First quest

Yuan Jia looked at us with no emotion and said to me, "Junior brother, you are here at last. I have a mission for you."

Yuan Jia is the definition of cold beauty. Well, it is best to call her a "kuudere," as the weebs do.

She is calm and collected on the outside and never shows any sign of panic. She doesn't show her emotions in front of others and only does so when we are alone.

She seems to others to be indifferent, anti-social, lonely, and cold-blooded (not that they dare voice it out). But as someone who knows her well, I know she is the caring big sister who took care of Huang as her own little brother from childhood and loves him dearly.

She has dark brown hair. She has a tattoo on her back and shoulders. How do I know? In Huang's memories, there were a couple of instances when they bathed together when he was a small child.

Her face? Just let me tell you that she has the best face in this life and my last life combined. On the divine central continent, she is one of the "Five Fairies."

"Your wish is my command, matriarch, just tell me the directions."

I could see her mouth twitching at my sly remark. Thankfully, my cupped hands covered my smiling face, so she didn't notice it.

"I'll go over the details with you in private; follow me." She told me.

She looked at Hu Anjing and added, "As for you, Anjing, you should go and start your training routine."

Following her, I soon reached a courtyard. This is one of the places that Huang has frequented for the last two years. Because he was training under Yuan Jia for the last two years, there were times that she had meetings in the sect's main hall, so he would come to this courtyard to train.

After entering the courtyard, Yuan Jia turned around and looked at me. Looking at me, she opened her arms. Without uttering a word, she kept looking at me, waiting for my response.

Looking at her, it was obvious that she wants a hug, but doesn't want to ask for it, or more clearly, her pride won't allow it.

Because she was an orphan from a very young age, she didn't have many interactions with others, and even after Grandpa Long accepted her as her disciple, she always looked at him as her master and not her family. But after taking care of little Huang since he was four, she started looking at him as family and has a bit of possessiveness about him. Even with this, she is naive when it comes to expressing her feelings to others, but oh well, it does make her look cute.

Without further ado, I embraced her. "How are you, big sister? Is everything fine?"

I know that she likes it when I call her "big sister," so I called her that to make her a bit happier.

"...Yes... How are you?" she answered after a bit.

"I am also fine." After that, I kept quiet and let her have her fill of our hug.

Time passed like that, and after a minute or so, we remembered that we had a mission to talk about, so we begrudgingly got separated from each other.

"By the way, what was the mission that you wanted me to do, big sister Jia?" I asked her to start the conversation.

"Yes, a new ancient sword mark is found, it would be a great help for you to comprehend it." She spoke straight to the point.

The so-called ancient marks are the result of seven artifacts being dropped into the world. After these weapons dropped, there were some slashes and marks left behind in the world.

It is said that these marks are the result of the uncontrolled power of weapons when they drop, or marks left by some other weapon that dropped with these seven but was destroyed in the process or was snatched away by someone.

Anyway, these sword marks are pretty much beneficial for a swordsman, and with me comprehending them, there is a chance for enlightenment.

At my level, using the Mingyun sword is nigh impossible. So the next best thing is using these sword marks to improve my swordsmanship.

This mission is more like a reward, but there is also a reason for it to be called a mission. When something like a sword mark is discovered, it must be comprehended as soon as possible; otherwise, someone else may discover it and attempt to comprehend it.

'How dare they show no face to the heavenly sword sect?' you may be thinking. Well, after some fights in the past, the seven holy lands came to an agreement that the first one who comprehends an ancient mark is the destined one, and no one can stop anyone who is comprehending a mark, and if done, it is a clear disrespect to all the holy lands. So yeah, that is a no-go.

Looking at Yuan Jia, I answered, "But wouldn't it be better for you to comprehend this mark, big sister?"

Although I know this would benefit me very much, I know this could be useful to Yuan Jia too. The stronger she becomes, the better it is for her position as sect matriarch.

"It won't benefit me as much as it would be beneficial for you; this way is better." She answered me with an unemotional face, but the love and care in words her were clear.

I smiled at her and told her, "Big sister, how can I ever make all this up to you?"

"There is no reason for you to do anything. It is my duty as the big sister." She answered like it was nothing.

"That can't be. I have to find something good for your birthday to compensate..." Giving her a birthday gift is the only way to make her accept the gift easily.

As Yuan Jia was an orphan, she didn't know her birthday, so Huang, when he was seven, used the bone age test on her.

This test shows the age of the person who is touching it, but there is a problem. This is a test for accepting new disciples, and it just shows the age, not the birthday.

So Huang the little genius took Yuan Jia with him to the stone for 10 months, every day, until the number on the stone changed. This is how he found her birthday.

What he didn't know at the time was that the formation on the stone was responsible for flooring the age, meaning if your age was 14.20, it would only show 14. So if he asked someone else, he could find the answer in a day instead of ten months.

These ten months were one of the reasons that he and Yuan Jia became so close.

"Okay." Yuan Jia answered, and this time she had a smile on her face. It seems that she is remembering those times too.

After a few seconds, I asked again, "Is there any variable that I should keep in mind in this mission?"

Yuan Jia pondered for a moment "Nothing special, just follow the family motto as always."

I looked at her with a small frown on my face and said, "...Will do."

The family in her sentence is not the Li family; it's me and Yuan Jia, and lately, we added Hu Anjing as a 'beta tester'.

Well, about the motto, it is as simple as it gets: 'expect the worst, assume nothing, and always anticipate an attack.'

The small frown on my face wasn't because of this motto. No, it was because, when I thought that I might end up killing someone in this mission, I was calm.

I'm not one of those 'I can not kill' people, but even so, it was a bit of a shock for me to feel that killing is only natural.

It might be because my memories are mixed with these 14 years, meaning that although I am an earthling, I also have the mentality of a person of this world. In a world where power is justice, you have to have the power and decisiveness to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

It may sound cliché, but this is the reality in a world where an expert's fart can kill a person...

"I have some preparation to do, big sister. After that, I'll be on my way to comprehending this sword mark."

"No problem. Make sure you have your life-saving treasures on hand, okay?"

"Will do, big sister."

Now that I know that I am a 'young master,' who knows what could happen? There might be an expert living as a beggar, and I somehow offended him. The more protection I have, the better.

There is also the fact that this is an ancient sword mark, so I have to be more careful.

Bidding farewell to Yuan Jia and Hu Anjing, respectively, I headed toward my courtyard.

On the way, I was thinking about my future plans. Deep in thought, I suddenly remembered someone.

Taken aback, I muttered to myself, "Why didn't I think of him sooner?"