7 The Ring

~ 3 weeks later ~

Well me and the kids got used to the extalia movement. Our days have quickly gone into a routine of waking up, cleaning up, eating, teaching the children, going to the guild, doing quests, playing with the kids, refining pills and sleeping. Obviously, some activities were carried out during the week, especially the guild work. I had managed to level up (reaching the 8th layer of tempering stage) these days back and the system had compensated me with a basic martial arts manual and a meditation manual. My joy of seeing the system helping me was short lived. To summarize, the first manual had a focus on agility and speed greater than strength, and if not paired with the right weapon it was basically rubbish. The second manual showed nature-produced true ki collection techniques known as yin and yang.

It would be all right if it wasn't for the fact that my soul was yang and my present body yin, then I would have to meditate to accumulate both forces simultaneously. If there was any imbalance the repercussion on my body would be unpleasant. But it's not like I had another better option so I decided to look for good places to meditate on both forces.

Luckily I had found a spot in the woods near the city that by day exuded yin energy and by night yang. It was not a large amount but it was enough to form a firm foundation gradually. To better accommodate Ki getting absorbed every day I started practicing some stretching that I did in dance class in my world. After all I had nothing better, the system was ignoring me and I just needed to make the energy circulate and get familiar with my body, stretching was perfect for that. The twins, who did not know their names so named them XiaoMing and LiFeng, became curious about my exercises and started accompanying me every morning on my stretching journey.

At last everything was so calm that it almost made me forget that I had a mission to complete, with the death penalty. Since I had entered the city, her percentage of completion had not changed, even though I was talking to several people. This led me to the conclusion that the ring, which I had refused to wear, would be my best clue. Maybe the kids that night were from a powerful house and having saved them would guarantee me a patron ..... But they could have taken a friend's ring ..... Maybe the ring had been stolen and they found it in the woods before from being attacked by wolves. Not knowing what the correct answer would be, I had kept the ring hidden in everyone's sight: not mine. Xiaoming was good at magic and had put on a disguise that only allowed the owner of the ring to see him. The others saw a thick black ring.

About using magic, apparently only a select group of people who had a specific blood could use it, but that doesn't mean everyone could be proficient using it. When I first discovered xiaoming's gift of magic, I bought a few more books on the subject, not the best and not very detailed, but it was generally about magicians and with my 21st century knowledge I was able to better understand the situation. Apparently witches needed to beware of the combustion that happened when the magical power contained in the body was beyond the limit of optimal storage capacity and exploded. The explosion could happen in two ways: internal, when the host could not release the manna and was eventually burned, and external, when the manna could violently leave the body causing adverse effects. There were artifacts created for wizards to return excess manna to nature. Other wizards could do this with family-passed techniques. So I taught xiaoming a concept I had learned from a manga that "the energy you use for magic is borrowed from nature. To avoid the risk of it rebelling, you must return it to nature daily." At first she had been confused, but after I explained in a practical way she had quickly taken what I meant.

Xiaoming's power was rare, so being her brother LiFeng wouldn't be an ordinary child either. He didn't have the gift of magic, like xiaoming, but a quest we did in the guild showed LiFeng's ability. We were picking some herbs and hunting crystal hares (their horns could be sold for a high price) when a wild boar, that had been demonized and was out of control, came in our way destroying everything that lay ahead. I had thrown a tube of paralyzing liquid toward it as xiaoming pinned it on the spot with magic, but the boar was stronger than both of us and we decided to flee. We were running when another boar appeared in front of us. Protecting the children I received the greatest force from their attack and was thrown away hitting a tree. Not having the combat skills is a pain. As I took a pill for recovery and shouted at the children to run and save themselves, LiFeng changed. His white hair grew, his eyes turned black and yellow, claws appeared on his hands and feet, and his aura became chaotic and dangerous. With a roar he killed both wild boars quickly, but he did not return to normal, instead he approached me gruning, took me by the neck and said.

"I need to end the danger," he murmured softly.

"LiFENG! NO, HE'S OUR MOTHER." shouted xiaoming from the other end trying to use her magic but failing because her reserve had run out.

"... danger ..... eliminate," said lifeng with difficulty in an animalistic voice.

"Li..Feng ... Baby," I said with difficulty and slowly raised my hand to touch his face. "You .... are .... safe ..." I said as I used my remaining strength to caress his face." You... did ... a ... good ... job ... protecting ... your ... sister" I continued with difficulty " you ... can .... rest ... now .... the. ... danger .... has passed."

Something flashed in lifeng's eyes and he released my neck. As I coughed on the floor of being nearly hanged, lifeng returned to normal and began to cry.

- Sorry .. Sorry ... sorry ... - he said freezed in the spot with tears running down his face.

"LiFeng it's cof-COF alright," I said getting up and heading toward him.

- Sorry ... hic ... sorry ... hic ... please ... don't give me back ... hic " he said, desperate trembling while crying and sobbing " I don't want to ... hic ... ..back to that place .... hic ..... I promise I'll behave .... hic ..... please don't send me away."

"Shhh LiFeng " I Said hugging him as his sobs increased " I will not send you away, you are my children and I will not send them away " said while rubbing his back.

"Re ... Really? " LiFeng said and seeing me nod he grabbed me and cried harder. His sister also came and hugged me and started crying too.

"Shhhh calm down," I said as all the stress and fear came out of the kids as they cried, "sorry I didn't protect you properly."

After that they cried to sleep, because although they were mature for their age, they were only 8 years old and facing wild boars was frightening even for the most experienced adventurers. I put the boars in the inventory and went back to town carrying the sleeping twins on my arm.

The next day, I went back to the bookstore to look for LiFeng's power. After many hours of looking at books I finally found one that described the symptoms of LiFeng. As I had imagined he went into bersek mode.

[Sis recommends looking at bottom third shelf book from bottom to top]

The system voice suddenly appeared and I followed his orders. I grabbed an old leather-bound book that wasn't too big. There was no title on its cover and when I opened it I saw that its pages were blank, well almost all, on the last page there was a scripture that I could not identify what it said. But if the system had spoken to take it, it should do something. I bought it and kept it in the inventory.

______________________________________

It was 3 days to the mission deadline and I was desperate to say the least and decided to get help for xiaoming. I bought a simple, inexpensive ring and ask to mingxiao do the same transformation magic on it with the condition that only those who had put the original ring on my finger could undo the magic. I went to the guild and asked if they could post information about the ring, I saw that it had a wing that worked as lost and found. When I showed the ring modified by my daughter, the attedent opened her eyes in an expression of shock.

"But this ring is from the Liu family, this stone and coat of arms (she showed me a small mark of a horned tiger) are trademarks of the family. How did you get this ring?" she asked me

"When I was on my way to town I found two kids being ambushed by wolves," I told the receptionist. "I pushed the wolves away and brought them both to safety. The next day they had disappeared and left that ring behind. Since I didn't know whose it was, I decided to keep and wait for the right moment to seek help and return the ring.

As she was listening my statement, the attendant glanced at the stone in front of her. When I was done she nodded and made the announcement about the ring putting it in plain sight.

~ In the main residence of the Liu family ~

"Master, the young lady's ring has been found," said a shadow who had just entered the office of the Liu family patriarch.

"Where EagleOne?" asked the patriarch as he looked at some documents.

"In the city of extalia," said eagleone, "an adventurer placed him in the lost and found section of the guild. The report found that the adventurer obtained the ring after saving two children from infernal wolves in the Forest."

"Hmm ... Send someone to get the ring now before it falls into the wrong hands." said the patriarch.

"As you wish, master," said eagleone, bending down and pursuing his mission.

" Sigh ... "sighed the patriarch "this daughter of mine only knows how to get in trouble."

It was almost a month since his daughter, Liu Liang, had run off with her younger brother. The cause of the escape was the announcement of her marriage to a lord's son. His daughter refused to marry a man who, according to her words, "would rule her own right, when she would do a much better job." From childhood she had been a different girl. She disliked dresses and refused embroidery lessons, and labels was only attended because it had been her late mother's last request. However, she loved history, strategy, fighting, horse riding, classes that an heir should take. For a long time she had been the direct heir of the Liu family, her meridians and spiritual roots were of excellent quality and as she grew older she made good decisions and was a great student. But her younger brother was born, he had better meridians and spiritual roots than her, and after an accident lowering her cultivation level that had gone from the fifth stage (comprehension) to the third stage (vision), her brother had been appointed as the new heir. She loved her younger brother and felt she could finally leave this family in her hands, she felt that he would not be easily manipulated. She packed her things and fled the night after announcing her wedding and the visit of her future fiancé. She just didn't expect her younger brother (who was 7 and had a thunderous intelligence) to follow her and that she would be chased and poisoned. Which had put her and her brother in danger when a pack of wolves chased them. But they had been saved by a stranger and he had not only healed the poison but fixed the blockages on their meridians and given them food. Grateful to the stranger she left her ring with him, after all she would return and cancel the marriage that had been arranged now that her potential had returned and needed someone to leave the ring.

The ring in question was part of a Liu family tradition, it should be placed by the woman who had it on the little finger of the man she had chosen as her husband. The ring would then be removed only when their marriage was completed. When Liu Liang returned from her forest tour with her repaired meridians and her saved brother, they were all ecstatic. When she told her father, patriarch of the Liu family, about what had happened in the forest, he was especially enraged, but had understood that the man had saved the lives of his children and so the ring was worthy to him. The patriarch struggled to dissolve the marriage and sent his shadow guards to find out who had tried to murder his children and the man who had saved them. After almost a month without finding him, he had been able to find the ring, probably the man who had saved his daughter had placed him in the guild. Liu Liang had heard news that her ring had been found and choked upon learning that she had packed her things and set off for the extalia city.

Unfortunately it was not only the Liu family who had heard about this news, other influential families like wu, fa and feng also sent their guards to get the ring, after all they knew the tradition and would not let such an opportunity pass. Soon extalia would be the scene of a great hunt.

~ On a mountain near Extalia ~

Ignorant of the events that would take place in the city, a fancy carriage pulled by 4 pegasus was heading towards the city. Its passengers chatted happily as the landscape moved through the window.

" Extalia city," said a handsome man with long black hair, red eyes, a body that exuded sex appeal, and a phoenix plumage tattooed on his face. "Hmm, if i remeber right it was this city that suffered your wrath 500 years ago, because of a lord who had an intelligence inferior to a donkey, trying to deceive you and sell a precious painting made with the purest golden yellow paint by the hands of the amazing slave he had in his house?" he asked in a dark rich voice to his escort.

"Hmm ... If I'm not mistaken this city suffered more at your hands 300 years ago, when you decided that your harem was not good enough and decided to look for women and men, along with your beauty standards, that was married. Resulting in you angering the king and some lords by catching their wives not? And when they came to rescue and punish him in their home, they end up having their army decimated and having to see their wives turned into sex slaves serving our brothers in front of them before torturing them? - Spoke a man with big light blond hair, blue eyes, body and face sculpted by angels s, a heavenly voice and an almost ethereal aura. While watching his escort who was lying on the upholstery in a lazy position and raised his eyebrows.

"Touché my brother," he said as he laughed at the memory and sipped some of his wine, "what will extalia bring us this time?"

"I don't know," said the white man, "but I feel it will be important." he said as he stared out at the landscape outside the carriage and they both fell into comfortable silence.