I Became a Witch in a World Full of Urban Legends

Jiangli stood before the iron door, and her eyes turned silver, raising her sword without hesitation to cut off the steel bars that welded the door shut. With a swift kick, she kicked open the door and used the door as a shield to rush into the room.

Her nostrils were immediately greeted with a strong stench of formalin, as well as the stench of turbid psychic energy waves.

It was empty now, and she couldn’t sense any urban legend hiding inside the room. There were messy footprints scattered across the floor, however, as if somebody had just escaped.

Where are you hiding? She frowned, wrapping her eyes with psychic energy as she scanned around the room.

It was a large room with a simple layout. There were four glass tanks that resembled aquariums, with the tops sealed.

Three of them seemed smashed through, and glass shards could be seen on the floor. At the bottom of these aquariums, there was a wet, reddish-brown mucus that resembled strange bodily fluids.

The only intact aquarium was covered with a thick layer of dust.

Covering her mouth and nose, she saw a panel hanging on the wall, detailing information about the previous pigs that were held in here.

[Shanfeng Village, Ningxiang County Pig, 948KG…]

[Songliao Mountains, Black Pig, 957KG…][Hormones, Songliao Mountains, Black Pig, 1002KG…]

She silently read through the information regarding the previous King of Pigs as labelled by the slaughterhouse. There was more text behind the panel, detailing scientific research regarding the pigs. It had no practical value, but there was one disturbing detail written on it.

Special feed? Does this have anything to do with feeding them meat?

She shook her head. No, you can replace meat with other things to supplement nutrients, so how would they support the growth of such heavy pigs?

Her mind worked as she walked around the room, but determined that there was no valuable information in the room. She exited the room and walked towards the archives.

That exhibition room was probably just for investors to see – a clean slate for them to witness.

The Southern Suburbs Slaughterhouse was the winner of the King of Pigs for three consecutive years, which attracted investment opportunities under the guise of establishing scientific research to breed pigs.

Just like geese with golden eggs, the pigs themselves were like gold to the slaughterhouse.

In fact, when ordinary people witness just how big the pigs were, they have reason to believe that the slaughterhouse possesses revolutionary technology to breed the pigs.

It can’t be this simple.

Walking down the corridor, she saw several rooms by the end of the corridor.

Other rooms usually had a window adjacent to them, and you can look into the room from the outside. However, these rooms had no windows, and the locks on them seemed heavy-duty, where even the best locksmiths would have trouble picking them.

This must be where the archives are.

Any company would seal sensitive information away with such heavy locks.

Clang, clang!

Jiangli didn’t hesitate to slash through a hole big enough for her to fit through.

Ducking through the door, the room was very large. Several dead plants could be seen laying limply against the wall, and next to them were empty bookshelves and office desks. In the corner of the room, a filing cabinet could be seen.

The cabinet was sealed off with police tape, and along the corners of the cabinet were the tell-tale sealing spells of the Night Division.

Why seal this and not mention it? Did they find something terrible inside? She frowned again and removed the seals, opening the cabinet door.

Nothing leapt out at her as she opened the doors to the cabinet, nor was there any strange totem that caused the alarms in her body to blare. There was nothing within, and a lone, dusty, USB drive revealed itself.

She was disappointed, but picked the USB drive up and sat on the office chair. She fumbled through her pockets, finding an adapter cable to insert the USB and connected it to her mobile phone.

I hope it works. It must be important if it is stored inside this cabinet.

As she thought, her phone finished scanning the contents of the flash drive, and a bunch of garbled codes popped up.

Encrypted. Of course. Since her phone was provided from the Night Division, it had the ability to crack through encrypted files, and she tapped on the option to do so.

[7%… 12%…  21%…]

Watching the progress bar, her expression shifted suddenly and looked up to the outside of the room.

She could sense something approaching – no footsteps, no discernable sounds, but she could feel it.

It was walking up the stairs, moving like a shadow.

Hah! Finally! Something stopping me from uncovering the secrets of the slaughterhouse, she sneered in her heart. She stuffed her phone into her pockets and picked up her sword, walking out into the corridor.

When she returned to the corridor, it was nothing but darkness, accompanied with an eerie silence. She could feel the corridors filled with a disgusting presence of psychic energy.

She calmly covered her eyes with a layer of psychic energy, and shadows revealed themselves in her vision. The shadows’ faces were blurred, and she didn’t recognize their shadows in the darkness. Their bodies were covered with a viscous liquid as they stared lifelessly at her.

Then, they started to move.

Their eyes flashed an evil red, and they rushed towards her with strange roars, as if they were piloted by something evil.

“I didn’t expect lowly urban legends like you to be as sneaky as this.”

Whispering to herself, her eyes darkened as she raised her sword towards them, and her blade began to spit out a pillar of silver-blue flames.

Yes! Reveal yourselves to me! Confront my sword and be freed from your shackles!

…

No, no, no, it can’t be, not like this, Yibei thought.

Although Yibei was fiddling with her cellphone before entering the slaughterhouse, she was secretly observing the situation as well.

From her peripheral vision, she remembered seeing Mew Mew and Zhang Dexian moving together.

That’s why when she heard the sounds of Zhang Dexian and the urban legends fighting, she concluded that Mew Mew was in trouble as well, and began fantasizing about saving her.

Reality is often disappointing. Instead of saving a beautiful girl, she unexpectedly saved a muscular man.

She glanced at the headless remains of the workers on the ground. Although there were more workers approaching in the distance, she could sense the man being more afraid of her knife than the workers. When she turned to look at him, he flashed a confident smile.

A smile again. Why is everyone smiling? Mew Mew smiles like she never smiled before (literally!), and now, he’s smiling like he’s the reincarnation of a god of war, and for me… wait, I have facial paralysis – I can’t smile. I should keep my mouth shut.

Zhang Dexian watched the silent Witch before him, clasping his fists together, “Little girl, I have no way of repaying your kindness. Thank you for saving my life. I can only give you…”

“Stop!” she interrupted. “Nope! I’m not hearing it! I’m not marrying you! I’m not into bulky, muscular men! Nooope!”

Zhang Dexian wanted to correct her, but stopped as the workers were closing in on them.

Their eyes flashed red as they stared at them, like they were two pieces of delicious meat delivered to their doorstep.

“They look bloodthirsty. We’re in danger,” he said.

“Well, what do we do? Do we kill them?”

I’m supposedly a Level B psychic user now if I were to estimate my power level… I’ll deal with these bastards! Watch me! Yibei thought confidently.

“I have a way to deal with them, but you need to buy me some time.”

Why are you taking the lead? You’re not the protagonist here! Yibei grumbled internally.

She cursed inwardly, but still nodded, “You can count on me!”

We’re in danger, and yet I’m still covering for him. Whatever – I already tested out the imitation Divine Horse Armor, and I’m satisfied with how fast it is. If his power is unreliable, I can just gallop out of here.

“Little girl, you know some spells yourself, right?” she heard the man ask.

“Yes, I can summon some fire on the palms of my hands.”

And other spells as well and incantations as well, but considering her unusual power of amplification, if she were to amplify her spells by 50 times, she fears that she wouldn’t be able to bear the terrifying consumption of her psychic energy.

She could force herself through it, but with Mew Mew (Jiangli) around, she felt that it was inappropriate to show off.

“Ah?” Dexian went, seemingly flashing question marks above his head. “That’s it?”

“Yup, but it’s super strong. Wanna see?”

Zhang Dexian was speechless. How could a tiny cough of fire that could only be used for lighting the way be any good?

He felt that he was in trouble. He thought this little girl was somebody powerful, but a little girl is a little girl after all.

Zhang Dexian was silent and looked forward, “Forget it, there is only one way now.”

Excuse me?

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Just don’t be a coward!”

As a hard-blooded man, fighting was all that he knew, and he wanted to fight to the death to protect the girl, despite her inabilities.

“Uh, are you sure about that?” Yibei asked, pointing behind him.

“I will protect you, so we have to be brave! And…” he trailed off, looking at the direction of her finger. “What the fuck?!”

The workers morphed together at some point as they stuck to each other, forming a huge body.

Deeply corrupted by the legends of the slaughterhouse, they stuck together like Lego, and formed several behemoths that were as tall as the roof. They were on all fours with sharp fangs, and their red eyes were like warning lights, outlining the black mucus on their bodies like a wild boar.

Their maws were full of sarcoma, and black mucus dripped from their mouths like saliva as their screams shook the foundations of the building, crawling rapidly towards them.

Zhang Dexian was stunned, unsure of how to act as he clenched his sweaty fists.

The next moment, he felt his feet leaving the ground, and he seemed to be flying.

He looked down in confusion, only to realize that he had been lifted up by Yibei.

“This isn’t your fight. You should’ve left things to me!” Yibei’s voice resonated in his ears.

“Are you going to run? They seem fast and sensitive to movements; I don’t think we stand a chance!”

Boom!

As he spoke, a powerful blast of air blasted the two of them out the breeding farm.

The wind was strong enough to push against Dexian’s face, and his tongue swayed out of his mouth like a flag in strong winds.

The next moment, a roar sounded behind them, and several huge, black figures crawled out from the building with their eyes trained on the falling Witch…

…

Meanwhile, on the hill outside the slaughterhouse.

The lanky man and the cat girl sat side-by-side on the treetop, sharing an earphone. As they observed the slaughterhouse, they were mesmerized by the new chapter about the Serpent on a certain taxi driver’s livestream.

“My god, I didn’t expect the Witch to do something like this under our noses… killing an ancient, mythical god? How credible do you think this Zhang Shan’s story is?” the cat girl inquired.

“At least 60%, and that’s accounting for him saying that he’s her friend,” the lanky man replied.

“But aren’t you worried?” the cat girl looked to her side. “Wouldn’t there be any problems with her obtaining the Serpent’s powers?”

“Her powers are still immature, correct? If the Eclipse Society comes tonight, and she loses to them, then her new powers would not become a problem.”

“I wasn’t talking about that,” the cat girl corrected. “Remember the time when I told you about how, on multiple occasions,  she refused to pick up the money I left on the floor as a trap? She’s inherently cautious, so how could she just… devour the Serpent’s knowledge?”

“You expect her to resist the temptation of power?”

“I don’t have that expectation for other people, but for her…”

Boom! Boom!

A loud explosion could be heard in the slaughterhouse, and the two looked at the source of the sound, causing the corners of their mouth to twitch together.

In the slaughterhouse grounds, a frail, white-haired girl was seen running with a muscular man in her arms. Her figure danced as she leapt from building to building, leaving behind a string of her afterimages.

Several large figures chased after them, spewing foul and poisonous mist in an attempt to subdue them. However, the girl was nimble, and would always be able to dodge the mist before it could hit them.

“She’s fast,” the lanky man said, unsure.

“Look closely – it’s the same horse armor from earlier. It should be a replica of the Divine Horse Armor if I remember correctly.”

“Oh,” he responded lightly, and complicated feelings stirred in him.

The two have organized dozens of group reviews like this, and it’s not like they didn’t witness some powerful psychics. They have even seen some of them treat the review like some kind of escape room or an ARG, but this is the first time they seen somebody treat the review like a parkour game.

The lanky man opened his mouth to say something, but two psychic energy fluctuations of unknown origin broke into his senses.

A rotten stench laced with violence was approaching.

The cat girl’s furry ears swayed from side-to-side, and her pupils turned into sharp splits.

“That anonymous user from Vaccaria’s livestream was right,” the lanky man announced, flexing his wrists as he stood on the branch.

The cat girl nodded, looking in the direction of the psychic waves. With her enhanced vision, she saw two black shadows flying from a distance, landing near the slaughterhouse.

The members of the Eclipse Society are here.

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

Early chapter today! I’m glad y’all have the same thoughts as me regarding the story! Jiangli is really growing on me as a character – she’s really well written, in my opinion. Most stories I’ve read don’t get the ‘cold. not cruel’-superior-character right, but this story strikes a fine balance between her being cold and having genuine, human concern and curiosity over Yibei and urban legends respectively.

As always, if you’d like to support me, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/slicedbreadsbakery; any amount helps motivate me to continue translating this ;3c.