Mortal realm...A young man in dark cloak sat in Puang establishment known to serve the best dumpling in the town of Yiting, his straw hat hid his face from other people that came into the store to eat and drink. Within the folds of his cloak was his sword, Nacanjin a weapon of unparalleled splendor.
"Mister! Here is the jar of water that you ordered!"
Lin Cheng watched as the store attendant in brown robes place a dark brown jar of water on his table, while bowing to the regular of the store.
"Thank you kind sir!"
Lin Cheng"s mouth curved up in a smile, as he thanked the attendant, before picking up a cup to pour himself a drink of water.
On his table was a plate of dumplings, green vegetables, white rice and a pair of chopsticks. After blessing the food that was laid out in front of him, Lin Cheng began eaten while keep an eye on the people that walked through the doors of the establishment. During his time at the mortal realm, he had seen all kinds of things, therefore he guard was always up wherever he went to, never staying in one place for too long. A while later, Lin Cheng was done eating and reached for the embroidery of purple pouch by the waist of his robe to pull out a few coins, placing them on the table, before standing up to leave the establishment.
"Have a good day Mister!"
The attendant called out to the man who had just paid for the food, watching as he made his way out of the store, whose building had two layers of room where customers could come in and seat where they want. The first layer was the entrance into the store, it had several chairs and tables of wood arranged, while the last layer had the same layout as the first, customers that sat there could have a clear view of what was going on below.
"He just left, follow him!"
The shop owner whispered to the group of men inside the store, whom he fed information to about the regular that just came out of his store. He had been watching the man for some time now and saw that he paid generously, which made the shopkeeper to think that he was from a wealthy household, probably a young master from one of the n.o.ble houses in Yiting town.
The men dressed in black robes ran after the man, following at a safe distance, they saw him heading out of town towards the forest that led to the outskirt of Yiting town. Lin Cheng knew that he was being followed, which was why instead of remaining in town, he took the path that led towards the thick forest out of the town. The men that tailed him did not that he already knew that they onto him from the moment he left the store.
"HAAAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!"
The men chose to announce their presence to the lone man walking the thick bamboo forest, despite it being daylight, the place was eerily quiet with no one pa.s.sing by.
Lin Cheng stopped on his track when he heard the raucous laughter from the men behind him.
"Don"t bother to call for help, no one walks these forest!"
"..."
Lin Cheng turned around to look at the men from underneath his straw hat, while counting the number of people he would have to fight with, it came down to six of them who had their knives pointed at him.
"Give us everything you have on you!"
Their blatant request for his personal possession made Lin Cheng know that they were robbers, even though he already had an inkling about who they were.
He could see greed reflected in their eyes, while their weapon was facing him, on closer look, he saw that they didn"t look as confident as they sounded. The hands that held the knives shook slightly while speaking to him.
Lin Cheng was about to reach for the sword inside of his cloak when he felt something silently move towards the men.
"ARGHHH!!!"
He saw them scream in pain, as blood splattered on the dead leaves that covered the ground.
"Wh..Who is there?!"
"Show yourself!!!!!"
The robbers screamed in agony while their eyes roamed around searching for the cause of their injuries. A melodious laughter was the response that came back, as whoever that inflicted the wound to them was yet to reveal themselves to the robbers.
"Brother I"m scared! This place is cursed! Let"s leave!"
One of the robbers pleaded for them to leave the forest, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"Shut up you coward! Wait till I catch the person behind it!"
They saw that the man that they pursued into the forest had no left where he was, they thought he was afraid to leave just like one of them was, slowly they kept approaching the man in straw hat. They were only five feet from him when series of silver robe darts came sailing towards them. Lin Cheng saw the weapon making its way towards the defenseless men, this forced him to bring out Nancanjin from its sheath, the light from the purple sword severed the robes to pieces.
When they saw the sword skill of the man that they were trying to steal from, this struck terror into their heart.
"Demon! Demon! Run!!!!!!!"
Lin Cheng found it strange that the men didn"t run when they were first attack, but only thought to do so while he was trying to save their lives. Just as he pulled the sword from its sheath, Lin Cheng returned it back to its former position, while allowing his spiritual sense to pick out where the intruder was hiding.
"Come out! I know where you are!"
"Oh! oh?"
A young girl in red silk robe with her dark hair held at the top by a gold bejeweled hair pin that snaked around her hair with red stones on them. On each ear was an heirloom of gold earrings that had crimson orbs suspended at the center, glimmering with the light that came from within.
"Who are you?!"
Lin Cheng asked the strange girl that suddenly appeared in front of him in a whip of red smoke. As though no one was talking, the girl kept hopping from one foot to the other, twirling around with her robes carried by the wind. Lin Cheng did not know what to make of the imprudence of the girl, he sensed a strange aura that was not found among cultivators. Her movement was very fast, during the time that she fought with the robbers, such that he had a hard time following her.
When he saw she was not answering him, Lin Cheng took matters into his hand and flew towards her with killing intent in his aura. The girl immediately noticed the change in the man and drew out a fresh set of rope darts that appeared out of a red smoke that she conjured.
At the last moment, Lin Cheng modulated his aura causing his killing intent to disappear, by then her robe dart had already made its way around his neck. The pointed ends digging into his flesh.
Lin Cheng purposely left himself open, so that he could find out the ident.i.ty of the girl, since she wasn"t revealing who she was to him. The moment the darts penetrated the flesh of Lin Cheng, the source of spiritual energy from the weapon was uncovered, for it those from the fox clan, an ent.i.ty that existed separately from the realm of cultivators and immortals, one that chose not to side with any of the realms. Although Lin Cheng had read of them, this was his first time seeing on in person. He recalled that they were devious beings that enslaved the heart of many that encountered them. Some chose to live in the human realm among humans taking up their form, others chose to live freely in the heavenly realm deep in the mountains far from other cultivators, surrounded by treacherous paths where many have been said to have died from wanting to enter their fortress of eternal flames, blue flames that burns with end.
Spiritual energy reveals many things about their owner such as where they originated from, their level of fighting prowess and countless other things. He saw "true" face of the fair young girl that faced, although she looked somewhat human, but her hair was the color of silver, sprouting pointed ears by each side of her head. To him, she looked like a girl at first, but after his spiritual energy connected with that of hers he saw the woman that lay underneath the mask of the human skin she was wearing.
"You are from the fox clan?!"
The question threw the girl"s face into that of confusion, this caused her to loosen her grip on him and pulling back to a safe distance.
"..."
"I bear no ill will towards you, are you really from the fox clan?"
After looking at him for a while, the young girl decided to speak to him.
"I"m Yan Xuequi, granddaughter of Fox king Yan Shuchang."
The fox princess looked at Lin Cheng with wariness in her eyes, she was pa.s.sing through the mortal realm to see some of her people that lived in Yiting town when she saw some men follow Lin Cheng. One thing about the fox clan which her grandfather always warned her to be careful of, was being too inquisitive. Which was what she ended of doing, by following them into the forest, rather than going her way, led to her fated meeting with a cultivator from the way he wielded his sword, the fox princess could tell that she was the kind that her grandfather didn"t want her a.s.sociating with.
"Stupid! I am so stupid! Why didn"t I turn a blind eye! He could clearly have fended them off, but how was I to know since he never showed his sword?! I don"t want to delay any more! But what if he captures me and takes me back to his people! Oh no! Grandfather would be so angry if he finds out that I met someone from a cultivation sect! Xuequi! Let"s appologize to him and beg him to look the other way! Oh else I would be skinned alive when I return back to Qitou mountain!"
Mount Qitou was the kingdom of the fox clan, where the Fox king Yan Shuchang ruled with an iron hand.
"Fox Princess Yan Xuequi, I am Lin Cheng from the BaoXu sect."
Lin Chang gave a formal bow to the fox princess, whose face showed an array of emotions that ranged from confusion to fear. She didn"t know the intentions of the cultivators whom she had thought was human at first. To her, all humans were weak creatures that needed protection, since their live was very short compared to those from the fox clan. Yan Xuequi had watched people from her clan live as humans and marry a human, but their children only gained half the immortal powers of their fox parent, which meant they had half the life span of those from the fox clan. The sad part was that they had to watch their human parent die before them, an unending cycle of pain and loss that many who walked the path.
"Lin Cheng of the BaoXu sect, since I saved your life from those bandits. I deserve to walk freely back to my people who are waiting for me return."
The fox princess wanting to see the face that lay beneath the straw hat, sent a gust of wind, so sharp that they torn the hat to shreds. Yan Xuequi was not expecting to see a fair jade beauty of a man, this made her face burning in a shade of pink, as fleshly thoughts took over her mind.
Lin Cheng saw the sudden change in the color of the fair skin of the fox princess, not knowing what had caused such a change.
"Fox Princess Yan Xuequi, are you okay?"
He saw her take to the air, as though she was fleeing from some unseen army.
"I bid you farewell! Lin Cheng of the BaoXu sect!"
It was only when her back became like that was a tiny speck in the distance, that was when Lin Cheng whispered the words, "I hope we meet again someday."