I was about to leave, whether Yi Mok was disappointed or not, when Zhuge Xiaohui suddenly asked for so ti.
"Please wait a mont."
"Why?"
"We're going on a long journey, so I should at least say goodbye."
Zhuge Xiaohui laid a cloth on the ground and bowed toward the direction of the Zhuge Clan's main house. Since she had caused an incident and couldn't go in person to say goodbye, she seed to be doing this instead.
"I pray that the elders and siblings of the clan remain healthy and at peace until we et again."
After finishing her greetings to the clan, Zhuge Xiaohui boarded the carriage. We said a brief farewell to Yi Mok and set off north.
As we traveled in the carriage, Zhuge Xiaohui seed very surprised by its comfort.
"What on earth is this carriage? I had no idea it could be this comfortable. At first, I didn't even realize we had started moving. Normally, when traveling by carriage, you'd have to prepare for your butt to catch fire, but..."
"It's because of various technologies. Just accept it. I don't want to explain. Instead, peel so of the fruit we bought."
"Good grief... Fine."
We were traveling along, peeling and eating fruit, when I sensed a group of people gathered ahead. The coachman also seed to have seen them, as he knocked on the carriage. So we stopped the carriage for a mont and checked ahead. There were n blocking the road who looked like bandits.
"Oh~ Bandit event! I can't miss this!"
At that, Zhuge Xiaohui was incredulous.
"What? Bandits appear and you're happy about it?"
"Hmm... It's because this is my first ti experiencing sothing like this."
"Your first ti? That's strange. When traveling long distances, you would have encountered bandits once or twice... Anyway, let's go out first."
We got out of the carriage. The bandits saw Zhuge Xiaohui's appearance and admired her.
"Oh~! That woman looks delicious. Originally, I was just going to collect a toll, but you... Huh? Silver hair and golden eyes? Gasp!!! Surely you're not Dark Jade Heaven and the Calamity Witch???"
Having heard the rumors, the bandits recognized us and dropped their swords, trembling. At this rate, I would miss this interesting event.
"Hey! I'm not Dark Jade Heaven, so continue what you were saying."
"Taejin-nim, is that a sensible thing to say? Silver hair and golden eyes aren't common."
"Ah... I suppose so. It's too late. What a sha."
When I expressed great disappointnt, Zhuge Xiaohui was dumbfounded.
"What exactly were you expecting from the bandits..."
I called the bandits over.
"Hey! You guys, co here."
At that, the bandits looked at each other, then suddenly knelt down and began pleading desperately.
"Please spare us!"
"My elderly mother at ho is unwell..."
"My children..."
"Shut up and co here right now! I feel like killing you out of annoyance."
At that, the bandits ran desperately to the carriage and stood with their heads bowed.
"You see, this is my first ti eting bandits, so it's very, very fresh and new. But, you see, you're all scared, so it's very, very disappointing. So I need you to bring back that emotion."
Then the one who seed to be the leader asked .
"Then what should we do?"
"What else! We start over from the beginning. I'm saying to do banditry on us like you usually do. Got it?"
The leader hesitated, then asked .
"Th-Then will we live?"
"Yeah. Act it out vividly. Your lives depend on it."
"Yes..."
With that settled, the bandit leader whispered sothing to his subordinates. They then hid in the bushes in front of the carriage with their weapons, then jumped out, brandishing their swords, and shouted.
"W-We are... uh... so... the bandits of the..."
These guys suddenly started stamring and beca very clumsy.
"Hey! Can't you do it properly?! Again!"
"Yes, sir."
From then on, I made them repeat it over and over until I was satisfied. After dozens of tis, they finally beca decent... bandits?.
"Kwaha ha ha! Cough. This is the mountain of the great forest bandits! How dare you set foot here. You have quite the nerve. If you value your lives, pay the toll. Otherwise, this mountain will beco your grave!"
"Ah~ That was a bit better, but sothing's lacking... What's lacking? Hmm..."
I was thinking about what was lacking when Zhuge Xiaohui, who had been watching, said to . At first, she seed amused, but gradually she began to look bored.
"Let's stop now and eat dinner. It's getting dark..."
I looked at Zhuge Xiaohui and realized what was lacking.
"Right! There was no one who was surprised and flustered! You need to play that role."
At that, Zhuge Xiaohui looked very flustered.
"Huh??!! What do you an all of a sudden..."
"You'll take the role of being surprised and flustered. That should complete the picture."
"I-I don't want to! Why on earth do I have to do such a strange thing?"
"Because you're my servant. No more talking, just do as you're told."
"Hah... Really..."
From then on, we decided that after the bandits delivered their lines, Zhuge Xiaohui would pretend to be surprised and ask for help.
"Kwaha ha ha! This is the mountain of the great forest bandits! How dare you set foot here. You have quite the nerve. If you value your lives, pay the toll. Otherwise, this mountain will beco your grave!"
"Wow~ It's bandits. Taejin-nim, save ... Hah... What on earth is this..."
Zhuge Xiaohui's acting was as lifeless as reading a textbook.
"Hey, try to be a little more realistic."
Then the bandit leader, frustrated, also said to Zhuge Xiaohui.
"Miss, please, just this once, bear with it. Don't you want it to end quickly too?"
"This is crazy... Fine."
So the bandits raised their swords and shouted again.
"Kwaha ha ha! This is the mountain of the great forest bandits! How dare you set foot here. You have quite the nerve. If you value your lives, pay the toll. Otherwise, this mountain will beco your grave!"
"Kyaa~! It's bandits, Taejin-nim! What should I do? I'm scared."
"Oh~ Great! Pass! That's the spirit!"
When I said they passed, the bandits hugged each other and began to cry.
"Uwaaah~! Everyone did well!"
"Sob sob, we're alive!"
"Sob, we worked hard."
I threw a few silver coins to them.
"You worked hard, so buy yourselves so drinks with this. Don't do bad things from now on."
"Thank you. We will never be bandits again."
The bandits repeatedly bowed their heads in thanks and then returned to the mountains. We got back in the carriage and set off again.
"Um, aren't you going to catch those bandits and turn them over to the authorities?"
"It's a hassle. Why would I do that?"
"Because if you just let them go like this, they'll definitely beco bandits again. And when we first t, they looked at with lecherous eyes, so they've probably harassed many won too..."
As an Orthodox faction mber, Zhuge Xiaohui seed unable to just let this slide.
"Then let's do this. When we co back from the North Sea Ice Palace and pass by here, if they're still doing banditry, we'll deal with them then. They worked hard today, so let's give them one chance."
"Well, that's not a bad idea. Though I doubt they'll change."
We found a suitable spot, built a fire, caught a chicken, and made boiled chicken soup.
"Wow... Delicious. You really are a great cook. I wondered why you complained about the food, but now I understand. By the way, doesn't the coachman need to eat anything?"
Zhuge Xiaohui pointed to the coachman and asked.
"He's my guard warrior, so he's eating on his own. Don't worry."
"I see."
The coachman was a guy I had also used in the Emperor's universe. As I said before, he's more robot than android, so he doesn't need to eat. I had focused on practicality. You can think of him as halfway between an android and an Iron Vision.
After eating and washing up, Zhuge Xiaohui was very surprised when a folding shower room suddenly opened up at the back of the carriage.
"What on earth is this carriage? It has a toilet and you can even wash up. It's like a house. That such a genius could create this..."
"Stop asking annoying questions. I'll teach you how to use it, so listen carefully. Don't get burned by the hot water."
I explained how to use the shower room to Zhuge Xiaohui. She seed very fascinated, listened to the explanation, and then showered.
"Wow... This toothbrush thing, and this shampoo thing, are really great. If you sold these, you'd make enormous profits... Hah... Never mind."
Zhuge Xiaohui was ntally calculating again this ti, but knowing I would refuse to sell, she just seed disappointed.
Anyway, I also washed in the shower room and converted the chairs into a bed. She was surprised again this ti.
"It turns into a bedroom... And these glowing stones are..."
"Stop being surprised, you primitive. I'm sick of it. More importantly, co here."
When I lay down and called her, Zhuge Xiaohui blushed and said.
"Um... The coachman is outside... Is that okay?"
"Don't worry. The sound won't leak out."
We worked hard again that day. Without any entertainnt, this was all we ended up doing in the evenings. And as the days went by, Zhuge Xiaohui's "skills" gradually improved, allowing us to enjoy it more deeply.
Anyway, from the next day, we continued north along the Yellow River. China really is big. We had been traveling for days and still hadn't entered Mongolia—still China.
"This is taking forever."
"Really? We'll reach the Great Wall soon. Normally, it would take over a week to co this far by carriage, but we did it in four days, so I thought it was fast..."
Having lived in this era, Zhuge Xiaohui didn't know, but I had personally experienced the convenience of modern transportation and roads.
We traveled for another day, eating hard-boiled eggs and snacks. Finally, we began to see a checkpoint and a large town connected to Mongolia. So we decided to take a short break, empty the carriage's waste, take on water, and look around the town. Being a town adjacent to Mongolia, there were many rchants selling leather goods. We bought so well-crafted leather products and loaded them onto the carriage.
"Are we leaving right away without resting a day?"
"Yeah. From the looks of it, this town is mainly for rchants passing through, so the food probably isn't good, and the inns are likely worse than the carriage."
"I suppose... you're right."
Having spent several days in my carriage, Zhuge Xiaohui was well aware of its comfort, so she didn't particularly object.
We got back in the carriage and passed through the checkpoint. When Zhuge Xiaohui showed the Zhuge Clan's tiger badge, they gave us a free pass without any questions.
"Impressive. We passed without any inspection."
"The Zhuge Clan has many mbers in official positions, so they're not easily ssed with."
As expected of China, the country of 'guanxi.'
We passed through the Great Wall checkpoint and entered Mongolia. In the original, the North Sea Ice Palace was on Lake Baikal, so we had to go much farther north. The fortunate thing was that now there were many plains, so we could increase the carriage's speed a bit.
After traveling for a while, we found a spot on the plains and decided to rest for a day.
"Another one today?"
"No, today I need to strengthen you. In case a situation arises where I need to go off alone, you need to be strong enough to protect yourself."
"Compared to you, I know I seem very weak, but after receiving your inner energy, I thought I'd beco quite strong. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're still far behind."
Pretending to reach into my pocket, I took the Taecheng Pill from my inventory and handed it to Zhuge Xiaohui. She was very surprised.
"This is the Taecheng Pill! Didn't you return it to the Alliance Leader?"
"It's a counterfeit. I analyzed the ingredients and made sothing similar. Just take it quickly."
"That can't be so easily made... Hah... I'm the fool for asking... If the Wudang Sect found out, there'd be a riot."
Despite her words, Zhuge Xiaohui readily took it and began circulating her energy inside the carriage. To help her absorb the Taecheng Pill well, I placed my hand on her back and assisted her circulation, also infusing natural energy.
She circulated her energy until the next morning. Suddenly, a sll of feces ca from her, so I used [Life Magic] to wash both the carriage and Zhuge Xiaohui. I had no choice but to take this asure, fearing that the sll would perate not only the carriage but also the shower room.
'Why does she end up like this every ti she circulates energy...'
I knew that when martial artists transcend to a higher level, impurities in their bodies are expelled, transforming their bodies to be more suited for martial arts, but the sll was truly awful. It was to the point where I wondered if she was defecating while circulating her energy.
"Gasp! Ah... It's morning again."
"Yeah."
Zhuge Xiaohui examined her body.
"I think my level is still at the peak of Super Peak Realm... But my inner energy is overflowing. I'd believe it even if you said it was above the Transformation Realm."
"I gave you too much inner energy recklessly, so the balance is a ss. Normally, with this much inner energy, your level would have risen on its own. What's wrong with you?"
Then Zhuge Xiaohui sighed and said.
"Sorry for being incompetent."
"From today, excluding travel ti, I'll teach you martial arts. The Zhuge Clan's martial arts are the 'Heavenly Qi Eight Formation Sword' and the 'Five Qi Seven Star Palm', right?"
"Yes. I mainly use the Five Qi Seven Star Palm. I'm still lacking in the Heavenly Qi Eight Formation Sword..."
"I see, got it."
From that day on, we would travel in the morning, and in the afternoon, I would teach Zhuge Xiaohui martial arts.
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