“Mom, I caught a bunch of wild chickens again today!” Qu Weichen burst into the room, excitement all over her face.
The candles at home were already lit.
Her mom looked over, helpless, still wearing her apron, but turned around to grab a damp towel and caught her.
The towel was a bit rough, honestly not very comfortable, but Qu Weichen grinned as her mom scrubbed her face hard, then obediently stretched out her hands, covered in mud, for her mom to clean.
“You, running around all over the place this late.” Her mom muttered, her golden curls shining even brighter in the candlelight.
Qu Weichen’s vision blurred a little, and then she saw her mom bring out those golden, fluffy little cakes from the kitchen.
“It’s your birthday today, and you still came home so late.”
Sweet golden honey syrup dripped down from the top of the cake, pooling into golden rivers on the white porcelain plate.
In the flickering birthday candlelight, the scent of cake and syrup mixed together, and her mom’s face grew more and more blurry.
Just as Qu Weichen gripped her knife and fork, ready to dig in, the wild chickens she’d caught suddenly started flapping and screeching, candles flickering, and in the darkness, searing flames burst out—
“No, no!—”
Fiery red flames tangled with ghostly blue hellfire, weaving through every house in the village.
Thick smoke rose, and the uncles and aunts who used to smile at her were now fleeing in panic, begging for mercy, some screaming for help.
The cries and screams drilled into Qu Weichen’s mind, and all she could see was a sea of fire, then a towering skeleton stepping out from the flames.
The lower half was a horse’s skeleton, the upper half human-shaped.
Centaur? No, this was a death knight.
Qu Weichen watched as the bony hooves smashed through the iron armor the blacksmith uncle was so proud of, bursting out the other side, leaving a trail of blood.
She saw everyone struggling and fighting back in pain, only to be torn apart by the swarming skeletons.
“Mom…” In the firelit night, Qu Weichen lunged out like a madwoman, pinned down a weak little skeleton, and beat it furiously with a stick.
She didn’t stop until its soul fire went out, panting for breath.
The thick smell of blood filled her nose and mouth.
Qu Weichen looked up and saw the death knight slowly approaching her.
And in that instant, she seemed to hear something, or maybe nothing at all.
She saw herself rasp out a hoarse, difficult “Confirm.”
…A blue magic circle lit up in front of her, and a tiny skeleton soldier appeared.
Qu Weichen was swept by a wave of despair, but this little skeleton soldier actually made the death knight stop, turn away, and go kill other living people.
Ruins, wreckage, blood, and scorched earth, collapsed houses and all kinds of shops.
The warm home was gone.
Morning had come, and Qu Weichen sat by a charred corpse like a wandering soul, staring at everything, feeling like it was all a nightmare.
If there really are gods in this world, please let me wake up from this nightmare.
—“Wake up, we’re at the town!” A sudden brake and a shout jolted Qu Weichen awake in the truck.
She forced her frozen body to move, then struggled to climb out of the cargo hold.
She’d dreamed it again.
Her simple cloth bag had been stained from white to gray by mud.
Qu Weichen slung it over her back, looked at the bustling little town in front of her, and shook her head hard to clear her mind.
Of course, it wasn’t a dream.
It really happened.
She actually wasn’t from this world.
Was this transmigration? And a rebirth kind, too.
Qu Weichen could barely remember her past life anymore—the longer she lived here, the blurrier her old world became, as if she was being assimilated by this one.
And she was willing to be.
The only thing she hadn’t forgotten about her past self was her name.
When she arrived here, she was only six, appearing in the woods outside a village, like a refugee.
She looked almost exactly like she did at six in her previous life, as if two parallel worlds had met—one version of her died, and was revived here.
At first, Qu Weichen had all kinds of guesses.
After all, this was a world of swords and magic, anything was possible.
But after all these years, she hadn’t gotten any special powers, so she stopped thinking about it.
In this world, she was an orphan, or at least she didn’t know who her parents were.
She had no memories from before she was six, as if she’d just appeared out of thin air.
Luckily, she walked into the village and met the kind Mrs. Branny.
Branny was thirty-six at the time, seemed to be a single woman, but took pity on her and brought her home, raising her as a daughter.
You’re probably wondering why there’s a name like Branny here.
And in a world of swords and magic, how could Qu Weichen keep her old name without anyone suspecting? Yeah, Qu Weichen wondered that too at first.
—“What kind of setting is this world supposed to be?” Qu Weichen couldn’t figure it out! Her mom was called Branny, the old blacksmith was Andrew! But get this—the blacksmith’s son was Andy, and he said his last name was An! Qu Weichen had never seen such a ridiculous world setting! Did that mean the village chief Green’s last name was Green?—And she was actually right.
After she got used to this weird setting, the only good news for Qu Weichen was: she didn’t have to worry about changing her name.
This strange plane was called the Floating Yu Continent.
As for what that meant, there were all kinds of theories, but the most popular one was that it was named in honor of the first Archmage Yu Fu.
The Floating Yu Continent was home to many races, and according to records, there had been many wars in history, but no one ever unified the land.
Until one day, under a double moon, the dead “came back to life,” skeletons crawled out of the earth, the gates to hell opened, and undead creatures from the abyss poured through interdimensional portals, launching a long-planned invasion of the continent—
Of course, the races of the Floating Yu Continent held their ground.
But they paid a heavy price.
The abyss retreated, the gates to hell vanished.
But everyone knew, no one could say when or where the next attack would come.
The unity and peace that centuries of war couldn’t achieve finally came after a month of bloodshed.
The leaders of all the races came together and built a united city of peace and freedom in the center of the continent—Uvino.
In ancient elvish, that word meant “the source of all dawn,” and also “gentle sunlight, peaceful times.” Ever since, whenever something big happened on the continent, all the races would send representatives to Uvino for talks.
And whenever the gates of hell opened again, the Free Army, created by all the races in Uvino, would march out to fight the abyss, protect the people, and rebuild their homes.
The currency here wasn’t gold or silver coins, but a special energy crystal called “Yuanlang.” These crystals were hard to damage, very sturdy, light and easy to carry, and they contained special energy.
Some people made cards out of another gem that could react with them, so the Yuanlang crystals could be absorbed by the special gem, and with the right magic array, you could see exactly how many crystals you had.
As for the power system in this world, it was divided into ten ranks.
Whether you were a warrior or a mage, you had to go to the local association to get your rank tested.
Obviously, the little village where Qu Weichen lived didn’t have any associations.
Forget mages, even warriors were rare.
Honestly, after blending into this world, Qu Weichen didn’t have any big ambitions.
Warrior? Mage? That was way out of reach for her.
Being a mage was a money pit—no matter your talent, all the equipment cost a fortune for villagers, and magic materials were never cheap.
As for warriors… regular people could try, but awakening as a warrior required a potion, and that potion was only sold in big cities, for 5,000 Yuanlang a bottle.
Doesn’t sound expensive? Let’s do the math: the black bread her mom sold was 2 Yuanlang each.
For all these reasons—maybe it was her personality, maybe she just knew life was hard—Qu Weichen never asked for anything unreasonable.
She certainly wasn’t going to ask Branny, who got up before dawn every day to work, to spend her savings on an awakening potion.
Having lived two lives, Qu Weichen was almost too sensible.
She went to the forest every day to try to find food to help out at home.
Honestly, she thought spending her whole life in the village, free and easy, wouldn’t be so bad.
Another birthday came, and her mom gave her a birthday cake.
With the smell of milk and honey swirling together, Qu Weichen made three wishes, very seriously.
“Money, safety, freedom.”
And after she made her wishes, her mom immediately granted the first one.
A thin card, heavy with meaning—6,800 Yuanlang in total, her mom’s savings.
“When the next caravan comes, you can spend 700 Yuanlang on travel, and have them take you to the big city.
Use 5,000 Yuanlang to buy an awakening potion.” Her mom sounded a little guilty and sad as she said this.
“Mom’s not very capable, I’ve saved for so long and still don’t have much Yuanlang for you.”
But Qu Weichen was already crying her eyes out.
She took the crystal card, and never realized money could feel so heavy.
Everything was perfect, until the second half of the night.
That was the nightmare.
Qu Weichen spent 1 Yuanlang at a shop to fill her water pouch with hot water, washed her hands, then found a random corner to sit down.
She pulled a dry bun from her bag and chewed it with the hot water.
Next door, people at a noodle shop were still eating breakfast, talking about the empire’s young hero.
Oh, of course she was a hero.
If the great genius Orifis hadn’t discovered the undead invasion array and destroyed it in time, the undead army would have descended directly on Uvino! Even though Uvino was heavily guarded, if they’d been invaded, the losses would have been huge! As for the array being disrupted and the undead invasion being teleported to some remote village? At most, that was just a few hundred casualties, easy enough to rebuild.
Qu Weichen leaned against the wall, closed her eyes, and chewed her bun almost numbly.
Saliva filled her mouth, but she couldn’t taste any sweetness—just a mouthful and a heartful of bitterness and helplessness.
