“How long do we have to be their cleaning crew?” The lady said as she tied her shimmering aquamarine hair up to a small little ponytail. There was no need to hide her hair colour at the point of time when they were in the northern mountains of Dongguan and Huizhou which were neighbouring cities from Shenzhen.
“Because our sponsors pay us well enough to do this?” Mr Know-it-all peered into the distance as he glanced at the overarching night sky. He was in his jeep, taking a rest and drinking his wife’s oolong tea as usual.
“Meh, I thought you did not want to do anything with them anymore. Or are you using this as an excuse to go out with me? Won’t your wife be jealous that you are spending the Christmas night with a sweet young thing?”
“You? Sweet young thing? Please give me a break, Li. You are anything but that. Besides, if you know this is a boring task, why did you join me and not go investigate that dungeon supplier? You always wanted to know the location of your Master since you are now an independent contractor. I believed that it is a good place to start.” Mr Know-it-all mocked his partner.
“Heh! As if my master is that young. He should be about 40 to 50 odd years old by now. And besides, if no one takes care of you during missions, who will? Your leg does not work as well as it used to.” Ryuli sniggered towards Mr Know-it-all as she clenched her fist to feel the chi coursing through her.
Though her memory of that incident was a bit foggy, Ryuli had always remembered how her ‘master’ passed her the very thing that allowed her to survive before someone else found her struggling inside that god-forsaken place. Yet at the same time, she was curious why did he merely leave her inside the dark, filthy underground cell when he broke open the ceiling.
Was it because he wanted to test her? Just give her the means to survive? Or did he encounter someone along the way and was killed in the process? Too many questions which Ryuli had pondered over the years. She was neither grateful nor bore any malicious intent towards her master …Just curious.
Thankfully, it was none other than Mr Know-it-all who discovered her and decided to take Ryuli under his wing. He initially wanted to send her to an orphanage but finding out that she had cultivation powers activated within her as well as the fact that her father killed an entire temple full of innocent people, Mr Know-it-all changed his mind.
Mr Know-it-all also later realised that her cultivation was not inherent to what her family was known for. Her mother was from a family of Dancing Dragon Style, a subsidiary group under the Dangerous Dragon Triad. She was subsequently excommunicated from the Triads after she decided to marry a commoner for her spouse.
However, she paid the price a little too harsh considering she had to strip all of her fortune, name and even artificially sealing her Dantian to ensure that she could not cultivate. Still, she persevered and be with the man she loved.
So, Mr Know-it-all was remarkably interested upon seeing what Ryuli had in her cultivation was not a dragon but instead, a panda. Not only that, the chi she exuded had traces of mana in it as well. While he cannot adopt a kid due to the sensitive nature of his job, Mr Know-it-all decided to enrol her into the Special Training for the Young and Talented within the Chinese Military.
In that programme, he knew that she would be well fed, educated and trained to be a competent field agent. The only problem was that she would not be living like a normal girl. However, Mr Know-it-all had a hunch that even she could, the society will blacklist her, scrutinise her because of the history of her family.
In a way, this was Mr Know-it-all’s method of showing concern to her, and when he occasionally entered the programme as a special instructor, he will make sure there everything was fair to her in the most reasonable way. (After all, it was a strict programme, there was only so much he could do.)
In retrospect for Ryuli, she figured that she could have gotten worse in the normal society as compared to the training programme that she was drafted to. Some of the students in that programme had been in an even more obscure situation which Ryuli felt that she was rather fortunate.
—–
“Seems like we picked up some static noises. Agent L, go take a look.” Mr Know-it-All said as he observed the various monitors in the jeep that they were in.
“Understood, Agent K.” Ryuli got out of the jeep and checked her combat umbrella at her back as well as the short sword she held at her waist. Other than that, she had a standard battle jacket with a unique heat tech ability, along with long sleeved combat shirt that kept her warm during the Christmas Winter. It was made with nanofibres that are capable of withstanding a few monster hits along without an inscription.
“Here, take these inscriptions and placed them on your shirt and jacket. As well as your weapons. I do not want a repeat like last time.” Agent K said to Ryuli as she took the temporary offensive and defensive inscriptions to observe for a while before applying them.
“That incident was not my fault, and I guess these inscription charms are from that dungeon supplier? Looks decent enough.” Ryuli replied and noticed one of them was a little different from the others. She queried whether if it was from the same dungeon supplier store as well.
“While I had not been there for some time because of this ‘cleaning’, I got a few of my lackeys to buy whatever they have so yes, they are all from there. Even the limited edition one that you are holding. Apparently, it’s their Boss’ Special for Christmas. He infused his chi into it to bring a sort of Panda attack out regardless of cultivation style. Sold in limited quantities so it’s one of a kind…sort of.” Agent K replied.
“And I thought you might want to have some fun killing those monsters since its Christmas, and I am interested in what it will do especially since my lackeys had already spent money on it.”
“Aww, so sweet of you. Thanks, Agent K. I will make sure it will go with a bang.” Ryuli winked at Mr Know-it-all as she patched it onto her Combat Umbrella.
“That charm contained the very same chi that I have. How is that possible?” She thought to herself as she pretended to check her sidearm and the items in her storage ring before departing. “Could that Master be working for the Dungeon Supplier? Is that why K always lurked in that small store?”
“The static noises are getting louder. Go. Now.” Agent K ordered, and Ryuli snapped out of her thoughts as she nodded her head and disappeared in a flash.
