A Fateful Encounter

The first man was clearly a servant, dressed in a hunter suit made of low quality leather with a crest on both his chest and shoulders.

He was an unshaven middle-aged man, with pitch black short hair, with two mean and angry eyes sitting on a face worthy of a mugshot.

The one behind him was dressed with a suit of much better quality, probably brand new.

He wore the same crest on his chest, but this one seemed to be made of silk and gold embroidery.

He was a kid maybe sixteen years old, with a handsome face and the build of a swimsuit model.

The tight-fitting leather emphasized his muscular body moving in tune with his horse.

For some strange reasons, Ryujin felt really pissed off, and he knew exactly why.

"I really hope he is as much of a d*ck as he is handsome. Otherwise not only I will be forced to start to believe in prince charming, but I might also die of envy."

"Hey, kid!" The servant called with a gruff voice that carried a rude tone to it.

"What was that noise from before?"

Ryujin put on his best innocent expression, playing wolf in sheep clothing.

"Good day, sir. It was just me hunting. I'm sorry if I scared you." His voice sounded genuinely apologetic.

He wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Where did you get those?" The man said ignoring Ryujin's apologies, as he pointed to the rabbits hoisted to his waist.

"From a rabbit hole. They are my game." Ryujin answered with a smile, keeping watch on both of them.

"Give them to us, now. They will make a perfect muff for my mother." The handsome youth chipped in with a beautiful voice.

 "If you are really sorry, you should offer us proper compensation. Even a commoner like you should know the basics of decency." He said with a mocking smile.

Instantly, Ryujin dropped his act like a live grenade.

"Seriously? Robbing a kid in broad daylight? Don't you have any shame?"

"Kid!" The servant rebuked.

"Do you know who are you talking to? He is the heir of the Ji Family, lord of these lands."

Ryujin started laughing out loud.

"Please! I know who these parts of the skeleton forest belong to, except you are surnamed Shin; so stop spewing bulls*it just to cover your sorry asses. Besides, do YOU know whom are you talking to?!"

"See what happens when you waste your breath on commoners, Eduard?"

The young noble jeered, removing the short bow he carried on his back, as he nocked an arrow.

"They are just too stupid, it's in their nature of things."

The moment he spoke the last word, he fired the arrow with perfect aim towards Ryujin's heart.

However, Ryujin was far enough, and had readied different moves that he could unleash in a heartbeat.

With a slight tilt of his body, the arrow shot past his arm before lodging itself into a tree behind him.

Despite his shock, the young noble was able to keep his cool, nocking another arrow as he ordered Eduard to kill Ryujin.

Dislodging the arrow with his mental sense, Ryujin grabbed it and bolted towards the duo.

Then upon entering their range, he abruptly unleashed his aura pressure, momentarily shocking both of them in place, and before they could recover, he had already stabbed the youth in the eye.

His thoughts were straightforward, his decisions unwavering, and his movement too swift and random to be predictable.

The youth fell from his horse, screaming and writhing in pain.

"To think that I even bothered giving you guys a chance to get out of here alive." Ryujin sighed, shaking his head.

"Wait! If you kill the young lord, you and everyone you love will die! You better think carefully before making a mistake you cannot undo."

Ryujin started laughing once again.

"Really? If both of you were to die here, how would anyone ever find out what happened?" 

Ryujin had barely ended his statement, when he phased from Eduard's sight, and before the latter could even react, he had appeared behind him and unsheathed the hunting knife he carried at his belt, holding it against his neck.

"Wait, please! Have mercy! Don't do this, you are just a kid!" He begged.

"So, when you want to kill, you kill. But when you lose, I am supposed to show mercy?" The spite in Ryujin's voice was palpable. 

"Since you are just a servant, I'll give you a clean death." 

And with that, Ryujin, pulled the knife in a fine arc, slitting Eduard's throat from ear to ear.

A rain of blood spurted out of Eduard's neck, tainting the horse and the snow beneath in red.

Then he approached the young noble who was still writhing in pain, unaware of the fate that just befell his loyal servant.

"As for you, you are the kind of guy I hate the most!"

Ryujin lifted him by the collar with one hand, before raining down heavy blows with his other.

"You have fucking everything! Money, beauty, a bright future, and all you can do with such treasures is screw those who are already struggling to survive?"

Ryujin hated this kind of people more than everything, and even back on Earth, the only thing that had stopped him from lashing out at such people was the image he was trying to uphold.

After all, how would the government fund his innumerable researches, if he had such a crime on his record. 

But in this new world where cameras or GPS do not exist, only strength mattered, and for once he was the one with the upper hand. He was the one in control of it.

"You know, I have read a lot about acupoints." Ryujin said as he dropped the bloody-faced youth in the snow.

"But whilst I've been practicing on games lately, I haven't really had the opportunity of practicing it on a human.

You, on the other hand, are just a monster with the face of a man, and much worse than the beasts that lurks within this forest.

You will make a perfect specimen for my research."

Then all of a sudden, several bouts of spin-tingling screams began to echo through out the area; however, they didn't travel far due to the chilling wind whipping throughout the forest.

The echoing screams went on for hours until death came to claim her prize with a deafening eerie silence.

---

As Ryujin approached Luo Fei's house, he began to feel a profound sense of shame and guilt gnawing at his heart.

"It's a shame to waste so much good equipment and horse meat, but I have no plausible excuse for it.

Our carts could really use a couple of horses, but what if someone recognized them?

It's just too much risks for too little reward, destroying everything was the right thing to do."

Once he had finished with his experiments, Ryujin burnt and buried every trace or proof of what had happened, and then covered the remnant ash with heaps of snow.

Luo Fei got so excited upon seeing the two rabbits; she was in dire need of them as she had gotten an order from her most generous client, late into the past autumn.

Respecting his master's teachings, Ryujin exploited the situation.

"Hunters don't do favors, they make deals." He quoted.

In exchange for the snow-white rabbits, Ryujin managed to get a full set of warm clothes of lower quality and made Luo Fei tan the remaining pelt for free.

That and the three rabbits ready for the cooking earned him great praise from his family, except Lin.

Over time she had begun to worry more whenever Ryujin brought home some games.

Him hunting at such a young age was already causing her heart to race in worry, but going out to hunt during Coral Island's infamous winter raised her worries to another level.

Ryujin, on the other hand, had intentionally decided to go hunting during the winter, as not only would he be able to freely train himself to stupor, but he would also be able to hide his prowess and abilities from prying or suspecting eyes.

Furthermore, this was also the only time when there would be lesser competition between he and the other hunters for games, and as a result, he was hell-bent on capitalizing on every single minute of the day before the great cold ended.

He had no idea how the future would be. The very fact that the heir of another grand family was already claiming their domain meant that his father and uncle's actions had caught their attention.

If that was true, then the only thing that might have stopped them from an all-out action or invasion might be the unfavorable weather condition.

During the past few months, Ryujin had explored more and more of the skeleton forest, learning how to move more quietly through the snow without alarming the animals.

He had also gained absolute control over his upgraded physique, and was nearing perfect knowledge about acupoints.

His newest technique, the Cloak, allowed him to negate his body smell and aura by enveloping himself in a thin layer of mental energy, making nigh impossible for animals to notice him, either by nose or instinct.

He had also began training a couple of martial art techniques he had acquired from his father, mother, and uncle.

---

The technique he got from his father was called, Chaotic Shadow Steps. It was a light movement technique that allowed one to move erratically based on instincts rather than logic, whilst threading heavily or lightly based on one's emotions.

In fact, just his woeful imitation of the technique had enabled him escape the senses, close in, and kill both Eduard and his young master.

---

The technique he got from his mother was titled, Willow Leaf Palm. It was a soft style hand-to-hand technique that used a palm to absorb or deflect the force behind an enemy's attack, thereby creating an opening for one to land his own palm strike.

---

The final technique which he got from his uncle was titled, Overlapping Fists.

It was a hard style hand-to-hand technique that enabled one to overwhelm one's opponent with a flurry of successive punches that would not only put them on the defensive, but were too erratic to predict.

In a sense, it was similar to the chaotic steps technique; however, it aims to overwhelm one's opponents with a barrage of rapid, random punches that would mentally overload one's opponents should they try to predict where the next punch would hit.

---

However, maintaining the Cloak wasn't an easy task, as even a small misstep could cause it to fail and unleash Ryujin's full-blown aura, alerting the entire skeleton forest of his presence.

In the past few days, Ryujin had been raiding a new area deep into the forest, investigating an odd ringing sensation that had been tormenting him for a while.

In certain areas of the woods, he would always hear an annoying beeping sound, that he usually always ignored.

Ryujin felt it might be the call of some weird, unknown animal, but in recent days, this noise had gotten stronger and more persistent.

"Damn, whatever this is, it reminds me of the last stand of a dying UPS whenever there's a black out. So ear piercing."

Ryujin then began to imagine it as a desperate cry for help. He did not understand how he got that idea, but his instincts were telling him that it was something important.

One of Ryujin's strongest suits or abilities had always been his instincts, and on this day, it proved reliable.

Whenever he picked a direction, the noise would increase or decrease. If it increased, then Ryujin would know that he was on the right path.

He was running at bolting through the forest at full speed when he suddenly heard a bone chilling howl.

Instantly, Ryujin activated three different techniques.

Metavision to scan his surroundings; Cloak, to conceal his presence; and Chaotic Shadow Steps to thread on top of the surrounding snow, making his movements noiseless.

All three required a lot of concentration, however, Ryujin's mental sense and pool of Focus Qi was just enough to keep them active; after all, it was better to expend some Focus Qi than to stupidly endanger himself.

Calmed and focused, Ryujin began to search for the source of the howl, and it didn't take too long for him to find it.

And thus, ensued a fateful encounter!