╔═══ Author's note ════╗
Many soldiers questioned Bing Shi's combat skills whenever she avoided Fu Lian's attacks. But because she always refused to fight back, they couldn't tell if it was due to luck or not.
Bing Shi had a problem getting in contact with other people. She'd rather build an army and let them protect her than confront the enemy face to face. Even if Xuan Mu taught her some self-defense, she couldn't compare to people with years of experience in real combat.
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° While monitoring Fu Lian, the fighting prodigy who could take down a group of skilled men alone, Bing Shi let Kuro simulate Fu Lian as her training partner.
° Unfortunately, the martial arts knowledge from Bing Shi's past as a nun became a fleeting memory with blank spots all over the place. She couldn't comprehend thirty years of expertise in one afternoon.
° "Put more force into your moves," Ru Quan advised, dodging a palm strike aimed at his chest. Shuffling to the side, he caught her left ankle in midair and tripped her other leg.
° Demonstrating her flexibility, Bing Shi executed a perfect standing split. Before she could fall, her right leg shot out to mount his shoulder in one fluid motion. Clasping his chin, she squeezed his head between her thighs. "Darling, you're holding back too much."
° 'Tell it to a certain little worryward,' thought Ru Quan with a sigh.
° "Your feet are cold," Xuan Mu noted, feeling her chilly ankles. Sending her shoes into his spatial storage, he warmed her bare feet with his palms.
° Ru Quan suddenly interjected with a strict stance, "Have you been training with Kuro every day?"
° "Umm," Bing Shi wiggled her toes around cutely. Training with Kuro was more than frustrating. Its hits became impossible to evade, making her give up shortly after each failure. "Umm..."
° "Bing Shi..." After layering two pairs of socks on her feet and replacing her shoes, he helped her dismount his shoulders. "No matter how busy you are, you must train daily," he implored, hugging her tightly. "Please."
° "Okay," Bing Shi nodded her head half-heartedly. When Ru Quan produced four long needles between his fingers, she quickly grabbed her thick history book like a shield and retreated. "Do you want me to bleed to death?!" she pressed.
° 'Dude. Her period!' Ru Quan awkwardly hurled the needles at a nearby tree. "Would you like to learn?"
° Consumed by concerns for her safety, Ru Quan neglected the romantic essence of their date. The expensive armor in this era was designed to stop arrows and swords; it wasn't strong enough to resist bullets.
° Fei Lan's poison needles would be useless if it weren't for her extreme precision in targeting the exposed skin.
° "You know how bad I'm with shooting moving objects," Bing Shi refused thoughtfully, "I still think that the best armor is..."
° "Not to get hit," he said.
° "Plenty of distance," she said.
° "..." They stared at each other with a helpless smile. It might sound similar at first, but their meaning was the polar opposite. He liked to embrace the danger and thrill, while she'd rather avoid it.
° Eager to exhaust her energy, Ru Quan hurled a wooden staff plated with iron in Bing Shi's direction. A versatile weapon, it was ideal for someone unskilled in both close and long-range combat.
° Catching the weapon curiously, she watched how he rotated his and repeated the process, experiencing a sense of familiarity, similar to her pole dance.
° She told him that in the past, she used to train with a long walking stick, which was a good multipurpose tool for traveling Monks.
° When she used to be proficient with the staff, it was almost impossible to land a blow on her. The weapon's center of mass allowed rapid movement, making it an ideal defensive tool.
° The staff's dual blunt ends made it difficult to predict where the next strike would come from, offering an unpredictable variety of high, low, left, and right attacks.
° Though incapable of stabbing or slicing, the staff could deliver a devastating blow with enough force to easily shatter a katana.
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Current time...
Back in the mansion, Bing Shi looked in the middle of her room. Flying towards her pole with fast steps, clenching it tightly, she carried her whole weight up with one hand.
Her sensuality burst through into the most vibrant picture of a beautiful spirit. For the most part, Kuro was her only audience.
Hooking the pole behind her knee, she released her hand and bent her back, evading the snake's tail that struck at her like a spear. Ignoring her loud heartbeat, she moved her hands up the pole again.
Pushing off her foot into a backward spin, she spread her legs and twirled her body upside down, waiting for another attack while spinning and changing into different positions. Her limbs moved like liquid, yet, they still looked astonishingly strong.
Hearing a dog's bark, Bing Shi dispatched Kuro to investigate. She landed lightly on the ball of her foot and pivoted gracefully, unwinding her body from its spun position. Panting, she slid down the pole to rest, her head leaning against the cool metal.
[Host, Cheng Young is here.]
"..." Silence enveloped Bing Shi as she clung to her pole, a sense of foreboding filling the air. The day she'd feared—when she'd have to part with her pole—had arrived.
Quickly crushing a speed pill between her teeth, she sprinted from the capital city, putting as much distance between her and Cheng Young as she could.
Bing Shi didn't want to meet with Cheng Young, knowing that her plan would possibly go to naught. Initially, she wanted to break the strange 'link' by luring him to the Rania Kingdom and maybe, catch his attention with one of her Tianshies.
When she gained the quest of not making the male leads fall for her, she thought that they would get attracted fast. However, not even the impressive females from her slave shop could gain their interest with their inventions.
Collaborating with the owner of a cotton plantation, the females were working on a cotton spinner for textile mass production. It became apparent that it didn't matter how awesome the women from this world were.