Little Alpaca – Chapter 203
by Little PandaVolume 6: Bound by the Life Soul
This Bird Is Poisonous; Whoever Eats It Dies.
Once You Yan decided to do something, not even a hundred alpacas could hold her back.
She had only just regained the ability to take human form and was still clearly weak, yet she was already planning to set off for the Demon Realm.
Yi Qiu tried to dissuade her, but You Yan insisted the matter could not be delayed. If the Heavenly Realm hardened its heart and forced its way into the Demon Realm, a battle between the two realms would be inevitable.
At this, You Yan looked at Yi Qiu with a helpless expression. “When that time comes, how do you want your friends to choose?”
After a brief daze, Yi Qiu lowered her eyes.
The Heavenly and Demon Realms had been opposed for a long time. Although they hadn’t had any contact for tens of thousands of years, the demon race had always blamed their confinement to the cold, dark, bloodthirsty lands entirely on their expulsion by the Heavenly Court after the War between Witches and Yao. As such, most still harbored a significant hostility toward the immortals and gods of the Heavenly Realm.
The Demon Realm was far less orderly than the Mortal or Heavenly Realms. In fact, it was much like the Yao Realm; aside from the low-level demons scattered about, the more powerful clans each occupied their own territory. And while they might acknowledge one person or clan as their sovereign, they retained their pride and would not easily permit outsiders to trespass on their lands. No matter how much the Heavenly Realm wanted to avoid trouble, searching for someone in the Demon Realm would inevitably lead to friction with the clans occupying the various territories.
In such a situation, it wouldn’t matter if the Demon Lord was absent—even if she were present, she might not be able to control them.
After all, the demon clans were used to being barbaric, and most of them had one-track minds. Their support for the Demon Lord wasn’t born from some so-called noble bloodline, as it was in the Mortal and Heavenly Realms; it was purely because the one they supported possessed a power that could make them submit willingly. They believed that immense power could grant them a better, more stable life, but if that power was not used for their benefit, they would withdraw their support.
And if that was the case, how could the Demon Lord’s elbow bend outwards?1
To avoid such a conflict, You Yan had to return to the Demon Realm as soon as possible and persuade the Wood God to leave before the Heavenly Realm decided to enter.
Otherwise, if it truly came to a war between the realms, they would inevitably have to face the very people they had helped along the way. The situation would become incredibly awkward for everyone.
But… wasn’t the path back to the Demon Realm blocked by the Heavenly Realm right now?
“I heard from Xun Chi that the Netherworld is crawling with people from the Heavenly Realm. The passage between the realms is sealed so tight not even water could get through. In your current half-dead state, do you really have a way to slip past everyone and sneak back into the Demon Realm?”
The question was undoubtedly worth pondering.
There were two connections between the Mortal and Earthly Realms. One was in the Netherworld, under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Court. The other was in the forbidden lands at the easternmost edge of the Yao Realm.
Neither was an easy path. The former was now swarming with Heavenly immortals and gods, while the latter was rumored to imprison numerous Ferocious Beasts from ancient times—a place from which no one had returned for millennia.
Could they really make it back?
To this, You Yan’s response was to take one step, see one step.2
The Heavenly Realm was losing patience. They had to get back to the Demon Realm at once.
You Yan told no one of her plan to leave. She simply chose a quiet night in late spring and slipped away with Yi Qiu.
This time, Yi Qiu didn’t stubbornly insist on saying goodbye to anyone.
They were returning to the Demon Realm. Whether they would ever meet again after this parting, no one could say. If certain things weren’t handled properly, they might be on opposing sides the next time they met. Why let a new branch grow from a knot3 by saying goodbye to people who, for the moment, knew nothing?
On the day they left Xianlu Sect, Yi Qiu gazed at the specks of light twinkling on the distant mountain peaks, her heart filled with a thousand emotions.
If she discounted the non-existent years in the Kunlun Dreamscape and only counted the days in the mortal world, less than a year had passed from the first time she set foot in Xianlu Sect to her decision to return to the Demon Realm. But it felt like a very, very long time had passed—so long that she was reluctant to leave this place, and reluctant to leave every familiar face here.
“You Yan.”
“Hm?”
“Once we go back to the Demon Realm this time, we won’t be coming back, will we?”
“Perhaps,” You Yan said. She glanced down at Yi Qiu and saw her unconsciously biting her lip. “If you want to come back to the Mortal Realm, we can do so at any time. But you should know that in the future, neither Jiang Yuyao, Luo Mingyuan, nor Xun Chi and those two Ferocious Beasts will remain in the mortal world.”
“I know,” Yi Qiu replied softly, falling into silence.
She leaned against You Yan’s chest. Clouds drifted past her, and the moon and stars seemed within arm’s reach. Far below her dangling feet lay the vast, distant earth.
After what felt like a long time, she couldn’t help but start talking softly about the things she couldn’t quite let go of.
Yi Qiu said that although Luo Mingyuan had regained his memories as a god, when she saw him the other day, he still seemed to be the same Little Pig Trotter as before, not much changed. And if he was still that same Little Pig Trotter, then he shared a blood feud with the Yi Birds. Chao Yun was the Mortal Realm’s only hope now; if one day Chao Yun insisted on protecting the Yi Birds, what would Luo Mingyuan choose?
Yi Qiu then said that she had only just learned how numerous the rules of the Heavenly Realm were, and how vast the differences in status were among its immortals and gods. Fusang was originally a divine tree that had gained sentience after millennia of exposure to the wind and sun, eventually cultivating an immortal body, but it held no divine office. The title ‘Fusang Goddess’ sounded impressive, but in reality, her status had the difference between clouds and mud from the Jinwu’s.4 Even if they returned to the Heavenly Realm together, she probably wouldn’t be held in high regard by the Heavenly Emperor.
She had to admit, this Heavenly Emperor was the biggest villain in eighty percent of all xuanhuan and xianxia novels. The number of CPs5 he’d broken up over the years was greater than the number she’d ever gnawed on.6
If they couldn’t get their HE,7 then wouldn’t she fail her mission?
Yi Qiu also mentioned that after the calamity in the Mortal Realm ended, she didn’t know where the Fuzhu and Huodou would go. Would they roam the world to atone for their pasts, return to the Jade Sea with Fusang, or go back to Ao’an Mountain with Xun Chi? Xun Chi had looked after them like a parent for so many years. If they really had to part ways, would he be as reluctant as a father marrying off his daughters?
And then there was He Xiuzhu from Liuxian Pavilion. He had lost an arm because of the Fei’s appearance, and his promising future was likely ruined… Even though he was Cannon Fodder in the original novel, he had at least done something useful in this timeline. She wondered if there was any way to help him.
As she spoke, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but sigh softly.
She realized she still had so much more to say, but it wasn’t appropriate to continue. There were far too many unresolved matters weighing on her mind now, and worrying about them one by one was pointless.
“Yi Qiu, do you know why I always want to take you back to the Demon Realm?”
“You’re the Demon Lord, so of course you can’t stay in the Mortal Realm forever…” Yi Qiu said, then added after a moment’s thought, “And in the Demon Realm, you have more power, so you can protect me better!”
“I am no longer the person I was when I first left Kunlun. As I am now, if I wanted to stay in the Mortal Realm, those immortals and gods from the Heavenly Realm could do nothing to me,” You Yan said. “As for being the Demon Lord, I don’t care about it in the slightest. What value does that bit of power and influence hold for me? I am taking you back to the Demon Realm because I can indeed protect you better there, but that’s not the only reason.”
You Yan’s tone was light as she said this, leaving Yi Qiu completely baffled.
“Then…” Yi Qiu asked, stunned, “why is it?”
Could it be that You Yan was afraid she would suddenly run away one day, so she wanted to take her back to the Demon Emperor’s Palace and keep her under watch?
Given the Bird Woman’s suspicious and domineering nature, that really wasn’t impossible.
But she was very obedient! Forget running away—even if You Yan suddenly tried to kick her out for some reason, she would absolutely refuse to leave.
Unless…
Once this broken world was completely repaired, the System would forcibly take her away.
But if that were to happen, not even imprisoning her in a sealed stone cell deep underground would be enough to stop it.
At this thought, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but close her eyes, trying hard to suppress the anxiety in her heart, terrified that You Yan would notice the slightest trace of it.
“You were once human. I know you like the Mortal Realm.” You Yan’s voice drifted by her ear. Though the wind rushed all around them, every word she spoke still reached Yi Qiu with perfect clarity. “You’re just a sentimental little fool. Staying in the Mortal Realm, you’ll face too many unnecessary partings… But if you truly can’t bear to leave this place, I can stay here with you.”
“No… you don’t have to.” Yi Qiu bit her lip, a feeling she couldn’t quite describe welling up inside her—it was as if a bit of warmth was mixed in with the sourness.
She knew there were crueler words You Yan had left unsaid.
You Yan was a being of both god and demon, unafraid of the spiritual energy of the mortal world; bringing Yi Qiu here was no difficult task. But setting aside the fact that the next time they returned, the people they’d gone through tribulations with would have long since ascended to godhood, even the familiar human faces would be gone.
A few decades were but a fleeting moment for a demon or a god, but a human lifespan couldn’t last that long.
“I actually… don’t care that much,” Yi Qiu said softly, letting out a long sigh.
In the end, she was someone who had already died once. If she could let go of her entire past, why should she keep dwelling on the trivial matters of others that had nothing to do with her?
As for the status gap between the male and female leads…
That was probably something Little Bird Coo Coo Fly had considered long ago. Once everything in the mortal world returned to normal, they would naturally get their HE, right? Otherwise, this world’s mission would be just too monstrously difficult.
Stop thinking, stop thinking!
Yi Qiu shook her head, trying to cast everything from her mind.
She made up her mind. She would just follow You Yan, and keep following her until the day she couldn’t anymore. She wouldn’t worry about anything else.
After all, Heaven never bars a person’s way.8 And if it does, no amount of thinking can help you avoid it, right?
You Yan was badly injured, so their travel speed was much slower. The journey from Moshui to the mouth of the River of the Netherworld, which would normally take a single day and night, now took them a full three days of traveling and resting.
Xun Chi hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the Netherworld was now packed with immortals and gods from the Heavenly Realm. Even with Yi Qiu’s low cultivation base, she could clearly feel an incredibly dense spiritual signature at the river’s entrance—the kind unique to the Heavenly Realm’s deities.
Yi Qiu crouched by the bank of the river that led to the Netherworld, her fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the water’s surface, making the moonlight ripple and dance.
You Yan sat beside her, quietly gazing at the fluctuations of spiritual power in the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
After a few seconds of silence, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but mutter, “This Netherworld… can we really get in?”
If their identities were exposed, wouldn’t this Bird Woman be captured on the spot, stewed, and eaten by those gods?
…
No, wait. This bird is poisonous, whoever eats it dies.
Footnotes
- An idiom, ‘gēbozhǒu wǎng wài guǎi’ (胳膊肘往外拐), which literally means ‘the elbow bends outwards.’ It’s used to describe someone siding with an outsider against their own family, group, or side—an unnatural act, as an elbow should bend inward toward the body.
- A common Chinese idiom, ‘zǒu yībù kàn yībù’ (走一步看一步), which means to proceed cautiously without a long-term plan, dealing with things as they come.
- An idiom, ‘jiéwàishēngzhī’ (节外生枝), which literally means ‘a new branch grows from a knot.’ It refers to creating new, unexpected problems.
- The original idiom is ‘yún ní zhī bié’ (云泥之别), the difference between clouds and mud, used to describe a vast, insurmountable disparity.
- ‘CP’ is an abbreviation of the English word ‘Couple’ or ‘Pairing,’ widely used in East Asian online fan communities to refer to a romantic relationship between characters in fiction.
- ‘嗑’ (kē) literally means to crack something open with one’s teeth, like sunflower seeds. In internet slang, ‘嗑CP’ (kē CP) means to be obsessed with a fictional couple, consuming content about them like a snack. It’s equivalent to the English slang term ‘to ship’ a couple.
- ‘HE’ is an abbreviation of the English term ‘Happy Ending,’ commonly used in online discussions about fiction.
- A common Chinese proverb, ‘tiān wú jué rén zhī lù’ (天无绝人之路), meaning that there is always hope and a solution to be found, no matter how dire the situation seems.
Tqvm for the translation