1 - A Catastrophe!
Yin opened her eyes in the darkness.
The temperature was freezing, the ground equally cold, and it took her a few moments to realize that it was deep into the night. It did not take long for her vision to adjust with the help of the moonlight.
“Hmm? How odd.”
She hesitantly used a finger to trace the skin on her forearm. Her skin felt cold. No. It was more precise to say her body was exposed and affected by the crisp chill in the air, to the point that goosebumps were appearing on her skin.
Why was she feeling cold?
It was a sensation she had not encountered for a long time, she nearly forgot how it felt. Fascinating.
And looking up, that dim light partially covered by clouds indeed looked like moonlight, nothing like the cheap illumination emitted by the soul pearls in her dwelling.
Since when did they put a moon up there? It seemed to be a normal moon too, not the enormous twin moons that the old ghost favor. Neither was it the blood moons the demonkin loved. Was there a special occasion?
As Yin let out a shaky breath, only then did the fact that she was outside her dwelling sink into her. She was lying on some damp grass and debris. Pressing against her back seemed to be rocks and...twigs?
Silhouettes of large trees surrounded her.
“Is this supposed to be a forest?” she could not help but wonder out loud, despite expecting no one to answer her. After all, she had always been alone. Well, it seemed to have been years since she last entertained a guest.
For the great Yin to wake up in some third-rate illusion in the middle of the night, what a funny scenario. It wasn’t the first, and it was probably not going to be the last, but it was the most realistic one so far.
Aside from the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and branches around her, only the faint sounds of what seemed to be insects and small animals could be heard. It seemed like now that she had finally shaken off the last dusts of sleep, her senses were getting more and more heightened.
The scent of the forest mixed in with blood and decay. She could not help but let out a humorless laugh.
Which ghost general was playing a prank on her this time? How far did they throw her? Whose territory was she currently in? The place resembled a mortal plane of existence, and very thin qi energy could be felt in the air.
Just because her soul seed's power was waning and she had been sleeping longer and longer with each interval, they're already bullying her to this extent? Did they already forget the lessons she gave them?!
Or... could it be that a new generation of ghost generals had replaced the ones she beat up the last time she regained consciousness?
Yin tried to sit up, but there was something holding her down. It was icy and hard and oh-so-uncomfortable.
It was an arm.
Someone was hugging her.
"Hey!" she screeched. "You don't do that to me! No one touches my legendary boobs without permission!"
Yin jumped away, annoyed from hell and back. Her arms akimbo, she opened her mouth to berate the pervert.
But then she paused.
She did not know what to say… as the offender was a corpse.
Yes, she was being embraced by a corpse, long dead from what could be seen in how stiff its body had become.
The corpse was of a man in his early twenties, clean shaven, with long black hair just below his shoulders. He might have been handsome when he was alive, but in his death, his face was disfigured with anger and grief.
There was an arrow sticking out of his forehead. His enemy had shot him from behind, and it was obvious that it only took one arrow to kill the man.
Surrounding her and the corpse, there were traces of a fight. Other incomplete body parts lay here and there among the rocks, and based on the smooth cuts on the flesh, they were either chopped off by a knife-like heavy blade like a saber or slashed by a single-edged sword. The scent of blood was fresh despite being mixed with earth and rain. After a few more days, the last of the traces would be washed away by the rain and the remnants of the dead would be eaten by savage beasts.
However, those were not Yin's concern as of this moment. Waking up being hugged by a corpse might be outrageous, but it's something that she could calmly accept and think about. After all, she was someone who had been around for a long, long time.
No, something much bigger had occurred. Something that had sent her almost reeling.
"Ahh! My boobs!"
Yin had lost her legendary boobs!
She had turned flat-chested!
It was a catastrophe!
In her panic, she could not help but check out the rest of her body. Now that she noticed it, her body had turned into a midget without an iota of charm. No longer was her chest full, her waist slim and her hips curvy. Instead, she turned into a porky little human girl. Chubby fingers, pudgy arms, rounded cheeks…
She was not much shorter than a toddler—in fact, it seemed like she had become a toddler!
“Wait, no--my beautiful voice as well! My voice sounds like a snotty brat! Ahh!”
Her body—no, no, she could not accept this to be hers! This is another body! Yes, not hers, but another's! This borrowed human body had to be around four or five years old.
What the hell happened?!
Who had enough guts to manipulate the appearance of her body?! Which ghost general had a brain fart to mastermind this kind of atrocious act? Even their boss, that Yama boy, would not dare humiliate her like this!
“Who is the fcker who did this?! Show yourself and I promise not to beat you up too badly!” she yelled with gnashed teeth. She wielded her arm with flair, intending to disperse the illusion and catch the culprit who was probably hiding nearby.
Nothing happened.
“Huh?”
This time, she used both arms and waved them around, but there were no changes in her surroundings. It was still a forest. A life-like forest.
She checked her cursed midget-like body that did not change as well. It was then that she found a large gaping knife wound at the left side of her bloody flat chest. The target of the attacker was obviously the heart. And the attacker had succeeded.
Chills ran through Yin.
This body now had heat. Despite the scary wound, the heart was whole and beating. Although her skin and clothes were soaked red with blood, there were no life-threatening injuries that could not be healed with the help of her knowledge.
The point was: the body was alive.
It was a living and breathing human body.
"D-Did I unknowingly possess this girl? After ten thousands among ten thousands of years, it seems a suitable body had appeared for me, one capable of carrying my soul seed. I finally succeeded in possession? Am I revived now? For real? For real?!"
2 - Before Time was Fashioned Yin was a legend among legends. One time, she had single handedly eaten five bowls of super ramen in under a minute. Or was it six? Oh, wrong record. Among the many daughters of Primordial Chaos, Yin was the first to be enlightened and gain consciousness. She had lived her existence well, despite being born in an ivory tower. One could say she was more a traveler than a warrior. Thus, she had left many tales and countless myths in all the worlds and realms she had touched, visited and created. When life was new and Time was just fashioned, in the Land of Celestial Deities, she had singlehandedly founded the devilish sect that had trampled upon millions of mortals and immortals. All these achievements were made ba
Yin, with her hands still akimbo, narrowed her eyes at the newcomer. He was a simple-looking man no older than his thirties, wearing a white robe with a crest of some sort of organization on the sleeves."And, who might you be?"The man was startled to see a young girl speaking so flippantly while surrounded by carnage. She looked injured, but her expression was way too calm it's eerie. If it were him, he would be puking. Wait, he was actually puking right now."Oh, boy," he could hear her mutter in what was supposed to be a sweet, childish voice. As he dry-heaved behind a tree, she continued to nonchalantly comment on the side. "That's absolutely the most disgusting thing I've seen since, well, a long time."He had no idea whether to cry or cry louder.What was disgusting?Wasn't the sight of self-detonation, those red-stained grass and torn limbs, disgustin
Yin curiously studied the group of white-robed poker-faced mortals that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Their discipline was impeccable, and it could be said that Ye Mo had personally trained these people to be the best among elites in the Ye Sect.She wondered if they'll be fun to play with. She had not played for a long, long time.Based on the fluctuations being emitted from their bodies, Yin could already measure what kind of resources she could expect in such a tiny world. This place might be not the lowest of realms and at least had a cultivating system unlike that one place she visited before – what's that planet again? Earth? – but it was just as insignificant as dust compared to the grand worlds Yin had seen before.Maybe it was too early to judge, maybe it was wrong to use Ye Mo as the standard and she was yet to meet the pinnacle existence in this world, but Yin needed to make up her mind now les
The young couple Ye Hua and Wu Xuan'er hurried back to Leaf City without delay. They did not notice the obvious relief on Ye Mo's face at their departure.While running, Ye Hua gestured with his fingers and a formless energy covered Yin to make sure the travel back would not aggravate her injuries. As cultivators, their speed had long surpassed those of a mortal's and he was worried that Yin's body could not tolerate it.The little girl could not help but gasp because his energy tickles.Ye Hua then fell back, making sure that he was just at the right distance behind Wu Xuan'er in case an enemy sneak attacks. Noticing Yin peeking over, he smiled. "Tell us if running fast makes you hurt, okay?"The ever-'high' Yin gave the young man a toothy grin. "Faster is better!"She then made herself comfortable in the young woman's arms, cuddling closer and naughtily poking the 'most comfort
"Why the sad face, Yifan?" asked an ancient voice that seemed to echo with the Dao.One could not determine whether the speaker was a male or a female, only that whoever it is, he or she must be ancestor-level old."Do you miss your family?"Above the clouds, somewhere near the central part of the seemingly boundless lands, a beautiful white crane flapped its large wings against the midwinter wind. With a gigantic wingspan of one li, the crane looked nothing like an ordinary animal. Its feathers emitted a soft spiritual glow that wrapped its entire body with warm light, making it look equally sacred and majestic.On the crown of its head, a middle-aged man with white brows and peppered hair, a skinny teenager with a scar on his neck, a little boy not even a decade old and an ugly, fat cat were sitting cross-legged.Yes, even the ugly cat was sitting cross-legged. If one were to look closely, one could even see that the cat had a very humanlike expr
"Ooh, interesting playmates have appeared."In one of the mansions belonging to the Ye Clan, a little girl in clean white robes sat on the ledge of a window while casually swinging her pudgy legs. A naughty glint could be seen on her young eyes as she had a faraway look towards the southern direction.Of course, the little girl was no other than Yin, who had actually accepted being called Little Yin for no other reason than that the old fogey Ye Mo would not let her have extra midnight pudding if she did not agree.Her skin was still marked with wounds and bruises, but her inner injuries were all cured by Ye Hua earlier. Thinking that she needed to sleep some more, he assigned her a room for her to rest in and promised to come back again in the morning.Ye Hua, known to the rest of the city as Fourth Young Master Ye, is the top healer and alchemist of the Ye Clan's younger generation. He was highly c
"Wanna play with Little Yin?"By the time she finished speaking the sentence, the tip of the sword was already a hairsbreadth away from her throat.'Is she not dodging?' the black-robed man could not help but think. 'Is she stunned senseless in fear?'But then he remembered her age and realized that she was merely a mortal. Of course, she could not react on time.Though, this fact surprised him more. This little mortal girl found him despite the cloak of the night, not to mention that he was someone with decent cultivation. How did she do it?'No matter what, she is unlucky to catch sight of me.'He was an assassin and his mission was of utmost priority. It might be a pity to kill a child, but this would not be the first nor the last innocent that he had to silence in his trade.'In your next life, do not stay up so late at night, brat!'
An old man with silvery white hair, still strong as a bear in the waist and supple as a tiger in the back(1), appeared in between the unconscious Yin and the fleeing black-robed man."You think you can come and go as you like? You do not really put the Ye Clan in your eyes, do you?" he snorted, pushing his hand forward before making a grasping motion. "Come back here!"The old man was no other than Ye Wuqing, the current Patriarch of the Ye Family and one of the strongest experts in Leaf City!Without letting out a word, the black-robed man released his hidden weapons before dodging to one side. However, would the mighty Patriarch of Ye Clan, a venerated expert of his generation, allow him to escape?Of course not! Not only for safety, but also for face!As Ye Wuqing dealt with the intruder, a thirty-something-year-old man ran out from a nearby residence, to be followed by a youn