When the Side Character Gets a System and Travels through Difference Worlds

Little did Tan You and the little mouse know that someone was watching them from the distant heavens. One of them was busy building a cave residence, while the other was vainly admiring its own reflection. Each had her own joys and amusements. All in all, it was a peaceful time.

Tan You and the little mouse thus became companions. Ever since the golden line appeared on its brow, the little creature’s treasure-hunting ability seemed to have grown much stronger. The only problem was its packrat nature—it wanted to hoard every good thing it saw.

Tan You often had to clean up its messes. It was only because her cultivation level had risen and her physical body was so tough that she hadn’t drawn the ire of the masses. After making another clean getaway from the Three-Legged Golden Toad’s territory, Tan You dangled the little mouse by its tail. "You’d better not go to the Golden Toad’s place again."

"Every time you go, you get caught by the Golden Toad, and every time, I have to go rescue you."

Hanging by its tail, the little mouse wasn’t scared in the slightest. It even started swinging back and forth in Tan You’s hand. "It’s fine! The Golden Toad doesn’t dare do anything to me. After all, I’ve got you, right?"

Tan You held the upside-down mouse up to her face. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

The little mouse squeaked twice, full of bravado. "It serves the Golden Toad right for always making fun of me! Besides, that Golden Toad is loaded! It has so much good stuff!"

Tan You sighed. "Well, don’t be so smug about it. You’ll make others jealous. Be careful, or someone might try to trip you up later."

The little mouse squeaked twice, this time going limp and hanging from Tan You’s hand like a dead rat. "Alright, fine. I won’t go looking for the Golden Toad anymore."

After playing dead for a couple of seconds, it grew smug again. "Even though the Golden Toad and I are both treasure-hunting demon beasts, our situations are actually quite similar. In fact, mine is a little worse."

"The Golden Toad at least has some ability to protect itself. Even when facing a Heavenly Tribulation, it can withstand a few strikes. I can’t. The last time I advanced to a third-rank demon beast, I nearly died."

"So you’re going to the Golden Toad to show off? To flaunt the fact that you have me to help you withstand the Heavenly Tribulation?" Tan You said flatly.

"Yep," the little mouse said, perking up for a moment before its spirits fell again. "It would be great if the Golden Toad could also find its symbiotic demon beast. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about it not surviving its Heavenly Tribulation."

Tan You said, "The Golden Toad has an extraordinary bloodline. It’s inevitable that it will face hardships and obstacles on its path of growth. If you rely on others for everything, then there’s no point in cultivation."

"Because what others give you can also be easily taken away."

The little mouse had a different opinion. "Coasting to victory the whole way is much more fun. But you have a point, Huanhuan. If I had your level of Combat Power, I wouldn’t think about relying on others either."

"Actually, I’ve heard that Cultivators are particularly fond of treasure-hunting demon beasts like us. If we sign a contract with one of them, it should be easier to get through a Heavenly Tribulation."

"But to become someone’s servant just for the sake of cultivation... I consider that a personal humiliation," Tan You stated her thoughts. "I could never do it, at least. If anyone tried to sign a master-servant contract with me, I’d skin them alive."

With a quick scamper, the little mouse sat down on Tan You’s shoulder. "So let’s be partners! I’ll help you find all sorts of heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and you’ll protect me as I grow. Besides, we’re on the same side, so we don’t have to worry about being backstabbed."

It took every opportunity it could to persuade Tan You to team up. Tan You glanced at it but said nothing, and the little mouse didn’t feel awkward at all. It knew that even though Tan You hadn’t said so, she had already agreed in practice.

’Otherwise, I bother her all day, and she still hasn’t tried to chase me away, right?’

After walking a few more steps, Tan You suddenly asked, "You know about Cultivators?"

"Of course. I know a lot about the Ten-Direction Great Mountains. It’s a forbidden land, but with the protection of a sect, some Cultivators will bring their disciples here for training."

"Of course, they only go as far as the middle layer at most. They don’t dare venture into the inner layer."

"Once, a Cultivator broke into the inner circle to get a desirable demon beast for his heir. He did indeed manage to steal a Golden-Winged Roc egg, but that pair of Rocs was not to be trifled with."

"I heard they chased him all the way back to his sect and nearly slaughtered his entire family. If a sect elder hadn’t come out to mediate, the matter wouldn’t have been resolved so easily."

"After that, a rule was established in the Ten-Direction Great Mountains: Cultivators are forbidden from the inner circle."

Tan You was curious. "Which sect was that Cultivator from?"

The little mouse sighed. "The Tianyuan Sect. That was several hundred years ago."

Tan You raised an eyebrow slightly. "Several hundred years? By the way, how old are you?"

The little mouse fidgeted. "Anyway... I’m older than you."

Tan You didn’t ask anything else. She never would have imagined that this squishy little mouse had actually been cultivating longer than her body’s original owner. ’Just how...’ Tan You couldn’t think of an adjective, and she wasn’t the type to poke at someone’s sore spots.

Seeing that Tan You said nothing, the little mouse suddenly explained, "I didn’t dare to be too diligent in the past. For demon beasts like us with ancient bloodlines, our cultivation progress is extremely fast if we focus on it."

"But cultivating too quickly invites a Heavenly Tribulation, and I don’t want to die, so I just muddled along all this time."

"But now I have you, right? I’ll definitely cultivate properly from now on!"

Tan You nodded. "You really should start cultivating properly. Before, you were just admiring yourself in the mirror. Let’s get back to the Tianyuan Sect. What happened after that? I’ve heard the Tianyuan Sect is very powerful."

The little mouse said, "They are indeed very powerful, but the Tianyuan Sect is most famous for its way of beast taming."

"Beast taming?" Tan You’s brow slowly furrowed. "That doesn’t sound like a good thing."

"It’s not," the little mouse said, waving its paws. "We demon beasts are all proud creatures. Who would be willing to be manipulated by others? The Tianyuan Sect’s beast taming almost always involves raising demon beasts from a young age to extinguish their wild nature."

"Some of these young demon beasts are bred by the Tianyuan Sect itself, and others are captured from the Ten-Direction Great Mountains."

Tan You understood. "I see. Demon beasts that have been contracted by Cultivators—is there anything special about them?"

The little mouse was blunt. "Yep. They have a mark on them. It looks like this..."

Its little paw moved, and the mark of a master-servant contract appeared in midair. Seeing this mark, Tan You suddenly stopped in her tracks. She seemed to have seen it before.

At this thought, Tan You quickly reviewed her recent experiences, finally dredging up a sliver of memory from a remote corner of her mind.

"Qing Yuan... he seemed to have a mark like this on him." As she spoke, she took out Qing Yuan’s inner core. Luckily, she hadn’t crushed it back then. Looking at it now, there was indeed a mark deep within the core.

Tan You hadn’t understood at the time, but now she realized... ’Qing Yuan was actually a Cultivator’s demon beast?’

The little mouse also leaned in for a look. "It’s a master-servant contract. The only kind of contract demon beasts will accept is an equality contract. A master-servant contract... they’d rather self-destruct than agree to one of those."

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