I want to tread the heavens

That afternoon, Ling Xiao was kept in the inner courtyard.

Guo Yun said she would personally teach him to read and told Yue Rong to go back first. Yue Rong wanted to say something, but seeing Guo Yun's unfathomable eyes, he ultimately bowed silently and retreated.

Only Guo Yun and Ling Xiao remained in the study.

Guo Yun didn't mention what happened during the day. Instead, she took out a simpler picture book for beginners and patiently taught Ling Xiao to recognize characters and pictures.

Ling Xiao studied very hard. Although he was young, he had an excellent memory. He could remember the shape of the characters that Guo Yun had taught him once. Although he could not write them yet, he could barely recognize them.

"This character is pronounced 'tian' (天)," Guo Yun said, pointing to a picture in the album that depicted a blue sky and white clouds.

"Heaven..." Ling Xiao repeated, his pronunciation still somewhat unclear.

"This character is pronounced 'di'," Guo Yun said, pointing to another picture that depicted mountains and rivers.

"land……"

"This character is pronounced 'ren'."

"people……"

After teaching a dozen or so characters, Guo Yun stopped, looked into Ling Xiao's pure eyes, and suddenly asked:

"Xiao'er, did you push Brother Xiaohu during the day?"

Ling Xiao shook his head, his little face full of seriousness: "No, Xiao'er didn't push him."

"Then... how did Brother Little Tiger fly out?" Guo Yun's voice was gentle, but her eyes were sharp.

Ling Xiao tilted his head, thought for a moment, then held up the picture book for beginners and pointed to a picture of "leaf leaves in the wind":

"Was it...blown by the wind?"

Guo Yun stared at him for a long time, then finally smiled and patted his head:

"Perhaps. Alright, that's all for today. Go back and find Uncle Rong."

She got up, called a maid, and saw Ling Xiao out.

As she watched Ling Xiao's small figure disappear outside the door, the smile on Guo Yun's face gradually faded.

She sat back in the armchair, took out the Three Character Classic from her sleeve, and turned to the page on "The Beginning of Man".

The page is flat and there are no abnormalities.

But she clearly remembers that during that moment in the daytime, a layer of purple light appeared on this page.

Although faint and brief, it was indeed a "spiritual light".

A three-year-old infant, unfamiliar with cultivation, was able to draw upon the spiritual light on the pages of a book, and even send an eight- or nine-year-old child flying...

This can no longer be explained by "extraordinary talent".

"Someone come here," Guo Yun called softly.

A figure dressed in black appeared silently in the corner of the study and knelt on one knee.

"Madam."

"Investigate two things," Guo Yun said coldly. "First, check if there is an ancient rune composed of starlight points in the 'Study of Starfall Runes' that is related to earth fire and seals."

"Second, intensify surveillance on Guo Rong and Ling Xiao. Especially Ling Xiao; record every detail of his daily life, including his diet, routine, and words."

"Yes." The shadowy figure bowed and then vanished like a ghost.

Guo Yun got up, walked to the window, and looked towards the outer courtyard with a complicated expression in her eyes.

"Visitors from the interstellar region... Could the ancestral precepts be true?"

"If that's the case, the stagnant waters of the Guo family are likely about to be stirred up..."

Several days later, in the evening, Yue Rong brought Ling Xiao back from the inner courtyard.

As I approached the courtyard, I heard a burst of urgent barking and children's cries. Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw several children, around seven or eight years old, gathered in a circle, whipping something with sticks. In the center of the circle, a small, gray creature trembled and emitted a mournful wail.

It was a cub. It looked like a common gray-maned wolf, but it was smaller than a typical wolf cub, thin and bony, its gray fur covered in mud, and it had a deep, bloody wound on its left hind leg that exposed bone. It was curled up on the ground, trying to protect its head with its front paws, but the branches were still falling like raindrops.

"Kill it! Kill this lame beast!"

"You dare steal my biscuit! I'll beat you to death!"

The children shouted excitedly and showed no mercy.

Seeing this, Ling Xiao's face turned pale. He broke free from Yue Rong's grasp and rushed over, shouting, "Stop fighting! Stop fighting!"

The children stopped and looked at Ling Xiao. The boy in the lead recognized him; he was the son of a handyman from the outer courtyard, named Guo Shitou, a burly man with a fierce-looking face.

"Hey, isn't this the little bastard the third wife picked up?" Guo Shitou sneered. "What, want to stand up for this beast?"

"It...it's injured, please don't hit it..." Ling Xiao's voice trembled, but he still stood in front of the cub.

"What's it to you if I get hurt!" Guo Shitou stepped forward and reached out to shove Ling Xiao. "Get out of my way! Or I'll beat you up too!"

Before his hand could even touch Ling Xiao, his wrist was grabbed by a hand as strong as an iron clamp.

It is Yue Rong.

He had somehow appeared behind Ling Xiao, gripping Guo Shitou's wrist. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were as cold as ice.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" Guo Shitou's face changed drastically, feeling as if his wrist was about to be crushed.

"Take your men and get out of here." Yue Rong released his grip, his voice calm yet carrying an undeniable air of authority.

Guo Shitou clutched his wrist, glanced at Yue Rong in fear, then looked at the dying cub on the ground, and finally didn't dare to say anything more. He led the group of children away in a panic.

Yue Rong then looked down at the small gray thing on the ground.

The cub was no longer moving; only the faint rise and fall of its chest proved it was still alive. The wound was deep and bleeding profusely; without immediate treatment, it might not survive the night.

"Uncle Rong..." Ling Xiao looked up at him, tears welling in his eyes, "Can we save it?"

Yue Rong silently looked at the cub, then at the undisguised worry and pleading in Ling Xiao's eyes. After a long while, he slowly nodded.

"Take it back."

Ling Xiao's eyes lit up, and he carefully picked up the cub. The little guy was very light, like a weightless ball of cotton in his arms, and his body was trembling violently due to pain and hypothermia.

Back in the courtyard, Yue Rong pulled the broken earthenware jar from under the bed—it contained medicine he had made himself using leftover cinnabar residue and fire moss. He carefully cleaned the cub's wounds, applied the medicine, and bandaged them with clean strips of cloth.

Throughout the entire process, the cub only whimpered weakly a few times, without struggling. It seemed to know that these two people were rescuing it.

After applying the medicine, Yue Rong placed the cub in the tattered basket beside Ling Xiao's bed—it was a gift from Guo Yun, meant for Ling Xiao to store his clothes, and now it served as a nest. Ling Xiao tore half a tattered blanket from his own bed and carefully covered the cub with it.

"Uncle Rong, will it survive?" Ling Xiao squatted by the basket, looking at it expectantly.

"It depends on its fate," Yue Rong said calmly. "The wound isn't deep, and it didn't break any bones, but it lost a lot of blood and was also frightened. If it can get through tonight, it'll be fine."

Ling Xiao nodded vigorously: "Looking at the cub with a worried expression, it will definitely pull through!"

Yue Rong didn't speak, but just looked at the small gray thing in the basket, a barely perceptible hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

Gray-maned wolf cubs... appearing near human settlements? And so badly injured?

More importantly, when he picked it up just now, he vaguely sensed that there seemed to be an extremely faint and strange fluctuation within the little thing's body.

It doesn't seem like something a typical wild animal would do.

But he didn't say it. He simply turned around, went to the stove to start a fire, and prepared dinner.

At night, Ling Xiao refused to sleep and insisted on staying by the basket. Yue Rong didn't force him, but simply turned up the oil lamp and sat on the threshold, wiping the broken knife.

At midnight, the cub's breathing suddenly became rapid, and its body began to convulse. Ling Xiao panicked and quickly called for Yue Rong.

Yue Rong came over to check and found that the high fever was caused by a wound infection. He frowned, took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, and poured out a pill the size of half a soybean—it was the "Pulse-Regenerating Pill" given to him by Guo Yun, which he himself was reluctant to use and had always kept close to his body.

He crushed the pills, mixed them with warm water, and slowly poured them into the cub's mouth.

The medicine worked quickly. In less than fifteen minutes, the cub's breathing stabilized and its body temperature began to drop. It stirred, opened its eyes with difficulty, and looked blankly at Ling Xiao, then at Yue Rong, before finally fixing its gaze on Ling Xiao's face, emitting a very faint "woof" sound from its throat.

It's like saying "thank you".

Ling Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, a smile spreading across his face. He reached out and gently patted the cub's head: "Don't be afraid, it's alright now."

The cub nuzzled his hand, then closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

This time, my breathing was long and steady.

Yue Rong watched this scene, his doubts deepening. Although the Meridian-Regenerating Pill was a low-grade medicine, its potency was far too potent for both mortals and wild beasts. An ordinary cub would be severely injured, if not killed, after taking it. Yet this little thing had withstood it, and recovered so quickly…

"Uncle Rong, let's give it a name," Ling Xiao suddenly said.

Yue Rong snapped out of his daze: "Whatever you say."

Ling Xiao tilted his head and thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "Let's call it 'Get Rich'! Uncle Rong, you said that people need hope to live. Getting rich is the biggest hope! With money, we can eat our fill and stay warm, and Uncle Rong can live a good life!"

Looking into Ling Xiao's eyes, Yue Rong felt a soft spot in his heart being touched by the pure and fervent expectation in them. He nodded.

"Okay, let's call it 'Get Rich'."

Ling Xiao smiled happily and patted the cub's head: "Fa Cai, from now on we're family. Get well soon!"

Fa Cai twitched his ears in his sleep, as if he understood.

Outside the window, the two moons of the old earth hang high, their cool light spilling into the courtyard, illuminating the scene of a man, a wolf, and a broken knife clinging tightly together in this strange and cruel world.

Yue Rong withdrew his gaze and continued wiping the broken knife in his hand.

This time, however, his movements seemed gentler than usual.