Jin Shu steps outside the gateway of the Jin residence looking back to see a large wooden plaque mounted above the gate which read Jin Mansion in bold golden lettering.
The rising sun just cresting the city walls in the distance, bringing a new day to Black Mountain City. The city just starting to awaken.
Jin Shu's mission for today was to set out into the nearby mountains to hunt an animal with the Martian Metal so he could forge some more bullets for his gun.
Walking out onto the city streets gave him a surreal feeling of recognition, even though this should be his first time walking these streets, however due to the memories he inherited from the original Jin Shu he could clearly recall all of the different twist and turns he needed to take to get to the city gates.
As he walked out of the city gates passing by merchants and travelers entering, the city guardsmen bowed and payed their respects to him.
"Good morning Young Master Jin"
"Are you headed outside Young Master Jin? Should we send some guardsmen to escort you on your way?"
Even Shen Gong the captian of the city guard stepped out of the guards house beside the gates.
"Young Master Jin what brings you to the gates so early in the morning?" Asked Captian Shen Gong
"I'm just headed to the nearby mountains to find some resources for forging. And please Captain Shen you and your men should keep your respects for my Grandfather or Father. I am just a underquilified Apprentice Blacksmith. Definitely not worthy of all of your respects."
When the travelers and merchants passing by saw the city guardsmen and even the guards captian bowing to a young man they turned to the local passersby and asked who the young man was, the passersby replied.
"That's Young Master Jin the eldest son of the famous Jin family."
"His Grandfather is the City Lord of our Black Mountain City."
"Not to mention his Father is the patriarch of the Jin family and a Master Blacksmith."
"Don't forget his Mother is the younger sister of Emperor Sun, Princess Feng Huang"
"If the city guard don't bow to Young Master Jin then who should they bow to?"
Captian Shen chuckled "If you don't like it I'll tell my men not to bow but we must still pay our respects to you regardless. If not just for the fact that you are Black Mountain Cities resident genius. Only sixteen years old and already at the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, most kids your age are still struggling in the lower stages of the Body Refining Realm."
Jin Shu sighed he really couldn't get used to all of this bowing and paying of respects. As someone from the 21st century "Hah... alright well I'll be on my way now."
"Have a safe trip Young Master Jin."
Jin Shu stepped out of the city gates and made his way toward the distant mountains. Which as the city name suggests, were black. There is a legend in Black Mountain City that a Dragon scorched the mountains with its dragon breath thousands of years ago. Some even say that the Dragon still lives under the Black Mountains.
On his way Jin Shu started to think aloud the ways he could forge extra bullets. "I don't seem to have any memories of there being gunpowder in this world, and I sure as hell have no idea how to make it. But I think I can replace the gunpowder with an Explosion rune, I'll have to be very careful with how strong I make it though, I don't want to blow my gun up or my hand off."
"Seeing as this is a cultivation world I wonder if I'll end up falling off a cliff later and stumble upon a mysterious cultivators legacy that's been lost for thousands of years, hahah I'm foreshadowing myself aren't I?"
While Jin Shu was daydreaming he had made it to the forest at the foot of the black mountains.
"Alright time to start the hunt."
As Jin Shu walked through the forest he seen all types of little creatures scurrying around, like a squirrel with little horns on it's head, and a carnivorous rabbit.
"Wow I thought the animals would still be the same as the ones from my original world, I thought the only differences with this world were the cultivators and the ancient Chinese culture. I guess this really is a different world after all."
"Looks like I'll have to head deeper into the forest to find bigger animals the ones at the edge are all to small to give me enough metal."
As Jin Shu made his way deeper into the forest he heard what sounded to be the roar of a tiger. Soon after he saw a clearing ahead in the woods.
"This seems to be the spot that I heard that roaring from. If it's a tiger it should give me enough metal to forge more than enough bullets for a while."
Jin Shu stepped into the clearing and he saw what looked like the remains of a deer carcass and laying in the middle of the clearing was a giant winged tiger.
The tiger was easily 15 feet long and 10 feet tall. It had massive sabertoothed fangs and a pair of wings bigger than its body.
Jin Shu had a vague sense of recognition when he seen the tiger "Ah this is a Winged Tiger the apex predator of the black mountains. However they usually don't come this close to the city they normally stay closer to the base of the mountains. And this one seems to be the biggest tiger I've ever heard of. The biggest Winged Tiger was the one my Father hunted down a few years back, that tiger was on the verge of transforming into a Demonic Beast."
"Lets see what was a Demonic Beast again?"
"...Ah right a Demonic Beast is an animal that has gained the ability to cultivate and has broken through to the Qi Gathering Realm."
"I wonder if my pistol will even hurt that thing? As long as my bullet enters it's body it should transform into Martian Metal. But I guess there is only one way to find out."
Jin Shu pulled his pistol out from the waist band of his robes. "These ancient style clothes really make it hard to carry my gun around, I should probably make a holster when I get back so I don't end up dropping my gun later"
He pulled his gun up holding it with both hands and aimed for the tigers head. "I'm glad I put a Silence rune on my gun so I don't need ear protection any more" and with that thought Jin Shu pulled the trigger.
*BANG!*
"..."
"Welp so much for that Silence rune. Apparently putting a Silence rune on the frame of the gun doesn't silence the bullet, in retrospect that makes sense."
While Jin Shu was thinking the bullet peirced the tigers head. Unfortunately for Jin Shu the bullet did not brake past the tigers skull. So a very angry tiger was awoken by a loud bang and a searing pain in its forehead.
Jin Shu immediately turned and ran while cursing "Shit!"
The Winged Tiger stood up and spread its wings strangely silver metallic looking blood rolled down its forehead slowly solidifying into metal.
Jin Shu ran through the woods as fast as he could and as someone in the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm he was by no means slow, he could run faster than any human in his previous life could ever hope to run, unfortunately though he was running from a tiger with wings that was also in the Qi Gathering Realm, although Jin Shu did not know what stage the tiger had reached in the Qi Gathering Realm, he knew that regardless the tiger was definitely faster than him. His only chance to survive would be to use the trees to hinder the tiger and to wait for the Martian Metal to transform it into a lifeless statue.
"Goddammit I thought this would be easy, although now that I think about it a 9mm wouldn't really do much to a tiger in my previous life either. Hell this pistol could barely even scratch those monsters in my last life, the only reason I even killed that last one was because I shot it in the mouth."
Jin Shu continued to run for his life glancing over his shoulder he could see the Winged Tiger flying overhead not but 20 feet behind him and getting closer quickly.
All of the sudden the tiger dived down towards Jin Shu.
Seeing the tiger dive towards him Jin Shu quickly dove to the side and rolled out of the way.
The Winged Tiger landed where Jin Shu was a moment ago only 5 feet away from him now.
The fur on the tigers forehead was covered in solidified metallic blood, and it fur upto its neck was taking on a silver hue instead of its normal orange and black color. It hopefully wouldn't be long now until its brain was effected by the Martian Metal and it would die.
Jin Shu chuckled nervously "haha who's a nice kitty? You don't want to eat me, look at me I'm far to skinny there's barely any meat on my bones." This actually wasn't true at all, due to Jin shu completing the Body Refining Realm and working in the forge he was actually fairly well built for a sixteen year old. He didn't have the build of a body builder but rather a toned and lean muscular physique with a slight tan form the heat of the forge.
*Growl*
The tiger snarled and made to lunge at Jin Shu, but suddenly it lurched to the side and shook its head as if it was dizzy.
Jin Shu sighed in relief "Phew it seems like the metal is effecting its brain finally."
The tiger struggled to lift its head as the Martian Metal increasingly made it heavier, slowly it steadied itself and again it lunged at Jin Shu, he jumped and rolled to the right, the tigers left claw ripped the left sleave of his robe.
Jin Shu scrambled to his feet and quickly dove into the trees ducking and and dodging between the trees to obstruct the tigers path. He just needed to survive for a few more minutes and the metal would take the tigers life.
The tiger following close behind bashing into trees three to four feet wide and braking through them as if they were paper-thin. Nothing could stop the mad tigers charge.
As Jin Shu dodged past a tree a black wall came into view. Exhausted and forced to stop by the sheer cliff face in front of him Jin Shu came to a sudden halt looking left and right for a way out "Huff... Huff... Shit now what do I do?"
The tiger finally caught up looking equally as exhausted as Jin Shu. It exhaled and growled crouching down slightly getting ready to pounce on him no doubt. However before it could jump at Jin Shu it's front legs collapsed, the tiger struggled to lift it's head and glare at Jin Shu for a few seconds before the light faded from it's eyes and it's head slammed into the ground.
Jin Shu finally relieved by the tigers death exhaustedly collapsed onto the ground and sighed in relief. "Phew... That was too close."
Jin Shu slowly closed his eyes to rest for a moment just missing seeing the tigers head twitch slightly. Hearing a rustling noise Jin Shu opened his eyes to see the tigers jaws inches from his face. As quickly as he could manage with his exhausted body Jin Shu attempted to roll away. But it was to late, the tigers jaws clamped down on his right shoulder. Locking on with enough force to crush his bones.
Jin Shu groped around on the ground to find something to hit the tiger with. His hands touched his gun that had at some point fallen next to him, grabbing the gun by the barrel Jin Shu bashed the tiger over the head with the butt of the pistol, only to hear a metallic ringing noise like two pieces of met colliding.
Jin Shu cursed and attempted to pry the tigers jaws open "Shit! Fuck! Get off me!"
That was when he noticed that the tiger was already dead, but it was to late it jaws now locked onto his shoulder. The tigers head along with the rest of it's body was almost finished transforming into metal. It was nothing more than a lifeless statue at this point.
Jin Shu's body was racked with pain. He cursed again "Damn it! I died in my last life because a monster forced me to shoot my own shoulder with my gun and I transformed into a metal statue and I'm about to die in this life because a beast infected with Martian Metal bit me in the shoulder. That's just fucking great!"