Present moment:-
The blade was inches from Jin's throat when a weight fell over the courtyard, as if the sky had pressed down on everyone.
'Wha- what the hell is this feeling!? My whole body feels like it's carrying a huge boulder on its back!'
A silver arc of moon-qi, five meters long, sliced between Jin and the assassin. The assassin staggered, barely dodging by a hair.
Jin hit the ground, his shoulder pouring blood onto the stone.
"Aagh!"
He tore cloth from his trousers and bound the wound as best he could. It didn't fully cover the cut properly, but it slowed the bleeding.
'Okay, at least I get a breather now. Plus I'll keep this with me for now.' He then looks at the party that came.
"Ranyi!" Xiao's voice tore through the courtyard, thick with fear and pain.
Around him, figures closed in: Zhenyao, Guard Xiao, his teammates, and the woman who'd arrived just in time.
An incredibly beautiful woman. A fairy, if you will. Wearing pink hanfu and a sensu fan at her hand which somehow was able to produce that sword-like strike. For Jin, the best thing was her eyes. A contradiction to her beauty: sharp, cold, resolute.
"What a badass..." Jin unconsciously muttered.
[+15 AFFECTION POINTS]
"Do you think this is a hunting ground?" Yunxi's voice was even, but her qi flowed into his shoulder, warm and steady. "You do not kill my guests here."
Zhenyao's eyes twitched in annoyance.
'Weren't we just about to have a battle to death!!'
Jin watched his body slowly getting better. It was a small relief in torture, but relief nonetheless.
"I'm no healer," Yunxi said lightly as she pressed qi into his shoulder. "This will have to do. The blade was coated with a vicious poison, but as long as I keep feeding you qi, you'll hold on."
"Th-thank you… I'm Jin Ranyi."
Jin nodded at the fairy in front of him and blushed.
'Oh my God, she actually talked to me. Th- this angel! I swear I'll never get mad at those side characters using a thousand words to just describe an armpit of a jade beauty. Looking at her, I get it.'
Zhenyao's eyes flicked toward Jin.
'If I'm not mistaken… that's Jin Ranyi, Xiao's only disciple. Hah. Must've stumbled into the assassin while she was taking the artifact. Unlucky brat.'
The assassin, regaining her composure, frantically searched her robes.
"Where? No, no, no… WHERE IS IT!?"
Her gaze snapped to Jin's clothes where a tablet-like artifact gleamed faintly.
"WHEN!?"
She didn't waste breath. In a flash, she lunged at Jin with killing intent. Only to be stopped by-
CLANG!
Steel rang against steel. Moon qi and blood qi flaring like a storm.
"My, my…" Yunxi's voice was silk over steel, eyes never leaving her opponent. "For an assassin of your caliber to press this far… my boy must be worth quite a bounty."
The assassin hissed. "Trust me, Yunxi, it'll be better if you don't meddle."
Jin only then realized what had happened.
He wasn't just beside her, he was in her arms. Yunxi had pulled him against her, tucking his head beneath her chin, cradling him close with one arm as if he were her own child. With the other, she parried with effortless grace, her fan holding back killing intent as though swatting dust from the air.
Warmth and qi seeped steadily into his wounds, mending the torn flesh thread by thread. Her scent reached him, lotus and rain, cool and clean, like the breath of mountains after a storm.
"I guess it's been a while since I last shown the world my strength so you all started thinking that you had a chance." Yunxi said with a calm smile on her face.
Jin flushed.
'Okay… I've got the body of a fourteen-year-old, so she probably thinks nothing of this.' Jin shook his head. 'Survive first, swoon later.'
He scrambled up and clung to her back. "This'll be better. She wants that tablet; she won't let me walk out with it."
Yunxi understood after seeing the glowing tablet in his sleeves.
"Sure, keep hold of that tablet. It's worth more than I expected."
"Don't worry, I've got a plan. You just focus on her." Jin tucked his chin against her shoulder and whispered some words.
With the two of them set, the courtyard cleared like someone had drawn a breath in and held it.
They moved as one. A blink-and-you-miss-it vanish, then two silhouettes crashing back into the fray.
CLANG!
Steel screamed on steel. Sparks rained as techniques struck stone and shattered water features into spray.
Jin, riding on her back, was in a daze. Experiencing superhuman combat first-hand.
Those two were moving with the speed of supercars. They used techniques like a carefully practiced dance on the battlefield, making sonic booms whenever they clashed.
But the thing that took his attention was something else. Invisible, yet colourful. Like air, yet felt heavy. A pleasant warmth which was skillfully being used to press the other party like a dam.
'Ah… so this is what qi feels like.'
Though both fought with killing intent, neither went all-out, especially Yunxi. She had to shield Jin, keep the assassin from slaughtering her men, and read her opponent at the same time. Both were probing, not finishing.
Jin, who also understood this, was intensely watching their moments, burning them in his memories. After just a few moments, a notification came.
[Congratulations, you've learned the skill - Silken Tide Step]
[Congratulations, you've learned the skill - Shadow Steps]
Startled by the notifications, his grip on Yunxi slipped; his right hand slid down from the nape of her neck.
Yunxi adjusted in an instant, folding her body to cover him as one would tuck a child beneath a cloak. The assassin saw the opening and seized it.
"Smoke Wreath!" A compact smoke bomb exploded in the area that ate light and qi-sensing for a few breaths.
Yunxi's eyes narrowed. Black filaments lanced from the assassin's wrists, weaving false bodies in the smoke,
'Phantom Thread, a Moyong trick. Are they involved?' Yunxi's mind sharpened.
A single sweep of her fan split the smoke into ribbons; the air reformed. The assassin had used the confusion to blend with the clones.
All the phantom clones spoke in unison, voices cold as wind through bone.
"Strength, speed, technique. You may best me in all, Yunxi. But you're still human. With that dead weight, you will fall."
Jin jabbed a finger, from his perch on her back.
"Dead weight? Says the two-hundred-year-old hag trying to hurt a fourteen-year-old."
Silence slammed the courtyard. Even the onlookers had their mouths open, staring at the boy riding piggyback on one of the most feared figures in the world.
Of course Jin didn't know shit about the assassin, but he wasn't just going to lose in word battle against a person saying the classic,
"COURTING DEATH!!"