Arrival

"Little one, what is your name?"

Qian Yun looked up at the wrinkled, aged face leaning in close, his neck instinctively shrinking back.

"Uh... I, I am called Qian Yun." The childish, immature tone of his own voice still felt incredibly strange to him, but he had far too many questions he wanted to ask right now.

Why did he appear here? Who was this person before him? Why had his body become so small? If this was a dream, how could he wake up...

The old man's bright blue eyes narrowed. "Qian Yun... what a strange name. A-Qiang, has anyone among you heard of it?" The old man turned his head to look at a young man standing to the side with his arms crossed.

Hearing this, the sturdy young man shook his head and replied, "Village Chief, we don't have that surname in Beast King Village, nor do the neighboring villages. If this little guy isn't lying, I'll have to go to town another day to ask around."

The Village Chief used his bright eyes to look at Qian Yun carefully once more, his withered, thin hand stroking his beard. By now, quite a few villagers had gathered; some time had passed since Qian Yun was first discovered, and the surrounding people were whispering back and forth about the boy who seemed to have appeared out of thin air, saying all sorts of things.

However, Qian Yun, the protagonist of this scene, was not focused on them. Ever since the Village Chief arrived, a young girl with golden hair and blue eyes carrying a basket had been following by his side.

She was clearly different from the other dirty children in the village; not only was her face clean and tidy, but she was also wearing a well-tailored, pretty floral dress, with a few small white flowers tucked into her two braided pigtails.

Her exquisite attire and beautiful features made her stand out significantly among her peers.

If it were only because of her beauty, Qian Yun wouldn't have cared so much. What truly caught his attention was the smile on her lips and the look in her eyes, which held an indescribable, mysterious quality.

As the sun climbed to its zenith, the Village Chief reached up to straighten his small deerskin cap and turned back to shout at the bustling crowd, "Everyone, there's nothing left to see, disperse."

His voice, gentle yet raspy, easily rose above the noisy crowd. The people looked at one another, shook their heads, and began to scatter.

However, this did not include A-Qiang and the little girl by the Village Chief's side, which made Qian Yun even more certain that the pretty girl was with the Village Chief. It was highly likely she was his granddaughter or something similar.

The Village Chief turned back and asked Qian Yun again, "Your name is Qian Yun, right? We don't have any families with that surname here, and judging by your appearance, you aren't from around here, are you? Where do you come from?"

"I..." Qian Yun wanted to say he came from Huaxia, but he hesitated as the words reached his lips, and in the end, he shook his head. "I don't know."

Through what he had seen just now, he could already confirm that the place he was in was likely not anywhere in Huaxia, and it was even uncertain if he was still on Earth.

If there really was a place called Huaxia in this world, it would be ridiculous if they just dumped him there.

"This..." The Village Chief looked troubled; the boy's "I don't know" left him feeling conflicted.

Qian Yun was just a small child; it was clearly unrealistic to let him live alone, but he couldn't just leave him here to fend for himself either.

The Village Chief scrutinized Qian Yun carefully, and after much consideration, he finally spoke, "Alright, Qian Yun. Although I don't know where you come from, guests from afar are always welcome. If you don't mind, how about you stay at my house for the time being?"

The Village Chief's sudden, warm hospitality caught Qian Yun off guard. He never would have imagined that less than half an hour after meeting, the Village Chief would be willing to take a stranger like him home.

"Thank you." Regardless, he had at least found a place to stay for his first stop in this strange world.

The Village Chief nodded, thinking to himself: This kid is clearly not stupid, so why doesn't he know where he comes from? This only made him more curious about Qian Yun's identity.

"Let's go, little one." A-Qiang extended a rough, large hand toward Qian Yun, who was sitting on the ground.

Qian Yun handed over his own hand. A-Qiang's palm was covered in calluses and gripped his hand tightly like a pile of gravel, causing him a bit of pain.

After using the leverage to stand up, Qian Yun realized that A-Qiang was much taller than he had been in his previous life; his height must have exceeded two meters. Now that he had become a child again, he was nothing but a tiny tot, and even the girl beside him was slightly taller than him.

Turning an adult into a child and throwing him into another world—who was responsible for this clearly supernatural power? Qian Yun had no way of knowing for now. All he could do was figure out the situation and then survive.

And so, the Village Chief led the way, with A-Qiang walking beside Qian Yun. From time to time, people would greet them—or more accurately, greet the Village Chief. As for Qian Yun in the middle, they mostly cast curious glances his way.

Qian Yun finally caught a glimpse of their lives through the open doors of the houses along the road. He discovered that although the village was primitive, it had everything it needed: there were tailor shops and blacksmiths, and almost every household had animal hides and bows and arrows. It seemed the people here relied on hunting for a living.

After passing a few more houses, an open space finally appeared before them, with a stone-carved flower bed in the center.

However, what lay on the stone slab in the middle of the flower bed made his eyes widen. A massive iron frame stood there, from which a beast's carcass was hung upside down, already gutted and skinned, while a group of burly men worked on it in a frenzy.

Blood stained the floor without reservation, and the breeze brought not the scent of cooking smoke, but a foul, fishy stench that made Qian Yun wrinkle his face.

Enduring the nauseating smell, Qian Yun's dark eyes carefully examined the hanging carcass, his mind reeling. What is that thing?

It didn't belong to any creature he had ever seen. It looked a bit like an eagle, but its size was dozens of times larger. Especially when he looked at its closed eyes—if Qian Yun wasn't mistaken, it actually had four eyes!

"Heh heh, never seen one before, right?" A-Qiang, noticing Qian Yun's stunned expression, laughed. "This thing is extremely hard to deal with! Usually, dozens of the village's best hunters wouldn't be able to handle it. Just selling its meat would be enough to feed half the village. Only the Master is capable of hunting it, and he's even willing to share the meat with everyone else."

Hearing this, Qian Yun looked at the Village Chief's hunched back, his impression of the old man changing entirely. Although the old man before him was decrepit, he was definitely a formidable character.

As they spoke, the group arrived not far from the burly men.

"Village Chief!" One of the sharp-eyed men called out to them from afar.

The group stopped what they were doing, their arms bare and faces covered in sweat, looking at the Village Chief with broad smiles.

"Mm, haha." The Village Chief looked up at his trophy, his chest puffed out slightly, a smile on his face. "Thank you all for your hard work today. After you finish butchering the meat, remember to give the best portions to the elderly, the weak, and the women."

The leader of the men laughed, "Don't worry, Village Chief! We know what to do!"

A man holding a sharp knife to carve the meat chimed in with a loud laugh, "Yeah, what hard work is this? If it weren't for the Village Chief taking action, we wouldn't have this treat! I bet the neighboring village would be drooling with envy if they knew."

The crowd burst into laughter.

Now that he was closer, Qian Yun could see clearly, and his previous guess about it being an eagle was overturned. Although this thing had wings, it didn't have a single feather; instead, it was covered in dark gray fur.

It had wings but no feathers... then how did it fly?

This left him completely baffled. He instinctively wanted to ask, but when he turned his head, he saw that the pretty girl had already hidden far away, one hand lightly covering her nose and mouth, her eyes darting around with clear impatience.

After a while, the Village Chief finally interrupted the men's flattery and led everyone away, beaming with pride that he couldn't quite conceal.

Once they were far from the stench, the girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. After taking a deep breath, she pouted and said, "Hmph, those uncles are usually as crude as rocks in a latrine, but I didn't expect them to be so flowery with their compliments."

Listening to her complaints, the Village Chief couldn't hide the smile in his eyes. "Xiao Na, don't say that; everyone is just happy. Oh, Xiao Na, I'll have to trouble you with dinner tonight. The meat from this beast is a rare delicacy. Let's make sure we and Qian Yun have a good taste of it."

A-Qiang slapped Qian Yun on the shoulder, grinning to reveal a mouthful of white teeth as he teased, "Kid, you're in for a real treat."

Qian Yun listened, completely bewildered, and could only nod blankly, "Mm."

Xiao Na cast a sidelong glance at Qian Yun, tossing her head so that her golden ponytail traced a graceful arc, and huffed proudly, "Does that even need saying?"

The group continued walking. Through careful observation along the way, Qian Yun realized he had never seen most of the things they passed, so he looked around with curiosity as he walked. Before he knew it, only he and Xiao Na were left trailing at the back.

"Hey!" Xiao Na suddenly jumped out from who knows where, giving Qian Yun quite a start.

"What is it?" Qian Yun looked at the girl, who was as pretty as a doll, though her mischievous gaze always made him feel like he couldn't quite handle her.

Xiao Na tilted her head and stared intently at him. After a moment, she tossed her head with a haughty air and said, "Nothing!"

Qian Yun opened his mouth but didn't say anything, lowering his head to start thinking again.

"Hey!" Xiao Na whipped her head around again.

"What is it now?" Qian Yun was startled, truly unable to make sense of this little girl.

"Your name is Qian Yun, right?" Xiao Na asked, clearly knowing the answer already.

"Yeah, is there a problem?"

"Nothing."

But Xiao Na's next sentence hit him like a bolt from the blue!

"My name is Hu Liena. I'm a little older than you, so you can call me Big Sister from now on," Hu Liena said, patting her own chest as she spoke.

"What?! You said your name is Hu Liena? Then this continent is...?" Qian Yun jerked his head up, clearly shaken to the core.

Their interaction had caused them to fall quite a distance behind the village chief and the others. Hearing his voice, Hu Liena broke into a light jog and shouted back without looking over her shoulder, "Of course this is—Douluo Continent!"