Chapter Twenty-One: The Three Little Pigs (Please Vote, Your Support Is Appreciated)

After marriage, the woman naturally never fulfilled her promises to the man's daughter. Every day, it was her own daughter who enjoyed milk and wine, while the man's daughter washed her face with water and drank nothing but water.

Moreover, the woman went out of her way to make life difficult for her stepdaughter, often denying her meals altogether. The reason behind this cruelty was her obsession with finding the legendary forest fairy.

Only pure-hearted girls could find the forest fairy, which was the very reason she schemed to get close to the man and marry him.

Under her relentless pressure, the stepdaughter was forced to venture into the forest in the dead of winter to search for strawberries. Yet, the pure-hearted girl indeed encountered the legendary forest fairy there and even shared her bread with them.

Moved by the girl's kindness and beauty, the forest fairies bestowed blessings upon her:

“I wish her beauty to grow day by day.”

“I wish that every word she speaks brings forth a golden nugget from her mouth.”

“I wish for a king to discover her and marry her as queen immediately.”

These were the three most beautiful blessings from the forest fairies to the girl.

When the girl returned, the stepmother finally learned the secret to finding the forest fairies and sent her own daughter to obtain their powers.

However, her daughter’s selfish arrogance angered the fairies, who then cursed her:

“I wish her ugliness to grow day by day!”

“I wish that every word she speaks spits out a toad.”

“Because of her wickedness, I wish her a miserable end!”

Having received the curse, the mother and daughter were naturally unwilling to accept their fate. But by then, the stepdaughter had already met the king and married him.

The details of what happened in between did not interest Murong Xun; all he knew was that the woman once used witchcraft to turn her stepdaughter into a duck, hoping to replace her with her own daughter.

Yet, her daughter’s cursed toads could never compare to the stepdaughter’s golden blessings.

Besides, the stepdaughter’s fairy blessings often helped her escape danger, and ultimately the king was able to break her curse.

When their wicked deeds were exposed, the king sought revenge. Following their own judgment, he ordered them to be sealed inside iron barrels with lids nailed shut, cast down a mountain, and by chance, they ended up in this river.

Before being sealed, the woman maliciously cursed the stepdaughter’s newborn prince, turning him into a frog.

Later, she used her remaining power to lure passersby, eventually breaking her own seal and building a wooden cabin in the forest.

As for the three little pigs, they were not truly pigs.

They were the very men who had built the cabin at the beginning, but after finishing the house, the woman turned them into pigs to keep by her side.

Unable to break the seal herself, she had spent these years tempting travelers to help free her daughter’s seal.

But everyone failed, believing the river was guarded by a monster.

Murong Xun looked at the iron barrel before him and checked his mission—it was still marked incomplete.

It seemed he had to open the barrel to finish the task.

Examining the seal on the barrel’s surface, he chose to pry off the lid, breaking the seal.

Having already dealt with the mother, why fear the daughter?

As Murong Xun opened the lid, a disheveled head crawled out of the barrel.

“Finally, someone has freed me! Oh God! I will repay him; I will marry him!” The woman exclaimed joyfully.

She emerged fully from the barrel, her clothes tattered from long confinement.

But her exposed skin, both arms and thighs, was not the fair complexion one might expect; instead, it was covered with bumps and blemishes.

Not just her body—her hair flew wildly, and her face bore similar afflictions, resembling a toad, repulsing all who looked upon her.

“I don’t need you to marry me!” Murong Xun declared firmly.

Seeing the mission completion prompt appear, he wasted no time in ending her life with a single stroke.

“Don’t scare people with that dreadful appearance,” he said, suppressing his disgust as he stored her corpse into his divine gauntlet.

This mission was undoubtedly the easiest he had ever completed—no danger, no obstacles, finished with ease.

What he did not notice was that not far away, bubbles surfaced in the river.

A huge creature slowly moved through the water, its massive head bobbing beneath the surface.

Before it could fully reveal itself, Murong Xun had already left the riverbank.

A bellowing sound, reminiscent of a cow’s moo, echoed.

With a splash, a colossal beast rose upright from the water—its head was that of a bull, but its body resembled a crocodile.

Seeing Murong Xun had departed and that what it guarded had been opened, it roared furiously in the direction he had gone, unable to do more.

Without permission, it dared not set foot ashore.

Meanwhile, where the old woman’s wooden cabin once stood, the three little pigs suddenly transformed back into three young men lying on the ground.

They looked at each other and burst into joyous cheers.

Clad in nothing but their bare skin, they jumped with happiness.

“The old witch is finally dead. Thank God!”

“No, we should thank the traveler from afar. It must have been him who killed the witch,” said one.

They all knew Murong Xun must have slain the sorceress, which caused their curses to break; otherwise, who knew how long they would have remained pigs?

As they celebrated, Murong Xun arrived.

He stood outside the yard quietly watching their jubilation, not wanting to intrude.

But the three noticed him and hurried over, placing their left hands over their chests and bowing respectfully—the highest form of gratitude they could express.

“Thank you, traveler from afar. If not for you, we would still be pigs,” they said sincerely.

Murong Xun accepted their thanks calmly.

“They meant me no good; I was only protecting myself,” he replied.

“No matter what, we are grateful!” they insisted earnestly.

Murong Xun was content to accept their gratitude; after all, it was heartfelt.

He had returned mainly to see if he could find any clues leading to the human city, hoping to uncover threads related to his main quest.

“How did you come to be like that?” he asked, avoiding the word ‘pigs.’

One of the young men sighed, sending the other two inside to find clothes, and then began to explain.

They were brothers, sons of a renowned carpenter in the city, and had followed in their father’s footsteps as woodworkers.

The old witch had commissioned them, through an intermediary, to build a house deep in the forest.

Though the job was distant, the pay was generous, so they agreed.

But after they finished the house, the woman transformed them into three little pigs to keep by her side.

Over the years, they had watched helplessly as she lured travelers to their doom in the water, where they became prey for the river monster.

They never expected the witch to fall at Murong Xun’s hands, which freed them from the spell.

Only then did Murong Xun understand the full story.

Why she turned them into pigs and kept them was still unclear—perhaps part of some ritual or the result of her twisted mind.

“I heard the king gave birth to a frog?” Murong Xun remarked casually.

“A frog?” Ada looked puzzled.

“No, the prince disappeared a long time ago. The king has searched for him ever since. But on the night the prince vanished, a frog was reportedly seen. Perhaps the prince was cursed by magic?” Murong Xun mused thoughtfully.

Maybe the woman hadn’t lied; her curse simply hadn’t taken effect immediately.

“I heard the forest is home to fairies, is that true?”

“You came for the fairies too?” Ada was unsurprised; countless people had come over the years because of that legend.

“Indeed, the forest is home to fairies. Legend says our queen met the fairies in her youth and received blessings, which is why gold comes from her words. But ever since the prince disappeared and the princess fell into an eternal sleep, the queen has never spoken again.”

Murong Xun raised an eyebrow, having confirmed the fairies’ existence, validating the woman’s story.

He had even summoned a fairy himself and knew they would not deceive him.

Ada’s explanation, however, was of little practical use.

Without concrete information, Murong Xun was not particularly intent on seeking anything from the fairies; he only used the topic to start a conversation.

After finding some clothes in the cabin and dressing simply, the three brothers were eager to return home.

They had been away for so long and missed their family dearly.

Murong Xun was pleased by their resolve.

He did not know the way, so he planned to accompany them to the human city.

Since he was in this world, he intended to complete more quests, level up, and strengthen himself.

At present, he had no shortage of Paradise Coins; his only limitation was his level.

Last time, he earned plenty of coins but couldn’t level up or find suitable equipment, so he chose not to compromise and buy anything.

Thus, his gear remained largely unchanged upon entering this world.

But this time, after completing many side quests and leveling up, he would have many opportunities to spend his Paradise Coins.

The journey ahead promised new strength and new challenges.