The Guide Always Wants to Run (GL) - Chapter 3

Qin Xiao felt as if a thunderbolt had struck her the moment that colossal beast slammed into her. Her body froze completely. Her head spun, her limbs went numb, and her arms felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. It was as if every ounce of strength had been drained from her in an instant.

The sensation felt oddly familiar. Hmm… yes, it was just like that time she exhausted all her cultivation resisting a lightning tribulation.

With a start, Qin Xiao jolted upright.

Click.

The escape pod, already riddled with holes, instantly sprang open. The spiderweb-cracked sky cleared before her eyes. A vast expanse of blue sky and fluffy white clouds stretched above her. Several massive birds, each larger than a human, soared freely through the air. Everything looked so breathtaking. If only those birds hadn’t suddenly begun to dive straight toward her, she might have admired the view a little longer.

On instinct, she extended her hand and summoned with her mind. Dreambringer Gentleman’s Flute should have appeared. One second, two, three… she stared at her empty palm. No. It wasn’t a palm at all. It was a claw. Her entire body tensed.

Even in her shock, when those ferocious birds came closer, she leapt with reflexive speed, rolling twice across the ground to narrowly dodge the needle-like beak of one of them. She scrambled to run, then with a thud, she fell chin-first and slid nearly half a meter across the dirt.

The bird, with a single bound, closed two or three meters in an instant. Lowering its head, it realized its prey was behind it, then immediately turned around. Although its large body made what should have been a nimble move look terribly clumsy, its burning hunger drove it to charge at Qin Xiao again with relentless determination.

The sight of her own two furry claws made Qin Xiao want to die. She had no idea what was happening.

Her spatial pouch was gone!

Her spiritual power had vanished!

She had somehow become a reptile!!!

Was there any cultivator in the universe more pitiful and unlucky than her?

“Squeak!!!”

Squeak your damn head!

Using her poorly coordinated body, she sprang forward and slashed at the bird’s eyes with a series of frantic swipes.

“Squeak—!”

Unlike the excited screech earlier, this one was piercingly shrill. Deafening.

The massive bird, its eyes ruined, went into a frenzy. The second bird, the one that had been secretly snacking behind her, now lunged as well. Qin Xiao turned to run. Then, suddenly, she braked hard and stopped, staring at the bird that had leapt past her and was now glaring at her with murderous eyes.

She looked down at her short legs and small limbs, assessing the proportions of her current form. The realization sent a cold chill through her.

It wasn’t just that her soul had entered an animal. It was that it had entered one with stubby legs. This was just plain bullying.

Qin Xiao took several steps backward. The bird locked onto her with fierce eyes. Meanwhile, the other bird thrashed on the ground, blinded and in agony, kicking up dust everywhere.

She kept retreating, unconsciously stepping back toward the spot where she had emerged earlier. Her left hind leg suddenly stepped on something. She looked down.

A piece of bone.

A bloody, half-chewed bone with flesh still clinging to it.

All her fur stood on end. There was only one thought in her mind.

That bald bird had eaten her body!!!

This feud would never be forgiven!

The bird launched another assault. Its two long talons raced toward her with frightening speed. Qin Xiao, now furious, stopped dodging and charged head-on. Her four stubby legs pattered madly toward the beast. Halfway there, she suddenly remembered that without a running start, she couldn’t even reach the bird’s back. There would be no way to injure it.

Slamming to a stop again, she turned and ran.

Having been toyed with twice, the bird was enraged.

Qin Xiao dashed to the opposite end of the escape pod. With a running start, she launched herself. Her little limbs flailed in the air. She headed straight for the bird’s long, needle-like beak. That sharp, needle-like tip was probably how this bird tore meat and attacked prey.

Smack. Her claw landed.

It felt like striking black iron. Pain shot through her paw.

With a whoosh, she plummeted.

Her little legs kicked wildly in the air, but nothing could prevent her from crashing hard into the ground. The impact nearly made her cough up bl00d. For a moment, she felt like all her organs had shifted.

Yet the bird above her didn’t relent. It dove again.

Survival instincts kicked in. Qin Xiao rolled desperately and tumbled into the escape pod. Somewhere along the way, she must have triggered a mechanism. The hatch closed on its own.

The bird stabbed at the pod repeatedly with its needle-like beak, certain it could poke a hole in the structure.

Then Qin Xiao realized that the spiderweb sky wasn’t sky at all. It was a transparent shell. She had been trapped in a massive box.

With the bird’s repeated pecking, the webbed cracks seemed to grow. She even heard faint cracking sounds.

Curled in a ball, she studied her claws.

Her tiny claws seemed harmless when retracted, but sharp tips emerged when she extended them with force.

She practiced several times before getting the hang of it. Exhausted, aching, and starving, she lay still.

She lay there, unmoving. For the first time in her life, she felt a flicker of despair. Her body had been devoured by that damned bird. Her spiritual tools and spatial pouch had vanished.

Worst of all, that so-called divine artifact had proven completely useless. All it had accomplished was ejecting her soul, forcing her into the body of a stubby-legged beast, one that sat at the very bottom of the food chain.

Angry and desperate, Qin Xiao still had to face off against a bird that bullied her without mercy. In the past, she could have slapped it away with ease. Now, it dared to chase her around.

She found herself missing her cauldron. If she were here, she would comfort her gently, telling her not to worry…

Warmth surrounded her, lulling her into drowsiness. She almost fell asleep.

Crack.

She awoke with a start. The top of the pod shattered with a loud crash.

Leaping up with all her strength, she kicked off with her hind legs. This time, instead of aiming for the bird’s beak, she went straight for its chest. Her claw slashed with all its might.

Splurt.

Her paw plunged into something hot.

She clawed deep.

The bird didn’t even have time to scream. It flopped onto the pod, twitched twice, then lay still.

Its sharp beak stopped less than a centimeter from her face, still coated in bloody flesh.

Qin Xiao collapsed backward with her limbs sprawled wide, gazing up at the blue sky stretching beyond the pod.

That final leap had filled her with warmth, her body brimming with energy. For a moment, she could feel her spiritual power flowing again. Yet when she tried to grasp it, there was nothing.

She inhaled deeply and strained. Still nothing.

She lay limp in the escape pod. Only after resting for quite some time did she muster enough strength to shove the bird, which was about the same weight as a grown adult, off to the side.

Rummaging around the remains of bones, she found neither her spatial pouch nor the so-called divine artifact. All her spirit herbs, spiritual tools, and treasures were inside that pouch. Without it, she was penniless.

She clawed at the bones the bird had been chewing. Oddly enough, they didn’t look like they belonged to a woman. The size and thickness were off. She even found a scrap of unfamiliar clothing.

Wait.

This wasn’t her body!

Realizing this, Qin Xiao gleefully rolled on the spot. Only after did she realize how foolish she looked.

Stretching her limbs, she circled the escape pod, examining it closely. She even scraped at the outer shell with her claw. No matter how many times she scratched, the pod remained unyielding.

She jumped back inside. For her current size, the pod was quite spacious. If a person were inside, the fit would be perfect. There were also strange protrusions scattered throughout. She tapped each one with her claw. The pod emitted a series of mechanical groans, then went silent.

She still had no idea what the pod was for, but her body likely wasn’t far. If she could find it, perhaps she could reverse this transformation.

With a leap, she slipped out of the pod.

The area was a vast forest. The trees looked odd, their trunks covered in moving thorns that pulsed in and out like they were alive. From afar, they resembled the bird’s sharp beak.

Qin Xiao avoided the vines as much as she could, alert to every movement. Any creature with intelligence that devoured her soul could gain millennia of cultivation.

Starving and weak, she spotted a stream and hurried over. The water was clear, and she could see her reflection.

She had mentally prepared herself, yet seeing her reflection nearly made her faint.

The creature was a grotesque hybrid with a camel-like head, shrimp-like eyes, cow-like ears, a serpent-like body, short limbs, and scales. A hairless beast, smooth and ugly beyond measure.

One glance was enough. She never wanted to see her reflection again.

Terrified, she glared at her distorted image, stretched her neck, lowered her paw, and prepared to drink.

Just as she took a sip, something slashed up from beneath the water. A long tail snapped toward her. She jerked backward, barely dodging it. A gust of wind brushed past her face.

Then she saw it.

A creature the size of a five- or six-year-old child, with a tail twice as long as its body. The tail was silver-tipped, like a blade. Its fish-like eyes glowed like lanterns, locked onto her. Its blue-green scales blended into the water, making it look like seaweed.

The monster stayed perfectly still. Then, with a sudden spin, it stirred a massive wave. The bladed tail slashed again, faster this time.

Qin Xiao fled with every ounce of strength she had, her legs pumping furiously as adrenaline surged through her.

The bladed tail whipped behind her, striking again and again. She didn’t stop running until she was clear of the water’s edge.

There, she collapsed.

Something about this place felt wrong. She couldn’t quite explain it.

After a moment, she knew she couldn’t stay idle. She had no food or water. If she didn’t find her body soon, she might starve before anything else could kill her. And with both the bird and now the fish, if either of them could walk, she would surely be eaten alive.

With that grim thought, she got up and walked deeper into the woods.

She had no idea how long she walked. Time blurred. She pressed on, encountering man-eating flowers and perverted trees. She even watched a strangely shaped rabbit get grabbed and… toyed with… by a tree vine. Then the rabbit was eaten by a flower.

The trees and flowers were working together!

Qin Xiao broke into a cold sweat. Thank goodness she was too weak to move fast. Otherwise, she might have been the one devoured.

Blessings and disasters often came hand in hand.

Roar—!

A tiger-like growl shook the air. Without thinking, Qin Xiao bolted toward the sound. Her body moved before her mind could catch up.

A creature that looked like a wild boar emerged from the forest. Its fur was a mix of black and grey, and it reeked of bl00d. Even from afar, she could smell it. The boar towered in size, weighing at least three or four hundred pounds with sheer bulk.

Qin Xiao tried to cover her eyes with her paw. It was too short.

Facing the boar stood a human. Their clothing was unlike anything she had ever seen. And in their hand was a glowing sword.

The moment she saw the person, she exhaled in relief. She had feared that useless “divine artifact” had thrown her into a place devoid of humans. At least now she knew. There were people here.

Her appearance didn’t distract the standoff. It was as if she were an unimportant side character.

Yan Ningjin charged forward, her light sword slicing through air with terrifying speed. Where the blade went, metal might as well be butter. The beast managed to resist for five or six minutes, but by the end it was covered in bl00d, howling in agony.

Qin Xiao paced nervously.

Everything about this place was wrong. Nothing felt right. The strange creatures, the odd humans, and the absence of spiritual power all made her uneasy.

While she fretted, the boar collapsed.

Yan Ningjin finished off the beast, then turned her gaze. Her glowing sword pointed directly at Qin Xiao.

Qin Xiao bristled. Pity she had no fur left to puff up. She backed away, again and again. Her mouth opened. She meant to speak human words.

What came out instead was a long, drawn-out howl. “Awooo.”

Yan Ningjin: ……