Book 1 Chapter 5: Beast in the Middle of the Night

A presence at the edge of Jinghua's sensing range made Jinghua open her eyes with a hard gleam. Taking out her hardwood bow and arrows that she bought when they were still in Xichang Town, Jinghua cautiously controls her breathing pattern and slowly applies the poison that she had fused onto a load of arrows. Just for precaution, Jinghua also applied the poison to her other hidden weapons in her leather sleeves and shoes. She did it so perfectly that there were no flaws or mistakes to be taken even when someone looked for them.

The presence wasn't alerting menace but rather, a slight panic aura that said whoever it was, was running away from something. This wasn't the presence of a human but rather, it made Jinghua think of those small animals from the Amazon forest back on old earth. Since the discovery of new renewable energy, deforestation has slowed down a lot, making the Amazon forest a paradise for all kinds of animals. This means that they are far more dangerous than hundreds of years ago when the forest was declining due to greenhouse gas and manufacturing gasses.

She went there when she was only 12 years old along with 100,000 other children to survive there for 3 years.

Of course, when Jinghua was 12 years old, she had already long gotten used to killing people and surviving by herself the Amazon forest was like her playground for improving her killing technique.

At the end of those three years, out of all 100,000 children, only 50 of them survived. Tao Jinghua was one of the top three that survived that time. That was how Jinghua earned the name Airless, the assassin. If you think that the survival rate was low then you are mistaken. In fact, that kind of training only happens once every hundred years and the survival rate usually was only about 2 or 3 out of every 100,000 children from the age of 12 to 18. This time, there were 50 of them that survived and they all were only 15 years old.

Thinking about her old memories, Jinghua recalled that her boss from their organization was always against her going there to train.

Back then, he was already 18, being 13 years older than Tao Jinghua, but his actions made him look more like a child than Jinghua would ever be. Shinny, or with his real name of Zhou Xian Liang, was like a fatherly-elder brother to her.

He has been very protective of Jinghua even since their first meeting. Which explains why he was against Jinghua for going to that training regiment. He didn't think that she would survive in that Hell Forest, another name for the Amazon Forest that gained its popularity in the 2100s.

She was only 5 years old and Liang was already 13 years old, however, because both his mother and father were in the organization as two of the Elders, he was a naturally born assassin. He didn't need to undergo that hell training in the Hell Forest to be a capable killer when he has both his mother and father training him themselves.

So, when he'd met the blinded Jinghua for the first time, he had fallen head over heels for her without even knowing that he had liked her. All because he doesn't know how normal people confessed to loving, he thought that Jinghua was just like the younger sister that he never had so he was very protective of her.

Naturally, by the time that he’d noticed his feeling for Tao Jinghua, she was already very irritated with him and left for that legendary Hell Training that took place once every hundred years for all the future of all of the Assassins in that world.

By the time that she’d come back, he was already engaged to someone else by his parent's wishes. Tao Jinghua honestly doesn't know if she was happy for him or felt sorry for the girl that was his fiancee.

Jinghua knew better than anyone else about Xian Liang's true personality and demeanor. She knew that Liang would never allow that girl to feel happy even when she was supposed to be his wife.

Jinghua didn't remember who that girl was but she heard that she died 7 days before Liang and her wedding took place. It was before Jinghua came back from the forest too. Jinghua didn't know if she should read too much into his situation so she just left it alone.

Jinghua's eyes narrowed as she placed the bow and arrows in their places before taking out a white long piece of silk fabric from inside her private universe bag. She doesn't know if this presence will make her use the silk fabric but she wasn't going to take a chance even if it wasn't hostile. Years of fighting between high-ranked assassins who were able to hide their killing intents and disguised it makes Jinghua's killing instinct fully refined to a degree that made her who she was.

The deadliest assassin the world had ever known.

Jinghua didn't know if this non-threatening presence would alert her brother but she didn't want to take the chance. Soon enough, the presence comes closer and closer toward them. By now, the presence should have awakened big brothers Mi Ling and Qingshan but knowing that this presence wasn't human, Jinghua wanted to know if her brother would be able to react to it fully.

Jinghua takes out the bow and yields it with a proficiency that should have been impossible for her had this body still belonged to the former Tao Jinghua. Jinghua then calms her heart and beats slowly until there is barely any sound that she can hear. Jinghua closed her eyes as her breath vanished into nothing and her hearing sensitivity increased. She could hear the sound of the very air itself as Jinghua toned with the air.

Do you want to know why her codename as an assassin is Airless? Of course, you do.

As the deadliest assassin ever to walk the earth, you can say that Jinghua was called the #1 assassin of all time for a reason. She had already long ago remastered her proficiency in all kinds of weapons again. When Jinghua was training her body, she had also trained her hands, arms, and wrists to an unbelievable degree. That wasn't the only thing that she was training in. In this body, Jinghua didn't know how much her training would be effective so she was naturally very careful.

It might be because the air in this world was different from the earth so when she was training in her internal martial arts, her breathing also was affected by it. Before, Jinghua knew that practicing her old martial arts in this world might not be a very good idea since her body will not be able to handle it.

However, this changes when she notices that just by training in internal martial arts, her breathing was also being trained to a degree too. Back in her old life, Jinghua can hold her breathes for a total of 18 minutes underwater while fighting.

However, here? Jinghua honestly doesn't know how long she will be able to hold her breath since her breathing duration timing has increased by a lot due to this world's air. Honestly, Jinghua cannot wait to test it out.

Holding her breath, Jinghua listens to the sound of the winds blowing on top of the trees within a range of 3 miles. Since her air sensitivity heightened a lot due to her breathing training, her sensing range increased by a mile. Not knowing why Jinghua feels curiosity hitting the back of her head concerning the beast that she had sensed, Jinghua feels her hands twitch in irritation. The beast, which naturally has to be a beast since it doesn't feel like a human presence, was very slow in getting closer. The closer it gets to where they are, the slower it becomes.

Knowing that the beast had sensed that there were humans in the surrounding area, Jinghua sensed the beast jerked in surprise as another presence entered her sensing range.

Now, this presence wasn't as nice or non-aggressive as the first one. No, in fact, it was the opposite. In full aggressive hostility and menacing aura, it caused the air in the surrounding area to chill.

Jinghua can hear both her brothers jerking awake at the menacing aura. Jinghua opened her eyes as she withdrew her senses and came back to her. She had to slowly breathe a couple of times before walking toward the door of her tent and pushing it open softly.

Her eyes automatically go to where her brother's tents are. Both Mingyu and Tengyu are sleeping with Qingshan while her other 3 brothers are sleeping with Mi Ling. Sensing that Mi Ling had jerked awake, her other brothers, one is a year older than her while the other two are the same age as Mingyu and Tengyu, also stirred awake.

Jinghua turned toward Qingshan's tent instead of making her way toward Mi Ling's tent. Qingshan was the one that was supposed to protect her after all.

Knocking softly on the tent, Jinghua softly called out to her brother without trying to wake up Tengyu and Mingyu, who were so tired from the training regiment that they were dead to the world.

"Big brother Qingshan, are you still awake?" She asked with a voice that said that she was very nervous for some reason. Of course, this was all an act. It wasn't like Qingshan would be able to tell anyway.

"Hua'er? Come in." Called out Qingshan as he put his two bright red swords and tied them around his waist using a leather strap that was made by his and Jinghua's mother.

"B-big brother." Since Jinghua's expression was now frozen in that either hot or cold expression, the only way for her to show, or tried to show anyway, was to make her voice tremble to show that she is very scared for some reason.

Hearing the quivering in Jinghua's voice, Qingshan stopped what he was doing and looked at his younger sister. She was still in her clothes and hadn't changed into nightwear gowns and she was clutching onto the bow in her arms with a grip that said more of her mood than anything.

"What's wrong, Hua'er? Why are you so nervous?" Naturally, Qingshan didn't think that Jinghua could sense the presence that was coming closer and closer to them at this very moment.

Before Jinghua could answer Qingshan, a crashing sound came from the cooking area with a bang that jerked both Tengyu and Mingyu awake.

"W-what is going on?" They both asked sleepily as Jinghua acted like she was shocked and jumped as she twisted around to look at the door. Jinghua clenches her bow and raises them up as she grabs three arrows from the quiver. She aimed the blow toward the door and moved closer toward Qingshan as Tengyu and Mingyu grabbed their weapon from the table, now fully awake.

"B-big brother, I don't know why but I have a very bad feeling," Jinghua said as calmly as possible in her situation of acting nervous. Qingshan looked at his sister and he had to say, this sister of his was very strong. The way that she held the bow wasn't like a greenhorn either. She was a bit shaking but she controlled herself very well. No wonder sister Suyi had always told him that Hua'er had a very high potential for martial arts. After this, if she wants to train with them, Qingshan will be more than happy to help. After all, this world wasn't a world that she will be able to survive in if she was weak.

"Stay with Teng'er and Ming'er. I will go see what is wrong." Qingshan said that just as Mi Ling and the other two boys opened the door to their tent.

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"Big brother Mi Ling." They all greeted each other with a bit of nervousness in their voices. Qingshan nodded toward Mi Ling as they both made their way to the cooking area.

"Tengyu, Mingyu, Yuanfang, and Yongyu. You all stay here to protect Hua'er." Mi Ling said as both Qingshan and he turned away toward the cause of the sound.

"!" Before Jinghua can say anything, a large group of menacing auras enters her sensing range. The aura made all the boys shiver in fear as they took out their weapons to defend themselves and Jinghua. However, Jinghua wasn't staying still either. She takes out the hidden weapons on herself and passes them toward her brothers.

"These daggers are laced with poison so be careful. Use them if anything comes in," Jinghua said as she readied her own bow.

Seeing the action that Jinghua took, all the boys were shocked. True, they are a bit scared of the aura that was coming near them but for some reason, they felt a cold chill down their backs as they looked at the small dagger that Hua'er had passed them. For some reason, the weapons from Jinghua felt very scary and it wasn't because of the poison either.

All the boys looked at each other and nodded their heads.

For some reason, the surroundings were oddly quiet. The quietness made all the boys very nervous but they can still feel that as seconds passed by, Jinghua was becoming calmer and calmer as she readied her bow and arrows.

A couple of minutes pass by and Jinghua can hear the crashing sounds of weapons hitting something. Roars from the angry beast could be heard as the menacing aura from before heightened in anger. Jinghua narrowed her eyes.

"Stay here. Do not come out no matter what you hear." Jinghua said as she ran out of the tent without waiting for her brother's response.

"Hua'er!" "Big Sis!" The voice from behind called out but Jinghua ignored them as she tapped her foot on the ground and shot through the air toward one of the trees. Jinghua narrowed her eyes as she looked at the fighting scene a couple of yards away from her.

Qingshan was holding onto two swords while Mi Ling was using a spear. Taking one look at the martial arts that both Qingshan and Mi Ling are using, Jinghua can honestly say that it was a piece of shit. Both her brothers have a very high potential for martial arts and yet the skills manual that they practice in is a piece of crap.

There were a couple of weaknesses in a lot of the movements that they used. For example, Qingshan's two-handed sword should be used as if he was using his own hands but the movement was making it impossible for him to reach that degree. As for Mi Ling, his spear was frighteningly good yet the way that he used them wasn't very refined with intent.

Seeing that the beast that Qingshan and Mi Ling were fighting was a group of red-eyed ferrets, Jinghua blinked in surprise.

Wasn't the ferret a non-aggressive beast that lived in the snow region? Why are they here this far away from their home base? Hmm? If I remember it right, from sister Suyi's letter, Snow Ferret has bright blue eyes and a pure white coat so how come those beasts have red eyes instead?

Feeling that something wasn't right, Jinghua quietly readied her bows and shot three arrows at the closest ferret near her.

The ferrets of this world weren't the same as the ones from the earth. The sizes, for one, were far larger. Their teeth were as sharp as a blade and their hands and feet have long fingernails that look like they could cleaver trees apart.

As three streaks of cold light instantly flew across the sky, three pure white ferrets dropped to their feet and stopped moving. Jinghua didn't wait for the other to notice her as she moved toward another tree, hidden from views of the ferrets.

Counting a large number of ferrets fighting with Qingshan and Mi Ling, Jinghua had to say, it was no wonder that both Qingshan and Mi Ling are the strongest men in their family even with their crappy martial arts manual skills.

Two against 60 ferrets who for some reason were oddly aggressive wasn't something that anyone could do.

Jinghua continued to quietly and effortlessly shoot more and more ferrets, She only aimed for their heads and nothing else. However, since her arrows all have poison laced on them, she didn't need to fully embed the whole arrows into their skulls. It just has to scratch a part of their head, like the ears or nose, and they will drop dead like a puppet without strings attached to it.

Both Mi Ling and Qingshan had noticed that the number of ferrets was getting smaller and smaller for some reason. Their anger roars were becoming quieter and quieter. From the corner of their eyes, both Qingshan and Mi Ling noticed a figure of a girl holding a bow expertly and was shooting at the ferret without even alerting the other ferrets.

Both brothers look at each other quickly as they concentrate on killing the ferrets that were locking on them. Not even a minute later, Mi Ling twisted his spears into the head of one of the ferrets and Qingshan crossed and slashed another ferret while another five arrows pierced five other ferrets on their tails, making it drop to the ground without a sound.

There were only about three ferrets left. If this situation was normal, by now, the Snow Ferret would long ago flee for their lives but because there was something wrong with the ferret from the beginning, the last three didn't flee but kept aggressively trying to kill the target in front of them without any fear.

Seeing this, Jinghua narrowed her eyes, and another three arrows shot through the air with a whistle as it pieces straight through their heads, taking the heads directly off the body of the ferrets.

Seeing this, both Qingshan and Mi Ling fight a shiver down their spines. The power behind each shot of arrows was frighteningly scary.

Since when did Hua'er get this strong?

Just as they were about to call out to Jinghua, Jinghua dropped from the tree and crashed into the ground, frightening both brothers.

Did someone hurt her? How come they didn't see anyone?

"Hua'er!" Qingshan, the ever-doting older brother, panics as he runs toward Jinghua, who has her face on the ground moaning in pain.

"Ow, ow, ow, that hurt." She complained in a voice that trembled in fear. Naturally, she was just acting.

"What's wrong?! Are you hurt?!" Mi Ling's cold eyes soften as it lands on his younger sister.

"T-that was scary." Jinghua quietly complained as she rubbed her nose with her sleeve. Both brothers sigh out loud in relief.

This wasn't good for their heart when this younger sister of theirs kept making them surprised like this. Now that they looked at her carefully, her hands were shaking and her knees looked like it was going to keel over.

Both brothers look at each other in understanding.

So she forcefully calmed herself down to help them but now that everything is over, her nervousness came back in full force, making her weak in the knees.

"B-big brothers, what were those ferrets doing? According to sister Suyi's letter, Snow Ferret wasn't the kind of aggressive animal that didn't care about their lives. In fact, this pack of Snow Ferrets was acting very weird. Their eyes were bright red too." Jinghua asked as Qingshan helped her up from the ground.

"Now that you mention it. It was true, their eyes were bright red." Seeing that Jinghua wanted to change the topic, both Qingshan and Mi Ling looked at one another.

"I can answer that," A soft and gentle voice called out from a couple of yards away.

Both Mi Ling and Qingshan went alert as they grabbed their weapons.

"Wait!" Jinghua called both brothers. She had already long ago noticed that the presence of this spoken being isn't human, yet for it to use human language could only mean that it is one of the beasts that practice in the way of the immortal. This, she knows from sister Suyi’s letter.

A large white ferret with bright blue eyes stumbles toward them. The ferret was walking with two feet while his other hands were clutching onto a large bloody wound on his stomach.

"Big brother, is okay. This ferret should be a normal one." Jinghua calmly said to her two brothers who still have their hands on their half-drawn weapons.

Actually, she couldn't care less if this ferret dies right now in her brother's hands but she felt a curiosity toward this beast-like she has never felt toward anyone in this world before so she stopped her brothers.

"Hua'er!" Mi Ling protested. However, Jinghua just shook her head as her answer and Mi Ling sighed out loud before shielding his spears away. This idiotic of a doting brother... really.

The large snow ferret leaned onto a tree as he dropped to the ground. With his wounds, this severe, the chance of him dying here was more than 90 percent. However, if he died here, a lot of other beasts, be they spiritual beasts or normal beasts, will fall into prey to those dark beings. He had to let someone know. Otherwise, this region of the country, including the area that the human lives, will all be turned into a forbidden zone.

He didn't wish for that even when humans have long hunted their kinds for their beautiful furs. It was better than having their home turned into a dead zone for all the beasts.

Seeing the wounds on the ferret as he dropped to the ground, Jinghua put away her bow and took out a jar of herbal essence that she made herself, and ran toward the ferret. Qingshan panicked once he saw that Jinghua was running toward the ferret without fear for her life. Both Mi Ling and Qingshan quickly ran after her.

The pure white fur of the ferret was painted with bright red blood as he panted for his breath.

"Move your hand." Jinghua didn't wait for the ferret to say anything and commanded with one of her old habits when she was in commanding.

The ferret didn't know if it was because of survival instinct or because the girl wasn't letting out any hostility, he drew his hands away instinctively.

Seeing the wound on the ferret, Jinghua opened the jar of herbal powder medicine as she poured the powder of herb into the wound, causing the bloody furs to bubble as if it was boiling water. The ferret hissed in pain for a couple of seconds before he fainted.

Seeing that the ferret had fainted from the pain, Jinghua didn't stop and continued to pour powder of herbs one after another into all the wounds that she could find.

If Jinghua had one of those immortal pills then she could just feed them to the ferret for his wounds to heal but because those pills are far too expensive for even her, he will have to tolerate the pain with the powders of herbal medicines that she made herself.

Comparing Jinghua's medicine powder to the pills that a dan master made and naturally, her medicine will fall short. However, comparing the cost of spiritual herbs that it will take to create those pills and the powder of medicine in her hands, you will find that the things that Jinghua made were far too cheap.

Of course, the method that she used was from her old life so it could only be used to make ordinary medicine and can not be compared to pills that were made by Pill master, an Alchemist.

What Jinghua didn't know was that the powder medicine that she made was nearly in the same grade as the pill that was created by a Pill Master. Jinghua didn't know but both Mi Ling and Qingshan noticed.

Both brothers looked at the jar of powder medicine that Jinghua had in her hand and was shocked. Both brothers look at each other and then look at Jinghua with a glint in their eyes.

"Big brother, can you help me move this ferret to my tent?" Jinghua asked, completely unaware that both her brothers were eying the medicine jar in her hand with a look that wasn't quite greedy but was more like yearning.

Her voice shook both brothers out of their trace as they nodded and helped the ferret up. The large ferret was about twice their size so both brothers have to be careful to not reopen his wounds.

With the help of both Qingshan and Mi Ling, the large ferret was safely tucked into sleep on Jinghua's bed while she slept on Qingshan's bed for the night. Naturally, Qingshan didn't want to share a bed with Mi Ling since both of them aren't kids anymore so he sleeps with Mingyu instead.

Of course, while Jinghua was sleeping, both Qingshan and Mi Ling didn't get to sleep until nearly morning. They have to clean the corpses of the pack of ferrets away and collect all the arrows that Jinghua used. They were very careful with it since they noticed that the arrows were laced with poison that was far too lethal. After that, they collect all the ferrets into their universe bags, which their father had bought for them just for this trip, and clean up all the blood.

They didn't want the smell of blood to attract another pack of beasts.

The night passed by rather quietly.

The ferret didn't wake up until two days later.