Chapter 198 – A Strange Uncle Who Deceives the Little Girl
The seven-colored flower vine quickly extended towards Zhao Hai. Then, at the top of the vine, appeared a flower bud. This flower bud grew slowly until, finally, it stopped at a height of about half a meter. The flower bud then bloomed open, slowly.
When the flower bloomed, it did not reveal seven-colored petals, but petals of a single color. As Zhao Hai looked at the red petals in a daze, he found that there was another layer of petals blooming within, this time yellow.
The flower petals kept on blooming slowly, layer by layer, until the seventh layer. In front of Zhao Hai was a presentation of seven layers of seven colored types of petals. It looked like a rainbow as it suddenly appeared in front of Zhao Hai[1].
There was a seven-colored coc.o.o.n in the center of this flower. The coc.o.o.n wasn’t large, only around the size of Zhao Hai’s thumb. It was seven-colored and very attractive.
Zhao Hai looked at the coc.o.o.n in a daze. Suddenly, it moved. The coc.o.o.n wiggled like a worm and then split open into two pieces. Those two pieces were like b.u.t.terfly wings, each pair being seven-colored.
Zhao Hai was further astonished when the pair of wings started to move, then flew into the air. When the wings turned, a thumb-sized little female appeared in front of Zhao Hai.
The little woman wore a small skirt made of seven-colored vines. She had seven-colored hair that was long and hung from her head to her feet. Her skin was white, with fair, small arms and legs that were exposed and were not too lovely[2].
The little woman flew over and came to eye-level of Zhao Hai. She curiously looked at Zhao Hai while blinking her big eyes. Zhao Hai also discovered that her eyes were seven-colored.
The two looked at one another and didn’t speak. After some time, the little woman smiled and said with a clear voice, “Do you just want to keep staring at me and not speak?”
Zhao Hai was in a daze. After recovering, he stood up and said to the small woman, “h.e.l.lo, I am called Zhao Hai. You are?”
The little woman looked at Zhao Hai. With the ritual of a n.o.ble lady, she said, “h.e.l.lo, I am called Cai-er[3].”
Zhao Hai quickly returned the aristocratic ceremony. He looked at Cai-er and said, “h.e.l.lo Cai-er. Are you this flower?”
Cai-er smiled. “To be precise, the flower you see are just branches of me. My main body isn’t even here.”
Zhao Hai asked, “Are you saying that such a large flower is just one of your branches? Then, where is your main body?”
Cai-er answered with a smile, “Not in front of you? The truth is that my real body are all of the flowers you see, because I exist as such?”
Zhao Hai looked at Cai-er and said, “Then in the end, where did you come from?”
Cai-er smiled. “Please sit down and listen as I explain. To tell you the truth, it has been so long since I had met with a person that I could speak and listen to. I haven’t met many others.”
Zhao Hai sat down on the chair behind the vine table and looked at Cai-er. She smiled faintly and sat in front of Zhao Hai on her own small set of vine chair and wine table. Her vine table also held a small vine cup. Seemingly, the cup couldn’t even be filled with a drop of water.
Cai-er drank the water in her vine cup. Her small chair and small table looked strange because their base reached all the way down to the vine below them, allowing Cai-er to stay at eye-level with Zhao Hai.
Looking at her appearance, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but smile. It seemed like this little woman was really up for keeping her appearance since she had to sit at eye level.
Zhao Hai watched Cai-er hold her vine cup which was smaller than a toothpick[4]. After she drank a few mouthfuls of water, she put down the small vine cup and looked at him but didn’t speak. Zhao Hai felt that this little woman was playing with him.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Finally, Cai-er spoke. “My real name is h.e.l.l Rainbow Flower[5]. I came from a place called h.e.l.l[6], where I am the most respected presence.”
Stunned, Zhao Hai looked puzzledly at Cai-er. It was not the first time he’d heard of a place called h.e.l.l, but Zhao Hai still wasn’t too clear on what Cai-er had said. This was due to the fact that he had heard of the word h.e.l.l back on Earth, but he hadn’t heard it on the continent after he’d arrived.
Cai-er looked at Zhao Hai’s expression. She said with a smile, “Here on the Ark Continent, it would be called the Devil World[7].”
Zhao Hai’s eyes opened widely. The word h.e.l.l wasn’t something he’d heard of here in the Ark Continent, but the term Devil World was something he had heard of already.
The Ark Continent was different from Earth. Earth existed on its own plane, while the Ark Continent coexisted with multiple planes. The place called the Ark Continent was one plane. Devil World was also a plane. There were several others planes that also existed, but the understanding of people about other planes was small. They knew about those planes less than they knew about the Devil World.
There were not many records kept about the Devil World on the continent. All of the recordings, however, described it using two characters: Dangerous[8].
The records about the Devil World on the continent said that it was a place of monsters. These monsters were divided into Undead Creatures and Dismal[9] Creatures. They were brutal beings that only knew how to slaughter and walked a path of destruction. This was the common perception of the Devil World by others.
Zhao Hai hadn’t actually thought that Cai-er would have come from the Devil World. Obviously, Cai-er had seen Zhao Hai’s reaction and she said with a smile, “Don’t you feel it’s strange for me to know of those previous things?”
Zhao Hai nodded. Cai-er continued smiling. “This was nothing since I had obtained a book about the Ark Continent[10]. Therefore, I also knew that the Devil World was recorded here on the Ark Continent. There isn’t only Undead and Dismal Creatures there, but an actual complete world. The living environment is a lot worse than the Ark Continent, however, and the main thing is that there is no sun.”
Cai-er paused here and looked at Zhao Hai. “There is no sun in the Devil World, only light and ores. There is only me and my flowers as the main source of light for the Devil World’s beings, therefore, the creatures there give much respect to me. You should know that the Devil World and the Ark Continent are two different planes. The difference in living environments of the two is too large. After the first s.p.a.ce crack appeared, the Devil World found out how large the Ark Continent was. That was also when they found that life was better here on the Ark Continent. There was a sun, water, land, gra.s.s. Everything was here.”
Hearing it, Zhao Hai knew that Cai-er was serious when she said it. The desire for a better life held infinite hope. Just like how a blind person had infinite hope to see light, those of the Devil World had a desire a thousand times greater to live in the Ark Continent.
Cai-er sighed. “You have never been to the Devil World, thus you can’t ever imagine the way of life for the creatures there. They wanted to come and live on the Ark Continent, but did it in the wrong way. They wanted to conquer the Ark Continent, but weren’t successful. Instead, they let the Ark Continent place new seals over the few s.p.a.ce cracks.”
Cai-er’s expression, although a bit light, was something Zhao Hai understood. The Ark Continent probably had to pay a considerable price.
Cai-er wasn’t concerned with Zhao Hai. “Later on, new s.p.a.ce cracks appeared, inducing several further wars between the Devil World and the Ark Continent. In the end, the Devil World didn’t succeed. The position you are at now is actually a s.p.a.ce crack, but one that was sealed back then by a person from the Ark Continent. For some unknown reason, the seal was destroyed, but the Devil World didn’t know of this. I fount it out though. I used my branches and slowly stretched it over the cracks. Now, this is what it looks like.”
Cai’er’s branch was Flower City. This wasn’t something Zhao Hai could believe. He couldn’t imagine how large her actual body was. Cai-er looked at Zhao Hai and suddenly chuckled. “It was too serious, right? Heehee, I like that kind of atmosphere. With that kind of tone, isn’t it more convincing?”
Zhao Hai looked at Cai-er’s sly smile as she turned around. Cai-er’s appearance gave off a compa.s.sionate feeling, but with her beautiful smile just now, Zhao Hai’s thoughts were somewhat unable to follow.
Cai-er looked Zhao Hai’s silly expression and couldn’t help but laugh. She held onto her belly and tumbled around. Zhao Hai tapped his head and finally affirmed that this little lady had been playing around.
What was strange was that Zhao Hai didn’t feel angry. Instead, he just looked at the adorable smiling face of Cai-er[11]. Cai-er stopped after some time. Zhao Hai hadn’t spoken since then so she looked at him and timidly asked, “Are you angry?”
Zhao Hai looked at Cai’er’s appearance and couldn’t be mad. He shook his head and said, “No, I’m just curious. You told me those things, so what do you want to do?”
Cai-er flapped her wings and flew in front of Zhao Hai. “I just want to drink more of the water you had given me earlier, and that soil you threw. That was the most delicious water and most fertile soil I ever had.”
Zhao Hai smiled as he said, “Ok. Ah, you can come to a place with me where there’s a lot of water you can drink, along with that soil you’d seen.”
Cai-er looked at Zhao Hai’s expression and tooted,“I don’t know if what you’re saying is an illusion, but I feel ill intent. What are you telling me to do?”
Zhao Hai raised his eyebrows while smiling and said, “What’s wrong? Don’t you dare?” Zhao Hai didn’t know why, but when he said it, it felt that he was deceiving a little girl to look for a goldfish with a strange uncle[12], probably.
Cai-er tooted once more, “Don’t use this kind of method of goading an idiot into action; it is useless to this Young Lady. This Young Lady, however, is powerful and doesn’t fear you. Well, let’s go where?”
Zhao Hai was happy in his heart[13]. He waved the Ghost Wand and the Spatial Crack appeared at his side. He smiled and said, “To my territory.”
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] If you actually go in order of a rainbow, the color that should have appeared after Red would be Orange. The colors are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Or as I like to remember it from my elementary cla.s.ses, Roy G. Biv. ↩
[2] That’s what it says. ↩
[3] 彩儿 – Cǎi er. Naming time; Messing Up My Mind 101. Her name is Cai-er, with Cai being 彩 or color and -er being 儿 or an affectionate way of calling someone. You can see adults calling younger people with -er, or people calling a cute or close person with -er. As such, this name kills me because it shouldn’t work like this. Her name is definitely Cai or Color, but with the -er, I can’t just call her Color!!! Color-er isn’t a name, even if colorer is an actual word. The problem is later, when he names her Zhao Cai. While it works then, it DOESN’T work now. As such, I can’t just transliterate it because he keeps the pinyin and includes it in his name. Urgh… Oh yes, Nie-er is an example of a name we transliterate, because it should be transliterated more than used as an affection. Unless Zhao Hai renames Nie-er, her name is fine. ↩
[4] I don’t know how that comparison works. ↩
[5] 地狱彩虹花 – Dìyù cǎihóng huā. ↩
[6] 地狱 – Dìyù. Can mean h.e.l.l, Underworld. Infernal. Depending on later inferences of it, this may change… ↩
[7] 魔界 – Mójiè. Anyone reading World of Cultivation would recognize Mo and Jie… although I’m unsure if Mo is the same as the Mo in WoC… anywho, Devil World. ↩
[8] 危险 (Wéixiǎn) are those two characters. ↩
[9] 暗黑 – Ànhēi. I’ve taken to using Dismal for these two characters. An (暗) is Dark or Gloomy, while Hei (黑) is black. Why I do this is because flipping the word around makes it Darkness (黑暗 or Hēi’àn). As such, I need a different version for this combination. Hence, Dismal. Later explanations reveal why I thought dismal was a good alternative. Me and s.h.i.+f discussed about this for a long time. ↩
[10] See, she got a book and managed to learn knowledge through reading. How the h.e.l.l would Zhao Wen have known any general knowledge by herself? ↩
[11] I swear, Zhao Hai’s awakening to his inner lolicon. He likes the kid-like Zhao Wen, and is now staring at the “adorable’ Cai-er… I could, of course, be overthinking it. ↩
[12] Pedophile, probably. ↩
[13] Zhao Hai is all those villains in doujins that manage to capture the ultra-strong heroines…