Chapter 43 Dewdrop

[Green Pine]

Type: Wooden Sword

Rarity: Rare (Blue)

Effects:

+15% damage against undead creatures (Sunfire)

+20% damage against snakes and scorpions (Sunfire)

Description:

A specially crafted wooden sword from an ancient sect. Its rare material, formed under exacting conditions, gives it considerable power against certain kinds of creatures.

Note:

“Ever since I was a novice, I have benefited from my revered master’s teachings and the support of my fellow disciples. This disciple will always remember such kindness. I have now heard that my homeland is suffering beneath a scourge of snakes and scorpions, leaving the people unable to live in peace. Though this disciple is weak and untalented, I dare not forget the land that once sustained me. Therefore, I humbly beg my revered master to permit this disciple to descend the mountain, destroy the monsters, and restore peace to the people.”

• Li Haoran, Inner Disciple of Bamboo Spring Temple

…

Xia Nan stared at the text.

Then his eyes widened.

[So it really is from another world.]

That confirmed it.

The strange buildings they had encountered on the way here.

This cave.

The giant black serpent.

All of them had an explanation now.

Xia Nan still had no idea what had actually happened, but one thing was clear.

These things had come from somewhere else.

Another world.

One completely different from the fantasy world he currently inhabited.

And somehow, pieces of that world had been broken apart and inserted into this one.

The realization made Xia Nan feel unexpectedly grateful for the ability he had brought with him after transmigrating.

His Attribute Panel looked unimpressive at first glance.

All it seemed able to do was display information about equipment and items.

Compared with the “systems” from stories in his previous life, the kind that let people level up, distribute attribute points, or become absurdly strong in a matter of days, his ability had seemed almost plain.

But in practice?

It had saved him again and again.

It was how he had identified the Decapitating Longsword lying forgotten in the corner of a blacksmith’s shop.

And now, through a simple item description, it had revealed the truth behind this bizarre place.

Without the Attribute Panel, Xia Nan might not have been completely helpless.

But he would have been moving through this world half-blind.

And he certainly would not have recognized the unremarkable wooden sword in front of him for what it really was.

Rare equipment.

Blue rarity.

A genuine enchanted weapon.

Xia Nan pulled the last of his gauze from his backpack and carefully wiped the dirt from the sword.

As the dust came away, the weapon’s true appearance emerged.

It was around three feet long.

A one-handed sword, noticeably shorter than the Decapitating Longsword.

The entire weapon was carved from dark brown ebony. The wood felt smooth and warm despite the cold air around him.

The hilt was simple, short, and rounded, blending cleanly into the body of the sword without decoration.

Looking at it from the outside, there was nothing remarkable about it.

Aside from its dark color and slightly foreign craftsmanship, it looked almost identical to an ordinary wooden practice sword.

Only Xia Nan knew better.

In this world, the plain-looking wooden sword in his hand was the real thing.

An enchanted weapon.

He wiped the last traces of dust away and studied the surface.

Almost no marks remained.

Despite the years that must have passed, the sword looked nearly new.

Xia Nan took out a length of hemp rope from his backpack and tied Green Pine to his back alongside the Decapitating Longsword.

Then his eyes returned to the pale skeleton resting against the stone wall.

He fell silent.

There was nothing else nearby to confirm the corpse’s identity.

But the Attribute Panel had already given him enough.

This was almost certainly Li Haoran.

The same Li Haoran whose name appeared in Green Pine’s note.

When Xia Nan connected the giant serpent corpse, the sudden infestation of snakes and insects in the Misty Forest, and the “scourge of snakes and scorpions” mentioned in the note, the outline of what had happened became fairly easy to imagine.

Li Haoran had come to fight the disaster threatening his homeland.

He had killed the giant serpent.

And he had died here.

Now, even his remains had followed this strange fragment of land into another world.

No one here knew his name.

No one knew what he had done.

If Xia Nan had never joined Hai’an’s party…

If he had never entered the depths of the Misty Forest…

Then Li Haoran might have remained here forever.

A forgotten skeleton lying beside the monster that had killed him.

Even if some unlucky adventurer stumbled into the cave one day, they would probably only stare in shock at the enormous serpent.

Who would care about one human skeleton?

Who would recognize a plain wooden sword?

Xia Nan stood there for a moment, thoughts drifting quietly through his mind.

There was no immediate threat.

Finding the exit could wait a little longer.

He crouched down.

After pulling the scale from the body, the skeleton had collapsed slightly.

Xia Nan carefully straightened the bones and laid them flat on the ground.

There was no soil here.

Only stone on every side.

Digging a grave was impossible.

So he gathered rocks instead.

One by one, he stacked them over the remains.

He kept going until the skeleton was completely covered.

Then Xia Nan drew the dagger from his waist and found a long, flat piece of stone.

He carved a name into it.

Li Haoran.

When he was finished, he planted the stone upright in the center of the mound.

It was crude.

But under the circumstances, it was all he could do.

Xia Nan did not know the burial customs of Li Haoran’s world.

Still, its ancient culture seemed similar enough to the civilization of Xia Nan’s previous homeland.

The idea of laying the dead to rest should not have been unfamiliar.

At the very least, he had done what he could.

Xia Nan wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave the stone mound one final look.

Then he turned away.

Time to find a way out.

He had barely taken a few steps along the cavern wall when something strange happened.

The wooden sword tied to his back suddenly grew hot.

“Hm?”

Xia Nan froze.

He reached back, wrapped his hand around Green Pine’s hilt, and drew it.

The weapon seemed to pull his attention in a certain direction.

Its tip pointed toward the exact spot where Li Haoran’s skeleton had originally been resting.

Then the stone wall blurred.

Xia Nan’s eyes narrowed.

Holding Green Pine in his left hand, he lightly touched the sword’s tip against the wall.

Buzz…

The gray stone vanished.

In its place appeared a small, exquisitely formed chamber.

The blue fungi that had previously grown randomly in cracks throughout the cavern now seemed almost deliberately gathered across the ceiling.

Their light pooled downward in a concentrated beam.

Like a spotlight.

At the center of that light stood a cone-shaped ridge of stone.

A green vine curled around it.

And from the end of that vine hung a tiny gourd.

The gourd was pure golden-yellow.

Its translucent surface shone like polished jade, glowing brilliantly beneath the blue light.

Yet Xia Nan barely noticed any of it.

The instant the chamber appeared, all of his attention locked onto the gourd’s downward-facing opening.

A single golden dewdrop hung there.

Bright.

Perfect.

Suspended at the edge without falling.

For some reason, Xia Nan immediately felt that this was different.

The buildings.

The cave.

The serpent.

Everything else had carried that same strange sense of unreality.

But the dewdrop did not.

It felt real.

More real than anything around it.

Almost as though the dewdrop itself was the source of the distortion, the center from which every other foreign thing had spilled into this world.

Ding.

A clear sound like two pieces of jade tapping together rang softly in his ears.

The dewdrop trembled.

It looked ready to fall.

Before Xia Nan could think, his body moved.

He stepped forward and cupped his hands beneath it.

The golden drop fell into his palms.

Then it sank directly into his skin.

Boom!

The world twisted.

Stone walls.

Green vines.

Blue light.

All of it warped before his eyes.

Color drained away like water pulling back with the tide.

The familiar wave of dizziness struck him again.

And in the next second…

Xia Nan was standing among the bushes and towering trees of the Misty Forest.

At the same time, translucent messages began flashing across his vision one after another.