After finishing his meal, Bai Tang returned to his room, which was equipped with a computer and a television. As Bai Tang didn’t have a spirit certification, the content he browsed online was all related to human society.
Bai Tang typed in the name “Su Siyuan” in the browser, and he found information about him – the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, one of the top ten philanthropists in China, and a graduate of a prestigious university. The screen eventually displayed an image of Su Siyuan impeccably dressed in a suit, participating in a formal meeting surrounded by gray-haired elders. He sat alone, looking so handsome that it was hard to divert one’s eyes.
The little green sprout drooped slightly, appearing somewhat disappointed.
“What’s wrong? Not satisfied?” The system was a bit confused about Bai Tang’s attitude. Was he satisfied with Su Siyuan, or dissatisfied?
Bai Tang cleared the browsing history and closed the computer. He sighed softly, “Too satisfied.”
Really too much to his liking.
From head to toe, even every strand of hair was just to his liking.
Bai Tang felt like crying. It was too difficult. Why did everything have to be so perfect? If there were just a slight imperfection… he could convince himself not to like the person.
In this way, if you lose beforehand, you won’t feel sad.
You won’t be like now, where just thinking about the scene of losing makes your heart ache.
The system probably guessed Bai Tang’s thoughts and asked, “So, do you want to reject Su Siyuan?”
“I don’t know.” Bai Tang shook his head in confusion. “If I reject him, it will be very uncomfortable here.” As he spoke, he placed his hand on his left chest.
For the system, it naturally hoped that Bai Tang would reject that big oaf. But Bai Tang’s small appearance made the system start to feel sorry, “Then just agree.”
“If I agree,” the small green sprout on Bai Tang’s head curled into a ball, and he whispered, “I already feel so uncomfortable with not much liking. If I don’t agree…”
“I’ll be even more miserable.”
To like or not to like, that is the question. Bai Tang spent the whole night worrying, and the little leaves on the small green sprout were almost falling off from the constant flipping. Unable to sleep, in the silence, Bai Tang remembered the second quick transmigration world he had experienced. In that world, he was rumored to be the legendary sacred herb, and people in the martial world superstitiously believed that consuming one of his leaves could increase one’s martial arts skills by a hundred years.
You should know that at that time, Bai Tang only had two leaves. Moreover, in that martial arts world, thunderstorms were rare, and Bai Tang, being weak and no different from ordinary grass, faced a situation where rumors were flying everywhere. Bai Tang expressed—
This was the rhythm of being bald!
The martial arts world waged a massive battle for him, with blades and swords flashing everywhere, and the Martial Arts Alliance Leader emerged as the final winner.
At that time, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader was covered in blood, and his face was also covered in blood. He was so bloodied that Bai Tang couldn’t see his appearance clearly; he just felt that the other person looked particularly fierce and terrifying, even scarier than the Demon Cult Leader.
The opponent gripped a blood-stained long knife and slowly swung it toward Bai Tang. Bai Tang and the system were screaming frantically, “Ah ah ah ah ah!” The system was not only screaming but also cursing, saying that even in the world of Sadako, there was no excitement like this!
Bai Tang screamed and asked the system what to do. The system screamed back, saying to transform into a human form, tell the opponent that you’re not a plant, and if eating plants doesn’t feel guilty, eating human flesh should!
So, Bai Tang transformed into a human form.
The young man in a wide-sleeved robe fell to the ground, pitifully hugging his knees. His ink-green eyes were holding back tears as if he was about to cry in the next second. “D-don’t kill me, please.”
The blood-stained long knife froze in mid-air, and the man in front lowered his gaze to scrutinize Bai Tang. An overwhelming sense of pressure emanated as if it had substance. After a while, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader hoarsely said, “I won’t kill you.”
He took off the cloak on him. The outer side of the cloak was stained with blood, but the inner side was warm and clean. The man spread the cloak on the ground, soaked with blood and flesh, then softly said to the young man in front of him, “Sit here.”
Bai Tang trembled as he sat on the cloak, watching the man defeat everyone and return severely injured.
The man stared at him for a long time before carefully picking up the cloak and gently wrapping it around Bai Tang. Bai Tang lay in an embrace tainted with blood, curling up and not daring to look at the surrounding corpses.
“Leader Lin!” someone shouted excitedly.
The man holding Bai Tang remained silent, bowing his head and placing his hand on Bai Tang’s face as if trying to conceal his appearance.
The visage revealed between his fingers was a perfection impossible to exist in the mortal world.
The man withdrew his hand in a slight daze, and carefully adjusted the cloak, covering Bai Tang securely.
So, Bai Tang was carried back by the Martial Arts Alliance Leader. In a quiet grove within the alliance, there was a small house, and Bai Tang settled there.
Bai Tang had never seen the appearance of this “Leader Lin.” When they met again, he wore a mask, said to be due to a facial injury sustained that day, with a deep cut from the eyebrow to the bridge of the nose.
No wonder on that day, when Bai Tang saw him, his face was covered in blood, resembling a demonic entity crawling out of hell.
As transforming into a human form made Bai Tang feel insecure and consumed energy, he often roamed the woods in his original form. Consequently, when the Martial Arts Alliance Leader came looking for him, he sometimes couldn’t find Bai Tang.
The Alliance Leader always seemed busy. When not engaged in killing, he carried a strong medicinal scent, beneath which lingered a faint odor of decay.
It was the smell only found in the dying.
The Martial Arts Alliance Leader was nearing death. This realization gave Bai Tang a sense of security, and he no longer hid all the time, occasionally basking in the sun.
At such times, the Alliance Leader would come into the wooden house, holding a small bowl filled with long-cold black soup.
One time, Bai Tang gathered courage and asked, “What’s in your bowl?”
The Martial Arts Alliance Leader lowered his gaze to the emerald-green grass. His lips were pale, with a bit of black soup staining them. Due to the mask, Baitang couldn’t discern the expression, but he always felt the man was smiling slightly.
“It’s medicine,” the man softly replied. His voice was too gentle, as if afraid of disturbing a small animal.
This gentleness relaxed Bai Tang, and he continued curiously, “Isn’t it better to drink medicine while it’s still warm? Why do you always wait for it to cool down before drinking?”
“Because it’s bitter.”
“Wow, you’re afraid of bitterness too.” Bai Tang was surprised. Perhaps due to the initial impression, he always thought this “Martial Arts Alliance Leader” was like a demonic existence—cruel, ruthless, and unbeatable. Never did he expect that such a leader would be afraid of bitterness.
The man in front of him coughed twice, covering his mouth with his sleeve. After coughing, the sleeve was stained with black-red blood. Unconcerned, the Alliance Leader withdrew his hand, hoarsely saying, “Drinking medicine isn’t bitter, practicing isn’t bitter, killing isn’t bitter, waiting for death isn’t bitter.”
“But missing someone is too bitter.”
Bai Tang innocently asked the system what missing someone meant. The system explained that it’s liking someone and constantly thinking about that person. Bai Tang thought in his heart, “Wow, even the Martial Arts Alliance Leader can like someone.”
After finishing the last sip of medicine, the Alliance Leader got up and left, as if coming to see Bai Tang was solely for drinking medicine.
Bai Tang found this person really strange. He wasn’t a sweet snack, so why did the man come to him to drink medicine? Moreover, this human said drinking medicine isn’t bitter, missing someone is bitter. He wasn’t the one being missed, so could the man’s visit relieve the bitterness of missing someone?
Bai Tang looked puzzled at the back of the Martial Arts Alliance Leader. At that moment, the wind blew through the forest, causing the leaves to rustle. The robe worn by the Alliance Leader swayed in the wind as if it were merely a piece of cloth draped over white bones.
Later on, the Martial Arts Alliance Leader died. Died from illness.
It was said that the Alliance Leader had gone mad from practicing martial arts, suffered severe injuries, and sought the “Sacred Herb” for healing. When the Sacred Herb appeared, various rumors related to it circulated, claiming it could enhance one’s power by a hundred years with just a single leaf or even involve consuming flesh and bones for life and death. These tales sounded impressive, but who would have thought that despite surviving countless dangers to obtain the Sacred Herb, the Alliance Leader refused to consume it.
Not only did he refrain from consuming it himself, but he also prohibited others from doing so.
Being the Martial Arts Alliance Leader was already a position many coveted, and with the Alliance Leader’s diminished strength, everyone eyed both the position and the Sacred Herb. Consequently, they joined forces, manipulating various aspects such as the medicine the Alliance Leader drank and the food he ate. They orchestrated a plan to hasten the man’s demise.
Strangely, after the Martial Arts Alliance Leader’s death, no one could find the Sacred Herb. It was truly bizarre. Could it be that the Sacred Herb had grown legs and walked away on its own?
Living in the deep mountains, Bai Tang occasionally recalled the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, remembering the melody he played for him before his death.
The tune had a strangely pleasant melody. Bai Tang asked the system about the name of the song, and it replied, “Phoenix Seeking Phoenix.”
Phoenix Seeking Phoenix?
Not understanding the meaning, Bai Tang brushed aside both the song and the deceased Alliance Leader from his mind.
…
However, tonight, for some unknown reason, Bai Tang suddenly remembered the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, recalling the phrase “too bitter.” When the man uttered those words, his voice was low and hoarse, and the bitter medicinal scent permeated the air. The bitterness was silent yet compelling, and even after such a long time, it could still evoke the memory of that bitter taste for Bai Tang.
As if the tip of his tongue had just tasted a trace of bitterness, the flavor seemed to spread to the depths of his heart. If someone were to offer Bai Tang a bowl of bitter medicine at this moment, he genuinely wouldn’t want to drink it.
Adding bitterness to bitterness.
“System, I seem to have a bit of an understanding of that Martial Arts Alliance Leader,” Bai Tang whispered, “I feel like I might be sick; can it be an illness if I can’t sleep at night?”
His face was hidden in the night, his voice soft with a touch of innocence: “I think, you know, Su Siyuan is like my medicine. I’m sick, and I have to take a bite of him to get better.”
“But this medicine is too bitter, so bitter that it hurts my heart.” The youth pouted, “But you know, he’s also like a sweetmeat.”
“Just like now, when I think about him before bed, I can taste a bit of sweetness in bitterness.”
The system retorted, “After tasting so much bitterness, getting a bit of sweetness now can’t be compared to sweetmeats.”
Bai Tang remained silent for a long time. Just when the system thought Bai Tang was almost falling asleep, it heard the soft voice of the youth: “But if someone’s heart is filled with too much bitterness, even a tiny bit of sweetness can fill the heart.”
“System, do you think the Martial Arts Alliance Leader also felt this way?”
Author’s note:
Progress estimate error… No sweetness in this chapter _(´ཀ`」 ∠)_ I’ll strive for sweetness in the next chapter!!!
I’ll give you a sneak peek: Su Siyuan is the one taking the initiative and the author firmly supports the 1V1 party!
The reason the first three people Bai Tang encountered in different worlds were all potential romantic partners is that the unwritten endings were too tragic. Writing from the perspective of the one taking the initiative (top) felt oppressive and didn’t align with my sweet and light-hearted style (serious face), so I didn’t include those stories. However, if you want to read them, I can consider writing some side stories.
Also, there is a reason why Bai Tang goes through those three quick-transmigration worlds first; it’s crucial for the plot. Feel free to make guesses… but I’m confident you won’t predict my plot twists (smirking confidently).
