I Have a Golden Crow

"Dong!" came a muffled thud!

The Little Wolf Lake Dog was smashed heavily onto the stone-paved road, its cry miserable and piercing.

The young man scrambled forward on hands and knees, hurriedly clutching the Wolf Lake Dog to his chest.

And in that very moment, the entire street fell silent.

The sounds of chatter vanished, even the faint murmurs of reproach faded away completely.

Du Yu was shocked to realize that, from the instant the youth hugged the Wolf Lake Dog, everyone's attitude had shifted.

From sympathy, to disgust!

"A Demon Tamer, he's actually a Demon Tamer?"

"He deserves to be beaten, how could someone like this exist! How could anyone choose to associate with Demon Beasts..."

"Traitor! Disgusting to the core!" a slew of curses filled the air.

Du Yu stood dumbly in place, watching the outraged faces, feeling the malice and fury radiating from everyone.

Why?

Why do people so despise the Wolf Lake Dog, and even call Demon Tamers despicable?

For...

Du Yu suddenly jolted awake, recalling something Master Qing had said months before.

Before the Divine Tree withered, the Human Race revered Spirit Taming.

But all Demon Tamers were considered heretics, practitioners of forbidden arts.

Especially in these centuries of relentless conflict between the Human Race and the Beast Race, their enmity was irreconcilable!

In such a grand, oppressive background, the young man before him was seen as consorting with the enemy, even sheltering a foe.

"I am a true Demon Tamer! From the Demon Taming Academy!"

"Scram. That was your final warning." The leading servant took a step forward, summoning a miniature tornado in his palm, spinning fiercely.

Wind Spirit Skill· Shattering Wind Cut!

"You..." The youth hugged the Little Wolf Lake Dog, still wanting to argue, but something caught his eye.

Du Yu looked up, his gaze passing the servant's shoulder, spotting a tall figure leaning on a cane in the depths of the mansion, standing silently.

Behind the tall figure, a slender silhouette of a young maiden stood at a distance, gazing out toward the door.

In her hand, she still held a finely crafted White Jade Flute.

Her features were blurred, but through the slight droop of her head, Du Yu could read her guilt.

Whoosh~

The sun and moon spun on, the scene fast-forwarding as if in a montage.

In the dead of night, Du Yu saw that young man again.

Embracing a Wolf Lake Dog that had grown a bit larger, he quietly climbed atop the manor's wall, bending low, whispering something to someone inside the grounds.

"Ying~" The Wolf Lake Dog whimpered softly, making spoiled, endearing noises, wriggling in the young man's arms.

In the end, the youth lowered it to the other side of the wall, holding it by hand.

"Hehe~"

A melodious laugh, delightful as spring water, drifted from beyond the wall, winding through the tranquil night.

Du Yu pressed his lips tight, stepped forward, trying to push open the mansion's front gate, only to find his palm passed through its surface.

"Puh!"

Behind him, from a small canal, came a splash of water.

Du Yu turned his head and saw the now larger Wolf Lake Dog at the riverbank, spitting water onto the shore.

As the young man muttered in complaint, and the girl let out coy laughter, the mansion doors suddenly swung open.

"Miss?"

"Miss..." The servants passed through Du Yu's body, scattering to search the grounds.

Du Yu moved to the edge of the stone walk, gazing down at the two figures pressed against the wall, holding tightly to each other.

They didn't seem afraid, but instead stifled laughter.

So, is the most dangerous place actually the safest?

The Wolf Lake Dog rolled about in their arms, frolicking; a careless whimper slipped out and the entire scene abruptly froze.

"Boom rumble rumble!"

Thunder rolled, rain poured down in torrents.

Du Yu's vision blurred, he rubbed his eyes hard, but over the sound of pouring rain, he heard a wolf's howl ring out.

"Woooo~~"

Du Yu turned his head immediately.

Lightning split the night sky; a towering Wolf Lake Dog was striding toward the mansion's main gates.

Seated atop its back was a figure Du Yu knew well.

This time, the gates were kicked open by the Wolf Lake Dog, and not a single servant dared step forward as before.

The tall figure with the cane could no longer block the way of that slender maiden.

"I have to go."

"Where will you go?"

"Zheng Academy gives the order: go west, to the battlefield."

"You..."

Their words pierced through curtain after curtain of rain, swept along with the thunder, pouring into Du Yu's ears.

The mountains and rivers do not keep, spring leaves, autumn returns.

The home grew emptier day by day, its surrounding walls faded and crumbling.

The small canal crested and receded by the yard, the boatmen and boats of the past all gone.

All that remained was the radiant figure holding her White Jade Flute, every now and then lingering before the gate, lost and longing for the horizon.

The next moment, after years of rise and fall flashing by, the manor changed once more before Du Yu's eyes.

That night, the girl rode a fine horse and broke out of the estate.

She traversed towns, climbed desolate mountains, crossed rivers, passed deserts and wastelands.

Westward, and ever westward...

The sun and stars rolled by, Du Yu couldn't keep pace with her growing transformation.

Across the breadth of Great Xia, especially in times so war-torn as these.

A once delicate, gentle girl became, through repeated brushes with death, a Warrior.

In one terrifying scene, Du Yu saw her shatter an army with her flute, a display both grand and tragic.

No one knew when it started, but it seemed she'd become one of the Human Race's Great Powers.

The only thing unchanged was the White Jade Flute ever clenched in her grasp...

The ocean.

Du Yu, whose life had always been sheltered, had never seen the ocean with his own eyes.

Yet in this sorrowful dream, he followed the girl's footprint and witnessed the endless blue sea.

"Splash!"

The girl collapsed to her knees with a heavy thud, burying her face in her hands, tears pouring through her fingers, unable to utter a sound.

The west,

But I've already...reached the farthest west.

The ocean was the last straw to break the camel's back.

Du Yu didn't know how long he watched her cry, or how many nights and days he spent at her side.

When, at last, she stood again, Du Yu seemed to see the protagonist of his own story reflected in her.

Empty of soul, sick with sorrow.

She no longer cared for this world's chaos: Human Race, Beast Race, war, or survival.

None of it mattered to her now.

On the western continent, she searched and searched, over and over. Until one day, gaunt and wasted as a shadow, she stumbled onto a killing field between humans and beasts.

"Ai..." Du Yu let out a long, deep sigh.

In her current state, this chaotic battlefield would surely be her burial place.

"Thud!"

She didn't even need to be struck; she crumpled to the earth, half her face buried in the ochre dirt.

Spirit Skills and Demon Skills roared all around, Human and Beast Races snarling to the heavens.

Mountains trembling, the ground splitting open.

"Wu wu~ wu wu wu!"

Wolf Lake Dogs!

Beneath the Humans' banners, it was called a dog.

Among the Beast Race, it was a wolf.

"Luuu..."

"Oooh!" A pack of Wolf Lake Dogs suddenly lunged forward, ripping into the girl, tearing her flesh apart.

She did not resist—whether from exhaustion or because her heart was already dead, no one could say.

She simply gazed up at the sky, while threads of her Spiritual Po slowly dissolved into the White Jade Flute.

"Thump!"

A giant paw stomped down, and Du Yu could only close his eyes in resignation.

The story of Butterfly Lovers, at least there's a pair of butterflies to console the soul.

But here, in this real era of war and flame, there were no butterflies, no hope.

There was only the beginning—no happy endings.

"Roar!"

Du Yu's eyes flew open. Right in front of him, a raging Wolf Lake Dog was bellowing at him!

Ever the bystander until now, Du Yu for the first time felt an inescapable sense of danger.

He waved instinctively, but the Wolf Lake Dog in the dream did not vanish!

"Hiss!!!"

Du Yu's expression froze; the giant Wolf Lake Dog lunged, its claws passing through and trampling his tiny dream-self, charging onward behind him.

Still shaken, Du Yu turned by reflex.

Then, his pupils shrank ever so slightly.

Why is he in my dream?

Or maybe, West Xia's Flute can link all souls within its dreams?

In the distance, a young man knelt, his face blank and unmoving.

Chaos reigned across the battlefield, the roars deafening, but nothing could touch the youth. He still cradled a cold corpse in his arms.

Du Yu stepped forward, voice trembling: "Senior Brother?"

"Senior Brother Fu?"

"Fu Jianzhou!!!"

West Xia Park, at the edge of the lawn.

"Heh..." Fu Jianzhou took a sharp, cold breath, his vacant eyes suddenly regaining light, as though brought back to life.

By some mysterious resonance, Du Yu, sprawled on the grass, also opened his eyes.

The chaotic battlefield faded into a sky of blue and white clouds.

The thundering clamor, roaring, the mournful cries and wails, all transformed into the beautiful, moving melody of West Xia's Flute.