The Ancient City gate faced the sunset with its back facing the east. Several children in simple clothes played at the gate. They climbed to the top, then they slid down along the pile of sand. They rolled down and were covered in dust and mud. It was hard to identify them with their muddy faces.

Soon, their parents shouted at them from afar. The children ran to the side of hay that had been tied up and jumped on it.

Mo Fan noticed a child at the corner of the wall. The child was drawing with a tree branch. The walls of the Ancient City Wall were covered in mud. The child picked out the mud from the cracks of the walls. When Mo Fan approached the child, he was focused on picking out the mud from the cracks.

“Kid, what are you doing?” Mo Fan asked.

“Are you blind? Can’t you see?” the kid shot back.

“You want me to beat you up, huh?” Mo Fan rolled his sleeves up.

Lingling was by his side. She stopped Mo Fan and rolled her eyes at him.

“Why are you scraping the dirt off the wall? Do you know what it means to scrape this area?” asked Lingling.

“My dad used to do that. He said he doesn’t want the things passed down from the ancestors to be buried by the sand and dust, or let the wind spoil the drawings on the wall,” the child answered.

“Where’s your dad?” Lingling asked.

The child stared at Lingling. He must have never seen such a beautiful woman from the city. He blushed bright red. “My dad will be back at night.”

“Can we wait for him?” asked Lingling.

“No. He doesn’t like meeting people,” the child said.

“If you take us to him, I am sure he will be willing to talk to us. After all, we know the secret of the Ancient City Wall. Do you think I look like a bad girl?” said Lingling.

“You don’t, but he does,” said the child, pointing at Mo Fan.

Mo Fan raised his fist and gestured to hit the child. Lingling glared at him.

After a bit of persuasion, the child agreed to take them to his father. However, they had to stay until the night. His father worked very late into the night.

　…

“We can’t pamper the child. If we strike him, he will spill everything out. Why did you have to tempt him with your beauty?” Mo Fan had a problem with the child who viewed him hostilely.

“Humans always have a thing for pretty stuff. They have a good impression about beautiful people. The child must have thought you’re ugly and fierce.” Zhao Manyan mocked Mo Fan.

Mo Fan ignored his mockery. He climbed to the top of the Ancient City Wall and found a space with a wide horizon. He then sat there and focused on his cultivation.

He had found another Underground Holy Spring. Even though half of it had been used, the remaining half was as powerful as the spring at Licheng Afterglow Island.

The guardians of the Underground Holy Spring at Helan Mountain took their ancestors’ words seriously. The spring was undoubtedly very well preserved.

Dusk came, and everything turned dark including the Ancient City gate. The town was lively during the day. When the sun was up, the place below was abuzz with markets, stalls, cars and even horse traders. But when dusk fell, the stalls were hurriedly closed, and the people returned to their respective houses.

The children playing near the Ancient City gate left with their parents. The sky had turned dark, but the child’s mother still had not come to fetch him.

Mo Fan and his group had thought the town was fairly big in the day because of so many people in the streets but the moment it began turning dark, every corner was deserted.

After Mo Fan and his group strolled around for a while, they realized the houses in the town were basically empty. The tools were covered in dust. The vendors did not live here. The bazaar was temporarily set up by the vendors from various towns, villages, and counties.

There was no one left at the Ancient City gate except the child who scraped the wall. It was late at night; the cold breeze blew. Still, no one came to pick the child up.

“What’s your name?” Mo Fan opened his eyes and realized the kid was still there.

“Xiao Tai,” answered the child.

“Where’s your mother? Everyone has disappeared. Are you still waiting for your father to come back from work?” asked Mo Fan.

“Yes.”

“Why is there no one living here? Did you live somewhere else?”

“I live here.”

“Okay. So, you and your family live here. It’s quite crowded during the day. But it’s cold and eerie at night. It must be difficult for a child like you to live here,” said Mo Fan.

Mo Fan suspected that the reason the Ancient City Wall was so well preserved was related to this child’s family. People usually had a strong desire to destroy things. The historic Ancient City Wall would have long been destroyed if somebody wasn’t locking after it.

“What were you doing just now? Are you doing your homework?” Xiao Tai was curious about Mo Fan’s cultivation.

“I was cultivating…,” Mo Fan replied. “You can consider it as a sort of homework.”

They attended nine years of compulsory magical education and cultivated after each class. So, it could be considered as a kind of homework.

“No one taught me that. Can you teach me?” asked Xiao Tai.

“Didn’t you say I look like a bad guy? How can you learn things from a bad guy?” Mo Fan said.

“After I learn it, I won’t do bad things like you. There are good and bad people, but there are no good and bad abilities,” answered Xiao Tai.

Mo Fan was at a loss for words. But others burst out in laughter.

“You’re still very young, so I can’t teach you. You must build up a good foundation in magic. After fifteen weeks when your physical condition is suitable for learning, only then you can awaken your first element of magical power. When you gain your first magic Star Dust, you can cultivate like me. However, not everyone can become a mage. You don’t seem like you know anything else apart from scraping the wall. So, let’s stop dreaming of becoming a mage,” Mo Fan dissuaded Xiao Tai while patting his shoulder.

“Is this the Star Dust that you’ve been talking about?” Xiao Tai stretched out his palm, and a pale-yellow swirling light pattern appeared on it. It looked like some sort of yellow peaceful Star Dust from a distant starry universe.

Mo Fan’s jaw dropped. ‘How old is this brat? He must be ten at most! How could he have already awakened the Earth element?! Who gave him the Awakening Stone? Was that person trying to get Xiao Tai into trouble?!’

The reason awakening had to be done after fifteen weeks was because it put a huge mental and physical pressure on the one who attempted it. Children who were under fifteen years old had incomplete brain development and mental capacity. Therefore, awakening them early would risk damaging their minds.

If their minds were damaged, it would pose even greater difficulty in the path of cultivation in the future. They would not be able to focus on their cultivation, much less increase it. They would even feel their minds hurt during cultivation.