Chapter 8 - Misunderstanding

"Yes, I am... er... I'm sorry if I scared you that time, I didn't want to." Hei said in an apologetic tone.

While he was apologizing to Lei Lei for the scare of the other time, she smiled and gently replied in a calm voice, "You don't have to worry. You didn’t scare me, don't worry. Instead, I tried to look for you soon after you disappeared because the forest is a dangerous place, but where did you go?"

This question had tormented her for the whole year. Lei Lei, after all, couldn’t imagine how a child of that age could wander alone towards the interior of the forest from which even his father with the other adults of the village prefers staying away.

Since they had expected such a question, Hei responded by following the script invented by his mother, "Uhmm... actually, a little after meeting you, I was called by my mother, and then we left immediately. We were passing through, and we had to go in a hurry. That's why you didn't see me; I'm sorry I made you search in vain."

Hearing this, Lei Lei smiled cheerfully heartened. In the end, she managed to reveal the mystery that enveloped Hei, that strange child dressed in silver who had disappeared into the forest.

‘Fortunately, he had his mother. Dad was right. Such a small child couldn't have wandered alone through the forest.’

"Don’t worry; it’s all right. Rather than that, why are you here? Are you passing through with your mother again?"

"Ehmm... yes. We finished the things we had to do, and mother said we could stay here for a while to rest, and she permitted me to visit the village. Actually, this is the first time I visit a village. I wondered, could you guide me?"

A truth not fully revealed. This was the most effective way to ask for something when, at the same time, you wanted to keep some things hidden.

Although it was not easy to identify the truth from what was false, there were still people able to understand by various methods whether what one person said was true or not, not to mention those who could do it innately without the need for tricks or particular techniques.

Therefore, Hei, by telling the truth, even if not totally, would have been credible in front of anyone's eyes. Besides, who would have ever imagined that the mother he was talking about was not a human being but a spirit beast? No one would have ever thought of such a thing, considering there was no evidence that such a thing had happened in the past.

Upon hearing this, Lei Lei was impressed. She didn’t expect that Hei had never visited a village, but then, she thought that perhaps he had always been in the city and therefore it was reasonable that he didn’t know how a village was structured. The fact that it was the first time Hei was visiting a human settlement didn’t even come into her mind.

"Sure, why not?. Don't worry; your big sister will take you for a complete tour of the village. If you want, you can stay with us for lunch with your mother, what do you say?"

"Uhmm... mother doesn't like being around other people very much. At first, she didn't want me to come here, but I insisted, so she permitted in the end."

Hearing that, Lei Lei understood why the child had a slightly nervous expression while talking to her. It was probably due to the absence of his mother, who hadn’t wanted to accompany him. So, bending her knees a little to lower herself to the same height as Hei, she extended a hand towards his head to cheer him up.

But, just as she was about to stroke Hei's head, she noticed eight small purple lights shining toward her. At that point, she was able to focus on what those eight lights were, and she discovered that on Hei's head, there was a palm-sized spider that looked at her curiously.

Finding out that it was a spider, she instinctively blocked her hand as she screamed in fright, and she fell on the ground.

Because of that sudden scream, Xing was seized by fright and made a small gasp as she hid back inside the silk hat. Hei instead, noticing the fear that Xing had, put himself on all fours on the ground while he ferociously looked at the girl who had frightened his sister.

Ye also came out of the scarf, and she hissed ferociously at Lei Lei. Seeing that there was also a snake, the young girl was even more afraid. This was because, despite having grown up in a village and having some familiarity with animals, the spider and the snake emerged suddenly from the strange child, represented feared and repulsed species by the majority of people.

Hearing her daughter's scream, Lei Lei’s father, who was at home while having breakfast, came out the back door with a long butcher knife, and with a worried voice, he screamed, "Lei, where are you? Are you okay?"

It was a middle-aged man who already began to show some wrinkles. His graying hair and his massive build gave a ferocious sensation to the man but at the same time, melancholy. The brown eyes of the man moved quickly in search of his daughter, who he found shortly after sitting on the ground. In front of her, there was a child dressed in silver with a small snake coiled on his neck.

Seeing the snake, Lei Bai knew instantly why his daughter had screamed. Then he said authoritatively to the child on all fours on the ground, "Don't move for any reason, child. You have a snake attached to your neck, I don't know if it's poisonous or not, but for your safety, don't move."

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Then he approached cautiously towards Hei holding the long knife tightly in his right hand. He intended to get as close as possible so as not to alert the snake and then cut off its head with a sharp blow.

Sensing the man's intentions towards his sister Ye, Hei turned to stare fiercely at him. His gaze became thinner as he revealed a row of white teeth and hissed like a snake. His legs were ready to snap at any time, while his left hand went behind his back to grab the wooden spear fixed there.

Seeing the child do such actions and show him an angry and ferocious look, Lei Bai was stunned. He didn’t expect a child of this age to give such pressure only with his eyes; rather than a child, he seemed to be facing a beast ready to jump on him at the slightest signal. He also could see that the snake didn’t seem to want to hurt the child, but it had also turned to look at him with ferocity.

Puzzled, the man couldn’t understand who this child was and where he came from. But he knew that they had somehow scared his daughter, and as a father, he certainly couldn't let it go. He then proceeded to advance with decisive steps towards the child-snake pair.

But it was at that moment that she heard Lei Lei screaming at him, "No! Dad. Stop! There has been a misunderstanding, Hei is innocent. It is all my fault, please. Don’t do anything."

Noting how worried her daughter was, Lei Bai couldn’t help but stop and answer, "Okay, but I demand a clear explanation of who this child is and what happened."

Since her father had consented her to speak, she smiled. Then she started to tell who Hei was and what had happened.

Seeing them discussing with each other, Hei slightly lowered his hostility. Initially, he was surprised by Lei Lei’s screaming and Lei Bai's arrival. For this reason, he had assumed an offensive position to defend his two little sisters. But since they didn’t seem to have bad intentions towards them, Hei remained in his place, still holding his position with his left hand near the spear, ready to pull it out at the slightest signal.

Meanwhile, Xing, who had recovered from the fright, also left her hiding place ready to lend a hand to Ye and Hei if a fight broke out.

Once he heard his daughter's explanation, Lei Bai finally relaxed as his daughter wasn’t in danger.

"So, when you noticed the spider, you got scared, and you screamed while this kid got angry because you scared his pet, right? Well, I understand they are dangerous species, but you should be more careful anyway. Hey, right? I want to apologize for my daughter; she didn’t intend to scare your spider."

"Yes, I apologize for this. Hei. I'm sorry if I screamed, I behaved like a fool.”

Seeing that they were apologizing, Hei eventually returned to an upright position and answered as he stroked Ye and Xing on the head to calm them. "It's okay; it's partly our fault. I should have told you that they were with me. I'm sorry if we scared you."

Even Ye and Xing, once they understood that it was partly their fault, responded by apologizing to the young girl. Since they had no vocal cords, Ye and Xing obviously couldn’t use words, and they weren’t yet able to speak telepathically, although they wouldn’t have done so even if they were able to do it right now. Instead, they lowered their heads to indicate their regret about this event.

Noticing their movements, the father and daughter couple were struck by this action. It wasn’t a common recurrence to watch animals behave like that. With curiosity, Lei Bai asked Hei, "Hey, boy, are you a beast tamer?"

A beast tamer, it was a very rare profession. These cultivators were able to stipulate what were called spirit pacts with spirit beasts. Through this spirit pact, they could communicate between them, and the beast tamers used this communication to fight with their beasts in battles.

Since you had to spend so much time training your beasts instead of yourself, it wasn’t an activity chosen by many. However, the most skilled beast tamers were people who had a particular reputation in society, and their services were highly sought after.

As far as spiritual beasts were concerned, these included only those who had developed spirit power and could, therefore, take an evolutionary path towards their final form. Those without spirit power were simply called animals, and they had less intelligence than those with spiritual power. They were usually used as livestock for people with little or no spirit power who made up the majority of people.

Even for humans, it was difficult to awaken spirit power and to reach high levels, so they could only be content with raising normal animals. After all, high-grade spirit beasts weren’t something within reach of any passing cultivator, let alone people who hadn't the slightest trace of spirit power.

Therefore, seeing the intelligence of this spider and this serpent, Lei Bai concluded that they were spirit beasts with a certain degree of intelligence. However, it wasn’t possible for a child with the age of Hei to have developed his spirit power, nor to have reached an adequate level for spirit pacts.

Consequently, the only valid explanation was that his mother was the beast tamer and that that little spider and that little snake were nothing but the offspring of the spirit beasts of Hei's mother. Only then did it become plausible that a child such as Hei was able to command two spirit beasts.

Hei, hearing that question, didn't know how to answer. Beast tamer wasn’t a covered topic during his study with his mother. Not knowing what it was and because he had to hide his true origin, he decided not to answer.

Seeing that he wasn’t answering, Lei Bai had a greater certainty that he had hit the mark. However, being a rather perceptive man, he knew it wasn’t nice to investigate too much into a person's origins, especially if it was someone dangerous to offend.

Not wanting to incur the wrath of Hei's mother, Lei Bai replied, "Ok, forget the last question. Anyway, as it is still early morning, what do you say if you come to have breakfast with us first. Then you and Lei can go for a tour of the village."

Hearing that he didn't want to investigate further, this time, Hei decided to answer and agreed to have breakfast with them. Although they had already done it early in the morning, this tumult of emotions had made Hei, Xing, and Ye very hungry. Moreover, the three of them were very curious about the human kitchen; therefore, they consented to Lei Bai's request.

Seeing him accepting their proposal, the father and daughter couple smiled and became happy even if for different reasons. Lei Lei, because she was afraid that Hei still had it with her because of the scream of before, and so she wanted to do something to make up for it in addition to her excuses; Lei Bai thought, on the other hand, that he had partially realized Hei's origin and wanted to form a good relationship with him in order to make a good impression with his mother. After all, it was always convenient to have relationships with someone powerful, and although he didn't know her real strength, he knew she wasn't an ordinary person if she could give her son two spirit beasts at such a young age.

So Hei with his two little sisters, who had overcome their fear and distrust and they had come out of their hiding places, followed Lei Lei and Lei Bai into their home to have breakfast.

Since they had agreed to welcome him into their home and had also accepted Ye and Xing in a certain way, Hei felt that, overall, things were progressing better than he had expected, and there would be no hitch in their mission of discovering human society.