📘 CHAPTER 3: Trial by Ice & Wind
The Wind Baboon crouched low, its matted fur bristling. To Huo Yuhao's newly synchronized senses—the enhanced sight of his Spirit Eyes and the cold-perception of his Primordial Ice Seed—the creature was a pulsating knot of crude, violent energy. It didn't see a boy. It saw prey.
In his original life, fear would have frozen him. Now, a cold clarity settled over him. The fear was still there, a flutter in his gut, but layered atop it was Ayush's analytical fury and the grim experience of a future self who had fought gods.
[Earth Viewer 7]: "Don't let it get close! It's all about speed!"
[Earth Viewer 42]:"Use the environment! You have ice now!"
[System Notification]:+2 Rebellion Points. Viewer engagement high.
Use the environment.
Huo Yuhao's eyes darted around the cave mouth. Damp soil, moss, a shallow puddle from last night's rain. His Frost Sense mapped the temperature gradients. With a thought and a slight, painful pull on his nascent soul power, he focused on the puddle.
The Wind Baboon lunged.
A silvery sheen flashed over the wet ground between them. Not a thick sheet, but a perfect, nearly invisible glaze of black ice. The beast's clawed foot landed, skidded wildly with a screech of surprise, and its charge became an ungainly sprawl.
It was the opening he needed. Huo Yuhao didn't charge. He sidestepped, the White Tiger Dagger—his mother's last gift—already in his hand. He moved not with a warrior's grace, but with the desperate efficiency of a survivor who couldn't afford a prolonged fight. As the baboon scrambled to right itself, he lunged, not for the heart or throat, but for the back of its splayed leg.
The dagger, keen and hungry, bit deep into the tendon.
The shriek that tore from the beast was deafening in the small space. It whirled, madness and pain in its eyes, but its hind leg buckled. The advantage of speed was gone.
"Finish it! Now!" scrolled the chat, a chorus of frantic text.
Huo Yuhao's breath came in ragged gasps. This was different from reading a battle scene. The coppery smell of blood, the animal's panicked heat, the ache in his own thin arms from the strike—it was overwhelmingly real. The part of him that was still Ayush recoiled. The part that was Huo Yuhao, who had starved and fought for scraps, tightened his grip on the dagger.
He met the baboon's eyes. "I'm not your prey," he whispered, his voice steady. "And I'm not anyone else's puppet, either."
He didn't wait for another charge. He used his small size, darting in as the beast turned clumsily, and drove the dagger up and under its ribcage, aiming for where his Spirit Eyes vaguely sensed a concentration of life force. It was not a clean kill. It was messy, desperate, and left him shaking as the beast finally went still, a white, ten-year spirit ring slowly coalescing above it.
He stood over it, blood dripping from the dagger, his chest heaving.
[System Notification]: First Spirit Beast slain. +5 Rebellion Points. Analysis: Host deviated from "canon passive survival" event. Narrative strain detected.
He didn't absorb the spirit ring. It was useless to him. Instead, he looked inward. The Black Book hovered, serene. The treasures glowed. The live-stream chat was a cascade of cheers, tactical advice, and questions.
This is real, he thought, the final weight of his transmigration settling upon him. This is my life now. A life of rebellion.
---
"Well, well. What do we have here?"
The voice, light and curious, came from the forest path. Huo Yuhao spun, dagger raised, his Spirit Eyes flaring gold on instinct.
Two figures emerged from the greenery. A girl, about fifteen, with a lively, pretty face and dark hair in a long ponytail, her eyes bright with interest. Beside her, a handsome youth with elegant dark-blue hair, his demeanor calm but alert.
Tang Ya. And Bei Bei.
His blood ran colder than his ice spirit. They were here. Right on schedule, as if drawn by the script itself. In the original story, this meeting was a "fortunate encounter," the beginning of his bond with the Tang Sect and his eventual leash to Shrek.
Tang Ya's gaze swept over him—the small, thin boy in worn clothes, the dead Wind Baboon, the bloody dagger—and then to the frost still glittering faintly on the ground near his feet. Her eyebrows rose.
"A young spirit master? And you took down a Wind Baboon alone? Not bad!" She stepped closer, completely unafraid. "Ooh, is that ice? Your spirit controls ice?"
Bei Bei placed a gentle restraining hand on her shoulder, his eyes on Huo Yuhao's dagger and tense posture. "Easy, Teacher Xiaoya. Can't you see he's frightened?" He offered Huo Yuhao a warm, disarming smile. "Don't be afraid. We're from the Tang Sect. I'm Bei Bei, this is Tang Ya. We mean no harm."
The Tang Sect. The name was like a trigger. Memories not his own surged: the weight of a golden ledger, the expectation to defend its legacy, the smiling face of Tang San in the clouds. Ayush's rage boiled alongside Huo Yuhao's ingrained wariness.
He didn't lower the dagger. "I know who you are," he said, his voice flat.
Tang Ya blinked, surprised by his tone. Bei Bei's smile became slightly puzzled.
[Earth Viewer 101]: "DON'T TRUST THEM! TANG SCRIPT INITIATED!"
[Earth Viewer 56]:"Be polite but distant! You need to get away!"
[System Suggestion]:Recommend behavior: Non-committal gratitude. Primary Directive: Avoid Shrek Academy entanglement.
"I was just leaving," Huo Yuhao stated, bending to wipe his dagger clean on the grass, his movements deliberate. He couldn't afford to make powerful enemies, but he would not walk into the lion's den.
"Wait!" Tang Ya bounded forward, ignoring Bei Bei's sigh. "You're hunting for a spirit ring, right? That ten-year ring is no good for you. We can help! What's your spirit? That ice trick was neat!"
Her enthusiasm was genuine. That was the cruelest part of the script, he realized. The traps were baited with real kindness, real friendship. It made the eventual betrayal of free will so much more effective.
"My spirit is my own business," Huo Yuhao said, sheathing the dagger. He met Bei Bei's gaze. "Thank you for your offer. But I work alone." He began to back away towards the deeper forest, his Frost Sense spreading out behind him like a net, ensuring no other beasts were sneaking up.
Tang Ya pouted, looking genuinely put-out. Bei Bei studied him more closely now—the defiant set of his thin shoulders, the unusual, faint chill in the air around him, the startling clarity in his blue eyes that seemed far too old for an eleven-year-old street urchin.
"A spirit master with a body spirit, all alone in the Star Dou Great Forest… and with a will like tempered steel," Bei Bei murmured, too low for Tang Ya to hear. "How interesting."
Just as Huo Yuhao turned to melt into the foliage, a new voice cut through the air, lazy and profound, echoing directly in his mind and seeming to vibrate from the very earth.
"Frightened? Who's frightened? Leaving so soon, little human? And after I came all this way to see the interesting soul that just messed with the ice laws…"
The ground at the clearing's edge softened, then cracked open. A cool, refreshing aura poured forth, and from it emerged a sight that made Tang Ya gasp and Bei Bei instantly shift into a protective stance.
A colossal silkworm, over seven meters long, its body like translucent, glowing white jade. Ten gorgeous, pulsating golden rings adorned its form. Its large, liquid golden eyes were fixed not on the powerful Tang Sect disciples, but on the thin, retreating boy.
The Million-Year Spirit Beast. The Tianmeng Iceworm.
Its gaze held Huo Yuhao, and a playful, immense mental voice echoed in his sea of consciousness, bypassing his ears entirely. "You… you are full of contradictions. A weak body, but a soul that smells of… destiny and something else. Something that doesn't belong. You even used a stolen wisp of primordial cold. You're skipping the queue, little variable."
Huo Yuhao's heart hammered against his ribs. This was the being meant to be his first power, his guide. Now, it was an unpredictable, supreme entity looking at him like a fascinating puzzle.
[System Alert: Critical Narrative Junction]
[Canon Path:] Accept the Tianmeng Iceworm's sacrifice. Gain the Million-Year Intelligent Spirit Ring, the 'Hero's Journey' template, and a powerful ally. High synchronization with original plot.
[Rebellion Path:] Reject the pre-packaged destiny. Negotiate from a position of hidden strength. Outcome: Unknown. Risk of annihilation: High. Reward: ???
The chat exploded in a wall of screaming text. Tang Ya was whispering rapidly to Bei Bei, "A million-year aura… it's impossible… it's talking to him!"
Bei Bei's hand was on his spirit tool, his face pale. "Don't move, Xiaoya. That being… it's beyond anything."
Huo Yuhao looked from the bewildered, cautious faces of Tang Ya and Bei Bei to the amused, ancient eyes of the Tianmeng Iceworm. The script demanded a tearful, grateful fusion here, beginning his bond with the Tang Sect under the watchful eye of a benevolent, chatty cheat.
He took a deep breath, the cold energy of his Primordial Ice Seed steadying his nerves. He looked straight into the Iceworm's golden eyes and spoke aloud, his voice clear in the silent clearing.
"I'm not interested in a predetermined sacrifice," he said. "But I am interested in a conversation."
A profound silence fell. The Tianmeng Iceworm's playful aura shifted, deepening into something of genuine, intrigued surprise.
In the God Realm, seated on a throne of intertwined blue and red light, Tang San's eyes snapped open. His divine sense, ever so lightly monitoring the trillion threads of fate connected to his legacy, twitched. One thread—a minor, almost insignificant one linked to a potential future pawn—had not just thickened with fortune as planned.
It had flickered. For a microsecond, it had become opaque to his perception.
His brow, for the first time in a millennium, furrowed in mild, divine confusion.
---
TO BE CONTINUED…
(Chapter 4 Preview: A Conversation with a Cosmic Worm – Huo Yuhao negotiates with the baffled and intrigued Tianmeng Iceworm, not as a chosen host, but as a peer aware of its desperate plight. He offers an alternative to sacrifice, leveraging knowledge from the future and the resources in his Black Book. Meanwhile, Tang Ya and Bei Bei become audience to an unprecedented event, and Tang San's divine gaze begins to focus, searching for the source of the "narrative static.")