Chapter 217: A Clash of Titans

Huang Quan was the type to remember kindness but forget pain, which made her incredibly easy to deceive. Once Yu Xian reassured her again and again, she naively bought into his words. Fortunately, this time, she had run into a good person.

Yu Xian looked at the pitiful little thing in his arms. "Do you remember how to get home?"

She shook her head.

He felt a headache coming on. "Then do you remember what your mother looks like?"

She nodded. Huang Quan wrapped her chubby hand around Yu Xian's index finger, and a scene appeared before his eyes.

The vision was remarkably strange. Although it was Huang Quan's memory, the scene was presented from the perspective of a third-person observer, with Huang Quan herself appearing right in the frame.

In the vision, a beautiful woman was holding a baby. She had long gray hair and a delicate, gentle face, while her entire being radiated maternal warmth. "Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye..."

When Yu Xian saw her, something clicked in his mind. He knew that she had to be Huang Quan's mother, Wang Chuan.

The scenes flashed forward as Huang Quan gradually grew older. From the changes in her surroundings, it was clear that she aged extremely slowly, growing only a little every thousand years or so.

By the time Huang Quan had grown to around five years old, Wang Chuan's appearance began to change. Each time she appeared before Huang Quan, something about her looked slightly different.

Sometimes her clothes were slightly torn. Other times, there were wounds on her back. Gradually, even her long hair, which used to be smooth and neat, became disheveled. The only thing that never changed was her love for Huang Quan.

However, Yu Xian had already sensed that something was wrong. Wang Chuan was probably in a terrible situation, most likely because something had happened in the outside world.

Sure enough, at the end of the memory, Wang Chuan appeared once more. She did her best to conceal her injuries and gently told Huang Quan not to leave home and to wait for her return.

But after leaving that time, she never came back. Huang Quan waited and waited. After a very long time, she finally gathered the courage to leave home. It was then that she encountered the old woman in the River of Forgetfulness.

The vision ended, and Yu Xian fell silent. Holding Huang Quan in his arms, he could not bear to tell her that her mother had already died. No wonder Wang Chuan had not stopped Little Huang Quan from helping the old woman. The spirit of the River of Forgetfulness was already dead.

Huang Quan looked at Yu Xian with a pitiful expression. After gathering her courage, she softly asked, "Big Brother, can you help me find my mommy?"

An ordinary person could have made excuses about not wanting to hurt a child's fragile heart and brushed the question aside with a comforting lie. But Yu Xian had also experienced the loss of his mother. He had learned to accept that some things could not be changed. Only then could a person grow and gradually learn to live with the pain.

He looked into Huang Quan's hopeful eyes. His lips parted slightly, and his expression gradually became resolute. "I'm sorry. I can't help you find your mommy, because she has already... passed away."

Huang Quan froze for a moment, then her eyes filled with tears as she spoke in a trembling voice. "You're lying!"

She lowered her head, large tears falling one after another. Although she denied Yu Xian's words, deep down she had already accepted her mother's death. She knew he was telling the truth.

Yu Xian held Huang Quan tightly in his arms, his voice quiet and solemn. "Go ahead and cry. When my mother left me, I cried many times too. I cried for a very, very long time."

At first, Huang Quan simply curled up against his chest and cried. After hearing his words, she slowly wrapped her arms around him and continued crying for a long time.

During that period, the Spartan warriors actually returned in secret once. However, after seeing the battlefield's devastation, the bearded man tightened his grip on his spear, turned around, and ordered everyone to leave. There was no need for them to offend a Star-rank powerhouse. The Spartans were reckless, but that did not mean they were stupid. The Spartan King was certainly powerful, but Star-rank powerhouses could still flee. If they failed to kill the enemy, the consequences would be disastrous.

If a Star-rank powerhouse began ambushing the other Spartans from the shadows, who besides the Spartan King could survive? They could hardly allow the entire Spartan race to be reduced to the Spartan King alone. Were the rest of them just supposed to drop dead?

The Spartans actually had completely different reputations among those below and above the Star rank. To supernatural beings below Star rank, Spartans were best known for being overbearing and fighting at the slightest disagreement. Star-rank powerhouses, however, tended to find them rather polite.

That was the difference strength made. Those at different heights saw the world from entirely different perspectives.

Late at night, Yu Xian sat beside the campfire, with Little Nora and Huang Quan seated on either side of him. One devoured meat in huge bites, while the other curiously stared at him in a daze.

Yu Xian offered the roasted meat to Huang Quan. "It's ready. Want some?"

She shook her head, showing no interest in it. Little Nora immediately snatched it from Yu Xian's hand. "If you don't want it, I'll eat it!"

Yu Xian gave Little Nora a helpless glance before turning to Huang Quan. "Is there anywhere you'd like to go?"

She shook her head. Clearly, she no longer had anywhere she could go, nor anywhere she wanted to go. For a moment, she thought of home, but whenever she remembered that her mother would never return, she found that she no longer wanted to go back.

Countless possibilities flashed through Yu Xian's mind, only for him to reject them one by one. Finally, he asked, "Then would you like to come with us?"

Huang Quan was not truly an ordinary, harmless child. She remained connected to the ghost mask, and the moment she put it on, she would transform into the Ghost-Masked Man, with her personality also coming under the mask's influence. And Yu Xian had no way to seal the ghost mask. No matter who he entrusted Huang Quan to, that person would bear an enormous risk.

After thinking it over again and again, he realized that he was the only suitable choice. Besides, Huang Quan was far too easy to deceive. It would be troublesome if someone with malicious intentions took advantage of her again.

Huang Quan's worried brows instantly lifted. She looked at him, trying to suppress her happiness, and asked with a trace of excitement in her voice, "Can I really come with you, Big Brother?"

Yu Xian nodded. "Of course."

Huang Quan immediately agreed and happily threw herself against Yu Xian's thigh, wrapping her arms around it. Perhaps she was simply too happy, because memories of everything she had endured came flooding back, and tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

Yu Xian's gaze softened. The poor little girl had truly suffered far too much. "From now on, call me Big Bro, just like Little Nora does. I'll take good care of you, the same way I take care of him."

Little Nora swallowed a mouthful of meat and protested. "Big Bro, I'm nothing like her. I'm really useful!"

He thumped his chest twice.

Huang Quan immediately protested as well. "I... I... I'm useful too!"

The two brats locked eyes. A clash of titans was about to begin.