The last thing Wang Hui remembered before dying was her laptop screen.
More specifically, it was the update notification for Chapter 847 of Immortal Sovereign Ascending Heaven. It popped up right as she grabbed the knockoff charger she had known was broken for three months.
She knew it was broken. She had a sticky note on it that said DO NOT USE. She used it anyway because her phone was at two percent and the new chapter was right there and she was not going to miss the reveal of Senior Brother Yue's secret bloodline.
The electricity hit her.
Everything went white.
Then nothing.
'...I died for a chapter update.'
'A chapter update I never even got to read.'
'This is so embarrassing.'
Before she could think about it more, something popped up in front of her face.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ✧ SACRED BEAST SYSTEM v1.0 ✧
║
║ Welcome, Honored Host!
║
║ You have reincarnated as a Sacred
║ Beast chosen by the heavens!
║ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
║
║ Enjoy your new life!
║ (｀・ω・´)ゞ
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'...'
'What.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ⚠ NOTICE ⚠
║
║ Still in shock?
║
║ (Obviously.) (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'System. You just showed up and you are already annoying.'
Wang Hui opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was water. Still water. Right at eye level.
And in the water, her reflection.
Four legs. Shiny scales on the sides. Small horn on the head. And a tail that was...
'Is my tail on fire.'
She stared at it.
The tail burned back at her, cheerful and bright.
'WHY IS MY TAIL ON FIRE.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ INFO ℹ
║
║ The flame tail is normal for
║ your species.
║
║ It will not hurt you.
║ (Others are a different story.)
║
║ (•ω•)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
Wang Hui stood at the pond and stared at herself for a long time.
Scales. Horn. Four legs. Hooves. Fire tail. About the size of a big dog. And eyes that were actually kind of gorgeous, deep amber, bright and clear.
She knew what this was.
She had read about this creature in at least four hundred webnovels.
'This is a Qilin.'
'...'
'I AM A QILIN.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ CURRENT STATUS ★
║
║ Name : (none lol)
║ Species : Qilin
║ Grade : ??? (hehe)
║ Level : 1
║
║ HP : 50/50
║ Strength : 3
║ Agility : 8
║ Toughness : 2
║ Luck : ████████ 99
║ Dignity : ░░░░░░░░ 0
║
║ Skills : Horn Strike (Lv.1)
║ Passive : Sacred Aura (LOCKED)
║ [Even locked, a faint trace leaks.
║ Other beasts can sense it.]
║
║ Stat Points : 5
║ Skill Points : 1
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'...Dignity. Zero.'
'My Dignity is zero. From the very start. Before I did anything.'
'...And Sacred Aura is locked. But something still leaks out.'
'Great. I am a broken sacred creature with no dignity.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ NOTE ℹ
║
║ Dignity goes up when Host acts
║ like a proper Sacred Beast.
║
║ Dignity goes down when Host
║ chases her own tail.
║
║ (¬‿¬)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'I have NOT been chasing my tail.'
She had not been chasing her tail.
But the tail was right there. And it was on fire. And she had never had a tail before in her entire life. Checking on it was completely normal.
She turned around to look at it.
The tail wagged.
She turned back around.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: -3 ↓
║
║ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'THAT WAS NOT CHASING MY TAIL.'
'THAT WAS A VISUAL CHECK.'
'You are the worst thing that has ever happened to me and I died by charger.'
* * *
Wang Hui sat on a rock and tried to think clearly.
Okay. She was dead. That was confirmed.
She had reincarnated. Also confirmed, given the hooves.
She had reincarnated as a Qilin.
In every xianxia novel she had read, a Qilin showing up was a huge deal. Sect leaders would move out. Princes would send their best people. Protagonists would spend whole arcs just trying to get close to one. A Qilin's blessing could speed up someone's cultivation by decades. They were sacred. Rare. Everyone wanted one.
'I am the most plot-important creature in this whole world.'
'Everyone is going to come looking for me.'
'I need to be very careful.'
'Stay calm. Stay hidden. Do not let anyone find out I used to be a person.'
'I will be dignified at all times. Cool and mysterious. Sacred Beast mode, one hundred percent.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ REMINDER ℹ
║
║ Host's current Dignity : -3
║ Sacred Aura : LOCKED
║ Current grade : ???
║
║ Good luck with that plan.
║ (｀・ω・´)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'I did not ask for your opinion.'
Her stomach made a noise.
A loud one.
Apparently Qilin bodies also got hungry. Good to know.
She looked around. Big forest. Dense trees everywhere. A pond behind her. Light coming through the leaves in long golden strips, which meant it was probably late afternoon.
Priority one was food. Everything else could wait.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ NEW QUEST ★
║
║ [ First Meal ]
║
║ Hunt something. Eat it.
║ Please. Host looks rough.
║
║ Reward : Level +1, Stat Point +3,
║ Skill Point +1
║
║ (ಥ_ಥ)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'I do not look rough. I look focused.'
'...But yeah okay I will take the quest.'
* * *
Hunting was harder than it looked in novels.
In every story she had read, the main character figured out their new body in like three paragraphs. Enhanced senses, amazing reflexes, instant combat instincts. Easy.
Wang Hui walked face-first into a tree.
'...'
'Four legs are actually really hard.'
The problem was simple: her brain had twenty-two years of experience running two legs. Four was a completely different system and nobody had given her a tutorial.
Step one through five went okay. Step six sent her into a bush. She did not want to talk about steps seven through thirteen.
By step thirty she had the hang of it. By step fifty she was moving fine. And by the time she spotted a rabbit frozen near a tree root, she felt almost normal.
'Okay. Rabbit. Small target. I have a Bite skill and a Horn Strike. This is going to be easy.'
The rabbit looked at her.
She looked at the rabbit.
'I have never hunted anything in my life.'
'In my past life I got my food from convenience stores.'
'...It is fine. I can do this.'
She jumped at it.
The rabbit ran sideways.
Wang Hui skidded on all four hooves and put her face into the dirt.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: -5 ↓↓
║ Total : -8
║
║ (The rabbit saw everything.)
║
║ ヽ(｀Д´)ﾉ
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'THE RABBIT RAN AWAY. IT DID NOT SEE ANYTHING.'
'...Did it see.'
She got up. There was dirt on her horn. She did not think about that and went after a different rabbit.
The second rabbit also got away.
The third one she caught for about half a second before it kicked her in the face.
By the fourth try she had figured out a few things. Rabbits were fast. Hooves were bad for pouncing. And Horn Strike only really worked if the target was not already running.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Agility +2 ↑
║
║ Gained from: Running around
║ like a headless chicken.
║
║ (•ω•)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'...I will take it.'
'Do not comment on the headless chicken part.'
The fifth rabbit stopped to sniff something.
'...I see you.'
'Do not move.'
'I am a sacred creature of the heavens and I have eaten grass twice today because I was too hungry to keep missing and you are going to HOLD STILL.'
She moved slow this time. No jumping. Just one step at a time, steady, closing the gap.
The rabbit twitched.
Wang Hui activated Horn Strike.
It was not pretty. But it worked. She sat back and looked at what she had done.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ QUEST COMPLETE ★
║
║ [ First Meal ]
║
║ Reward : Level +1, Stat Point +3,
║ Skill Point +1
║
║ ★ LEVEL UP ★
║ Wang Hui is now Level 2!
║
║ (Host may now eat.) \(^▽^)/
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'Thank you so much for the permission.'
She ate. Raw rabbit was not great. But she was hungry enough that she finished most of it, and when she was done she felt a lot better.
'Okay.'
'I can work with this.'
'I have a system, I have four legs that mostly work now, and I just beat a rabbit. Things are looking up.'
Then she heard voices.
Human voices. Coming from the trees.
'Stay calm. Could just be travelers.'
* * *
She moved toward the sound slowly, staying low, using the bushes for cover. She found a gap and looked through.
Four young people in matching blue robes. All of them looked tired and a little grumpy, the way people get when they have been walking all day and have not found what they came for.
Azure Sky Sect, probably. Blue robes, sword on the back, that specific kind of neat-but-exhausted look that junior disciples always had in novels.
'Okay. Cultivators. Junior level, nothing scary. I just stay hidden and wait for them to leave.'
'I am an ancient sacred beast. I am wise. I am patient.'
'I will not move.'
The tall one with the friendly face turned and looked directly at her gap in the bushes.
Their eyes met.
He lit up like someone had just handed him a present.
"Hey! HEY! Guys, look! There's a horse in the bushes!"
'...'
'I have a horn.'
'I have scales.'
'My tail is literally on fire.'
'Which part of this looks like a horse to you.'
The other three came over to look. One of them, a girl with two braids, squinted at Wang Hui like she was trying very hard to be reasonable about this.
"Bao, that is not a horse."
'THANK YOU.'
"Right," the tall one, Bao apparently, nodded like this was a very smart point. "It is a horse with a horn."
'I...'
"And scales," the braid girl added.
"And the tail is doing something," said the stocky one, frowning at the fire like it personally offended him.
"Really nice looking horse though," said the last one.
"Lingyun." The braid girl pinched the bridge of her nose. "For the last time."
"What, Mei?"
'...Mei. Okay. Names noted.'
'Bao Lingyun and Mei.'
'These are the people who think I am a horse.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ NEW QUEST ★
║
║ [ Identity Crisis ]
║
║ Convince at least one person
║ that you are not a horse.
║
║ Reward : Dignity +20
║ Time limit : None
║ (We feel bad for you.)
║
║ (ಥ_ಥ)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'You do not need to say you feel bad for me.'
'That is not a normal quest feature.'
Bao was already walking toward her. Slow steps, hand out, talking in the soft voice people use on animals they do not want to scare off.
"Hey there. Easy. We are not going to hurt you. You are so pretty."
'Do not call me pretty.'
'I am a creature of cosmic significance.'
He got to about three feet away and made a little clicking sound with his tongue.
Like she was a horse.
He was clicking at her like she was a horse.
'This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.'
'And I started this day with a Dignity score of zero.'
Wang Hui took two steps back. Then she stood up straight and looked at Bao with the most unimpressed expression she could manage, which was apparently a lot, because he stopped walking.
He looked at the horn. The scales. The burning tail. Her eyes, which were currently saying many things, none of them polite.
"...Guys," Bao said slowly.
"What."
"I do not think this is a horse."
The braid girl let out a long breath. "Finally."
"I think," Bao continued, very seriously, "this might be a special horse."
'I AM GOING TO BITE HIM.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: -2 ↓
║ Total : -10
║
║ (For wanting to bite someone
║ who just called you pretty.)
║
║ ≖‿≖
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'THAT IS NOT HOW DIGNITY WORKS.'
* * *
She did not bite him.
The braid girl grabbed Bao by the collar before he got any closer and said, flat and tired, "We do not touch random magical animals in demon beast territory, Bao." Then she turned to Wang Hui and gave a short, careful bow. "Sorry about him."
Wang Hui looked at her.
The girl looked back, calm and straight, like she was used to apologizing for things that were not her fault.
Wang Hui turned around and walked back into the forest.
Behind her she heard Bao say, in a low, wondering voice:
"Told you. Special horse."
She did not stop.
She did not turn around.
She walked with all the dignity she had left, which at this point was negative five, and disappeared into the trees.
'My name is Wang Hui.'
'I am twenty-two years old.'
'I died reading a webnovel.'
'I have come back as the most sacred creature in this world.'
'And a boy just called me a special horse.'
Something moved in the trees ahead. Something big. She checked her HP.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ⚠ WARNING ⚠
║
║ Large predator ahead.
║ Grade: Common.
║
║ Suggested action: Run.
║
║ (Current Dignity: -10)
║ (Running will not help this.)
║
║ ┗(°0°)┛
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
A tiger stepped out of the dark between the trees.
Big. Very big. Looking at her the way things look at other things they are planning to eat.
Wang Hui looked at the tiger.
The tiger looked at Wang Hui.
'...Okay.'
'New plan.'
The tiger crouched.
'LEVEL UP FASTER.'
End of Chapter 1
[ Dignity: -10 ] [ Level: 2 ] [ Status: Being hunted ]