Chapter 4: First quest

Yuan Jia looked at us with no emotions and said to me "Junior brother, you are here at last. I have a mission for you."

Yuan Jia is the definition of cold beauty. Well, it is best to call her a "kuudere" as the weebs do.

She is calm and collected on the outside and never shows any sign of panic. She doesn't show her emotions in front of others and only shows them when we are alone.

She seems to others as an indifferent, anti-social, loner, and cold-blooded person (not that they dare voice it out). But as someone who knows her well, I know she is the caring big sister that took care of Huang as her own little brother from childhood and loves him dearly.

She has dark brown hair. She has a tattoo on her back and shoulders. How do I know? Well in Huang's memories there was a couple of instances when they bath together when he was but a small child.

Her face? Just let me tell you that she has the best face in this life and my last life altogether. In the divine central continent, she is one of the "Five fairies".

"Your wish is my command matriarch, just tell me the directions."

I could see her mouth twitching from my sly remark. Thankfully my cupped fists covered my smiling face so she didn't notice it.

"I'll part the details with you in private, follow me." She told me.

She looked at Hu Anjing and added "as for you, Anjing, you should go and start your training routine."

Following her, I soon reached a courtyard. This is one of the places that Huang frequented for the last two years. Because he was training under Yuan Jia for the last two years there were times that she had meetings in the sect's main hall, so he would come to this courtyard to train.

After entering the courtyard, Yuan Jia turned around towards me. Looking at me she opened her arms. Without uttering a word she kept looking at me, waiting for my response.

Looking at her it was obvious that she wants a hug, but doesn't want to ask for it or more clearly her pride won't allow it.

Because she was an orphan from a very young age she didn't have many interactions with others and even after grandpa Long [A/N: his grandpa's name is Li Long] accepted her as her disciple she always looked at him as her master and not her family. But after Taking care of little Huang from age of four, she started looking at him as her family and has a bit of possessiveness about him. Even with this, she is naive when it comes to expressing her feelings to others, but oh well, it does make her look cute.

Without further ado, I embraced her. "How are you, big sister? Is everything fine?"

I know that she likes it when I call her big sister so I called her that way to make her a bit happier.

"...Yes...How are you?" she answered after a bit.

"I am also fine." After that, I kept quiet and let her have her fill of our hug.

Time passed like that and after a minute or so we remembered that we had a mission to talk about so we begrudgingly got separated from each other.

"By the way what was the mission that you wanted me to do, big sister Jia?" I asked her to start the conversation.

"Yes, a new ancient sword mark is found, it would be a great help for you to comprehend it." She said straight to the point.

The so-called ancient marks are the after-effects of seven artifacts dropping to the world. After these weapons dropped there were some slashes and marks left behind in the world.

It is said that these marks are results of uncontrolled power of weapons when dropping down or marks left by some other weapon that dropped with these seven but destroyed in the process or was snatched away by someone.

Anyways these sword marks are pretty much beneficial for a swordsman and with me comprehending them there is a chance for enlightenment.

In my level using the Mingyun sword is nigh impossible. So the next best thing is using these sword marks to better my swordsmanship.

This mission is more like a reward but there is also a reason for it to be called a mission. When something like a sword mark is found it has to be comprehended as soon as possible, if not there might be someone else finding it and trying to comprehend it.

You might be thinking 'how dare they show no face to heavenly sword sect?' Well, after some fights in the past the seven holy lands came to an agreement that the first one who comprehends an ancient mark is the destined one and no one can stop anyone who is comprehending a mark, and if done, it is a clear disrespect to all the holy lands. So yeah, that is a no-go.

Looking at Yuan Jia I answered, "But wouldn't it be better for you to comprehend this mark big sister?"

Although I know this would benefit me very much, I know this could be useful to Yuan Jia too. The stronger she becomes the better it is for her position as sect matriarch.

"It won't benefit me as much as it would be beneficial for you, this way is better." She answered me with her unemotional face but the love and care in words were clear.

I smiled at her and told her "Big sister... how can I ever make all this up to you?"

"There is no reason for you to do anything. It is my duty as a big sister." She answered like it was nothing.

"That can't be. I have to find something good for your birthday to compensate..." giving her a birthday gift is the only way to make her accept the gift easily.

As Yuan Jia was an orphan, she didn't know her birthday so Huang when he was seven used the bone age test on her.

This test show's the age of the one who is touching it, but there is a problem. This is a test for accepting new disciples and it just shows the age, not the birthday.

So Huang the little genius took Yuan Jia with him to the stone for 10 months every day until the number on the stone changed. This way he found her birthday.

What he didn't know at the time was that the formation on the stone was responsible for flooring the age meaning if your age was 14.20 it would only show 14. So if he asked someone else he could find the answer in a day instead of ten months.

These ten months were one of the reasons that he and Yuan Jia became so close.

"Okay." Yuan Jia answered, this time she had a smile on her face. It seems that she is remembering those times too.

After a few seconds, I asked again "Is there any variable that I should keep in mind in this mission?"

Yuan Jia pondered for a moment "Nothing special, just follow the family motto as always."

I looked at her with a small frown on my face "...Will do."

The family in her sentence is not the Li family, it's me and Yuan Jia and lately, we added Hu Anjing as a 'beta tester'.

Well about the motto, it is as simple as it gets: 'expect the worst, assume nothing, and always anticipate an attack.'

The small frown on my face wasn't because of this motto. No, it was because when I thought that I might end up killing someone in this mission, I was calm.

I'm not one of those 'I can not kill' guys but it was a bit of shock for me to feel that killing is only natural.

It might be because my memories are mixed with these 14 years, meaning although a am an earthling but I also have the mentality of a person of this world. In a world where power is justice, you have to have the power and decisiveness to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

It may sound cliché, but this is the reality in a world where an expert's fart can kill a person...

"I have some preparation to do big sister, After that, I'll be on my way to comprehend this sword mark."

"No problem. Make sure you have your life-saving treasures on hand, okay?"

"Will do big sister."

Now that I know that I am a 'young master', who knows what could happen? There might be an expert living as a beggar and I somehow offend him. The more protection that I have the better.

There is also the fact that this is an ancient sword mark so I have to be more careful.

Bidding farewell to Yuan Jia and Hu Anjing respectively, I headed toward my courtyard.

On the way, I was thinking about my future plans. Deep in thoughts, suddenly I remembered someone.

Taken aback, I muttered to myself "Why didn't I think of him sooner."