CH 2

As soon as Su Jin left the premises, the eyes of the man laid on the stacks of straw opened in an instant. A pale, white face with traces of solemnness and a pair of phoenix eyes which contained tints of anguish. He stared into the void silently in deep thoughts. The inaudible signals emitted from his entire body coated his surroundings with a gloomy atmosphere.

Fiddling with the ring on his right hand, he then tapped on it lightly with a finger. The ring, decorated with a design resembling the head of a beast, produced an ethereal sound which seemed to be some kind of a hidden mechanism.

In the next moment, an unnatural breeze passed by… bringing along two shrouded figures in front of the owner of the ring.

“These lowly subordinates have been late in reporting for our duties, Your Highness. We beseech your punishment.”

In response to the secret signal, the two new faces appeared promptly in front of the man of apparent noble birth, with a knee on the ground kneeling respectfully without making any redundant noises.

The identity of their master, Ming Jue, was the youngest and also the most doted son of the current emperor, conferred with the title of Prince Li. Yet, he was met with an assassination attempt during the banquet today, being pursued and cornered by a group of assailants.

The entire imperial palace fell into a state of upheaval after that incident. In great wrath, the emperor had ordered for the immediate lockdown of the capital, instantly mobilizing the entire contingent of imperial guards to conduct a thorough investigation into the assassination attempt and a search and rescue operation to bring back Prince Li in one piece.

Upon visual confirmation that the Prince was outwardly unscathed, save for the pale facial complexion, the two of them heaved a sigh of relief. If any mishap were to have occurred to Prince Li, the entire capital would have been turned into living hell…

Ming Jue’s pupils flickered while he stared wordlessly at the guards kneeling before him. Although he appeared to be calm externally, a turbulent storm was raging internally within his heart.

He had reincarnated back into the past?

Seeing the two loyal guards who were supposed to have lost their lives while serving him, being alive and kicking in front of him now, Ming Jue became certain that he had traveled back in time, to the moment right after he was poisoned by the assassination attempt.

But the current iteration had a single deviation…

He glanced at the direction where Su Jin had just left. As he recalled the earlier incident, his complexion darkened and his eyes turned seething red.

“That outrageous woman! How dare she!”

……

Meanwhile, Su Jin had originally planned to head back right after picking up some firewood. Little did she expect to run into a group of soldiers armed with torches and sharp sabres searching around for something, and they were just about to pass through her current location.

After some internal calculations, she decided to avoid the soldiers. Despite being fully confident in her own abilities if they were to have a head-on skirmish, she could not stop worrying about the man who was left behind alone in the temple and wanted to return as soon as possible.

She located a tall, sturdy tree and ascended to the top of the tree with a few quick leaps.

After lying low in patience for a burning incense worth of time, she confirmed that the torches of light had moved a considerable distance away from her location. Su Jin then hopped down in a single swift motion and landed safely on the ground. Dusting off her palms, she dashed towards the temple with the firewood in tow.

“Creak…”

The wooden door of the temple swung open unsteadily. Su Jin pushed the door, only to be greeted with the scene of an empty stack of straw on the floor. The man had vanished without a single trace.

“My man..? Where did my man go?”

She tossed and turned every single stack of straw, thoroughly scanning every single nook and cranny in the temple in search of her man.

“He… he left me?”

Su Jin was taken aback. She carefully observed her surroundings for a second time in search of the man’s traces – the footprints on the floor… were left by her.

“The man that I had just picked up… flew away?”

Thinking that the man did not have any interest in her, she buried the feelings of regret in her heart and shrugged the unpleasantness off her shoulders. A lady of her caliber had no need to worry about finding a husband.

Since her man had left, she no longer bothered keeping up with appearances and behaved however she liked. After all, the things that she had done today could be considered laborious work and she was pretty exhausted. With a big yawn, she reminisced on the earlier incidents and basked in the afterglow, albeit a short one.

She then lied down on the stacks of straw and quickly entered into a deep slumber.

What a forgiving and big-hearted lady she was…

The next morning, Su Jin woke up and did her morning stretches. Playing with a straw in her mouth, she contemplated her next destination as her legs moved aimlessly.

Before arriving in the capital, the original owner of this body had formerly resided in a place named Shangxi village, which was half a month’s travel distance from the capital by horse carriage.

Her journey began when the original owner of the body discovered by accident that she was not related by blood with the family that brought her up. Based on what she had overheard from her mother’s conversation, she was a child purchased off from human traffickers.

The mother had initially planned to groom her up to be the bride for her frail son who had a weak constitution since birth. But somewhere along the lines, the mother had developed maternalistic instincts towards the child, and started treating her as though she was one of her own. After that, there was no longer any mention regarding the matter of a child bride.

As for the story of how she came to discover that she was the biological daughter of the Chen family, it could be traced back to when Madam Chen visited the County of Fengyuan to visit her old friends and coincidentally bumped into foster mother Qin.

Intrigued by the outward resemblance in the appearances between the original owner of the body and Madam Chen, her foster mother had a hard time holding her tongue and gossip eventually  began to spread.

When the gossip reached the ears of the original owner of the body, she secretly took some money from the family stash and finally arrived at the capital after overcoming several months of ordeals, all for the sake of finding her blood relatives.

But now, the current Su Jin preferred to return to Shangxi Village instead, though her decision wavered when she considered the amount of time it would take to travel on foot.

Standing by the side of the road, Su Jin occasionally kicked some stones to vent out her irritation. A pout could be seen on her face as she lamented the fact that the original owner had left the body penniless. She had to find a means to obtain money.

When she considered the skills she was good at, there was nothing she could claim to be better at than hunting avian creatures and gigantic beasts. Thanks to her previous life where she had been raised in the hunting squad of the tribe, she had a fully tempered body, boasting of bones even tougher than boulders.

But aside from a few tiny hills and sporadic forests, she had yet to come across a location suitable for such abilities to shine in her present environment.

Just as Su Jin was busy dealing with her woes, her ears picked up sounds of horse gallops from a distance. Estimating from the frequency and magnitude of hooves clapping, she judged that the approaching party should be a group of decent size. She turned her head and took a glance, only to find five to six tall, muscular men brandishing their whips while moving towards her on the back of their mount.

Seeing that the opposite party consisted of a lone young lady, the eyes of the well-built males lit up as they leapt down from their steeds.

A man with a scar on his face circled for a few rounds over Su Jin as he brushed the corner of his mouth, before proclaiming with a flamboyant laugh, “Look, my brothers. Hasn’t it been just a short time since our departure from the hideout and we have already found ourselves a rare article? Look at this. The clothes might be somewhat shabby, but the skin on the petite face seems pretty tender.”

“A little lady wandering around in the wilderness alone. Maybe she had been waiting for us – big brothers to pick her up?” Another man with tiny eyes followed up, rubbing his palms together as his eyes sparkled looking at Su Jin while leaking vile intentions.

The rest of the crowd broke into laughter when they heard his words.

On the other side, Su Jin’s eyes brightened up as well. She had not expected that the solution to her traveling expense woes would present itself at her doorsteps so quickly.

Godsends weren’t just a myth?

As she gloated at the stroke of sudden luck, Su Jin mimicked the actions of the scar-faced man. Circling around the entire group of men, she brushed her chin lightly while silently assessing them as the edges of her lips curled up gradually.

Sticking both hands on her hips, she gave out a confident, yet maniacal laugh in a much louder and more spectacular fashion than the group of males just did

.

The group of men: “……”

The roles of the villain and the victim became… unclear?

“What is the joyous occasion, little lady? Couldn’t contain your excitement at the sight of us? Come on, let us go to a better place where you can have a closer look…” As the man spoke, he extended a hand towards Su Jin…

Su Jin looked at the outstretched hand with raised brows. Although a smile was displayed on her face, her gaze was icy cold. In a single reach, she grabbed the wrist and violently twisted it.

A clear, cracking sound was heard, followed by a loud piercing shriek that reached the skies.

After picking her ears, she raised a hand towards the remaining group and taunted them with a beckoning gesture.

The remaining men were still in the midst of their own fantasies, imagining the pleasant time that they would soon be enjoying. Surprised by the sudden turn of events, the shameless smile on their faces froze.

As they regained their senses, the group of men rushed towards the lady together with ferocious gazes while uttering all kinds of death threats. There was no way for them to lose if they all gang up against a single woman right…?

…… A short while later…

The group of men got cleanly wiped out. Throwing out a series of consecutive flying kicks, Su Jin had sent the whole lot of them crawling on the ground.

With their chest still in pain, the faces of men paled as they shifted their hands to the injured area, periodically letting out uncontrollable coughs. The pain did not seem to be subsiding over time.

The man with the scar, who sustained the least amount of injuries, rolled to one side as he yelled at her with an infuriated glare, “Damn bitch, you seeking death? Don’t think you can get away scot-free after this!”

Wouldn’t let me get away? A tiny biscuit crumb like you? As Su Jin retorted the man’s words within her mind, she let out a cold snicker. Before the man had a chance to react, she dashed towards him and viciously stomped on his chest, gradually increasing the pressure exerted from her toes.

She scorned with a slight curl on her lips, “Pretty competent at running your mouth, eh? Piece of dogshit. Did you get drunk from too much cheap alcohol? Sobered up yet?”

In the midst of disparaging the scar-faced man, she threw a sudden kick in another direction, towards the small-eyed man who had attempted to escape while she was occupied. With a loud snap, the small-eyed man kissed the ground face flat in literal terms, as fresh blood smeared across his face.

The remaining men looked at the woman in front of them in horror. What they had originally thought was a feeble lass for them to toy around with ended up to be a fearsome female devil instead.