“There were reports recently about vicious demons stealing young children and selling them. I never expected one of them to target our family.”
…
Su Li slowly opened his eyes through a haze and saw someone standing beside the children’s bed, apparently speaking on the phone. The voice was indistinct and chaotic, and he could not make out the words clearly.
After a while, his clouded consciousness gradually cleared, and the events of the previous night suddenly returned to him.
This was bad. After what had happened yesterday, surely his father would not become suspicious of him?
Before he could think of a way to respond, the man beside the bed abruptly stopped speaking, apparently noticing that Su Li had awakened. He hurriedly asked, “Baby, how are you? Does your head still hurt? Dad is here. We’re not afraid.”
Dad Su lifted Su Li into his arms. The adult’s broad palm gently patted his back, both a silent reassurance and an unmistakable sign of anxiety.
His father did not seem concerned about the disturbance caused by that demon and Su Li. Instead, he was worried about whether Su Li himself felt unwell.
Su Li paused in surprise. When he looked toward the window, he discovered that the shattered glass from last night had already been restored. Everything in the room looked exactly as it had before, as though the demon’s intrusion had been nothing more than a strange dream.
“Are you hungry? Dad will make Baby something to eat.” Dad Su carried him out of the room while continuing to soothe him. “If something hurts, tell Dad. Dad will blow on the sore place and make it better.”
The situation the previous night had been far too complicated. He had failed to catch the demon who entered the room, and then Baby had fainted. Dad Su had hurriedly called a doctor, only to learn that the doctor had been away on a trip and could not visit until this afternoon. During the second half of the night, Baby had repeatedly muttered in his sleep, sometimes saying that something hurt and sometimes indistinctly calling for someone. Dad Su had been beside himself with worry.
The doctor had said that waking up was a good sign, but they would still need to wait until the afternoon for a proper examination.
Su Li was placed in a chair. When he looked up, he could see Dad Su preparing formula at a table not far away.
He lowered his eyes and looked at his palm. The sensation from touching the shard yesterday had disappeared, but that sense of familiarity made excitement rise in him despite himself.
Why had the wind demon been carrying a shard like that? And what had he come to the Su residence to find?
It should not have been a dream, but considering the wind demon’s attitude last night, why had he suddenly chosen to leave…?
And then there was the voice from last night. Someone had seemed to be calling him.
A-Li…? Su Li lowered his eyes slightly. That voice was so familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere a very long time ago.
“Wait just a little, Baby. Dad is almost finished over here.” Worried about the child, Dad Su continued raising his voice to reassure him even while preparing the formula.
Su Li came back to himself and looked at his father in the distance.
For as long as he could remember, he had always been the one caring for others. No one had ever looked after him with this much attention. Human reproduction and child-rearing were different from those of demons and spirits. In his free time, he had enjoyed listening to lesser demons tell stories about the mortal world, including stories of parents and children. He knew how carefully human parents treated their young. Yet now that such care was directed at him, Su Li found it both unfamiliar and bewildering.
“Baby, drink this in a little while. Dad is going to see whether your brother is awake.”
At this hour, that little fellow Su Ming was probably about to wake as well. Dad Su placed the bottle on the table in front of Su Li and turned toward the twins’ room. Every two steps, he looked back to make sure Su Li was still sitting steadily before he finally went inside.
Su Li casually picked up a bottle and fell into thought.
When he had been a phoenix, he rarely ate ordinary mortal food. What he consumed was generally demon-beast meat rich in spiritual power. Leaving aside the strange method of feeding from a bottle, he had only tasted sweet formula like this after reincarnating. It contained not a trace of spiritual power. To him, eating such things was equivalent to filling his body with impurities, which was unfavorable for cultivation, yet these foods seemed to be necessities for human infants.
Forget it. In everyone else’s eyes, he was currently a human child.
Su Li held the bottle with both hands and awkwardly brought it to his mouth. After only his first swallow, he suddenly noticed that the milk was different from what he usually drank!
?! No!
He had been in this world for nearly two years. Although his consciousness had been muddled until recently, some part of him had still instinctively paid attention to what he consumed.
According to the memories he had reorganized, formula was currently one of his main foods. But the bottle before him was completely different from what he had drunk in the past. His usual formula contained no spiritual power whatsoever. Today’s bottle, however, held a considerable amount.
He had only discovered the previous night that spiritual power existed in this world. Su Li had assumed he could restore his cultivation only slowly through internal practice, but now he could actually sense spiritual power inside food. That meant that even though he could not perceive spiritual energy in the environment, he could increase his cultivation by eating spiritually infused food!
Su Li stared at the bottle in his hands in astonishment. This was possible too?!
“Your brother still isn’t awake.” Dad Su came back out of the children’s room and suddenly saw Su Li drinking from the bottle in his chair. The moment he noticed the bottle’s color, he was startled. He rushed over and snatched it away, his voice anxious. “Dad only looked away for a moment. This is Dad’s fault. Baby, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Su Li’s condition was unusual. His parents had consulted many doctors among the demon race, and every one of them had advised against giving him spiritually infused food while he was still very young. Congenitally disabled demon children had virtually no ability to absorb spiritual power, so such food would do them more harm than good.
For that reason, Dad Su had gone out of his way to buy human formula and food specifically for Su Li, taking meticulous care of every aspect of the child’s diet and daily life. He had never expected that after looking away for only a moment, the little one would grab his brother’s bottle and drink from it himself.
“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Dad will call the doctor right now.”
Only then did Su Li realize he had taken the wrong bottle. This was his younger brother Su Ming’s food.
He frowned slightly at the thought. Why did Su Ming’s formula contain spiritual power while the formula Su Li usually drank had none at all?
Dad Su cautiously used a little spiritual power to probe the child’s condition. As expected, all he sensed was an empty, bottomless void. Worried that the wrong food might cause harm, he hurriedly picked Su Li up and soothed him while calling a demon doctor for advice.
“Yes, yes. He took the bottle meant for Mingming. Any strange reactions? He hasn’t vomited or cried. Physically he looks normal.” Dad Su examined the child while talking on the phone. Only after confirming that none of the adverse symptoms described by the doctor had appeared did he relax slightly. “Doctor, does he need to be observed now? Maybe I should bring Baby to your clinic so you can take a look.”
Su Li’s gaze remained fixed on the bottle on the table. He had taken only one swallow and wanted to test again whether things truly worked as he suspected. He tugged on Dad Su’s clothes and said simply, “Hungry.”
Dressed in fluffy pajamas, the little child nestled quietly in his father’s arms. One small hand bunched the fabric of Dad Su’s clothes, and a single soft syllable emerged from his milky voice, making him look both adorable and slightly pitiful.
Dad Su was already anxious. The moment he heard the little one say he was hungry, his heart softened completely. He asked the doctor, “Can he eat something else right now? Baby seems hungry.”
After caring for Su Li for so long, this was the first time he had ever heard the child actively say he was hungry. Dad Su could barely wait to fulfill his son’s request.
The doctor on the other end asked several more questions.
Dad Su answered them one by one and finally received permission. He picked up the bottle that actually belonged to Su Li and held it to the child’s mouth. To his surprise, the child took only one swallow before refusing more, while his eyes remained fixed on his younger brother’s bottle instead.
Dad Su was bewildered. Had Baby suddenly become a picky eater?
—
In a chaotic darkness, a deep voice echoed endlessly through what seemed to be a boundless space. It sounded at once like an affectionate call and a helpless murmur. Complex, mottled formation patterns covered the ground. A man in a long black robe knelt there, his deathly pale skin visible through torn sections of fabric. Heavy dark shackles bound his body, and not far in front of him stood a phoenix totem emitting a faint red glow.
The man stretched out his hand. Before he could touch the totem, the weak red light suddenly vanished—
He paused slightly and called again in a soft voice.
“A-Li.”