The Skinny One and the Fat One

Yu Mu stood up and asked again, "Are you a cultivator too?"

Ye Fu thought about it. If a cultivator was someone with mystical abilities, then he probably was. "Yes."

"W-what realm are you at?"

The things that had appeared in Ye Fu's head told him that "realm" referred to Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Severing, Void Prying, Body Integration, Mahayana, Tribulation Transcendence... and so on. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure about his current power, so he casually picked one that was neither high nor low, a perfectly ordinary choice. "Spirit Severing, I suppose."

"S-Spirit Severing!" Yu Mu's eyes widened. Realizing something, she hurriedly asked, "Were you sitting there without moving just now because you were breaking through?"

Ye Fu paused. He hadn't even said anything, and she'd already come up with an explanation for him. He nodded earnestly. "Yes. I was on the verge of a breakthrough earlier, so I didn't respond when you spoke to me. Don't take it to heart."

Yu Mu hastily waved both her grimy hands. "No, no!" she said in shame. "I didn't know Shi Wu... you... Senior, were breaking through, and I presumptuously spoke to you." She drew a breath and bowed in apology. "I'm sorry!"

Her face was so red she didn't dare lift her head. Whenever she thought about how she'd been so sure he had something weighing on his mind and had tried every way she could to strike up a conversation, she felt ashamed enough to crawl into a crack in the ground. This was far too embarrassing!

"...It didn't have much of an effect. Don't worry too much about it."

"I'm sorry, Senior Shi Wu."

The way she addressed him had changed. Ye Fu let out a breath, then asked, "Why did you speak to me earlier?"

Yu Mu fidgeted. "Everyone says I speak without regard for the occasion and don't use my head, s-so I wanted to practice my social skills."

Ye Fu pressed a hand to his forehead. It was true that she spoke without regard for the occasion and didn't use her head.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to speak to a stranger at random, readily give them your name, and reveal things about yourself?"

Yu Mu stared at him. "Is it dangerous?"

Ye Fu raised his voice. "It's very dangerous!"

Yu Mu flinched.

"You don't know who I am, you don't know what I'm doing, and you have even less idea whether I mean you harm, yet you weren't on guard at all!" Ye Fu said. "What would you have done if I'd had bad intentions toward you?"

"Uh..."

"And why did you save me earlier? We were complete strangers. To put it bluntly, we didn't have a damn thing to do with each other. You knew perfectly well you couldn't beat that statue, yet you risked your life to save me. Maybe you thought it was righteous, that you were being loyal, but there isn't the slightest bond between us, so why take such a risk? You acted purely on hot blood, without even considering whether you could save me!"

"S-Senior..."

Ye Fu said, "As I see it, what you did was foolish and irresponsible toward yourself. You weren't using your head!"

"I-I'm sorry." After being scolded by Ye Fu in a torrent, Yu Mu felt a deep ache in her heart and apologized again, her voice thick with tears.

Ye Fu started to speak, then stopped.

"Forget it. We're complete strangers, and I have no right to lecture you."

Yu Mu said through her tears, "Senior... I... I only... Senior, you were the first person I met after coming down the mountain. I just wanted to save you, that's all."

Ye Fu replied, "Before saving someone else, you'd better first consider whether you're capable of it."

Yu Mu raised a hand to wipe away her tears and bowed again. "I'm sorry."

Ye Fu paused. He couldn't help wondering if he had gone too far.

"Take care of yourself."

Those words seemed to strike a blow to Yu Mu. She trembled, then turned away dejectedly and walked into the rain, her hair hanging loose. "Senior, if we ever meet again..." She stopped there, remembering that he had said they were "complete strangers," and couldn't go on. She ran off into the distance, crying.

Ye Fu was silent for a while. Then he looked at the ground, where a red ribbon lay quietly. He picked it up, intending to return it to Yu Mu, but after some thought, he said, "Forget it. We met by chance, like duckweed drifting together on the water. It's better not to have too much to do with each other."

He casually stuffed the ribbon into the pocket of his out-of-place shorts.

"Next, I need to find somewhere to sort out just what happened."

Chapter 4: The Skinny One and the Fat One

After leaving the collapsed, dilapidated temple, Ye Fu followed the presences he could sense and headed north for a while.

He stood beneath an arched bridge for a time, sorting out his thoughts, and gained a rough understanding of his situation.

He knew he really had transmigrated. And the trigger for his transmigration was rather absurd: it had actually come from that little cultivation game he'd casually played to pass the time. Even he thought that explanation was ridiculously far-fetched, but no matter how he thought about it, that was the only possible reason.

He had reached the game's maximum level, then a thunderclap had sounded, and immediately afterward he had arrived here.

Most importantly, he had gained the max-level abilities from the little cultivation game. In other words, he had become an Immortal. In any case, the game called it "Immortal"-"Immortal," not "Immortal person."

That sounded even more absurd. But it was indeed the truth. The reason he had been unable to move while sitting there earlier was that he had been receiving the vast, surging power of the game's maximum level. In this world's terms, he had been receiving an inheritance.

No one had told him that playing that little game would make him transmigrate. If he had known beforehand, he would have crushed the game completely without a moment's hesitation.

His mindset as someone approaching thirty made him unwilling to start from the basics again, taking in a new world and all its new ideas and things.

But now it had all happened. The rainy night, the dilapidated temple, the statue, Yu Mu, the abilities-all of it told him that it really had happened.

Standing beneath the arched bridge, he looked into the distance and saw wind and rain. What he felt was the unique presence filling every inch of space-Spiritual Qi. Spiritual Qi endowed this world with a unique spirituality. Unlike the rigorous worldview of a technological civilization, everything here was mystical, and everything held unquestionable possibilities.