To travel through the jungle turned out to be even bigger struggle than they expected. The thick vegetation didn’t let YunYun to easily pass no matter how hard she slashed with the sword left and right and in half a day they managed to cover only a dozen kilometers, becoming dirty all over and more tired than after running several hundred kilometers without any stops.
Only after Nick suggested for them to climb a higher tree and look around they got an idea they could travel on another level – literally. Several minutes later the jungle was filled with cheers as both of them jumped from branch to branch and from one tree to another. For an onlooker they would seem like two monkeys, except that monkeys moved more naturally.
Of course, it didn’t take long for them to realize that and to use the current ‘unique opportunity’ to increase their skill in this newly discovered technique they decided to call ‘monkeyrun’ and train their concentration, coordination and speed while ‘running’ through the trees.
Neither of them cared for disturbing the nature’s harmony and kept scaring birds and animals all over the place. They managed to create their own movement technique and extremely fun at that, therefore nothing else mattered.
Even though they were much slower compared to when they ran on the ground, when the sun set, they already found the first signs of the ancient ruins. Of course, it was not like suddenly some ancient pyramids started to appear left and right. Exactly the opposite – they only managed to find scarce piles of rocks covered with moss, bushes and patches of grass that barely resembled debris from demolished structures, or sole large stones on which one could barely discern indistinct ancient carvings, apparently ancient statues or obelisks.
While they didn’t meet anyone or noticed any strange natural phenomena, at least their direction was correct and their spirits got even more elevated after finding a small lake, maybe a hundred meters wide, where they could take a bath before resting for the night. For this to be even more pleasant experience, Nick created a simple nest-like bed on a larger tree high above the ground right next to the lake where they carelessly slept till the sunrise.
A thin morning fog covered the small lake and surroundings were still dark with only sky in the east colored red. The jungle was still sleeping with only few birds chirping from time to time. Nocturnal animals had finished their night hunt while diurnal were just waking up and it felt like the whole jungle was taking a long deep breath before it’ll explode with bustling activities.
Nick and YunYun sat in their ‘nest’ and feasted on the fruits they bought in the last village they passed through. Neither spoke as if afraid to disturb the tranquil sight before them.
Suddenly they felt someone coming from the jungle and soon a young woman, a girl came out from behind the trees, approaching the lake from the other side. She didn’t stop to wash herself, but continued to walk taking steps on the water causing small ripples with each footstep and, even if it looked like she walked slowly, she soon was in the middle of the lake. Then she grabbed a strange looking sword from her back and began to practice sword techniques.
YunYun watched her with a deep interest. This girl, dressed in an elegant yellow colored, but unique style clothing, wearing red headscarf and belt, and wielding a large strange weapon, was of similar age to her and was evidently a Qi master, a skillful one at that.
YunYun glanced over at Nick, but for some reason only saw a weird grin on his face. The girl on the lake was quite pretty and this lecher obviously enjoyed the sight!
She pinched him so hard he got tears in his eyes from pain – a simple pinch from a Qi master, especially from the Li family, was never really ‘simple’.
When YunYun saw Nick’s confused look, she pouted and whispered, “Do you like her?”
It took him a minute to understand what she meant.
‘This girl might be even more dangerous than her mother!’ Nick had a sudden revelation.
“Why would you even ask me such a stupid question and hurt me because of even stupider jealousy?” He was kind of upset, “You better tell me, what do you think about her techniques?”
Only now YunYun herself understood her previous spontaneous action that was more based on instincts, but without feeling guilty she said objectively, “She’s indeed skillful.”
“Don’t you find her style familiar?” This time Nick grinned at her.
Indeed there were some movements YunYun used herself as well as … wait … now that he mentioned it – there were quite a few movements like those in her own technique!
While they were whispering, few other girls, although a little older, with swords at their sides came out from the same spot and watched in silence how their friend was practicing. One had to agree, the view was incredibly captivating.
Nick saw YunYun’s expression changing over and over, confusion mixing with surprise and then becoming a deep frown, and decided to stop teasing her.
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“Do you want me to introduce her to you?” He asked.
“What?” YunYun was shocked by the question and didn’t manage to properly react when Nick already shouted across the small lake and the contents of this shout shocked her even more.
“Does her highness need someone to wash her back?!”
The girl on the lake froze, but to Nick’s big surprise didn’t loose the concentration and didn’t drop in the water, but attentively tried to find out who had the audacity to interrupt her practice in such insolent way. Then she and her friends saw a slender blond youth jump down from a tree on the opposite side of the lake and posing in a weird posture with hands in his pockets.
“Nicky!!!”
While the small crowd of the girls were angry at this pervert, the girl on the lake shouted, almost screamed out loud and like a lightning bolt darted over and jumped on Nick hugging him, but from her incredibly fast momentum and, probably, the weight of her sword, Nick lost balance and both of them fell down. Pressed under her Nick tried to realize what just transpired, but the girl sat up, almost mounted him, started to sob while hammering his chest with her fists.
“You stupid goblin! Where were you all this time! You can’t imagine how bored I was! Those people have no idea of fun! I want to go home!”
The sight was strange to say the least and the group of girls across the lake watched it with their mouths wide open.
“Hmpf!” Suddenly a loud snort resounded near the two and Nick saw YunYun jumping down as well.
“Oh?!” Zia was surprised, “So pretty! Who is she?”
“I’m his fiancee!” YunYun stomped her foot in displeasure.
Zia tried to process this information for few seconds and then, while pointing a finger in Nick’s face, started to laugh so loud that it even created ripples on the lake, “Hahaha! Goblin is getting married! Hahaha! Someone help me or I’ll die from laughter!”
Needless to say that this wasn’t the reaction YunYun was expecting and got confused, similar to the girls across the lake.
At this moment a dozen or so youths ran out form behind the trees trying to understand the commotion only to see the beauty sitting on some random guy and loudly laughing.
“YunYun, meet your cousin, Zia. Zia, this is your cousin, YunYun.” Nick, still lying on his back, sighed and introduced the two girls who looked at each other in disbelief.
“Zia, you thing is way too heavy, either drop it or get off me.” Nick reminded his old friend of her current position. He knew that most of the weight he was currently bearing was because of that weird sword of hers.
“Oh?” Zia awoke from confusion and dropped her sword at the side, but in that instant Nick grabbed her and threw in the lake. It might have been King Kong’s influence, but as soon as Zia jumped on him, he was already preparing for this moment.
While he hysterically laughed, almost getting cramps in his stomach, watching how Zia flew and then fell in the water with a big splash, the youths at the other side were not amused at all. All of them drew their weapons and charged over only to get stupefied half way when Zia jumped out from water all wet but also laughing and started chasing Nick around with intent to throw him in the water as well.
Finally YunYun understood how foolish her earlier actions were – these guys were still acting like small children and their relationship was exactly like everyone described – childhood friends.
‘Why was I even worried?’ She questioned herself, sitting next to the Zia’s weapon and watching the two ‘crazy people’ run around on the lake’s surface.
After couple of minutes Zia got angry for not being able to catch him after all the years of training, but Nick quickly calmed her down by jumping in the water by himself. Finally they both wet, but happy got out of the water and joined YunYun.
“YunYun, you should’ve tried it out as well. The water is great!” Nick smiled at her and she finally acted like herself and under the stunned gazes of those dozen guys who still awkwardly stood halfway not knowing how to react, another beauty jumped with all her clothes on in the lake without any restraint.
When she got out a minute later, she heard how Zia was complaining. Actually Zia was so loud that even people across the lake clearly heard her.
“… and they all are perverted! You can’t even imagine how they try to suck up to me every day! They bring shiny things and snacks, and sometimes even expensive wine! Thank god you warned me and I was able to put all of them to their places!”
The faces of the youths from the Sword sect turned green. So this was the one they ‘owned’ all the beatings they got from their sweetheart?
“… and no one in that Sword sect knows how to do any fun things!” All of sudden Zia’s eyes lit up, “Let’s go and rob their treasury! They don’t have much, but at least it will be entertaining! Or poison their food so all of them have diarrhea for a few days – your alchemy skills had surely improved during these years, right? Can you can think of something? Please?!”
At this moment an elder with a beautiful sword at his side in a pitch black robe walked out and heard the last few sentences. He sighed, shook his head and slowly walked over. This girl was unruly, but extremely talented and very hearty as well. Everyone liked her with the only problem being – the youths of the sect liked her too much.
“Zia? Who are these people?” Elder asked.
“Hmpf!” Zia snorted in displeasure for being interrupted, “This is my follower, Nick, and the pretty girl is my cousin, YunYun.”
“Oh?” Elder had already guessed Nick’s identity, “Nice to meet you, princes Li Yun! Hello, young master Nick! I have heard a lot about your talents. My name is Jerold, I’m the elder of the Sword sect.”
Both YunYun and Nick got up and slightly bowed to him. While they could ignore the etiquette here in the jungle, even YunYun had heard of the terrifying skills of the Sword sects masters while Nick in his ignorance simply respected the elderly.
“You probably have a lot to talk about, so I’ll leave Zia in your care.” Master Jerold smiled, “But don’t wander too far away, we will be back in the camp at the lunch time and I would appreciate if you two could join us.”