Chapter 5: Five Fierce Men

Chapter 5: The Fierce One

Xiaojie was very pure.

Ning Xuan liked her purity.

The first time they met, she was outside a Zen temple in the neighboring prefecture, transcribing scriptures for a noble.

Her handwriting was elegant, her appearance delicate and beautiful.

Ning Xuan walked up and asked, "How much?"

Xiaojie said indifferently, "Ten coins per hundred characters. The paper is high-quality Xuan paper, and the ink has a faint, clean fragrance, blended with pine resin. Though pine resin is cheap, I prepared it myself."

In the evening breeze and sunset, she tucked back her long hair, a smile on her face that seemed to have grasped the essence of Zen and seen through the ways of the world. Then, in a tone neither servile nor overbearing, she added, "Ten coins per hundred characters is not expensive. I am not here to make money, but merely to seek tranquility and form a bond with the Buddha."

Ning Xuan took out a silver ingot and placed it on the table.

The ingot was heavy, a standard twenty-tael piece.

"That is too much," Xiaojie said.

Ning Xuan replied, "I am in need of a personal maid. If I give you this much every month, will you do it?"

Xiaojie was silent for a few moments, then she packed up her stall.

Ning Xuan asked curiously, "Weren't you seeking tranquility and a bond with the Buddha?"

Xiaojie said, "The Young Master is my tranquility, and the bond the Buddha has bestowed upon me."

Ning Xuan liked Xiaojie’s frankness very much.

So, after they boarded the carriage, he took out another twenty taels and placed them on Xiaojie’s fair, long legs.

Xiaojie said, "That is too much."

Ning Xuan replied, "I am in need of a concubine-in-waiting."

Xiaojie looked troubled.

Ning Xuan took out another ten taels and added, "Fifty taels every month."

Xiaojie silently tucked the thirty taels into her bodice, then happily wrapped her arms around Ning Xuan’s.

Since then, she had done her job very well.

She had been at it for two years.

The young master of the Ning family was never short of women. Even at a young age, he had grown up amidst rouge and powder, yet Xiaojie had stayed by his side for two years during the age when he truly needed a woman.

Xiaojie never mentioned becoming a concubine. She always spoke of how, once she had saved enough money, she wanted to leave. She wanted to see the world in the distance, to witness the sunset at the ends of the earth, and to see the lone smoke over the long rivers of foreign lands.

Jealous maids would occasionally spread rumors, deliberately letting the Young Master hear them, such as, "Xiaojie doesn't actually want to leave at all; she’s just using these vixen tricks to seduce the Young Master," or "Xiaojie is dying to be a concubine; she’s playing games, she’s a deep-scheming woman," or "Xiaojie looks elegant and quiet, but she’s so wanton when she’s with the Young Master, it’s absolutely disgusting."

Ning Xuan didn't hide it. When Xiaojie was snuggled in his arms feeding him fruit, he told her these things.

Xiaojie didn't panic. Instead, she showed a calm smile and said, "In the years I spent transcribing books, I copied a line: 'To be unknown and yet not angry, is this not the mark of a gentleman?' I am certainly no gentleman, but I will not be angry because of the ignorance of others."

Ning Xuan asked curiously, "Then what do you really think?"

Xiaojie fed the Young Master a slice of fresh fish sashimi from the East Sea, then looked into the distance with a hint of longing in her beautiful eyes. "My family was poor. If I had followed the standard path, I would have just married, had children, and toiled for a lifetime.

But by following the Young Master, I can earn a lifetime’s worth of money in just a few years. With this money, I can go see the distance.

At that time, I will not stay for anyone. Wherever the wind goes, I will go.

As for being wanton, they aren't wrong. But I only get to be a woman once, so naturally, I want to give all my femininity to the person I care about most, and then leave here without regrets."

She gave a frivolous smile, full of charm, yet her eyes hid contradiction and reluctance.

From that day on, Ning Xuan knew that the concubine-in-waiting by his side was a "thing that lies without blinking and has no shame."

But,

He liked it.

A high-class young lady is always keenly aware of the reactions of those beside her.

When Ning Xuan woke up from his nightmare, the muscles in his left arm tightened.

Xiaojie woke up.

She opened her eyes.

The bright moonlight fell from outside, and the light grid on the stone floor had become very, very narrow.

"Does the Young Master have something on his mind?" Xiaojie’s voice became serene and composed again, neither servile nor overbearing. At this moment, she didn't look like a concubine-in-waiting trying to please the Young Master, but like his confidante.

Ning Xuan was recalling the dream.

In the dream, the Mountain-Crashing Bear demon came after dawn. Was this a hint?

A hint that the actual time of the bear demon's arrival would be after dawn?

In the dream, he could harbor a death wish and fight to the end, but only those who have truly died know how terrifying death is.

He had suffered so much in the dream.

Outside the dream, did he have to suffer again?

Why should he suffer?

He had been so miserable in the dream; why should he go and fight for his life again outside of it? One must know that this time, he wasn't facing a "weakened" Mountain-Crashing Bear demon, but a complete one.

No! Perhaps even more than one.

Ning Xuan suddenly flipped over and straddled Xiaojie’s waist.

Xiaojie giggled.

But the next instant, Ning Xuan rolled off her, quickly got out of bed, and hurriedly put on his boots and clothes. At the same time, he grabbed Xiaojie’s light gauze dress and moon-white silk bodice hanging on the rosewood rack, threw them onto the bed, and said, "Go! We leave tonight!"

Xiaojie didn't ask anything. She got up immediately and dressed, her speed rivaling the speed at which she took her clothes off.

Why would she ask?

The Young Master had made a decision; she would just obey.

By the time Ning Xuan had finished dressing, Xiaojie was already ready, having grabbed a large black umbrella and a bundle containing the Young Master’s clothes.

Carrying the bundle and clutching the black umbrella, she walked out the door and asked, "Young Master, how many people should we call to escort us?"

Ning Xuan said, "Everyone!"

This time, Xiaojie was stunned.

Because the Young Master’s words were truly too unexpected.

They had only arrived this afternoon, the bedding wasn't even warm yet, and now he wanted to take all the servants, maids, and guards of the Ning family manor away in the middle of the night.

Xiaojie asked, "What should I tell them?"

Ning Xuan said, "Just say I feel like it."

Master Ning clearly had a lot of face.

With one word from Ning Xuan, everyone really did leave with him in the middle of the night.

The kind-faced old man looked at the Young Master with some curiosity. His sleeves were bulging, hiding the "Rain of Pears Needle" that Ning Xuan had used time and time again in his nightmare.

This old man certainly didn't believe that the Young Master was leaving so suddenly just because he was "being willful."

Why?

Just because he was Master Ning’s son.

Therefore, the old man was especially curious about what was going to happen at the manor.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, he quietly gave an order to a sharp-witted guard.

The guard slipped out of the formation and hid in a small grove at the foot of the mountain, waiting for what would follow.

At dawn, before the sky had brightened, the group returned to Xinghe County.

"My son, was it too cold in the mountains that you returned in such a hurry?" A woman dressed in simple clothes hurried out from the inner courtyard. Her eyebrows drooped slightly, carrying a hint of kindness, her eyes filled with doting love, and on her wrist was a string of expensive prayer beads.

This was Ning Xuan’s mother.

She believed in Buddhism.

"It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back," the simple woman said. "What time is it? Xuan'er, go to sleep quickly."

Ning Xuan went to sleep.

After tossing and turning all night, he was covered in sweat. After bathing, he didn't ask Xiaojie to serve him, but lay down on the soft couch, feeling relaxed, yet he couldn't sleep.

The sky slowly brightened.

Golden, warm sunlight fell from the sky.

By the afternoon, the old man holding the Rain of Pears Needle received the news.

"Boss, everything is normal. No surprises. I even ran a lap on the mountain. Young Master Ning is really willful," the subordinate reported.

The old man said sternly, "Whether Young Master Ning is willful or not is not for you to say."

The subordinate grinned, "Got it, Boss. I won't say it again, won't say it again, okay?" He had the air of a rough-and-tumble man.

After he left, the old man said, "Everything is normal. Sigh, everyone knows Master Ning had a son in his old age, but... is he too doting on this son?"

Thinking of Ning Xuan’s thin arms and legs, he couldn't help but sigh.

In Young Master Ning’s room, the windows were all closed.

Ning Xuan looked at the panel.

【Heavenly Demon Record】

【Life Attribute Gate 1: Mountain-Crashing Bear】 (Not yet summoned)

【Life (Physique): 1】

【Nature (Spirit): 1】

He silently said in his heart, "I invoke the Heavenly Demon Record."

As the thought fell, a mysterious talisman appeared in his mind. The ghost-drawn symbols on the record exuded a profound and mysterious aura, but he knew these symbols represented the "Mountain-Crashing Bear."

The record burned.

At the same time, a powerful force surged into his body.

The shadows in the secret room slowly stretched and deepened. In the bronze mirror appeared a fierce figure, a zhang tall, so strong it looked like it was covered in a heavy armor of muscle.

It was refined steel armor, tempered a thousand times, tightly and resiliently wrapping the body. Every muscle was sharply defined, like it had been carved by a knife, containing explosive power.

On the roof, the black cat that had been strolling suddenly bristled, let out a shrill cry, and shot away into the distance like it had been electrocuted.

Ning Xuan hunched his back, suppressing his height, looking at his imposing self in the mirror. He glanced at "【Life (Physique): 1 (3.7)】", frowned slightly, and thought to himself: 'After all, this is power added by the Heavenly Demon Record; I must do some training myself. Before, I thought this world only had low-level martial arts, it seems I was wrong. I must search again.'

(End of chapter)