The Fu aristocracy had left the Ming village just this morning. Seen of with many different feelings. Some sad in the reason of the enriching tourisms coming to an end. Others relieved of the lessened pressure. The most pleased being the village chief himself.
Of course, there were also those with more complex feelings. Kuilei was an excellent example. He had trained relentlessly to leave the cage as soon as possible. Having missed out on the tournament was not a big deal for him at first, but when he heard who won first place, frustration boiled up.
"Impossible. She cannot be this good. She must be cheating, yes cheating I must get that book. Should I tell the boss? No, he will surely punish me if he hears this. Good thing nobody knows her name." Kuilei cursed in a mumbling voice.
On one side he had failed his task to get his hands on the marveled book his boss, Ren Liuxian, sought after and interrogating Luo Si. On top of that, his own goal of meeting that aristocratic brats' teacher had also gone down the drain. He had camped through the whole village, yet there was no sign of that mysterious figure. Vanished as if he had never existed. On the other side he was delightful bathing in his rival's misery for Hong Luo Si no longer possessed a local backer.
The past few weeks had been especially troublesome for him, having lost all signals of Luo Si. He could by no means possible tell Liuxian that he had failed again.
Depressed he could only move on and enter the forest in hopes of getting strong enough to beat Luo Si. The nightmare of her winning the tournament had haunted him through the night, making him daze off while basking in the sunlight, passing through the thin spaces between leaves.
'God, what should I do? Please give me a sign.' And as if the heavens had heard his call a blurry figure was sent his way. Realizing who it was at the first glance he kneeled in rejoice. Calling out to the figure, thanking the heavens for fulfilling his wish.
"Master!"
Luo Si nearly keeled over at the circumstance of making Kuilei her scapegoat. Combined with the fact that her had called her master stupefied her into blurting out a blunt "huh?"
Her encounter immediately realized his plump utterance. "Awesome sir, lord, teacher. Whatever it is. We have met at the martial ground a dozen or so days ago. At that time, you accidentally killed me. I am in awe of your fighting skills and want to train under you."
Kuilei used his bootlicking skill to the limit. He did not want this occasion to be a fleeting one.
"Train under you?" Luo Si repeated his words.
'Heck no. I ain't helping nobody, you in particular!'
She wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut, seeing Kuilei eagerly nod at his foe in disguise.
'Wait a second. This might not be half bad. And if he thinks what I think he is thinking. Moreover, with him I can…'
From her first exchange she had derived him from the rest. Not because Kuilei was special in any way. But because his status was special.
Learning from her first hunt Luo Si refrained from casually speaking. Instead, she talked the vocal language of the natives. It was relatively easy for her since the natives only spelled out a consonant followed by a variating vocal. It didn't particularly change the outcome though as the delivered message was forged in the mind.
"Hmm, there do exist memories such memories." Acknowledging the past event gave Kuilei a good impression.
"No," Luo Si plainly replied in a darkened voice to sound more masculine.
'It's not that easy!'
Waiting for some time made Kuilei worry. Yet being served with a simple 'no' had terrified him. 'Have I messed up already? This cannot be, I cannot give up that easily.'
"Please master! I will get you anything you want." He begged with his version of a big-puppy-eye look.
Hong Luo Si on the other hand was experiencing the opposite effect. 'By my reincarnation, do you want to drown the celestial koi with these eyes?'
"It is because I know that you have nothing to satisfy this one's interest."
Kuilei clung onto her feet apprehensively. "No please, there must be something. Anything."
"Anything?" Luo Si looked the wailing youth up and down, wanting to know how far he would go.
Kuilei in return shrieked back, tucking himself in fright. "Is this what legendary characters in this game are into?"
Luo Si, half dusgusted by his perverse comment, gave him the cold shoulder.
Kuilei sacked to the ground. He had done everything he could, which was nothing at all, since he had nothing rally to give. Why was fate so cruel to him?
Seeing Kuilei finally at his whit's end she changed her tone. "Actually, since you are a one of these anomalies, there might be something you can do."
Kuilei sprang up in new hope. "Yes. Please say, if it's anything about the players, I can tell you everything. Our martial arts, respawn, language. You name it and I will tell you about it better than anyone else."
'Wow, that's a statement.' She was impressed at how simple it was to move him. Nevertheless, she blued him.
(Author note: blue = a hit on the head)
"I, an omnipotent being, already know these." She said in perfect mandarin, bamboozling Kuilei. "What I want lies beyond that. Your origin."
"Do you mean earth?" Kuilei was fascinated by how wall breaking this 'NPC' was. Then again. He expected nothing less.
"Yes, you lower beings call it 'Earth'." Luo Si acted as if she was entranced by that word, wanting to know its deepest secrets. Her mood suddenly changed though the next second, gripping his shoulder tightly. "And don't even try to deceive this one."
"Okay." Kuilei very willingly accepted.
"Since this is our first time we meet, how about we start with your name." Luo Si got into question mode, waiting for the others reply.
He gaining his confidence the second she let go. 'Hmph, I will tell you shit you omnibus.'
"My name is 'I Emstewpit." Kuilei replied without a flinch. Saying the later without using qi in his words.
"Oh really? 'I Emstewpit', what an extraordinary name." She recited flawlessly.
'Ha ha. Fuck you, you stupid fake lie detector. I have been trained in the arts of deceit by the grandmaster himself. Now you call yourself stupid whenever we meet. That's what you get for killing me.'
"'I Emstewpit', stretch out your hand!" She asked in delight.
'Wow, I'm already getting rewarded. That was easy. What's it gonna be, money, EXP, a weapon or maybe a skill?' Kuilei swiftly complied.
Yet instead of being given a gift, Luo Si snatched the 3 last fingers and twisting them half a revolution lightning fast.
"IYAI!" Kuilei flinched back in pain, but was unable to escape her grasp. "Is this a skill?"
During the time others were learning flashy moves, Luo Si had steeled her body and developed her foundation. Not to forget the body cultivation technique she had started comprehending in the last dozens of hours, making the difference in strength was enough to impose her superiority. Thanks to the ice vein her progress accelerated at a fast pace, to the point she could compete with Min Erol.
As a result, her strength had doubled, which in return made her physically alone on par with normal martial artists. Kuilei left the spawnpoint for a second time njot long ago, making the difference between the two of them gigantic. The grip on his fingers remained unmoving.
In its stead, Luo Si's mouth did the moving. "Punishment. You will pay with a finger for every lie you tell me."
"But you just broke 3 at once." He wept. Hardly enduring the pain.
"You figured?" She explained in a more excentric tone. "The first one for lying to me. The second, for believing of merely trying to make a fool out of this one. As for the third… I just felt like it. You can interpret it as this one collecting interest."
Kuilei's face lost a shade of color in fear. The lie detector was not so fake any more in his trembling mind. Cursing his own stupidity. 'Shit, the legendary NPCs must be equipped with an advanced AI'
"Fortune does not seem to be your strength for you weren't born a centipede. You don't seem to have much leeway." Luo Si came closer to his face again, firmly smelling his fear. "Or how you like to say; two more lives, until it's GA-ME OV-ER."
"Ku-Kuilei," he stuttered.
But the rotation continued on slowly. "Just 'Kuilei'?"
"QUAN! Quan Kuilei. That's my full name. My boss also calls me Doglei."
The rotation finally stopped. "Doglei… Your boss picked a good name. I like it."
Kuilei did not know whether to laugh or cry, hearing her reply. 'Should I be happy since he complimented boss, but why do I feel the tables having turned against me?'
"You mentioned you serve a 'boss'. What's his name?" The next question followed up.
"His name is… "Kuilei did not know if he should open up about his relations in the real world. But then again. What would a supreme being like his newly acknowledged master do with this information? On the opposite, wouldn't he promote boss Ren instead?
"Gifted, he goes by the name Ren Liuxian. But how did you know boss is a man- never mind." He quickly shut his mouth. Shaking from his counterpart's released cold aura. Rooting him on the spot. Luo Si tried her hardest not to snap from hearing this name.
She didn't distinguish in gender, race or anything. If Luo Si didn't like someone, she would just bash their heads against the wall until they stopped moving.
"It's because of your inbred nature that I know." She coldly replied.
"Being called boss, he must do well for a living. Tell me, what does he dabble in?"
Seeing the great fighting master take interest in boss Ren, Kuilei let his tongue run like water. "Our boss, also known as the boss of Guilin, is the sole inheritor of his fathers' company 'Live Corp'. An empire split into many pharmacies and metal moving institutes." He tried to be as accurate in the native's understanding as possible.
She let go off the 3 fingers. Nearly crushing the index finger as its substitute. "Was this one intrigued about the future or the present?"
"PRESENT; the present. Please have mercy. Right now, he is like me a graduand scholar. Apart from that, he has built a small business, dealing pills with all sorts of people." His answer unnoticeably surprised her.
In all her previous lives she had never known her ex-boyfriend being a drug dealer. But thinking about it for a while, made a couple uncertainties burdening her lighten up. She had assumed Liuxian to be a very shady person, but she never figured out what it was because of her narrow-minded past self.
She was not ashamed of her past stubbornness though. On the contrary, it had given her endless dedication, lifting her to heights beyond what the sky can overlook and perspectives mankind could only write about in novels.
'But how did this f***er smuggle it without getting caught?' Sudden aspiration struck her question.
"Your boss sells the drugs through the pharmacies in secret." Kuilei's eyes constricted in return to what she said. Confirming her suspicion.
'My god, how intelligent is this godly character? He might as well know when I have to pee.'