In the hush of the forest, the thick metallic scent of blood seemed to coat the air heavily. The giant snake was dead, but it wasn't leaving the world without a keepsake, it coated its former den thickly in the metallic fragrance.
Ignorant of the danger the distinct scent had in a virgin forest, Xu Hu Zhe's thoughts veered deep into the recesses of his past. Memories, like fragments of shattered glass, lay scattered within his mind, each piece a painful reminder of the life he had led before Xu Feng had entered it.
He had been a child of the streets, a nameless urchin fending for himself in the unforgiving embrace of Yilin town. Everywhere he turned, he had been met with disdain, cruelty, and indifference. A glance was enough for others to dismiss him as a nuisance, someone to be discarded and forgotten.
