Chapter 10

10 – Martial Beast

“Hey, Xue Qilin, get up! You know what time it is?”

Her thoughts hazy, she heard a familiar voice. Her nose was being tingled by a cold morning breeze.

“Five minutes... give me five more minutes!”

“What five minutes... How long is that?” The other party’s tone of voice sounded doubtful. However, apparently thinking that it wasn’t important, she shook Xue Qilin: “It’s already late in the morning! Lazy ass!”

“...”

Ignoring her, Xue Qilin turned over and went back to sleep, not even opening her eyes.

What time is it? It should be around eight o’clock. After years of sleeping in, Xue Qilin developed the ability to judge time by air humidity. Well, with this practical skill, there was no need to look at time. Speaking of time, are there any clocks in this ancient time?

Forget it. Xue Qilin tried to fall asleep again.

“So you won’t get up, is it?!” Qi Qiqi’s voice gradually became laced with anger.

Although she is the master of the sect, but it doesn’t look like she has much patience. Although, according to Luo Qing, this seems to be the case only when it comes to me. Xue Qilin mused.

“Little White, hit her!”

Before she had time to contemplate whether Little White [1] was the one from Shin-chan or not, Xue Qilin felt an impact on her stomach.

She opened her eyes reflexively, and then saw a furry cat-paw-like thing strike out, raising gusts of wind.

“What the hell!” Xue Qilin cried out in surprise. She was so surprised that she couldn’t react.

With a smack, the two collided fiercely, and the weird cat paw hit her square in the nose.

“Ah!”

The little cat paw packed quite the punch, surpassing Xue Qilin’s expectations by far. It knocked her backwards.

Smack, Xue Qilin’s head collided hard against her pillow. Well, the pillow was made of jade.

“Ugh!” In a pincer attack, pain coming from the front and back stabbed straight toward her temples. Xue Qilin sat up reflexively, and tears welled up at the corners of her eyes from the pain.

With her left hand, she clasped her nose, while with her right hand, she rubbed the back of her head.

“Humph, serves you right!” A voice laced with schadenfreude entered her ears. Xue Qilin gave Qi Qiqi a fierce look, and the latter turned away dismissively.

“Twenty One! What are you doing? Don’t you know that it hurts?”

Qi Qiqi looked back dully, tilted her head, and asked puzzled: “Twenty One? What do you mean?”

Uh, is this what you care about? Xue Qilin was stunned for a moment.

“Your name is three sevens, doesn’t that add up to twenty one?” Perhaps because Qi Qiqi looked silly and cute, Xue Qilin blurted out subconsciously, but then immediately regretted.

However, it’s no use crying over spilt milk.

“You...!” Trembling, Qi Qiqi pointed at Xue Qilin. She was rendered speechless from anger.

“What are you pointing at me for? Don’t you know that when you point at people with a finger, you point at yourself with the other four fingers?” Due to the rude awakening, Xue Qilin was in a bad mood, so she just said what she did, not caring about Qi Qiqi’s fists. However...

Suddenly, Xue Qilin was slapped, which was followed by a silence, a pin drop silence.

Xue Qilin stared blankly at Qi Qiqi standing beside her. She still maintained her finger-pointing posture. In other words, it wasn’t Qi Qiqi who slapped her.

Bwahaha, Qi Qiqi burst into laughter.

She seemed to bear a grudge for how Xue Qilin laughed at her yesterday, and she sat down on the floor and slapped the floor in much the same way.

Xue Qilin had no time to bother about her now. At this moment, she just wanted to know who or what had slapped her.

The attack came from her bosom. There was something on her bosom, some small and light creature.

She turned slowly and looked at her bosom.

There was a white cat, which was obviously angry.

No, it couldn’t be said to be a cat, but a cat-like thing.

It had the body and claws of a cat... No matter how Xue Qilin looked at it, it looked like a cat, but reason told her that it wasn’t. How can a cat have two tails? Moreover, the strength of its strike is no lower than that of an adult. Can a cat exhibit such strength? No one would believe that, right?

The cat seemed to be upset with Xue Qilin sizing it up. With a click, it spat at Xue Qilin’s quilt.

Xue Qilin was stunned. What the hell is this jerk cat!

“What is this thing?” Xue Qilin raised her hand mechanically and pointed at the cat.

“What thing? How can you call Little White a thing?” Qi Qiqi protested in discontent.

“Apologize to all the cats in my world called Little White! Even Shin-chan’s Little White is much cuter than it, okay?” Then, Xue Qilin ate another strike to the face.

The white cat jumped up, kicked at Xue Qilin’s face, and pounced at Qi Qiqi. Qi Qiqi opened her arms and hugged it.

“Serves you right!” Qi Qiqi reached this verdict regarding what happened to Xue Qilin. The white cat nodded in approval, meowed, and rubbed against Qi Qiqi’s seemingly nonexistent chest.

At this time, Xue Qilin’s anger mysteriously plummeted, and she looked at her own chest, and then at Qi Qiqi’s.

What? Isn’t there no difference? Xue Qilin’s gaze was tinged with pity.

“The expression in your eyes is very rude. Are you thinking about something you shouldn’t?” Qi Qiqi had a suspicious look on her face.

Xue Qilin coughed softly and quickly looked away.

“So, what is that furry thing?” Xue Qilin yawned, stretched herself, and then lifted the quilt. As she put on exquisitely embroidered shoes, she asked.

She had no mind to fuss, she just woke up, and had no energy.

“It isn’t a thing! Little White is a martial beast Skycat!” Qi Qiqi straightened herself up, resembling a big plain enough for an A380 [2] to land, and said proudly.

Skycat [3]? Why don’t you just call it Alibaba?

But what the hell is a martial beast? When Xue Qilin asked this question, Qi Qiqi immediately looked at her as if looking at an idiot.

“You don’t even know what martial beasts are?”

Xue Qilin shook her head, not caring about the look in the other party’s eyes, “I don’t know. Can it be eaten?”

“Eat your ass! Martial beasts are beasts that can practice martial arts!”

Xue Qilin had a strange look on her face, “You sure it’s not a magic beast?”

“What’s that?”

Xue Qilin sighed. She guessed that martial beasts were similar to magic beasts for her original world, only that magic beasts used magic, and martial beasts practiced martial arts... what is this world? She originally believed this to be a wuxia [4] world, but it turned out to be a xianxia [5] world? That said...

“Are you actually a cultivator?”

“Cultivator? What’s that?”

Well, I guess this isn’t a xianxia world. No, perhaps this is neither a wuxia nor a xianxia world, but a completely new type of world? A fantasy world?

Xue Qilin wondered if she should find a way to go back.

“Why have you woken me up so early?” Xue Qilin glanced at the sun outside and then asked angrily.

Qi Qiqi looked out the window at the sky outside incredulously, and then returned to her sense and said: “Early? It’s already the hour of the dragon [6]!”

In other words, it’s eight or nine o’clock! Xue Qilin almost fainted. Usually, she woke up at lunch time. But when she thought that people in ancient times usually got up early, she sighed helplessly: “The hour of the dragon, is it? So what do you want from me?”

“XUE QILIN! Did you forget what I said yesterday? I told you to come find me when you wake up, following which, I would take you to the Sword-casting Chamber to find Senior Sister Li. I waited two hours for you to come find me! And when I came over to look for you, I saw you still sleeping in bad, and drooling to boot!” The more she talked, the angrier Qi Qiqi got. Finally, her emotions stirred, and she pointed at Xue Qilin.

Xue Qilin turned a deaf ear to her words.

She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, which was really a bit wet. Next, she spoke unhurriedly: “Yesterday, you told me to come look for you after I wake up. Well, I remember that quite clearly.”

“Then why on earth haven’t you come?”

“Perhaps because I haven’t woken up yet?!”

Qi Qiqi’s expression instantly turned unsightly, as if she had eaten stool.

Xue Qilin gave the other party a smug look. Qi Qiqi just stood there, her face red, swollen like a balloon. Well, her face looks like a big red apple.

Xue Qilin got out of bed and picked up the clothes on the bed, ready to change clothes. But then she realized that Qi Qiqi was still standing there, motionless. With Xue Qilin’s height of over 1.4 meters, Qi Qiqi, who was 1.65 meters tall, looked like a stifling wall.

“Hey, you’re in my way.” Xue Qilin gave Qi Qiqi an angry push. However, the latter didn’t budge.

Xue Qilin raised her head impatiently, ready to say something, but then she saw Qi Qiqi’s face, and was stunned. Then, she panicked, “Hey hey! Why, why are you crying?”

Qi Qiqi’s face was still swollen like a balloon, but now the corners of her eyes exuded crystalline tears, and her eyes have become misty

“You bully! I clearly came to look for you in the morning for your sake, but this is the attitude I get!” Qi Qiqi bit her lower lip as she spoke in a sobbing tone, yet she managed to hold back her tears from falling.

I feel really wronged. Xue Qilin mused before saying: “I... I was wrong.”

Not knowing what else to say, Xue Qilin was forced to apologize.

Qi Qiqi sniffled, snorted, and wiped away her tears.

Xue Qilin scratched her head for a long time, then looked at Qi Qiqi awkwardly and squeezed out a sentence: “Can... you help me dress?”

Thinking back, Xue Qilin really wanted to scold herself for being an idiot. What the hell kind of coaxing is this?

However, the outcome went beyond her expectations.

Ahh ha ha, Qi Qiqi laughed.

“Uh...” Qi Qiqi was laughing while covering her mouth. But when she saw Xue Qilin look at her, she snorted again and looked away at once.

“Then... do you agree to help me or not?

“Humph, give it here!” Qi Qiqi rolled her eyes her, put down the Skycat called Little White, and then took the clothing, “Spread your arms!”

Xue Qilin did as she was told, and a short, kimono-like dress enveloped her from behind.

The dress looked like a large piece of cloth with two large holes in it. It was a sleeveless design. She passed her hands through the holes on the left and right sides.

“Fasten the buttons yourself.”

“Oh, where?”

“On the inside of the collar.”

Xue Qilin lowered her head and clumsily fastened the buttons.

Next, Qi Qiqi took a belt with bells at both ends and wrapped it around Xue Qilin’s waist a few times, then tied a bow at the front and pulled hard.

Then, Qi Qiqi took a large outer garment and unfolded it, “Wear it yourself!”

Xue Qilin made an “oh” sound, then took the large outer garment and put it on. This outer garment was similar to a windbreaker with large sleeves and no collar. Xue Qilin put it on nimbly. Then, Qi Qiqi picked up two ropes hanging from Xue Qilin’s waist, pulled them to the front, and tied them together.

Next, Qi Qiqi nodded in satisfaction and fished out several combs from her sleeve. The combs had different teeth and spacing, “How do you want your hair done?”

“Oh, oh, yesterday’s hairstyle is fine.” Xue Qilin’s reaction was a little sluggish. She was currently thinking – do women carry combs on them? Of course, she didn’t think that women carried bowls and chopsticks on them. After all, she didn’t think that everyone was like Qi Qiqi.

The other combed her hair very quickly despite how complicated the hairstyle was, finishing within a few blinks of an eye. There was no need to look in the mirror, not that she could see clearly in the bronze mirror. It was even worse than water.

Qi Qiqi crossed her arms in front of her chest and nodded with satisfaction, her mannerisms expressing, “Mhm, as expected of me.”

Look at her complacent expression! Xue Qilin decided to pour cold water on her mood: “Anyway, don’t we have to go to the Sword-casting Chamber?”

“Ah! Right, I forgot.” Qi Qiqi blinked her eyes, looking like she just recalled it.

“Let’s go!” After saying this, Qi Qiqi turned around and left at a quick pace.

Xue Qilin rolled her eyes and followed behind her.

Qi Qiqi was stopped when she stepped out the door: “Senior Sister Teacher!”

Xue Qilin’s eyes lit up, and she caught sight of a tasty loli running towards them.

Oh, she mused, the loli is looking for Qi Qiqi.

Looking like she was 12 or 13 years old, the girl was dressed in a pink dress. She was a little shorter than Xue Qilin.

Cute little round face, cute large eyes, cute little nose, cute little cherry lips. In short, it is an extremely cute loli.

“What are you drooling for?” Qi Qiqi jabbed Xue Qilin with her elbow. The latter came back to her senses and quickly wiped the glittering saliva from the corners of her mouth away.

“Little Seven, who is this lo... cough cough... Who is this?”

Qi Qiqi looked strangely at Xue Qilin, then suddenly placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest, acting like an elder, “She’s my disciple.”

“Your disciple?” Xue Qilin was surprised. She looked at Qi Qiqi’s chest, and then at her disciple’s. How come the disciple’s chest is bigger than the teacher’s?

“What’s with the rude look in your eyes?” Qi Qiqi looked suspiciously at Xue Qilin.

Just as Xue Qilin began to think about how to fool the other party, Qi Qiqi’s disciple stopped in front of them, breathless.

“Little Qing, why...”

“What’s your name?” Before Qi Qiqi could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Xue Qilin.

After she asked her question, Xue Qilin walked around Gong Tianqing and sized her up, all the while clicking her tongue.

This... are ancient times lolis of such a high quality? Xue Qilin was both surprised and delighted.

Gong Tianqing seemed to be scared of Xue Qilin. She shrank back and answered: “Greetings, Young, Ancestor, this martial, grandniece, is called, Gong Tianqing.”

Xue Qilin was stunned. Gong Tian Qing? That name is just a word shy of my niece’s name.

She stared blankly at the Gong Tianqing, recalling her niece.

“Young, Ancestor, you’re scaring my disciple.” Qi Qiqi’s words spoken through greeted teeth rang in her ears, and she flinched. Ever since she was knocked unconscious by the other party’s punch, a shadow formed in her heart. She was subconsciously afraid of Qi Qiqi. Afraid of her fists, to be more precise.

“Qing’er, why are you looking for me?” Qi Qiqi asked in a tender tone that Xue Qilin had never heard before.

Who are you, and what have you done with Seven Seven-seven? Xue Qilin couldn’t be more shocked. Never could she have expected that Qi Qiqi could be so gentle.

Whether she noticed Xue Qilin’s gaze or not, but Qi Qiqi shot her a menacing glance.

“Senior Sister Teacher, something happened. Vice-palace Master Ye wants to speak to you at once.”

“This...” An awkward expression on her face, Qi Qiqi looked at Xue Qilin and hesitated.

With such an obvious reaction, Xue Qilin naturally understood the severity of the situation.

“Don’t mind me if you have things to do. My matter can be postponed.”

Qi Qiqi was surprised. She nodded her head, saying: “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Xue Qilin wanted to say something, when, “If the Palace Master has matters to attend to, then I can take the Young Ancestor instead.”

God knows when she appeared, but Luo Qing stood elegantly at the gate of the courtyard. She walked slowly towards them.

“This...” Qi Qiqi hesitated for a moment, and then nodded and said: “I’ll have to trouble you, Senior Disciple Sister Luo.”

Luo Qing smiled and shook her head, indicating that it was no trouble.

“Qing’er, let’s go.” With Gong Tianqing in tow, Qi Qiqi left in a quick pace and soon disappeared from view.

“Young Ancestor, let’s go.” Luo Qing spoke.

Xue Qilin let out an “oh”, wondering why Luo Qing always appeared when others needed her.

[1] – Little White (小白) is the Chinese name for Shiro from Crayon Shin-chan

[2] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380

[3] – 天猫 (Skycat) – Tmann, is a Chinese e-commerce website operated by the Alibaba Group

[4] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia

[5] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xianxia_Novel

[6] – Hour of the dragon – 7 to 9 am