Little Alpaca – Chapter 132

Volume 3: Old Tales of Kunlun

In This World, Someone Has Always Loved You.

In that instant, the little alpaca strained with all her might to get closer to the giant bird, but the wind stirred by a flap of its wings blew her back, pinning her to the spot.

She stared blankly at the enormous Qinyuan¹ in the air. Though they were now so far apart she couldn’t possibly reach it, she could still feel the bottomless anguish in that pair of dark golden eyes.

Good and evil are born from the heart; how can one be condemned for a single thought?

She knew You Yan. She understood her. She knew… You Yan was not a demon, absolutely not…

“YOU YAN!” Yi Qiu shouted the name. “YOU AREN’T! YOU ARE NOT A DEMON! DON’T LISTEN TO THEM, YOU’RE NOT!”

If You Yan were truly a demon, why would she have endured five hundred years of such loneliness and suffering without ever harming a single blade of grass or tree that had gained sentience on Kunlun Mountains?

If You Yan were truly a demon, why, so many years later, when she had no choice but to use the lives of mortals, did she choose to harm wicked men rather than a random, innocent person?

If You Yan were truly a demon, how could she, out of a moment of empathy, have done her best to help that Luo Mingyuan from the Heavenly Realm…

Between her and the Heavenly Realm lay such a deep-seated enmity, yet she had been able to set it aside over a single thought of right and wrong.

How could such a You Yan be the demon reflected in the Heart-Clarifying Mirror?

But faced with the scene before her, the little alpaca was helpless to turn back the heavens.

She screamed her heart out, desperately trying to awaken the giant bird whose reason had been eroded by rage. But her voice was ultimately drowned out by the gasps of shock and curses from all around.

The crimson Qinyuan beat her enormous wings. She was the most powerful Qinyuan in the world, born with a strength others could not hope to attain in a thousand or even ten thousand years.

In that moment, she circled and hovered in the air, using her powerful and terrifying strength to relentlessly slaughter the beings before her—beings she could only describe as “fragile.”

A terrible power rained down on everything around her like a sudden storm, yet every single wisp of it deliberately curved around the little alpaca, leaving a space of more than a cun² or so.

The immortals and gods³ in the hall could sit still no longer.

They stood on the high ground of righteousness under the banner of eradicating evil and launched a merciless assault on the giant Qinyuan bird, who had already fallen into despair.

Yi Qiu subconsciously glanced toward the Wood God, Jumang⁴, only to see her gaze fixed hesitantly on some distant point. For a long time, she made no move to help either side.

Many years ago, the goddess had saved a child. Many years later, she could no longer discern the good and evil in that child.

No matter how great one’s innate power, it was ultimately no match for so many immortals and gods.

But You Yan seemed to have lost her mind completely, showing no intention of escaping.

She wanted to die here. She wanted to end it all.

A person drowned in despair cannot see even the faintest glimmer of hope, though it may be right before their eyes.

“YOU YAN! LET’S GO! TAKE ME WITH YOU——WE’LL LEAVE THIS PLACE, EVERYTHING WILL PASS!”

Yi Qiu chased the giant bird’s shadow on the ground, screaming herself hoarse, but she could not make her voice reach the great bird’s ears.

She watched as the giant bird was wounded again and again, yet it struggled desperately, as if trying to destroy everything in sight out of retaliation.

But in the next second, a tawny-brown Qinyuan shot to the giant bird’s side.

Although a thousand years of cultivation had made him much larger than a human, compared to the red giant, he was so very small.

But no matter how small he was, in that moment, You Yan stopped her frenzied rampage.

She froze in midair, staring blankly at the Qinyuan before her. Tears seemed to well in her eyes, and her body unconsciously drifted closer.

“You do not belong here,” the Qinyuan said, his voice cold. There was nothing in his tone but indifference.

“Father…”

“GET LOST!” the Qinyuan said, spreading his wings and letting out a deafening, sky-shaking cry.

In that brief instant, his small demonic form erupted with an unimaginably terrifying power, holding back both the giant bird and the host of immortals and gods behind him.

The giant bird with crimson wings fell heavily to the ground, reverting to her slender human form. A little alpaca, fighting off a wave of dizziness, stumbled and scrambled to her side.

“You Yan, you said you would take me away…”

But You Yan only stared vacantly into the sky at the Qinyuan who had avoided her for centuries, who had deliberately hidden from her just moments before, outside this very hall.

He should have kept hiding—if he truly hated her to his core…

“Let’s go, you’ll come with me… If you won’t take me out, I’ll take you!”

The little alpaca said, gritting her teeth, and dragged You Yan onto her back. She abruptly grew in size and, before the afterglow behind them could fade, broke into a desperate sprint in one direction.

She did not look back, not even once, but she had already faintly sensed what had just happened.

The blood-soaked girl on her back seemed to have lost all will to fight, lying limply on the alpaca’s soft fur.

An unknown amount of time passed before an earth-shattering, explosive sound erupted from behind them. The countless blocked streams of spiritual energy⁵ once again pursued them like a gale.

The nearly exhausted alpaca kept running, pushing forward with a speed that was laughably slow to the immortals and gods, running for her life.

Suddenly, a giant talon swooped down and snatched her from the ground. The weightless feeling of her four feet leaving the earth made her let out a hoarse cry of alarm.

When Yi Qiu looked up, she saw the giant Qinyuan once again spreading her blood-stained wings.

“I will take you away.”

This time, there was not a trace of hesitation in her voice.

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They were always on the run, fleeing as if they had lost their minds.

Their pursuers never rested for a moment. The immortals and gods of the Heavenly Realm had no intention of letting this demon, who had hidden on Kunlun Mountains for over five hundred years, escape.

Throughout their desperate flight, Yi Qiu could not even count how many new wounds You Yan had sustained.

She only knew that You Yan protected her constantly. Even when she herself was covered in injuries, she never let Yi Qiu suffer a single scratch.

Finally, they escaped Kunlun and fell into the Mortal Realm⁶.

The heavenly gods, sparing no effort, had cast a Spirit-Searching Net that covered the sky and blanketed the earth. In her current state, You Yan could not possibly hide her spiritual aura⁷ from it.

Just as she and her little alpaca had nowhere left to run, from the bloodstained, filthy slush at their feet, a new sprout emerged.

You Yan stared quietly at the sprout and, after a brief hesitation, reached out and gently touched it.

A soft light suddenly enveloped her, and in that instant, all the malevolent energy and the stench of blood vanished from her.

Yi Qiu recognized this spiritual light; she had seen it in the Heart-Clarifying Mirror.

It was the power of Jumang.

The moment the sprout withered and the light faded, a voice seemed to whisper in her ear—With goodness in your heart, you can be accepted by heaven and earth.

The Wood God of the Heavenly Realm had once again gone against the will of the heavens, secretly protecting the lost child.

Yi Qiu looked at You Yan in a daze, a wave of emotion welling up in her heart.

“You Yan, in this world, someone has always loved you.”

The little alpaca spoke softly, slowly drawing closer, huddling together with her in the snowy night in their wretched state.

After what felt like an eternity, You Yan finally came back to her senses. She hugged the little alpaca at her side and could no longer hold it in, breaking into loud, uncontrollable sobs.

She cried for a long, long time, until the sky turned dark and her tears ran dry. Only then, with a hoarse voice, did she hold the alpaca in her arms and begin to speak of the past.

She said she did not dare go near the Wood God, because she knew she was no longer the child who had promised the goddess she would try her best to be good.

She said she had too many filthy thoughts, too many ugly notions in her heart. She was too ashamed to face the goddess who had once saved her.

She said she had searched for her father for over four hundred years, and for over four hundred years, her father had hidden from her.

In her heart, she knew. Her father hated her, hated her to the bone. But she just wanted to hear him say the final, decisive words himself. It was as if without them, there could be no closure.

She had always been thinking, it was only the word “hate,” what was so hard to say?

If he had just said it, she would have accepted it and never held on to any hope regarding him again.

But in the end, she was wrong again.

Just like in that once-beautiful dream, when she had spoken those words to Yi Qiu.

—I killed Mother, and from then on, Father rarely spoke to me… But he was always protecting me. Always. I knew it…

—He hated me, but he loved me, too.

Those were not the words of little You Yan.

That dream within the dream was the last sliver of self-preservation You Yan had left for herself before she entered it.

The five-hundred-year-old You Yan did not know.

But the three-thousand-year-old You Yan had known from the very beginning.

Throughout her life, she was unwilling to speak a single word of her father, yet deep down, she had never forgotten that final act of protection on the day they parted.

Her father had never once said the word “love” to her, but in the four hundred years he had hidden from her, he had also never once said the word “hate.”

In this world, how could love and hate be so easily distinguished?

You Yan had always believed her father hated her to his core. But when she was first born, it was he who had countless chances to take her life but could never bring himself to do it. And when the heavenly punishment⁸ descended, it was he who shattered his own demon core⁹ to unleash several times his normal power to protect her.

She was the monster who had taken away the love of his life in the cruelest way, but she was also the only child he and his beloved had ever had.

He hated her, but he loved her, too.

The last word he left for his daughter before he departed from this mortal world was so cold, yet so searingly warm.

It was as if, in his final moment, he only wanted to use the most absolute, most indifferent words to drive that child away, so she would never again have to think about this irresponsible father of hers for even a single moment.

At last, she looked up at the endlessly falling snow and said in a daze, “I do not belong on Kunlun. I should have been executed by the Heavenly Realm… He always knew that, yet he was always torn, hoping I could live on.”

“You Yan…”

“Thank you, Yi Qiu… If it weren’t for you, I might have died there this time.”

She said this because, all these years later, the soul that had re-entered this dream seemed to have forgotten how to face such pain all alone.

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