"I might've punched your head too hard," Rin Tin Tin sighed.
"Then why did you punch?" Ku Lo made fierce eye contact. "You are at fault. Take responsibility."
"Aren't I?" She stretched her hands to the sides, palms pointing upwards. "Here I am, teaching you the basics of cultivation."
"By freeing me, please." In a long-shot way, she was right. However, Ku Lo wasn't exactly a fan of entrusting his future to a proven psycho. Also, he much preferred freedom, being a person from such life and all.
"No can do~" As she spoke, she leaned to kiss his cheek.
Ku Lo froze for a second. Did she just kiss me... after everything?
"I'll see you tomorrow." Before Ku Lo could react, Rin Tin Tin had already made for the door with astonishing speed. "Good night."
"Wait, I have more questions!" he shouted after her; however, she had closed the door by then. Most of his sentence fell to deaf ears.
She's such a… Not suspecting her to return again, Ku Lo lied on the floor. Sleep. I need sleep.
"What questions do you have, boy?" a voice he hadn't heard before asked.
"Who's there?" Ku Lo scrambled to a standing position as fast as he could. "Who are you?" he asked, trying to find the person who was in the room, hiding in plain sight. "Reveal yourself."
There was a moment in which he frantically searched for the person.
The moment ended when his eyes spotted an old man hiding in a shadowy corner, in a spot he had surely checked a dozen times!
"It's rather embarrassing to tell." The old man let out a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his neck. "But I'm Rin Tin Tin's grandfather and the Sect Master of Yin and Yang Sect."
"…"
Rin Tin Tin's grandfather is my Sect Master! Ku Lo couldn't believe this, neither could he make a proper expression for the occasion. Shit! Shit! Shit!
"I know. I know. But trust me."
Ku Lo opened his mouth. He wanted to say he'd never trust a person with the Rin surname, yet he did not say so for obvious reasons. This isn't the world you knew anymore… This person might crush you with his little finger, he reminded himself of some cold-hard facts.
"Junior disciple greets the Sect Master Rin!" he declared with a deep bow, as was the right play here.
"Good. Good, that you understand." Sect Master Rin stepped out from the shadow which had been concealing most of his figure. "Now, you might be wondering why I came here, boy."
"I hope it's not to visit your granddaughter."
"No, it is not," he confirmed.
"Is it to free me?"
Sect Master Rin stroked his white beard two times. "Yes..." His index finger pointed at the cuffs on Ku Lo's wrists. "I came here to rectify my granddaughter's misconduct." A bright light shot out from his index finger, penetrating the handcuffs.
In a blink, the cuffs on him evaporated to dust which fell to the floor and onto his pants. Gone, just like that and with what seemed zero effort.
"Thank you, Sect Master Rin, for the fair treatment," Ku Lo exclaimed and bowed again. "Junior Disciple will remember this." Maybe, on Earth, he would have the guts to complain, but here Sect Master Rin's actions were a blessing and should be treated as such.
"Enough with it," he snapped. "Never speak of the matter again, and we'll call it even. The last 12 hours never happened, for all I care."
Ku Lo didn't speak. There's no need, plus he seems annoyed enough by having to be here.
Indeed, he chose the right choice again as Sect Master Rin began to leave. "Follow me, I'll guide you back to your given room."
This is good. I don't need to sleep on the streets. Never been to his room before, he had exactly zero ideas of its location.
Completing his thought, he strode after his Sect Master, who ambled out of the room with hands behind his back like a dignitary would.
…
The room in which Rin Tin Tin had held him captive had no window, so when he came outside, Ku Lo saw the night sky for the first time. Wow, those planets are so close. Four massive planets were so close he could see some of their continents with his naked eyes!
Awed by the grand sight, Ku Lo became engrossed in the ideas this brought to his mind. The clearest being: I wonder if there's a way to travel between these planets? Sure, there was no electricity, but magic might do the trick, and the distance wasn't much — much less than between the earth and the moon.
"Hey, watch where you walk," Sect Master Rin yanked him by the robe, changing Ku Lo's immediate course away from a lamp-post.
"T-thanks." Ku Lo shook his head, setting aside his theories, for now. I should use the opportunity to ask questions. His Sect Master was right next to him, and he seemed the type of sect master who would answer questions on occasion. Grasp every chance!
"What's wrong with my little sister?" So he asked the most obvious.
"Even now, that's on your mind?" Sect Master Rin answered with a question and raised an eyebrow.
"Un, I joined the sect to help her. I will do anything to save her."
"I don't know."
Ku Lo let out a prolonged sigh.
"But I'm willing to help."
"You are?" Ku Lo truly wished to help his new little sister for various reasons, and so when hearing that his Sect Master would help him, he felt overjoyed.
"Yes, I'll send one of the apprentice healers of the sect to see your sister." Whilst chatting, they reached a large wooden building reminding Ku Lo of a motel. "Bye, don't get kidnapped again," Sect Master Rin joked as he turned around.
"Bye, thank you!" Ku Lo made his appreciation loud and clear once again before approaching the motel.
It sure seems that everyone here isn't equal, he considered, walking to the archaic motel's information board. Unlike Rin Tin Tin, the sect appeared to have given him a single room while she got a small house. Not even hiding it. Power truly is everything here.
Yet also knowing he could only be a cog in the machine, he forgot equality and started looking for his name on the information board.
…
Room 31, Ku Lo reminded himself of the number as he arrived at the door with the same number.
He glanced at his sides. Nice, a corner room. No second neighbour like last life. While room 32 was on one side, there was no room 30, which to him was a major plus.
Now the room itself. He opened the door which creaked when opened.
Not even a bed or a mattress? The room he saw was a box with four solid walls, a roof, and a floor. Stingy.
Setting his complaints aside, Ku Lo picked out the most appealing corner and lied down for sleep. It wouldn't be his first time resting on a cold floor.
…
The waking up was more pleasant than last time, seeing as he had no handcuffs on him anymore. An added benefit was the comfort gained from waking up in a place that wasn't dangerous.
Time for… he stopped, just realising that he didn't know his schedule. Breakfast? Class? Or something else? he pondered for a minute.
Whatever, I'll go out and see. He got up and in the same motion opened the creaking door — the rooms were small, to put it mildly.
On the other side of his door, he saw two youths talking to each other by the railing. Friends? Classmates? he guessed, watching them turn to face him.
"Who are you? What is your name?" a black-skinned giant questioned as he placed his body between Ku Lo and a girl who gained the lion's share of Ku Lo's attention.
"It's Ku Lo. How long have I been asleep?" He directed his answer at the girl, who possessed a slender figure with an ounce of meat in the right places. I wish my hair would grow long as hers… He also became instantly jealous of her jet-black hair reaching all the way down to her lower back.
"Weird name. I'm Bo, and she's young miss Feng Huling." Bo offered his hand for a shake.
Ku Lo accepted the handshake while the jade beauty named Feng Huling asked, "Asleep? So are you the disciple who didn't show up at class yesterday?"
The two of them finished the handshake before shifting their attention onto Feng Huling. "Depends on how long I have been asleep." Ku Lo decided his cover to be him sleeping through an entire day.
"It must be you," Bo said. "I would have remembered your weird name."
"Right," Feng Huling agreed.
Ku Lo walked to the railing and leaned into it like the two of them had. "Then I'm in trouble."
"hmm." Neither Bo nor Feng Huling said anything. They both hummed before continuing to watch the sunrise, with Ku Lo as an addition to the group.
He had no idea who these people were, but if they let him, he didn't mind hanging out. It was good to have friends.
Half an hour later, Feng Huling opened up, "We should head to class."
"Especially Ku Lo," Bo laughed before walking after Feng Huling, a single step behind her at all times.
"Ha ha ha." Ku Lo made a very obvious fake-laugh. "So funny."
"Don't be so hard on him, Bo. Our friend seems like a virgin."
What?!
The three of them had begun walking, so Ku Lo overtook them and turned around. "Don't talk about that," he stated in a calm manner, yet made sure they understood he wasn't joking around. "Never."
How could she suggest something like that? He had imagined Feng Huling as an ethereal fairy with strict morals, not so… vulgar. Stupid Yin and Yang Sect. He put the blame on the sect, as its hedonistic practices must exclusively gather and produce weirdos.