The black widow spider stalked toward her, taking its sweet little time. Baihe could have sworn she saw glee reflected in those big, disgusting, black peas that don’t blink at all. It crawled slowly, watching her as she struggled futilely against the tight silk bindings.

When the huge, gigantic insect loomed above her, unexpectedly, it didn’t kill her. Instead, she was carried back into the huge cave. Baihe’s felt all the hair on her body stood up. She bet that underneath the layers of cocoon, her skin was probably resembling a plucked goose. Those creepy, crawling, long legs and multiple disturbing round eyes were to blame for her adverse reaction.

Inside the cave, she was seasoned with that same slimy, gooey substance she felt when they first met. This time, the nasty green goo covered even her eyes; yet once again, she was able to see through the sticky liquid.

Prepping me up for dinner later? I don’t taste that good; seasoning me won’t make me taste less bland! Where the hell is your mate? Go eat him instead!

Suddenly, Baihe’s sharp eyes noticed something peculiar. The spider’s bulging womb was huge and it appeared extremely protective over whatever was stored inside.

Shit! This bitch is pregnant!

Now she knew why the black widow spider didn’t kill her. It was merely saving her up as human nutrients for its equally hideous babies. From its movement and posture, the spider was preparing to go into labor right now! Judging from the mother’s size, Baihe estimated the offspring would be big, tall, creepy and just as bad ass!

Panicked, the image of hundreds of those things crawling toward her was a horrifying mental photograph, sending a bad shiver down her spine. She rapidly turned the gears in her head, flipping through her mind to find a method for overturning the hazardous situation. At her wits’ end, her visions suddenly went dark. By the time she regained awareness, she found herself in a wide expanse of land, almost barren except for a large lake and the phoenix guqin.

How did I end up here?

This place was like a gallery, created to only showcase this one priceless treasure, but seeing that instrument again irritated her. That same phoenix guqin she was contracted to retrieve, jinxed her to death in the most humiliating way and smeared her perfect record as an assassin. It was now an eyesore to Baihe, a mocking reminder of her failure. Knowing how much that guqin was worth, she resisted the impulse to go over and smash that shit to pieces.

“You’re years too early to try smashing this grandpa to death!” A cocky and childish male voice came drifting from the phoenix guqin.

Baihe blinked and looked askance at the instrument. A kid? Inside the guqin? How would he even fit?

“Little girl, you got gall to dare call this grandpa a kid!” he exclaimed, clearly offended by her thoughts. “I’m a few thousand years old! Compared to me, you’re like a new born baby!”

Stunned, Baihe eyed the instrument warily, cautiously moving toward it with a defensive stance. Did he just read my mind?

“Of course I can read your mind! We’re inside your space right now” he replied as if she was stupid. “I am from the mighty phoenix race, one of the legendary divine beast. If it weren’t because of the God of War, I wouldn’t end up being sealed away inside this guqin for over three thousand years!”

Baihe raised her eyebrows. This so called mighty phoenix of the divine beast race sounded more like a little kid throwing a tantrum when his parents refused to buy him candy. His childish voice was a huge disparity with his prestigious bird lineage.

“B—bird? I’m a phoenix! A mighty phoenix! Don’t lump me together with those lowly birds, human!” he huffed angrily, his voice shrieking a few intervals higher.

Ignoring the bird, she tried to digest what the phoenix told her. She felt as if her views on the world was shattering and almost everything scientific from her previous life was being contradicted and challenged.

God of War? As in The God of War from the heavenly realm? Divine beast? Thousands of years old? All this sounds like some sort of fantasy cosplay. The most disturbing thought was having a burning phoenix living inside me, in a place I didn’t even know existed. Next, this bird will be telling me how we’re bounded together because of my blood and now he’s my contracted magical beast.

“Correct brat! It’s good you still got somewhat of a brain inside that cynical head of yours. I was in a deep slumber until your blood woke me up. We are now bounded by a spiritual contract and what was that phrase the humans from your world like to use…oh yeah, till death do us part.”

Baihe halted right as she reached the guqin, feeling as if she was trapped inside some sort of weird dream. As an assassin, she was trained to adapt quickly under any circumstance and Baihe was anything if not opportunistic; she immediately began to calculate the pros and cons of having this bird around. Reaching a decision, she crouched down and scrutinized the phoenix embedded on the instrument.

A cold smile was revealed on her face as a cunning look came into her eyes. “As your new owner, I ought to give you a befitting name for the mighty bird you are. How about Qian? You’ll help me find a way to cult—”

Her words were interrupted by Qian. He scoffed, “You named me after money? Do I look like a fucking money bank to you? This grandpa is warning you now, don’t even think of using me to earn an income with whatever weird ideas you got smoking in that cracked head of yours.”

Her eyes widened in shock. This bird just spoke half of his speech in English and the other half in Chinese, alternating between the two languages like they were both part of his native tongue.

Qian flapped his wings inside the guqin as he sported a smug smile. “What? Finally impressed by this mighty phoenix? I told you before, I’m thousands of years old and I been to multiple worlds, traveling through different dimensions. Your old puny world was just a little star among the vast universe.”

His words hit her hard. This time, it took longer before she regained her composure. No one in this world spoke English; it was a language exclusive to her old world. Hearing it suddenly being spoken again sent a shock of nostalgia to her system. She would never have imagined that he knew about her origins and from his style of talking, he’d learned some colorful words from studying the different species.

Satisfied with her reaction, Qian perched lazily on a tree branch sculpted on the instrument before answering her most eminent concern.

“I could help you find a way to cultivate if I use all the spiritual essence I’d gathered to break the powerful seal on your body. I don’t know who you’d offended for the person to go through such tremendous effort to place a seal that rivals the power of —” he stopped, unwilling to say the name of the person that came to his mind.