Warm yellow light from the setting sun fell across the treetops. As the hour grew late, the giant wolf picked up the wild boar in its jaws and escorted the boy out of the forest.
This stretch of woods was not very large, and most of the Spirit Beasts living within it were not strong. Although the giant wolf’s strength was currently only at Tier Five, that was already enough to reign as king here. Along the way, no foolish wild beast or Spirit Beast dared come forward to disturb them.
Upon reaching the edge of the forest, the giant wolf stopped and set down the wild boar it held in its jaws. The village lay just ahead, and if the villagers caught sight of it, that would inevitably cause unnecessary trouble.
The boy grabbed the wild boar by its front hooves and, with a forceful heave, slung it onto his shoulder. Judging by how effortless he made it look, the boar might have weighed only forty or fifty jin rather than four or five hundred.
Once the wild boar was settled across his back, the boy still had a free hand to wave goodbye to the giant wolf. “Shuangyue, I’m heading back. I’ll come find you again in three days.”
The giant wolf sat on its haunches where it was, watching the boy’s figure recede into the distance. Over the past few years, such partings had happened hundreds, if not thousands, of times. By all rights, it should have grown used to them by now, yet every time it watched the boy’s departing back, a trace of reluctance still lingered in its heart.
The sky grew darker and darker until the sun had set completely. The boy’s figure had long since vanished from sight, and even the leaves that had swayed in his passing had grown still. Only then did the giant wolf turn around and return to the depths of the forest.
At this moment, its eyes were filled with heavy sorrow as scenes from the past flashed through its mind one after another. How was it supposed to tell the young master the truth of his origins? For a boy his age, it was simply too cruel.
Chu Shaoye carried the wild boar home, encountering quite a few villagers along the way.
“Shaoye, you caught yourself a huge wild boar!”
“That wild boar is truly huge—enough to eat for a whole year.”
Chu Shaoye answered them one by one. “Uncles, Aunties, come to my house another day for the feast.”
Even after he had walked far away, the villagers kept talking behind him.
“The village chief is truly blessed. The son he took in is so capable. Even if he can’t become a Spirit Lord in the future, he’ll still make a fine hunter.”
“If you ask me, that boy Shaoye has a bright future ahead of him. If he can become a Tier Three Spirit Lord, our Chu Family Village will share in the glory too.”
Although the villagers did not speak loudly, Chu Shaoye had keen senses and still caught snatches of their conversation.
He had long known that the village chief and his wife were not his birth parents, so hearing the villagers say he had been taken in drew no reaction from him.
The chief of Chu Family Village lived near the middle of the village. Chu Shaoye carried the wild boar into a very neatly kept farmhouse courtyard and called toward the house, “Mother, I’m back.”
Chu Shaoye’s adoptive mother, Lan Fang, stepped out of the main room. When she saw him carrying such a huge wild boar, she let out a cry of dismay.
“Why did you go catch a wild boar again? Honestly, child, aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?”
Though Lan Fang scolded him, she hurried forward to help Chu Shaoye unload the wild boar. The four-or-five-hundred-jin beast hit the ground with a heavy thud that made the earth tremble.
Lan Fang exclaimed again, fussing over Chu Shaoye and patting him down. “How on earth did you catch such a huge wild boar and haul it back? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Chu Shaoye casually wiped the sweat from his face and offered a gentle smile, letting Lan Fang turn him this way and that. “Mother, it’s only a wild boar. How could I get hurt? You underestimate your son too much.”
Lan Fang glared at him and snapped, “What do you mean, ‘only a wild boar’? How did Wang San’er from our village end up lame? Wasn’t it from being gored by a wild boar? You’re only twelve. Catching a few rabbits or pheasants is plenty—what business do you have catching a wild boar?”
After receiving a thorough scolding, Chu Shaoye did not dare say another word and simply stood there obediently taking the lecture.
Lan Fang never held back with her tongue, and even though Chu Shaoye was unhurt, she could not help nagging on. “Just look at the mess you’ve made of yourself, covered in boar bristles. With a wild boar this big, you could have called your father to help carry it back. Hauling it home all by yourself—what if the weight stunts your growth?”
Lan Fang brushed the bristles off him and pushed him toward the house. “Go inside and change your clothes. You look as thin as a bamboo pole; I truly don’t know where you get the strength.”
Chu Shaoye let himself be ushered into his room. Free at last from Lan Fang’s “relentless scolding,” he could not help breathing a sigh of relief.
His room held only simple, essential furniture, yet it was kept very clean and tidy. Chu Shaoye opened the wardrobe; inside were clothes exclusively in black and gray—not for any other reason, but simply because those two colors hid dirt well.
He casually pulled a black outfit from the wardrobe, changed into it, and tossed his soiled clothes into the laundry basket. By the time Chu Shaoye finished changing and stepped outside, Chu Wangshan and Chu Qingyao had already returned.
Chu Wangshan was the chief of Chu Family Village as well as Chu Shaoye’s adoptive father, an honest, dependable man with a very kind heart.
Chu Qingyao was the village chief and his wife’s biological daughter, only five or six months younger than Chu Shaoye.
When Chu Qingyao saw him, her eyes lit up. She skipped over and took his arm. “Brother, you’re amazing! Next time, I want to go hunting with you too.”
Chu Shaoye poked her forehead with his forefinger. “Your brother has always been this amazing—are you only just finding out?”
While the brother and sister bantered playfully, Chu Wangshan bound the wild boar’s hind legs with rope and hung it on the rack used specifically for slaughtering livestock.
Patting the boar’s thick, sturdy back, Chu Wangshan clicked his tongue. “I reckon it weighs around four hundred and fifty jin—enough to hold a three-day Rolling Banquet.”
Chu Family Village had a custom: whenever a family’s child was found to possess Spirit Lord Aptitude at age twelve, they would host a grand banquet and invite the entire village to feast and celebrate together.
The wild boar Chu Shaoye had gone to catch today was meant as preparation for this very feast.
Generally speaking, if a child’s parents were Spirit Lords, the child also had a very high chance of becoming a Spirit Lord. Lan Fang was only an ordinary person, but Chu Wangshan was a Tier One Spirit Lord, so Chu Qingyao still had a chance of becoming a Spirit Lord.
Chu Shaoye’s origins, however, were far from simple. Shuangyue had said that both of his birth parents were Spirit Lords, so the likelihood that he possessed Spirit Lord Aptitude was nearly one hundred percent.
Therefore, Chu Shaoye had caught this wild boar in advance to prepare for the feast and lessen the burden on Chu Wangshan and his wife.
Chu Qingyao set a small stool to one side and sat watching Chu Wangshan slaughter the boar and butcher the meat. As a young girl raised in the countryside, she was not afraid of such bloody scenes of slaughtering livestock.
She nudged Chu Shaoye with her elbow. “Brother, what kind of Natal Spirit Beast do you want to contract?”
Chu Shaoye said, “A Natal Spirit Companion and a Spirit Lord are like twins. A Spirit Lord’s Natal Spirit Companion is already determined at birth; it isn’t as though you can contract whatever Spirit Beast you want.”
“Of course I know that,” Chu Qingyao said. “I’m just imagining it. I want a pretty Natal Spirit Companion; it doesn’t matter even if it isn’t very strong.”
Chu Shaoye curled his finger and rapped her on the head. “The outside world isn’t as calm and peaceful as our village. If you aren’t strong, how will you protect yourself?”