Volume 3: Old Tales of Kunlun
You Yan, save me——
“Look at you. Just look at your deskmate’s score, and then look at yours! You’re like this every time. Why can’t you just bring a little honor to the family?”
“Look at the kind of school you got into! I’m too embarrassed to even host a school entrance banquet1 for you.”
“Don’t just squat at home for too long after graduation. It’s shameful to talk about.”
“What’s wrong with a salary of three thousand a month? Your dad had to pull some strings to get you that job. It’s so hard for college students to find work these days. What kind of school did you go to, anyway? With your level of ability, what right do you have to be picky? Just follow Uncle Yang for a few more years, endure it for a while, and you’ll make it. Be more down-to-earth. The pay will go up.”
“Your Auntie Zhang’s younger sister, the one who came back from England, works at a big company now. She makes over ten thousand a month, and there’s still room for advancement!”
“Look at you. You didn’t study hard when you were little, and now you know what suffering is…”
“You’re twenty-seven, twenty-eight, and you still haven’t found a man? Wasn’t that guy from your last blind date, the one with an apartment in the Imperial Capital, pretty good? He seemed to have a decent impression of you, too. Hurry up while someone still wants you. Don’t pick three and choose four2 anymore!”
So annoying. Can you just shut up!
Nag, nag, nag, that’s all you know how to do all day! You’ve been nagging me since I was a child. Has all that nagging ever made anyone successful!
Living is so hard. I just want to be a salted fish3. What’s so wrong with that…
The annoying nagging in her ears faded away, bit by bit, replaced by the chirping of cicadas on a summer night.
After the quiet returned, she felt much better—at least, her mood was much better.
But my head is so dizzy. How can it be this dizzy?
Yi Qiu tried hard to recall what had happened, barely managing to remember the events before she fainted.
She and You Yan had gone to the guest room where Chao Yun had previously stayed. Then she saw a strange-looking pearl, which suddenly began to glow, and then she…
She couldn’t remember anything else.
Dizzy, nauseous, so uncomfortable.
Does being this physically uncomfortable mean I’m still alive?
Thinking this, Yi Qiu forced her right eye open.
It was nighttime, yet everything around her was utterly unfamiliar.
This wasn’t Moshui City, nor was it any other place she had ever been.
People always say that when the moon is bright, the stars are few, but at this very moment, the moon in the sky was perfectly round, yet the stars were so numerous they looked as if they could fall at any second.
Yi Qiu had never seen such a starry sky. And the night here was far more than just that.
On a hillside not far ahead flowed a river. The water was unlike anything from the mortal realm, resembling a river of stars carrying a shimmering light.
On both banks of the river, countless glowing butterflies fluttered and hovered among the flowerbeds.
And further in the distance, high mountains pierced the clouds, shrouded in a soft spiritual light that veiled them like gossamer, making them exceptionally mysterious.
Everything here was beautiful beyond any earthly landscape.
“Where is this?” Yi Qiu muttered to herself. Just as she was about to raise a hand to rub her temples, she discovered a very serious problem.
Her hand was no longer a hand!
It was a hoof, an alpaca’s hoof with only two toes!
At this very moment, in this very situation, she was lying on the ground, her four limbs curled up, her fluffy butt sticking up in the air, complete with a short, stubby little tail!
How had she turned back into an alpaca again!
Where’s You Yan? Where did You Yan go!
The little alpaca scrambled up from the ground, craning her long neck to look around, her round eyes filled with panic.
“You Yan! You Yan——”
“Bird woman——what ghosts see and worry——where are you!”
She ran frantically through the deserted land, but aside from some flowers, plants, and flying insects she had never seen before, she couldn’t see a single other person.
What’s going on? Was I sucked into some weird otherworld by that pearl?
To say one is to say one4, this really did resemble a common setup in fantasy novels, but she was just an alpaca! Making her play a game of wilderness survival all alone was too cruel!
“Baocai, Baocai!”
【z…ing…ere】
What’s with this piercing static?
“Where is this? How did I change back? Where’s You Yan!”
【Hos…plea…calm…eval…ting…sit…ion!】
“Can you speak human?”
【Ex—treme—ly—sor—ry—】
What’s with this sloth-like speech speed?
【Poor signal. Connection lost.】
Well, I’ll be damned. The only sentence I could hear clearly was ‘Connection lost’!
Can anyone tell me what it means for the system connection to drop during a book transmigration? If it can’t reconnect, will I die?
Panicked, Yi Qiu mentally called up her attribute panel. Thankfully, the crappy thing could still be summoned, which at least meant the system hadn’t been stripped from her body by some strange power, and she was, for the time being, still alive.
But these attributes…
【Current Attributes】
IQ: ???
Strength: ???
Spiritual Root: ???
Agility: ???
Health: 100
Stamina: 60
You Yan Favorability: 0
Grass Mud Horse!5!!
What the hell is with this zero!!!
Having the favorability I worked so hard to raise suddenly reset to zero, I might as well be struck by five thunders6 and die!!!
Yi Qiu felt like she was about to break down.
Just this morning, You Yan had said she would make her grilled fish. How could her favorability suddenly be cleared to zero?
What on earth happened!
As Yi Qiu thought about it, her vision began to blur with tears.
She didn’t want to cry at all, but she couldn’t help being this fragile. The moment she thought about how that bird woman had just barely started to be a little gentle with her, and now everything was back to square one, she couldn’t stop the sadness from welling up.
She stood there in a daze, crying for a good while before sniffling and forcing herself to pull it together.
The system connection is lost, so the system values can’t be trusted!
It’s fake, it must be fake!
Calm down, calm down.
How could that bird woman, You Yan, have zero favorability toward me?
Even if I did something unforgivably wicked to her, with You Yan’s extreme personality, the favorability would just turn negative, and then she’d stew me directly!
Yi Qiu could feel that the Blood Coagulation Pearl You Yan had given her was still inside her body. Her ability to take human form was controlled by You Yan. Being an alpaca now might mean that something had happened to You Yan…
In the dark of night, the little alpaca followed the river, running aimlessly through the uninhabited mountains under the light of the stars and moon.
She shouted You Yan’s name at the top of her lungs. For as long as she ran, she called out until she was out of breath, until her voice was hoarse. Only then did she collapse, looking helplessly up at the night sky.
You Yan probably isn’t here, she thought. After all, she’s so powerful. If she was willing to let go of my hand, she wouldn’t have been sucked away by a pearl like me.
You Yan was probably badly injured and escaped. Maybe after she recovers, she’ll come back and save me… She will, right? You Yan wouldn’t abandon me.
So, if I’m tired, I might as well just sleep.
It’s not like I can leave this place on my own anyway…
Thinking this, the little alpaca closed her tear-filled eyes.
Perhaps she was too exhausted, because the moment she closed her eyes, she fell into a deep sleep.
She suddenly had a dream. In the dream, she was back at the small stream outside Moshui City where she had bathed, her skirt tied up and sleeves rolled, fumbling for fish in the water.
She caught a huge, huge fish, so ridiculously large she could barely hold it.
She brought the big fish to You Yan’s side. You Yan smiled at her and said, “Not bad. We’ll grill this tonight.”
She was overjoyed and danced around the big fish for a long time. Suddenly, she saw the fish open its eyes, and using her voice, it cried out to her, “No, don’t eat me, I don’t taste good!”
My voice…
Why is it my voice?
Yi Qiu couldn’t help but startle awake from the dream.
When she opened her eyes, she found she had been moved by someone into a cave full of cobwebs. She subconsciously shivered her fluffy body, and out of the corner of her right eye, she saw a fist-sized, red, hairy, eight-legged “big baby.” Instantly, with a hoarse throat, she let out a scream more bloodcurdling than a pig being slaughtered.
Oh god! What is this place!
She was terrified of spiders. What kind of thing that deserves to be killed by a thousand cuts would take advantage of her being alone and throw her into a “Pansi Cave”7!
“You Yan, save me——”
The little alpaca cried and screamed, scrambling and crawling out of the “cave.” Only when she turned back did she realize it was a huge tree hollow. The massive tree, which would take more than a dozen people to encircle, was already dead, leaving only leafless branches and a hollowed-out trunk.
From within the hollow, the “big baby” slowly crawled out.
Yi Qiu’s weak limbs began to tremble uncontrollably. As she stiffly backed away, she burst into tears, sobbing loudly with a raw throat, “Don’t come over here, don’t come over here! I’m heavy, I’m much bigger than you, I’ll step on you!”
I remember, I can also spit!
The next second, with a burst of courage from who-knows-where, the little alpaca began to spit furiously at the red, hairy spider.
The spider seemed stunned by the spray and quickly retreated back into the tree hollow.
How could Yi Qiu dare turn her back on such a “big baby”? She panted nervously, cautiously backing away step by step, her mind a chaotic mess.
Suddenly, her butt seemed to bump into something…
In these woods, what could I possibly bump into? Whatever it is, it could probably eat a little alpaca raw…
Sure enough, after a moment of terror, a pair of hands grabbed the scruff of her neck.
This feeling of having her fate seized made her stop breathing instantly. Her entire… no, the entire alpaca began to tremble violently.
Wait, no, these are human hands, it’s a person…
Reasoning, I can reason with them!
“D-don’t eat me, I don’t taste good!” the little alpaca couldn’t help but choke out a plea.
Save me! Why does that line sound so familiar!
It’s true what they say: others are the knife and chopping block, and I am the fish and meat8. Dreams don’t just happen for no reason!
She wanted so badly to act cute for the person behind her, but her voice was already too hoarse.
“You…” A young girl’s voice came from behind her. For some reason, Yi Qiu found it somewhat familiar, but her mind was too muddled with fear to recall who it sounded like.
After a brief silence, the girl released the scruff of the little alpaca’s neck and spoke again. “Why did you spit on Little Red Flower?”
What Little Red Flower? You call that thing that could scare someone to death Little Red Flower!
Are you crazy!
The little alpaca turned around, baring her teeth, but was instantly stunned.
The girl behind her looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. Her face and hands were filthy, her clothes were tattered, and her crimson hair was messily tied into two braids. But no matter how disheveled she was, it couldn’t hide her city-toppling beauty.
Most importantly, she clearly recognized this face!
“Why aren’t you talking?” the girl asked again when the little alpaca remained silent. “Last night, while you were sleeping, why did you keep calling my name?”
I wasn’t mistaken! It really is You Yan!
“You Yan!” The little alpaca instantly lunged forward, wanting to hug the person’s leg.
The next second, the person before her kicked her away.
The little alpaca rolled on the ground with tears in her eyes, her two hooves clutching her kicked waist, a look of utter despair on her face.
“I… I didn’t mean to kick you…” the girl explained in a panic. “They all say… I’m an unlucky thing. If you get too close to me, you’ll die…”
Eh?!
That tone! I’ve never heard that before!
The author has something to say:
A little You Yan has come online.
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