"BASTARD! GET OUT HERE!!"
"Haa... looks like they brought back up." Jin Shu was hoping they would just leave well enough alone.
Crash!
A loud sound came from the front of the shop, soon followed by the sounds of hurried footsteps. A moment later, eleven young men came rushing into the backyard. Two of the young men Jin Shu recognized as the two Wild Beast Sect disciples he beat up earlier.
"Are you the one who be—" One of the young men, who looked like their leader as he was wearing a different robe than the others—his robe had embroidery of two battling tigers—began asking something. Jin Shu interrupted him.
"Hold on, didn't you ask me to come out just a second ago?" Jin Shu asked curiously.
"Uh... I... uh... I did." The leader, with an embarrassed look on his face, stammered out a reply.
"So then why did you all rush in here?" Jin Shu asked further.
"Because w— wait!? We are here to give you a beating for hurting our friends, not to have a conversation!" The leader shouted, with fury spreading on his face.
"Just one more question. Aren't you from the Wild Beast Sect? Why don't any of you have a beast? Are you not beast tamers?" Jin Shu had been wondering since he beat the first two, why they didn't have beasts.
"That was two questions," the leader said in annoyance.
"It was a compound question," Jin Shu countered.
"No, it w—aah! Stop distracting me!" The leader screamed. Jin Shu wondered if this young man had ADHD, as he was distracted quite easily.
"What the hell have all of you been standing around for!? Go get him!" The leader ordered the other eight young men to charge.
All the young men looked around, waiting for someone to start the charge. None of them wanted to be the first, as they heard from the first two how strong the young man they were ordered to attack was.
“Didn’t you hear Senior Brother Yu!? Go get him! But watch out for his club, it’s very heavy,” said the young man whose shoulder Jin Shu had dislocated.
The eight Wild Beast Sect disciples stopped hesitating and began to dash across the blacksmith’s backyard.
Jin Shu pulled out his new FN 303 riot gun from his Space Ring. He aimed at the leg of one of the disciples who was running a little ahead of the rest.
Bang!
Crack!
Thud!
“Aaaaah!!!” The young man fell as the less-than-lethal round hit his knee, likely breaking it by the sound of the cracking that was heard when the round struck him.
“Oooh yikes! Sorry about that. This is my first time using this gun; I forgot to activate the Weight Reduction Rune.” Jin Shu apologized as he infused the weapon with his Qi to activate the runes.
“Daddy, why is his leg backward?” Yin’er asked from Jin Shu’s shoulder.
“Uh...? I think I accidentally broke his leg?” Jin Shu answered uncertainly.
The rest of the charging disciples stopped in their tracks when they saw their friend suddenly collapse with a broken leg.
“Uh... Senior Brother Yu, what do we do?” One of the disciples turned back and asked their leader, Senior Brother Yu.
“Uh... I don’t know? Just charge all together; he can’t get you all,” Senior Brother Yu said uncertainly.
They all looked at each other awkwardly.
“...”
“You go,” one said to another.
“No, you go,” the other said to the first.
“Let’s just all go,” said a third.
“Ah, screw it!” One of the disciples yelled and started running towards Jin Shu.
Jin Shu aimed at his chest, this time making sure to activate the runes on the rounds.
Bang!
Thunk!
This shot hit the charging disciple and bounced harmlessly off his chest, while slowly starting to spread ice across his chest due to the frost rune.
“Hahaha! This is nothing!” he shouted joyously.
“That one was too light. Here, try this one.” Jin Shu had reduced the weight too much, so he added more Qi and fired another shot.
Bang!
Pow!
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“Uuuuh!!” Another shot hit the disciple in the stomach, causing him to keel over while clutching his stomach.
“That seems better,” Jin Shu commented calmly.
“Why is there smelly stuff coming from that guy’s mouth?” Yin’er asked, as the disciple threw up his lunch.
“What the hell is that strange weapon!?” one of the disciples asked in fear.
“It looks like he can only use it once at a time. Let’s all go together; that way only one of us can get hit, and the rest of us can beat him,” another disciple explained to the others logically.
“Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s do it!” One of them shouted, while secretly taking a step back so that he wouldn’t be at the front of the group.
The remaining six rushed forward with a shout. “Aaaaah!”
What they didn’t realize was that Jin Shu’s riot gun was semiautomatic and had a fifteen-round drum mag.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jin Shu fired off three shots in quick succession, knocking down the three disciples in the front of the group. They fell over, clutching at the various body parts where they had been struck by a round. One of the three in the back fell over one of the ones who had been shot and hit his head on the ground, thus knocking himself out. Or at least that’s what he wanted people to think—really, he faked his fall so he wouldn’t get shot.
“Are you two going to come over?” Jin Shu asked the last two. They were only about nine feet away; they could probably make it to him if they kept going.
The last two looked at each other. Seeing the fear in each other’s expressions, they both quickly turned and ran as fast as they could muster.
“Where are you going!?” Their Senior Brother Yu shouted as they ran out of the backyard.
Jin Shu put his riot gun back into his ring and pulled out his bat. He slowly walked towards the one they called Senior Brother Yu, stepping over the disciples on the ground.
Seeing him walking towards them, the two original disciples that Jin Shu beat both passed out from fear. The one called Senior Brother Yu backed away as Jin Shu stepped closer. Each step Jin Shu took forward, Senior Brother Yu took one backward, until his back touched the wall of the courtyard.
“D-d-d-don’t c-come a-any cl-closer!” Senior Brother Yu stuttered due to fear.
“P-please don’t hit me. I only wanted to teach you a lesson on account of my friends’ injuries. If I knew you were so strong, I never would have come here,” he tried explaining.
Jin Shu stopped a few steps away and asked, “Would you like to answer my questions now? Or do you prefer I smack some sense into you first?”
“I-I’ll answer anything you want to know,” Senior Brother Yu answered frantically.
“You can start out by answering my earlier question. Why don’t you all have beast companions?” Jin Shu was curious, since everyone kept saying that Wild Beast Sect disciples were beast tamers.
“The others are only in the Body Refining Realm, so they are all outer sect disciples and must first learn to take care of wild beasts and advance to the Qi Gathering Realm before they can get a beast. As for myself, I’ve just broken through to the 1st stage of the Qi Gathering Realm and have yet to receive my beast companion,” Senior Brother Yu explained how the Wild Beast Sect worked to Jin Shu.
“Next question: Is it true that Wild Beast Sect disciples pit their beast companions against one another?” Jin Shu asked the next thing he was curious about.
“Um...? Some do and some do not. There are some disciples that enjoy raising different beasts, and there are some who like to use beasts as weapons. Ah, I’m part of the first group. I’ve liked raising animals since I was a little kid. That’s why I joined the Wild Beast Sect, so that I could raise various Demonic Beasts,” Senior Brother Yu answered as honestly as he could.
“Um... sir? Can I get my friends to a doctor? I’m worried about the one whose leg y— I mean, the one with a broken leg,” Senior Brother Yu asked, while glancing behind Jin Shu at his friends collapsed, groaning on the ground.
“Sure, but before you go, let me ask one last thing. Are you going to bring back more disciples or even your elders to besiege me later?” Jin Shu figured that after he let these disciples go, an elder from their sect would come, and after defeating that elder, another more powerful elder would come until he defeated the entire Wild Beast Sect.
“Uh...? No...? Why would our elders come out for a dispute between the younger generation? They would become a laughingstock for the entire world. As for bringing more disciples, there’s no point. I feel like no matter who I brought, you would still destroy them regardless of how powerful they are,” Senior Brother Yu answered honestly, a little confused about why this scary young man would ask about their elders coming after him.
“Um... can I ask what your cultivation level is?” Senior Brother Yu asked, curious about how strong the young man who took out so many of his friends was.
“I’m at the 2nd stage of the Core Forging Realm,” Jin Shu answered honestly, since this Senior Brother Yu didn’t seem like a bad person—just that his friends got him into trouble. That reminded Jin Shu about the first two disciples asking for protection fees, so he thought to ask this young man about it.
"I just remembered, your friends over there were asking for protection fees. What's that about?"
Senior Brother Yu was first stunned by Jin Shu's cultivation level. By the looks of it, the scary young man wasn't any older than him, possibly even younger. Then, when he heard Jin Shu's question, he became furious.
"They did what!? Those bastards! If I had known about that, I would have beaten them myself! Cultivators aren't allowed to oppress mortals. Once we get back to our sect, I'll have them sent to the discipline hall to be punished," Senior Brother Yu promised.
"Alright, go take care of your friends. Also, make sure never to abuse your beast companions in the future." Jin Shu allowed the young man to go, giving him a friendly reminder.
"If you hurt your beast companions, Big Sister Linglong will crush your balls!" Yin'er shouted from Jin Shu's shoulder.
"Daddy, what are balls?" she asked Jin Shu curiously.
"They are a man's most precious thing," Jin Shu answered.
"Oh, Daddy is Yin'er's most precious thing!" Yin'er responded.
Jin Shu gave her head a pat. "Thank you, Yin'er. You are very precious to me too."
Hearing the strange shout, the young man turned around and noticed Yin'er for the first time. When he first arrived, he was too angry to notice her, and he was too scared earlier. Now that he noticed the cute little silver tiger on the scary young man's shoulder, he was starstruck. That was the cutest little tiger he had ever seen.
"Sir, what is that cute little tiger on your shoulder?" Senior Brother Yu asked.
Hearing someone call her cute, Yin'er puffed her chest out and stood up proudly.
"This is Yin'er. She is a Winged Tiger. Alright, take your friends and leave now. You can have your friend pretending to be knocked out help you," Jin Shu answered while turning around and walking to the table he was sitting at earlier. He left a bag of gold coins on the table for the blacksmith to pay for the damage to the front door.
"Is it okay to just let them go like that?" Su Bing whispered to Jin Shu.
"It's fine. I'm not too worried that they'll come back after the beating they just received, and even if they do, I'll just beat them again," Jin Shu answered, unconcerned about the disciples coming back for revenge.
"Anyway, let's leave and find a place to stay the night," Jin Shu said as he walked away.
---
Senior Brother Yu and the disciple who was pretending to be knocked out helped their friends into the doctor's office. Senior Brother Yu had to carry the disciple with the broken leg on his back.
"Doctor, please help my friends," Senior Brother Yu asked the doctor politely.
The doctor looked the seven injured young men over. "Hmm... it seems they were all struck with some kind of heavy spherical object and have suffered varying degrees of blunt force trauma. This one here has a broken kneecap; he may walk with a limp from now on."