It was the fifth night since Fan Biyu had awoken from her a. Jin Shu sat at the edge of her bed, his hands diligently massaging her bare legs. Her soft moans filled the room, eg against the walls and drifting into the quiet night beyond the window.
Outwardly, his face remaioic, betraying none of the turmoil inside. Internally, however, his younger self was screaming, “Take it further! Do it!”
“Shut up, you horny little bastard!” his adult self snapped in response.
“She already said she wants to be our main wife! What's wrong with deepening our retionship?” the younger self argued stubbornly.
“We don’t even know if she meant it seriously or if it was just a heat-of-the-momeion,” the adult tered, trying to i reason.
The younger self hesitated. “Maybe… fine. But this isn’t over!” He grudgingly backed off for now.
Jin Shu rolled his eyes at his young psyche's antics. Hurrying along with the massage, he suddenly felt something warm trickle onto his lips.
Drip.
A drop of blood spttered against Biyu’s pristine calf.
Warning! Libido suppression levels critical. Prolonged suppression will lead to perma damage! Nano’s meical voice rang out in Jin Shu’s mind, startling him.
Ten more seds, Jin Shu demanded internally.
Acceptable.
Ten seds ticked by in agonizing silence. Finally, Jin Shu withdrew his hands from Biyu’s legs and climbed off the bed, hunched over as he moved away.
“Done already~?” she teased, her voice heavy with sultry amusement.
“I’ll be baorrow night!” Jin Shu barked, louder than intended, before bolting out the door.
“Hmph, stingy! I’ve already seen it once. What’s wrong with letting me see it again? Then again... I guess I didn’t really see it so much as felt it.”
***
Jin Shu couldn’t sleep again. That made it the sixth night in a row he failed to fall asleep at his usual time. As before, he turo busying himself with tasks. Tonight, he chose to craft some practice ons.
He started with dull kesting various sizes and styles. He made a Karambit, a KA-BAR, and a Yarbh knife. Food measure, he fed sharpened versions as well.
Even after finishing, his blood still thundered in his veins. Restless, he tinued crafting a few more tools until the exhaustion finally began to set in.
***
The m, Jin Shu met Fan Biyu and Yin’er iraining room. Yin’er’s presence was a rare sight—normally, she refused to wake up early, g the immortal excuse Jin Shu’s mother had pnted in her: “A girl needs her beauty sleep.”
Jin Shu sighed. His mother’s influen Yin’er was already irreversibly entrenched. And to think they’d only spent a few days together when Yin’er had been a newborn!
The reason Yin’er had joined him today was simple. She’d woken in the middle of the night to find Jin Shu missing, and her panic had escated as she cried alone in the dark for hours before he returned. She’d g to him tearfully, deg, “Daddy ’t leave Yin’er alone, or else!”
Jin Shu didn’t dare ask what the “or else” meant. He wasn’t sure he wao find out.
“We’re going to use ons today—practies,” Jin Shu announced as Li Xue took her position across from him iraining room.
“ons?” she asked, her curiosity evident.
He nodded arieved a dull Yarbh knife and something else from the ste spa his earring.
“Wait… isn’t that the on that killed all those assassins?” Li Xue’s voice trembled as she stared at the unfamiliar obje his hand. Memories of that day in the forest fshed through her mind, the deafening bangs still eg in her ears. “Isn’t that thing too dangerous?”
“Don’t worry,” Jin Shu reassured her. “This one just shoots harmless pellets. Look.”
Ping!
He poihe barrel at his palm and pulled the trigger. A small bead shot out, boung harmlessly off his skin. “See? Safe.”
“Okay…” Li Xue nodded hesitantly before turning to examihe other practice ons lined against the walls.
Fan Biyu, who had been watg from nearby, rolled closer in her wheelchair. “What is that on?” she asked, her tone curious. “Xue said it killed assassins, but it doesn’t look that deadly to me.”
“This version isn’t lethal,” Jin Shu expined, holding the on up for her to i. “But the principle is the same. It’s called a gun. You squeeze this trigger to fire a projectile. Think of it as a crossbow, but louder, deadlier, and far more accurate at a longer range.”
“This little thing is strohan a crossbow?” Biyu raised an eyebrow, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
“The only real advantage a crossbow has over this is that it’s nearly silent. But even that be mitigated if I create an attat called a suppressor.”
“ I try it?” she asked, holding out her hand.
“Sure.” Jin Shu pced the pellet gun in her palm and guided her through its use. “Hold it like this. Pce your finger here. This is the sight—close your non-dominant eye and look down it. Line up these two nubs with the o the front.”
“What do I do ?” she asked, peering down the sight.
“Squeeze the trigger gently. When it goes back far enough, it’ll fire.”
Ping!
Biyu followed his instrus perfectly, except the pellet flew straight across the room and struck Li Xue ot.
“Yowch!” Li Xue yelped, spinning around to gre at Biyu.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Biyu said, her voice full of apology—though she struggled to suppress her ughter.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Li Xue accused, narrowing her eyes.
Biyu shrugged, trying to appear i. “I really didn’t.” But as she shrugged, her finger actally pulled the trigger again. This time, the pellet ricocheted off one of the training ons and nded right ba Li Xue’s sore butt.
“OW!”
“That… that one really was an act,” Biyu said quickly.
“So the first one wasn’t?!”
“Alright, alright, let me take this before someos hurt… hurt more,” Jin Shu said, reag for the pellet gun.
But as he grabbed it, Biyu’s finger brushed the trigger o time. The barrel, unfortunately, ointed right at Li Xue, who had just turo i her bruised rear.
Ping!
“Owie!” Li Xue yelped, her frustration boiling over. “You bitch!” she shouted, charging toward Biyu.
“That one wasn’t even me!” Biyu protested, holding her hands up in defense.
Jin Shu quickly stepped between the charging Li Xue and Fan Biyu, ing his arm around Li Xue's waist to stop her iracks. She wriggled and tried to slip past him.
“Alright, enough. It was an act, and you’re pletely fine,” Jin Shu said firmly.
“Am not!” Li Xue shot back, grabbing his hand and pnting it on her rear. “Feel this! There are three bumps there. What if they leave scars? My cute little butt will be ruined!”
Jin Shu sighed, rubbing his temple as a headache began to form.
“You’ve had worse injuries during our spars. You’ll survive. Now, go pick a on.”
Li Xue huffed, muttering something under her breath that Jin Shu didn’t catch, then stalked off to browse the ons again. She occasionally shot gres back at Fan Biyu, who couldn’t suppress her amused smile.
Moments ter, Li Xue returo the ter of the room, now sp a pair of shiallic gaus.
Jin Shu g her fists. “Why gaus?”
“I’m going to catch it,” she said with a smug grin.
“Catch what?”
“The thing that kept hitting my butt.”
“The pellet?”
“Yeah, that!”
Jin Shu shook his head at her antics. “Sure, let’s just get to sparring.”
They took their positions on opposite sides of the room. Jin Shu made sure to stay at cle—the focus of this training was bating cultivators up close, after all.
Fan Biyu, ag as the referee, cpped her hands and shouted, “Begin!”
Jin Shu wasted no time, raising the pellet gun he’d kept at his side. He aimed for Li Xue’s ter mass as she charged forward in a straight line.
Ping!
The pellet flew toward her, but just as it reached her—
Swipe!
Li Xue snatched it out of the air, grinning triumphantly as she held the tiny bead between her gaued fingers. “Haha! I caught it!”
Jin Shu raised an eyebrow at her antics.
Ping!
Before she could bask in her victory, Jin Shu fired again.
Bop!
The sed pellet struck her square iomach.
“Ow!” Li Xue yelped, clutg her abdomen as she gred at Jin Shu. “Unfair!”
Jin Shu shrugged, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “It’s a spar. You ’t expect your oppoo stop just because you’re celebrating.”
She pouted and crossed her arms. “Hmph!”
Jin Shu shook his head. “Alright, no more pying around. Get a real on, and we’ll go again.”
Li Xue stomped off toward the on rack, muttering under her breath again.
Jin Shu sighed, watg her retreat. He just hoped she wouldn’t e back with some other nonsensical on.
