A voice suddenly rang out, "Why are you here all alone?"

The little boy looked around but saw no one. He pursed his lips and didn't answer. The voice seemed to know that the little boy was looking for him. It came down from the tree. It was a snake that was completely black. Its snake head was the same size as the little boy's head.

The little boy didn't even show any reaction when he saw the head. The snake felt a little dissatisfied, thinking that it was not a perfect thing that it hadn't scared the little boy.

"You still haven't answered me why you're here. If you tell me, maybe I can help you. I'm a kind snake who likes to help others." The black snake remained hanging on the tree, and the little boy didn't leave either. The two were locked in a stalemate for a moment.

The little boy didn't understand why everyone suddenly disliked him, since it wasn't like this before. He said, "I want the village to go back to how it used to be."

Black Snake immediately understood what he meant. He had heard a little about the flint incident earlier and knew a bit about it, so the child wanted to restore his village to its original state, which was not a difficult task for Black Snake. "This problem is very simple. I can help you, but what can you give me?"

Black Snake was worried that he wouldn't understand why he was being given something, so he patiently explained, "You should know that there's no such thing as a free lunch. I helped you, so naturally you should repay me in some way, right?"

The little boy nodded, seemingly understanding, "What do you want? I don't have anything to give you."

The little boy was penniless; he didn't have a single valuable item on him. He had heard that everyone in the world liked precious things, and he thought the black snake in front of him was the same—he had applied the formula, only he forgot to filter out the fact that the black snake wasn't human.

“I want the birth rate in your village to drop every year from now on, and all of those drops will become my food. What do you think?” the black snake said seductively. “However, I can be merciful and not do this to you, but only to the others.”

Hearing this, the little boy thought that he hadn't given anything in return. He didn't understand what "food on the plate" meant, and hadn't yet encountered that level of vocabulary. So, in his ignorance, he agreed.

All he knew was that if the village returned, would everyone treat him the same as before, would they not abandon him, and would they treat him better?

Black Snake was a man of his word. After the little boy agreed to his request, he did not hesitate much and cast a curse on the village.

The little boy didn't get the fair treatment he wanted. Instead, he was treated like a monster because of this incident. One of the kind aunts wanted to take pity on him and asked the little boy how he had managed to do all this. The little boy told her the truth about what he had said to the black snake.

The aunt immediately moved away from him, looking at him as if he were some terrifying monster. The little boy didn't tell her that the black snake had let him go and that the curse hadn't been cast on him, because he felt it was useless.

When the villagers learned of this, they pretended to beat the little boy to death, and came out menacingly with their own tools. Some people did not believe these stories. They had never been exposed to spiritual power. Born in this remote place, they had never left. The farthest they had ever been was to a town, and they had never even seen the main city of Tianqi City.

So little did they know that the outside world truly had so many different things.

The little boy stumbled and died until he was fifteen or sixteen years old, enduring beatings and hunger. He was very thin, always hungry and cold, and his health was not good. But everyone accepted that this was the punishment he deserved.

No one paid any attention to it until the little boy saw the black snake again. The black on the snake's body looked even more lustrous than before. He couldn't resist touching it and said, "You're very beautiful."

The black snake flicked its tongue. "Do you regret it? You saved their home, but they are so indifferent to you, and they don't even thank you. If you regret it now, I can help you take those things back."

The little boy remembered that the last time he met the black snake was more than ten years ago. At that time, he did not understand what the black snake meant. As he grew up, he understood some things, even without being taught. "I didn't save them. They saved themselves. I just helped by speaking up a little."

The black snake disagreed, saying, "If it weren't for you, they would have been eaten by other spirit beasts in the forest long ago. How could they have survived until now? You deserve credit for their survival."

The little boy didn't answer the black snake, nor did he know if he regretted it. After this encounter with the black snake, he decided to move away from this place.

When the villagers of Taiping learned that the little boy had left, they all said he was a traitor. They had spent so much time together, yet the little boy showed no gratitude or attachment and simply left, as if he didn't respect them at all.

The little boy was unaware of their thoughts. After leaving, he settled down in the town. He was not talkative, but he was very strong, which he had accumulated over the years while working in the village. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to find a good job in the town.

He met that woman that winter. Everyone was moving goods, and he was no exception. However, compared to the clothes worn by others, which were at least patched up and could at least block out some of the wind, his clothes were different. They looked worn out and tattered, but he loved them dearly.

Everyone laughed at him, saying that he had earned quite a few spirit stones these days, enough to buy himself some clothes.

The little boy ignored everyone's words. It wasn't until he got to town that he learned what the spirit stones were for and that spiritual power existed in the world.

He felt too unfamiliar with this world and wanted to learn more, but he didn't know where to start. It seemed that everything required this thing called spirit stone, so he saved all his spirit stones. As for clothes and such, he didn't care at all. He had been living like this for years and didn't feel there was anything wrong with it.

The woman appeared at that moment. She was the owner's daughter, passing by when she noticed that the little boy's clothes were so worn out. She assumed he hadn't been paid yet and was in such dire straits. The woman went back into the house, found her own brother's clothes, and gave them to the little boy. This was the first time in many years that the little boy had received kindness from someone.