In a certain forest ... 7 years ago

Three men in the look of bandits, one with a knife within his hand, another one with scars all over his face, and the last one with muscles strong enough to strangle a cow with one arm, seemed to be looking for something, or someone.

One with the scars started saying: “Where are they?”

The guy with the knife shouted towards the forest: “Don’t let me find you, or else you’re dead!!”

But no one responded to him.

The muscular man changed the subject and asked: “That damned kid with blue eyes!! Why is he so strong when he’s not even a cultivator yet?”

The scarred man: “Yeah, he beat two guys in our gang who are already cultivators. How’s that even possible?”

The bandit who knew the answer replied while pointing his knife upward: “Don’t you know that he’s God’s son?”

Once this question was asked, the other two looked at each other, then the bulky one asked back: “Which God?”

The one who previously raised the ‘God’ topic only spread his hand and wryly smiled. And the other two came to realization before exclaiming: “That God?”

The knife man confirmed: “Yeah, that God.”

With the face of realization, the muscular man noddingly said: “So, that’s why he’s strong. Even so, he can’t possibly defeat us, right?”

The scarred man, who was also the weakest one of the three, warned his mates with a trembling voice: “But will it be okay hunting God’s son? You know, what if he’s back?” The word ‘fear’ could already be read from his face.

“Ptooey!! You coward!! That God has been gone for a few years without showing his face even once. Who knows? Maybe he already left for good.”

The muscular guy arrogantly said after he spat at his friend, then he continued: “It doesn’t matter which God’s son he is. It’s unforgivable stealing Big Boss’s toy”

The knife man approved: “Yeah, that outsider shouldn’t be living among us. Didn’t God say that no outsider could come into this city?

Getting persuaded by his two friends, the scarred man nodded and agreed. Upon reaching the conclusion, they began their search once more.

After a few hours, the bandits found a broken hut amongst the trees. They subsequently entered the hut to investigate.

They used their knife and punch to destroy everything in the place because they did not want to leave any stone unturned. Nevertheless, they could not find what they were looking for.

But suddenly, five consecutive coughs were heard from the hut’s attic that seemed to only fit a family of mice.

“Found you!!”

The tallest and muscular bandit roared and threw a punch upwards.

Four seven years old kids, three boys and one girl with eyes of different shades, fell down from the attic. They appeared ragged and bruised. Especially the boy with yellow eyes, he was full of injuries, and the coughs earlier were from him throwing out his blood.

The bandit with the knife laughed: “Hahaha!! So, here you are!!”

The muscular bandits picked the Yellow Eyes up with one hand: “Come here, you monkey!! We haven’t had enough fun yet!!”

“Put him down or I’ll smash that hand to pieces!!”

The boy with blue eyes got up and domineeringly commanded while pointing his finger at the three bandits.

The scarred man disdainfully sniggered: “With your strength? This place is too cramped. Come outside and try.”

The bandit gang left the hut but did not leave. They waited in front of the hut for their challenger to come out and fight them.

The Blue Eyes looked at another boy who possessed red eyes and said: “Brother Ying, to the death!! Aaargh!!” Following that he charged out while howling his battle cry.

The Red Eyes followed his friend out of the hut, also screaming: “Aaargh!!”

Both boys did not wait for any more backups as they directly charged towards the bandits, engaging in a fight with them.

Not only their cultivations were stronger, but the bandits were also outnumbering the kids. It was too condescending for them to fight the kids 3-on-2, so the muscular man, who was holding the Yellow Eyes and happened to be the strongest one in the group, told his two friends to hurry up and get rid of the kids.

However, even in a 2-on-2 fight, after a few moves, both boys were not looking good. They were taking one hit after another. Although they were strong enough to take down the weakest ones of cultivators, they were still unawakening kids. There was no way they could defeat cultivators with cultivation levels much higher than them like these bandits.

Also, the Red was not as strong as the Blue, so the Blue Eyes was taking the damage for him while fighting another bandit. In the end, due to their difference in strength, both boys were getting beaten quite badly.

Despite that, they could still hold their ground for quite a while fighting the overpowering bandits. If they were other kids, they would have been killed by a couple of blows. This showed how extraordinary they were.

As for the Yellow Eyes, he was too injured to struggle from the bandit’s hand, let alone put up any fight.

The scarred bandit laughed: “Hahaha!! Let me see the mouth that spouted bullshit just now!!” Then he slapped the Blue Eyes flying. Blood completely soaked his mouth.

The Red Eyes shouted out in worried: “Brother Feng!!”

“You are not getting any better!!”

Another bandit kneed at Red Boy’s stomach until he vomited all the food he ate today.

The bandit grinned as he took out his knife: “Hmph!! We have had enough fun today!! Let’s finish this!!”

At the moment, he was about to perform the execution on the Red Eyes, a girl with green eyes slowly walked up to them and said: “STOP!!”

The muscular bandit who was holding the Yellow Eyes chuckled and asked: “Hehe, why should we listen to you, Little Miss?”

The girl, with trembling hands, took out a token from her bag and showed it to them. The token was made of a refined jade and carved into a peacock shape spreading its feather tails.

The smirks they all were wearing a moment earlier disappeared as quick as a lightning, and what replaced them was a pale complexion as white as a cloud.

Three bandits all knelt down in front of the girl, as it happened that the token was something they would never have the gut to cross.

The scarred bandit fearfully asked: “You are City Lord’s daughter!?”

The girl quietly nodded.

“We’re sorry!! Please have mercy!!”

The gang began to kowtow and apologized to the girl. They did not fear the so-called God because this God was no longer here. However, the City Lord was still present and ruling the city. Offending his daughter was the same as committing suicide.

The Green Eyes girl declared: “Go back and tell that bad bald guy that don’t ever come in front of us again!!”

“Yes, yes.”

The bandits all left before the rest of the boys even had the chance to say anything to them.

Once the youths got together, the Blue Eyes sternly reprimanded the girl: “Yue’er, I said don’t use the token. How can we prove ourselves with that?”

“B-but you all were … Wuaaah!!”

Not knowing what to say, the girl cried out loud.

The Red Eyes collected himself with much effort and teased: “Brother Feng, you’re making her cry again”

“What? Ah … Yue’er, I didn’t mean it. Sorry … and thank you for saving us.”

The blue eyes boy quickly consoled her, while the girl had stopped crying, she was still sobbing a little.

The Blue Eyes turned to the Yellow Eyes and asked: “Are you alright, Brother Sun?”

The Yellow Eyes answered with his weak voice after a few coughs: “Ke!! Ke!! Ke!! I’m okay.”

The Red Eyes suggested: “We should take him to your place, Sister Mei.”

The Blue Eyes agreed: “I agree, but let’s take a rest first.” Following that, they all reentered the hut to rest.

A while later, the Blue Eyes started speaking: “I have a proposal, do you guys want to hear?”

The rest jerked their heads up and nodded.

The boy with blue eyes proposed: “From today onwards, let us all become sworn brothers and sister!!”

The boys with red eyes and yellow eyes exchanged glances and nodded, but the girl with green eyes was hesitating.

The Blue Eyes Boy joked: “What’s wrong, Yue’er? Don’t want to have me as Big Bro?”

The Green Eyes Girl snorted: “Who would want to call you Big Bro?”

The Blue Eyes Boy confidently said: “Why not? I’m this strong already even before awakening!!”

The Yellow Eyes Boy interjected: “I have no objection to this proposal.”

The Red Eyes Boy followed: “Me too.”

The Blue Eyes Boy asked as he looked at the girl: “Well?”

The Green Eyes Girl annoyingly agreed: “Fine!!”

“Hahaha, good!! Then, let’s swear our brotherhood on the will to protect.”

The boy with blue eyes laughed in joy and proposed another suggestion which confused the group.

The Yellow Eyes Boy asked: “What’s the will to protect?”

The Blue Eyes Boy smiled then proudly replied: “It’s something my father used to say to me before he left.”

///FLASHBACK///

On top of the cliff, facing a vast ocean. Two figures, one big, one small, stood side by side.

The Blue Eyes Boy, a few years back, said: “Someday, Father!! I will protect this city and everyone in it with my own strength!! Just like you, I will shut all bad guys up only by speaking!!”

His father heartily laughed. His face was full of happiness as he stroked his child’s head: “Hahaha. It’s good to hear that you have such ambition. But remember one thing, Tian’er.”

The boy asked: “What is it, Father?”

The father answered: “A will to protect!!”

The boy: “A will to protect?”

The boy’s father looked at the ocean. His eyes profoundly flashed as he started explaining: “That’s right. It is true that you cannot protect anyone if you are weak. But whether you are weak or strong depends on your ‘will to protect’. As long as your ‘will to protect’ stays strong, you will never see your loved ones die. However, the moment you give up your ‘will to protect’ to whatever, maybe fear, or maybe greed. Right then, you will lose everything you hold dear, or even yourself, as a result of your lack of will.”

The father turned to his son and looked into his eyes: “So Tian’er, always stay strong!! Uphold your ‘will to protect’ and protect everyone you love with your life on the line.”

The boy answered without hesitation: “Yes, Father!! I will!!”

Seeing his son’s firm resolve, he smiled and looked back upon the ocean as he softly mumbled: “It’s good as long as you understand.”

///BACK TO NOW///

The three listened to the story with glittering eyes.

Because of the feat the blue-eyed boy’s father had done for the city, everyone in it knew and regarded him as a God. And that was no exception for every child within the city. Every story about this God was like a legend that they would proudly retell to their friends over and over again.

The Blue Eyes Boy asked again: “Well?”

The rest nodded in unison. They went out of the hut and lined up kneeling facing the sky.

The Blue Eyes Boy started shouting: “Let Heaven be the witness as I, Feng Luotian, will be taking Ying Lizhua, Sun Wuji, and Mei Yue’er as my brothers and sister today. For as long as I live, I will uphold my will to protect. Neither fear nor greed, or even death can shake this will!! I will never let these brothers and sister of mine have their last breaths before me!! If I renege on this oath, may Heaven condemn me to be the worst pitiful being in the universe!!”

The rest followed the suit and took the oath as they roared their heart out.