Chapter 8: An Unbalanced Journey to the Blood Kin’s Domain

In Wang Xiaole’s room, Min stood before Wang Yaofu.

Wang Yaofu harbored a natural caution towards strangers, yet this wariness paled in comparison to her fervent desire to reunite with her brother.

“Where is my brother? How can I see him?”

A loli, barely her own height, bounced and pranced before her like a playful kitten.

Min, however, found nothing adorable about this display. Her mind was already racing, calculating the most efficient way to proceed.

“Are you listening to me? Where did my brother go?”

The answer was no; Min hadn’t been listening, as she could roughly infer what Wang Yaofu was saying.

After a moment of contemplation, a rather ingenious idea sparked in her mind.

Min then employed her Creation Magic, a formidable art that allowed her to weave various elements into a myriad of objects.

As a large sack materialized in her hand, Min’s intentions became quite transparent.

With a swift ‘whoosh,’ Wang Yaofu found herself entirely enveloped within the sack.

Min then cradled the sack in her left arm, while her right hand deftly traced a rectangle in the empty space before her.

A shimmering light flowed along its edges, making the pattern resemble a doorway.

Clutching the squirming sack, Min stepped through the luminous portal.

And so, on that fateful holiday, Wang Yaofu was spirited away from her world.

****

The magic gate led to another realm, a place known as the Ambar Continent.

Due to human intervention, this world was divided into five major regions: East, South, West, North, and Central, with its western part designated as the “Western Continent.”

Debilis, where Wang Xiaole resided, was the sole empire of the Western Continent.

To the southwest of the empire lay the lands inhabited by beastmen, while the northwest was the territory of the Blood Kin.

Min certainly knew Wang Xiaole’s whereabouts, but she had no intention of taking Wang Yaofu directly to Debilis.

When she was finally released from the sack, Wang Yaofu had no idea that she now stood squarely within the Blood Kin’s domain.

“So you’re a bad person after all!”

The young girl’s tender heart seemed genuinely hurt.

“Let’s not dwell on the process, but the outcome: meeting your brother will be far easier now than before.”

Min glanced around, taking in the desolate landscape and sensing the nearby creatures through their auras, before silently remarking to herself:

‘(Though the difficulty of survival has also increased…)’

“Where are we?”

Wang Yaofu hunched her small frame, her tiny hands clasped tightly together.

For a little girl whose world had been confined to her city, being abruptly thrust into a completely unfamiliar place naturally brought with it a surge of anxiety and fear.

It wouldn’t do to leave Wang Yaofu in the dark.

Min’s figure flickered, closing the distance to Wang Yaofu in an instant, leaving no chance for escape.

A few seconds passed, and on the surface, nothing seemed to have happened.

Yet, imperceptibly to Wang Yaofu, Min had subtly poured a wealth of unseen knowledge directly into her mind.

The situation was, in essence, identical to when she had imparted knowledge to Wang Xiaole.

Wang Yaofu clutched her head, and Min heard a familiar utterance:

“It’s strange, so much information is flooding my mind, but I don’t remember learning any of it…”

‘(For siblings with no blood relation, their words are surprisingly identical.)’

It was mildly amusing, but not enough to warrant Min’s prolonged contemplation.

Her thoughts echoed in her mind, but her lips were meant for explaining to the little girl:

“That information is knowledge about this world, consider it a small compensation from me.”

To be precise, it was compensation vital for Wang Yaofu to face any dangers that might arise later.

Min hadn’t foreseen any true harm befalling the girl, so a little fright shouldn’t be too excessive.

The knowledge gained served as “harvest,” balanced against the “cost” of the fright. Another matter followed the same principle.

Min wasn’t speaking idly; as she pointed out:

“Your desire to see your brother was so intense that it manifested me before you! Just now, I partially fulfilled your wish.”

Transporting people across worlds was hardly a free service.

However, on the other hand:

Wang Yaofu simply had nothing to offer as a price that Min would accept.

Therefore, this journey across worlds couldn’t allow her to arrive directly in Debilis.

What Wang Yaofu could receive was a teleportation that severely deviated from the intended destination.

The effort she would exert afterward to find Wang Xiaole would be the price she had to pay.

Ensuring balance might be troublesome, but it was absolutely essential.

To this day, Min had never once violated the principle of “balance.”

To illustrate, consider the matter of Wang Yaofu’s parents:

Min had personally footed the bill back then because Wang Xiaole’s adoptive parents had taken in a child with whom they shared no blood relation.

Devoting a portion of their fleeting lives to an outsider was a “loss.”

The corresponding 1.5 million was their “gain”!

That was fair!

Through her own experience and the knowledge she had just received, Wang Yaofu was fully capable of realizing that she had arrived in another world.

Now, Min was about to offer her final piece of advice:

“You can’t go home on your own. It’s best to adjust your mindset and live peacefully in this world.”

What followed was no longer advice, but merely a slightly elaborated self-introduction:

“I am Min, also known as the ‘Balance of Loss and Gain.’ I appear before those with intense desires, taking a price while fulfilling their wishes!”

Replacing a verbal farewell with a simple wave, Min turned and prepared to depart.

“Wait.”

Min chose to ignore that.

In the span of a single breath, the enigmatic merchant vanished from Wang Yaofu’s sight.

****

The moment of Wang Yaofu’s trial was at hand!

Mere moments later, a dozen grotesque, four-legged beasts emerged from all eight directions, encircling her.

They appeared to be a hybrid of wolf and dog, though certainly not mere wolf-dogs.

As large as adult Tibetan Mastiffs, they slowly advanced on Wang Yaofu, seemingly savoring her fear.

While Min had been present, the vicious beasts had instinctively kept their distance.

But the moment she left, the trembling pack transitioned into a gleeful “easy prey mode.”

Indeed, they themselves grew quite jovial.

Wang Yaofu couldn’t comprehend:

‘(Don’t people usually gain some kind of power when they arrive in another world? Why haven’t I?)’

It was because, unlike Wang Xiaole, her own power wasn’t stored with Min.

A protagonist’s halo?

If there were such a thing as a ‘system,’ a ‘ding’ sound would have resonated, and a screen would have materialized before Wang Yaofu, bearing a line of text:

[Wake up! How could someone who transmigrates in reality have a protagonist’s halo?]

Wang Yaofu was well aware of her own limitations.

She wasn’t one of those lolis who appeared weak but were secretly formidable fighters.

When faced with danger, her chances of survival, let alone victory, were highly questionable.

If fists wouldn’t work, then legs would. In this perilous moment, Wang Yaofu reacted decisively.

It was fortunate that a nearly dead tree stood nearby.

Wang Yaofu wrapped her arms around the not-so-thick trunk, her calves propelling her body upward with rapid scrambles.

Possessing even one skill felt incredibly fortunate.

Gazing at the pack gathered at the base of the tree, Wang Yaofu held firm to her belief:

‘At least they can’t climb up here!’

Wang Yaofu was not mistaken; climbing trees was indeed not among the racial talents of the magical beasts below.

*Thump!*

However…

*Thump-thump!*

If they couldn’t climb, couldn’t they ram the tree?

One shouldn’t underestimate the intelligence of magical beasts!

After all, it wasn’t a towering ancient tree; a little time would be enough to fell it.

Of course, if only one magical beast were to undertake this task, it would certainly be quite arduous.

Out of fairness, the magical beasts adopted a rotation principle.

Each beast would strike the tree a few times, completing its turn, before its companions took over.

*Thump-thump-thump-thump!*

The unfortunate tree was destined to fall. It wouldn’t even require another full rotation of the beasts before their delectable meal plummeted to the ground.

“Brother, let us be siblings again in our next life…”

At this moment, Wang Yaofu’s heart had surprisingly found a profound calm.

Recalling the countless moments she had shared with Wang Xiaole, she felt capable of offering a sweet smile even in the face of death.

*CRASH!*

The great tree toppled, and Wang Yaofu plummeted towards the ground—

—the moment before impact!

A figure swept through the air, catching the tiny girl in the nick of time.

Her previously closed eyes fluttered open, and Wang Yaofu looked up to see a beautifully featured face.

The woman with red hair cascading over her shoulders offered a faint smile, revealing sharp fangs in the process.

Her bat-like wings unfurled and beat rhythmically, so close that Wang Yaofu could almost reach out and touch them.

It was immediately apparent:

After transmigrating to another world, Wang Yaofu’s first encounter wasn’t with a human, but with a high-ranking Blood Kin!

The fear typically associated with encountering a non-human race was conspicuously absent from the young loli’s face.

“You’re Blood Kin!?”

“Otherwise, what race do you think just saved you?”

The woman didn’t demand thanks from Wang Yaofu; in her mind, saving one of her own kind was simply what one did.

“Why weren’t you flying just now? Were you hurt?”

Wang Yaofu didn’t overthink it, simply speaking her mind honestly:

“Big sister, I can’t fly.”

“Stop joking!”

The woman laughed aloud, as if she had heard the most ridiculous jest.

“How could a noble Blood Kin not be able to fly?”

“I’m not Blood Kin; I’m just a normal human.”

“That explains it, you’re a normal… person? A human!?”

‘Stop flying, pause for a moment.’

The woman deftly halted in mid-air, cradled Wang Yaofu in her arms, and scrutinized her for a while.

‘This girl’s expression doesn’t suggest she’s joking.’

‘Come to think of it, that makes sense.’

‘Even a young Blood Kin, though perhaps not skilled in combat, wouldn’t be cornered to the brink of death by mere ground-dwelling magical beasts.’

‘It seems I misunderstood.’

The woman was internally chastising herself.

“My apologies, I made a mistake…”

Adhering to the principle that ‘even magical beasts’ lives are lives,’ the woman decided not to cause any more trouble for the pack.

After all, for any race, filling one’s stomach was a matter of survival.

Though, this little girl certainly wouldn’t be enough to go around…

The woman flapped her wings and flew back!

She landed outside the circle of magical beasts and placed Wang Yaofu back on the ground, where the gathered beasts still hadn’t dispersed.

Wang Yaofu might not have understood, but the truth was:

The woman who had just saved her had realized that “it was all a misunderstanding.”