A boisterous belly laugh resounds through the rundown house. It is followed by the repeated slapping of a hand down on the wooden floors. One would think that the funniest joke known to man had been told.

"Hahahha! So she really just told you to deal with the pack and left? Just like that? And she only gave you a week? Bwahaha!" The man, Goro, tries to wipe the tears off from his face. New ones replace the old soon after.

"Oh… my stomach." He shakes his head as he tries to suppress the urge to laugh.

"You know..." He giggles in between sentences "... I knew cultivators were out of touch but this really sweeps away all of the stories I've heard about.." he giggles again. Slapping the floor boards a couple more times. Ken shakes up and down from the vibrations caused. It really is a shoddily built house.

"I'm pretty good at using my bow." Ken pouts. Inwardly he doesn't mind the words coming out from the stranger in front of him as they are basically his own thoughts, although presented in a more abrasive manner.

Though, it is weird. She’s well aware of what I’m capable of and yet I was sent off anyways? I don’t know how to read a map or survive in the woods. This is the first time she’s given me such an outlandish task… even when she had me swim in the pool in the middle of the winter.

Goro wheezes at Ken's words.

"Please stop… I think you're gonna kill me, Ahaha." He takes a sip from his gourd in between laughs.

Not replying, Ken decides to take survey the room in more detail. The inside is not in any better condition than the outside, there are broken floorboards, cobwebs and filth everywhere. The most curious feature of the place is probably the mountain of what appears to be beef jerky placed on the nearby table. Coincidentally that table is also the only clean thing in the room.

But the most sinful thing about the house, in Kenki's opinion, isn't the general disrepair. It's the fact that it's somehow colder inside than it is outside.

"What, you hungry?" The man calls out when he follows Ken's line of sight. Not waiting for a response he tosses a flat piece of meat in the boy’s hands.

'...'

Ken taps it with a finger and, as expected, it produces a crisp dull sound.

'Frozen solid. It's so hard that I can probably use it to bludgeon someone to death.' Ken inwardly sighs before throwing the jerky back.

"Even if I could eat it I wouldn't. Master Dongmei has forbidden me from eating anything not directly provided by her."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Of course you can eat it. Here, I'll demonstrate." Saying so the man takes a bite off from the frozen piece of meat, it crunches under his teeth most unpleasantly and much to Kenki’s disbelief.

"You should see your face right now kid." He snickers before swallowing the freezing meat.

"Right. Anyways…" Ken tries to divert the topic. "Is there any way that you can help me? As you can see I'm a little bit desperate here."

"That depends." The man says, his tone becoming more serious. "What can you give me in return for helping you?"

Ken places eight gold coins on the floor in front of him as the question is asked.

"Only eight golds? Is that how much a human's life is worth nowadays?" Shaking his head the bearded man takes another sip from his drink.

'This money is enough to feed my whole family for a year.' Ken suppresses his emotions, not allowing the man to the dissatisfaction brewing in his core. ‘It's all that I have collected over the last several years and my job happens to pay pretty well.’

‘He’s putting on an act.’

"Nevermind then." Ken says, snatching the coins as fast as he placed them. Standing up on his feet he dusts himself off and turns to walk to the front door.

"Sit your butt down boy. We're not done talking."

"What's there to talk about?"

"I'll take the eight golds. Now sit down" he slaps the floor with a hand to emphasize his point. The joking character from a minute ago now completely gone.

'...'

Ken doesn't speak but decides to sit down regardless. The man observes him with a critical eye all the while.

"How good are you with the bow? You must have some skill if you were trained by a cultivator." He checks out the bow strapped to Kenki as he talks. It's a small model, one made to fit the boy’s physique.

"I can accurately fire off a dozen arrows in only five seconds."

The man snorts "A dozen? Boy, I'm old, not stupid. Joke time is over." he knits his eyebrows angrily "Dealing with that many wolves is no simple matter, you better take the gold back if you're going to lie to my face like this."

"Lie? Do you want me to demonstrate?" Ken responds. The man doesn't comment, instead opting to cross his arms and raise his chin slightly higher. His body language conveys 'go ahead'.

"How about we head outside then?"

"No, do it here."

"In the house?"

"Yes, in case it wasn't obvious I don't care if this place gets thrashed." He points with his chin to the side "You see the stairs to the second floor?

"Yes?"

"Shoot the wooden ball attached to the railing. It's about the size of an apple. If you can't even hit that you can forget about me helping you."

"Well alright then." Ken follows the man's line of sight. The wooden railing that is supposed to protect you from falling down when climbing the stairs is slightly tilted to the side and threatening a collapse. At its base an exceptionally thick beam holds most of it together, and at the top of that beam is the wooden ball.

Whilst unstrapping the bow from his bag Ken reaches with his right hand to grab the arrows in his quiver. Twelve in total, one held by his thumb and pointer while the rest are held in between his other fingers.

Shooting arrows this way is a display of immense dexterity. One has to swiftly juggle the arrows in between their fingers once the first one held by the thumb and pointer is fired. In essence, how fast you can move them there is how fast you can ‘reload’. When performed correctly it allows the user to shoot with a speed rivaling that of some semi-automatic weapons.

Not even bothering to stand up from his spot Ken takes a half assed pose for archery and aims. He’s done this millions of times. Thousands of shots each any every day for three years.

*Thunk* *thunk* *thunk* *thunk*....

One after the other arrows are fired with a startling speed. Whistling as they curve through the air they all find their target, embedding themselves into the wood.

Ken walks and collects his arrows once he's done. His footsteps being the only sound that could be heart in the house.

"So?" Ken inquires.

Goro points at him with a finger, mouth slightly agape, before thinking better of it and lowering his hand. Taking a breath he chugs down his drink, emptying the entire gourd in one go. He wipes his mouth before slamming the gourd to the floor.

"Come, there’s a lot of preparation that we need to do first."