Chapter 6
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“One more step and your head will fly off your shoulders.”

The man was taken aback. He reached the peak of Bronze rank, and despite this, he did not even notice the blade of a sword appear near his neck. Slowly, trying not to do anything abruptly, but any unnecessary movements, the man shifted his gaze.

The wide blade pressed to his neck to the horror of the man turned out not to be the blade of a short sword or dagger, but a long, slightly curved sword. Just his appearance was enough for the man to forget about everything in the world, and even his anger was replaced by fear so strong that it seemed that his very soul turned to ice from horror. The girl holding this large sword with one hand scared the man even more than her weapon. Her eyes looked through him, and, despite her blindness, she appeared next to him unnoticed by anyone and put her weapon to his neck—no jokes with her.

“Well done, now go away,” said the girl. “If you try to do something, and you will die,” along with her last words, the man felt the cold coming from the blade of her sword.

“Y...y...es,” the man squeezed out of himself with difficulty. He took one last look at the boy he wanted to kill and slowly walked away from the blade of the sword.

“This... this modest man is leaving...” the man said, bowing to the girl, but stopped short. Only when he moved away could he see that she was not only blind but also one-armed. For just a second, the man thought that he could defeat an opponent like her, but before he could finish his thoughts, a long sword instantly sliced through the air in front of him, and the man's gaze turned red.

“I think I told you to leave,” the girl repeated.

“Argh!” “It is impossible, they will kill me, they will kill me!” in horror, the man again, forgetting about everything, took to flight. He acted stupidly, for which he paid with his eye. Even if she is a blind cripple, she is still a master whose strength and abilities are incomparable to his miserable experience.

“Interesting,” the girl turned her face towards the young man.


“Incredible.” Tian Zhe was shocked to the core. Due to his inexperience, he got into big trouble. Running into trouble, Zhe was in a situation in which he could die.

Despite the fact that he laughed off to the man who pursued him, all his insides trembled. His instincts screamed that he would be killed if he could not cope with the enemy and did not find a way out. When it seemed that everything was over, in just a few moments, everything changed.

It appeared in an instant burst of spiritual energy, and that was the only thing Zhe noticed. Her figure's movement and appearance were beyond what he could see, but even though Zhe did not even see her appear, he would never forget this scene.

The girl stood majestically in the middle of the street, holding a weapon with one hand that was not commensurately larger, and despite this, such a discrepancy did not cause dissonance. Her lavender hair hung in ragged strands to her shoulders. Despite the stripes of parallel scars on her face, the girl retained her beauty in her own way, and her light blue eyes “looked” towards the young man with interest only to her.


As the girl put her sword behind her back, Tian Zhe noticed its shape and size.

“It looks like a tachi. What was the name of its equivalent here,” Zhe tried to fetch the name of the weapon from his memories. At the same time, the scraps of cloth hanging behind the girl's back wrapped themselves around the blade like a scabbard, reliably protecting the wearer from possible injuries. After watching the girl remove the sword, Zhe turned his attention to the inconsistency in her form.

Stunned by the appearance of the girl, he did not immediately notice that her clothes resembled a short kimono, which is usually worn from a hakama, and instead of pants, she is wearing a skirt that barely reaches her knees.

“What's wrong with this world, why clothes of different cultures can be found freely in a city cut off from the whole world?” the headache again made itself felt. It seemed that when he was already used to the local flavor, the Jade City managed to hit him in the gut in the most unexpected way. Though if you think about it, Aunt Lan got a qipao, which is a strong twentieth-century anachronism. Another world, so another world.

Despite the mismatch of clothing, her emerald green kimono, roughly tied with a purple obi sash, perfectly accentuated the girl's figure. At least Zhe thought so. And even the fact that her clothes' short sleeves poorly hid the stump tied with a purple cloth from the left hand did not bother him at all.

“Are you okay?” going up to Zhe, the girl asked about the state of the rescued person.

“Yes, I'm fine,” Zhe replied, recovering. “Thank you for saving me.”

The girl was considered blind. In fact, she could only see the blurry outlines of objects merging into a jumble of shapeless objects and colors. “What family are you from?”

“A? And yes, I'm Tian Zhe from the Fire Orchid family.”

“That's how,” the girl thought.

“What's wrong with her?” Zhe could not understand what his interlocutor was thinking and planned to ask one question. “Listen to how you...”

“Ten thousand taels!” the girl did not let him finish, putting out her palm with outstretched fingers in front of him, then clenched her hand into a fist and then spread her fingers again. If she had both hands intact, she would put both hands in front of the boys, showing “ten” with all fingers. “I saved you, repay with gratitude for your safety.”

“Am I worth that little?” Tian Zhe did not understand the economy of this world at all and what value money has. Considering his belonging to one of the sacred families and the status of the second heir, he was definitely worth more, especially against the background of the fact that he was given another fifty thousand without any manifestation of stinginess when he received seventy thousand taels for several months.

The young man did not know that the girl demanded so much because she heard from passers-by's conversations how before that he threw one such card in the attacker's eye because she thought that he could part with such a sum of money without any regrets. Not to mention that this is half of the amount that one low-income family for five people lives on. As for the girl's well-being, she was serious about money, and at least one gold tael was equal to a fifth of her monthly earnings. It is still one gold, not to mention that she will receive it just like that.

“Hand,” a golden card appeared in the palm of Tian Zhe, and he handed it to the girl. “Here you go.”

The girl approached and accepted the card in spite of the hand with the card, she continued to “look” into his face, and the young man could better see his interlocutor.

“Glaucoma” despite the fact that Zhe had no memories of people's appearance, knowledge about the clinical picture of diseases known to him remained. He was not a physician, but in view of his natural science education, Tian Zhe briefly studied animal physiology and human anatomy. “Is it from wounds? Wouldn't the eyes have flowed out when the claws were cut, or the wound was superficial, affecting only the iris?” Zhe was wondering what exactly caused the secondary glaucoma.

“I accept your payment,” the girl finished the transaction verbally. Then, thinking again about something, she moved on to a topic that was more interesting to her. “Where did you learn to manage your spiritual energy in this way?”

“It's so amazing?”

“Yes.”

“I couldn't have explained what the big deal is! I don’t know what exactly I should say,” the boy pondered over the girl’s question. Not finding an intelligible answer that could satisfy him, he had to limit himself to a simple one. “I just feel my spiritual flow well, and therefore I can freely control it,” Zhe answered honestly.

“It just means ...” the girl again plunged into her thoughts. Her own spiritual energy perception skills were better than Zhe's, while her control was noticeably worse. Zhe could not know that his answer was stuck in a heavy lump in the girl's heart, nor could he know that his control and perceptions were at the peak of the golden rank. As for the girl, despite the fact that she was a silver warrior, her spiritual development was caused by a disability.

Unable to see, she learned to pick up on the slightest changes in spiritual energy around her. Unable to hold the sword with both hands, she strengthened her body, spending spiritual energy for this. Her difference from Zhe was that her energy was constantly depleted when she was strengthened, leaving the body, while the boy used it more economically.

“I found out everything I wanted. In that case, I will go,” unsatisfied with Zhe's answer and realizing that he would not be able to answer her question, she went about her business.

Tian Zhe watched his savior leave. Seeing her figure receding further and further with each step, his heart began to fill with regret. The boy did not realize that all his adventures that day had mixed in his head a real cocktail of inhibiting and stimulating hormones to save himself, that along with a rapid heartbeat, his brain deceived itself, forcing him to “fall in love” with the first adult girl he saw.

Tian Zhe ran, afraid to lose sight of the girl.

“Your name, I forgot to ask your name.” His thoughts were confused with excitement. An adult, he would not have lost his composure, but the teenager's nervous system once again pushed a cane into the wheels of his consciousness. The girl stopped.

“Mei Ling.”

“I am Tian Zhe.”

“You already introduced yourself.”

“Oh, yes.”

“What did you want?” Mei Ling was alert. “He didn't want to return the money back?”

“Mei Ling, will you be coming with me?”

“What are you talking about ?!”

“...”

“Accompany me!” Zhe's brain started working to the fullest, trying to escape the feeling of shame. “I want to hire you as a bodyguard!”

The girl thought about it. The Fire Orchid family does not have the best reputation among the nobility. Those who came from this sacred family were distinguished by their bad temper, vindictiveness, and pride. Therefore, she demanded Zhe only one golden tael for salvation to offend the Fire Orchid family. Having weighed all the pros and cons, the girl decided to give the boy a chance.

“How many?”

“Two thousand taels,” Zhe offered the price.

“Three thousand.”

“Two thousand taels in one day of work, with hiring for five days.”

“Let me think,” Mei Ling pondered. On the one hand, Tian Zhe did not plan to pay more than two thousand, while she could earn more than ten thousand in five days, but in view of today's confrontation with the bronze warrior, this is really easy money. The girl held out her hand,

“I agree.”

“Deal.”

The young man did not care much about the fact of spending another gold tael because now he could not think sanely. The mere thought of spending those five days with Mei Ling lifted his spirits.

“By the way, I’m interested in one question.” As if remembering something, Mei Ling turned to Zhe.

“Ask,” Zhe was wondering what the girl was interested in.

“Why didn’t you bring out the symbol of your belonging to the Fire Orchid family and intimidate the bandits?” the girl's question was logical since members of noble and sacred families had heraldic seals proving their belonging to one or another family and any resident of the city knew about it.

“...” Tian Zhe immediately darkened. ”I forgot about it.”

“...”

“Can I still refuse this job?”


Tian Zhe and Mei Ling walked through the shopping area of the city. The girl did not know what exactly her employer was up to, but she thought that the job would not be too dangerous since he was just a teenager.

As for Tian Zhe, he enjoyed a walk with a beautiful girl and, at the same time, immersed himself in his thoughts. Only after some time did he regain his composure and prudence. After reproaching himself enough for a bodyguard's reckless hiring, Zhe once again looked at the girl.

“My head is at the level of her chest,” Zhe complained about his height. “It seems sad, but the view is good.”

“Something is wrong?”

“The weather is wonderful today,” Zhe said jokingly.

Distracted from his companion, Zhe looked around. Before that, he did not leave his family's estate and from there immediately reached the Ice Lotus Academy in a carriage and did not pay much attention to passers-by. Only now, because of his companion, Tian Zhe noticed that the clothes of the inhabitants of the city could not be attributed to purely Chinese culture. The poor's clothes were comparatively similar, wide trousers, coarse shirts or robes that resembled Zhe robes. The clothes of the richer people abounded in different styles belonging to the cultures of China, Korea, Mongolia, and Japan.

Zhe was attracted not only by the variety of styles but also by the fact that, to his surprise, girls and women's clothes were not a baggy accumulation of robes that hide the figure, but, on the contrary, emphasized the curves of a woman's body. The maids in his estate dressed modestly that before the family's personal guard, their armor as a whole did not cause anachronisms and did not knock out culturally. The only one whose clothes were unsettled was Tian Lan with her qipao.

“Lord, this reminds me of some Asian MMO, and not medieval Asia,” the young man sighed. “It's time to come to terms with the fact that this world is not similar to the Earth as much as possible.”

“We've come,” Mei Ling brought Zhe back to reality.

“Oh, so fast?” stopping at the trading house, Zhe looked at the sign “Heavenly Jade.” “They love heavenly names in this city. Okay, come on anyway, I need to buy Spirit Crystals.”

This trading house specializing in improvement-related goods was the first place Tian Zhe planned to visit to change his fortune.

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