Ning Chengfeng and the wolf pup were stuffed together into a tree hollow.
“Chengfeng, be good and wait here, Father and Mother are going to buy you food,” Li Xiaohan knelt down and hugged him tightly, “Don’t wander off, understand?”
Ning Chengfeng hugged the wolf pup and nodded.
Ning Gu reached out to stroke his head, “Chengfeng, you must survive.”
“Father, Mother, when will you come back?” Ning Chengfeng asked, crouching in the tree hollow.
“See the sun in the sky? When the sun sets, we’ll come back.”
After saying this, the two turned and left, leaving him only with two blurry and distant silhouettes.
Ning Chengfeng hugged the wolf pup, crouching in the tree hollow, watching the sun in the sky until his eyes hurt and his legs went numb, but the sun still hadn’t set.
He fell asleep holding the wolf pup and woke up again, but the sun still hung motionless in the sky.
He waited for a very, very long time, but the sun never set.
The wolf pup howled with hunger, biting his sleeve and pulling him towards the outside.
“No, I have to wait here for Father and Mother to come back,” Ning Chengfeng reached out to pinch the wolf pup’s fluffy ears, “The sun will set.”
A four or five-year-old child didn’t understand what an illusion was, stubbornly and firmly crouching in the tree hollow waiting for his parents to come find him. However, the wolf pup couldn’t bear the hunger and, when he wasn’t paying attention, slipped out of the tree hollow.
Ning Chengfeng looked at the sun, then at his wolf pup, hesitated for a moment, then waddled after it on his short legs, “Little wolf, come back, Father and Mother said we can’t wander off.”
“Awoo—” The wolf pup’s miserable cry suddenly came from afar.
Ning Chengfeng froze for a moment, couldn’t stop his feet from running a few more steps forward, and saw the wolf pup pierced through the neck by a sharp arrow, pinned to a tree trunk, its little head drooping limply, blood gushing out.
Ning Chengfeng stepped back in fright, tears welling up in his eyes, “Li-little wolf…”
“Family Head! Found the child!” Someone shouted loudly around him.
Many strangers surrounded him, all those adults were very tall, looking down at him.
“Ning Gu’s son Ning Chengfeng?”
“Hey, child, you’re called Ning Chengfeng, right?”
“Your parents are already dead, come with us.”
Ning Chengfeng looked up at them, but their faces were blurry and their voices were cold.
He backed away in fear but bumped into someone.
The person he bumped into crouched down and grabbed his shoulders, gripping him painfully. That person said to him. “My name is Ning Fan, I’m the branch family head of the Ning family from neighboring Qi City. Ning Chengfeng, your parents secretly cultivated evil techniques and became possessed, killing everyone in Chen City. Ning Gu and Li Xiaohan have been executed, you’re the only one left from your branch, come with me.”
Ning Chengfeng tried to push him away but was firmly held by the shoulders and lifted up.
“Father! Mother!” Ning Chengfeng struggled violently, eyes wide as he stared at the wolf pup pinned to the tree, crying out hoarsely, “Little wolf… Father! Mother!”
But there was no response.
He only saw someone pull the arrow from the wolf pup’s body and casually throw his little wolf into the bushes.
—
“This child has a Celestial Spiritual Body…”
“…The Path of No Emotions… most suitable…”
“But he’s too young… doesn’t understand anything… how to sever…”
“…use some methods… I don’t believe…”
The door was suddenly pushed open.
Ning Fan walked out from behind the door, his murky eyes fixated intensely on the child in front, “How did you get out?”
Someone in the shadows behind the door let out a light chuckle, “Children are naturally active, Ning Fan, don’t frighten him.”
Ning Chengfeng looked toward the door, but only saw an indistinct silhouette before the door slammed shut in front of him.
Ning Fan dragged him into a pitch-black room without windows on any side.
Ning Chengfeng’s small face tensed up as he looked at the blood-colored talismans and lines on the walls, fear showing in his eyes as he turned to run outside.
“Come back!” Ning Fan grabbed his collar, pulling him back like a chicken chick.
His clothes hadn’t been changed for a long time, his small cape was tattered, and the fur collar was covered in dust and weeds. Ning Fan released him with disgust, throwing him into the center of the room.
“You keep asking where your parents are, don’t you? Since you won’t believe me when I tell you they’re dead, I’ll have to let you see it with your own eyes.” Ning Fan waved his sleeve, and a massive retrospective boundary appeared in the room.
The figures of Li Xiaohan and Ning Gu quickly appeared in the water mirror.
Ning Chengfeng’s eyes lit up as he ran forward, happily calling out. “Father! Mother!”
However, the illusions in the water mirror didn’t respond to him.
A moment of confusion flashed in the child’s eyes.
“Ning Gu! You’ve already succumbed to demonic possession and taken the lives of an entire city of people in Chen City. Surrender immediately!” someone shouted.
“I, Ning Gu, swear to the heavens! I have never taken a single life!” Ning Gu’s hair was disheveled, blood trickled from his mouth onto the ground, his eyes were crimson, and his face was covered with strange black patterns.
“Look at the demonic energy around you! How dare you still deny it!”
Li Xiaohan flew over to support him, angrily saying, “These are false accusations! We didn’t do it, and that’s that!”
“Stop wasting words with them! Kill them!”
Hundreds of cultivators surrounded and attacked the couple. Soon they were overwhelmed and forced to retreat. Someone took the opportunity to ambush Ning Gu. Li Xiaohan, shocked and enraged, flew forward to block the sword but was struck in the heart.
“Xiaohan!” Ning Gu cried out in anguish, holding his wife.
Li Xiaohan’s lips moved as she tried to speak, but could only cough up blood, her eyes fixed on Ning Gu with tears.
“Mother! Mother!” Ning Chengfeng outside the water mirror rushed forward, trying to embrace the blood-covered Li Xiaohan, but grasped only air and fell onto the cold ground.
“I, Ning Gu, have lived an upright life! I can face both heaven and earth without shame! You now destroy Chen City without distinguishing right from wrong, where is heavenly justice!? Where is fairness!?” Ning Gu, overcome with grief, held his wife’s corpse and exploded in rage.
Ning Chengfeng had just gotten up from the ground when he met Ning Gu’s desperate and angry gaze in the water mirror. The next instant, his vision was obscured by a mist of blood.
“Father…” Ning Chengfeng stood dazedly in the blood mist until Ning Fan pulled him aside.
The child finally burst into tears, continuously calling for his parents, desperately struggling under his grip to get to the water mirror.
Ning Fan grabbed his thin neck with one hand and said sinisterly, “Your parents are dead, you just saw it yourself, didn’t you? Their bodies were completely destroyed – they were forced to death. Don’t you want revenge?”
Ning Chengfeng cried breathlessly, beating him frantically, “Let me go… I want to find Father… Mother…”
“They’re already dead!” Ning Fan, his patience exhausted, grabbed his neck and pressed his face against the water mirror, forcing him to look at the scattered limbs on the ground. “Open your eyes and look carefully! Look at your parents’ corpses!”
The child, already weak, soon lost all strength to struggle. His small face was pressed against half a palm, where on the finger was the ring his mother often wore.
“Mother…” He reached out wanting to touch it, but Ning Fan stepped on his hand.
“Ning Chengfeng, remember this: with your special constitution, the only way to avenge your parents is to cultivate the Path of Emotionlessness,” Ning Fan’s face was hidden in darkness, but his voice was like a shadow, cold and clingy.
He was confined in this cramped room, forced before the retrospective water mirror to watch again and again how his parents died tragically, from initially crying himself hoarse to gradually becoming numb and expressionless.
One day, he tried to sneak out when someone came to deliver food.
However, before he could even reach the courtyard gate, Ning Fan caught him and dragged him back.
The adult’s palm-sized hooks glinted coldly before his eyes.
“Ning Chengfeng, you’re truly useless. You can’t even endure this small hardship, how can you cultivate the Path of Emotionlessness?” Ning Fan crouched in front of him, waving the two hooks, “Whether you want to watch or not, you must watch—”
“When you establish the mindset of the Path of Emotionlessness, then you can leave.”
The sharp hooks pierced through the child’s frail shoulder blades, binding him in that sunless small room, forcing him to watch his parents’ tragic deaths over and over.
The skeletal child lay lifeless on the ground, dragging two heavy iron hooks behind him, even the slightest movement caused unbearable pain.
Ning Chengfeng lay on the ground, his mind clouded with pain, yet still struggled to crawl toward the water mirror, leaving a long trail of blood on the cold floor.
Mother…
Father…
He forgot it was an illusion, reaching out to grab Li Xiaohan’s hand, but a sharp pain shot through his back. The hooks’ chains only allowed him to crawl this far, not even giving him a chance to touch the illusion.
The tiny child curled himself into a ball, huddling in the spot closest to his parents’ illusions, eyes wide open, watching his parents die again and again before him.
The wounds on his back were torn open, as if he had desperately tried to break free countless times, leaving bloodstains on the hooks. Those bloodstains gradually congealed, finally turning into a dirty brownish-black.
In the water mirror, Li Xiaohan stared at Ning Gu with tears in her eyes, her lips moving with difficulty, her eyes full of reluctance, silently mouthing a name through the blood, ‘Cheng…feng…’
The child’s empty, lifeless eyes stared at the illusion, stubbornly reaching out once more, only to be restrained again by the iron hooks in his shoulder blades.
His dirty little hand fell powerlessly to the ground.
“Mother.”
