The three travelers stepped out of the inn to continue their journey, Linglong Inn slowly fading away into the background. So far, their journey had been brief yet lively.
Yin'er fluttered her wings and flew up to Jin Shu.
"Daddy, will you marry Big Sister Linglong? Yin'er thinks she's beautiful," Yin'er asked suddenly.
Jin Shu, startled by the sudden question, nearly tripped and face-planted into the ground.
Catching himself on a tree before his face could smash into the ground, Jin Shu cleared his throat before answering Yin'er's question. "Hum, hm. Uh... um... how do I answer this? No, I don't think I'll be marrying Miss Linglong. In fact, I don't plan on marrying anyone anytime soon."
Yin'er pouted slightly. "But Big Sister Mei'er said that Yin'er has to help Daddy bring back at least one wife and three con... con-cub-ines. Yin'er doesn't know what a con-cub-ine is, though."
Bang!
This time, Jin Shu really did trip and face-plant into the ground.
Yin'er and Su Bing, who had been silently following behind, looked at Jin Shu sprawled out face-first on the ground in surprise. Then they looked at each other and burst into laughter. "Ehehehe! Daddy fell! Ehehehe!"
"...Pfft! Ahahaha! Are you ahaha! Ok, Young Master ahaha! Jin?"
Jin Shu was currently contemplating whether or not to just dig a hole and stay there forever or to get up off the ground with his dirt-covered face.
He eventually decided to get up off the ground. He slowly stood up while brushing the dirt from his robes and face. He continued walking as if nothing had happened.
---
Sometime later, they came upon a creek flowing slowly through a forest. Jin Shu crouched down next to the creek and washed the dirt off his face and hair.
It was getting dark, so Jin Shu decided to set up camp here for the night. Su Bing and he unloaded their camping supplies from their backpacks as Yin'er splashed around in the creek.
"For someone who doesn't like baths, Yin'er sure does love splashing around in the water," Su Bing commented.
Jin Shu shook his head in silent wonderment.
---
A pot hanging above a crackling campfire was releasing a tantalizing scent. Jin Shu was standing above the pot, stirring its contents slowly. This was the second pot of stew that was being cooked tonight. The contents of the first one were lying in a bush about half a mile away from the camp so that they wouldn't smell whatever that abomination in the form of stew was.
Su Bing was silently sulking under a nearby tree. It was she who had 'cooked' the first pot tonight.
"Yin'er, Su Bing, come and eat," Jin Shu called out as he scooped the stew into bowls.
Yin'er came flying out of the woods with a couple of sticks stuck in her fur. "Finally, food! Yin'er was about to starve."
Su Bing was slowly standing up, but when she heard Yin'er's comment, she plopped back down to continue sulking.
Jin Shu took a bowl of stew over to her. "Here, don't sulk. Your 'cooking' wasn't that bad. I'll teach you a couple of simple recipes later."
Su Bing took the bowl and glanced up at him. "How simple?"
"Very simple. All you need is one or two ingredients and a few minutes of cooking. It's literally impossible to wreck," Jin Shu replied confidently.
---
A young man with a little tiger on his shoulder was walking down a path leading outside of a forest, with a young woman trudging behind sulkily. The young woman—Su Bing—had just been banned from cooking, as she nearly started a forest fire this morning while attempting to cook a couple of eggs for breakfast.
Two weeks had passed since their journey started. Aside from their stop at Linglong Inn and Su Bing's various attempts (failures) at cooking, it had been relatively uneventful.
Jin Shu turned around and tried to cheer Su Bing up by complimenting the things she was good at. "Su Bing, you might not have a talent for cooking, but I'm sure there's something you're good at. For instance, you're good at... uh... cultivation! I think? Actually, I don't know your cultivation level. Um... oh! You're really stealthy; you could probably become a great assassin."
"Huh, what did you say!?" Su Bing exclaimed suddenly.
Jin Shu looked at her in surprise for a second before realization dawned on him. "Ah, I'm sorry. That's not a very nice compliment, is it?"
Su Bing shook her head hurriedly. "No, that's the greatest compliment I've ever received!"
Jin Shu stopped walking and stared at her in amazement. "It is? Are you sure you heard me correctly?"
She nodded her head. "Yes, you said I would be a great assassin."
"I know I'm the one who gave you the compliment, but how is that a great compliment?" Jin Shu asked.
"When I was a little girl, my father told me how he was a righteous assassin who assassinated very bad people. He left me with my grandfather when I was four and went out on a mission and never came back. My grandfather hated that my father was an assassin and forbade me from ever mentioning it. When I was eight, my grandfather said that every time he looks at me, he is reminded of his bastard son, so he left me with a friend of his who worked as a servant at your family's home. So that's why that was the greatest compliment I've ever received." Su Bing explained, her tone happy at first but becoming more depressed over time until she said the last sentence with a bright smile on her face.
"Well, let me just say that I meant it when I said that. So far, you are the first person who has managed to sneak up on me, catching me unaware, and that is no easy feat."
Jin Shu genuinely meant what he said. Even though, since his reincarnation, he has led a comfortable life, he still hasn't quite let go of some of his past life's habits as a trained soldier for most of his life, one of which was Jin Shu's hyper-awareness of his surroundings. During their first meeting, Su Bing had managed to get behind Jin Shu without him noticing her.
---
A few more weeks had passed. The three had been traveling for about a month now. However, they still had a long way to go.
They had just made camp for the night. Yin'er and Su Bing were running around playing tag as Jin Shu cooked over the campfire. After a few minutes, Jin Shu called the two girls over to eat. "Girls, come eat!"
The two came running over happily. It should be said that Su Bing has opened up more compared to a few weeks ago. Due to the compliment she received from Jin Shu, she was now a lot more open with her feelings and even stopped trying to call Jin Shu 'Young Master' all the time.
Clink! Clink!
As they sat down to eat their meal, a clinking noise resounded. It was the sound of a simple warning device that Jin Shu had placed around the camp by stringing together a few pieces of metal on a wire.
Jin Shu stood up and looked toward the direction that the noise had come from cautiously. It was too dark to see anything; however, he could make out the sound of footsteps against the dry leaves that he had purposefully scattered around the camp. The footsteps sounded human in nature. He figured it was about six or more men, and from the slight metal scraping noise, it seemed they were drawing weapons. They were definitely not here with friendly intentions.
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The men in the darkness could clearly see Jin Shu looking in their direction cautiously due to the light of the campfire, so they decided to stop sneaking. "Jejeje! What cute little kids."
A creepy laugh sounded from the darkness. Just after, an arrow came flying towards Jin Shu, which he quickly sidestepped out of the way of. A slight slicing sound came from behind him, but he didn't pay it any attention, too busy focusing on the danger in front of him. He could now make out eight figures approaching from the darkness. He pulled his pistol out from the holster inside of his robes and cocked the slide back to load a bullet into the chamber. He then took aim at the slowly approaching figures.
As the men stepped close enough for the light of the campfire to slightly illuminate their faces with creepy shadows, the leading figure, a gaunt man with an ugly face made even uglier by a jagged scar that stretched from the top of his balding head to his chin, serving to split his face into two ugly halves, whistled loudly. "Woo! That's gotta be the prettiest little lady I've ever seen!"
Jin Shu found that comment to be quite strange. They definitely weren’t talking about him, and although Yin’er had quite the beautiful coat of silver fur, he doubted that they were interested in a little tiger cub. That left only Su Bing. However, while Su Bing wasn’t ugly by any means, she definitely wasn’t a beauty. In fact, she was probably the plainest-looking girl Jin Shu had seen to date. So, Jin Shu assumed they were trying to distract him by making him turn around so they could get a chance to strike him from behind. But Jin Shu was no rookie who would fall for that low-level taunt.
The other men also started oohing and aahing.
“Jejee! Let’s kill the man, sell the little tiger, and—”
BANG!
The ugly man’s words were interrupted by a loud bang and a hole in his forehead. His body fell over backward and crashed to the ground. The other men standing around him looked at his collapsed body in surprise, not understanding what had happened to him or why he had fallen over.
“Hey, boss, why’re ya trippin’? Ya still drunk or somethin’?” asked Bandit #1.
“What the hell was that noise?” asked Bandit #2.
“Why’s there blood leakin’ from the boss’ head?” asked Bandit #3.
“What do ya mean blood?” asked Bandit #1 to #3.
They all looked at the ugly man’s forehead, where there was blood leaking out, forming a small pool below his head.
Jin Shu aimed his pistol at Bandit #1, who was a large, rotund, meatballesque-looking bald man. He seemed like he might be the second-in-charge, as he was the next ugliest after their leader. “If you don’t want to end up like your boss, I suggest you put your weapons down.”
This, unfortunately, wasn’t the first time Jin Shu had killed a human. When he joined the military in his past life, a war had broken out in the year 2030, in which he had to kill his fair share of humans.
Bandit #1 turned and glared menacingly at Jin Shu. “Whad’ya do ta our boss?”
“I killed him,” Jin Shu replied nonchalantly.
“I fink e’ migh’ be a culivator,” said Bandit #4.
“We should probably run, right?” asked Bandit #5.
“Even if he’s a cultivator, he’s so young he can’t be that strong,” said Bandit #6.
“If we attack him all together, we should be able to kill him,” said the final Bandit #7.
The six other bandits all turned to Bandit #1 and simultaneously asked, “What do we do, boss?”
Bandit #1 flusteredly responded, “Uh... kill ’em? I guess?”
Jin Shu, overhearing them talking, pulled a new magazine out from the holster inside his robes and calmly reloaded his pistol. He had already shot one time, and each of his magazines only held seven bullets. 'Maybe I should make some extended mags in case I go up against a lot of enemies in the future. Although I’d rather avoid a fight if possible,' he thought calmly, not at all bothered by the seven bandits raising their weapons, ready to attack him at any second.
“If you surrender, I won’t kill you,” Jin Shu warned them one more time.
Bandit #1 ignored him and ordered the others to attack. “Let’s kill ’em!” The bandits each took a step forward, ready to attack, when a gunshot rang out.
BANG!
Bandit #1’s fat body collapsed face-first into the ground.
The others, seeing this, stopped in their tracks.
“RUN!” someone shouted. However, it was too late.
BANG! BANG!
BANG!
Surprisingly, two bandits—one in front, the other behind—collapsed with that one shot. The bullet had pierced through the first chest into the other’s back as he turned to flee.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
All of the bandits collapsed on the ground. Not a single one survived, all killed instantly with a single kill shot to a vital organ. The entire exchange didn’t last more than two or three minutes from when they appeared to when they collapsed dead on the ground.
Jin Shu calmly reloaded a fresh magazine, just in case there were more bandits lurking in the darkness. As he reloaded his pistol, he was staring at the first bandit he shot, the ugly gaunt man. 'Weird, he should have started to turn into a metal statue already.'
“WOW! What happened to all the bad guys? There were loud noises, and then they all died!” came Yin’er’s excited voice from behind.
Jin Shu finally turned around to check on the girls behind him. As he turned, he was shocked by what he saw.
At some point, a beautiful young woman had appeared behind him. She had a snow-white complexion, as if she had never stepped foot outside in her life. Instead of looking unhealthy, it made her look like a fragile doll that needed to be protected at all costs.
As he stared at her in shock, her beauty seemed to become more enchanting the longer he stared at her. She seemed to possess a beauty like that of a goddess descended from the heavens. However, when he glanced away, she seemed to fade into the background, as if she was just a part of the scenery.
He looked away from the beautiful young woman and looked around for Yin’er and Su Bing. Yin’er was flying above the campfire; however, he couldn’t find Su Bing anywhere.
He turned back to the beautiful young woman and asked her, “Who are you, and where did the girl who was here a moment ago disappear to?”
The young woman was initially staring at the collapsed bandits in shock. However, when she heard Jin Shu’s questions, she stared at him in confusion, seemingly not understanding him, perhaps due to the shock of what she had just witnessed. “What?”
“I asked where Su—wait, are you Su Bing?” He was going to ask again when he realized he recognized her voice as Su Bing’s.
The young woman tilted her head in confusion. “Of course, I’m Su Bing. Who else would I be?”
“You sound like Su Bing, but you look completely different,” Jin Shu answered.
“Ah!?” The young woman exclaimed in surprise and felt around on her face.
When she took her hands away from her face, she was holding what looked like a paper-thin or even thinner face mask, and a trickle of blood flowed down her beautiful face from her forehead.
“Oh no! My mask! It’s broken!” the young woman cried out.
At this point, Jin Shu realized that this beautiful young woman was indeed Su Bing. It seems that Su Bing had been wearing some type of mask to hide her beauty.
“What kind of mask is that? How could it make you look like a completely different person?” he asked Su Bing.
Su Bing looked up at Jin Shu with a devastated look on her face, when suddenly, tears burst out of her eyes. The tears were streaming out of her eyes as if a floodgate had burst. “Aaah! Waaa! Sniff! Waahaa! Aah!” Su Bing began to cry loudly.
Jin Shu was absolutely stunned. He had never heard anyone cry so devastatingly, even in his past life, where he had witnessed people crying over the dead bodies of their loved ones. He had no idea what he should do to comfort her, so he just stood there.
Yin’er, hearing Su Bing crying, flew up to her side, climbed onto her shoulder, and rubbed her head against Su Bing’s cheek. “Don’t cry, Big Sister Bing, everything is going to be okay. Daddy already got rid of the bad guys. They can’t hurt you anymore, okay?”
Su Bing calmed down slightly upon hearing Yin’er speak to her; however, she was still shedding tears. “Fank you, win’er. I’m—sniff—okay now.”
Now that she wasn’t crying so hard anymore, Jin Shu took this chance to ask how her injury was. “Are you okay? Are you badly hurt?”
She looked at him questioningly. “Hurt?”
Jin Shu frowned slightly and answered, “Yes, your head is bleeding. Isn’t that why you were crying?”
Su Bing brought her hand to her forehead and looked at her fingers covered in blood. “Oh, I—sniff—didn’t realize I was bleeding. But no, I wasn’t crying—sniff—because I was hurt. It was because my mask was damaged.”
“Your mask? Can’t you just get a new one or fix that one?” he asked her, confused by why the mask would make her cry as if she had just lost her loved one.
“WHAT!? GET A NEW ONE!? THIS IS THE ONLY ONE!!! IT’S THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT FROM HIM!!!” she screamed so loudly that her voice echoed in the empty night sky.
Yin’er flew off her shoulder and hid behind Jin Shu in surprise, and Jin Shu could only stare at her in stunned silence, not sure how to respond.
“Haa... haa... I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to scream at you,” Su Bing said while trying to catch her breath after screaming her lungs out.
"Ah, no, it's fine. I understand. That mask seems to be very important to you," he remarked.
Su Bing nodded slowly. "It was given to me by my father before he left. It is the only thing I have left to remind me of him."
"Ah, I see," he replied, still not quite sure how to comfort her. Having grown up in an orphanage, he never knew his parents in his past life, and his parents were still alive now.
Su Bing slowly walked up to Jin Shu while cradling the damaged mask in her arms. "This is a Cicada Wing Skin-Mask. From what my father told me, it was crafted by a runesmith with a Concealment Rune. Can you fix it?" she asked with a hopeful expression on her face.
Jin Shu had a difficult expression on his face as he responded to her. "Uh... I'm sorry, I've never heard of a Concealment Rune, and even though I'm a runesmith, I can't fix something unless I know the specific inscription method."
The hopeful expression quickly fell from her face, replaced by a depressed one. "Oh, so it can't be fixed then?"
Jin Shu shook his head. "No, it can still be fixed. We just need to either find a runesmith who knows the Concealment Rune, or we have to find a runesmithing method that teaches the Concealment Rune so that I can fix it."
"Ah! So it can be fixed!" she cheered happily.
Jin Shu nodded again. "Yes, as long as we fulfill one of the two conditions."
"Ahaha! Thank you, Jin Shu!" Su Bing laughed happily and suddenly hugged Jin Shu.
Jin Shu stood frozen in shock. This was his first time in either life being hugged by such a beautiful young woman.