I hadn’t expected her to ignore what I did. She didn’t seem like the type to let this go but she didn’t speak at all.

She washed herself while resting on a stool and I didn’t take my eyes off her small bodily assets.

To be fair, my mind is in the gutter. Completely thinking about what position to try next. I am not a good person, that’s obvious.

I slipped out the cover and washed away the sweat that built up over night. I put on food and boiled some water for tea. When I finished eating and filling up the water bag with tea, I found myself being watched.

At first, I didn't pay much attention to it as I tore down my tent setup, but it was hard to continue ignoring when a decent amount of males were looking at me.

I could understand their thoughts after a simple glance around. While there were other females here, the majority of them were for the merchants' entertainment. The two female mercenaries hung around the strongest of that group. Two Ninth Stage Golden Core.

However, I am considered an unknown entity to them. They never saw my face nor my skills. My energy is concealed using a special technique and I practice in full garb as this is what Earth military trained soldiers do. Fight in what you were going to war in.

So to them, I could have been a female protecting another female. Mercenaries weren’t necessarily the good kind of people. They did their fair share of evil but I doubt they would force a girl, however, this explained why she came to me and put up with my aggression.

Hm, it didn’t excuse my behavior but new world, haha, new rules.

**

It took us a month to walk out of the death trap zone and see the signs of civilization. Spring is on the horizon and farmers are out fighting the chilly wind to prepare their lands. We rode right past men slamming hoes into the mighty ground.

I wondered if I didn’t have any talent for cultivation would I have been a farmer or a scholar?

It took us another week to reach the glorious city surrounded by white walls that jutted into the low clouds. The dragon gate looked like something out of a fairy tale, the guards stood upright looking proud and bored.

While they didn’t necessarily check every passenger, I could see that their eyes were carefully scanning the carriages and wagons. A subtle glint flashed through their pupils before they moved on to a new target.

They must have had their own means to find those breaking their rules. Martial Techniques were kind of amazing in this way but it had nothing on magic.

The carriage walked down the main street and took a left onto Merchant road. There were already merchants set up but it also seemed to be an area specially marked for this group as they headed straight for it.

I scratched my knuckles as the Merchant Leader passed out payment to us, mercenaries.

“I want to thank you for safely getting us here and if you planned on escorting us back, we will be selling our wares here for a month then leave on the first day of the new month. If you show up here then, we will take you.” he said what he had to and left.

I crinkle my nose as I began heading for the food stall, walking on my two legs. The girl quickly caught up to me and tagged along. My silent companion.

I paid for our steam buns and we ate while waking back to our mounts. Silent the whole way, the awkwardness was stellar.

I brought my mount to an inn and ordered a roasted lamb leg, I had planned on showering and cultivating the day away. My mission would only start next month. I hadn’t expected for the girl to follow me right to my room and tossed her saddle bag on the floor before the bed.

She took out her bathing stuff and left right after.

I couldn’t help clicking my tongue as I stood within the room with my lips twisted in confusion.

“What a weird girl.”

I shook my head and grabbed my own showering stuff, heading straight towards the communal bath. It felt so good to be clean, even if other guys stared a bit longer than needed at me.

I mean, they are acting like they have never seen someone with golden brown hair before, or golden brown skin? Maybe it's the golden slits pupils and the flames surrounding it? I can’t be that exotic, can I?

I woke up from my meditation to find her cleaning her weapon.

“Hey, what’s your name.”

She glanced at me but didn’t stop cleaning her weapon.

“If you are going to follow me around at least tell me your name.”

“Yin Xia.”

I raised my eyebrow as I stretched, working out the kinks in my body.

“Oh, so why are you following me? I don’t believe anybody would care to harass you in a city this big. With rules this stringent.”

She rolled her eyes and sheathed her sword.

“Let’s go eat.”

Yin Xia stood up and walked to the door, pausing after sliding it open to look at me. I cracked a smile and grabbed my bandana and face mask. I hurried after her.

“So which family are you from?”

She looked at me like I was foolish.

“How could I be from a great family? I’m twenty-four and Seventh stage golden core. You are what, fifteen, sixteen and peak stage. I should be asking what family or sect you are from but I bet I already know.”

I tilted my head as we left the inn and made our way to a famous restaurant called Seven Heavens Dishes.

“Go ahead and surprise me, big sis.”

She huffed, “You are from the Zhou Dynasty’s military. Your sword and bow has three dragonclaw crests of the royal family. Only the Zhou and the Zhang are three claw dragons and the Zhou’s Heavenly Dragon unit is reported to be hunting bandits.”

My mouth parted and I numbly walked into the restaurant behind her. My mind processing why it had been so hard to find bandits.

For fuck sakes, amauteurs.

A lovely waitress took us to our seats but like many asians, she didn’t have that wonderful blessing that I looked for in women. Tsk, seems I have to settle for small packages.

I ordered a large meal and scanned the flourishing restaurants. It’s quite easy to pick out anyone of wealth here. They not only had expensive jewelry but each floor represented one's wealth and membership.

As we were only on the second floor, which could be rounded up to wealthy rogue cultivators, you could see prideful lip curls on guests on the third floor. It was no wonder the restaurant was so popular with its design of pagoda and had a square cut out of the second, third, and fourth center.

However, my mind slowly warped back to the fact she thought I was fifteen to sixteen. I thought about it myself, my body did experience rapid signs of growth and my father, if by example. Neared nearly six and half feet with a wide build similar to MMA fighters.

If comparing him to some of the people in the village, then the blacksmith would be considered a wide receiver for the football team and farmers would be normal people. My father looks like a linebacker compared to them.

Even though I wasn’t necessarily fully grown, or even close to young adult status, I could comfortably say I am near five foot four. If I was back on Earth, I would be like a big kid on a middle school playground, the bully that used size to dominate people's lunch time.

The waiter brought a moving cart over, displacing food from it onto our table in a beautiful arrangement that had all the best food a male would pick on my side. Lighter dishes on Yin Xia side, the waiter placed bowls that were in fact cups, besides eating plates. He poured tea before setting the kettle down and leaving.

I picked up my chopsticks and dust them off before scooping rice onto the plate then chowing down. Ironically, even as someone from a rural village that didn’t have a concrete name, my table manners were still better than Yin Xia.

I guess she told the truth, she really did come from a humble background.

I finished my food not long after and took several sips of tea that felt like it was made with some kind of spiritual leaf. Though saying that, the entire meal was heavy with ambient spirit energy and could be said to be great for cultivation.

We returned to the inn and I settled down for another round of meditation. Unlike me, Yin Xia climbed into bed and slept.

***

Our routine started out pretty much like our first day in the inn. I meditated, ate, walked my wolf, trained, ate, meditated, and had a little fun with her.

However, I quickly saw the differences between her and me. My father put a strict regimen into my life goals that was hard to stop. It became commonplace to just meditate when I had nothing better to do. Unlike me, she would read romance books, wipe her sword, or walk around the town. Sometimes listening to performers other times watching fighting clubs.

Yin Xia very rarely meditated. At first, I thought this was purely due to her cultivation method stopping at core formation or something. While you can buy others, anything going past golden core were usually mass produce demonic cultivations and they were legally able to sell such scriptures as means to have stupid cultivators to kill off.

For example, my Heavenly Sins can be considered a heaven grade but it is incomplete. However, one can be transfixed by a sin. The sins doesn’t explicitly mean the seven holy sins, what can be seen as sin is determined by the person. My sin is simply lust and pride but it has subtle influences of something more insubstantial that I can’t place.

For others, heavenly sin might be unreadable. Their talent dictated that they can never practice this kind of skill. However, other skills are probably of much lower grade with a lot more side effects.

This is also why they are called demonic, they have influences on the practitioner that puts them out of the best state of mind towards counter influence.

Anyway, Yin Xia may be looking to purchase a method that would allow her to progress or earn herself enough wealth. Mm, but I can’t dismiss the fact that she might be attempting to hold onto me like a gold digger.

I witnessed a few scenes like that over this past year.

I followed Yin Xia to a gambling den, at least that is how she described it.

“The fight shouldn’t be that hard for you. They are all rogue cultivators like me, you should be able to defeat them easily, right?”

She didn’t want my response, slipping between the crowd, heading straight for the ticket booth.

“I need a fighter tag for him, he’s doing the elimination round. Also this much on him.”

Yin Xia threw out a bag and the Clerk took it while his sidekick threw a badge at me. I caught it and wrapped it around my arm before going in a direction they pointed.

Pointed not said.

Fucking bastards.

Yin Xia followed me and held up her hands.

“No weapons allowed.”

I clicked my tongue and thought how I was going to punish this bish for using me like this. I untied my belt and passed her the sword and bow. She grinned at me, not even wishing me good luck before running to the stands.

I didn’t watch the fights as it was better to just spend this time meditating.

Someone walked over, reaching their hands to touch me when I stood up. They backed off quickly upon seeing me awaken.

“Your turn to fight.”

I nodded and followed the guy out.

“The goal of the fight is to last as many rounds as possible, every ten rounds and you can take a break. Twenty rounds and you become Junior Martial King. Forty rounds and you become the Martial King. Eighty Rounds and you become the Fighting Monarch, hundred rounds and you are Undefeatable Emperor.”

I nodded after he spoke and stepped into the ring. The gate closed from my side and I for the first time noticed that I am surrounded by a metal cage with barbed wires poking downward. It might have been a large dome cage and some flying and jumping could have been achieved but it wasn’t much.

My opponent came out the other exit, looking fierce with a scar under his lip. He rotated his head and charged me.

Since I am standing in the middle, I took a defensive stance.

The guy used his momentum to launch an axe kick from above. I moved slightly to the side step and hit him thrice in the back, returning to my stance as if the fool was just a leaf I blew into the air for fun.

The fierce guy had come, he had looked mighty, sadly, he ended up flying face first into the cage and sticking.

The crowd didn’t jump up and cheer, nor did they look happy about the quick match. However, the managers had already brought the next person in.

This guy might have been slender but I could feel a cold oppressive air about him. He did this weird dance that I felt resembled tiger palms from chinese movies. He came over fiercely, his fist strikes were powerful, the wind stung my cheek as I dodge by minimum movement.

When I counterattack, his first turned to grappling claws which tried to latch onto my arms and wrist. If I kicked, he would be blocked with a raised knee like it was nothing.

Tsk, tsk. He might have been the more experienced fighter, but I am obviously faster.

Clicking my tongue, I started an oppressive form of fighting. Petals drifted from my hands and feet like someone slamming a book down next to a pile of leaves, blowing this and that way.

He quickly stopped blocking me with his hands and knees as the smell of burnt flesh drifted through the air. His face was already reddened with beads of sweat filtering down like a great river.

Before I could really break his guard, he flipped back several times.

“I surrender!” his hands slapping his tunic which caught fire as he ran for the exit.

A guard allowed him to leave as they brought in the next victim but I didn’t feel the same oppressive feeling from this guy. He came over in large strides, his palms coming down from a wide angle.

I clicked my tongue and laughed, this guy was a sumo wrestler.

I stepped out of his range then darted in the moment his hands passed the space I was at. I aimed six knife hands at the connection point of his bicep to his forearm.

The fat man rolled his other hand in my direction like a large mountain trying to sideswipe me. Again, I stepped back and focused on his other arm, jabbing into the soft meat until his fat face showed an expression of pain.

He took a step forward and I assaulted that knee, when he swiped down with speed belaying his size. I rolled behind him and continued assaulting his knee until he dropped onto his good knee.

I stepped to the side of his head and sent him so many jabs, his head was like speed bag boxers.

The fat joker eyes rolled back and he bounced off the hard mat. I shook my head and someone walked in and dragged him out, right after my next came. There were good ones and bad ones mixed in but I felt myself improving drastically.

Definitely when the last fighter for my tenth round showed up. The guy dressed up like a swordsman and conjured swords out of qi. High level of technique.

I copied him and conjured one out of fire, his eyes which had held disdain for me vanished. I noticed he was about to speak and launched off, petals rising into the air as if I kicked up a lot of dirt.

“You should…”

I didn’t get to hear what he said as he hastily blocked my jab. I pulled back while thrusting my elbow into the gap he created by pushing my sword out to the right. His eyes widened as he moved his arm down to block it, his own counter strike paused while he tried to defend himself.

My elbow glided off his as I spun on my heels to the left, bringing my sword around for decapitation. He didn’t effortlessly block me but he still got his sword up in time.

I took three steps back. I failed to gain the initiative and attacking more would tire me out more than him. Plus it would show how unskilled I am with a weapon.

The guy came at me measuring strikes, it was as if he was trying to see through my ability. I don’t think he understood that defending relied on perception and predicting. As long as you could predict where your opponent was going to strike, then you didn’t need to try so hard to block his attacks.

Even though his sword moves were fast, he still telegraphs it by bouncing on his heel before moving forward. He would step wide for vertical slash, bounce on his right heel for a thrust. Any fanciful move, he would curl his lips up and his brow would furrow a bit.

After he rotated through his sword dance, I picked up on a pattern and he bounced on his right heel. I twisted to the side while bringing my blade along his neck.

The bastard’s eyes widen so much that they look like saucers. He barely dove into a rolled by blood still dripped from the edge of my blade.

He came up in a kneeling stance and froze, his fingers turning pale as sweat dripped down his forehead, rolling across his sharp cheek and finally reaching his rounded chin. Dripping off to sizzle on the face of my blade held against his neck.

“I surrendered.”

My fire sword turned into petals that drifted away as I walked towards the exit, tugging on my tunic that felt heavy with sweat built up from fighting such intense battles. Yin Xia didn’t even greet me until I exited the building after being told that if I didn’t show the next day, my results would end.

She tossed a thick coin purse at me while smiling smugly at her own three bags. I couldn’t help but shake my head, this is the first time in a week since we've been here that she showed any other type of emotions than solemn solitude.

I put dinner on her and she ate with much gusto, still not as much as she had before but it was an improvement. In a way, she was filling out her frame and it wasn’t all displeasing to me. While qi could help perfect your genes and it had some effect on beautifying you. Well, honestly, I haven’t seen an ugly cultivator yet.

Even on Earth, I could be considered ruggedly handsome with a strong jawline. Here, I could be considered femine but it was like saying the guy is handsome. Instead of saying he looks a little bish.