Chapter 520: Main Text Side Story · Fate and the Moon
The wind in the Snowy Realm has a shape. Many beings who have lived here for generations are not stingy in using various exaggerated descriptions to describe the wind.
It is the most beautiful sculptor of the Snowy Realm, transforming snow, glaciers, and mountains into such magnificent forms; it is the storyteller of the oldest tales of the Snowy Realm, binding the indigenous masters of this land and the guests who will come in the future tightly to it.
Of course, it is also the most feared enemy of travelers, the one they least want to encounter.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
On a chilly, freezing winter dusk, the urgent, blade-like gale quickly swept across the land, becoming a blinding blizzard that obscured everything in sight.
A small silhouette in the eyes of the world was struggling to walk through such a storm, as everything around it faded in the gradually sinking sunset, with only a new moon rising in the sky piercing through the white snow, pointing the way for this figure.
Upon closer inspection, this figure was wrapped in heavy linen clothing, but it was adorned with white snow, making it cold and damp. Only a pair of light green eyes were exposed on the thoroughly covered face. Those eyes were filled with anger and unwillingness, and she had two straps tied to her back, pulling a small sled laden with supplies covered by a layer of linen.
From her shape, she appeared to be a young human girl, but from the deer antler sled behind her, it seemed she was delivering goods for the Deerfolk tribe.
This is the unique “human mule” phenomenon among the humans and subhuman tribes in the Snowy Realm, as transportation tools are scarce in the snow. Over a long period of time, many tribes have been closed off, and the few exchanges and delivery tasks have been carried out by the residents of this tribe.
“Shit!”
Looking at the increasingly dim sun in the sky, the young girl’s green eyes grew more anxious. She took several deep breaths and then exerted all her energy to drag the sled behind her forward, muttering to herself while shaking her body.
“You can do it, you can do it, Ashley!”
She should not have gotten into a fight with the other Deerfolk transport team and gotten separated. That group of horned, maned creatures had bullied her for a month, and today, she could no longer bear it and took another transport road alone.
As a result…
As a result, she happened to encounter a blizzard today.
Damn!
How am I so unlucky!
Ashley struggled to pull the sled while walking forward, gnashing her teeth and silently cursing in her heart.
“Those bastards. Their horns should be shoved up their mothers!”
“Crack!”
Just as this girl was continuously cursing quietly at those Deerfolk who bullied her transport team, the sled she was dragging suddenly got stuck beside a huge rock. She couldn’t pull it and stumbled, falling face-first into a snow pile that was knee-high to her.
She groaned in pain and quickly turned back to look at the sled, then hurriedly ran back to it, trying to lift it.
But the more anxious she was, the less she could accomplish, especially now; her hands and feet were completely frozen, and she couldn’t feel or exert any strength. She wanted to lift the stuck sled but had exerted all her strength, and it still wouldn’t budge.
Panicking, she looked up at the sky. The setting sun in the west was becoming dimmer, as if it were taking away all the light and warmth from the world.
“No, no, no, no, no…”
Ashley watched the sun gradually disappear. Tears nearly streamed down her face.
She had been in this world for several months now, staying in the Deerfolk tribe and delivering goods several times. She understood well that the nights here were absolutely not a place for people to stay. In just a few minutes, the terrifying low temperature would swallow her, turning her into a lifeless ice sculpture.
Not to mention that the Deerfolk tribe had said that the ground at night was filled with monsters and ghosts.
Oh God, what kind of terrifying thing is it that those two-meter-tall creatures sporting big horns call monsters?
“No, no, no!”
At this moment, Ashley didn’t want to care about the sled she was dragging anymore. Perhaps she should have done this earlier, but there were rules in the tribe. The value of what everyone delivered was more precious than their lives. If they lost their delivery, they wouldn’t even be able to come back for dinner; they might as well die in the snow outside.
These inhumane bastards…
I…
Damn!
Ashley wanted to untie the ropes on her shoulders, but her five fingers seemed to have completely turned into one, devoid of sensation, and she couldn’t even touch that knot; she also dared not take off her gloves.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
In her anxious gaze, she helplessly watched as the setting sun was gradually covered by the mountains, completely disappearing from the sky, replaced by the bright, ice-cold moon.
In that instant, Ashley felt the temperature around her drop several degrees, and darkness wrapped around her like a demon, preventing her from seeing even a bit of the road.
It’s over.
Everything is over.
Her light green eyes glistened with tears as she uncontrollably knelt to the ground and couldn’t help but cry,
“Ah! Damn it! Damn it! Why me? Why did I come to this world?”
Who could know that a few months ago, she was just a first-year high school student in America, arguing with her family every day, not wanting to study, wanting to mingle with bands and gangs.
She couldn’t focus on any book; even the best course in her first semester was only a B.
At that time, her biggest enemy was her mother, who feared for her drinking, tattoos, and even drug abuse; she would even leap from the confined third-floor loft, taking her sisters’ brother’s Mustang out for a joyride.
And now, her biggest enemy was the Deerfolk who called her “little one” and “soft-horn bug” every day, the blizzards and cold, and the tribe where no food meant no dinner.
It was only at this moment that she began to recall the good things about modern society. At least there, there was twenty-four-hour hot water, and her mom made her steak.
“Waaah! Everything is over!”
Ashley felt increasingly cold. She curled up next to the sled she was delivering, trying to survive another moment; but perhaps now, choosing a decent position to die would be the right thing to do?
She painfully covered her trembling body, but nothing seemed to help.
She squinted her eyes and sneezed, and then, she didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she actually began to feel warm.
Warm? Even hotter?
“Damn it. Ha. So hot.”
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
In that blizzard, time passed little by little, and her consciousness grew more and more muddled. The only feeling was that she was getting hotter, so hot that she wanted to loosen her clothing.
She trembled and took off her face mask, and a head of golden hair that fell to about her shoulders spilled down—actually, her hair was originally even longer, but because an elder in the Deerfolk tribe liked the color of her hair, she exchanged quite a bit of food for it.
Initially, when she first crossed over to the Deerfolk tribe, she had gotten her first meal by cutting her hair.
In the past, she had no concept of money. Her mother gave her a thousand dollars a month, and she thought that wasn’t enough.
She wanted to buy many instruments, albums, and merchandise from her idols. Of course, she also needed hair and cosmetics, oh, and clothes. Her mother’s fashion sense was simply too outdated.
Her mom hoped she would be a good girl, become a lawyer or doctor, you know, the kind that wears glasses and has braids like that rustic dog.
But now she realized that a meal that had originally cost ten dollars might cost her this damned sled trip.
She gasped for air, and her breaths grew shallow, while the empty look in her eyes reflected the moon in the sky, but her hands kept moving to pull her clothes.
“So hot.”
But at that final moment, a pale hand suddenly reached out and gripped her wrist tightly.
“Smack!”
As that palm tightly grasped Ashley’s wrist, a gentle warmth suddenly hit her brain, and her movement to pull her clothes came to an abrupt halt. In that instant, she vaguely realized that she was really cold.
Her pupils constricted slightly, then she quickly yanked her gripped wrist back and put the mask back on.
“What the hell am I doing? Ha, so cold.”
As she gasped for breath, escaping the grip of death, she then found that, without knowing when, a figure not very tall, cloaked in a black cape, was standing in front of her.
In that figure’s hand was a long staff, unadorned, yet under the hazy moonlight filtering through the blizzard, it revealed thick, uneven marks all over.
A ghost.
A ghost!
The first concept that popped into Ashley’s mind was this. She painfully retreated several meters in the snow, covering her face in fear and shouted,
“Damn you, ghost! Stay away from me!”
“…”
The figure before her was slightly taken aback, then slowly raised the other hand and removed the cloak covering its head.
In the next moment, a very young, seemingly not yet eighteen, youthful face entered Ashley’s view.
This “little girl” before her had long black hair, her characteristic Asian features were fair and youthful. Ashley even thought she looked younger than herself, but for some reason, the light in her hazel eyes seemed to flicker with a depth greater than the starry sky, making Ashley for a moment fail to sense she was facing someone her age.
But the key point was that this person seemed to be a real human!
Jesus, this was the first time she had encountered a pure human in months!
In this desolate place full of fuzzy Deerfolk and those dog-like Snow Foxes.
But those Snow Foxes seemed to really like her, even though she had scolded them all along.
At this moment, this young girl with black hair smiled at Ashley and softly asked,
“What is a soul collector? Is that something from movies?”
“Ah, yes! Harry Potter, etc.! You know what a movie is?!”
Ashley’s eyes nearly popped out of her sockets. She hurriedly stood up, thinking someone from her hometown had come to rescue her.
Haha, it turns out the Pentagon has developed a rescue team that can traverse worlds.
That’s amazing!
Looking at the inexplicable smile on Ashley’s face, the black-haired girl softly smiled, then glanced at the blizzard beside her, nodding and saying,
“I know exactly what that is.”
“Are you here to take me home? That’s great! I’m Ashley O’Connell, living in Washington, D.C., USA.”
“Well, in a sense, coming to get you is just a side task, and even so, it isn’t taking you back to your home.”
“Huh? What are you saying…?”
Ashley’s expression slightly faltered, and only then did she suddenly realize that the language this girl was speaking was different from her own, but strangely, she could understand what she was saying.
Indeed, you must be a ghost.
The black-haired girl didn’t interrupt Ashley as she stared blankly; instead, she looked at the surrounding blizzard, then gently raised her staff and pointed it at the ground.
“Silence!”
The next second, the winds and snow of the entire Northern Region seemed to come to a standstill.
The furious storm was calmed as if by gentle hands, and even the snow swirling around it halted mid-air, then fell like a dance.
In that second, the entire Northern Region lay asleep at the feet of this girl.
Ashley looked in disbelief at the magnificent scene before her until the white snow covering a radius of hundreds of miles settled down, even the clouds in the sky completely disappeared, revealing the starry sky and the giant bright moon above before she realized what happened.
“Jesus…”
“Alright, back to the topic we were discussing, Ashley. What were you saying just now?”
Although the girl was asking Ashley, she didn’t look back as she walked ahead. It wasn’t until she heard her voice that Ashley stared at her back in a daze. Then she hurried to catch up, and because she hadn’t untied the rope on her back, the sled that had previously been dislodged by this girl also followed behind her.
“Um, I mean, damn, sister, how did you do that just now? Damn, that was so cool; it was just like… wait, are you from the same place as me, sister?”
“Yes, that’s right. What? Do you think you’re the only Trans being in the whole world?”
“Trans? Is that our name? Or is it an organization? Did you name it? I…”
As Ashley was about to continue with her vulgar statement, the girl in front didn’t look back but extended her staff, which struck her face sharply, causing her to swallow back the words she was about to say.
“Ashley, mind your language.”
“Are you kidding? You sound just like my mom. She says the same thing. ‘Oh, Ashley, stand up straight! Sit properly! And mind your tongue!’ It drives me crazy.”
“But I’m sure your mom wouldn’t turn you into a pus-filled toad, right?”
The girl in front smiled as she turned her head, leaving Ashley stunned in place. It was several seconds later that she sluggishly glanced at the black staff and replied,
“Okay, I’ll be careful.”
“That’s good.”
“So, what’s your name, sister?”
“Tang Zeming Asuka.”
“Oh, a Japanese name, how rare. Hey, you know what? There’s an Asian in my class who studies really well; I used to borrow her homework all the time. She’s also Japanese; what was her name again? Jennie Li?”
“That’s a Chinese name.”
“No wonder she stopped lending me homework after I called her that. Damn it.”
In the next second, Tang Zeming Asuka’s staff lit up, and Ashley’s words were abruptly halted.
Ashley dragged the heavy sled, following closely behind the girl named “Tang Zeming Asuka.” She pouted, thinking that even though this person looked to be her age, she was acting so mature.
“So, where are we going? What are you here for? Didn’t you say you came to get me, even if it’s just a side task?”
“Ashley, I actually noticed you the moment you crossed over. I was originally going to pick you up, but I got delayed by other matters… coincidentally, I have to come to the Northern Region regularly, and today just happens to be that day.”
“So, you made me stay with those horned monsters for a few months and watched them dump me in the snow?”
“First of all, they aren’t monsters; they are the Deerfolk who provide you with food and drink. Labor for food is one of the most basic rules of this world compared to our original world. Secondly, I don’t owe you anything. Even if I didn’t come to get you, letting you die in the Northern Region wouldn’t matter. Lastly, they didn’t throw you in the snow; you left in a huff.”
The more Ashley listened, the worse her expression became. By the end, her pace abruptly stopped, and she frowned. Reluctantly, she untied the rope from her shoulder, then quickly walked up to Tang Zeming Asuka, boldly saying,
“Damn it! Enough! Alright, you saved me in the blizzard. I owe you one. Coming to this world was all my own doing, and it’s what I deserve. I guess I was meant to slave away in this godforsaken place for a lifetime and die in the snow, huh? I have nothing to say, but I also don’t want to hear you, who’s not even taller than me, lecturing me like my mom!”
As she was cursing while walking toward Tang Zeming Asuka, her extended hand was about to reach Tang Zeming Asuka’s shoulder. But the next moment, the originally petite girl turned expressionless.
In that moment, a pair of chilling, crimson eyes pierced straight into hers, seeming to want to shatter her soul.
Ashley froze, and Tang Zeming Asuka made no other move; she merely turned back expressionlessly and then raised her staff, tapping her on the head.
“Do as you like; you can go back now. I happen to have things to do, and I will come back to take you once I’m done.”
Damn, I guess I have to go with you, right?
“But I still need to remind you of one thing: although I don’t mind you seeing me as young as you, in this world, it’s better not to judge others by appearances.”
Ashley was still immersed in the terrifying glance from this “young” girl before her, and even her speech began to tremble,
“Anyway, aren’t we supposed to go with you? Ha, it doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me anything. What good does saying all this do?”
“It’s not that you must go with me, but rather you need to stay with me for a while. As you can see, you’re not the only Trans being in this world, and I’m one of the earliest Trans beings to arrive here. I’m here to help you adapt to this world. Having lived here for months, you know nothing except for the Deerfolk and Snow Foxes, right?”
“… True, I thought there were no humans here.”
As Tang Zeming Asuka walked, she suddenly stopped, looked back at Ashley following her, then glanced at the sled she had left behind. After she tapped her staff, with a faint glow flashing, the sled suddenly raced off on its own toward the distant Deerfolk tribe.
“Damn! So cool.”
Ashley muttered, then turned back to see Tang Zeming Asuka standing still, staring quietly at the moonlit sky, seemingly lost in thought.
After waiting for a long time, although she didn’t know why, standing next to this girl felt not cold at all, but she still couldn’t help but ask,
“Aren’t you here for other matters? What is it?”
“I’m here to meet a friend.”
“A friend? What the hell is here? I don’t see anything.”
Tang Zeming Asuka smiled slightly, then explained to her,
“Ashley, there are three layers in this world. The innermost layer is the place we are standing, which can be called ‘Reality,’ where most beings exist. Reality can be divided into the mundane, the grand void, and the boundary of matter, but you can ignore that for now. Outside of Reality is a layer closely wrapped around it, governed by a deity, which we refer to as the ‘Crevice.’ Beyond the Crevice is a broader space, which is both the outermost layer and the deepest layer of this world; that place is called the ‘Spirit Realm.'”
Ashley’s mouth opened as she listened to these extremely unfamiliar concepts, feeling like she couldn’t grasp how much she actually remembered, but it was surely better than dragging the sled in the snow and shoveling dog poop every day.
“My friend is in the Spirit Realm, looking across the Crevice at us.”
Then, Tang Zeming Asuka raised a finger and continued to speak to Ashley,
“There are two places in Reality closest to the Spirit Realm. One is directly beneath our feet, at a certain point on the Snowy Continent, and the other is on Dragon Tail Island, where the Dragon Court established by the descendants of Feima Baharon is located.”
Ashley’s expression became a bit abstract, scratching her head and saying,
“What? Feima Baharon, Dragon Tail Island, Dragon Court?”
Tang Zeming Asuka ignored her confusion and continued,
“The process of communicating with my friend is actually very dangerous. You should be fine by my side, but other beings will not. That’s why I raised this terrifying blizzard to drive all the beings here away for a distance.”
“Should be fine? Damn, did you… wait? Are you saying that damned blizzard that trapped me was created by you?!”
Ashley couldn’t hold it in anymore, quickly tearing off her mask to reveal a pretty little face that had turned rosy from the warmth.
She was very beautiful, and it was clear that before coming to this world, she had been a treasured darling at home, that kind of spoiled type; otherwise, she wouldn’t still be able to show her beauty after months of hardship in this harsh environment—of course, being naturally beautiful played a part.
And hearing this, Tang Zeming Asuka turned her head again, finally revealing a mischievous smile, then nodded, brazenly stated,
“That’s indeed the case.”
“Damn it!”
Ashley didn’t finish her gritted words, and Tang Zeming Asuka smiled in satisfaction while raising her staff to point at the sky.
“Boom!”
In an instant, a powerful energy that altered the skies erupted from Tang Zeming Asuka’s staff.
Ashley took a deep breath, losing her balance, and embarrassingly sat down on the ground.
The tremendous shock wave blasted away the accumulated snow from the ground and cracked the icy layers and rivers on the expanse. At that moment, Ashley believed in everything Tang Zeming Asuka had said.
She suddenly felt a bit dizzy; glow radiating from Tang Zeming Asuka’s staff seemed tangible, creating waves of aurora in the cloudless sky.
Then the stars and the Milky Way above seemed to be dragged closer by Tang Zeming Asuka’s power to the tiny earth down here.
“Damn, damn, damn, damn!”
Ashley was so frightened that she nearly lost control, terrified as she constantly backed away, fearing the sky would fall and crush her.
But in the dazzling light, she felt something—whether it was an illusion or not, it seemed she saw countless illusory knots of golden light.
She didn’t know what those knots were, but somehow, she felt like they were calling to her, and from within those knots, silhouettes began to appear, though she couldn’t see them clearly.
But completely terrified, she had no time to ponder what those knots and images represented. She merely trembled on the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs at Tang Zeming Asuka,
“Ah! Damn! Ah! Help! Help! I’m going to die! Oh my God! Tang Zeming Asuka! Ah! The sky is falling!”
And Tang Zeming Asuka, who stood there all along, watched as Ashley crawled on the ground like a caterpillar, wanting to dig a hole to hide in, and she couldn’t help but cover her lips and stifle her laughter.
In fact, she could have retracted her staff long ago; it originally wasn’t that loud.
But maybe it was a bit of fun to let this foul-mouthed little brat suffer a bit?
Seeing that she couldn’t hold it in any longer, she figured that if she kept it up, Ashley would faint or lose control.
So, with a full smile, Tang Zeming Asuka finally withdrew the dazzling staff into her hand.
“Silence!”
“Haha, I… I can’t take it anymore. Oh my God.”
Ashley, who was nearby, was nearly about to pass out; the noise was simply too much for her little heart to handle.
She still cautiously crawled on the ground like she was trying to avoid a school shooting, lifting her head a little to scan the surroundings, fearing that something even more terrifying than a shooter’s bullet would appear.
But everything had quieted down, and the only one still standing there in the flowing cloak was Tang Zeming Asuka, looking so graceful and elegant.
“Hah, I…”
“Lift your head, Ashley; my friend is here. Want to greet them?”
“Friend?”
Ashley rubbed her head against the snow for a moment, then at Tang Zeming Asuka’s smiling prompt, she slowly lifted her head to look at the sky.
In the next moment, a huge moon, seeming both illusory and substantial, filled her entire field of vision, as if it were staring at her up close, yet also seeming distant.
That moon was so bright, vast, and chillingly cold!
“The moon…”
Tang Zeming Asuka smiled slightly, putting the staff back into her arms, also looking at the sky and softly saying,
“Yes, that is the moon.”
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(End of this chapter)
