Chapter 266: The Debt-Colleting Child (Request Monthly Tickets! Request Follows!)

The Perfect World, the Wild Region.

In a remote corner along the border of the Stone Kingdom, several villages and a moderately sized town had gathered, standing out starkly amid the vast, sparsely populated western frontier.

In truth, this arrangement was no accident—it had been deliberately planned.

For this was a ancestral land of the Stone Clan; though long fallen into ruin, it held profound symbolic significance, so the Stone Clan's high echelons had established these towns and villages to form a relatively complete settlement and sustain it.

Yet as time passed, this ancestral land was gradually forgotten by the Stone Clan, and eventually treated as a place of exile, where those of high status but guilty of grave offenses were banished here to fend for themselves.

Of course, those who understand know that the so-called grave offenses were merely the failures of power struggles—they had been forcibly branded as criminals by the victors, though the true circumstances were known to only a few.

"Sigh, this damned place grows more lifeless by the day. Even the last old man is nearly gone—who will protect that poor child after he's gone?"

As dawn barely broke, an old man drove a beast-drawn cart toward the ancestral land, bringing fruits, game, and other provisions.

The old man's surname was Hai; those who knew him called him Old Man Hai. On the surface, he was unremarkable, yet his cultivation had reached the peak of the Spirit Transformation realm—a notable master among solitary cultivators.

But alas, before the colossal Stone Clan, Old Man Hai was merely a slightly larger ant, daring not to interfere openly in their affairs; he merely sighed and continued driving his cart forward.

Yet Old Man Hai secretly resolved that if, after some time, the old man in the compound truly could not hold on, he would sneak in and take the poor child away, sparing him from the beasts' cruelty.

As he thought this, he suddenly sensed something was amiss.

In the past, though the compound was dilapidated, there were still servants gossiping inside, and with his cultivation, he could always hear them from afar.

But today, the compound was unnervingly silent—no sound at all, save for the cries of birds and beasts.

"The scent of blood?!"

Old Man Hai sniffed sharply, his face turning pale. He dropped his whip and dashed toward the compound ahead, his agility utterly unlike that of a man past sixty.

Yet when he saw the scene inside the compound, he froze in place.

The dilapidated compound now looked as if trampled by some ferocious beast—everywhere were signs of violent destruction, and amid the broken walls and rubble lay pools of blood and severed limbs—all the servants of the compound.

Most were young, having entered the compound only a few years ago, but the old man knew these servants had been deliberately sent to spy on the child, and over the years had repeatedly schemed in secret to kill him.

Now, they were all dead, their corpses horrifically mangled, not a single whole body to be found.

Old Man Hai's heart turned cold. He cared nothing for the deaths of these wicked servants, but was deeply concerned for the safety of the last old man and the child; he hurried into the compound's interior to search for them.

Soon, the old man discovered several familiar figures deep within the inner courtyard.

They were servants who, decades ago, had been exiled here alongside several elder Stone Clan members—deeply loyal, and among the few who had ever cared for the child.

Seeing them, Old Man Hai was both startled and relieved, and immediately asked what had happened here—what had become of Little Stone… that is, Wu Xian, known as Shi Hao.

"Uh, the young master…?"

One of the old servants, hearing Old Man Hai's question, blinked, then spoke with a hesitant tone: "You might not believe it, but all of this… was done by the young master."

"What?!"

Old Man Hai froze, scratched his ear, and asked again: "I didn't hear you clearly—say that again?"

"You heard right. All of this was done by the young master."

The old servant smiled bitterly and recounted the full story.

It turned out that around the fifth watch of the morning (just after four a. .), Wu Xian had awakened. The old servant who had lived with him and tended to his daily needs also woke, assuming the child was hungry and heading to the kitchen—so he followed.

But who could have imagined that after leaving the room, the young master did not go to the kitchen, but walked straight to the outer courtyard—and before the servant's stunned eyes, tore off a massive pillar, thick as two men could embrace, and began smashing everything around him.

Soon, the entire outer courtyard lay in ruins, and the servants assigned to spy on them were crushed into bloody pulp amid their screams and pleas—none survived.

"Sssss—!!"

Old Man Hai sucked in a sharp breath, imagining a child of five or six swinging a colossal pillar, sweeping all before him—his wrinkled face twitched involuntarily.

"Those servants in the outer courtyard weren't ordinary people without cultivation—they may have been weak, the strongest barely at Blood Mobilization, but they shouldn't have been so fragile…

Could it be that Little Stone's cultivation has reached the Cave Heaven realm? But I never sensed any signs of his cultivation before?"

As Old Man Hai thought this, he turned his gaze toward the inner courtyard and asked: "Where is your ancestral elder? And where is Little Stone—is he still inside the courtyard?"

"The ancestral elder had already awakened, but the young master came by earlier, saying he would heal him, and then the elder fell back asleep—though his complexion has indeed improved greatly."

The old servant shook his head and smiled bitterly: "As for the young master—he said he was going out to collect a debt. He left the compound half an hour ago."

"Collect a debt?"

Old Man Hai murmured those two words, and for some reason, a dark premonition stirred in his chest.

…

Chongyun Town—or rather, a city, for it housed over eighty thousand people—was strategically vital, a key fortress on the Stone Kingdom's border, a critical pass beneath the central metropolis of this region.

For the past hundred years, powerful outsiders had repeatedly attacked, but each time they were repelled by the town's masters and the Spirit of the Altar.

Yet today, outside the town gate, a child no older than five or six walked briskly toward the entrance.

Perhaps because his aura was so striking, the guards at the gate soon noticed him; as he reached the gate, they blocked his path and asked as per protocol: "Kid, where are you from? What are you doing in Chongyun Town?"

"I'm from the Stone Kingdom, just like you. I came to Chongyun Town to collect a debt."

Wu Xian looked up at the guard, a strange blue light flickering in his eyes, his smile innocent and pure.

"Collect a debt…"

The guard repeated the words, his own eyes glowing the same blue.

"Yes. A debt owed for a very, very long time."

As he spoke, the innocent smile slowly turned cold.

"It's time to take back every last bit—with interest."

(End of Chapter)