Today should have been a joyous day for the Li family.

  Every time someone achieved a breakthrough, the members would gather together, rejoig and celebrating.

  There would be a creature resembling a pet pig, carrying the Li family's children on its back as it dashed around, promising them that year, it would definitely build a spirit pond in the Silver Iron Forest for them, so they could grow tall and strong.

  For twenty years, the ughter of the old pig and the children had been a stant source of annoyance for Li Wei.

  But today, as the Primordial Blood Tree underwent its transformation, the old pig was o be seen, and the children's ughter was absent.

  The warmth brought by the red snow gradually faded, and the Li family members seemed to have beortals once again, shivering in the midwinter cold as the wind whipped through the air.

  Xu Cuihua g to Li Dalong's arm. Seeing Li Tianyi in the distance, braving the wind and snow as he frantically rushed back towards the family, she could no longer hold back her tears. Burying her head in her husband's chest, she felt his heartbeat momentarily stop, then his muscles slowly tense up. This was the only way she could keep Li Dalong calm.

  Li Yaozu and Li Yunbing stood shoulder to shoulder, father and son. They watched Li Tianyi's return from afar, their brows furrowed in unison, the air around them growing heavy with tension.

  Their gazes fell upon Li Yaotie and his wife.

  Bai Rourou's eyes fshed with fear. She shook her head in disbelief, her body swaying before plummeting from the sky. Yet, Li Yaotie didn't catch his wife. Despite the crimson ndscape, Li Yaotie's world seemed to be shrouded in dark clouds, all color draining away. The fire spirit he had cultivated from years of bcksmithing bzed fiercely as if attempting to illumihe world.

  But the fire emanating from him brought no warmth to the Li family; the winter chill deepened.

  "This 't be happening, it simply 't be."

  Li Yundou's eyes were bloodshot, his veins bulging. He clearly uood what he was witnessing, yet his subscious refused to accept the reality before him.

  At this moment, the Seven Ironcds were unusually silent. Each of them stared bnkly in Li Tianyi's dire.

  That child, dressed in bck, crossed the distinct boundary between the crimson-stained Li family residend the white snow outside. He was carrying a massive obje his back, his body bent us weight. Blood dripped steadily along his flight path, but he had no time to worry about that. His face torted in anguish; he cried out towards his family.

  He screamed for the family's physis to e out, for the elders to go to the Thunderfire Demonic Cave and bring back his Sed Grandmother, renowned for her medical skills, and for the elders to fetch life-saving pills.

  Anyone could see his hysteria, the madness and despair of this momeg itself deep into the hearts of all who wit.

  "Ah!!!"

  Someo out a guttural cry. It was impossible to tell who.

  Li Wei felt the chill of this winter. It was hard to distinguish whether snow or blood was falling from the sky. Regardless of the season, this year would be devoid of warmth for the desdants of the Li family.

  Like the Primordial Blood Tree, he closed his eyes, his jaw ched tight.

  They all saw it: Li Tianyi, dressed in bck, returning from outside, carrying the Pig Demon King's lifeless body on his back!

  And they heard it, too, Li Tianyi's desperate cries.

  But they saw even more.

  The Primordial Blood Tree had not only glimpsed the future, where the earth would be as red as the snow today, but it had also captured a fragment of the past. The red snow falling from the sky, imbued with the tree's mystical power, allowed the Li family members to witness everything.

  The Pig Demon King, who had rarely ventured beyond the Silver Iron Forest throughout its life, stepped into the Li family residehen, during this year, it journeyed out into the world time and time again, searg for spirit objects for the Li family's childreurning home each time with its treasures, determio personally struct a spirit pond for them.

  It eagerly anticipated the future children of the Li family, hoping they would grow tall and strong, even surpassing the Seven Iron stature.

  This was its final journey beyond the Silver Iron Forest, its st return home.

  ...

  In the heart of the Silver Iron Forest, a vast pit had been dug. Core fire bzed within it. All the spirit beasts of the Silver Iron Forest gathered, witnessing the fall of a geion's Demon King, its body turning to ashes.

  Li Yaotie's lineage k, bowing towards the tomb nearing pletion.

  Bai Rourou had awakened from her a, only to faint again several times, uo accept the reality.

  The Seven Ironcd, who had never shed a tear eveheir limbs were broken in their youth, now wept like children in despair.

  The adult desdants were sobbing untrolbly. Even the younger ones uood that they might never see the Pig Demon King again.

  "Great-Grandmother, what... what happeo Grandpa?"

  The two-year-old child tugged at Bai Rourou's sleeve, a sudden sense of loss washing over him. He didn't uand why his grandfather was asleep, why everyone in the family was g as if they had suffered a great fall. A feeling of emptiness crept into his heart, a sadness he couldn't prehend slowly rising from the very ground of the Silver Iron Forest, and he sobbed along with the adults.

  Xu Cuihua gently stroked the child's head. "Yrandpa... he's tired. He o sleep for a very, very long time."

  Li Wei, despite having achieved his breakthrough, didn't return.

  He witnessed everything. Although he had never met the Pig Demon King in person, he had been its pyful iions with the children ever si became a part of the Li family.

  Geion after geion, the Pig Demon King had shown more affe for the children thahe elders of the Li family.

  Li Dalong and Xu Cuihua had grown distant from their childreo the age gap, but not the Pig Demon King. It remembered every child's heir likes, and their desires.

  He looked into the distance.

  There y a spirit pond. For this spirit pond, the Pig Demon King had exhausted almost all its life savings and... ultimately, its life.

  During the Pig Demon King's burial, the Li family found a spatial ring in its mouth, taining some rare spirit objects. Ihe ring were also the materials needed for the subsequent stru of a structure called the "Heavenly h Spirit Pond."

  The game didn't give any notification about the Pig Demon King's death; after all, it wasn't a blood retive of the Li family.

  Yet, whether it was Li Wei or any other member of the Li family, they all sidered the Pig Demon King as one of their own.