Novel The Demon King's Seventeenth Wife is Scary [Ch.11 Is Up]

how's this then?

 

I found some spelling / grammar mistakes while reading. I did not read it carefully, so if there are still some mistakes, don't blame me please.

Either "That would mean that" or "That means that".

[Comment: Yes! A non-discrimination protagonist! ]

Okay... a few things about this;
- "He had just reached rank..."
- "...it would still be measured like that."
- So is the measurement in ranks or levels?

[Comment: Okay, I may not be an alcohol expert here, but isn't that high?]

It is pleasing for my eyes when I read it from my laptop though.

 

love it so far <3
can't wait for the other chapters

 

Ditto.

 

Thanks for the chapter. It kinda bothers me that all princesses and princes are either sl*ts or manwh*res.

 

Book 1 Chapter 4: Leaving Home

Spoiler

The next morning, Tao Jinghua wakes up before the sun even raise. After getting ready, she double-checked the large Jar of fermenting rice and sealed it tightly. After that, Jinghua made sure that the windows are tightly shut to prevent air from escaping.

Leaving her room, she grabs the four Universe bags, the normal ones were tied to her waist belt where the other three were hidden somewhere else on her body. Just for today, Jinghua didn't want to wear the dress that normal girls like to wear.


For today, she was wearing a martial arts outfit that looked similar to a man's grown. It consists of a head-ribbon, tying her long hair into a design pattern that looks very adorable but still left her bangs along, a hairband 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.

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 looks at his sister and his breath caught in his throat. His sister has her long bang covering nearly half of her face, hiding away her eyes away from the world but the way that she moves like the world belongs to her yet wasn't arrogantly announcing it to the world had created an unforgivable 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 will have a lot of rivals to defend from.

"Big brother. I am ready." Jinghua said with a tone that shows how excited she was. Qingshan had to smile at the innocence that his sister has.

"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 walk toward the door. Right now, it was only 5 in the morning and only the servant is up so no one else was there to sent 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.

A sound of gasping was heard from behind a blush. Slowly, came out a boy about 10 years old 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 frown. "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 looks at his big brother and sister Jinghua. For some reason, once his eyes lay on his sister, his breath caught in his throat, making hard for him to breathe. Today, his big sister looks very pretty...

"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.

"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 was going to go search for something for his big sister, his yearning for adventure soars its head at him, telling that he has to go to no matter what. However, he knew that because he was far too young, his father will 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.

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 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 to was for women only. I can not protect both of you and your sister at the same time with my strength." Qingshan said seriously, in a tone that said this was his final answer.

Tao Mingyu's eyes waters, "No! I want to go to!" He yelled out as he cries and clenched to 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 7 years old and not 10.

"!" 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 so early in the morning?" A very cold and pissed off 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 actually 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 totally different. It's like day and night.

"Big brother Ling." Jinghua tried to act nervous whenever she met this brother of hers's but because she had already known what he was hiding, her acting around him will 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 sounds this early in the morning?" He glared at the crying boy, causing him to jerk in fear and whimpers. Of course, Mingyu would be scared of Mi Ling since he was the one training the younger boys 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 soft as possible while Mingyu was being stared at by Mi Ling with a glared 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. The measurement of martial arts wasn't measured by levels but rather Tiers of levels. In a Tier, there are 10 levels so it was very easy to understand.


For example, Level 1 Tier Tier 1, Level 2 Tier 1, Level 3 Tier 2, Level 4 Tier 1,... Level 10 Tier 1... Level 10 Tier 12. And so on. Tier 1 to Tier 12 is called Phase 1 Practitioner. Above that is Phase 2, Qi Martial Arts Practitioner. Phase 3 is called Spirit Martial Arts Practitioner, Phase 4 is called King Martial Arts Practitioner. Phase 5 is called Emperor Spirit Martial Art Practitioner. Phase 6 is called Battle God Martial Arts Practitioner while Phase 7 is called War God Martial Arts Practitioner. Phase 8 is a half-immortal-body practitioner called Ancestry Saint-Martial Arts Practitioner. Phase 9 is a full Immortal body and soul practitioner called the Supreme Master Martial Arts Practitioners. After Phase 9 is Phase 10, which isn't for mortal practitioners anymore so Jinghua doesn't have such memories in her mind.

Each Phase divided the power lines between each cultivation ranks. And each rank has an astonishing large difference in power.

"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 go travel with big brother and sister too." He tearfully said as he whimpered upon Mi Ling's glared 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 by 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 awake 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 falling down on his face.

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 danger 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 how Jinghua looks like. However, as time passed by, the morning sky lightens up and made it easier for them all they see, they were all shock speechless at what Jinghua was wearing and her demeanor.

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


All the younger siblings gasped as amazement filled their heart 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 majesty, 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 artist practitioners. The clothes were made out of mostly leathers and cotton fabrics but the looks are far dignified then silks clothes or dress could be.

"It should 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 other world." Jinghua said as she looks at the crying boy who still won't let go of her legs.

"Really?!" Mingyu called out happily and excitedly with his eyes widen, making he looks like a puppy. Qingshan sighed out loud. He knew fully that this road will have danger, however, if Hua'er didn't mind that their traveling speed will slow down then they can avoid those dangers if they take 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 siblings.

"Father." All of them greeted nicely, a couple of their youngest siblings when to hugs the man, making him patted their head in 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 glared in his eyes. Naturally, Yuanyu also knows this.

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

"Eh?" Qingshan and Mi Ling both gawked.

"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 daughter to practice. The only two skills books that they have was from their ancestor who used to be from another country about ten thousands of 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. Which was why with both Mi Ling and Qingshan's talents, they were only at Tier 4 martial artist. If they can afford pills and martial arts manual, by now, both Mi Ling and Qingshan were already at least a Tier 7 or 8 fighters. Jinghua has also noticed this too.

"Eh?" All the younger boys who were training under Mi Ling and Qingshan all exclaims in surprise. What? Are they going to have to go out to experiences 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 idea was very scary.

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

"Okay. That's fine too. Although when we get there, none of the boys can go with me since that section was forbidden for men to go to." Jinghua didn't protest. Yuanyu nodded his head in appreciates at 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 boy and girls but the clothes that she wears was 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 order they all to get ready. There are only 7 of all 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 threatens him at the same time for him to let go.

Because of the increase of people who was going with them, Jinghua had three servants when to buy more supplies for them all. Things like food ingredients and spices. Not meats because the meats are a bit too expensive and it was something that they can hunt outside so they didn't need to buy it. Although, in case of emergency, she had also bring 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 agent. She didn't know anything about the poison in this world but the poison from earth was far 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 mixed poison for self-protections. 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 poisons likes. 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 was wide and broad. There’s no end to it. Only more and more beginning.

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

By the time that 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 earth. However, in this world, mounts that 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 set on it. Nine Wings Bird can fly at a speed of 200 miles per hour. Traveling with that speed, the winds could knock people off the bird, which was 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 fallen off.

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

Which was why Tao Jinghua's father gives them an additional 10 Silvers to use on the road. With 8 of them, 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. Asides from the cost for the tickets and the talisman, Tao Yuanyu also makes Tao Mi Ling promise that he would buy him a couple of gifts back 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 now was now for all the boy in the family to gain experiences outside. Which means that Mi Ling will be training them using the hard way. This Jinghua and Qingshan have no problem with since Jinghua planned to do more training too. Of course, by training, she meant that silently training Internal Martial arts using the beast in this world as her punching bags.

As they got 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 food 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 takes out a talisman paper that looks like those ancient talismans from ancient china. On the paper was some kind of word that Jinghua can 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 symbol on the talisman paper to fly toward both his 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 feels 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 unchanged while the rest of the boys were ‘wowing’ and shrieking in both surprised and excited.

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 odd habits that Tao Jinghua had developed when she was training. So, she knew right away that wherever they are headed to, it was slightly farther away. She looks around her and mentally created a map for herself.

Although, all that she could see was 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 take out the map that he saved from when their brother Yingteng sends them and started to see when and where they should land for supplies and foods for the bird. Looking at Mi Ling, Jinghua was surprised that the map didn't fly off when the winds are 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 lack of 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.

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 brocade of cotton fabrics?" Jinghua asked. She noticed that on the map that Mi Ling was holding, the region that they need to pass was a snowing region, which meant that it will 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 eyes on this bird, she suddenly has the urge to make a lot of clothes for her. Ahh- motivation and muses are hard to come by for artists like her.

The elegance and graces that this bird let off was like a queen. Jinghua is very motivated for some reason whenever she seems this bird.

"Hard leather and a cotton brocade? Sure. How many yards of leather?" Mi Ling asked, completely ignoring the looks that Qingshan have 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 that 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 do 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, Hua'er knows how to use needlework? Did she make the clothes that she's wearing? It looks very cool! Qingshan's eyes nearly burn the clothes that Jinghua was wearing.

"Thank you, big brother. Here is the money for 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 gives him. Qingshan's eyes widened in disbelief at the amount of silvers that Jinghua had in hand.

"Sister Jinghua, why did you gave big brother Mi Ling that much money?" Asked Mingyu and Tengyu, another sibling of her 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." Jinghua answered, totally unaware that she was making both Qingshan and Mi Ling to 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 interesting in the answer himself. The words that she used wasn’t traditional Chinese but rather a far more modern terms so none of the brothers knew what it meant.

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's looking at them with a look that said she was very unimpressed.

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 meant 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 number of things that people will 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 had already passed by the nearest town to Xichang town. Jinghua wanted to go more in-depth, however, that will cause some problems for her if she did. After all, the business terms and knowledge that she had from her former are far too advanced for this world. So, Jinghua refrained herself and just explained it in a very simple term.

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

Now it was Jinghua's turned 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 supplies?" Jinghua asked both her older brothers.

"Eh?" Qingshan looks 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 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 business?" The uncertainty answered this time was with a dark look in his eyes. Thinking isn't really his forte...

"Yes, that's also another answer. There is 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 another two more reasons." Jinghua looks at all her younger brothers and older brothers. Qingshan quietly closed his eyes thinking while Mi Ling frown as his brain ran in full battle. Jinghua's younger brother Tengyu's eyes widen 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 looks 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 was still thinking confusingly. The other three boys were sleeping 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 weren'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 look over to 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 is also in the darks 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 have approximately about 10,000 households while this town, Xue Chengsi [Snow City], has at least 25,000 households or more. All the house looks very compact together and the streets are tightly packs 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 passed the city wall to the other side of the wall and park outside the city.

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

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. 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're on 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 trains in the forest for a couple of days before they flew 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 inspirations 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 greet each stroke on her face with happiness.

Jinghua plays with the bird for an hour before her brother come 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 was 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 he had skips breakfast. All the boys were hungrier than Jinghua is so she only ate half her portion and give 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. 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 then 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. 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’s getting more and more pickier about her foods.

After lunch, Mi Ling did a couple of swords movements to help him digest as he gives 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 that they left, the bird was fully energized and all the boys aren't as tired as before. In a full three hours of flying none stop at the fastest speed possible, they reached the next location that Mi Ling will be training the boys. It 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 beast here are snow and cold attributes. Which was why Mi Ling will only train them one at a time in a routine for one week total. As they settle 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 5pm 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 watches 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 looking at her. After all, it is true that all the girl in the Tao family doesn'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 was why no one complains when Jinghua volunteers to make tonight's dinner.

Jinghua ignored 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 set the water aside as she put 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 will 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 vegetable 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 roll down their foreheads and soaked their training clothes.

As sweats roll down their forehead, a very delicious smell emerge from where Jinghua was at and penetrate their nose, making all the boys, including Mi Ling and Qingshan, stomach rumbles 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.

They all were swallowing their saliva as they stop 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 asked each other, they both have no answer to the other.

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

There was a wooden table full of different kind 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 smells 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 continued serving another two dishes onto the table, totally ignoring the boys as they all swallow their saliva again and again.

She added eggs fried dishes that were stirred in sauce and herbs along with other dishes that look like a pancake but was far more delicious. Jinghua takes out 8 porcelain rice bowl that she made herself from her universe bag and scoop 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 writing 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 knew off and the smell alone was different something that they had never taste or smell of before.

"How long are you guys going to look? Go wash yourselves and come eat before it gets cold." Jinghua finally acknowledges them as she seated 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' jerks in surprise at her voice and all ran toward the river a couple of 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 finish cleaning their face, 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 leftover 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 are only 8 of them and there was 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 knows that Hua'er was this good at cooking. The rice itself tastes like it was bathed in a soup of meat and all kinds of vegetables. However, the rice was very clear and clean and fresh. Where is this taste coming from?

"Big brother, eat this." Jinghua looks at Qingshan's plate and noticed that there is only rice on the bowl since all the other dishes were clear off already. Jinghua picks 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 have filling inside, and give it to him.

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

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

"Oh?" Qingshan makes a sound as he looks a 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 salivating dropping.

Qingshan sweatdrop. 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 make 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 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 looks 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 keeps giving his food away to his brother when they had already eaten it themselves.

Jinghua was right when Qingshan break the half bun into four equal parts and give 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 looks 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 eating slowly as she waits for Qingshan to finish before cleaning everything up.

After that, Jinghua went inside her tent and left the boy to themselves as they train 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 breast. 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 isn’t that simple, after all.

 

[Comment: Is it just me, or does it sound like as if the narrator wants Qingshan to protect Jinghua?]

"I want to go too!"

"When people are looking forward to buy something that is rare..."

"There are three other answers."

"...asked nervously as he watches Jinghua take out the pots and..."

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

 

thanks for the chapter ^-^

 

What a long chapter XD

 

But it is still a good one, right?

 

Good work~
Thanks for the chapter. (^^)

 

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

Spoiler

A presence at the edge of Jinghua's sensing range made Jinghua opened 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 apply the poison that she had fused onto a load of arrows. Just for precaution, Jinghua also applied the poison on her other hidden weapons in her leather sleeves and shoes. She did it so perfectly that there was no flaws or mistakes to be taken even when someone looked for it.

The presence wasn't alerting menace but rather, a slight panic aura that said whoever it was, were 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, deforesting was slow 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 that the Amazon forest was like her playgrounds 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 named Airless, the assassin. If you think that the survival rate was low then you are mistaking. 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 was 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 action made him looked more a child than Jinghua would ever be. Shinny, or with his real name of Zhou Xian Liang, was like a fatherly-elder brother for 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 gains its popularity in the early years of 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 heel for her without even knowing that he had liked her. All because he doesn't know how normal people confessed in love, he thoughted that Jinghua was just like the younger sister that he never have so he was very protective of her.

Naturally, by the time that he 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 Assassin in that world.

By the time that she came 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 of Xian Liang's true personality and demeanor. She knew that Liang will 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 on to 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 assassin who was 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 none threaten presence will 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 brother Mi Ling and Qingshan but knowing that this presence wasn't human, Jinghua wanted to know if her brother will 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 belonging to the former Tao Jinghua. Jinghua then calms her heartbeats down slowly until there was barely any sound that she can hear. Jinghua closed her eyes as her breath vanished into nothing and her hearing sensitive increase. She could hear the sound of the very air itself as Jinghua tone in 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 power 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 will be effective so she was naturally very careful.

It might be because the air in this world was different from Earth so when she was training 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 this body will not be able to handle it. However, this change 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 breath 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 for 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 by a lot due to her breathing training, her sensing range increase 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 twitched in irritation. The beast, naturally it has to be a beast since it doesn't feel like a human presence, was very slow in getting closer. The closer it got to where they are, the slower it becomes.

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

Now, this presence wasn't a nice or none-aggressive like 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 chills. Jinghua can hear both her brothers jerking awake at the menacing aura. Jinghua opened her eyes as she withdrew her senses come back to her. She had to slowly breathe a couple of times before walking toward the door on her tent and push 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 were 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 awakes.

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 her brother without trying to wake up Tengyu and Mingyu, who was so tired from the training regiment that they are 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 will be able to tell anyway.

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

"B-big brother." Since Jinghua 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 look at his younger sister. She was still in her cloth and hasn't changed for nightwear growns and she was clenching 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 jerks both Tengyu and Mingyu awakes.

"W-what is going on?" They both asked sleepily as Jinghua acted like she was shocked and jumped as she twists 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 bow toward the door and moved closer toward Qingshan as Tengyu and Mingyu grab their weapon from the table.

"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 look 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 controls 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's 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.

"Big brother Mi Ling." They all greeted with a bit of nervousness in their voice. Qingshan nodded toward Mi Ling as they both make 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 shivers in fear as they take 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 readies her own bow.

Seeing the action that Jinghua take, 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 look at the small dagger that Hua'er had passed them. For some reason, the weapons from Jinghua feel very scary and it wasn't because of the poison either.

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

For some cognition, the surrounding was 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 readies her bow and arrows.

A couple of minutes passed by and Jinghua can hear the crashing sounds of weapons hitting something. Roars from anger beast could be heard as the menacing aura from before heightening 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 taps her foot on the ground and shot through the air toward one of the trees. Jinghua narrowed her eyes as she looks 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 and Jinghua can honestly say that it was a piece of shit. Both her brother have a very high potential for martial arts and yet the skills that they practice are a piece of crap.

There was a couple of weaknesses in a lot of the movement that they use. For example, Qingshan's two hands swords 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 frightening good yet the way that he used them wasn't very refining with intent.

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

Wasn't ferret a none 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 pure white coat so how come those beast have red eyes instead?

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

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

As three streaks of cold light instantly flew across the sky, three pure white ferrets dropped on 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 Skills.

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

Jinghua continued to quietly and effortlessly shot more and more ferrets, She only aimed for their heads and nothing else. However, since her arrows all have poison-laced on it, 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 with a 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 ferret, and Qingshan crossed slashed another ferret while another five arrows pieces 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 be long ago fleeing for their lives but because there was something wrong with the ferret from the beginning, the last three didn't flee but keep aggressively trying to kills the target in front of them.

Seeing this, Jinghua narrowed her eyes, and another three arrow shot through the air with a whistle as it pieces straight through their heads, taking the head 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 calls out to Jinghua, Jinghua dropped from the tree with a 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, panic as he ran toward Jinghua, who have her face on the ground moaning in pain.

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

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Mi Ling's cold eyes soften as its land 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 their keep making them surprise like this. Now that they look at her carefully, her hands were shaking and her knees look 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 knee.

"B-big brothers, what was those ferret 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 look 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 into alert as they grab 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.

A large white ferret with bright blue eyes stumbles toward them. The ferret was walking with two feet while his other hands where clenching 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 drops 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 it spiritual beast or normal beast, will fall into prey for those dark beings. He had to let someone know. Otherwise, this region of the country, including the area that the human lives in, will all be turned into a forbidden zone.

He didn't wish for that even when the human has 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 ferrets as he dropped to the ground, Jinghua put away her bow and take out a jar of herbal essence that she made herself and ran toward the ferret. Qingshan panic 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 command with one of her old habits when she was commanding.

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

Seeing the wound on the ferret, Jinghua opened the jar of herbal powder medicine as she pours the powder of herb into the wound, causing the bloody furs to bubbles 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 continue to pour powder of herbs one after another into all the wounds that she can finds.

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 fell 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.

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 look at the jar of powder medicine that Jinghua had on 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 are eying the medicine jar on 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 help 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 tugged into sleep on Jinghua's bed while she sleeps 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 kid 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. 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.

 

"...deforesting was slown down a lot..."
"..all kinds of animals."

[Comment: The ratio is 1 : 2000, huh? Worlds with that ratio is kinda uncommon, even for me. But I guess it is possible.]

"...breathing duration time has increased by a lot."

 

thanks for the chapter! ^-^

 

Thanks for the chapter. I really like your story

 

Book 1 Chapter 6: The Other Side of the World​

Spoiler

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 but less varies. In the morning, there are buns with porridges, for lunches, 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 fries in sauces or soup along sides with 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 had always been someone that animal likes. 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.

Since Jinghua knew that beast like the ferret, who cultivate in immortality, they 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 wakes up. Tengyu just happens to be on his break inside Jinghua's tent when the snow ferret wakes up. Asides from Qingshan, now there’s Tengyu here with them.

When Jinghua and 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.

"You finally wake up," Jinghua said monotonously. Completely ignoring the looks that her brothers sent her way. She didn’t see that Qingshan had told Tengyu to leave and Mi Ling has already come inside the tent.


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

Jinghua has years of experiences controlling her intentions, she wouldn't make the mistakes of letting the ferret read her that easily. Every of her action will always be on guard, but not enough to make her body language stood out. There are a lot of people in the Assassin underworld that are sensitive towards intentions. Just by being near them, an assassin will lose more than 50 % chances of attacking them. Which was why the Silence Walker group emphasize on training the assassins their intentions concealment and seekers. It was like hide-and-seek with nothing but intuition with a hint of guessing and a play of silence war.

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

This 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 beasts 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 makes the snow ferret's brain confused was why there was no fear, hostile, 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 will care if the man behind her decided that he wants 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 on the human girl's hand.

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

"Big brother, calm down. First of all, what is this Snow Queen Ferret bloodline?" Tao Jinghua asked, completely ignoring the snow ferret as she looks 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. Like, enhance 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 how a human immortal practitioner." Qingshan said.

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

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

"And?" Jinghua asked. Qingshan looks at his sister. Normally, when people heard that beast have the archaic bloodline, there would be either greed, fear, or praise it. However, Jinghua's reaction was far too indifferences. 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 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. 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 anymore 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 shrieked at him, telling him to not have any idea otherwise, he will die a very painful and humiliated dead. He doesn't understand but Xue Qi had always trusted his instinct. It was how he had survived until now.

"Human girl, have you heard of Abyss Beast?" Xue Qi asked quietly.

Abyss Beast? Jinghua blinks in confusion. She then turns toward her brother, only to see them both paled in fear as they flinched.

"Ab-aby..." Qingshan was so shocked that he can'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 she so call brothers weren't going to respond any time soon, Jinghua turned toward the ferret beast called Xue Qi.

"..." Xue Qi looks 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 the Abyss Beast?" Jinghua asked the ferret on her bed without batting an eye.

"Abyss Beast are Demonic Beast from another realm. They are what you humans would call Plaque Beast since they spread all kinds of illness 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 looks at the human girl. He knew instinctually 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- not that she doesn't care if he died.

Yet, clearly, his wound had already healed more than half-way so the last suspicious 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 animal 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 chased after me. " Xue Qi stopped talking once he mentions about the deads of his kinsman. He knew that they are all dead now.

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

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

"Hua'er, we have to notify the government in Xue Chengsi about this. If this involved the Abyss Beast then us 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.

"Hm." 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 indifference attitude from the girl, Xue Qi changes his mind.

"You have any 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 spirituals energy for faster recovery.

"Yes, sure," Jinghua answered as she takes out a whole Tricabbage 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. She cuts the Tricabbage into bite-sized chunks and places them on the plate along with the fruits before handing it to the ferret.

Jinghua watched as they snow ferret slowly got up into a sitting position before accepting the plate. Jinghua takes out a spare chopstick and handed it to the beast. She didn't know that this world's ferret was an omnivore. The ferrets on Earth are obligate carnivores. Not omnivore.

Accepting the chopstick with small thanks, 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 the 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 collects his 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 collects 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 mountain peaks in these continents have a door that leads to the other sides of the world, where the Abyss resides on. Those doors don't have an accurate time for the opening. Xue Qi said that he only knew that it took place between 10 years to 20 years for a door to opened once. It seems like this years, it was at 12 years limits.

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

Whenever a Mind Abyss Beast come there, all the animal and beasts within the enclosed of ten miles 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. The bird's behavior told the attendants that his help wasn't needed and that she doesn't like him. Probably because Jinghua had just washed the Nine Wings birds and so she doesn't want the attendants to dirty her beautiful feathers with his touch.

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

This causes the mount attendee to very surprised as he leads the bird toward its designated spot in the resting barns.

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 Inc. 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 partners for each room. Qingshan's room was next to her, Tengyu and Mingyu share 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 greedy 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 blankets 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.

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

That was one of her worries. She's a martial artist of China after all. She had already known about martial art's heavenly karma. Even when she's an assassin, she had 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, she had killed more than a million people. She killed during wartime between some countries and China, she kills when she was hired to, she kills when she treated someone as enemies.

However, all the money that Jinghua got from her 'jobs' all over her life, she didn't use it 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 percents of all of her earning were sends to orphans houses, another 20 percentages were sends for war funds for her country, no not to develop wars, but for the ex-soldiers who are incapable of working. 10 percent of her earning were sent toward places like Africa to buy food 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 was 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 seeks them out herself until she was hired. Or when they feared her too much and sends people after her. That happens 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 killed list are pretty damn high. She doesn't kill people who haven't done anything immoral.

There was that one time when she nearly kills 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 high. Don't underestimate it. Her confidential as a killer wasn't something that can be threatened by greed.

It wasn't like all her money was made from killing neither. 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 painting, the 8 by 10 inches ones, cost more than 10 thousand. Jinghua was one of the youngest painters in her time. She specializes in a lot of technique 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 in a large canvas of 24 inches by 32 inches. It was sold for 90.7 million US dollars. It wasn't that expensive compares to older painting but it was very expensive for someone young like Jinghua.

Her most expensive painting was of her painting the natural disaster in the years 2170 when that 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 150 million Britsh Pound in an Auction held at Scotland.

More than 80 percentages of that earning were sent toward the aid.

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 investment. Lastly, Jinghua doesn't know what will 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 a fountain pen 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 her former life so there was no worry there.

The ink was formed from saps of a tree called the Darkblood tree. Just one drop of the essences from it was enough to make a 12 by 12 cubic meters block of ink. The royal family in this nation control the flows of the ink so it wasn't very expensive.

The block of ink in this room was provided by the Inn so it is about 3 cubic inches. 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 is. There was a lot of kinds of parchment papers in this world. The first and cheapest are for writing, it cost 250 copper coins per yard of paper. One yard can literally be made into 300 pages of paper if cut cleanly and clearly.

That was pretty damn expensive in this world. With 250 copper coin, a family of 10 can buy a week worth of Rice- since 100 kilograms of rice was 200 copper coins. The price for rice in this world was pretty damn cheap after all. This is normal rice, not spirit rice. One kilogram of rice is 2 copper. A normal household of two adults can work for 50 copper coins per day. However, for spirit rice, one kilogram is 1 Lead coin so it was pretty damn expensive.

The Tao household never buys any Spirit Rice. What we do buy was Tricabbage, a low-level vegetable that looks like three cabbage 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 to the vegetable from earth but just a little bit larger and longer or wider. However, for the two last ones, Jinghua had only seemed them once when it was for 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 look 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 like a lot like Taro mixed with rice and honey with a bit of walnut flavor.

True be told, the one that made the most expressive for Jinghua is the Water Crested Rice and the Bamboo Rice. The Bamboo rice taste like rice mixed with eggplant, zucchini, and cucumber mixed together. It was truly weird. However, both of them have a low mild sweet taste to it so it might be good to make wines with. She never tried it before.

This world was too weird and too much like... for a better lack of a word, a fantasy world. 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 verse Rice? No, it more like comparing the traditional wedding customs of the South of China to the North of China. Arg, the damn Tea Ceremony is 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 stereotype.

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

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 far, there were only two traditions that Jinghua noticed. First, this world 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. This means that if she or his father and your father are brothers then you better not marry her/him.

To both traditions, Jinghua said bullshit.

First of all, Jinghua has been engaged already so let's clarify that first. She did allow her fiancee to marries someone else too. That's fine with Jinghua that the old Jinghua allow her fiance to marry someone else. After all, this world, you need your first wife's permission to take another wife. 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 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 weeks ago, Tang Beifeng had come over to ask her for another 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 allows into the Tang family and the new wife too.

The two other wives were both very sour that Jinghua allows the man to marries another girl. Jinghua didn't care since, regardless of the number of wives he has, she will always be the First Wife, the Madame. This means that in terms of power in the house, she has the says, even when she's still was only 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 care 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 Shinny 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 doesn't come back to alive.

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 tortures were to will it down into her own willpower. Shinny was so mad at her that she didn't even cry when 'he' had died. Shinny 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 had 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 forbidden marriage with the First line of Relatives, this one, Jinghua doesn't have a good look nor 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 laws before China does. 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? Of course, they can!!!

After all, asides from the emotional love toward one's 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, their marriage and divorce rate 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 American passed their Law for the same-sex marriage in the 21st century, within a little of 20 years, the marriage rate and divorce rate are so low that it affected the European and the Southern America part of the world a lot. Male-Female marriage was still the majority of America but more than 40 percents are now in Same-Sex Marriage. Even the current, that she knows of, President of the United States of America have a partner who was 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 belief in the so-called God was now nearly non-existed. True, they exist but it is like 10 percent of what it used to be. For sure, there was no Christianity church in China. Instead, a new church called [Neo of Christ] has been raising 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 to agree 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 won't be that surprising since Jinghua herself knew it in her heart that she wasn't that narrow mind. 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 of this world and its law so far, Jinghua didn't notice that there was something moving inside her body and soul. Had she notice 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 sit in a golden chair fills 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 looks like the sun. His clothes were white but if you look at it carefully, you will notice that the clothes have both the shape of the two sigmas 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.

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

Next to the dragon-man was a male in a bright red robe that has fire flicking on and off his clothes. This man has two sharps 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 have shadows of some other kinds of beasts.

Be it a tiger, unicorns, a three legs bird, or some animal that didn't look like an animal but rather a mutated animal, there are all kinds. Strong and magnificent in their own ways. One thing for sure, all those being 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 bow. Even the other beastly-like men who look very uncomfortable kneeling down in their forms were respectively bowing his heads. Yes, heads. It has three heads.

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 tears that were said to be able to either bring a whole world into a time of prosperity or time of warpath.

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

"Your Majesty!" He paled 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 was long-silver tails that are pure divine powers. He was the dragon of the First Dragon Line.

"Is 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 bow their heads again. All of those beings are the powerful beasts that have already gain heaven's will and power. Two of them are dragons from ancient times, the other was also fires phoenix, tigers, tortoises, snakes, foxes, and other beasts.

Yet, the one beings that are more powerful than they all combine 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 asked what is wrong, your highness?" Another dragon-man asked, who was quiet worries 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 immortal like themselves, the Abyss wasn't that threat or danger. In fact, two of the Abyss's King 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 doesn't have an ounce of menace or intention in their being of harming the man in the throne.

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

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

"It has been more than 8 trillion years. In the mortal world, more than trillions of years have already went 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.

"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 eyes were wet.

"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, haven't 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 8 trillion 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 sound half frustrated and half hopeful.

"Your Majesty, that Demon 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 crease 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 exhaust since their spirits aren't strong enough to withstand the 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.

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

All the beasts men and women look confused for a while before a wave from their Emperor dismissed them,

All beasts look at each other and left without a sound.

__________ To be Continue __________

 

should be 'natural death'
thanks for the chapter

 

Thanks for the helps with the grammars.

 

Suggestion
Change 'when she isn't training her internal martial arts, she would make some pieces of clothes for the Nine Wings Bird' to ' she is either training... or making. ..bird'

Error?
Shouldn't it be qingshan in tent with Jinghua?

Non-threatening rather than none threaten

should be monotonously

your welcome

 

Spoiler: Grammars helps

Thanks for the helps