The air was tense and heavy as Qing Qing and the young boy stared each other down. The killing intent being emitted was so thick that even Xiao Ji was feeling dizzy and frightened. Xue Yi was also barely holding on to her rationality, while all her instincts were telling her to run away as fast as she can. This was the first time that she had experienced the so-called 'killing intent'. Coming from a world where they value brains over brawn, Xue Yi naturally thought that this phenomenon was a load of bullsh*t. However, since she wasn't in her previous world anymore, the logic and common sense from before could not be applied here. Even in this life and death situation, Xue Yi still had the bad habit of being curious about this foreign power. Thus the only thing on her mind was the tragic scenario when Qing Qing and the young boy would destroy each other, rendering her unable to satisfy her curiosity.
If Xiao Ji knew what Xue Yi was thinking in this horrifying situation, it would've cursed her and all her ancestors to hell. Luckily, the result was the same, with the dangerous situation being stopped when Xue Yi jumped in between the staring contest.
"Qing Qing! Stop, don't attack! You too, kid. If you go too far*, the cave would be destroyed as well. Let's just talk this out peacefully, alright?"
The young boy didn't really care if the cave was destroyed or not. In his mind, these creatures and the girl were strangers that he didn't trust. Especially the large spirit snake, he felt a lot of animosity and killing intent from the snake, its power would be enough to cause him significant damage. He would not hesitate to kill if the snake attacked, but since the snake listened to the weird girl and retracted its killing intent, the young boy also stopped and turned towards the girl.
On the other hand, Qing Qing felt dissatisfied at having another nuisance at his Xue Yi jie jie's side. There's already the weak and useless chicken meat and now an unknown young boy that could threaten himself suddenly appeared, Qing Qing was far from amused. He went over to Xue Yi and sulkily rubbed against her with his head in protest, a low hissing sounded to show his unhappiness. Xue Yi had learnt enough about Qing Qing the past few days to know that he was jealous and upset, however, she could only pet his head to comfort him in return as her starve for information was too big to suppress.
"Qing Qing, be good. I want to ask some questions, alright? You can't be like this all the time."
"But...but Qing Qing only wanted to be with Xue Yi jie jie. The others are being annoying. Qing Qing doesn't like annoying things."
"Qing Qing, I already signed a contract with you so of course I'm going to be there for you. BUt I still have other things to do and other people to interact with. I promise to play with you as well, alright?"
After successfully coaxing Qing Qing, Xue Yi turned to the young boy for a round of questio-cough. She means introduction. The young boy had been looking at her curiously the entire time. From what he saw before, the weird girl shouldn't be powerful at all, he could kill her with just a finger. Why would the high-grade spirit snake sign a contract with her? However, the young boy put this thought to the back of his mind as he needed to know his own situation first.
"Hey kid. Who are you?"
"Wen Yan."
"Why were you in the glowing vine thing? And what are you? An angel?"
"...I don't know."
"Where are you from?"
"...I don't know."
"Do you even remember anything other than your name?"
"...no."
"..."
Seems like she wouldn't be getting any useful information anytime soon. However, Wen Yan gave her a strange feeling at the back of her mind as though she had forgotten something. Not knowing why she felt that way, Xue Yi shook off this thought and decided to deal with Wen Yan first.
They came to the conclusion that Wen Yan would stay with them as well, of course this decision was mostly made by Xue Yi. She's still curious about the strange boy, he could be hiding something or was pretending not to know anything. Besides, they wouldn't be in much danger with Qing Qing there to protect them, they would at least have a chance of escaping at the worst case scenario.
Xue Yi also decided to stay in the cave for a few more days to see what else there was to find out about the vines. However, after Wen Yan had awakened, the vines and the Yin Spring slowly started to wither and fade away. By the third day, there was nothing left behind, if Xue Yi hadn't seen the Yin Spring and the strange vines, she would've never suspected the cave had such deadly things inside before. In the end, she concluded that the Yin Spring and the vines must've existed to feed Wen Yan by absorbing other creatures' Yang energy when he was still in the bundle of vines. Since he didn't need to be fed now, the Yin Spring was not needed anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They eventually decided to leave the Spirit Forest when Xue Yi got so bored that she suspected mold started growing on her. She wanted to quickly find some form of clue that would lead her to the main characters to enjoy a good show. Xue Yi also got tired from only eating roasted meat, even with a body that was newly made, she still felt herself gain a few pounds from sitting around with nothing to do. On the other hand, Xiao Ji was less than pleased with the plan. It already felt the constant threat of being eaten from Qing Qing, now Xue Yi wanted to venture out to explore the very dangerous and deadly world. Xiao Ji wanted to strangle Xue Yi when she suggested that. Unfortunately, Xiao Ji could only obediently follow along since it was powerless and needed Xue Yi's protection in this world.
During the past few days, they had been wandering the Spirit Forest trying to leave. However, since they didn't have a map, the compass that Qing Qing found was basically useless. All they could do was randomly pick a direction and make sure they weren't going around in circles by leaving marks on the trees. Qing Qing and Wen Yan would help with hunting for food while Xue Yi and Xiao Ji would be tasked with setting up camp and cooking. Xue Yi found out from Qing Qing that Wen Yan was actually very powerful and if they had fought, it wouldn't be sure who could win. This information added another layer of mystery to who Wen Yan actually was and why he was inside the cave.
But even though Wen Yan was powerful and had a cold personality at first glance, Xue Yi found out that he still had the heart of a child. At meal times, Wen Yan would try to look guarded as he ate, but he couldn't help but gobble down the food and asked for seconds afterwards. Oftentimes, Xue Yi would also help him clean up and groom the feathers on his wings. Surprisingly, despite the soft feeling when she was grooming and brushing the feathers, when Wen Yan was hunting, he would use them as arrows to hunt at a distance from above. Xue Yi guessed that when used in fighting, the feathers would sharpen. She wanted to further investigate and thus asked Wen Yan to brush his feathers everyday, while Wen Yan was oblivious about her intentions, he enjoyed the treatment and thought nothing about it.
On the fourth day of their journey, they finally left the Spirit Forest and came to the edge of a small village. Xue Yi was overjoyed at finally being able to see some people and excitedly enter the village. However, she forgot that accompanying her was a large spirit snake, a weird young boy with ethereal beauty and golden wings, and a tiny humanoid machine. Not to mention, her attire wasn't exactly fitting with the setting of this world. Thus when she tried to approach a young girl that was selling fruits near the entrance of the village, the young girl screamed in fright upon seeing the odd group and quickly ran away.
Xue Yi was dumbfounded and didn't know how to react, but before she could process what had happened, a loud shout sounded around the village from the young girl.
"Help! Help! Demons! Beasts! They came out of the forest!"
Following that was a series of panic that spread around the village like wildfire. Yelling was heard throughout the whole village while farmers hid their children and wives in their homes. Xue Yi didn't know what to do about the situation, this was the first time that someone had actually screamed in fright when they saw her, rendering her speechless and shocked. Should she stop them to explain the misunderstanding? But they were technically correct as they did come from the forest. Xue Yi decided to just wait and helplessly turned the odd group from behind.
Before she could ask them about what to do, several large men came towards them with hostile expressions and killing intent, readying for a fight against their odd group. While Qing Qing and Wen Yan also became guarded when they felt their killing intent, even though they didn't put the weak villagers in their eyes, they still had to protect Xue Yi and Xiao Ji. Seeing the situation wasn't good, Xue Yi tried to stop both sides from attacking by trying to get their attention.
"Hey! Stop! Don't attack! We come in peace!"
Fortunately, the villagers stopped advancing and turned their attention towards her. Unfortunately, they didn't stop their hostile attitude and instead turned their weapons towards her as well.
"What do you want, ugly succubus? Leave this village, we won't become food to feed your cultivation, you ferocious beasts!"
The other villagers shouted their agreements and insults. Xue Yi was confused and slightly offended by their insults. What did they mean when they called her a succubus? She would be the furthest thing from a succubus! But she didn't have any room to contemplate further as Qing Qing angrily prepared to attack, furious about the villagers' comments. Xue Yi hurriedly stopped him by patting his tail and told him to leave things to her, but Qing Qing still couldn't help but let out an abundance of killing intent that suffocated the villagers, leaving them gasping for air.
Only after Xue Yi repeatedly coaxed Qing Qing to stop did he retract the killing intent, but he still maintained his position, ready to swallow all the villagers when they didn't obediently cooperate. The villagers slowly recovered from the pressure but didn't dare to oppose anymore, only leaving their guard up against the group.
"Hello, I'm Xue Yi and I am not a succubus. I am a normal human. Anyway, we just wanted to ask about where we are and temporarily stay in this village. We don't mean any harm."
"Damned succubus! We don't welcome you! Take that large spirit snake and demon, and leave!"
Despite the fear from the killing intent from before, the leader of the villagers was still aggressive and hostile against the group. Xue Yi was frustrated towards the villagers' unfriendly attitude, but decided not to argue against them. From her experiences, there was no reasoning or explaining to someone when they were completely hostile and biased against you, especially when they were a whole group of people. The only way was to compromise in this situation.
"At least let us stay in an abandoned stable. We won't cause you trouble or harm. However, if the large spirit snake and demon are unhappy then I can't promise anything."
Left with no choice, the villagers could only hatefully let the group stay at an abandoned farm house at the back of the village. Xue Yi was pleased that she could finally see some people, despite their attitude towards them. This wouldn't stop her from gathering information about the main characters, some local gossip would be nice as well. Qing Qing on the other hand was completely displeased with the villagers and mentally marked this grudge in his own little black book.
However, when Xue Yi happily entered the farm house first, something pounced towards her, knocking her down to the ground. At the next moment, a small knife was held against her neck and a small figure pressed on top of her body.
What the f*ck?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A group of figures dressed in black robes cautiously arrived at a familiar cave. They carefully inspected the area to ensure there weren't any other people or surveillance before entering. When they arrived at the back of the cave, the leader of the group threw out a white talisman that disintegrated into lilac flames in mid air. A tense silence followed while the group waited in the dark cave. Their faces paled in terror when a blue magic diagram appeared on the cave floor. One of the black clothed people nervously asked the leader of the group about this bad premonition.
"The location that master gave us was wrong. What do we do now? If we go back empty handed, we would definitely be killed. Should we escape? But master would definitely find us. I-"
"Silence. Two of you would report back to master. The rest of us would continue searching around the area."
Saying this, the leader randomly picked two black clothed people from the group that immediately flew away on their swords to execute their orders. The rest pulled out magical tools to search for any kind of hint or clue. Even though the leader of the group remained calm and collected, his mind was filled with fear and panic at the thought of having to face their master with no results, for their master was known for being ruthless and inhumane. Death would be a luxury if they were to be punished for their failure.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Small theatre:
Xue Yi: Stop! Don't kill them! (I still need my dose of gossip)
Qing Qing: *sigh* Okay, Xue Yi jie jie.
Also Qing Qing: *writing in little black notebook* Villager with bald head glared at Xue Yi jie jie, villager with long beard shouted at Xue Yi jie jie, villager with yellow teeth pointed his weapons at Xue Yi jie jie....
Wen Yan: ...I'm hungry.
Xiao Ji:...Who are these people (creatures), I don't know them.
#########################################
Footnotes:
玩得太大了: Going too far. I wanted to use this phrase but then didn't know how to accurately translate it since a direct translation would be "playing too far" or "playing too big". But I still wanted to add this in the footnotes as I felt like this phrase in chinese conveys my meaning better than the one in english.