‘It’s been twenty years...’ the girl looked from the hill over the capital city before her. Despite her beautiful face, her once white skin had been tanned brown, her long, black hair tied in a swordsmans ponytail, her once round innocent eyes narrowed with the realities of life and twenty years of painful training, though anyone who could sense it would be surprised that she was a soul creation cultivator at 35! This sort of talent was unheard of, even in the big sects. Clad in leather armour, with a curved sabre sheathed across her back, Mei’er turned to face her not-so-young-anymore Miss.
The young woman before her looked not a day over 18 and gave off no cultivation aura. Dressed in ceremonial silk armour, she held an ornate sword covered in strange characters similar to the characters used in this world but somewhat more ancient, parallel to the ground. Before her lay five green bones, hovering in the air in a pentagram. The same strange characters covered the stones, while a black void had formed in the pentagon that made up the centre of the pentagram. Five lines of words in the same strange script appeared. Swiping her sword to the left before sheathing it on her back, the stones dropped to the ground and the black void dissipated. As the young woman bent down and swiped up the bones and storing them in her spatial ring, she turned to Mei’er and replied, ‘twenty years of practice, and finally I have come to break the plot and earn my freedom’
As her Young Miss walked beside her, Mei’er asked, ‘Did you discover who it is we must kill?’
Yuese nodded her head in agreement, ‘I am nowhere near as strong as Master but I have identified at five candidates, four removing you, who have some fate with me. If I kill each of them, I will not be entrapped by the plot.’
‘Eh Miss? You plan to kill me too?’ Mei’er looked shocked.
Yuese laughed and patted her dear friends shoulder, ‘You are not a male, you are not a target, unless there's been something you've hidden from me and Master these past twenty years! Of course we have some fate, we have been together for so long, I consider you my dearest friend, my sworn sister, closer than even Master. Anyway, the male lead must die, I am not being caught up in his plot! Let me hide my looks and then we can head into town.’
‘Why must Miss hide her looks? Miss is as beautiful as a fairy!’
‘As a poor man with a jade is committing a crime, so is a beauty wandering though a town. Its like attracting trouble! It shouldn’t be the case, but I know this type of story well. I want to lay low, not attract the male lead,’ Yuese stated as she used makeup to reduce her looks, before changing into a set of combat leathers, carefully packing her ceremonial armour in her spatial ring, ‘lets head into town and scout out the four candidates. We can then organise a kill order’
Mei’er nodded her head as she lead the way into town.
***
Sitting in a near empty restaurant, Yuese wrote on a piece of paper the four names which where the possible candidate for the male lead, ‘Should you ask the system for more information on these people?’ Mei’er, sitting opposite with five empty plates before her thin body, asked.
‘Yes, this system is really an overpowered cheat. I have information on all four, and have identified the most likely candidate: Zhou Jin, fourth son of the Emperor’
‘What makes him special?’ Mei’er asked as she called the waitress over to bring some wine to the table.
‘Waste prince, wears a mask, cultivation level ascending divinity. Even I would have trouble against him in a one-on-one fight. It is generally these types of characters that end up being the Male Lead.’ Yuese said as the waitress brought over a jug of fruity wine.
Mei’er didn’t hesitate to break the seal and drink from the jug directly in a most unladylike way, ‘Why would a waste prince be at ascending divinity level?’ she asked after taking a deep drink of the wine.
Yuese smiled gently at her friends actions, her eyes gentle as she continued, ‘From previous plots, he would be planning revenge on some member of the family, or is actually a hidden prince from a large cultivation family. Something along those lines. The next one is pretty interesting, Zhu Fen, Prime Minister of the Zhou Dynasty. He is younger than both of us, and is already at the peak of soul creation stage. He would be the primary candidate if he wasn’t so young. This person needs to be at least older than me, there is no way a kid in swaddling clothes would be the rock the plot expects me to rely upon. But because he’s so excellent, and his name turned up in my divination, he definitely must die.’
‘Haha Young Miss, you are definitely ruthless, killing someone with even the smallest possibility of being your lover’ the tipsy Mei’er replied before a thick and hairy fist struck the table with a loud thwack.
‘The Young Master as reserved this entire restaurant! You two ugly girls… while your faces may be ordinary, your bodies are still plump in all the right places. The Young Master may give you the honour of bedding you!’ a boorish man who had just stormed into the restaurant yelled threateningly towards the two girls.
‘Cliché’ Yuese said under her breath as Mei’er, in a single movement, pulled her sabre out of its sheath and cut the boorish man in two.
‘Waste belongs to waste. There are so many empty seats out there.’ she swiped her sabre down, flicking off the blood as the upper torso of the boorish man gently slid down his lower torso and the two halves of his body splattered on the ground in a bloody mess. As the waitress screamed in terror, Mei’er said ‘It seems you were wrong. They don’t just go for pretty faces, but also breasts as well. Ha ha!’
Yuese waved her hand, and the blood splatters were removed from both of their bodies, ‘The third one…’ she glanced at the door after hearing a commotion, ‘well the third one has just arrived!’
A handsome man dressed in black silk suit ran over to their table and yelled, ‘What did you do to my man! Do you know who I am?’
Yuese gestured to the man, her eyes not leaving Mei’er’s face, ‘Peng Hua, son of the General who Subdues the Elephants, Peng Zi. 37 years of age, cultivation level high soul creation. Skilled in the Flaming Nimbus Spear technique, single since your fiancee was murdered by you twelve years ago. Called the curse of the Imperial City and one of the Four Geniuses of the Imperial City.’ Yuese clicked her fingers, ‘Time to die’ the ancient sword sheathed to her back rose from its sheath by itself and with a rapid thrust struck before Peng Hua’s throat, before stopping suddenly just before breaking the skin.
‘Why did you stop?’ Mei’er took another swig from her jug of wine.
‘Don’t want to get Master’s gift dirty with stinking Male Lead blood.’ but despite this, Peng Hua’s head slowly rolled off his torso, blood splattering all over the restaurant, however avoiding the two girls, the ancient sword, and Mei’er’s wine jug, ‘One down. Now there are only three to deal with. We should rush to the hills and change our disguises. And you should change your manners while you’re at it Mei’er, while I don’t mind how you can eat five plates of meat by yourself and drink directly from the jug, I don’t think there would be another girl in the entire Imperial City who would do that!’
They both got up and headed for the exit, as Mei’er chuckled at her Young Miss's comment, she snatched another jug of wine from behind the bar, leaving a whole silver tael behind, ‘That’s part of the disguise, Young Miss!’ Yuese rolled her eyes as Mei’er continued, ‘You never said who the fourth one was.’
Yuese chuckled as the two exited the restaurant, ‘the last one… is my good Brother-in-law. Mei’er, would you like to go home and clean up the old ancestral manor?’
Mei’er didn’t reply, but grinned viciously. While her new Young Miss did not care about that family, Mei’er still held a grudge from the old Young Miss and her mother. They murdered her mother, bullied her, starved her and eventually killed her. These debts... they would have to be paid.
I don't mind guy not going into great depth on things that aren't immediately important, just hinting at them adds the illusion of depth to the world