"Brother."
"Brother! You're back? I've missed you to death." Two voices rang out in the living room almost together, the first delighted, the second carrying a thread of real excitement.
A tall girl in a white school uniform came rushing over, jumped straight up to hug Fang Yu round the neck, and hung there half-draped across his back.
"Siyue, I've just finished training. I'm covered in sweat," Fang Yu said, laughing.
"I'm going to shower later anyway," the girl said, grinning. "Xiao Long, take my bag up with yours."
A stocky, wiry boy with a trace of childishness still in his face smiled helplessly, as though he had long since got used to her.
"Xiao Long, do as your sister says. Put your things away first and come down to eat," Fang Yu said, smiling.
These were his younger brother and sister, a pair of twins.
His sister, Fang Siyue, the second child.
His brother, Fang Long, the third.
Both fifteen this year.
"Brother, since when do you cook? What did you make?" Fang Siyue looked eagerly towards the kitchen — there was no sign of anything having been fried.
"I heated up high-energy nutrition meals. They're keeping warm," Fang Yu said, smiling.
"Ugh!" the girl wailed. "I knew it. Brother, and there I was with my hopes up all this time. I'm not eating a nutrition meal, I want Grandad to order me a takeaway!!!"
"Takeaway isn't healthy. You're both starting on the martial path, you have to watch what you eat now." Fang Yu smiled and gave the bun of her hair an indulgent rub.
Martial training.
Before you reached a very high level, you had to endure loneliness, endure every kind of pain, and give up a great many things — good food, for one!
***
An eldest brother's fist carries a father's weight.
Under Fang Yu's "patient guidance", Fang Siyue and Fang Long "obediently" finished the high-energy nutrition meals he had prepared.
After the meal.
"How did the martial talent test go?" Fang Yu asked.
The two of them exchanged a glance, and both broke into smiles.
"Brother, with the machine's help we both went into deep sleep," Fang Long said, grinning stupidly. "My sister and I both visualized an Aspect. It's a python. And we made our first attempts at drawing Star Force into the body."
"A python?" Fang Yu's eyes lit up.
Before becoming a Low-Rank Warrior, an ordinary person's body was too frail and their spirit not strong enough, so that even if they had awakened a Void Star Aspect they would struggle to perceive it themselves.
Which was why a special machine was needed to help them into a state of deep sleep.
Only then could it be determined whether an Aspect had awakened.
The machine has only existed for the last ten years and more, and it is why prodigy warriors have kept emerging in the Blue Moon Alliance these past few years.
After all, the earlier talent is found and the earlier it is cultivated, the more perfectly the golden years of training are used, and the higher the odds of becoming a super-power in future.
That Fang Siyue and Fang Long could both visualize meant they had both awakened Void Star Aspects.
There were a dozen or more Aspects involving pythons.
"Did they find out which Aspect exactly?" Fang Yu pressed, and in spite of himself a figure with gentle eyes rose in his mind.
"The examiner said it's called Sun-Devour," Fang Siyue said, dropping the suspense at last. The two of them had been holding it in on purpose, wanting to give the family a surprise.
Slap.
Fang Yu came suddenly to his feet, light rising in his eyes, a faint tremor running through him that he could not quite suppress. "Siyue. Are you sure?"
Fang Siyue nodded quickly.
Fang Yu's gaze burned.
《The Hundred Void Aspects》 records it: the Sun-Devouring Python is one of the Twelve Upper Aspects, its Innate Divine Ability Sun-Devour, able to draw in the essence of the sun and the glory of the moon, so that the Life Tier grows exceedingly fast.
Each of the Twelve Upper Aspects was extraordinary in its own way.
At the thought.
"Grandad." Fang Yu called straight up the stairs, and the sound carried with real penetrating force.
"Grandkiddo, something the matter? If it isn't, I'm going back to my game." Fang Zhiyuan's voice came down the stairwell before the man himself.
Soon.
Fang Zhiyuan poked his head over and peered down.
"My granddaughter and my little grandkiddo are home? How did the test go today?" Fang Zhiyuan looked at Fang Siyue and Fang Long, all smiles.
"Grandad." The two of them hurried to their feet as well.
"Grandad." But Fang Yu spoke with real gravity. "Xiao Long and Siyue both say they've awakened an Upper Aspect — the Sun-Devouring Python."
Sun-Devouring Python.
Those words stopped even the perpetually offhand, free-and-easy Fang Zhiyuan where he stood. His expression turned serious, rare for him, and his voice dropped a little. "Truly? Are they certain?"
Fang Siyue and Fang Long were only fifteen.
But they were not stupid.
When they saw that neither their eldest brother nor their grandfather was simply pleased, both of them realised that awakening a Sun-Devouring Python was not so simple a matter.
"Grandad, here's our assessment certificate," Fang Siyue said, producing a sheet of paper at once.
"I've got one too," Fang Long added. "Our results have already been entered into the overall record, so they should have gone back to the school by now."
Fang Zhiyuan and Fang Yu understood.
There would be no mistake.
The martial talent test, as a key basis on which key high schools selected students, was one of the major undertakings of the Martial Path Bureau and the Youth Martial Path Department, and it was extremely strict — second only to the college entrance exam.
"Xiao Yu, tell your father," Fang Zhiyuan said, and for once he did not say grandkiddo.
Fang Yu called at once.
No answer; the line reported connecting.
Fang Yu left a message instead.
Within seconds he had his father Fang Ping'an's reply: "I already know Xiao Long and Siyue's results... Wuling City No.1 Senior High and the Star River Group have both been in touch with me. I'll be home in half an hour. Keep Xiao Long and Siyue at home, don't let them go anywhere."
Fang Yu put down his comm device.
He knew what his father meant.
The city's No.1 Senior High was the strongest public high school in Wuling City.
And the Star River Group was one of the eight great warrior conglomerates, created by the strongest man of the civilization, Ye Xinghe; since the Xia Nation was Ye Xinghe's homeland it was naturally a priority region for the Star River Group as well, and they had private secondary schools established all over it.
Upper Aspects were rare.
In all of Wuling City, at most a few dozen students or warriors awakened Upper Aspects in a year; set against the hundred thousand and more candidates each year, you could imagine how low the odds were.
Awakening an Upper Aspect still left the odds of testing into New Moon Martial Arts University very low.
But the hope of getting into one of the New Moon's ten key martial arts universities was considerable... and however poor your talent for skill, at the very worst you were guaranteed a martial arts university place.
There was a saying everyone accepted.
As long as you are not an actual pig, once you awaken an Upper Aspect you will at least become a High-Rank Warrior... and a High-Rank Warrior earned a million a year without strain; if he took some risks and had the nerve for a fight, ten million a year was not out of reach.
A High-Rank Warrior.
That was what most parents hoped for from their children. Beyond it, the odds of an Earth Warrior or a Sky-Patrol Warrior were simply too low.
However.
For the Fang family, Fang Siyue and Fang Long had not merely awakened Upper Aspects... the crucial thing was that they had awakened the Sun-Devouring Python.
"Three generations of hope."
"Is it really about to come true?" Fang Yu thought. He knew how long his father had waited for this day.
***
Night fell. On an elevated road, a black car with self-driving engaged was speeding along.
Inside the car.
The driver was a burly man, and he was on the phone.
"Old Gao! It's me, Fang Ping'an." The driver was a handsome man, and he laughed as he spoke. "That account from last time — I need the money urgently, can you transfer it over first?"
"Don't worry, it's not that the supermarket's got a cash-flow problem..."
He hung up.
Hoo!
Fang Ping'an frowned slightly. "If Xiao Long and Siyue are to lay the best possible foundation on the martial path, they should be taking foundation-building treasures now. And the best of those is the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit."
"Two million each, so four million for two... and best of all is one fruit a year, three years running, until they're eighteen."
"Even if they signed with the Star River Group this instant, there's no way they'd hand over that much money."
"I'll have to think of something." Fang Ping'an's brows drew tight.