"How old are you this year?"

Feng Bingwen was born amidst filth and bloodstains, yet remained spotless, adorned in brocade robes and jade belts, resembling a divine being.

His expression was indescribable at that moment, because the scene before him had such a profound impact on him.

This was the first time he had witnessed the horrors of a famine. His divine sense swept over the desolate, deserted village, where bones lay exposed in the wilderness and not a single rooster crowed.

In the simple backyard of this thatched hut, Feng Bingwen's divine sense also discovered a rotting corpse with a kitchen knife stuck in its chest. Based on its skeleton, it was not difficult to determine that it must have been a rather strong man in life.

On the wooden bed in the house lay the body of a woman who had not been dead for long and whose body was not yet decomposed. She had multiple bone fractures and severely damaged internal organs, and the cause of her death was not starvation.

Feng Bingwen didn't want to think too much about the specific reasons. In the post-apocalyptic world where survival was a problem, humanity had become an extremely rare thing.

"Are you asking me? My mom says I'm six years old this year!"

The child held his head, trying to piece it together, and then looked up to answer Feng Bingwen's question. Although Feng Bingwen's accent was a bit strange, he could still understand him.

Feng Bingwen, using the language of the small world he had temporarily learned and the divine sense he had just used to sweep away these mortal thoughts, continued to ask questions.

"At six years old, how long have you been hungry?"

"I was hungry for a very, very long time, I can't even remember how long."

The child looked up, frowned, and pondered for a while before answering.

"Have you ever been full?"

"I had enough to eat. When I was very young, before my parents started arguing, the village was full of people, and everyone was happy. Then red rain fell from the sky, and the crops in the fields became fewer and fewer..."

The child tried hard to recall everything before him. He instinctively felt that the handsome older brother in front of him was not dangerous, and even felt an irresistible urge to get closer to him.

"Okay, you don't need to do that."

Feng Bingwen looked at the child who was still trying to piece together the bandit's body, and finally couldn't hold back anymore.

"ah?"

The blood-covered child clutched his head, looked up, and stared blankly at Feng Bingwen, wondering what he had done wrong.

"You can't put their heads back on. Even if you could, they wouldn't come back to life. They're already dead."

What is death?

The child asked, looking bewildered.

"You can think of it as sleeping forever and never waking up again."

Feng Bingwen frowned slightly, trying his best to explain the concept of death in a calm tone.

"Keep sleeping?"

The child repeated it blankly, then dropped the severed head and stumbled towards the wooden bed. He grabbed his mother's hand, then turned to look at Feng Bingwen.

"Then, is my mother dead?"

"She will never wake up again!"

Feng Bingwen replied that the child's stomach was stuffed with miscellaneous things: cotton, tree bark, grass roots, fresh meat, and soil, but there was no flesh and blood of his own kind.

"..."

Upon hearing Feng Bingwen's words, the child stared blankly at his mother's slightly withered, bluish-purple face, showing no reaction for a moment. He simply watched quietly, seemingly still not understanding the rhythm of death. After a while, he raised his head and asked softly.

"My mother, will she really not wake up?"

"Won't."

Feng Bingwen responded ruthlessly.

"But when I was little, if I slept for too long, my mother would scold me. If I didn't get up, she would whip me with a bamboo stick, which hurt a lot..."

The child kept talking, his face showing no sadness, but tears streamed down his dry face, leaving two dirty tear tracks.

"Bury your mother!"

Feng Bingwen listened patiently to what the child had to say, then used his magic to dig a pit, and with the child in tow, buried his mother in the ground.

After everything was done, the child still stood blankly in front of his mother's new grave, seemingly unable to process what had happened, or perhaps unable to accept that his mother, who had always cared for him, would never wake up again.

"May I have your name?"

After surveying the surroundings, Feng Bingwen returned to the child's side, infused him with a wisp of immortal spiritual energy, and then asked a question.

"Name? My mother calls me Yao'er!"

"This isn't a name, it's a nickname!"

"My dad seems to have given me a name, something like Ning, but I don't remember it."

"You don't remember this or that, so from today onwards, you shall be called Ning Buwang."

"good."

Come with me!

"Um!"

The child, or rather Ning Buwang, followed Feng Bingwen away from the desolate and deserted village in a state of ignorance. He never realized that Feng Bingwen was special; he only thought that Feng Bingwen was good-looking.

Feng Bingwen, holding Ning Buwang's hand, walked through the mountains and rivers of this world, exploring the changes and current state of this small realm.

Overall, the situation is slightly better than when he arrived. There are still remnants of spiritual energy in the mountains and rivers, and the surrounding land is still fertile enough to grow crops.

However, the signs of decline and extinction are already evident. It's just that the time until final destruction is a little long for ordinary people, but in some already barren places, the land is beginning to desertify. No matter how much effort is put in, it is impossible to grow food, and people can only go hungry.

"demon!?"

On a verdant mountain, Feng Bingwen held the hand of a child and looked down at the foot of the mountain. There was a city with an unusual atmosphere. Outside the city walls, green seedlings swayed in the wind. The continuous green color was a joy to behold.

From a mortal's perspective, this city was bustling with activity, full of vitality, and brimming with hope, inspiring joy. But in Feng Bingwen's eyes, the demonic aura permeating the entire city was blatant and undisguised.

Snap!

While Feng Bingwen surveyed the city with his divine eye, Ning Buwang, drooling, excitedly picked a bunch of raspberries and then presented them to Feng Bingwen like a treasure.

"Master, you eat!"

The bright red raspberries looked fresh, juicy, sweet, and appetizing. However, when Feng Bingwen picked up a raspberry, the wild fruit, which originally looked excellent, suddenly changed its appearance. Tiny insects, as fine as cow hair, swam in the tender flesh, and a wisp of grayish-white mist lingered around the fruit.

"ah!"

Ning Buwang let out a cry of surprise, scattering the raspberries in his arms all over the ground. He had been following Feng Bingwen for just a few days and had learned a great deal, gaining an understanding of the vastness of the world.

"Don't be afraid. As long as you don't eat them, these insects won't hurt you."

Feng Bingwen waved his hand, and divine light swept across, obliterating the raspberries scattered on the ground. As a faint wail rang out, a gaze filled with resentment and malice was cast from the city below.

"What's this?"

"Parasite!"

"How disgusting! Why do those demons waste food?"

The young child's face was filled with disgust, and his eyes revealed hatred.

"Come, let's go into the city and have a look."

Feng Bingwen took Ning Buwang's hand and walked along the mountain path toward the bustling city.

Before even entering the city, having just stepped into the fields, Ning Buwang, who had received several days of instruction from Feng Bingwen, sensed something was amiss. He tugged at Feng Bingwen's sleeve, pointed to the exposed bones among the green seedlings in the field, and asked...

"Teacher, is that a human bone?"

Feng Bingwen glanced at it, suppressing the surging sword intent in his heart; it was the Profound Yin Seven Kill Sword.

"yes."

For some reason, the humans in this small world are no different from the humans in the world where he was born. They are practically identical. Therefore, the Xuan Yin Seven Kill Sword carried by Feng Bingwen reacted and the sword spirit was enraged.

"Take a closer look at the mud and dust!"

Feng Bingwen pointed out that beneath the green seedlings lay the flesh and bones of the human race.

"Rotten human skin and flesh?"

Even at such a young age, Ning Buwang was shocked. This was not something he should have experienced at his age, but unfortunately, he was born in this desolate and impoverished world.

"Um!"

Feng Bingwen led him to the city gate. Before they even entered the city, a fishy smell hit them, making them want to vomit. However, the fishy smell was mixed with a cloying sweet fragrance, which made them unconsciously ignore the fishy smell.

"Hehe, what a handsome young man, what a lovely little girl!"

As soon as they entered the city, they heard affected, seductive laughter. Looking up, they saw a large wild boar with heavy makeup and fur all over its body, dressed in a slit-like garment. It stood upright, with human-like limbs, but its head was completely that of a wild boar, with tusks showing, and it had no human-like features whatsoever.

"Wu Bamei, stop being so disgusting. Look how scared you've made these two newcomers!"

A monkey leaped out from the side, dressed in clothes and a hat, looking like a monkey in a crown. It was carrying a string of dominoes and approached Feng Bingwen.

"Young master, you look quite unfamiliar. Are you new to Nanruo County? This is a rare and wonderful place in the world."

"Look at your delicate skin, I'm not greedy. Just let me bite your arm or leg, and you can choose any of the house deeds I have here."

The flattering tone concealed chilling words. The monkey's pale blue eyes darted over Feng Bingwen, seemingly pondering where to begin and how to get a good piece of meat.

“Young master, don’t listen to his nonsense. What good places could he possibly have? They’re just some low-class, abandoned houses. I have some of the finest courtyards in Nanruo County. If you break one of my arms, you can choose any courtyard you like.”

Another demon squeezed in front of Feng Bingwen, but this one had already taken on a human form, with a pointed snout and thin cheeks, a hunched figure, and a lewd face. In its hand, it carried a string of human bone skulls that had been polished to an extremely smooth finish, with eerie ghost flames flickering around it.

"Hmph, a bunch of blind scum, how dare you covet this Taoist priest?"