《The Demon King's Seventeenth Wife is Scary》


 Book 1 Chapter 1

    Chapter One: 25th Century Deadliest Assassin


    December 31, 2179, A.D, Shanghai, China


    Towards the end of the 21st century, Earth''s population underwent a tremendous change. Due to the flourishing economy and new discoveries in renewable energy, mining, farming and genetics; humans had longer, healthier and easier lives.


    The population doubled and now numbered 16 billion people. New cities were built, floating in the air and on the sea. In China, the major cities had their own floating counterparts, gigantic structures that hover in the skies above them. These huge habitats could house up to five million citizens on their own.


    Advancements in renewable energy using sea water healed the world and restored the atmosphere. The clean technology encouraged plant growth, turning the world lush and green. Trees grew taller and stronger, the air became purer and the environment began to balance itself.


    Each floating city was at least 3,000 miles square large and was able to house up to five millions of people at the least. Because of the new discovery of using sea water as energy, the earth''s atmosphere undergo a change that is noticeable in a mere 50 years. Greens started to spread everywhere due to the air, which results in plenty of trees growing taller than a hundred years ago.


    In one of these floating city, the Tiankong Beijing Floating city, a big accident was currently happening. Hundreds of airship were leaving the floating city in a panic. In the middle of a large scientist lab that has thousands of different kinds of tools and machine, a girl with bright green eyes, long black hair, white porcelain skins and have the body of an hour- glass was walking calmly to a monitor.


    On the left side of her ears was a headset that is showing her a map of the building that she is in. On her hands was two long, over a meter long, swords. The girl was wearing nothing but a pure white wedding dress that fit tightly into her body, showing her legs and the white high heel that she is wearing. The white wedding dress was rather simple yet elegant, making the girl look like an angel descended from heaven. However, this angel isn''t a heaven angel but rather a hell angel in white.


    As new energy got developed alongside with everything else, Martial Arts also got stronger as the air get purer, resulting in China gaining another additional patch of masters of Martial Arts. Unknowingly, Tao Jinghua is one of the top three Grandmaster of Martial Arts. She doesn''t have a specialty but that is why the assassin known as Airless Grandmaster is the most feared individual in the current time.


    Even when the girl is wearing a high heel, surprisingly, she made no sounds at all when she walks into the room with a huge monitor. Naturally, that was the control room for the Floating cities.


    "Mei Mei, what is the current status?" The voice from the girl in the wedding dress was clear and calm. Naturally, this girl is Tao Jinghua. The deadliest assassin of all times. Today was her wedding day, however, to her surprise, the city started to shakes and warning alerts sounded throughout the whole city. Her soon to be husband was killed when he pushed her out of the way from a falling pole right outside the wedding hall. He wasn''t the only one that got killed from it.


    While everyone else was fleeing all over the place towards the airship, Tao Jinghua instead sighed out loud and take out her cell phone and called her trustee-partner.


    "Air Mei, about 80% of everybody is now aboard already. In about 10 minutes, another wave of airship will get there. You have another 2 hours left until the city exploded." A pissed off voice answered from the other end. Naturally, the voice belongs to a girl whom Tao Jinghua called Mei Mei. Air Mei was Tao Jinghua''s code name while Mei Mei was the codename of the other girl.


    "Did you find out what is the cause?" Tao Jinghua asked calmly as she started to search the system for the cause of this calamity.


    "Yeah. I found the cause. Those stupid pig heads accidentally knock over dead''s door by accidentally infusing the hydro system with a virus. Causing the underground systems to be unstable. What of your end? You found everything?" Asked from the other end.


    "Yes, I found the system''s files. I am now forwarding it to you. Is Shinny there with you?" Tao Jinghua asked with a small smile on her face.


    "Yes, the boss is here. He is very pissed right now so he doesn''t want to talk to you." Mei Mei chuckled.


    "It can''t be helped. I am quitting so naturally he is very mad at me. Not to mention, I rejected his proposal too. I did tell him that I will still help him when a mission of rank SSS are available but he still wasn''t happy with it." Tao Jinghua replies with a calm voice. The room shakes a couple of times as she pushed a couple of buttons on the keyboard before the monitor shut down.


    "Airless Mei, you do know that our organization doesn''t like it when one of our members quit since that will cause a lot of trouble in the future. All the Elder agree only because they are scared of you." Naturally, all the elders will be scared of Tao Jinghua since she is the strongest, fastest, deadliest of an assassin that their organization, The Silence Walkers, had ever created.


    Tao Jinghua was an orphan who was born blind. However, when she was only 5 years old, an accident happen at the orphan that she is staying at. The orphanage was targeted by a group of terrorist. She was born blind but her she doesn''t look like she was blind. As a result, one of the men grabs her to use as his hostage and injuries her eyes. Even though she can not see, when her eyes are hurt that badly, naturally she will feel the pain.


    Tao Jinghua had always been a calm girl even when her eyes are hurt. She didn''t make a sound because she knew that crying will only get her kill faster. However, because she made on sounds at all when her eyes are injuries, one of the men have the brightest idea of changing the hostage to another kid who will get scared easily.


    That was her last straw. Tao Jinghua has no family but the orphan kids were her brothers and sisters. The Headmistress was her mother, the old man who like the headmistress was her father. She was happy there with everyone. However, suddenly someone is threatening their lives?


    The next thing that Tao Jinghua know, she had already grab the men''s knife and cut his throat open. The scene that followed, Tao Jinghua remember everything clearly even though she can not see the scene. Her hearing was more than enough to make up for it.


    Because of her surprise attack, the other three man didn''t have enough time to get over their shock so Tao Jinghua killed two more men in a flash. Tao Jinghua had always been the quietest one, the smartest one, the most intelligent one out of all the kids at the orphan. She can not see but she learned how to read and write when she was only 3 years old. By the age of 5, there were no Chinese characters that she doesn''t know. All the books in the orphan''s library were read by her.


    If you think that being blind made Tao Jinghua into a shut-in then you are mistaken. Tao Jinghua is blind so she doesn''t play with all the other kids like normal. However, she''s very athletic for her age. Her running speeds allow made the terrorist blinked in surprise.


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    Maybe it was because she was blind that she can sense a lot more things than normal people.


    By the time that the last terrorist come to his sense, all his comrades were already dead. In his panic, he accidentally pulls the triggered on his hydro gun and blasts a hole through the corpse of his former companions.


    The triggered off the hydro gun caused Tao Jinghua''s hearing to suffered. However, luckily, that group of a terrorist was being chased by an assassin group. The assassin caught up to the terrorists just in time to prevent him from killing Tao Jinghua.


    From then on, Tao Jinghua had been living with the Assassin group. That group is The Silence Walker. Since she was alway been blind, she doesn''t really care if they help her eyes but the Young Master, who at that time was already 18 years old and had already earned his nickname of Shinny, force her to healed her eyes.


    Back then, she was only 5 years old but now she is 25 years old. When Shinny is 15, he earned his nickname but Tao Jinghua earned her nickname when she was only 13 years old. Now, Shinny is the Boss of the Silence Walker and she is their top #1 assassin.


    However, Tao Jinghua grows bored of a life of killing so she wanted to quit and get marry. She didn''t earn her nickname Airless by being a normal assassin.


    And just when she finally get to married, her soon to be husband died right in front of her and the very city that she was born on is collapsing.


    Tao Jinghua sighed out loud as she walks out of the lab and the airship''s platform. All the around her was chaos all over however, Tao Jinghua was strangely calm. She didn''t feel panic nor worried that she will die. On her way toward the Airship, she picks up a baby around 3 to 4 months old whose mother was dead. A couple minutes later, she also helps a small child of 3 years old who was shaking her dead mother, trying to wake her up.


    "Alright, Mei Mei, I will talk to you later when I am home." Tao Jinghua said as she click on a button on the headset and the line went dead.


    She didn''t care if all the human in the world all die but seeing a child crying for their mother made her instinct as a woman awake so she helps any kids that she came across with. By the time that Tao Jinghua made it to the airship, there were more than 40 children following her. Some were still sniffing while other were shaking in fears.


    "Miss! Please hurry!" One of the public workers saw the children behind Tao Jinghua, who is still in her wedding dress, and come running toward her to help her with the children. One by one, all the children get in the airship, including the baby in her arms.


    The man that went to help the kids and the girl in the wedding dress look at the girl in a bewildered way. He doesn''t understand why the girl was so calm. Her expression doesn''t change even after he takes the baby in her arms away. She didn''t come into the airship either. Instead, he watch as the girl in the wedding dress turned toward a direction and narrowed her eyes before she vanished.


    "!" A martial Artist! No wonder the girl didn''t panic when all this chaos was going on. The man thought as he got into the airship with the baby in his arms.


    Tao Jinghua looks at the temple in front of her with a narrowed eye. In her profession, naturally, she knew what this temple of Taoist believes is.


    Spreading her senses around the whole Temple, Tao Jinghua sensed that there were still another couple of people who is still alive. Narrowing her beautiful green eyes, Tao Jinghua vanished and reappeared inside the temple. She looks around as her eyes were met with an elderly man who was struggling to get up since the concrete pole was on top of him. Strangely enough, there was no blood on him.


    Tao Jinghua walks over to the man and pushed the concrete pole with nothing but a small push and the concrete pole was smashed into the wall with a bang.


    The elderly man looks at Tao JInghua with a surprised look in his for a split seconds before he calmed down. Tao Jinghua helps the man up.


    "Can you walk okay?" She asked quietly with no emotion in her eyes.


    "Yes, I can Miss Airless." He answered calmly. Of course, he would know who Tao Jinghua is.


    Tao Jinghua didn''t care either way. She let go of the elderly man''s hands and walk toward another elder who was still knock out. Tao Jinghua hit an acupuncture point in the man''s neck and he wakes up nearly instantly.


    She continued to wake the other two elderly man up before opening the door for them, which was jammed shut by a fallen stone pillars.


    "This way." Tao Jinghua said as she held the door for the elderly men until the very last one. Outside of the building that they come out of, a large ginkgo tree that acquires at least ten full adults to link arms to fully embrace it was lying in front of them.


    "Let''s hurry. There aren''t much of time left." Just as Tao Jinghua said that the whole city shakes as if a great earthquake was occurring. The building behind them collapses with a bang as the other building started to shakes like there is no tomorrow left for them.


    "!!!" All the elderly men''s face pale in fright as they nodded and start running toward where the airship are located. Tao Jinghua looks at the panicking elderly man and signed in her heart. To think that the 6 Great Elder of the Taoist Temple panics this easily. They still have a long way to go in their belief, she thought to herself as she taking out her two big swords and start to hacks the fallen debris of concretes from the fallen buildings.


    Just as she slashed a large chunk of fallen concrete away from the Elderly Taoist, Tao Jinghua accidentally kicked a black pearl under her feet, causing it to bounce on her sword and rebound it toward her face. Seeing the small pearl being bounced back toward her face, Tao Jinghua calmly used her other hand to grab it.


    However, what caused Tao Jinghua to be surprised was that the pearl just passed right through her hand like it has no physical form in the beginning.


    "What-" Just as she was about to asked herself, her mouth just happen to open a bit, causing the pearl to get inside her mouth and passed right through her throat like it have it''s own conscious.


    "!!!" Feeling the pearl traveling down her throat, Tao Jinghua simultaneously control her throat muscles to stop the descending of the pearl. However, it was like the pearl is a ghost that doesn''t have a physical body as it travel down into her lung without a care.


    The head Elder Taoist just happen to turned back to see an image that will shock him for the rest of his life, making him unable to forget about it even if he hit his head until he has amnesia.


    He watched as the girl that everyone in the underworld and the Day world fear suddenly closed her eyes as her body fall to the ground as dark air suddenly started to form around her body.


    "!!!" His eyes widen in fear as the dark air started to make the girl''s body vanished until only the two swords, a black and red design pistol, and her headset was what is left.

 Book 1 Chapter 2: The 29th Daughter of the Tao Family

    Book 1 Chapter 2: The 29th Daughter of the Tao Family


    Tao Jinghua opened her eyes as she blinked in confusion for a split second. In her vision, she can see the ceiling of a painted silk bed that has two wings of red and blue butterflies and one large pink peony flower with a background of light green. Tao Jinghua blinked as she gracefully set up.


    The first thing that she noticed was that her body was strangely very weak. The next thing she noticed was that she seemed to be sleeping in a bed from ancient China. You know, one of those frame beds from the ancient time that wasn''t soft like the one in the modern time. A Kang bed.


    Even though the sky outside should still be dark, inside the room, Tao Jinghua can see everything as if it was in daylight. Tao Jinghua looks around the room that she is in. The room that she is in was rather simple. A wooden tea table in the middle of the room, a closet in the far corner of the wall, next to the bed was a table with a bowl of water and a white towel, and a couple of meters away from the table that has the bowl of water was a hanging rack that had two robes of clothes hanging on it. Ancient style clothes.


    Tao Jinghua takes a deep breath as she feels her mind going into confusion for the first time in ten years. That was, until 13 years'' worth of memories suddenly entered her mind, making her expression pale rapidly as pain throbbed inside her brain.


    Tao Jinghua''s expression was grim for a split second as sweat gathered on her forehead.


    The real owner of this body had the same name as Tao Jinghua. She is the 29th daughter of a Pottery family in Xichang Town. According to this girl''s memories, this country was called [Wuzhi Kingdom] and this town is located in the Southernmost part of Wuzhi Kingdom. Closer toward the sea and yet farther inland than a Port Town or City was.


    This world was very similar to Ancient China''s history that Tao Jinghua knows of. However, there were a lot of different perspectives that this world has that China on Earth does not have.


    One of them was the fact that beasts/monsters like dragons, phoenixes, and all those fantasy animals are real in this world.


    This was going to get some use to.


    The second thing that was different was the fact that this world has immortal. No, really. Immortal. As in those that cultivate and can live up to thousands of years. Those immortals.


    The third thing that made Tao Jinghua''s brain shut down in one mere second was the fact that there was no such thing as guns or nuclear weapons in this world. Any defense that this world has is all Martial Arts, Dao techniques, talismans, formation protection, and such. Does that mean that I can''t use or make my own pistol?


    ....


    ...


    ...


    Shit!


    One thing about Tao Jinghua''s hobby was that she was a weapons collector.


    JInghua loves to collect old weapons and modify them into something else completely.


    For example, her Ruger SR1911 was a Semi-Automatic pistol that shoots the .45 Auto ammunition with a load of 7 bullets. However, after she modified it, the capacity of 7 bullets per load increased to 18 bullets per load. The average of 0.45 Auto bullet has 467 ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, however, after modifying it, that 467 ft-lbs. of energy increase by another 580 ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, enough to kill a rank SS Martial Artist who practices Internal Martial Arts at close range.


    You have to know that one of the reasons why Tao Jinghua was so feared was because of her 100% accuracy shooting precision and her guns. It wasn¡¯t just because she¡¯s a martial artist that she was so feared. The majority of the reason was due to her 100% accuracy hit chance that no one had ever got away from.  After all, in that world, during that age and time, she certainly wasn''t the only martial artist to be at the Grandmaster level. And yet, she was the most feared one.


    Most of the time, she didn''t even have to use her martial arts to get her jobs done since most of the time, it wasn''t even worth it. The only times that she had to use martial arts were when her targets were martial artists too.


    However, now, you are telling Tao Jinghua that this world doesn''t have guns?


    This was going to take her a long time to get used to. At least there were still swords and all other weapons. However, from this girl''s memories, weapons cost a lot of money.


    The currency in this world was different from the ancient china that Tao Jinghua knew of too.


    These coins from ancient China were made of copper, iron, lead, gold, and silver with different shapes, weights, and marks. However, the currency in this world was totally different. It is all purely made out of either Gold, Silver, Lead, or Copper. They can not be made into currency if there is another mineral mixed in. For example, a gold coin has to be made out of 100% pure gold to be counted as a gold coin.


    A copper coin has to be 100%, pure copper. A Lead coin has to be 100% lead.


    This caused Tao JInghua to twitch slightly. Lead? Really? Using pure 100% lead to make currency? And people had to carry those with them daily? Do the Leads in this world not cause lead poisoning?!


    Oh? I see. Due to Spiritual Energy, the people who lived in this world¡¯s bodies were much stronger than Earth¡¯s human bodies. You have to digest a lot more lead than a couple of tens of Lead Coins worth for lead poisoning to become a thing. Not to mention, the money pouches that the majority of the people in this world use normally are made with fabrics that were specifically grown to have lead resistance and neutralized. So, for a long time now, lead poisoning hasn¡¯t been a problem for the people of this world.


    Not only do they not have to worry about lead poisoning due to their own money, but they also don¡¯t have to worry that their lead coins would be rusted because the lead, coppers, silvers, gold, and such mineral resources in this world have far higher durability than Earth¡¯s minerals resources. Thus, copper coins last for a long time even being submerged in salted water for years.


    After all, everyone in this world has a skill that they learned from a young to identify currency coinages, causing the people of this world to be very Gold, Lead, and Silver sensitive, and can tell if it has impurities in it or not. Jinghua just knows that the people of this world were born with sensitivity toward pureness- such was the result of living in a spiritual world.


    A copper coin, which is about the size of a 10 cents dime that the American used to have, is the start of the currency. Normally, for a commoner, 10 copper coins are already worth 2 days of food or 20 buns. A commoner''s year annual income was around 5 Lead Coin(L.C) and that was already a lot of money for them.


    The exchange and value of the mortal currency was this;


    1,000 Copper coins(C.C) = 1 Lead coin(L.C).


    1,000 Lead coins(L.C) = 1 Silver coin(S.C).


    1,000 Silver(S.C) = 1 Gold coin(G.C).


    A lot of commoner people called any copper coins below the 1,000 coins marked ¡°Wens¡±. Or in English, that would be Cents. From Lead Coin, they would call it


    After gold coins are the coins that large factions like sects and groups use called Diamond Coin that is made out of 100% Spiritual Diamond. Not the normal diamonds that mortal tends to use in jewelry crafting. But Spiritual Diamonds.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Just One Diamond Coin is worth 10,000 Gold coins or more. Sometimes, in periods when natural disasters occurred, the price of Diamond Coins to Gold Coins exchange rapidly changed. This could cause people who had saved their Diamond Coins to either get rich overnight or court death to themselves.


    This was already the equivalent of a low-grade spirit crystal - Jingshi - the main currency that immortal uses.


    From the girl''s memories, One Diamond coin can have as much as 100,000 di[µÎ- meaning droplet] of Spiritual Qi Liquid. Just one drop of Spiritual Qi Liquid was enough to increase 10 points of spiritual power so you can imagine how much 100,000 is worth. Spiritual energy isn''t something that is easily gained after all. One drop of Spiritual Qi liquid has as much as 100 points worth of spiritual energy but because human bodies have too many impurities, they can only cultivate up to 10 points. Or so this girl''s memories said.


    For cultivators of this world, meditating for 10 days can increase your spiritual power by 10 points. This discovery made Tao Jinghua very surprised.


    This was just common knowledge that everyone in this world has. The levels of cultivation for immortal cultivators in this world are also common knowledge too. After all, knowing the levels doesn''t mean that you can cultivate them. It all depends on talents, resources, comprehension skills, innate talents, and hard work.


    Not everyone can cultivate. Everyone can have the knowledge but it doesn''t mean shit when you can''t use it.


    Well, whatever. It''s not like Tao Jinghua cares whether or not she can cultivate. Her martial arts is the kind that could be learned with or without Qi since she will be using Internal Martial Arts to infuse it. Actually, it would be better if she doesn''t have Qi but that''s asking too much for this body.


    Still, there was one question that Tao Jinghua just doesn''t understand. How the hell did the former soul of his body die in the first place? She should be dead not even an hour ago since rigor mortis hasn''t even started yet. Taking into account the temperature in this room, which was abnormally warm, this body''s former soul should have died about 15-20 minutes ago.


    Well, whatever. Since I am nowhere, living her life, I have to thank her. I still don''t even know why or how I die - or if I even did die- from that damn pearl in the first place. Tao Jinghua thought to herself.


    It''s not like she has any attachment to her former life. She only has a couple of friends that she trusts. Ah, that''s right. The boss might be very pissed and annihilate the Taoist Temple since she did die there.


    Mei Mei will probably cry her eyes out and then send all the governments that were involved in that accident to the depth of hell.


    Yun, her other partner, will probably faint from shock and rage when he found out that Tao Jinghua died but that''s it. Tao Jinghua doesn''t particularly have any big attachment that would make her feel sad.


    She''s pretty damn bored with that world after 20 years of living there. She did everything that she could and wanted already. Like learning to make all kinds of food to even taking a part-time job doing dishwashing. Let''s just say that she did everything that a lady could do, including Chinese embroidering.


    That''s how bored she was when she wasn''t on a mission.


    Ah, that''s right. According to her memories, when she turned 15 years old, this girl was supposed to marry the 4th son of the Tang family who owns a couple of large restaurants in this town.


    Finally, something that actually made Tao Jinghua look forward to it. After all, she died (?) before she was married, so Tao Jinghua didn''t know what marrying someone was like. Right now she is only 13 years old so she will have to wait another 2 years.


    From her memories, Tang Beifeng was a hardworking boy who was 2 years older than her. It should be fine. Marrying that kind of boy should let her experience what a housewife was like - especially since the cultures and morals in this kingdom were a lot alike to ancient China.


    Sighing mentally, Tao Jinghua gets up and starts to get ready for the day according to this body''s daily routine.


    Since she''s the 29th daughter of the house, she and her two other sisters live together in a simple two-story house that has three bedrooms on the second floor, while on the first floor was where the washroom, storage room, and a stone hearth room for pottery was. Foods are delivered by the maids that her father had hired so this girl doesn''t even know how to cook, unlike Tao Jinghua.


    After she finished washing her face, Tao Jinghua went over to the table where a large glass mirror along with all the necessities that a lady used was on.


    The image that reflects on the mirror wasn''t the one that Tao Jinghua was used to though. Jinghua had to take a couple of breaths to steady her heart. So, this face will be hers from now on.


    Her face was strangely white and didn''t feel natural, she noticed that when she was washing her face. Her eyes are a bit larger than her old ones. The eyelashes are also longer. Skins were fairer and there wasn¡¯t even a spot of acne or pimples to be seen.


    In one word, this girl has a face that will make even the goddess jealous. However, for some reason, this face was like a block of frozen ice. No, more like a block of wood that doesn''t move. Is it because she died that her expression was frozen in this natural position?


    Her bangs were longer than normal, hiding her eyes and nearly half her face away. Does this girl have an inferiority complex about herself? But that''s not possible since she clearly was more beautiful than all her sisters. She wasn''t bullied either. She wasn''t hated by her father or her mothers.


    Her father has 5 wives so the family was pretty damn big after all.


    It won''t be strange if she was bullied but according to her memory, her father loves every of his child equally. Her stepmother wasn''t a bitch either, unlike what Tao Jinghua had expected.


    She has 18 brothers that are older than her and 4 younger brothers. She has 28 older sisters and 3 younger sisters.


    All in all, she has 53 siblings.


    All ranging from age 1 to 30 years old.


    That''s one hell of a lot of siblings.


    8 of her oldest brothers were married and living by themselves now. 12 of her sisters were also carried out.


    The only ones that are still living in the Tao household are her other 10 years older brothers, two of them are immortal practitioners, her 4 other younger brothers who were still in school learning how to read and write, 16 of her older sisters are still here along with 3 younger girls. Wait, 1 of her older sisters was also an immortal practitioner too. Both her two older brothers and sister are students of the Tuanfeng [“»ïL, meaning to rise very quickly] Sect, the largest immortal sect in the far South of Wuzhi.


    This girl - the original girl- has a pretty bright personality compared to Tao Jinghua since she likes to play around like a kid a lot. So why does she hide her face? Even her own fiance doesn''t know what she looks like fully.


    No, it wasn''t just her fiance that doesn''t know what she truly looks like; even her own mother and father don''t know what she looks like fully- since she always has her bangs covering her eyes and half her face.


    It''s not like she was afraid either. So what is with this girl''s personality of liking to hide her face? Well, whatever. Since Tao Jinghua was now living as her, she should continue hiding her face for herself. Although there will be people who are suspicious about her since her expression can no longer smile like before. Oh well... Whatever.


    This place was just a small town in this world, being too beautiful yet having no power to back her up will lead to her misfortune instead of helping it. Clearly, the former Tao Jinghua also noticed that too, which might be why she likes to hide her face.


    Besides, this girl spends nearly all her time in the stone hearth room, creating ceramics for the family, that nearly no one in the family notices how she looks like fully. Even when New Year''s events happen, she would rather stay in her room reading about how her brothers and sisters are doing in the sect than go outside to have fun with the rest of the family members.


    The only time that she would go out was when her soon-to-be father-in-law and mother-in-law came visiting with her fianc¨¦. Mainly because she is the Principle Fianc¨¦ so whenever he wants to have another concubine, he must let her know and have her accept and acknowledge the new concubine. This is a law that the Kingdom created long ago to make sure that the husband doesn''t bully his wife by marrying a bunch of other wives.


    This law was the reason why the Tao family was so large yet didn''t have internal struggles between all the wives for the husband''s favor. This law was also the reason why Tao Jinghua¡¯s father doesn¡¯t have an illegitimate child outside.  It was the reason why the Wuzhi Kingdom was the most peaceful one out of all the other nine Kingdoms on this continent.


    For Tao Jinghua, this was slightly unbelievable. After all, no woman would like to share their husband with another woman.


    But... for the common people, this was really just the norm. Only Nobles and people who cultivate to be Immortal would only take One Person in as their spouse due to their Beliefs and Concepts. After all, karma and fate aren''t a joke for Immortal Cultivators.

 Book 1 Chapter 3: The Universe Bags from an Elder Man.

    Book 1 Chapter 3: The Universe Bags from an Elder Man.


    [spoiler]


    It has been 5 months since Tao Jinghua started to live as the 29th Daughter of the Tao family.


    With the girl''s original memories, and with Tao Jinghua''s acting skills, it wasn''t that hard to act like their daughter and live as her in this place.


    In the family, Tao Jinghua''s job was to make porcelain bottles storage for elixirs and potions. Her job specifically was to make mid-size bottles. There was a quota of 150 bottles every day that she must make.


    Her daily routine wasn''t that hard to do either. In the morning, waking up around 6 in the morning to heat up the furnace for firing the porcelain. Eat lunch at around noon, check the temperature to make sure that the kiln temperature hasn¡¯t changed for the type of firing that she needs to use. Afterward- waited for a couple of hours for the porcelain to cool down before glazing it.


    It was hard to make the same shapes of bottles every time for the old Tao Jinghua but since she had a great love for making ceramics, her love for creating ceramics made up for her unsteady hands of hers. However, ever since Tao Jinghua started living like her, all her quota was easily met. What? You thought that Tao Jinghua wouldn''t know how to create a ceramic? Making ceramics was one of the many things that Tao Jinghua had learned because of boredom in her former life. So, she has no problem with it. She might not be a grandmaster with it but her skill was more or less Mastered. Being in a different body doesn¡¯t affect her at all.


    Tao Jinghua had also started practicing the Internal Martial Arts a day after she came across this world.


    Now, her strengths are half of what her original body has. Just half was already enough for her to chop down a tree with nothing but her hand without using qi. She can''t use Qi yet anyway since she is still training her internal muscles and organs to withstand the Qi. This was also due to the special arts that she had created for herself. Jinghua doesn¡¯t know if this world¡¯s special qi will have a bad effect on her body so she was careful to train her internal organs to withstand the qi first.


    Since making 150 porcelain bottles was so easily done by Tao Jinghua now, she would spend the rest of the time in the afternoon while the ceramics are still in the kiln doing exercise and training her body. So, for the past 3 months, she had spent her time in a daily routine that made her sisters look at her weirdly due to how happy she seemed. Well, at least that was what she looked like.


    In the morning, Tao Jinghua would wake up around 5-6 in the morning to get the furnace heated while preparing the clay and everything else. Since the furnace''s temperature has to be very high for the porcelain to fully and temper correctly, the Tao family always uses hardwood to fire the furnace.


    There are three types of hardwoods firewoods that they use. For making porcelain bottles for storing elixirs and potions purposes, the bottle must be able to keep the healing properties and its effects inside the bottle for at least 10 years to 20 years, so the hardwoods that they use for both the fire and the ashes can only be three types of hardwoods.


    It was the Lighting Wood, Fire Pinewood, and Silverwood. The ones that Tao Jinghua uses to fire the furnace and the ashes are the Silverwood since its property can last longer than the Fire Pinewood. Using the ashes from the Lightning Wood lasts the longest but Lightning Wood was far too expensive so it could only be used to make ceramics for loyalties and for important ceremonies.


    So the woods that the Tao family used are Silverwood, which can be used to make a lot of things. Since the Tao family wasn''t one of the influential big families, they don''t have the qualification or the knowledge to use woods like the Lightning Woods. They can use Fire Pinewood since it can be used to make potteries up to a certain rarity.


    Ah. Whatever. That wasn''t important. The important part was that Tao Jinghua has gotten used to living as Tao Jinghua now.


    Even though sometimes she got a bit too bored and started to think about the stupid thing that got nothing to do with the Tao family.


    Jinghua got bored very easily. So easy that she was tempted to do some embroidery. But- there were no evenweave fabrics or Aida cloth in the house, much less Hardanger fabric or soft fabrics linen. They do have silk in the warehouse but it was for a special occasion only. There¡¯s no way that Jinghua could do any of that for embroidery.


    If Jinghua really wanted to, she could just buy it herself since she does have the money for it. But, she didn¡¯t want to draw any attention from her parents and siblings to her just yet.


    Since she likes to know about a lot of things, Tao Jinghua would always put on a disguise and went down to a restaurant to listen to all the martial artists and the commoners talking about the world. The old Tao Jinghua wouldn''t care about politics and the world''s affairs at all but for her, she loves to know anything and everything. It''s interesting. And less boring.


    Therefore, she had made two men''s sets of clothes that had a basic outer defense using light leather made out of small animal hides. Good thing that she still remembers how to make them.


    In fact, these two sets of clothes have their own head-ribbon, hairband, garment, a pair of bracers, shoes, pants, and a simple amulet made out of refined and enchanted bones.


    The amulet was made using Fire Wolf''s bones and Hardwood tree resin in a crescent moon shape. The color was bright red so it was very elegant and clean since Tao Jinghua made it herself. Both sets of clothes had their own distinct color so no one noticed that both men were the same person.


    Hence, no one knew that the man who had been quietly sitting in the far corner of the restaurant was a very pretty girl who has a face that will make even gods jealous. Of course, no one would even suspect that Tao Jinghua was, in fact, a girl when she acts like a true gentleman. There were no flaws in her acting at all. If there was anyone that actually can tell that she is a woman then it could only be that one, that person was sensitive toward gender, two, that person has an artifact on him or her that can tell her gender, and three, that particular person was a powerhouse. One of those immortal practitioners.


    Tao Jinghua has no problem with listening to the customers talks about all the high-end rumors even when they are whispering.


    "Third brother, did you hear that the Empress has once again given out a decree?" One of the men said with a very excited expression.


    "Yeah, truly. I hear that it was the Emperor''s Third Son, the Demon''s King''s concubines that begged the Empress." The other answered with his eyes filled with respect and reverence.


    "Yes, the Third Princes truly is something else. I heard that his nighttime activities will put all of his 12 concubines to die sooner rather than later. I didn''t believe it at that time but thinking about it now, it must be true." The first man answered.


    "The Third Prince''s nightly activities aren''t a secret. Everybody knows that the Third Princes trained in that godly technique so his stamina was far stronger than normal immortality. The Emperor and the Empress had always had a headache because of him. This time, how many concubines do you think that the Empress will decree for?" As another man with a face of curiosity.


    "Hmm, that is hard to say. The last time it was five so this time could also be five too right?" The voice was filled with curiosity and amazement.


    "We commoners will never know what is truly going inside the Emperor and Empress''s head. The Crown Prince has 32 concubines already but he doesn''t have a problem like the Third Prince. But then again, the Crown Prince is not the Third Prince. The Third Prince is a demon while the Crown Prince is a monster. Except for one of the younger princes, the princess all already had a couple of male consorts. Yet, there was never a princess that had more than 3 male consorts. However, for the princes, the minimum was 12 concubines. I wonder if the Four Princes will be like the Third Prince or the Crown Prince since it was impossible for a normal man to actually made love to their wives until they beg for him to take more wives." The first man has spoken out with a glint in his eyes.


    Jinghua can''t tell if the man was praising the Princes or not.


    In this nation of Wuzhi, mortal men having a lot of wives is common due to various reasons. Mainly it was due to survivalism chances of their own bloodline. As this world has Spiritual Energies, the creatures that got stronger and prey on humans are also a huge problem for mortal people. Thus, to make sure that mankind survives and continues to live on, the mortal people of this world tend to have multiple wives, spouses, husbands, and children.


    Tao Jinghua being the 29th Daughter of the Tao Family wasn¡¯t exactly an odd situation. The majority of the richer households in this world have at least 35-45 children with their spouses. Thus, if something happened, like a Beast Stampede or a Beast Tides, there would be more chances for their bloodlines to live on.


    Although, this does make Tao Jinghua wonder about the ratio of males to females in this world... and the treatment of women in this world.


    Aside from the Emperor and Empress of this Kingdom, the Emperor has 7 other concubines. Each Concubine has two children. However, those children don''t have any powers in politics since the Empress herself has 5 Princes and 3 Princesses. The Emperor family was pretty large after all.


    However, from what the old Jinghua memory said, this Country''s Emperor can only have up to 41 Wives, including the Empresses and all the other Imperial Wives. So, this generation¡¯s Emperor has One official Empress, 7 Concubines, which have the right to give birth to his descendant, and another 7 consorts. This system was a tad bit weird but it also made some sense. The system was really similar to the Ming Dynasty system back on Earth.


    The first prince is the Crown Prince, called Shang Mingyu, he was already 28 years old. Since he is also a practitioner, he looks pretty young for his age.


    The Second Prince was called Shang Chengyu. He is only 24 years old this year but he already has 20 concubines.


    The Third Prince was called Shang Changyang. This year, he was only 21 years old. According to rumors, he was now at the largest sect in Wuzhi studying.


    The Fourth Prince was called Shang Changyu, 12 years old, and engaged to the left Prime minister¡¯s 4th daughter and the right Prime Minister¡¯s 3rd daughter. Yes- he¡¯s engaged to two women at the same time.


    For the Fifth Prince, he is only 5 years old this year and he is called Shang Yunyu.


    This emperor sure does like to name their descendants with the characters for rain; Jinghua notices.


    After listening to the talks for another fifteen minutes, Tao Jinghua left 10 copper coins to pay for her food and wines then left.


    The wines in this world can not be compared to the ones from her former life at all. The taste wasn''t even strong and the smell wasn''t very good either. The methods that they use to make those wines aren''t very good.


    Since this world had immortals and the likes, Tao Jinghua had thought that their wines would be very strong but to think that it was so badly made, she doesn''t know if she should cry or laugh. Comparing the wine here to the cheapest beers in her old world and it will still fall short.


    Good thing that Tao Jinghua likes to drink, aside from collecting weapons, she also likes to make her own wines too so she wasn''t worried about not having any wine to drink. She can make her own wine when she finishes collecting all the materials for it. All that was left was to find the base ingredients and she would be able to create her own wine. Or more like sake.


    Walking back to the Tao residents, Tao Jinghua lightly taps the ground with her toes as it repels her over the wall without a sound. Since she sneaked out, naturally, she can not let anyone know that she returned.


    In her room, Tao Jinghua changes back into her old clothes real quick as she hides the man''s clothes away into her Universe bags, a spatial type of storage bag. She then went to the kiln in the stone room where all the stone kiln was located and took out the porcelain bottles that had just finished their last firing stages, the glazing stages.


    She then left them to cool off before placing them in their wooden crate and called the male servant to take them to the warehouse for storage.


    The kiln in this world was different from the ones on earth. In this world, they use something called Ironstone to make the kilns so their temperature is a lot hotter and they are larger than the ones on the earth.


    In her former life, Tao Jinghua had learned how to make ceramics before so she knew how hot the temperature in the room was when the kiln was heating. However, here, the only hot place was inside the kiln since the ironstones that they used to create the kilns prevent the heat from escaping. This was why Tao Jinghua was able to meet her daily quota with no problem.


    After all, she wasn''t that used to the high-temperature heat yet. No matter how strong or high her Internal Martial Arts were, it was impossible to fully be immune to heat from an outside source. That was one of the reasons that her Internal Martial Arts developed far more than she thought they would be when she had just started to train herself. It was all due to the heat from the firing kiln helping her temper her body and internal organs in a very efficient and proficiently way. For both her Martial Arts training movement, physical strengthening, and breathing exercise.


    In Tao Jinghua''s former life, everyone feared her not just because of her weapons collections, in fact, it was the opposite. It was because Tao Jinghua''s Internal Martial Arts were far more advanced than everyone else. Even more than her own masters.


    The reason was simple; Tao Jinghua was a ¡®one in a million years¡¯ genius for Martial Arts. Be it External Martial Arts like Kung Fu, or Internal Martial Arts like Xing Yi Quan, Tai Ji Quan, and Ba Gua Zhang, they all were studied by Tao Jinghua. The arts that she practiced weren''t just one of them but rather all of them. Forming and integrating into her own will and form.


    Her Dragon Air Strikes was the most fearful one of them all just because it needs nothing but air for it to be effective. Dragon Air Strikes was a combination of Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gau Zhang''s internal arts so the power was not something that can be compared with other martial arts.


    Her Master himself had to learn this move from her.


    Before her master have to take her to the nearest active volcano to train but here, just training within a certain distance from the firing kiln was already enough. Why? Because of the martial arts that she created. She called it ¡°Stellar Martial Arts Manual and Skills¡±.


    Stellar Martial Arts Manual and Skills was a High-Grade class manual. It has five movement techniques, three breathing techniques, 5 Martial Arts Styles, and 7 Body Refinement techniques.


    Ever since she crossed over from earth to this world, she had modified the manual to include 2 Soul Refinement techniques and one blood refinement qi technique. This all took her a whole month to do. However, Jinghua hasn¡¯t started to refine her soul or blood qi yet. That¡¯s because she¡¯s still refining her body. And refining the body took a long and painful time to do so.


    It just happens that the heat from the kiln was able to temper her body in a way that she hasn¡¯t expected it to. As a result, her training progressed a lot. However, the heat from the kiln furnace has a lot of impurity within it so Jinghua could only slowly absorb the pure energy and leave the impure heat alone.


    If only there were other sources of heat for her to refine her body on, then she wouldn¡¯t use the heat from the firing kiln at all due to that fire¡¯s natural decomposition. Specifically, if there was a Volcanic heat source nearby - it would have been a heavenly blessing. However, since that was impossible in her current location, the heat from the kilns is more than enough to help her develop and train in internal arts.


    Still, there¡¯s only so much energy in the kiln¡¯s heat that she could use. So, it didn¡¯t take long for it to be useless for her again. Which was why, lately, Jinghua had found herself to be very bored again. There was nothing that she would like to do aside from having to make 150 porcelain bottles every day and training her internal muscles daily.


    There was nothing to do here. She had made her way back to her room already. She had also looked over all the books in the closet that the former Tao Jinghua had and read through them all already. In other words, it was boring as hell here. Bored enough that it made her always sneak out.


    Jinghua sat on the bed and thought. What should she do to allure her away from this boredom? Shall she go outside the town? There is a large forest to the south of this town that has a lot of small animals and not much danger. Yeah, let''s go there. But first, she had to let her father know. It was a bit awkward that Jinghua has family members but she got used to it weeks ago.


    Making her way silently toward the Main Hall, Jinghua nervously looks inside to see if her so-called father, Tao Yuanyu, was inside. Seeing that her father was reading the report of sale from yesterday with a calm look in his eyes, Jinghua knew that her father was in a good mood.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "Father." She greeted gracefully, with an elegance that nearly makes her very father gawk.


    However, he knew that his 29th daughter always likes to hide so he wasn''t surprised that his quietest daughter was this elegant. To think that in another 3 years, this daughter of his was going to marry, a gloomy feeling rises from his chest. However, he knew that girls must marry out so there was nothing that he could do. In fact, if anyone else, Tao Yuanyu will never agree to let his little girl marry but knowing the Tang family for all these years, he has to say that they are a good family.


    Out of all his daughters, Jinghua''er was the most silent one of everyone. He worries to no end about her, even though they rarely met at all.


    "Hua''er. Come here. It''s been a while since Father has last fully seen you, come a little closer." Tao Yuanyu called softly with a gentleness that he only reserves for his daughters.


    Jinghua did as she asked as she went nearer to her so-called father.


    "Oh? Hua''er?" A soft gentle voice called to her left. A woman in her 30s in light pink hanfu that married women wear. This woman is the first wife of Tao Yuanyu.


    "Mother Ying." Jinghua greeted her gracefully, causing the elder woman to smile softly at her. The first wife of Tao Yuanyu is the big sister of Tao Jinghua''s mother. They are auntie and niece in a bloodline relationship but because Tao Yuanyu married both siblings, the older sister is also her mother, too. The first wife, Madame Ying, has 5 daughters and 4 sons while her younger sister, Tao Jinghua''s mother, has 3 daughters and 2 sons, with Jinghua as the youngest daughter.


    "Hua''er, what have you been doing? It has been more than 5 months since I last saw you. Are you eating okay? Have you had enough clothes? Is your quota okay?" She started to ask worriedly. Jinghua doesn''t know if she should appreciate the warmth of affection that this Madame had shown her or should she feel annoyed that she is far too much of a worried woman.


    "Mother Ying, I am fine." Tao Jinghua answered back warmly. Of course, she''s acting. Just because her expression was frozen into this neutral expression of neither hot nor cold, doesn''t mean that they wouldn''t be able to tell from her voice.


    A couple of months ago, she made the excuse that when she woke up, her body was all cold and her face was very chilling. Making her sister think that she was sick so an alchemist came to take a look at her and tell her that she has a rare condition called Spirit Complexity. This condition wasn''t heredity and it was very harmless. The only thing that this condition has was that rarely does a woman contract it. Since then, no one suspected why she never smiles again. Naturally, her father and mothers all knew about it too. Even her future husband knew about it.


    "Okay, enough. Hua''er, tell me, what is it that you need to ask me off?" Tao Yuanyu knew that there was no way that his most silent daughter would come out for no reason at all. Mother Ying''s complexity also changes as curiosity sinks into her expression.


    "Father, Mother Ying, I would like to go out of town for a couple of weeks. Sister Suyi said in her letter that there is a place not far from here that is very beautiful and only a single woman can get into. I am very curious about this place so I wanted to go there." Jinghua answered with her eyes twinkling in excitement. Tao Suyi is Jinghua''s older sister who is one of the immortal practitioners.


    Both husband and wife look at each other in surprise. They knew that there aren''t a lot of things that excited this girl so for her to be this excited, it got to be something very mysterious since they knew that Jinghua likes mysterious things. Nearly all her books are about mysterious subjects and stories, afterall.


    "Will there be danger?" Was the first thing that both of them asked, at the same time. There is no way that they would let their children go to some dangerous places. Just their son and eldest daughter being out there alone were already making them both worried endless.


    "No, there''s a very strong immortal woman there that protects and governs that area so there was no danger." Jinghua answers. Truthfully, that area was under a formation arrspell so there is no danger to women at all. Asides from each other, that is.


    "Very well, since this is the first time that you have ever asked for something, I shall grant you the permission. However, one of your big brothers has to go with you." Tao Yuanyu said with a glint in his eyes.


    Tao Yuanyu had always been far too busy so he rarely had the time to chat with all his sons and daughters. The only time that he could sit down and have a heart to heart talk with them was during New Years when everyone from the family was sitting down at the same dinner table or in the same room. Even at that time, his daughter Jinghua would only stay for a couple of hours at best before leaving so he rarely saw his little girl since, by the time that he made it to her turn, she would have left already.


    "Yes, father. But who?" Jinghua asked curiously. There are only 5 older brothers that were still staying with the family.


    The rest all had already married and moved out elsewhere with their family. After all, the Tao family wasn''t a clan that would have at least 100 family members, so the elder''s sons would always move out after marrying for 3 years. They have to learn how to survive by themselves for their families.


    Only the eldest son and eldest daughter are obligated to stay to inherit the family. However, since the eldest son, Mother Ying''s eldest son, Tao Yingteng, is one of the immortal practitioners, and the eldest daughter, Mother Liuqi''s daughter is also the same as brother Yingteng, the one that will have to inherit the house and business are my own big brother, Tao Dingxiang, and fifth mother, Mother Liling''s, eldest daughter, big sister Meifeng.


    "Hmm. Let your brother Qingshan go with you. He had just reached rank 4 in Tier 4 Martial Arts. He can protect you easily." He said with a tone that left no option for Jinghua to resist. Jinghua nodded. Big brother Qingshan is Mother Ying''s Second son after big brother Yingteng. Qingshan was very similar to Jinghua except for the fact that he is a martial art geek and Jinghua is a weapon collection geek. If you can say it like that.


    "Okay. I will go get ready and leave tomorrow early." Tao Jinghua said as she saluted slightly with an elegance and grace that made both her father and mother stunned in pleasant surprise. After that, Jinghua went back to her room to get ready. She takes a couple of her gold coins that she had saved from selling her own extra porcelain all these years. No, this money doesn¡¯t belong to the current Jinghua but rather the former Jinghua. The former Jinghua¡¯s very good at keeping account of her own private business and thus had saved quite a bit of money so far.


    Since one gold coin was already one thousand silver and with one Silver coin as one thousand lead coins, with one lead coin, it is one thousand copper coins.


    Since the math is like this:


    1,000 Copper coins = 1 Lead coin.


    1,000 Lead coins = 1 Silver coin.


    1,000 Silver = 1 Gold coin.


    As the results:


    1,000,000 Copper coins is 1 Silver. And 1 Gold coin needs 1,000 Silvers.


    1,000,000,000 (billion) copper coins is 1 Gold Coin.


    Which means that on Tao Jinghua''s body, there are three billion copper coins. Or 3,000 Silver coins. Or just 3 Gold coins for better understanding.


    Jinghua had to give it to the former Jinghua. She sure knows how to do private business. With only 5 years of privately selling porcelain she already made a total of 5 gold coins, 45 Silver coins, 70 Lead coins and 12 copper coins as her total savings.


    Well, obviously, she used her own materials that she gathered herself so this explains why she was able to save that much money.


    Normally, the Tao family household monthly income is only 12-15 Silver coins per month. The household used 4 silvers per month for necessaries and another 2 silvers were paid for the maids and servants.


    For food, each month only use 2 Silver coins. In total, each month, there will be a profit of 5-7 Silver coins. Tao Yuanyu had always given away 50-70 copper coin as an allowance to every one of his children, so that is another 2 Silver coins. Leaving only at least 4 to 5 silver coins into the household treasury. Which means that at the most, their yearly income is only 1 Gold coin. Although for the majority of the time, their income was only around 70-80 silver coins per month.


    If they knew that Tao Jinghua had 5 gold coins to herself just by private business, Tao Yuanyu would probably make her the head of the house since he wasn''t a very good businessman. Which explains why she keeps her business a secret away from her family.


    Getting ready in this world was faster than from earth since this world has Universe Bags that even commoners can buy.


    It only cost 2 Lead coins per Universal Bag. Inside the bags was a space of two meters square and could store nearly everything. It can not store Spiritual objects but everything else is possible, including living things. However, it can not store human or body of a human. It is a restrictive item. Only Spiritual Universe bags or Spatial bags have the capacity to store humans inside since inside it is a small world of itself.


    Universe Bags are different from Spiritual Universe bags and Spatial Bags.


    Jinghua''s Universe bags were different from the normal bags that everyone in the household has. She does have normal universal bags that the former Jinghua have but the current one that she¡¯s using wasn¡¯t the former¡¯s Jinghua¡¯s bags. Rather, this bag of hers was from an elderly old man who had traded it for food.


    It happened when Tao Jinghua was coming back from doing her private business with her clients. Of course, she was in disguise when she¡¯d meet the elderly man. He wasn''t a beggar since this town''s chief doesn''t like beggars so he always gives them laborer jobs in exchange for food and shelter, but he was a starving man.


    Seeing no reason why she shouldn''t trade with the elder man, Tao Jinghua helped the elder to an old house and cooked for him herself.


    The only thing was that she didn''t buy buns or cheaper commoner''s food for the elder man but instead cooked the food that she learned how to from her former life.


    In China, if a woman doesn''t even know how to make a couple of dishes that are famous then there was no way that she will be able to marry. Good thing that Tao Jinghua was a genius so whatever she ate, she can recreate them later using different ingredients. Tao Jinghua made some hand-pulled noodles, varieties of stirred fried vegetables using her own sauces and other things to cook the food for the old man.


    That elderly man has the stomach of a bottomless pit so she used more than enough ingredients that would feed a family of 10 for 3 days.


    She cooks for him for 5 hours straight . Until she runs out of ingredients does the elder man get his fill. Jinghua was suspicious of that elder man but since he had no ill intention towards her, so she didn''t do anything else other than cooking for him.


    In the end, the elder man gives her three Universe bags that he made - or so he said. What surprised her was that the bags were different from the ones that she was using, the former Tao Jinghua''s bag.


    The bags that she have only had the space of 2 square meters but the ones that the old man gave her have a 3 by 4 square meters of space inside. Jinghua was very surprised and was going to decline the other two bags and only take one but when she looked up to decline the old man, the old man had already vanished. It was like he was never there from the beginning.


    So, Jinghua now has four Universe bags. However, since the bags that the Elderly Old Man gives her can store even the other universe bag inside it - much to her surprise - Jinghua had stores all her private business funds and materials inside the former''s Jinghua''s bag and store that bag inside her bag while keeping her money in another bag.


    This happened two weeks ago already. Up till now, Jinghua had always wondered who that elderly man was. She doubted that the old man was a beggar no matter how he looks like it. He was probably one of these immortal practitioners. However, from what Jinghua knows of immortals, they don''t interact with common mortals since mortal''s lives pass by in a flash for them.


    Well, whatever. For now, Jinghua should be careful who she interacts with. For some reason, she doesn''t trust that elderly man very much. She hopes that they will never meet again.


    That afternoon, Tao Jinghua went to her brother Qingshan''s yard to tell him of his father''s decision. Qingshan was very similar to Jinghua in the aspect that they both are very quiet people.


    "Big Brother, father, I want you to protect me while we go out." Jinghua had said with her eyes brightly lit in excitement but since her expression was frozen in that neutral expression of either hot or cold, it kind of looked very weird instead.


    "Okay. I will get ready. When do we leave?" He asked as he pats Jinghua''s head. Qingshan had always been doting on all his younger sisters regardless of who their mother was. Unlike his other brother who doesn''t interact with their sisters too much, Qingshan doesn''t talk much but he was very doting on all of his younger sisters.


    Maybe it was because he grows up with too many girls surrounding him that Qingshan has that weird aura around him. However, Jinghua doesn''t care. He can be gay for all she cares. As long as he was happy, Tao Jinghua didn''t discriminate against it.


    Unlike her former life where a homosexual relationship wasn''t that common, here, there was no boundary between gender.


    Especially for immortal practitioners, they couldn''t care less if it was a male or female that married each other since immortal lives live far too long once they reach certain stages in their cultivation. In this town alone, there were more than a hundred households that had males marrying males and girls marrying girls. In this Nation of Wuzhi, about 30 percent are same-gender marriages, 10 percent unmarried, and the rest are male-female marriages.


    Their neighbor, the Song family was also of same-sex too. Although Jinghua hasn''t interacted with them before, she did personally see them a couple of times in the Market.


    Wuzhi had the lowest percentages for same-sex marriage compared to other nations. But oh well, what does she care? It had nothing to do with her.


    "Early tomorrow." She answered. He nodded as he stopped practicing his martial arts and went to get ready. Jinghua left after that.


    However, she didn''t go back to her room since he had already finished preparing. She called a servant and made him go help her buy a lot of things that she wants. For example, ingredients for foods and spices.


    This town was larger compared to towns on the earth, however, the agriculture here was far behind earth''s agriculture.


    Which was why spices are very expensive! Food like Rice is pretty cheap since they are grown easily in this world but herbal spices for normal mortal households are fucking damn expensive.


    There was rarely any fresh spice available in this small town¡¯s Markets. However, even dried spices are still expensive as well! 1 Jin (about 1.102 pounds) was already 15 copper coins! It was a good thing that the Tao plant their own spice plants and thus didn¡¯t have to buy them from the markets all that much. Only for rarer spices and herbs that they do not planted themselves.


    What? If you think that 15 copper is cheap then that is also true. However, in this town, the average household are all from lower income grade family. Which mean that their daily wages are only 60 copper per day. Buying spices that were 15 copper coins? How many people do you think would do that? Only family that were slightly richer like the Tang, Song, Tao, Yin, and the landowners families would buy spices like that.


    For a small town like Xichang Town, the population of 7 thousands of households was pretty small, however, because Xichang town was near to Muron City, the City nearest to the port in the southern region of Wuzhi, we have a lot of merchants and travelers daily. So spice sellers always come to Xichang Town, which is why Jinghua wasn''t worried that there aren''t many varieties of spices. She gives 2 Lead coins for the servant to buy at least 3 pounds of all 50 various kinds of spices. The leftover money they can keep.


    "Yes, Young Lady!" the servant happily replies as he leaves. Jinghua didn''t stop at that, she called another two servants.


    "Mu, Su!" She called.


    "Young Lady, do you need us?" Asked a girl about 16 years old wearing hemp-cotton clothes that look like it comes from the Tang Dynasty of Ancient China. The other girl is also wearing a similar outfit.


    "Mu, you go buy the things on this list for me. Su will help you." She said as she handed the girl another 2 Lead coins.


    "Make sure that you have everything done by tonight. When you get it all together, bring it to me in the Stone room. The change you both can keep." Jinghua ordered without batting an eye. Both girl''s expressions turned happy as Tao Jinghua said in the last part. You have to know that with 2,000 copper coins in their hands, even when they brought everything from the list, there will still be at least 50 or so copper left. The servant''s daily wage is only 12 coppers per day. So naturally, they will be happy that Jinghua actually lets them keep the change.


    Both girls happily bowed and left so fast that it made Jinghua blink her eyes. All the servants in their household are at least a level 1 tier 2 martial arts and the highest for guards was level 1 tier 5.


    In this world, Martial Arts are measured in Tier levels.


    From Tier 1 to Tier 12 were called Phase 1 Martial Artists. It didn''t matter what kind of martial arts you train in, it would still measure like that.


    Once you reach level 10 of Tier 12 and past the bottleneck, you will enter Phase 2, what they called Qi Martial. Jinghua didn''t know how this world measured internal martial arts but she does know that they measure the spiritual Qi of a martial arts using something called Soul Strength Stone.


    Normal people like the people in Xichang Town only have Phase 1 Martial Artists. From Tier 1, there was a measurement of 10 points to 100 points. Tier 2 is 200 points to 300 points, however, in Tier 3 the strengths is measure with 300-499 spiritual Qi points. Tier 4 is 600-799 points of Spiritual Qi. Tier 5 is 800-999 points. Once you reach Tier 6, the power greatly increases by another hundred, you need the measurement of spiritual Qi from 1,000 -1,499 and so on until you reach the end of Tier 12 at level 10 at 4,499 points of Spiritual Qi. Anyway, Jinghua only knows about this because of the letters from her elder brother and sisters from Tuanfeng Sect.


    Moving on, that information right now has nothing to do with her. She didn''t care about those things.


    There was still one last thing that Jinghua wanted to do. And she needs a lot of ashes for it. The ashes that were from the kilns were used to mold the clay together to make ceramics but they didn''t use all of the ashes. Since there was no lye available and no baking powder in this world, she would just have to make them. Hardwood ashes are good materials for them. Since the thing that she''s going to make will require a long time to ferment, using hardwood ash should make it more refined.


    But before Jinghua can start making it, she needs to refine and separate the ashes from the waste. That was why she was in the stone room, where all the ashes are stored.


    By the time that Jinghua finished refining and separating the ashes from the waste and the other two parts, the sun was already near setting down and it was just on time for when the two servants, Mu and Su, came back with a bag filled with things.


    "Young Lady, here is all the materials and items that you have us buys," Mu said respectfully as she handed Jinghua the universe bags that every servant must take when going shopping. Both Mu and Su look at their 29th Young Lady who had her bangs covering her face in somewhat of a surprise. Both servants had been serving the Tao family for more than 3 years now, yet, this was the first time that they fully saw Young Lady Jinghua fully.


    They didn''t think that she would have this much grace and elegance in her. There wasn''t an aura of arrogance like the rich young masters and ladies on her but rather a somewhat warm grace and elegance that make both of them speechless.


    "Thanks. You both can keep the change." Jinghua waves her hand as both servants leave. Jinghua looks inside the bags to find all kinds of materials, including 100 jin of cooked rice in a bucket.


    Good, now everything is ready. Huh? By now, you still don''t know what Jinghua is going to make?


    Fine. She''s making rice wine using the Asian technique that will extract a lot of purity from the rice for the wine. The alcohol percentage is near 80 percent and it won''t smell like the wine in this town. She learned this technique from the Mistress from the orphan house way back when she was only 5 years old. It was before that accident but she still remembers it clearly and had used it more than 50 times in her life. If only there were any fruits, it would increase the yield and strength of the alcohol by a whole 10 percent.


    Oh well. For now, let''s do this. Jinghua gathered everything into the other universe bags as she left for her room to start fermenting everything for two months. However, before she left, the other servant that went to buy the spices came back and handed her the spices.


    Jinghua took about 3 hours total to finish everything in her room and sealed it into the large porcelain jar that she had made. In two month, everything will be liquid and ready to refine. With that, Jinghua went to take a quick bath before going to sleep. Tomorrow she will be leaving, she should really get a couple of hours of sleep first.

 Book 1 Chapter 4: Leaving Home

    Book 1 Chapter 4: Leaving Home


    The next morning, Tao Jinghua wakes up before the sun even rises. After getting ready, she double-checked the large Jar of fermenting rice and sealed it away tightly and securely. After that, Jinghua made sure that the windows are tightly shut to prevent the air within the room from escaping but not so tight to prevent air from coming inside. After all, she wanted to ferment and age the wines, not age her own room.


    Too bad, Tao Jinghua doesn''t have her own basement or cellar for aging alcohol and liquor. Thus, her own room will have to be it for now.


    Leaving her room, she grabs the four Universe bags, the normal Universe Bag was tied to her waist belt while the other three abnormal Universe Bags were hidden somewhere else on her body.


    Just for today, Jinghua didn''t want or have to wear the dress that normal ladies-girls like to wear.


    For today, she was wearing a martial arts outfit that looked similar to a man''s grown. A hanfu that consists of a head-ribbon, tying her long hair into a design pattern that look very adorable but still left her bangs along, a hair band that was pink and purple, a slightly dark purple, pink and white garment that she made herself, a bracer on both her arms for protection, shoes that have two spaces for hidden weapons, and a dark purple pants that had a lot of hidden weapons on it.


    For today¡¯s outfit, she forgot the normal hanfu that she normally wears, the ones that all ladies wear and, instead wore a protective martial arts hanfu outfit.


    This caused a huge change to Jinghua¡¯s demeanor and temperament.


    All in all, Tao Jinghua looks very majestic, mysterious, elegant, and graceful at the same time. The outfit doesn''t make Jinghua look arrogant but rather mysterious. You can imagine the chaos that it caused when the servant saw her outfit once she was outside.


    "!" Tao Qingshan looked at his sister and his breath was caught in his throat. Hua¡¯er.... Her temperament changed so much with just a change of clothes?


    His sister has her long bang covering nearly half of her face, hiding her eyes away from the world but the way that she moves as if the world belongs to her yet wasn''t arrogantly announcing it to the world had also created an unforgivable contrast image in his mind.


    What a pity that this sister of his doesn''t like to interact with the outside world. Otherwise, Qingshan was sure that Tang Beifeng would have a lot of rivals to defend from since it was a given that his sister wouldn¡¯t be able to hide herself away.


    "Big brother. I am ready." Jinghua said with a tone that shows how excited she was even though her facial expression was completely neutral. Qingshan had to smile at the innocence that his sister had.


    "Okay, let''s go. We will have to go to the Traveling Agency to buy a spot for faster traveling. Where are we headed toward?" Qingshan said as he and Jinghua walked toward the door. Right now, it was only 5 in the morning and only the servants were up so no one else was there to send them off. However, Jinghua suddenly stopped walking halfway toward the front door and narrowed her eyes.


    "Hua''er? What''s wrong?" Since Jinghua didn''t answer Qingshan, he was surprised that she stopped walking. Did she forget something?


    "Ming''er, come out right now," Jinghua called out as she sighed out loud. That surprised Qingshan.


    The sound of gasping was heard from behind a brush. Slowly, a boy about 10 years old came out in light brown and black clothes. The boy looks very guilty that he was caught but he also looks very determined. This boy is Qingshan''s youngest brother.


    Qingshan frowned. "What are you doing here this early, Ming''er?" He asked solemnly, causing the boy to jerk in surprise.


    "B-big Brother." He stuttered nervously as he looked at his big brother and sister Jinghua. For some reason, once his eyes lay on his sister, his breaths were caught in his throat, making it hard for him to breathe. Today, his big sister looks very pretty... His heart beat wildly in excitement.


    "Ming''er, why are you here?" Jinghua asked, completely knowing the answer to her question. She notices that Tao Mingyu was eavesdropping on her back when she asked her father for permission. He was hiding behind the wall. Yesterday was the day that Mingyu should be training in martial arts with his other brothers but it seems like he ditched it so he was hiding away from his brother. Whom at that time was searching for him with a very pissed-off expression within his eyes. If it were her, she would be hiding also.


    "Big sister! I want to go too!" Mingyu begs desperately. Mingyu had always been the kind that loves adventuring outside so when he heard that his big sister and big brother were going to go search for something for his big sister, his yearning for adventure soars its head at him, telling him that he has to go too no matter what. However, he knew that because he was far too young, his father would never let him go. Especially when his martial arts was only a Tier 1 level 6. He was far too weak because he wasn''t diligent enough to practice constantly. And thus, his cultivation realms were only at that level.


    Mingyu''s yelling draws out the attention of the servant. Seeing that this involves the youngest of the Madame, he quickly runs to tell the madame and master. The servant''s action was caught by Jinghua. She sighs internally. It seems like they are going to have to take him with them.


    "You can not, Ming''er. You are still too young. And besides, the place that we''re going was for women only. I can not protect both of you and your sister at the same time with just my strength." Qingshan said seriously, in a tone that said this was his final answer.


    Tao Mingyu''s eyes water, "No! I want to go too!" He yelled out as he cried and clenched onto his big sister Jinghua''s legs. Jinghua was only 4 years older than Mingyu but Mingyu was very small for his age so he looks like he was a 7 year old boy instead of a 10 year old boy.


    "!" Qingshan was so surprised at Mingyu''s action that he froze completely, not knowing what to do. His brother usually wasn''t this stubborn.


    "What is going on so early in the morning?" A very cold and pissed- voice called from the corner. A man of 18 years old was glaring at both Jinghua and Qingshan with a cold look in his eyes. This man was their fifth mother''s oldest son, Tao Mi Ling, the weirdest son in the Tao household. His name means compassion and understanding but his personality is different. It''s like day and night.


    "Big brother Ling." Jinghua tried to act nervous whenever she met this brother of her''s but because she had already known what he was hiding, her acting around him would always make him look at her suspiciously. Tao Mi Ling acts like a very cold heart person but Jinghua had seen his soft side already. This man loves cats. A lot. He was what the Japanese from modern Japan called a Tsundere, cold on the outside but warm on the inside. A very hard-headed person.


    "Hua''er? Why are you and Ming''er causing so much commotion this early in the morning?" He glared at the crying boy, causing him to jerk in fear and whimper. Of course, Mingyu would be scared of Mi Ling since he was the one that trains the younger boys in martial arts in the family, and Tao Mi Ling has a very bad reputation of always driving all the boys to tears when he trained them.


    "Big bro, is like this," Qingshan begins to explain as softly as possible while Mingyu was being stared at by Mi Ling with a glare that will melt iron if looks can kill. Qingshan was younger than Mi Ling by 3 years but because Qingshan was a martial addict, both Qingshan and Mi Ling are now nearly the same Tiers of strength. Measurement of martial arts wasn''t measured by levels but rather by Tiers of levels. In a Tier, there are 10 levels so it was very easy to understand.


    For example, Tier 1 Level One. Tier 1 Level Two. Tier 1 Level Three. And so on.


    "So, why are you going with them Mingyu?" After Qingshan''s explanation, the glare that Mi Ling was using wasn''t getting any softer, in fact, it only got colder.


    "I-I-... I want to travel with my big brother and sister too." He tearfully said as he whimpered upon Mi Ling''s glare all the while still clutching onto his sister Jinghua''s legs. It was a good thing that she wasn''t wearing a dress at the moment, otherwise, it would look very awkward right now.


    "You are not going anywhere. You will just be in their way. Qingshan can not protect Hua''er and you at the same time." Obviously, Mi Ling knew his younger brother''s strength enough to accurately judge the situation.


    "What is going on?" A voice sleepily called out from behind Mi Ling. It seems like all the other family members are also waking up to Mingyu''s crying.


    "Big brother..." Mingyu tearfully called out to his other brother, Tao Yuan Chen, their second mother''s fifth son, who is the manager of their pottery store.


    More and more people are starting to wake up because of Mingyu now.


    Qingshan sighed out loud and explained to them again of the situation, as Mingyu refused to let go of Jinghua''s leg all the while tears fell down his face with big droplets.


    Nearly everyone agreed with Mi Ling''s opinion and analysis when Qingshan finished explaining. However, the younger kids who were too young to fully understand the dangers behind this trip ask why can''t they also go with them.


    Jinghua sighed out loud, making everyone''s attention on her. When they first got there, nearly everyone''s attention was on Qingshan and Mingyu so they didn''t fully see what Jinghua looks like. However, as time passed by, the morning sky lightened and made it easier for them all to see, so they were all shocked and speechless at what Jinghua was wearing and her demeanor.


    "Hua''er?" A couple of her big sisters called out shockingly and breathlessly at the image that met their eyes.


    All the younger siblings gasped as amazement filled their hearts and their eyes turned adorably at Jinghua. No, it wasn''t at her but rather at the clothes that she was wearing. It looks very majestic, elegant, and very mysterious at the same time. The clothes look like the outfit that they wear when practicing martial arts but it was for a girl, creating an image that said this was what it means for women to be one of the martial artists'' practitioners. The clothes were made out of mostly leather and cotton fabrics but the looks are far more dignified than silk clothes or dresses could be.


    "It would be okay if Ming''er wanted to come too. There won''t be much danger on the road anyway. Besides, Big brother Qingshan can use this opportunity to train him in the outside world." Jinghua said as she looked at the crying boy who still won''t let go of her legs.


    "Really?!" Mingyu called out happily and excitedly with his eyes widened, making him look like a puppy. Qingshan sighed out loud. He knew fully that this road would have danger, however, if Hua''er didn''t mind that their traveling speed would slow down then they could avoid those dangers if they took their time. Good thing that they have at least 2 weeks of traveling time. Otherwise, he will never agree to Ming''er plead.


    "It should be fine if you have Father''s permission," Jinghua said with a tone that said she will not say anything else if her father agrees to it too.


    "It¡¯s fine." An older voice called from behind the other boys and girls who all are Jinghua''s older and younger siblings.


    "Father." All of them greeted each other nicely, and a couple of their youngest siblings went to hug the man, making him patted their heads with fondness.


    "Father." Mingyu happily greeted him from where he was, still clenching onto his sister''s legs like a koala.


    "Father, Qingshan won''t be able to protect both Hua''er and Ming''er at the same time!" Mi Ling protested with glare in his eyes. Naturally, Yuanyu also knows this.


    "Whoever was saying that Qingshan will be the only one going?" Father Yuanyu asked with a small smile on his old, stressed out, wrinkled face.


    "Eh?" Qingshan and Mi Ling both gawked. I can see big brother Yuanchen twitching as he looks at his father with comprehension in his eyes.


    "Let''s take this chance and have all your brothers go with you, Hua''er. That way, they can all protect you and gain experiences outside too." Yuanyu said with a gentle smile on his face. The Tao family was a pottery family so they don''t have a lot of martial arts fighters. They can not afford to buy elixirs and higher-level martial arts for their sons and daughters to practice. The only two skills books that they have was from their ancestor who used to be from another country about ten thousand years ago.


    After all, a martial arts manual book of the lowest level was already about 10 gold coins. They can not afford that. And besides, this Xichang town was far too small for there to be any bookstore that sells martial arts manuals. This was why, even with both Mi Ling and Qingshan''s talents, they were only Tier 4 martial artists. If they can afford pills and more martial arts manuals, then by now, both Mi Ling and Qingshan could at least be Tier 7 or 8 fighters already. Jinghua has also noticed this too.


    "Ehhh?!" All the younger boys who were training under Mi Ling and Qingshan all exclaim in surprise. What? Are they going to have to go out to experience the outside world? They all look at each other in surprise. A couple of them look very excited at the ideas but most of them look nervous and afraid. Not because they are going out but rather because they just knew that big brother Mi Ling will be training them out in the wild too. That very idea was very scary.


    Both Jinghua and Qingshan look at each other and understanding shines in their eyes. Obviously, both brother and sister have the same idea as their father.


    "Okay. That''s fine too. Although when we got there, none of the boys could go with me since that section was forbidden for men to go to." Jinghua didn''t protest. Yuanyu nodded his head in appreciation of his daughter''s sensitivity. However, when his eyes land on his daughter, Yuanyu has to say, his little Hua''er is very adorable. And what was with the clothes that she was wearing? It looks like martial arts clothes but clearly, it wasn''t. There was only one version of martial arts clothes for both boys and girls but the clothes that she wore were much different in both the looks and the demeanor. He mentally shakes his head.


    "Go get ready, You all will leave in another hour." Yuanyu didn''t wait for protest from his sons and ordered them all to get ready. There are only 7 of his sons who practice martial arts, the rest would rather make ceramics instead so they didn''t have to go.


    All the boys sigh out loud as they comply with his order. Mingyu looks so happy that they''re flowers blooming in the background. Since he had already finished his preparation last night, he didn''t have to go prepare again. However, he still refuses to let go of Jinghua''s legs. Jinghua has to convince and threaten him at the same time for him to let go.


    Because of the increase of people who were going with them, Jinghua had three servants to buy more supplies for them all. Things like food ingredients and spices. Not meat because the meat is a bit too expensive and it was something that they could hunt outside so they didn''t need to buy it. Although, in case of emergency, she had also brought her beef jerky and some smoked salt.


    She also had one of the servants go to the blacksmith and brought a hardwood iron bow and 150 arrows. While they were buying things for her, Qingshan took Jinghua to the alchemist hall and brought ten different kinds of poisons and two large fusion agents. She didn''t know anything about the poison in this world but the poison from that age¡¯s earth was far more advanced than here by a large portion so she had no trouble creating some for herself just in case of emergency.


    In fact, Qingshan was so surprised that Jinghua actually asked him to take her to the alchemist hall to buy poison. However, he didn''t say anything much since he thought that maybe their other big brother and sister from the Tuanfeng Sect had taught her how to mix poison for self-protection. In fact, he wasn''t that surprised, just plain startled. Poisons are something that every citizen of Wuzhi knows about since the beasts and demons that live in the south of this continent were mostly poisonous. It''s just that this was the first time that he ever knew that his sister Hua''er knew about poison fusion. After all, the arts of poison concoction were wide and broad. There¡¯s no end to it. Only more and more beginning.


    When they came back to the house, the servants were all waiting for them along with their other younger brothers. Some of them looked like the world was ending while the others were so excited that they couldn''t sit still. After that, they left together after saying bye to their parents.


    By the time they made it to the traveling agent, a lot of early risers had already started to show up. Since there are 8 of them together, they would have to rent a flying mount instead.


    The flying mount in this world was like a version of the air chopper from the earth. However, in this world, a mount can be a kind of spiritual beast or animal that was raised solely for such purpose.


    The most common ones, the cheapest, are called Nine Wings Bird. A Nine Wings Bird was very big, twice the size of an elephant, it allows up to 10 people to sit on it. Nine Wings Bird can fly at the speed of 200 miles per hour. Traveling at that speed, the winds could knock people off the bird, which is why every traveling agency will charge an additional 5 Lead coins per person and they will include a talisman that will bind you to the bird¡¯s back to prevent it from falling off.


    Immortal practitioners don''t have to pay since they won''t fall off but everyone else will want to pay because falling off a bird that travels at that speed will most likely mean death to nearly everyone.


    Which was why Tao Jinghua''s father gave them an additional 10 Silvers coins to use on the road. With 8 of them traveling together, it meant that the cost for the set plus the talisman would be 7 Lead coins per person, since each seat cost 2 Lead coins, meaning 2,000 copper coins. This wasn''t expensive at all if you compare the cost that it will be if you are foot-traveling. Aside from the cost of the tickets and the talisman, Tao Yuanyu also made Tao Mi Ling promise that he would buy him a couple of gifts when they come back.


    Huh? Didn''t you know that Mi Ling will be going with them? Of course, he''s going to go with them. First of all, this trip wasn''t just for Jinghua now. This trip was now for all the boys in the family to gain experiences outside. Which means that Mi Ling will be training them the hard way. This Jinghua and Qingshan have no problem since Jinghua planned to do more training too. Of course, by training, she meant silently training Internal Martial arts using the beast in this world as her punching bags.


    As they get on the bird, the agent does a real quick check with everyone.


    "Please remember that this bird can only travel up to 3 hours constantly and then will need to rest for an hour. You will have to provide the foods that she will eat. Bamboo Rice, Tricabbage or Spiritual Wheat- whichever one¡¯s fine-10 Jin every 4 hours is fine." The agent said as he took out a talisman paper that looks like those ancient talismans from ancient china. On the paper was some kind of word that Jinghua could not make out since it was written using spiritual powers and not just Qi. Mi Ling nodded his head in understanding as he tore the talisman in his hand, causing the letters or symbols on the talisman paper to fly toward both his whole legs and his back. Jinghua and everyone else copies him.


    Hm... I see. So, this was what it feels like to have a talisman activated on you.


    When the Bird felt that all of the passengers on her back were ready, she spread out her white, beautiful and elegant wings and with a cry, flew off.


    Wow- this feels exactly like sky diving- was what Tao Jinghua¡¯s thinking. Her expression was unchanged while the rest of the boys were ¡®wowing¡¯ and shrieking in both surprise and excitement. And fear, of course.


    Unlike her brothers who didn¡¯t bother memorizing their direction- Tao Jinghua can see that they were heading toward northwestern at a slight tilt angle. Looking at the sun for direction was an old habit that Tao Jinghua had developed when she was training. So, she knew right away that wherever they are headed, it was slightly farther away. She looks around her and mentally creates a map for herself.


    Although all that she could see were ants sizes, beasts of all kinds, and a lot of dense trees packed together, she could still make out the topography of the area, making it easier to create a mental map for herself.


    A couple of minutes later, when Xichang town can not be seen anymore, Mi Ling takes out the map that he saved from when their brother Yingteng had sent it to them and started to see when and where they should land for supplies and food for the bird. Looking at Mi Ling, Jinghua was surprised that the map didn''t fly off when the winds were this powerful. If she didn''t have the talisman on her, Jinghua would probably have a very hard time staying on the bird''s back- to be honest.


    Although the map itself looks very... old and lacks details.


    "We''re going to stop by Xue Chengsi [Snow City] for an hour to supply the food for the bird and an hour of rest. After that, we''re heading toward Mountain Xue and we will start the training. Hua''er, do you have anything you need to do before that?" Mi Ling asked as he eyed his stepsister who was so quiet that he thought she was a corpse, both her and her brother Qingshan.


    Mi Ling was still a bit shocked about the clothes that she was wearing. Her demeanor was also another thing. If he didn''t know better, Mi Ling would have thought that this woman beside him wasn''t his sister but rather someone else, but because he knew clearly that this is his blood sister, Mi Ling was nicer to her than he would normally be.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    After all, she caught him kissing a cat before and hasn''t told anyone about it. To his surprise.


    "No. There''s nothing. Big brother Mi Ling, when you go to buy the food for the bird, could you also buy some hard leather and a couple of brocades of cotton fabrics?" Jinghua asked. She noticed that on the map that Mi Ling was holding, the region that they needed to pass was a snowy region, which meant that it would be very cold. For them, it wouldn''t be a problem but for the bird, the cold region will make her flying speed slow down so she wanted to make a couple of protection clothes for the Nine Wings Bird.


    When Jinghua first lands her eyes on this bird, she suddenly has the urge to make a lot of clothes for her. The elegance and graces that this bird let off was like a mini-queen. Jinghua is very motivated for some reason. Ahh- motivation and muses are hard to come by for artists like her who aren''t a pro.


    Jinghua is very motivated for some reason whenever she sees this bird.


    "Hard leather and a cotton brocade? Sure. How many yards of leather?" Mi Ling asked, completely ignoring the looks that Qingshan had on them. Qingshan was very curious about what his sister was going to make. He had never seen her do any needlework before. Actually, the only one who knows how to do needlework in their family was Mi Ling''s mother. All the girls in the family aren''t that much of a lady that will know how to use needlework. Instead, they''re all very hard working in ceramics instead. So it wasn''t a strange thing that none of them knew how to cook or do needlework. However, does Hua''er know how to use needlework? Did she make the clothes that she''s wearing? It looks very cool! Qingshan''s eyes nearly burned the clothes that Jinghua was wearing.


    "Thank you, big brother. Here is the money for the leather and cotton." Jinghua said as she handed Mi Ling 3 Silver coins.


    "?!" Mi Ling was shocked at the amount of money that his sister gave him. Qingshan''s eyes widened in disbelief at the amount of silvers that Jinghua had in hand.


    "Sister Jinghua, why did you give big brother Mi Ling that much money?" Asked Mingyu and Tengyu, another sibling of hers who were both one year older than Mingyu.


    "Hum? Oh, because the town was larger than Xichang Town so the supplies and demand will be different, causing the cost of living to increase here. Everything would be more expensive here than back at home," Jinghua answered, totally unaware that she was making both Qingshan and Mi Ling look at her weirdly.


    "Supplies and demand? What is that?" Mingyu looks at Jinghua with his eyes wide open in curiosity. Jinghua looks at Mingyu like he was an idiot.


    "What do you mean by that, Hua''er?" Asked Qingshan, who was quite interested in the answer himself. The words that she used weren¡¯t traditional Chinese but rather a far more modern term so none of the brothers knew what it meant. Thus, Tao Jinghua notices that she slipped a little. Luckily, none of her brothers were suspicious of her in any way...


    Still, Tao Jinghua looks at her brothers like they were a bunch of idiots. Even though her expression doesn''t change it all, they all knew that she was looking at them with a look that said she was very unimpressed, causing Mi Ling and Qingshan to look slightly embarrassed.


    Sighing out loud, Jinghua looks at Mingyu and pats his head in fondness. His hair was very soft, like a rabbit. It was very therapeutic, patting his head that is.


    "Supplies and demand is something that every business deal goes through. In life, when you have people who like certain things, it means that that object is very famous or rare, which means that a lot of people will want to buy them. Supplies are the thing that people have and are willing to sell while demand is the amount of things that people will want to buy. When people are looking forward to buying something that is rare, it will cause the cost of that object to increase, which is what supplies and demand are about." Jinghua answers as she looks around her. They have been flying for nearly 30 minutes now and they have already passed by the nearest town to Xichang town. Jinghua wanted to go more in-depth, however, that would cause some problems for her if she did. After all, the business terms and knowledge that she had from her former world are far too advanced for this world. So, Jinghua refrained herself and just explained it in a very simple way.


    "Oh? So, it''s like that. Huh? But why didn''t our pottery business not thrive then? We''re clearly doing it right." Mi Ling confusingly asked as he tilted his head in confusion.


    Now it was Jinghua''s turn to really look at her brother like an idiot.


    "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Mi Ling asked with sweat drops on his forehead. True, he can not see how her eyes were looking at him but the way that his instinct screams that she was looking at him like an idiot makes his whole body tense. Shames and embarrassment colored his cheeks.


    Jinghua didn''t know if she should cry or laugh at the look on Mi Ling''s face. She closed her eyes and sighs out loud in exaggeration.


    "Big brothers, why do you think that our pottery business isn''t thriving when we clearly meet the demand for the supplies?" Jinghua asked both her older brothers.


    "Eh?" Qingshan looked confused as hell as he tilted his head in thinking.


    "Hmm, because there aren''t a lot of people in Xichang Town?" Mi Ling answered in uncertainty.


    "That is one answer. What else?" Jinghua asked as he nodded her head.


    "There is more? Well... let''s see....hmmm.... Well... Because we don''t have any big contracts with larger businesses?" The uncertainty answered this time with a dark look in his eyes. Thinking isn''t really his forte...


    "Yes, that''s also another answer. There are three other answers. Now, what do you think Tao Potteries is missing?" Jinghua asked completely in lecturing mode.


    "AH! I know! We don''t have any brand!" Mingyu answered cheerfully, expectantly at Jinghua.


    "That''s one of them. Now, there are two more reasons." Jinghua looks at all her younger brothers and older brothers. Qingshan quietly closed his eyes thinking while Mi Ling frowned as his brain ran in full battle. Jinghua''s younger brother Tengyu''s eyes widened in understanding. Jinghua looks at Tengyu and smiles inside. It seems like Tengyu has some potential for business.


    "What do you think is missing Teng''er?" Jinghua asked softly, trying not to distract her other older brother from their thinking. Tengyu jerks in surprise at her soft voice. Mingyu looked at his older brother and tilted his head to the side to listen to their talks.


    "Big Sis, could it be that it was because our store doesn''t have enough varieties of ceramics?" He asked with uncertain looks in his eyes.


    Jinghua looks at him and smiles, however, because both her eyes are blocked by her hair and her expression was completely frozen in a neutral look, Tengyu, and Mingyu can not tell that she was smiling.


    "That is one of the other answers. What is the other one?" She asked softly. Those answers aren''t wrong but she never fully said that they are fully right either.


    Tengyu and Mingyu''s eyes widen as understanding shines in their eyes.


    "Because we don''t have any connection to other Towns or larger cities," Tengyu answers as his eyes widen in understanding. It wasn''t just the connection, the Tao family pottery business wasn''t even in a good location.


    "You''re right. Connection to other towns or cities is also important but that isn''t the main reason. The location that Xichang town is in was good enough for a small business like ours. However, what made it impossible for it to thrive isn''t because of all the listed reasons. It is because of something else." Jinghua answered softly to both Mingyu and Tengyu, away from her other siblings who were still thinking confusingly. The other three boys were currently sleeping since they woke up early because of Mingyu so they didn''t know what was going on.


    "What was the reason then?" Mingyu can not help but be curious. Tengyu was looking at his older sister with his eyes full of expectation.


    "Why? Because the techniques that we are using right now aren''t very good, which means that no matter how many varieties of ceramics we sell, our reputation won¡¯t get any higher for it to be popular." Jinghua answered in a mysterious voice, causing both Mingyu and Tengyu to look at her in surprise. The technique that they were currently using was the main reason why the Tao Family¡¯s Pottery wasn¡¯t getting any reputation. Their reputation currently was stable and clean but it doesn¡¯t have any calling for the higher class people to come to buy.


    After that, Jinghua ignored both younger brothers and looked over at the older ones.


    "Have you guys found your answers yet?" Jinghua asked softly.


    Both Qingshan and Mi Ling look at each other, seeking each other''s help through their eyes. Too bad, both brothers found that the other person was also in the dark too.


    They both shook their heads.


    "Well, you both can think about it as you go. There is no need to rush." JInghua answered both brothers.


    A couple of minutes after that, they reached the city. This city was far larger than the Xichang Town that they came from. Xichang Town only has approximately about 7,000 households while this town, Xue Chengsi [Snow City], has at least 25,000 households or more. All the houses look very compact together and the streets are tightly packed with all kinds of people.


    Since Jinghua and they are coming using the Traveling Agent''s flying mount, they can directly fly over the gate without stopping since the bird is a pass itself when traveling in this country. They flew over the city to the other side where the Traveling Agent''s flags are at. However, they didn''t stop there, instead, the Nine Wings Bird flew past the city wall to the other side of the wall and parked outside the city.


    Why? Because Jinghua and Qingshan don''t like crowds, and this city was nothing but crowds or more like hordes of people in an abundance. It looks seriously packed.


    So, Qingshan and Jinghua will be waiting outside with everyone else as Mi Ling goes inside to buy their supplies for them and for the Nine Wings Bird while they rest and eat here.


    As Mi Ling left, he made Qingshan train the boys while Jinghua started to measure the size of the Nine Wings Bird since she was going to make the clothes while they were in the air. The next town that they will be passing by was the one nearest to the mountain Xue, so it means that they will stop at the base of the mountain so that the boys can train in the forest for a couple of days before they fly over the mountain. This means that Jinghua had a couple of days to finish the sets of clothes for the bird and maybe a couple of sets of clothes for her own brothers.


    It''s rare when Jinghua found the inspiration to make new clothes so she intends to use this chance fully. After finishing measuring the sizes of the bird and its wings, Jinghua started to play with her by using a handkerchief and water to clean her face. The Nine Wings Bird cheerfully greets each stroke on her face with happiness.


    Jinghua plays with the bird for an hour before her brother comes back. Just one hour of training from Qingshan had made all her younger brothers look like they had run a marathon. However, since Jinghua also half paid attention to what the contents of the training are, she understands why all of the boys were so tired. The things that her younger brothers train in aren''t just muscles and martial arts training, they are also training their spiritual Qi, which is why they all are so tired after one mere hour.


    After Mi Ling feeds the Tricabbages to the Nine Wings Bird, he let the bird rest for another hour as we ate our lunch. Since they had skipped breakfast, all the boys were hungrier than Jinghua so she only ate half her portion and gave the rest to Mingyu and Tengyu. Jinghua''s appetite was smaller than the boys but that wasn''t the only reason why she can only finish half her food.


    The other reason was that the food that Mi Ling brought from inside the city was very poorly made, in her humble opinion.


    The buns were harder than necessary, it wasn''t chewy enough nor sweet enough. It was very plain and a bit tough and sandy. Just because this world doesn''t have baking powder or active yeast, their cooking technique was very polished but that doesn''t mean that it tastes good. Other than the bread, the soup, and the salted meat were also very plain. Can''t they at least put some herbs or spices on the seasoning salts? Truly, Jinghua had thought that this city would have better food but it seems like that¡¯s wishful thinking on her part. And now, she has no appetite for eating the food from the city.


    Her taste in this body was getting more and more alike to her previous taste. Her tongue was getting more and more sensitive so she was getting more and more pickier about her foods.


    After lunch, Mi Ling did a couple of sword movements to help him digest as he gave Jinghua her stuff. While waiting for the boys to finish their food and stuff, Jinghua started to line up the hard leather clothes and marked the shapes that she will be cutting on both the hard leather and the cotton brocade.


    By the time they left, the bird was fully energized and all the boys weren''t as tired as before. After a full three hours of flying non-stop at the fastest speed possible, they reached the next location where Mi Ling will be training the boys.


    The location was at the foot of the mountain to Snow Mountain, right at the door to the so-called Mountain of Beast. That''s right. Snow Mountain has another name. It was called Mountain of the Spiritual Beast.


    Since this mountain is a snow mountain, most of the spiritual beasts here in this world¡¯s region were snow and cold attributes. This is why Mi Ling will only train them one at a time in a routine for one week total. As they settled down, Mi Ling and Qingshan made the boys help Jinghua set up their tents. In total, there are five tents since Jinghua had one whole tent by herself. After all, she is an unmarried woman, even if she was engaged, she wasn''t married yet. While that was happening, both Qingshan and Mi Ling were collecting firewood in a large abundance since they will be staying in that area for a whole week. Which means that they will need a lot of firewood for cooking and other stuff.


    Judging by the sun, the current time should be around 5 pm in the afternoon. Since none of them know how to cook, Jinghua had to volunteer for tonight''s dinner.


    "Big sis, are you sure you know how to cook?" Tao Yuanfang, the youngest boy of them all, who was only 7 years old, asked nervously as he watched Jinghua take out the pots and cooking knife from her universe bag. Jinghua mentally sighed out loud and didn''t answer Yuanfang on purpose, making them all nervously look at her. After all, it is true that all the girls in the Tao family don''t know how to cook. The most they know is steaming rice and making plain porridge. That''s it. Literally. However, the boys aren''t better. In fact, they only know how to boil water, and that''s it.


    Which is why no one complains when Jinghua volunteers to make tonight''s dinner.


    Jinghua ignores the boys as she takes out large porcelain jars from her universe bag. Inside the jars were water made with ashes. This is ash water for making buns. There was no other way since this world doesn''t have baking powder or active yeast so she will have to substitute ash water for baking powder and active yeast together. She measures out a precise amount of water and sets the water aside as she puts the jar back into her bags while taking out the flour, eggs, a small jar of oil, spices, and everything else, including a jar of filling that she made using yam and sugar. Thank god there is sugar in this world. And thank god that sugar wasn¡¯t expensive.


    After tonight, Jinghua was sure that none of the boys would forget her cooking skills for the rest of their lives.


    With a glint in Jinghua''s eyes, she starts to make three kinds of buns. After the buns were the vegetable soup and stirred fried vegetables mixed with the rabbit meat that Mi Ling had caught when he was collecting firewood.


    While Jinghua was cooking, the boys were going through hell under the watchful eyes of Qingshan and Mi Ling. Since they are training their body and spirit together, all the boys have to clench their teeth as sweat rolls down their foreheads and soaked their training clothes.


    As sweat rolls down their forehead, a very delicious smell emerges from where Jinghua was at and penetrates their nose, making all the boys, including Mi Ling and Qingshan, start to rumble in protest. They all look at each other surprised as their tummy hungrily protests because of the smell. They don''t know what kind of food it was but it smells freaking damn delicious in a very aromatic scents.


    They all were swallowing their saliva as they stopped training and sneakingly making their ways to where Jinghua is at. Qingshan and Mi Ling look at each other, silently asking each other, Where or when did Hua''er learn to cook? However, no matter how much they ask each other, they both have no answer to the other.


    The image that met their eyes made all the boys'' jaws drop to the floor.


    There was a wooden table full of different kinds of dishes. On the table was a plate of steaming hot buns that look so freaking damn good, next to the buns was a plate of stirred fried vegetable with meat in some kind of sauce that smell like heaven, beside the vegetable was a large bowl of soup that was steaming, besides the soup was the large bowl of steaming rice that have some kind of herbs sparkles on top. All in all, all the dishes look like they are for royalty.


    All the boys swallow their salivas.


    Jinghua takes one look at the boys and pretends that she didn''t see them as she continues serving another two dishes onto the table, totally ignoring the boys as they all swallow their saliva again and again.


    She added fried eggs that were stirred in sauce and herbs along with other dishes that looked like a pancake but were far more delicious. Jinghua takes out 8 porcelain rice bowls that she made herself from her universe bag and scoops three scopes of steaming rice from the large rice bowl into each rice bowl. After placing the rice bowl on the table, she took out 8 pairs of chopsticks that are bright red with three characters written on the button that said, Thanks for the Food.


    Then she looks at the boy, who was still swallowing their saliva as their eyes glued to the dishes. All those dishes are dishes that they have never seen before. The looks are totally different from what they had known off and the smell alone was different; something that they had never tasted or smelled before. But it didn¡¯t change the fact that it was very aromatic.


    "How long are you guys going to look? Go wash yourselves and come eat before it gets cold." Jinghua finally acknowledges them as she sits down on her seat. What? Of course, they bring wooden chairs with them. The wooden table was something that Qingshan had made just a couple of hours ago but the chairs were brought from home.


    All the boys jerked in surprise at her voice and all ran toward the river a couple yards away to wash. Mi Ling and Qingshan were the last ones since they both were too surprised at the sight of food in front of them. By the time that Mi Ling and Qingshan finished cleaning their faces, hands and hair of their sweats, all the boys were eagerly waiting for the two of them.


    The next moment was something that Jinghua will never forget.


    Chaos. Utterly Chaos.


    Since the boy''s appetite was huge, Jinghua had already made sure that she made enough buns for them all to go around three times each, with some left over in her bags for night snacks.


    Yet, when Jinghua finally said that they could eat, the first dish that was empty was the bun plate. There were only 8 of them and there were 34 buns available. However, within 5 seconds, there were no buns left. Qingshan and Jinghua look at each other in surprise at the speed that Mi Ling and the other boys go through. Good thing that she already has one bun on her hand and a bowl of rice with some food already.


    Within less than five minutes, all the food on the table was cleared off.


    Qingshan looks at the table in surprise. He hasn''t even started to eat yet and all the food is already gone. He blinks as he looks at this bowl of rice and starts to eat it slowly to savor the taste. He never knew that Hua''er was this good at cooking. The rice itself tasted like it was bathed in a soup of meat and all kinds of vegetables. However, the rice was very clear, fluffy, clean with a pure taste, and smelled very fresh. Where is this taste coming from?


    "Big brother, eat this." Jinghua looked at Qingshan''s plate and noticed that there was only rice on the bowl since all the other dishes were cleared off already. Jinghua picked up a couple of the stirred vegetables on her plate and placed them on Qingshan''s rice bowl. She divided half of her bun, which surprisingly has filling inside, and gave it to him.


    "Hua''er, what about you?" Qingshan asked as he looked at his sister''s own plate and noticed that there was not much on it. He remembers that his sister Jinghua was always an eater so how come this time she ate so little?


    "When I was cooking, I kept tasting the food so I was half full already." Jinghua lied with a straight face.


    "Oh?" Qingshan makes a sound as he looks at the half bun in his hand. inside the bun was a purple color filling that smells like yam. He was about to take a bite at the bun but his eyes met with Tengyu''s watering eyes and froze on the spot. Tengyu, Mingyu, Yuanfang, and Yongyu all look at the bun in Qingshan''s hand with watering eyes and saliva dripping.


    Qingshan sweat drop. They all eat everything already and they still want more? He was going to ignore them and eat the bun but then their tearing eyes made Qingshan feel very guilty. Mi Ling looks at his other younger brothers and can understand why they wanted the half bun in Qingshan''s hand.


    Because damn it, the taste was heaven.


    The bun didn''t taste plain and rough like the ones that they are used to. It was soft, chewy, a little sweet, and with the filling inside, it was fulfilling. He watches as all his younger brothers make teary eyes at Qingshan. He very, really wanted to laugh at the image but he can not bring himself to when his eyes are also on the bun itself. Mi Ling has never tasted anything so delicious before in his whole life.


    Jinghua looked at the sweat drop on Qingshan''s forehead and knew right away that he was going to give away the half bun. She didn''t know if she would call this man soft hearted or gentlemen. In any case, he was going to starve if he kept giving his food away to his brother when they had already eaten it themselves.


    Jinghua was right when Qingshan broke the half bun into four equal parts and gave them to Tengyu, Mingyu, Yuanfang, and Yongyu with a helpless smile on his face. True, he likes to spoil his sisters a lot but that doesn''t mean that he doesn''t spoil his younger brothers too. Jinghua mentally shakes her head. She then breaks her half bun into half again and gives it to him.


    Qingshan looked at Jinghua with a small smile as he accepted the bun. He takes a bite of the bun and froze as a taste that he never tasted before assaulted his tongue.


    When he finally swallows the bun, Qingshan has to stop himself from crying. The taste was so good that it made something inside him warm up. Jinghua continued to eat slowly as she waited for Qingshan to finish before cleaning everything up.


    After that, Jinghua went inside her tent and left the boy to themselves as they trained for another 3 hours under the watchful eyes of Qingshan and Mi Ling. However, before going to sleep, Jinghua asked her brother to make sure that they don''t kill any animal near them tonight since the smell of blood will attract spiritual beasts. Mi Ling and Qingshan knew that and comply with her wishes. For tonight, they would only train the boys in martial arts movements and make sure that none of them enter the forest to hunt.


    Hunting at night wasn''t that simple, after all.

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

    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.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "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.

 Book 1 Chapter 6: The Other Side of the World

    Book 1 Chapter 6: The Other Side of the World


    It has already been two days, going three soon. By Jinghua''s calculation, the snow ferret should be waking up today.


    Jinghua has been doing nothing but going through a routine of waking up in the morning, making breakfast - which was eaten so fast that she had to give out half of her portion - then changing the bandages on the ferret, watching how Mi Ling trains the other boys, making lunches, watching the training for a bit before going inside the tent to reread the letters from brother Yingteng and sister Suyi - yes, she keeps all the letters after everyone else read it - then change the bandages again before taking a bath in the river near them. After that, Jinghua would make dinner.


    This was her routine for the past two days. However, since all the boys eat like pigs that have a pitless hole, Jinghua didn''t make a lot of different kinds of dishes but instead makes a lot of food that is less varied. In the morning, there are buns with porridges, for lunch, it would be meat and vegetable soup with rice, then for dinner, it would be buns with two dishes of vegetables that are either stirred fried in sauces or soup alongside herbal tea.


    As for the snow ferret, Jinghua didn''t make anything for him. There was no need to.


    She would either be doing one thing or the other when she wasn''t busy with cooking, training her internal martial arts, or making clothes for the bird and herself. What? Jinghua has always been someone that animals like. It''s just that when she''s in her work mood, the animals were too afraid of her to come near her. She hasn''t been in her work mood for more than two months already. Thus, her aura was now as peaceful as ever.


    Since Jinghua knew that beasts like the ferret, who cultivate immortality, don''t get hungry easily so she didn''t make anything for the snow ferret.


    All in all, the meal plan has all the requirements for a balanced meal for the boys. They were very happy so they didn''t complain much even when Mi Ling harassed them to the ground at the end of the day.


    It was on the morning of the third day when the snow ferret woke up. Tengyu just happens to be on his break inside Jinghua''s tent when the snow ferret wakes up.


    When Qingshan (who was there as her guards- even if she doesn''t need it) got inside the tent, the snow ferret was looking around the tent with a curiosity that shines in his eyes. There¡¯s an odd sense of animalistic innocent within the snow ferret¡¯s eyes, causing his curiosity to look very honest but also upstanding due to his temperament.


    "You finally wake up," Jinghua said monotonously. Completely ignored the looks that her brothers sent her way. She didn¡¯t see that Qingshan had told Tengyu to leave and Mi Ling had already come inside the tent.


    Silence reigns in the tent. No one speaks aside from Jinghua. The ferret wasn''t tense like she had expected it to be but he was still looking at Jinghua with wild eyes that speak of curiosity and integrity.


    Jinghua has years of experience controlling her intentions, she wouldn''t make the mistake of letting the ferret read her that easily.


    Every one of her actions will always be on guard, but not enough to make her body language stand out. There are a lot of people in the Assassin guilds and the underworld that are sensitive towards intentions. Just by being near them, an assassin will lose more than 50% chances of attacking them. This was why the Silence Walker group emphasized training the assassins in their intentions of concealment and seekers'' ways. It was like hide-and-seek with nothing but intuition with a hint of guessing and a play of silence war. There was no bloodlust, no ill intents, no signs of anything that signal an upcoming fight or such.


    Thus, truly a silent way of assassinating someone.


    Tao Jinghua just happens to be the best at them since she could sense more than anyone else due to her past blindness and her sensitivity towards others intentions.


    Which was why the ferret was now looking at her with a curiosity that he shouldn''t have toward humans, who had long ago known as their hunters. The snow ferret wasn''t a special beast or spiritual beast for that matter. However, those that are born with two tails, like him, and naturally born blue eyes have special sensitivity towards danger. That was how he had survived this long after all.


    As one of the most sensitive spiritual beasts, the snow ferret on the bed wasn''t one that is known to be stupid. He could sense the amount of hostility and guardedness from the boys behind the girl. However, what made the snow ferret''s brain confused was why there was no fear, hostility, guardedness, or any other expecting emotions from the girl. There wasn''t even kindness. Only a hint of curiosity. This means that this human girl wasn''t someone who would care if the man behind her decided that he wanted the snow ferret''s life.


    "My name is Xue Qi." The snow ferret begins, speaking with a somewhat scratchy voice. He knew that his life wasn''t in his hand but rather in the human girl''s hand.


    "Xue Qi. From the Snow Queen Ferret''s Bloodline?" Qingshan jerked as his expression turned sour and even more alert than before.


    "Big brother, calm down. First of all, what is this Snow Queen Ferret bloodline?" Tao Jinghua asked, completely ignoring the snow ferret as she looked at her brother''s expression. The older Tao expression calms down within seconds as he looks at his sister with a stern look.


    "Hua''er, the Snow Queen Ferret''s bloodline is one of the ancient beast bloodlines that have archaic blood in their veins. Having archaic blood means that they will be very strong in all senses due to their connection with said bloodline. Like, enhanced senses, speeds, strengths, and all. That is not all, having an archaic bloodline means that you have higher chances of entering into one of the spiritual immortal beasts, which aren''t that much different from a human immortal practitioner." Qingshan said.


    How in the world did you guys know this? Jinghua wanted to ask but then she knew that she had only started living in this world not long ago so it is natural that she wouldn''t know things like that. Besides, as a girl from a pottery family, it was already weird that she was interested in things like that.


    "Oh." She answered. Completely do not know what to say. She turned back to the snow ferret.


    "And?" Jinghua asked. Qingshan looks at his sister. Normally, when people heard that beast has an archaic bloodline, there would be either greed, fear, or praise. However, Jinghua''s reaction was far too indifferent. Qingshan doesn''t know whether he should cry or laugh at his sister''s temperament toward the spiritual beast''s bloodline. His little sister sure was too much of an introvert, not even knowing that she draws more attention that way.


    She doesn''t know that just one flick of a finger from a beast that had an archaic bloodline was more than enough to obliviate their small Xichang Town. That''s how strong the archaic beast was. They are more than enough to be on par with human immortal practitioners.


    "..." The snow ferret was the same as Qingshan toward Jinghua''s attitude toward him. Since he was still injured, Xue Qi didn''t know if he should be glad that the human girl didn''t care or should he be ashamed that a mere human girl didn''t care about his bloodline. Still, he didn''t do anything. His instinct tells him that the most dangerous being in this room wasn''t the human boys behind the human girl but rather the non-threatening human girl herself. She doesn''t even smell of blood. Yet, his instinct wasn¡¯t getting any quieter. In fact, it''s still soaring its head at him to be careful of this human girl.


    Xue Qi doesn''t understand why someone like this human girl can make his instinct shriek at him, telling him to not have any idea otherwise, he will die a very painful and humiliated death. He doesn''t understand but Xue Qi has always trusted his instinct. It was how he had survived till now.


    "Human girl, have you heard of Abyss Beast?" Xue Qi asked quietly with a solemn look in his eyes.


    Abyss Beast? Jinghua blinks in confusion. She then turns toward her brothers, only to see them both pale in fear as they flinch.


    "Ab-aby..." Qingshan was so shocked that he couldn''t even say the name right. There was fear, utterly fear and nothing else, in Qingshan''s eyes.


    Jinghua''s eyes narrowed slightly under her hair. Seeing that her so-called brothers weren''t going to respond any time soon, Jinghua turned toward the ferret beast called Xue Qi.


    "..." Xue Qi looked at the human girl and he was speechless for the second time today. There was no smell of fear from the human girl even when he mentioned Abyss Beast.


    "What is Abyss Beast?" Jinghua asked the ferret on her bed without batting an eye.


    "Abyss Beast is a Demonic Beast from another realm. They are what you humans would call Plaque Beast since they spread all kinds of miasma illnesses around. Do you recall that the ferret from the other night wasn''t in their right mind? Their eyes were red, right?" The Snow Ferret Xue Qi asked as he looked at the human girl. He knew instinctively that he must''ve slept for more than a day since his injuries are nearly healed now. Although the wounds are healing, his internal injuries are still not yet treated. That could only mean that this human girl doesn''t have any Dao Pills on her - or that she doesn''t care if he died.


    Yet, clearly, his wound had already healed more than halfway so the last suspicions were crossed out.


    "..." Jinghua didn''t need to answer him since he already knew the answer.


    "When an Abyss Beast is near, one of the effects that it has on humans and animals was exactly that. They lost their minds and their body turned into a puppet for the Abyss Beast. I didn''t get controlled because my mind was far too strong for a low-level Abyss Beast to control. As a result, the Abyss Beast sends my own kin to chase after me. " Xue Qi stopped talking once he mentioned the death of his kinsman. He knew that they were all dead now.


    Better yet, he was happy that a human killed them instead of letting them continue to be controlled by the Abyss Beast.


    While Xue Qi was reminiscing about his kinsman, Tao Qingshan came back to his senses.


    "Hua''er, we have to notify the government in Xue Chengsi about this! If this involved the Abyss Beast then we normal people can never hope to go against them. They will have to notify one of the Immortal Sect to come to take care of it." Qingshan''s pale face speaks out how much the very idea of an Abyss Beast scared him. Jinghua didn''t know why he was so scared of it but she didn''t ask since it wasn''t her place nor was it her business.


    "Hmm." She nodded.


    "If you are going to the human government then take me with you. With me as proof, they will believe you more." Xue Qi didn''t forget to warn them. After all, this was concerning the Abyss Beast.


    "Right. Since it''s still midday, we can leave in a couple of hours. Hua''er, go prepare something for him to eat. We will leave in a bit." Qingshan said as he left the tent. He needed to talk to his older brother, Mi Ling, and tell him what they learned


    "What do you eat?" Jinghua asked the ferret.


    "..." The snow ferret looks at the human girl with a somewhat complex expression. He didn''t really need to eat but he can use some drinks. However, seeing the indifferent attitude of the girl, Xue Qi changes his mind.


    "Do you have any low-grade spiritual fresh vegetables? Like Tricabbage or Spirit Wheat is fine." He answered with somewhat of a weak voice. Since his internal injuries aren''t getting better, he should eat things that have spiritual energy for faster recovery.


    "Yes, sure," Jinghua answered as she took out a whole Tri Cabbage from her universe bag along with a small knife. She also takes out a plate and a couple of small fruits that Qingshan found in the forest. These fruits aren¡¯t spiritual fruits but they do taste pretty good and thus she didn¡¯t hesitate at all as she placed some of it into the plates. Then, She cuts the Tri Cabbage into bite-sized chunks and also places them on the plate alongside with the fruits before handing it to the ferret.


    Jinghua watched as the snow ferret slowly got up into a sitting position before accepting the plate. Jinghua takes out a spare chopstick and hands it to the beast. She wanted to give the ferret a fork instead but seeing how his behavior was, she changed her mind. He should still be able to handle a pair of chopsticks just fine at this point.


    Accepting the chopstick with a small thank you, the ferret didn''t wait for Jinghua to tell him to eat.


    Jinghua didn''t care either but seeing the speed that the ferret eats, she knew that he would choke without water so she takes out a small porcelain cup that she made and pours some water into it. She handed the snow ferret a cup of water.


    While the snow ferret was eating, Jinghua started to collect her stuff into her universe bag, leaving only the tent and the bed that the ferret was still sleeping and eating on. Everything else was moved into her bag. While she was collecting her things, Mingyu came inside to collect her too. In a flash, everything was neatly collected into their own universe bags.


    Yes, both Mingyu and Tengyu had their own universe bags too. It didn''t take an hour for them to collect everything, including the ashes from the campfire along with the charcoal.


    As they were riding on the back of the Nine-Wings Bird, the ferret started to tell more details about where the Abyss Beasts came from.


    It seems like each high mountain peak on this continent has a door that leads to the other side of the world, where the Abyss realm resides. Those doors don''t have an accurate time for the opening. Xue Qi said that he only knew that it took between 10 years to 20 years for a door to open once. It seems like this year, it was at the 12 years limit.


    In this part of the continent, the Southern, it seems like only ''Mind'' Abyss Beast can come through. In the past thousands of years, there haven''t been any records that show other kinds of Abyss Beast coming through.


    Whenever a Mind Abyss Beast came there, all the animals and beasts within the enclosed ten miles of that mountain peak always lost their mind. When that happens, occasionally, a number of small villages were wiped out when the news wasn''t passed to the government fast enough.


    Which was why Qingshan was rushing all of them to hurry up.


    As the Nine-Wings Bird flies toward Xue Chengsi''s Traveling Agency landing spots, one of the mount attendees came toward the bird, causing the Nine-Wings Bird to give loud cries of protest.


    Jinghua has to pat the bird a couple of times to show that they will be back for the bird to calm down.


    This causes the mount attendee to be very surprised as he leads the bird toward the designated spot.


    Tao Mi Ling leads Tao Jinghua and Tao Qingshan along with the kids toward an inn before he and the ferret left for the governor''s office.


    The inn that Jinghua and they are staying in was called Snow Pavillion Inn. It was one of the mid-class inns in Xue Chengsi. However, the price was within the acceptable range for an inn this large.


    Their rooms were on the second floor, from room number 7 to room 10. Jinghua got her own room while the boys were partners for each room. Qingshan''s room was next to her, Tengyu and Mingyu shared a room, Mi Ling, and Chenyu shared a room. The last one was shared between the other brothers that are older than Mingyu and Tengyu, Baiyu and Honghui.


    All three rooms cost 6 Lead coins for two days and two nights. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included for a limited amount so the cost was just right.


    For a city of this size, 6 Lead coins are just right. Not too greedy but not stupid either. There was enough profit but not greedily enough to cause grief from other customers.


    Which explains why Mi Ling would know about this Inn since he had come here for business before with their father to sell some porcelain wares.


    For an Inn in a city this large, Jinghua knew right away that the owner of this inn was probably somewhat rich or powerful. In fact, they might have a connection with large sects or groups. Which explains why the inn was this large yet strangely wasn''t that expensive.


    It wasn''t that the owner doesn''t have greed, but it wasn''t because of kindness either. Which can only mean that this inn has another job, a night job, perhaps? Maybe an Intel inn? Or an intermediate inn?


    Inside Jinghua''s room, there was a wooden bed with a thin layer of wool blanket on top. To the side was a wooden desk that has a basic black block of what should be Ink block, the kinds that are formed into blocks. The first time that Jinghua saw this in the former Jinghua''s memories, Jinghua knew right away that this world doesn''t have fountain pens.


    That''s right. This world''s definition of writing is using a writing brush. This world was truly an ancient world settling world.


    Jinghua had wondered if it would affect her so-called "Heaven Karma" if she used her knowledge from the 25th century of the modern earth in this world?


    That was one of her worries. She''s a martial artist from China after all. She had already known about martial arts'' heavenly karma. Even when she''s an assassin, she has always believed in karma. Jinghua might never have any guilt about killing anyone but Jinghua had always believed in her karma.


    Over the 25 years of her life as an assassin, she had killed more than a million people. She was killed during wartime between some countries and China, she would kill when she was hired, and she would kill when she treated someone as her enemies.Stolen novel; please report.


    However, despite all the money that Jinghua got from her ''jobs'' all over her life, she didn''t use much for herself. Being someone who believes in karma, all the money that she got was used as a donation to places and locations that need it. For example, nearly 20 percent of all of her earnings were sent to orphans'' houses, another 20 percent were sent for war funds for her country, not to develop wars, but for the ex-soldiers who are incapable of working. 10 percent of her earnings were sent toward places like Africa to buy food, water, medicines, and education materials for the children there.


    If you think that the money that she earned wasn''t that much then you are sorely mistaken. She wasn''t the deadliest assassin of her time for nothing. The people that she killed were all those that have too much money, too much money that wasn¡¯t made naturally.


    People who smuggled drugs and all the illegal things that involve the night world are people on her list of targets.


    Naturally, she never sought them out herself until she was hired. Or when they feared her too much and sent people after her. That happened a lot before.


    When she was hired to kill people that aren''t on her list, Jinghua would do research on them first to make sure that she won''t regret killing them later on. Jinghua''s requirements to be on her kill list are pretty damn high. She doesn''t kill people who haven''t done anything immoral and she doesn¡¯t kill innocent people, either.


    There was that one time when she nearly killed someone who was acting as a double but she didn''t in the end because her instinct tells her that the guy wasn''t her target.


    The instinct of a killer was very highly keen. Don''t underestimate it. Her confidentiality as a killer wasn''t something that can be threatened by greed.


    It wasn''t like all her money was made from killing either.


    Jinghua was -is- a very good painter, among other occupations. It was good enough that Professors from Arts colleges and Professional Painters would call her a genius. Millionaires would buy her painting for millions of dollars.


    Just one of her smallest canvas paintings, the 8 by 10 inches ones, cost more than 10 thousand. Jinghua was one of the youngest painters of her time. She specializes in a lot of techniques so her painting usually has at least two to three techniques in paintings.


    The last painting that she did was of the American city, New York City, Manhattan on a large canvas of 24 inches by 32 inches. It was sold for 120.7 million US dollars. It wasn''t that expensive compared to older paintings but it was very expensive for someone young like Jinghua, especially during that age.


    Her most expensive painting was of her painting the natural disaster in the year 2170 when a tsunami hit South Korea and killed three million people.


    It was expensive enough that the Chinese Government put a tracking device on it. Jinghua forgot who brought it but she clearly remembers that it was sold for more than 180 million British Pound in an Auction held in Scotland.


    More than 80 percent of that earnings was sent toward the aid for that disaster.


    That was nine years before that event took place. The event that leads her to be placed in the World¡¯s Assassin the first place list.


    Now, back to the topic as to why she would think that her karma might be affected if she spread her knowledge of the 25th century here. First of all, those ideas aren''t hers and it doesn''t belong to her. Secondly, this world clearly wasn''t Earth. The laws of the world aren''t something that should be affected by other world''s investments. Lastly, Jinghua doesn''t know what would happen if she used the knowledge from another world in this world.


    If she was the only one that will be affected by the knowledge that she has then she''s fine with using it, like making the fine wine that was currently being fermented in her room at home. Since she was the only one that will be drinking it. It doesn''t affect anyone else.


    However, other things, like a more advanced technique that involves a lot of people, Jinghua won''t do it.


    Making fountain pens might be/ probably okay since it wasn''t that high in terms of technique and technology. Making the inks too.


    This world''s Ink was made nearly the same way as in her former life so there was no worry there.


    The only difference lies in what kind of ink Jinghua would like to use and for what reason. The ink that normal people used for writing were the ones that were formed from the saps of a tree called the Dark Blood tree.


    Just one drop of the essences from it was enough to make a 12 by 12 by 4 cubic meters block of ink. This small cubic ink block would be enough to last a family of literature for a couple of tens of years with no problem.


    The royal family in this nation controls the flow of the ink so it wasn''t very expensive and even commoners can afford it.


    The block of ink in this room was provided by the Inn so it is about 3 by 1 by 1 cubic inch long. It has signs of being used for a while now so it wasn''t new.


    The ink in this world wasn''t that expensive, however, the parchment paper sure was.


    There were a lot of kinds of parchment papers in this world. The first and cheapest are for writing, it costs 550 copper coins per yard of paper. One yard of paper in this world was measured differently from Earth¡¯s paper milling counts. People called it a yard but that¡¯s only the length. It doesn¡¯t count the width. The width of a roll of paper wasn¡¯t just one yard. It was three yards. And thus, a yard of the paper roll was really 36 inches by 108 inches long.


    Each paper roll can literally be made into 300 pages of paper if cut cleanly and clearly by 12 times.


    That was pretty damn expensive in this world. With 550 copper coins, a family of 10 can buy a month¡¯s worth of Rice- since 100 kilograms of rice was 200 copper coins and would still have enough left over to buy other resources for the family. The price for rice in this world was pretty damn cheap after all. And this is normal rice, not spirit rice.


    One kilogram of rice cost 2 copper coins. A normal household of two adults can work for 50 copper coins per day and thus be able to buy enough rice to feed a family with no problem. However, for spirit rice, one mere kilogram cost 30 Lead coins so it was pretty damn expensive for normal households to buy.


    The Tao household never buys any Spirit Rice. What we did buy was Tricabbage, a low-level vegetable that looks like three cabbage pieces together and has a little bit of spiritual Qi inside. Asides from Tricabbage, we also have other low-level spirits (Ling) vegetables like Mo Kai Lan (Black Chinese broccoli), Purple Snow Pea, Water Spinach, Lily Watercress, Bamboo Rice, Sunflower Rice, and Water Crested Rice.


    Most of the list above vegetable look-alike like the vegetable from earth but just a little bit larger and longer or wider. However, for the two last ones, Jinghua had only seen them once when it was for a new years event. She didn''t see it personally but rather from the memories of the former Jinghua.


    Sunflower Rice looks like Wild Rice on Earth but a bit rounder and larger while the Water Crested Rice looks even weirder. Water Crested Rice looks more like Rye and is light blue. Rye looks nutty but Water Crested Rice looks very... water-ly. It tastes a lot like Taro mixed with rice and honey with a bit of walnut flavor.


    Truth be told, the ones that were the most expressive and had the most impression on Jinghua are the Water Crested Rice and the Bamboo Rice. Bamboo rice tastes like rice mixed with watermelon, zucchini, and cucumber mixed together. It was truly weird. However, both of them have a low mild sweet taste to them so they might not be good to make wines with. She never tried it before but she does wonder about the taste of wines that would be made from these low-rank spiritual grains.


    This world was too weird and too much like... for a better lack of word, a fantasy world from a certain anime. Jinghua didn''t know if this is what she should call this world.


    This world has a lot of differences comparing it to the world Earth that she knows. It was just like how the dialects in Northern Chinese are different from Southern China. No, that''s not a very good comparison. Well, maybe.


    Is it like Wheat versus Rice? No, it was more like comparing the traditional wedding customs of the South of China to the North of China. Arg, the damn Tea Ceremony was a pain in the ass. Luckily, Jinghua lives in the Northern part of China so she doesn''t have to do the damn tea ceremony. At her wedding, she didn''t have to go through the tea ceremony and just did it in western-style instead.


    Okay, enough stereotypes.


    The point was, they have the same principles but this world was more independent. There was more... opportunity in this world compared to her former world. One thing, there is Immortal cultivation!!!


    Like those Xianxia, xuanhuan, and fantasy novels, webtoon, manga, manhua, and manhwa that she had read before back on Earth!


    Jinghua doesn''t know about this world enough to judge it in such ways but from what she knows so far, she can safely say that this world was very non-traditional. So it can¡¯t be a wuxia world. Or just a pure xianxia world since there are too many mysteries about this world.


    So far, there were only two traditions that Jinghua noticed. First, this world''s marriage system is the exact same one as ancient China. That man can have multiple wives. Secondly, you can not marry your ''first'' line cousin. Which means that if she or his father and your father are brothers then you better not marry her/him.


    Anyway, to both traditions, Jinghua said bullshit.


    First of all, Jinghua has been engaged already so let''s clarify that first.


    She did allow her fiance to marry someone else too. It''s fine with Jinghua that the old Jinghua allows her fiance to marry someone else. After all, in this world, you need your first wife''s permission to take another wife or concubine into your household. So, by now, Tang Beifeng, her so- so-called fiance, already has three other wives besides her. No, they are only engaged and weren''t married yet so you can''t call her his fully legal wife yet either.


    From the former Jinghua''s memories, she was never in love with Tang Beifeng before so she naturally allows him to have another wife. Just a couple of weeks ago, Tang Beifeng had come over to ask- her for permission to marry another girl. Jinghua naturally didn''t care too since she doesn''t have any feelings for the man. She met both wives that the former Jinghua allowed into the Tang family and the new wife too.


    The two other wives were both very upset that Jinghua allowed the man to marry another girl. Jinghua didn''t care since, regardless of the number of wives he has, she will always be the First Wife, the Madame. Which means that in terms of power in the house, she has the say, even when she''s still just a fiance.


    Jinghua was like that toward Beifeng but if she had truly fallen in love with Beifeng then there was no fucking way will she allow him another wife unless he divorces her first. The Jinghua from before was a natural introvert so she didn''t really care. However, the Jinghua now was different.


    Tao Jinghua does not like to share her heart.


    Even when she had almost married back on Earth, she had never cared if her soon-to-be-called husband cheated on her or married someone else since her heart wasn''t with him in the first place.


    What? Oh. That''s right. Jinghua knew that the man was cheating on her all along. She just doesn''t care because the one that she loves wasn''t even him. This was why Shiny was so against her marrying that man since he knew that she doesn''t love him with her heart. He knew that she was just looking for a peaceful, normal life. Something that she didn''t have to get married to have in the first place.


    Jinghua was hoping that on that day, ''he'' would come and stop the wedding but that is impossible. Why? Because the dead don''t come back to life.


    That''s right. The man that has her heart had already left the world of the living for a year before her wedding day. He died a natural death so even if she wanted to get revenge, there was no target for it. So, all she can do with all the sadness and tortured emotions were to grind it down into her own willpower. Shiny was so mad at her that she didn''t even cry when ''he'' had died. Shiny nearly blows up ''his'' tomb because of that too.


    Let''s not talk about ''him'', the memories are still too fresh for her liking. Even if she doesn''t cry, her very heart has been crying out all these times with no signs of stopping anytime soon.


    Anyway, where was she? Ah right. About karma. No, wait, she was talking about the traditions in this world, right? Yeah. That''s right.


    As for the second tradition that forbade marriage with the First line of Relatives, this one, Jinghua doesn''t have a good look or feeling toward it.


    At the end of the 25th century of Earth, China had already long ago passed the Same-Sex Marriage law for over a hundred years already. Even Korea and Japan had already long passed their way before China did. Tao Jinghua grows up learning, studying, and playing with kids whose parents are dead because of natural causes. Their parents and maybe even hers, if she even knows who it was, were in same-sex marriage.


    If same-sex can marry in the 25th Century, what makes you think that marriage between the First line of a relative cannot marry each other? Of course, they can!!!


    After all, aside from the emotional love toward one another, marriage is about two people becoming family, right? How is that any different from a Relative in the first line of blood relationship marrying each other?


    The 25th Century of Earth doesn''t give a shit ass about that. In fact, because of the Same-Sex Marriage law that was passed in the 22nd Century in China, the marriage and divorce rate in China went down by a whole 40 percent. This helps China in more than one way. It wasn''t just China that was effective because of that Law either.


    When America passed its Laws for same-sex marriage in the 21st century, within a little 20 years, the marriage rate and divorce rate are so low that it affected the European and the Southern American part of the world a lot. Male-Female marriage was still the majority in America but more than 40 percents are now Same-Sex. Even the current President of the United States of America has a partner who is a Male.


    Huh? You asked if religion will affect this?


    Dude, please, there is no way that people who are Christian will go for it. This is why in the 25th century, the people that still have a belief in the so-called God were now nearly non-existent. True, they exist but it is like 10 percent of what it used to be. For sure, there was no Christian church in China. Instead, a new church called [Neo of Christ] has been rising ever since the 23rd Century. If the old religion was still standing in the 22nd century then there is no way that they would have agreed to use the newfound energy.


    Anyway, that''s that. It has nothing to do with Jinghua. She wasn''t discriminating against Same-sex marriage, however, she''s a woman through and through so she had never found herself checking out the same team before. And she wasn''t going to now. However, if she ever did, she wouldn''t be that surprised since Jinghua herself knew in her heart that she wasn''t that narrow-minded. Jinghua was pretty damn open-minded towards this kind of thing.


    This is why Jinghua didn''t really agree with the second tradition, not for herself but certainly, she wasn''t going to go against her mindset.


    As Jinghua started to think about the things that she learned about this world and its laws so far, Jinghua didn''t notice that there was something moving inside her body and soul. Had she noticed it, she would have remembered the black pearl that she had swallowed.


    After all, it was that very pearl that was now moving and acting very active inside her body.


    [Somewhere else far-far away]


    A being in clear white clothes sitting in a golden chair filled with magnificent aura and strength suddenly opened his piercing golden eyes.


    The man has long white hair and two sigmas over his forehead. One of them was of the moon while the other looked like the sun. His clothes were white but if you look at them carefully, you will notice that the clothes have both the shape of the two sigmas blended in them.


    In the background of the man was a large stars system of what Jinghua would call a galaxy. Billions of stars shine in the background as the man blinks his clearly golden eyes that were full of stars, suns, moons, and the very universe.


    In front of the man are two rows of men and women of all ages and races. There was one that looked like a fox since he had 12 tails behind him. There was also another one that looks very fierce and strong that has his tail shown behind him in a shadow. It looks like the tail of a snake but clearly, the spike on the end gives away the answer. It is the tail of a dragon.


    Next to the dragon-man was a male in a bright red robe that had fire flicking on and off his clothes. This man has two sharp eyes and long red fingernails along with barely visible wings behind him. He was a fire phoenix without a doubt. Besides the Phoenix man, there were also five other men that had shadows of some other kinds of beasts.


    Be it a tiger, unicorns, a three-legged bird, or some animal that didn''t look like an animal but a rather mutated animal, there were various kinds. Strong and magnificent in their own ways. One thing for sure, all those beings are so beautiful and pretty that they all look ethereal.


    As the man in the golden chair opened his eyes, every one of the men and women in front of him kneels down respectively.


    "Your Majesty." They all greeted with their most respects and heads bowed. Even the other beastly-like men who looked very uncomfortable kneeling down in their forms were still respectfully bowing their heads. Yes, heads. It has three heads instead of just one head.


    The man on the throne smiled softly as his eyes closed and two small yet bright red tears fell down his cheek. This is his blood tears. The very tears that were said to be able to either bring a whole world into a time of prosperity or a time of warpath. Toward destruction or toward creation.


    One of the men clearly smelled the tears and called out shockingly.


    "Your Majesty!" He kneels deeply down in fright. This man has two pointing ears on his head and his eyes are light green with a dash of red inside. Behind him were long-silver tails that are pure divine powers. He was the dragon of the First Dragon Line. A Silver-Blood Dragon of Divinity.


    "It''s fine, Long Taiyang. Stand down," The deep voice from the man sitting on the throne was so powerful that all of the beings in the same room bowed their heads again. All of those beings are powerful beasts that have already gained heaven''s will and power. Two of them are dragons from ancient times, the other also fire phoenixes, tigers, tortoises, snakes, foxes, and other beasts. All of them had reached a stage where everything that they were made out of Divinity energies.


    Yet, the one being that was more powerful than they all combined was the man who was sitting on the golden throne. He was a human through and through. Or so it seems.


    "Your Majesty, may this little dragon ask what is wrong, your highness?" Another dragon-man asked, who was quite worried that their Emperor had to summon them and cried while looking at the mortal world.


    What is going on? Did something big happen in the Mortal World? The only thing that was worth knowing about was the doors of the Abyss opening, but that is it. For divine immortals like themselves, the Abyss wasn''t that threatening or dangerous. In fact, two of the Abyss''s Kings are also currently kneeling down toward the Emperor in front of them. Both Abyss Kings have shadows that flick in the background, revealing their true forms in the darkness.


    Yet, those two beings of Kings don''t have an ounce of menace or ill intention in their being to harm the man on the throne.


    "It has been far too long. So long that I nearly lost count of the number of times in this realm." The man on the throne said sadly as his eyes glittered with red tears full of stars.


    "Your Majesty..." The women beasts in the room look sadly at the man on the throne.


    "It has been more than 18 billion years. In the mortal world, more than trillions of years have already passed by. Finally, "Mother" has finally come back to this plane of existence." The man on the throne''s tears drops from his eyes into the talisman on his lap. The talisman burst out in fired and vanished into nothingness.


    "Your Majesty?" All the beasts'' men and women in the room look up at the man with eyes filled with hope, anticipation, and a few tears in their eyes.


    "It has been a long long time since her soul vanished from this plane of existence. When Mother had used a part of her soul to create this universe, hadn''t it been because of that damn [Demon], her soul would still be in this world. Yet, because of him, Mother''s soul vanished from here for more than 18 billion years already. Even her Billion Stars Pearl wasn''t in this realm anymore." The man closed his eyes and clenched his teeth when he was talking about the demon but when he talks about the Billion Stars Pearl, his voice sounds half frustrated and half hopeful.


    "Your Majesty, that Demon that you speak of is your Father, is he not?" All the beasts in the room can''t understand why their Emperor would be so mad at his own Father. After all, without his Father, the emperor himself and this very realm would cease to exist.


    "That moron might be ''our'' Father but that doesn''t mean that I have to like him." The emperor seems to sulk as his eyes narrow dangerously. Holy and divine powers gush out from his very presence, causing the beasts in the room to feel suffocated and exhausted since their spirits aren''t strong enough to withstand this person¡¯s pure divine power. They all are very powerful and very archaic beasts in their own races but they all can''t even withstand the power that this man accidentally lets out when his mood wasn''t good.


    All the beasts, men, and women, exchange looks. They don''t know if they should smile in fondness or should they sigh out loud in exaggeration due to this person¡¯s behavior.


    However, they still happily watched as their Emperor closed his eyes again and smiled softly. Just what was the Emperor seeing that made him so happy?


    All the beasts'' men and women looked confused for a while before a wave from their Emperor dismissed them all.


    All the beasts looked at each other and left without a sound.


    They had to make plans for when Her Holiness truly came back. They have to prepare presents, gifts, and things for her!


    Every one of them was so excited that their ¡®tails¡¯ fickle behind them without caring about their images.


    __________ To be Continue __________

 Book 1 Chapter 7: The First Meeting of Jinghua and The Demon King

    Book 1 Chapter 7: The First Meeting of Jinghua and The Demon King


    The next morning, Jinghua woke up way earlier than usual. She''s the kind that would wakes up at the softest noise, which made her wakes up far too early for her liking a lot of times, especially now.


    In another word, Junghua isn''t in a very good mood because she didn''t get enough sleep.


    Which explains why the mood and aura surrounding Jinghua''s room make both Qingshan and Mi Ling shivering in coldness, not even knowing why.


    Jinghua didn''t participate in this world''s spiritual martial arts that let out spirit Qi but her internal martial arts is more than enough to cause the instinct of man to shivers in fear.


    Jinghua, in terms of strength and stamina, isn''t that strong compared to Mi Ling and Qingshan. However, comparing their control over their ''muscles'' to Jinghua''s control over her strengths , you can see that her control is far more proficiency and easier. In fact, her control of her internal arts allows her to control her muscle to a degree that will make the modern 25th century Chinese Martial Arts and gymnast professional jaw drops in admiration. Not to mention the people in this world. Their jaws would drop if they know.


    In her time, the so-called Olympic record was so far behind on her targets that she didn''t bother paying attention to it. This, we are talking about the World Olympic, was far too farsighted of Jinghua. Her sights are set up very high.


    However, here, she is so weak that she didn''t even know how to cultivate in Spiritual Martia Arts. Well, dude, since she doesn''t even know what Spiritual Qi is formed from! She tried it by copying Mi Ling''s training method that he taught their siblings but it wasn''t working. She knew it instinctually the first time that she tried. So she didn''t do it again in fear of contraindicating her body and self.


    What Jinghua didn''t know is that it wasn''t that she can''t participate in Spiritual Martial Arts. It was that something else is preventing her body from gaining the spirits in the air from entering her body. Right, it was the Pearl inside her that is preventing her from gaining Spirits Qi!


    However, Jinghua doesn''t care even if she knew.


    Why? Jinghua doesn''t plan on involving with this world''s politic community. By that, she means that she doesn''t care about political powers. Jinghua doesn''t plan on involving people who are involved with politic powerful people. It is a pain in the ass trying to hide your identity afterward so Jinghua just decided to not involved in them. She''s fine not being rich in this world.


    She had enough experiences of what being riches did to her in her old life to last her another thousand years... if she lived that long in the first place.


    Well, whatever. For now, Jinghua doesn''t care much about anything else asides from the fact that her mood is getting very cloudy from the noises outside her room. Her oversensitive ears don''t help her much right now either.


    Jinghua doesn''t know what is going on in this Inn but the noise is going to make her flips the table out of her room.


    Her mood darkens as the noise got even louder. She really doesn''t want to flip but if this continue, Jinghua doesn''t know how long she can hold out for.


    Good thing that someone distracted her from destroying her room. A knock sounded through her room.


    Knock Knock Knock


    "Hua''er?" Qingshan''s voice called, a little nervous.


    "Yes, Big brother?" Jinghua answered, curious as to why her brother is calling her and what is with his nervousness?.


    "Can I come in?" He asked, with a somewhat weary voice.


    Jinghua blinks in confusion as she opened the door. In front of the door is Mi Ling and Qingshan, looking exhausted but with a somewhat wane look. Did something happen?


    "Hua''er, how''s your sleep?" Mi Ling, who noticed the somewhat dark mood around Jinghua asked, with a somewhat worried tone on his cold face.


    "... Not very good." She answered honestly. Her mood isn''t getting any better as her sensitive ears were meet with a countless amount of noises from the dining room, which is a floor directly below theirs. Why didn''t they get the room on the Third Floor?!


    The looks in the two brothers'' eyes were of curiosity. They wonder what caused their younger sister''s mood to be that bad. After all, they didn''t know that Jinghua''s ears are far more sensitive since she trained them over the last couple of months that she been in this world.


    "Ah, right. Please, come in, big brothers," Jinghua opened the door for the two brothers and invited them in.


    Both brothers sit in the guest chairs in the room that was all the way to the wall.


    They both signs out loud with a somewhat tired face.


    It seems like they didn''t get much sleep last night either.


    "Big brothers?" Jinghua asked, somewhat curious to their visit.


    "Hua''er, there''s a big shot that wanted to buy all the snow ferret that we gathered from the kills two nights ago," Mi Ling said as his usually cold face turned solemn with a somewhat tired look in his eyes. After that night, Qingshan and Mi Ling had given the corpses of the ferrets to Jinghua since she did killed the most of them. Besides, the coats of the ferrets wasn''t even damage due to her so they didn''t hesitate to gave it to her.


    "..." She looks at her brother. What?


    "Sorry, Hua''er... I know that you wanted to save the furs of the snow ferret to make a set of clothing for yourself... but... this big shot is too powerful for normal people like us to rejects." Mi Ling looks very guilty as he closed his eyes.


    "... huh..." Jinghua didn''t care that someone wanted to buy the furs from her but what she doesn''t understand is how did that big shot knew that she have the furs in the first place? True, she had skinned all the snow ferret off their fur, separating the meats and everything else from the furs the very next day from that night. However, how did that big shot knew that she have it?


    "Big brother, how did that person knew that I have the furs?" Jinghua asked with a tilt of her head, in a somewhat cute way that makes both Mi Ling and Qingshan''s brotherly protective instinct shouted out "Very adorable, Hua''er~!". For some reason, both Mi Ling and Qingshan found that ever since a couple of months ago, they been finding Jinghua to be very adorable.


    Both brothers don''t know what to make of this. They didn''t interact with this sister of theirs before so was Jinghua always been like this? Both brothers can''t comprehend why Jinghua is so... cute as of late. Is this why Tang Beifeng was so crazy about their sister ever since she was little? Because Tang Beifeng knew that Jinghua was always very cute and adorable?


    Both brothers started to feel hatred toward Tang Beifeng. To think that in a couple of years, when she reaches 15-16 years old, she would be married to the Tang family. Both brothers don''t know why but they don''t like that.


    Mi Ling snaps out of his thinking at Jinghua''s question.


    "Ah, the snow ferret Xue Qi told him," Mi Ling answered with a sweat drop on his cold face.


    "What happen to Xue Qi?" She noticed that the snow ferret''s presence isn''t with her brother.


    "The government is looking after him now since he is a living witness to the... Abyss beast. They need him to guides the immortal that will be coming today toward the location where those Abyss Beasts are. After that, I think that Xue Qi will have to go with the immortal to their sect." Mi Ling answered, not caring at all whatsoever about the snow ferret.


    "... so the big shot wanted to buy the furs..." Jinghua concluded after a couple seconds of silence in the room.


    "Yes. They will come to this Inn today. In fact, in a couple of hours. Which is why all the workers in the Inn are running all over the place trying to clean everything as clean as possible." Mi Ling answer anxiously.


    "Hmm. Then, big brother Mi Ling, you can trade it with them. I don''t want to be anywhere near those big shot." Jinghua said as her voice turned timid... of course, this is an act.


    Both Qingshan and Mi Ling knew that Jinghua is very introverted so they didn''t want to make her show herself but this time, they don''t have a choice.


    "Sorry, Hua''er... Xue Qi told them that the one that killed all the ferret wasn''t me nor Qingshan but it was you so... he is very interesting in meeting you." Mi Ling closed his eyes as he internally signs out loud. When he got back from the governments officials, he talks to Qingshan about it already. So, Qingshan knew of his dilemma too.


    "Huh?" Jinghua stupidly gawked at her brother, before assuming her so called timid personality of what is to expect from an introvert.


    She hyperventilation from the nervous breakdown. Her acting was so real that it sends her brothers into panics.


    "Hua''er?!" Both Mi Ling and Qingshan''s expression turn pale as they heard the hyperventilating from their younger sister.


    Qingshan, the ever doting brother, was more than afraid that his sister might faints. He didn''t know why Jinghua had always hidden her faces away from them but he did know that aside from Tang Beifeng, no one else has ever seen their sister full expression. They didn''t even know how their sister''s personality got to be like this in the first place.


    Back when she was still only four years old, Qingshan swear that Jinghua wasn''t this timid. Truth, Jinghua had always been shy of strangers but she wasn''t this timid. Qingshan wondered what caused her personality to turned this way. Was it because of Tang Beifeng? If so, Qingshan was so going to kill that man, regardless of his status as her fianc¨¦.


    Truth, Jinghua and Qingshan''s personality are pretty alike but unlike Jinghua who don''t even like to meet her own family, Qingshan is quiet but he''s a doting brother. He spoils on all his younger sisters so much that he got the nickname "Dotest Brother" in their hometown.


    Jinghua takes a deep breath to calm herself. Since she''s already sitting down, she didn''t need to act like she''s going to faint to scared her brother.


    The room was so quiet that Jinghua can hear the heartbeats of her brothers. Jinghua didn''t say anything as she chews her lips in worries and clenches her fist in nervously. Both brothers look at each other in worried.


    "Ahh..." Jinghua sighs out loud, making both her brothers look at her with worries in their eyes.


    "Damn it," Jinghua cussed, surprising her brothers since she had never cussed before.


    Both Qingshan and Mi Ling exchanges look with sweats on their forehead.


    "Hua''er?" Qingshan is getting worries that his sister''s going to go crazy from fear of interacting with strangers.


    "Fine... I will... come with you both. But, I won''t talk to them so you both will have to talk with them instead," Jinghua said with a somewhat of a pout in her voice, making both brothers sign out loud in relief.


    They nodded. That''s fine. They could do the talking.


    A couple of hours later, right after Jinghua passed out the boys their breakfast since they refuses to eat the breakfast that the Inn prepared, Jinghua and Mi Ling was sitting on a table, waiting for the so called big shot to show up. Qingshan also wanted to wait with them but Mi Ling ordered him to take the kids to the outer city to trains. So, Qingshan left hesitatingly. Leaving Jinghua and Mi Ling to meet with the big shot.


    The workers had brought them their wines and a plate of snacks to go along with the wine but Jinghua didn''t even touch the wine since she didn''t like it. The taste wasn''t refined and it had a very roughed taste to it. She remembers clearly.


    Mi Ling, however, like it very much. The first jar was free so he didn''t let this chance go, after all, Mi Ling is one of the biggest drinkers in their family. However, since they''re just a commoner that are a bit better off than everyone else, Mi Ling was sensitive enough to know that he can''t waste their hard earned money just because he likes to drink.


    Which is why he''s pretty damn happy that he got a free wine. Mi Ling slowly savors the wine with a somewhat a happy face. Jinghua didn''t know whether she should sigh out loud or should she laugh at him. The wine doesn''t even taste that good. The refined taste like raw egg mixed with beer and sugar cane but with a bitter taste.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    It tastes disguisting. Very Disgusting, indeed. Jinghua passed her jar to Mi Ling.


    Which is why Jinghua''s fermenting her own rice wine at home right now at home. Because she wants to drinks too.


    A commotion from the door draws both Jinghua and Mi Ling''s attention.


    The manager of the Inn was being very respectful toward someone that is coming inside.


    "Your Highness, this way please," An old man said with a small smile and slowly walked in a very respectfully way as he guides the guest toward the second floor''s dining table, where most of the rich people are. Jinghua didn''t even bother looking at them as she continues to slowly savor their snacks dish. The snack was a kind of nuts of some kind that tastes like walnut and peanut at the same time. A weird combination but a great one nevertheless.


    In another word, this snack, Jinghua had never seen it before. It looks like a premature strawberry but tastes like walnut and peanut. She''s very interesting in this world''s food.


    "Oh my, it was you," A somewhat familiar voices called from behind Jinghua since she was sitting facing away from the door.


    Jinghua turned to see an elderly man in a dark blue robe. Jinghua blinked.


    Why is this old man here? This old man was the one that gave Jinghua the three abnormal universe bags.


    Jinghua blinked with a tilted of her head. Totally staying silence.


    "Hua''er?" Mi Ling asked, somewhat surprise that Jinghua knew this Immortal, because, clearly, that robe is from the Largest Sect in Wuzhi, the Long Wu Sect. The only sect that has interaction with mortals daily since it belong to the loyal of this very nation.


    How did his little sister get to know someone from the Long Wu Sect?


    "Oh? So, your name is Hua," The old man grinned with a smile that is almost looked insane.


    "..." Jinghua looks at her brother with a look that said, why do you have to call my name?! Mi Ling''s cold face sweat drops as he blinked with a somewhat a guilty look in his eyes.


    "Hahahahaha!" The old man laughed out loud with a very happy face. Although, the happiness might be a bit screw and insane.


    "..." Jinghua ignored the old man. The last time she went against her instinct of living the old man alone, she had to cook for a total of 5 hours worth of food. Although, she totally use the Oldman as her first ''victim'' for her food recipes.


    What? Well... it was because Jinghua didn''t have anyone to test all the sauces that she made so the old man was her first victim. After all, she didn''t want to accidentally poison her own brothers.


    [A/N: ... Don''t blame me. This is her personality.]


    "Grandfather? What are you doing? Let''s go," A very low and deep voice asked. For some reason, this voice reminded Jinghua of that Korean singer from Immortal Song ... season 2? What was his name again? JK... JK... What was it again? JK Kim? That singer from the 21st century that has that deep voice of his.


    The one that sings that one song called Family Portrait, The one in that one group of a three singer that sings the song Sin and Punishment.... What was his name again? Jinghua tilted her head as her memories traveled backward toward all the songs that she had listened to.


    Ah, Kim Jo Ho. Right. His name was Kim Jo Ho. The only singers from the 21st century that Jinghua can remember that had this deep voice. At leadt, one that she remembers.


    The person''s voice reminds Jinghua of Kim Jo Ho... Only, Kim Jo Ho''s voice doesn''t have the menacing feeling in it. And besides, Kim Jo Ho was a singer while the voice behind Jinghua sounded like someone who is used to order people around.


    Speaking of Kim Jo Ho, Jinghua recalled that he was in a band called SG Wannabe, right? Their songs were so popular that it had been remastered and remade a lot of times. Even when the original was converted into a data desk and make a Music Discovery about it.


    Jinghua especially like Sin and Punishment, Lived, Timeless, and a lot other ones. What? Of course, Jinghua can speak Korean. She''s fluences in more than 10 languages so she has no trouble understanding Korean.


    This aura, Jinghua is very familiar with it since Shiny had used a lot. The voice of someone that have the power to command.


    Jinghua didn''t bother turning around but she can see the shock look in her brother''s eyes. What? Is the man that scary?


    Well, whatever. Jinghua isn''t interested in him so she didn''t bother turning to see who it was that is behind her.


    "Ah, Yang''er, This is the girl that I told you last week. Come here, she''s very interesting." The old man laughed as he grins in that near insane look of his. The interests in the old man''s eyes make Mi Ling frown as his eyes turned cold.


    "Grandpa, we don''t have time for that. We have an appointment already," The man called Yang''er sigh out loud. However, his eyes land on the sitting girl and raise his eyebrows. There was this distinct aura around the girl that perk his interest a bit.


    Maybe it was because of Jinghua indifference manner or maybe it was because of the aura that he feels from the girl. There was no spiritual qi from the girl at all but for some reason, there is a very sharp yet muted aura of coldness surrounding her that remind him of his teacher when he''s in a very bad mood.


    In a mood that will result in the other party''s dead by thousands of lives.


    This is the aura that Shangyang, as his outside name,had long ago learned to recognize.


    The aura of an ultimate killer. The aura of someone that had kills to the point where the rivers ran red and the mountains are made of bones. This is the aura of someone who had kills so much that their life is a part of it.


    Yet, there is no smell of blood on this girl at all. Huh?


    All people that had killed before will have a smell of human blood regardless of the time that had passed by. This girl''s aura was so distinct but there was no smell...


    Who is this girl?


    "Hey, Hua girl, this is my grandson. His very handsome right? Wanna be his wife?" The old man suddenly asked, causing both Mi Ling and Shangyang to nearly drop their mouth.


    "No," Jinghua answered clearly. Not too loud but not soft either.


    "Eh? You haven''t even take a look at him yet. Don''t be so fast to reject it," The old man looks like he was pouting. What the hell? How old are you old man?


    Shangyang narrowed his eyes at his grandfather. The chill of spirit qi that Changyang let out raise the goosebumps on Jinghua''s neck. She had a feeling that a gun was pointing at her back. However, Jinghua had lived for 20 years of her life living with death itself as an assassin. She long ago learns to accept the death that could come anytime for her so she isn''t afraid of dying.


    Jinghua froze for a split second as her body react to the chill but after that, she continues to play with the snack on her plate. However, she can''t say the same for Mi Ling.


    The fear and terror in Mi Ling''s eyes were as clear as day. Jinghua takes a look at him and nearly sigh out loud. Instead, Jinghua picks one nut of the snack and throw it to Mi Ling''s face, causing him to jerk back to awareness.


    Jinghua tilted her head to the side as she looks at her brother. Mi Ling was still very much shivering in fear but his awareness and the girl in front of him made him slowly come down.


    "Hua''er already engaged." Mi Ling answered as he clenches his fist.


    "Eh? Then cancel it," The old man wave as if it was something like a play needed to be terminated. A vein pop up in Mi Ling''s forehead as his eyes turned cold. He glared at the old man but didn''t have the strength to do anything else.


    "Old man," Jinghua narrowed her eyes as her body postural turned lethal in a way that makes Mi Ling''s eyes widen in fear. And this time, it wasn''t because of cold spiritual qi. It was because of the dark distinctive tone from his sister.


    "Even if your grandson is the King of God or the Son of God, I couldn''t care less. Now, what exactly do you want?" The coldness from Jinghua caused the old man''s pupil to dilated in astonishment. When his eyes meet with the coldness and the promise of something far more sinister than anything that he had ever seen before was reflected from her shielded eyes, the old man didn''t know how to respond to that.


    Behind Jinghua, the subject of Jinghua''s rejection eyes was clearly looking at Jinghua now with even more interest than before. There were surprises in his eyes as he looks at the girl who faces he hasn''t even seen.


    Okay, Shangyang really shouldn''t be feeling like this. This feeling isn''t a feeling that Shangyang should feel just from this one small meeting. The feeling that a black hole is opening somewhere in his heart and soul, is making Shangyang don''t know how to act.


    "Well?" The girl asked again, this time with annoying lacing her voice.


    "..." The old man looks at Jinghua and blinks in awkwardness. He doesn''t know how to answer that question himself. If he changes the subjects then it would mean that he loses to the girl''s willpower. However, if he keeps going then he will make Yang''er madder asides from being embarrassed and rejected.


    The old man look at Shangyang, only to see a strange expression on his face that made alert sounded in his mind.


    "Don''t you have an appointment to meet? Why are you still here?" Annoyance was lace into her voice, carrying the weight that is more than enough to snaps both the old man and Shangyang out of their awkwardness. Shangyang blinks as he remembers why he was here in the first place.


    Shangyang is here to catch some Snow Ferret for his brother''s 3rd wife, who is now pregnant and will soon give birth. The snow ferret''s fur was supposed to make the newborn''s cloth this year but there aren''t any extra material left in the palace.


    When he got to Snow Mountain, there was no sight of any snow ferret to be found. For a whole 4 days, he and his men search the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain for any sight of a snow ferret.


    There was none that can be found.


    Having no choice, he called his grandfather and have the old man searches with himself, after all, it is for his great-grandson after all. No matter how lazy and insane he is, the old man was the previous Emperor of this nation. So, he helped him search.


    When his grandfather got there, they searched and found traces of fighting between dozens of snow ferrets and traces of Abyss beast. Once they found the trace of the Abyss beast, Shangyang totally forgets about why he was looking for the snow ferret and concentrate on finding it, to kill it once found. It is his responsibility as one of the Princes toward this nation.


    However, all they found were dozens of mutating corpses of other animals and smaller beasts that didn''t make it through the mind manipulation from the Abyss Beast. There was no corpse of any Abyss Beasts of any kind to indicate that the beast was dead. Which can only mean that the Abyss beast is getting stronger and stronger as days gone by!


    As each day goes by, the beast will only get stronger while the spiritual beast in this region will only get weaker. This has caused both Shangyang and the old man to concentrates more and more efforts on finding it.


    Yet, the traces of the Abyss vanished into thin air when a couple of hours passed by after the found those corpses.


    Seeing no other opinion left, Shangyang decides to ask the government in this small town for more information concerning disappearing cases in this region of the mountain.


    However, fate must have been on their sides as they met face-to-face with one of the Elders of the Snow Ferret that just happen to know human languages and is cultivating in Immortal way alongside with a human who survived the calamity of being chased by an Abyss Beast. Or being chased by a bunch of manipulated beasts.


    Imagine his surprise when he learned that there was a mere human who not only survived the chase of the beast but also happens to saved the last survival of the Snow Queen Ferret''s bloodline. A mere human who wasn''t even a phase two martial artist save a snow ferret that even immortal cultivators of phrase two or three can''t do much against.


    However, Shangyang is more impressed with the girl in front of him now than when he was when he first met Tao MiLing. This girl who was called "Hua''er" by Tao Mi Ling.


    Well damn, this is very interesting. In a way, that shouldn''t be.

 Book 1 chapter 8: Dead? Who is?

    Book 1 Chapter 8: Dead? Who is?


    Jinghua had wished that she could just screw the meeting with the Big shot and go back to her room to sleep. Her mood wasn''t good. Her lack of sleep was making her lethargic in both her mood swings and her personality. She feels like a pregnant woman with her moods being in a swag, it is unpredictable as hell. There was no telling what kind of aura she would emit as it changes nearly constantly.


    She really has a hard time keeping up with the former Jinghua''s personality when she''s this sleepy. This was proven to be very badly perceived too since a lot of people near her now are very sensitive toward changes. Especially that old man and the man behind her.


    Tao Mi Ling looks at the man behind his little sister''s back. Who at the moment, was looking at her with a complicated expression in his eyes, and immediately, a somewhat dreadful feeling started to emerge from the deep of his heart. The man''s expression was totally expressionless, like a block of wood. But his eyes say more than needed.


    He hopes that this man wasn''t interested in his sister. With the man''s background, there was no way that they could afford to annoy him. Just by looking at the garment that he was wearing, Mi Ling knew right away that this man wasn''t someone that they could afford to offend!


    Tao Mi Ling has never seen a garment of that design before, but he can tell that the materials used to make it were expensive.


    The man behind his sister looks way younger than he should be. Judging by his looks alone, Mi Ling would reckon that the man looks like he''s a boy, and not as a man.


    The man looks like he was in his 15th year, not older. However, Tao Mi Ling wasn''t so ignorant that he would believe that the man was merely a boy. The aura that he gave out along with his very presence demanded respect and awe! This is the presence of someone who had already experienced what life was like out in the world! There was no way that someone like that would be called a boy anymore!


    Tao Jinghua didn''t see the man behind her but judging by her brother''s expression, the man must be very young or incredible. She didn''t care either way.


    Hmm? What is this? Jinghua turned her head toward the window. Not even knowing when the light outside had already darkened and the wind started to pick up. There were signs of snow falling down, as the wind blew harder and harder.


    "It''s snowing?" Jinghua whispered with a confused voice. Her voice was so small that Tao Mi Ling nearly didn''t hear it. However, the old man and the man behind her can hear her clearly. They turned to the window and both their eyes narrowed dangerously as they saw the fresh snow.


    This wasn''t a joke!


    It was now in the middle of the summer! How could it snow? Something must''ve happened deep in the Mountain Xue for it to snow this far away.


    Mountain Xue from Xue Chengsi wasn''t that far away but it wasn''t near either. Flying with the Nine Wings Bird was faster than foot traveling and yet, it still took they a while. If viewed in distance using miles, there are more than 250 miles between the two of destination.


    Xue Chengsi was called Snow City because of being the nearest city within the velocity of Mountain Xue. Aside from that, it was because the first City Lord of this city was called Xue Fanghua. Other than that, there wasn''t much connection.


    This town had never snowed in the summer before. This was the first time. So, it is imaginable that people will panic when situations that have never happened before happen.


    "Snow?" Tao Mi Ling was also shocked. He had seen snow before. However, this was the first time that he had seen snow in the summer. And of this color.


    A thought suddenly enters Jinghua''s mind. There was no way that this snow was normal. Aside from how it looks, there was another thing that caused Tao Jinghua to tense slightly.


    A thought entered her mind as consequences, causes, and effects flashed by. One word entered her mind; The Abyss Beast.


    "Big brother, where are Qingshan and the boys?" Jinghua asked, making Mi Ling jump in realization.


    "Shit!" Mi Ling cussed without a care as he jumped up from his seat and ran toward the door.


    "Hua''er, go back to your room!" He ordered before he vanished with a movement martial art, the Vanish Step. The only martial arts manual that the Tao family has.


    Jinghua blinked. Well... She didn''t think that Tao Mi Ling would be in this panic...


    She closed her eyes for a second as she put the snack into her mouth and chewed, tasting the after-effects that come out from the fruit? Nut? No idea if this was a fruit or a nut. Well, whatever. It does taste pretty damn good. She likes it.


    Finishing her snacks, Jinghua stands up from her chair and walks toward her room, totally ignoring the two men behind her. Their eyesight never left the girl as she made her way to her room, even when she was ignoring them. She had already forgotten that the old man and his grandson hadn''t left and were watching her.


    No, that was a lie. She knows that they are still here but she couldn''t care less. However, no matter how much she didn''t care about the two men, the way that the man called Yang''er was looking at her made her back shiver in coldness. Not cold as in fear or intimidated but cold as in heated cold. The kind of cold that makes people want to sweat in the heat. The kind that she doesn¡¯t want to know about.


    The heat from his eyes made Tao Jinghua scared for the first time since she came to this world. The way that he looked at her made her mind numb. It reminds her of a certain someone. And that caused her heart to ache in a way that made Tao Jinghua want to just stab it and take it out.


    It would have been less painful that way.


    She didn''t want to stay near this man any longer than necessary.


    Both Jinghua and Shangyang haven''t even seen each other fully yet and Jinghua had already instinctually decided that she didn''t want to be anywhere near the man. She didn''t know why either. Neither does Shangyang. Shangyang knew that he was very interested in this girl, who looked like she was only 13 years old. He knew that she was important but to who? Himself?


    For reasons unknown, her very presence made his heartbeat with something that made his heart beats with something.


    What is this? What is this feeling? Shangyang wondered as his fist tightened to himself with every step that the girl took away. Each step that she took syncs with his heartbeat, making it strangely hurt.


    Just before the girl vanishes from his sight, a blast of cold wind knocks the windows open. Sending lanterns on the ceiling to come down.


    "!"


    ¡°Look out!¡± Shangyang vanished from his spot and pulled Jinghua into his arms just as a large lantern dropped right where she used to be.


    A sharp electric sensation shoots up Shangyang¡¯s body as he touches Jinghua, sending his heart to a near stop for a second. Shangyang¡¯s eyes widened in that split second, making his body cold and his lips trembled slightly.


    Jinghua didn¡¯t notice the trembling of Shangyang¡¯s body but the old man¡¯s eyesight was far too good to let that pass by. No matter how small that trembles of Shangyang¡¯s body was, the fact that the spiritual forces coming out of Shangyang¡¯s body at that very moment were caused by this girl, was already enough to cause the Oldman to gasp in shock.


    It wasn¡¯t a small thing either. The amount of pure spiritual qi that got cast off from his body wasn¡¯t a joke. The old man¡¯s eyes widen in both happiness and hope.


    He had been looking for artifacts all over the world to help his grandson¡¯s body for the past 18 years of his life. Yet, no matter how far he travels, no matter what kind of forbidden land it was, all he found was useless treasures. He, along with his son and daughter-in-law, have to watch as their brightest and smartest grandchild/child slowly turns into a demon.


    The child¡¯s teacher did all that he could to slow down the intake of pure spiritual qi that Yang¡¯er involuntarily took into his body but there was only so much that he could do.


    The only two ways to make sure that his body was able to take in all those pureness of spiritual qi was to have exchanges energy from sex and combats. However, that has its own dangerous aspects too.


    The pureness of the spiritual qi from Yang¡¯er was far too pure for a normal human and normal cultivator to intake or use. Their body cannot handle that amount of pureness. The only one that hadn¡¯t had any problem when sharing and exchanging spiritual qi was his Younger and older brothers and mother. Even his own father cannot share energy or exchange it with him.


    Although sharing spiritual qi or exchanging spiritual qi with someone else won''t be that dangerous, it was still being something that shouldn¡¯t be constantly in use, especially when it comes to sex. In fact, if done once in a month, it would help both parties with their cultivation progress and stabilize the foundations for their cultivations. However, the thing was that Yang''er''s body needed to be exchanged once a week at the least, otherwise, the pain that he would feel would be... unimaginable.


    Shangyang was pretty used to the pain already but the pain of the soul wasn¡¯t something that anyone could get used to. Especially when the pain from the soul and the pain from the physical body both happen at the same time.


    So, imagine his surprise when he saw that just by touching that little girl, Yang''er''s pure spirit was repelled from his body without consequence. He was so damn happy that he felt like he''s going to cry!


    Someone told him that this isn¡¯t a dream!


    ¡°Thank you, you can let me go now,¡± Tao Jinghua¡¯s cold voice said with an indifference that made Shangyang let go of the girl instinctively. The girl did a small bow in thanks before turning to see what kind of damages the stairs suffered was due to the fallen lantern.


    There was no damage done to the wood at all.


    Tao Jinghua nodded in satisfaction that the stairs weren''t damaged. She¡¯ll hate to pay for it if the owner thinks it was her fault.


    Tao Jinghua totally ignored the fact that this world, every building such as this inn was built using semi-spiritual woods so it was far sturdier than concrete. This was a precaution toward fights between cultivators, because, otherwise, such a building won¡¯t last a second before it was destroyed.


    Shangyang¡¯s eyes haven¡¯t left the little girl at all. No, that¡¯s not right. It wasn¡¯t that his eyes haven¡¯t left the girl but rather that his eyes can¡¯t leave the girl.


    Already, Shangyang had already started to feel the effect of having liberated a large amount of spiritual qi instantly.


    He feels less heavy, less stressful, and less of a burden on his soul and body.


    Just in that one split second, the amount of spiritual qi that he lost was enough to nearly kill low-grade cultivators, but yet - that girl who has no spiritual qi of any kind actually wasn¡¯t harmed at all.


    What the hell?


    While Shangyang and the old man were still shockingly frozen in their spots, not caring at all that they were still looking at her, Jinghua left behind the two men as she closed the door to her room.


    Her hands were shaking slightly. She sighs out loud as she clenches her chest.


    Too similar. Too familiar. Their glazes were far too alike.


    They are so similar to the point that Jinghua was afraid to look at the man called Shangyang.


    A name came into her mind and heart instantly; Chen Huafei. A very girly name but was, in fact, a true male.


    An image of a thin, tall, and yet very handsome and firm face appeared in her heart. Hair the color of platinum blonde, eyes as cold as ice, and an equally expressionless face.


    No - stop thinking about him. Don¡¯t think about him!


    Jinghua clenches her heart as she bites her lips hard enough to bleed.


    ¡°Jinghua, remember that the dead do not come back alive, the soul which has left will never return!¡± She told herself as she clenched her hand hard enough to bleed. Tears blurred her vision as her memories nearly awaked.


    While this was taking place within her room, the two men from before were already gone.


    ¡°Yang''er,¡± The old man started only to stop once he saw the looks within his grandson¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Grandfather... that girl... I know her... I... her soul feels so familiar...¡± Shang Changyang, whose real name was Shang Yangli, was so lost that he didn¡¯t notice his soul reacting to his mentality.


    They were flying toward the Snow Mountain to stop whatever it was that¡¯s causing the Dark Snow to form. However, with the man¡¯s current mentality, will he be able to fight? The old man worries.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    However, he soon found that his worries were not needed.


    Three hours passed by so fast that Tao Jinghua totally forgot about her lack of sleep.


    Tao Qingshan and Mi Ling came back with everyone''s presence. However, the dark snow was oddly cold with a chilliness that sunk deep into the bones, so both Tao Baiyu and Honghui caught a cold. Lucky for them, Tao Jinghua was prepared so they only got sick for a night before they were already better.


    Due to Tao Baiyu and Honghui¡¯s fever, they stay inside the inn for one more night. While that was happening, the City¡¯s people were making plans for war.


    Why?


    Because of the odd Black Snow. Due to the black snow, hoards of beasts were running away from the Snow Mountain. Or not; it was due to the Abyss Beasts that waves of beasts are running away from their homes.


    So, now, the majority of the families in this city were preparing for war against those beasts.


    Lucky for them, such things as beast hoards happen once every two to three years. So, the majority of the humans in this world were already pretty used to this kind of thing happening. Although, this belief was for towns and cities that are near to a beast''s habitable like the Mountain Snow. After all, Wuzhi Kingdom was already a kingdom full of poisonous beasts- other beast types don¡¯t have much opportunity to live here before they were pretty much snacked on by those poisonous beasts.


    Three days later, after the city went through its beasts hoard- with little to no damage since this hoard was pretty small- Tao Jinghua and the rest of her brothers left Xue Chengsi behind and flew on the Nine Wings Bird and went to the location that was on her elder sister¡¯s letter.


    It was a small forest called the ¡°Purple Blazed Bamboo Mountain¡±- about 150 miles away from Mountain Xue, to the northwest. This mountain was famous for both mortals and cultivators alike since the laws of this place put a restriction on both cultivators and mortals.


    Purple Blazed Bamboo Mountain was called so because of the large, thick, and abnormally fire-glazing looking bamboo forest. This mountain was known to be the only mountain that has successfully planted herbs that both cultivators and mortals needs; The Morning Dew Mysterious Grass, Overlord Fire Branch, Nine-Yang Scarlet Bamboo, Hundred- Years Red Ginseng, Snow Wolfberry, Rising Sun May Fire Grass, Maiden¡¯s Fragrance Fruits, and Spirit Grass.


    According to Tao Suyi¡¯s letter, all of these herbs were needed to make Body Tempering Pills. She said that the woman who controls this region was looking for a mortal girl who knows how to create a porcelain chest for storing the herbs listed above. However, she must be under 13 years old, must be a virgin, and must have a Yin-Body constitution type.


    Tao Jinghua doesn¡¯t have a Yin-Body Constitution type but she wasn¡¯t looking for such an opportunity anyway. She was here because this town has a Mechanic Guild. And because she was bored and wanted to learn more about this world.


    A Rank 1 Mechanic Master. His name was Jin He. He was sister Tao Suyi¡¯s subordinate. Tao Suyi left something for Tao Jinghua with Jin He.


    This was the real reason why Jinghua wanted to come here. According to her knowledge of her sister- it seems like the older woman left behind a lot of books for them before she went on her seclusion.


    It was also likely that this action of hers was the equivalent of exchanges or her action of leaving the Tao Family behind. After all, she''s going to be an immortal cultivator and immortal cultivators live a long life. Who knows if the Tao family would still be existing a hundred more years. Which was why she wanted to form and train the foundation of the family even more with those things that she left for her.


    Out of all the girls and boys in the family, Tao Suyi doted on her the most. Although, that might be because they have the same mother.


    Regardless of the reason, Tao Suyi had entrusted the future of the Tao Family to Jinghua - at least this was until Jinghua got engaged to Tang Beifeng.


    So, Jinghua is here to get the things that Suyi left behind for the family. While she¡¯s here, she¡¯s also experiencing this world for the first time and learning things about this cultivation world that she¡¯s currently living in.


    When they met with Jin He, the man was very respectful toward them.


    Reading both this man¡¯s intention and his eyes, Jinghua knew right away that this man wasn¡¯t one of those two-faces men out there in the cultivation world. Maybe it was because, in the 25th Century, it was just the beginning of the Martial Arts Information Age - but there was a lot of information and sources for Jinghua to study and train in. There was one Art that Jinghua specialized in; Intentions Arts.


    Or better known as ¡°Heart, Soul, and Spiritual Intention of Humans Arts.¡±


    In this Arts, more like Skills, Jinghua had trained both her mentality sensitivity and her Sensing sensitivity towards such things as men¡¯s and women¡¯s intention to the point that her Grandmasters had chosen for her to interact with the normal human society. Something that was never heard of for an assassin her of grades.


    Why? To train her reaction, interactions, and mentality towards human intentions. She even went to Middle School, High School, and College just to train those Skills of hers.


    So, you can say that her ability in reading a human''s mind and their intentions was top notch.


    Which was why she knew right away that this cultivator named Jin He was a pure-man. As in pure in intention, pure in feelings, and pure in body.


    A virgin.


    A 50 years old virgin. Who has no intention of ever getting out of his virginity status?


    ¡°Young Lady and Young Masters, please, this way,¡± the old man- who doesn¡¯t even look like it, led them away toward a two-story house to the west of Purple Blazed Town.


    Purple Blazed Town was the town closest to the Purple Blazed Bamboo Forest. It was the only town that the women who controlled this region of the world had allowed men to enter. Passed this town, no men could enter without permission - of course, unless the so-called man himself doesn¡¯t want his family jewels anymore.


    The house that Jin He led them to was a normal family size courtyard house with a small pond in the middle of the yard and a couple of flower brushes.


    He led them to the guest-hall as he served us tea while we waited. It seems like this guy doesn¡¯t even have a servant to help him out. Weird but acceptable.


    The boys were curious but they all knew that they shouldn¡¯t be naughty so they behaved themselves. They talk in low voices as they brainstormed what kind of things Suyi left for Jinghua.


    Ten minutes later, he came back with 12 Universe Bags.


    Only, this kind of bag was different from the ones that they are used to.


    It was made with purple-colored fabrics that have gold threads and stitches fingorm some kind of talisman on it.


    Just by the appearance of the Universe Bags, anyone could tell that it wasn¡¯t a simple bag.


    And Jinghua was proven right again.


    Turns out that these bags were called Primal Universal Bags - not just universe bags. Each Primal Universal Bags cost 5 Mid-Tier Jingshi - that¡¯s about 5,000 Low-Grade Jingshi right there. Enough to feed a mid-sizes clan of cultivators for five months at least.


    This caused Jinghua to be suspicious. Where did Tao Suyi get all the money to buy these bags from? Or does she make it herself?


    Within these bags were 50 million mortal Gold Coins, 200 Low-Grade Jingshi Stone, and 30 Foundation level manuals for bodybuilding, swordplay, spear arts, and other weapons parts. All of these resources were enough for a rich young master to live his whole life carefreely. And yet, Tao Suyi gave them to Jinghua? If Jinghua doesn¡¯t suspect Tao Suyi¡¯s intention then she¡¯s a moron. And Tao Jinghua was not a moron.


    Even though all of these were all low level at the grade of a 1, they were still all priceless treasures for the Tao Family.


    With these many items from Suyi, Jinghua knew right away that something was going to happen to her. Or did it happen already?


    What were Tao Suyi¡¯s plans?


    Jinghua¡¯s eyes gleamed underneath her bangs, as her mind went through a hundred different kinds of reasons, causes and effects, details, and suspicions that she could think of.


    No matter what happened, Jinghua was going to be calm about this. Her sister trusted her with these items for a reason, she wasn¡¯t going to make her hard work turn to nothing due to Jinghua¡¯s own actions.


    ¡°Young Lady, Master told me to give these bags to you and also inform you that in the Gold-Purple bag, there is a book on Alchemy for you to study. She hopes that with this book, you won¡¯t be bored anymore.¡± Jin He said with a small smile on his face.


    Jinghua could hear this man¡¯s heart beating and understand why he was secretly shocked at his master¡¯s action toward her mortal family.


    Jinghua nodded her head while Qingshan and Mi Ling were secretly shocked at her actions. They don¡¯t know what happened or what was inside these bags, but they were shocked that Suyi had left Jinghua an Alchemy Book.


    After all, an alchemy book of low level would already cost more than ten thousand gold coins- something which the Tao Family cannot afford.


    Everyone from the Tao family was so shocked that they didn¡¯t even notice how they left Jin He¡¯s house or how they made it to the inn for the rest of the day.


    When they left that night, they had brought three Talisman for the Nine-Wings Bird.


    It cost 3 Gold Coins each but it was worth it. Because with the materials on Jinghua right now, no one wanted to risk anything so they secured their traveling safely first and foremost.


    The Talisman was a speed flight Talisman for Bird Creatures like the Nine-Wings Bird. Increasing the speeds in which the bird can travel by 500%, making the distance that they had covered within three days into 3 hours of traveling. The speed was so fast that Jinghua couldn¡¯t even see anything, just a blur of things for 3 whole hours. While Jinghua was slightly sulking because she couldn¡¯t see anything passed by, all the boys were so tense that their bodies'' postures looked even more awkward than a newborn deer.


    When they finally stopped to rest at Xue Chengsi, all the boys were so grateful that they kissed the earth underneath their feet. All Mi Ling and Qingshan did was shake their heads with fond smiles before they left to buy some presents and gifts for the people back at home.


    Jinghua brought a lot of fabric brocades and all sorts of materials for making and creating different kinds of accessories, along with books on Pottery techniques for everyone at home. The boys brought weapons, armors, and talisman protection for everyone.


    Jinghua pretended that she didn¡¯t see Qingshan and Mi Ling buying a lot of cooking wares and different kinds of ingredients, even seeds.


    With the money that Suyi gave Jinghua, she gave the boys three gold coins each to buy whatever they wanted. In the end, Tengyu was the only person to have brought a lot of leather.


    ¡°Teng¡¯er, why are you buying so much leather?¡± Tao Jinghua asked, curiously, at her younger brother.


    The so-called brother blushed bright red as he scratches his cheeks nervously. ¡°Big-sis, I want you to help me make a set of clothes for me....¡± He said as he looked down on his feet, his whole body radiated nervousness. Jinghua blinked her eyes a couple of times in surprise before nodding.


    ¡°Sure, however, you have to get to the Martial Artist Tier 2 first before I make you a set of clothes,¡± Jinghua said with a glim in her eyes. The boy¡¯s eyes widened as he looked at his sister.


    ¡°Okay! It''s a promise!¡± Tengyu shouted excitedly as he skipped toward Qingshan. Mi Ling and Qingshan both rolled their eyes at the boy¡¯s tacit. So easy to read.


    They rest for two hours before going back to their little home town, Xichang Town.


    On the way, the bird¡¯s speed was slowed down due to the Talisman running out of spiritual energy, making it easier for Jinghua to notice something that she had missed before.


    As they got nearer and nearer toward Xichang Town, all of them noticed signs of battle. With the height that this bird can travel at, they couldn¡¯t even see anything from the ground. However, the smell of blood that was carried by the wind wasn¡¯t that easy to dismiss for Jinghua.


    Jinghua¡¯s expression was unchanged but her eyes were already gleaming with lights in them.


    ¡°Lil Nine, go closer to the ground,¡± Jinghua suddenly instructed the bird, causing the bird to cry out loud in reply.


    Mi Ling and Qingshan looked at her questionably but she ignored their looks as she focused on what was going on in the ground.


    Bodies of large beasts were literally loitering all over the forests. Trees were burning, freezing, wet with water and some even bear no leaves at all for no reason.


    The earth cracked in odd places. Jinghua¡¯s vision was not normal. She can see far better than normal people but she wasn¡¯t an immortal cultivator. Once the distance between the sky and the earth lessened enough, both Mi Ling and Qingshan were so shocked that their bodies literally froze in fear.


    Jinghua ignored them for now as the Nine-Wings Bird got closer to the ground.


    She could see a lot of smaller beasts still fighting. Jinghua took out her bows and arrows. She silently and steadily smeared poison to the tips of the arrows before knocking them to her bows.


    Within a split second, five piercing arrows flew out of her hand towards the beasts that were on the ground. Even though the poison doesn¡¯t have much effect against poisonous beasts, it still slows down the beasts enough that the cultivators who were fighting them had a chance to critically injure them or even kill them.


    With Jinghua helping from the sky, the cultivators who were fighting against the beast on the ground had some time to breathe. Mi Ling and Qingshan weren''t normal either as they both came back to their senses earlier than normal. Their help with distracting beasts by sending killing intent at a critical moment distracted the beasts enough to be injured by any cultivators.


    As times slowly passed by, the small beasts slowly stopped showing up as more and more were killed. Once Jinghua judges that the cultivators won¡¯t die from overwhelming beasts waves, she tells the Nine-Wings birds to go nearer to their hometown.


    It was not a pretty sight that they saw upon coming closer.


    The wall surrounding Xichang town was literally ruined. Cracks were all over the place. Some places don''t even have any rocks to tell them that this was once a wall.


    Jinghua¡¯s eyes dimmed with the chilling lights within. Mi Ling didn¡¯t even wait for Jinghua¡¯s instructions when he commanded the bird to go straight toward their house.


    Luckily, only the store was wracked. Their house was safe and sound. Everyone was safe- if not mentally scarred. Her mother and father were so worried about them that they cried literally when they saw them.


    ¡°My babies!¡± Both Jinghua¡¯s mother and her stepmothers ran toward the boys as they hugged each and every one of them with a hold that could crack bones. Jinghua steps back slightly so that she isn''t in their direct sight. As a result, both Mi Ling and Qingshan were hugged until their faces pale and turned green.


    If Jinghua used her assassin abilities to hide her presence for a while longer because of this then no one can blame her.


    Two hours later, Jinghua found out that due to the Abyss Beast driving out all the beasts in Mountain Xue, the surrounding regions were also affected too. As a result, clans and sects all over the country send their students and members to help out. Luckily for Xichang town, it wasn¡¯t in the direct path of the beast hoards so only the wall and a couple of buildings were destroyed.


    The number of mortals that die could be counted on one hand, this time around, unlike every other time that a beast hoard happens.


    ¡°Tao Jinghua! Tao Jinghua! Are you there! Please! Please! Open the door!¡± Suddenly, a piercing yelled from outside the Tao Family home. The door was banging loudly and the presence of a normal person was right outside.


    As sudden as the presence was, a bad feeling surfaced within Jinghua¡¯s heart.


    Her eyes gleamed darkly. Because that voice was the voice of Tang Beifeng¡¯s second wife, Liu Ying.


    The maid that had been behind her father went to open the door. Stumble in was a young girl about 16 years old with a bloody outfit and teary eyes filled with heartache, disbelief and a look of madness in her eyes.


    ¡°Ying Er?¡± Jinghua asked the second wife¡¯s of Tang Beifeng, feeling slightly confused.


    Once she saw Tao Jinghua, Liu Ying broke into tears and threw herself into Jinghua¡¯s arms. Her body shakes as grief clouded her face and she cries her eyes and heart out.


    ¡°Hua¡¯er, Hua¡¯er... Beifeng... Beifeng is... Waaaaa,¡± She cried as her words started to not make any sense.


    ¡°Ying Er, calm down. Why are you crying? Where are Meier and Beifeng? Why aren¡¯t they with you?¡± Jinghua asked as she patted the older girls in her arms.


    At that question, the girl cried, even more, harder as she collapsed to the ground. ¡°Wuu Wuu, Hua¡¯er, wuwuwu. They-they¡¯re dead!¡± She cried out loud as her voice shook with emotions and her facial expression turned near insane.


    Jinghua blinked her eyes for a couple of seconds as she let the words enter her mind.


    What? Did I just hear that Tang Beifeng was dead?


    ¡°Ying¡¯er... what... What did you say?¡± Jinghua¡¯s expression was completely expressionless and her voice was completely calm but for some reason, everyone¡¯s eyes widened as they looked at Jinghua with a worried expression.


    ¡°Dead! He''s dead! Sister Meyer is dead too! Everyone is dead!¡± The girl shouted out with her eyes in fear and a look of near insanity entered her face.


    ¡°W-wait, Liu Ying, what do you mean by that?¡± Mi Ling asked with a pale face as he put his hand behind Jinghua to steady her, just in case.


    ¡°B-beast, a pitch-black beast- it kills everyone!¡± Liu Ying¡¯s hands were holding onto Jinghua like it was her lifeline as she shivered in fear and her eyes deluded in fright.


    Jinghua¡¯s knees give out- due to disappointment and from Liu Ying¡¯s hold, causing both girls to collapse into the ground. While she was at it, Jinghua faked fainting, too.


    ¡°Hua¡¯er!¡± Both Liu Ying and Mi Ling called out as they tried to prevent her head from hitting the floor. The floor was a stone floor, so they did anything to prevent Jinghua¡¯s head from hitting the floor.


    The situation turns instantly chaotic but for some reason, Jinghua has been feeling like someone or something was watching her every movement. She can¡¯t tell where or which direction it was from but with her sensitivity at her current range, she could tell that whoever it was, it was very curious about her.


    Whoever or whatever it was, it has no ill-intention towards her or anyone near her so she let it go.


    And she had a feeling that whoever this being is, it wasn¡¯t a beast nor a human.


    So, something ¡®else¡¯ got interested in her?


    First, her so-called Fianc¨¦ was dead. Now, something or whatever it was- was looking and watching her?


    What the hell was going on?

 Book One Chapter 9: The Weiqi Grandmaster Who Reign the World of Assassin

Book One Chapter 9: The Weiqi Grandmaster Who Reign the World of Assassin

 Book 1 Chapter 10: Tao Jinghua and her Previous Lives

    Book 1 Chapter 10: Tao Jinghua and Her Previous Lives


    Three days after the Grand Weiqi Tournament, Jinghua finally finished the procedures of transferring the title deeds for the restaurants in Xichang town to one of her older brothers - Tao Lan Yun - and left him to take care of the stores. Tao Lan Yun was a glutton and had been following Jinghua around ever since she had woken up from that dreamscape. So, he happily accepted the title deeds.


    It was Mi Ling¡¯s fault for telling Lan Yun that she was a great cook - causing that glutton to follow her around begging for food. And now, he has taken the responsibility for all the foods that he had eaten and will be eating.


    Aside from taking care of transferring the Title Deeds of the restaurants to Tao Lan Yun, Tao Jinghua wasn¡¯t so idle. She had to make clothes for her sisters once they judged that she no longer got suicidal and was healthy enough to do normal things.


    Once she had successfully awakened from that dreamscape that originated from Mingming¡¯s Soulscape and got better, her sisters all begged for some clothes. They couldn¡¯t stop themselves from yearning for the clothes that Tao Jinghua had made.


    Of course, they didn¡¯t ask immediately but rather a couple of weeks later when they deemed that she was stapled enough and not in an emotional wrench. Thus, Tao Jinghua was pretty busy with a variety of things


    So far in three years, she has made each two outfits. Three of her older sisters got married in the last few years. One of them already has a daughter with her husband.


    Two of her older brothers, not Qingshan and Mi Ling, had already married and one of them was moving out in a couple of days from now on.


    Aside from that, the things that have changed about this town were the games that she had to introduce to this world.


    The three color weiqi was the most popular but it wasn¡¯t the only game that was played. Surprisingly, the most famous game after the three color weiqi wasn¡¯t shogi or similar game, rather it was RPG Card Games. Jinghua didn¡¯t feel guilty at all as she stole ideas from Earth.


    Fire Emblem Warriors, Pathfinder, and Dark Souls Roleplaying card games were mixed, recreated and then, with Grimwood as its base, turned into a card game that caused countless young boys to join in. The two schools in Xichang town even adopted the games as a way to test intelligence, wisdom, and train their students for the real world. They even hired two inscription masters to inscribe those card games into the walls of their school and infused spiritual qi into it.


    In other words, once a test is up, the administrator would infuse a couple low-grade jingshi stone or diamond coins into the inscription, making the card game come alive with a manifestation. Or just said that a holograph of the card will manifest. It wasn¡¯t something that could physically touch because it only has enough spiritual qi from a low-grade jingshi stone or a diamond coin to manifest for a week.


    Very weak when compared to what immortal cultivators could do. Even a beginner level immortal could do better than that. Just the energy from a couple low-grade jingshi won¡¯t be enough for them at all. Anyway, that¡¯s not her business.


    Anyhow, after this tournament, Jinghua was pretty sure that the games she has introduced in this town would spread all over this continent; it might take years for everyone to be proficient in these games but nonetheless, life won¡¯t be so boring anymore.


    And thus, moving on to other subjects.


    Jinghua has been feeling very curious about something for a while now. This year, she¡¯s already 16 years old. Yet... She still hasn¡¯t got her ¡°Woman¡¯s Monthly Bleed¡±.


    ... She¡¯s already 16 years old and yet... is this body dead? From the former Jinghua dead? Is this the consequences? Jinghua would never get her PMS?


    Jinghua doesn¡¯t know if she¡¯s thankful for that or finds it worrisome. Or... is there something wrong with this body?


    Maybe I should ask Tian Feifei since she¡¯s an alchemist. One of the alchemist grandmasters that still practices her skills even now.


    Anyway, it''s almost time for Jinghua to join those beasts in the soulscape again.


    The Soulscape that Jinghua was talking about isn''t hers since she wasn¡¯t an cultivator. No, it used to belong to MingMing but now, it wasn¡¯t his dreamscape anymore. It doesn¡¯t belong to Jinghua either. No, that Soulscape belongs to Ju Feihua, one of the spiritual flower beasts of the phantom bloodline that came out from the lotus pond.


    Ju Feihua was a plant spirit beast. A Lotus-like plant that grows on land and is not submerged or on water. According to her, I had met her when I was on my 47th Life Trials. Something about World Tribulation and Heavenly Purge Trials. She was one of the innocent that the heaven of that world was purging due to lack of resources and spiritual energy in that world and realm. As a result, she said that I had taken her with me and planted her in my Inner World.


    Ju Feihua had grown up with the older beings inside the Original Jinghua¡¯s original Inner World so she knew about Jinghua¡¯s soul more than anyone else. Especially since Ju Feihua specialized in using Soul Force and Mentality fortitude to make pills, dans, and weapons.


    Ju Feihua said that when I left that world, my inner world at that time was removed into a Gemstone and was sealed deep within my soul. It seems like all of the beasts that came out from the lotus pond used to be my partners from the previous worlds that I had been through.


    According to the beasts, I shouldn¡¯t be here in this world at all. I should have been in a world that doesn¡¯t have much spiritual qi and was relatively peaceful. Well, true, Earth was a peaceful world compared to this world. For one, there was no such thing as Spiritual Beast and Mythical Monsters on Earth.


    But well- one of the Items that I had created before called Pearl World Gemstone found me and was a little too excited so it accidentally knocked me off that planet¡¯s physical dimension. As a result, my soul was stirred awaked and came to this world, where another copy of my body was living like a normal human in this world to experience life in general.


    Yet, now that my original soul meets a world with spiritual qi and a drop of my blood essence actually was licked by a being that has the essence of a primal dragon bloodline; it awoke the lotus pond deep within my soul- causing the Chaos Gate Pagoda to awake.


    Who had sealed the Chaos Gate Pagoda deep within Jinghua¡¯s soul, she doesn¡¯t know but according to the oldest chaos beast within that pond, the man who sealed it for her was not someone that she could afford to offend. Afterall, according to him, it was because of that man that Jinghua had the opportunity to transcend into a Transcendent Immortal cultivator with 9 Immortal Soul Core, making it possible for her to live for as long as one of her world gems is intact.


    And Jinghua has a lot of World Gems.


    What is a World Gem?


    Literally that. A Gem that has a world inside. Created from her own soul essence and spiritual essence.


    Like that damn pearl that was currently inside Jinghua¡¯s body. Although, that pearl was a different grade and it is a sentinel mobile-dimensional pearl. Meaning that it can travel to other dimensions at its own will.


    According to Xian Dexi, the titanic Bloodhound with 7 heads and 7 ancient bloodlines, that damn Pearl Gem World was created by someone who her soul knew very well of and the Original Jinghua herself. Who was it? Xian Dexi doesn¡¯t have the courage nor the privilege to talk about who that man is. All he could tell her was that this man was not her enemy and will never be one.


    That black pearl and the gem that the lotus pond originated from was not the same. They function the same way but they aren¡¯t the same in a sense.


    The lotus pond originated from the World Gem that Jinghua created herself long ago. However, that black pearl was created by someone else and herself, and it has its own will. It''s very much like a baby who was given to Jinghua long ago and it keeps looking for her whenever possible.


    What is that Pearl World Gem for? According to all of the guys and girls in that lotus pond, there¡¯s only one word for it; Dowry.


    Fucking damn Dowry.


    Who fucking damn give a whole world as a dowry?! Jinghua has never known of anyone like that before! Actually, from her knowledge of how Dowry is, on Earth, a couple of her Masters had actually used an island, company, shops, places, and all sorts of resources as Dowry for her future before she came here. But that marriage didn¡¯t go as planned so such a thing wasn¡¯t known. And really, there was no one on Earth who was rich enough or idiotic enough to give planets as dowry.


    Although, whenever she thinks of someone who would really give a whole world as dowry, there¡¯s only one person that appeared in her mind.


    But.. odd. When she thinks of that man- the aching hole in the deep of her heart doesn¡¯t feel as empty and hurt as she used to have anymore. After that man left her behind, her very life itself turned dark and empty. No matter what she does, it didn¡¯t do shit for her mentality and emotions. It was to the point that Shiny got so mad that he destroyed the school that Jinghua had met him.


    Don¡¯t tell me... that the ¡®man¡¯ and the man who created this Gem have some kind of connection? Or... or they like me and the former Jinghua? A fiber copy of a soul? No, don¡¯t get your hope up, Jinghua. It will only hurt you more.


    Jinghua shut off the hope that bloom within her chest with a resolve bang. She doesn¡¯t need uncertain hope right now.


    Anyway, it''s time for her to see those guys and girls again.


    Jinghua closed her eyes as she lay down to sleep for the night. A moment later, her eyes were met with the smirking face of Mingming and the brightly lit up face of Gui Lingying, the giant gem tortoise. Hong Fenglong was right behind them with a smile on his face too. It looks oddly weird because out of all the beasts in the lotus pond, only Gui Lingying and Hong Fenglong cannot change into their human form, temporary. The reason was because when my former life left them behind, they were still only a baby.


    Even though right now, they are thousands of years old, it still wasn¡¯t enough for them to transfer into their human form. The reason was that in this lotus pond, there aren¡¯t anymore Bloodline Transformation pills strong enough for beasts of their bloodline.


    There are countless and a large variety of alchemy pills within the 49 Floor Chaos Gate Pagoda. Even without Jinghua there, they could still open up to 12 floors with no problem. However, those pills aren¡¯t any different from candy for them. It has no effect whatsoever for beings of their levels. So, even till today, they couldn¡¯t transform into their human form. After all, without Jinghua here to open the door for the upper levels of the pagoda, they can¡¯t go inside it. Which means that they can¡¯t use higher grade spirit herbs to refine any alchemy pills. Thus, the two youngest beasts aren¡¯t able to transform.


    Jinghua being here had already opened up the land into spiritual holy land.


    Tian Feifei and the rest of the beasts have already started to plant the herbal seeds from inside the 49-floors pagoda into the lands that have turned into spirits land. And now, those herbs have already grown and are mature enough to be picked. But it hasn¡¯t been picked yet. Why? Because Jinghua has no use for them since she doesn¡¯t even know how to use them.


    What? Jinghua¡¯s memories were still sealed. As long as she doesn¡¯t start practicing in the arts of the immortal and open her apertures to the sensitivity of spiritual qi, she¡¯s just a normal human who was slightly special.


    And she plans to be this way for as long as possible. Even though she doesn¡¯t need to as she has already passed her so-called Heavenly Tribulations back when she decided to save those sorry ass of excuse monks. No, even before that. If she wanted to be an immortal practitioner, all she had to do was allow one of her tamed beasts to open up her apertures to spiritual qi and start cultivating.


    Anyway, the point here was that Jinghua does not want to be a cultivator. She doesn¡¯t want to live that long. She¡¯s not the power-hungry kind of woman nor was she the kind that likes to be in the spotlight. She¡¯s just the kind of woman that got bored really fast and lost interest in things even faster.


    So far in her life, the things that she has passions for were weapons collection, practicing martial arts, and finding new things to do. Ever since she came to this world, she has had to lead a life that she fully has no intention to change.


    Being poor wasn¡¯t so bad since it teaches her the value of hard work. Seeing new things like the Nine-Wings Birds was an eye opener but she had no intention to surround herself with them all the time. Cooking new things? Sorry, but she¡¯s not Jo?l Robuchon much less a 5 Michelin Stars chef- she has no intention to be.


    She might be interested in this world¡¯s ingredients but she wasn¡¯t a real chef. Jinghua knew how to cook but that¡¯s only because her tongue was very sensitive toward food and she¡¯s very picky about what she wants to eat. That¡¯s why she opens those restaurants in this town after all.


    It was so that whenever she¡¯s hungry, she doesn¡¯t have to cook for herself.


    ¡°Master, the Spiritual Grains that we planted last week are already mature now. Do you want to harvest it?¡± Hong Fenglong asked telepathically as he lowered his head. He¡¯s currently in his semi-human form so he was only a couple of feet taller than me.


    ¡°It¡¯s ready? Show me,¡± Jinghua was quite interested in the so-called spiritual grains of this world. The ones that she had seen so far cannot be called real spiritual grains as the amount of energy it contains was far from enough.


    The blackened earth in this place was called Crystal Dark Earth. It was very dark because of the spiritual qi of higher grade and because of the abundance of nutrition found in the ground. When Jinghua first planted a normal apple tree in this place due to curiosity, that apple tree sorely turned into a large apple tree that bears thousands of apples in one harvest.


    According to Guan Ning Ning, a Sunset Falcon Spirit Bird who specializes in Spiritual Agriculture of any kind, that normal apple has turned into a spirit fruit tree when it was growing. So, now if Jinghua wanted to, she could use the seeds from the apple in that space to breed some very strong spiritual apple fruit trees. Well, she¡¯s only experimenting right now. She doesn¡¯t want to start a farm right here in this Soulscape.


    The spiritual grains that Hong Fenglong showed Jinghua was very bizarre.


    It looks like rice grain, like the Basmati from Indian on Earth but it was far larger in terms of size and dimension. Not only that, the fragrance of the grain itself was very strong. Jinghua could already smell them from all the way here- about 15 meters away.


    If you are to compared the spiritual grains to the rice that Jinghua knew of from earth, then it would be long like the Basmati rice but fragrant similar to the Jasmine rice yet with the hardness of a glutinous rice grain, it is plumb like the Japanese Short grain rice that were used in sushi but very long in physical looks and features.


    All in all, just imagine the basmati long grain that is three times larger and rounder than normal and you would get the perfect picture of what these spirit grains look like. Not to mention. It was shining with a glow surrounding each grain.


    Ahhh, so that¡¯s what a spirit grain looks like.


    ¡°What grade is this spirit grain?¡± Jinghua asked.


    ¡°Low Grade. It is a Tier 1 Grade Grain. However, in terms of purity, it ranks level 12.¡± Mingming answered with a nonchalant face, totally uncaring for such a small matter.


    Tier 1 Grade Grain at level 12 Purity? Isn¡¯t it that a Tier 3 product in another word?


    A jin of these tier 3 spiritual grains cost 12 low grade jingshi already!


    ... Yeah, these grains should never be known to the outside.


    Unlike the things that Suyi left behind for Jinghua, which she gave it all to the family to increase their foundation, the things from this space must never be found outside unless Jinghua has the strength to protect it.


    The amount of spiritual grains in the field was enough for 3.5 tons of grains. That¡¯s already more than seven thousand pounds, or about 6,350 jin!


    Do the math and you got seven six thousand and two hundred low grade jingshi...


    Yeah, Jinghua was never going to let these spirit grains out into the real world.


    ¡°Can I even eat these?¡± She asked the primary question. Since Jinghua wasn¡¯t a cultivator and doesn¡¯t have the necessary apertures and or meridian open to absorb the spiritual qi within the rice grain.


    All of the beasts: ¡°......¡±


    Jinghua: ¡°......¡±


    They all blinked at the question.


    ¡°Master, you don¡¯t need to worry about that,¡± Mingming replied after thinking for a couple of seconds.


    ¡°Hmm?¡± Jinghua tilted her head to the side and blinked at Mingming.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°Master, inside the pond, there¡¯s a Spiritual Qi Gathering and Extract Formation on the pond.¡± Mingming said with his facial expression of ¡°What formation, not mine,¡± as he tried to convince Jinghua that he had nothing to do with it. Well, he truly doesn¡¯t have anything to do with it.


    ¡°Ah- I remember,¡± Ju Feihua and Guang Lingying said at the same time, causing them to look at each other in surprise.


    ¡°Spiritual Qi Gathering and Extract Formation? What is that?¡± Jinghua asked, not knowing what the hell was Mingming talking about.


    ¡°Master, the lotus pond was made out of Spiritual Condense liquid. Meaning that it was created from pure Spiritual Qi of a higher grade. Inside this space, it is very deep within your soul, the World Gem has been here for more than a couple eons already. Since that time when you had created the Spiritual Condensation Formation as the base form for the Spiritual Qi Gathering and Extract Formation, it has been refining the spiritual qi from outside the world and from the universe into its purest form, Lingdi [Spiritual Qi Droplet]. Over time, the lingdi turned into gas, then from gas into liquid again, and from the liquid form, it turned into this very world; the earth was dark because it has been refined by the World Gem for eons already.¡± Du Tang Tang, a Heaven Silk Spider, said with her face full of wisdom and age. She looks like an 18 years old girl with long white hair, three eyes that were gleaming purple like a diamond, and she was wearing full silkware. Her face and beauty was enough to cause a kingdom to collapse.


    Her demeanor was of someone who knew that they are sexy and was willing to use it against their opponent. In other words, Du Tang Tang was not sweet at all; she¡¯s hot like spicy food that people can¡¯t get enough of. She got the charms of an older lady that was alluring enough but not slutty like a woman who only seems to want to be seen as sexually sexy. She got the beauteous figure that was not too busty or too small, a waist that wasn¡¯t huge but it certainly wasn¡¯t small either. Her figure attracts both men and women alike toward her like bees to honey. Only to find out that it wasn¡¯t honey that they were sucking on but rather, poison.


    ¡°... You mean to tell me that this lotus pond was completely made out of a higher grade of spiritual qi droplets?¡± Jinghua wanted to confirm if her understanding of the situation was really right.


    All of the Beasts, including Mingming, nodded.


    ¡°... How high is it?¡± I asked, feeling both nonchalant and yet curious at the same time.


    ¡°The normal spiritual qi that people like the cultivators that you meet a couple of days ago used the World Spiritual Qi called Huanqi. The next tier of energy from that is the True Essence, Zhenqi. After Zhenqi comes Divine Essence, Shenqi. After Divine Essence is the Universe Essence, Taiqi. The water in the pond is all divine Essence,¡± Long Yunli, the Heaven Crown Spiritual Dragon-Snake, answered as he placed his head down near the ground so that I could pat him. My hand automatically went to scratch the corner of his mouth. His scales were oddly warm and tender. Not hard at all.


    ¡°Anything that you eat that is spiritual in nature will naturally be absorbed by the pond, so you don¡¯t have to worry,¡± Wang Baoyi said from the berch of the crystal tree. Wang Baoyi is the White Thunder Hawk from the Heavenly Thunder Hawk races that doesn¡¯t exist in his original world anymore. Since they ates Heaven Tribulation Thunders as food and the people in his former world have no such thing. And thus, they became extinct in that world. Wang Baoyi was the only one that survived since I took him with me when he was just an egg.


    ¡°So, you don¡¯t have to worry that you can¡¯t eat it. At all. No matter what you eat, you would only feel full like eating normal food. The spiritual qi within the grains aren¡¯t affecting you at all. Unless you are willingly to open your meridian and start cultivating like your brothers, then such foods won¡¯t even do anything to you.¡± Mingming concluded, this time with his eyes twitching with an expression that doesn¡¯t know if he should be crying or laughing.


    ¡°Oh,¡± Jinghua was already used to how OP she seems so she only said ¡®oh¡¯. The first time that she came back to this place after she woke up, she accidentally entered the pagoda and found thousands of chests filled with golds, silvers, and all kinds of mundane currency. If that was it, then she wouldn¡¯t have been shocked. After all, Tao Jinghua had seen their Assassin Group back on earth¡¯s treasury before so she wasn¡¯t that surprised by the amount of mundane currency there was. She was shocked because aside from the mundane currency, there¡¯s materials, resources, and also spiritual and magical currency, too.


    Honestly, a lot of the currencies in those chest, Jinghua had never even remembered seeing them before. She only knows that those are very pure in their forms. The gold coins-object was pure gold and the silver was pure silver. Even though they are purely gold and or silver, some of them look different. Some were red while others were blue. Not to mention the spiritual and magical in nature currency. Those are just Otherworldly.


    When she had asked Mingming, he said that he doesn¡¯t know because he has never used mortal currency before. It was Hong Fenglong who had answered her; that those moneys were from her previous lifetimes. And she has a lot of previous lifetimes before the ones on Earth.


    She had accumulated so much money that those chests were created just for it.


    Although the chest seems to be only a meter square in size, in actual fact, each chest was far larger than it seems. And far heavier than it looks.


    When Jinghua had taken one of those chests into her room in the physical world, she found out that her whole room was not even enough to contain even a percentage of the stuff inside the chest. And her room was just rebuilt a couple of months ago since her old one was shared with her sisters. So, it was larger than before.


    Turns out that the space of each chest was more than ten thousand cubic meters of space. That¡¯s already seven times bigger than my current¡¯s room. As a result, I had to take that chest back into the 49- Floor pagoda. However, for one odd reason, the chest that she had taken out changed in looks and items. The currency inside that chest had changed into this world¡¯s currency.


    Copper Coins, Lead Coins, Silver Coins, Gold Coins, and even Diamond Coins are all of this world¡¯s currency. In the trillions.


    So now, Jinghua was so rich that she wouldn¡¯t know what to do with the money. Including the money that she made from the restaurants and the money that her father gave her from Tao Suyi¡¯s portion, she already has enough money to live a luxurious life without having to work. And now that she has ever more money from those chests, she became numb to such things now.


    Which was why she wasn¡¯t really surprised about the features that the pond has. Anyway, continues on to why she¡¯s here.


    ¡°Feihua, you said that you would unsealed some of my memories for me. What are you going to unseal?¡± Jinghua asked. Last time that she was here, the beasts explained to her that all of her previous lives experiences were sealed off within the lotus pond. If she wanted to unsealed them, they could do it.


    However, there¡¯s a price that she has to pay. Her mental fortitude has to be stronger or else her mind won¡¯t be able to make it due to the painful process. This was the main reason why she introduced the Three Colors Weiqi to this world. It was to train her Mentality Fortitude again. And she succeeded.


    ¡°Master, we will have to test your Fortitude first.¡± Feifei said as she took out a purple star shaped rock from somewhere.


    ¡°Master, put this on your forehead. A light will surge out toward your brain and measure your Mental Fortitude for you,¡± Feifei said with a respected smile on her face. Her expression was filled with longing and excitement but her face was good enough to keep her poker-face on.


    Jinghua did as asked. A bright light came out of the star shape rock and vanished into her forehead. A couple seconds later, the stars dimmers, leaving behind a number.


    ¡°1490,¡± it said.


    What does that mean? Jinghua was confused but the expressions on the beast''s faces were astonishing. Their eyes were wide open and some even had their jaws dropped to the floor.


    ¡°I know that the master was very talented and intelligent but these numbers... they are a little too big, aren¡¯t they?!¡± Hong Fenglong was near hysterically insane as his eyes turned bloodline red from both surprise and fear.


    What was that supposed to mean?


    ¡°Master... you had passed the test. In fact, you only need 150 to passed the test for unsealing memory. However, with the numbers being this high, you would not feel any pains at all. ¡° Feifei¡¯s eyebrows was twitching and her smile was also trembling with something akin to excitement. Why was she so excited? That was because the memory that Feifei plan to unsealed for Jinghua has to do with Weapon Refinement and Alchemy Refinement!!!


    You have to know that there was never a time in Jinghua''s previous lives that she wasn¡¯t famous. She¡¯s a master of a lot of things and subjects: Alchemy and Weapons Refinement was just one of the many things that she knows and master of!!!


    After all, the one that had taught her was that ¡°Legendary Grandmaster of Heavenly Magic and Hell Raising Alchemy!¡± The Only Human Woman to have reached the realm of the Creator Gods aside from that man and his brother! Aside from His Highness Chu Meng Yi and his Holiness Li Youran, the two brothers of the Tian[Heaven] Creation Family Tian Yuanle and Tian Yangle were the only ones to cross that line! So, of course she would be excited that their master was the only one that has ever come close!!!


    If she unsealed her master¡¯s memory of those world''s accumulation of knowledge for Weapons Refinement and Alchemy Refinement, her master would be safe! There won¡¯t be anyone in this world that would look down on her or offend her!


    Too bad, Feihua forgot that her master¡¯s personality was very calm and lazy. She forgot that her master didn¡¯t even want to cultivate anymore in this life. She also didn¡¯t account for the fact that Jinghua was an assassin who was called Airless by the Underground World in her previous life on Earth.


    Ten hours later, Jinghua had fully started to awaken her previous memories. In her hand was the black pearl that she had swallowed. It was rotating in a calm manner as it emits gas of green mist into her mind.


    In a split second, Jinghua knew how to use the black pearl. She collects her Mental energy and sends it toward a small, very small, whole on the pearl; causing it to shake with excitement.


    ¡°Mother!¡± A small voice called out to her from the deep of her soul.


    With her eyes still closed, Jinghua reached out with her consciousness toward that voice. Now she knows why her heart doesn¡¯t hurt that badly anymore when she thinks of Him. Turns out that he was also in this world too.


    Tian Yangle!!! You dare to send me off to another world while you took care of that invasion!!! You sure have guts to leave me behind on Earth this time!!! Watch how I¡¯m going to kick your ball when we meet again!


    The smile in Jinghua¡¯s eyes caused the black pearl to twitch with fear and excitement.


    ¡°Mother! Father just didn¡¯t want that man to see you so he hides you away!¡± The Black Pearl World Gem said with a tender voice.


    Jinghua didn¡¯t answer the pearl. Instead, she grabbed the pearl with her mental energy and gave it a hard pinch, causing it to cry out pitifully.


    ¡°Mama- Wuwuwuwu, I¡¯m sorry!!! Don¡¯t be mad at Gem!¡±the cries from the Pearl were very childish and loud. Its voice sounded like a male but it was too high pitched.


    Humph! What father? I¡¯m not even married! Nor am I your mother!


    The reason why the black pearl called Jinghua mother was because that man who created the pearl was her ¡°former¡± husband, Tian Yangle. That guy sacrificed a whole world to create this Pearl using a Forbidden Arts, that¡¯s why this pearl was pitch black even though it was very innocent.


    The world that the Black Pearl originated from was a world that used the Forbidden Arts. That world has sacrificed countless planets and stolen countless lives- causing the world to emerge with the Origin of All Sins.


    Jinghua remembers, now, that Tian Yangle used half of his Immortal Bones to purify that world first before he created this pearl. Which was why the pearl was very innocent in its core.


    And the man that the pearl spoke of was the son of another dimension Heaven¡¯s Son. Tian Yangle and that man have equal strength so it caused the man to use his last resort: sending Jinghua to other dimensions. It just happened that at that time, Jinghua was undergoing her Heavenly Trial to transcend to the next realm of cultivation. This caused her soul to divide itself up into 9999 pieces. The souls that went through trials and succeeded will return back to the original soul while the pieces of soul that failed were obliterated within the Dao¡¯s Universe.


    The Jinghua from Earth was supposed to be living a peaceful life- even as an assassin. However, because of a chaos tear in space somewhere, the Black Pearl senses her soul, causing it to rush toward Earth to find her. That pearl was the cause and effect of those new resources that earth people had found. In a way- that was how the Black Pearl repaid the world for taking care of Jinghua. However, by the time that the black pearl reaches earth, Chen Huafei had always gone to the netherworld. The causes of his death was very stupid too. Afterall, Chen Huafei was not weak. That man doesn¡¯t even have a weakness.


    If he had one then it would have been easier for Jinghua to deal with him.


    Ah? His cause of death? Book.


    A small children''s picture book that wasn¡¯t even weighed a pound, fell from a tree while he was sleeping underneath the so called tree with Jinghua¡¯s thigh as his pillow. All it took was one hit and for some reason that was completely illogical and unreasonable, Chen Huafei died.


    He¡¯s heart stopped and his soul was gone. Just like that. CPR doesn¡¯t work. Electric shock doesn¡¯t work. Even when Jinghua used the Golden Acupuncture needles in his acupuncture points, he still doesn¡¯t wake up. Jinghua even does things that are completely cruel and painful to wake him up, to restarts his heart and yet; it does nothing.


    By the time that she got him to the hospital, his heart, brain and nerves were already not responding.


    And now, she found out that that body called Chen Huafei was just a Doll?!


    Yeah.


    Some balls need to be cracked.


    Someone needs to be taught a lesson.


    A very painful lesson.


    Suddenly, Long Yunli made a hissing sound at the back of her throat and she winced, drawing Jinghua¡¯s attention away from the black pearl and back to her surroundings.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Yun?¡± Jinghua asked. Long Yunli was a Dragon-Snake Heavenly Crown Beast. She has the abilities to Predict the future with her Divination Eyes. This was why she didn¡¯t despair when Jinghua sealed them inside the pond, too.


    ¡°Some soldiers and two official governors are currently making their ways toward Xichang Town with orders from the Emperor to have you as the Third Prince, Prince Changyang, or Formerly known as Prince Yangli, Seventeenth wife.¡± Long Yunli hissed out, feeling both offended and infuriated that a mere human thinks that they have the authority to force their master into a marriage. Not to mention, as the 17th wives?!


    Jinghua: Why am I not surprised at all?


    All of the tamed beasts and even MingMing looked very irritated at that prediction.


    Jinghua doesn¡¯t seem to care about that prediction as much as the tamed beasts and her servant.


    ¡°When will they get here?¡± Jinghua asked instead, totally appearing nonchalant. She¡¯s not interested in politics and she was not interested in the prince either. After all, she knows that he has a high chance of being that man. The one that left her on Earth while he sent his Doll Puppet to stay with her as he takes care of the Invasion from another Dimension.


    And she has a bone to pick with that man. If, only if, Prince Yangli was him, then she¡¯s going to make him suffer.


    A sarcastic gleam entered Jinghua¡¯s eyes, causing MingMing and all the other beasts to wince in sympathy.


    They know alright. They all know that their Master was not someone who is evil in intentions or greedy but they also know that when she decided to hold a grudge, not even heaven''s declaration can erase her maliciousness.


    They had seen how forgiving she could be, know how intelligent she was, how nonchalant she is toward things that she has no interest in, but most of all, they all know that if she was ever to hate someone, then that person will never get a good life.


    They had also known that she was also very possessive of those that are hers. All of the tamed beasts are more than happy to know that she loves them dearly. She takes care of them really well in both mental, physical, and spiritual. They are all happy to know, remember, and reciprocal her feelings for them.


    So, even when she has to seal them all up for thousands of years, when they have to be apart from her for millions of years, they all still love her and are totally loyal to her.


    Of course, this was if the master that they had knowledge wasn¡¯t corrupted due to something else. After all, she had told them all that if they ever meet a Her that was corrupted with greed, jealousy, resentment, and all the negative attitude in the world, then they are to ignore her until she either died and reincarnated into someone better or get over those negativeness and forge herself into a better person.


    This order was so that she wouldn¡¯t use them for No-Good. This order was to protect their Karma. This order was because she really does care for them. And this is because she knows that some live, she will be so black-hearted that not even Grandma Mo¡¯s Soup can erase her darkness. Thus, this order was to protect them.


    They were lucky that in this world, her core personality wasn¡¯t a bad person. Otherwise, they will have to continue waiting for more of her new reincarnation. And by then, god won¡¯t even know if they would still be here anymore.


    Long Yunli answered, ¡°12 days,¡± with her eyes twitching.


    Jinghua turned to Tian Feifei, the Chaos Blazed Origin Phoenix that was known as a Grandmaster Tactician and Strategist.


    ¡°Yes, master. It is as you had suspected. I sensed his soul in that man¡¯s body. Although, the souls feel odd. Like, it''s only a quarter of what it was supposed to be. The suffering that he must¡¯ve gone through each night is not little at all.¡± Tian Feifei said lightly with a solemn tone. She knows exactly what an incomplete soul could do. She¡¯s a phoenix after all.


    For someone like Tiang Yangle, dividing his soul wasn''t that big of a problem.


    However, the problems are at the core of such soul-fragments. A fragment of such a soul can live a normal life but once it starts to cultivate, if such a soul fragment was not completed, then there are severe consequences.


    Tian Feifei and Long Yunli turned toward each other and started to use their ability to search for more information about this man, Prince Changyang.


    What they found... was both worrisome and yet causes a lot of eye-twitching.


    Prince Yangli, formerly known as Prince Changyang, was already 21 years old this year. He has no wife but 12 concubines. And all 12 of those concubines had already died due to ... activities in bed. This year, an additional 5 concubines were called in and Tao Jinghua was one of the five women.


    When the Imperial orders came in, the other four women cried for a day and night. Their family members react differently.


    One of them was the Di-daughter to one of the general houses in this Kingdom. Her mother died when she was only a 3 years old child so her stepmother and step siblings look after her. Her stepmother cries herself nearly to death while her step siblings all wanted to hide her away. She was loved in the household. Her name was Murong Shifeng. Age 17 years old. She is good at weiqi, dancing, singing, poem and painting.


    The second one was a girl from a scholar-house, named Liu Beihua. Ages is 16 years old. Specialized in the arts of dancing, singing, pipa, and flute. Her family, however... was very cold toward her. Her mother was the Di-Wife but she doesn¡¯t love her husband and her husband also doesn¡¯t love her. So, Liu Beihua was treated coldly in the house both by her mother and father. The ones that treated her right were actually her half-sisters and brothers. Her own blood older brothers treated her as if she didn''t exist and had never talked to her with warmth. It was actually the half-siblings that watch after her and make sure that she was okay in both health and mental connection. Thus, the ones that cried when the imperial declaration came in were the half-siblings.


    The third girl came from a military family. She was the first daughter of the Di-Wife. However, her mother was a lovely wife who treated everyone in the house with equal rights. Thus there was no ill-treatment of her. She is currently 17 years old this year and unlike the two other girls, she is good at martial arts, medicines, weiqi, dancing and flute. Her mother cries themselves to sleep but her father doesn¡¯t react at all. Her brothers, however, were all worries. Her name was Cui Meiyu.


    The fourth girl was an orphan in an official household. Her mother and father both died in a beast horde stampede long before she was even a year old. Her grandmothers and grandfather all treated her okay but not good either. Her father¡¯s brother, her uncles, decided to use her as a tool to see if they could get connection to the Imperial Family. Thus, her name was chosen among the 5 girls that was to be sent to the Imperial Family. She was only 14 years old this year and her name is Qiang Feixin.


    All four girls knew that this was the same as sending them to their deaths. Because they all knew that Prince Yangli has a spiritual problem that causes death to his concubines. Rumors of all sorts have already been made known around this whole kingdom. Even a 5 years old kid had heard of the tragedy that his concubines had to suffer and die from!


    Tao Jinghua, however, does even bother to cry. It was no use. And yet, she still couldn¡¯t help the twitching of her eyes when she knew the causes of the other girls'' deaths.


    Die in bed? Seriously? During sex?!


    And he actually touches those women?


    ... Jinghua would like to say that she will not allow such a thing to happen if that man really was him.


    Tao Jinghua knew herself well enough to know that she is one freaking damn possessive person. Back when Chen Huafei was still alive and they were dating, both Chen Huafei and Jinghua themselves were very possessive of each other. It was to the point of unhealthiness.


    So, if Chen Huafei fucking damn touches other women in this world? Then, well, tough luck, asshole, you ain¡¯t fucking damn marrying me.


    Mingming and the rest of the beasts shiver at the coldness deep within their master¡¯s eyes.


    A glint entered Jinghua¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°We need to fake my death.¡± Jinghua¡¯s voice was cold and her eyes were even colder. It causes Mingming to shivers while the other beasts all smile. That is their master alright!


    She would never enter any harem! Ever!


    ¡°Of course, master.¡± Ju Feihua answered as she started to create a human body that looks exactly like Jinghua¡¯s body.


    And so, the next morning, one of Jinghua¡¯s younger brothers went to wake her up to make food for them, only to find out that Jinghua had passed away in her sleep with a smile on her face.


    The whole town boiled up. Some people started to cry right there on the street as news of her death made it around town.


    Liu Ying cries so much that she fainted and only woke up a couple of days later.


    The officials that got the Xichang Town were so happy that their job was already halfway done- only to find out that the girl had already died in her sleep and it was her funeral.


    The two official governors exchange grimmed looks.


    They both check the body, check the soul connection, and yes- this body is truly dead.


    The two official exchanges look.


    There are three reasons why Jinghua chose to fake her dead.


    The first reason lies in the fact that she doesn¡¯t want her current family members to get in trouble because of her.


    The second reason was due to the memories that she had reawakened.


    The third reason was because she¡¯s pissed off at that man. Her feelings were hurting so badly that her heart felt bruises from his death. And then, she found out that that man was just a doll? Fuck that sonofabitch to hell and back!!! She¡¯s pissed and very enraged at him right now to want to see the man.


    Thus, she chose to fake her death and leave this town.


    Her new destination? Silver Moon Forest. A forbidden ground where not even immortal practitioners would set foot inside.


    Fuck Chen Huafei and his new life in this world for now!


    See if I care!