At the edge of Bloodthirst Cliff.
A multitude of demonic mists, resembling dark creeping vines, ascended from the bottom of the cliff, carrying a pungent swamp stench. Just standing near the cliff gave one goosebumps and a nauseating sensation.
On this day, Shen Tanqi was wearing his finest attire. He selected it from the extensive wardrobe of the original body and was still proudly dressed in vibrant red.
Fang Wenxun stood beside him, shivering in the eerie cold wind blowing up from the cliff’s depths. “Junior Brother, I’ve sent messages to the elders. They’ll return soon. Perhaps you shouldn’t go,” he said, deeply concerned.
“No,” Shen Tanqi replied without hesitation. “Qingyu’s body won’t last till then. This curse acts swiftly. If we delay, Qingyu’s face will turn into that of an ugly demon cultivator.”
Hearing this, Fang Wenxun nodded, greatly worried. “I’ll tie the rope around you. If anything happens, just shout, and I’ll pull you up immediately.”
This was their agreed plan. After discussing the matter, Shen Tanqi consented and tied a two-finger-thick hemp rope around himself.
As he tied, Fang Wenxun suddenly spoke, “By the way, Junior Brother, I’ve been meaning to ask you a question.” He leaned behind Shen Tanqi, fastening the rope firmly around his waist.
“Go ahead,” Shen Tanqi, preoccupied with spiritual herb thoughts, replied casually.
With his permission, Fang Wenxun, puzzled, asked, “Why do you always like wearing red?”
Shen Tanqi, unconcerned about such chatter, blurted out without much thought, “Because I like Chinese red, the red of socialism. Senior Brother, is the rope secure at the back?”
Fang Wenxun obviously didn’t understand, just nodded, and said, “I thought you wore red so that when you die, you’ll return as a vengeful ghost.”
His words were puzzling, utterly unfathomable.
Shen Tanqi subconsciously responded, “What?”
But as he looked at Fang Wenxun in front of him, he saw him suddenly smiling, saying, “Since it’s not the case, then I’m more relieved.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Tanqi didn’t even have time to understand what he meant. Fang Wenxun suddenly, forcibly pushed Shen Tanqi, who was tightly bound, off the cliff.
Shen Tanqi screamed, and soon even his voice was swallowed up in the boundless thick fog at the bottom of the cliff.
Fang Wenxun glanced at the bottom of the cliff, a hint of amusement in his smile.
“Not everyone in the demonic clan looks hideous, silly child. There are also those like me, with a handsome, gentle appearance.”
Some people say that when someone jumps off a building, they contemplate various things.
In the past, Shen Tanqi used to frequent those forums to have heated discussions.
Some say that when people jump from a building, they’re already in despair, so all they have left is relief.
Others argue that during the fall, they will suddenly have an extremely strong desire to survive.
While hurtling at 130 miles per hour towards the bottom of the cliff, Shen Tanqi’s mind was filled with—
This guy, Fang Wenxun, is actually a bloody demon???
No wonder! How could the elders silently leave the Rongyun Sect at the same time; it’s highly likely that Fang Wenxun was simply lying to him.
And Xiao Qingyu’s Gu poisoning also seems to be his doing.
This person turned out to be an undercover agent of the demonic clan within the Sect, and Shen Tanqi hadn’t the slightest inkling.
What a sinister person.
Just before his death, Shen Tanqi had only one regret.
He hadn’t found that spiritual grass yet, but now, he’d die before his Junior Brother.
With a system in place, perhaps it might only deduct some monthly salary, revoke annual bonuses, and send him back to his own world.
But Xiao Qingyu was going to die forever in this book.
Alas.
He hadn’t the chance to think much further; the weightless plummet was causing him to black out, drowning out the urgent and anxious system notifications blaring in his ear, which were conveying something very important. Yet, Shen Tanqi, at that moment, lacked the strength to discern those words. All around him was the howling of the wind, nothing he could comprehend.
But from the tone, it seemed like the little chick had made a crucial decision, suddenly disappearing into fragments before Shen Tanqi’s eyes.
In the next moment, Shen Tanqi’s world turned black. His brain crashed, and he fell into a state of unconsciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, it was still pitch black. However, the sensation beneath him confirmed that he was not dead but rather in a place so dark that he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
Though his body felt like it might fall apart, miraculously, his head seemed unharmed.
Shen Tanqi attempted to call the system but only heard a chaotic jumble of sounds. The little chick couldn’t even maintain its usual form and emitted a few distorted electronic phrases.
“Hello, Master. Codename 3530 at your service. The system detected an unavoidable catastrophic event that the host just experienced. 3530 used administrator privileges to save your life and urgently transported you to the nearest safe location.”
Shen Tanqi’s emotions were mixed as he muttered, “So, your name is 3530. Thank you.”
“The system’s misuse of administrator privileges caused a short-circuit malfunction. It needs to go offline for repairs. The repair progress is 0%-100%. I hope the host understands.”
So, the little chick used his privileges arrogantly but ended up burning himself out.
Shen Tanqi’s eyes moistened. He couldn’t believe that the only one he could trust in this foreign land was the system he brought with him when he passed through the novel.
Without the little chick’s constant chirping, he felt a bit out of sorts.
“Take your time to repair. Don’t worry about me,” Shen Tanqi took a deep breath and his gaze turned firm. “This time, I won’t let anyone deceive me again.”
As the system went offline, Shen Tanqi once again plunged into boundless darkness.
The system’s message hadn’t informed him of his current location, but Shen Tanqi could vaguely sense that he had been transported into a cave. The dampness, coldness, the faint scent of morning mist, and the sound of dripping water from crevices in the rocks were all very similar to the caves he had visited during his travels.
Shen Tanqi carefully felt around. Besides the hard stones on the ground, he encountered some lush weeds. As he extended his hand further, he suddenly touched something smooth and moist.
It had a slight undulation. Shen Tanqi’s heart grew cold.
It was alive.
Was it a snake? No, it was too large; it must be a python!
Did pythons typically crawl around in caves? Shen Tanqi had no idea. He was about to retreat in fear when he accidentally stepped on something, causing him to slip and fall.
Instinctively, he reached out to touch what he had stumbled upon, only to find that it was the same smooth, wet object.
This time, Shen Tanqi was so frightened that he dared not move. He couldn’t see anything, and didn’t even know where the exit was.
For a long time, there was no sound in the cave except for the chilling breeze against the rock walls and his own breathing.
Maybe what he had touched was a dead object?
Shen Tanqi silently prayed in his heart.
Or should he touch it again?
He stretched out his hand and groped forward little by little according to his memory, but when he touched the thing, he suddenly heard a foreboding voice coming from above his head.
“Don’t touch it.”
Just three simple words almost scared Shen Tanqi out of his wits. He screamed in panic, attempting to find an escape route like a headless fly. However, his feet slipped again, and he tumbled onto the slippery ‘python.’
A soft groan reached his ears, and the voice of the ‘python’ sounded somewhat impatient. “Don’t move.”
As the voice fell silent, a large tail wrapped around Shen Tanqi, securely holding him in place.
Shen Tanqi was too terrified to speak; he struggled desperately to free himself from the grip of the massive tail.
Suddenly, a blue spiritual fire ignited from mid-air.
The entire cave was illuminated.
When Shen Tanqi saw everything clearly, he was frozen in place, unable to move.
It’s a dragon.
White dragon.
With a snake’s body, crocodile head, lizard legs, and deer antlers, its entire body was covered in shimmering, snow-white scales illuminated by the spiritual fire. Cold mist swirled around it, concealing its mesmerizing golden eyes.
As a Chinese person, not recognizing the nation’s totem was abnormal.
Shen Tanqi was pale with shock. “A dragon!”
In cultivation novels, encountering supernatural beings was normal; he had just met a demon earlier, so this wasn’t a big deal, just a dragon.
Shen Tanqi tried to console himself.
After a while.
Shen Tanqi couldn’t help but wildly struggle.
This is a freaking dragon!
He had just been granted a new lease on life by the system, and there was no way he was going to die so easily in a run-down cave. Shen Tanqi desperately clawed at the dragon tail wrapped around him, trying to push away the body adorned with beautiful scales.
“I told you not to move,” the White Dragon, endured the discomfort in his body and exhaled a cold breath. Its deep golden eyes fixed on Shen Tanqi, and a hint of unexpected emotion flashed through his eyes, “It’s you.”
Shen Tanqi had no idea which memory nerve he had touched in this divine dragon. He mustered his courage and, with a trembling voice, asked, “Do you know me?”
“Of course.”
The White Dragon seemed to lack hostility, and Shen Tanqi quickly calmed down.
It was said in this book that humans and monsters were allies, so wild dragons probably wouldn’t just eat people.
Seeing him stop struggling, the White Dragon coiled back onto the rock, slowly releasing him, and softly said, “You seem not to recognize me.”
It lowered its gaze, concealing the profound meaning within.
Shen Tanqi patted the dirt off his body, stood up. After the heart-pounding encounter, his voice was still trembling slightly, “Should I know you?”
“No.”
It said no, but it didn’t say whether they truly knew each other.
Shen Tanqi’s thoughts were in disarray; he didn’t have the time to figure out when and where he had met this White Dragon. Right now, all he wanted was a moment to catch his breath and calm his trembling heart.
Fortunately, the White Dragon had no interest in why he had fallen off the cliff or why he had appeared in the cave. It simply lay there, eyes closed, resting.
With a sigh of relief, Shen Tanqi sat on the ground, massaged his arms and legs, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.
The recent shocks had left him almost numb to pain, but now, as he calmed down, he realized that the back of his neck felt as if it was being nibbled at by ants, painful and itchy.
Unable to resist, he reached out to scratch, but his fingers found nothing. The stabbing sensation grew more intense, and Shen Tanqi couldn’t help but emit small, restrained gasps.
The White Dragon, resting not far away, suddenly opened its eyes and softly said, “Come here.”
Shen Tanqi was momentarily stunned, then raised his gaze to look at it.
The next moment, he was carried by the White Dragon’s powerful tail, as if a piece of lettuce, placed in front of its eyes.
Shen Tanqi: …
Its tail was exceptionally beautiful, almost translucent white, making people think of mermaids for no reason.
The dragon’s tail gently pressed against the back of Shen Tanqi’s head, slowly exerting pressure.
Shen Tanqi’s body stiffened, his mind racing with wild thoughts. This tail could undoubtedly snap his head off and use it as a ball to play with.
Until the White Dragon spoke in a low voice, interrupting Shen Tanqi’s thoughts,
“You’ve been poisoned.”
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
