Arrival

"Little one, what's your name?"

Qian Yun looked up at the old man's approaching face, covered in white hair, and instinctively shrank his neck back a little.

"Uh... I-I'm Qian Yun." The childish voice that came out of his mouth still felt strange to him, but he had so many questions he wanted to ask.

Why had he appeared here? Who was this person in front of him? Why had his body gotten smaller? 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, have any of you heard it before?" The old man turned to look at a young man beside him, who had kept his arms folded.

At that, the sturdy young man shook his head and replied, "Village Chief, there's no family with that surname in Beast King Village, and there isn't one in the neighboring village either. If the little guy isn't lying, I can ask around in town another day."

The Village Chief looked Qian Yun over again with his bright eyes and stroked his beard with a thin, withered hand. Quite a crowd of villagers had gathered by then. Some time had passed since Qian Yun was found, and people all around him were talking over one another, speculating about the boy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

But Qian Yun, the center of attention, wasn't focused on any of that. Ever since the Village Chief arrived, a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes, carrying a basket, had stayed by his side.

She looked quite different from the other children in the village, who were all dirty and disheveled. Not only was her face clean, but she also wore a pretty, well-fitted floral dress, with a few white flowers tucked into her two braids.

Her delicate clothes and lovely face made her stand out from the other children her age.

If she were merely pretty, Qian Yun wouldn't have paid so much attention to her. What really caught his attention was the look in her smiling eyes—it held a meaning he couldn't quite put into words.

The sun gradually climbed overhead. The Village Chief reached up to straighten his small deerskin cap, then turned and called to the noisy crowd, "There's nothing more to see, everyone. Go on, get back to what you were doing."

His gentle, hoarse voice easily rose above the din. The crowd looked at one another, then shook their heads and dispersed.

But A-Qiang and the little girl beside the Village Chief were among those who stayed, which made Qian Yun even more certain that the pretty girl was connected to him. She was probably the Village Chief's granddaughter or something.

The Village Chief turned back to Qian Yun and asked, "Your name's Qian Yun, right? There are no families with that surname around here, and judging by the way you look, you're not from around here either. Where are you from?"

"I..." Qian Yun had been about to say he was from Huaxia, but he hesitated before the words left his mouth. In the end, he shook his head. "I don't know."

From what he'd seen so far, he could be sure that wherever he was, it wasn't anywhere in Huaxia. He couldn't even be certain he was still on Earth.

What if this world really did have a place called Huaxia, and they dumped him there? That would be ridiculous.

"Well..." The Village Chief looked troubled. Qian Yun's answer left him at a loss.

Qian Yun was just a little kid. It clearly wasn't realistic to leave him to live alone, but the Village Chief couldn't simply abandon him here either.

The Village Chief studied Qian Yun carefully. After considering it for a while, he finally said, "All right, Qian Yun. I don't know where you came from, but anyone who's traveled this far is a guest. If you don't mind, why don't you stay at my house for now?"

The Village Chief's sudden offer left Qian Yun stunned. He never would have expected the man to take a stranger home after knowing him for less than half an hour.

"Thank you." At least he had somewhere to stay for his first night in another world.

The Village Chief nodded, thinking to himself, The boy clearly isn't stupid, so why doesn't he know where he came from? His curiosity about Qian Yun's identity only grew.

"Come on, little guy." A-Qiang held out a rough, calloused hand to Qian Yun, who was sitting on the ground.

Qian Yun took his hand. A-Qiang's palm was covered in calluses, and it clamped around his hand like a pile of gravel, scraping him a little.

With A-Qiang's help, Qian Yun got to his feet. He realized that A-Qiang was even taller than he'd been in his previous life, probably over two meters tall. Now that he was a child again, Qian Yun could only be called a runt. Even the girl beside him seemed a little taller.

Who had used supernatural power to turn an adult into a child and dump him in another world? Qian Yun had no way of knowing. All he could do was figure out what was going on and survive.

The Village Chief led the way, with A-Qiang beside Qian Yun. Every so often, someone greeted their group—or, more accurately, the Village Chief. As for Qian Yun in the middle, most people simply gave him curious looks.

Through the open doors of the houses along the road, Qian Yun finally got a glimpse of how people lived here. The village was primitive, but it had everything it needed: a tailor's shop and a blacksmith, for example. Almost every house had animal hides and a few bows and arrows. It seemed the people here made their living by hunting.

After passing several more houses, they came to an open area. In the middle of it stood a flower bed carved from stone.

But the thing lying on the flagstones in the flower bed made Qian Yun's eyes widen. A gutted animal hung upside down from a tall iron frame, while a group of burly men busily worked around it.

Blood had stained the ground red, and the breeze carried not the smell of cooking smoke but a foul, fishy stench. Qian Yun wrinkled his face.

Trying to endure the stench, Qian Yun studied the upside-down animal with his dark eyes, his mind churning. What is that thing?

It wasn't like any creature he'd ever seen. It looked a little like an eagle, but it was dozens of times bigger. And especially when he looked at its closed eyes—unless he was mistaken, it had four of them!

"Heh, never seen one before, have you?" A-Qiang saw Qian Yun staring in shock and chuckled. "This thing's really hard to deal with! On an ordinary day, dozens of our best hunters in the village wouldn't be able to take it down. Just selling its meat could feed half the village. Only Master could hunt it—and he's even willing to share the meat with everyone else."

Hearing that, Qian Yun looked at the Village Chief's stooped back and revised his earlier impression of the frail old man. Though the elder looked decrepit, he was clearly a formidable person.

As they spoke, the group came within a short distance of the men.

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

The others stopped working. Bare-armed and drenched in sweat, they turned to the Village Chief with broad smiles.

"Mm, haha." The Village Chief looked up at his prize, his chest lifting slightly and a smile spreading across his face. "You've all worked hard today. Once you've cut up the meat, make sure the best portions go to the elderly, the children, and the women."

The burly man leading the group smiled. "Don't worry, Village Chief! We know what to do!"

A man slicing up the meat with a sharp knife laughed as he chimed in. "Hey, what do we have to work hard for? If the Village Chief hadn't stepped in, we wouldn't be getting to eat this! The neighboring village would be drooling with envy if they knew."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Now that he was closer, Qian Yun could get a better look. He had to discard his earlier guess that it was an eagle. The creature had wings, but not a single feather. Instead, its whole body was covered in dark gray fur.

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

He couldn't make heads or tails of it. He instinctively wanted to ask, but when he turned around, he saw that the pretty girl had already retreated far away. She was covering her nose with one hand, and an unmistakable look of impatience showed in her darting eyes.

After a while, the Village Chief finally cut off everyone's praise. Beaming, he led the others away, unable to hide his pride.

Once they were far from the stench, the girl could breathe freely again. After taking a deep breath, she pouted and said, "Hmph, those uncles are usually as rude as the filthy rocks in an outhouse. But when it comes to saying nice things, each one comes up with more fancy words than the last."

Listening to her complaint, the Village Chief still couldn't hide the smile between his brows. "Xiao Na, don't say that. Everyone's happy. Oh, and Xiao Na, could you please make dinner tonight? This creature's meat is a rare treat. Let us and Qian Yun have a taste."

A-Qiang gave Qian Yun a slap on the shoulder, grinned to show a row of white teeth, and teased him. "Kid, you're in for a real treat."

Qian Yun was utterly confused, so he could only nod blankly. "Mm."

Xiao Na shot Qian Yun a glance, tossed her head so that her golden ponytail swept through the air, and gave a proud little snort. "You don't have to tell me that."

As they continued walking, Qian Yun paid close attention to his surroundings and realized he'd never seen most of the things along the way. He walked on, looking around with curiosity. Before he knew it, only he and Xiao Na were trailing behind the others.

"Hey!" Xiao Na suddenly jumped out from somewhere and startled Qian Yun.

"What is it?" Qian Yun looked at the pretty girl beside him, who was as lovely as a doll. Her mischievous gaze always made him feel like he didn't know how to handle her.

Xiao Na tilted her head and stared at him for a while. Then she haughtily tossed her head and said, "Nothing!"

Qian Yun opened his mouth but said nothing, then lowered his head and started thinking again.

"Hey!" Xiao Na suddenly whipped around again.

"What now?" Qian Yun jumped in fright. He really couldn't make sense of this little girl.

"Your name's Qian Yun, right?" Xiao Na asked, though she clearly already knew the answer.

"Mm. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing."

But Xiao Na's next words struck him like a bolt from the blue!

"My name's Hu Liena. I'm a little older than you, so you can call me big sister from now on." As she spoke, Hu Liena patted herself on the chest.

"What?! You said your name is Hu Liena? Then this continent is...?" Qian Yun looked up sharply, clearly taken aback.

Their exchange had left them quite a distance behind the Village Chief and the others. At his words, Hu Liena broke into a run and shouted over her shoulder, "Of course this is the Douluo Continent!"