There are times when a woman needs her privacy.

Feng Bei and Yue Yan went into the woods. Picking wild fruit was secondary; they spent some time on other matters.

When they returned, the main road was in complete disarray.

The earth was churned up, the ground littered with fallen leaves, and trees were toppled over. It looked as if a few bulls had charged through, rampaging everywhere.

Roars of anger, cries of pain, and wretched screams echoed ceaselessly through the woods.

Startled, Feng Bei and Yue Yan followed the sounds to investigate.

They were shocked to find two children, one large and one small, wrestling on the ground. One of them was howling miserably.

Worried, Feng Bei said at once, "Quick, pull them apart! It won’t be good if someone gets hurt!"

Yue Yan was about to step forward, but when she saw the situation clearly, her mind went blank. Stunned, she stammered, "Pull... who apart?"

Beneath a tree.

Zheng Xiu was straddling Dou Xie—one of the Twenty-Eight Constellations—and hammering away at him with his little fists.

Young Master Zheng’s fists went THUD, THUD, THUD.

And the one howling was Dou Xie.

...

After the horses had rested, the four of them set off again.

"I’m telling you, if I wasn’t taking into account that he’s just a commoner, I, Dou Xie, would’ve blasted him to death with a Miracle Technique!"

"I still have my *Introduction to Swordsmanship*, *Chaotic Wind Hammer Technique*, and *Celestial Cyan Clouds* that I haven’t even used!"

"If that brat ever dares to so much as glimpse a Path, I, Dou Xie, will show him no mercy! I’ll teach him the meaning of pain!"

Dou Xie was still the one driving the carriage, now sitting atop the horse with a bruised and swollen face.

The jolting of the horse made his ass ache.

’Ouch! Fucking hell, how could he be so vicious? Kicking me right in the ass.’

’Boo-hoo... Just you wait, next time I’ll make you pay.’

Inside the carriage.

Zheng Xiu had scrapes on his forehead and hands, and Yue Yan was doting on him, carefully applying medicine.

Zheng Xiu wanted to tell her that he’d scraped his forehead by running into a tree in his excitement to grind Experience Value, and that his knuckles were scraped from punching Dou Xie.

But seeing how stubborn Dou Xie was being, Zheng Xiu decided to indulge him and claim that Dou Xie had been the ruthless one.

When Yue Yan had asked before they set off, even Dou Xie himself admitted that he had lost his temper and struck first, leaving her speechless.

’This Dou Xie is so rash and immature.’

’How could he use a Miracle Technique on a commoner?’

’And how could he be so reckless with his strength?’

Listening to Dou Xie drone on outside the carriage, Yue Yan put away her first-aid kit.

"Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?" Yue Yan asked, a playful smile on her face as she watched the innocent-looking boy. "No matter how pathetic Dou Xie might be, he’s still a new member of the Twenty-Eight Constellations. Even if he wasn’t going for the kill, I find it hard to believe a ten-year-old kid could beat him up... like that."

"I’ll let you in on a big secret," Zheng Xiu said, leaning in conspiratorially.

"Oh? Go on."

"My dad says I have an extraordinary Talent!"

"Your dad... said you were... exceptionally endowed?" Yue Yan stared at Young Master Zheng in shock.

"Yep," Zheng Xiu grinned, revealing his cute little canine teeth. "I’ve had immense strength since I was a child, and I can see things other people can’t."

Yue Yan froze, then her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. "Immense strength? Spirit Communication? Wait, do you have any special... birthmarks?"

"Nope," Zheng Xiu denied quickly.

With just a few words, Zheng Xiu gave a perfectly plausible explanation, and the matter of Dou Xie’s beating was dropped.

Yue Yan finally understood why Feng Bei treated Young Master Zheng so differently.

You can’t judge everyone by the same standards of Birth. Given Young Master Zheng’s Talent, even without having entered a Path, he was qualified enough to gain experience with the Night Guard.

’You all should have come back later.’ Zheng Xiu hadn’t expected a Miracle Master to be so durable. During their stop, he had farmed a good amount of Experience Value, and the various Traits of his [Evil Child] had improved significantly.

He was kicking himself for not having fleeced the sheep that was Dou Xie completely bald.

It was his first time clashing head-on with a Miracle Master, and he was surprised at how much of a weakling Dou Xie was. Still, his novel techniques had left Zheng Xiu marveling.

With a nimble flip, Zheng Xiu easily climbed onto the roof of the carriage and sat down opposite Feng Bei.

Feng Bei smiled. She subconsciously started to reach out to steady Zheng Er as he climbed up, but she caught herself, pulling her hand back behind her. "Be careful," she whispered. "Don’t fall."

Zheng Xiu gestured that he was sitting securely. Dou Xie, who was driving, grunted in displeasure.

Zheng Xiu voiced his questions. Taking advantage of the downtime on the road, he wanted to ask Feng Bei about the Paths. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Senior Zheng... he never mentioned any of this to you?"

Feng Bei looked at the son of her old friend in surprise.

In her memory, the Zheng Shan who had rescued her from Baili Village—his confidence, his raw power to barge into the Darkness and return unscathed—was surely a Miracle Master who had been in the Hidden World for many years. If Zheng Shan was still alive after twenty years, she couldn’t imagine how deep his Path must have become.

Zheng Shan could even touch her ’Omen’.

Even after twenty years, whenever Feng Bei recalled the incident at Baili Village, she found it difficult to fathom the true depths of Zheng Shan’s power.

Now Zheng Shan was still in seclusion, yet his son had appeared in the world acting completely ignorant and clueless. Feng Bei found it baffling.

But a moment later, without any explanation from Zheng Xiu, understanding dawned on Feng Bei. "I see," she said. "He wants you to ’enter the world.’"

Zheng Xiu was currently wearing the persona of the [Evil Child], so anything he did could be forgiven.

Plus, he had the bonus halo of being the ’son of an old friend.’

Feng Bei didn’t hide anything. When Zheng Xiu asked more about ’entering the world,’ she told him everything.

Inside the carriage, Yue Yan, and the driver, Dou Xie, listened in utter shock as Feng Bei broke the rules and revealed the inner workings of the Paths.

Both of them muttered, "This is against the rules, against the rules, against the rules."

But since Feng Bei was the one breaking them, they didn’t dare say more.

When he had returned to the Zheng Family, even though everyone there had entered a Path, they had all been secretive and hadn’t gone into detail.

Feng Bei’s explanation now allowed Zheng Xiu to finally understand, in theory, the method of cultivation for a ’Path’.

Feng Bei explained that to enter a Path, one must first enter the world.

From the highest Emperor or general to the lowliest Scholar or Musician, from common travelers to practitioners of obscure, unorthodox arts—anyone, regardless of their station in life, could potentially glimpse a ’Path’.

Glimpsing a Path required a specific catalyst.

This ’catalyst’ varies from person to person. It might be a sudden calamity, or it might be a single action repeated daily for a decade. By tirelessly embodying a certain role, the Path will reveal itself when the time is right, as naturally as water flowing into a channel. Those meant to enter a Path will eventually do so; those who are not may never glimpse it in their entire lives.

Those who enter a Path can perform Miracle Techniques.

The act of performing a Miracle Technique is, in itself, a form of cultivation that strengthens one’s Path. It requires strict adherence to ’rules’ and obedience to ’Restrictions.’ The greater the Restriction and the stricter the rules, the more powerful the resulting Miracle Technique will be, in theory.

Currently, Ye Weiyang has sixteen officially documented [Paths].

Furthermore, a single Path might have ’forks,’ or sub-paths.

Take Dou Xie’s Path, [Scholars], for example. Its known forks include [Storyteller], [Scholar], and [Scholar], among others.

And Yue Yan’s Path, [Tailor], is actually a branch of the [Skillful Hands] Path, which itself is subdivided into eight different artisan forks.

Feng Bei concluded with a final piece of advice: "When you walk a Path, you must obey its rules and remember its Restriction. Your rules can be known by others, but your ’Restriction’ must never be revealed."

Feng Bei’s explanation was clearly a gesture to repay the kindness Zheng Shan had shown her long ago. Since the son of her old friend intended to enter the world, she was giving him a helping hand, to see if he could successfully glimpse a Path.

Zheng Xiu understood now, and he mulled it over.

’Isn’t this Path system just a kind of role-playing method?’

’You deeply embody a profession or a certain behavior, and it gives rise to all sorts of supernatural abilities.’

The rules one had to follow during the process gave Zheng Xiu the impression of a ’Ceremony.’

Feng Bei had said that Yue Yan had to tailor a certain number of new clothes each day, and Dou Xie had to copy a certain number of characters.

He recalled the night Qing Pi and the others had performed their Miracle Techniques: Zizi had to rub her hands, while Qing Shisan, Ji Hong’ou, and Pei Gaoya had to recite the Brotherhood’s oath.

"What about you?" Zheng Xiu asked, looking up with wide, innocent eyes.

Yue Yan and Dou Xie, who had been eavesdropping, suddenly held their breath.

Feng Bei lowered her head, her voice calm. "Feng Bei is different. I don’t need to do such things."

A long silence followed.