Xiao Ye picked up a pull-tab can and put it in the bag. This was the eighteenth one he had found today, a very lucky single number. He raised his hand to check a very old watch—it was already noon. Xiao Ye slowly walked in the direction of his home.
Xiao Ye was an orphan and had no concept of parents since he could remember. The only thing that might connect him to his parents was a dragon-shaped jade piece and a necklace engraved with the characters for 'Xiao Ye.' This was what the old man who had adopted him told him. The old man was very knowledgeable and had filled Xiao Ye's mind with all sorts of strange knowledge from a young age. But ten years ago, the old man passed away, and for the past few years Xiao Ye had been making a living by scavenging trash. However, he was optimistic and believed that what he did was the work of an environmentalist protecting the Earth.
Xiao Ye was seventeen years old this year. His many life experiences had robbed him of most of the innocence found in youngsters. On his sharply defined face were two eyes as dazzling as the starry sky, a straight nose, and lips that curved slightly when he smiled. Combined with his 1.84-meter tall slender frame, he was absolutely top-tier in attractiveness to modern women. Yet for a poor boy like him, hoping to catch the eye of a beautiful girl was far from easy. As a result, he still didn't have a single female friend.
At home, in a small rented room of less than twenty square meters, Xiao Ye finished the last mouthful of food, preparing to continue his great work of cleaning the Earth that afternoon.
Xiao Ye's destination in the afternoon was the trash bins of a neighborhood across the street. This was a residential area where wealthy people lived, so he could often find things that others no longer used but were very useful to him. His watch had come from there, and once he even found five hundred-yuan bills in a wallet.
Arriving at the entrance of the neighborhood, the guard saw Xiao Ye and smiled, “Xiao Ye, how's it going? Not a bad haul today, huh?”
“Heh, Brother Zhang, what do you think? Just barely enough to cover living expenses.” Xiao Ye often visited this neighborhood, and because he was sincere with people and everyone sympathized with his background, this neighborhood was the only one that let him in. As for other scavengers, they could only look on with envious eyes, accusing Xiao Ye of monopolizing the resources.
“Eh? What's this?” Xiao Ye held a box he had just found in the trash. The box was rather special—it was made of redwood and had a very rustic design. The outside of the box even had a lock, which was quite strange.Xiao Ye didn't think much and casually threw the box into the trash bag, continuing to look for valuable items (garbage).
Today's haul was as good as his previous visits—very nice. If he sold the waste for recycling, Xiao Ye estimated he could make a few dozen yuan. Seeing that it was getting late, Xiao Ye headed back home.
Back in his small rental room, after a simple meal, Xiao Ye remembered the red wooden box. Instinct told him there might be something valuable inside.
Xiao Ye spent a long time and finally managed to unlock it, but the box was very strange. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open it. Moreover, whenever he exerted force, he felt a suction coming from the box, draining all his strength. This only intensified his curiosity.
Half an hour later, Xiao Ye finally gave up. He tried every method he could think of and even, in desperation, threw the box forcefully onto the ground, but still to no avail.
With no other option, Xiao Ye placed the box in the wooden chest under his bed. That's when something strange happened—the wooden box he had just put in the chest emitted a faint red glow. Suddenly, a dragon's roar echoed through the sky from the box, and two streaks of strange light, one red and one blue, shot straight up into the sky before coiling and entering Xiao Ye's forehead, leaving him bewildered.
The two lights seemed like dragons entering the sea; once inside Xiao Ye's body, they twisted around each other as they moved. The advancing energy destroyed his tendons and veins, but the following energy repaired them again. In this cycle of destruction and repair, Xiao Ye's tendons and flesh were continually refined. His skin cracked from the powerful energy, but the blood would stop flowing just in time as it was repaired. His flesh and tendons, alike, experienced a cycle of destruction and creation. White electric sparks flashed across his body.
"Ah!" The sudden intense pain caused Xiao Ye to scream. This sensation, as if coming from the depths of his soul, made his body shake uncontrollably. Xiao Ye fought to endure it, but the pain that went beyond physical suffering was more than he, an ordinary person, could withstand. When he reached his limit, he finally gave in, his eyes rolling back―――he fainted!
However, the massive energy did not stop ravaging his body because of his fainting; it felt even more intense.At this moment, a transparent light shield, like a barrier, enveloped Xiao Ye's entire body. Two beams of light of different colors alternately flickered over him, and the sound of thunder roared intermittently. The overflowing energy swept through the cramped room in a whirlwind, yet no matter how intense the movements were, all were contained within the barrier. As time gradually passed, the rampant energy finally came to a halt.
“Hmm! What's going on?” Xiao Ye woke to find himself lying on the ground, completely naked. This made him extremely frustrated—he had only fainted briefly, yet his clothes were gone. 'Wait a minute,' he seemed to notice something. At this moment, Xiao Ye felt an indescribable ease throughout his body, his strength surged, and he even felt that with a little force he could punch through the wall opposite him.
Most notably, Xiao Ye sensed that his skin had become crystal clear, as if it could breathe. Even more astonishing, it was as if the entire world had lost all secrets. The movement of the air, the vitality of the plants... all unfolded vividly before his eyes. His mind also filled with some characters he had never seen before, yet Xiao Ye could understand them. This unimaginable phenomenon left him somewhat fearful.
“Could it be that I've encountered a ghost?” Xiao Ye muttered to himself. Although he didn't believe in such things, what was happening before him was truly hard to comprehend.
Since he couldn't figure it out, Xiao Ye decided not to dwell on it. 'Ah!' Another shriek, though not from pain, but because Xiao Ye had just noticed the state of the room. Seeing the room seemingly ransacked, Xiao Ye's first thought was that he had been robbed, yet he quickly considered that probably no one would care about this place anyway.
“What are these on the floor?” Xiao Ye noticed two items at his feet: one was a rosewood box picked up from a trash bin, and the other was a dragon-shaped jade piece that might be related to his heritage. At this moment, both emitted a faint glow. The box had already been opened, revealing a dragon-shaped jade piece similar to the one he had found, just in a different color, along with a dragon-shaped ring.
When Xiao Ye reached for the jade piece, something strange happened: both jade pieces flew toward him and hovered in the air. As Xiao Ye was about to shout, a transparent yellow light enveloped his whole body. An indescribable sense of comfort surged through him, giving Xiao Ye the urge to moan.Xiao Ye instinctively closed his eyes and sat cross-legged, and the passages of text appeared in his mind segment by segment, while everything in the outside world gradually merged with Xiao Ye...
