Lao Sha gave Bai Yunfei a strange look as if realizing there was something amiss with him. It had been hoping to get at least two primal stones to eat! Why was it that Bai Yunfei hadnât done anything yetâŠÂ
It cocked its head. What reason was there for Bai Yunfei to be in such a stupor? The creases on its face multiplied as it studied the male.Â
Then as if pouting, the dog leaped off the bed without a single glance. It would try his luck at getting the primal stones from the one named âStoneâ.
âEh?! Hold on, you can move! Thatâs great!!â
A loud voice shattered the silence Bai Yunfei was in whilst he was trying to figure out this newest conundrum he was in. Snapping his head up, Bai Yunfei watched as the same youth from before came running back into the room.
Uncle Wu said a few quiet words to Stone before he made his exit.Â
Stone grabbed a small wooden chair from the corner and propped it near the bed to smile excitedly at the bedridden person.
âBig brother, what did you say your name was?â Stone asked Bai Yunfei in excitement.
âMy name isâŠTang Long.â
âOh, then Iâll call you big brother Tang then. You can call me âStoneâ.â He laughed. It was an innocent laugh.
âWhere you from, big brother Tang? Which village? I never knew this mountain had another village! Maybe youâre from far away? Howâd you get here? Howâd you get so hurt? Were you attacked? A tiger? Or a bear? Howâd you get away then?â
The salvo of questions from the small boy left Bai Yunfei speechless almost. Blinking once in confusion on how to answer this, Bai Yunfei could only give him a single answer to answer them all.
âIâŠdonât rememberâŠâ
âDonât remember?!â Cried the young boy. âHow do you not? What do we do then?â He seemed even more excited at this.
Bai Yunfei didnât respond. He too, was trying to think about what there was to do about this!
âDonât ask him too many questions, Stone. Tang Long isnât fully recovered yet. Wait for him to get better before you bother him.â Uncle Wuâs voice called out from outside.
âOhâŠâ The young boy grew dejected, but only for a moment. âYou better rest up, big brother Tang. Donât need ta worry about anything! You can live with us here in the village, weâre all nice people! Weâve never had guests before, actually! If you want ta get up, then youâre going ta have ta tell me what your home was like! I never heard of the âoutsideâ beforeâŠeh? What are you doing, big brother Tang?â
Something about how Stone was talking seemed to spark something in Bai Yunfeiâs mind. He was staring down at his left hand, and then to his right hand. He looked to his chest and then touched at his head as if looking for something.Â
âI think thereâs somethingâŠmissingâŠâ
He was muttering to himself. He felt like there shouldâve been something there. He didnât know what, but that feeling was there. And something that shouldâve been on his left hand seemed especially importantâŠÂ
âOh! Are you talking about those things you were wearing? Theyâre over there! We collected it for you! Lemme get it for you!â Stone suddenly leaped up from his chair to run towards a small corner where a bundle of cloth was. Grabbing it, he raced back to drop it onto Bai Yunfeiâs side.
âYou were wearing a lot! And heavy too. Why were you wearing all those things? It mustâve been tiring!â Stone asked. âButâŠthere were a lot of pretty stuff too! I saw things even prettier than what the aunties and sisters wear in the village.â
Bai Yunfei didnât say anything. He simply opened the bag in anticipation.
As he thought, there were a lot of things there. The most noticeable thing was a black and gold piece of armor, two small arm bracers, a pair of violet shoes, a bracelet, ringsâŠ
His eyes glanced over the individual items until he reached a particular item with a soft white glow. His eyes lit upâthis was the item!
His fingers took a small cloud-shaped ring into his hand. For some reason, Bai Yunfei felt his hand start to tremble. Whatever the reason, Bai Yunfei knew he had to put it back onto his left hand.
When he placed the ring onto his finger, it felt like a giant boulder had been lifted off of him. The trembling in his hand stopped.
He became suddenly aware of a warm flow of something enter his body the moment the ring was adorned. If a mind could grow brighter, then his certainly did. But Bai Yunfei wasnât quite sure why this was the case.
A flash of suspicion crossed his eyes. He stared at the ring for several seconds longer to study it.
He found nothing and decided to look at the other things in the pile.
There were plenty of rings and two bracelets, but Bai Yunfei had no idea why heâd wear all those things.
Stone was right, wouldnât it be tiring?
âEh? This isâŠâ
He took notice of a small square stamp of some kind.
Another feeling popped up in his mind. For some reason, Bai Yunfei knew this object was important to him.
There was a piece of string attached to this object, and Bai Yunfei found himself wrapping it around his neck to wear. He felt âsafeâ once it was secured around his neck, but Bai Yunfei wasnât quite sure why. He had no words to describe that reasoning, he just âknewâ it.
There was another pendant that had a white jade object on it, so Bai Yunfei took the opportunity to wear that around his neck as well. As for the other rings and bracelets, Bai Yunfei decided not to do much about thoseâit felt weird to wear all those things at once.
The armor he first laid eyes on was quite strange to Bai Yunfei. It looked like it was made from metal, but the object felt like silk to the touch. Turning it over several times, Bai Yunfei couldnât find anything wrong with it and ultimately decided to put it on. He was only wearing a simple robe right now, wearing this piece of armor didnât feel too out of place.
The next to be inspected was a long âstripâ of cloth. For some reason, he was about to wrap it around his forehead.
âYouâre going ta wear this? Is it ta hide that scar on your forehead?â
Stone suddenly piped up to interrupt Bai Yunfei during his observational mood.
âScar?â
âYeahâŠâ Stone pointed at his forehead, âItâs weird, howâd you get like that? I donât think you ta hide it though, it looks cool!â
Blinking, Bai Yunfei felt at the space where Stone pointed at. He couldnât feel a thing. âDo you have a mirror?â
Stone took out a copper plate for Bai Yunfei to look at.Â
To Bai Yunfeiâs surprise, there was indeed a small âscarâ there. It wasnât very large, but it was at the very least quite noticeable and shaped like a water chestnut. It almost felt like he had fallen on top of something for it to leave behind such a mark.
âWhatâŠis this?â He rubbed at the spot in annoyance. No matter how hard he tried, no memory was coming out in regard to this.Â
In the end, he gave up. The Soul Sentinel Scarf was wrapped around his forehead to hide the âmarkâ.
Another strange but warming sensation flowed into his body the moment the strip of cloth was secured around his forehead, but Bai Yunfei didnât think this was all too âweirdâ now. Â
He gave the pile of objects in front of him another look and decided to wear the two gloves. The bracers were simply too heavy so Bai Yunfei placed them back into the cloth bundle.
Allowing Stone to clean up the place, Bai Yunfei waited for him to be done before laying back down onto the bed to rest for the night.
  âŠâŠ
The skies were blue and the clouds were white. A large mountain with trees littering its surface was off to the side of the landscape when Bai Yunfei stepped out from the small hut he had been in. Looking up to admire the place, Bai Yunfei couldnât help but find himself a little blown away by the scenic view.
A night went by since he âwokeâ up. Strangely enough, Bai Yunfei felt completely fine and ready to move about after that nightâs rest and so decided to walk around this morning.
This was a small village he was in. Over a dozen huts were built in close proximity to the one behind him and leaned towards the mountain, but there wasnât anything else to be noted about them. If Bai Yunfei had to guess, then heâd wager that there were over a hundred people living in this village.
He knew that this was a village located within a mountainous forest. He also knew there was a large expanse of forest all around this place. From what Stone told him, the eldest person in the village was born here, and even the âpeople of beforeâ were here for a âvery very very very long timeâ. How many generations that was, Bai Yunfei didnât know.
Never had these villagers gone beyond the mountains before. They enjoyed to live in seclusion and live a nice and simple life.
With an isolated of a lifestyle as the ones these villagers lived, none of them knew what it was like to live in the outside world. They had no idea what was even happening outside.
That left Bai Yunfei rather speechless. That meant he wouldnât have any information to be used as âreferenceâ or maybe to be used to help jostle his memories.
His body was perfectly fine but his memories were still not.Â
The only âmemoryâ that came to mind was that his name was probably âTang Longâ and that he was probably from âEarthâ. Everything else was a jumbled mess that seemed incongruent with the knowledge he knew of the people here. He had no way of knowing what was what no matter how hard he tried, so he was beginning to feel hopeless.
Maybe heâd get his memories back if he were to wait long enoughâŠÂ
Time was the only solace Bai Yunfei had. From here on out, heâd have to live on as he was and waitâŠÂ