Chapter 46
Chapter 46: First Arrival in the East District
[So you’ve seen me earn points, and now you want to take them back?] Su Yan snapped. [Couldn’t you just give me information for free for once?]
[If Host does not need the exchange, Host may leave the System temporarily,] Little Mei replied, flat and indifferent.
Su Yan clenched her teeth. […Fine. I’ll pay.]
If her fifth baby hadn’t earned so much, she would never have agreed.
Five hundred points vanished, and a recorded video unfolded before her eyes as clearly as if she were standing there.
A massive snake—red and black, over ten meters long—slid soundlessly through the forest. Its scales caught the dim light like wet lacquer. Its crimson eyes were too cold, too hungry, nothing like a beastman’s.
In the blink of an eye, the snake became a man in a dark robe, a skull mask hiding his face.
Red-black hair fell down his back, bound by a silver chain of unknown metal. Through the mask, his eyes gleamed a lazy, wicked red.
He tilted his head, listening.
Then he vanished, leaving only a faint distortion in the air.
When he reappeared, Zulu was locked in a brutal fight with a towering ape-shaped devil beast.
Zulu was already losing ground. The devil beast opened its mouth and spat out countless ice arrows—each one laced with vicious poison that glittered a sickly blue as it flew.
Where the arrows struck, grass and trees vanished in an instant, erased as if they had never existed.
Zulu dodged with difficulty, breath ragged, but he kept shielding the clansmen behind him—Jun Sen among them. In the end, several poison-ice arrows pierced him. Frost bloomed around the wounds, spreading like rot.
Despair flickered across Zulu’s face. So did fierce unwillingness.
Knowing he didn’t have long, he lured the devil beast deeper into the Beast Forest, dragging it away so the others could escape.
The skull-masked man followed him at a leisurely pace, as though this were entertainment.
In his final moments, Zulu killed the devil beast.
The ape-shaped monster crashed down, shaking the ground. Zulu swayed on his feet, body shaking with the last of his strength.
The skull-masked man stepped out of the shadows and approached. “Any regrets?” he asked lightly. “You look like you really don’t want to die.”
Zulu stared at him, wary at first. Then bitterness crept into his expression. Death was already here. What was there left to fear?
“My wife is about to give birth,” Zulu said hoarsely. “I came to pick Seven-Star Scarlet Fruit and hunt deer. She must be starving at home.”
“I can deliver it for you,” the skull-masked man said.
But Zulu died the moment he finished speaking. His head tipped slightly, as if he had simply stopped holding himself up.
The skull-masked man looked down at him and clicked his tongue. “A child…” he murmured. “Low-grade beastmen really are enviable. It’s so easy for them to have offspring.”
A wisp of mist—silver-gray streaked with red—drifted out from inside the skull-masked man’s body.
The masked shell crumpled, turning back into the red-black snake. It collapsed to the ground and crumbled into dust, as if something had sucked the life out of it from within.
The mist slipped into Zulu’s corpse.
Not long after… Zulu’s eyes opened.
The video ended.
Su Yan’s scalp prickled. So the “Zulu” who returned was a different person wearing Zulu’s body like borrowed skin.
[But if it’s Zulu’s body,] Su Yan demanded, [then why is the child… Ghost Chariot Phoenix Bird?]
[When he mated with you, he switched into his true form,] Little Mei explained. [So you conceived his child. When it ended, he switched back into Zulu.]
Su Yan went silent, then muttered, [That’s… ridiculous.]
She steadied herself and asked, [Where is Zulu’s body now?]
[It has already turned to ash—like Lord Dongli’s body.]
[Lord Dongli?] Su Yan’s thoughts snapped into place. [The snake body in the video—that was Lord Dongli from Snake Clan? That wasn’t his true form?]
[His true form is Ghost Chariot Phoenix Bird, of the Avian Clan.]
[Then what’s his real name?]
[Ming Lin Yuan.]
Su Yan’s chest tightened. [My daughter—where did he take her?]
[To the East District of the Beast World Continent. There are more high-talent males there than in the West District. Does Host wish to go to the East District?]
[How?] Su Yan shot back. [Aren’t the districts separated by a vast distance, with the Heavenly Chasm in between?]
[For 1,000 points, the Childbearing System can send Host to the East District.]
Su Yan’s mouth twisted. [You’re always finding a way to charge me, Little Mei. You’re really not Earth Dao.]
[Host, there is no such thing as a free lunch.]
Su Yan’s eyes cooled. [I’m not going.]
Her consciousness yanked itself out of the System.
Darkness swallowed her.
Su Yan lit a small fireball, and the flickering light revealed a long, narrow stone box.
A coffin.
Stale air pressed against her face. The stone walls felt too close, too cold. Fine cotton garments clung to her skin, and heavy jewelry—agate, pearls—glittered at her throat and in her hair. Beneath her was a heap of red coins and crystal coins, metallic and slick to the touch, as if she had been laid to rest on wealth itself.
Su Yan’s breath hitched.
They’d buried her.
[Little Mei—what is this?]
[After Host gives birth, Host enters a feigned-death state and the life timer pauses,] Little Mei said. [This setting was generated automatically because Host’s lifespan was too short during the first birth. It cannot be canceled. Once Host leaves the System, time resumes.]
[So they thought I actually died,] Su Yan whispered, pressing her palm to the cold stone, [and they buried me?]
[Yes. Host is currently twenty meters underground in the Rabbit Tribe Ancestral Spirit Graveyard.]
[Twenty meters…] A slow heat climbed Su Yan’s spine. [How do I get out?]
[Host may exchange points. Three points will allow Host to escape.]
A beat of silence.
Then Little Mei added, [The System suggests Host proceed directly to the East District, conceive high-talent offspring, and earn more points. That will accelerate Host’s return to Earth.]
Su Yan knew she couldn’t waste time.
But her throat tightened anyway. She still had three children—three little furballs—left behind.
[Let me see them,] she said. [Just once. Then I’ll go.]
[Approved.]
Her vision blurred.
When the world sharpened again, she was standing by a bed where three little furballs slept in a heap, breath puffing soft and even. Their tiny bodies rose and fell in slow rhythm, warm and helpless in the dim light.
Emma sat nearby, calm and gentle, sewing a half-finished pair of beast-hide boots. The needle flashed as it moved, the quiet scrape of thread through hide as steady as a heartbeat.
Su Yan was transparent—nothing more than a presence. Emma couldn’t see her.
She reached out, touching each furball, memorizing their warmth, their scent, the soft tickle of fur against her fingertips. She lingered longest over Fa Se, as if her memory could hold him in place.
In the end, she lowered her head and kissed them.
Then her shadow-thin figure faded away.
The edge of the East District came into focus.
The cross-region teleportation left Su Yan dizzy and nauseated. Her stomach lurched as if the ground had been ripped out and shoved back beneath her. She dropped onto the grass, sweating as she fought down the spinning in her skull.
[Little Mei, give me a Vitality-Restoring Pill.]
[Exchange complete.]
Relief barely had time to bloom before a new notice flared.
The Childbearing System entered update status. For a moment, it wished Host a smooth delivery—then the entire interface turned gray.
Unavailable.
Su Yan stared, stunned. [Little Mei?]
No answer.
Panic pricked at her ribs. What about her System Space? She had so many things stored—
[Space!]
At once, a ten-cubic-meter space appeared in her mind. It was stuffed full. Two unopened Childbearing Gift Packs sat among the supplies, along with several scrolls.
Relief loosened her shoulders—only for a shadow to slide across the grass.
A Fox Clan beastman wandered past and spotted her sitting there, unmoving.
His eyes gleamed, quick and sharp.
He unfastened a small pouch from his waist and tossed it into the air. The pouch ballooned into a huge sack mid-flight, snapping open like a mouth.
Before Su Yan could react, it dropped over her.
The fox beastman cinched it tight, swung her over his shoulder with practiced ease, and carried her away as though she weighed nothing at all.