Xiao Yan in Another World

Late autumn had arrived, and the weather had already turned cool. The Cangqiu Mountains had long been blanketed in red and yellow, while evening smoke curled from the chimneys of Soul Forging Village at the foot of the mountains.

Inside the village, a husband and wife were busy in their courtyard. On the bed inside lay a boy of around five or six. He was four feet tall, bare from the waist up, his childlike skin pale and tender as frost. Yet several neither-large-nor-small scars stood out glaringly against it. His silver-white hair lay scattered across the bed, and sweat covered his delicate little face.

This child was Xiao Yan. After removing the towel from his forehead and feeling his temperature, Qin Yu placed it in a wooden basin full of cool water. The chill quickly seeped into the cloth. She then took it out, wrung it lightly, and laid it over Xiao Yan's forehead again. Once Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zun, had finished brewing the medicine and brought it in from the stove in a bowl, she blew on it, tasted a spoonful at her lips, and only slowly fed it to Xiao Yan after confirming it was no longer too hot. Only after feeding him the medicine did Qin Yu have time to wipe the sweat from her brow.

It was not until Xu Hour, when Xiao Yan's temperature finally dropped, that Qin Yu let out a long breath and quietly left the room.

"Mother, I'm hungry. When are we eating?" The moment Qin Yu stepped outside, she heard her daughter calling. The little girl wore a floral dress, with two small braids tied atop her head. Her chubby cheeks still retained a trace of baby fat, making people want to pinch them. Her eyes were clear and limpid, like a sweet mountain spring.

Qin Yu bent down, placed a finger to her lips, and made a shushing gesture. "Ling'er, keep your voice down. Your brother is sleeping. Don't wake him."

Hearing that, Xiao Ling seemed rather displeased. She pouted. "Big Brother is such a lazybug. He's slept from morning till night. He won't tell Little Ling stories or play with Little Ling. Big Brother is a bad person!"

Qin Yu could not help laughing. "Talking about your brother like that? Be careful, or Mother will tell him everything you said. If he gets angry, maybe he'll never play with Little Ling again."

Rather than getting upset, Xiao Ling proudly declared, "Big Brother would never stop liking Little Ling! He said Little Ling is the cutest, and that he'll always protect Little Ling. When Little Ling grows up, she's definitely going to marry Big Brother!"

Qin Yu spoke helplessly, though amused. "Honestly, look how spoiled your brother has made you."

To be honest, Qin Yu was not very good at dealing with children.

For some reason, unlike other children, Xiao Yan had rarely cried or fussed since birth. Nor did he possess the innocence and liveliness children were supposed to have. He barely interacted with other children his age. When he was one or two, aside from eating and sleeping, he spent most of his time staring blankly into space or talking to himself. She could not understand what he said; it was probably just soft muttering. As he grew older, Xiao Yan became exceptionally sensible and had almost never caused her or Xiao Zun any worry. As a result, after giving birth to Xiao Ling, Qin Yu was often exhausted by this "little deviless" due to her lack of experience raising children. Strangely enough, this little deviless was extremely mischievous around others, but the moment she was around Xiao Yan, she became as obedient as a kitten. And Xiao Yan doted on his little sister dearly.

Xiao Ling stuck out her tongue playfully, then asked, "Mother, when will Big Brother wake up?"

Qin Yu smiled. "Your brother is sick, so don't disturb him today. Let him rest properly. What do you want to eat tonight? Mother will make it for you."

The moment she heard there would be something tasty to eat, Xiao Ling's eyes lit up. "Okay, okay! I want roasted sweet potatoes, roasted corn, and the pheasant Father caught the day before yesterday."

"Alright, alright. As long as you behave, Mother will make it all for you. Sleep with us tonight. Don't go disturb your brother."

At once, Xiao Ling became unhappy. "No, no! Little Ling wants to sleep with Big Brother!"

Qin Yu said helplessly, "Fine, but you're not allowed to pester your brother for stories tonight. Go to sleep as soon as you've washed your feet, or Mother won't let you sleep with your brother anymore."

"Mm! Little Ling will definitely behave tonight. I absolutely won't disturb Big Brother!"

After dinner, it soon became Ren Ding. Soul Forging Village fell into silence.

At midnight, just after Zi Hour, Xiao Yan suddenly woke from his dream in the side bedroom of Xiao Zun's home. He propped himself up and gasped heavily, like a man who had nearly suffocated and suddenly regained the right to breathe.

He shook his head, which was still somewhat swollen and aching.

The scenes from his dream remained vivid in his mind. He might never forget that agitation and unease from the depths of his soul, as though his very soul were about to burst apart. (However, after devouring his first Heavenly Flame, he took back that thought.)

He looked around. Pure white moonlight streamed through the window and spilled into the room, shining upon Xiao Ling's sleeping face. The little girl was drooling; she must have been dreaming about something delicious.

Gently wiping the drool from the corner of Xiao Ling's mouth, Xiao Yan pulled over the blanket she had kicked aside and covered her with it. Then he got up, quietly dressed, and tiptoed out of the house.

After closing the door to the main hall, Xiao Yan climbed over the courtyard wall and ran toward the village entrance.

At the entrance of Soul Forging Village stood a century-old tree that would take five people to encircle. About ten feet above the ground, its branches extended outward, leaving a space roughly two meters square in the middle of its crown.

Upon reaching the tree, Xiao Yan pushed off with one foot and landed on the trunk. His hands gripped the bark tightly as he sprang up the tree like a civet cat. Sitting cross-legged in the center of the tree, he entered cultivation.

He had transmigrated from a blue planet called Earth. Though it was hard to believe, reality had left him no choice but to accept it. After spending two years learning the language and civilization of this world, he had gained a general understanding of it.

Ever since he came to this world, those strange scenes had appeared in his dreams intermittently and without warning. The cultivation technique he was currently practicing, called the Burning Art, had come from those dreams. At first, he did not believe in the strange technique that had inexplicably appeared in his mind, but his curiosity eventually drove him to try it.

When he first began cultivating, Xiao Yan discovered that he seemed somewhat at odds with the laws of this world. Ordinary people could only sense the existence of Soul Power after awakening their martial souls at the age of six. Yet when he tried cultivating with the Burning Art, he was astonished to find that despite apparently never awakening a martial soul, he could easily sense the energy around him.

He did not dare confirm whether what he sensed was the Soul Power of this world. According to his father, Soul Power came from one's own meditation rather than being drawn from heaven and earth. Yet during cultivation, he could clearly feel that after absorbing this energy, he could indeed use it himself. He could not make sense of it no matter how much he thought about it.

Two hours later, Xiao Yan opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air. He stretched his legs, which had gone numb from sitting cross-legged for so long, then leaned against the tree and gazed up at the starry sky through the mottled shadows of the leaves. "It seems... it's been six years already?" Xiao Yan muttered to himself.

The sky above him was like a mirror, incomparably brilliant, with the Milky Way clearly visible across it. Xiao Yan studied it carefully. Which star was Earth? His family...

Heh, family? If those two beasts could even be called human.

In his previous life, he had once had a happy family. But an unexpected disaster had taken the lives of his biological parents, leaving only his two-year-old self and his sister, four years his senior, to depend on each other. Since his parents had both been only children and the older generation had passed away early, they had no relatives to turn to. In the end, they were sent to an orphanage. They spent a fairly good period of time there.

When he was seven, a married couple adopted them. He had thought their lives had taken a turn for the better, but cruel reality made him understand that it was the beginning of their suffering...

...His sister had committed suicide, and he himself had been burdened with several lives. Endless despair and fear had driven him to a dead end...

Even now, he still remembered following his sister from that cliffside on that day.

After taking the medicine, he cast one final glance at that cruel world. Above the rolling sea of clouds, the rising sun blurred more and more. He seemed to see a long, long tunnel. At its end, two figures buried deep in his memories slowly waved to him...

As his thoughts continued to drift, a loud rooster's crow jolted him awake. Estimating the time, Xiao Yan rose to his feet. He dusted off his clothes, leapt down from the tree trunk, and raced toward home.

Because the novel is secretly updated every night, and this is also the author's first time writing one, I just write whatever comes to mind. There may be issues with the writing or typos in some places, so feel free to point them out. Thank you ♪(･ω･)ﾉ