have to talk less! I tried to channel virtuous power to heal you just now, but I failed… Your injuries must be really bad!”

“You were recklessly channeling power again?” Tang Xiaoxiao shot her little brother a glare. “You’re not supposed to channel power frequently before you’ve chosen a school.”

Tang Shitou shrank back. On the bed, Lu Xuan observed the two siblings, then glanced around the clean and tidy little hut, a gentle smile on his face.

“Actually, my injuries are just superficial. It’s not that serious… I think I must have landed in the water. Thank you both for pulling me out.”

Tang Xiaoxiao turned back, her eyes bright.

“Superficial wounds? What kind of superficial wounds look that terrifying? But it’s okay. Our older brother should be here in a little while. With him around, your injuries should heal quickly.”

After a pause, the girl introduced herself with a natural grace:

“My name is Tang Xiaoxiao, and this is my little brother, Tang Shitou. You’re pretty lucky. You happened to run into us while we were washing clothes by the river. Otherwise, who knows where you would have drifted off to!”

Lu Xuan quietly assessed his current condition while patiently listening to the girl’s story.

After a moment, he managed a difficult smile.

“My name is Lu Xuan. May I ask… where is this?”

“Hongshi Town.” Tang Xiaoxiao was a little confused. “Weren’t you injured by the shockwave from the great meteor in Hongshi Mountain?”

But at the side, Tang Shitou suddenly realized something and let out a sound of surprise.

“Hey! Your name…”

“Hey what?” Tang Xiaoxiao gave Tang Shitou a sharp rap on the head. “Hasn’t your teacher taught you any manners? Speak properly!”

In front of outsiders, she always acted like a strict mother.

Tang Shitou clutched his head, wronged, his eyes welling up with tears.

“B-Big brother, your name is the same as Lu Zi’s…”

Lu Xuan and Tang Xiaoxiao both froze.

The latter finally understood and looked at the young man in astonishment. Lu Xuan, however, was lost in thought. ‘Lu Zi…’

‘Interesting. It seems this Little World hasn’t been cut off from history…’

Although Tang Xiaoxiao was curious, she didn’t ask any more questions. She just said in a clear voice:

“Our guest, please rest for a while… Little Stone, you stay here and keep our guest company. I’m going to make lunch.”

“Okay, Sis!”

After watching his sister walk out the door with the empty bowl, Tang Shitou immediately and eagerly turned his head to the extremely pale young man on the bed and asked curiously:

“Big brother, when your family named you, did they not avoid the names of the Ancient Sons?”

He paused, then asked with even more curiosity:

“Big brother, where are you from? Are you from another village or town? What’s it like there?”

Tang Shitou had never left Hongshi Town. He always eagerly awaited his older brother’s return so he could hear stories about the outside world. He was extremely curious about the world beyond Hongshi Town.

Lu Xuan, sensing the thin Primordial Qi in the air, smiled and replied:

“We don’t really have those kinds of naming taboos. Where I’m from, there isn’t much recorded history. A lot of things from the past are unknown, and most people don’t even know the names of the Ancient Sons…”

“Really?” Tang Shitou was a bit baffled, his face filled with even greater curiosity. “Big brother, are you from some isolated mountain village? How could you not even be clear on the names of the Ancient Sons…”

Lu Xuan smiled but didn’t explain. He began to circulate the meager Primordial Qi to recover while also trying to speed up the fusion of his body with the [Virtue].

‘His injuries were too severe. His physical shell was badly damaged. On the surface, it didn’t look so bad, but his internal organs were a mess. He also had to divert his focus to resist the unending [Physical Tribulation] that was constantly bearing down on him from the void…’

As his thoughts churned, Lu Xuan asked softly:

“I suppose so. This is my first time leaving my village. It’s deep within a great mountain, with no contact with the outside world… Can I call you Little Stone?”

“You can, you can! My sis and big brother both call me Little Stone!”

“Then can you tell me about the Sons?” Lu Xuan asked with a smile. “There’s a lot I don’t understand.”

“I can!”

Tang Shitou perked up. Usually, it was his teacher, his sister, or his older brother teaching him. It was a rare opportunity to be the one teaching someone else…

He climbed onto the bed, sat beside Lu Xuan, and began to speak with great enthusiasm:

“The Sons… let me think how to explain… My teacher says that on the other side of the Ten Thousand Mountains, many, many years ago, the Sons were all incredible figures! The powerful ones could even speak with Immortal Gods. For example…”

He counted on his fingers:

“For example, Kongzi of Confucianism, Lu Zi of the Daoist School, Ancient Mozi of the Mo School, Sunzi of the Military School, and Shangzi of the Legalist School… All of them are [Great Virtues], really, really powerful Great Virtues!”

After thinking for a moment, Little Stone added:

“A Great Virtue is more powerful than a Great Sage. Of course, Great Sages are also very powerful, but I don’t know exactly how powerful. It’s a shame that many, many years ago, the Ten Thousand Mountains became impassable. My sister says the Celestial Son of Zhou on the other side of the mountains might even be gone, but I don’t believe it.”

Lu Xuan’s mind raced. From just those few sentences, he had roughly analyzed the situation of this [Peach Blossom Spring]. The so-called Ten Thousand Mountains must be the [Boundary].

And this Little World must have broken off during the Zhou Dynasty, with the Ten Thousand Mountains as the dividing line…

‘Since they can mention me, the point in time when it broke off must have been sometime after my time in the dream, but probably not too long after.’

After pondering for a moment, Lu Xuan gave a gentle smile and probed:

“Can you tell me about Lu Zi?”

“I can, I can!”

Little Stone grew excited, waving his hands and feet as he chattered on endlessly:

“Lu Zi is the most, most powerful [Son] of the Daoist School, even more powerful than [Zhuangzi]! No, he’s the most powerful of all the Sons. I heard from my teacher that Lu Zi was an official in some kind of chamber, and even Kongzi once visited Lu Zi and called him teacher!”

He wracked his brain to recall his teacher’s words and what he’d read in books, counting on his fingers as he continued:

“My teacher also said that Lu Zi once went to the Qi Kingdom and punished the unrighteous and virtueless King of Qi. This is called… this is called Lu Zi’s Invasion of Qi! There were a lot of other things that happened in between, but I can’t remember them clearly…”

Lu Xuan smiled thoughtfully and asked gently:

“Is there more?”

Tang Shitou scratched his head, looking dazed.

“There’s very little after that. My teacher said that thirty years after Lu Zi’s Invasion of Qi, he began to travel the world, and then… there’s nothing more. The Ten Thousand Mountains became impassable, so we don’t know what happened on the other side.”

‘Thirty years??’

Lu Xuan was stunned, his expression changing slightly. He suddenly remembered—he had forgotten to reset the time on the Bronze Fragment!

‘In other words…’

‘One day in the Current World was a hundred days in the Ancient Times of the dream. A month or so in the Current World was ten years in the dream!’

“Big brother, what’s wrong?” Little Stone asked curiously, looking at the young man whose expression had shifted.

“It’s nothing…”

Lu Xuan gave a bitter laugh, composed himself, and asked again out of curiosity:

“You said just now that your older brother could heal my injuries when he gets back. Is he a very skilled doctor?”

“Nope!”

Tang Shitou tilted his head back proudly, his nose in the air.

“My big brother is a super genius who activated the statue of Han Feizi! He’s super, super powerful! He can easily heal any injury, and he can move a whole mountain with a single word!”

Lu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly and continued to ask:

“Oh? Why is activating the statue of Han Feizi so powerful?”

“You don’t even know that?” Tang Shitou scratched his head. “Then again, you people don’t even know about the Sons…”

He thought for a moment and replied:

“It’s cultivation! When we turn twelve, we can go communicate with the Ancient Sons. If we get a response and can activate a Son’s statue, we’re a super genius. If not, we have to choose a suitable one from the Hundred Schools, study its teachings, and we can also gain the power of the Sons!”

‘Lu Xuan was lost in thought. He roughly understood this world’s so-called cultivation. In a situation where Primordial Qi, Spiritual Qi, and the like were extremely scarce, had they found an alternative path: borrowing power from the Ancient Sons?’

‘No, to be precise, they were borrowing from the positions of sagehood and virtue that the Ancient Sons possessed…’

Tang Shitou continued with a grin:

“Big brother is coming back this time to take me to the Hall of the Hundred Schools in the Provincial Government. I’ll get to commune with the Sons too…”

As he spoke, he pumped his fist, his eyes shining brightly:

“No one has activated the five statues of the Great Virtues in many years. I’m not confident about that, but it’d be great if I could just activate a statue of a regular Son, hehehe…”

As he spoke, Little Stone gave a silly laugh, a snot bubble even appearing from his nose.

“You probably don’t know this, but the statues of the Sons are ranked. The higher up they are, the more powerful. The Great Virtue statues are the most, most, most powerful. It’s a shame there are only five, and no one has activated one in a very long time…”

“Which five?”

“Lu Zi, Kongzi, Ancient Mozi, Sunzi, and the Ghost Valley Master. Lu Zi is ranked first! I’ll tell you a secret, I successfully borrowed power from Lu Zi once last night! Though it was just luck…”

Little Stone wiped his nose and added with a hint of regret:

“My teacher said that there were probably more [Great Virtues] that appeared long ago, but after the Ten Thousand Mountains were sealed, we lost all contact with the other side. The power we can borrow is stuck at the level it was on the day the mountains were sealed…”

Lu Xuan understood. He now had a basic understanding of this world. Just as he was about to say his thanks, Tang Xiaoxiao’s tearful cry came from outside the door:

“Brother, what’s wrong with you…?”

Little Stone’s expression changed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep