Chapter 398: Coincidence?
The Xiao clan of Wutan City counted among the town's several major houses, carrying genuinely deep roots in the region.
What most people didn't know, though, was that the Xiao clan's ancestors had once stood at the threshold of Dou Di rank — half a step from the very top. Exactly why the clan had fallen so far since then, well, chalk it up to the tides of fate, one supposed.
If the Old Man Upstairs decided the Xiao ancestor wasn't breaking through to Dou Di, then breaking through simply wasn't going to happen. If the Old Man Upstairs wanted the Xiao clan brought low, then low they would go.
Having crossed enough worlds and seen enough by now, Ryū simply didn't believe a setting on the scale of Battle Through the Heavens would lack some equivalent of a Gaia-like guiding will.
Put in more properly Eastern-fantasy terms: what people around here would probably just call "Heaven's Will."
The fate of every single character in Battle Through the Heavens, in some sense, danced on strings pulled by exactly that kind of presence — puppets doing precisely what that unseen hand demanded of them.
Maybe the only moment Xiao Yan would ever truly slip free of this world's Heaven's Will was the instant he finally left the Dou Qi Continent behind for good.
Not that any of this was Ryū's business, really. Xiao Yan might count as half a countryman, sure, but the man had never done him any favors, and Ryū felt no particular obligation to hand out unearned advantages.
No reason to spill this particular secret out loud, either — do that, and Battle Through the Heavens's protagonist might just stop being Xiao Yan altogether, replaced by whoever else happened to be sitting on world-breaking plot armor instead.
Xiao Yan might only be eleven years old physically, but his actual mental age probably ran closer to twenty or thirty — likely exactly why someone who'd already weathered this kind of dramatic life reversal hadn't spiraled into total despair over it.
Wandering the streets of Wutan City, Ryū glanced around idly. Every group event's expenses got covered automatically by the chat group itself — meaning whatever he bought here generally came free of charge.
The one exception was anything falling outside food, drink, entertainment, lodging, and transportation — those particular categories, he might actually have to pay for out of pocket himself.
Sure, his earlier, entirely unrestrained Observation Haki sweep had already been picked up by Xiao Xun'er's bodyguard, that "Ling Ying" fellow, but Ryū wasn't particularly bothered by a mere Dou Huang.
Dou Huang sounded impressive enough on paper, sure, but the actual distance separating it from Dou Di stretched out practically forever — further, even, than the old saying's "hundred thousand leagues."
He already knew exactly where that particular Dou Huang was standing, too — barely a thousand meters away, genuinely close by.
Not that surprising, honestly. Wutan City was just a town, after all — a thousand meters apart within town limits hardly counted as remarkable distance.
He pulled a round lollipop out of his pocket, checked the flavor — milk, apparently — tore the wrapper open, and popped it into his mouth.
Sucking idly on the candy, Ryū wandered aimlessly through Wutan City. He genuinely didn't recognize a soul here — sure, he knew a handful of canon characters by name, but had no idea what any of them actually looked like.
This was a web novel, after all, and an unillustrated one at that. No telling what Xiao Yan actually looked like.
Probably not even the author himself knew, honestly.
Just as Ryū's thoughts wandered further afield, over a thousand meters away, a rather unremarkable-looking man walked with an increasingly grave expression settled across his face.
The man was fairly advanced in age, old enough to reasonably be called an "elder," though his cultivation and considerable strength kept his vitality easily matching any young man in his prime.
And that was with his presence deliberately suppressed, too — had a genuine Dou Huang-tier cultivator let his aura loose unguarded, any ordinary bystander nearby would probably have felt their heart skip clean out of rhythm.
Sounded hard to believe, maybe, but that was simply how it worked. Take any member of the Dimensional Chat Group, Ryū included — even without Conqueror's Haki, a stray leak of raw presence alone was enough to send weaker opponents into a cold sweat.
"Someone was just sweeping through Wutan City completely unguarded — that sensory reach covered every last corner of the town without any effort to conceal it whatsoever. What kind of strength does that take?"
Ling Ying sucked in a sharp breath. His face gave nothing away outwardly, but internally, tension had already coiled tight.
Glancing over at Xiao Xun'er, still strolling the street alongside that young Xiao clan boy, Ling Ying took a slow breath, his expression darkening slightly.
He had no idea who this brazen, unfamiliar powerhouse sweeping the entire town actually was — but years of hard-won combat experience told him, plainly, that he almost certainly wasn't a match for whoever it was.
And if that person ever turned their attention on Xun'er directly, Ling Ying genuinely wasn't sure his own old bones could hold the line.
Reporting this to the Ancient Clan wasn't even remotely viable at this point, either — the Dou Qi Continent was simply too vast. No telling how long any message would take just to reach them.
His gaze settled back on Xiao Xun'er and the Xiao clan boy — "Xiao Yan," he recalled. Honestly, Ling Ying had always had a decent read on that boy's potential.
Except something strange had clearly happened to him — his cultivation wiped out overnight, practically. Well, not entirely wiped out — he could probably still hold his own against a dozen-plus ordinary civilians — but close enough to count as a total loss, effectively.
Ling Ying had no idea what had actually caused it. Genuinely nothing he could do to help there.
If Xiao Yan could somehow make it to the Ancient Clan, maybe they'd be able to figure out the cause — but Ling Ying couldn't reveal himself, and this wasn't the right moment to bring the boy there regardless. Doing so now would risk ruining everything.
Honestly, Ling Ying badly wanted Xiao Xun'er to head home immediately. That unknown powerhouse's mere existence was already more than unsettling enough.
Watching Xun'er stroll along at a pace barely faster than a tortoise, clearly enjoying herself alongside Xiao Yan, Ling Ying let out a sigh. The ten-year-old girl was already showing signs of genuine interest in the eleven-year-old boy — no telling why she'd matured this early.
As the minutes ticked by, sweat began beading unbidden across Ling Ying's forehead.
Because that same terrifying sensory sweep had just washed over Wutan City again — several more times, in fact.
Several of those passes, in fact, had landed directly and unmistakably on him. Which meant the unknown powerhouse had already spotted him — a mere Dou Huang, laid bare.
Just as Ling Ying was preparing to quietly signal Xiao Xun'er to head home immediately, a figure suddenly entered his field of view.
Attire that matched nothing about Wutan City — or the Jia Ma Empire at large — immediately caught Ling Ying's attention.
An instant later, to his genuine shock, that oddly-dressed young man's own gaze snapped directly toward him.
He'd been actively suppressing both his presence and his physical form this whole time, carefully hidden — under ordinary circumstances, someone could walk right past him and never notice a thing.
And yet this strangely-dressed boy had somehow, instantly, zeroed in on exactly where he stood?
Pure coincidence?
Or did whatever concealment technique he'd trained in simply mean nothing at all to this boy?
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you