Long Yuan / Yuan Long (2)

"Yuan Long? Are you sure I'm called Yuan Long, and not the other way around?" Long Yuan asked with a blank expression plastered on his stupid face. It seems that he had no idea that this physical body was no longer the one he had back on earth.

There's no explanation given, but for an unknown reason, his soul has transmigrated from the earth where he came and replaced the actual Yuan Long as the new owner of this body.

Based on the injury on the chest, it was likely the actual owner had already gone before Long Yuan takeover this empty vessel as his own.

"Ouch!" Long Yuan cried in pain when Yuan Ling applied the medicinal paste to his wound. In between the pain comes a hint of coldness from the mint and star anise, which is good to remove impurities and inflammation.

But even with these soothing sensations from the herbs, the pain is still unbearable. Based on the scar that tore apart his skin until his flesh was visible, the owner of this body must have been attacked by something vicious before he ended up this way.

This degree of pain was far above what he had suffered before this while working as a newbie kitchen helper.

He had two serious accidents in his twenty years of employment inside a traditional kitchen. The first time was when he was about to suffer a third-degree burn from the gigantic steamer used to prepare hot dishes for a banquet. As for the second time, that's when he's barely mastered the art of using the knife.

If his master was not by his side back then, Long Yuan would be a chef with an index finger missing from his left palm. The sudden nostalgic recollection made Long Yuan quickly glimpse his left palm.

"What's in your mind, Long-Gege..." Yuan Ling asked. She had no idea what was wrong with her big brother for staring at his palm blankly.

"Did you get a fever? Let me check your temperature..." Yuan Ling immediately put her palm on Yuan Long's forehead to see if he had a fever after saying what she had in her mind. And it perplexed her further since Yuan Long seems to be okay so far.

"Nothing... Did you say you're my younger sister, Yuan Ling? Can I ask what we do for a living since you mentioned that we're orphans?" Long Yuan asked. He knew that he would have to get used to being called Yuan Long instead from this moment onwards.

(Author's Note: [Long Yuan / Chef from Earth]-[Yuan Long / deceased brother of Yuan Ling]. I am writing this way to indicate how confusing Long Yuan's state of mind is right now. Hope this explains why the MC thoughts and speech are with Long Yuan, but when addressed by others, it's Yuan Long.)

As an avid reader of Xianxia novels and dramas, Long Yuan never thought that there was a day such an experience would happen to him. But for the current Long Yuan, he had no other choice but to believe he was Isekai-ed to a stranger's world without explanation given.

"We're farmers. Did almost losing your life on the farm turn you into an idiot? You're lucky you have a cute younger sister like me. Do you know how heavy you are and how much you bleed that day?" Yuan Ling pouted as she complained.

A drop of tears was rolling from the corner of her eyes as she lightly hammered Yuan Long's shoulder to vent her worry and anger. She finally acted like a younger sister should while throwing her tantrum at Yuan Long.

Seeing how worried she was, Long Yuan couldn't bear to tell her the truth that her older brother, Yuan Long, no longer exists in this world. But at the same time, it made him feel that he had to take over this responsibility as the person who lived as Yuan Long for now.

"Do you know what happened at the farm? Why was I heavily injured?" Long Yuan changed the topic. And since he was going to do this, he might as well get to know what transpired at that farm.

"Why? If it's not you being so stupid to challenge a second-stage Foundation Realm Beast, would you end up wounded so heavily? Don't you know that out of ten people, half of them died from a stupid decision like this?" Yuan Ling answered.

At the same time after her sentence, she gave Yuan Long a finger flick on his forehead. If this big brother of hers weren't heavily wounded right now, she would give him a more brutal lesson that he'll never forget.

"What? Second-stage Foundation Realm Beast?" the five words mentioned by Yuan Ling caught Long Yuan's attention. Although he had a rough idea of what to expect, he had no idea that cultivation and ferocious beast exist in this world.

His mind was both happy and worried at the same time after hearing the words coming out from Yuan Ling's lips.

"You should be thankful that the beast's attention was entirely on the plants we're growing. If your Spiritual Essence is a tad stronger than the plant we're growing, you'll be the one getting eaten by the ferocious beast, not the plants." Yuan Ling stood up after finishing her sentence.

From its look, the procedure to apply the medicinal ointment was complete. After replacing the bandage used to dress up Yuan Long's wound, the beautiful lass left the house quietly.

Based on their living conditions, having two sets of clothing as a bandage should be all they could afford. And if Yuan Ling took her time to clean the soiled bandages, the bloodstain would likely stay on the clothing, making it seen not as sanitary as it should be.

Long Yuan now had more time to digest what he was told since he was the only one left inside this wooden hut.

Since there's no point for him to purposely adjust anything to support his back, Long Yuan can only use his own right arm to adjust his posture.

Using this leisure time right now, Long Yuan took a glimpse over the wooden hut's four corners. It was indeed a simply furnished house with two beds, a wooden clothing drawer, and a table with four wooden chairs in the middle of the house.

He could also guess that this bed is likely belonged to Yuan Ling, based on the simply furnished straw-filled blanket and bamboo mat that looks much better than the second bed. He could also assume that the weather during the night should be pretty warm, based on the absence of a blanket on the other bed.

Furthermore, there's a girlish cosmetic box set placed on the bedside table, along with two bamboo slip scrolls. It would be weird if he still couldn't grab the hint from all of these belongings.

But it surprised Long Yuan that the kitchen to prepare food was located outside the house.

Placing his hand over at one of the two bamboo slip scrolls resting on the table, Long Yuan proceeded to untie the strings that kept the scroll together.

Hopefully, I can understand the content and language they used in this scroll." Long Yuan told himself and slowly unrolled the bamboo slip from left to right.

He immediately frowns as he finds it impossible to understand all the words they're using in the scroll.

'What language is this? The word looked similar, but everything seemed to be in a reverse manner.' Long Yuan complained.

But he soon noticed the problem in less than ten seconds after complaining. Long Yuan quickly noticed his mistake when the unrolling process arrived at an image drawn upside down.

He had no idea that the scrolls should be read from right to left, not the way he did previously. If he didn't notice the drawing, he would likely still keep up with the mistake until Yuan Ling or someone else told him.

The words were instantly readable once he turned the bamboo slip scroll around. It seems that the characters used were the same he learned, with just minor differences here and there.

While there are a few words he couldn't understand in a sentence here and there, it could still allow Long Yuan to decipher the meaning behind the scroll. After reading them, his understanding of this world and the Shiyuan Continent also gradually deepens.

Just like what Yuan Ling said, this vast continent they're residing in was known as Shiyuan. Unlike the earth, cultivation is essential to survive in this world.

This world also had the concept of cultivation, sect, heaven, and godhood. But it was unlike those Xianxia and Wuxia collections he knew. It seems that the core of cultivation here, or known as Spiritual Essence, did not exist openly in the atmosphere and air they breathed.

Instead, the Spiritual Essence could only be found from all solid matter in this Shiyuan Continent. As recorded in the bamboo slip scroll, only solid material can hold Spiritual Essence within, like plants, minerals, soil, oddity, beast, and human.

And to cultivate, their only choice was to harness the Spiritual Essence from their surrounding.

Thus, this opened up the opportunity for hardly recognizable occupations such as farmers, blacksmiths, and hunters to flourish. But these occupations were merely a second-rated choice in the eyes of experts.

As recorded in the bamboo slip scroll, only two professions absolutely reign above the rest. They are also highly respected by the people living inside this Shiyuan Continent.

'Alchemist and Chef?' Long Yuan suspected that he had misread the word and rubbed his eyes before re-reading the entire sentence again.