“AH!”

I regained consciousness thanks to a sudden piercing pain. Was I being tortured already? Did I reach a bad ending because I blacked out? Did I miss my chance?

My whole body was paralyzed. Laboriously forcing my eyes opened, the hazy portal inscriptions intimately forced way into my view. So I was still here.

Instantly, something else easily took my attention. It was hard not to observe the new trauma on my pitiful body. There was a sword pinning my hand to the ground. My eyes pursued the tip of the sword up the beautiful blade and saw a pale hand on its hilt.

A black shadow loomed over my head, but due to the angle, I couldn’t grasp a look at the culprit of my misery.

The individual then withdrew their hand and shuffled around me. I heard the sound of the stone hitting gravel. Was this sweetie placing spirit stones on the portal for me?

How wonderfully kind, and possibly even kinder, if they removed the sword.

I could bet all my money on guessing this was the female MC. I mustered all the oxygen in my lungs and weakly tested, “...Yela?”

Pause. The person stopped briefly but dismissed my call while carrying on their stone placing at an even faster pace.

Reckon Yela here had yet to figure out the core had changed for “Miao”, with my level of threat being equivalent to being hit with a coin.

I tried to make conversation again, “What ‘ya doing...? Human...sacrificial ritual?”

A cold snort came from Yela, “You know better than I do, this is a portal to a rural continent.”

Yela!! You’re a goddess! You can’t do cold snorts!

“Yeah, I know that... what I mean is, what are you doing? You should have escaped through this portal while I was out.”

Yela turned to the back of my head, I didn't know how I knew, but I knew she did, and said apathetically, “Miao, you always take everyone for an idiot. ”

Then she turned back to her work and added, “With such unstable spiritual energy, there might be time rifts during the warping.”

I didn't need to be a longtime resident of this world to know time rifts might enjoy ripping things apart.

It also sounded like she was done or she ran out of spirit stones, because Yela stood up and softly patted her butt.

She walked away from the portal and said rather sincerely, with the sincerity a winner was allowed to have, “Miao, our rivalry ends here today. This will be the last time I see you. If you survive... Value the chance.”

Then she added, “One last thing...” As if using an invisible string to fish, the interspatial ring was yanked at and then disappeared from my finger.

...Surprise. Yela’s hidden job was a level 99 thief.

“I will keep this ring for you.”

Yela proceeded to mumble some chant and the spirit stones were consecutively gobbled up. Increasingly, the scripts on the ground glimmered an azure glow.

So this was space “magic.” I felt the atmosphere around me reassembled itself and there was a pull on my robe.

The light became blinding and the scripts on the ground drifted into the air and swiveled around the border of the portal.

In a millisecond, a dreadful darkness engrossed the area and I felt corrosion on my robe and my skin.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Immediately a silver amulet materialized in an attempt to encase the violent dark matter. A silver light overflowed from the amulet forming a protective barrier around me.

It must be the soul protecting charm the elders in the clan give to their important descendants.

I remembered reading if the charm was destroyed, then most likely the holder of the charm received the short end of the stick. Their family could start to reserve a spot on the alter for said person.

Earlier the charm was already slightly damaged from the battle with Yela.

Now, the edges of the silver amulet started to burn again, as if fire on wood.

The violent darkness was attenuated but the charm also only managed to last a minute before poofing into particles of ash.

After it dissipated, the next thing to burn was my robe.

It must have been a soul artifact. When it started to burn, so was I, or to be exact, the mental connection I had with the robe was being burnt into oblivion.

----------------------------------------

When I regained consciousness again, I was being carried on someone’s back.

I guess I also possess the resiliency of a cockroach.

I was a bit confused on why I was feeling less pain than before, otherwise, I should be wailing like a baby by now.

Glancing over the person’s shoulder, I saw some areas of my arm were peeling and some parts were in scabs. We were treading along a dried mud road amongst an endless stretch of patty fields.

“..ugh...wa...ter..”

The person giving me a piggyback ride stopped in his steps and slightly turned his head towards me. His familiarity and word choice were as if we were friends for years, “I found you in water.”

He bumped me up higher on his back and continued walking.

-cough cough-

I had good reason to suspect he did it on purpose. My lungs were being squeezed like a balloon.

Curious about this random hostility, I was not one to hold my tongue, “....you did... it.. on purpose...just now...”

He didn’t respond, but his actions did. He stopped and gave me a small bump again.

Cough!

...

Whoops, the droplets didn’t come out on purpose.

He bent over and removed his arm from my leg to wipe his face.

“...I...didn’t...do it... on purpose...” Hope I didn't sound guilty.

This time, when he stood up he gently shifted me up his back. Now I felt I was being petty to my life savior.

I gathered all the energy I have and raised my arm against his face to help him wipe the spit.

Erm, I think one of the scab peeled and was now bleeding.

My arm dropped as if I had just passed away, and he didn’t pause to wipe his face again.

I couldn’t stand awkward silence. It makes the pain more apparent.

“...where are...we going?”

“To find an inn.”

“...I don’t like..the...implication of...this conversation... Why not... say...a place...to rest?”

“...No, that’s...not right...either... We can rest...everywhere.”

“...”

I talked for a bit more, but all along he refused to reply to any of my ice breaker questions.

The soft warm breeze against the grain stalks was a lullaby for sleep, especially to an injured person like me.

I wanted to drop all my weight and sleep like a pig, but I thought I should show what was left of my remaining modesty. Even though it could only be counted in crumbs.

The endless mud path does end.

When I woke up again, the night had cast its curtain. The radiant moonlight reflected off the bustling foliage of the forest we were passing through.

This didn’t look like an inkling of an inn.

“...What...happened to...finding an...inn?”

The guy calmly clarified, “...The city had a curfew, and we didn't have an identity pass.”

Savior! As long as you were OP enough, the city walls could just be decoration!

This world — at least this area — seemed more rule-governed than I’d imagined. However, being able to rule cultivators on exit and entry to the city... Either everyone was low-level here or there's a legion boss in the city.

“Where are...we going...now?” I asked.

“East Coast City, a few days distance from here.”

“...So this is...what they mean...when they say... heavens as the blanket... earth as the bed...and a rock as...the pillow...”

“...We’re heading to a village now.”

Call me a skeptic. “...Are people so...friendly here? To allow...us to stay?”

“Perhaps.”

“What’s your... name?”

He paused before answering, “Han Bin.”

This matched my guess of this young man’s identity. I say young, but if he was the MC, his past life alone would be over a few hundred years old.

We walked some more.

Then came into view a dainty bamboo house enclosed by bamboo fences. A dim light escaped through one of the window screen outlining the silhouette of two people.

Like a shadow play, the two figures brought their head closer to each other until their shadow overlapped.

Han Bin immediately veered around. Guess he didn't want to interrupt their sexy time either.

While my mind revolved around the privacy issue, we went to a few more houses with light sources but all seemed reluctant to host some strangers for the night.

An old grandpa asked, “Did you try the bamboo house on the outskirts of the village? The owners are also outsiders to this village, and they’ve hosted some other travelers before.”

If MC spared me a glance, we could have a mutual “Aha!” moment. But he didn’t so it was wasted. He thanked the elder and left.

We were on the road again. So this was the feeling of not having a place to return to; it was quite tough.

Although I was in pain and was exhausted, I said, “...We can...just rest outside...”

“Sleep.” He said.

Without being courteous, I soon drifted to the dreams.