[You advanced to Foundation Establishment, becoming the youngest real-power elder in your sect. Though your rise was dazzling, you deeply understood the principle: those who stand too tall break too easily.]
[Not long after the official transfer of authority, you took on a sect mission and left the sect to avoid the eye of the storm.]
[Of course, you gave it a noble name: “For the sake of the sect’s development—if I don’t guard it, who will?”]
[You spent three years stationed at a minor resource outpost of the sect. Only after the internal power struggles settled and the turbulence calmed did you apply to return to Sanshan Sect.]
[However, on your journey back to Sanshan Sect, you passed through an unnamed village and sensed something unusual.]
[Descending into the village, you spread your spiritual sense in preparation to find the village head and inquire about the situation—only to suddenly realize something alarming. Within the range of your spiritual sense, there wasn’t a single living person. No, to be exact—there was no one left alive in this village.]
[Instantly, your vigilance spiked. A village under the Sanshan Sect’s jurisdiction with no survivors could only mean one thing—demonic cultivators had passed through.]
[You began carefully searching the village.]
[It didn’t take long for you to find something. In a firewood shed, you discovered a humanoid corpse made entirely of white bone.]
The creature looked human in shape, but its entire body was covered in bone like white porcelain armor.
Yet its face was anything but human—jutting fangs, a bluish face with crimson eyes, fur covering its cheeks.
It was utterly grotesque and terrifying.
“This thing… a Bone Yaksha?”
Su Bai furrowed his brows, trying to recall what he’d read back at the sect in the [Explanation of Demonic Cultivation.]
Bone Yakshas—products of demonic cultivation that emerged decades ago.
They were cheap to make and easy to produce.
All it took was a mortal corpse.
Naturally, their combat strength was pathetic.
But if massed in great numbers—hundreds, thousands—they could flood an area with such overwhelming resentment and deathly yin aura that even a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator would turn and flee.
However, according to the records, the demonic path had already been annihilated during the righteous-demonic war decades ago.
All the strange cultivation techniques had supposedly been burned to ash.
Even if a few survivors had slipped through the net, of all the things to cultivate—’why this?’
Let’s not even talk about how this was a shortcut method with disastrous consequences.
To advance in Bone Yaksha cultivation, one had to create more and more of these monstrosities.
Back during the righteous-demonic war, perhaps mortal lives meant nothing.
Whether righteous or demonic, they were just fodder for cultivation.
But now the righteous path thrives.
Killing mortals to make Bone Yakshas is not only a crime—it’s destroying the sect’s resources.
‘Do they really not know the Light of Righteousness will strike them down?’
‘Or… could there be another reason?’
With that thought, Su Bai began searching the corpse for clues.
Sure enough, on the Bone Yaksha’s back, he found a line of blood-red characters carved deep into the bone:
“Eight Divisions Dread, Hometown of the Nine Hells!”
The meaningless phrase threw Su Bai into deeper thought.
But there was no use pondering it further. With a sigh, he grabbed the Bone Yaksha, planning to take it as evidence and leave.
***
[Just as you were about to leave with the Bone Yaksha, a faint sound caught your attention. You followed it.]
[Behind the village, beneath a pile of scattered firewood, you found a hidden cellar. Lifting the cover, you saw a dusty, pitch-black human child curled inside.]
[You beckoned lightly, and the child floated into your palm. After channeling a strand of spiritual energy into its body and examining it, you concluded that this was just a completely normal human child—extremely hungry, but unharmed.]
[You had no idea how the child had survived, just as you didn’t know who had killed the Bone Yaksha or who had carved those eight words. Nor did you know where the villagers had gone.]
“Mommy… guu guu~”
The little gray ball suddenly spoke, wrapping its tiny arms around Su Bai’s hand and rubbing its head against his fingers.
Su Bai’s face darkened.
He himself could barely judge whether his current appearance leaned more feminine or masculine, and now he was being called “Mommy” by a toddler? His dignity was in tatters.
“Guu guu… Mommy.”
The little one looked up at him, pitifully clinging to his hand like a stray pup begging for affection.
Su Bai twitched at the corner of his mouth.
Unaware of the truth, one could hardly be blamed.
Besides, such a tiny little dumpling could hardly have any sense of self. Eating when hungry and sleeping when tired—that was simply natural.
With a corpse of a Bone Wraith in one hand and a grubby human child in the other, Su Bai paused for a moment.
He then transferred a trace of spiritual energy into the child’s body, soothing the hunger and replenishing nutrients.
Sure enough, after eating his fill, the little gray ball stopped fussing and drifted into a peaceful, sweet sleep.
[You returned to the sect carrying both the Bone Wraith and the strange eight characters you found. You also reported the sole survivor discovered in the village.]
[The sect elders couldn’t figure out much about the Bone Wraith, nor could they make sense of the mysterious phrase “Eight Great Terrors, Nine Nether Homeland.” But when it came to the lone survivor, they strongly recommended treating him as a suspect—better to eliminate any potential threat now than regret it later.]
[After all, surviving a massacre by demonic cultivators was itself suspicious. Even if it wasn’t, just the fact that others were suspicious of him made him a liability.]
[You disagreed. You weren’t some bleeding-heart saint, but you were a product of the Federation’s high-quality education system. You couldn’t bring yourself to harm a helpless human child.]
[Of course, you promised the elders that if the child ever did become a threat to the righteous path, you would personally end him with your sword.]
[Thanks to your insistence and promise, the little gray ball survived. You brought him back to your modest cave residence.]
***
“Now then, little one… what should I do with you?” Su Bai murmured as he watched the now-white little dumpling crawling all over the stone table.
On the way back to the cave, seeing how filthy the child was, Su Bai had cast a cleansing spell.
Instantly, the grimy gray ball turned into a sparkling white dumpling.
With short, soft hair, chubby cheeks, and large, watery eyes, he looked like a porcelain doll—so cute that even Su Bai felt his heart melting a little.
“Uu~”
The little white dumpling let out a pitiful whimper, clearly upset from being pinched, his eyes pleading miserably up at Su Bai.
Su Bai laughed, his eyes curving in amusement.
“Alright, alright, I won’t tease you anymore. In a few days, I’ll head down the mountain to find a family willing to adopt you.”
Then he looked down again at the little dumpling still struggling to climb onto the table.
Reaching out, he poked the child’s cheek with a finger and added with a chuckle, “I mean, I’m only nineteen. Just finished the college entrance exams. Haven’t even had a girlfriend yet—I’m not ready to be a dad.”
The little dumpling licked his palm, let out a small whine, and gazed at him with such sad, abandoned puppy eyes that Su Bai couldn’t help but wince.
“Tch… You really know how to act pitiful.”
“But hey,” Su Bai said teasingly, “if you can call me ‘Daddy,’ I’ll adopt you.”
The little dumpling seemed to understand.
He crawled up Su Bai’s arm, wrapped his tiny arms around Su Bai’s neck, and began nuzzling and rubbing against him like a needy little puppy.
“Mama~ Mama~~”
Su Bai: “…”
He peeled the pitiful dumpling off his body, ready to scold him—but when he met those wide, innocent eyes, all his anger vanished in an instant.
“Fine, fine. Mama, Daddy—it’s all the same.”
“Guess I’ll be your stand-in parent. I’ll adopt you. It’s my first simulation anyway. Might as well treat this as practice—raising a kid could be part of the experience.”
Su Bai lifted the child in his arms and playfully waved him in the air.
“Little guy, remember—call me Daddy from now on.”
And so it begins…