Little Alpaca – Chapter 184

Volume 5: Tribulation of All Beings

A Bold Idea.

To this day, Yi Qiu had not gotten a definite answer from the System about whether she could ultimately stay in this world.

In other words, even if she gave up her life in her original world, she might not be able to continue living in this one.

            

This uncertainty made her unable to stop herself from worrying about gains and losses.​¹

But often, what you were willing to part with and what you were not were completely out of your control.

During the days of waiting, Yi Qiu successfully made a lot of dumplings with You Yan’s help.

            

She had claimed she knew how to make dumplings, but when it was time to actually do it, she discovered that making dumplings in ancient times wasn’t as simple as she had thought.

There were no meat grinders here, no ready-made dumpling wrappers. The filling had to be chopped by hand, and the wrappers had to be rolled out by hand.

Yi Qiu was used to being lazy. When she went home for holidays and festivals, even if she had to help make dumplings, the most she would do was mix the filling and adjust the seasoning, then sit with her family and wrap them all night. She had never actually done any of the prep work.

            

Fortunately, You Yan knew how to do everything. Yi Qiu only had to mention what she needed, and You Yan would prepare everything according to her request.

That day, she didn’t cultivate, and You Yan stayed by her side the entire time. They sat together, and from clumsy to skilled, they wrapped dumplings for a whole afternoon.

You Yan learned very quickly. At first, the dumplings she wrapped were lopsided and crooked, and she was much slower than Yi Qiu. But it wasn’t long before she was wrapping them both quickly and well.

            

“How do you learn so fast!” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but exclaim.

“How is it?” You Yan raised an eyebrow and asked, her face written all over with the three big words: “Praise me now.”

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but laugh and said with an exaggerated expression, “Wow, you’re so amazing!”

            

The next second, You Yan rapped her on the head with a knuckle.

This bird woman’s habit of getting handsy​² really never changes!

But it was fine. For the sake of the bird woman letting her freeload​³ every day, she could still tolerate these minor flaws.

            

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After Lesser Cold,​⁴ Yi Qiu finally succeeded in hiding her ears and tail and cultivating a pair of human legs.

She still couldn’t fully control the immense spiritual power within the Blood Condensation Pearl, but it was much better than before.

To test the results of her recent cultivation, Yi Qiu shamelessly went to Huamo Pavilion to find someone for a casual spar. Only then did she discover with pleasant surprise that she was no longer a little demon that an ordinary cultivating disciple could easily deal with.

            

Although she was still incredibly weak to You Yan, she was nevertheless overjoyed.

Because now, when she encountered danger, she at least had some ability to protect herself. She wouldn’t be like before, only able to hide behind You Yan and watch as You Yan was constantly distracted trying to protect her.

You Yan’s injuries had also improved a great deal.

            

A few days ago, Yi Qiu had asked You Yan how her injuries and spiritual power were recovering.

You Yan’s response was that her injuries were fine, and her spiritual power had recovered to seventy percent.

Time was limited, so Yi Qiu didn’t dare hope for more. Compared to the roughly fifty percent she had when they first encountered the Huodou, the thirty-odd percent when rescuing people at the Xianlu Sect, or the just over twenty percent she had left when leaving Snake Mountain, having seventy percent now was enough to be gratifying.

            

During this time, Yi Qiu would occasionally ask the System how Luo Mingyuan and Jiang Yuyao were doing.

The answer the System gave was naturally that everything was normal, after which it would conscientiously spit out the name of a place she had never even heard of.

And the days in the mortal realm slipped by, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-January.

            

In a few more days, this year’s winter would welcome its final solar term.

There were less than twenty days of peace left for the mortal realm.

Every day, Yi Qiu waited. She waited for Jian Li and Yue Zhuo to arrive as promised, or for Luo Mingyuan and Jiang Yuyao to rush back from their travels.

            

She began to ask the System for the protagonists’ location from time to time. Eventually, the System made a suggestion.

【Host, you don’t actually need to ask so frequently. If you don’t find me annoying, I can provide you with the protagonists’ location on schedule, three times a day!】

“I guess that’s fine…”

            

Yi Qiu agreed just like that.

Because she knew this wasn’t about whether she found the System annoying; it was that the System had gotten annoyed with her asking.

From that day on, every day during her meals, she would suddenly hear a 【Ding—】, followed by a mechanical girlish voice appearing, seriously reporting to her the whereabouts of the male and female leads at that very moment.

            

Sometimes she was drinking soup, sometimes she was picking up food with her chopsticks, and sometimes she was even chatting idly with You Yan.

But no matter what she was doing, when that ding sounded, she would stop and listen carefully until the System finished its sentence.

Then, upon returning to her senses, she would be met with You Yan’s speechless gaze.

            

It was such a sudden and strange feeling.

However, these days did not last for long.

On the third day after Great Cold,​⁵ during lunch, Yi Qiu heard the words “Moshui City” from the System.

            

In that instant, she leaped up from the table.

You Yan glanced at her, a flicker of not-so-obvious surprise in her eyes.

She asked softly, “What are you being so jumpy​⁶ about?”

            

Yi Qiu quickly pressed her hands on the table, looked at You Yan, and said seriously, “The System just told me that Luo Mingyuan and Jiang Yuyao are back!”

Hearing this, You Yan raised her eyebrows slightly, then said calmly, “It’s about time they came back. They agreed with the Fuzhu and the Huodou to meet here at the end of winter.”

Yi Qiu nodded. “Of course I know that, but when you can’t see them, you just can’t feel certain, you know…”

            

“Eat first,” You Yan said. “If they set out during the day, they should have just arrived at Moshui. It will take some time for them to get back here. You can’t wait on an empty stomach.”

“Mm!” Yi Qiu nodded and sat back down.

She was rather absent-minded​⁷ throughout this meal. You Yan saw it but didn’t say anything more.

            

It was bitterly cold on the mountain peak, and the accumulated snow had yet to melt.

Not long after lunch, Yi Qiu draped a cloak over her shoulders and sat on the roof, spacing out.

The distant mountains were still a vast expanse of white. The people of this time had no idea that after the winter snow melted, the colors of spring would not return.

            

The disciples of the Xianlu Sect didn’t know either, because the Three Venerables didn’t want them to fall into a premature panic.

However, the Xianlu Sect had already taken advantage of the fact that the grain merchants hadn’t started raising prices to stockpile a large amount of food.

This had been Jiang Yuyao’s suggestion before she left.

            

She said that if spring truly didn’t come, at least the Xianlu Sect could help the ordinary people of Moshui City a little when times were at their hardest.

The Xianlu Sect had never been very wealthy. If the Huodou hadn’t burned the mountain, and if Xun Chi hadn’t left behind many jade stones from Ao’an Mountain as compensation for rebuilding the sect, they really wouldn’t have been able to afford this expense.

This was the wealth of immortals, and after rebuilding the Xianlu Sect, they had originally planned to return it to them. Unfortunately, Xun Chi had left abruptly and they never saw him again, so it had been kept safe. Who would have thought it could be used at a time like this.

            

Although the wealth of immortals shouldn’t be used lightly, given the current situation, they really couldn’t be so particular. Any debts could be repaid in other ways after the great tribulation was over.

Besides, Xun Chi didn’t care about these things at all. After all, Ao’an Mountain had more than enough of such jade, and he didn’t need to rely on the money of the mortal realm to live.

Unfortunately, while Moshui City had someone to save it, the common people in other places had no one.

            

Now, she could only hope that all of this would pass quickly and that spring would arrive soon.

“So this is where you went. On the roof.”

You Yan’s voice suddenly came from the courtyard. Yi Qiu couldn’t help but snap out of her daze and look down at her with a small smile.

            

You Yan leaped into the air and landed steadily beside Yi Qiu, sitting down with her on the roof.

She followed Yi Qiu’s gaze into the distance and, after a long while, asked softly, “Are you waiting for them to come back?”

“Yeah.”

            

“So impatient?”

“It’s not that I’m impatient, it’s just that the closer it gets to spring, the more unsettled I feel.” As Yi Qiu spoke, she worried that You Yan would be unhappy and quickly added, “I really don’t mistrust you, but I just can’t control myself. I can’t help but be anxious…”

“Mm, I know,” You Yan nodded.

            

“I was thinking, once everyone is here, we can properly discuss what to do next,” Yi Qiu said.

“You don’t have a plan in mind?” You Yan asked in return.

Yi Qiu thought about it and felt that was more or less it, so she nodded earnestly.

            

“I don’t. Because I don’t know what you plan to do, and you’ve never told me.” Yi Qiu said in a small voice, a hint of helplessness in her tone. “You never tell me what your plans are. If I don’t know, how can I not feel uncertain?”

“Then why don’t you ask?” You Yan couldn’t help but smile as she rubbed Yi Qiu’s head.

Yi Qiu looked down and pressed her lips together. “If I asked, would you tell me?”

            

You Yan nodded with an “mm.” “I would. Why wouldn’t I?”

Yi Qiu was stunned. It took her a good while to come to her senses, and she frowned. “But you wouldn’t before!”

“Did I?” You Yan asked.

            

“You did! You definitely did!” Yi Qiu replied with certainty.

After a brief silence, You Yan shook her head and smiled. “That was before. Before is not the same as now.”

Yi Qiu took a deep breath. “Alright, then tell me now. What are you planning to do?”

            

As she spoke, she turned to face You Yan, her eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge.

In any case, she couldn’t think of any solution. Right now, she just really wanted to know what on earth You Yan planned to do in this situation.

“You said that the Fei is born from the suffering and hardships of all living beings, that all the pain and resentment in the mortal realm is its source of power, and that these emotions form its physical body and soul, right?”

            

“Right!” Yi Qiu frowned. “If spring doesn’t arrive, it will certainly be reborn. And its rebirth will intensify the suffering in the mortal realm, and this suffering will make it even stronger… Without the Fei, the mortal realm could hold on for a while longer. But once the Fei is here, it won’t be long before the mortal realm becomes like the apocalypse.”

You Yan nodded and said calmly, “That’s simple then.”

“Simple?”

            

“Mm.” You Yan’s gaze drifted to the distance as she spoke calmly. “We can wait at the place where it’s about to be reborn, set up a barrier and a killing formation,​⁸ and kill it the moment it comes out.”

“Huh?” Yi Qiu’s eye couldn’t help but twitch. “But… but I don’t know where it’s born. The novel never said.”

“It doesn’t matter.” You Yan smiled, raising an eyebrow with confidence. “Where I let it be born is where it will have to be born.”

            

“What?”

The way You Yan said that, it was like she was its mother.

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The author has something to say:

            

Oh right, forgot to say, the song is done. It should be released tomorrow, it’ll be on Weibo.​⁹

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