When a Fanfic Protagonist Transmigrated into the Original Novel

Although he was a snow tiger demon, but he still had the cultivation of being the head of a cave, which was very considerable. It’s very rude to say that you rode on him before!

Yi Xichen almost laughed, “You rode it before? Does he run fast?”

Without a doubt, these obscure things naturally only occurred in Zhangsun Zijun’s Confusion Array.

After finding out about the contents of Zhenren You Yun’s bounty announcement, Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun left the crowd and began their planning

Yi Xichen muttered, “Does this Zhenren You Yun have some sort of grudge against this snow tiger demon? He wants the demon’s demon core, is it to kill him for someone else? Or is it so that he can obtain a powerful demon core?”

“If he just wants a demon core, let’s just give him Fat Chirp,” said Zhangsun Zijun. After all, Fat Chirp was a spiritual beast. Although it was a newborn and obviously not as powerful as a snow tiger demon, but with a few years of training, he might get somewhere close. 

Fat Chirp tightened the Qiankun bag.

Yi Xichen thought about it deeply, “If we can’t win against the tiger demon, we can indeed use this as a last resort.”

The Qiankun bag moved around restlessly, protesting.

Zhangsun Zijun pursed his lips with dissatisfaction: Of course we can win. I just want to get rid of this annoying fat bird.

Yi Xichen could feel that he had a very negative attitude towards Fat Chirp. Ever since he found out that he brought the egg out, Zhangsun Zijun has already tried to get rid of it several times already. He couldn’t help but be curious, “You really hate Fat Chirp. Why’s that?”

Zhangsun Zijun didn’t reply.

“What’s wrong?” asked Yi Xichen, “Did it do something bad before?”

Zhangsun Zijun continued to remain silent. But after Yi Xichen repeated the question several times, he finally decided to speak, “You really want to know?”

Yi Xichen: “……”

Every time Zhangsun Zijun said this, it was like a warning to Yi Xichen. That meant: If you want to listen, then be ready for the consequences. But now that they were this far already, how could Yi Xichen keep his curiosity down? 

Yi Xichen rubbed his face and held his sword tight, “Please go ahead.”

“He’s up to no good.”

Yi Xichen: “……”

Of course he knew what he meant. To understand Zhangsun Zijun’s confusion array, he and Zhangsun Zijun discussed about their worldly views before. In Zhangsun Zijun’s eyes, Lu Ziyao was up to no good, Gong Sundi was up to no good, in fact, almost all the disciples of the sect were up to no good against him… Not only that! Fat Chirp is… is just a bird!!

Yi Xichen almost collapsed, “Are you crazy? It’s just a bird!! Bird!! It’s not like I’m a Treasures of Heaven and Earth!! Is that that you wouldn’t let go of anything that has something to do with a bird?!!”

Zhangsun Zijun: “……”

Yi Xichen pressed his head helplessly. He was just complaining, not really angry. After all… he was used to it already. Without a doubt, a bird being up to no good was definitely just his imagination. But even when knowing that it’s just an imagination, why would he still hate Fat Chirp so much? After thinking about it carefully, one would find out that knowing and understanding were not the same. With the mindset Zhangsun Zijun has already, it would be very hard to change. Even if he did change, that would just be him forcibly enduring it.

Forcibly enduring it? Yi Xichen was stunned as he suddenly thought of the thing that Zhangsun Zijun was mistaken the most about…

‘But it can transform into human form.”

Just as Yi Xichen was still thinking, he suddenly heard Zhangsun Zijun speak. He didn’t catch it at first, “Huh? What?” After being dumbfounded for a moment, he realized who the “it” was. He asked in shock, “Are you talking about Fat Chirp?”

When demons and beasts reach a certain level of cultivation, they could turn into human form. As a natural spiritual beast, it could naturally do so as well. Yi Xichen knew that of course. But when he found Fat Chirp, it was just an egg. Due to that, he would not see it as a human. Just like parents raising children. No matter how old the children get, they would still be seen as children in their parents’ eyes. Therefore, even if Fat Chirp gets a human form one day, he would still see it as a bird-human.

“Human form? That must be many years later, right?” asked Yi Xichen unsurely. This was his first time coming across a natural spiritual beast. Since spiritual beasts were so rare, could there be some talented ones that could turn into human form right at birth?”

Yi Xichen opened his Qiankun bag and shouted, “Hey, Fat Chirp, do you know how to transform?” He was really curious about what the little bird would turn into. A gray chubby boy?

Fat Chirp didn’t react, perhaps playing dead.

Yi Xichen shrugged and sealed the bag back up. It seems that Fat Chirp’s talents were not that high. It still needed a few more years of cultivation.

Although Zhangsun Zijun didn’t like Fat Chirp, but since Yi Xichen wanted to keep it and sell it for a good price later, he didn’t argue with him. As of right now, the most important thing was to get the White Cloud Sword. Only then could they go to the Realm of Void to find the Void Sect Leader.

In order to make sure no one completes the bounty before them, they need to go find the Underworld Cave immediately and kill their leader. But to find out where the Underworld cave was located, the two of them still spent a considerable amount of time asking around. After all, the quest hasn’t been completed even after being on there for three years, it obviously was not an easy demon to defeat. They didn’t need to be in such a hurry.

Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun walked around Xia Lin town for a bit. Finally, they came across a stall with a giant sign in front: Know It All. There sat a Pill Cultivator woman who had a demon eagle on her shoulder, a demon dog resting by her legs, and a few demon butterflies standing on her fingers.

In Pill Cultivation, there was a very special category known as “Beast Controlling Pill Cultivation.” Cultivators who practiced these usually didn’t have much of a cultivation base themselves and were regarded as weak in fights. But they could refine pills and attract demons and beasts, and then breed these demons and beasts for their own use. The higher the skill, the stronger the beasts they could breed, and the more things they could do.

This cultivator in front of them obviously practiced Beast Controlling Pill Cultivation. Her cultivation wasn’t high, and her demons weren’t very fierce either. They didn’t seem to be able to help her win fights, but they could definitely help her with something else — Learning about everything around every corner of the world.

Since she was a woman, Zhangsun Zijun wouldn’t be very good at the talking part. So Yi Xichen sat down, gave her two spirit stones for payment, and asked, “Martial Sister, I want to ask something.”

The cultivator took the stones and said enthusiastically, “What would you like to know?”

Every cultivation town would have a few “Know It All”s. They have connections and news sources from all around the world, and would know about all the big events happening. If it was something too small that they wouldn’t know, they could also send their subordinates to find out.

Yi Xichen gave two names, “Zhenren You Yun, Underworld Cave Leader.”

The cultivator gave a nod. Since it has been on the bounty announcement for three years, there were definitely may others who came before to ask her about it. She immediately knew that Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun definitely came to win that White Cloud Sword.

She replied, “The leader of the Underworld Cave is known as Hu Cang, he is about 500 years old already. He is originally a snow tiger demon with a very strong cultivation. He’s not easy to deal with. In addition, normal people who seek him all have a very hard time trying to find him.”

“Why’s that?”

“He lives in the Underworld Cave, but that place is more like an abyss than a cave. There are weird rocks, deep holes, everything is like a maze inside. That snow tiger demon is also a Demon King, with countless demons under his command. In order to get to him, one must go through countless obstacles to get to the main cave. It is not an easy task for normal people.”

The cultivator kept putting an emphasis on the word normal people. She was looking at Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun and seemed to be saying this purposefully. She couldn’t be blamed though. Yi Xichen just reached the Foundation Establishment stage not too long ago, and although she couldn’t tell Zhangsun Zijun’s cultivation, she could see that he didn’t even have a sword. As a sword cultivator, an empty sword sheath obviously meant that the sword broke already. If a cultivator let his own sword break, how strong could he be?

Yi Xichen acted as if he couldn’t tell her hints, and continued, “Do you know what kind of demons are in that cave?”

She could only tell them what she knew. After explaining the situation in the demon cave, she then said, “In the past three years, I personally know more than a hundred people who tried to break into the cave and complete that bounty. I heard that in the end, only less than ten of them managed to meet the head of Underworld Cave. Just three months ago, even a sword cultivator in the Golden Core stage went. He ended up being injured severely and his cultivation was almost crippled.

“Oh,” Yi Xichen nodded, not acting shocked at all.

Seeing that the two of them were both rather handsome, the female cultivator didn’t want them to risk their lives. In the end, she couldn’t help but say, “Forgive me for being so direct… the Underworld Cave is very very dangerous. I advise the two of you to cultivate for a few more years before going, it will be better that way.”

Yi Xichen smiled, “A few more years? We don’t have a grudge or anything against the Underworld Cave leader, we won’t mind if he lives a few extra years. But, I don’t know if the White Cloud Sword will wait for us for a few years.”

The female cultivator was stunned. This… this young sword cultivator looked rather cute, but why doesn’t he have a likable personality? This Foundation Establishment disciple is really full of himself!

Yi Xichen suddenly became serious again, “But You Yun’s requirement is a bit too harsh. If he just wants the Snow Tiger Demon alive, that’ll be fine. But what she wants is the demon core. That means we must kill that Snow Tiger Demon! I kind of want to know what crimes that demon did, why must he die?”

Although both of them were sword cultivators, they weren’t people who killed others for no reason, including demonic cultivators. If the Snow Tiger Demon has never done anything bad before, yet Zhenren You Yun wants to kill him without a reason, then even if the reward was ten White Cloud Swords, they still wouldn’t go complete the bounty.

Hearing this, the female cultivator started to sigh, “Talking about this, there is indeed a reason. I’m not sure if you guys have heard about Zhenren You Yun. He has made friends with many demonic cultivators, and even the Underworld Cave Leader was once his friend. Because of this, he was largely controversial in the cultivation world… But just a few years ago, some conflict happened between that Snow Tiger Demon and Zhenren You Yun, and that demon killed his cultivation partner… Since then, Zhenren You Yun has posted bounty announcements in not only Xia Lin town, but in numerous cultivation towns all around the world to kill the Snow Tiger Demon. He wants the demon dead so bad that he is willing to offer his personal White Cloud Sword to anyone who could slay the demon.

Yi Xichen frowned. Since the Snow Tiger Demon killed his cultivation partner, then it is no wonder that Zhenren You Yun would want him dead. Since it was the Snow Tiger Demon at fault first, then he and Zhangsun Zijun could accept the bounty without worries.

But there was something else that was strange. The White Cloud Sword was an extremely precious sword. Hundreds of years ago, Zhenren You Yun collected the spiritual ore from the Fire-Refining Sea. The sword had insane powers, and if a strong cultivator received it, he could practically destroy anything in his way. Is the head of the Underworld Cave really that strong? With such a good sword for his life, no one successfully did it even after three years?

But Yi Xichen soon figured out why. Only the top of the cultivators could get to the Golden Core stage. Therefore, those who reached the Golden Core stage were already enough to be called a “Zhrenren”. Most of these Zhenren were elders or even sect leaders. With their high position, they wouldn’t come out very often, and each of them has their own sword which they have been using for countless years. Their own sword wouldn’t be much worse either, plus since they already became one with their swords, they really didn’t need another sword. As for the cultivators who have not yet reached the Golden Core stage, maybe they do want such a treasure, but… just as the female cultivator said just now, they couldn’t beat the Snow Tiger Demon!

Yi Xichen then asked why the Snow Tiger Demon killed Zhenren You Yun’s cultivation partner, but she said that she wasn’t sure. The two never revealed anything to the outside world, but it was certainly true that the Snow Tiger Demon killed Zhenren You Yun’s cultivation partner. Otherwise, the Snow Tiger Demon, who has been targeted for all these years, would have come out to explain himself.

Either way, although they didn’t know the details, they knew the general story.

Yi Xichen thanked the female cultivator and walked away with Zhangsun Zijun.

Looking at their disappearing backs, the cultivator shook her head with pity in her eyes. She rubbed the demon dog’s fur and sighed, “Two such cute sword cultivators… sigh! Sigh! Hopefully, the Underworld Cave Leader doesn’t go too hard on them.”

After gathering their information, the two went back to their hotel. Right after going in, Yi Xichen started to dig through his artifacts. Originally, to save money for Zhangsun Zijun’s sword, he didn’t buy the missing spiritual materials he needed. But now that they knew where to go to get Zhangsun Zijun’s sword, he decided to go finish his almost-done artifacts first. It might come in handy when they go fight the Snow Tiger Demon tomorrow.

Watching him digging around everywhere, Zhangsun Zijun was a little confused, “What is the need for all this?”

When fighting, Zhangsun Zijun, Zhenren Yu Ying, and Qiu Jian all somewhat had the same mindset — they were all lazy about it. All they have to do is release their skills and techniques. Either way, with their level of cultivation, most opponents wouldn’t stand a chance.

Yi Xichen said, “We finally got a chance to leave Heavenly Sword Sect and we can use all of the martial arts we’ve learned! Leave some of the weaker ones to me tomorrow, and let me have a chance to use my new artifacts, okay?” While on Heavenly Sword Sect, although he was mainly into heterodoxy methods, but due to the rules of the sect, he didn’t really get to use any of them. Now that they were out of the mountain, he could finally do whatever he wanted.

Zhangsun Zijun shrugged, “Oh.”

Yi Xichen took out a light yellow lantern, “Check this out, I saved many years of spiritual materials and spirit stones to make this ‘Shape-Shadow Lantern’. I was only missing some lotus leaves to crush and make the wick. But recently, none of the markets near Heavenly Sword Sect was selling lotus leaves. I saw someone selling it on the way back, so I quickly bought some.”

This “Shape-Shadow Lantern” has a similar appearance to a normal lantern, but the insides were what’s fascinating about it. The four walls of the lampshade are placed with mirror stones made of pure aquamarine, and three high-grade spiritual stones of each of the five elements: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, are inlaid on the base. After lighting the wick, all the light and shadow around it will shine into the pure aquamarine, and the wick can last for about a day. When the candle finished burning, one can remove the aquamarine and put it into a bowl of distilled water. When the wick burns, the “shape” and “shadow” recorded by the aquamarine will be released into the water. Which means, the lantern will allow people to see the events that it recorded. 

“After this thing is done, it’ll come in very handy!” explained Yi Xichen, “Like when we are in a hurry, we can just light this lantern up. Later when we get the chance, we can carefully analyze it and catch anything that we missed at the time. Or when we want to analyze an area that we can’t get close to. We can just secretly put the lantern there, and it will record everything.”

Zhangsun Zijun nodded.

This lantern was rather difficult to make. It cost 15 high-grade spirit stones to get started, let alone the other spiritual materials needed. This crazy cost could last them several years.

After finishing the artifact he spent many years on, Yi Xichen carefully inserted the wick into the lamp. He couldn’t wait to test this out. He cast a fire spell onto the wick, and then the wick lit. And then… it was extinguished.

Yi Xichen was stunned, “How the…”

He tried to light it again, but like before, it immediately extinguished right after being lit.

He immediately took the lantern apart and started to investigate what went wrong. But after looking, he became even more stunned, “Where are my spirit stones?!” All the 15 high-grade spirit stones he had placed on the bottom of the lantern were gone now!

Zhangsun Zijun dug out everything in the Qiankun bag, trying to check if the spirit stones accidentally fell out somewhere. But after checking, the two turned completely dumbfounded. The Qiankun bag that was supposed to be filled with spirit stones only had a few left now. After a thorough search, they found that all the intermediate grades and higher ones were all gone!

Yi Xichen gave out a shriek and quickly pulled the bag to his eyes. The insides were as big as the sky, but he still couldn’t see anything. He quickly used his spiritual energy to detect, but the bag was indeed empty! Empty!

As a person who guarded his treasures with his life, Yi Xichen started to have cold sweat fall from his forehead immediately. All his hard-earned money! Where did they go?!

Did someone steal them? Impossible! He set a personal spell on there, and an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to break through so easily! Did he lose them? Also impossible! It’s not like the bag had any holes!

What happened? Was there something in there that absorbed the stones?

Yi Xichen was stunned for a second, then suddenly thought of something. His dark gaze shot towards Fat Chirp who was sitting at the corner of the desk.

At this time, Fat Chirp was chewing on something, as if feasting on some delicious snack……

Yi Xichen quickly launched himself over, making Fat Chirp jump from the sudden pounce. It flapped its wings to fly, but didn’t manage to do so before Yi Xichen caught it. Yi Xichen yelled, “What are you eating! Spit it out!”

Fat Chirp looked up, obviously trying to swallow what was in his mouth. Zhangsun Zijun reached out two fingers and within a flash, they hit Fat Chirp’s chubby stomach, forcing what was in its mouth to come out.

“Plop!”

An intermediate-grade spirit stone landed on the table.

“Ahhhhhhh! Damn bird! How dare you eat my spirit stones!!! I’ll roast you alive!!!” Yi Xichen was going crazy.

Suffocating from his grasp, Fat Chirp quickly struggled to slide out of his hand and flew onto the cabinet.

As a spiritual beast, it naturally wouldn’t eat plain grains. Instead, it can absorb the spiritual energy of the world and cultivate at an extremely fast speed. Other than the spiritual energies of the world, they could also absorb anything else that has spiritual energy in them.

Although suffering heavy losses, Yi Xichen could only grit his teeth in anger. It wasn’t like he could really roast Fat Chirp alive, otherwise, the losses will be even greater. With red eyes, he stared at Fat Chirp: “There are so many primary-grade spirit stones here! I wouldn’t be that mad if you eat a few! But you!! You ate all the precious ones!!”

Fat Chirp gave a “chirp”, then stomped its feet and turned around. He was a picky bird!

Yi Xichen took some deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. Then he counted his total losses, calculating how much he should sell Fat Chirp for to earn all his losses back.

After calculating, Yi Xichen sadly went to continue messing with his artifacts.

Fat Chirp sat on the cabinet for a while. After feeling like the surroundings turned safe, it finally stuck its little round head out. Zhangsun Zijun was meditating, and Yi Xichen was still clenching his teeth as he fixed some broken artifacts. It seemed that he wasn’t going to make him pay for now. Fat Chirp flew down from the cabinet and started to jump around without fear in the house, checking this and that out. 

It jumped onto Yao Budu’s little pill refining cauldron,  walking around it curiously. This cauldron was almost as big as he was! But he had never seen such a thing before.

“Zhangsun Zijun! TIME TO TAKE YOUR PILLS!”

Yao Budu’s deep and loud voice suddenly sounded.

Fat Chirp jumped back in shock and quickly flapped its wings. Then it turned back around and dived towards it. It pecked the lid away and wanted to go inside.

Before it was able to do so, Zhangsun Zijun quickly caught its wings and threw the bird!

“Bam!”

Fat Chirp hit one of the bed’s legs, seeing stars on its head. It became silent for quite a while.

Zhangsun Zijun frowned as he ate the pills that the pill refining cauldron produced. Then he put it away. He didn’t really care about the spirit stones, but this was what their master gave them. If the bird broke it, he would make sure to skin that dumb bird alive!

Fat Chirp woke back up, staring angrily at Zhangsun Zijun. Zhangsun Zijun gave a cold sharp glance, “If you dare to touch this again, I’ll kill you!”

Fat Chirp felt a chill as it shivered from Zhangsun Zijun’s scary attitude; it knew he wasn’t joking. Therefore, it quickly went back into the Qiankun bag, not daring to come back out.

Due to the heavy property losses, Yi Xichen’s mood was very down. After playing around with the artifacts, he was afraid that he would accidentally break one, so he quickly cleaned them up and then went to bed.

After lying for a while, he noticed that Zhangsun Zijun was still meditating. But he wasn’t cultivating either and seemed to be mumbling something, as if chanting curses. He asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

Zhangsun Zijun, who was silently chanting the heart-clearing curse, twitched the edge of his mouth.

When he was still in his Confusion Array, regardless of what he and Yi Xichen did, everything would end up on the bed. He sometimes felt annoyed by it too. So after Yi Xichen returned to normal, he felt very fortunate, because this was the Yi Xichen that he wanted. The only thing he found difficult was trying to sleep alone during the night.

But now, to save money, he and Yi Xichen were forced to sleep together. Only know did he realize what a great thing sleeping alone was. He didn’t want to make it awkward for Yi Xichen, and definitely didn’t want to ruin their relationship. But even though he could resist the urge in his heart, it was still hard to resist the strong natural forces inside his body!

Although Yi Xichen knew Zhangsun Zijun had some dirty thoughts, but he never experienced those, so he didn’t really feel anything. And to this day, although Zhangsun Zijun made many hilarious statements,  he never really did anything to him. So he thought that it wouldn’t be a problem sleeping with him — After all, they slept for many years together before, and they only separated after they got their own rooms.

Yi Xichen asked, “Are you going to rest soon?”

Zhangsun Zijun slowly got to the bed and lay down sideways beside him.

Soon, Yi Xichen fell asleep.

Zhangsun Zijun finally was able to fall asleep too after chanting the heart-clearing curse several hundred times.

During the night, Zhangsun Zijun woke up in a haze. He swung his hand and pulled Yi Xichen into his arms, and kissed his lips without even consciously being aware of it.

Yi Xichen was in a deep sleep, so he didn’t resist.

After this kiss, the blood in his body started working again. Zhangsun Zijun slowly placed his hand into Yi Xichen’s shirt like what he always used to do, and touched his smooth skin. His hand slowly moved downwards, to the waist, and just as he was about to approach the no-no zone…

Mm? Why does it feel a little tight?

Wait…

Zhangsun Zijun suddenly opened his eyes, he was back to his consciousness now.

Nonono! I can’t do this! I just told myself I am determined not to do this, that I’ll win against the Confusion Array! Zhangsun Zijun painfully grabbed his right hand, trying to pull it back. But his right hand refused to move, as if it was glued onto Yi Xichen’s body.

Come back! Right hand! Come back!

Please, I beg you, come back! My dearest right hand!