A Strange Little Girl

"God Yan actually managed an eighth step!" Yin Fang roared, pumping his fist.

"Su Yan is way too fierce!" Tang Chi joined in, shouting.

Xue Ke's brow furrowed with confusion. "Instructor, why is Brother Su Yan advancing instead of retreating?"

Zhu Zhuqing's cold eyes locked on, murmuring, "Yan-ge."

Su Yan's eighth step under extreme limits truly caught everyone off guard.

But the next second, he fell straight out of the waterfall.

Bibi Dong pulled him back to the shore, and like the other three and the mouse before him, wrapped him in a towel to dry off.

"Xiao Yan has likely broken through," Bibi Dong said, a smile tugging at the corners of her eyes as she watched her increasingly powerful beloved disciple, her heart full of pride.

"What level is God Yan now?" Yin Fang asked.

The group fell into silence.

"No way, none of you know?" Yin Fang was stunned, asking again.

"If nothing unexpected happened, Xiao Yan just broke through to level 16," Bibi Dong stated. "If something did go wrong, then it's hard to say."

Everyone except Yin Fang knew exactly what kind of "unexpected" Bibi Dong meant.

"I still don't know what levels you all are?" Yin Fang seized the chance, volunteering his own first. "I'm a level 13 beast... weapon soul master."

"Level 18 weapon soul master, Tang Chi."

"Level 18 beast soul master, Zhu Zhuqing."

"Pika, pika pika, Pikachu!"

"I won't say mine," Xue Ke said with a helpless smile.

"So strong!" Yin Fang exclaimed in awe.

"Train hard with the Saintess Instructor, and you'll catch up too." Tang Chi patted his shoulder, his dark eyes flicking toward Zhu Zhuqing—she'd actually caught up.

Just then, Su Yan woke up. Seeing a bonfire right above his head, he jolted in fright, thrashing wildly.

Two seconds later, he realized it wasn't a bonfire above his head—he was hanging upside down over one.

He twisted his neck to see a crowd gathered nearby and shouted, "Hey!"

Before long, Su Yan escaped the ordeal of being dried, changed into fresh clothes, and stood off to the side.

In response to Yin Fang's question, Su Yan curled his lips into a smile. "I'm already level 17."

"Level 17!" Tang Chi exclaimed. Without realizing it, he'd lost his position as the strongest in soul power, and even Su Yan, who had always lagged several levels behind, was catching up fast.

"When did you level up again?" Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes trembled. As his master, she'd been too negligent.

Su Yan counted on his fingers. "About two months ago."

Bibi Dong breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been off looking for Ah Rou during that time and hadn't been watching him closely, so it wasn't too much of a failure.

Seeing that noon was approaching, Bibi Dong pulled a small wooden table from her belt. "I got my hands on something interesting recently."

Then she clasped her hands together in front of the little table. "Little Magic Table, time to eat!"

As her words fell, the once-empty table was suddenly covered with food, drinks, and utensils for seven people. A small portion of it could be found on the Douluo Continent, but a much larger part consisted of dishes that didn't belong there at all—ones that brought a wave of homesickness crashing over Su Yan.

After transmigrating, homesickness was a mud truck: me in this world, and you in that one.

Su Yan let out a silent laugh, lifting his gaze to focus. A familiar string of words flooded his mind.

Steamed lamb, steamed bear paw, steamed deer tail, roast duck, roast chicken, roast goose...

"Whoa!"

Exclamations rang out one after another.

Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes shimmered. She hadn't expected this little table to be so exquisite!

"So fragrant!" Tang Chi's eyes practically glued themselves to the table.

Yin Fang's fingers twitched with anticipation. "So many dishes—even I haven't tried some of these!"

Zhu Zhuqing's gaze lingered between several plates of fish.

"Pika~" Pikachu was already clutching a cup of lemon juice, sipping away with a blissful expression.

Xue Ke silently swallowed her saliva and maneuvered her wooden wheelchair a little closer to the table.

Su Yan racked his brain, finally digging up a Grimm's Fairy Tales from the dusty corners of his memory.

The table, the donkey, and the stick.

What he'd wanted most back then was that donkey.

Bibi Dong pulled out another large table and moved all the dishes over. "Everyone sit down, let's eat!"

In front of Su Yan was a plate of Drunken Ribs—crispy, tender, and tantalizingly fragrant.

But he held his chopsticks, unmoving, as tears of longing streamed from the corners of his eyes.

Bibi Dong looked over curiously. "Xiao Yan, you..."

"It's nothing, Master. I just remembered some things from the past." Su Yan wiped away his tears, picked up a piece of Drunken Ribs, and took a bite.

It tasted like home!

In his past life, his lively, innocent three-year-old mother had loved Drunken Ribs more than anything.

His father's specialty had also been Drunken Ribs.

And the first dish he ever learned to cook was still Drunken Ribs.

Chewing on the rib, Su Yan's eyes reddened. He missed home.

Back then, two years before he was hit by a Mud Truck and transmigrated, his parents had gone out together and also died at the hands of a Mud Truck.

At least no one had to bury their own child—that was the one thing Su Yan felt grateful for.

Happy times were always short-lived.

Everyone ate their fill and lay contentedly on the ground.

They treasured this hard-earned moment of rest.

Soon, the fun would end, and they would have to plunge back into the waterfall.

The Endurance Training Method required them to stay in the middle of the waterfall—at least fifty steps in—for over an hour.

Currently, the farthest record was held by Su Yan at the eighth step.

There was still a considerable gap to clear.

The four people and one mouse plunged into the waterfall again.

Su Yan landed at the eighth step.

Zhu Zhuqing and Pikachu landed together at the fifth step.

Tang Chi stopped at the third step, gritted his teeth, and pushed forward one more step.

Yin Fang was still pinned at the first step, unable to move.

The four people and one Electric Mouse all tried their best to enter a meditative state, struggling toward that elusive half-hour mark.

On the opposite bank, Bibi Dong handed Xue Ke a copy of Hundred Solutions of Martial Soul (Revised Edition): "This garbage book is barely passable for beginners."

--

"Why are there so many people everywhere?"

At the entrance of Notting City, a little girl of about eight years old thought to herself.

Her hair was tied into two symmetrical buns. She wore a fiery red dress underneath, a gray-white coarse cloth coat over it, and matching gray-white cloth shoes. On her back was all her worldly possessions.

People came and went through the city gate in an endless stream.

The little girl stood at the entrance from day until night.

Finally, when there were almost no people left, the city gate closed.

"I'll have to come back tomorrow."

Just then, a carriage slowly approached. Bibi Dong was returning to Notting City with the exhausted children after training.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the little girl standing motionless by the roadside, bathed in starlight. She stopped the carriage and walked over: "Little one, I'm from Martial Soul Hall. Are you trying to get into the city too?"

The little girl broke out in a cold sweat, turned around, and ran into the forest, muttering to herself: "How can someone be so forward!"

"Master, what's wrong?" Su Yan's weary voice came from the carriage.

"Nothing, just met a strange child." Bibi Dong jumped off the carriage, handed the children inside over to the city gate guards for safekeeping, and chased after her.

Once inside the forest, Bibi Dong couldn't find any trace of the little girl—it was as if she had vanished into thin air.

She expanded her search range a bit, but still found nothing.

Too many things had happened in Notting City lately. Bibi Dong felt uneasy. She summoned several Death Poison Spiders and conducted a thorough ground search with them, yet still found nothing.

"How strange. Where did she go?" Bibi Dong murmured. She jumped back onto the carriage, drove into the city, and headed toward Martial Soul Hall.

Inside Notting City, on a dimly lit street, the little girl suddenly appeared in the middle of the road: "Finally got in. Thank you, warm-hearted, forward big sister from Martial Soul Hall."

She closed her eyes and sensed a fiery red thread of soul power in the darkness, like a silk ribbon, guiding her forward.

The corner of her mouth lifted slightly, and her red tongue licked her upper lip: "Got you!"