The branching limbs higher up the tree were thick and sturdy, so Zhao Shiyu kept climbing.
Every few moves, she would reach into her clothes to touch the stone hidden against her chest.
She climbed all the way up until she reached a section where the leaves were dense and lush, then settled onto a thick branch and sat down.
Peering through the layers of foliage, she saw that Zhao Shiying had nearly reached this area.
Without hesitation, Zhao Shiyu pulled the stone from her clothes.
She snapped off a thin twig and pressed her right thumb hard against the broken end.
A wooden splinter immediately pierced her skin.
“Ah—!”
She sucked in a quiet breath of pain.
The moment she pulled her finger away, a bead of blood welled up, quickly gathering into a thin trickle.
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhao Shiyu pressed her bleeding finger firmly against the black stone.
Sure enough—
A blood bond was the correct method.
The black stone greedily drank in her blood.
As more and more of it was absorbed, the stone rapidly shrank before her eyes until it disappeared completely.
The tiny wound left by the splinter vanished as well.
In its place, on the pad of her thumb, was a tiny black dot no bigger than a grain of millet.
Zhao Shiyu pinched it lightly between two fingers and rubbed it a few times.
When she lifted her thumb to inspect it again, the black dot was gone.
At that same instant, a space appeared within her mind.
It resembled a vast glass house.
Its height was impossible to determine, but its length and width were both ten meters—making it roughly one hundred square meters in total.
Above stretched a brilliant blue sky.
There was no sun.
No moon.
No stars.
And yet the entire space was perfectly illuminated.
Beneath her feet lay rich, fertile black soil.
At the moment, it was covered with all kinds of wild grass and flowers.
Against the lush green blades, blossoms of every color swayed gently in the breeze.
The whole scene was breathtakingly beautiful, creating the illusion of standing in some pristine natural paradise.
Every so often, a light wind would drift through.
A small river extended in from somewhere outside the space, flowing through one corner and leaving behind a roughly one-meter-wide water source.
The water flowed endlessly.
Living water.
As for where it came from—or where it went after leaving—
That remained unseen.
Beyond the boundaries of this space, she could make out vast stretches of black earth, distant mountain ranges rising and falling across the horizon, and a river winding peacefully at their feet.
But those areas were still locked.
For now, she couldn’t step into them.
Don’t ask how she knew.
The moment she obtained the space, all this information had simply flooded into her mind.
As she gradually unlocked more of it, the space would continue expanding.
And when it was completely unlocked—
It would become an entire miniature world.
And she would be its absolute master.
Oh my.
Was the Heavenly Dao treating her a little too well?
Zhao Shiyu grinned from ear to ear.
Her exclusive female-lead space had finally been secured.
And according to the information the space had transmitted to her, the bond was tied directly to her soul.
Even though she had initiated it with blood, the true binding was to her spirit itself.
Which meant—
No external force could ever steal it.
That finally put her mind at ease.
After finishing her inner inspection of the space, she looked down again.
Only one or two hundred meters away from the tree where she was hiding, Zhao Shiying had stopped walking.
Her face was filled with stunned disbelief and deep frustration.
Apparently, she possessed some sort of intuitive perception.
She could sense that the Space Stone—which should have belonged to the female lead—had already found its owner.
She just had no idea who that owner was.
Naturally, she never suspected Zhao Shiyu.
After all, when she’d left the house, Zhao Shiyu had supposedly still been locked inside her room.
There was no way Zhao Shiying could imagine that Zhao Shiyu had slipped out through the back window, arrived here ahead of her, taken the Space Stone, and completed the contract on the spot.
Everything was settled now.
Even if Zhao Shiying discovered the truth, all she could do would be stare helplessly.
At this moment, her heart felt utterly miserable.
Ever since transmigrating into this novel world, everything she had done revolved around guarding against the female lead.
She had constantly schemed to steal Zhao Shiyu’s opportunities before she could claim them.
To that end, she had spent all this time keeping a close watch on Zhao Shiyu, terrified of missing the moment the female lead transmigrated.
And yet—
Despite all her caution and preparation, someone had still beaten her to it.
Could it be that, aside from the female lead and herself—the book transmigrator—there was yet another outsider in this world?
Otherwise, what was this strange feeling she was experiencing?
If there really was another outsider…
Were they a transmigrator?
A reborn individual?
Or perhaps some kind of quick-transmigration task executor?
Though she could feel the sting of losing such a precious treasure, Zhao Shiying still refused to give up.
She searched the surrounding area again.
This was a place she had already combed through countless times.
Every black stone she could find had long since been collected and tested by her.
And unsurprisingly, another search yielded nothing.
Then—
She saw the freshly dug pit.
And fell completely silent.
So…
Back then, she shouldn’t have only searched the surface.
She should have dug up this entire area.
If she had turned over every inch of earth, would she have found the space?
Regret.
So much regret that her intestines practically turned green.
But regret was useless now.
And she still had no idea who had taken the Space Stone.
Could it really be true?
Could there be another person here who knew the plot besides the female lead and herself?
If so, was that person reborn?
Transmigrated?
Or some sort of quick-transmigration operative?
Zhao Shiying’s thoughts spiraled into a full-blown mental storm.
Speculation piled atop speculation until her head felt ready to explode.
The more she thought, the less sense anything made.
Annoying.
So damn annoying.
She stood beside the pit for over ten minutes before finally leaving, her face filled with bitterness and unwillingness.
After all, she had come out under the excuse of digging wild vegetables.
She couldn’t exactly return home with an empty basket.
Still, a voice in the back of her mind kept urging her to hurry back and check whether Zhao Shiyu was really still inside her room.
So after hastily yanking up a few handfuls of wild greens—barely enough to cover the bottom of her basket—she immediately turned back toward home.
Unfortunately for her, the moment she left the area, Zhao Shiyu had already slipped down from the tree.
Keeping low and hidden from sight, she retraced her route, sneaking back the same way she had come.
By the time Zhao Shiying returned home with her pitiful handful of vegetables and knocked on Zhao Shiyu’s door, an impatient voice sounded from inside.
“Who is it now?
Are you seriously not done bothering me?
Can’t a person sleep in peace?”
Zhao Shiying: …
At that moment, she couldn’t even describe what she was feeling.
Relief?
Not exactly.
Anger?
Not entirely.
Schadenfreude?
That didn’t fit either.
Without saying a word, she walked away in a daze.
When Zhao Shiyu sensed that everything had gone quiet outside—and heard no more of Zhao Shiying’s inner thoughts—her curiosity was immediately piqued.
She couldn’t stay lying in bed any longer.
Quietly, she slipped over to the window and peered out through the narrow crack.