Ashen Wasteland 02: Learning a new language was essential...

Ye Chuqi stood at the cave entrance without saying a word.

Red Beard had no choice but to speak. "Thank you for saving me..."

Red Beard was talking, but Ye Chuqi was dumbfounded.

They were both human, so why couldn't she understand a single word he said?

Chapter 2: Ashen Wasteland 02: Learning a new language was essential...

She had suspected it before, but only now was Ye Chuqi certain: she had crossed into another world again. Her body was still her own, though, so the difference wasn't immediately obvious. Records from the cultivation world often mentioned that the barriers between some smaller worlds were weak. Suddenly breaking through one and ending up in another world wasn't that surprising... was it?

Ye Chuqi rubbed her nose, uncertain. The Formation had been damaged and activated by accident. Who knew what might have happened? The Demonic Cultivators who had fallen into the spatial rift with her had all been torn to pieces by the Astral Wind. If the Heart of the Space Spirit hadn't drawn on every bit of Spiritual Power in the Portable Space to protect her, she might have died too.

But she had never imagined she wouldn't understand the language. How was she supposed to communicate? More importantly, if she revealed that she couldn't understand him, wouldn't that make it even more obvious she came from somewhere else?

Of course not.

So Ye Chuqi chose to remain silent.

The place wasn't entirely barren, but the charred dead trees and yellowed weeds hardly looked edible. She had searched far and wide without finding water. They couldn't stay here much longer. She could go without food for now, but this injured man wouldn't survive on the few Pills and spirit plants she had left if he got no nourishment.

During the days he had been unconscious, all she had been able to give him was a few bowls of medicinal broth. He could probably feel how hungry he was by now.

Red Beard smiled too, though the bandages wrapped around his face made it hard to see. He knew he hadn't eaten in days. The hunger gnawing at his stomach was proof enough.

"How far is this place from where you found me? If I remember correctly, there's a small oasis a little over ten kilometers east of that spot..."

Ye Chuqi gave no response. She slowly walked to her corner and quietly tidied up while she waited for Red Beard to finish speaking.

She couldn't understand him, but she might as well get used to this brand-new language.

System

She had no idea what was going on, and learning a new language was now her most urgent task.

"I have a favor to ask. Could you go to the oasis? If I'm lucky, my companion should be somewhere nearby. This place is dangerous, and it can't really fight. I hope you can save it, if it's still alive..."

Ye Chuqi kept smiling. She hadn't expected him to be so talkative once he woke up. Didn't he feel awkward going on for so long without an answer?

Red Beard fell silent for a moment. If he weren't sure there was someone else in the cave, he would have thought he was talking to himself. Though, come to think of it, he was.

Just then, a familiar voice sounded beside Ye Chuqi's ear. Its young tone held a trace of weary confusion, yet it gave her restless heart something to hold on to. She no longer felt quite so lost and alone.

"Qi Qi, he wants you to go to an oasis and save his companion. And from the way he talks about it, I don't think that companion is human..."

Red Beard had said "it," not "he" or "she."

Ye Chuqi's smile turned genuine. She called out within her sea of consciousness, "San San, you're awake!"

"Mm!" The Heart of the Space Spirit whom Ye Chuqi called San San was still weak. But San San knew how little she liked feeling unsafe. Thrown into an unfamiliar place with no one she could even talk to, she must have been miserable. "Sorry I worried you."

Ye Chuqi rubbed her nose. "You did worry me." San San had exhausted every last bit of Spiritual Power protecting her from the Astral Wind, then fallen into a deep sleep. Ye Chuqi had yet to fully refine the Portable Space and could use only a tiny part of it without San San's help. Protecting her under those circumstances had been something San San had done entirely out of care for her. "I'm not even used to being without you nagging beside me!"

"Hmph!" From San San's smug tone, Ye Chuqi could practically picture San San standing with hands on hips. "You were pretty clever, feeding me energy like that. Otherwise, I wouldn't have woken up so soon!"

The Portable Space had run out of energy. If San San had been left to recover alone, waking up would have taken a hundred years or so. By then, it would have been far too late.

"Oh, we can talk about the rest later. I still have a little energy to spare, so I can give you a small new ability."

"Oh?"

"Look at him again."

By "him," San San meant Red Beard, who was still talking nearby. Ye Chuqi looked over without hesitation, then went completely blank.

What was that strange speech bubble above Red Beard's head supposed to mean? She had always known San San understood where she came from, but did that understanding have to go this far? How had San San recreated something that looked like a dialogue bubble from a game interface? How much useless stuff had San San absorbed from her memories?

Still, she understood the point. A written translation appearing in real time would be easy for her to read.

San San's voice had grown weaker from the effort. "Don't worry. The thing you sent in has unusual energy, and I need to study it, but there's enough of it. I'll recover soon."

"Okay."

Red Beard had no idea what Ye Chuqi had just experienced. Having made his request, he quietly "looked" in her direction and waited for an answer.

After a moment, Ye Chuqi finally gave a soft "Mm."

Red Beard brightened at once. "Thank you."

Ranking list

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Portable Space fiction

Time-travel and rebirth romance

Big Black Loves Eating Fish