Leap Forward Comics: Watch How I Become a Villainess

Chapter 176 The Explorer of Two Worlds

Flying north, the landscape gradually transformed from lush green mountains and clear waters to pristine white snow.

The icicles are like jade, and the shadows of the trees sway gracefully on the snow. The snowflakes glitter and sparkle in the sunlight, crystal clear.

The air was crisp and fresh, carrying a comforting tranquility.

Amidst the swirling snowflakes, everything seemed to fall silent, with only the gentle touch of snowflakes and the sound of them landing echoing in the air.

Lu He exhaled, and white mist dissipated from his mouth. "It's getting colder and colder here."

"Of course, we've reached the border of the Spirit Beast Mountain. I've heard of Wanqing Mountain; it's an evergreen mountain standing amidst ice and snow."

Nagi, being knowledgeable and experienced, spoke of Wanqingshan, a mysterious place. It was the only green mountain among the snow-capped mountains in the far north, with a protective barrier within it. Entering the mountain meant entering spring.

Legend has it that the Wanqingshan Mountain is warm all year round because a great demon lives there to protect it.

"A great demon? How great?" Lu He was startled. This was not the time to encounter a great demon yet. With their current strength, if Zhiyan couldn't handle it, they would basically be wiped out.

"I don't know, it's just a legend." All that Nagiya knew was hearsay.

Everyone turned to look at Zhiyan.

"Are you cold?" Zhiyan conjured up a thick, fluffy tail and gently wrapped it around Jianjian, her every movement so tender and gentle.

"Yan Yan, I'm cold too~" Nagi deliberately acted coquettishly.

"Stop pretending! You white-lipped deer are very cold-resistant." He bluntly exposed her.

Nagiya was rebuffed and could only purse her lips.

"Hahaha, looks like you've lost your wife." Lu He teased Nagi in a low voice. It just seemed like Zhiyan and Jianjian were closer.

"Tch, the relationship between demons and humans is only temporary. Even if Yan Yan likes this human, I can wait." Nagi retorted to Lu He in a low voice.

Tan You remained silent the entire way, only listening to their bickering, seemingly worried about something.

Will the phoenix core on his body be discovered by the great demon of Wan Qingshan?

The temperature was getting lower and lower, and Jianjian was dressed too thinly, seemingly unable to adapt to the temperature. Zhiyan placed her hand on her back and channeled her demonic energy to warm her.

Fearing that she would continue to deplete her demonic power, Nagi plucked a tuft of her own fur, which turned into a thick coat, and asked her to put it on Jianjian.

They flew for a day and a night, and Jianjian, unable to stay still, fell asleep in Zhiyan's arms.

"Humans have too little energy and need too much sleep, unlike us demon beasts who rarely need to sleep."

Listening to Nagi's rambling, Lu He realized that since arriving in this world, he had been through so much trouble, and apart from sleeping during the few days he was recuperating, he hadn't slept at all, and yet he didn't feel tired at all, which was truly amazing.

Lu He leaned closer curiously and whispered to Zhiyan, "Why are you so nice to this human girl?"

"She is my pet."

The simple yet somewhat surprising answer left Lu He speechless for a moment.

"Spoil? Pet?" Are you kidding me? You've been taking such good care of her, and you're saying it's a pet and not love? Huh? If this doesn't count as love?

"Is it strange? Many of us demon beasts keep humans as pets." Now it was Zhiyan's turn to find it strange: "Qinwu, I've always felt that your thinking and logic are more like a human's, not a demon beast's. Could it be that you live with humans?"

"Uh, no, no, I just haven't heard of monsters keeping humans as pets before, so I find it a bit strange," Lu He quickly tried to cover up.

Zhiyan is right. Lu He's thinking is still stuck in the idea that humans dominate the world, while this world is dominated by monsters.

To monsters, humans are indeed like the intelligent cats and dogs in the real world.

"Then... monsters will still fall in love with humans, right?" Didn't the male protagonist in the comic fall in love with Jianjian?

"Of course, there are love stories between monsters and humans, and there are also cases of humans keeping monsters as pets, and monsters keeping humans as pets. These are all normal..."

Wow, what an inclusive world! Although Nagi had said before that monster partners don't consider gender or species, Lu He hadn't thought that far ahead. She hadn't expected this world to be so inclusive.

This world is wonderful.

Better than the real world...

For a moment, she couldn't help but feel a little sad.

"Look! There are green mountains ahead!" Xiao Jiu's shout drew everyone's attention.

Looking closely, one can see tiny specks of green shimmering beneath the white mist in the distance.

Wanqingshan is over there!

"I sensed a very powerful demonic aura!" Zhiyan suddenly became serious and couldn't help but frown.

The barrier ahead must have been set up by a monster of considerable power.

Wanqingshan was not in the comics, and it was an unknown place for Lu He. She couldn't help but worry about whether there would be any problems on this trip.

"It's alright. This great demon of Wanqing Mountain must be gentle, otherwise it wouldn't have used magic to protect the spirits on the mountain," Xiao Jiu said optimistically.

"Kids are too naive," Nagi muttered to Lu He.

Before Lu He could even joke with Nagi, Xiao Jiu's coded message reached Lu He's ears: "Don't forget the Phoenix Inner Core you promised me, Wan Qingshan will make his move!"

"Hmm! No, wait!" Lu He thought to himself, "This kid is up to no good."

Before she could even talk to Xiao Jiu, the little brat suddenly accelerated and plunged headfirst into the barrier of Wan Qingshan.

The temperature around us suddenly rose, and it felt like spring had returned in an instant.

Jianjian, who had just been shivering in her sleep from the cold, woke up from the heat.

Zhiyan carefully put away Jianjian's winter clothes and tossed them into Nagi's hands.

Xiao Jiu landed safely on the lush green grass.

"Go further in, and you'll reach the dense forest. Once you pass through this forest, you'll see lots of bamboo. And if you go any further in, you'll find the hermits." Xiao Jiu returned to human form, transforming back into a little boy.

He pointed ahead as if he were very familiar with the place.

"Have you been here before?" Lu He couldn't help but ask.

Xiao Jiu looked up and stared at her with a strange look for a while.

"Then let's hurry up and find that merchant as soon as possible." Zhiyan said, taking Jianjian's hand and leading her into the dense forest, reminding Jianjian not to let go and to stay close to her.

Nagi had no questions and followed them into the dense forest.

"Why did you ask that just now?" Seeing that they had walked some distance away, Xiao Jiu changed her previous lively and playful tone and asked Lu He.

"What? What did I ask?" Lu He was also dumbfounded.

"I've felt you're acting strangely all the way here. You wouldn't be..." Xiao Jiu was interrupted by Zhi Yan in front of her before she could finish her question.

"Here I am, big sister~" He instantly reverted to his previous innocent childlike demeanor.

It made Lu He feel as if she had just been dreaming.

She soon received a coded message from Xiao Jiu: "You're a time traveler, right?"

Shocked, Lu He acknowledged her identity; she was now almost certain that Xiao Jiu was also a time traveler.

"Your acting is terrible. At least act more like a person from this world, right?" Xiao Jiu mocked her cryptically.

"Mind your own business. You'll need my help a lot later. I have the original comic book, 'The Legend of the Monsters of the Mountains and Seas.'" Lu He wasn't new to other time travelers, so she quickly regained her composure.

“I’m sorry, we’re not the same story. I guess Wan Qingshan isn’t in your story, right?” Xiao Jiu said in a childish voice but with a mature tone: “Wan Qingshan’s story is in the book I’m holding.”

"You! So you deliberately led us to Wanqingshan? No, if the evasion wasn't in Wanqingshan, you wouldn't have been able to fool everyone into coming here." Lu He raised a question, unless the evasion story was also fake.

"Looks like you figured it out. Wan Qingshan really didn't evade his duties; it was all made up by me." Xiao Jiu turned around, revealing a standard villainous smirk.

"Are you... the villain in another story?"

“The Beast King,” he replied lightly.

“But you’re so weak…” Lu He suddenly realized that Tan You wasn’t the protagonist in Xiao Jiu’s story, but he was presented with an opportunity to become stronger, so he was bound to seize the Phoenix’s inner core.

As Lu He gradually adapted to this world of monsters, his mind finally returned to normal.

Wanqingshan is the territory of "Beast King", which means that the main characters of that world may be living in the mountains.

Lu He quickly and quietly activated the internal map. She looked closely and saw that Wanqingshan was a glowing area, which meant that it was still the world map of "The Legend of the Monsters of the Mountains and Seas". However, upon closer inspection, there was a thin outline below it.

The outline continued northward, and on the other side of the scroll was a line of small characters: "Beast King".

This Wanqingshan area overlaps with another area!

But wait, didn't the system tell her she couldn't cross the comic book map? Why can Xiao Jiu do it?

"How are you able to cross the comic book map to other comic book regions?" Lu He couldn't help but want to know the answer, and she wanted to know the method even more.

“This violates the system rules. Look, I have already been punished…” Xiao Jiu pointed to her appearance: “This is why I look like a child and my strength is so weak that I can’t be defeated.”

"If I cross borders, will I become like you?"

"Ha, naive. You probably won't have my luck." Xiao Jiu shook her head, no longer bothering with such nonsense with Lu He: "You promised me, the Phoenix Inner Core!"

Lu He's gaze was firm: "Okay! I'll help you get the inner core, you just tell me how to travel between different world maps!"

Xiao Jiu was taken aback. This person was really strange. What was he so determined to do to leave the mission world? But he didn't ask any more questions: "Okay, we time travelers are in the same boat and should help each other. I promise you."

After saying all that, he reverted to his innocent little boy self, skipping and hopping around as he talked to Zhiyan, calling her "elder sister."

"Hey, look at them! This is what it means to be good at hiding your true intentions, what it means to be focused on the task, and what it means to be professional." At this moment, the system suddenly uttered a reprimand.

If it weren't for envying how easy other people's time travelers are to manage, the system wouldn't have made that comment. How come other people's time travelers are so clever, switching between roles so freely, while the one I'm with just loves to cause trouble?

"You still want to ask him about going to other territories? I advise you to give up that idea. Do you want to go find Li Cen?" The system knew that Lu He still had doubts about why he hadn't disappeared before.

“I don’t want to find her, I just want to find an answer. I always feel like you’re hiding something from me…” Lu He shook her head. She couldn’t let go of her doubts until she found the answers.

"...If I clear up your doubts, will you stop having those inappropriate thoughts?"