âUghâŚâ Lian Hua uttered a harsh hoarse cry and struggled to open his heavy eyelids. He felt his entire body ache, and he couldnât tell how much of his body was intact. Just twitching a finger was almost enough to make him pass out with pain.
âLian Yu, Lian Yu, Little Yu ErâŚâ Lian Hua attempted to call for Lian Yu telepathically, but there was no reply. When he exerted himself in order to observe his surroundings, Lian Hua discovered that he was lying in a low tent. He lay on top of dirt and grass, and he was covered by a blanket that was both putrid and moldy. Lian Hua felt very uncomfortable.
âXiao Yuu*, you still want to take care of this half dead guy? Heâs been unconscious for three days straight. Heâs beyond saving, give up!â A boyâs voice carried in from outside the tent.
*Note, this is a different Yu. This character is not our favorite mushroom Lian Yu. To differentiate them, I added an extra uâŚ
âXiao Xiao Long! Donât speak nonsense! That big brother will definitely come around, definitely get better!â This was an exasperated female voice.
âTch! When you took him home, all of his bones were broken. With those wounds, he was lucky to have survived. Xiao Yuu, stop dreaming.â
âNo! You can tell at a glance that heâs an esper. Heâs sure to be powerful. He definitely wonât die!â The girlâs voice was overflowing with confidence.
âYou⌠You want to anger me to death?! These past few days, you and your brother struggled to gather clean water and food. All of our precious resources ended up in his stomach, but he still looks like heâs half dead!â
âMy brother and I are willing. Itâs none of your business! Go away. I donât want to see you!â
âYou!! You piss me off. Fine, have it your way! Hmph! Iâm gonna go find your brother!â
The sound of footsteps gradually faded, and the tent door was lifted. Lian Hua saw a girl who was about twelve or thirteen carefully lug in a jar halfway filled with water. Her clothes were tattered, and her messy hair seemed to covered her face, exposing only her large eyes. When the girl entered and saw that Lian Hua had opened his eyes and was looking at her, her own eyes lit up.
âBig brother, are you awake?â The girl ran over to Lian Huaâs side and looked at him with concern.
Lian Hua opened his mouth, but he was unable to make a sound. The girl noticed his situation and quickly spoke, âBig brother, donât be in such a rush. Take a sip of water first!â After speaking, she carefully opened the lid of the half full jar and placed it next to Lian Huaâs lips. Lian Hua really was in desperate need of water, so he helped himself to a large gulp. When he was done, he shook his head to signal to the girl that she could have her water back.
The girl carefully stored the remaining water in a secure place, then sat beside Lian Hua and looked at him while supporting her chin with her hands.
After drinking water, Lian Hua felt much more relaxed. He closed his eyes and carefully extended his awareness to investigate the condition of his body.
He had three broken ribs and his right leg was also broken. There were several wounds of various sizes on his body, and not a single drop of energy remained in his body. His body had started to automatically treat the wounds, so it was used up completely. Lian Hua couldnât help but laugh bitterly. He was so unlucky. It canât be that getting close to Pig Leg meant that he had to bear the weight of the main characterâs freakish ability to attract bizarre monsters? However, he wasnât as overpowered as a main character, nor did he have the protagonistâs halo. How could he deal with it? Lian Hua felt very tired.
Ever since the first time he was successful in swaying Pig Legâs heart, Lian Hua didnât stop trying his best. He spent more than a month trying different methods to get Xia Zhiâs heart. Every day, he followed Aunt Li around and learned how to cook. At first, aside from mushrooms, Xia Zhi disliked and avoided anything Lian Hua cooked. Alvin, who followed Lian Hua around, reaped the spoils. Changing the ingredients or making more dishes costed crystal cores. It wasnât cheap.
After that, Lian Hua steadily became more skillful. Xia Zhi no longer ate one or two bites of the other dishes, but cleared his plates. Lian Hua spent one month like this. During that time, although Xia Zhi would sometimes look at him with annoyance, sometimes it would be cloudy and uncertain. Sometimes, Lian Hua would get beat up because Xia Zhi couldnât stand to look at him. Lian Hua would immediately slink away silently for a while. After some time passed, he would come back and Xia Zhiâs heart would soften greatly.
Lian Hua also took advantage of the title of ânannyâ that Xia Zhi personally bestowed him and stuck to Xia Zhi like glue. Every day, he ran to Xia Zhiâs personal quarters and they advanced like that for the whole trip. Lian Hua also no longer slept by himself. Lian Hua firmly believed that as long as he was stubborn enough and honest enough, even if Xia Zhi didnât like him right now, one day his efforts would move the otherâs heart.
Ever since Lian Hua started to âchaseâ Xia Zhi, Jiang Siyu saw him as even more of an eyesore. Every day, she insisted on mocking and ridiculing him. Lian Hua didnât like Jiang Siyu either. He avoided her as much as possible. Who knew that when Jiang Siyu couldnât find him, she went to the main road and accused him of being a shameless gigolo that sold his ass, or various things like that.
In front of others, Jiang Siyu appeared to be a hardworking girl who strived to get ahead. Quite a few people respected her, and she had no shortage of suitors. However, Jiang Siyu didnât choose anyone. Instead, she adorned herself with men and her âadmirersâ soon faced Lian Hua with disgust. Anyone their goddess hated couldnât be a good person! As such, there were often people who would hinder him.
At that time, Lian Hua was dueling wit and courage with Jiang Siyuâs people, persistently wooing Xia Zhi, learning survival skills, and grinding friendship points with Cannonfodder An all at the same time. In the end, Lian Hua had a frightening headache. He was forced to pit Jiang Siya against Jiang Siyu. Jiang Siya was the type of person who had no brain. Lian Hua randomly said a few lines, making her so agitated that she gasped indignantly and ran off to find Jiang Siyu to settle things.
Cannonfodder An hurriedly charged into the fray, providing Jiang Siya with greater influence and supplying her with materials. Normally, he had no time to take care of her. After Cannonfodder An finished mediating between the two, there was no longer an uproar. He could only [wring his hands]. As for Bai Yi, who was still stalking Xia Zhiâs troops, as long as he didnât appear in front of Xia Zhi, Xia Zhiâs group didnât say anything.
While the two cannonfodder girls were fighting, Lian Hua was watching from the sidelines. The people who were chasing Jiang Siyu really annoyed him. He couldnât stand it!
Just as Xia Zhi was starting to spontaneously smile at Lian Hua and Cannonfodder An was slowly starting to see him as a friend, he was unaware of the events that would rain down upon his head. In fact, he was unaware of just how unlucky he was.
That day, their troops passed by a small mountain village. After confirming that the interior had been overrun by mutated beasts, Xia Zhi decided to sweep the area. Usually, when they scavenged for materials in a place like this, they would take everything.
The scouts they sent in first were Lian Hua and Cannonfodder An. They were both level three. Lian Hua had lectured Cannonfodder An on the advantages of being a wood esper. Cannonfodder An effortlessly comprehended everything and used the wood element to mask his presence. Although it couldnât be used long and wasnât very reliable, if they didnât run into anything that was higher level than them or a situation in which they ran out of energy, then scouting the road ahead and observing the level of the mutated beasts and zombies wasnât a big deal.
Lian Hua and Cannonfodder An used wood energy to disguise themselves. They charged into the village and split up to the left and to the right. Lian Hua went to the right. He discovered that the mutated beasts in the village consisted of chickens, dogs, and pigs that the villagers had raised. The strongest one was a level three rooster. Most of the others were only level one or two.
Lian Hua felt that mutated beasts were very easy to deal with. As long as the highest level one was killed, Xia Zhiâs group could slowly deal with the rest.
After walking through the village, Lian Huaâs luck suddenly skyrocketed and he found a hidden basement full of bags of rice paddy. At that time, he was overjoyed. Lian Hua decided to hide the existence of this cave because that cousin of his would be passing through this area as well. He resolved to only tell Xia Zhi about this place. Xia Zhi would definitely be in a good mood.
After they painstakingly defeated all of the monsters, Lian Hua excitedly dragged Xia Zhi to the basement. Yet, how could he know that when they opened the door to the basement, there would be nothing left! Even with a pocket dimension, it would be impossible to move everything in such a short span of time! Xia Zhiâs troops had two space type espers who were strictly guarded and under special surveillance. There was absolutely no possibility that they had been here. On the other hand, Bai Yiâs group did not have a space esper. Lian Hua was flabbergasted.
In the end, Lian Hua remembered that when everyone was fighting the mutated beasts together, Jiang Siyu had not appeared.
Lian Hua immediately started to pay attention to Jiang Siyu. After observing Jiang Siyu for several days and receiving âseveral condescending looks of loveâ from Xia Zhi, Lian Hua finally discovered something unnatural.
First of all, the troops didnât have very many personal belongings. Each person had only a couple of sets of clothes that they wore in between bathing and wash cycles. Even Lian Hua himself only had two unique sets of clothes. They couldnât be ruined easily, but he still had to wear them regularly. However, Jiang Siyu had several outfits! Although she was wearing the same thing as yesterday, Jiang Siyuâs clothes were spick and span and there was absolutely no wear or tear. In this day and age, it was impossible for clothes not to have wear or tear. Mutated beasts had even torn open several large gashes on Lian Huaâs clothes.
Next, Jiang Siyu was still competing with Lian Hua and delivering food to Xia Zhi. Lian Hua discovered that the food that she brought often contained ingredients or vegetables that were hard to encounter. Occasionally, there were even large portions of meat that had not mutated! Right now, finding a domesticated animal that had not been mutated was even harder than finding a high level mutated beast. If an animal that had not mutated was not already dead, then who knows where it was now!
Finally, Lian Hua noticed that the wounds on Jiang Siyuâs body healed exceptionally fast. Jiang Siya was hurt at the same time, but she had not recovered much. On the other hand, Jiang Siyuâs skin was as silky smooth as a freshly peeled boiled egg! Both of them were level two water espers, so Jiang Siya should have been able to heal her own wounds.
Before, whenever he saw that Jiang Siyu was always neat and clean, he always attributed it to the fact that she was a water esper. However, there were too many suspicious points now.
Lian Hua sent Lian Yu to spy on her. He was very confident in Lian Yuâs stealth capabilities. As expected, Lian Yu returned and reported to him that at night, Jiang Siyu was not asleep, she had disappeared! Fucking shit! She definitely had a pocket dimension! Lian Yu then remembered that Jiang Siyu wore a jade bracelet on her wrist. Lian Hua was certain that the jade bracelet was her pocket dimension.
Lian Hua was confident that he had grasped Jiang Siyuâs greatest secret. So Jiang Siyu was actually pocket dimension wielding âfemale pig headâ! No wonder she kept pursueing Xia Zhi so relentlessly! Lian Hua felt like this world really made his balls ache.
The next day, Lian Hua secretly called Jiang Siyu out to a discreet location and directly told her not look for trouble with him because he knew of her greatest secret. If she didnât want to be exposed, she shouldnât mess with him anymore, etc.
Lian Hua thought that he had given Jiang Siyu sufficient warning. She would definitely calm down. From then on, Jiang Siyuâs people really didnât go looking for him. Lian Hua felt that those days were really good. He didnât even bother to worry about that pocket dimension or intend to steal it. In the end, how could he know that it was the one thing that ensured Jiang Siyuâs survival the most? Jiang Siyu absolutely would not allow the existence of her pocket dimension to be exposed. She feared that Lian Hua coveted her pocket dimension, so she would not allow this person who knew her secret to live.
That day, their convoy had reached a docking station and was consolidating their forces, preparing to cross the river. Jiang Siyu stealthily scattered some spiritual water in the surrounding area. Lian Hua didnât know whether the Jiang Siyuâs spirit water or Xia Zhiâs was better, but its ability to draw zombies and mutated beasts was incredibly strong.
They were surrounded by a wave full of zombies and mutated beasts. Within their ranks was a level four mutated python! Everyone desperately cleaned up the low level monsters as Lian Hua ran over to help Xia Zhi deal with the level four mutated python. Within their group, Xia Zhi was the strongest at level four, having completely cultivated the Qi condensation stage[1]. Lian Hua was only level three, just a step away from level four. There werenât very many people who had reached level three in their group. It was very difficult to fight a level four mutated beast.
Previously, Xia Zhi was able to deal with the level four mutated ivy plant because it was unable to move. Furthermore, it had eaten lots of strong people in order to progress. It wasnât necessarily level four. Now they had officially come face to face with a level four mutated beast.
Lian Hua was desperately worried, but he could only use a curtain of water to obscure the pythonâs vision and vines to impede its movement. Its ability to harm was minimal. In the end, just as Xia Zhi had beaten the python to near death, Jiang Siyu stood behind Lian Hua and splashed him with spirit water! Lian Hua finally understood who the mastermind behind this catastrophe was. Before dying, the python whipped its tail one last time, hitting Lian Hua and pulling him underwater.
He had no idea what happened after that. He was only aware that his vital organs and viscera were churning. He was certain that he could avoid being eaten by mutated fish in the river only because Lian Yu had saved him.
Now that he was unable to contact Lian Yu or even move, since he was saved, he would just obediently play the part of a sick person. Alright, in the future, he would do his best to properly repay the siblings who had saved him. Lian Hua closed his eyes and quietly started to cultivate, trying to recover as soon as possible.
The author has something to say:
ă˝(*. >Đ<)oăIâve finally written to the point where the lotus becomes strong. Itâs hard to stay by the main characterâs side. First of all, he should be rougher and stronger, right? This is the turning point!
Translatorâs Notes:
[1]Remember, there are two different ways to level up in this novel. I also call this Qi refining in the glossary.