Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

After the feeling of fainting had faded away, Xia Yi opened his eyes. The very first thing he did was to look at his feet. Good. He was not on some suspension bridge attached to a cliff.

Looking around him, it looked real. It should not be some alternate dimensional killing magic circle. All around him were green forests, he was in the middle of everything, standing on a curly path on the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, there was a delicate ancient pavilion, which was quite far away.

Hm? Isn’t this place the enchanted area where he bumped into when he met Ciang Yi last time?

Seemed like this system placed the character at the entrance of the dungeon when he logged back in after logging him out due to downloading dungeon data.

Xia Yi walked a few steps according to his memories to this place to see if he could bumped into Ciang Yi’s enchanted area again.

He observed carefully. Nothing changed.

The trees, the path, the pavilion, everything was still there.

Nevermind. Just go back. This place is extremely peculiar. Xia Yi thought and turned around.

As soon as he turned, he looked into a pair of golden eyes which looked like two pretty lanterns.

In the middle of these lanterns, a pair of irises were staring at him without blinking.

It was frightening. Goose bumps popped up on Xia Yi’s body. He screamed and backed up immediately.

When he saw the thing in front of him clearly, he gasped.

Some kind of unknown monster was standing in front of him without noticing him in advance, and that monster was looking at him with a tilted head.

That monster looked like a lion, but with a horn grown on its forehead. Its body was in the shape of a deer, but black hard shiny scales covered its body. Its feet were glowing slightly as if they were wearing four glowing shoes.

Alien!

This word popped up in Xia Yi’s mind.

Don’t panic. Don’t run. Don’t show fear.

Xia Yi held his breath. He pinched his thigh hard, freezing on the same spot.

Do not meet its eyes to make it feel that you are provoking it. Xia Yi looked away calmly, as if he was looking at the grass on the side of the road. Now. It’s time. Walk slowly. Right. Leave slowly.

That monster was standing on the side downhill, hence, Xia Yi sluggishly followed the path up and walked towards the pavilion.

It’s over! That monster is following me! And it is keeping the same pace as his! Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. Do not show fear.

Xia Yi kept walking with a pace not too fast, not too slow. His palms had become all sweaty.

All his senses were focusing on his ears. His ears were like two radars now, alerted, trying to figure out what was happening behind him. There were rustling sounds from the bushes on the left. That monster was scratching the bushes. There were some sharp creaking sounds from the right side. A glowing stone was there. That monster must be biting it, using it to grind its teeth.

“Crack.” It! Cracked!

Xia Yi’s heart trembled with this. His head was definitely not harder than that rock. He walked about a hundred meters in that way. That monster had been following him from all the way, sometimes moved to his left side and sometimes to his right.

At the moment when Xia Yi exhaled in relief with some distance between them, it walked its bumpy way to catch up as soon as he saw him ahead.

Suddenly, a rabbit with big round eyes jumped out from the bushes in front of them and looked at Xia Yi with curiosity.

“Go, go.” Xia Yi made soft sounds and tried to drive it away without being noticed.

That rabbit obviously did not understand Xia Yi’s hints. It must not have experienced being driven away by people before, thus it had no fear and even jumped this way for a couple of steps.

The monster behind him obviously noticed the rabbit as well. It ran around for a bit with interest and growled like thunder all of a sudden.

Xia Yi was already stiffened and highly tense. He could not hold off anymore after hearing that growl, he screamed and dashed forward. He had not run this fast for his whole life before, plus he was at his foundation phase, so he jumped over whenever there was a pit, and crossed whenever there was a stream. The wind was blowing beside his ears. He had unbelievably arrived at the pavilion at the halfway point of the mountain with a few breaths.

Just when he stopped to evaluate the situation and see if that monster was still following, he heard the sound of four paws dashing.

So it had been keeping a distance of a few meters from him from the start.

I am dead!

Xia Yi gathered his strength again to move his trembling legs and prepared to run to the top of the mountain.

Out of the blue, a breeze of cold wind reached him from behind. Xia Yi screamed in fear and was instantly pinned down by that monster onto the grassland.

After pouncing onto Xia Yi, despite Xia Yi’s struggle, that monster used its paws to turn him over and pinned him down. Those straight irises in those golden eyes had become round in shape with a hint of excitement from nowhere and an opened big mouth.

Xia Yi could not catch his breath. There were buzzing sounds ringing in his ears. He only had one thought. I am dying I am dying. I am going to be eaten by aliens.

Seeing those white sharp teeth closing in, Xia Yi could not move an inch on the ground under its paws.

He had given up. He stopped struggling directly and turned to face one side, “Zhu, I will see you in the next life.”

The expected pain never hit him. He was licked by something wet instead.

Xia Yi quivered due to the shock.

Then, it licked again.

And it licked his face like crazy.

Xia Yi was both scared and shocked. He opened his eyes slightly to see that monster licking him and wiggling its heavy tail, making affectionate sounds. Although those growls were low like thunder, Xia Yi could hear the affectionate nature of it somehow.

It was like Kirin from home.

It saw Xia Yi open his eyes to look at it, therefore it stopped licking, stepped back and sat down, panting.

Are you sure this is not a dog?

“Ding ding.” That monster shook its head and made a light sound.

He thought he heard that too while he was running just now, but Xia Yi did not have the time to think about it. Now when he looked towards the source of the sound, he saw a copper bell on the monster’s neck.

Looked closely, right, it was a copper bell.

Copper, black leather rope.

Isn’t this the one he bought for Kirin when he was making the rings in the nearby village?

Viewing the monster chasing a rabbit along the road, a guessed statement slowly came up in Xia Yi’s mind.

So he opened his mouth to speak, with hesitation, “Kirin?”

As soon as his words were out, he saw that running monster halted its steps and turned to look at him. Then it walked towards him and rubbed his body with its head affectionately. It was just that the horn on its forehead had pushed Xia Yi over.

Xia Yi watched the monster panicking, then he pointed at the broom in the pavilion nearby, “Fetch me that broom.”

It swiftly moved that way just like a black lightning, then it picked up the broom with its mouth and walked back slightly running.

Right. This is my son.

“My dear Kirin. How do you become like this?!” Xia Yi hugged Kirin, kissing and patting it. He still felt bad for it, “Son. How did you become an alien? It is all 179 and the other useless systems’ fault. They made you become like this.” Xia Yi kissed Kirin’s curled horn, “But papa will always love you.”

“Why are you blaming me? I am not the technical system. I am only the mission announcing system of yours.” 179’s discontented voice rang.

“179! You are here too!” Xia Yi was astonished.

“I have been here all along.”

Xia Yi thought for a while and his expression turned gloomy, “So you have been here all along, you watched me being frightened by Kirin like that, and you were not voicing out?”

“How am I supposed to know that you were scared by it? I thought you were playing with it.” 179 felt wronged, “Are you not able to tell that it is Kirin?”

“It looked like a totally different type of creature now. How am I supposed to recognise it?” Xia Yi felt the blame was invalid, “Look at it. Did it look a bit like before?”

“Is there any difference? Didn’t it look the same?” 179 spoke with confidence.