Chapter 5 - Yuki

"You are very handsome without beard and long hair." She spoke.

"Thanks!"

I sat on the bed while she cleaned up after the shave and haircut. As she finished cleaning, she pulled out the bath tub out the ring and started to fill it with jugs of warm water from her storage ring. I could barely hide my eagerness to jump in. Yuki chuckled and spoke.

"You seem very eager to jump in."

"Yes, I spend some time out in the wilderness cultivating so I really missed a bath and a real bed. To be honest I also missed somebody to talk to!"

"How long have you been out in the wilderness?"

"Not sure honestly, I lost track of time. All I did was cultivating, training and hunting. All I know is that I hit my goal and went out of the forest."

"What was your goal?"

"Corporal and Advance stage 1."

She froze. "How old are you?"

"I should be 18, if I was not there for longer than I think!"

"Congratulations. What sect you belong to?"

"I was planning to pick one now. But I know almost nothing about nearby sects, I lived as homeless orphan for most of my life so I am going to have to do some research!"

"You reached that without sect or resources?" She looked at me dumbfounded. "I wish I had your talent." She added with sadness palpable in her voice.

"How come?" I asked.

"I am one year older than you and I am soldier rank two, almost three in mind cultivation. I was trying to get to few sects around here but best what I got was offer to become 'Dual cultivation assistant'!"

"What's that?" As I asked that, she finished the bath and gestured for me to get in and turned her back to me. I quickly removed my clothing and dived into the bathtub.

"Pretty much a fuck-toy for core disciples that are dual cultivators!"

"Disgusting!" I answered. She chuckled.

"Most people told me that it was an awesome opportunity since I would have received a bunch of resources so that I would be able to keep with core disciples a little in order for them to be able to use me longer."

"Even worse." I spoke and shook my head. She laughed this time.

"You are weird! But I like your kind of weird, it's similar to mine."

I chuckled. Like this we talked about all kinds of stuff the whole time I bathed, after that she prepared a food for us from her storage ring with a bunch of wine, and we ate together.

She told me that the closest entrance test for a sect is 'Valley of five knives sect' in two months. It is sect mostly know for two things, first being the fact that it is not aligned with any clan it is the only neutral sect close by, second being the amount of practical experience one gets there. They have huge assassin and mission board section together with huge section that takes care of cleaning of nearby dark forest filled with monsters and disciples are very highly motivated to take those missions. Pretty much everything there is based on your mission performance. But they have a rather strict entrance test, but she explained that I should ace it without issues. But for highly talented people it is a very good place. If you are able to reach inner disciple or better they even allow you to take one cultivation partner with you that is going to bypass the entrance exams and gets same amount of resources as you.

I decided that I am going to attend the entrance test there. It sounded like good place to be in, from what she told me it was purely merit based. Better you are, more stuff you get.

We spoke late into the night. After that she quickly ran off to do her work in a hurry since she was meant to do a lot more than talk with me. As she was leaving, I asked her for breakfast to room for next morning and went to sleep.

I slept like a toddler. It felt awesome to sleep again on a bed after such a long time. A little while after I woke up, I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I spoke in a good mood. And it got even better when I saw Yuki coming in.

She setup the breakfast while I put on some clothes and we had a breakfast together while we once again had a nice chat.

"What are you planning today?" She asked.

"I need to do some shopping, and I was planning to have a walk around the city."

"Hmm what are you shopping for?" She asked with a smile.

"I need some clothes, so I wanted to grab a bunch. And some utility stuff like healing pills and so on, you know things one should have somewhere just in case."

She nodded and spoke. "If you want, I can help you, I am off work today and I know the shops around here." I could see she was nervous about asking me this. I chuckled and spoke.

"I would be very happy if you went shopping with me, we might grab something to eat for lunch later while we are at it."

Yuki smiled and nodded. "Sounds good."

After we ate our breakfast, we went directly to market. Yuki has shown me a very nice shop where we picked up a bunch of hanfus for me. Mostly black with red or golden details. I talked her into few qipaos that I bought for her; she even wore one right away. We both wore the new clothes, black hanfu with red detail for me and short red qipao with black details that perfectly copied her figure for Yuki. 

We had a lot of fun picking out clothing for each other and talking, after that we went to pill shop and quickly grabbed some common pills that are good to have with you in case of emergencies. Once that was done, we headed straight to a one specific restaurant I wanted to visit.

Since nobody recognized me in the city, I wanted to check out restaurant that Li Meng frequented. It was risky but I wanted to know if she would recognize me.

We arrived at the restaurant; Yuki was vehemently protesting to eating there since the place was very pricey but I talked her into it. We sat down and I ordered for both of us. Yuki relaxed after a bit and we were once again having a nice chat while I scouted for Li Meng and Long Zhong. The two persons responsible for death of previous owner of this body.

"Fen, what did you ordered?" She asked and when I started to respond I noticed my quarry. In fact, I noticed both of them, they arrived hand in hand, smiling. It took quite a lot from me not jump them right then and there. I just barely managed to play cool it enough for Yuki not to notice anything, I was happy, I didn't want to tell her the truth and I also didn't want her to think something that is not true, so her not noticing and me not having to explain was for the best for now.

"Something really good you will see; I am sure you will like it!"

The pair passed right around us as we chatted without even looking my way. I was internally confused why nobody recognizes me. The I realized, that right now I was corporal rank cultivator in quite pricey clothes, short hair, and no longer slim and feminine looking but rather masculine, plus I just had a rather nice smelling bath while before all this I could at best bath in cold river. The difference it made was vast.

I chuckled to myself and continued to have a nice chat. We both very much enjoyed the food and left the restaurant and headed for walk around the city. I wanted to check the security of both mansions of my targets.

After the walk we returned back to the inn and we spend the rest of the day just chatting over some wine. Late night when Yuki went to sleep, I went to scout. I first went to check the places that Meng normally frequented late in the night before she went home and indeed I found her in one of them slowly heading home. I decided to trail her and watch her, she went directly home, I quickly went invisible and followed her I wanted to know where are her chambers so that my job taking care of her is going to be easier. I was happy that I trained invisibility in forest, since it reached rank III, I was able to hold it up for more than an hour.

I trailed her to her chambers; I was tempted go in and end her right then and there. But that would surely made security for Zhong guy go up by a lot and I didn't want that. Since I already knew where are her chambers, I quickly left the mansion and headed back to the inn.

Over next few days I spent as much time with Yuki as I could given her work schedule and when I was not with Yuki, I was trailing the two.

And now was the night I planned to strike on both of them.