Chapter 399: Hard to Believe
"Ah... that's probably him, then. Wutan City's one and only Dou Huang. Though — if you dropped a Dou Huang into the Dimensional Chat Group, I doubt he'd even crack Tier 3, honestly. Maybe Tier 4."
Ryū wasn't entirely sure, admittedly, since he'd never actually seen a Dou Huang fight — just a gut instinct that, by the chat group's own standards, that particular power tier probably landed somewhere solidly middling.
Not that he cared much about Ling Ying's actual strength either way — mild curiosity, nothing more.
Sucking on a lollipop already half-dissolved, Ryū's attention drifted toward two small kids standing roughly a hundred meters past Ling Ying.
If he'd read the situation right earlier, Ling Ying had clearly been keeping close watch over those exact two kids.
Ling Ying was Xiao Xun'er's secret bodyguard, if he remembered right — which meant one of those two kids receiving that much attention had to be Xun'er herself.
Which left the other one — the boy. Could that be Battle Through the Heavens's own protagonist, Xiao Yan?
Sounded like a stretch at first, sure, but not impossible, either. If Ryū remembered right, canon painted Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun'er as genuinely close — and within the whole Xiao clan, Xiao Yan was pretty much the only one who shared that kind of bond with her.
Wasn't this a genuinely absurd coincidence, though? Wander into some random human settlement, and it turns out to be Wutan City, the exact starter town of Battle Through the Heavens. Then bump into two random kids on the street, and they turn out to be the story's actual male and female leads?
Was this what people meant by "kindred spirits recognizing each other from afar"?
Pah — no, hold on, why would he feel any kind of kinship with some guy.
He and Xiao Yan had never even met in real life. This wasn't the Orochimaru/Jiraiya kind of bromance-adjacent thing going on here.
Ignoring the still visibly tense Ling Ying, Ryū wandered over, curious, and got a close look at the future "Flame Emperor."
Had to hand it to him — Xiao Yan had genuinely good looks this life around. Though, admittedly, still a notch below Ryū's own.
Xiao Yan's expression looked genuinely deflated, though — even his smile at Xiao Xun'er came across strained. Made sense — with his cultivation basically wiped out, he'd clearly been sitting in a low mood ever since.
Holding the empty lollipop wrapper in one hand, Ryū muttered to himself, resigned. "Why doesn't this city have a single trash can anywhere? Am I supposed to just litter? Not exactly my style, honestly."
"City planning here is genuinely nonexistent. Walked over a thousand meters and haven't spotted one single public trash can. Does this entire city not have one, anywhere?"
"..."
Xiao Xun'er, unaware of the outside-world man observing her, held a stick of candied haws in one hand and offered it to Xiao Yan.
Her delicate, finely sculpted little face carried a small smile. "Xiao Yan-oniichan's talent is way too good — you'll get your cultivation back in no time. No need to look so gloomy all the time."
Xiao Yan blinked, still visibly down, looking at the candied haws in front of him before accepting it with a rueful smile.
Feeling the pitifully thin trickle of Dou Qi still lingering inside him, he couldn't help letting out a sigh.
He'd more or less pulled himself back together over the past few days. Still had no idea what had actually caused this cultivation collapse, but wallowing in self-pity clearly wasn't getting him anywhere either.
As for Xiao Xun'er's optimism about him recovering — Xiao Yan could only sigh quietly to himself over that.
He genuinely wanted his cultivation back too, and he'd actually tried these past few days. The results, though, had been telling — whatever Dou Qi he'd managed to cultivate had simply vanished into thin air, no telling where.
He'd been the acknowledged prodigy of the Xiao clan's younger generation. Overnight, he'd become the biggest washout among them instead.
Who could stomach a fall that steep without cracking?
Thank goodness Xiao Yan's actual mental age sat somewhere close to thirty or forty — had he genuinely been the young boy he appeared to be, he'd probably have given up on himself entirely by now.
Under Xiao Xun'er's hopeful gaze, Xiao Yan managed a thin smile and took a small bite of the candied haws she'd handed him — the sour-sweet taste offering some small relief to his restless mind.
Perhaps because of his lingering unease, his eyes drifted idly around the surroundings without his quite meaning to.
Abruptly, his expression froze — as though he'd just witnessed something utterly unbelievable.
The stick of candied haws slipped from his hand and hit the ground, the fragile sugar coating shattering like glass — though Xiao Yan didn't even register it happening.
Because what he'd just seen had nearly stopped his brain cold.
Following Xiao Yan's line of sight, there stood a young man, roughly a dozen meters to his right, dressed in a style that had absolutely nothing to do with Wutan City's fashion — something clenched between his teeth.
Xiao Yan's eyesight was excellent, sharpened further by his Dou Qi cultivation, and he could tell immediately that whatever the young man had between his teeth wasn't a toothpick, or a blade of grass — it was a lollipop stick.
He'd have sworn on his life that was a plastic lollipop stick. And in the young man's left hand, something dangled — he could just make out what looked like a small, brightly colored plastic bag.
Combined with the man's outfit, which struck him as unmistakably, eerily close to Earth fashion — Xiao Yan's mind went, entirely and completely, blank.
"Am I dreaming? Or is this some kind of hallucination, from being too keyed up these past few days?"
Xiao Yan murmured, genuinely struggling to accept what he was seeing. Xiao Xun'er, noticing his sudden distress, immediately grew worried, assuming something else had gone wrong with him.
She tugged anxiously at his sleeve. "Xiao Yan-oniichan, are you okay? Why are you suddenly talking nonsense?"
Xiao Yan shook his head, licked his dry lips, and bit down on the tip of his own tongue.
A small nick opened up under his teeth, the sting and the taste of blood flooding his senses, confirming — this wasn't a dream. Wasn't a hallucination, either.
He sucked in a sharp breath. Only he himself could really know just how badly this had shaken him.
Then, all at once, Xiao Yan watched that young man — somewhere between eighteen and nineteen, by the look of him — turn his head and lock eyes directly with him.
Their gazes held in midair for a few seconds. Xiao Yan could clearly make out the faint, teasing amusement on the stranger's face.
A strange feeling washed over him, an inexplicable sense of having been seen through entirely, laid bare somehow.
The next moment, his heart clenched — the strange young man, that candy-like thing still tucked between his teeth, had started walking directly toward him.
For reasons he couldn't quite name, Xiao Yan found himself growing genuinely nervous.
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