Volume 1: Ink and Powder Take the Stage Chapter 1: Crossing Over, Encountering Bandits

  I, Shen Liu, indeed crossed over, still as a whole person, unchanged, completely and utterly came over.

  I just went downstairs to throw away some trash, then returned home, opened and closed the door, and was stunned. Let's go in one direction first, I don't know how long I walked, but my legs felt sore all over.

  "Huh, that's... a forest! A wide road stretches out between the trees, where there's a road, there's life, I'm overjoyed, and I quicken my pace, running forward. As I get closer to the forest, I feel something off, a bloody smell hits me in the face, are wild beasts coming out to hunt for food? Or..."

  I stopped in my tracks behind a tree on the road, peering into the depths of the forest, and vaguely saw some footprints that hadn't been covered by snow. They were human footprints - I was saved! But what's with this huge bloody smell? Suddenly, I heard a crying voice from within the forest, it was a girl's voice, followed by an old man's voice.

  "Spare them, spare them, please... No, no, I'm willing to trade all my wealth and possessions for their lives, I..." What is this? I followed the sound and found several people lying crookedly under a tree deep in the woods. The number was blurry, and it seemed like there were a few more dark figures standing in front of them?! Their faces were also blurry, too far away, and my eyesight was blurry too... Ah, the pain of being nearsighted!

  It's better to have one less thing to worry about, I can barely take care of myself. I'd better leave, after all, every road has an end. However, when a person is having bad luck, even drinking water can get stuck in their teeth. I swear, I didn't make any noise, but in just an instant, my eyes blurred, my neck felt cool, and a person dressed entirely in black with their face covered was standing in front of me, with the long sword in his hand raised beside my neck. He's really fast, by the way, rockets have a startup time too!

  "This, this good fellow, I'm completely lost and don't know what's going on. My eyesight is poor, so I can't see the situation inside clearly. And my memory is also bad, I forget things as soon as they happen, haha! Please let me go with a generous hand."

  As he got closer, it became clear that he was a person, not an alien, although his face was covered. But the clothes he wore made me feel uneasy. Just as I was lost in thought, my neck suddenly hurt, and then my arm did too, and like this, I was dragged by this black-clad man to the scene.

  The deeper I walked into the woods, the more fearful my heart became. Especially with this increasingly strong smell of blood making me feel extremely nauseous, I could only use my fingers to press hard on the Hegu acupoint to prevent myself from throwing up. Suddenly, they appeared - a group of people lying east and west, covered in bloodstains... were they all... dead?!

  I was thrown to the ground by men in black, and when I looked up, I saw two old people and a little girl lying nearby, with two more men in black standing in front of them. But looking at the clothes of these three people who were lying down, it turned out that I had run into ancient times, an unknown era. My heart was chilled to the extreme, and all I could do was stare blankly at these people.

  "Spare them, I beg of you. I'll give you anything, just please let the little girl and my wife go." The old man trembled as he crawled to the front of the black-clad man's feet, tugging at his robes in a desperate plea.

  "Yes, yes, just spare the little girl, I and the old master will do whatever you say." The woman begged tearfully, while the little girl shrank tightly into the woman's arms, only revealing two terrified eyes.

  "Old man? Since you're so generous, I'll take your property. But this little girl of yours... hehe, let her entertain us for a bit. Hahaha..." Then reached out to grab the girl.

  The woman grasped the black-clad man's hand, extremely agitated and hysterical. "No, no, I beg of you, I... beg of you three good men, let my daughter go, let her go, I beg... I beg of you."

  "Let go!" The man in black was somewhat enraged, "Let go!"

  "No, please... you, no... ah..."

  A flash of light, and I felt a warmth on my face. Something was flowing down, and when I reached up to touch it, I found it was blood. A shrill cry pierced the air, and I saw that girl with a face full of blood, her clothes stained as well. She crawled over to another tree, shivering with fear. The old man's voice shouting "wife" struck my heart, and I couldn't bear it anymore. I forced myself to stand up and started running, but who wouldn't be afraid in this situation? However, at that moment, how could I possibly run away? I felt like my body was being pulled and thrown around, and I stumbled, flying through the air before landing on a corpse. The gruesome state of the corpse frightened me, and I quickly scrambled to my feet, retreating several steps as cold sweat broke out all over my body. A chill of death ran up from my toes to my heart, and my nose stung as tears fell from my eyes.

  "You, you scoundrels, I'll haunt you from beyond the grave. Madam... Liu'er, Liu'er..."

  "Let's go!"

  "Yes."

  "Yes."

  The woods suddenly became quiet, those black-clad men had left, my heart was still racing, which means I was saved. As soon as I relaxed, I knelt on the ground, now these two legs were no longer just trembling. The ground suddenly shook, and a horseshoe sound came from afar.

  How could this be!! Struggling to get up, a group of people had already arrived in front of him. One person jumped off his horse and immediately knelt down on one knee, another made a fist with his hand, and said, "Sir, we have come late, we are willing to die to apologize for our crime."

  Then the others also got off their horses and knelt down. I turned my head to look at the old man, who slightly raised his head at this time, looked at the lady who had fallen into his arms, turned his head to look at the girl who was still trembling beside him, and then looked around at the corpses on the ground. He opened his mouth and said, "Things have come to this point, what's the use of you dying? Go back to the manor first, bring these dead people with you." Then he raised his head and looked towards me, "Bring her along too."

  It was these people's arrival that "drove away" those few people from just now.

  "Yes." The man kneeling in front stood up, "You, go and tidy up the corpse of Jadine, bring it all back to the mansion.

  Those who were kneeling got up, and began to bustle about. Then the man turned around and took the deceased wife from the old man's hand, put her into the carriage, and supported the old man, "Sir, I'll help you get on the carriage."

  The old man didn't say a word, he just used his body to stand up, walked to the girl's side, stretched out his hand to pull her up, but the girl suddenly went mad, backing away while shouting "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"