Chapter 62
The Qilin slammed on the brakes, stopping in front of them. Fortunately, the forest floor was covered in grass, so it didn’t kick up a cloud of dust in their faces.
This Qilin had golden-red fur, a tail like an auspicious cloud that shimmered with golden light, and long, slender, powerful limbs. Its two horns were as white as jade. It looked very similar to the dragons of myth and legend. The entire beast looked martial and spirited.
The Xiezhi, feeling a bit embarrassed, secretly kicked it.
The Qilin shook its large head. “Why’d you kick me?!”
The Xiezhi: “…”
The leaders couldn’t help but chuckle. As a very famous divine beast in Hua nation mythology, the Qilin also received a round of praise and petting.
Xia Anran soon discovered that although these divine beasts looked majestic, their personalities were like those of kittens and puppies. They thoroughly enjoyed being petted by humans, practically treating them as free massage machines.
According to the Qilin and the Xiezhi, this was the gathering place of the Spirit Beasts of the Hua nation. Basically, all animals that had awakened their intelligence would come here. Of course, some had gone out to travel.
The Qilin and the Xiezhi were ancient divine beasts. These two, who looked lively and mischievous, had actually lived for tens of thousands of years. There were other divine beasts, like the Pixiu, the Vermilion Bird, and the Teng Snake, who had been in seclusion for many years and rarely came out. So, there were not many active divine beasts left.
Most of the Spirit Beasts were ordinary animals that had slowly awakened over the past ten thousand years, like the lion king they had met earlier. Most of these Spirit Beasts could not speak human language, but they possessed some extraordinary powers. The divine beasts, as the seniors, naturally shouldered the responsibility of caring for and leading them.
“For the past hundred years, it just so happened to be my and the Xiezhi’s turn,” the Qilin said, sitting down. It was very fond of Professor Qi and strongly invited her to sit beside it and groom its fur.
Professor Qi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She never thought that one day she would be grooming a Qilin, and that it would be humming with enjoyment.
From the Qilin’s tone, Xia Anran heard a hint of grievance and annoyance. She understood. It’s their turn to be on duty. As expected, even divine beasts had complaints about work.
The leaders all sat on the ground in a circle. Many small animals gathered around, sitting quietly by their side, looking as if they were listening attentively.
“We’ve seen descriptions of divine beasts in some ancient texts, but they haven’t appeared in recent years, so it was generally believed that they were just imagined and compiled by our ancestors,” the top leader said. “Now it seems these rumors were not unfounded.”
The Xiezhi squeezed in next to Xia Anran. It felt a very attractive power from this girl, which made it feel comfortable from the inside out. So, it kept pressing against her. Xia Anran was at a loss for what to do with this divine beast’s affection. Fortunately, its fur was soft and fluffy and even had a pleasant, light fragrance, so it was quite comfortable.
“Hmm, let me think,” the Xiezhi said, blinking its big eyes. “A thousand or two thousand years ago, I think we would occasionally go out. The humans back then weren’t as powerful as they are now; they were very weak. A storm could kill them, so we often went out to help and accumulate merit.”
“The humans were also very kind. They would build large temples for us and give us their faith, and our power would grow with it. But now, you humans are very powerful and no longer need us. And we haven’t received much faith these years.”
“Once, Big Brother Yinglong went out and came back to warn us not to go out and appear before humans casually in the future. After that, we no longer appeared in human society.”
So these divine beasts needed human faith.
Xia Anran asked, “Then why have you chosen to appear now?”
The Xiezhi rubbed against her. “It was calculated by the Xuan Niao (Mysterious Bird). She said that a human with a fate connected to our beast race would appear. If we met her, it would be the time when we could reappear in human society.”
“She also said that this person would appear when humanity was facing a great disaster, and at that time, our help would also be needed.” After saying that, its tail pricked up proudly, an eager expression on its face, as if to say, Human, it’s my time to save the day! Thank me, quickly!
The leaders exchanged a look. They all understood that the “great disaster” the Xiezhi was talking about was most likely the impending alien invasion of Earth.
“You must be the leader of the humans, right?” the Qilin asked, getting up and walking to the top leader. “What do you need us to do for you?”
The top leader smiled. “Thank you very much for your kind help. It is not yet time for us to need your help. Before that, we will first help you gather more faith and gain greater power.”
Never had they imagined that instead of helping, they would be helped. The Qilin and the Xiezhi were both stunned. “Are you telling the truth?” The two divine beasts blinked their big eyes, looking at them with anticipation. Heaven knew how they had gotten by all these years. It was really uncomfortable without faith!
The top leader smiled and nodded. “Of course, it’s true.” He then pointed to Professor Qi, who was being clung to by the Qilin. “This comrade of ours has awakened a special power. Can you feel anything different from her?”
“She has the scent of our beast race,” the Qilin said. “She has our bloodline, but it is very thin.”
Professor Qi, who had just learned at the age of over thirty that she had the bloodline of beasts, nearly had her eyes pop out of their sockets. Wait, she had what? Her ancestors had beasts in them???
Xia Anran was also stunned on the side. What kind of wild development was this? She didn’t dare to think about it in detail.
The leaders were also clearly choked up, their gazes starting to wander.
Seeing their expressions, the Xiezhi quickly clarified. “Don’t get the wrong idea! A long time ago, some humans came to pray for our help in conceiving offspring. Our blood could help them, so the children they gave birth to would have the bloodline of beasts! But such people are very rare. You humans seem to prefer to pray at some temples I don’t really know.”
Professor Qi breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it wasn’t some ethical issue. Could it be because of this bloodline that she was able to awaken this power?
And Professor Gong, after hearing this, his eyes had already started to shine. The blood of a divine beast can cure infertility?! Good stuff. Must be researched.
The Xiezhi and the Qilin instantly felt a chill down their spines, a bad premonition. The gaze of this human was terrifying!
“Then, can you sense this type of person?” the top leader asked tentatively. They had also thought that it might be this wonderful “blood relationship” that had led to her awakening. So, if there was a way to quickly screen for such people, it would undoubtedly be very beneficial to the Hua nation.
“Of course,” the Qilin said, lifting its head proudly.
…
And so, the Qilin, as the representative and laborer of the beast race, left the forest with them and first went to the small house where the production team was staying.
As Xia Anran had expected, when Director Huang and the others saw them return with a Qilin, they were so excited they nearly fainted. The leaders were still there, but they couldn’t stop them from touching the Qilin all over and taking a frenzy of photos. The Qilin was terrified by the humans’ enthusiasm, being mauled for a good while, its fur flying everywhere.
On the way back, the Qilin had also said that it could feel something different about Xia Anran. In its words, her body was like a bottomless black hole, containing infinite power. That guy, the Xiezhi, was a workaholic who purely admired the strong, which was why it had been sticking to her just now.
The leaders didn’t stay for long. They had to go back and hold an emergency meeting about the beast race. The professors from the Academy of Sciences and the leaders had all hoped that the Qilin would go back to the capital with them, but it was a little reluctant.
It twisted shyly. “I also want to stay with Anran for a little longer.” Alright, so you’re also a careerist! The Qilin complained that ever since humans had stopped believing in them in large numbers as they used to, its strength hadn’t increased in several hundred years! That was why many divine beasts had chosen to go into seclusion as a second-best option.
They couldn’t force it, so they had to let it stay on the prairie with Xia Anran for a few more days. Before leaving, Professor Gong had boldly gone up to the Qilin and asked for a tube of its blood.
The Qilin looked at the old man, who was clearly in his sixties or seventies, with great confusion in its large head. “You want a child? You seem a little old.”
“…”
Professor Gong’s face turned a little red. He coughed into his fist and glared at Xia Anran, who was trying hard not to laugh.
The Qilin hesitated for half a second and then lifted its front hoof, about to press it against his forehead. “Alright, alright. Your human reproductive desire really hasn’t changed no matter how many years have passed.”
“Wait, wait!” Professor Gong quickly stopped it. The Qilin tilted its head in confusion. “I can just put a drop of blood on your forehead. Don’t worry, it’s guaranteed to work, although you are a bit old.”
“…”
Hit with a double critical, Professor Gong took a deep breath and finally stated his wish: he just wanted a tube of its blood for research.
“Research my blood?” The Qilin was puzzled but chose to indulge the human.
Then, a rubber band was tied around its front hoof. It poked it. “What’s this thing for?”
“Preparation for drawing blood,” Professor Gong said, once again sighing at his good habit of always carrying a tool kit. He took out a blood-drawing needle, a vial, and iodine swabs for disinfection from his bag.
The Qilin’s pupils shrank in shock when it saw the long, thin needle. “W-w-what are you going to do!”
Professor Gong paused. “Draw blood.”
This thing is going to be inserted into its body? As expected, Big Brother Yinglong was right. Humans had really become too scary now!
“I can get the blood for you myself,” the Qilin firmly refused. No way you’re sticking that long needle in me!
“It won’t hurt. This is very convenient, and the wound is very small.”
Professor Gong’s words now sounded like the devil’s whisper to the Qilin. But there were dozens of humans watching. If it ran away in fear, it would be a huge disgrace to the beast race!
Steeling itself, it held out its front hoof, looking like a brave martyr. “Go ahead!”
Xia Anran: “…” That expression… anyone who didn’t know better would think it was about to be sacrificed.
The Qilin turned its head away, not daring to look. A few minutes later, when it didn’t feel anything, it turned its head back and saw that Professor Gong was already packing up his things. He was holding a bottle of faintly golden blood, which it recognized at a glance as its own. It’s already done? Humans are really so scary!
…
After the leaders and professors from the Academy of Sciences had left, the Qilin went to the sofa in the living room and lay down. When it had come in, the production team had been editing the recordings of the past few days’ streams. They would back up the recordings every day, as these were to be included in the national information database. As it happened, the footage was being projected onto the TV in the living room, which immediately attracted the Qilin.
After understanding the operating principles of this square little box, it became particularly interested in the TV and began to watch Xia Anran’s livestream recordings with great interest.
“There’s a lot of the scent of the beast race in here,” the Qilin sniffed and said with certainty.
Xia Anran sat beside it, sharing the crispy pork that Master Guo had just fried. The Qilin ate one piece after another, finishing the whole plate in no time.
“There are some Beastman people on the other side,” she said. She had already explained the livestream to it. The Qilin only half-understood, roughly getting that they were now in contact with humans from another time and space.
The Qilin wagged its tail. “There’s the scent of our descendants.”
With the Qilin’s identification, Xia Anran was now certain that the interstellar Beastman race had originated from Earth.
After watching the recording, the Qilin’s TV addiction was not over. It pressed the remote with its paw, randomly changing channels, until it landed on the page for the old TV series version of Dream of the Red Chamber. It immediately stopped, its eyes shining. “I want to watch this!”
Xia Anran looked. She had to pay for a subscription to watch it.
After obediently subscribing for the divine beast, she went back to her room to take a shower. Professor Qi was outside with Ren Yi, trying to use the energy in her body to attack. The rest of the production team, after seeing the Qilin and hearing the stories of the beast race, had a burst of inspiration and had also holed up in their rooms. The only one left in the living room was the Qilin, watching Dream of the Red Chamber with great interest.
After her shower, Xia Anran checked her recent earnings and then came out. The moment she did, she saw the Qilin pacing back and forth in the living room. “What is this nonsense! Dream of the Red Chamber is not written like this at all!”
She looked up and saw that the TV series had already reached the last episode. “You watched it so fast?” An hour and it was already over?
Seeing her come out, the Qilin shot over and complained to her. It turned out that its paw was not very convenient for pressing the remote. After watching the first episode, it had made a mistake when trying to select the next one and had played the last episode instead. The more it watched, the more something felt wrong. The ending of Dream of the Red Chamber was not like this at all!
“You’ve read the original version of Dream of the Red Chamber?” she asked, astonished. “You can even read?”
“Of course I can read! And I was taught by a very famous master!” the Qilin said, lifting its head proudly.
She explained to it that the last forty chapters of the original version of Dream of the Red Chamber had been lost, so what it was watching now was a version written by later generations, which was of course different from the original.
“I was wondering why it was so different,” the Qilin muttered. “So it was lost.”
Although she wasn’t a die-hard fan, she was also very curious about the plot of the original book and egged it on to tell her about it.
The Qilin shook its head. “I’m not good at telling stories. Wait a minute.”
After saying that, it seemed to be looking for something. Suddenly, an ancient, yellowed book appeared in its paw. “Found it. Fortunately, it hasn’t been that long, so it was relatively easy to find.” It pushed the book forward. “Here, you can read it yourself.”
Xia Anran looked at the ancient book in front of her, which had the words “The Story of the Stone” written on it, and her eyes widened.
This is the original version of Dream of the Red Chamber?
The Qilin lay on the soft sofa, squinting its eyes and chatting with her. It said that back then, it couldn’t stand staying in the mountains anymore and had run out to play. It had happened to arrive at a wealthy family’s home. It found the house very beautiful, and there was a scholar inside who looked clear and bright, whom it liked very much. So, it had stayed in his home for a few years. The man, of course, was ecstatic to have a Qilin appear in his home and had made offerings to it. The Qilin would also often chat with him. Slowly, it learned that he was writing a book, and it naturally became the book’s first reader.
“That family seemed to be surnamed Cao. I’m getting old, and my memory isn’t so good anymore. I can’t remember the name,” the Qilin said, scratching its ear.
…The first reader of Dream of the Red Chamber was a Qilin? What a fantastical development.
According to the Qilin, this book was the first version, hand-copied and compiled by Mr. Cao himself. Because the Qilin liked it, he had given it to it.
Xia Anran looked at the incredibly valuable antique in her hands and, without a second thought, ran to make a phone call. The fans of Dream of the Red Chamber were finally saved! As expected, living for a long time made one not only a divine beast but also a living history.
And so, the next day, the Hua Nation Museum of History and Culture released a bombshell announcement. The original version of Dream of the Red Chamber, a manuscript personally hand-copied by Mr. Cao, had been brought to light.