"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live? Yes/No."
Staring at the obnoxious pop-up on his screen, Cheng Ying decisively clicked the little "X" in the upper-right corner."Nope! Next!"
And then…
And then he just—transmigrated, just like that.
Staring at his short, stubby, fat little front legs, Cheng Ying wailed,"What the hell did I just become?!"
He was in the middle of a vast snowy plain and thought no one would hear his cries.But to his shock, someone did respond.
"Sky Dream! Don't run! I'm definitely going to eat you today!"
Cheng Ying instinctively looked back—only to see a bright green scorpion charging toward him, claws raised. The thing was at least a meter tall!
Combined with the fact that his current body resembled a fuzzy caterpillar…
His soul nearly flew out in fright.
What else could he do? Run, obviously!Only an idiot would stay!
Clumsily moving his six stubby legs, Cheng Ying began an awkward full-speed dash—this was his first time inside the body of a giant bug, after all.
"Why are you chasing me?!" Cheng Ying screamed in despair."If you want cough syrup, I'll give you all of it!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" The green scorpion behind him was visibly confused. Cough syrup?"Enough nonsense, Sky Dream! You're not escaping today. If I eat you, I can finally break through the 400,000-year limit!"
"What the hell?!" Cheng Ying was equally bewildered."Four hundred thousand years?! Why not just say you're some ancient beast already?Wait a second—You can talk?!You are some ancient beast!"
Fortunately, Cheng Ying was a well-read veteran of countless webnovels.He swiftly accepted the fact that he'd transmigrated into a fantasy world, and his brain started working overtime.
"Wait… this situation seems familiar!"
He quickly filtered through all the novels he'd read.
"That's right! Sky Dream—Sky Dream Iceworm!Isn't this the old grandpa plug-in from Douluo Dalu 2?!Why the hell did I become this miserable bug?!"
As he ran for dear life, Cheng Ying frantically searched for a way to survive.Thanks to his knowledge of the plot, he knew one thing for sure:If that scorpion caught him—he was dead meat. Literally.
Even though the Sky Dream Iceworm had a million years of cultivation in the original, and the green scorpion—Ice Jade Scorpion Emperor—was only at 390,000 years…In a real fight, Sky Dream would get absolutely flattened.
"In the original, Sky Dream just blindly ran, fell into the ocean, and barely escaped.But where's the ocean?!And even then, he went from the frying pan into the fire and got captured by the Star Dou Forest folks, who drained him dry.In the end, he had no choice but to become the MC's external plug-in.I finally transmigrated—there's no way I'm going down like that!"
Thankfully, as Sky Dream, Cheng Ying had close to a million years of cultivation, so he was fast.At least for now, he could still outrun the Ice Empress.But that wouldn't last long if he didn't come up with something.
"Think! What part of the plot could help me survive?The Ice Empress wants to eat me because she can't survive the next heavenly tribulation—so I have to change her mind!But what in the Douluo world can distract her?"
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
Cheng Ying clapped his stubby little foreleg.He turned his head mid-run and shouted back at his pursuer:
"Can I ask you something first? How sure are you that eating me will help you break through your 400,000-year limit?I, Sky Dream Cheng Ying, even if I die, want to die with clarity!"
The Ice Empress flicked her stinger, and since she was chasing a rare and valuable target, she decided to entertain him:
"You've already accepted your fate?Hmph! Don't think you can talk your way out of this.The odds of success are far greater with you than without!"
"So it's not a hundred percent guaranteed!"Cheng Ying's heart leapt with hope.
Still running full speed, he shouted,"Aren't you even a little curious why I've lived this long?"
He did his best to show a conflicted expression—though he wasn't sure how well a silkworm face could convey it.
"Hmph. You just got lucky," Ice Empress snorted."You fell onto a vein of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow and ate an entire cave's worth.Otherwise, how could a low-tier soul beast like you survive so many heavenly tribulations?"
As she spoke, she fired an Ice Beam from her stinger that froze a chunk of ground even larger than Cheng Ying's body—sending him scrambling even faster.
"You think… I really just found the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow by accident?"Cheng Ying panted, nearly out of breath.
"If not coincidence, then what?" the Ice Empress growled, speeding up again. She showed no sign of wanting to slow down and chat.
"Out of all the Iceworms in the Extreme North, why only me?Why didn't any of you, the top soul beasts, ever find it?How could a bottom-tier creature like me just stumble across it by chance?"
There was logic to his words.The Ice Empress hadn't studied statistics, but even she had to admit—it was weird that only one bug had found the marrow when no high-tier beasts ever had.
"Then tell me—why? Give me a good reason, and I'll let you die quickly."
To her, no matter what secret the worm had, she'd just squeeze it out before eating him.
"Because I can detect heavenly treasures.I can find all the rare spiritual herbs and resources on the continent!"
Cheng Ying was totally bullshitting at this point—but if it could keep him alive, it was worth it.Better to live as a walking treasure detector than get eaten.
"Hah? What do you take me for—a baby soul beast under ten thousand years old?You expect me to believe that garbage?"
The Ice Empress felt insulted.She fired another freezing beam, prompting Cheng Ying to run even faster.
"I know another place with Profound Ice Marrow—more than I ever ate!And I know lots of other secret treasure spots!Spare me, please! If you don't believe me, I can take you there! Aaaaah!"
For someone who was just a normal guy sitting at his computer minutes ago, Cheng Ying was doing an impressive job holding his own during a life-or-death chase.
"Hmph. You say you'll lead me to treasure—but how do I know this isn't a trap?"
Despite her suspicion, the Ice Empress did stop firing her beam.
"Heaven knows I've spent ninety thousand years underground doing nothing but eating and sleeping.How would I even set up a trap?Let me show you a blessed place first—prove I'm telling the truth—then we can talk about the Ice Marrow!"
"Fine. Stop running. I promise I won't kill you—yet."The Ice Empress sounded cold and threatening, but she was a soul beast, after all. What was a few minutes to her long lifespan?
Cheng Ying hesitated.Stopping took real courage.
But since running would just delay the inevitable, he forced himself to stop.
Facing the fast-approaching Ice Empress, his heart pounded wildly.As she loomed before him, he instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for death.
But instead of pain…He felt something cold tap him on the head.
"Hey! Open your eyes!Seriously? That scared?You really don't want to die, huh?"