Jin Shu and Fan Biyu chatted easily, the earlier awkwardness fading as their versation grew lively. At one point, Jin Shu leaned forward, curiosity sparking in his eyes.

  “Do you happen to know any bat teiques I could learn?”

  Fan Biyu shook her head. “No, I only have ones from our sect, and they’re exclusive to female cultivators. Why do you ask?”

  “I ran into some assassins on my way back from the capital,” Jin Shu expined, his tourning serious. “It made me realize my fighting teiques could use some improvement.”

  Her eyes widened. “Assassins?”

  He nodded. “Probably sent by one of my cousins.”

  “Cousins…?” She blinked befnition dawned. “ht—you’re a prince of the Sun Empire. I fot.”

  “It’s not like I’m a real prince,” he said, shaking his head with a wry smile. “It’s just a title.”

  “That’s not true,” she said, tilting her head, her curiosity piqued.

  Jin Shu frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Master said you have assihts,” she replied matter-of-factly.

  “I do!?” Jin Shu recoiled, his eyes widening in shock. This was the first he’d heard of such a thing—not that he wahe throne.

  Fan Biyu nodded firmly. “Uh-huh. Master said your title pces you in lih the Prince.”

  Jin Shu reached for his earring, retrieving the Prince’s insignia he had tucked away. He stared at the emblem, his thoughts ing. Could it have been the Prince who ordered the assassins? Shaking his head to dispel the idea, he tucked the insignia bato pce.

  “Fet it,” he muttered under his breath before standing abruptly. “Alright, I o go. I’ve got training to do.”

  Fan Biyu nodded, watg as he made his way toward the gateway. “Jin Shu!” she called after him, her voice stopping him in his tracks.

  He gnced back over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

  “Thank you…”

  Jin Shu smiled gently. “You’re my mother’s disciple. That basically makes us brother and sister.” With a casual wave, he stepped through the gateway and disappeared from view.

  Left alone, Fan Biyu’s expression shifted, a faint mencholy overtaking her features. “Brother and sister…?” she murmured, her cheeks flushing at the memory of their earlier closeness. “I don’t think a brother would feel like that about his sister, though…”

  Her firaced idle lines oable as her thoughts drifted. “Was it… like this?”

  ***

  Jin Shu stood in the middle of the training room normally utilized by the family’s guards. The space was equipped with state-of-the-art runic meisms, a generous gift from his uncle.

  In his right hand, he held a pistol. In his left, a curved-bded dagger resembling a karambit. Jin Shu shifted his stance, his body naturally settling into the familiar posture he’d drilled endlessly in his past life as a soldier. His grip on the pistol was firm but nid, while the karambit glinted ominously in the dim light of the room.

  He inhaled deeply, fog his mind. Cultivators in this world were uhe enemies he had faced oh. They didn’t rely on modern tactics but followed traditional fighting styles passed didly through geions. Though discipliheir ck of adaptability was a weakness he inteo exploit.

  In the military, Jin Shu had been traio use everything to his advantage—whether it was the on in his hand or the dirt beh his feet. Strategy, agility, and precision were his ons now.

  At the far end of the room stood a wooden target painted with vaguely humanoid features. With a sharp flick of his wrist, Jin Shu eled his qi to activate a rune embedded on the wall. The room whirred to life, and the target began to move, weaving uably from side to side. Thin, blunted rods shot toward him iic patterns, simuting attacks—part of the automated defense system the family’s guards used to train reflexes.

  He started slow, raising the pistol and firing a quick shot at the moving target. The bullet struck its shoulder—a solid hit but far from the lethal precision he needed.

  He cursed under his breath and adjusted his aim. As the rods whistled toward him, Jin Shu ducked, rolled to the side, and brought up the pistol again. This time, the bullet pierced the target’s chest.

  “Better,” he muttered, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

  The rods came faster now, f him to switch tactics. Jin Shu sidestepped another barrage, the karambit in his left hand fshing as he deflected a rod that came dangerously close. In a real fight, he khe bde wouldn’t do much against a higher-realm cultivator’s qi-reinforced body. Still, the karambit had its uses.

  Spinning the on in his hand, he recalled the close-quarters bat teiques he’d practiced in his past life—sshes, hooks, and quick thrusts, all desigo exploit oints.

  “Speed and precision,” he reminded himself aloud, moving to a shadowed er of the room.

  He tapped another rune, activating the training system’s sed stage. argets emerged—humanoid dummies leather armor inscribed with faint runic patterns. These simuted the natural durability of Core Realm cultivators.

  Jin Shu advanced swiftly, firing his pistol. The first shot aimed at a dummy’s head ricocheted harmlessly off the rune-reinforced leather. He frowned. His unmodified on wasn’t enough to break through.

  Cursing under his breath, he darted forward, closing the distance. His karambit sshed at the dummy’s throat, finding the small gap between the armor’s overpping ptes.

  “That’s it,” he murmured, exhiration c through him as the dummy crumbled backward.

  Two more dummies rushed forward oed tracks, their movements unnervingly lifelike. Jin Shu rolled to avoid them, firing a quick shot at one dummy’s khe rune-enhanced leather absorbed most of the impact, but the shot staggered it enough for him to strike. He sliced upward with the karambit, targeting the joints and severing the straps holding its armor in pce.

  The sed dummy bore down on him, swinging a wooden sword in a powerful overhead arc. Jin Shu raised his pistol instinctively, firing twice at its shoulder joint. The strikes slowed the dummy’s movements just enough for him to sidestep and hook his karambit into the joint. With a sharp twist, he “disarmed” the dummy, its on cttering to the floor.

  Jin Shu stepped back, panting as the training system powered down. Sweat dripped from his brow, and his muscles burned, but his mind remained sharp. This was only the beginning. Cultivators were faster, stronger, and deadlier than any wooden dummy or automated rod. If he wao survive—and win—he would need more than raw skill.

  "Runes," Jin Shu muttered under his breath. "I hem, or my ons will bee useless."

  "Speaking of runes," Nano’s voice chimed in softly, "when do you pn on using the ability tied to your cultivation teique?"

  Jin Shu frowned. "Hm? What ability?"

  "The Dragon-Tiger Tattoo," Nano replied, its tone almost teasing.

  "That? I thought it was just a faname to make the teique sound impressive. You're saying I actually bring my tattoos to life?"

  "You haven't tried," Nano said simply. "So how would we know?"

  Jin Shu's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Should I?"

  "That’s up to you."

  Taking a deep breath, Jin Shu here weren’t aailed instrus on how to activate the tattoos, but he reasohere could only be one ower the Life-Giving Ruh Qi.

  eling his Qi into the ruched on his skin, he felt nothing at first. The sileretched until his patience began to waver. Then, just as he poured nearly half of his Qi into the ruhe air exploded with sound—a thunderous roar of a dragon iwined with the feral cry of a tiger.

  Two shimmering cws, one draid the other feline, materialized in the air before him, their forms posed entirely of Qi. They hovered ominously for a moment before tearing through a nearby training dummy. The wooden arms, reinforced with armor, splintered ao the ground in a single, devastating blow.

  Jin Shu blinked, stunned by the destru. "That was just the cws. What would happen if the dragon and tiger were fully formed?"

  Images flooded his mind—a dragon and tiger made entirely of Qi, their limbs powerful enough to obliterate mountains with a single swing. The thought sent a thrill through him, his breath quiing with anticipation.

  He reached to holster his pistol and sheath his karambit, his movements still half-absorbed in his daydream. The ctter of metal striking the floor jolted him. Jin Shu froze, staring down at his ons in bewilderment.

  “ht.” His voice was ft as realization dawned. “I don’t have a holster. Or a sheath.”

  He gnced around quickly, a faint blush creeping up his neck. “Luckily no one saw that,” he muttered before bending down to retrieve his ons.

  “Saw what?” A sweet, feminine voice sounded from the doorway.

  Jin Shu turned, spotting Li Xue standing there with a bright smile. Her cheerful expression was a stark trast to the tear-streaked face he had seen st time.

  “What brings you here?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I heard from a pair of gossipy maids that you were training here,” she replied, her steps light and bubbly as she approached.

  Gossipy maids? Jin Shu frowned slightly, trying to pce faces or o the description. His family employed so many servants that remembering even half of them felt impossible.

  “Would you like a sparring partner?” Li Xue asked, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

  “ you fight?” he asked, giving her small frame a once-over. She was short—barely over five feet, if that—and sleo boot. They used the metric system in this world, right? That made her around 160 timeters or so. He found himself distracted by the random thought.

  “I was a guard in the capital,” she said pointedly, crossing her arms. “And before you ask, no, my adopted father didn’t give me the position. I ear.”

  Jin Shu shook his head, smiling faintly. “I wasn’t going to ask.”

  “Oh... well, anyway, I fight,” she insisted, squaring up in front of him.

  Her stance was determined, but Jin Shu couldn’t help ughing. She reminded him of a tiny puppy challenging a wolf. Actually, how tall am I now? he wondered. I haven’t measured, but I’m probably about the same as I was in my st life. Six-foot-two. And I haven’t stopped growi, either.

  Bam!

  Before he could process what was happening, Jin Shu found himself ft on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He blinked, gng around in fusion until his eyes nded on Li Xue, who was staring at her hands in disbelief.

  Finally, she looked down at him and whispered, “So weak...”

  Jin Shu twisted his body, quickly pig himself up. “I wasn’t ready yet,” he said shamelessly, brushing himself off.

  Li Xue raised an eyebrow, her lips twitg as if holding back a ugh. “Dummy.” She muttered under her breath.

  Jin Shu squared his stance, his eyes narrowing. “Again!”