บท 5: Xue Jinzi
***
(Xue Jinzi POV)
Finding a seat towards one of the back corners of the lecture hall I sat down. The place was quite bustling and no one seemed to care about my unfamiliar face.
Shoving my hand into my robe I rummaged around before pulling something out. It wasn't something I really wanted anyone to see me with so I tried being as discreet as possible. Using my new robes as a shield I stared worriedly at the object.
It was a small red teardrop shaped jade and diagonally there appeared a large crack. It was the heirloom my grandmother had given me before she passed along with a similarly green teardrop shaped pendant that I kept hidden away.
Grandmother had said that long ago when she was still young her own mother had saved a cultivator. At the time they had nothing except a home in a small village far from any major cities. She had painstakingly nursed him back from the brink of death for around 2 entire weeks. But his injuries were atrocious and they didn't actually have many is anything to save cultivators with.
The first 2 days consisted of trying to apply our mortal methods to stabilize his injuries. The 3rd day he woke up for a brief moment and seeing that they were trying to help instantaneously made a whole pile of medicine appear. Medicine which they had only heard stories about appeared before their very eyes, but they weren't greedy and used all of it on that cultivator.
Grandmother said she spent most of those days helping to tend to him. 2 days before he left he regained consciousness and grandmother said she never left his side.
Though at the end she finally said to me that she really only stayed by his side because of how handsome of a man he was, she said that he was the handsomest man she'd ever seen in her life.
When he left he left behind both of the items my grandmother gave to me now as heirlooms. That wasn't all though, he returned a week or so later and brought up our family from unknown peasants into the lords of the local area.
She originally planned to pass it down to my mother, but she didn't have the qualities to pass it on apparently. So that left the next in line, but for some reason she picked me over my older brother and sister. Neither of them seemed too surprised or even aggravated over it though; in fact they were even happy for me to get something. I wasn't going to be the next in line for secession of the family, nor did it really matter to me.
At the time I didn't think our familial situation would change; we would stay as one of the local lords as long as we lived, at least that's what I thought at the time. I didn't want my life to change, I was both living a good life with wealth, familial love, and no responsibilities to deal with.
But suddenly seemingly out of nowhere a large number of bandits attacked, but they weren't like the mountain bandits we generally saw. They were organized, coordinated, and most importantly there were cultivators leading them. We had a few as well, but it seems ours were no match for them.
Grandmother gave me the heirlooms and quickly explained what they did before hiding me away.
"Little Jinzi, find the cultivator who gave our family our heirlooms! Find him with these items and take shelter under him! He's a gracious man, so surely he'll accept you. Who knows maybe you can do what I couldn't and make him fall for you!"
Closing the lid on my hiding spot they just so happens to be a crack to peek out of.Not long after people burst into the room.
"Ah, Mrs. Xue we finally met! Now I'm sure you know what will happen. The Eastern Lord will be delighted with the news of your family's destruction. After all this plot of land you happened upon is quite valuable to him." 3 men entered the room, all of them wearing formal robes contrasting with the bandit clothing of the horde outside.
The leader's speed was incredible and in a blink of an eye appeared before grandmother. He grasped her neck almost just as quickly, but didn't immediately kill her. He stared into her horrified eyes for almost too long before a loud *Snap* rang out.
*Thud* The man indifferently looked at my grandmother's corpse before calmly exiting after a second look at the room. As all this was happening I tried keeping my noise to a minimum.
I was so scared at the time that I didn't move for another hour. At that point my cover's lid fell off by itself, waking me from my stupor. I mourned my grandmother before exiting the ruined building. Corpses strewn about almost made me throw up at the time. From both the fact that people I knew most of my life were now lifeless bodies and the way those intruders mangled people. The bodies' conditions were horrendous, compared to them grandmother seemed to have it easy.
I dragged my grandmother's corpse to one of the few surviving trees of the attack, along the way I occasionally saw people I frequently spoke to. It seemed so picturesque compared to the war torn background atop a small hill. Right there I dug into the mound digging a grave for my grandmother.
I took one last look at the remains of my home for the last 17 years. Oddly enough among the corpses none of them resembled my elder brother or sister. Holding out hope to eventually find them once again I set out to search for this cultivator grandmother thought of, even near the time of her death, for the next 4 years.
The jade teardrop pendant my grandmother gave had an effect of disabling the wearer's presence to cultivators who used their Qi sense, at least for most cultivators, which was probably why I survived. It didn't apply to the creator of the pendant though, also it notified the wearer if the creator was close by or seen, even more so as you got closer. It would only stop once the wearer touched the creator.
Throughout those 4 years not once had I felt anything from the pendent. I had to force myself to learn hunting and tracking to survive the first year. The second year I started resorting to crime for things. At first it was only small things like a single bun or so, but later on perhaps my morals warped and I started stealing even unnecessary things. By the fourth year I had given up on finding that cultivator, but I was still unwilling to sell my heirlooms. They were the only things that I had left of my family. By the fourth I had almost practically become one with the streets and wilderness.
My body being oddly developed seemed to always gain attention and there were numerous times in which that attention gave way to situations in which they tried to prey upon me. Even the thought of being forced to be deflowered horrified me. Luckily they never seemed to be able to catch me, especially in the wilderness where I thrived in hiding my tracks and leading them away from me.
It was only yesterday I stole a bit too much for me to run away with that something extraordinary occurred. I was being beaten, pain radiated from different parts of my body, but I knew that taking any action could just make it worse. It was a two versus one, but after a minute of being it suddenly stopped.
"Wha-what's happening?!"
"I-I can't move?!"
My eyes widened at the sight I was currently looking at the two shop guards floating a few feet away. It was the doing of a cultivator and not just any cultivator either, they had to be especially strong to this. Or at least they are seldom seen by the common folk like me. A small exchange occurred between the guards and this cultivator before he appeared right before me.
As soon as our eyes made contact I felt something in my pocket. It was the pendant that I almost forgot the use of. It was almost like everything about the heirlooms came back to me all at once.
He offered me a hand, but I was still a little skeptical about the whole situation or perhaps it was just from the lack of trust I had in people from the experiences I've had during these four years. Either way I chose to stand up on my own.
When I stood up I finally got a good look at his face.
'*Gasp!* H-he's so handsome. It's just like grandmother described him. He really fits as the handsomest man of her lifetime.'
Taking out a bag of money he handed it to me. When I heard the amount within I faltered a bit. 'T-this much for someone he doesn't know? Just this much alone could have covered my costs of living for 3 years!'
Taking the bag he started to leave but I followed. When he stopped and looked at me I was surprised he noticed me following him. I thought my steps were as quiet as they could be.
'That's right he could be the pendent's creator! I need to keep following him to find out. Maybe his hearing was just extremely good and heard me.'
He gave a light warning, but I just ignored it. After another 20 steps he turned back and yelled at me. Hearing his shout I involuntarily trembled and took a step back.
'I need a new plan, I'll just follow him from farther away and see if that works. He's my only clue right now and considering that feeling earlier it should be him!.'
Following him out of the city, across the plains, and through a forest I thought I would finally catch him as he exited the forest. Yet once I was out there was no one there except a vast emptiness.
'T-that was my chance… and… and I ruined it! P-please!! Come back for me!' Tears welled up at the corners of my eyes until I couldn't take it anymore.
I dropped the coin bag which could easily make my life better and dropped to my knees bawling my eyes out.
*Crack!*
A sound appeared in my mind for a moment before I heard a soft and calm voice call out to me. Opening my eyes was the man from before and I couldn't be any happier, it could well possibly be the happiest I've been in the last four years.
We finally exchanged names, his name was Ip Jiang, but perhaps I could tease him and his age by calling him Big Brother. It wouldn't look wrong anyway if we were together and I called him that, he still looked really young!
..
After he left the house he'd given me I immediately took off multiple layers of clothing until I was left with just one. Pulling out a small red teardrop shaped gem a crack had appeared on it.
When grandma spoke about the red jade she was always really vague with the description of the effects, but she seemed really adamant about there being limited uses to it. It only had around 3 uses at minimum or 9 at max.
..
The next day I wanted to surprise my big brother. From my time hunting I learned better ways to control the beating of my heart and now I was going to use it to give him a little scare.
'Hehe! Just you wait big brother! You won't be able to escape my attack!'
I heard him walk into the other room and after a moment I sprang up to rush towards the room he was in.
*Crack*
The sound occurred again, but I was too focused on my task at hand to deal with it.
Ramming open the door I jumped atop his chest, or at least tried. I saw a sight I had seen a few times before, but none were as big as that.
Later he lectured me about doing those things, but I caught something off putting to me for some reason.
The moment he said he was married and has a wife.
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