Chapter 77: Injuries and Yao

An unnamed mountain range.

Cold, bitter winter, day and night indistinguishable.

White snow fluttered down, decking the whole world like a fairyland, very beautiful.

In the snow.

Su Qing's eyes were full of bewilderment.

A second ago, he was still in Niu Yue's basement, preparing to go home.

In the time it took to lift a leg, he had transmigrated—so damn sudden.

What's worse, not knowing the cause, he feels terrible now.

The blood in his body was like a wild horse that had broken free, galloping madly through his vessels, unable to stop.

Suddenly, a feeling of suffocation surged in his chest.

His throat surged and he vomited a mouthful of old blood, which splattered onto the snow before him.

"Cough cough! What the hell!" Su Qing jumped, wiped his mouth, saw the black blood on his hand, his face full of bewilderment—when had he been injured? He had no memory of it, and inexplicably he was vomiting black blood.

Could he have suffered a hidden injury during the transmigration? No, that doesn't make sense—given his current self-healing ability, even a hidden injury wouldn't cause him to vomit blood!

Su Qing couldn't figure out what was wrong with his body for the moment, so he simply stopped worrying about it.

His top priority now was to find someone and ask where he was.

He looked around and found himself on a slope, with scattered pine trees around, snowflakes clinging to his body.

Looking left and right, Su Qing thought going up would unlikely yield anyone, so he decided to walk down the slope to try his luck.

But whether due to his severe injury or some other reason, after just taking a difficult step, his vision swam, he stepped on empty air and collapsed straight to the ground.

"I..."

Su Qing tried to push himself up with hands and feet, but couldn't muster any strength, only able to lie limp in the snow as if all his bones had been drained.

The snow falling from the sky grew heavier.

Staring blankly at the pallid sky, a wave of fatigue rose; Su Qing slowly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

It felt like a dream, yet also like a real experience.

For a period, he only felt as if he were on a roller coaster—first lifted then slammed down hard, then pulled and dragged, tugged, lasting a while before settling into calm.

He didn't know how long it had been.

Su Qing suddenly felt as if he had stepped on empty air, shuddered, and jolted awake to see himself covered with a thick blanket.

He sat up and discovered he was in a narrow room.

Although he didn't know where this was, it was obvious someone had picked him up and brought him home.

Thinking of that, he relaxed, lay back down, and with a thought summoned a light curtain.

At a glance he spotted the problem.

Transcend Boundary (Unique) 11% (Not Activated).

What the hell is this?

Before it was 'Activated', how did it become 'Not Activated'?

Could it be related to this transmigration?

If that's the case, how should he reactivate it?

Su Qing scratched his head, feeling a bit of a headache.

He knew little about this 'Transcend Boundary', only that its download progress was extremely slow, taking over two years to reach 10%… oh, right.

Su Qing suddenly realized that Transcend Boundary shows 'Activated' when the progress reaches 10%.

If this pattern holds, wouldn't it be activated again when the progress reaches 20%?

Su Qing didn't know whether his guess was correct, but for now it was the only explanation.

So, is the thing to do now just wait?

Not necessarily; if he were still in his original world, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble.

As he pondered these things, time passed gradually and drowsiness welled up.

The next day, just as Su Qing woke up and sat up, he heard a creak of the door opening.

Turning his head, he saw a woman walk in through the doorway.

The woman wore a dark-sleeved Tibetan robe and a wide cotton Qiang skirt, her head wrapped in a headscarf, her mouth and nose covered with cloth; although only half her face was visible, one could tell her appearance was not ordinary.

At that moment, the woman held a tray bearing a milk tea pot and several bowls, the bowls containing some powdery substance.

"******!" Seeing Su Qing sit up, the woman approached with the tray, saying something that left Su Qing bewildered.

It's no wonder he reacted that way; the woman's language was something he had never heard before, resembling English but with major differences in grammar, pronunciation, etc.

After thinking, he tried speaking English: "Hello, can you understand me?"

The woman was also taken aback by this, then spoke in very non-standard English, stumbling: "Hello…… I can…… understand part of it."

Seeing this, Su Qing felt relieved; understanding part was better than not understanding at all.

Then the woman said: "You…… fainted…… in the snow, I went out to gather firewood…… found you…… brought you home."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Su Qing showed gratitude; if not for the woman before him, he would probably have frozen into an ice sculpture by now!

With his current self-healing ability, turning into an ice sculpture wouldn't kill him, but without help he would eventually be buried by heavy snow, lying deep in the snow and sleeping, not knowing when he might wake again.

Thinking of that, Su Qing felt relieved, then recalled his situation and couldn't help but ask: "Hello, may I ask your name, and where is this place?"

Hearing this, the woman's eyes looked a bit strange as she said: "I'm called…… Yao, and besides this being my home, where else could it be?"

"......" Su Qing felt a bit at a loss; the woman hadn't spoken wrong—his question itself was problematic.

Thus he explained: "Yao, I'm asking what this place is called."

The woman didn't think much and replied, "Kamar-Taj!"

"Oh, so it's Kamar..." Su Qing listened, first nodded, then suddenly startled, anxiously asked: "You said this place is Kamar-Taj?"

Seeing his reaction, the woman was somewhat surprised, but still nodded and said: "Yes, Kamar-Taj!"

He got an accurate answer.

Su Qing's face lit up instantly; he never expected to have transmigrated into Marvel this time, and even into the domain of the Supreme Sorcerer Ancient One—Kamar-Taj had arrived.

He didn't quite know what to say.

At that moment, Yao beside him spoke up, asking: "What's your name?"

Su Qing sighed inwardly and said softly: "Well, my name is Su Qing."

After learning his name, Yao didn't ask anything else, but poured a cup of milk tea and handed it over, saying: "You were unconscious all night; drink this milk tea to warm yourself."

Thank you.

Although life was terrible, Su Qing still pulled himself together.

Next, Su Qing ate the tsampa Yao made for him on the spot while asking her some questions about sorcerers and such.

But gradually, he realized something was off.

"You said, you've never heard of any sorcerers?"

"No?" Yao shook her head and countered: "You came here to look for a sorcerer?"

"No, I just heard there are sorcerers here." Su Qing explained.

"Oh." Yao didn't press further, tidied up a bit, and left the room.

After she left, Su Qing thought it over and felt he had been over-worried; if Ancient One really meant him harm, she would have shown up as soon as he arrived.

To this day, no one has appeared, probably because they don't care about him.

After consoling himself, Su Qing's mood improved a bit; he got up, put on his shoes, and walked out of the room.

First came into view the white snow, then the small earthen courtyard built of stacked stones, and finally Yao holding a broom, sweeping snow.

Last night's snow was heavy, the snow in the courtyard was deep, and as a woman Yao had little strength, making sweeping difficult.

Seeing this, Su Qing stepped forward and said: "Let me do it; I'm strong."

Yao turned around, saw his ruddy complexion, hesitated a moment, then nodded and said: "Then please do."

Su Qing gave a light smile, said nothing, took the broom and spent over half an hour clearing all the snow from the courtyard.

In the process of shoveling snow, he went out and got a glimpse of Kamar-Taj's appearance.

How to put it? It's quite ordinary, lacking fine, towering buildings; at a glance one sees only low houses made of stone and mud.

Regarding that, Su Qing was a bit puzzled, but didn't think much of it; just as he returned to the courtyard, he heard Yao call him.

"Su, come inside and rest a bit!"

"Okay."

Su Qing responded, walked into the main house of the courtyard, and upon entering saw a woman with a whip tied up.

The woman was tall and slender, with smooth, fair skin; her eyes were like glass beads, clear and aloof, and she naturally bore an air of ageless detachment.

The woman's beauty and demeanor made Su Qing blink in surprise, but he quickly recovered and asked: "You are...?"

"Me!" the woman said as she spoke, and Su Qing realized she was Yao, who had just covered her mouth and nose.

But that wasn't his focus; the point was the present Yao, whom he felt a strong sense of familiarity with.

Su Qing stared at Yao again and again until Yao furrowed her brows, at which point he realized Yao looked very much like Ancient One.

Suddenly, his train of thought halted.

Su Qing, as if something had occurred to him, asked: "What year is it?"

Yao didn't really understand his question, but still answered: "1316!"