The night was cold and eerie, thick clouds covered the moon, plunging the night in darkness. Deep in the Spirit Forest was a cave lit up by a warm but dangerous pool of liquid filled with toxic liquid, two sleeping figures laid on a mat covered by soft fur at a corner of the cave. However, unlike Xue Yi who was comfortably asleep, Xiao Ji was constantly tossing and turning, trying to warm itself by burying into the thick soft fur. Despite doing that, Xiao Ji still felt a chill on its back and sat up as it couldn’t fall asleep from the bad feeling. Xiao Ji sleepily looked up only to see two large purple eyes glaring at it with an evil glint, shining with killing intent. Xiao Ji was scared stiff, the giant snake that acted cute in front of Xue Yi was now preparing to completely swallow it whole.

Seeing the large mouth coming closer and closer, Xiao Ji screamed in terror and quickly dived into the nearby Xue Yi’s arms to hide. Xue Yi felt a soft small figure squirming around in her arms, she frowned uncomfortably and held Xiao Ji close to her chest like a stuffed animal to prevent it from moving before going back to sleep. Xiao Ji was surprised from Xue Yi’s hug and felt a bit suffocated from the squeeze, it further tried to free itself but stopped when met with the eyes of the horrifying beast that looked angry from it’s action of seeking shelter in Xue Yi’s arms. With Xiao Ji in Xue Yi’s ‘protection’, Qing Qing couldn’t do anything and could only glare quietly. It tsked from the failed attempt and sulked at the side for the whole night. However, Qing Qing would not get another chance in the future as Xiao Ji would undoubtedly stick to Xue Yi no matter what.

The next morning, Xue Yi woke up feeling refreshed and saw Qing Qing clamping another large beast in its mouth. This time the beast Qing Qing caught has a dark blue hide and two black horns on top of its head. The large snake stared expectantly at Xue Yi as she washed herself with some water at a waterfall near the entrance of the cave. When she woke up, she was surprised to find a certain cute machine curled up in her arms but she had no objections and just gently woke Xiao Ji up to accompany her to wash up.

Xue Yi then went to cook the large beast that Qing Qing had hunted. The beast seemed vaguely like a cow of some kind, even with its usual features. So Xue Yi decided to make some beef stew instead of just roasting the meat like last time. Just eating roast meat would not be healthy and she wanted some variety even though the taste would have some limits. However, the other two still ate as happily as last time, unlike Xue Yi who was unsatisfied with the lack of taste. Even Qing Qing had taken a liking to her cooking instead of the raw meat it usually ate, as it kept pestering her to finish cooking the remaining meat left over.

After the simple breakfast, Xue Yi was already feeling a little bored and decided to ask Xiao Ji more questions about the world they were currently in. Even though she had some knowledge about the world of cultivation from popular movies and books she encountered in her past life, she couldn’t be sure and wanted to know more to make some preparation. After all, she did plan on observing the ‘story’ and wanted to find the main characters in this world. Xue Yi hadn’t given up the idea of becoming a bystander even as she was thrusted into an unknown world. She felt that it would be a waste if she couldn’t personally witness the gossip of this alternate world.

“Xiao Ji Rou, do you have any other information on this world? Like who the main characters are and where they are right now? I want to find them for some fun.”

On the other hand, Xiao Ji had been perplexed as to whether it should tell Xue Yi about what happened last night or not. It ultimately decided to tell her as a precaution since the large snake was a very dangerous existence to their safety and it didn’t want another incident like last night to happen once again. However, just as Xiao Ji was about to tell on the large snake, Qing Qing somehow sensed what it wanted to do and immediately glared hard at the tiny figure as a warning. Frightened into silence, the tiny machine could only bitterly swallow its words and answer Xue Yi’s question instead.

“I only got the basic information about the system of this world and some terminology unique to this world. But the plot of this world would not be received until half way through the story and I cannot receive the names of the main characters due to security issues. So you would mostly not be able to find them.”

Hearing this, Xue Yi didn’t give up and instead asked about the basics of this world. Since this was a cultivation then the main character must be some kind of cultivator, what’s the use if the main character was set in the cultivation world but couldn’t cultivate. That would just be a waste of potential. Unaware of Xue Yi’s schemes, Xiao Ji honestly answered her questions as it’s impression of her had improved a lot from the first time they met. Mostly due to the effect of being given good food to eat.

“In this world, people with spiritual roots could cultivate by absorbing Qi, another form of energy in this world, to become immortals. However, the act of cultivation is going against the Heavens to extend one's life so the process is very dangerous and resources to further one’s cultivation is very scarce, so there would often be fights to procure more resources and opportunities. As long as you have good talent and an abundance of resources without anyone more powerful targeting you then it wouldn’t be impossible to cultivate into godhood. However, in a world where even spiritual beasts could cultivate, how would there be such a comfortable environment where everything was given to you? That’s why we’ll definitely have to be careful in this world otherwise we could very easily end up dead. With the place that we are in right now, it wouldn’t be surprising if some random beast decided to eat us.”

As Xiao Ji said the last thing, it couldn’t help but sneak a glance at the large snake on the side as a secret warning towards Xue Yi. However, Qing Qing wasn’t as stupid as Xiao Ji thought and instead once again found itself on the other end of an intense killing intent sent towards it. Xiao Ji had no choice but to stop itself from saying any more bad things about the snake and tried to minimize its already small existence as much as possible.

“Hmm... You might be right about the beast thing. There’s no guarantee that Qing Qing might decide to eat us up if it got hungry. Then is there anything that could prevent it from hurting us or like a collar or something?”

After last time’s betrayal, Xue Yi didn’t want to risk anything, especially with something like an unpredictable beast that was only attracted to her large amount of soul energy. What if she didn’t have that large amount of soul energy anymore? Would Qing Qing still treat her as well as now? Xue Yi doubt they would even be able to survive to the next day if that happened. In Xiao Ji’s case, she still had the chip in her hands so she’s not scared of Xiao Ji selling her out. On the other side, Qing Qing felt a bit hurt from Xue Yi’s comment and lack of trust towards itself. It curled up sadly and silently decided to stick to Xue Yi more in the future to show its loyalty. Maybe then she would acknowledge it. But listening to the next discussion, Qing Qing swung its tail excitedly.

“From the information I got, there are some cultivators with relatively bad spiritual roots trying to find the help of beasts to protect themselves and search for resources. They would form a beast contract and that would mean the cultivator could command the beast, while the cultivation of the beast would also increase as its owner increases and vice versa. However, if the cultivator dies so does the beast while if the beast dies, the cultivator would not be affected. The cultivator could also sign multiple contracts with different beasts. This was essentially a master and servant contract. That’s why most beasts would rather not sign the contract. The conditions for the contract states that both parties had to be willing and with most beasts being opposed to such an unfair contract, most cultivators would just give up and find other resources themselves.”

“Alright, maybe I can sign a contract with Qing Qing. Then we would have protection from other dangerous things in this world. Qing Qing ah, do you want to sign a contract with me?”

Hearing Xue Yi calling out to it, Qing Qing happily nodded its head and curled itself around Xue Yi in delight. It couldn’t believe that Xue Yi would actually sign a contract with it so easily. Finally it could prove to Xue Yi that it wasn’t being unloyal.

“So…how do you sign a contract?”

“It was said here that the cultivator or the beast could reach out with its spiritual awareness to the other and form a connection. It was clear in the information as it wasn’t that important in the story.”

Xue Yi looked at the silly happy snake still entangled around her and tried to reach out her spiritual awareness or whatever that was towards the snake. But no matter how hard she tried to stare at the snake, it wasn’t working and just left Qing Qing confused as to why Xue Yi kept staring at it. Weren’t they supposed to sign a contract?

Feeling a bit stupid, Xue Yi could only asked the snake to reach out its own spiritual awareness towards her instead as she didn’t even know how to cultivate yet, much less know what spiritual awareness was. Qing Qing still happily obliged even after knowing that Xue Yi didn’t know how to cultivate. Normally, other beasts would not even give a second glance at someone that didn’t know how to cultivate at all, much less sign a beast contract with them.

At this moment, Xue Yi felt a pricking at her brain and closed her eyes to sense what it was. The feeling only grew more and more, like a pointy tail gently poking at her. This must be Qing Qing’s spiritual awareness, she tried to invite the gentle poking in her head and relaxed unconsciously to let the feeling spread to all over her body. After a while, she felt a link slowly forming from the depths of her heart towards the large snake, like an invisible string connecting them together. After the connection was firmly established, Xue Yi opened her eyes to see the silly snake licking at her face in delight at the new connection formed between them. It was further pleased at the fact that Xue Yi hadn’t actually signed any other contract with other beasts, meaning Qing Qing was her only spirit beast. It was comforted by this thought and felt it was more superior than the tiny useless chicken meat.

While Xiao Ji felt a bit displeased at the gloating look on Qing Qing’s face after Xue Yi had signed a contract with the large snake. Somehow Xiao Ji felt like it lost to the snake even though they weren’t competing for anything. However, it couldn’t do anything about it so just pretended not to see anything. It didn’t want to get swallowed and could only bear with the bitterness in its heart.

After successfully signing the contract, Xue Yi decided to ask Qing Qing to find some food for lunch. Unexpectedly, trying to form a connection between them had taken the whole morning. She decided to start cooking lunch, so that they could discuss their plans for the next few days. But at this instant, her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a soft voice that seemed to belong to a young boy called out to her.

“Xue Yi jie jie, Xue Yi jie jie. Qing Qing will definitely find good food for you. Qing Qing is very happy that Xue Yi jie jie signed a contract with Qing Qing. Now Qing Qing can talk to Xue Yi jie jie”

Xue Yi was dumbfounded when she discovered the soft voice belonged to the large snake still happily rubbing its head on her. She quickly turned to look at Qing Qing, who happily stared back at her, then at the Xiao Ji that seemed as though it didn’t hear what the large snake just said.

“Xiao Ji Rou, did you hear that? Qing Qing just talked!”

Xiao Ji was shocked. But it didn’t hear anything, only the usual happy hissing of the large snake. It was confused and looked at Xue Yi as though she was crazy.

“I didn’t hear anything just now, only hissing. Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Check the information again to see if the beast contract says anything about being able to talk to the beast after signing a contract with them.”

Just to make sure, Xiao Ji checked the information again but found nothing related to being able to talk to the beast once they formed a contract. It couldn’t help but look at the surprised Xue Yi and consider whether she had really gone insane or not.

“That little chicken meat wouldn’t know anything, since it's weak and useless. Only powerful beasts that decided to sign the highest level of contract with a cultivator would be able to communicate with each other as that means they have complete trust between them.

Unlike the other weak beast contracts, the contract Qing Qing signed with Xue Yi jie jie has the strongest connection between a beast and a cultivator. That means Qing Qing and Xue Yi jie jie would be able to sense where each other is and whether the other is in danger.

The weak beast contract that the little chicken meat told you about is just a small contract that any more powerful beast could break away from. Only weak beasts with nothing to lose would sign away it's freedom. But the contract that Qing Qing signed with Xue Yi jie jie means that we would be partners for life and if Xue Yi jie jie got hurt, Qing Qing could share half of its life force with Xue Yi jie jie to help. Don’t worry. If Qing Qing got hurt, it won’t affect Xue Yi jie jie.”

Listening to Qing Qing’s explanation, Xue Yi felt a bit deceived, but as the contract they signed at the end was better than the other one she didn’t have any complaints and instead explained what had happened to Xiao Ji. Xiao Ji felt a bit wronged from the lack of information it got about the beast contracts and it didn’t help that Xue Yi started to question its information reliability as well.

“Hey, Xiao Ji Rou ah. Is your information even accurate? Why doesn’t it have anything about the higher leveled contracts?”

“Of course it's accurate. It’s just that…I would only get information that’s relevant to the plot of this world. It’s not like I have information about everything.”

“So, you don’t have all the information about this world. Even though you claimed to be the best out of all the other World Crossing Machines?”

“Humph, I’m already the best you can get. The other machines could only get the plot information. To be able to even tell you the background information of this world was already very excellent.”

Feeling frustrated and angry about being doubted, Xiao Ji turned its back on Xue Yi to sulk. Since Qing Qing knew more details about this world than Xiao Ji, Xue Yi decided to leave Xiao Ji to sulk for the moment and talk to Qing Qing instead.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Small theatre:

Xue Yi: Qing Qing ah, are you a boy or a girl?

Qing Qing: A boy

Xue Yi: Then how old are you?

Qing Qing: About...two hundred? It's been so long I forgot.

Xue Yi: But you sound like a young boy?

Qing Qing: That’s because Qing Qing is still a young snake!

Xue Yi:.....What’s an old snake?

Qing Qing: Hmm….Qing Qing’s mother just ascended to become a God Snake after…..around ten thousand years?

Xue Yi:....

Xiao Ji: I’m still the best machine, humph. *sulking*