The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Jin laid in the hot spring pool, but this time round, he was sitting right beside the maple tree. Unlike last time, he had learned his lesson and no longer merely lay at the edge of the pool for the penguins to pull him up. Right now, he had purposely brought some carabiners, long pieces of climbing rope and a climbing harness which he bought in one of the stores in Tiangong Shopping District as he strapped himself up before sitting down in the pool.

"Master, it might not be as effective if you are not totally naked." Mr Patsu reminded him loudly, but it also understood Jin's intention when he brought the harness and carabiners.

"I understand, but you know safety first, right? What is the use of effectiveness if I drown in my sludge? I promise to redesign the hot spring instance in the future." Jin thanked Mr Patsu for his concerns as he aided the Penguins to set up the ropes with the aid of the maple tree.

"Is it just me or is the maple tree getting bigger each time I enter?" Jin thought to himself before ignoring the tree and sitting in the water with his cultivation pose, and he eventually reached the state of tranquillity.

The imagery in his mind changed to the same scene of bamboo trees, but it was slightly different than usual. There was now a wooden cabin in the middle of the bamboo forest. Jin figured Ming would be there and walked towards it.

"Gramps! You there?!" Jin shouted, but there was no response. Instead, he felt a weird tingling sensation as the bamboo leaves fluttered when there was no wind in the area.

*CLANG*

"Good, your senses improved…Hmm?! Did you unlock a particular Eye technique?" Ming came out from his hiding area as he clashed swords with Jin, who had activated the Inverse Eyes technique to have a clearer picture of his surroundings. Jin was thankful it worked when he needed it.

"Not sure what to call it when it appeared. I just call it the Inverse Eye technique now. Is there a proper name to it?" Jin loosened his sword arm, but surprisingly Ming did not allow him to let his guard down.

"Did I tell you to stop defending?" Ming questioned him loudly as he struck forward with his sword.

"I promised that I would train you and you need to get stronger fast. It seems that you have already been given the truth from the System so I shall not hold back either." Ming was so furiously attacking Jin that his Inverse Eyes could not keep up.

"Your defence technique is admirable, but your attack is sorely lacking. You have been relying on Zeru's Perfectly Normal Parry Slash too much. As you can see, I too can parry." Ming said as he counter parried Jin's Perfectly Normal Parry Slash with Jin having no chance of defending himself as he received the attack.

Oddly enough, there was no blood oozing out, but the pain from the slash could be felt. Even with the Inverse Eyes, he could not see any openings in Ming's attacks. It was as if Ming knew every weak spot of his. That was when he noticed that Ming was using Inverse Eyes as well. That realisation, however, gave Ming the perfect opportunity to take advantage of Jin's pause and he plunged his sword into Jin's stomach.

"Distraction! How can you afford to be distracted during a battle!" Ming took out the sword from Jin's body, who fell over and was lying in pain once again.

"Your flaws. Easily distracted. Poor defence. Poor attack. You rely too much on abilities. Your strength? None. How are you going to live up and protect the name of the Panda Clan?" Ming shouted as he folded his arms and listed all of Jin's bad points.

"I…" Jin was in too much pain that he could not reply Ming.

"Well, at least your naming sense is better than mine I guess." Ming scratched his beard as he extended his hand to help Jin up.

"Naming sense?" Jin placed his shoulders around Ming and was assisted into the wooden cabin.

"I called this eye technique Triangle Eyes…Hahaha! But Inverse Eyes sounds so much better." Ming helped Jin onto a chair and threw him a wet towel near the sink.

"In any case, instead of training, I think you want to know more about my banishment from the System right? Since my dear daughter and that big lofty System will not spell it out." Ming smiled as he poured a cup of drink which eluded a particular scent of aroma and passed it to Jin.

"You have to earn it from me. Learn the Panda Spiritual Union skills while increasing your cultivation grade. I believe Zeru did say that increasing your cultivation grade will unlock the so-called chains on the Spiritual Union skills." Ming said as he sipped his drink.

"I am assuming that you are hearing and seeing what I am doing?" Jin placed his hands on his face as he learnt that all his family members including the long dead ones were all serial stalkers. Perhaps that was how they could have garnered intelligence against the Banned Emperor too. It was a terrifying thought to be born in a family of stalkers.

"Hahaha! No no no. I will not know anything until you arrive here. The moment you…erm, check into this place. I have access to your memories, which reminds me… I have been meaning to ask a crucial question…" Ming leaned forward.

"That chef girl is a hottie, and so is that Red Panda though I feel she is more of a cutie instead. Which would you go for? Or are you waiting for the opportunity to strike both? I mean knocking up both girls means that you increase your probability of keeping the Panda Clan alive too." Ming's eyebrows perked up, and Jin laughed bitterly.

"At this rate, I think I will go for abstinence…" Jin said with a dead tone.

"Still, concerning looks, you have not found the one that suits your taste yet." Ming placed his hands on his chin and voiced a slight thought.

"Oh, yea… I forgot… you said that my taste for girls was similar to yours in your letter before you passed away." Jin did not know how to advance this particular conversation. Jin felt that he would rather be in pain than to continue this part of the discussion.

"Haha anyways, I was just teasing you. I am not like the System. If I accessed each and every memory of yours, I would go nuts trying to process it. Remember that I was in the military? I am able to extract specific information, the ones that I need to know to improve your training. Besides, the information erm…kind of presents itself the moment you enter this place. You are dying to improve, dying to know something. This made such specific information extraction relatively easy although it is still tiring to keep on extracting it from your subconscious."

"That is why that will also be one point of your agenda when you come to this place…Hmm, we should name this place too." Ming leaned back as he rocked his chair and thought about what he should name this place where Ming and Jin met.

"Agenda? This place?" Jin was confused.

"Guarding your subconscious. In the event you are taken or kidnapped, you need to train your subconscious to protect yourself. You know, in case they dive into your brain to extract information like how I did it just now. Especially when you have so many flaws already. I bet you would be easily kidnapped. Bwahahhaha!" Ming laughed as he stood up.

"Come with me. I shall bring you to a more secure place to teach you the basics." Ming stood up and went to his bed to press a button, revealing a small hatch at the bottom of his bed. He lifted his bed like a piece of paper and opened the hatch door.

"Get in."