Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World-Chapter 102: The Goddess Has Landed!

The ground buckled, sending a shockwave of dirt, stone, and terrified beastmen rippling outward like a stone thrown into a pond.

Xin Yi didn’t even have time to scream. One moment she was standing, and the next, a heavy, warm weight slammed into her back, tackling her face-first into the dirt.

"Stay down!" a deep voice growled in her ear.

Sha Chen.

He curled around her, his large frame shielding her completely as debris rained down around them, rocks, shattered wood, and what sounded suspiciously like a very expensive piece of celestial furniture crashing into the earth.

The world shook for a solid ten seconds.

Then...silence.

Complete, ringing silence.

Slowly, the heavy weight lifted off her. Xin Yi coughed, waving her hand to disperse the cloud of dust that now tasted like ozone and...wait, was that lavender?

"Is everyone dead?" she rasped, pushing herself up on her elbows.

"I am alive," Sha Chen grunted, rolling onto his side. His fur was dusted with gray powder, and his usually stoic face was twisted in a mixture of confusion and primal fear.

His white eyes were fixed on the center of the courtyard. "But...I do not know what that is."

Xin Yi followed his gaze.

The center of the Wolf King’s fortress, previously a battleground filled with snarling Tigers, hissing Snakes, and very angry Panthers, was now a crater.

A perfect, smoking, circular crater.

And sitting right in the middle of it, on a golden throne was a woman.

She was tiny. Petite. Dressed in flowing robes that shimmered with colors Xin Yi didn’t even have names for. Her hair floated around her head as if she were underwater, and she was currently inspecting a fingernail with a look of utter boredom.

[DING! (⊙_⊙)]

[HOST! IT’S HER!]

[THE PETTY GODDESS HAS ARRIVED!]

[RUN? HIDE? PRAY?]

[Actually, just stand there and look pretty! ☆]

"Shut up, System," Xin Yi hissed under her breath.

"Ugh," the goddess sighed, her voice ringing out like a crystal bell, clear enough for everyone in the stunned clearing to hear. "I specifically asked for a soft landing. What is this? Dirt? Ew."

She looked up, her golden eyes scanning the devastation.

"And why is it so loud?" She pouted, crossing her arms. "I could hear you lot screaming from my temple. ’Kill him!’ ’No, kill her!’ ’My mate!’ ’My territory!’ Blah, blah, blah. Do you have any idea how hard it is to nap with all this ruckus?"

Hei Yan was the first to snap out of it. The Panther beastman, who was currently half-buried under a pile of rubble near the gate, shook his head and let out a low, menacing growl.

"Who are you?" he roared, his voice dripping with the kind of aggression that usually made lesser beasts wet themselves.

Oh....

Hei Yan no...

Man Shu on the throne blinked. She looked at Hei Yan, then at the trembling Wolf soldiers, and finally at Qing Lin, who was clutching his spear, his snake eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

"Who am I?" She pointed a dainty finger at her own chest. Then she giggled. A sound that was equal parts adorable and terrifying. "Silly kitty. I’m the Landlord."

"Landlord?" Feng Huang, the Tiger King, stepped forward, wiping blood from his lip. He looked unimpressed. "I have never heard of a tribe called ’Landlord’. You smell...strange. Like the sky."

"I smell like divinity, you unwashed rug," the woman snapped, her smile vanishing instantly.

Suddenly, a Snake beastman, one of Qing Lin’s elite guards, decided he had seen enough. With a hiss, he lunged from the shadows of a broken wall, his spear aimed directly at the woman’s throat.

"For the Snake King!" he shrieked.

"NO, YOU IDIOT!" Xin Yi screamed, scrambling to her feet.

But she was too late.

Man Shu didn’t even look at him. She just waved her hand in a shooing motion, like one might swat a fly.

WHUMP.

There was no blood. No gore. The Snake beastman simply.....vanished.

Well, not vanished. The ground beneath him turned to liquid for a split second, swallowed him whole up to his neck, and then solidified again instantly.

"Mmph! Mmmph!" The Snake guard’s head was now sticking out of the dirt like a deeply confused cabbage.

The entire clearing gasped.

"Rude," she said, dusting off her robes. "I haven’t even introduced myself properly. I am Mán Shū. You know? The one who made your ancestors out of mud and spit? The Creator? The Big Boss?"

She looked around, waiting for applause.

Silence.

"Tough crowd," she muttered. Then her eyes landed on Xin Yi.

Xin Yi froze.

"​"Ow!" Xin Yi didn’t just rub her head. She slapped the Goddess’s hand away, her eyes filling with tears of rage.

​"Excuse me?!" Xin Yi screamed, her voice cracking. "You have the nerve to complain? You kidnapped me! I was in my bathroom! I was having a stomach cramp! And you dropped me here naked, in a forest filled with predators!"

​She took a step forward, poking the floating Goddess right back in the shin.

​"I have been kidnapped, almost eaten, and fought over like a piece of meat for months! I have trauma! I have stress lines! And you are mad about a score?" Xin Yi was shaking now, pointing a trembling finger at Mán Shū’s nose. "You didn’t give me a manual! You gave me a sarcastic blue screen and a panic attack! You rude, selfish, incompetent little—"

​The Goddess pouted, looking genuinely offended. She floated back a few inches, rubbing her shin.

​"I said I was sorry!" Mán Shū stomped her foot in the air, creating a ripple of golden light. "I didn’t think of all of that! I just thought it would be a fun adventure!"

​"Fun?!" Xin Yi looked ready to bite her.

​"Anyway!" Mán Shū huffed, crossing her arms defensively to cut off the rant. "My brother, Tiān Zhǔ, is going to be so mad. He told me, ’Mán Shū, don’t make a Beast World, they’re too chaotic.’ And I said, ’No, brother! They’ll be fluffy and sweet!’ And now look! If he sees this.....this disaster... he’s going to delete this place!"

"Delete the... what?" Qing Lin stepped forward, placing himself between the floating woman and Xin Yi. "You speak nonsense. If you are a goddess, then grant us victory. If not, leave."

Mán Shū stared at the Snake King. She leaned in close, nose to nose with him.

"You have your father’s eyes," she whispered. "And his annoying personality."

She floated back up, rising until she was hovering twenty feet in the air. The playfulness dropped from her face, replaced by a glowing, terrifying aura that made the hair on Xin Yi’s arms stand up.

"I should just reset it," she mused aloud, tapping her chin. "Start over. Maybe make bunnies this time. Bunnies are peaceful. Or capybaras."

"Reset?" Sha Chen’s voice boomed. He stepped next to Xin Yi, his hand gripping her shoulder. "You mean destroy us?"

"Well, yes," Mán Shū shrugged. "It’s just a factory reset. You wouldn’t feel a thing. Poof. Gone."

"NO!" Xin Yi yelled. "You can’t just delete them! They’re people! They have lives! And...and really good architectural potential!"

Mán Shū looked down at Xin Yi. "I thought you didn’t care anymore?"

Xin Yi opened her mouth, closed it , and looked away.

Then the goddess looked at the three Alpha males, Hei Yan, seething with jealousy, Qing Lin, cold and protective, Feng Huang, and Sha Chen, all standing around this one small, frantic human female.

A slow, wicked grin spread across the Goddess’s face.

"Oh," she giggled. "I see. You don’t want to leave them. And they clearly don’t want to leave you."

She clapped her hands together. The sound was like a thunderclap.

"Fine! Since you all love fighting so much, let’s make it a team building exercise!"

She raised both hands. The sky rumbled. Beams of golden light shot down from the clouds, slamming into the ground in a massive circle around Sha Chen’s fortress.

The earth trembled as a shimmering, translucent gold wall rose up, sealing them in. It went high, curving inward until it formed a perfect dome over the entire castle grounds.

"What is this?!" Hei Yan snarled, running toward the wall. He punched it.

ZAP!

"GAH!" The Panther King flew backward, his hair standing on end, smoke rising from his ears.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Mán Shū wagged her finger. "That’s a Divine Barrier, sweetie. High voltage. No one leaves. No one enters."

She floated down, landing gracefully back on her throne.

"Here is the deal," she announced, her voice booming like a loudspeaker. "I am putting you all in Time-Out."

"Time-Out?" Xin Yi squeaked.

"Yes! The ’Get Along’ protocol!" Mán Shū beamed. "Until further notice, you are all roommates. The Wolf, the Snake, the Tiger, the Panther...and the Human. You will live here. Together. In this fortress."

"Impossible!" Qing Lin hissed. "I will not live with this...dog." He glared at Sha Chen.

"And I will not share air with a snake," Sha Chen growled back.

"Too bad!" Mán Shū sang. She snapped her fingers again.

Four distinct glowing threads, one red, one green, one black, one orange, shot out from her hand. They swirled around Hei Yan, Qing Lin, Feng Huang, and Sha Chen, then zipped toward Xin Yi, wrapping around her wrist like a bracelet before vanishing into her skin.

Xin Yi stared at her wrist. "What.....did you just do?"

"I linked your life forces!" Mán Shū said cheerfully. "If one of you dies... you all die."

The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush a diamond.