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Yuna opened her small home, which looked a bit broken.
"I'm home!"
"Little Yu is home… how is the academy?"
An old yet strong and hearty voice greeted Yuna, who had come home and declared her presence jovially.
"It was good, Grandpa. I was slacking off the entire time."
An old man who still looked good—big and hulky, handsome, with a manly white beard—came forward and hugged Yuna in a tight bear hug.
"Uff… Grandpa, how's today's business?"
Yuna breathlessly asked, pushing and trying to get out of her grandfather's too-tight embrace.
"The dessert you came up with was well liked, and the business is booming, unlike before."
Grandpa Orion put down his lovely granddaughter. He rubbed her head and said, "Your little head really can come up with some amazing recipes."
"Hehehe…" Yuna wordlessly chuckled. She couldn't say that the recipe came from her previous life, right? So Yuna just had to thicken her skin and shamelessly take the credit. She didn't even know who came up with the recipe in the first place.
"Ehh… what smells so good?"
Yuna sniffed around.
"Just a pheasant that was caught in the trap I set."
"Wow… Grandpa is awesome."
Grandpa Orion pinched Yuna's cheek, mumbling, "Cheeky flatterer."
"Hehe…"
The small house only had Yuna and her cheaply gained grandfather.
Her grandfather, a humble self-made hunter, had opened a small shop where he sold bakery goods and wooden toys he made in passing to catch the eye of children and draw in parents to buy more from his shop.
Being a hunter could not suffice the living expenses of himself and his growing granddaughter, so he opened a shop early.
As an awakened, the farsighted grandfather already had the vision of needing to send his granddaughter to an academy to learn. Even if she did not awaken, Grandpa Orion still thought of sending his granddaughter to some academy to gain basic knowledge and not let her fall too far behind her peers.
Thankfully, he opened the shop early, enabling him to save some money and be able to send his granddaughter when she awakened.
"Grandpa, have you thought about the doll illustration I gave you?"
"Hm… I will have to buy some garments for those exquisite dolls."
Yuna, a doodle master in class—especially during lecture time—decided to upgrade the dolls her grandfather sold in the shop, copying the exquisite dolls and stuffed toys from her previous world to boost sales.
In whichever world, money is always important.
Even if Yuna was muddled and dazed when she found herself in another world, she still instinctively pursued a way to earn more money.
Money is the reason we exist, everybody knows that's a fact, kiss kiss~
#Lana Del Rey
'They said that the cost of potions is expensive.'
What if she got sick? Or her grandfather got sick—her guardian—and they had no money to pay for treatment? It would be too late to cry tears of regret then.
Her body was so small, only nine years old. Yuna did not dare mingle in another world without adult supervision.
Even in her previous life, although shameful to admit, Yuna depended largely on her parents' money financially.
When a person who freshly transmigrates gains a relative, they might—and actually, most of the time—panic and try to reduce contact with them as much as possible so that the said relative will not find out that they are not the original.
But Yuna did not have such qualms. Her body was only so small, and even if she suddenly had a change in personality, a large portion could be attributed to her being a child, and it was normal for children to undergo and develop their personalities.
Even if it was an adult body that she transmigrated into, Yuna would still approach the relative actively because they could be a close confidant who could guide her in the new world she found herself in. At least, the relative wouldn't harm her, and she could gain temporary safety.
"Tomorrow is Saturday and we don't have class. I'll watch the shop with you, Grandpa, and bake with you."
Although she couldn't help her grandfather with making dolls, hunting prey, or even sewing—yep, her grandfather had many life skills—Yuna at least knew how to bake and cook. A necessity for Asian females, forced by imposing mothers to attract the male species and capture their stomachs to conquer their hearts and beguile them into marriage.
Hais… Asian daughters do not have it easy.
When night came, Yuna sat in the open area of the balcony.
The moon was bright, and since it was summer, the night was not cold.
"Huu… let's concentrate."
Yuna closed her eyes once again. This time, the song of cicadas and the quiet night eased her mood. The gently blowing winds calmed her down.
Yuna slowly probed the elements around her. She absorbed them and tried to enter a state of blankness while unconsciously absorbing the elements and filling her plate.
While absorbing them, Yuna distractedly wondered about the color of the elements.
'Water element must be blue, earth green, red fire, air sky blue….'
Instead of just filling her plate, Yuna even started to move the elements around her body, letting them flow in her bloodstream.
'They said the human body accumulates filth and dirt; maybe I can use the elements to purify such filth.'
Yuna thought simply and even distributed the elements to flow around her muscles and organs.
'Make my nerves sharper and even my hearing and vision better.'
Yuna's thoughts ran wilder and wilder.
She was a reader who never lacked imagination. Her thoughts were active, and her consciousness, although chaotic, was uniform.
'Thought as one, thought as one, thought as one.'
Already failing to concentrate in the afternoon, Yuna kept chanting 'thought as one' repeatedly, and the elements that tried to get away from her grasp or even go awry were repeatedly caught and directed to flow the way she wanted.
It was a miraculous experience to guide and do something close to supernatural or spiritual activity. It excited and exhilarated Yuna to no end.
The repeated process of trying to maintain order among the elements exhausted Yuna mentally.
But…
When had she ever succumbed to mental exhaustion?
Although controlling different kinds of elements was taxing, Yuna felt it was much more doable than working laboriously.
Her excited mood at being able to actually do 'cultivation' prompted her such that she still had enough energy to carry out 'elemental cultivation.'
She, who used to stay up late for three consecutive nights or most of the time only got two to four hours of sleep when engrossed in a novel or desperately trying to meet a deadline while exhausting her brain cells, did not plan on succumbing to mental exhaustion so soon.
As a reader who had gone through all sorts of emotional roller coasters when reading novels, she exclaimed that mental exhaustion was nothing.
It was nothing compared to depression and stress.
Although mentally drained, Yuna still held out the state of her so-called 'Purification' for two hours while repeatedly trying to differentiate the differences between the elements she absorbed.
Only when Yuna felt that she was really going to black out did she stop her concentration and flop onto the mat she had laid on the ground.
"Huh…?"
Yuna, who now seemed to feel the slimy state of her body, looked down and almost freaked out. Her body was covered in black, mucus-like substance.
Yuna felt the black mucus on her finger and sniffed her body, but as she did so, it almost caused her to vomit.
It stank like feces!
Even though exhausted—because mental drain is no joke—Yuna walked (crawled) herself toward the water barrel placed outside the house and started to wash herself.
The snoring sound of her grandfather rang loudly in the quiet night.
"…It must be the filth," Yuna mumbled while rubbing herself repeatedly. It was so stinky that Yuna suspected whether the smell could be removed completely.
She had read that when the male or female lead first started their cultivation and did their 'Qi' absorption, black filth would discharge from their body.
"Let's assume that is the case. I should continue to do this every night."
Thankfully, she didn't do it during the day at the academy.
Imagining being covered in filth and stinking in broad daylight, Yuna trembled at the thought. It would not be a very good experience. As a normal person, she had a sense of shame ah..
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