Little Alpaca – Chapter 190
by Little PandaVolume 5: Tribulation of All Beings
Change.
That night, You Yan asked Yi Qiu if she missed home. Yi Qiu was silent for a long time before finally shaking her head.
Truthfully, she did miss it, more or less. Even though that home held little warmth for her, and even though her controlling family had brought her considerable stress, it wasn’t something she could just let go of without a trace of lingering attachment.
But Yi Qiu knew that while You Yan never said it aloud, she was always afraid that Yi Qiu might suddenly leave. And for some things, since she had already made a decision in her heart, she ought to appear more resolute so as not to let You Yan worry any longer.
“You Yan, I’m not going back. I’ve said it before: where you are is where I’ll be.” As Yi Qiu spoke, she leaned gently against You Yan’s shoulder and said softly, “You don’t have to keep asking meβasking if I miss home, asking if I’ll go back. I promised you. Once all the tasks are done, I’ll go back to the Demon Realm with youβ¦ You said you would marry me. I’ve always remembered that.”
Hearing this, You Yan didn’t say anything more. She just smiled faintly, wrapped her arm gently around Yi Qiu, and lifted her gaze to the fireworks over the distant city tower.
The fireworks of the Mortal Realm were always a fleeting splendor. When everything returned to silence, all that remained in the night sky was a wisp of light smoke that would soon dissipate.
On the rooftop, they leaned against each other, enjoying this particularly brief moment of tranquility after their long journey.
This was perhaps the simplest and quietest New Year1 Yi Qiu had ever had in her entire life, yet she cherished every single minute, every single second of it.
She loved this feeling, loved quietly leaning against You Yan. No words were needed; simply feeling each other’s heartbeats and breaths was enough to put her completely at ease.
After that night, she and You Yan once again set out on their journey.
Time flew by, always impossible to catch. In the blink of an eye, it was the Awakening of Insects.2
In previous years, during the Awakening of Insects, the yang energy between heaven and earth would surge, the Mortal Realm would begin to warm, and spring thunder would arrive with the rain. All of creation would display a vibrant life force at this time.
This should have been a good time to start the spring plowing, but people gradually discovered that this year was different from the last.
The Mortal Realm had lost all signs of spring. Although the weather was warming, the earth remained as it was in the dead of winter, with no signs of life in sight.
Some said it was a disaster sent down by the heavenly gods; others said it was demons and monsters entering the world.
But whatever it was, flowers, grass, and trees no longer grew. If they couldn’t plow in the spring, they couldn’t hope for a harvest in the autumn. Even if people could survive until autumn, or even through winter, what about next year?
Such a spring brought panic to the people. Everything was just as written in the book: the people’s panic attracted evil, and the evil wreaked havoc on the spiritually weak mortals. Subsequently, more and more terrifying rumors began to spread throughout the Mortal Realmβdespair rose from unease, bit by bit enveloping this world that had lost its Wood God.
Yi Qiu continued to follow by You Yan’s side, traveling through every town and village in the southern part of the Mortal Realm, leaving behind the Spiritual Seeds of the Fusang to reduce the Resentful Qi.
Despite this, she still witnessed a visible change in the Mortal Realm along the way.
Grain merchants everywhere had indeed begun to hoard and inflate grain prices. Things that common people could afford in the past were now so expensive that only the rich dared to even ask the price.
Some people sold their household livestock, or even their own daughters, for a pittance, just to reduce the burden on their families and exchange them for a small stockpile of grain in advance.
Those who could sell were the lucky ones. Some who couldn’t find a buyer could only slaughter their livestock for meat and abandon their children. Otherwise, the remaining people in the family wouldn’t survive the coming winter.
One day, Yi Qiu and You Yan happened to pass by a farmhouse and saw the head of the household holding a knife, about to kill his ox. His twelve or thirteen-year-old child was crying and shouting, trying to stop him, and a dispute broke out.
Yi Qiu couldn’t bear to watch from the side and stepped forward to mediate. “Your ox isn’t sick or old. If you keep it, can’t it still help you work and earn money?”
The uncle’s reply left her silent for a long time.
“Work? Plowing the fields or pulling a cart? Right now, not even a single weed will grow in these fields. How can we grow anything to eat? I watched this ox grow up, you think I want to kill it? It’s useless now. Even if it could do some work, the money it earns isn’t enough to buy foodβ¦ Food is so expensive now, and how much does it have to eat every day? There isn’t enough for people to eat, who can afford to feed livestock⦔
It turned out this uncle had already taken the ox to many households, but not a single one was willing to buy it.
At this point, any family with money would rather spend it on high-priced rice to hoard than buy livestock at a low price.
And those who were willing to buy offered a price so low it couldn’t even be exchanged for a small bag of rice. In that case, it was better to slaughter it, dry the meat for storage, and when the grain ran out, they could rely on it to last a few more days.
They hadn’t even reached the point of running out of food, yet people were already scaring themselves half to death.
Indeed, if the world had no spring, if living things no longer grew, the first thing people would suffer from was not hunger, but mental torment.
It was just like the legends of a lightless, eternal night that could easily drive people madβit sounded terrifying, yet it wasn’t the least bit of an exaggeration.
Fortunately, this time, something was different from the novel.
Whether it was Yi Qiu and You Yan, or Jiang Yuyao and Luo Mingyuan far in the north, they were all continuously sowing “hope” in the Mortal Realm.
Gradually, rumors carrying hope arrived from afar.
Someone found a small tree sprouting new leaves by an abandoned, dilapidated temple. Someone claimed to have seen a giant, golden-red divine bird soaring high in the sky. Someone said that in a daze, they seemed to hear the voice of a deityβthe deity said: “When despair arrives, hope will descend upon the Mortal Realm.”
All at once, more and more people discovered small trees that could sprout new leaves.
People soon found that these trees, whose species they couldn’t identify, mostly grew near temples and had an astonishing growth rate.
Soon, such trees were placed under the protection of local governments everywhere.
Someone tried breaking off a branch and transplanting it elsewhere, only to find that the new cutting could also grow rapidly.
Although these trees bore no fruit and their leaves were too bitter to eat, this splash of spring color still brought hope to the increasingly desperate people.
People began to believe that the divine bird had scattered the seeds of a divine tree in the Mortal Realm.
Some said the branches and leaves of the divine tree could ward off evil and avert disaster, while others said the tree’s existence would gradually awaken all of slumbering creation.
The major Immortal Sects also sent out their disciples to slay demons and eliminate evil spirits throughout the Mortal Realm, thereby calming the people’s hearts.
Everything was proceeding according to You Yan’s plan. Although the Resentful Qi in the Mortal Realm continued to grow, it was doing so much more slowly than described in the original novel.
At the time of the Spring Equinox,3 Yi Qiu followed You Yan to a mortal city near the entrance to the Earthly Realm, where they encountered Xun Chi, whom they hadn’t seen in a long time.
Xun Chi looked haggard, his complexion was deathly pale, and his body was so weak it was obvious he had suffered a severe Heavenly Punishment. Yi Qiu saw this but knew it wasn’t her place to ask too many questions, so she simply stepped forward and offered a perfectly ordinary greeting.
“Xun Chi, what a coincidence, we meet again.”
“Not a coincidence. I was looking for you,” Xun Chi said. “I followed the trail and saw that the nearby Fusang Branches were planted not long ago, so I knew you must be here. Even if it wasn’t you, I’d be able to find the Jinwu and the Fusang.”
Hearing this, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but ask curiously, “What do you need us for?”
Xun Chi pondered for a moment, then lowered his eyes and gave a bitter smile. “Perhaps it’s a case of seeking any cure out of desperation.4 When you can’t think of a solution yourself, you always want to ask others what their plans are.”
It turned out the Heavenly Realm was also extremely anxious about the current situation in the Mortal Realm.
This calamity in the Mortal Realm originated from the Wood God.
Now that the old god had fallen and a new one had not yet been born, the Mortal Realm had lost all its spring, and the gods of the Heavenly Realm were helpless.
This was because, under the world-building of γThin, Withered Branchesγ, the living environment of the Earthly Realm was completely different from the Two Realms of Heaven and Mortals.
The Yin Qi and Demonic Qi in the Earthly Realm were extremely heavy. Except for the Underworld, which was protected by an ancient barrier, all other territories were places that humans and gods simply could not enter.
If one was neither a yao nor a demon, entering the Earthly Realm would inevitably lead to erosion by Demonic Qi.
This was much like how most demons couldn’t adapt to the Mortal Realm; it was a sort of balance Little Bird Gu Gu Fly had created for the power levels between gods and demons. Only with this setting could the gods be kept out of the Earthly Realm, and the demons kept from running amok in the Mortal Realm.
In this setting, You Yan was a special existence.
You Yan’s parents were once Divine Beasts of Kunlun. She had the bloodline of gods in her veins, yet she was born a Demon Embryo. Only by being a God and Demon as One Body could she travel freely between the Three Realms without being easily detected.
And the You Yan from the original novel had relied on this very point to scheme alone in the Mortal Realm, eventually turning it into a second Demon Realm and forcing the gods to retreat and defend the Heavenly Realm, watching helplessly as countless demons left the Earthly Realm to live freely in the Mortal Realm.
But that was all something from the later parts of the original story. At this moment, the Earthly Realm was still in a state of complete lockdown. Even if the Heavenly Realm wanted to send people to capture the Wood God, they had no way of entering the Demon Realm.
Xun Chi said that the Heavenly Realm had originally wanted to seek help from the ever-neutral Yao Realm, but the Yao God had consistently refused to see the envoys sent by the Heavenly Realm.
The gods of the Heavenly Realm had always looked down on the Yao Clan, so it was likely the Yao Clan held a great deal of resentment in their hearts. Why would they readily offer assistance in a matter like this?
The Yao Clan was neutral among all the races to begin with. If they were to storm the Demon Realm to help capture someone at the behest of the Heavenly Emperor, it would be tantamount to offending the Demon Lord. If the Demon Realm decided to cause trouble for the Yao Realm in the future, the Heavenly Realm might not necessarily be able to help.
Hearing this, You Yan couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t really care about that. But even if the Yao Realm were willing to help, what could you do if you really captured the Wood God? Find a way to dispel her Heart Devil and then imprison her for life?”
“There’s always a way⦔
“Let me think, what methods do they have.” As You Yan spoke, a trace of disdain flashed in her eyes. “I’m afraid they’d capture the Yi Bird as well and then threaten the Wood God with her life.”
Xun Chi was at a loss for words, his eyes filled with helplessness. It was clear You Yan was right; that was precisely the Heavenly Realm’s plan.
“You look down on this, and you look down on that. The good and evil, the high and low of this world were all decided by you people. When something goes wrong, you deserve to bear the consequences yourselves.” You Yan sneered. “If your Heavenly Realm had even a few fewer rules, things wouldn’t have gotten to this state.”
“⦔
“Have you told the Heavenly Realm of my whereabouts?”
“I have not⦔
You Yan closed her eyes and thought for a moment before saying flatly, “In that case, I suppose I owe you a favor. If the Wood God has not returned by the time the Fusang’s branches and leaves have spread throughout the Mortal Realm, I will make a trip to the Earthly Realm for you.”
Yi Qiu could tell that You Yan’s reason for saying this wasn’t just for a “favor.”
You Yan might have sounded unconcerned, but she probably wasn’t confident in her heart. If she kept waiting without getting the desired result, she would definitely take action.
It was just that this bird woman was so prone to saying one thing but meaning another. There were many things she clearly wanted to do herself, yet she insisted on putting on an act of “you begged me, I’m just helping you,” completely unable to communicate properly with others.
If there ever came a day when she had the chance to bring this bird woman home to meet her parentsβ¦
Forget it. Better if that day never comes.
The author has something to say:
It’s late, but I didn’t flake! There won’t be a modern-day arc, but if everyone wants to see it, maybe there can be a parallel universe extra. (Whispering: I think that would be really interesting too!)
Footnotes
- The original term is βdΓ niΓ‘n,β a colloquial way to refer to the Lunar New Year period, the most important traditional festival in China.
- The Awakening of Insects (ζθ°, JΔ«ngzhΓ©) is the third of the 24 solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, signaling the start of thunder and the awakening of hibernating insects, usually around early March.
- The Spring Equinox (ζ₯ε, ChΕ«nfΔn) is the fourth of the 24 solar terms, marking the middle of spring when day and night are of equal length.
- The original is the idiom η ζ₯δΉ±ζε» (bΓ¬ngjΓluΓ ntΓ³uyΔ«), which literally means βto turn to any doctor when critically ill.β It describes seeking any possible solution, no matter how unlikely, when in a desperate situation.
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