After finishing its ice cream, the little fox copied Yun Shu, resting its chin on its two small paws. Watching the harmonious family of three in the courtyard, it couldn't help but sigh with emotion. “Host, is this what you humans call passing the torch?”
“One generation lights the fire, and the next passes it on.” Yun Shu suddenly reached out her hand, letting the sunlight filtering through the leaves fall on her palm. “The one who lights the fire doesn't need to obsess over where it spreads, and the one who passes it on doesn't need to remember who lit it.”
The little fox tilted its head. “But will this fire ever go out?”
“I don't know.”
Yun Shu turned to look at the little fox, a gentle smile gracing the corners of her eyes. “But I can be sure of one thing. As long as this fire has existed in this world, even if it goes out, someone will eventually reignite it one day. Humanity is endless, and we never lack the courage to start over.”
The little fox didn't quite understand what Yun Shu meant, but it felt as though she was glowing as she spoke. It wasn't the visual effects of her outfit skills, but a radiance emanating from her very soul, far more brilliant than any artificial glow.
“Host, sometimes I really wonder if you're some immortal who descended to the mortal realm to undergo a tribulation...”
Before Yun Shu could reply, its database had already provided the answer. Not only in this book's world, but even across the countless universes, there were no gods.
Gods were merely humanity's fantasy of higher-dimensional beings. For instance, the Great God who controlled the Great God Space possessed the ability to turn the unreal into reality, making him a god in the eyes of mortals.
In reality, the Great God was nothing more than a string of code.
Yun Shu patted the little fox's head. “Are you silly? If I were a god, would I have died so miserably in my past life?”
Speaking of her past life, she felt a tinge of melancholy. “If only I had this kind of power in my past life...”
Her tone suddenly grew colder. “Then, I could have killed all those drug dealers and saved so many people.”
“Host, you're quite bloodthirsty.”
The nine tails behind the little fox shuddered.
It had always felt that Yun Shu had two faces. To good people who strived to improve, she was the gentlest mother. But to wicked people who committed countless evils, she was the sternest mother.
She wouldn't even blink when killing bad people.
“If the bad guys don't die, the good guys will,” Yun Shu said softly. “System, do you know what those drug dealers do to undercover narcotics officers who get exposed? The gentlest method I've seen was breaking their limbs and forcing them into a fish tank less than a meter wide...”
“Host, stop!” The little fox looked at Yun Shu, its eyes filled with heartache. “Once we successfully usurp the throne, I'll go back to your original world with you and wipe out all those damn drug dealers!”
It raised its small paw and patted its chest. “I'm currently a top-ten system in the Great God Space. Once I gather more Shock Value and upgrade, I'll break into the top three in no time!”
“Not bad, very impressive.” Yun Shu stroked the little fox and praised it with simple, down-to-earth words.
“Of course! I'm your system, after all.” A proud look appeared on the little fox's face. “If I didn't make myself strong, wouldn't I be embarrassing you?”
Meanwhile.
In the courtyard, the young boy practicing his punches uttered a line almost identical to the little fox's. “Mother, everyone at the academy envies me for having a hero for a father. I can't embarrass him! I won't let them think my father raised a useless son!”
“No more talking, Mother. I'm going to practice some more.”
Looking at the stubborn boy, Zhao Chunniang felt that he was truly his father's son.
Back then, A'le's father had been the exact same way. Even though he knew slaying the evil dragon was a near-suicidal mission, he had gone anyway.
Later, she asked him if he wasn't afraid of dying.
That blockhead had simply replied that of course he was afraid of death, but he was more afraid that they would fail just because they were missing one person like him, which was why he had to go.
Fortunately, the Divine Lady had watched over him, and he returned alive, becoming a great hero in everyone's eyes and eventually a general.
After that, he followed General Shen everywhere to suppress rebellions, spending very little time with his wife and children.
Deep down, she didn't want her son to follow in his father's footsteps, risking his life to be a hero.
Although the government officials treated the families of soldiers very well and never neglected them, ordinary folks like them still preferred for their family to be safe and sound together, even if life was a bit harder and more exhausting.
As long as the family was together, they were happy.
She sighed. “A'le, Mother isn't trying to stop you from practicing your punches. It's just that the notice from the Governor's estate said that in another month, the academy will start teaching the Body Tempering Technique. If you blindly practice by yourself in the courtyard right now, you won't achieve anything and will only exhaust yourself. Why put yourself through this?”
“I'm not blindly practicing!” The boy craned his neck, muttering defiantly. “Father told me that to build a foundation in martial arts, you have to start early! You must wake up before dawn to practice horse stances, and your punches must make a whistling sound to be considered basic mastery! That's how he practiced when he was little. If I practice like him, I'll definitely be as strong as him!”
Zhao Chunniang opened her mouth, wanting to say more, but it ultimately dissolved into a barely audible sigh.
The boy had already turned around and run back to the center of the courtyard, resuming his stance and throwing punch after punch.
Seeing this, Zhao Chunniang lowered her head to shell a peanut, feeding the nut to the little girl in her arms.
The little girl immediately munched on it happily, her eyes curving into crescents as she clapped her hands repeatedly.
“Big... brother... amazing...”
Perhaps encouraged by his sister, the boy's punches grew increasingly forceful and precise.
Bang!
A visible shockwave erupted from where the boy stood, and with a loud rumble, half of the courtyard wall collapsed.
Sensing danger, Yun Shu and the little fox, who had been watching the show from atop the wall, quickly leaped down.
In the next instant.
Broken bricks splattered and dust billowed behind them.
Once the dust settled, a massive gap was left in the wall, revealing the stunned faces of several pedestrians on the street outside.
The little fox jumped onto Yun Shu's shoulder. “That was close! We almost got hit by this kid's accidental strike.”
Yun Shu looked at the boy and smiled. “He really is a martial arts prodigy. It seems the Body-Tempering Pill I had you secretly slip into his tea wasn't wasted.”
The effect of a whole Body-Tempering Pill was naturally far superior to the diluted well water. Combined with the child's exceptional talent, it was only natural that he could unleash such a punch.
However, talent and pills were ultimately secondary. How far he could go in the future would depend entirely on himself.
As the saying went, heaven rewards the diligent. No matter how high one's talent, if they did not work hard to utilize it, they would eventually fade into mediocrity.
The boy stared in disbelief at his hands, then at the broken wall, before turning around and crying out, “Mother, I... I didn't break the wall on purpose...”
Zhao Chunniang had also been thoroughly startled by the commotion.
Coming to her senses, she quickly scooped up her daughter and ran over to check if the boy was hurt.
Yun Shu withdrew her gaze. “System, let's go.”
“Host, where are we going?”
“To spread the blessings equally, of course. We're going to find a promising candidate who can enter the Dao through scholarly arts.”
When she first transmigrated to this world, finding an ordinary citizen who could read was extremely difficult.
But the present was no longer like the past.
Rate on N.U.
