Winnings - Dog.

"Not bad, maybe I should do this more often" Mei Ling said while looking at the number of points shown by her token.

"I don't think that's a great idea, making too many enemies would be a problem" Bai Lian shook her head while reprimanding her.

"Do you really like getting nicknames like 'Nutcracker'?" Shu He said as he shivered in horror.

The fight had been called after that unfortunate 'incident', Jin Bao had been wheeled off to be treated as he had fallen unconscious from the pain of his jewels popping so Mei Ling was the clear winner, though the crowd wasn't as enthusiastic to cheer after the sight.

Well, some of them who hated Jin Bao had been ecstatic though, a lot of them seemed to be women as well so it was easy to tell what kind of person he was.

Shu He then found out that the betting for the Arena of Grudges wasn't just profitable for the people watching but also for the fighters themselves, after the winnings were distributed the remaining is split between the winner and the elder presiding over it 6:4, so Mei Ling found herself with a few hundred extra points in her pocket.

Shu He had found himself with an extra 60 as well so he was pretty happy, he'd basically recouped what he'd wasted today on food items and other entertainment.

"Nutcracker?! Who the hell's calling me that?!" She said with a red face.

"Me" Shu He replied unashamedly.

"Bastard I'll kick your ass next!" She began chasing Shu He, trying to get a kick in.

"Calm down Mei Ling he's only joking, right?" Bia Lian held her back and looked towards Shu He, her eyes inquiring.

"Uh… Yes" Shu He said, averting his eyes.

"What was the pause for?!" Mei Ling's forehead showed signs of a vein almost popping.

"If you didn't want that kind of name, why did you do that? What did he even say to you anyway?" Shu He shrugged his shoulders while asking.

"Hmph" She stomped on the ground and crossed her arms before looking at him from the corner of her eye "I don't know who spread it, but apparently me being from the Huo clan's branch family has spread around so idiots like him came to know about it, so he came to me and started ordering me to become his maid and then his concubine and all that bullshit".

"Oh" Shu He scratched his chin "I guess he did deserve that then".

But then his expression darkened a little.

"But is it still okay to do that? He may be a concubines son, but he's related to the main family right? Won't this cause problems?" He asked as he was curious.

"… I don't think so" Mei Ling said, clearly unsure herself as he looked away when she spoke.

"It shouldn't be a problem, I said that the Jin clan saw he had talent and potential but that was in the last, from what I've heard ever since he joined the sect he has made next to no progress so he's seen as a lost cause, they may see this as a chance to put him back on track" Bai Lian responded.

"How so?" Shu He asked, thinking that it was more of an end for him, as a man at least.

"He probably values his… jewels… a lot since he spends most of his time messing around with women, so if the clan wants him to get back on track with cultivation they can just tell him they'll heal them if he works hard" Bai Lian spoke, struggling and turning slightly red when mentioning 'them'.

"What? They can do that?! And he gets women with that face?!" Shu He was flabbergasted, in multiple ways.

'I heard from Chao Shi back then that alchemy pills that can heal missing limbs exist, but they can heal something vital like testicles as well. Truly miraculous…' He began to sink into his mind.

"Yeah as long as the pill is high enough rank it's possible…" Bai Lian paused for a second before her expression turned slightly sour "Even he can 'get women' because those unfavourable girls exist…"

Shu He heard what he said, but he didn't respond, instead he was stuck in his thoughts.

'I wonder how the pills work, everything I've been doing until now has been rooted in basic biology and is comparable to stuff in my old life, similar to older medicine from back in the ancient eras; But alchemy pills seem to go beyond that and stimulate the body in an entirely different way… is it qi? But would qi allow a body to regenerate like that? The human body simply doesn't function that way… It might be interfacing with parts of human biology that we didn't even know about in my other life, maybe it has to do with the more detailed functions of human DNA? It would make sense since by making use of DNA and things like stem cells you should be able to reproduce any part of someone's body or their body entirely…'

"Shu He?"

Bai Lian's voice rang in his ears breaking him out of his thought trail.

"Ah, what? Oh, right sorry I was just reminded of something". He scratched his head in embarrassment " 'Unfavourable girls'… I didn't think people like that would be here in the sect" he continued on with the conversation as if hadn't been distracted.

"Well.. some of them make use of dual cultivation but others do it just for the points…" The white-haired girls eyes dimmed slightly as she spoke about them, clearly she didn't find them likable.

"Oh… I didn't think the sect would allow such a thing" Shu He said, thinking that such things might negatively affect the sect as a whole.

"The sect allows most things that aren't defined in the rules, if it affects someone's cultivation it's their own fault for falling into it, at least that's what I've heard their stance is." Mei Ling spoke with a slight sigh. "Unfortunately, there are more people like that scumbag here in this sect".

"I've been wondering but how do you know all this stuff, no one from the sect told me much before I joined" Shu He said, feeling like he had missed a long memo somewhere.

"There are people from our clans that are part of the sect so we know a lot from them, at least what they could tell us".

'Right, they didn't put any kind of restriction on us talking about the sect, at least not yet…'

"How convenient having all this information before even joining…" He couldn't help but sigh, it would be so much easier to move and decide what to do if he had it.

"Oh yeah you're not from a clan or cultivator family are you Shu He? How'd you end up here? You said you came from a normal village before." Mei Ling suddenly asked suddenly making Shu He's breathing to stop.

He tried to open his mouth, but no words came out, so he bit his tongue and used the pain to clear his mind, taking a deep breath before talking.

"I… yeah I came from a normal village but… it's no longer there anymore, so I came here" He explained as much as he could.

"What about your family then?" Mei Ling kept asking.

"…Gone" He could only mutter a single word.

She frowned.

"What do you-"

"Mei Ling" Bai Lian interrupted, signalling with a finger over her lips, light of realisation flashes in Mei Ling's eyes.

"Sorry…" She said, bowing slightly.

Shu He steadily shook his head.

"No, it's fine" He said, wearing a weak smile.

"Shu He, we're going to check out the district some more since we were interrupted quite early in our tour, do you want to join us?" Bai Lian changed the subject, inviting him along with them.

However, Shu He merely shook his head.

"I'll have to decline, I've already seen enough for today, maybe another time" He took a few steps away.

"See you two around" He spoke quietly, walking away from the entertainment district.

The two watched for a minute before looking at each other and going on their own way.

…

'What the hell is wrong with me?' Shu He berated himself.

'I thought after all this time I wouldn't be affected by such small talk, such simple words, yet I completely froze…'

He held his hand over his chest where his heart was, an erratic beating could be felt as a sense of cold breathlessness still lingered in his body.

'I managed to joke about it slightly during the exam, so why is it different now?'

'Is it because I relaxed too much? Because of the mention of family? Why…' He lightly grits his teeth.

When Shu He had first left his village, he thought he had at least gotten over his initial trauma, that he had moved on to the next chapter in his life.

But he was wrong, the events a left a scar far deeper than he could have imagined; Many times, in the three years he would simply collapse in to shivers or mentally break down, no matter how much he tried to reassure himself the memories clawed their way back into his mind, the words, the feelings, the senses, the emotions of those moments overwrote any joy he felt.

Over the three years he tried all kinds of things to help from self-therapy, keeping himself preoccupied, seeing if he could find 'professional' help, and it worked quite a bit, he managed to control himself more, to supress these outbreaks and learn to live with the memories.

He thought he had reached the point that he would be fine from now on, but evidently not.

He sat down on a bench that lined a dirt path, entering a meditative state to calm himself.

'The past can't be changed; I need to focus on the present' he told himself.

'I need to get stronger; I need to be able to prevent such a thing happening again'.

He opened his eyes having gained some semblance of calm.

And as he did, he furrowed his brows.

'Huh?'

Resting in front of him, was a large white mountain of… fluff.

He looked upwards towards the top of the pale mount, to witness two beady black eyes and a pink tongue entering and leaving a small crevice.

Shu He began to sweat from his brow.

"A… Dog?" The words left his mouth but even he had a hard time believing them.

'What kind of dog is this big?!'

The beast in front of him was more than three meters in height, there was no way a normal dog would be this big!

"Ah! Come on don't sneak up on random people I've told you this before!" A voice came yelling from behind the white mountain as its head turned in the direction of the voice.

"Woof!" It barked.

'It's really a dog!' Shu He confirmed.

"What do you mean 'You didn't sneak up, he was asleep'?!"

"You got that from a bark?!" Shu He stood up and peeked around the big white dog seeing a man with short brown hair and eyes running towards them, obviously It was another disciple of the sect.

"Hmm? Oh hello there, sorry that Yingzi here bothered you" He bowed in apology before signaling to the 'dog' "Come over here, I told you not to run around!"

"Rawrrr…" The 'dog' named Yingzi walked over to the man with a depressed manner, its tail dragging on the ground.

"Oh, no I wasn't really bothered just a bit surprised… what kind of dog is this?" Shu He asked still staring fixatedly at the large mountain of fluff.

"..Dog? This is a wolf."

"…What?"

The two men stared at each-other, both confused for different reasons.

"Bark.." Yingzi let out a quiet bark, emphasising that it was sad.

"See? It barked, so it's a dog!" Shu He felt he was right, this dog looked like a giant Pomeranian to him.

"I don't know what this 'dog' you're talking about is, but Yingzi here is a proud Spectral Plains Wolf" The man replied, looking slightly annoyed at his insistence.

"Huh? You don't know… Oh!" Shu He was about to reply but then something clicked in his head.

'Right, dogs were a result of breeding wild wolves over countless generations, it makes sense that such a thing might not have happened here!'

Shu He had felt like he had seen through a great truth about this universe.

Well, not really.

"Right, sorry I was thinking of another animal! Now that I look at it, it's certainly a wolf, my apologies!" Shu He said looking between the two figures side by side.

The man's face turned in to a smile after hearing admit he was wrong.

"Haha, it's fine everyone makes mistakes, anyway I've never seen you before, my name is Jian He and I'm part of the Beast Taming Division, may I ask for your name?" Jian He's expression bloomed as he introduced himself while holding his hand out asking for a handshake.

Shu He paused for a second but then reached out his hand locking it with Jian He's.

"I'm Shu He, I only entered the sect yesterday so I'm not part of a division".

"Oh! So, we share a name, this must be fate! You're new as well, how about you come over and take a look at our division, we haven't had many new members in a while".

'Beast Taming huh? I can't help but admit I'm a little curious' He thought as he sent a side glance at the giant mountain of fluff besides them.

"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude…"

"Nonsense! We don't have too many members so having an extra around won't be a problem, I do want to ask you about this 'Dog' creature you mentioned earlier as well" An expression of intense curiosity filled Jian He's eyes.

"Oh… Sure, I can do that" Shu He lied between his teeth.

'I'm going to have to think of some backstory for them now!' He regretted in his mind.

"Come on, I'll show you the way" Jian He gestured as he started walking.

'Well it wasn't in my plan, but why not' Shu He internally shrugged as he followed along.