Chapter 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: You Do It
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I stared blankly at the ceiling.
"......"
Was this a dream?
It had to be a dream, so I pinched my cheek and stretched it out long.
But the me in the mirror...
...simply stared back at the mirror with a furrowed brow, as if to say it wasn't a dream at all.
"Heh..."
My cheek, stretched out so far, began to sting.
There was no explanation at all.
But one look at my clothes, and I could easily guess the situation I was in.
Did my body get swapped, or was I reborn here?
The outfit made it feel like I'd possessed a character in a wuxia novel.
Seeing myself dressed head to toe in Han Chinese garb naturally brought wuxia stories to mind.
Of course, the questions didn't end there.
"By the way... this isn't the Ming Dynasty, is it? Why are these clothes leaving my chest so exposed..."
And it wasn't just the chest.
Flat as a board, yet the neckline plunged deep, and the hem draped down almost to my navel.
Blushing furiously at the indecent outfit, I huffed and snapped open the fan in my hand to cover the revealing spots.
"...Did I end up as some kind of dancer?"
I whipped my head around, wondering if anyone had snuck a peek.
Wearing something this embarrassing was nothing but trouble.
Exposure like this in a land that prized Confucian propriety?
"The jianghu follows Taoism, so maybe they wouldn't care..."
Ah, no! Even so, this was my own room—this was too much, right?
"Ugh..."
Even I, from the land of Eastern etiquette, couldn't stop shaking my head—what would the stuffy old fogeys here think?
"If it's the orthodox sects... they'll nitpick every little thing, and if it's the evil factions, won't I end up in some real nasty trouble?"
The Demonic Cult wasn't even worth mentioning.
Honestly, I didn't like the Demonic Cult one bit.
Fire Worship Cult or whatever, worshipping flames and crowning themselves as gods—there's no way I'd like trash like that.
And more than anything, I prayed this wasn't the Demonic Cult's Heavenly Mountain.
For me, who'd lived comfy in the modern world, to get dragged to that savage hellhole where might makes right, overflowing with barbarians, and trapped there no less...
'Just imagining it is horrifying.'
Yes, utterly horrifying.
The orthodox sects were better, at least.
Not outright thugs like the evil factions, nor blatant savages like the Demonic Cult.
They earned that 'righteous' label for a reason.
There was logic behind it.
If the evil factions were the types spitting in back alleys and starting knife fights,
then the orthodox sects were gentlemanly gangsters—polished manners, their own code... like the mafia in movies.
Thugs, sure, but with a certain class and rules all their own.
China's land was so vast, they were basically vigilante enforcers.
Even squeezing protection money had to be done with style.
You couldn't just stab like those evil faction lowlifes.
Arms crossed in front of the mirror, nodding to myself, I let out a sigh.
"Why's my hair red... and my eyes red too."
Suddenly, another possibility flashed through my mind.
"...Not orthodox?"
The chance that I wasn't orthodox at all.
In wuxia tales, you sometimes see these Blood Cult weirdos.
Bad blood with both the Demonic Cult and orthodox sects—even the Demonic Cult shook their heads at their vile deeds.
Lunatics who boosted their power by draining others' blood... that kind of setup.
And the problem? Their hair and eyes were often depicted as red.
Meaning, wandering around with red hair was a one-way ticket to 'You bastard! Blood Cult!' and getting purged.
The more despairing fact: I had zero means to check my affiliation right now.
I'd read plenty of wuxia.
Men's hearts racing at blazing duels.
The thrill of crushing evil factions, the catharsis of the Righteous-Demonic War—it made my body tremble.
But a hundred tales don't beat one sight.
Reading's one thing; without experiencing it, I had no clue how to check my internal energy.
Something flowed through my body, sure.
"Hmm..."
But I had no idea.
How was I supposed to process this?
The jianghu burned hot, but it was ice-cold to the weak.
Honestly, no one gave a damn about the weak dropping dead.
The orthodox 'gentlemen' were too busy guarding their reputations, coming off as hopelessly rigid.
The Demonic Cult ignored the weak, treating them as worthless vermin.
The evil factions? Saw the weak as nothing but stepping stones to power.
In a world like that,
a weakling clueless about their own affiliation?
"...Fuck."
Human failure.
No different from passing as a beast.
Eyes squeezed shut, I mulled over that 5700-character comment, drowning in regret.
That was all the current me could do.
And watching me like that,
[...Tsk.]
"...?"
A deep, masculine voice rang out.
I settled onto the bed behind me and stared at the white snake coiled up in front of me.
[Greetings.]
"...Ah, yes."
[This one has no name yet. Call me whatever you like—I'll be grateful.]
Didn't it just tsk at me a moment ago?
I wondered why it was suddenly so polite, but decided not to ask.
"I see."
[......]
"......"
The snake said nothing.
I tilted my head, and the spirit beast spoke up again.
[...Introduce yourself.]
"Ah."
[I've introduced myself. Isn't it your turn now, little one...?]
The snake's voice dripped with genuine pity.
My face flushed beet red. I cleared my throat and spoke.
"I, uh, don't know my name... don't know my age... don't know my affiliation..."
Name, age, affiliation, cultivation level—I didn't even know if I was a martial artist to begin with.
With nothing to go on, there was no way to introduce myself. In the end, I hung my head and knelt on the bed.
The snake slithered slowly toward me.
[Your name is Seo Ha-yeon.]
"...?"
[You probably don't remember it.]
"......"
Come to think of it, it was talking about my name from over there.
I had zero recollection—like my brain was smeared black with ink.
[Be it orthodox sects, Demonic Cult, evil factions—you could belong to any of them.]
"No... wa-wait."
The spirit beast seemed ready to rattle off everything about me.
Still dazed from the confusion, I pressed my forehead and closed my eyes.
[What's wrong? Aftereffects from the transfer? I was as careful as I could be.]
"No... how do you... ahem! How do you know so much about this girl?"
My speech had straightened out too.
Though old habits from over there slipped in here and there.
[Calling yourself 'this girl' already, eh?]
"......"
[Well, no matter.]
The nameless snake nodded as if it was no big deal.
[Straight to the point.]
Suddenly shifting the mood, the snake slithered up my body and onto my shoulder.
I let out a squeak, and it tsked before speaking.
[It was this one who summoned you here.]
"...Pardon?"
[What Seo Ha-yeon left for me was truly moving. Loaded with curses, yes... but you're exactly the one this one has been searching for.]
I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
My words were moving?
"...Author?"
[Well, I didn't create it myself. But greetings—your heartfelt advice truly stirred this one's heart—]
This motherfucker.
Suddenly, a blazing heat surged wildly from my lower dantian all the way to the upper.
Yes.
Rage.
Not content with shoving me into this flat-chested girl's body, it had to slap on this evil-faction thug look too.
Fine, the flat chest I could maybe forgive.
But this evil-faction trash aesthetic? Absolutely unforgivable.
"You...!!"
-Crunch!!!
I shot out my hand and clamped down hard on the snake's neck.
The wriggling snake... no, the author.
"Give it back!! My body! Give back my body!! This your world? You... you fucking bastard...!!"
[Ke, kek!! Le-let... go!! Let me gooo...!!]
The choking spirit beast.
[Do-don't infuse qi!! I'll die!! Really, really die!! Spare me!!!]
"Shut it!"
[Guk!!]
The snake squealed like a pig.
I gripped the author like I meant to wring him dry and swung him round and round.
"Perverted scum!! Central Plains' top lecher, that'd be you!! Groping a blooming maiden's body like that! Are you truly insane!?"
[......]
The spirit went silent.
I stopped the wild swinging and snorted.
[...If this one dies... take the inner core......]
"...!?"
The author dribbled blood and flopped limply.
"Wha... do spirit beasts die this easily?"
I stared at the pitiful snake, its pupils trembling.
About half a gah later.
Color returned to the pitifully collapsed spirit beast, accompanied by a hiccuping breath.
The distinctive slithering ssssk of a snake.
It seemed pissed.
But I'd nursed it with utmost sincerity, so no real guilt.
[Haa......]
"...S-sorry."
[It's fine. Summoning without consent was this one's sin. Consider it penance gladly received.]
For someone saying that, it was glaring daggers.
I was sweating bullets.
Seeing me like that, the snake picked up where it left off, slowly explaining why it had brought me here.
[With you, I want to restore this rotten jianghu to its original state.]
"...With me?"
[Yes. The current jianghu is as rotten as what you saw in novel form.]
"......"
[To seek aid, it had to come from outside—unavoidable to use such forceful means...]
To sum it up in one line: that.
My 5700-character comment (curses galore) had looked like sage expert advice to this author bastard.
And since he couldn't change things himself,
"You're asking... me to fix the jianghu...?"
[Glad you understand.]
It was the very 'If you know so well, you do it' I'd pulled off.
```