After Transmigrating Into a Cannon Fodder, I Got a Happy Ending with the Female Lead [Transmigration Into a Novel] - Chapter 42

Yue Xi had several bright red fingernail marks on her back; sweat slid from her chin and fell onto Qing He’s pale skin, making her breathe harder and harder.

The slight sweat didn’t make Qing He any less beautiful — if anything, it made her look even more delicate and radiant, like a newly bloomed flower: tender, juicy, and easy to pinch. She clung to Yue Xi’s neck, chasing her lips and kissing her; the warmth from their mouths felt as if it could melt someone.

Yue Xi wrapped her arms around the waist of the person in her arms and quickly shifted position.

“Tired?” she asked.

Xiao Qing sat on her lap, eyes half lowered; the thin flush at the outer corners of her eyes looked like smudged rouge — gorgeous, captivating, utterly intoxicating.

Yue Xi didn’t want to admit it, but she truly was exhausted. She’d been struck by Yu Zhu and holding on this long was already very difficult. Looking out the window, the light was hazy — dawn was coming.

Six or seven hours had passed; her energy was nearly drained, while Xiao Qing remained full of vigor, as if she had no limit.

A sharp pain stabbed at Yue Xi’s head and fragments flashed through her mind. When she pieced them together, she realized this was a problem from the past.

Qing He lay in her arms with a sly look. “Remember now?”

Yue Xi’s hand, wrapped around Qing He’s waist, traced upward along the protruding spine to the area between the shoulder blades; with her fingertip she drew its shape.

“Did you erase my memory?” Yue Xi asked.

Qing He snorted softly and didn’t answer. Instead she bit the soft flesh under Yue Xi’s clavicle like a kitten eating from a can.

As Yue Xi’s memories came back, she finally understood: since the moment they met, they had already been bound by an unusual fate.

Yue Xi bent her head and kissed Qing He on the forehead. “I’m sorry I ran off and left you — I’m a coward. You…” she trailed off, then hissed.

Qing He held a piece of her flesh between her teeth, pretending to be fierce while grinding her teeth, voice muffled: “I don’t want to hear ‘sorry.’ If you insist on saying something, you might as well say ‘I love you.’”

Yue Xi went along with it. “I love you. Xiao Qing, I love you.”

A strange glint flashed in Qing He’s eyes as she slowly sat upright. “Say it with your mouth; let me feel it.”

Yue Xi’s hand slid down along the spine. Qing He grabbed her hand and, before Yue Xi could react, the little cat leapt onto her face.

Yue Xi’s breath hitched, and after a brief adjustment she set about serving her feline mistress wholeheartedly.

Only this time, it was her taking turns, one lick at a time.

Qing He closed her eyes; the redness at the corners of her eyes deepened, like a rose seen in the dark.

The thin mist gradually dispersed; the sky lightened to a pale dawn. From some room in the guesthouse came a faint sound — delicate, suppressed, coquettish — which lasted for a long time before finally subsiding.

Yue Xi slept until evening. When she opened her eyes, her brain didn’t immediately register the time or place. The space beside her was empty; judging by how cool the cup was, Qing He had left a long time ago.

She pushed herself up and felt a dull ache in her chest. Her arms and legs were sore and her throat was dry; when Yue Xi went to get water, her hand accidentally caught on a tear in the bedsheet, and her ears immediately flushed with embarrassment.

Last night had been a bit too indulgent.

But Xiao Qing had called her “sister” so sweetly and alluringly that it was impossible to resist.

After two cups of water the dryness subsided. Yue Xi assumed Qing He had gone downstairs to eat, but after looking around she couldn’t find her.

Just then the guesthouse owner returned from outside; he looked pale.

“Boss,” she called.

The owner jumped, clearly startled to see Yue Xi. He tried to act calm but his eyes betrayed panic. “You’re looking for Miss Xiao Qing, right? She seems to have gone up the mountain.”

Up the mountain again? Yue Xi was puzzled. Last night Qing He had said they didn’t need to worry about the rest; how could she suddenly go up the mountain?

Before Yue Xi could reply the owner hurried inside, his steps rapid and anxious, as if afraid of something.

Yue Xi felt that something was wrong. She went back to her room to get her tools to search for Xiao Qing.

She first made a tracking talisman, but it did not point to Qing He on the mountain — instead it stopped at the front of the guesthouse.

Last night she had told Xiao Qing never to hide her whereabouts from now on, and Xiao Qing had agreed, so the tracking talisman shouldn’t fail. Therefore Xiao Qing was still inside the guesthouse.

Yue Xi was about to go in when the main door slammed shut. A gust of wind blew and a huge protective formation rose around the guesthouse. Seeing the blood-shaped sigils flashing on it, Yue Xi’s heart sank.

This was an ancient forbidden spell: anyone trapped inside would have their cultivation suppressed until the formation absorbed all their spiritual power, and eventually it would swallow their flesh as well.

Yue Xi had only read about this in books; it was the first time she’d seen it in reality, and she didn’t know how to break it.

Logically, Xiao Qing — being a demon god — should be unaffected by a mere evil formation. Yet Yue Xi felt inexplicably anxious, as if some terrible event was about to occur.

“Quan Xinhai, hurry and take down this array! Do you not care about your life?!” she shouted.

This evil formation made no distinction between friend and foe; it would devour all living things within it. The mortal guesthouse owner would die first.

What on earth was he trying to do?

Yue Xi had the odd sense that when she finished speaking the whole guesthouse trembled twice. Then a beast’s roar came from inside and the front gate pounded twice before collapsing with a crash.

A head stuck out; its bulbous eyes blinked twice, and then the massive body squeezed through. Yue Xi was about to throw her talisman when she saw what the creature held in its hands and suddenly stopped, her pupils widening.

Xiao Qing’s limp head drooped; she seemed unconscious, her clothes stained with blood — whether hers or the monster’s she couldn’t tell. The creature’s arms were scraped and blood dripped thickly from them. It didn’t even look at the blood, only stared at Yue Xi.

A few steps forward, it stopped by the edge of the protective field, holding Xiao Qing and chuckling.

“If I eat her, I’ll never die,” the voice gurgled, distorted. Yue Xi recognized it as the guesthouse owner.

Quan Xinhai’s current appearance was part boar, part something else: his flesh sagged and piled in folds, soft and drooping as if melting. Pools of greasy fat glistened; it was nauseating.

“Quan Xinhai,” Yue Xi said, trying to stay calm, “you’ve been bewitched by some monster.”

He laughed, a wild crazed sound. “Shut up! What do you know?! The Lord told me that if I do as He commands he will grant me eternal power.”

Quan Xinhai smiled and his face split into a net-like tear that exposed a red throat and gullet. “Yes! If I hand her to the Lord, I will have immortality!”

“But if I eat her I will also be immortal. What should I do?”

“Don’t betray the Lord! Don’t betray the Lord!” He seemed torn, agonized — his expressions flickering between states.

Yue Xi seized on his hesitation. “That so-called Lord is lying. If he could grant you longevity, why has he turned you into this? Think of your children — would your daughter want her father to be a monster?”

Quan Xinhai looked moved; he clutched his head and wailed. When he lightly shook his head, one of his eyes fell out.

The eye rolled on the ground. Quan Xinhai panicked and scrambled to pick it up, leaving Xiao Qing tossed aside.

Yue Xi saw her chance. She threw a thunder talisman stained with blood; it blew a hole in the evil formation. But the gap closed in the blink of an eye, and the talisman rebounded toward her, nearly hitting her.

She jumped back and, with a deft flick, sent the talisman flying into the nearby woods where it exploded and toppled several large trees.

Quan Xinhai regained his senses and roared twice, grabbing Xiao Qing and trying to retreat. Yue Xi at once hurled several more thunder talismans and pressed blood onto her peach-wood sword, thrusting toward the formation.

If luck was on her side, the explosion would tear through the protective field enough for her to get in; if not…

Yue Xi’s gaze fixed on Xiao Qing in Quan Xinhai’s hands. A coldness radiated from her whole body. She would not allow Qing He to be taken!

Indeed, things turned out as she feared. She had underestimated the formation’s power. Her peach-wood sword turned to powder under the great devouring force. As the formation’s enormous swallowing power surged toward her, she instinctively closed her eyes.

Sorry, Xiao Qing. Sister failed you.

With a thunderous boom Yue Xi’s eyes flashed white; when she opened them she saw Xiao Qing standing before her, mouth smeared with blood. She stepped toward Yue Xi; behind her lay a mound of shredded flesh.

Qing He walked up to Yue Xi and said, “You’re so weak.”

Yue Xi smiled but before she could answer Qing He collapsed into her arms. Only then did Yue Xi realize that the blood on Qing He was her own.

There were bloodstains at the corners of Qing He’s mouth; her breathing was shallow. The green vine mark behind her ear had been partially destroyed.

The sky darkened and clouds rolled in; a gust carrying a foul chill swept through and shredded the remains of the meat into pieces, filling the air with stench.

Yue Xi had no time to grieve. She scooped Qing He into her arms and headed for the road, but was stopped after only a few steps.

“You’re useless — you can’t even stop someone who’s lost all cultivation!” a voice sneered.

Heavy raindrops fell. A man in all black blocked her way. His black hair fluttered, his face pale, his eyes cold and sinister; an aura of evil clung to him.

His voice sounded a lot like Yu Zhu’s.

“Yu Zhu?” Yue Xi asked uncertainly.

The man in black laughed, as if hearing a very funny joke. “Give her to me and I’ll spare your life.” The laughter abruptly stopped.

Yue Xi looked back at him coldly. “Only if I’m dead.”

“Heh!” the black-clad man snorted. “Then I’ll grant your wish!”

Rain turned into chains that wrapped around Yue Xi and bound her, leaving her powerless.

The black-clad man strode forward, a black mist billowing around him.

Yue Xi panicked and hid Qing He in her arms.

This thing had been haunting her since the day she’d met Xiao Qing. Before, it had sent underlings down the mountain; this time it had stepped out in person.

Just as the black-clad man was about to touch Qing He, a white mist surged in and knocked him back several meters.

The white mist took on a human silhouette; features were indistinct. “Yu Zhu?” someone asked.

The silver-clad figure paused for a moment and replied, “It is I.”

“About time — I thought you’d keep hiding forever,” the black-clad man sneered, flicking his wrist with a malicious smile.

“Since we’ve got the lot, I’ll send you all to the underworld together,” he said.

“Never mind — ash and dust suits you better; then you won’t pester me again.” His words finished, the black mist swelled, making the already-dark sky darker. Yu Zhu struggled to hold him off but soon fell to the disadvantage.

“Take Qing He away!” Yu Zhu shouted.

He swept his sleeve; Yue Xi rose into the air and fled the battlefield with Qing He.

“Think you can leave? Not that easy!” The black mist struck. Yue Xi fell from a great height, clutching Qing He to protect her head.

As they were about to hit the ground, a huge whirlpool suddenly opened in the earth. Black and white mists swirled together and rose up, blinding her.

The whirlpool gaped like a monstrous mouth and swallowed them. As they fell, the descent sped up, like a roller coaster.

The intense weightlessness made Yue Xi lose consciousness. When she came to, before her was blue sky and white clouds surprisingly close. Even stranger, the sky felt near while the ground seemed far below, as if her body were drifting in midair.

“I don’t have many friends; from now on you’re my first friend.” A clear, ethereal voice drifted up. Yue Xi searched and finally found a girl leaning against her foot — only tiny, so small her features weren’t distinct.

But during this process she made a major discovery — she had become a tree.

Support After Transmigrating Into a Cannon Fodder, I Got a Happy Ending with the Female Lead [Transmigration Into a Novel]