Chapter 6: Home
The atmosphere of Mistforge had changed.
Yun Che noticed it the moment he stepped out of Cloudweave Outfitters.
The streets were still busy.
Merchants still shouted about fresh produce.
Children still chased one another through the market.
But beneath the ordinary sounds...
Something had shifted.
The guards.
There were far more of them than before.
Pairs of armored warriors now stood at every major intersection, speaking quietly while keeping watch over the crowds.
At the city gate, additional checkpoints had already been erected.
No one entered or left without inspection.
"They're moving quickly," Yun Che murmured.
The discovery of the Black Bear Bandits had shaken the city.
And rightly so.
Mistforge was small.
If a group like that managed to enter unnoticed...
The consequences could be disastrous.
A sharp cry echoed overhead.
Yun Che looked up.
A magnificent white eagle circled above the city walls, its broad wings glistening beneath the afternoon sun.
A Frost Eagle.
Several guards rode upon similar beasts, scanning the forests stretching beyond the mountains.
Far below, another patrol galloped through the western gate.
Not on horses...
But on enormous Frost Wolves.
Their silver-white fur shimmered beautifully as they raced across the snow-covered paths with effortless speed.
The warriors upon their backs disappeared into the forest within moments.
"They're sending scouts."
Yun Che smiled faintly.
Then his gaze lingered on the beasts.
"They're beautiful..."
He had always loved animals.
Even in his previous life.
Back on Earth...
He had owned a noisy green parrot that had somehow learned to imitate his alarm clock.
Every morning the bird would shout before sunrise until Yun Che finally climbed out of bed.
He missed the little troublemaker more than he cared to admit.
Perhaps that was why the sight of spirit beasts stirred something inside him.
One day...
He wanted a companion of his own.
Not merely a mount.
A partner.
A friend.
Unfortunately...
He had deliberately postponed the idea.
A beast wasn't a tool.
It depended upon its master.
At his current level, there was very little Yun Che could do for one.
Once he entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, however, everything would change.
With Ki capable of leaving his body, he could properly nourish, heal, and train a contracted beast.
Until then...
Waiting was the responsible choice.
As always.
By the time he reached home, the familiar smell of fresh herbs greeted him.
The courtyard gate creaked open.
Just in time to see his mother returning from the forest.
Lian Mei carried today's hunt over one shoulder as though it weighed nothing.
A large horned rabbit.
An enormous dark-green lizard.
And...
A thick black snake nearly as long as she was tall.
Yun Che smiled helplessly.
His childhood self had nearly fainted the first time he discovered what counted as dinner in this world.
Snake.
Lizard.
Giant insects.
Venomous beasts.
None of those had appeared particularly appetizing.
His mother had patiently ignored every complaint.
Then she had cooked them.
Somehow...
Everything tasted incredible.
Especially the snake.
That realization had disturbed Yun Che almost as much as reincarnation itself.
Yun Mei noticed where he was looking.
"The snake again?"
He nodded.
"I still can't believe I actually like it."
She laughed softly.
"Good."
"It's healthy."
She set the prey upon a large wooden table.
"The venom becomes harmless after proper preparation."
"In fact..."
She began sorting herbs into neat piles.
"Small amounts strengthen the body's resistance over time."
"Your father used to complain whenever I cooked venomous beasts."
Yun Che raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"He stopped complaining after realizing he could ignore weak poisons."
She smiled mischievously.
"Now he asks me to cook them."
Yun Che chuckled.
That sounded exactly like his father.
Yun Mei glanced toward him.
"You're home early."
"We closed the shop after..."
She immediately noticed his expression.
"What happened?"
Yun Che sat down nearby.
"I argued with Father again."
"The sect?"
He nodded.
She wasn't surprised.
Wordlessly, she washed the blood from the rabbit before speaking.
"You shouldn't think badly of him."
"I don't."
"He just..."
Yun Che searched for the right words.
"...doesn't understand."
Yun Mei continued preparing the ingredients.
"No."
"He understands more than you think."
Yun Che looked at her.
"When your father was young..."
"He also wanted to join a great sect."
Yun Che blinked.
"He never told me that."
"He doesn't like talking about it."
Her voice remained gentle.
"He dreamed of becoming powerful."
"Of reviving the Yun Clan."
"Of restoring its former glory."
The knife paused briefly.
"But life rarely follows the paths we imagine."
"He stayed."
"He became a blacksmith."
"He married me."
She smiled warmly.
"And somewhere along the way..."
"He realized he was happy."
Yun Che quietly listened.
"That doesn't mean the dream disappeared."
"It simply changed."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"When he asks you to join a great sect..."
"He isn't trying to control your future."
"He's offering you the future he once wished he had."
The words settled heavily inside Yun Che.
He had never thought about it that way.
"...I see."
Yun Mei nodded.
"So don't be angry with him."
"I'm not."
"I know."
She smiled.
"You're too much like him."
Yun Che laughed.
"I'll pretend that's a compliment."
"It is."
He watched her continue preparing dinner.
After a moment, curiosity got the better of him.
"What about you, Mother?"
She looked up.
"What do you mean?"
"What did you dream about?"
She considered the question for only a heartbeat.
"I wished for a happy family."
"...That's all?"
"That's all."
"No great sect?"
"No."
"No legendary adventures?"
"I've had enough adventures chasing monsters."
She laughed quietly.
"I don't care whether you join a powerful sect."
"I don't care whether you become famous."
"I don't even care if you end up living exactly like your father."
She glanced toward the family home.
"We already have everything I ever wanted."
"A husband who loves me."
"Two sons who make me proud."
"A warm house."
"Food on the table."
"What more should I ask for?"
For a long moment...
Neither of them spoke.
Yun Che felt something tighten gently inside his chest.
In his previous life...
He had chased promotions.
Worked overtime.
Always believing happiness waited somewhere further ahead.
Listening to his mother...
He wondered whether happiness had sometimes been much closer than he had realized.
Yun Mei suddenly clapped her hands.
"Enough."
Yun Che blinked.
"Enough what?"
"Enough thinking."
She pointed toward the vegetables.
"Come help."
"You know your father can't cut vegetables without somehow making them look offended."
Yun Che laughed as he stood.
"I still don't know how he manages that."
"Neither do I."
She handed him a knife.
"Now stop talking."
"And help me cook before your brother eats everything raw."
-------------------------
After helping his mother prepare the ingredients for dinner, Yun Che washed his hands and glanced toward the setting sun.
There was still time.
The forge wouldn't close for another couple of hours.
His father and brother were still working.
Which meant...
He could disappear for a little while.
Quietly.
Just as he always did.
Beneath the Yun family home lay a small stone basement.
It wasn't large.
Nor was it particularly impressive.
If a stranger wandered inside, they would probably mistake it for an unusually cluttered storage room.
Yun Che, however, called it...
His laboratory.
Several oil lamps illuminated sturdy wooden workbenches covered with sketches, measuring tools, gears, springs, and half-finished mechanical parts.
Shelves lined every wall.
Some held carefully labeled metal ingots.
Others contained monster bones, beast leather, unusual crystals, and jars filled with strange powders.
One entire corner was dedicated to wooden models.
Tiny bicycles.
Carriages.
Boats.
Trains.
Airships.
Hot-air balloons.
Primitive airplanes.
Even small humanoid figures that vaguely resembled armored soldiers.
Yun Che smiled as he looked over them.
They weren't projects.
Not yet.
They were reminders.
Memory was unreliable.
Especially memories from another life.
Whenever he remembered a useful idea, he built a miniature version first.
That way...
Even years later...
He wouldn't forget the concept.
Another shelf held something rather less successful.
Failures.
An exoskeleton whose joints locked every third movement.
Artificial wings that glided beautifully...
Right before dropping their pilot into the nearest bush.
A primitive engine that had exploded loudly enough for his father to ban experiments inside the forge for an entire month.
"...Progress," Yun Che muttered.
Every invention taught him something.
Even if that lesson happened to be...
"Don't stand quite so close next time."
Beside the workbench rested another collection.
Books.
Many books.
Unlike the engineering sketches...
These weren't his.
They belonged mostly to his mother.
Volumes on poisonous herbs.
Venom extraction.
Monster anatomy.
Toxicology.
Antidotes.
Methods of preserving rare ingredients.
Glass vials containing carefully labeled toxins rested inside locked cabinets.
Some caused paralysis.
Others induced sleep.
Several were deadly.
His mother trusted him with them because she had taught him personally.
Yun Mei believed hunters should understand poison as thoroughly as they understood bows.
"Anything can become medicine."
"Anything can become poison."
"The difference..."
"...is usually the amount."
Those words had become one of Yun Che's guiding principles.
His current workbench looked considerably tidier.
These were projects he actually intended to finish.
His future travel equipment.
Since entering the Foundation Establishment Realm was still some distance away, many ideas remained impossible.
Ki-controlled mechanisms required external Ki manipulation.
Without that...
Most designs remained only drawings.
Still...
Preparation never hurt anyone.
Yun Che carefully unfolded several blueprints.
Smoke bombs.
Flash bombs.
Fragmentation grenades.
Pressure mines.
Most were already approaching completion.
The explosive powder itself wasn't his invention.
This world already possessed excellent explosive materials.
Certain minerals became unstable when infused with Ki.
Fire crystals detonated violently under impact.
Explosive talismans had existed for centuries.
In fact...
Standard explosive talismans were often stronger than the simple chemical grenades from Earth.
Their weakness lay elsewhere.
They produced powerful blasts.
Not fragmentation.
No controlled direction.
No carefully engineered shrapnel.
Yun Che intended to combine both worlds.
Steel fragments.
Chemical expansion.
And...
Runes.
His notebook contained dozens of failed calculations.
Explosion Rune
Result:
Too unstable.
Destroyed container before throwing.
Explosion Rune + Fire Crystal
Result:
Container disappeared.
Workbench also disappeared.
Father still angry.
Yun Che rubbed his forehead.
"I really need an alchemist."
He understood enough chemistry to improve existing formulas.
Not enough to invent entirely new ones.
Most of his progress came from trial and error.
Mostly error.
It was exhausting.
"If only someone else enjoyed mixing dangerous things..."
He sighed.
Unfortunately...
Professional alchemists were expensive.
Very expensive.
Eventually...
He reached the project occupying the center of the room.
Covered beneath a heavy cloth.
Yun Che carefully pulled it away.
A long metallic weapon rested beneath.
Nearly two meters in length.
Thick barrel.
Massive wooden stock.
Reinforced firing chamber.
It resembled no weapon this world had ever seen.
His greatest creation so far.
An anti-material rifle.
Or as he preferred calling it...
An Anti-Tank Rifle.
Its current effective range approached two kilometers.
The reinforced barrel accelerated specially forged rounds to nearly Mach Three.
Against ordinary armor...
The result was devastating.
Against cultivators...
More complicated.
A Peak Mortal Realm cultivator could survive.
Possibly even block the shot.
Provided...
They knew it was coming.
If they sensed danger.
If they reacted in time.
If.
Yun Che smiled slightly.
Life-and-death battles rarely provided perfect conditions.
One unnoticed shot...
Could decide everything.
He gently picked up one oversized bullet.
Solid steel.
Heavy.
Deadly.
"...Not enough."
Foundation Establishment cultivators were another matter entirely.
Their external Ki defenses dramatically increased survivability.
This rifle needed improvement.
Much more improvement.
He opened another notebook.
Written neatly across the top were recommendations gathered from countless conversations with his mother.
Future Improvements
Speed Rune
Increase projectile velocity.
Harder to react.
Elemental Rune
Add fire, lightning, or ice damage.
Increase penetration against Ki defenses.
Ki Storage Rune
Store additional Ki inside projectile.
Release after penetration.
Explosion Rune
Maximum internal damage.
Yun Che stared thoughtfully at the page.
Each improvement sounded straightforward.
Reality...
Was anything but.
Every bullet would require expensive rune inscriptions.
Precious materials.
Rare inks.
Hours of careful craftsmanship.
One mistake...
And the entire round became useless.
He immediately thought of one person.
Lin Xia.
She was still only learning basic runes.
But someday...
Her skill would surpass almost everyone in Mistforge.
Perhaps...
The two of them really could create something extraordinary together.
Provided they could afford it.
Yun Che sighed deeply.
"Money..."
His greatest enemy.
Monster materials.
Runic ink.
Specialized metals.
None of them came cheaply.
He could ask his father.
Once upon a time...
They would happily spend evenings experimenting together.
Testing new alloys.
Designing strange mechanisms.
Laughing whenever something exploded in a direction they hadn't expected.
Those days had quietly ended.
Not because Yun Jian had stopped believing in him.
Because of the argument.
His father's condition remained unchanged.
"If you insist on leaving to become an adventurer before you're ready..."
"Then prove you're ready."
Defeat me.
Forge something better than I can.
Only then would Yun Jian willingly pour more family resources into Yun Che's increasingly ambitious projects.
Yun Che rested the rifle carefully back onto its stand.
He understood his father's reasoning.
Even if he didn't like it.
A slow smile appeared on his face.
"Then..."
"I suppose I'll just have to win."
Whether in the forge...
Or with a hammer in his hand...
He intended to earn his father's approval.
The difficult way.