The walking Chestnut

"You seem to have forgotten basic courtesy when addressing your betters, Brother Chu. How saddening, Brother Du, Sister Ming, don't you agree?" Zhao Ming asked his two accomplices, feigning a look of genuine concern.

To his question, the two lackeys concurred in dark excitement.

"This misdeed is unbefitting a disciple of OUR Flowing Sword sect, and as your superior, it is my solemn duty to deter such habits…"

"…Now, hold still while I deliver the appropriate punishments." Zhao Ming spoke, backing his statements with action mere instants later.

In the blink of an eye, he'd disappeared from his initial spot, dashing towards the wounded Jiang like some sort of heat-seeking missile, before stabbing him in the thigh and then… twist!

Spurt!

'Ouch...That's going to leave a mark.' Ying winced in second-hand agony; he couldn't help but feel sorry for the brown-haired youth.

"AAAAGHHH!!" 'Chu' screamed in anguish as he hurtled down to the floor, gripping his thigh.

He writhed in agony as crimson blood spewed from the deep gash in his left thigh. It seemed as though tears were welling up in his eyes.

"Jiang Chu!!" The girl's voice, the same voice that had unloaded the clips of loud shrieks, sounded again. This time, however, genuine worry was laced in her tone as she quickly raced to Jiang Chu's side

"Oh no, is dearest Brother Chu about to cry? Hahaha! You had better hold it in, wouldn't want you looking like a weakling in front of your beloved girlfriend. HAHAHA! Then again, all this could have been avoided if only you had proper manners." Zhao Ming said with a dubious shrug, the smile never once leaving his smug face.

Even Ying was starting to get ticked off by this guy now...

"Stop this at once!" The beautiful female's voice snapped at Zhao Ming, but he didn't seem to particularly care.

"Oh? The screamer decides to take action now? Hahaha! Aren't you even the slightest bit embarrassed? Even after I told you, thanks to the special talismans I've set up, no man or beast is going to come to your aid! Foolish girl, Hahaha!" Zhao Ming laughed.

'Think again bastard, I am here.' Ying retorted from his hiding place, chalking the fact that he'd just waltzed through a spiritual barrier up to his status as a player.

But was it really that simple?

"H-h-how… dare… you-Urgh!" Jiang tried to hold back the pain… tears streamed from his eyes, as well as blood from his wound.

By now, Ying – who had been patiently observing from the shadows – had already made sense of the uncomplicated situation.

'Basically, it's just your classic boy protects romantic partner from jealous bullies scenario. Although you'd expect the one doing the protecting to be stronger…' Ying thought, trying to assert the strengths of the individuals before him, all to no avail.

'I guess I'm just going to have to observe from the sidelines a bit more. What's the point of rushing in like a hero if I am just gonna get killed three seconds after? Well, not like I care about being the hero… but perhaps there is some profit to be made from all this.'

Ying reasoned, his opportunistic persona shining brilliantly despite the chaos.

He did not have that strange need which a few other people had to help complete strangers in need at their own expense, but he still decided to stick around.

Although he wasn't a fan of Zhao Ming's… everything, really, he also wasn't conceited. Three-on-one was too much for him right now; if things started going south, he had to be able to escape at any time...

...But it seemed that the algorithm had other plans for him.

Ding!

[You have been issued a Quest!]

'Huh?' Ying was shocked, but before he could even fully express himself—

[

Type: sub

Difficulty: Body Tempering Stage—4th Realm

Description: Jiang Chu is a love-smitten disciple of the Flowing Sword sect whose soul mate is being targeted by the heinous young master Zhao Ming. Protect their love and smite all those who plot against it!

Condition for failure: Jiang Chu and/or Xian Shan's deaths.

Reward: ???

Failure: ???

]

As Ying read through the contents of the message, his expression was subject to several changes.

From serious cringe to apprehension, to even greater cringe, then disappointment and finally, expectation. In that order.

The title, as well as the description, subjected him to a seriously cheesy feeling, but then it was doused by the slight panic of the supposed difficulty of the Quest.

It seemed to require him to be two entire realms higher than as of current and seeing as there was no option to refuse anywhere in sight, Ying naturally assumed this to be non-optional…

…Truthfully, he was not very willing to test the patience of the game's algorithm.

He was filled with a mixture of discontentment as well as expectation after seeing the reward. The question marks definitely meant that they were yet to be determined, and this meant either two things.

They could end up being either good or terrible. Although an appropriate reward that was not too good but not bad either was an option, Ying was not very confident about that considering his luck thus far.

'Sigh...I guess I really have no choice but to get involved huh? Well, since there is no time limit, I might as well take my sweet time right?' Ying thought in exasperation.

"Zhao Ming, you scoundrel! How dare you do this to Jiang Chu?! He did nothing to deserve this!!" The girl roared in anger. But her soft, squeaky voice made it appear anything but threatening.

Zhao Ming laughed. As though he had heard the funniest joke in the world, his laughter echoed across the forest.

"Oh? And what are you going to do Lady Xian Shan? Maybe if this was a few years ago, then you could have done something, but the influence of your family has already dwindled greatly. You are nothing to me now!" Zhao Ming yelled defiantly.

"He did nothing to deserve this? Ha! I will tell you his crime! He courted you, despite knowing that I was already interested in your affection! That is why he is going to die here today. Blame yourself for falling for such a poor and powerless man, when you could have had this!" Zhao Ming said while gesturing to himself.

'Oh, gods. What a bad day to know English.' Ying visibly cringed.

The two lackeys nodded their heads in affirmative agreement to his nonsensical words.

After listening to Zhao Ming's cheesy speech, Ying suddenly felt a huge wave of boredom assaulting his mind.

This was his second big weakness—He simply could not stand people who acted like walking chestnuts. People like that bored him to no end.

Suddenly, he felt the inexplicable urge to just…yawn?

"Huaaaaam… tut, tut… so he is just the arrogant young master type? Sigh. Just what you would expect from a Cultivation world." Ying said aloud.

He wasn't worried about being heard, as Zhao Ming's annoyingly arrogant laughter was already obstructing all sounds he could possibly make.

"Sigh… Looks like I'm going to have to deal with something very annoying in the very, very near future." Ying said dreadfully.