Fate Trading System – Chapter 93

Plan A

Rise in Another World 5

Crisis

After crossing the single-plank bridge and leaving the swamp, a new world unfolds.

            

The birdsong and fragrant flowers make it as beautiful as a paradise on earth.

This transition is so abrupt that it’s hard to react to.

Just moments ago, it was an eerie and terrifying swamp, but after crossing a boundary, this side is a paradise of birdsong and fragrant flowers, like a pure utopia, even with a lake.

            

This doesn’t provide psychological comfort or allow one to relax, but instead makes one more vigilant.

Su Xin carefully observes everything around, trying to discover some clues.

But she finds that everything around is so natural and perfect, with the wind creating ripples on the lake’s surface.

            

Su Xin walks in the direction of the small path, continuing to walk and walk until she walks out.

Su Xin is completely bewildered, as there are no dangers, nor any benefits. It’s as if that place was truly just a resting place for people.

Su Xin can’t understand it, but she doesn’t need to understand. She won’t go back to look again for now, but instead chooses to continue moving forward.

            

Without a destination, she just keeps walking in the direction of the path.

Until she encounters a fork in the road.

Su Xin looks at the fork in front of her: upper, middle, and lower paths. Each path looks exactly the same, and it’s unclear where they lead.

            

Out of habit, Su Xin chooses the middle path and walks in that direction.

Right now, she wants to find a place rich in fire elements to cultivate; she doesn’t want anything else.

However, things don’t seem to go smoothly, as Su Xin realizes she’s lost.

            

Of course, she’s not directionally challenged, and her sense of direction is actually very good, but every time she ends up back at the starting point, at those three forks in the road.

She has walked each path, but in the end, she always returns here.

Su Xin feels that the problem lies with this place. After all three paths behave the same way, she leaves markers on the paths she’s taken and starts again from the middle path. However, when she returns, she finds that her markers have disappeared.

            

Su Xin refuses to accept this. She starts again from the middle path, but still, there are no signs of her markers, as if it’s a completely new path.

It’s as if there’s one path with three forks, but each of the three paths leads to another set of three forks, like a tree diagram in mathematics, endlessly branching downwards.

Nonsense, what kind of secret realm would be designed like this?

            

Moreover, it’s very unscientific. If it were really like this, there should be three paths behind her as well, but there aren’t. It’s too strange.

Su Xin blows a puff of air towards her forehead, making her bangs flutter.

It seems this is probably some kind of illusion. The only real things are herself and that system in her mind.

            

Master Fourteen, is there a way to break this illusion?

【Mm-hmm.】

Why didn’t you say so earlier, watching me go in circles here?

            

【You didn’t ask.】

Oh, that’s true.

Su Xin looks coldly indifferent, while Fourteen looks innocent.

            

Based on its rigorous calculations, Fourteen records and analyzes each place, comparing frame rates to find differences, and then locates a critical point.

So, any supernatural or surreal existence can’t hide from ultra-high-tech analysis.

Su Xin breathes a sigh of relief and uses all of her spiritual power to attack that spot.

            

The entire place shatters like a broken mirror, cracking bit by bit, revealing the true face of reality.

Now it’s already dark, but when she was going in circles earlier, it was clearly still daylight, as if the sun hadn’t moved even a bit.

Su Xin rubs her chin, now needing to find a place to stay first.

            

Several days have passed, and after Su Xin killed a few small monsters in close combat, she finally found a place rich in magical elements.

Coincidentally, the small monsters Su Xin had been fighting these past few days were indeed small, about the size of rabbits, cats, and dogs.

But today she encountered an animal like a saber-toothed tiger, chasing her relentlessly. It looked extremely hungry. Su Xin still had strength left, but she didn’t plan to fight the saber-toothed tiger head-on. She hadn’t achieved her main goal yet and just wanted to find a quiet place to cultivate, but there were always so many troubles.

            

Su Xin climbed a tree, and after not staying there for long, she saw a snake hanging nearby.

Su Xin felt that she hadn’t entered a secret realm of the magical world, but rather a combination of a tropical jungle and the African savanna.

Su Xin exhaled, jumping down from the tree. The saber-toothed tiger pounced towards her. Su Xin rolled on the ground twice, suddenly feeling the ground beneath her soften, and she fell into a hole.

            

The hole wasn’t large, with only a faint light coming through from the top. At the bottom of the hole was a narrow passage just wide enough for one person to pass through. Su Xin looked up at the still-roaring saber-toothed tiger and the large snake lurking nearby, then chose to walk towards the secret passage.

On the other side of the passage, the view suddenly opened up to a place like a huge desolate mountain. What made Su Xin happy was that the magical elements here were very abundant, especially fire elements.

This mountain seems to be a dormant volcano.

            

Su Xin checked her surroundings and found no danger. Apart from herself, it seemed there was nothing else alive here, so she sat down on the ground and entered a meditative state.

The fire elements here were exceptionally active, compared to those outside, as if they were particularly uninhibited, adhering to Su Xin.

Fire elements are primarily associated with ferocity, and Su Xin’s hands were not clean of blood, so she was very compatible with the fire elements here.

            

In the days that followed, Su Xin continuously practiced, absorbing and expelling qi, becoming close to those fire elements, making them her own. Every day she would enter a meditative state, and when tired, she would exit and use items from her storage ring. When sleepy, she would simply collapse on the ground to sleep.

Due to the highly active fire elements in this place, it was constantly in a high-temperature state. Even without sleep, one wouldn’t catch a cold. Since Su Xin was originally a fire-type magician, she didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable in this temperature.

After all, this was just a dead volcano or a dormant active volcano. If it were to actually erupt, Su Xin certainly wouldn’t be able to withstand that level of heat.

            

After Su Xin had temporarily absorbed all the fire elements inside, she planned to leave.

She had taken away all the active elements in the air, and she didn’t have time to wait for those that were regenerating. She planned to come back later if there was a chance; this was a good place.

Now, sixteen days had passed, with only four days left before departure.

            

This was the result recorded by Fourteen for Su Xin.

Su Xin felt that having a system was really useful. While providing free services, she could use the system as a GPS, calculator, and recorder.

Indeed, very useful.

            

Su Xin passed through that narrow secret passage, returning to the small pit.

The small pit looked the same as it did more than ten days ago, with faint light shining through, and soft grass covering it above. If one wasn’t paying attention, it would be completely invisible.

Actually, this point was very strange. When she fell down, the green grass covering the top should have fallen along with her movement, reaching the bottom of the pit, but it didn’t.

            

When Su Xin fell down, it didn’t happen.

Su Xin touched her hand, feeling it was quite odd.

She climbed up and then stopped nearby.

            

She really didn’t expect that the big brother who resembled a saber-toothed tiger would be so persistent, actually still not having left this area.

The saber-toothed tiger heard the movement and roared towards Su Xin, its whole body suddenly emitting a golden light.

Clearly, this was a metal-element beast.

            

Metal-element magicians are rarer compared to the general ones, because metal elements are even more inert than earth elements, not very close to humans.

Metal: heavy, sharp, and cannot be rushed.

The defense of the metal element is even higher than that of the earth element, very troublesome.

            

A couple of days ago when this beast brother was chasing Su Xin, it hadn’t used its abilities yet.

Su Xin blinked, feeling she could stand her ground.

She couldn’t beat it more than ten days ago, but now it might be different.

            

A direct confrontation thus began. The beast also sensed that Su Xin’s power had grown stronger, so from the very beginning, it enveloped itself in a protective shield.

Su Xin guided the fire elements to attack it, still feeling somewhat unaccustomed.

Because she always fought in close combat, but magicians are for long-range attacks. Of course, close combat isn’t impossible for magicians, it’s just that when others can raise their hand from afar and instantly kill someone, compared to having to get up close to kill, the latter has much less prestige.

            

Magicians are all high-prestige beings.

Su Xin didn’t go for a one-hit kill at first, but instead used this beast to practice, training her long-range combat abilities.

That beast, being toyed with back and forth by her, opened its mouth wide showing its teeth, displaying a very dissatisfied look.

            

A tiger’s roar echoed across the sky, as if foretelling something.

The beast resembling a saber-toothed tiger pounced to bite, but Su Xin avoided it, continuing to tease it leisurely with fire elements, training her control over the fire elements.

That saber-toothed tiger seemed to have run out of patience. It disregarded the fire light blocking its way, attempting to break through the fire wall and attack directly with its bite.

            

A cry of pain came from the beast’s mouth, but instead of retreating, it continued to pounce at Su Xin.

The golden light emitting from its body extinguished the fires that were continuously burning it.

Su Xin nimbly dodged to the side, throwing a fireball at the beast.

            

Just as Su Xin was preparing to quickly end the battle and find the next prey to practice on, she suddenly sensed something was amiss.

She looked around and twitched the corner of her mouth.

One by one, beasts identical to the saber-toothed tiger-like creature she had just been toying with appeared faintly among the trees.

            

They walked out, stepping on the soft grass, making sounds.

Their eyes were all golden, clearly indicating they were all metal-element beasts.

Perhaps this beast’s entire species is metal-element, Su Xin thought.

            

She took a deep breath. One, she could handle with ease; two, she could manage skillfully; three, she would be willing but unable. Now there were at least eight or nine here.

Su Xin moved towards the hole she remembered, wanting to go down again to avoid the situation and come back up later.

But when her foot touched that piece of land, it was no longer a pit covered with soft grass, but solid earth.

            

Su Xin couldn’t possibly have remembered wrong, and Fourteen also confirmed her thoughts in her mind. So there was only one possibility: the hole had disappeared.

This is like seeing a ghost.

Su Xin swallowed, looking at the beasts surrounding her.

            

She didn’t know if making a quick escape would still work at this point.

Su Xin looked at her blocked escape route, sighed, and took out her sword from her storage ring.

It was a sharp, good sword, although a bit thin.

            

Su Xin covered it with fire elements, making the snow-white sword appear to have a layer of red light, with a fiery special effect.

Su Xin flourished the sword, and a fierce battle thus began.

One, two, three…

            

Su Xin nimbly dodged between many beasts. She stepped on the back of one, swinging her sword with a fiery aura, scorching the fur of several beasts.

A sword should be used for slashing and thrusting, but Su Xin couldn’t afford to pay attention to so much.

In the dense state of wild beasts, she could only change from thrusting to chopping.

            

To be able to chop off the head of a beast was one down.

The fall of their companions and the bloodshed made the other beasts even more frenzied. They attacked Su Xin like mad, even if it meant breaking through the fire wall.

Su Xin’s movements had already slowed down. The spiritual power within her body was exhausted, and she had temporarily used up all the fire elements in the air.

            

Su Xin was panting heavily, continuing to wearily wield the sword in her hand.

She told herself she couldn’t fall down. Once she stumbled or fell, she would be torn apart and killed by these beasts swarming her.

There were still five beasts alive.

            

Su Xin was covered in blood, even her face wasn’t spared.

Fortunately, she didn’t have any wounds on her body yet; all the blood stains on her were from these beasts.

Although sometimes a dagger might be more handy, its range is after all small, requiring one to get very, very close to use it.

            

So close, Su Xin was about to be bitten to death.

【Host, do you need help?】

Is it free?

            

【It’s not.】

Then no.

【But…】

            

Fourteen was a bit stunned, seriously, even at a time like this.

Su Xin gritted her teeth and attacked one of the monster beasts, bending her body and swinging down forcefully, causing another beast head to fall to the ground.

Su Xin, in pain, swung her left hand and killed another monster beast with a backhand strike.

            

Su Xin looked at her deeply wounded left hand that was bleeding non-stop, feeling somewhat relieved, as she had almost thought this hand would be lost.

Her lower leg had also just been bitten by another monster beast, tearing off a piece of flesh.

The wound was so deep that bone was visible. Su Xin exhaled and quickly stuffed medicine into her mouth, wanting to recover some strength.

            

Her strength seemed to have been completely drained, not even a bit remained.

The wounds on her arm and lower leg were bleeding profusely. The medicine Su Xin had just taken effectively stopped those wounds from continuing to bleed, but the intense pain from being torn and bitten still persisted.

【Host, do you really not need…】

            

Shut up.

Su Xin stumbled, half-kneeling on the ground, using her sword to support her body.

Her hair was disheveled, emanating a tragic aura.

            

There were still three monster beasts left. They had been slowly retreating, but upon seeing the human who had been relentlessly slaughtering them about to fall, they howled excitedly and charged forward together.

Su Xin lowered her head, closed her eyes, tears mixed with blood dripping from her forehead to her chin, then falling onto the ground.

Fourteen thought that this mission was about to fail.

            

But at this moment, an unexpected change suddenly occurred.

Su Xin, who appeared completely drained and severely wounded, suddenly jumped up with her sword, swinging it forcefully, and cut down another one.

At the same time, her right shoulder was bitten, the flesh already pierced through. Su Xin endured the pain, switched the sword from her right hand to her left, slid her body down, pressed against the monster beast’s leg, and from bottom to top, pierced through the beast’s throat.

            

Blood splattered on Su Xin’s face, making it almost impossible for her to see anything in front of her.

Su Xin felt her injuries weren’t too severe yet, so she stood up with difficulty breathing.

A chunk of flesh had been bitten off her left arm, and the same for her right leg. Her right shoulder had been bitten through from the back, all the flesh torn away, exposing stark white bone. Unfortunately, even the bone had notches in it.

            

Su Xin’s right hand could no longer wield the sword. The only thing she felt relieved about was that it hadn’t reached her internal organs.

The air she exhaled and inhaled carried a rusty, bloody smell.

The monster beasts’ teeth were indeed extraordinary.

            

Su Xin struggled to open her eyes wide, trying to see everything in front of her clearly.

She dragged her sword, walking towards the only remaining monster beast.

That beast slowly retreated, then quickly broke into a run, disappearing into the dense forest.

            

Su Xin sneered, and in the next second, she fell down.

She sat on the ground, exhausted.

【Host, why… why are you pushing yourself so hard… If there had been one mistake, then…】

            

Su Xin licked her lips, revealing a slightly wicked smile.

She didn’t want to speak now, not even in her mind. The pain was about to numb all her nerves.

She couldn’t hold onto her sword; it fell to the ground beside her.

            

She was now completely covered in blood, exuding an aura of slaughter from head to toe.

Su Xin felt a bit cold and very tired.

She wanted to sleep.

            

But if she closed her eyes, she probably wouldn’t have the chance to open them again in this world.

Su Xin rested for a while, regaining some strength.

She took out all the medicines given to her by Duanmu Qiao from her storage ring.

            

She chewed and swallowed all the medicinal pills, and sprinkled all the powders that stop bleeding and prevent rotting flesh onto her wounds.

The healing ointment for small wounds… Su Xin looked at her arms and legs missing flesh, and put that thing away.

There were quite a few good things. After Su Xin consumed them all, she felt her wounds starting to burn.

            

Su Xin gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, waiting for this pain to pass. By the time it was over, she barely looked human anymore.

Her face was deathly pale, covered in sweat, and her lips were so white it was frightening.

Su Xin wanted to wash her face; she must be covered in blood now, sticky and uncomfortable.

            

Su Xin moved her body a bit and found that she could use her right hand again.

She looked at her back; the white bone was still exposed, looking terrifying.

But she could move now, and some of her strength had returned.

            

【Host, you’re amazing.】

Of course.

Su Xin licked her dry lips. They had been splattered with beast blood earlier, which she had licked clean. Later, while enduring the pain of applying medicine to her wounds, she had accidentally bitten her lips again.

            

Master Fourteen, I’d like to ask for your help.

【What is it?】

Help me see if there’s any water source nearby.

            

【Only the place we passed by a long time ago.】

Su Xin thought for a moment and remembered: that place that looked too beautiful to be safe, the place she had passed through unharmed.

There was a small lake there, with fish in it.

            

But the way was long, and there were unknown risks, so Su Xin gave up on the idea.

She took out a handkerchief and wiped her face bit by bit.

The drinking water in her water bag had been finished, and she had eaten all her food.

            

She put away her sword and walked towards the corpses of the monster beasts.

Su Xin took out a dagger and made a cut on the body of a recently dead monster beast.

The dagger was obtained by Su Xin from Fourteen in exchange for life points in the mermaid world. Being a system product, it was undoubtedly of excellent quality, and its sharpness was beyond question.

            

The still-warm blood of the monster beast gushed out, and Su Xin drank several large mouthfuls.

Her mouth was filled with a fishy taste, but she had to make do with this for now.

Su Xin sat in place, looking at the corpses strewn about, doing nothing, just resting, recovering her strength, and incidentally absorbing the fire elements that had just emerged in the air.

            

In just half a month, she had made tremendous progress, evolving from a small flame to a large fire, and even managing to create a fire wall.

But for Su Xin, it was still too weak; otherwise, these few wouldn’t have left her in such a miserable state.

She needed to become stronger, and then find her mother.

            

For dinner, Su Xin made do with what was available; she hadn’t eaten meat in a long time.

She cleared out a space, gathered some dry branches, and made a bonfire.

There was no water, so she couldn’t wash her hands.

            

Su Xin didn’t fuss over such details and carefully separated the monster beast’s fur from its meat.

The fat layer of the monster beast wasn’t too thick; it had a good balance of lean and fat.

These monster beasts exercised year-round. The leg that Su Xin had cut off had meat that was firm and springy, which tasted better.

            

Without seasonings, it would have to do.

Su Xin lit a fire using magic and began to eat after roasting the meat.

Su Xin made a blanket for herself from the monster beast’s fur.

            

The nighttime temperature here was unlike underground; it was very cold, with a big difference between day and night temperatures.

Moreover, Su Xin now had only a little magic stored up, not enough to spare, and she didn’t want to use it for keeping warm.

In fact, if it were an ordinary magician, say at Duanmu Yao’s level, they would have been eaten long ago.

            

Reciting a spell requires mumbling and dawdling, and the monster beasts wouldn’t give them time for that, they would pounce right away.

If one were to skip that step, spiritual power would be consumed very quickly.

Before falling asleep, Su Xin thought, it’s really a pity, many people probably want to kill her, but the mission is about to end, the mission time is almost up, and no one has encountered her. She’ll just say goodbye to those little friends first.

            

She didn’t care much about who was alive; she only cared about her own strength.

Su Xin fell asleep and didn’t wake up until noon the next day.

After a night and half a day, the fire elements in the air had replenished themselves.

            

Su Xin entered a meditative state. Due to her killing spree yesterday, the fire elements were more actively approaching her, and when absorbed and converted by her, they behaved very obediently.

Su Xin absorbed them contentedly until her brain began to throb slightly, only then did she exit that state.

She was in good condition now, internally at least, with strength and ample reserves.

            

It’s just that her external appearance was quite miserable, with flesh turned inside out, bones exposed, looking as if she might collapse and die at any moment.

Su Xin planned to leave this place; it wasn’t somewhere to linger. With so many monster beast corpses here, other beasts would surely be drawn by the scent, which would bring trouble.

Sometimes, people tend to encounter exactly what they’re thinking about, and what they least want to see somehow manages to appear right in front of them.

            

Su Xin saw Duanmu Yao and turned to leave immediately.

At this moment, she didn’t want to get into it with this idiot at all.

But Duanmu Yao wouldn’t let her have her way, using a ‘wind step’ to appear right in front of her.

            

Duanmu Yao had completed her mission five days ago. She was wandering around, trying to escape others’ sight while looking for treasures, and also seeing if she could find Su Xin.

Actually, she didn’t have much hope of finding Su Xin. She had initially intended to kill Su Xin in here, but the teleportation arrays were random, and she couldn’t encounter anyone. In these last two days, she was about to give up, but unexpectedly, heaven seemed to open its eyes and give her this opportunity, allowing her to see Su Xin in the final three or four days.

“I didn’t expect that you, trash, haven’t died yet in this state.”

            

Duanmu Yao said with a tsk, looking Su Xin up and down, and laughing loudly at Su Xin’s miserable appearance.

“How could I die when you’re not dead yet? It seems you’ve forgotten what you said before. Who’s the trash?”

“Today I’ll wipe out my previous shame. Don’t think you can defeat me with your devious tricks.”

            

Duanmu Yao stepped back two paces, glaring at Su Xin.

“Then come at me, trash.”

Su Xin tilted her head, returning the insult in full.

            

If you don’t take the road to heaven when it’s offered, don’t blame her.

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