"Just a reminder, don't underestimate these kids, or you'll suffer a big loss." Xuan Zhu wrapped her arms around her chest and stepped aside to watch the show.
The tallest of the children was only half a head shorter than her, and his eyes shone brightly. The smallest one was only three or five years old, and just at the height of her feet, a pair of eyes blinked at her.
Dongfang Minghui watched them work very quickly, one by one, and within an the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the small empty square was transformed into an alternative martial arts arena.
As soon as things were set up, a group of small kids took the initiative to form a small procession, standing in front of the strange thief master with hands held out.
"This is a distinguished guest invited by your senior brother Xuan, which one of you will entertain her in Master's place?" The thief's finger pointed at Dongfang Minghui.
The little peas looked at each other.
"Master, I'll do it."
The smallest of them, who had been watching Dongfang Minghui secretly while he was working, stepped forward and said, "I challenge you.
The little child walked slowly up to Dongfang Minghui, looked up at her, and looked pitiful with a dirty spot on his little face and many patches on his clothes.
But his eyes were very clean and pure.
She squatted down and looked at him eye to eye.
"Are you sure you want to challenge me?" Minghui asked.
With a puffed out chest, the little pea simply said, "Sure."
"How should we fight?"
Thief Master clapped his hands, and soon two pots containing some unknown stuff were brought out.
"If you can win this game against Xiao Mao, you can leave."
Dongfang Minghui looked wary, would he simply let her go? The two children opened the lid and two pots of colorful beans appeared in front of her.
"What's this for?" She immediately had a bad premonition that it might be a game of picking beans or something like that.
But as soon as she saw the little pea who was trying hard to see what was inside by jumping, she had no choice but to hug and carry him up so that he could see what was in the basin clearly.
Xiao Mao struggled a few times while she was holding him, and after he got a good look he signalled Dongfang Minghui to put him down.
"There are seven colors of beans mixed up in here, the rules of the game are simple: within half an hour, the one who picks out the most prominent red beans in the pot wins."
Dongfang Minghui took one look at her opponent's short-legged little hands and almost screamed to the sky, but she felt guilty and touched her nose, she had the strange feeling of having bullied a child…
"That's it?"
Thief Master nodded, "Yes, it's that simple."
Xuan Zhu personally prepared a very large incense burner and placed it between the two of them, timing it, she took a look at it and estimated that this was the calculation of half an hour.
Both of them washed their hands before, and a small basin was placed in front of them.
"Go Xiao Mao."
"Brothers, I will win."
Dongfang Minghui looked at the group of excited little peas and couldn't stop laughing and crying.
Why did she have the illusion of playing a game with children, but these kids were still looking at her like she was the enemy.
"All right, let's begin."
As soon as the voice of the Thief Master fell, Dongfang Minghui saw a serious face beside her as the kid began to pick the red beans out of the pot.
In the blink of an eye, the other side had already pulled out five red beans!
Fast!
Now, Dongfang Minghui didn't dare to treat the other party as a child anymore, she immediately started to look inside the pot of colourful beans.
After searching for a moment, her eyes got a little blurry, the beans were too pretty, she looked for red beans yet found other colors.
A second look at Xiao Mao, he used the same movements as before, the same expression, the same concentration it made him look completely different from other children.
Dongfang Minghui was too embarrassed to say she gave up against this little rival and simply focused more.
Only when the Thief Master shouted, "Time's up" did both of them stop at the same time.
Dongfang Minghui's head was spinning in circles.
Dongfang Minghui looked sideways and stared in amazement, "Xiao Mao, you are amazing."
Xiao Mao, however, stared at her with big eyes and said, "You lose."
Dongfang Minghui immediately blushed when the little guy said it out loud admitting, "Yes, I lost,"
The Thief Master at the side also spoke, "Since you lost, continue the second game until you win."
Wow, Dongfang Minghui just realized what he meant… Win a game to get out of here? If she keeps losing, she won't be able to get away!
"Hey-"
A group of small peas looked at her together, and Dongfang Minghui shut up immediately.
It was a great shame to be defeated by all these kids. She didn't believe it, she really couldn't win a single game?
As a result, the next situation was one-sided.
Instead of playing a match against the Thief Master, the gang of kids took turns teaching her an important lesson – that in this world, you can't underestimate anyone.
That's what happened to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" Xuan Zhu couldn't bear to see the other party being deeply shocked. She was afraid that the master would directly destroy the willpower of Minghui, but what could be done?
Dongfang Minghui knew that she was weak, but she didn't expect that she couldn't even win a single game against a bunch of children!
Xuan Zhu saw the other party's face looking hopeless and comforted, "Minghui, in fact, they are all my little brothers, hand speed, as well as eyesight, they are all specially trained by master, even Xiao Mao has also been trained since childhood, so-"
It's not so humiliating to lose…
Dongfang Minghui crawled up from the ground with a grunt, "No need to comfort me."
She knew her situation very well, just too weak!!!!
"Take me to see your master."
Xuan Zhu was delighted, "Hey, I tell you, don't look at Master like this, he was one of the most troublesome people in the entire Seven Colored Continent back then, anything he wanted, he never failed to get."
Dongfang Minghui wandered off, she always felt that she had seen this name before, she just couldn't remember in which episode it was.
"Master."
The Thief Master looked at Dongfang Minghui and motioned for Xuan Zhu to get out.
"Have you thought about it?"
"Yeah, I've thought about it."
The Thief Freak Hand laughed, "Before you said you were about to leave the White Moon Empire, but now you want to worship me as your master, how do you want to take on the name of a Thief's disciple?"
Dongfang Minghui choked, just now she did think so, but now that she recognized a truth, she did need to recognise a master but she also had to return to college.
For a moment, Dongfang Minghui looked embarrassed.
"No more embarrassment for you." The Thief Master knew what the other party was thinking at a glance from the expression on her face, "Before you leave, these few days follow Xuan Zhu here."
"Oh."
Dongfang Minghui walked out a bit confused, was she a disciple or not?
As soon as Xuan Zhu saw her go out, she immediately pounced on her and hooked her shoulders, "Little Sister, from now on, Elder Sister is covering you."
"……"
Dongfang Minghui saw her excited face, and realized what Love Flower had said before, that the other party was not powerless just that she couldn't practice.
As a Dark Spiritualist, another person who had awakened the Dark System it was dangerous for her to do so.
No wonder she always felt there was a secret between the other party and Seventh sister, that was where the problem arose.
"What was that technique you used to knock me out before?"
Xuan Zhu's smile stiffened, she actually forgot about this, she immediately laughed and said, "It's not a secret, I hid a little bit of a drugs on my body.
Dongfang Minghui nodded as if nothing had happened, but was a little uncomfortable with Xuan Zhu's closeness, "Don't get close, I'm not your little sister yet, your master didn't seem to want to take me as a disciple.
"No, master is a bit subtle and embarrassed to say it out, but since he is willing to teach you his skills, he must have accepted you as his disciple."
Dongfang Minghui always felt that she had gotten scammed on board the Xuan Zhu thief ship, what sort of master will accept what sort of disciple after all.
"Is this the big gift you said you would give me? So you had a plan, and I thought you were a friend."
Have to say though, this gift from the other party was indeed quite surprising and unexpected.
When Xuan Zhu saw that the other party seemed to be angry, she immediately admitted her fault, "Come on, I'm doing this for your own good, you and I are about the same anyway, so it would be good for you to learn one more skill."
"What do you mean same?" The other side was just a dark Spiritualist.
Dongfang Minghui thought about it, suddenly she remembered that since she was young and awakened her dark spiritual power she had to hide it from everyone.
It's not just a matter of living in fear and trepidation, even the people closest to you could not know.
"Well, on account of this great gift you gave me, I'll forgive you."
Since that day, Dongfang Minghui went out with Xuan Zhu the next, and after a long detour, she came to the dark alley.
The room in the dark alley was closed and not open on weekdays.
Each time they arrived, they also had to say the secret code, Dongfang Minghui at first thought it was quite new, this group of thieves made it seem like some secret underground club.
"This is to prevent the enemies from knowing."
Xuan Zhu couldn't help but explain when she looked at her silly face.
"Enemies?"
Xuanzhu explained, "Yes, Master is known as a thief, there were people who wanted Master to steal precious things, and if Master took up the task, he'd anger the other party whom he stole from, so naturally he will have enemies."
"No wonder."
Dongfang Minghui deeply felt that this line of work was also not easy, seeing these small group of children, she did feel a little bad for them.
The cane in the hand of the Thief Master was placed on his wheelchair, when he saw which of the little ones was lazy, he just went up and gave them a little smack.
She had tried the weight of this cane personally. It would be impossible if it didn't hurt to get hit like this.
Dongfang Minghui saw another harsh side of the other party and couldn't help but stick out his tongue.
"You, practice with them."
These little peas were running a circuit route at the moment. There were many obstacles on the route, and they'd be beaten if they were any slower.
Dongfang Minghui hesitated but was pushed by Xuan Zhu.
"This is training your speed, come on."
"Okay."
Dongfang Minghui couldn't keep up so she followed the smallest one, Xiao Mao and concentrated as he ran.
If they did not concentrate it was easy to step on the obstacles and get beaten.
Dongfang Minghui has spiritual energy in her body, so she couldn't detect how tired she was, she observed the other small children, although they were sweating there was no one who cried and gave up.
"You will follow them and practice for a while, then rest for an incense stick of time, and continue with the next practice." Xuan Zhu pushed the wheelchair into the room after saying that.
Dongfang Minghui sighed, she had to practice during the day and at night, her duties as a pharmacist had been thrown to the wind.
She was still thinking about the special pill Seventh sister gave her, which still hadn't been developed…
"Enough of a break, let's continue." Dongfang Minghui, an adult who was much older than the others, naturally she was not willing to be weak, so she followed them and practised together.
After practising all the tasks once, she realized with hindsight that each exercise seemed to increase their hand speed, eyesight, and escape skills.
If she practised to the level of the Thief Master, she would have no problem running away from the enemy even if Seventh sister wasn't there.
With this kind of awareness, she practised even harder.
But when Xuan Zhu came out of the room, Dongfang Minghui felt that the other party seemed a bit unhappy, and her eyes were red.
Did something happen when she was practising with the group of little peas?
"Xuan Zhu, what's wrong with you?"
In Dongfang Minghui's heart, Xuan Zhu was just a silly girl who tried to act tough, she had never seen her get bothered by anything.
But who knows what part of her heart was touched by this question. Xuan Zhu stared at her unhappily, "It's all your fault."
Dongfang Minghui felt ten thousand points of hurt, she pointed to her nose, incredulous, "Blame me? What have I done to wrong you?"
"Hmph."
After going back, Xuan Zhu was still in a bad mood and didn't stay back in the small courtyard.
This made Dongfang Minghui even more puzzled, after a moment's thought, she simply took out her silver needles again to practice.
As she practised the flying needles, Dongfang Minghui thought about the tricks she had practised during the day to improve her eyesight and hand speed, as well as her own spiritual power.
She had an epiphany.
She sat there cross-legged, closed her eyes, and settled down quietly.
Love Flower felt a huge spiritual energy and immediately crawled out of her space ring, followed by Lucky and Toothless who jumped out as well.
"Promoted."
The Love Flower immediately summoned Toothless and Lucky as it distributed some tasks.
Lucky didn't pretend to be dead and straightened its waist moving to the entrance of the small courtyard.
Toothless rolled over and dug a hole in all four corners.
The Love Flower shook its flower, shaking out some pollen from its red flowers.
The pollen blew away with the wind, forming a protective shield in mid-air, enveloping Dongfang Minghui's entire body.
Then Love Flower shook twice before turning itself into an ordinary blade of grass, quietly guarding Dongfang Minghui.
Toothless leaned down on all fours and had a teething stick in his mouth, grinding two bites and chewing on it.
After returning to her chambers, Xuan Zhu sat there for a little while, remembering Dongfang Minghui's tendency to get into trouble and forced herself to go back to the courtyard.
However, she left in a hurry, and instead directly ignored the hanging head of the plant outside the courtyard.
"Hello."
When she saw Dongfang Minghui, she immediately walked over to her and saw that her eyes were closed as if she was practising, so she couldn't help but say, "Sorry, I'm not in a good mood today."
Love Flower lifted a leaf to sense the other party, and when it saw it was her, it immediately stayed silent again.
"You don't know how important Master is to me, but he suddenly told me today that he was leaving Yundu City."
Xuan Zhu said with unusual sentimentality, she was born in the palace since childhood, surrounded by a large group of people guarding her, she has no brothers and sisters, she didn't even know who her mother was, she only had her father as her only family.
She didn't quite understand how much of a stir a Dark Spiritualist would cause throughout the continent, but at the age of ten she personally saw how a boy three years younger than her was strangled by his clan just because the spirit that awakened in him was dark. She was terrified and confused at the time. Only afterwards did she understand why her father was always nervous about her, making her keep her secrets close, she could tell absolutely no one.
She wanted to be useful, she listened to her father and tried to learn to identify herbs and even planted some medicinal plants, but for some reason, they all looked sickly and weak, she couldn't get it right.
After that, she met her master and learned the skill of stealing from him, as well as met a bunch of cute little brothers and sisters.
She was a little sad to see him leave Yundu City like this because if he left, he would definitely take the little brothers and sisters with him, which would mean that she would be all alone again.
Xuan Zhu was sentimental for a while, but it turned out that the other party didn't respond at all.
"Hey."
Why did she have the feeling that all the sadness she just felt was just talking to a wall and the other party didn't even throw a glance at her, it seemed like…
"No way, right?"
She leaned in close to Dongfang Minghui and held out her hand to test in front of her to see if the other person would react, but she hit a protective barrier and her entire body bounced off.
"Ouch."
It was fortunate that she reacted quickly enough, or else that knockback would have sent her bouncing straight into the wall, and she would have fallen even harder. Xuan Zhu stood up holding her waist, took a deep breath, and walked over to Dongfang Minghui again, but this time she didn't dare to reach out her hand freely again.
"Qian Minghui, I simply owe you my last life, you said you were a pharmacist, pharmacist?? How come I've never heard of pharmacists still needing spiritual advancement…"
Xuan Zhu gritted her teeth and pointed at Qian Minghui in a huff, but also cursed from a long way away from her.
Dongfang Minghui was completely unaware of what was going on outside, so of course, she missed the other party's melancholy and complaints~~!
Enjoy guys!
Looking forward to cyberpunk2077 releasing tomorrow! I hope you all give it a shot if you like RPG's the story should be very good! (but not as good as Wanyu x Minghui ship) uwu