Upon being shown to their room, Baixue immediately took the lead to scan and access the room for security problems. Only after confirming that the room was safe and clean did she nod her head and allow Wuzhi's entry.
Their luggage was light; Baixue carried two bags while the young scholar only had his suitcase. The former also seemed to carry a weapon which she kept concealed somewhere on her body.
The room was richly furnished; walls tapered with wallpapers, plush rugs that seemed to have been made out of some sort of animal skin, a two-person sofa and a recliner, two desks, a large wardrobe, and finally a door that led to the bathroom. The room only possessed a single, king-sized bed.
Walking into the room, Wuzhi asked, "Left or right?" after gesturing at the bed.
Baixue stood dumbly for a moment, confused by his question. She then quivered with realization causing a rare blush to appear on her hooded face. Quickly shaking her head, she said, "You can sleep on the bed. I'll take the sofa." Her cold, magnetic voice possessed a rare tremble to it.
"Okay." Wuzhi did not argue and agreed immediately. He then put his suitcase on the bed and began unpacking his items.
Seeing him move so agreeably and nonchalantly, the female heroine felt a small wisp of anger in her heart. She quietly snorted and turned around to unpack and sort her items.
After the two of them were done settling in, Wuzhi graciously offered. "You can use the bathroom first. I'll go in after you."
Having learnt of his shamelessness from their earlier interaction, Baixue did not hesitate to take his offer. Practitioner or not, travelling on the road for a month was no comfortable task; this was especially true for women. The female bodyguard, in her desperation to feel the comforts of civilization, completely overlooked how suggestive Wuzhi's offer sounded.
While Baixue entered the bathroom, the young scholar used this chance to draft a few letters. He sat at the wooden desk with a sly smile on his face and wrote at least a dozen letters with differing contents and sealed them in unmarked envelopes. The process took him almost ten whole minutes, during the entirety of which the crafty smile on his face remained.
Setting down the last envelope, Wuzhi inhaled a deep breath of air and remarked, "Is this the satisfaction that Teacher was telling me about?" His eyes glazed over for a moment as a distant memory appeared before his eyes.
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In that memory, Wuzhi remembered his teacher with interlocked fingers and wearing a casual smile on his face. He said towards the much younger Wuzhi. "Remember, a professional has standards; be polite; be efficient; and always have blackmail on everybody that you meet."
"You see this?" said his teacher, pulling out a thick book from under the table. "I call it the 'Black Book.'" His teacher mysteriously laughed for some unknown reason. "With the information written in this book, you can snuff out the very existence of any person in this world. They will be wiped clean from society, erased from history, they will become living ghosts. Poor bastards will rue the day they were born!"
After laughing a hearty laugh, his teacher put away the put and added, "That's just Volume 1. I've got the other volumes, a literal mountain's worth of them, stashed away somewhere. You should practice this too. There is something hilariously satisfying about knowing another person's deepest and darkest secrets."
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"What should I name my book?" Wuzhi absentmindedly pondered. He craned his neck in an attempt to relax and stretch while thinking up unique names. Just then, his nose twitched as he smelt a uniquely floral scent in the air.
Curious, Wuzhi began to actively try and identify the source of the smell. He rose from his seat and followed the trail, ending up before the closed bathroom door. Upon arrival, his ears picked up the faint sound of the shower and the stimulating symphony of water hitting against skin. The young scholar fell into a trance.
As his hands fell atop the door handle in an attempt to open the door, he snapped out of his trance and timely caught himself. Horrified, Wuzhi immediately ran away and sat stiffly on the recliner.
He hung his head, hiding his flushed face, and attempted to calm his furiously thumping heart. A curious reaction overcame his body, however, the young scholar ferociously pinched his thigh in an attempt to use pain to fight the 'excitement.'
It took him a while but Wuzhi managed to calm himself. 'What are you doing!?' he berated himself, utterly disappointed in his actions.
For twenty years, Wuzhi had lived a sheltered life. The numbers of people that he had come into close contact with were scarce and most of them were his teacher's men and agents. As for close contact with the opposite gender, the closest that he had come was sharing a house with his mother; in other words, he had no experience with the fairer sex.
And yet, here he was; sharing a hotel room with a beautiful older woman.
Now, normally, Wuzhi would hardly care about such matters for his mind would hardly venture in that direction in the first place. However, at this moment, for some reason, he was suddenly conscious of this subtle distinction. His usually, iron-like solid will felt as empty and hollow as a bee's nest.
His thoughts began to stray and his face continued to become even redder. It appeared as if all the blood in his body was rushing to his head in an attempt to escape. His body had become excitable and relevant reactions followed.
Wuzhi began breathing deeply. His eyes were starting to turn glazed and his thoughts were becoming cloudy. A sort of beastly instinct appeared within his heart and roared for release. His body grew hot and bothered.
Unable to hold himself back any longer, Wuzhi suddenly stood up and rushed towards the study table. He grabbed the fountain pen lying next to the inkpot and stabbed its tip into his left palm. An intense pain tore through his conscious psyche.
"ARGH!!" Wuzhi let out a roar of pain. His actions, however, did not stop as he continued to drive the pen deeper and deeper into his palm. The pain compounded and soon there was nothing except pain occupying his mind.
Wuzhi fell atop the chair while breathing heavily. His limbs relaxed as the cloudiness of his mind was swept away by the excruciating pain. Tears appeared at the rims of his eyes as he lay limply on the chair.
"What happened!?" Baixue rushed out wrapped in a towel and sword in hand. Her long, raven-coloured hair fell gracefully behind her back, still wet from her recent shower. Her pretty little eyes scanned warily around the room before settling atop the young scholar's body.
Seeing his hurt hand, she jumped in shock and immediately arrived near him. Taking his left palm into her hands, she studied the wound while asking, "What happened?"
"I… hurt… myself," replied Wuzhi, weakly. His body sat powerlessly and his eyes remained shut.
"Why?" asked Baixue, not understanding his meaning. Wuzhi did not reply.
While her confusion remained, the female heroine did not sit still. Her long finger fluttered magically in the air, producing a thin stream of chilly air. She then controlled the air to freeze the wound in his palm. However, just as her Energy came in contact with the young scholar's body, Baixue felt her second shock for the day.
The instant the chill air made contact with Wuzhi's skin, it broke apart and disappeared!
"My Path Technique isn't working!?" She exclaimed out loud. Just as she sat in disbelief over this matter, Wuzhi released a moan of pain. Snapping out of her daze, she gritted her teeth and spoke a word of warning. "This will hurt."
Without delay, Baixue pulled the impaled object in a swift and sudden move. A burst of blood sprayed into the air and Wuzhi cried in pain. Pressing her thumb on the injury, Baixue turned around and performed a clawing action toward her luggage. The bag magically flew through the air and arrived in her hand.
Opening the bag, Baixue retrieved the first piece of clothing that she could find and tore it. She did not carry any bandages and in its absence, a piece of clothing would do. Fashioning the torn cloth into a bandage, she carefully wrapped the injured palm.
Done with the first aid, she turned toward the young scholar's face, only to find him passed out. Sighing to herself, she carefully lifted his body and laid him to rest on the bed. Just as she was about to move away, she noticed that his head was resting at an unnatural angle. Only when she looked closer did she suddenly realize that Wuzhi was still wearing his bamboo hat!
"Wait. How did I not notice this before?" This question appeared within Baixue's heart as she moved to remove the hat from his head. The instant it was removed and her eyes fell upon his face…
…Baixue felt her third shock for the day.