Toward the Xiongnu, aside from demanding that no troops be stationed within three hundred li of the border shared with the Northern Highlands for five years, Jun Beiyue also demanded one hostage — the Gu Nanny!

The Gu Nanny had abandoned her post without authorization, already a wanted criminal pursued by the Xiongnu royal house. After being lured by Baili Weisheng to the Xiongnu sacred altar and suffering grave injuries there, she still hadn’t fully recovered to this day!

The position of Chief Priestess of the Xiongnu had long since been filled by someone else. If not for Mihan Mude’er’s persistent pleading on her behalf, by Xiongnu law the Gu Nanny would already have been executed long ago — she’d have had no chance of surviving until now!

The Gu Nanny had originally intended to rely on Mihan Mude’er’s influence to travel to the Great Zhou capital and find Baili Weisheng herself — but who could have expected Baili Weisheng would open the gates to the Poison Beast World so quickly, and even less that Jun Beiyue would wake up so soon!

With Jun Beiyue explicitly naming the Gu Nanny as his hostage, Mihan Mude’er, still only a crown prince, had no way to protect her at all — and given the current balance of power, even the Xiongnu king himself couldn’t have protected her either!

With no other choice, Mihan Mude’er had no option but to personally deliver his aunt to Great Zhou himself!

Unable to walk on her own, the Gu Nanny was carried up on a palanquin. Though received with the formal courtesy due a friendly envoy, in truth she was nothing more than a hostage left behind by a defeated nation in the hands of the victor.

Xiong Bao lay flat against a roof beam, with Zizhu the Great Beast shrunk down to the size of a palm-sized ball of fur, perched atop his head.

Child and beast watched and listened for quite a while, genuinely unable to make heads or tails of such a complicated proceeding.

Xiong Bao stared at the Gu Nanny, asking doubtfully, “Zizhu, can this old granny save Scholar Uncle?”

“Your Scholar Uncle was cultivated by her. If she has no way to help him, then no one does,” Zizhu said with feeling.

“Then why go through all this trouble — why make her the hostage? Wouldn’t it make more sense to make that big brother the hostage instead?”

Zizhu followed the direction Xiong Bao was pointing and realized the “big brother” in question was none other than Mihan Mude’er!

Making the crown prince the hostage?

Goodness, this child was even more ruthless, even more far-sighted than his own father!

The elderly Xiongnu king already looked like a man with one foot in the grave. If the crown prince were taken hostage, cultivating a new successor wouldn’t be easy at all.

The next generation of the Xiongnu nation would never be able to recover!

Though such a move would be utterly ruthless, from the standpoint of national interest, it was actually the wisest choice by far.

“That’s right, why not keep the crown prince instead?” Zizhu wondered aloud, puzzled. That Gu Nanny could easily be captured through other means — what a waste of an opportunity!

But just then, a youthful voice drifted over from nearby. “You don’t even understand something this simple — what a fool!”

Who was that?

Xiong Bao and Zizhu both startled, whipping around to look, only to find a young apprentice pharmacist, six or seven years old, who had appeared beside them at some point, sitting on the same roof beam, his slender, evenly proportioned little legs swinging back and forth.

Xiong Bao looked at the boy’s face, then at his swinging legs, and said, displeased, “Who are you calling a fool!”

“You!” the young apprentice said, perfectly at ease.

Xiong Bao immediately narrowed his eyes, baring a set of gleaming white little tiger fangs. “Say that again!”

Seeing Xiong Bao’s furious expression, the young apprentice only scoffed disdainfully — could a baby this small possibly eat someone? Better to just sit quietly and listen to him explain the state of the realm!

Carrying on his master’s tradition of all-knowing prophetic swagger, the young apprentice arched an eyebrow and looked down at the little one condescendingly. “Bear baby, something this simple, and you still don’t get it — aren’t you just a fo—”

But before he could finish the word, the young apprentice froze solid, watching as the white ball of fur atop Xiong Bao’s head suddenly began to grow — not just growing, but revealing an unmistakably fierce, ferocious qilin head!

The young apprentice stared, utterly dumbfounded, his whole demeanor completely thrown!

He’d been watching Xiong Xiaobao for days now, having always assumed that ball of fur was nothing more than a mode of transportation — but what he was seeing now… this was clearly a savage, terrifying beast!

In an instant, the young apprentice realized he’d picked the wrong target to provoke!

Xiong Bao casually grabbed a fistful of Zizhu’s white fur and pulled it aside, asking in a low voice, “Zizhu, this one’s the same generation as us, right?”

“Yes, same generation,” Zizhu confirmed with a nod.

“Then I won’t hold back.” Xiong Bao said this with the utmost seriousness.

“Mm!” Zizhu nodded again.

With that, Xiong Bao mimicked the young apprentice’s earlier condescending posture, crossing his arms and leaning lazily against a pillar, arching an eyebrow and looking the boy up and down with exaggerated patience. Ever since leaving the Poison Beast World, he’d only ever encountered grown humans — this was his very first time meeting another human child!

The apprentice looked to be about five or six, delicately handsome with fine, elegant features, slender build, and two little bun-shaped buns of hair atop his head — quite adorable, in fact, so long as he kept his mouth shut.

Having thoroughly sized him up, Xiong Bao finally spoke. “What were you saying about a fool just now? Say it again.”

“Fool… I meant I’m the fool, I’m the fool, blind as a bat, unable to recognize greatness, heh heh…” the young apprentice immediately backpedaled, reading the situation and shifting course at once, his glib tongue clearly a skill inherited straight from his master.

Satisfied, Xiong Xiaobao nodded, climbed onto Zizhu’s back, crossed his arms in a thoroughly grown-up manner, and demanded, “Who are you?”

“Xiaosheng, disciple of Baili Weisheng, taking my master’s surname,” the young apprentice answered promptly.

At those words, Xiong Bao’s eyes went wide. “One of us?”

The apprentice nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, yes! That was just a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!”

“Then what’s your name?” Xiong Bao asked eagerly. Surrounded by adults all the time, finding a playmate his own age was rare enough to be genuinely exciting.

“Xiaosheng,” the apprentice answered.

Unfortunately, Xiong Bao misheard him. “What’s this about a small life? I asked for your name!”

“I’m called Xiaosheng — Baili Xiaosheng!” Baili Xiaosheng, still not understanding what Xiong Bao meant, hurriedly repeated himself.

Xiong Bao rolled his eyes hard. “Just ‘Small Life’?”

“Yes, just Xiaosheng,” Baili Xiaosheng confirmed firmly.

“That sounds terrible…” Xiong Bao said, clearly unimpressed.

Baili Xiaosheng grumbled silently to himself — surely still more poetic than “Xiong Bao,” Bear Treasure.

His master had said that when he’d found him abandoned by the roadside, dawn had just broken, and nearby someone had been playing a sheng flute — so he’d named him Xiaosheng, “Dawn Sheng.”

Of course, he only grumbled this silently in his head. Out loud, Baili Xiaosheng only smiled and said, “Master gave me the name.”

To his surprise, Xiong Bao suddenly asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?”

At those words, even Zizhu the Great Beast nearly toppled off the roof beam. The young apprentice in front of them was clearly a boy — what kind of question was that for the little master to ask, downright insulting!

Baili Xiaosheng immediately bristled. “Then are you a boy or a girl?”

“I’m a boy,” Xiong Bao said, quite certain of that at least.

A flicker of nervousness that no one noticed flashed through Baili Xiaosheng’s eyes, but he pressed on with full confidence. “I’m a boy too, and I’m older than you — you have to call me big brother!”

Xiong Bao paid no attention whatsoever to Baili Xiaosheng’s reaction, grinning slyly, an expression that clearly said you’re dreaming. He deliberately sidestepped the whole “big brother” issue entirely, pointing instead down below at the Gu Nanny, currently exchanging pleasantries with his father, and asked seriously, “Tell me — why did Daddy pick her as the hostage?”