Chapter 62

"Tch! Do not tell me what to do!" The woman angrily said. After picking up and putting every weapon back, she walks away.

"Does that mean that I can go now? I'm Gozu by the way. If it helps you with the identity issue." Hisashi offers his regard but all he receives was a mean look.

"No! Follow me you foreigner!" The woman said.

"What? What do you want now?" She didn't reply and merely walks to somewhere else. Hisashi simply follows as after an hour of walking, they finally reached what seemed to be an abandoned house. She gets in not before stopping him and after a minute or so, she came back with a huge bag of something.

"What is that?" He asks. She takes one out and throws it to him. Hisashi looks at it and saw a wooden doll of some sort but he can't recognize what it means.

"It's an anti-beast repellant. You want to go to the town but I don't trust you. As a solution, I have to put that in place of me so the beasts don't attack any nearby town."

"So you really are a guardian of some sort here. How do I use this?"

"Bury it like how I'll bury you if you do something I don't like. But put your ZiChi first to activate it."

"ZiChi? What is that?"

"You… well, you're a foreigner so you may not know what I'm talking about but it's your unique chi. For example: fire, water, earth, wind, or like mine… tree. You don't need to use any attribute, just put your chi in. Now that I remember, you use wind chi."

"Is it that simple?" Hisashi looks at the doll but was stopped when he was about to use his mana.

"Don't use it yet you idiot! We're not putting it here! You'll waste the energy!" The woman walks up to him and aggressively takes the doll from his hand.

"Let's go. We don't have all the time in the world." The two walk back to the bottom of the mountain. On the way, Hisashi was curious about something and asks it.

"If that can repel wild beasts, why not use it? Isn't staying here dangerous to you too if the beasts become many?"

"That's a natural thing to ask, but it's not optimal. This repellant releases a ZiChi-based scent which was foul and annoying to them and the chi we put in is the fuel converted to a real repellant. However, using so much would make the beasts resistant to it effectively making it useless. So, we have to use it as seldom as we can. Do you get it?"

Hisashi simply nods. Later on, they reached the bottom of the mountain and they started quickly. One by one, they dig a small pit and put a hand-sized doll inside not forgetting to put mana or chi before closing it in.

They put them 50 meters apart from each other and thirty minutes later, the two finished. Hisashi looks at the slightly exhausted woman who was looking at him confused.

"You have a lot of Chi, huh? Let's go. We only have a week until that wears off." She said before quickly starting to walk.

Instead of walking, Hisashi starts to run, grabbing the woman's hand on his way.

"What are you doing?!" The woman asks. Pulling him to a stop.

"You said that we don't have a lot of time? Why are you walking?" He said with a blank face. The woman just pulls her hand away with a look of disgust.

"Are you tired already? I'll carry you if you want." What he said made the woman's face fume in redness, probably because of anger or embarrassment, or something else.

"I'm just a bit consumed on Chi. I can still run." The woman counters before she starts running.

As they run, Hisashi asks her many things about the town and the state of the place. According to her, she was sent to the village by the Qin, the counterpart of a Shogun in Hino country. And like Hino, the Han country is divided into several different lands with their own leaders until 8 years ago, when the Qin of the Xin Yan province united them all in just months.

A leader unifying the nation isn't something new to the history of the country, but to do it in less than a year was a new feat. Since then, even when the new Qin took over, the country has still been able to stay united. As for the woman, she is tasked with guarding the northeast of the country, in the Yalu Mountain Range where many wild beasts reside.

As for the nearest town, they aren't really in the best of states. There were a lot of beggars, many petty crimes, not enough food, and many more signs of poverty. It wasn't mishandling by the higher-ups, but because of the beast tides.

Once a month or two, wild beasts would gather on the mountain range and would attack the nearest villages. It didn't help that the town's source of income was agriculture and their farmlands were close to the mountains.

"Given what happened 5 years ago, there's very little force available for security."

"Is that why you're here despite you having yet to accept your scroll? What a great Qin, endangering a minor's life just because she's a bit stronger." Hisashi said this and the woman punches him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't talk bad about Master Jin! He's a great leader! Also, I'm 15! It's just that the Scroll Blessing Ceremony is on next month. Now that I've noticed it, you don't have one yourself don't you?"

"So he's your master? Doesn't…" He was about say 'Doesn't sound great' when he held himself back.

"Next month? It's still three months for ours. And even if I don't have one, it doesn't change the fact that you're weak. If I meant harm, you would've been dead." She punches him lightly again.

"I'm not! You're just… Nevermind."

"You're about to say strong didn't you?" Hisashi looks at her with pressure. She avoids eye contact and started running faster.

"No, I didn't. Your name is Gozu, right? Just call me Mai. That's what everybody calls me."

The two finally arrive at the front of the town. Hisashi has also fixed his hat hiding his face. There, Hisashi was finally able to see what Mai was talking about. There was a long line of villagers, with some holding a wooden bowl.