Feng Jiao Xue warily looks at the smoke, her guards up. In the face of new danger, all her pain was numbed and forgotten by her brain. An instinctive defence mechanism whenever she senses danger. A bad one in certain circumstances as she needed reminders of them during fights but not this time.
It was like the part of her brain that senses pain shut down.
She immediately went on guard as silver needles appeared between her fingers, like a cat extracting her claws.
Her body won't be able to handle an escape so the only choice she has is to attack.
She may not be able to cultivate but that does not mean she doesn't have the means to protect herself.
She lived with death since she was little. She always has means to protect and defend herself.
Her smile twitched a little remembering all of her favourite toys that could destroy a city in a minute suddenly disappearing, especially her lovely particle gun.
Even so, her guard was never lowered.
She assumed a defensive posture as the smoke, now more like silvery mist formed a figure of a giant flaming bird.
Red as flames, no seemingly made of red and slivers of golden flames flew and soars in front of her.
The presence of the... bird, magnificent, majestic and... Feng Jiao Xue poised to attack, getting on her feet crouched, like a coiled snake ready to strike down a prey. Dangerous. Her mind supplied.
The bird spread its wings as it let out a screech, it was so awe-inspiring yet even more reason to guard against it.
Slowly the bird closed its wings and the silver mist circulated around it first before slowly entering the figure and could vaguely see the figure morph or transform into the figure of a person.
She was in slight amazement as the figure slowly turned into that of a beautiful man floating mid-air. A man who can put even her world top idols into shame.
He has flaming red hair, and Phoenix shaped eyes with mesmerising beautiful molten gold pupils and blazing red iris. She can't find any flaws in this man. He has a bewitching beauty but carries the air of mischief. His thin lips curled into a mischievous smile that somehow reminded her of that beloved freaky cat in Alice in Wonderland.
However, the moment she laid eyes on him, her cold heart started to ache in pain.
Longing, she felt hollow and yearning. It was like she somehow knew this man but no matter how hard she tried to remember, there is just nothing in her memories both in this life and her past that can tell her who he is.
She may not know who this man is, but she can sense that he is dangerous, extremely deadly.
She tensed up slightly and became even more alert.
She won't be able to beat this man but perhaps she can create an opportunity to flee.
As various plots circulated her mind, the man looked around with his eyes showing disinterest and disdain as he frowned at her home before they landed on her. The arrogant man immediately brightened up.
"Master!' The man called out and went to hug her in a flash.
She underestimated this man. She bitterly thought as she tried to get free from his hold.
"I missed you, did you miss me too?" The man asked excitedly while hugging her, rubbing his head on her hair like a cat.
Did she really associate this oversized human shaped cat... er bird with danger?
Nevertheless, she didn't lower her guard down. Looks can be deceiving.
Normally, people would push strangers hugging them away but Feng Jiao Xue...
"Let go or else" she coldly responded, silver needles ready to penetrate the man's vital points on his neck and back.
The man stiffened a little before pulling back in shock "Don't you want me anymore"
The sadness laced in his voice made her uncomfortable, but she held her stance. You can never be too cautious.
She easily laid her guard down on her ring, an inanimate object, but never to a person.
"I'm sorry, it was after all also my failure. I couldn't protect you before. I couldn't do anything but watch you fall to your death. I'm sorry, I am really sorry, master." The man knelt down as guilt and sadness engulfed his whole being.
There was something telling her to comfort this person. To tell him that it wasn't his fault, that she is not angry. She felt extremely uncomfortable watching him crumble and her heart ache even more.
However, she could not bring it upon herself to trust him, A person with his own thoughts and will, immediately.
As an assassin she never trusted easily even more so now after that betrayal.
Seeing her indifference, the man felt even worse after all, he was the one who failed her in the end.
"Please, Master don't be mad at me, punish me however you see fit just please don't push me away." He glanced at him, his eyes tearing up with guilt and self condemnation. "I will be a better guardian and regain my strength as much as possible to be more useful to you. I promise this time I will be a better contractual beast, I will be a better friend" the man pleaded anguish clear in his eyes.
Despite her warning, he didn't let her go. Clinging into her desperately ignoring the blood that trickled down his neck as he lowered his defences to allow himself to be prick. In his mind thinking of this as her venting.
His last statement made her freeze though.
"Contractual beast? Speak just who are you?"
"Who am I?" The man looked at her in confusion "Little master, don't joke around you know it never suited you" The man nervously chuckled. "I'm Huang Jin De, don't you remember?"
She felt a strange feeling in her soul, but she just can't remember so she just shook her head.
"How about Xiao JinDe, your little golden? Long Tian? Snow Kitten? Hēi sè Gui? Bai? Tailin?" He continued to ask, gripping her shoulders anxiously. His gaze becomes more desperate for her to say that she does. That she hasn't forgotten them.
Again, Feng Jiao Xue just shook her head at every name that penetrated her soul. "You got the wrong person."
"So, in the end, you still forgot" The man stated sadness and guilt clearly in his voice. "Did the ritual fail? Did something go wrong?"
"But maybe..." A thoughtful look appeared in that bewitching face.
"Master, do you still trust me? Can you trust me?" He asked pleadingly.
She scrutinised him with narrowed eyes before responding coldly. "Why should I?"
That question stinged his heart badly, after all, for a contractor to not trust their beast, especially with how their bond used to be, hurts a lot. But he did not let the pain show in his face. Instead, he smiled patiently.
"Scan your soul, master" The man, Huang Jin De, she really needs to stop calling him man, responded.
She thought that there was no harm in doing so. It would only be like a self-scan. She pulled her consciousness deep within her not forgetting to keep track of what was happening around her still.
She saw her spirit, with golden gleam. Something she is not sure of if it's normal. Scanning herself further, it didn't take her awhile to find a tie...ties? One red, proving her bond with this man.
She was certain that these things were never here before but just like her familiarity with the cat-puppy-bird hybrid in human skin, she felt right. Like those things were supposed to be there. But they shouldn't be.
She could also see another, white, blue, black and golden brown.
Five bonds! A soul contract should only be made between a human and a beast. A bond that as long as the spirit of the human exists, it can never be severed.
There are four types of contract, the worst being the slavery contract, where the beast cannot disobey the contractor or it would be severely punished by the bond or worst be put under the heavenly punishment, which is to have its soul be tortured in the netherworld.
However, there are extremely rare occurrences where rebounds occur. If the magical beast is extremely unwilling to fight back it will cause difficulty in the process of the contract and might cause it to fail leaving a great backlash to the contractor.
If the magical beast is far stronger than the contractor though, they can choose to bound the contractor as their slave instead or just merely brush off the contract.
The equal bond, which is the most common, where as stated in the name, both parties are treated as equals. The magical beast would have its own free will but would still help the contractor however once the contractor dies, the beast will follow.
The third is a life and death contract, this is rare since no powerful beast would allow themselves to be put under it and they cannot be forced unlike the first two contracts stated. This bond can only be conducted if both the contractor and the beast fully agree to the terms.
Under this contract once the contractor dies the beast will follow but if the beast dies the contractor would suffer a huge backlash that could in rare occurrence lead to death. If the magical beast has great strength however, upon the death of a contractor they will only experience a loss in their cultivation.
Lastly, would be the rarest contract formed which is the soul contract, tying two into an interwoven fates that can never be broken unless the contractor's soul disperses.
Normally, there should only be one soul contract formed by a contractor since their spirit wouldn't be able to endure more. The life and death contract however depends on the strength of one's spirit, while the equal and slavery contract depends on cultivation.
So, her having more than one soul contract should be impossible.
One thing these contracts have in common though, is that once it is formed the beast could never harm the contractor in any way.
"Why do I have five soul contracts?" She asks, staring at the patiently waiting Huang Jin De.
"Oh, that's because we couldn't accept being in a lower status than the other, so using all the resources we accumulated during the ancient times, we managed to strengthen your soul to be able to bear the force of the contracts." What he didn't mention though was how hellish those medicine baths had been to her.
It is better for her to forget those hellish tortures.
If she had failed it would have caused her soul to fade. Thankfully she barely managed to endure everything for 20 years of having her soul burned while her body freezes, not to mention her Qi causing chaos within her body.
She could have just forced them to agree on a different bond since separating their five membered family could not be accepted and she already had contracted one and past the others test but for them, she endured all sort of pain, because as she said they were already her friends, her family, she could never wrong them.
"Who are the others?" She continued to imply.
"They used to be like our family but I can't really explain. It's best for when you remember them yourself. Just know that they are waiting for you, as I have always been to finally talk to you again. Now, can I check the state of your soul master?" Huang Jin De asked again.
"Go ahead" she consented since he wouldn't be able to harm her anyway, plus with his strength, he could have just done that at the very beginning, but he still asked for her consent, which earned him a great impression on her.
She felt the presence of a strange aura touch her soul. It was mighty and undoubtedly powerful contrary to feeling threatened, oppressed or stifled though, it was soothing and strangely familiar.
Huang Jin De frowned. "But how can this be?!" The man exclaimed after checking her soul.
"What's wrong?" Feng Jiao Xue asked this time, getting a little worried.
Could there be a problem with her soul? If it was just physical or internal injury, she could create remedies but an injury on her soul would be hard to heal.
"It's not that you can't remember, you simply don't have the memories. Something must have gone wrong. Those bastards! They must have dealt with a more vicious method than we expected!" His Qi raged and for the first time, she felt the danger this world posed towards her, who could not cultivate.
She is not afraid though because even if things are to her disadvantage, she will never show fear and either face the threat head on or by the use of any means necessary.
She is not one that would go looking for trouble but if trouble comes knocking at her door, well that is a different story.
"Explain to me everything" she didn't hesitate to order him as she needed to fully understand her circumstances before she could formulate the best course of action to neutralise or fix it completely.
"I'm sorry master but the current you is just too weak and knowing too much would be detrimental to your mental state and thus to your growth. All I can say is that we did a ritual to ensure the safety of your soul even if you self-destruct. Bai also sealed your memories to what was supposed to be your main soul." He told her how she needed to recuperate though so they sent her to a world where that would not bring her too much danger. A world where magic and duo Qi were scarce but just enough for her soul to heal, her previous world.
When she died then, Huang Jin De who could only watch her inside the ring used what remained of his strength to activate the array within the ring that would bring her back to what was supposed to be half of her soul.
Her other half was planned to stay here and cultivate this body so that when they merged again, she would already have enough strength to back her up.
It was a perfect plan however, they did not expect for her to be reborn into a trash nor did they expect to have a third portion of her soul missing with the seal containing her memory.
The third portion could have reincarnated or anywhere in this world or in her first life's world, which apparently wasn't her life as an assassin's world.
"Why did you think that you have the previous Feng Jiao Xue's memory? Once a body dies, they are no longer any different to an inanimate object, no feeling or memory."
So, in conclusion, the previous Feng Jiao Xue is really her and the assassin Feng Jiao Xue when they merged again both maintained their memories. If so, the missing Ming couple are her real parents now and everything the previous Feng Jiao Xue have had and endured were in actual fact done on her as well.
She frowned at the whirlwind of mess her life had become. An unknown enemy, an incomplete soul, she would have accepted an injured soul better than this, a cultivation trash of a body and an almost impossible goal, taking revenge, finding her parents, and proving others wrong.
Just kill her already, this is just too much. What has she done wrong in her previous lives to deserve the heavens wrath like this... Yeah, never mind that last part.
Feng Jiao Xue was dumbfounded and cried without tears but her gaze steeled. This... just might be fun~