"Ten….Twenty….Twenty Three….”

 

ZhengYi frowned.

 

These men seemed to have stationed themselves here to ambush her and steal the child away. It was the ideal location – not too close nor too far from the city. If they raised a ruckus, none of the city’s guards will be alerted. If they suffer injuries, the city is not too far for them to seek a physician’s help. Such cowardly move just against a woman and a child.

 

A bald man walked forward from amongst the burly men, his belly jiggling with each step.

 

“Hand me the child if you wish to live for another day!”

 

This young maiden, MoYu doesn’t seem afraid. Rather, she seemed irritated. The child meanwhile, had started whimpering and was near to tears when she saw the group of roughened men. She had been handled rudely and unkindly by the people of the Auction House and had come to associate their thuggish appearance to unkind behaviour. Compared to these thugs, a young, soft and kind jiejie is definitely preferable. She hugged MoYu JieJie tightly and buried her face onto the crook of her neck.

 

The girl frowned but held her firm and patted her back soothingly.

 

“Dare I ask,” her voice rang clear amidst the forest’s silence, ”How did you find us?”

 

“Heh heh heh~~”, the bald man chortled.

 

”Bribing the auction house worker is not hard. Young lady, you should be careful when travelling alone. Had you come with a group of people, we would not have dared to intercept you like this. Who ask you to dare to bring such precious ingredient home by yourself? I am not doing too well and am in great need of the YaoRen. It’s a matter of life and death for me so why not you hand over the child and I will reimburse you with the 4000 gold pearls I have left? Cut your losses and escape with your life, girl!”

 

“May I ask what ails this elder?”

 

MoYu still stood firm, unyielding.

 

“Hmph! What do you care!?”

 

“Its simple. If this elder’s ailment have other cure which does not necessitate sacrificing this child, naturally I will be more than glad to inform elder.”

 

“Such Hipocrisy!”, the bald man snorted,”You speak as if you are not planning to use the YaoRen as ingredient yourself!!!”

 

“Truth is I do not.” MoYu retorted ,”May I ask again if elder is willing to tell me what ails elder? I studied under a shizun who have great experience in healing and pill making. If I can be of assistance, we can end this without bloodshed and losses.”

 

The bald man glared at MoYu with eyes full of menace and calculation. He motioned for one of his men to come forward and whispered a few words amongst them in discussion. They threw a few cursory glances at MoYu, looked her up and down, pointed left and right, shook their heads and nodded for a long while. After a few back and forth, the man spoke up.

 

“Speaking on behalf of my master. My master had been stuck in the Foundation Establishment stage for the past 150 years and could not progress further. His lifespan is due to end in 10 years’ time. Our clan is well off and is willing to compensate this young lady for the YaoRen.”

 

MoYu frowned and tilted her head slightly.

 

“That is to say, your master seek to break through to Core Formation stage within 10 years before his lifespan end yes?”, MoYu asked.

 

“Ah, the master’s….”, the attendant threw a look at the bald man and only proceeded when the bald man nodded his permission,”….the master’s core has been destroyed in… in battle.”

 

MoYu frowned.

 

“Then what do you want the child for?”, she disliked them calling the child YaoRen this YaoRen that – even a dog has a name.

 

“this…..,” the attendant hesitated, “the master’s lifespan is near its limit….”

 

“and so?”

 

“and so I need to lengthen it of course!!”

 

The child looked up at MoYu, whose face is now full of black lines. The vein on her temples trembled lightly in irritation.

 

She took a deep breath.

 

“Gentlemen… as great as its reputation is, even a YaoRen’s heart and marrow can not prolong a naturally ending lifespan. If Elder is in otherwise good health and is only reaching the end nothing much can be done. Even cultivation can not extend life forever. ”

 

Indeed this MoYu had studied quite a bit of the YaoRen's blood properties guided by her Shizun.

 

The bald man shouted back almost as soon as MoYu finished her sentence.

 

“Nonsense !!! Who are you to say that it doesn’t work!??? Have you tried it yourself??!”

 

The veins on her temple trembled even more vigorously as she reined in her vexation.

 

 

 

“My Sect Elder studies YaoRen before and we knew of its functions. Elder has lived a long life after all. I am sorry for elder’s plight but truly this child is as good as nothing as medicine for elder’s purpose”

 

“Long live your ass!!! I have only married my 23rd concubine and hasn’t begotten any child from her yet ! I haven’t seen my grandchildren marry and I have yet to find a good time to kidnap young man of Chu household to mar…..mppphh!!!” , the Elder’s rant was cut off by his attendant who suddenly moved forward to stuff his master’s mouth with a piece of silk handkerchief. “What the fuck are you doing??”

 

“Master! Master! Are you alright!? Don’t anger yourself!”, the attendant blinked feverishly at the bald elder.

 

The Elder caught the hint that he had overshared his personal life and coughed a few times before he continued.

 

“Anyhow, Anyway!! Wise men says nothing is impossible! Just Do It! I have to try it on my own and see it with my own eyes before I can believe your words”

 

Lecher [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ ͡ಠ_ಠ)̲̅$̲̅]

 

Twenty three wifes (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ

 

Plan to kidnap a male pet!!!

 

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

 

MoYu thought to herself as he stared at them. She had calculated the risks of helping this child against the benefits earlier on in the auction house. In a brief moment of passion for justice she had thought it doable. Now as she stared at the twenty three men and one bald eagle, she felt rather pissed. She looked down at the child in her arm. The child looked up at her with starry eyes full of hope and innocence. She looked away as if electrocuted.

 

Don’t look at me like that….I’m not your mother…..( ""ಠ---ಠ)"""""

 

She gritted her teeth and whispered softly to the girl while maintaining eye contact with the group of thugs.

 

“Go. Break the charm now.”

 

The child looked down at the charm in her hand, and then up again, hesitating.

 

MoYu glanced at her and knew that the child is afraid of leaving her.

 

“JieJie is strong. If you stay, I cant fight with one hand. Faster,go.”

 

The child nodded and immediately, crushed the charm.

 

A bright green light emerged from the charm and expanded, engulfing and blinding everyone in the surroundings. The armed men shouted amongst themselves in alarm.

 

“Careful!!!”

 

“The Bitch is using spells!!!”

 

“Hurry Up and stop her!!!”

 

“Attack!!!!”

 

ZhengYi, who had been watching from afar,  sneaked closer to close the distance between them. He readied himself to interfere should his assistance be required.

 

To everyone’s surprise, when the light dissipated, six of the men was already sprawled on the ground, their bellies slashed wide open. Blood and gut strewn across the floor.

 

MoYu stood unmoved on her spot. Encased in a blue barrier.

 

The bald elder was surprised by the turn of event and shouted in fear.

 

No one had seen the attack but ZhengYi.

 

When the armed men were blinded, these six had chosen to attack her and when their sword light almost reached her, her barrier had rebounded these sword light and sent them back straight to their owners. ZhengYi is an offense oriented martial artist and had not known that barrier arts can be used this way. He stopped in his tracks and continued to observe.

 

Maybe this girl can defend herself afterall.

 

MoYu looked at the six men on the floor. She took out an incense coil and a piece of rug from her QianKun pouch. Setting the piece of rug on the ground, she sat down and set the incense coil 1on the ground just outside her barrier. The armed men looked at her guardedly as they had not figured out how she had managed to take down six men at once. With a flick of her finger, the incense coil lights up a vigorous fire and let out a massive amount of smoke.

 

“RE-RETREAT!!!”

 

The armed men heard the attendant shout and leaped backwards in unison to gain distance to the coil of incense. Who could expect that they had just leaped backwards for a fraction of a second when their back crashed against a hard red colored barrier. They crashed and flopped down to the ground like insects.

 

“Wh- what is happening !??”

 

“Crush the barrier down!! Hurry!!!”

 

ZhengYi observed as the smoke from the incense coil fill the gap between the outer red barrier and the inner blue barrier. The armed men screamed feverishly as they pounded and slashed against the barrier to no avail. Not even a scratch nor crack can be seen on the barrier. All of these men are barely at core formation – they can probably win against the girl if they work together but now they are just an uncoordinated mess.

 

The armed men collapsed to the earth one by one as the smoke from the incense overcame them. Once the thudding sound of body collapsing on the floor cease, the red barrier disappeared and with it, the incense smoke too dispersed. MoYu stood up and examined the bodies. Some of the armed men had decided to attack her blue barrier in their panic and received a backlash of their own attack and died. To these, she merely walked past them. She however, stopped at the men who merely passed out from the incense smoke and slipped them a pill each.

 

Oh, is she giving the antidote to them?

 

ZhengYi was taken aback by this supposed act of kindness shown by the young girl.

 

MoYu on the other hand, just has a simple principle of “if you don’t attack me, I wont attack you”. It happened that today she had run out of sedative smoke and had to use this deadly poison instead. It is only right if she gives them the antidote.

 

A red shadow flitted towards her turned back as she bent down to hand out a pill.

 

“Watch Out!”, ZhengYi yelled as he moved with shadow steps towards her.

 

“DIE!!!!”

 

Glossary:

 

The incense coil is something like this hehehehehe

The coil is something like this pffft, time to kill mozzies

 

Author Note :

 

Sorry I've been MoYu ( rubbing fish) for the past month so writing hasn't been smooth. I will do my best to write consistently.

 

Please leave me a comment or like as I'm a comment white (人 •͈ᴗ•͈)

 

Notice me Senpais