Jin Shu Coughs Blood

"Daddy! Wake up!" Yin'er shouted as she shook Jin Shu in an attempt to wake him.

Whinny!

The little foal ran over to his father and tried to nudge his leg in an attempt to get him to go toward Jin Shu. The large horse ignored the little foal and started to lead the herd away. Seeing its father ignore it, the little foal ran to its mother instead and started to neigh to get her attention. The mother stopped and neighed back to the foal, likely trying to get it to follow the herd. When it was unsuccessful in getting the foal to follow, it gave up and turned to the foal's father.

Neigh!

The mother neighed to the father. Hearing her neighing, he stopped and snorted in irritation before going back and pushing the foal forward from behind with his muzzle.

Whinny!

The foal neighed and ran back to where Yin'er and Jin Shu were. It stood next to Jin Shu and neighed again, calling its father over.

Snort!

The father snorted and turned to leave the foal behind. When the mother saw the father leaving the foal behind, she snorted and nudged the father with her head back in the direction of the foal. The father huffed in exasperation and trudged over to the foal.

The entire time all of this was happening, Yin'er was still trying to shake Jin Shu awake. "Daddy! Please wake up!" Yin'er shouted sorrowfully.

Stomp!

The father of the little foal stepped next to Jin Shu and looked down at him. He lifted his front leg and brought it over the top of Jin Shu's body.

Yin'er, seeing a large shadow fall over the top of herself and her dad's body, looked up to see what had cast the shadow. Upon seeing the large hoof descending from above, she growled, thinking that the large horse was trying to stomp on them. She then jumped up and tackled the horse from underneath. The horse was knocked completely over and slid back a few feet. Yin'er tumbled to the ground a few feet away.

The large horse lay on the ground, stunned at the fact that the little tiger, who was smaller than its hoof, had knocked it over.

Although Yin'er was extremely small, standing at only a little over one foot tall and two feet long when compared to the large horse, who was over ten feet tall and fourteen feet long, she was at the 2nd stage Core Forging Realm, whereas the horse was at the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm. So, she was actually much stronger than the horse.

Yin'er slowly stood up and was getting ready to pounce on the large horse when the foal blocked her and neighed.

Whinny!

"Your Daddy is going to help my Daddy?" Yin'er asked, bewildered by what the foal was saying.

Whinny!

"Oh, Yin'er didn't know. Yin'er is sorry. Please help my Daddy." Yin'er apologized to the large horse she had just knocked over and asked it for help waking her dad.

Snort!

The foal's father stood up with an annoyed and slightly embarrassed snort. He walked over to Jin Shu, raising his hoof again, and was about to bring it down when he heard a shout come from the left side.

"Stoooop!" Su Bing shouted as she rushed over from the distance, having finally caught up with them.

As she reached them, she saw a horse with its hoof raised above Jin Shu, as if getting ready to stomp him to death. She pulled out her baton—she would have taken her gun out, but it was in Jin Shu's Space Ring currently.

"Big Sister Bing-Bing! Daddy got hurt!" Yin'er cried from Su Bing's side as she flew over to her.

Hearing this, Su Bing assumed that the Flame-Maned Plains Runners had attacked Jin Shu and was getting ready to fight them off.

"That horsie's daddy horsie is going to help Daddy!" Yin'er explained incoherently.

"What? Who is doing what?" Su Bing asked in confusion.

"Daddy got hurt when he caught Yin'er, so that little horsie's daddy is going to help wake Daddy up." Yin'er explained in a slightly more coherent but still confusing manner.

Su Bing took a moment to assess the situation, and from what she could see and the pieces of information from Yin'er, she surmised that Jin Shu had somehow hit his head on a boulder and become unconscious, and the horse was going to wake him up using its hoof somehow?

Su Bing still didn't really understand what was going on, but regardless, she had to check on Jin Shu's injuries. As she began walking over to check on him, the large horse standing over him snorted while lifting its hoof again.

"Wait, don't do anything until I've checked his injuries." Su Bing tried to stop the horse from doing anything to Jin Shu.

Snort!

However, the horse didn't listen. It snorted in irritation and brought its hoof down on Jin Shu's chest; its hoof was so large that it covered Jin Shu's entire chest. As its hoof landed, Jin Shu coughed out some kind of silver liquid.

"Ack!" Jin Shu coughed up silver blood and opened his eyes suddenly.

Snort!

The large horse standing over Jin Shu snorted proudly as it saw Jin Shu wake after it stomped on him. However, when it looked down, it saw a strange silver liquid marring its jet-black coat, so it snorted in annoyance and licked the liquid off.

Snort!

The large black horse snorted in surprise as it licked the strange silver liquid; it seemed to enjoy the taste of the liquid and looked around for more of it. He spotted more on Jin Shu's chest and under his head, so he started licking it off his chest first.

Jin Shu woke up with a pounding headache and what felt like an elephant had stomped on his chest. The first thing he saw was a large black horse with a flaming mane standing over him, licking what looked like his silver blood off of its fur.

"Uh... ow... what... what's happening?" Jin Shu mumbled in puzzlement.

"Daddy!" Yin'er's shout came from off to his right side.

"Oof!" Jin Shu groaned as a small bundle of silver fur slammed into his chest, where there was also a horse licking him for some reason.

Jin Shu was still a little muddle-headed; he couldn't quite remember what had happened. Ugh... where am I? What am I? Who am I? I have no clue where I am. I think I'm some type of human-alien metal hybrid, and last I checked I'm Jin Shu, unless I've reincarnated again.

Yin'er crying on his chest woke him from his random nonsensical thoughts. "Waa! Yin'er is sorry! Waa!" Hearing Yin'er crying finally made his memories of what had transpired slowly return.

"Are you alright, Jin Shu?" Su Bing asked as she walked over.

"Ugh... yeah, not really, but I think I'll live." Jin Shu responded as he tried to sit up, which was proving difficult as his ribs felt like they were smashed by a two-ton truck.

Lick!

Jin Shu heard a licking sound from behind him. He turned his head slightly and saw a large horse head licking his blood off of the boulder he had just sat up from.

Lick!

Another licking sound came from his other side. He turned that way and saw the little foal imitating its father, licking his blood off the boulder.

Although he had remembered what had happened before he passed out, he had no clue what had happened after he passed out, so he was very confused when he saw these horses licking his blood off a boulder.

"Uh...? Are you making them do that, Yin'er?" he asked Yin'er, but she shook her head in denial while still sniffling and crying slightly on his chest.

"You shouldn't li—" As he was about to tell them not to lick his metal blood, the large jet-black horse started to release a silver glow.

"Welp, too late now. Ow!" Jin Shu said while shaking his head in exasperation, which caused his head to ache.

The silver glow around the large horse slowly dissipated, revealing a large jet-black horse with a silver star-like speckled pattern. The large horse's coat of fur, which was once purely black, now looked as if it contained a small galaxy of stars.

Snort!

The now galaxy-patterned horse snorted in confusion as it looked back at its sides to see the strange star pattern. As it looked itself over, another silver glow came from beside it.

The little foal, who had been imitating its father in licking Jin Shu's blood off the boulder, was also emitting a silver glow now. A few moments passed, and the silver glow dissipated again. When the little foal was revealed, it didn't gain a star pattern like its father; instead, it kept the same buckskin coat of fur but gained a silver diamond shape on its forehead.

Whinny!

The foal neighed in surprise after the glow vanished. Unlike its father, it couldn't see what had changed about itself, so it ran up to Jin Shu and neighed at Yin'er to ask how it had changed.

Whinny!

"You have a silver diamond on your head. See this? Daddy calls this a King symbol. Now you have something like this too." Yin'er pointed to the symbol on her forehead and explained to the little foal how it had changed.

Whinny!

The little foal neighed in excitement and strutted around as if showing off.

"Um...? What just happened to these horses?" Su Bing asked in shock.

Jin Shu looked up at her and began thinking. Should I tell her about the Living Metal? I can't tell her everythi—

"Daddy's blood is metal, and it makes things silver, like Yin'er!" Yin'er exclaimed in jubilation. She was feeling very happy that her new friend, the little foal, was like her now.

Well, the cat's out of the bag now. Jin Shu finished his thoughts. "Uh, so, yeah, it's like what Yin'er said. When I was in the mountain forest at Black Mountain City, I found a strange metal that caused my blood and bones to take on the properties of metal. It seems to have the same effect when my blood is consumed by other living things, I guess. It's also what I used to make my and your weapons." He gave her a half-truth.

"Huh...? Uh... okay, I guess I kind of understand." Su Bing uttered in confusion.

"I can expla— owowow!" Jin Shu was about to say something to Su Bing when the large black horse suddenly bit his head.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jin Shu demanded as he pried the horse's jaws off his head.

Neigh!

"Daddy horsie says that he wants you to fix his beautiful coat." Yin'er translated for Jin Shu.

"I can't fix it. I tried telling him not to lick that blood." Jin Shu said with a shrug.

Snort!

"Daddy horsie says, Fu—" Yin'er tried translating again, but Jin Shu quickly covered her mouth.

"You don't have to translate that. I understood it." Jin Shu said, as he had understood that the horse was very angry.

"Look, there's nothing I can do. It was your own fault for eating something you shouldn't have." Jin Shu stated as he stood up.

Snort!

"He says, 'Fix it!'" Yin'er translated the horse's snort.

Jin Shu shook his head and walked away. "Come on, Yin'er and Su Bing. Let's get back on the road; we should make up for the time we've lost."

Snort! Stomp!

The horse was pissed off that Jin Shu had ignored it.

Whinny!

The little foal neighed at its father and began following behind Jin Shu. "Yin'er's friend says it wants to come with us." Yin'er translated for the little foal this time.

"You aren't using your power on it, are you?" Jin Shu asked Yin'er skeptically.

"No, Yin'er stopped using it when Daddy got hurt." Yin'er stated truthfully.

"Okay, but we can't take the little foal with us; it needs to stay with its mom and dad." Jin Shu denied taking the foal along, as he didn't want to separate it from its mother and father.

Whinny! Whinny!

The little foal neighed at its mother and father.

Neigh!

Snort!

The mother and father responded. The father was angry, and the mother was confused.

"Daddy horsie said that you can't go unless you fix his coat, and Mommy horsie said she wants to know what happened to her husband and child." Yin'er translated their conversation.

"I! Can't! Fix! Your! Fur!" Jin Shu turned and shouted angrily at the black horse. He had a pounding headache, and this dumb horse wasn't making it any better.

Snort!

Bang!

"Ow! You bastard!" Jin Shu was knocked over by a headbutt from the black horse. He stood back up and pulled out his bat from his ring.

"Alright, I'm going to beat some sense into you!" he told the horse.

The large horse charged at Jin Shu with its head lowered, and Jin Shu raised his bat, ready to strike the horse in its head.

Whinny!!!

Bang!

The little foal neighed loudly as it saw its father and its new friend's father about to fight. As it neighed, a beam of silver light shot out of the diamond shape on its forehead. The beam cut a swath of ground between Jin Shu and the charging horse.

Snort!

"What the fu—" Jin Shu was about to swear.

"Wow! That was so cool!" Yin'er exclaimed after she saw the beam shoot out of the foal's forehead. She and the foal then began bouncing around joyfully.

Snort!

The black horse snorted in amazement as it stared at its child. Then it turned to Jin Shu and snorted again, as if asking a question.

"You want to know how to do that?" Jin Shu asked as he thought he understood what it was asking.

Snort!

The horse snorted again while nodding.

"Uh... I think, if you concentrate your Qi onto those silver spots, something will happen?" Jin Shu answered uncertainly.

Snort!

The horse snorted, then closed its eyes to concentrate... it opened its eyes a few seconds later, and nothing seemed to happen.

Snort!

The horse snorted angrily when it saw nothing happened. However, after its snort, a large pair of silver wings sprouted from its back.

Snort!

The horse felt the wings on its back and snorted proudly after turning and seeing them.