4 A Man's Tears

Wang Ping felt somewhat unfortunate; though he had stayed at the cultivation ground on the White Gull Mountains for two more days, after Xiao Feng ate the flesh of the Waterwolf Beast, apart from the fact that its spiritual power aura had visibly become much denser, it still hadn't awoken his innate magic.

In the words of cultivators, it wasn't Xiao Feng's time yet. They had yet to find the right time for Xiao Feng to become a true demon beast.

Although Wang Ping felt unfortunate, he did not dwell on it too much.

He believed that as long as he continued to feed Xiao Feng demon beast meat, the Giant Wolf would eventually overcome that hurdle and become a true demon wolf.

As he was returning to his hometown to pay respects to his parents, there was no need to ride a boat. When Wang Ping went out this time, he brought Xiao Feng with him.

Roar—

Xiao Feng's joyful howl reverberated through the forest, startling countless birds and beasts.

After leaving the courtyard on the mountain and returning to the vast wilderness outside, its wild instincts immediately returned.

At times, it would chase after the deers in the mountains and claw at the foxes hiding in the caves. At other times, it would even dive into the waters to catch some fish. It was extremely energetic.

Wang Ping did not bother with it too much. He was more focused on using the "Light Body Technique" to shorten the travel time. He was not at all worried for Xiao Feng.

Xiao Feng had a physique of a demon beast that was only one step away from awakening the innate magic found. Thus, there were very few animals that could pose a threat to it.

Over the course of innumerable years, aside from a few flying demon beasts and a few that could burrow underground, the vast majority of land demon beasts had already been hunted down by the cultivators on the island.

As for whether or not the Giant Wolf Xiao Feng would get lost, that was an even smaller concern. With its acute sense of smell, even if Wang Ping were thirty to forty miles ahead, it would still be able to accurately find the direction he left in and chase after him.

After they left the White Gull Mountains, they were walking southwest for nearly a day. After traveling for nearly two hundred miles, Wang Ping finally returned to the place where he was born, a fishing village by the sea.

This fishing village, called the Golden Shell Village, had existed for over a hundred years.

As the saying goes, one who lives by the mountains eats from the mountains, one who lives by the water eats from the water. In Golden Shell Village, which was less than a mile away from the sea, almost every family in the village lived on fishing.

When they were alive, Wang Ping's parents were also fishermen. Unfortunately, when he was seven years old, his parents encountered a storm while they were out fishing at the sea and never came. As a result, he became an orphan.

Because his parents were outsiders who had eloped to Golden Shell Village, Wang Ping had never met any other relatives since a young age. His parents had never told him about these things either.

Therefore, after leaving the village when he was nine years old, Wang Ping seldom came back.

When Wang Ping arrived at Golden Shell Village today, it was already evening. The last rays of the setting sun shone on the fishing village by the sea. Nothing seemed to have changed from seven years ago.

More than seven years had passed, and this fishing village that was almost isolated from the rest of the world was still the same. At most, there was a newly built wooden house somewhere, and the wooden houses that had originally existed elsewhere looked much more dilapidated.

As Xiao Feng's presence could scare the villagers, Wang Ping did not enter the village. After observing the place from afar, he took Xiao Feng to a hill in the northwest of the fishing village.

There weren't any big trees on this hill by the sea, only a few sparsely-grown shrubs and weeds. On the side of the hill that faced the sea, there was a cliff of more than 200 feet.

Wang Ping's parents' cenotaphs were on that hill. Back then, the villagers had dug them a grave there after they consulted him for his opinion.

It had been five years since he last visited the grave. The tombs were overgrown with weeds, and there were even traces of seabird nests on them. The place was very dirty and messy.

Seeing this, Wang Ping was extremely ashamed. He instantly knelt onto the ground and kowtowed to the tomb thrice.

"Father, mother, this child is unfilial. I didn't come over every year to sweep your tombs, causing your humiliation. This child is ashamed to be called a son!"

As Wang Ping kowtowed, he could not help but recall what his parents looked like when they were alive. Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

This was because he realized that he could no longer remember his parents' faces clearly.

Back then, when his parents passed away, he was still a seven-year-old child, and his parents never left any portraits of themselves behind.

As such, his impression of his parents was that his father was swarthy and often wore a bitter demeanor on his face. Wang Ping never found out what he was so grouchy about.

Because his father often went out to the sea to fish and was not at home, in Wang Ping's memory, his mother's face had always been clearer.

He remembered that his mother's skin was fairer than the other fishwives in the village. Her face was fair and tender, and she had a big pair of eyes. Her personality was also gentler than the other fishwives.

Ever since he was a child, he had never heard his parents quarrel. Moreover, his father was extremely protective of his mother. He typically could not bear to let her go out in the sun.

It was unfortunate that her mother, who seldom went out to sea, had gone out to sea with her father on that day. She never came back!

"Father, Mother, I've returned this time to move your cenotaphs to another place so that our family will never be separated again!"

Wang Ping waved his sleeve to wipe the tears in the corners of his eyes. He then stood up to dig the graves, retrieving two tightly-sealed earthen jars.

He opened the lid of the jars and found that —after more than nine years— the clothes, wooden combs, needles, and other items worn by his parents when they were alive had all been damaged to various degrees.

This was expected. After all, these were all items that were easily damaged.

But this would not continue ever again.

Wang Ping told Xiao Feng to keep an eye on the "Heaven and Earth Shell" while he brought the two earthen jars into the world inside the shell. He then stored them in two sealed stone jars that he had prepared beforehand.

Then, he placed the stone jars in a coffin filled with charcoal, burying them in a grave that he had already dug on the island.

After that, Wang Ping began to draw a portrait of his parents based on his impression of them. Because he couldn't remember his father's face clearly, he sketched the features according to the contours of his own face.

After the portrait was completed, Wang Ping faced the portrait and began sculpting a statue of his parents

He had read many miscellaneous books and learned many skills from them. Although his sculpting was nothing in comparison to those master sculptors in the mortal world, sculpting a portrait wasn't too difficult.

It took him almost a whole night to finish carving the stone statues of his parents and place them in front of the newly built tomb.

On a stone boat, a fisherman was holding a fishing net, preparing to cast it to catch fish, while his wife was steering the boat, looking at the man with a smile on her face.

"Father, Mother, you can rest here from now on. Your child will be visiting you often."

Wang Ping raised his hand and gently caressed the sculpture of his parents that he had painstakingly carved with his knife. Tears began to flow from his eyes once again.