Qian Yu was a thriving twenty-first-century college student, a helpful young citizen of the new era who practiced patriotism, dedication, honesty, friendliness, and every other core social virtue at all times.
On a stormy night filled with thunder and lightning, she tried to rescue a kitten that was nearly drowning in ankle-deep water beside the road.
Unfortunately, she stepped on a half-open manhole cover.
And transmigrated.
“Splash—”
Qian Yu burst out of the water, raised her nose above the surface, and sucked in a desperate breath before sinking again.
Thank goodness her parents had forced her into swimming lessons as a child. In the emergency, muscle memory took over. She corrected her position and began stroking toward shore.
Thank heaven the body of water was not very wide, either. After only a few strokes, her feet touched the sandy bottom.
She dragged herself onto the bank and gulped several huge breaths. At last, she felt alive again.
Who am I?
Where am I?
While Qian Yu’s mind was racing, something began nudging her leg.
She reached down without looking closely and grabbed it. Furry. She froze, lifted it, and cried, “Xiao Mao?”
The wet little creature she had caught was the same black kitten she had tried to save before transmigrating.
Qian Yu ruffled the fur on its head. Unfortunately, her own hand was soaked, and the more she rubbed, the wilder its fur became. It looked like a moldy mango pit someone had sucked clean.
The tiny mango pit had lost too much body heat and began trembling violently, letting out weak mews.
Qian Yu sat up and tucked the kitten against her stomach. She looked around for somewhere clean where they could get themselves together.
When she raised her head, she met the eyes of a girl standing among the trees.
The girl wore her hair in twin buns and held a battered paper umbrella. The instant she saw Qian Yu, she ran over and slid to a stop in front of her. Tears immediately filled her eyes and began falling like spilled beans.
“Senior Sister… Senior Sister! Waaah…”
Qian Yu stared blankly at the entire performance while her brain entered a second round of overdrive.
Oh no. She seems to know me.
Qian Yu had not been a devoted reader of web novels before crossing over, but even if she had never seen a pig run, she had eaten pork. She knew the basic conventions of transmigration stories.
She understood nothing about this world. The safest choice was to speak and act as little as possible, so she silently watched the girl sob in front of her.
After crying herself out, the girl noticed that Qian Yu was still wet. She raised the hand she had just used to wipe her tears and formed a hand seal.
Whoosh.
Qian Yu watched glittering, translucent motes squeeze into the fabric of her clothes. They emerged carrying the moisture and scattered into the air.
“That’s convenient. What is it?” she asked.
Her heart immediately lurched. Had that question exposed her?
She nervously studied the girl’s expression, only for the girl to lower her head.
“It’s a Cleansing Spell I just learned… Senior Sister, please don’t blame yourself. Many people in this world have no destiny for immortality. You grew up beside Master, so you must have an immortal affinity. Being unable to cultivate proves nothing. You are still a model for Junior Sister and me. We will always be proud of you!”
The more she spoke, the more emotional she became. She looked exactly like a parent sending a child into the national college entrance exam while wearing an auspicious red dress and holding a sign that read: NO MATTER YOUR SCORE, YOUR WHOLE FAMILY LOVES YOU.
Qian Yu secretly exhaled and immediately understood.
Unable to cultivate? So she had crossed into a cultivation novel as cannon fodder.
The girl did not notice Qian Yu’s speechless expression. She led her deeper into the forest, talking in a torrent as they walked.
Her name was A-Ling. She and Qian Yu cultivated beneath the same master at the Free and Easy Sect on Yunliu Mountain. It was a tiny sect. Their master, Immortal Master Zizai, was its only cultivator above the Nascent Soul stage.
According to A-Ling, the sect had only three disciples: the two of them and another girl, Xie Yingying, who had only recently reached Qi Refining.
“Master cultivates talisman arts. A few days ago, she drew new patterns onto my Thousand Devices Umbrella. It has been much easier to use.” A-Ling waved the ragged paper umbrella in her hand.
Qian Yu had heard of the familiar Thousand Devices Umbrella trope in her previous life. She stared in disbelief at the object that looked as if one firm squeeze would tear it apart.
This piece of junk?
A-Ling led her in circles through the forest. Qian Yu had already seen the same identical tree three times.
She realized A-Ling was deliberately taking her around in loops. When the crooked tree appeared for the fourth time, Qian Yu finally lost patience. She stepped forward, caught A-Ling’s sleeve, and asked without much confidence, “A-Ling, where exactly are we going?”
A-Ling abruptly disappeared from in front of her.
Before Qian Yu could react, a heavy blow struck her back and sent her crashing to the ground.
A-Ling twisted both arms behind her and planted one knee brutally against her spine. No matter how Qian Yu struggled, she could not move an inch.
When A-Ling spoke, her voice and tone were utterly different from before.
“What wild monster are you? Why do you look exactly like my senior sister, and what are you plotting?”
Qian Yu panicked. How was she supposed to know? She had not even been in this world for half an hour!
“I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?” A-Ling narrowed her eyes and snorted. She pulled a talisman from somewhere and slapped it onto Qian Yu’s back.
The skin beneath it burned as though set on fire. Qian Yu screamed in terror. “I know! I know!”
“Then tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
For her entire life, Qian Yu had gone to bed early, risen early, exercised diligently, and eaten a proper weekly allowance of fruit and vegetables. Her body had always been excellent. She had barely suffered a cold, let alone an injury. One taste of pain like this made her ready to stop living altogether.
A-Ling assumed she was deliberately provoking her. Without another word, she produced a second talisman.
“It seems you won’t talk until I teach you a lesson.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” The talisman was still metaphorically eight hundred meters from Qian Yu’s back, but she was already terrified. She begged at once. “I’ll tell you anything you want, all right? Just no torture or forced confession…”
A-Ling had apparently never met a demon this spineless. She blinked, but did not lower her guard. She continued waving the talisman threateningly.
“What is your name?”
“Qian Yu.”
The instant A-Ling heard it, she slapped the talisman onto her.
Another scream tore through the forest.
“Still lying. I’ll ask again. What is your name?”
“Huh?” Qian Yu discovered that this little girl was wildly unreasonable.
Her calves shook from the pain. If A-Ling had not been holding her, she would have melted into the ground.
When she sensed A-Ling reaching for a third talisman, Qian Yu blurted out everything she should and should not say.
“Believe me or don’t, my name is Qian Yu! When you found me, I had just arrived in this world. I don’t know where this is or why I came here. I don’t know you or your senior sister. Miss, I truly know nothing! I’m an ordinary person! A bystander! A woman! A young person! A background extra passing through! A person with no golden finger…”
Whatever.
Her back hurt so much.