As the New Year approached, members of the Zhou family scattered across the various counties of Mount Dazhou returned one after another. The manor became filled with joy and lively celebration.
Zhuang Xun stood on the highest open-air terrace of the Zhou Manor, resting his chin on the railing as he stared blankly down below.
“Yi Wangyou?”
Zhou Ziruo, dressed in an elegant green dress, had been looking for him. Coming up the stairs, she happened to spot this lonely, tiny figure staring blankly at other happy families. Suddenly remembering his pitiful background, her expression softened, and she walked over, saying, “What are you doing here all by yourself? Xingmian was just looking all over for you.”
Eliminating matching-colored outfits... Zhuang Xun, who was currently playing a mental game of tile-matching, snapped out of it.
“Huh?”
“Xingmian is looking for you. As soon as she arrived, she asked me, ‘Where is Brother Yi?’” Zhou Ziruo pitched her voice to mimic Xia Xingmian’s soft, sweet tone, her face full of teasing smiles. “Sigh, she used to always come looking for me, her cousin-sister, to play.”
“She thinks you're old and doesn't have anything in common with you.”
“Hehehe~ It's almost the New Year. Don't force me to beat you,” Zhou Ziruo said with a dangerous smile.
“Where is she?” Ignoring Zhou Ziruo's threat, Zhuang Xun tucked his hands into the sleeves of his red cotton jacket and waddled in front of her like a Lego figure.
He didn't actually want to wear such thick clothing, as it made it hard to move around, but Yi Xiaoxiang had insisted on bundling him up, fearing he would get cold.
Zhou Ziruo followed behind him and said, “She's waiting for you in Master's courtyard so you two can go watch the excitement at the martial arts field. Today happens to be the start of the month, which is the assessment day for the Zhou family children under fifteen.”
Suddenly, she felt a sudden surge of playfulness, wanting to give her younger cousins a little shock.
“Are you interested in going up to try it later?”
“They're all my peers. The Little Overlord doesn't want to carry out a dimensional strike on them.” Zhuang Xun wasn't very interested in bullying children.
“Oh? You've only grown a year older, yet you're already so mature?”
Zhou Ziruo teased. Looking at the festive, heavily bundled figure in front of her walking like a little penguin, her cute aggression flared up, giving her a sudden, inexplicable urge to give him a swift kick.
Zhuang Xun trudged through the snow, stepping heavily whenever he encountered a thick snowdrift, watching the snow spray everywhere.
He hadn't ridden Bengbeng out today.
Because Bengbeng seemed to have run out of battery from playing with him and Xia Xingmian yesterday. No matter how much effort it put in this morning, it couldn't run fast, so Zhuang Xun had no choice but to give it a day off.
The two entered the courtyard where Yi Xiaoxiang stayed. Xia Xingmian, who had been sitting on a chair in the main hall dazing out, immediately stood up. She greeted Zhou Ziruo first, then looked at Yi Wangyou, saying somewhat shyly and timidly, “...Brother Yi.”
It was as if after just one night, her relationship with Yi Wangyou had grown distant again.
Zhuang Xun acknowledged her with a nod and followed Zhou Ziruo to the Zhou family's martial arts field alongside her.
When they arrived, a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy was on the stage testing his strength. However, instead of lifting stone locks, he was squeezing a transparent round orb with all his might.
Two cracks then appeared inside the transparent orb.
That orb was a rare stone called the Strength-Revealing Stone. It cracked very easily, and the number of cracks that appeared inside corresponded to the amount of force applied.
Thus, it was named the Strength-Revealing Stone and was frequently used by aristocratic families and sects to test their disciples' strength.
As for why the Wanxing Martial Academy didn't use them, it was because the Principal had spent all of the academy's money on carcinogens...
Strength-Revealing Stones were single-use items. After the last batch was used up, Elder Su, the presiding elder of the General Affairs Hall, replaced the strength-testing tools with durable stone locks to save money.
“One Stone of strength!”
At this moment, the long-bearded elder standing next to the boy scolded him harshly, “No progress at all compared to last month! You know very well in your own heart whether you've been working hard.”
The boy lowered his head, not daring to look at his parents' expressions below the stage. He felt as if his world was collapsing.
Oh boy, he's doomed. No happy New Year for him... Zhuang Xun gloated inwardly.
He watched the boy drag his feet toward a couple who were forcing smiles while talking to the people around them, guessing they must be the boy's parents.
Just as he was wondering if the couple would beat the kid in public, he saw the gentle-looking woman lightly pat her son's head, bend down to whisper a few words to him, and the boy immediately regained the liveliness appropriate for the New Year.
Zhuang Xun withdrew his gaze expressionlessly.
Boring. I wanted to see a bloodbath... Hmph, they must be waiting until after the New Year to beat him.
Afterward, more children went up one by one to test their strength.
Among the adults present, some were joyful, some proud, some embarrassed, and some worried.
As for the children, they generally fell into three states: excited, terrified, or pretending to be calm, with a small minority who simply didn't give a damn.
Those who were terrified made up the majority. When they came down, they walked with tense, furtive steps, like thieves, not daring to face their families.
As Zhuang Xun watched, his mind drifted. He remembered his past life when he only scored 202 points on his middle school entrance exam and thought he wouldn't have a middle school to attend. He had been just like this, terrified of going home to face his parents.
Sigh, back then, I kept wishing I could just copy the knowledge directly from the teacher's brain. But things are different now. I'm a genius—a genius who can score exceptionally well without even studying~
Looking at the children under fifteen queuing up to go on stage, Zhuang Xun suddenly realized that his current body was only twelve years old. He realized that this was exactly the scenario he had always fantasized about in his past life: returning to his childhood to carry out a dimensional strike as a child prodigy.
Filled with a sudden urge to play, he walked to the very back of the line.
Wait, I'm the Little Overlord. Why am I queuing?
“Make way, make way, everyone make way! The Little Overlord is passing through!” Zhuang Xun swaggered to the very front of the line and pulled back a child who was about to go on stage.
He turned around to face the long queue, tilting his head back. “The Little Overlord will show you how it's done. Every single one of you has muscle weakness.”
“Who is this kid? He's so cocky.”
“Even cockier than the Four Heavenly Kings. The Little Overlord... Could he be a hidden peerless master?”
“He's so cool. He actually dares to be so arrogant in front of the White-Bearded Devil.”
“He's doomed. Look, the White-Bearded Devil is getting angry. He's going to get hit with the ruler later.”
“He's so good-looking. Let's go befriend him later.”
The children in line whispered to each other in voices that weren't particularly quiet, thinking no one else could hear them.
On the stage, the long-bearded elder's face turned dark upon hearing himself being called the White-Bearded Devil.
He looked at the handsome boy in the red cotton jacket who completely ignored him. Just as he was about to lose his temper, he caught sight of a subtle hint from his family's Eldest Young Lady, Zhou Ziruo. Forcing himself to hold back, he placed a new Strength-Revealing Stone on the pillar and said coldly, “Place your hand on it and squeeze with all your might.”
Seeing that the handsome boy in the red cotton jacket hadn't been scolded by the White-Bearded Devil, the children queuing below were even more shocked, and they whispered even louder.
“The White-Bearded Devil didn't even hit him? The one who makes even the Devil tremble has finally appeared!”
“Hey, let me tell you, I know him! A while back, a bunch of us—all my brothers, like tens of thousands of people—went to fight those guys from the Liang family. He was there too, and his fighting... was insanely fierce! We were outnumbered, but he took on over a hundred thousand of them all by himself!” A round-faced boy boasted, spouting utter nonsense with an air of great pride.
“You know the Cold King, Zhou Zihao, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, right? He went too, and even he wasn't as fierce a fighter as him.”
“Oh! That time! I remember he was slashed thousands of times, yet he didn't bleed a single drop!” another stocky kid nodded solemnly. “I heard he never even cries!”
The two exchanged glances and immediately began making up stories.
“Why did we fight? Because those Liang family bastards said our Zhou family was full of cowards. I got mad hearing that, so I went to find the Cold King, Zhou Zihao...”
“That despicable Liang family! Why didn't you call me to go with you back then?”
“You weren't there at the time.”
“I wasn't there? I was! I haven't even left the manor all year.”
“Oh, then I must have called you. Right! You went too.”
“I went? Oh, right, that time! I did go, and he really was super fierce in that fight.”
“That has to be fake. How could anyone fight over a hundred thousand people alone?”
“If you don't believe me, go ask! I saw it with my own eyes back then! The Cold King and the Wind King were all there too!”
While the children were arguing, Zhuang Xun had already placed his hand on the Strength-Revealing Stone.
Before he even applied much force, a faint cracking sound echoed as ten cracks appeared inside the Strength-Revealing Stone. Immediately after, the cracks multiplied rapidly—one hundred, one thousand... dense and countless.
Instantly, the long-bearded elder, who had kept a cold face the entire time, opened his mouth slightly, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.
The adults below, who had previously been saying things like, “Whose child is that? So ill-mannered,” and “Stay away from that kid in the future, don't let him corrupt you,” were also dumbfounded. They instantly changed their tune.
“Whose child is that? He has such a bright future!”
“Go interact with him more in the future and learn from him. Look at yourself, then look at him! Go play with him more, understand?”
As for the children, they became even more excited.
The round-faced boy, who had just been arguing until he was red in the face about whether Yi Wangyou could defeat over a hundred thousand people, immediately grew thrilled, dancing with joy, “Look! Look! And you said I was lying! That's exactly how he was back then! One punch, another punch, then a kick, and just like that, he repelled over several million people!”
Staring at the rapidly cracking Strength-Revealing Stone in Yi Wangyou's hand, a chubby little boy holding a storybook said solemnly, “Are we about to witness history? A new king has finally been born.”
“His name is...” The chubby boy took a deep breath and roared, “The! Lit! tle! O! ver! lord—!”
Lord... Lord... Lord... Lord...
The voice echoed all around.
Zhuang Xun's Strength-Revealing Stone exploded, turning into a flurry of crystalline shards that drifted around him.
“Two cracks mean Two Stones of strength. How many Stones of strength does the Little Overlord's exploded shards count for?”
Rate on N.U.
