Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Xiao Family

"How much do you know about the Zhao family, Ling'er?"

In the radiation district, three gray figures kept moving toward the district exit. The one in front was a young swordsman, who turned back to glance at the girl behind him.

The girl startled at the sound of his voice. She quickly turned her head, hands and feet moving in a flustered hurry. She looked very nervous. Lifting her face a little, she gazed at the young man ahead with eyes full of life, yet kept darting them away from time to time, as if trying to hide something.

Behind the girl followed a boy with sleepy eyes. The early morning sun warmed his back pleasantly, and he yawned several times, feeling as if he could go right back to sleep.

But if one looked closely, there was a faint flush on the boy's face; it was just not very obvious beneath that drowsy expression.

The previous afternoon, Ye Bai and the other two had parted ways with Xiao Ou. Xiao Ou had brought Ye Bai to the district, and Bai Wan'er had originally wanted Yaoling to return to the main city with her. But because Ye Bai and the others were unsure whether they had completed the task assigned by the academy and wanted to check at the guard station, they separated there.

Yet Xiao Ou's strength had been deeply etched into Ye Bai's mind. With the sky-piercing attribute in hand and the Butcher's Sword at his side, he carried himself with a might that seemed to disdain the world. His mastery over wood attribute power had already reached a terrifying degree.

After Xiao Ou and Feng dealt with the high-tier foundational intellect entity, the surrounding genetic bodies did not flee because of the intellect entity's death; instead, they became even more frenzied than before.

"Bean-sowing into soldiers" was what Yaoling had told him: a kind of control over plants that could only be achieved after becoming thoroughly familiar with wood attribute power.

It had nothing to do with one's rank, nothing to do with how much attribute power one possessed, nothing to do with how many kinds of attribute power one awakened with. It tested only one's understanding of attribute power. With enough understanding, even someone at the entry level could awaken plants; with too little, then even a growth-stage attribute power was nothing more than force to you.

At that time, Xiao Ou took five soybeans from his hand. Ye Bai remembered very clearly the expression on Yaoling's face then—full of astonishment—as she looked at Xiao Ou and said, "Brother Xiao, don't tell me you've already reached that level?"

Xiao Ou glanced at the little girl who had grown up with him, perhaps also happy at having obtained the intellect entity's seed, and smiled at her. "I've only just begun, so I'm still not very skilled. But I should be able to handle these genetic bodies."

After soybeans are picked, if the environment is not suitable for the seed's growth, then in order to reduce the loss of nutrients within the seed, it will enter a dormant state to prolong its life. Only when conditions become suitable again will it sprout and grow.

After the Dark Age, leguminous plants were also affected by the environment. Their sprouts, roots, and stems became tougher, and most beans began to regress toward their origin and turn into poisonous plants. But when faced with an environment unsuitable for growth, the beans' self-preserving genes would send them into dormancy.

The five soybeans in Xiao Ou's hand formed a ring. Then Ye Bai saw wood attribute power begin to appear in his palm, and the attribute force, matching the arrangement of the beans, also formed a circle.

A large green ring and a smaller green ring framed the five soybeans within them, while in the center of the palm, wood attribute power began to draw something, repeatedly appearing and disappearing.

"What is this?" Yaoling looked puzzled, but then her beautiful eyes suddenly widened. "Wood attribute bean-sowing into soldiers!"

And at that moment, the five soybeans in Xiao Ou's hand had already split open their skins. Green leaves sprouted from within the cotyledons: a single pointed bud leaf and two secondary leaves. Then the bean cotyledons fell away completely and landed beside the leaves, revealing the black-yellow root system inside. Yet unlike the dense tangle of main and secondary roots one might have imagined, there were only two main roots.

Suddenly, the five soybean soldiers moved in Xiao Ou's hand. The two black-yellow main roots bent slightly, like a person's legs curled in sleep, then straightened at once and stood upright in Xiao Ou's palm.

At the very center of Xiao Ou's palm, a green seal suddenly appeared. It was a green imprint formed from wood attribute power, engraved with flickering green light that seemed to shape something, though it remained indistinct. Dark green energy emerged from the seal and flowed along the patterns into the bodies of the soybean soldiers.

Receiving that green energy, the lines on the bud leaves of the soybean soldiers brightened on both sides, as though their eyes had opened, while the bean cotyledons lying at their sides began, under the force of the attribute power, to transform into yellow battle blades and shields.

With bean-sowing into soldiers, the soybean warriors leaped down from his hands. Green currents of power coiled over Xiao Ou's body like wandering dragons. His eyes flashed green, and the green dragons shot skyward, splitting into five streams that plunged into the bodies of the soybean warriors, which began to grow larger and larger until they reached the size of ordinary men.

This counted as the second time Ye Bai had seen someone wield attribute power with such mastery. He still remembered vividly the lion that had emerged from Zhang Jian's attribute battle formation.

"The Zhao family..." Yaoling looked at Ye Bai, not understanding why he was so interested in the family. She bit her lip, unsure where to begin.

Ye Bai smiled, seeing her difficulty. After all, the Zhao family was too vast, so vast that among all humanity only the Zhou, Xing, and Sha families were widely known. He said, "Just tell me anything, for example, the Butcher's Sword in Xiao Ou's hand."

"The Butcher's Sword..." Yaoling did not know it very well either. Although they had grown up together, she had only seen Brother Xiao a few years ago. She explained to Ye Bai, "This is also the first time I've seen Brother Xiao's Butcher's Sword. But I've heard the Zhao family seems to possess an ancient sword. Among the younger generation of the Zhao family, if someone gains the ancient sword's approval, the ancient sword seems to split off a sword similar to itself to protect the descendants of the Zhao family."

"Then have you heard of a girl named Zhao Mo?" Having come this far, Ye Bai could no longer resist asking where Zhao Mo was.

Under the sunlight, the three of them continued approaching the guard station, while the only girl among them kept biting her lip from time to time, her index fingers and thumbs pressed together. She seemed utterly unaware of it; clearly, it was already a habitual gesture.

Yaoling shook her head. "Zhao Mo? I've never heard of her. Maybe she's from a branch family. There isn't a single girl called Zhao Mo in the Zhao family of the main city. Or perhaps I simply haven't met her. After all, the internal forces of the Zhao family in the main city are also tangled and complex; there's no way I could know everyone."

Ye Bai's already modest hopes sank completely. But on reflection, it made sense. The first time he had met Zhao Mo was in Muyang City, and Zhao Mo herself had studied there as well. She was very likely from a branch of the Zhao family that guarded Muyang City.

Suddenly Ye Bai felt very foolish. Why hadn't he asked the fat man where Zhao Mo actually was? No matter how much of a branch family the Zhao family might be, they were still Zhao family members, and where they lived had to be in the central district.

For a moment, Ye Bai suddenly wanted to return to Muyang City and ask the fat man where Zhao Mo was. Yet even if he found Zhao Mo, it seemed there might be nothing to say to her.

At this time, Yaoling, who had been walking behind them, quickened her pace and came abreast of Ye Bai. She said to him, "Ye Bai, do you know how many times I've seen the King of Heavenly Wood since I was little?"

Ye Bai glanced at Yaoling, somewhat surprised that she would ask such a question. By reason, since the Yaos and the Zhaos were on good terms, she should at least have seen him five or six times.

"Five or six times, maybe?" Ye Bai answered casually.

Looking at the shadow stretched long beneath the morning sun, Yaoling gave a bitter smile. "Not even once. Surprised, aren't you? I grew up in the main city, and yet I've never once seen the King of Heavenly Wood. Not only the King of Heavenly Wood—I haven't even seen my own father once."

"Why?" Ye Bai could understand her never having seen the King of Heavenly Wood.

The King of Heavenly Wood was one of the three great rulers of the world. He was buried in affairs every day and had no spare time. More importantly, the three rulers could be said to be humanity's strongest remaining battle force on Earth. It was understandable that he had no time to meet Yaoling. But why her father—the head of the Yao family? How could Yaoling never have seen him?

"What happened?"

On the journey through the radiation district, Ye Bai could feel that Yaoling's heart was weaker than other people's. At first he thought it was because she was a girl who had grown up without anyone protecting her, which had fostered a sense of inferiority. But after meeting Xiao Ou, Ye Bai knew that was not the reason.

Yaoling lifted her head to look at the blue sky, as if thinking for a long while, or perhaps unwilling to remember a childhood without a father.

"From the day Ling'er was born, she never saw her mother. She grew up with the children born in the same batch. Before the age of three, besides the children she grew up with, there were only the wet nurses who took care of us. We never saw anyone else. From the moment we were born, our bodies were conditioned by the family. In infancy our bones and bodies were weak, but highly malleable, so we could quickly accept the family's herbal conditioning, making our physical constitution approach the medicinal aspect of wood attribute power."

As Yaoling spoke, her eyes reddened. The little monk Cao, who had been dozing in the back, somehow came forward and gently held her, softly saying, "Say it out loud. That might make it easier."

Yaoling's childhood had been bitter; Cao Xiaoseng's had been even more so. As for Ye Bai, though he had grown up with his younger sister, what had happened before he was three? Perhaps no one knew except Shangguan Yan.

"Three years old was the year our fates first turned. Although we were all children of the Yao family and all carried the Yao bloodline, not everyone could adapt to the herbal conditioning. Or rather, only a very small number could. The others... after their third year, Ling'er never saw them again."

Memory held both joy and sorrow. What you wanted to forget and what you could not forget were all stored in your brain. Perhaps that was the source of a person's moods, good or bad.

Yaoling gradually steadied herself and continued, "When I was three, only ten infants successfully passed the herbal conditioning, and it was also that year that Ling'er saw her mother. The first time Ling'er saw her mother, she did not call her 'Mother.' In those three years, she had never even heard the word. But her mother's eyes were red; she had already cried several times before coming. Ling'er did not recognize her, but Mother recognized Ling'er at a glance among the ten children."

Cao Xiaoseng gently held Yaoling's hand, accompanying her as they walked slowly onward, while Ye Bai followed behind the two of them, listening to her story.

"To this day, Ling'er still remembers the first thing her mother said when she saw her: 'Child, at last I have seen you. I have waited three years for this moment.'"

No one had ever told Ling'er that after giving birth to her, her mother had fainted. By the time she woke up, the child was already gone. This was the fate of every generation in the Yao family; no one could escape it. At that time her mother was alone. She sat on the bed with her knees drawn up, her chin resting on them, her long hair in disarray over her shoulders. She bit her lip tightly and cried softly. She did not dare cry too loudly, afraid that her voice would disturb the child she had not yet seen, the child whose sex she did not yet know.

"And so, after that, Ling'er could see her mother once every year, while her father... to this day, she has never once seen him."

Yaoling slowly lifted her head, tears spinning in her eyes, yet refusing to fall.

"Girl, why are you such a crybaby? Brother Xiao will teach you a way. Whenever you want to cry, just lift your head and the tears won't fall. Then you won't cry."

Those were Xiao Ou's words the first time Yaoling met him, that year when Yaoling was seven.