And so the days pass. The misunderstanding was cleared up the following day and Ken was finally able to roam the village to his heart's content.

In a way, not much changed for the residents of Northern River’s Village. A new guardian replaces the old through honorable combat, as are the teachings of the first emperor. A celebration is held in her name, as is customary, and then it’s over.

There are still taxes to be paid, there are still fields that must be tended to and mouths that need to be fed. The incident with Kenki was an interesting piece of gossip but nothing more than that.

Ken learns many things over the following years. Under Zhang Dongmei's guidance he reaches a proficiency with the bow where he is able to accurately shoot a dozen arrows in the span of only five seconds. He learns the laws of the land, simpler and more to the point than he would have expected. He is also taught how to wield a dagger in combat.

Ken and the village guardian gradually settle into a dynamic. At the beginning of the day she appears to give him tasks, be it acting as a messenger to the village head, having to swim one hundred laps in the pool or whatever else she has planned for him, and he carries them out - most of the time without her supervision. He has managed to build up enough trust, to the point where she does not have to worry about him slacking.

In truth, Zhang Dongmei had become rather elusive after the first year of training. Their morning meetings are no nonsense and straight to the point and on most days they are the first and last that Ken manages to see of the cultivator. That is not mentioning the several times she’d been gone for entire weeks.

Kenki is even able to hold a casual conversation with Dongmei. Sadly a cultivator and a child with a complicated past don’t have much in common to talk about. But when they do, as was the case when they were talking about artistry, Ken is always surprised by her way of speaking. It bears no resemblance to the overwhelming and imperious tone she’d had when they’d first met. The best way he’d describe it?

Easygoing, informal and unpretentious.

Hardly what one would expect of a cultivator.

It isn't until several years later, when Ken is ten years old, that something of note happens. A day in the middle of winter, during the coldest period of the year.

"Master Dongmei." Kenki performs a bow.

'I hope she doesn't make me swim laps in the half frozen pool again. Whatever enchantment she placed on that thing to prevent freezing is beginning to fail ' He lifts his head up once he realizes that she hadn't spoken a single word, the first time that such an occurrence has happened. He makes eye contact but she remains as stoic as ever, giving him a feeling as if she’s staring straight into his soul.

"..."

Did I do something wrong? I mustn't have, all of yesterday's tasks were performed as instructed. Ken tries to recollect his actions from the previous few days but just then Dongmei speaks out, breaking him out of his train of thought.

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"Have you heard of the wolf attack that occurred yesterday?

"I have not."

"Then I'll give you a short rundown. The caravan that makes the trip from here to Themten was attacked by wolves when returning from the town, half of the people that were on it are dead or missing." A leather bag appears in her hand as she speaks.

"The wolves around this area aren't man eaters so my guess is that they haven't had much luck hunting their regular prey, resulting in them turning to a different target…" she tosses the bag over to Kenki, the snow crunches underneath it as it lands.

"One week's worth of rations are inside, deal with the wolves in any way you see fit. Perform well and there will be a great reward waiting for you… perform poorly and you will be devoured." leaving him with those words she disappears, inky black smoke replacing her form. The cold winter wind blows the smoke away as Ken simply looks at it.

'...???'

Barely having had any time to chew through the information presented to him Ken looks left and right, behind him and above him. The question marks practically radiate off his body, but no matter where he looks, he cannot find Dongmei, she truly has just vanished.

'...!'

Kenki grabs his head with both hands in panic.

What do you mean 'deal with them'? You've only had me strengthen my body using basic physical exercises like jogging or swimming, sure I've also been taught how to use weapons but that's nowhere near enough for me to deal with a whole damn wolf pack! I don't even know proper wilderness survival, hell, I have never even stepped outside of this village! What the fuck do you mean 'deal with them’??? It’s the middle of winter!'

======================

After the initial shock of Dongmei's new task had passed, Kenki began thinking of ways to deal with the issue. Realizing that he desperately needs information he ends up finding the carriage driver Bjorlamu.

'Let's hope the reward will be worth the risk'

Sitting opposite him was Bjorlamu, his arm had been bandaged and placed in a sling but nothing more than that, some small abrasions and cuts at most. Compared to the others he'd gotten off lightly. In the chair next to him was his wife who's yet to have spoken a single word. Ken didn't even know her name.

"How many wolves were there?" Ken asks the man.

"Aye, I don't know lad. I can for sure tell you that there were at least three times the number of wolves than there were people." Bjorlamu, for his part, was more than happy to relay the events to Kenki. In his eyes, and the eyes of most of the people in Northern River's village, he was the guardian cultivator's messenger. If Ken was interested in something, then that would definitely mean that Dongmei was as well.

"Were there more than twenty?"

"There were definitely more than twenty wolves." Bjorlamu nods.

"Were there more than thirty?" Kenki asks again, using a trick he'd learned from his past life. One commonly used by lawyers to approximate dates and numbers.

"That… I'm not too certain lad."

'Right.' Ken writes the information down before he continues to ask about the wolves' numbers.

"Were there less than fifty?"

"I'm sure that there were less than fifty wolves but I don't know if there were less than forty of them." Bjorlamu answers just as his wife stands up from her place to go throw a couple of more logs into the fire. This winter is a cold one after all.

'So twenty to fifty-ish wolves.' Ken writes down the information 'This is going to be a big problem, I have confidence in dealing with a couple of them, but fifty? I'll run out of arrows before then and there's no way that I'm engaging them in melee combat with my ten year old body. Not to mention that this probably isn't even the entire pack… or is it? I don't know squat about how wolves hunt, do they form several teams or do they all gather and hunt as one? Maybe those wolves were just the tip of a much larger pack.' Ken looks at the other points that he'd written down earlier in the conversation as he thinks his options through.

'By the looks of things Dongmei's hunch was correct. These really are just a bunch of starving wolves. Skinny and weak, not able to take the carriage's horses down even when they had gotten in range of them through the thick snow… I'll have to ask a couple more of the survivors to iron out the details.'

"Do you have the names of the others that were on that caravan?"