Zanxing

Chapter 2 - Transmigrated (2)

The cave was very dry. 

A snail could be seen slowly crawling on the cave’s wall, leaving a wet trace in its trail, when she touched its tentacles with her fingers, the snail shrank back into its shell and stopped moving.

Yang Zanxing withdrew her hand and looked at the black and empty hole she was in, and sighed silently.

After working overtime for five consecutive days, she was exhausted. She bought boxed lunch at the convenience store downstairs but fell asleep before she could eat it. When she woke up, she was transported to such a ghastly place. It was difficult to say how she felt at this moment.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a huge black creature coming out of the water. She subconsciously pushed the girl beside her away, before hearing someone calling the girl "Yunxin", and also perhaps her name "Miss Yang".

​

Though she was just an ordinary working-class person, and there was no point to calling her “Miss”.

She didn’t know how long she pondered her circumstances until she saw the two words "Zanxing" written on the jade pendant that hung from her waistband, Yang Zanxing had a vague guess, perhaps, she has traveled through time and space, transmigrating into a cultivation novel called “The Peak of the Nine Heavens". 

Yang Zanxing wasn't all that social, she worked conscientiously and honestly. Her only hobby was reading online novels. Among them, Golden Finger Cultivation was her favorite genre. A book with ten to twenty million characters could be used to pass a lot of time for her. In the past few years alone, she has read about fifty to a hundred cultivation novels. The plots were much the same, nothing more than "30 years of Hedong and 30 years of Hexi, don’t bully the poor"[1] and "retiring from marriage, slapping faces, wasting wood and cultivating”. She could recite the whole routine but sometimes authors will tweak a few things and mix up the plot. The reason why she was so sure that this book is “The Peak of the Nine Heavens” was because of the name “Yang Zanxing”.

"Yang Zanxing" was the name of a female supporting role in "The Peak of the Nine Heavens", who had the same name and surname as her. Unfortunately, this cannon fodder female supporting role was slapped to death by the male protagonist within seven chapters of appearing. From beginning to end, there were no more than three characters of her description, she was just one of the stepping stones on the road of the male protagonist's counterattack.

It was a human tragedy. 

If she remembered correctly, in the original work, "Miss Yang" was jealous that Liu Yunxin had won the favor of her fiance, Wang Shao. Taking advantage of Mu Cengxiao’s struggle with the demonic beast, she pushed Liu Yunxin into the water while she was dazed, intending to kill. In order to save Liu Yunxin, his childhood sweetheart, Mu Cengxiao jumped into the water and was swept into a cave by the demonic beast ‘Hu’, thereby obtaining a secret treasure, breaking through and advancing underwater, finally killing the demonic beast and returning above ground.

The first thing Mu Cengxiao did when he returned was slap the "Miss Yang" who had tried to murder Liu Yunxin in front of everyone, thus forming a deadly feud with Wang Shao. And thus the "I'm the protagonist, I'm going to get revenge and slap faces everywhere" mode was turned on.

Although the plot was cliche, it was also well-founded and logical. It's just that Yang Zanxing, who had transmigrated in that moment, saw the demonic beast ‘Hu’, and subconsciously pushed Liu Yunxin aside, so it was herself who fell into the water, and she was the unlucky one who was swept into the cave by the demonic beast.

​

Yang Zanxing stood up and looked around. It was very dark, there was only a gap of light overhead, but it looked to be very far away. Yang Zanxing yelled twice but before the sound could travel halfway through the cave, it was like a flame snuffed out by people’s fingers, it dissipated without a shadow.

​

There was no one around, not even an animal, just a snail in its shell. She plucked the snail from the cave wall and bravely walked forward for a while.

​

The ground was very soft, when she scooped it with her hands, it was all dry white sand, just like a desert. She obviously fell into the water, but there was not a drop of water in this "underwater" cave. This kind of unscientific thing can only happen in cultivation novels. But...if this continues, won't she die of thirst before she finds an exit? 

​

In the original novel, after the male protagonist got the golden finger, how did he find the exit? Golden finger….yes, where was the golden finger?  

​

What about that golden finger that seems to gain red and blue buffs[2], which makes the villain cannon fodder scared and tearful?

Yang Zanxing had just thought of this when she suddenly felt pain in her fingertip. She looked down, and with the faint light above her head, she could clearly see the flower-shell snail she held in her palm had crawled to her fingertip, where a little red appeared.

​

Bleeding? Yang Zanxing was stunned. 

​

Even if a snail bites, it won't bleed, right? What kind of unscientific setting was this?

In the next moment, the ground under her feet shook, and the walls of the cave began to crumble, dropping broken stones one after another. Yang Zanxing covered her head and squatted down, just as she was trying to find a place to hide, she saw a strange light in her palm, different from the light overhead. It was dazzling and bloomed from the palm of her hand, which made her feel as though she had been burned by fire.

​

The light was from the flower-shell snail.

​

The snail the size of a fingernail gradually became blurred, and in the brilliant light, it transformed into a transparent pearl, the pearl seemed alive. The blood flowing from her finger was sucked into the pearl, dyeing it red. 

​

She didn’t know how long it took but the shaking under her feet stopped and the light dissipated.

​

Yang Zanxing stood still and looked at the red pearl in the palm of her hand.

​

The pearl was about the size of an eyeball, ice-cold, like a glass bead. At first glance, it looked red but with closer inspection, she could see a cluster of flames burning inside the transparent pearl. The flames continued to burn as though they would never go out.

​

"Xiao Yuan Pearl..."[3] Yang Zanxing murmured. 

In the original novel, this pearl was the designated golden finger of the male protagonist, Mu Cengxiao. This Xiao Yuan Pearl was omnipotent. It could not only sense spiritual treasures, but also increase cultivation, shorten breakthrough time, and replenish his health bar at crucial moments. It was an artifact that was essential to the plot. It was because of this pearl that Mu Cengxiao, who was scolded as a "waste", rushed to the Taiyan Sect tryouts when his cultivation level skyrocketed. He directly rose from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, and in the early stage of Golden Core, he took the limelight of the selection competition, smoothly entering the sect and becoming a disciple of Taiyan.

​

Now, Liu Yunxin was no longer in danger, the hero who saved the beauty was herself, the one who fell into the water was herself, the one who was swept into the sandy cave by the demonic beast was herself, the one who got the golden finger Xiao Yuan Pearl was also herself.  

​

"So," Yang Zanxing mused, "Has the plot change?"

​

As soon as she said this, the Xiao Yuan Pearl in her hand suddenly turned into a cloud of red smoke, and with a "whoosh", it flew into her body. 

[1] - "30 years of Hedong and 30 years of Hexi, don’t bully the poor" 

I’m not really sure what this means, I did a lot of research but I couldn’t get a clear answer. I think it’s a kind of novel slang to talk about cliche tropes, the basic idea is the kind of stuff that happens in power fantasy male protagonist cultivation novels. With other Chinese novels, there are terms such as “dog blood” or “face-slapping”, I think this is something like that but I’m not familiar with the slang. 

[2] - “What about that golden finger that seems to gain red and blue buffs, which makes the villain cannon fodder scared and tearful?”

I also have no idea what this sentence means? In the raw the author used the English word “buff” so it’s meant to be slang to describe the power of the golden finger but I’m not sure what the power is or why it makes the villain scared and tearful. 

[3] - "Xiao Yuan Pearl..."

​

The name of the pearl doesn’t have an understandable translation, its literal translation is Owl Yuan Bead so I think Xiao Yuan is just supposed to be the Pearl's name. (One source did translate it into The Lord Bead, but I’m unsure so it’s safer to keep the name Xiao Yuan.)