That child was me. My name is Chang An.

 

Hua Yi knew that travelling through the dense forest for several days might have caused his wound to become infected. The wound across his chest, which had been torn open by a beast claw until the bone was almost visible, had split open again during the fight. It seemed that it would not heal anytime soon, and he could only endure it until he reunited with his people.

This was not the most dangerous situation he had ever encountered. Hua Yi was not panicking; everything was still under control. He drew several deep breaths, waiting for that piercing pain to pass.

Ten years ago, after struggling to escape the pursuers sent by the tribe he had been born into, Hua Yi had not gone into hiding. Instead, he had chosen to become an “Exiled Traveller”.

On this continent filled with limitless dangers, every day countless audacious young people who dreamed of making a name for themselves joined the ranks of the “Exiled Travellers”. They underwent the harshest training, went to the most dangerous places, did what others dared not do, and took money that others dared not take. Every time they made a move, it was a life-or-death ordeal; every time they collected their reward, they could become unimaginably wealthy.

As long as one had the money and could afford the price, one could buy anything through the hands of the Exiled Travellers.

However, these audacious young people usually died very quickly. The Exiled Travellers did not live as they pleased—they plucked chestnuts from the fire, and survived by the narrowest of margins.

Without the mindset that if they did not force themselves to become stronger, they would not live to see the sun rise the next day, most of them would find it difficult to survive even their very first missions.

This was the path Hua Yi had chosen for himself back then. The once innocent boy who liked to worry about others gradually learned to lie low, to be suspicious, to be cautious, and, even when trapped in an utterly desperate situation, to never give up searching for a way to survive.

An Exiled Traveller who could survive for ten years would turn his own name into a legend in that world existing on the edge between life and death.

The Exiled Traveller Silver Fang—his shadow had spread throughout the entire northern continent. From the moment people first came to know this name, he had never failed even once. It was simply that most people did not know that he had once been called Hua Yi, nor that he had once been the youngest and kindest son of the former chief of the Snow Wolf tribe beneath Yufeng Mountain.

The sub-beast youth who had been sitting in the corner finally moved. He was like some kind of feline; when he walked, his feet made not the slightest sound, and it was almost as though, in the blink of an eye, he had already arrived in front of Hua Yi. The youth stopped five steps away. He saw the veins standing out on the back of Hua Yi’s hand as he gripped the short blade, and knew that the other man was still extremely wary of him.

The youth spread both hands and held them out in front of himself, indicating that he meant no harm. Then he crouched down and looked directly into Hua Yi’s slightly bloodshot eyes.

Amid the corpses of beastmen covering the ground, he showed not the slightest sign of unease or fear, nor did he try to use a smile to draw closer to Hua Yi. The youth seemed to regard Hua Yi as an injured wild wolf. He slowly adjusted his long, shallow breaths and remained completely still as he watched him, his eyes clear and steadfast.

After a moment, the killing intent in Hua Yi’s eyes gradually faded somewhat. Perhaps he felt that staring wide-eyed at such a young sub-beast was rather foolish. He regained that honest-looking smile with an indescribable hint of slyness beneath it and, in a voice that sounded weak without actually being weak, asked somewhat unpleasantly, “What? You want to tell me something? Don’t worry, an sub-beast like you isn’t worth making me lift a hand…”

The youth paid no attention to this and went straight on. “More than ten years ago, when you were travelling outside, you met someone carrying a child. You saved his life and hunted a horned deer for him. Do you remember?”

Hua Yi froze.

The youth continued, “That child was me. My name is Chang An. Zhe Yan told me to remember to repay you. So, do you have any wish now?”

Hua Yi’s wound hurt so badly that it made him shiver. What the other man was saying sounded truly bizarre, and he could not help blurting out, “Zhe Yan? What Zhe Yan?”

After Chang An had been driven down the mountain by his teacher, Bei Shi, he first went to see A Yan. He left her a great deal of food, flowers, and a very valuable python skin. A python of that size was not easy to hunt; she could exchange the skin with others for many things, enough to live well for a long time. After that, he left again.

He could not understand what Bei Shi wanted him to find at the foot of the mountain. There were people everywhere down there, and even the wild beasts were much weaker than those on Yufeng Mountain. What was there that could possibly temper him?

Chang An found nothing, so he continued wandering around. He had little desire to communicate with other people and did not know what he could do, so he lived like a wild man, hunting and practising with his blade in the forest. He was practically living the same life he had lived on Yufeng Mountain, completely failing to understand his teacher’s painstaking efforts to make him interact with other people.

Yet Chang An still had not forgotten his “life-saving benefactor”. He had gone up Yufeng Mountain when he was seven, and over all these years, the number of people he knew could be counted on one hand. Those who held grudges against him had been dealt with, but those who had shown him kindness had not yet received their repayment.

“Find a man who has a silver beast marking on his hand and is named Hua Yi, and repay him for saving your life.” This was something Zhe Yan had instructed Chang An to do while he was still alive. Until he completed it, Chang An could not put his mind at ease.

The continent was simply vast beyond measure, and finding one person was exceedingly difficult.

This had almost become a source of distress for Chang An. Yet after he had spent more than half a year wandering aimlessly, he unexpectedly encountered the very person he had been looking for in a guest shelter in such a remote and desolate place.

Hua Yi, however, could not recall the matter for the moment. But when Chang An bluntly asked him what wish he had, the man could not help bursting into laughter.

He braced himself against the ground with one hand. Once the worst of the pain had passed and the wound had become slightly numb, Hua Yi sat down against the wall of the guest shelter and casually teased him, “How exactly are you planning to repay me? By giving yourself to me?”

Chang An’s expression remained calm. His temper had long since been tempered by Bei Shi, so he did not become angry at the other man’s insolent remark. He merely pointed at Hua Yi’s wound and asked, “Do you need help?”

Hua Yi looked at him again when he heard this, meeting the calm, expressionless face of the sub-beast youth. Suddenly, he felt that there was little point in continuing to joke around, so he let his smile fade. After a moment of silence, he said, “Thank you, little brother. If it isn’t too much trouble, then… could you make me a fire?”

Chang An silently lit the fire in the ground pit. Hua Yi then roasted his little knife over the flames for a while before using it to cut away the rotten flesh that had already become infected in the wound. His cheek twitched, and the cold sweat on his forehead dropped with a sharp “pff” into the hearth. Yet he endured it without making a sound and sprinkled his own medicine over the wound.

Hua Yi clenched his teeth so tightly that even his lips had turned white.

For a while, the little guest shelter was utterly silent. There was only the man’s restrained, heavy breathing and the “crackle” of the damp firewood in the ground pit.

No one knew how much time had passed before Hua Yi finally let out a soft breath. Suddenly, he had a vague impression and remembered that this seemed to have happened during one of his trials back then… At the time, he had indeed encountered a sub-beast with one arm missing and a baby. It was also after that incident that he acquired the name “Big Fool”.

Hua Yi turned his head and glanced at Chang An, who was sitting quietly to one side. His voice softened slightly as he asked, “You mean… a man who had lost one of his arms?”

Chang An nodded and said, “That was Zhe Yan.”

Hua Yi began coughing softly. It took him quite a while to calm down before he asked hoarsely, “Then… that Zhe Yan, how is he now?”

Chang An lowered his eyes and casually poked at the fire in the fireplace as he answered, “Oh, he started coughing like you, and then he died.”

Hua Yi: “…”

He discovered that this strange child was somewhat incapable of speaking like a normal person.

Hua Yi looked Chang An up and down. The man and the baby were things from so long ago that their faces had already become blurred in his memory. He only remembered that the child had been a tiny little bundle that could be picked up with one hand, and that even his cries had been very weak.

It seemed that now that he had grown up, he was still not particularly imposing or robust. His body also seemed rather frail, and the night made his complexion appear even paler. It reminded Hua Yi of the kind of porcelain found only in the south, fired at extremely high temperatures—both exquisite and fragile, as though it would shatter at the slightest touch.

“What is your wish?” Chang An asked again when he saw him lost in thought.

Hua Yi smiled and shook his head. He pulled a roll of white cloth bandages from his bundle and said casually, “Then just bandage my wound for me.”

Chang An took the bandages and knelt beside him on one knee. His technique for stopping the bleeding and wrapping the bandage was extremely practised. This surprised Hua Yi somewhat. Generally speaking, sub-beasts did not need to hunt and rarely left their tribes, so they seldom suffered any serious external injuries. Some had perhaps never even seen blood in their entire lives.

Hua Yi turned his head and looked at the sub-beast youth, who had his head lowered and was working with meticulous care. His serious expression made it seem as though he were carrying out some tremendously important undertaking. With his head bowed, a small section of a red cord showed at his collar, with a bone tablet hanging from it, only faintly visible.

Unable to resist, Hua Yi asked, “Are you a doctor?”

Chang An shook his head.

Hua Yi was about to ask something else when Chang An’s hand suddenly tightened. Hua Yi had not expected this sub-beast youth to possess such strength in his hands. The bandage was suddenly pulled so tight that he almost could not breathe, and his expression twisted. Chang An, however, had already tied the knot swiftly and said, “This way you can move freely, and it stops the bleeding.”

Hua Yi was unable to speak for a moment, but he was now certain that this fellow was absolutely not a doctor. Otherwise, eight or nine out of ten patients would be treated to death by him.

Chang An was completely unaware that he had inherited Bei Shi’s ability to kill without shedding blood—an incompetent physician’s skill. He earnestly pressed on, asking, “Is there anywhere else you need to be treated?”

Hua Yi hurriedly waved his hand, not daring to trouble him any further.

Chang An, however, persisted. “This does not count as repaying our life. Do you have any other wishes?”

It took Hua Yi quite a while to catch his breath. He looked at the strange youth sitting to one side, his forehead covered in cold sweat, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “I have plenty of wishes. The question is, what are you capable of doing?”

Chang An replied shamelessly, “Tell me. I will always find a way.”

Hua Yi said softly, “Would you kill someone for me?”

Upon hearing this, Chang An immediately sat upright, as though he had received some formal commission. He even leaned forward slightly and asked with complete seriousness, “Who?”

Hua Yi stared at him for a while before suddenly bursting into laughter. He casually unwrapped a piece of maltose he was carrying and placed it in Chang An’s hand. Putting on a righteous yet gentle expression, he said, “You should just eat some candy instead. You are still so young… You are perfectly well, so why would you want to kill someone?”

Chang An put the candy into his mouth. His eyes seemed capable of piercing through all the layers of Hua Yi’s ever-changing expressions and reaching straight into his heart, causing Hua Yi to instinctively avert his gaze for an instant.

Chang An felt that when Hua Yi had uttered the words “kill someone”, there had clearly been killing intent in his eyes. That killing intent, taut as a tightly drawn string, was something Chang An was familiar with. He knew that there was someone… someone Hua Yi truly wanted to kill.

Hua Yi busied himself gathering up the bundle on the ground, put on his straw rain cape, and fastened his bamboo hat. As he walked outside, he said, “All right, I have some urgent business and cannot take you with me. Take care of yourself. If fate brings us together again, we will meet again someday.”

After saying this, he did not even turn his head back. He strode straight into the rain.

A beastman’s pace was not something a sub-beast could keep up with. Hua Yi regarded his chance encounter with this youth as an interesting little episode. He thought that if he himself could live to old age, and one day settle all his debts of gratitude and grudges, and was fortunate enough to have a family of his own, with a whole crowd of little fellows around his feet, their noses running just like his had when he was young and knowing nothing about the world, then he could tell them about this strange encounter on that rainy night, and about that peculiar young man with a pair of petal-like eyes.

The youth was so beautiful that he looked as though he had stepped straight out of some ancient legend, a spirit or an immortal. Yet when he spoke, he was so blunt and straightforward, with a slightly foolish air about him. It was rather amusing.

He circled around a tribe and did not stop to rest for an entire night. Just as dawn was about to break that day, Hua Yi suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him.

He abruptly turned his head and was astonished to discover that the youth from the guest shelter had actually followed him,still carrying the bundle that looked as though it contained a huge roof beam.

Hua Yi was somewhat astonished. He had not expected this child to possess a few unexpected little skills, enough to keep up with him even like this.

But he knew that the road ahead was extremely perilous. If he allowed this reckless youth, who did not know the limits of heaven and earth, to follow him, he would clearly be putting the boy in danger.

With this thought, Hua Yi suddenly transformed into his beast form. The enormous silver beast looked majestic and imposing. He gave his body a vigorous shake, sending his fur rippling, and then began running through the pouring rain, intending to leave the youth behind.

Every time Hua Yi transformed into his beast form, he would wonder why they still retained their human forms, why they kept such a weak side. The bodies, bones, and muscles of wild beasts were all much more powerful than those of humans. Only when he transformed into a giant beast could he experience that exhilarating sense of complete release that came from running.

Hua Yi could not understand it. Since they could become like this, why did they still form tribes together with sub-beasts and women, appearing in human form in their daily lives…? What was so good about being human?

He did not know how long he had run. He even passed several more guest shelters, but this time Hua Yi did not stop.

The sky was beginning to lighten, and the rain had eased considerably, but the ground had become even muddier. Just when Hua Yi felt that he was almost out of this stretch of forest, he heard a low growl.

Without slowing his steps, Hua Yi immediately threw himself towards the front right and narrowly avoided the giant beast that had suddenly pounced out from the side. The giant beast’s jaws snapped shut on empty air. It roared again, and in an instant, seven or eight adult beastmen emerged from the trees. Clearly, they had been waiting for him here for quite some time.

It seemed that there was no avoiding a fight.

Hua Yi sighed inwardly and stopped. His powerful forepaws pressed into the ground, leaving deep impressions, and he revealed his sharp fangs.

 

Translator : DarNan