Chapter 401: Setting Up His Future Master??
A... a creep? Was he actually a creep?
Xiao Yan genuinely started questioning his own life choices for a second there.
No — wait, why was his brain wandering off into this nonsense again?
He took a deep breath, forced a somewhat strained smile, and shook his head. "Xun'er and I are just friends. She's only ten this year, what are you even implying?"
Then he froze — he'd just felt a few light pats land on his shoulder, and the hand doing the patting belonged unmistakably to his "countryman" here.
What genuinely baffled him was that he hadn't seen the man's hand move at all. When had that happened?
Had he simply not been paying attention?
Or — was this fellow Earth-transmigrator "countryman" of his actually genuinely strong? Stronger than him, even?
That explanation felt reasonable enough, actually. If they were both transmigrators, it wasn't especially surprising that the other guy might just have a stronger cultivation talent.
A small pang of regret came with the thought — if not for his own sudden misfortune, maybe he'd have had that kind of strength too, eventually.
What Xiao Yan had no way of knowing, of course, was exactly how long it had taken Ryū to go from an ordinary person to someone capable of blowing up a star with a single strike.
A little over a year — one year and change, give or take.
Whereas Xiao Yan, on his path to eventually becoming Dou Di, still had a great many years of grinding ahead of him.
"Right, um — I still haven't asked your name! And how did you know I'm from... that place? And how do you know my name, for that matter?"
Xiao Yan finally gathered his thoughts and voiced the three questions he considered most pressing.
He didn't expect answers to all three, obviously — they'd only just met — but even one or two would be plenty.
Ryū thought it over for a moment before answering. "My name, huh. You can call me Ryū — the character for willow tree, and the character for 'life.'"
"As for how I knew where you're from, and how I know your name... the first one, I'll keep to myself for now. If you're lucky, you might find out eventually. The second one — how many people in Wutan City haven't heard of Xiao Yan of the Xiao clan?"
Just as Xiao Yan had expected, this "countryman" hadn't answered everything — two out of three, close enough.
He wasn't particularly bothered by the gap, though. If anything, learning the man's name felt like a genuinely solid start.
Ryū?
Willow tree, plus "life"?
Come to think of it, that name sounded just about as... ahem, ordinary as his own "Xiao Yan," honestly.
Well, an ordinary name wasn't a bad thing, at least — better than some of the overly dramatic names other people ended up with.
Still, Xiao Yan found himself curious about one more thing. His own identity was fairly well-known throughout Wutan City, sure, but this "countryman" of his — he couldn't help asking. "May I ask, Big Brother Ryū — are you also from Wutan City?"
Ryū shook his head. "Not from here. My hometown's a fair distance away from Wutan City."
Curious, Xiao Yan asked, "Far? Where, exactly?"
Ryū answered, entirely sincere: "Konoha!"
"Ko— pfft! Konoha?!?"
"Yeah, Konoha."
"You're not joking?"
"Not joking."
"..."
Xiao Yan very nearly stumbled and fell flat on his face, staring at Ryū with an expression that plainly read are you messing with me right now.
Say what you like, he'd been an Earth person once himself — there was no way he hadn't watched Naruto at some point, or at the very least heard of it.
He knew perfectly well what Konoha was — a shinobi village straight out of Naruto!
Did the Dou Qi Continent seriously have a place also called Konoha? Why had he never once heard of it in eleven years?
Hm... though, thinking about it, that actually made a certain amount of sense. He'd never once left Wutan City in his entire eleven years here — no real surprise he wouldn't know every place name out there.
But the Dou Qi Continent just happening to have a place with the exact same name as the Naruto village — wasn't that stretching coincidence a little far?
Xiao Yan never once considered that Ryū might genuinely be from the actual Naruto village. He simply assumed some place out beyond Wutan City's borders happened, by coincidence, to share the same name.
Ryū, having read Xiao Yan's actual thoughts with Observation Haki, let out a small, silent sigh. Even telling the plain truth these days got him doubted.
He genuinely was from Konoha, thank you very much — he even had a Konoha ID card to prove it!
"Ahem! Well, Big Brother Ryū, your hometown's name is a little... how should I put it? Distinctive. Ahaha!"
Xiao Yan managed an awkward, politely strained smile — an expression that honestly looked far too composed for an eleven-year-old boy to pull off convincingly.
Ryū didn't bother clarifying anything further; whether Xiao Yan believed him or not made little difference either way.
His gaze drifted, unbidden, to a ring hanging from Xiao Yan's neck — presumably too small for his current fingers, worn on a cord as a pendant instead.
Ryū could sense clearly enough that the ring wasn't ordinary in the slightest — something like a soul-presence residing within it.
That would be "Medicine Elder," presumably — one of Xiao Yan's own canon advantages. Ryū recalled him being, in canon, a figure who'd once reached Nine-Revolution Dou Zun Peak — a genuine top-tier powerhouse by Dou Qi Continent standards, back in his prime.
Though what really made Medicine Elder formidable wasn't his combat strength so much as his alchemy skills.
Reduced now to a mere wisp of remaining soul, sure, but even that wisp packed a serious punch — enough, at least, to slip entirely past a Dou Huang like Ling Ying's detection.
Ryū gave the ring a faint, knowing nod — not particularly caring what Medicine Elder might make of the gesture — and turned back to Xiao Yan. "Well, seeing as you've already started calling me Big Brother Ryū, guess I'll call you Little Brother Xiao Yan in return."
"Do you happen to know where the best inn in Wutan City is? I'm planning to stick around here for about ten days and nights — figured I'd need somewhere to stay."
Xiao Yan, of course, had no idea what was actually inside his own ring — he assumed Ryū's nod had simply been directed at him.
He scratched his head and answered, "An inn, right? Wutan City's got a fair number of decent ones. The most famous is... oh, actually — Big Brother Ryū, if you don't mind, you could just stay with us at the Xiao residence!"
Ryū blinked, genuinely startled, looking at Xiao Yan in front of him. Stay at the Xiao residence, huh?
Not that it was impossible, technically speaking, but if he actually moved in, wouldn't that leave Ling Ying — and, for that matter, Medicine Elder — sitting on edge day after day?
Kid really had a talent for setting up his own future teacher for a rude surprise...
Not to mention his future wife's bodyguard, on top of it.
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