Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Stranger danger! Be careful

James watched the little girl. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She looked painfully pale. He couldn’t help but frown. Did they work her so hard and for hours so long that just walking was a difficult task?

The little girl gulped at his facial expression. She stumbled over her words struggling to put sentences together. She was terrified.

… maybe she had a point.

He was a random guy in a deep and dark forest. Who knows what evil monsters exist in these woods. Or worse yet, what type of people called such foreboding places home. He knew he should just let her go, she probably knew the area like the back of her hand if she was out here without much equipment.

Or civilization was close.

The girl started crying. Bawling like her life depended upon it. She fell to her knees and hugged herself like any little kid would.

Shit. I made a kid cry as soon as I got here!

James, stabbing his spear into the ground, walked to her. He bent down afraid to touch her. What the hell was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to stop a kid from crying? Pat her head? Did that even work?

He cursed his luck. Give him any other situation and he would have made do! But this was just too interpersonal for a person who hadn’t seen another existence, much less a person, in what could have been a million years.

He eventually settled on hugging her. That had to be a neutral response, right?

The girl leaned in to him. Then proceeded to cry even harder. He could feel his robe get drenched in unending tears and snot. He was going to need to change if he…

She hiccuped. “Old mister…” Her childish voice…

Fuck she call him?! Old? He wasn’t a day older than twenty…

Fuck…

By every single metric he was an ancient primordial being. Human civilization back on earth hadn’t even existed for as long as he had lived on that flying island. He gulped at what that meant to his ‘finding love’ prospects.

“...they died.” She whispered.

James felt his breathing catch. He looked down at the girl, her eyes lost in memory. And from how her expressions looked, it was not a good one. That was the cultivation world for you. If even the goody two shoes Mc is eventually corrupted into a heartless killer, what chance did anyone else have?

It would be a miracle for a decent person to keep living if you are forced to eliminate your enemies lest they come back for your head when you aren't looking.

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It took a while, but she finally calmed down. Once everything seemed to come back to reality, she immediately jumped away. Her face was bright red from embarrassment. James had to change the topic if he wanted her to lead him to civilization.

He was finally in the real world. He wanted to see people. Laugh with people, eat meals not made of rice, and experience everything he could.

Most importantly, he wanted to make friends and loved ones. People he cared about and they would in turn care about him. James wasn’t an idiot. The time he had to himself gave him ample moments of deep thought on this very thing.

How hard would it be to make friends?

Wouldn’t it be even harder to meet people he could consider family? What about those that would want to take advantage of him and throw him away when he was no longer useful? He would need to be very careful.

“What’s your name?” he asked in the nicest voice he could muster. It wasn’t that much considering it was raspy.

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The girl kicked rocks, nervous. She mumbled words.

“What was that?”

She jumped, eyes flitting left and right. And then it landed on his spear. Her face turned pale. Was she afraid he would hurt her?

“Hu Shui!” She yelled.

He had to calm down the situation.

Compliment her! She’s a kid, say something…

“That’s a beautiful name, Hu Shui. Mine is James Anderson…”

The look of confusion on her face made him curse. Of course this was a Chinese type of world, English names didn’t exist.

“That's a long name, Old Mister. And a very scary name.” Hu Shui seemed unable to look him in the eyes.

It was James’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean?”

“Hidden Tiger, Beneath a Red sun, Crouched under an endless Canopy, Waiting for the Unwary Prey…” Hu Shui was wringing her sleeves and then she looked up at him with wide eyes. “Yin Hu!”

“Yin Hu?”

She pointed a trembling finger at him. For the first time, she actually looked deep into his eyes. “Y-you…” Hu Shui said breathlessly. “Y-you’re the progenitor of my Hu family!”

James' eyes twitched. Then the world seemed to collapse around him. A million and one curse words appeared into his mind, it was a perfect string that would reach the sun and back thrice. How the hell did she conclude he was her greatest grandfather from James Anderson. And what did that have to do with that poem bullshit she said?

With the eloquence of an ancient being, he said… “Huh?!”

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James Anderson, Yin Hu now apparently, listened with rapt attention to the girls long winded story. It was a good thing he decided to have the storytelling during their walk back to civilization. But it still had his head spinning.

Killing dragons, taming mythical beasts, falling in love with a northern waste barbarian princess and escaping with her. Starting a harem with said barbarian princess as the head wife. Establishing a mighty city and eventually walking on a rainbow to the heavens…

Seemed like the usual ancient story with super embellishments. Probably fought a grass snake instead of a dragon, caught himself a house cat, dragged into a tent by a lady and subsequently forced to marry her by a barbarian tribe. Then said tribe went and conquered a city and threw him on the city leader role since they didn’t know more than riding horses and living out in the wild.

And when he ran away after being drained of his seed by a countless number of women…

“If he was so mighty and left a mountain of treasures. Then why are you here? What happened to the Hu family?” Yin Hu asked. They were getting close to where she had been from, if her navigator senses could be believed.

Hu Shui looked down with embarrassment. “Ancestor, your children fought for the throne. As they killed each other, many clans, sects, and families swooped in and destroyed everything you worked so hard to build.”

Yin Hu’s, James Anderson, eye twitched. Ancestor this… Ancestor that… Damn you and your unreliable ancestor!