Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The sudden reversal struck Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia dumb. Their expressions froze, half with joy that had yet to fade, half with terror that had only just appeared.
Dong Jia looked ready to weep. “Why is it still here…?”
“Shh.” Xie Qingling motioned for them to be quiet, then directed their gazes toward the floor with a look.
Chaotic Shanxiao footprints had appeared across the white floor.
One foot.
At last, Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia understood as well.
Judging by the frantic mess of prints, the Shanxiao was now hopping mad and shrieking in fury.
It kept circling Xie Qingling without coming too close, as though thinking – or perhaps unable to do anything to her.
Suddenly, pain flared at Xie Qingling’s temple, as if something hard had struck her.
[The Shanxiao threw a pebble from Mount Zhaoyao at you.]
[Yet a single pebble cannot express the full extent of its fury. It has decided to return to Mount Zhaoyao once more and consult its wise mother.]
[Perhaps its wise mother will know how to deal with humans, treacherous and troublesome by nature.]
Then the lone footprint began moving step by step toward the door.
Xie Qingling’s gaze sharpened, and she cried out without thinking, “Jiajia, quick – pin it! It’s trying to run!”
Jiang Lulu immediately slammed the door shut. Then she picked up the other riot-control fork and joined Dong Jia in trying to pin the Shanxiao down.
They knew only its approximate position, not its precise location. The enemy was hidden while they stood exposed; to an observer, the women would have looked as though they were locked in a battle of wits and courage with empty air.
But with the help of the white salt, the Shanxiao’s footprints ultimately betrayed its path.
Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia closed in from both sides and finally succeeded in pinning the Shanxiao against the wall.
This time, it fought back with particular ferocity. Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia pressed on the riot-control forks with all their might, and within moments, sweat drenched their brows.
The first Shanxiao had died so quickly that Dong Jia had tasted the joy of victory without much of a struggle, leaving her somewhat careless. Only now did she realize that in a pure contest of strength, she was no match for it.
By Dong Jia’s estimate, she and Jiang Lulu would be exhausted in less than five minutes, and the Shanxiao would break free.
Once that happened, they would never be able to restrain it again.
Jiang Lulu poured every ounce of strength she had into holding the Shanxiao down. With effort, she twisted her head toward Xie Qingling and asked, “Why… why won’t you let it leave? If it goes, won’t we be safe?”
“If it leaves this time, it’ll come back again – and it’ll be even harder to handle than it is now.” Xie Qingling drew a knife as long as her palm and stabbed it into the empty air where the Shanxiao was trapped. “I’m ending it tonight!”
Over the past four years, Xie Qingling had dissected many corpses in the laboratory. She knew well the sensation of a blade entering flesh. But never before had it felt like this. The instant the knife point touched the Shanxiao, it seemed to strike a piece of slightly softened glass and could not advance another fraction of an inch.
Xie Qingling had no choice but to press harder.
A moment later, a metallic *zing* rang out – the knife had snapped clean through the middle!
Xie Qingling’s expression turned grim.
[A crudely mass-produced knife such as this cannot pierce a Shanxiao’s skin. You can restrain it, but you cannot harm it. Perhaps you should seek objects rich in spiritual power, such as a rooster that crows at the sight of the sun. Within its blood burns the spiritual flame of the eternal blazing sun.]
[Yet your only rooster can no longer ward off calamity or repel evil. Perhaps releasing the Shanxiao would be the best choice. By forcing a path through this predicament, you will only provoke even greater rage and revenge.]
They could no longer use rooster blood…
Dong Jia’s face was contorted from exertion, veins bulging across her delicate forehead. When she saw Xie Qingling’s attack fail, she immediately warned, “Q-Qingling… we can’t… hold on much longer…”
“Give me ten more seconds.” Instead, Xie Qingling calmed down, her expression returning to normal. “It’ll be over soon. Very soon.”
She picked up the broken knife, turned its sharp edge inward, and slashed hard across her palm.
In the blink of an eye, bright red blood welled from her pale palm.
Dong Jia and Jiang Lulu stared blankly. Had Xie Qingling lost her mind?
Wasn’t it a little early to start harming herself now?
They could hold on for at least another minute!!
“Lulu, put your back into it! Pin it down!” Dong Jia shouted.
“I’m already trying as hard as I can! Xie Qingling! Get a grip!” Jiang Lulu was frantic, sweat pouring from her brow.
Drip. Drip…
Beads of blood fell.
Xie Qingling flung her hand hard, sending the blood across her palm precisely toward the place where the Shanxiao was trapped.
In moments, a familiar plume of green smoke rose. The Shanxiao, which had been struggling violently, abruptly went still.
The other two froze at this unexpected turn.
Yet no matter how hard it was to believe, a single handful of Xie Qingling’s blood had truly sent the Shanxiao on its way.
[The newly awakened Shanxiao roaming the human world did not understand that after so many years of seas becoming fields and fields becoming seas, the mortal realm was no longer what it had once been. In days past, it roamed freely among farmhouses and country paths, quietly stealing the villagers’ grain and cured meat, then leisurely admiring their furious frustration. What carefree days those were! Yet today, the careless creature has fallen to three mere young women. Despicable!]
[Though the Spirit Wielder’s body has been contaminated by the filth of the mortal realm, the bloodline inherited from her ancestors still protects her. In ancient times, the shaman-priestess who prayed for her people served as the gods’ agent in the human world. Her pure and unsullied body could rival that of a demigod. Even after crossing the river of time, though her ancient people no longer exist and the identity of the shaman-priestess has vanished with them, her bloodline was passed down. It is more than sufficient to deal with a single Shanxiao.]
“Qingling, your hand – ” Dong Jia cried. Seeing that Xie Qingling’s palm was still dripping blood, she immediately took out the hemostatic bandage they had prepared and wrapped her injured left hand.
She had really been ruthless with herself.
That was so much blood.
She had scared them into thinking she wanted to end her own life.
“Don’t worry. I was careful when I cut. I didn’t damage anything important beneath the skin.”
“How did your blood drive the Shanxiao away?”
At that moment, the heads of Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia were filled with question marks.
Xie Qingling lowered her eyes. “It was a guess. Maybe my constitution is different from an ordinary person’s.”
In the emergency, there had been no way to find a second rooster.
The voice had said she needed to find another object with spiritual power.
And as a “Spirit Wielder,” what object could have been more suitable than her own blood?
The outcome proved her guess correct.
Was the Shanxiao’s revenge over?
Xie Qingling could not be certain.
Although the voice in her mind said she had subdued the Shanxiao that came for revenge, the three women in Room 402 did not dare blink. They stared unceasingly at the white floor, terrified that more footprints might suddenly appear.
Once bitten, twice shy.
They had become extraordinarily cautious.
Fortunately, nothing else happened.
The petty Shanxiao’s revenge ended there.
“Will… more of them come?” Dong Jia asked quietly.
“Probably not. Their powers have limits. They can’t do whatever they please, and I more or less know how to deal with them now,” Xie Qingling said.
The other two relaxed, finally letting go of their tension.
[The Shanxiao lost its life in crushing defeat, but it left behind things from Mount Zhaoyao: a handful of Zhuyu and a sprig of Migu. Eat the former and know no hunger; wear the latter and never lose your way. These are the earth’s gifts to living creatures. Perhaps you can use them as well.]
Hm?
Zhuyu and Migu?
Something stirred in Xie Qingling’s mind. She crouched and searched every edge and corner of the floor, one after another, until she felt two objects beneath the salt.
One was a handful of Zhuyu, which resembled chives topped with small blue-green flowers. The other was a black piece of deadwood.
It seemed this piece of black deadwood was the Migu.
The other two were astonished when they saw them.
They had not expected her to actually pull objects out of thin air.
What did this count as?
Killing a monster and getting an equipment drop?
It sounded just like a video game.
“What are these? Are they dangerous?” Dong Jia asked.
Xie Qingling replied, “They probably aren’t dangerous. This blue-green flowering chive is called Zhuyu. Eat it, and you supposedly won’t go hungry. This black piece of deadwood is called Migu. They say that if you wear it, you’ll never lose your way again.”
Dong Jia was somewhat tempted when she heard what the Zhuyu could do.
If eating it meant she would never go hungry, did that mean she would never need to eat again?
And if she never needed to eat again, did that mean she could be as thin as she wanted?
For someone determined to maintain her weight, it would be an incredible asset!
But when Xie Qingling saw the light blazing in Dong Jia’s eyes, she put both objects away with no intention of letting her eat anything.
“Nothing in this world comes with benefits and no drawbacks,” Xie Qingling said. “If you never felt hunger again, how could you continue to enjoy good food? I’ll keep these for now. We can talk after I understand them better. They came from another world, and I can’t shake the feeling that it’s best not to use them if we don’t have to.”
Xie Qingling’s words brought Dong Jia and Jiang Lulu back to reality.
She was right. Their first battle had ended in victory, and they had almost forgotten how perilous the fight against the Shanxiao had been.
Jiang Lulu sighed. “You’re right. I just hope that after tonight, they never come looking for you again.”
She smiled wryly. “Before today, I never knew I had the talent to be a butcher. That clutch rooster-decapitation move – I impressed even myself.”
Dong Jia gave a wry smile too. “I never knew my aim with a fork was so good either. I’d be a natural at spearing cha in a melon field.[^cha] If we lose our jobs in the future, at least we have options for a new career.”
The two looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter.
The sound swept away the gloom in Xie Qingling’s heart as well. “Let’s clean up the aftermath first. Look at this place – our dorm looks like a crime scene. We don’t want to scare the dorm supervisor.”
The three hurried to work, cleaning up the mess strewn across the dormitory.
After tonight, however, they would probably need to clutch weapons in their arms before they could sleep peacefully for a very long time. After all, no one knew whether something this uncanny might seek them out again.
They slept until the next day, when the sun began to rise.
The dorm had returned to normal, as though everything that happened before had been nothing more than a fleeting dream.
Xie Qingling blinked and suddenly remembered the plea for help she had posted on the forum.
Now that the matter was resolved, she wanted to delete it.
To her surprise, when she logged into her account, she discovered that someone with the handle “Codename Zero” had sent her private messages the previous night.
Codename Zero: You can see it?
Codename Zero: The Shanxiao has one heel, a human face, long arms, a black body, and long fur. Do you have any fireworks or firecrackers nearby? Set one off and see what happens. The sound of firecrackers can drive them away. That fear is carved into their instincts.
The day before, Xie Qingling had possessed neither the time nor the presence of mind to check her online messages, so she had not responded.
About five hours had passed after that message was sent.
Then the other person had sent another private message.
Codename Zero: Still alive?
Xie Qingling felt a sharp sting as she read those words.
Hello. Still alive. It’s taken care of.
Xie Qingling sent the reply.
The other person was online and answered quickly.
Codename Zero: Let’s meet.
[^cha]: An allusion to Lu Xun’s “My Old Home,” in which Runtu guards melons with a fork against an animal called a cha.