Bit of Wit 1

After laughing about how Ye De was trying to find a Bit of Wit for Ye Qi, they left the main square the mission paper in the hand of Xiao Fan.

¨I think you want to go get your stuff from your house before we leave?¨ He asked when they were on the smaller streets going back to the residential area.

¨Of course, I need to go and get supplies. You think I'll leave with nothing?¨She replied her mood still too happy.

¨We can first go to your house then to mine before we leave¨ Xiao Fan spoke his real intentions hidden in this. He wanted to got to her home to see if she had any other family.

Zhuan An didn't know anything regarding the whole Xiao Fan being concerned of her being indoctrinated by her father, nothing of the short she was simply happy ¨Sure¨ She agreed.

Soon Xiao Fan was inside the Zhuan Family courtyard. Zhuan An had left him in the lobby to go into her own room to pack, letting Xiao Fan do what he wanted to do here in the first place. He roamed around the house, yet everywhere he went there seemed only to be servants or workers, no one here resembled a person of a proper status.

'So most likely they live here alone, she and Zhuan Shan. Them living together would also explain many of her quirks and clumsiness' Xiao Fan pondered that them being alone would be a good reason for this. Zhuan An had no one else in her family, so she took to her father in everything, maybe thinking of him the same way before that she now thinks of him?

'Interesting, interesting. Well, sorry Zhuan Shan, but I'll be taking your daughter bit by bit' Having come up with his results, he humoured a little how he was taking the gem of Zhuan Shan away from him, and there was nothing he could do.

Maybe he would have thought differently if Meng Chin would have bothered to tell him how Zhuan Shan had wanted to murder him, so for now, Xiao Fan marched happily forward into the lobby where he waited for some more before Zhuan An came back.

¨You changed your clothes?¨ Seeing her come out, he was ready to get up, but noting her new clothes, it took a moment.

¨What? Of course, I change my clothes everyday¨ She spoke as she took his hand and took off towards Meng Chin's courtyard.

'Should one change that regularly? But I only have some many sets of these robes' Xiao Fan thought concerning her comment.

When at Meng Chin's house, he told his reasons to his master, who seemed not too concerned by what he was doing. It was becoming clear to him that she cared very little where he went if he came back to give her what she wanted every other day or so.

This time it was Zhuan An, who waited at the lobby since Xiao Fan didn't want to take the risk that Meng Chin hadn't put on any clothes, which she hadn't, and so told her to stay there.

Nevertheless, now that everything was done on the side of the Rising Fox Sect, they began to descend into the village where there was a stable named the Zhuan Family Stable... Which might be smaller than the Fei Family, only having two horses, but it was much better looking and equipped, even the man working there didn't seem to feel like a serf when talking to Zhuan An.

Like last time Xiao Fan tried horse riding, but it didn't go too much better, and the biggest improvement came from the better quality of the horse, who was doing more to keep them on track than the rider, who was ordering it to go into the forest instead of following Zhuan An, the person the horse knew to be one of its few masters.

¨You keeping up back there?¨ Only when she came out of the dreamland where she was thinking of this scene with extras did she see that the horse under Xiao Fan was struggling 'Funny, these horses are well trained so they shouldn't be like this, acting wild' She noted to herself. Then a moment later, she saw how Xiao Fan was practically kicking the horse into the side with no reason. Furthermore, Xiao Fan having not said anything back to her did she now realised that he couldn't ride a horse. ¨Stop!¨ She commanded her horse clearly enough that the horse under him reacted to it the same way.

When both horses had stopped, she turned her horse sideways so that she could see him more clearly ¨You need training help in this too?¨ She giggled.

Xiao Fan sighed a few times when feeling the horse had finally stopped ¨Yeah. I do¨ He like last time honestly told.

However, again it showed that Zhuan An was different compared to others, for Zhuan An thought nothing of it, sure she had learned to ride a horse before cultivating and everything, but that didn't matter now ¨I see¨ She spoke and ordered her horse to go next to his ¨You know anything or know something?¨

¨Not even the names of these ropes in my hands¨

Him saying so started a long training session on the basics as they rode their horses, walking, turning, etcetera etcetera, until a couple of hours later Xiao Fan could keep up with Zhuan An, who was guiding him towards a swamp in which Xiao Fan had told Bit's of wits to grow in number, and unlike Fei Sun, Zhuan An didn't ask a question why nor anything else, for she trusted him completely.

Like said getting to a swamp would take a couple of days travelling, but since they were taking a route that begun from a major sect and went towards the capital of the Bald Eagle Dynasty the road was excellent and filled with patrols. Nothing would be blocking their way there.

Spending this time with her, Xiao Fan had no problems since there literally couldn't be a problem when being with her, she made sure of that. Due to this fact, he slowly began to genuinely warm up to Zhuan An, who was such a cute creature in his mind, the girl had no hard side, she would most likely never scheme again, and he could ask stupid question until he needed to stop because Zhuan An's throat was becoming parched from speaking so much.

But Xiao Fan thanks to this explaining coming from her was slowly getting a grasp on things that this world held within in, and becoming a hundred per cent sure on that Zhuan Shan had done some major work on her daughter, for she might have been a man based on how she thought of things. She was going further than Du Lan, who might say that in some spots women were bad such as leading a country or akin to that since Zhuan An on the other side was fully of the opinion that women were second class citizens... Something which Xiao Fan needed to argue with her.

Yes, Xiao Fan needed to argue with Zhuan An that, she was an equal, not a supporting character, who should only do things when told by a man or more specifically her significant other that was him. Arguing that had taken one entire night, but as a result, it to him at least seemed that she got the idea that first of all he wasn't thinking lowly of her, and second that she shouldn't be valuing herself so lowly.

¨You got that?¨ He at the end of one of his long explanations asked.

¨If you think me as an equal then I'll think myself as an equal¨ She responded the wrong way.

¨No, not at all! You need to think that you are the master of your own life, not me¨ Xiao Fan raved under the roof of their tent for the umpteenth time when seeing that he had failed to get through to her.

¨Me master of my life? No, it is the father, and during the marriage ceremony that is then changed to you¨ She then noted to herself 'Funny, master of my life'

To this response, Xiao Fan raved more 'Father is the master of his child's life? Husband is the master of his wife's life? Indoctrinated, Missguided, Fooled!' He thought. Xiao Fan was of the thought that everyone even people born into slavery were of the same value with people born to royalty, for him it was the actions of one and events around them that decided the value; all had the same base value, in theory, which they could then lower or higher by making actions. So something of the thought that half of the people born were lower than the other for no reason was complete and utter idiocy.

¨Have you ever listened to an opinion from someone else than your father?¨ Xiao Fan had first needed to drill into this question to let her see that not everyone thought like Zhuan Shan.

Indeed, when starting with this question, Zhuan An began to see that the world was a different place than her father had told her, however, with acceptance came much confusion. Accepting change isn't always easy. But with Xiao Fan being there helping her accept, it wasn't too hard for her, and so after two days of travelling, Zhuan An with a new view came to the swamp with Xiao Fan in tow.

Xiao Fan stopping his horse behind hers heard her talk ¨Does this look like a place wherefrom we could find Bit's of Wits?¨ She then turned around to show a hopeful face. She really, really much wanted a Bit of Wit, well anyone in the Body Activation realm wanted one.

¨You are smart girl, why do you yearn for one so much? If not for this mission I wouldn't have bothered¨ He spoke, not responding to the question while starting to look around the place, so that he could answer her question.

¨One can always be smarter. I have come to see that now. Moreover, I'm more interested in how it works for our senses more than anything, you never know when moving a blink faster will save you, and at least it will be an advantage in every single fight¨

¨Though that will not be helping Ye Qi anymore¨ He laughed.

¨Yeah that guy will only get smarter, but it will be hard to see a zero become a one¨

¨Well, the one we need for the hothead in question should be somewhere around that small tree there¨ He then pointed his finger from the top of his horse that didn't go crazy from him doing this.

¨You want me to come too?¨ She asked when seeing that Xiao Fan was getting off the horse and making his way towards the tree line behind them.

¨No need to come there, but some help in building a walkway would be nice¨ He spoke as he was ripping off a tree from its roots and then throwing it to the edge of the swamp where it became too watery to travel without getting wet. Not that Xiao Fan didn't want to get wet or something, he just didn't know how to swim still.

¨I'll help¨ She spoke. Before she would have come straight down without thinking about what she wanted herself, but she was still herself, and she wanted to help him.

¨So what most of your cultivators do is this for a living? Carrying trees from a place to another?¨ Xiao Fan past the time talking with her about what did the majority of disciples do to get money inside the sect. Not everyone could focus on cultivation like her.

¨Most basic and numerous jobs are manual labour, yes. Next level is something like gardening for others; father employs a lot of people to keep his gardens in top shape. Next might be doing something special, but those people are usually already from the families. Besides, the real moneymaker for any cultivator is war. There we can plunder all we can¨Zhuan An passed the time by giving him an explanation.