68 A fight against Liling

A few good hours of dragging Guo Ning later, we reached our destination. Noncho village, in all its glory—well, I mean, it looked exactly like back then in the game. A desolate area filled with vegetation and an extremely eerie nature. I guess Liling lived here all alone in the past as well.

Honestly, I didn't expect this. I thought that since this is like two years before the event in the game, people would still be here. To my surprise, Noncho village is just like what I saw in the game, which made me kinda feel nostalgic.

Anyhow, after reaching there, I made Guo Ning and Goldy search for Tao Liling. Even though I knew the place known as Noncho, my brain could jog up her exact location, which made things extremely difficult.

We began our search to find Liling. I wanted to shout out her name just so she'd come up to me, however that would cause more harm than good if you ask me. So, I sneaked around, hoping that Liling would be picking flowers out or something.

So, I felt this since the beginning of this search, however I gave little attention to it. It was as if someone's sneaking around me just like I'm sneaking around. And no, it isn't Goldy or Ning; it was someone else; someone highly capable of making people feel fear.

The more I thought about it, the more stupid I felt like I was. You see, if someone is to sense danger, you should go look into it first, right? Well, except if the story is of the horror genre. If that is the case, then get the hell out.

I had the added advantage of the group. I should've checked on it back then. Now, I'm one-on-one with this person and I have no idea how capable he/she is. Anyway, no matter who that is, they should know Liling. So, I created an opening to myself.

Amid my sneaking around, I "accidentally" stumbled and fell onto the ground. And the next thing you know, someone had pointed a knife at my neck.

"Should've been careful while sneaking, little missy." It was a female voice. So, I didn't have to think much about who this person was, albeit having a lot of questions in my mind.

Anyway, what made me so sure about this person's identity, you ask? Well, the bandit group of this area didn't have a feminine presence in them. Which meant that there was only one person in Noncho village who could be the one behind me.

"Should've checked carefully before falling into an obvious trap, Miss Liling." I spoke while smiling to myself.

"How did you-" Liling was momentarily hesitating about what to do and this worked out in my advantage.

"Tch, again! Never should've hesitated. Not that it matters anyway." I smiled as she tried swinging that knife at me, then ducked and weaved out of the swing. Before she could recuperate, I hit her hand with the knife and made it fly.

Now it was even. We were both standing before each other completely unarmed. At this point, we were not having a physical battle anymore, but a mental one. While we stood still in real time, we actually had an intense fight in the mental realm.

[What the hell are you doing?]

{No, don't disturb our mental battle!}

But it was too late. I was already distracted, and she took the full advantage of it. She pounced at me with the knife in hand. There was no chance that I was gonna get out of this scot-free—unless I had an insane dragon by me.

Yea, Goldy stopped it easily and threw her back.

[What the hell were you saying? You could've easily stopped her if you used your Qi scythe! And who are you calling an insane dragon?]

{Calm down, will ya? Just let me roleplay in peace.}

I basically barked in my mind, so Goldy was silent for the rest of the time. I don't know where the confidence to defy the Golden dragon came from. Thankfully, Goldy is a much more sensible person than I am, so I could live after bashing him.

"What did you just do? Was that a Qi force? How come a person like you-" She was about to say something before stopping herself.

What was she saying? Person like me? What's wrong with me—oh, maybe the illusion is up and she could see my barely fixed Qi center. That makes sense. But was she always so proficient in these kinds of stuff back in the game? How come she succumbed to a bunch of bandits?

"Forgive my ignorance. I'll be fighting with my full strength from now on." She roared.

"I see. Let's have a good fight then." I replied.

"I don't think that's possible. Fights are never good. Spars could be, but fights are always dirty." Liling spoke as she released her Qi, which took the form of a bear.

[Defensive skill, huh? That too a bear. It'd be difficult with your current skill. You need an attacking skill pretty soon.]

It made no sense to me. How come she's able to use Qi and stuff? In the story, they showed her as a powerless character with a strong will. How come she's powerful to a level that she could use Qi now? Is this caused by my intervention, or did something happen to her before the hero came here? Something so drastic that she ended up losing her Qi. Hmm, it's surely a thing to ponder about.

However, now is not the time to ponder. I got nothing on her at this point other than my Qi scythes, so I released them. We both ran towards each other, ready to do some massive damage, when Guo Ning swung some random man towards us.

"It's an attack." He shouted towards me, at which I turned my attention away from Liling and towards the running hoard of men. It's the bandits. If I am to clear them away, maybe Liling will start trusting me and give me that skill book. But more importantly, they are precious people who'll be the cannon fodder for my Qi scythe!

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