8 Never Heard of That Before (I)

Somehow, Su Xueying found herself being cornered up against the wall by a gang of burly, strange men. The leader happened to be the man she killed— or thought that she killed— a few moments ago with a slap, and somehow, within only minutes, the man returned back to life and was now chasing after her.

Xueying was only a little bit away from the palace at the moment that the dead-but-back-to-life man found her along with a group of his men, a murderous aura surrounding all of them. Seeing that she was so close to the palace and that once she was in, the guards would do everything to stop the men, Xueying thought that it would be a good idea to take a shortcut behind some buildings which would somehow, in her mind, lead her to the palace faster.

And she was wrong.

The shortcut she thought she memorized the last time she took a little trip outside the palace turned out to be a dead end. Even though she was sure that she memorized the path correctly, maybe someone filled it in and built a wall, or maybe she was being too arrogant of her own capabilities. Whatever it was, she was now cornered at a dead end, and these men looked impatient.

Xueying backed up to put the most distance between herself and the group of men, quickly analyzing the three walls boxing her in, looking for any sort of foothold or indent that would allow her to climb over them. She gave up after a few seconds, to no surprise. Even if these walls were climbable, Xueying barely had any experience climbing walls, and it would be terrible if she fell on top of that group of men.

A strange thought occured in her brain— what if— just what if— she had the ridiculous strength that she had before? Wouldn't it be easy to take care of these men, then? Just a few slaps and she would be free.

Glancing at the man in the front of the group, the leader, Xueying decided against it. She was just feeling relief that the man didn't die and that she wouldn't be prosecuted if someone accused her of killing the man. If she couldn't control that bizarre strength she had and ended up killing one of the other men, wouldn't that be just as incriminating?

By herself, even with the newly gained strength, she didn't think that she would be able to do much if she didn't know the extent of her powers, so for now, she could only buy herself some time until any passerby walked by to help her.

In the middle of her thoughts, the leader of the group grunted loudly, pointing at Xueying. "You— little kid, look what state you put me in. If this elder one doesn't teach you a lesson today, then my name isn't Liu Dayuan!"

"Liu Dayuan?" Unable to control herself, Xueying blurted out his name while racking her brain for any knowledge of people called Liu Dayuan within Dayan's nobility. As long as he wasn't the part of any nobility, she could afford to offend him.

"That's right!" Proudly, the man patted his chest upon hearing Xueying speak his name. "Sounds familiar, right? Are you afraid now, knowing who I am?"

Xueying decided that she couldn't remember anyone who even went by the last name of 'Liu' among the nobles. Shaking her head, she blinked. "Nope. Never heard of that name before."

The men behind Liu Dayuan became restless once hearing that while Liu Dayuan himself became furiated. "You kid, how could you not know of me?"

"Well, obviously because you aren't strong enough." Settling on putting on the appearance of some expert, Xueying sighed disappointedly, waving her hand at Liu Dayuan, pointing out his disheveled, messy appearance of food splatters and blood. "To see that someone of your… state could think so highly of yourself… what has the world become?"

Xueying bent down and took a seat on the dirt floor, scratching her head in a nonchalant manner that she knew would definitely aggravate this Liu Dayuan more.

"You little—"

The men stepped closer to her, some positioning their weapons of bats and sabers out. Cold sweat broke out on Xueying's back. These men, they weren't playing with their 'tough look', were they? They genuinely were ready to harm her.

Xueying could only play along with the experienced and strong character she created for herself, but truthfully, she didn't believe in half the things she said herself. After all, if she showed any signs of weakness, these men would definitely clobber her to death without an ounce of hesitation.

She raised a single finger, swiping it through the air indifferently. "If it took one slap to render your leader to become unconscious, I wonder if I could defeat all of you with just a single finger?"

To her surprise, at her words, the men seemed to become a little bit afraid, faltering by another step. She didn't expect that the threat would actually work, but perhaps some miracle happened.

If this group of men knew that she was simply bluffing everything, they would most likely be furious at themselves for falling for her tricks. Her lies did seem a little far-fetched for anyone out of context, especially considering her unimpressive appearance as a feminine man, but she supposed that for someone like Liu Dayuan who experienced her terrifying strength before, it was obvious that his subordinates would be slightly afraid of her as well.