Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation
73. Wind & Water

Jinshu stumbled into his room, collapsing face-first onto the soft bed. The satiny embrace of the covers welcomed him, and for a brief moment, he wished he never had to leave.

“Ugh… I don’t know if I can survive five more years of these experiments,” he groaned into his pillow. “Horn grinding, bloodletting, mysterious drugs… What’s next? Is she planning to dissect me? She wouldn’t, right? She wouldn’t…”

He wasn’t expecting anyone to answer, but a calm voice from the doorway broke the silence.

“Don’t worry. She won’t dissect you.”

With more effort than it should have taken, Jinshu lifted his head. He squinted toward the open door, where Chanshi stood with her ever-present kind smile.

“Did you need something?” he asked, hoping she’d let him sink back into the bed.

Chanshi nodded, much to his dismay. “Dinner is ready. And you’ll need to prepare for your training with the young lady afterward.”

“Oh, right.” Jinshu stifled a groan as he buried his face into the mattress for one final moment of peace. Why did I do this to myself? he cursed his past self. Agreeing to his Aunt Zui’s training had been a mistake—a colossal, stupid mistake. After today’s tortures, he neither had the strength nor the will to endure more.

Dragging himself from the comforting folds of his bed, Jinshu followed Chanshi into the long, winding hallways.

“Can I ask you something?” he said, his voice heavy with resignation.

“Of course.” Chanshi turned her head slightly, her gentle smile never faltering.

“Did you agree to Aunt Zui’s experiments on you?”

“Of course! The young lady is a paragon of dragonkind. I would be remiss not to support her endeavors.” Chanshi’s voice brimmed with enthusiasm, but it softened into something wistful as she continued. “Sadly, my declining health no longer allows me the privilege of helping her…”

Jinshu winced. He hadn’t expected such an answer and struggled to find the right response.

“Ah… I’m sorry to hear that,” he said awkwardly.

“No matter!” Chanshi’s cheer returned like the flip of a switch. “Now that you’re here, young lord, the young lady can finally pursue her experiments in earnest!”

“Uh… right.” Jinshu’s stomach twisted at her words. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

At the thought of his aunt’s experiments, Jinshu’s mind conjured an image of a mad scientist—a concept he didn’t fully understand but somehow felt oddly familiar. It was just like when he’d first smelled those strange fruit and instinctively likened it to something called strawberries.

Shaking off the distracting thoughts, he followed Chanshi into the dining hall, where his Aunt Zui was already in the midst of devouring a hearty meal.

Jinshu stopped in his tracks, momentarily captivated by the sight before him. His clearly intoxicated aunt, cheeks flushed bright red, tore into a massive T-bone steak with her bare hands. Between bites, she tipped back her gourd, gulping wine as though it were water.

Chanshi giggled softly at the spectacle, setting a plate for Jinshu at the table.

Between the two of them—his aunt and her ever-cheerful attendant—Jinshu genuinely couldn’t decide who was the more eccentric.

Taking his seat, he began to eat quietly, savoring the meal while waiting for Aunt Zui to finish her own. When she finally did, Jinshu decided it was time to ask about the upcoming training.

“Aunt Zui, what are you going to teach me?”

She glanced up lazily, picking a piece of meat from her teeth with her pinky claw. “Whatever you want,” she said casually.

He leaned forward eagerly. “Then can you teach me how to teleport?”

Aunt Zui tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Teleport? Are you talking about my Ripple Walk technique? Or what did you call it before? Dragon-Tiger Mountain… or something?”

“Yes, that!” Jinshu nodded enthusiastically.

Shaking her head, she waved him off. “I can’t teach you that. You need mastery over both Wind and Water elements to use it.”

Jinshu blinked at her, then raised his hands. “Like this?”

In his left hand, a semi-transparent ball of wind spun gently, while in his right, a sphere of crystal-clear water formed, rippling in his palm.

Long Zui had been in the process of leaning back lazily in her chair, but when she saw the elemental spheres in the hands of her ten-year-old nephew, her body stiffened mid-motion.

Then, with a resounding crash, she flipped backward and slammed into the stone floor, sending wine splashing from her gourd.

The spilled wine seeped into Aunt Zui's pristine white robes, staining them a deep crimson and filling the dining hall with the sharp, fruity aroma of Zui Long Gui.

So that’s why she treasures those fruits so much. It’s what she uses to make her wine, Jinshu thought absently. The realization hit him just as he stood to help his aunt to her feet.

Before he could make it halfway, however, Chanshi was already there, her movements swift and precise. She steadied Long Zui with a firm grip, helping her upright.

Long Zui’s first act upon regaining her footing was to hastily cork her gourd, rescuing what remained of her precious wine. Then, in an instant, she appeared before Jinshu, her piercing gaze locking onto him like a wolf sizing up an unsuspecting lamb.

“How?” she demanded, her voice trembling.

Jinshu couldn’t tell if she was furious, thrilled, or somewhere in between. Still, he answered her honestly. “I don’t know. I could just… do it. Ever since I was born,” he said with a shrug, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Since you were born?” Long Zui repeated, her tone tinged with disbelief. Without another word, she waved her hand, sending the dishes and remnants of their meal crashing to the floor. Scrolls appeared in their place, spread chaotically across the now-bare table.

“No, not this… or that… What about this one?” she muttered to herself, flipping through the scrolls with increasing urgency. “If that connects to this… No, that’s not right either…”

Jinshu stood there awkwardly, unsure whether to interrupt her frantic muttering. Eventually, he turned to help Chanshi clean up the mess. Despite her protests, he worked beside her, the clatter of fallen plates filling the silence broken only by Long Zui’s murmurs.

Nearly half an hour later, Long Zui suddenly froze. Her eyes lit up as she snatched one of the scrolls and held it high, a triumphant grin spreading across her face.

“A-ha! This is it!” she cried, waving the scroll wildly. Then she burst into laughter—loud, wild, and unrestrained, echoing through the grand palace like thunder.

The room quaked under the sheer force of her qi, the air heavy with an overwhelming pressure. Jinshu staggered, his knees buckling as he struggled to stay upright. If not for Chanshi’s swift intervention, shielding him with her own qi, he would have collapsed—or worse, died from the shock.

In that moment, Jinshu managed to glimpse a fragment of his aunt’s cultivation. What he saw left him stunned. She was stronger than his father.

That can’t be right, Jinshu thought, his mind racing. His father was at the apex realm of cultivation in this world—the Saint Realm. The only level above it was the Immortal Body Realm, but immortals couldn’t remain in this world. Am I imagining things?

“Young lady, you need to calm down, or your seal will shatter!” Chanshi’s urgent voice cut through the chaos.

Long Zui’s wild laughter ceased abruptly at the warning. With visible effort, she reined in her qi, the oppressive weight in the air vanishing as quickly as it had come.

Jinshu took a shaky breath as the oppressive weight lifted, the lingering tension in his chest slowly easing. He would rather not experience anything like that again. The helplessness it gave him—being completely at the mercy of someone else’s overwhelming power—was more unbearable than the pain of his aunt’s experiments.

Before he could fully recover, Long Zui stood over him, scroll in hand, her gaze burning even more intensely than it had moments ago.

“I now know what path to take!” she declared.

Jinshu tilted his head, confusion flickering across his face. “Uh… that’s good?”

“It’s more than good. It’s fantastic!” Long Zui practically vibrated with excitement, her eyes shimmering with what he first thought were stars.

Curious, Jinshu leaned closer, narrowing his eyes. They weren’t stars after all, but tiny runes—intricate and ancient—swirling like constellations in a vast galaxy. Their erratic dance was hypnotic, pulling him in until they disappeared as abruptly as they had appeared.

The sudden void snapped him back to reality, and he realized his aunt was now inches from his face, shaking him with relentless fervor.

“Jinshu! Did you hear me?”

Blinking rapidly to clear his dazed mind, he stared at her. “Hear what?” he asked, pulling back slightly to put some distance between them.

“I know how to awaken your bloodline!”

“Oh… Wait. What?!”

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.