Once again, “The Demoness” proved to be a quick and effective problem solver, albeit only enough to make the owner quake in his boots. In the past, anyone who accosted her would put his entire fortune on the line to hire elite bodyguards or flee to Shaolin Temple. Well, there were some who chose to go underground, literally.
The Demoness’ martial prowess was a force to be reckoned with, her beauty unequalled, her schemes indefensible, but, most importantly, her background was hidden behind a veil of mystery.
Nobody ever forgot the story of a gang leader not daring to even consider The Demoness when he was searching for a wife. Alas, the poor man accidently stepped on her shoe. Overnight, they went from a being a gang of outlaws to philanthropists repairing roads, bridges, building libraries and politely greeting anyone they came by. None of them ever spoke a word of why they turned over a new leaf, even changing their gang name to “Well-Wishes Gang”, the shortened form of “Loyally Wishing Miss Ming a Long and Healthy Life Gang”.
The son of a famous sect once decided he’d marry nobody but The Demoness, subsequently issuing her a challenge in the presence of numerous renowned names. When the witnesses arrived three days later, the freaked out man had changed his name to “Doggie”.
A businessman, whose business required him to be out on the water, hired several reliable martial artists to fight off The Demoness, linking up eighteen ships in his so-called Iron-Chain River Formation. In a single night, the eighteen ships were burnt, and the hired muscles have yet to be heard from since falling into the water that night.
Because of the scale of her accomplishments and the nature of them, nobody could tell if she was from Wudang, Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary, League of Assassins or Demon Sect… Some even speculated she was the master of Skyrealm Palace.
In truth, Grandmaster was the one who set the ships on fire, and let me tell you: he enjoyed it as much as a kid receiving a new toy. Due to us aiding her in all sorts of absurd plans, The Demoness was born from word of mouth. Even she believes nobody at Mount Daluo trusts her.
When the trope owner saw me pick up Young Shiyi and epically open the door, he exclaimed, “I’ve never seen such an adept door guard.”
All right, you want to have a talk?!
***
Over the last three days in town, we had drifted on tigerback, took part in a play and more. Thanks to us, one minute the town thought a famous hero was in town. The next moment, they thought it was a ghost. Let’s just say it was a riot. Today, we stayed in the inn because the townsfolk heard The Demoness was in town last night. Young Shiyi can’t sit still; she had to do something every day. On today’s agenda was painting.
For the sake of comfort, Young Shiyi had her ponytail swaying in front of her assets, her curves all bouncing around in her form-fitting outfit.
Among the clothing and ornaments Young Shiyi purchased, there was men’s clothing, so she chose one at random for me, though it was clear she made sure to choose carefully based on the fact that it fit me like a glove. Frankly speaking, I wasn’t enthusiastic about being her model since, while she’s good at music, checkers and literacy, painting… Shall we say her sense of art is rather unique? As she bought the clothing for me, nonetheless, I went along with her request.
“Don’t move… I’m almost done… Feizhen, don’t fall asleep!”
Young Shiyi appeared particularly earnest about painting this time; she woke me up whenever I started dozing off. All I could do was stand there and wait for Young Shiyi to finish her painting. She drew my shoulders first then my legs and my eyes last. By the time she completed her project, I had also finished drawing myself in my head.
Look at me. I’m the definition of handsome
“Mm… This is pretty good.” Young Shiyi looked up at me and down at her painting to. “I like this painting. This is my best work yet.” She set her brush down, then added, “How I wish every day could be so meaningful.”
“We can stay at another town once we’re bored of this one. If there’s anything we don’t need to be worry of, it’s the number of available towns to stop by on the commute south.”
“That would be ideal. You’ll be late if we keep loitering, however.”
“They can wait if it means my Young Shiyi will be happy. Luo Ming has waited for a decade; waiting a few more days won’t kill him.”
“Contriving twisted justification. If you deprioritise our sect’s job, I’ll have my nephew come down to whip you.” Young Shiyi leaned back in her chair and smiled nostalgically: “I’m not that insensible. I merely missed you. I won’t hold you up from legitimate business. Besides, it’s unseemly for a grown man to be my errand boy all the time.”
“I know.” I flexed my stiff neck side to side. “I know you have priorities. Few at Mount Daluo are as reliable as my young shiyi.”
“And when it comes to unreliable, you take top three. You haven’t been vigilant whatsoever since arriving here. Do you know why I had you come here with me?”
“To have fun.”
“Wrong.”
“… To feast on me.”
“Pfft, why would I bother to go to such lengths for someone with an extra’s appearance?”
“Okay, then to have fun and feast on me.”
“Can you be serious?”
“Mm… All I know is that you leave at an exact time every night to pinch stuff. If the reason you’re here has something to do with that…”
“At least you noticed. Ah, so you’ve been pretending to sleep. You’ve learnt to be dishonest, have you?”
“I have to keep an eye out for you. I’m just glad the two girls you steal from aren’t your match. As for not mentioning it, I’ve been waiting for you to tell me.”
“Hehe, I’ve found Autumn Water Sword Sect’s members.”
“Autumn Water Sword Sect?”
Who… the fook is that?
I faked a nod, only for Young Shiyi to answer, “They’re relatively new; I doubt you’d know them.”
That wasn’t the first time I embarrassed myself in her presence.
“They only surfaced around a dozen years ago as a female assassination organisation.”
“An assassination organisation with Sword Sect in the name? What is League of Assassins doing?”
“Where do League of Assassins come into this? They’re not affiliated.”
“They’re not? Well, there’s no future for them, then.”
“Yes, they can’t rival the influence and size of League of Assassins. With that said, they have a 100% success rate. The reason they caught my attention isn’t their abilities but their background. All of them are swordswomen, hence their group name. They’re akin to lightning, seen only when executing their target. After I thoroughly investigated them, I learnt they’re a branch of Skyrealm Palace.”
Young Shiyi noticed my long face but continued, “I detected two assassins’ traces in the capital. I was hoping to catch both of them at once, but then I heard them mention Nanjiang. While I didn’t hear the details, my gut tells me it’s related to what your plans are. As such, I’ve been keeping tabs on them, hoping to catch a big fish with a long line. I’ve been leading you after them since we set out. We were on the same path initially until they veered off to Cuiwei Town. That’s why we took a detour.”
“I see. I see.” I did have a suspicion that Young Shiyi was following a course purposely for some reason. “… What did you steal from them?”
“Mind you choice of words now. I left something behind for them. It’s an exchange.”
Although I was still puzzled, the rustling sounds at the window drew my focus. Two swordswomen dove through our window and tried to impale us. Hence, I casually smacked the two to the ground.
The story went like this: Young Shiyi pinched something from them, compelling them to travel an hour from their place to our window, eavesdrop, take a few deep breaths multiple times when they wanted to invade. They got tired of waiting, though I didn’t really mind, and ran into my hands on the way to their targets. Why should I know why they were rolling along on the ground?
“Feizhen, don’t kill them. They’re important.”
“’kay.”
Typically, assassins didn’t wear pink, let alone dresses; the two resembled elegant maidens. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and female martial artists love to prove that true. Had Young Shiyi not told me they were assassins, I would’ve thought we unknowingly stole their men. I couldn’t imagine they had a 100% success rate when I saw them alternate between anger, bafflement, panic, calmness, worry and then cycle back to the start. What sort of assassin wears their emotions on their sleeve?
The two got up quite fast and then aimed for Young Shiyi: “How dare you steal our mission’s map, Demoness?!”
“Why would you leave behind a scribble to mislead us? We almost barged into Beggars Sect’s place!”
That explained why they didn’t come for us last night. Beggars Sect had a place about five kilometres from here.
Young Shiyi laughed: “I copied your map. How did I mislead you?”
I didn’t really get it, but the two looked even more furious.
“Who can make any sense of this scribble? Eh? Sis, what’s that on her desk? Is it our map?”
“Don’t look!”
Young Shiyi was too late. The two were terrified upon beholding the painting. Since I also felt curious enough to go check it out, Young Shiyi cried, “Don’t look, Feizhen!”
Young Shiyi folded her arms and grouched, “I told you not to look. Well, whatever. Now that you’ve seen it, what do you think? Have I improved?”
Yeah, you have. I now know why the two are infuriated. May I ask, this took one day?!
