Níng walks in, opening the door.
“Aomi! I packed all our stuff! Let’s go!”
She jumps onto his bed.
Aomi gets up and nods.
He squints at the sunlight streaming through the window.
It is far too bright for his liking.
Turning his face toward Níng, he says,
“We’ll leave after breakfast.”
Níng nods eagerly.
“After breakfast? I already made it! We should hurry up!”
Aomi takes one last look around the room before heading to the kitchen.
…
After a long week of traveling, they finally arrive in the Jīn region.
Níng’s eyes widen as she takes in the view from the hill where they stand.
The Jīn region is beautiful.
Its cities and sects stretch across the landscape, their grand structures carved with remarkable craftsmanship.
Each city seems to possess its own unique charm.
Aomi, however, pays little attention to the scenery.
His gaze travels from one city to another as he searches for the route leading to the Gang region.
He glances at Níng.
Then he looks again.
She’s gone.
Aomi turns his head and spots her running down the hill, laughing like a maniac as she chases after a wild boar with her spear in hand.
He tilts his head, taking a moment to process the scene.
She really does enjoy bloodshed.
I suppose I’ll allow her some hunting time.
Aomi sits down, setting their luggage aside.
Dragonflies buzz lazily around him.
Nearby, a merchant travels along the road in a carriage loaded with gold.
Aomi’s gaze settles on the carriage.
Then, he notices something else.
A group of bandits suddenly surrounds the merchant, blocking his way and threatening him.
“HAH! Hand over your carriage, and we’ll let you live!”
The merchant clutches his belongings, trembling.
“This gold is enough to last us our entire lives! I won’t even need to wander through forests and rob travelers anymore!”
Aomi’s eyes narrow slightly.
An opportunity begins to take shape in his mind.
Just then, Níng returns with the dead boar.
“Aomiii! Look! I got this big boy!”
Aomi turns toward her and waves her closer.
She drops the boar beside them and crouches in front of him.
“What happened?”
Aomi leans closer and whispers, This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Go down there. You can fight.”
Níng’s face lights up.
She immediately looks around, searching for her opponents.
“Where?! Where?!”
Aomi presses a finger to his lips.
“Shhh.”
Then he points toward the road on the other side of the hill.
Níng cautiously peeks over the slope.
Below, she spots the bandits surrounding the merchant and his carriage.
For a brief moment, she stares at the scene.
Then—
She leaps into the air.
“FINALLY!”
Níng crashes down on one of the bandits, driving her spear straight into his chest.
She yanks it free, spraying blood across the surrounding bandits.
Before they can react, she rushes toward the others and swings her spear wildly.
The blinded bandits stumble backward, unable to defend themselves as she cuts through them.
Six bandits fall beneath her relentless assault, their chests torn open by her strikes.
“What?! Who the hell is she?!”
“UGH! KILL HER!”
The surviving bandits frantically wipe the blood from their eyes, desperately trying to regain their vision.
But by the time they can see clearly, half of their group is already dead.
Ten bandits had surrounded the merchant.
Now, only four remain.
Before they can even gather themselves, another bandit is stabbed from behind and hurled toward them.
The remaining three stumble and fall to the ground.
“H-Hey! We can negotiate!”
“You can take half the gold, and we’ll take the other half!”
“Yes! It’s a profitable deal for you! You get half the gold all to yourself, while the three of us have to share the rest!”
One of them suddenly stops talking.
“Guys… I don’t think she’s interested in negotiating.”
He points toward Níng.
She is dragging something behind her.
No.
Someone.
It’s the merchant.
A deep wound pierces his heart, and his lifeless body drags across the ground as Níng approaches them.
She looms over the remaining bandits, her eyes gleaming with the madness of a hungry dragon.
The three men scramble backward.
“N-No! Don’t kill us! You can take all the gold!”
“That’s right! We don’t want anything anymore!”
Níng tilts her head.
She grabs them by their necks, lifting them as they desperately claw at her hands.
Meanwhile, Aomi rests his chin on his hand, calmly observing the massacre from the hill.
His fingers begin tapping against his chin in a steady rhythm as his gaze shifts toward the carriage.
” I intended to keep the merchant alive.
After all, I knew Níng’s bloodlust during a fight would eventually get him killed.”
He sighs and rubs his temples, closing his eyes as the final bandits struggle in Níng’s grasp.
“Well, what’s done is done.”
Aomi opens his eyes and looks at the carriage again.
Atleast we get all of the gold.
He watches Níng finish off the last of the bandits.
“What a misfortune for the merchant and the bandits to have encountered her.”
Aomi shifts his gaze between Níng and the dead boar.
He recalls the rumors he’d heard in the streets of the Xue Sect.
Some people had spoken about Níng’s unusual habits, including how she sometimes killed even her own acquaintances.
During the battles between the Xue and Huo Sects, she’d rampaged through both sides’ territories, slaughtering soldiers without distinction.
Aomi’s expression remains unchanged.
She’s certainly not someone I’d want as an enemy, For now.
He lifts the dead boar and tosses it down toward Níng, who has just finished off the remaining bandits.
Her eyes dart toward the falling animal, and she catches it effortlessly.
“Hey! It’s over now!” Aomi calls out from atop the cliff.
Níng looks up at him, then slowly lowers her gaze to the boar in her arms.
She nods.
“Okaaay! That was the best experience ever! I’ll go out with you more often!”
Aomi pinches the bridge of his nose and nods in resignation before turning his attention to the carriage.
“Let’s take all the gold and sell it at the market.”
Níng glances at the carriage, then down at the boar she’d hunted.
“Okay! But first, we’ll eat this tasty boy!”
Aomi sighs as he makes his way down the hill and opens the carriage door.
Inside are four boxes filled with gold.
A faint smile forms on his lips.
He takes out his pouch and begins transferring the gold into it.
Meanwhile, Níng cleans up the mess.
She stacks the dead bodies beside the road before carrying the boar back up the hill.
Aomi glances at Níng before shouting, “Hey! I tossed it down so we could follow the road and find somewhere to eat!”
He tilts his head back to look at her properly.
“Get down here. We’ll be taking this road.”
Níng tilts her head in confusion as she looks toward the path below.
After a moment, she finally understands what he means and makes her way down the hill.
“Okayyy! But we’re eating as soon as we stop to rest!”
Aomi nods and returns to gathering the gold from the carriage.