Adventure Ho!

Jin Shu stepped into the great hall, where at the end, an old man was sleeping on a large throne. The old man was his grandfather, Jin Zhu.

He walked up to Jin Zhu and was about to speak to wake him up.

Swoosh!

A cane came flying down from above. Jin Shu attempted to catch it before it could strike his forehead, but it was to no avail. The cane smashed into his forehead with enough force to make him see stars, which was no easy feat now that he had advanced to the 1st stage of the Core Forging Realm.

"You dare sneak up on your grandfather, you brat!?" Jin Zhu yawned then yelled angrily.

"I didn't mean to sneak up on you, Grandfather. It's just that you were sleeping, and I didn't want to startle you," Jin Shu tried explaining.

Swoosh!

The cane came down again.

Bang!

Jin Shu suffered another blow to the forehead. "Ah! I'm sorry, Grandfather!"

"ZzZz... zZzZ..." Jin Zhu started to snore.

"Grandfather? Are you asleep?" Jin Shu asked in surprise.

Jin Zhu opened his eyes suddenly, startling Jin Shu. "Hmm...? Jin Shu, my boy! When did you get here?"

Jin Shu looked at his grandfather in confusion. "Uh...? What? We were just talking, Grandfather, don't you remember?"

Jin Zhu thought for a moment. "Hm? Ah, right. What did you come to see me for today?"

Jin Shu replied, "You told me about the tomb in the east and how there is an opportunity waiting for me there. However, you never told me where the tomb is located exactly. Now that I've reached the Core Forging Realm, I've decided to go looking for that tomb."

Jin Zhu started to explain where the tomb was located. "Right, the tomb. It is located– Wait, did you say Core Forging Realm!? How long have I been asleep? Didn't I tell you that story only a little over a year ago?"

Jin Shu nodded nonchalantly. "It has been about one year and three months since we talked previously, Grandfather."

Jin Zhu stared at Jin Shu blankly for a few moments before breaking out into hearty laughter. "Ahaha! Ah ha! You might just be the greatest genius in history!"

Jin Shu shook his head. "I'm sure I'm not that great. I've read that the founding emperor of our Qi dynasty was born with a heavenly physique that allowed him to reach the Core Forging Realm at the age of 13. Most children can't even cultivate at that age."

Jin Zhu's cane came down on Jin Shu's head again. "Learn to take a compliment, brat!"

Jin Shu rubbed his aching head. "Yes, Grandfather."

Jin Zhu thought for a moment. "Where was I? Ah, right! The tomb I told you about. It is located just past the border of the Eastern Region, outside of a village called Misty Grove Village. Although I've heard that the village has recently developed into a city, so I'm not sure if it goes by the same name."

"Alright, I'm ready to leave now. I'll be on my way, Grandfather." Jin Shu bowed to his grandfather and turned to leave the great hall.

"Zzz...zZz..." His grandfather fell asleep as soon as Jin Shu turned around. It seems he suffered from narcolepsy.

---

Jin Shu, with Yin'er on his shoulders, a leather travel pack on his back, and Su Bing—who had an identical pack on her back—at his side, departed through the eastern city gate. It was time for them to set off on their adventure.

Yin'er cheered happily as they stepped through the gate. "Yay! Adventure time!"

---

BOOM!

Thunder roared, lightning flashed, illuminating the surroundings, and raindrops fell from overhead. Three figures, two human and one little tiger, illuminated by the flashing lightning, were trudging through the muddy puddles forming on the wet earth. "Jin Shu, we need to find shelter quickly, preferably before we drown in all of this rain!" yelled Su Bing over the sound of the roaring thunder.

Yin'er, hiding inside of Jin Shu's robes from the rain and sound of the thunder, poked her little head out to say, "Daddy, I don't think I like adventures anymore."

After trudging through the rain for a few more minutes, they saw a building illuminated by a flash of lightning up ahead.

As they got closer, they could see a signboard that read, Linglong Inn. As they stepped through the doorway, a bell chimed, and a friendly, feminine voice welcomed them. "Hello travelers, welcome to Linglong Inn!"

It took the three a moment for their eyes to adjust to the light inside the inn. When their eyes adjusted, they could see a dainty young woman wearing an apron over her pink robe sitting behind a counter at the other end of the open lobby of the inn.

The young woman smiled at the three soaking wet travelers and asked, "Would you all like to take a bath? You're just in time as I've just heated the water, and after your bath, I'll have some piping hot soup ready."

Jin Shu walked up to the counter and placed two gold coins down while asking, "Can we get two rooms, please?"

The young woman tilted her head and smiled slightly. "Hm... but we only have one room, hehe."

Jin Shu frowned and was about to say something when he heard a sneeze from behind him. He turned to see Su Bing covering her face with her arm. "Alright, we'll take the room."

The young woman giggled and handed him a key that she had taken out from underneath the counter. There was only a single key, yet when she reached under the counter, a clinking sound, like keys striking, resounded inside the empty lobby.

Jin Shu turned to Su Bing and handed the key to her. "Here, go take a bath."

Su Bing hurriedly shook her head. "No, no, you should take a bath first, Young Ma-ma-machoo!"

Jin Shu handed Yin'er over to Su Bing. "Go take a bath and give one to Yin'er as well. That's an order."

Surprisingly, Yin'er didn't refuse to take a bath this time. Su Bing frowned and hesitated to say something before giving up and taking Yin'er up the stairs off to the side.

The young woman turned around and walked into the kitchen doorway behind the counter while calling out, "The soup will be ready soon!"

Jin Shu walked over to a table at the side of the lobby and sat down to wait. After waiting about fifteen minutes, Su Bing came down the stairs, with slight steam rising from her damp skin and her hair still dripping. Yin'er was sleeping in her arms.

As Su Bing reached the bottom of the stairs, the young woman in the apron came out of the kitchen with a platter holding three steaming bowls of soup and a plate of dumplings.

She and Su Bing reached the table at the same time. She set a bowl in front of each of them and placed the plate of dumplings in the center of the table. Yin'er sniffed the steam wafting off the bowls and slowly woke up. Jin Shu handed the young woman a gold coin and thanked her. "Thank you for your hospitality, Miss...?"

The young woman smiled and placed the coin in the pocket of her apron. "You can call me Linglong, handsome, hehehe!"

Jin Shu nearly choked on the dumpling he had just taken a bite from when he heard the way Linglong addressed him.

Cough! cough!

Yin'er was standing on a chair, blowing on her bowl of soup to cool it off. She looked up at Linglong and asked, "What is a handsome?"

Linglong rubbed Yin'er's head and asked her a question back, "Do you know what beautiful is?"

Yin'er nodded her head. "Yin'er knows. Big Sister Mei'er said, 'If you see any beautiful woman while out on your adventure, you need to help your Daddy marry them. If my stinky brother can have a harem of 100 women, then my son should have a harem of 100,000 beautiful women.' So now I'm looking for beautiful women for my Daddy to marry. Do you want to marry Daddy?"

Cough!! Cough!!

This time both Jin Shu and Su Bing choked on the soup they were drinking.

Linglong hunched over, holding her belly while laughing. "Ahahahahaha!! Ahaha! Aha!"

Yin'er tilted her head in confusion and asked, "What's so funny? Do you not want to marry Daddy?"

Linglong slowly stopped laughing and pointed at Jin Shu. "Is Handsome your Daddy?"

Yin'er nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Daddy is my Daddy. Oh, yeah! You never told Yin'er what a handsome is?"

Linglong answered while giggling. "Hehe, your Daddy is what handsome is."

Yin'er looked down and thought for a moment, then looked up at Linglong and asked, "So, Daddy is Handsome Daddy?"

Linglong petted Yin'er's head and commended her. "Yeah, that's right! He's Handsome Daddy. Yin'er is such a smart girl!"

Yin'er fluttered her wings happily. "Yay! Yin'er is smart! But Yin'er already knows she's smart because Daddy told her that Yin'er learned to talk much sooner than all the other Demonic Beasts. But Yin'er doesn't like the word 'Demonic,' so Daddy said he'll call Yin'er a Mythic Beast. Yin'er likes that a lot."

Linglong glanced at Jin Shu and said to Yin'er, "Oh, do you know what a Mystic Beast is?"

Yin'er tilted her head in confusion. "Yin'er is Mystic Beast?"

Jin Shu finished his soup and joined the conversation. "A Mystic Beast is an evolution of a Demonic Beast. They have unlocked their wisdom and developed Mystic Beast Arts, which are the beast tribes' version of human Combat Techniques."

Linglong looked at Jin Shu in surprise. "Oh, Handsome Daddy, you know quite a bit about Mystic Beasts."

Jin Shu looked at her with an uncomfortable expression. "I enjoy reading ancient books, so I know quite a lot about the world of the ancients. However, I don't have much knowledge of current events. Also, can you please not call me that, Miss Linglong?"

Linglong tilted her head and tapped her finger on her temple in contemplation. "Hm...? Nope!"

She leaned over, grabbed a dumpling off the table, took a large bite, and then proceeded to ask Jin Shu a question. "Do you know what the Mystic Tiger Beast is called?"

Jin Shu shook his head. "No, I've yet to read a book with the names of each Mystic Beast. Please, enlighten me, Miss Linglong."

Linglong smiled and began to reply. "The Mystic Tiger Beast is known as the Silv—"

Clank!

Linglong was interrupted by a sudden noise. She and Jin Shu both looked over to the other side of the table to see what had happened.

Su Bing had dropped her bowl on the floor. She was crouching down to pick it up when she saw Linglong and Jin Shu looking at her. She blushed and stammered out an apology. "Ah... uh... s-sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please continue."

Linglong continued, "So, the Mystic Tiger Beast is called the Silver Sab—"

Burp!

Yin'er, who had finished licking her bowl clean, burped, interrupting Linglong again.

Linglong crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance. "Hmph!"

Jin Shu couldn't help but laugh, slightly happy to see Linglong annoyed after the distress her pranks had been causing him. "Ahaha!"

Linglong glared at him angrily but continued once more. "As I was saying, the Mystic Tiger Beast is called..."

She paused and looked around to make sure she wouldn't be interrupted again. "...The Silver Sabertoothed Tiger."

She sighed in relief and continued, "Phew. Anyways, I brought that up because Yin'er here resembles the Silver Sabertoothed Tiger. However, she's clearly a Monarch Winged Tiger—a rare bloodline of Demonic Beasts—but their species hasn't yet crossed the line separating them from the Mystic Beasts. So, I wonder if Yin'er might be a new species of Monarch Winged Tigers or if she is mixed with a Silver Sabertoothed Tiger?"

Jin Shu knew that the reason Yin'er resembled the Silver Sabertoothed Tiger was because of the Living Metal inside her that had mutated her, but he wasn't about to share that information with anyone. "I don't believe she is a hybrid, so I'd like to believe that she is a new species instead."

Linglong nodded. "A new species, hm, that's interesting. You should be careful who you tell about that, especially the lunatics from the Wild Beast Sect. Those bastards call themselves Beast Tamers, but in my opinion, they're nothing but a bunch of slave drivers. They place beasts into Master/Servant Contracts and force them to battle other beasts in the hopes of creating a Mystic Beast through combat. Hmph, disgusting!"

She suddenly glared at Jin Shu and questioned him, "You haven't made Yin'er fight, have you?"

Yin'er spoke up then, "Hmph, Daddy won't let Yin'er fight! Even when Yin'er promised to take a bath once a year, he said Yin'er might get hurt. But Yin'er won't get hurt! Yin'er is super strong! Even Big Grandpa Chen can't win a wrestling match against Yin'er."

Jin Shu responded to Linglong's question, "I've never had Yin'er fight, and I will only allow her to fight when she grows up and will never, ever force her to fight. Also, thank you for your advice; I will keep it in mind."

Linglong stared at Jin Shu's face for a moment, trying to tell if he was lying or telling the truth. "Hmm... that better be the case because if I find out that you've hurt my cute little Yin'er, I'll crush your balls!" She squished a dumpling in her hand as a demonstration.

Jin Shu flinched, seeing the dumpling being crushed. "I'll keep that in mind as well. Also, since when was she your cute little Yin'er?"

Linglong smiled and said, "Since right now. Isn't that right, Yin'er?"

Yin'er wasn't sure what they were talking about but agreed regardless, since she liked Linglong, who reminded her of her Big Sister Mei'er.

Jin Shu shook his head in disbelief and stood up. "Alright, it's probably about time to head to sleep. I still need to take a bath as well, although the water's probably cold by now."

Linglong handed him a stone and said, "Here, use this to heat the water."

Jin Shu looked at her in confusion and asked, "What am I supposed to do with a rock?"

Now it was Linglong's turn to look at Jin Shu in confusion. "What do you mean? You don't know what a heating stone is? How does someone from a family of runesmiths not know what a heating stone is?"

This caused Jin Shu even more confusion. "I've never heard of a heating stone before. But more importantly, how do you know I'm from a family of runesmiths? I don't believe I ever told you my name."

Linglong didn't say anything; she just pointed at the left side of his chest.

Jin Shu looked down and saw that his robes were embroidered with the Jin family crest, which was an anvil with the Wind Rune in the center.

"Oh, I didn't realize that was there. So what does that have to do with me being from a family of runesmiths?" he asked with an embarrassed look on his face.

Linglong gave him a weird look and said, "It has everything to do with you being from a family of runesmiths. A heating stone is a special type of stone that conducts heat well, inscribed with a Flame Rune. Doesn't your family craft them too?"

Jin Shu shook his head. "No, my family only crafts weapons. In fact, a few years ago, I crafted a pair of earrings for my mother, and when my father found out, he nearly broke my legs from the beating he gave me."

Linglong gave him an incredulous look and handed him the heating stone again. "Well, that's interesting. Here, take it and go have your bath."

Jin Shu grabbed the heating stone and thanked her. He turned and walked upstairs, thinking, 'Hmm, that's interesting. I never knew about runesmith practices other than my family's. I wonder what other useful things runesmiths have come up with. If the heating stone exists, then there must be a cooling stone as well.'

---

Jin Shu woke up in a sleeping bag on the floor. He looked to his left and saw Su Bing and Yin'er cuddled together on the bed. He had one hell of a time convincing Su Bing to sleep on the bed. At one point, he nearly had to knock her unconscious.

He got up and walked over to a basin filled with water, which he used to wash his face. Hearing the splashing water, Su Bing and Yin'er started to wake up.

"Good morning," said Jin Shu.

"Good morning," replied Su Bing.

"Good morning, Daddy!" Yin'er shouted as she flew over to Jin Shu.

Jin Shu and Su Bing gathered their belongings, and the three headed downstairs.

As they descended the stairs, they could smell something cooking. Linglong stepped out of the kitchen. "Go sit down; breakfast will be ready soon!"

---

After eating breakfast, the three bid Linglong farewell and set out for the next part of their journey.

"Goodbye, Miss Linglong," said Jin Shu.

"Farewell, Miss Linglong," said Su Bing.

"Bye-bye, Big Sister Linglong!" shouted Yin'er.

If the next part of their journey would be as eventful as their encounter with Linglong, then it seemed the journey was shaping up to be quite exciting.