Chapter 3: Unreasonable Demands
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Despite the desolate mountain being devoid of people, the two female warriors were still full of caution and vigilance, their eyes cold as stars, hands gripping scimitars, their entire beings like female leopards, ready to pounce at any moment.
The carriage they were protecting was long and large, pulled by two steeds, but it did not appear to be very luxurious.
The three horses and carriage sped swiftly, drawing ever closer to the dying Lanling on the ground. The sky was dim and unclear, and they were about to trample over Lanling. If they did, death was certain.
Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters, five meters…
Lanling was about to be trampled to death by the tall horses.
"Sister, be careful, there's someone on the road!"
Although it was already dark, the black-clad woman spotted Lanling lying in the middle of the road, and she sharply yanked the reins, halting the steeds.
With a long whinny, the steed under her, which had been galloping, was forcefully pulled to a stop, its hooves raised high and its stride halted.
The other woman, attired in red leather, astonishingly managed to grab hold of two steeds, one she was riding and the other pulling the carriage. Despite its momentum, the carriage continued to advance, but she was also able to halt it with her other hand.
Unexpectedly, her seemingly delicate and alluring body possessed such tremendous strength.
"Sister, take care of the carriage and don't move," the woman in black instructed, then she drew her scimitar, dismounted the horse, and walked toward Lanling.
"Alright, be careful, Sister." The two were indeed twin sisters. The younger sister also drew her scimitar, guarding the carriage.
Their high regard for the carriage made one wonder what was inside.
The woman in black arrived before Lanling and first placed her scimitar against his neck, then checked for his breathing. Observing his disheveled hair and beard and the sack-like clothes on his body, giving him a wild look, she frowned and said, "Just a barbarian from the wilderness, close to death, might as well kill him now."
No sooner had she spoken than her scimitar was about to slice through Lanling's throat.
"Sister, no," the younger sister hurriedly interjected. "Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-storied pagoda."
"Barbarians are bloodthirsty and deserve to die," the woman in black said.
The younger sister approached Lanling and suggested, "What if he isn't a barbarian? Let's wake him up first to see if he can speak the Central Earth language. If he can, we won't kill him."
After saying that, she had already lifted Lanling up, circulated the power of the dragon to clear the blood vessels in his chest, and stuffed a medicinal pill into his mouth, washing it down with water.
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It was hard to tell how much time had passed when Lanling slowly regained consciousness.
He was inside a carriage, and what caught his eyes were two identical and beautiful faces. The only difference was their gaze—one cold and piercing, the other naive and romantic.
The other difference was their attire—one wore a black form-fitting leather outfit, the other red. But their figures were identical. Even on Earth, Lanling had rarely seen such devilish figures, practically impossible to look at directly.
Seeing Lanling awaken, the woman in black instantly held her scimitar against his throat, saying coldly, "Speak, talk."
The woman in red urgently said, "Quickly speak, as long as you can speak the language of Central Earth, that means you're not from the Barbarian Tribes, and my sister won't kill you."
Lanling should have been doomed because he was an Earthling who couldn't possibly speak any Central Earth language.
But the language the women referred to as the language of Central Earth was exactly the same as Chinese. Although their accent was slightly altered, Lanling found each word easily understandable.
This was abnormal! After all, this was a parallel world with two moons, griffins, unicorns, and filled with fantasy, definitely not the ancient world of Earth.
The language of any world should be different, and yet the woman spoke Chinese. What could explain this? It couldn't be a coincidence. There was no such coincidence.
"He's definitely a barbarian, die," the woman in black said coldly, her scimitar poised to strike.
"I am not a barbarian," Lanling promptly said.
The woman in black's scimitar stopped immediately, her eyes widening in astonishment as she looked at Lanling.
"Sister, I told you he wasn't a barbarian. His Central Earth language is even more standard than ours," the woman in red said.
Staring intensely at Lanling, the woman in black said, "You, say something else, anything."
"Sister, he only needs to say one sentence to prove it," the woman in red added.
"I am not a barbarian, who are you?" asked Lanling.
After hearing Lanling's second sentence, the younger sister also looked at him in astonishment and said, "Sister, his voice sounds very much like that of Mrs. Suo Lun."
"Indeed…" The woman in black's breathing grew rapid, then her scimitar slashed through the air like lightning.
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Lanling only felt a chill on his face, followed by a chaotic flash of blades, then a mass of untidy beard hairs fell, revealing a smooth face.
At this moment, the two twin samurai maidens were completely stunned, disbelieving as they looked at Lanling's face.
"Not only does he sound similar, but he even looks so much like the young master," said the sister.
"Could this be destiny? Has Heaven not abandoned the Suo Family?" the woman in black stammered, her voice trembling.
"What do you mean by what you're saying?" Lanling asked.
The woman in black did not speak, but pointed to something next to Lanling.
It was then that Lanling noticed there was actually a coffin on the carriage, which the sisters had been escorting all this time.
"We are the samurai retainers of the Suo Family. Our master, Earl Suo Long, is dead, and the young lady instructed us to go to the Demon Mountain Range to find the young master Suo Lun to inherit the title, but we found only his corpse," the woman in black said. "And so, we have transported the coffin thousands of miles to return to the Earl's manor in the royal city, when we encountered you, barely clinging to life."
After these words, the woman in black lifted the lid of the coffin, revealing the body inside.
Due to some kind of preservative drug, the body was well-preserved and showed no sign of decay.
Lanling could see clearly that the person lying inside looked indeed very much like himself, with at least an eighty percent resemblance, although slightly more handsome. As for stature, he estimated that the height was almost exactly the same as his own.
Lanling was truly astonished; after traversing to another world, to find someone who looked so much like him and who was already dead was beyond unexpected.
"What is your name?" the woman in black inquired.
"Lanling," he replied.
"Where is your home? Why are you here?" she continued to ask.
"I... I don't know where my home is," Lanling hesitated before answering, as crossing worlds made it hard to explain his origins.
After a moment of silence, the woman in black said, "Lanling, life is the most precious thing for everyone, and I believe it's no exception for you, is it?"
Lanling nodded.
"Since I saved your life, you should reciprocate, right?" she asked.
Lanling already knew what she was going to say next, and he didn't know how to respond.
"Yes, you need to repay the lifesaving grace I have shown. So, I would like you to impersonate the young master Suo Lun and go to the royal city to inherit the title," she said.
This came too suddenly. Lanling opened his mouth but found himself at a loss for words. After a while, he managed to say, "Although I look like him, there are still differences that can be seen, since we are not exactly alike."
"Don't worry, I have ways to make you look exactly like him," the woman in black insisted.
"But... but..." Lanling wanted to refuse, yet he couldn't find the right words.
"Lanling, though I don't know your status, it seems apparent that you don't come from a wealthy family and have lived a rather modest and impoverished life, right?" the woman in black continued.
Lanling had indeed faced tough times growing up with his sister, the hardships easing only slightly with the money his sister started to earn, and a bit more when he managed to support himself through work-study programs in college. Among his classmates at university, he was certainly the one from the humblest background.
The woman in black said, "The young master Suo Lun you would be impersonating is the sole heir to the Earl's mansion. The Suo Family are not only nobility of the kingdom, but also hereditary lords ruling over Tianshui City for two hundred years."
She started tempting Lanling with wealth and power, but he was almost unmoved. His heart was set on one thing: to find any way to return to his sister's side to protect and care for her.
"Do you know how big Tianshui City is? Five hundred miles across, a population of half a million, and an army of twenty thousand. If you agree to my request, you will not only become an earl of the kingdom, but all this land will be yours," she continued.
Lanling's heart skipped a beat, not from being enticed by the wealth, but from astonishment at its vastness—five hundred square miles, which equated to an area similar to two or three prefecture-level cities in China. Such wealth and power were truly colossal; even the richest on Earth couldn't match this.
Lanling's greatest wish back on Earth was just to marry his sister and move to a larger new apartment. In his city, the cost of housing was forty thousand per square meter.
This Suo Lun, heir to all this land, was truly born with a golden key in his mouth, but such a pity that he died so young.
"How did your young master die?" Lanling asked.
"He was rash and pursued Commandery Princess Zhi Ning, experiencing unprecedented humiliation and blowback, and so left the royal city for the Demon Mountain Range to clear his mind, only to die there," the woman in black explained.
"Was he killed by someone?" Lanling pressed.
"No, the Demon Mountain Range is full of countless mystical ruins and is extremely dangerous," she elaborated.
Organizing his thoughts, Lanling found the right words and began, "Ladies, though my origins may be humble, I want to be true to myself, not a vassal or puppet to anyone, nor impersonate someone else, no matter if that person is ten thousand times richer than me."
The woman in black was taken aback, not expecting Lanling to turn down such a seemingly magnificent opportunity. She studied Lanling intently, verifying the sincerity of his words, and then with a hint of admiration, she said slowly, "I admire your way of thinking. You are a proud person. So how do you intend to repay the debt for saving your life?"