'Filleting Strike...'
He channeled all his Ice Qi into the tip of his sword. He didn't hack; he sliced with surgical precision.
Shing!
The blade slid in like it was cutting tofu. Blood sprayed, freezing instantly in the cold air.
The boar shrieked, making a sound like grinding metal, and crashed to the ground, sliding ten feet before coming to a stop at Ji'an's feet. It twitched once, twice, then died.
Silence returned to the forest.
Wangchen stood up, panting heavily. His white robes were splattered with frozen blood. He looked wild, dangerous, and incredibly capable.
He turned to Ji'an, eyes wide with panic. "Young Master! Are you hurt? Did it touch you?"
Ji'an looked at the massive carcass. Then she looked at Wangchen. She started clapping.
"Bravo! 10/10 performance!" She hopped off the rock and walked over to the dead monster. She patted its snout. "Look at this marbling. Look at the fat content. Wangchen, you are a genius. You brought us dinner."
Wangchen stared at her. He slumped slightly, sheathing his sword. "I... I attracted it. My luck... it is always bad. Beasts always find me."
He looked down, ashamed. He thought he had endangered her.
Ji'an paused. She saw the self-blame in his eyes. She knew the "Misfortune Aura" was a curse to him.
She walked over and poked him in the chest.
"Bad luck?" she scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Do you know how hard it is to track a Steel-Bristle Boar? Hunters spend weeks looking for one! And you just stand there, look pretty, and bam, premium pork delivery service!"
She grabbed his arm, shaking him slightly. "Little Puddle, you aren't unlucky. You are a walking treasure lure! With you by my side, we'll never starve!"
Wangchen blinked. He looked at the dead monster. Then he looked at Ji'an's beaming face.
In anyone else's eyes, attracting monsters was a death sentence. In Lin Ji'an's eyes, it was... convenience?
The tight knot of guilt in his chest loosened, replaced by a warm, confusing flutter.
"Delivery... service?" he repeated.
"Exactly!" Ji'an pulled a massive butcher knife (another custom order) from her spatial bag. "Now, help me bleed it. If we don't drain it quickly, the meat will taste gamey. Tonight, we feast!"
An hour later, the scent of danger in the forest was completely overpowered by the smell of roasting meat.
Ji'an had built a smokeless fire, a trick she learned from a survival show, in a small clearing.
Skewers of boar meat, marinated in the "poisonous" herbs she had collected earlier, sizzled over the flames. The fat dripped onto the coals, creating hissed pops of flavor.
Wangchen sat by the fire, cleaned up, and watched the meat with intense focus.
"Here." Ji'an handed him a skewer. "Careful, it's hot."
Wangchen took a bite. His eyes widened. The meat was tender, spicy, and rich. The "poisonous" pepper-dust gave it a numbing kick that made his lips tingle, while the Dream-Eater pollen added a strange, floral sweetness that seemed to soothe his weary spirit.
"It's... incredible," he mumbled.
"Of course it is," Ji'an said smugly, biting into her own skewer. "This is the taste of victory."
She looked around the dark forest. "You know, most people are probably eating dry rations right now. Or crying in a tree."
"Is this... truly the exam?" Wangchen asked quietly. "Just walking through the forest?"
"The forest is the exam," Ji'an said, lowering her voice. "The Sect is watching. They want to see who panics, who gives up, and who works together. Most importantly..."
She pointed a skewer at him.
"...they want to see who has the guts to survive. You fought a Rank 2 beast and won. You didn't run. You protected your teammate. That's worth more than any written test."
Wangchen looked at the fire. "I didn't do it for the test. I did it for you."
Ji'an choked on her meat. She coughed, pounding her chest. "Warning! Warning! Don't say things like that while I'm eating! You'll kill me!"
Wangchen smiled, a small, rare, genuine thing. "Eat slowly, Young Master. There is plenty of 'bad luck' left in the forest."
As the night deepened, Ji'an leaned back against a tree, patting her full stomach.
The gender-masking artifact hummed warmly in her chest, and the "villain" was keeping watch with a devotion that bordered on religious.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard a scream. Likely another candidate encountering a monster.
"Should we help?" Wangchen asked, hand going to his sword.
"Nope," Ji'an yawned, closing her eyes. "That sounds like a kilometer away. Besides, they need some character development, too. Wake me up if another grocery delivery arrives."
Wangchen looked at her sleeping face, illuminated by the dying firelight. He adjusted the cloak over her shoulders, his gaze softening into something fierce and protective.
"Sleep well," he whispered. "I will watch the door."
Around them, the Myriad Beast Forest held its breath, realizing that the most dangerous thing in the woods tonight wasn't the monsters, it was the Chef and her Wolf.
***
The fire had burned down to a bed of glowing, ruby-red embers, casting a soft, fluctuating light against the towering trunks of the Myriad Beast Forest. The air had grown colder, the kind of damp chill that seeped through layers of silk and settled into the bones.
Xie Wangchen sat by the carcass of the Steel-Bristle Boar, wiping his blade with a rag. Beside him lay a small, jagged crystal the size of a walnut. It pulsed with a faint, earthy light.
"Keep that," Lin Ji'an said, yawning as she shook out the single, thick fur-lined bedroll they had brought.
Wangchen looked up. "The Beast Core? It is of Earth attribute. It doesn't suit my cultivation. The Young Master should take it. It might fetch a good price at the market."
"I have enough money," Ji'an lied smoothly, fluffing a pillow. "And I don't want that dirty thing in my bag. You killed it, so you carry it. Consider it a souvenir of our first date... I mean, first hunt."