Chapter 2: The First Hunt

From the back seat of the taxi, Cheng Lan periodically checked the “GPS” on his phone, verifying Qin Jinxuan’s precise location.

The address he had just provided the driver was, of course, the residential complex where Qin Jinxuan resided.

How, one might ask, did he possess such knowledge?

Having visited it numerous times in his previous life, and even being compelled to stay at her home on occasion, he knew the place intimately.

Nevertheless, after his rebirth, he had taken the precaution of scouting the location beforehand, confirming that Qin Jinxuan still lived there at this particular time.

Assuring himself that the small blue dot remained in the vicinity, Cheng Lan then rummaged through his school bag

Textbooks? Utterly absent.

Instead, it contained several bottles of water, a few chocolate bars, a wilderness survival kit, and an assortment of knives.

Cleavers, bone choppers, fruit knives, utility knives… any blade capable of inflicting damage had been haphazardly stuffed into his bag.

With all preparations complete.

Now, he was eager to witness precisely what sort of crisis could have left such an indelible mark on the “future female sword immortal.”

The taxi drew to a slow halt at the entrance of the residential complex. After settling the fare, Cheng Lan stepped out, his gaze immediately falling upon the “GPS” once more.

The blue dot now indicated a position within the complex itself.

Peculiar.

Cheng Lan had initially surmised that the World Rifts would manifest midway through Qin Jinxuan’s walk home from school. Yet, with the GPS indicating a normal location, it suggested she was still on Blue Star.

Surely, the World Rifts hadn’t simply appeared directly at her doorstep; that would be an extraordinary stroke of ill fortune.

It would be best to follow her and assess the situation before making any assumptions.

Cheng Lan swiftly moved to the pre-scouted location—a surveillance blind spot on the complex’s periphery, rarely frequented by anyone.

Once he confirmed the absence of onlookers, Cheng Lan quietly vanished into the shadow beneath his feet.

A second later, he re-emerged from beneath the shade of a tree within the complex.

High-end residential complexes truly were a nuisance; the security guards wouldn’t even permit a seemingly harmless high school student like himself entry, necessitating the use of his supernatural ability to slip inside.

Without further delay, Cheng Lan took a shortcut, arriving near the grand villa where Qin Jinxuan resided.

From afar, he spotted the young girl, alone, slowly making her way home with her school bag slung over her shoulder.

It was then that he sensed something amiss—

He could distinctly perceive an extremely faint ripple of anomalous energy slowly radiating from the direction of Qin Jinxuan’s villa.

Surely not…

The subsequent scene immediately validated his suspicion: Qin Jinxuan was just about to step through the gate of her private courtyard…

She vanished without the slightest warning.

Cheng Lan instantly pulled out his phone, and the small blue dot on the “GPS” likewise vanished.

How utterly hilarious!

To think this girl was truly so unfortunate!

Having thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle, Cheng Lan then dashed through her courtyard gate, vanishing at the very same spot.

“This… what on earth is happening?!”

Qin Jinxuan stood rooted to the spot, her mind momentarily blank, before she finally gazed around in stunned disbelief—

Before her lay an unfamiliar rainforest, the air thick with the scent of damp earth. Most of the trees here towered higher than buildings, and the adjacent shrubbery was vast enough to effortlessly conceal a group of people.

She had just been standing at her own front door…

‘Could it be because she had stepped through the door with her right foot first?’

Pondering this, Qin Jinxuan tentatively took a step back with her right foot—

Still, she did not return.

She then tried retreating a step with her left foot.

It proved equally futile.

Refusing to give up, she deliberately took several more steps backward, yet the scenery before her remained stubbornly unchanged from her familiar residential complex.

‘Could she have transmigrated?’

Just as the young girl entertained this thought—

“Bzzzzzz—”

A familiar, yet irritating, buzzing sound emanated from directly behind her. She instinctively whirled around.

Before her hovered a mosquito, significantly larger than a basketball, its compound eyes gleaming with an eerie light, its proboscis raised high as if appraising a delectable meal about to be devoured.

Evidently, it had already fixed its gaze upon her.

‘Oh, hell! I’m doomed!’

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Cheng Lan, too, had arrived in this very rainforest, though he had discreetly concealed himself before Qin Jinxuan could notice his presence.

For no other reason than his desire to prolong the amusement.

Come on, this was the future Sword Immortal, after all!

At the very least, he was now a firsthand witness to the genesis of a Sword Immortal’s journey.

In Cheng Lan’s heightened perception, two anomalous beasts (often possessing supernatural abilities) nearby displayed overt hostility toward the young girl before them.

He was keen to observe how Qin Jinxuan would manage to turn the tables and eliminate them.

—This, he surmised, might well be her “warm-up match” before the awakening of her supernatural abilities.

The mosquito initiated the attack.

It silently glided to an altitude of approximately fifty meters above the girl’s head, yet she remained utterly oblivious.

‘Uh… she couldn’t possibly have failed to notice, could she?’

‘Let’s observe a little longer!’

A moment later, the mosquito descended to a height of around thirty meters, still failing to rouse her vigilance.

Finally, when it swooped to a position less than ten meters from the girl—

Qin Jinxuan, as if at last sensing something, abruptly spun around.

The moment her eyes met the colossal mosquito, her entire body instantly stiffened.

“……”

Cheng Lan, “observing the battle” from his vantage point, shook his head repeatedly.

“No! Qin Jinxuan, you’re truly a case of Cao Pi’s wife doing farm work—

Zhen Ji , pulling vegetables!!!”

“At least move! I’m not even hoping for a counter-kill; surely you can at least run!”

“And this performance is supposed to qualify her as my arch-nemesis?!”

A flush rose to his face.

Taking advantage of Qin Jinxuan’s utter bewilderment, the massive mosquito suddenly plunged downwards!

‘Fine! It appears I must intervene personally after all.’

Swish! Whoosh!

Two streaks of cold light tore through the air—

A fruit knife, almost grazing Qin Jinxuan’s ear, flew past and precisely embedded itself into the head of the colossal mosquito;

Closely following was a bone chopper, which plunged savagely into its abdomen.

The aggressively dive-bombing mosquito instantly plummeted to the ground.

“Why are you standing there stunned? When faced with danger, shouldn’t your first instinct be to flee?”

A boy, clad in the same school uniform as Qin Jinxuan, strolled unhurriedly past her. He then quietly crouched beside the mosquito’s corpse, meticulously pulling out both knives from its body.

However, upon seeing both blades coated with an unknown viscous fluid, he disdainfully tossed them onto the ground.

“Cheng… Cheng Lan, classmate?!” she gasped aloud, her voice laced with surprise.

Finally encountering a familiar face in this alien environment, and her deskmate no less, Qin Jinxuan instantly felt a significant wave of relief wash over her.

Yet, she quickly sensed that something was amiss—

Cheng Lan’s demeanor appeared… somewhat different from what she was accustomed to seeing in the classroom?

“Jinxuan, classmate,” Cheng Lan slowly rose, his gaze sweeping over her, a faint trace of disappointment in his voice. “I am quite disappointed in you. It was merely a small mosquito, yet your initial reaction was neither to retaliate nor to evade, but simply to stand rooted to the spot like an idiot.”

“A small mosquito?”

Qin Jinxuan cast her gaze downward, inspecting the mosquito corpse on the ground.

‘Her? Counter-killing this mosquito? Was that truly possible?’

However, she instantly grew wary once more, tentatively inquiring, “You… you are Cheng Lan, classmate, aren’t you?”

As she spoke, she instinctively retreated a few steps, widening the distance between herself and Cheng Lan.

“Now that’s more like it.” Observing Qin Jinxuan’s reaction, Cheng Lan nodded with satisfaction. “You didn’t immediately draw closer to me; instead, you maintained your vigilance.”

“However…” He pulled a utility knife from his pocket, its sharpened tip pointing directly at Qin Jinxuan. “You no longer have any opportunity to escape.”

No sooner had the words left his lips than he flicked his wrist, sending the utility knife whistling through the air.

Thwack!

The utility knife whizzed past Qin Jinxuan’s head, embedding itself into the abdomen of a gigantic spider that had been leaping down from a nearby tree.

The spider let out a piercing shriek, crashing heavily to the ground, where it convulsed in excruciating agony.

Qin Jinxuan slowly turned her head, her gaze fixed on the still-struggling monstrosity, her heart pounding so violently it felt as if it would leap from her throat.

“Tha… thank you…” she stammered, her voice trembling.

“You’re welcome,” Cheng Lan replied, simultaneously pulling a bone chopper from his school bag and extending it towards Qin Jinxuan. “Now it’s your turn; kill it.”

“Kill… who?”

“Who do you suppose?” Cheng Lan’s peripheral vision flicked towards the still-writhing spider. “It just attempted to devour you; as a reciprocal gesture, shouldn’t you eliminate it?”

Qin Jinxuan stared blankly at the spider, its eight compound eyes fixed unblinkingly on her, its mouthparts continuously opening and closing.

Her hands trembling, she accepted the knife handle, her palms already drenched in a cold sweat.

“Simply stab it in the head; it’s quite straightforward,” Cheng Lan added, sensing the opportune moment.

Qin Jinxuan took a deep breath, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes.

She abruptly swung the knife, gripping the handle tightly with both hands, and plunged it down forcefully!

Thud!

The blade pierced through the spider’s head, and deep green bodily fluid slowly oozed out.

“Ha… ha…” That single strike seemed to have drained all the young girl’s strength; she sank to her knees on the ground.

A single, fatal blow! How ruthless!

Cheng Lan, standing nearby, nodded in considerable admiration.

In that fleeting moment, he had caught a glimpse of the Qin Jinxuan who would one day be known as the “Peerless Ice Sword Immortal.”

The cold, decisive female Sword Immortal, capable of sealing a foe’s fate with a single strike.

“In this world, never spare any creature that bears hostility towards you. Otherwise, you will meet a truly miserable end,” Cheng Lan mused aloud to himself.

Qin Jinxuan remained kneeling on the ground, staring blankly at the enormous spider corpse before her, as if still reeling from the recent act of killing.

Cheng Lan glanced at her, then remained silent, simply standing by and waiting.

After another moment—

He couldn’t help but speak, “Jinxuan, classmate, how much longer do you intend to sit on the ground?”

“My… my legs are weak,” the young girl replied, turning back to him with tearful eyes.

Cheng Lan: “……”

Six.

‘My apologies, I clearly misjudged her just now.’

Cheng Lan proactively offered a hand, pulling her to her feet.

“Thank you,” Qin Jinxuan said, cautiously looking up at Cheng Lan again. “You… you are the real you, aren’t you?”

“Indeed, I am the Cheng Lan you know—not possessed, replaced, or brainwashed. If you still don’t believe me, this afternoon I accidentally knocked your book to the floor.”

Hearing his affirmative reply, Qin Jinxuan let out a long sigh of relief.

However, she still harbored doubts. “Cheng Lan, classmate, why do you seem… different from how you act at school?”

“Naturally,” Cheng Lan shrugged. “My demeanor at school is, of course, an act.”

“Eh?”

“It’s perfectly normal to pretend to be a good student at school, isn’t it?” he said, utterly unconcerned.

‘This… is this truly normal?’

Yet, considering all his recent actions…

‘Hmm, it’s probably better for him to keep pretending to be a good student at school.’

Qin Jinxuan gently shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, then asked the question that had long been circling in her mind: “Cheng Lan, classmate, have you transmigrated too?”

“Transmigrated?” Cheng Lan looked up at their current surroundings. “If you call it transmigration, you wouldn’t be wrong. After all, we are certainly no longer on Blue Star.”

He paused, then continued, “Here, I prefer to call it the ‘Beast World.’”