Book 2 Chapter 2 – The True Reward

　　Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don’t read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.

　　Li Yiming turned around and saw a little girl, about seven or eight years old, with delicate features, rosy cheeks, and traces of baby fat that had yet to recede, which made for a very cute appearance. She stood right behind him and had an expression that was enough to make any heart melt. However, Li Yiming’s limbs were frozen from terror upon seeing her. Ever since watching a certain j.a.panese horror movie a while ago, the sight of a little girl by herself would always make his blood run cold, not to mention the circ.u.mstances in which he found himself.

　　The little girl had her hair combed neatly into a bun. A wooden hairpin pierced through the knot of hair. She wore a white taoist robe and flat bottom cloth boots. Had Li Yiming met her elsewhere, he would have commented on how cute the little girl was, but now… It was terrifying beyond description.

　　“Who… Who are you?” Li Yiming took three steps back, until his back was touching the wall.

　　“Have you ever heard of Innate Summons?”

　　“Innate summons?” Li Yiming was dumbfounded.

　　Pat The little girl palmed her forehead, and rolled her eyes in exasperation. Her look of annoyance made her even more lovable.

　　“Do you know anything at all?” The little girl blinked over and over again.

　　“Know what?”

　　The little girl let out a long sigh and sat down on the bed in frustration. She lowered her head and kicked her legs in the air abjectly.

　　“Uh… Little girl… Who are you? How did you get in here?” Li Yiming tried his hardest to make his tone sound as affable as possible. The innocence of that little girl had tugged on his heartstrings and brought out a natural friendliness.

　　The little girl turned her head toward him and took a deep breath before staring at him in the eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly stopped and collapsed back onto the bed. She pulled over a pillow from the side and stuffed her face into it while her limbs kicked in the air and a m.u.f.fled peevish roar was heard.

　　“What’s this smell?” She suddenly raised her head in surprise and looked at the pillow in her hands. The next moment, she threw it far away with a look of terror… To bury one’s face in a pillow from an inn at a train station…

　　“Little girl…”

　　“Stop.” She raised her hands and gestured with her plump fingers to interrupt Li Yiming. “Don’t say anything, just listen to me.”

　　She sat up straight and looked at Li Yiming with seriousness, but her expression somehow conveyed a resignation for an undesirable fate. “I am Bai Ze, your innate summon.”

　　“Bai Ze? Innate summon?”

　　“Shut up and listen to me.” The little girl was very angry all of a sudden, but her round, flushed cheeks made it seem more like a childish outburst than anything else.”

　　“Look, I don’t know what on Earth made Heaven’s Laws summon me to here, but now that I’m here, I need to accept my predicament and obey the rules. We’re stuck together from now on. Don’t look at me like that, do you think that I’m happy with this match? Do you think that I’m content with following a clueless idiot? Look at yourself, how are you even a remote fit for me?”

　　Li Yiming quirked his lips. There was something odd for such language to emerge out of the mouth of a seven or eight-year old little girl. But Li Yiming understood one thing, at the least: this had to do with the Heavenly Laws.

　　“Stop staring at me. I’m your innate summon, the reward from your previous success in the domain. I don’t know how you managed to expel your self-will, but such are the rules. If you manage to destroy it, you’re rewarded with an innate summon.”

　　Li Yiming finally connected the dots. ‘So that camouflager in black clothes…’

　　“Are all innate summons like you?” Li Yiming looked at the little girl, and the only use he could find for her was in bringing affection out of those with a soft heart. ‘It sounds like a really impressive reward, but…’

　　The little girl threw another look of disdain at Li Yiming, indicating that she has had enough of him. “Look, I’ll explain it to you, innate summons are a designation, not some kind of biological species. You can consider it as a talent, a technique of some kind, bestowed by the Heavenly Laws. Get it?”

　　Li Yiming shook his head.

　　“Ugh…” The little girl sighed again and picked up a gla.s.s cup from the table. After smelling its interior, she put it back down with a frown. “You erased your self-will, so the Heavenly Laws has rewarded you with a technique. A technique to summon… a helper.” She organized her thoughts into words with some difficulty. “The summon exists thanks to you, but it could be anything. A dragon, a bird, or even a fly. And you, you are very lucky, because I became your helper. I’ve told you, don’t look at me like that, I’m Bai Ze, Bai Ze!” 1