It was the fifth night since Fan Biyu had awoken from her coma. Jin Shu sat at the edge of her bed, his hands diligently massaging her bare legs. Her soft moans filled the room, echoing against the walls and drifting into the quiet night beyond the window.
Outwardly, his face remained stoic, betraying none of the turmoil inside. Internally, however, his younger self was screaming, “Take it further! Do it!”
“Shut up, you horny little bastard!” his adult self snapped in response.
“She already said she wants to be our main wife! What's wrong with deepening our relationship?” the younger self argued stubbornly.
“We don’t even know if she meant it seriously or if it was just a heat-of-the-moment declaration,” the adult countered, trying to inject reason.
The younger self hesitated. “Maybe… fine. But this isn’t over!” He grudgingly backed off for now.
Jin Shu rolled his eyes at his young psyche's antics. Hurrying along with the massage, he suddenly felt something warm trickle onto his lips.
Drip.
A drop of blood splattered against Biyu’s pristine calf.
Warning! Libido suppression levels critical. Prolonged suppression will lead to permanent damage! Nano’s mechanical voice rang out in Jin Shu’s mind, startling him.
Ten more seconds, Jin Shu demanded internally.
Acceptable.
Ten seconds ticked by in agonizing silence. Finally, Jin Shu withdrew his hands from Biyu’s legs and climbed off the bed, hunched over as he moved away.
“Done already~?” she teased, her voice heavy with sultry amusement.
“I’ll be back tomorrow night!” Jin Shu barked, louder than intended, before bolting out the door.
“Hmph, stingy! I’ve already seen it once. What’s wrong with letting me see it again? Then again... I guess I didn’t really see it so much as felt it.”
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Jin Shu couldn’t sleep again. That made it the sixth night in a row he failed to fall asleep at his usual time. As before, he turned to busying himself with tasks. Tonight, he chose to craft some practice weapons.
He started with dull knives, testing various sizes and styles. He made a Karambit, a KA-BAR, and a Yarborough knife. For good measure, he forged sharpened versions as well.
Even after finishing, his blood still thundered in his veins. Restless, he continued crafting a few more tools until the exhaustion finally began to set in.
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The next morning, Jin Shu met Fan Biyu and Yin’er in the training room. Yin’er’s presence was a rare sight—normally, she refused to wake up early, citing the immortal excuse Jin Shu’s mother had planted in her: “A girl needs her beauty sleep.”
Jin Shu sighed. His mother’s influence on Yin’er was already irreversibly entrenched. And to think they’d only spent a few days together when Yin’er had been a newborn!
The reason Yin’er had joined him today was simple. She’d woken in the middle of the night to find Jin Shu missing, and her panic had escalated as she cried alone in the dark for hours before he returned. She’d clung to him tearfully, declaring, “Daddy can’t leave Yin’er alone, or else!”
Jin Shu didn’t dare ask what the “or else” meant. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.
“We’re going to use weapons today—practice ones,” Jin Shu announced as Li Xue took her position across from him in the training room.
“Weapons?” she asked, her curiosity evident.
He nodded and retrieved a dull Yarborough knife and something else from the storage space in his earring.
“Wait… isn’t that the weapon that killed all those assassins?” Li Xue’s voice trembled as she stared at the unfamiliar object in his hand. Memories of that day in the forest flashed through her mind, the deafening bangs still echoing in her ears. “Isn’t that thing too dangerous?”
“Don’t worry,” Jin Shu reassured her. “This one just shoots harmless pellets. Look.”
Ping!
He pointed the barrel at his palm and pulled the trigger. A small bead shot out, bouncing harmlessly off his skin. “See? Safe.”
“Okay…” Li Xue nodded hesitantly before turning to examine the other practice weapons lined against the walls.
Fan Biyu, who had been watching from nearby, rolled closer in her wheelchair. “What is that weapon?” she asked, her tone curious. “Xue said it killed assassins, but it doesn’t look that deadly to me.”
“This version isn’t lethal,” Jin Shu explained, holding the weapon up for her to inspect. “But the principle is the same. It’s called a gun. You squeeze this trigger to fire a projectile. Think of it as a crossbow, but louder, deadlier, and far more accurate at a longer range.”
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“This little thing is stronger than a crossbow?” Biyu raised an eyebrow, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
“The only real advantage a crossbow has over this is that it’s nearly silent. But even that can be mitigated if I create an attachment called a suppressor.”
“Can I try it?” she asked, holding out her hand.
“Sure.” Jin Shu placed the pellet gun in her palm and guided her through its use. “Hold it like this. Place your finger here. This is the sight—close your non-dominant eye and look down it. Line up these two nubs with the one at the front.”
“What do I do next?” she asked, peering down the sight.
“Squeeze the trigger gently. When it goes back far enough, it’ll fire.”
Ping!
Biyu followed his instructions perfectly, except the pellet flew straight across the room and struck Li Xue on the butt.
“Yowch!” Li Xue yelped, spinning around to glare at Biyu.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Biyu said, her voice full of apology—though she struggled to suppress her laughter.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Li Xue accused, narrowing her eyes.
Biyu shrugged, trying to appear innocent. “I really didn’t.” But as she shrugged, her finger accidentally pulled the trigger again. This time, the pellet ricocheted off one of the training weapons and landed right back on Li Xue’s sore butt.
“OW!”
“That… that one really was an accident,” Biyu said quickly.
“So the first one wasn’t?!”
“Alright, alright, let me take this before someone gets hurt… hurt more,” Jin Shu said, reaching for the pellet gun.
But as he grabbed it, Biyu’s finger brushed the trigger one last time. The barrel, unfortunately, was pointed right at Li Xue, who had just turned to inspect her bruised rear.
Ping!
“Owie!” Li Xue yelped, her frustration boiling over. “You bitch!” she shouted, charging toward Biyu.
“That one wasn’t even me!” Biyu protested, holding her hands up in defense.
Jin Shu quickly stepped between the charging Li Xue and Fan Biyu, wrapping his arm around Li Xue's waist to stop her in her tracks. She wriggled and tried to slip past him.
“Alright, enough. It was an accident, and you’re completely fine,” Jin Shu said firmly.
“Am not!” Li Xue shot back, grabbing his hand and planting it on her rear. “Feel this! There are three bumps there. What if they leave scars? My cute little butt will be ruined!”
Jin Shu sighed, rubbing his temple as a headache began to form.
“You’ve had worse injuries during our spars. You’ll survive. Now, go pick a weapon.”
Li Xue huffed, muttering something under her breath that Jin Shu didn’t catch, then stalked off to browse the weapons again. She occasionally shot glares back at Fan Biyu, who couldn’t suppress her amused smile.
Moments later, Li Xue returned to the center of the room, now sporting a pair of shiny metallic gauntlets.
Jin Shu glanced at her fists. “Why gauntlets?”
“I’m going to catch it,” she said with a smug grin.
“Catch what?”
“The thing that kept hitting my butt.”
“The pellet?”
“Yeah, that!”
Jin Shu shook his head at her antics. “Sure, let’s just get to sparring.”
They took their positions on opposite sides of the room. Jin Shu made sure to stay at close range—the focus of this training was combating cultivators up close, after all.
Fan Biyu, acting as the referee, clapped her hands and shouted, “Begin!”
Jin Shu wasted no time, raising the pellet gun he’d kept at his side. He aimed for Li Xue’s center mass as she charged forward in a straight line.
Ping!
The pellet flew toward her, but just as it reached her—
Swipe!
Li Xue snatched it out of the air, grinning triumphantly as she held the tiny bead between her gauntleted fingers. “Haha! I caught it!”
Jin Shu raised an eyebrow at her antics.
Ping!
Before she could bask in her victory, Jin Shu fired again.
Bop!
The second pellet struck her square in the stomach.
“Ow!” Li Xue yelped, clutching her abdomen as she glared at Jin Shu. “Unfair!”
Jin Shu shrugged, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “It’s a spar. You can’t expect your opponent to stop just because you’re celebrating.”
She pouted and crossed her arms. “Hmph!”
Jin Shu shook his head. “Alright, no more playing around. Get a real weapon, and we’ll go again.”
Li Xue stomped off toward the weapon rack, muttering under her breath again.
Jin Shu sighed, watching her retreat. He just hoped she wouldn’t come back with some other nonsensical weapon.