“Finally, Xue Die—what weapon do you use?”
Sasha quickly shifted the topic. Truth was, the others were curious too. After all, Xue Die had been glued to her handheld console the whole time. Not a trace of martial aura clung to her. Yet as a Yellow Tier High Martial practitioner, she should’ve already forged her own techniques and mastered a signature weapon.
“As for me… anything works.”
Xue Die’s reply caught everyone off guard.
Tina and Agnes had thoroughly investigated her background beforehand—but her weapon remained shrouded in mystery.
Blades, spears, swords, halberds—she wielded them all with flawless fluency. No hint of last-minute cramming.
Even Tina couldn’t help wondering: what was Xue Die’s true main weapon?
“What role would you like me to play in this fight?” Xue Die added, her tone effortlessly confident—as if she could handle anything.
Tina clapped her hands, eyes gleaming.
“Then use a sword. Like me.”
“An Imperial-made armor-piercing rapier?”
The moment Xue Die spoke, a sleek black rapier materialized from her Spatial Storage Ring. Different in design from Tina’s, yet unmistakably the same class.
Right then—
A low, guttural roar tore through the air.
Two lion-like magical beasts lunged forward.
They’d been lying in wait. Throats targeted. No ordinary reflex could evade that strike.
But…
Xue Die had already predicted it. She tossed her console skyward, sidestepped the gaping maw, and in one fluid motion drove her blade through the beast’s eyeball and throat.
“This is…”
Imperial Sword Technique.
Double Thrust.
Meanwhile, Sasha caught the other beast’s jaw and muzzle barehanded. A half-step back halted its charge completely.
Her strength felt utterly unlike a Yellow Tier High Martial.
She was holding back. Otherwise, she could’ve crushed its skull with a single left hook the moment it leapt.
But that wouldn’t suit her current role.
Though a battle-hardened, body-refining mercenary, such raw brutality would raise eyebrows.
So she kept a solemn face, stepped forward, slammed the beast hard onto the ground, and—while its brain reeled—delivered a crushing right hook to its throat. Carotid artery and vertebrae shattered. No struggle. Dead instantly.
*Holding back this much should stay unnoticed.*
Sasha flicked blood from her knuckles and glanced at Xue Die’s fallen beast.
Two tiny wounds: one through the eye into the brain, one severing the spinal nerves at the neck. Clean. Precise.
*Imperial Sword Technique…*
*Called “Thrust Multiplication,” right?*
*This was already Double Thrust.*
*Judging by how effortlessly she moved… could she pull off Triple? Quadruple? Where’s this girl’s limit?*
Just then, the airborne console descended neatly into Xue Die’s palm.
“Was that a test?” she asked.
Tina shook her head with a soft laugh.
“Of course not. I just wanted to know what weapon Xue Die truly excels with. And…”
Her gaze drifted back to Sasha. Something oddly tender in her eyes.
“Tina… is something on my face?” Sasha asked.
Tina, hands clasped behind her back, smiled. “Nothing. I just think… little Sasha is so adorable.”
“Absolutely!” Agnes chimed in, genuine surprise in her voice. “The way little Sasha used her tiny hands to grab that beast’s jaws—I was stunned! Good thing we researched her style beforehand, or I’d have jumped in.”
*So it was a test after all.*
“Um… this feels awkward to ask now,” Sasha said suddenly, “but if it’s five thousand gold per person… Roland and I make ten thousand total?”
“Naturally. And if you slay the Lionbite Shark? An extra twenty thousand gold each.”
*Twenty thousand each?! Forty thousand total?!*
*Plus the ten thousand from the Faithhunter Goggles experience…*
*Forty plus ten is—?!*
*Calm down, Sasha. Breathe.*
*You’re a battle-hardened mercenary. You’ve weathered storms.*
*Right. Fifty thousand.*
*Fifty thousand!*
True, she’d told the young mistress before: even fifty thousand wouldn’t make this job worthwhile.
But now—with Deity’s protection—death was off the table.
*Doesn’t that mean… we can go all out?*
*A one-time solution.*
*This money could rebuild the slums… and buy me years of peace.*
“Still,” Agnes sighed, “those were only Grade E beasts. Barely a warm-up.”
“Just imagining little Sasha facing worse monsters later… my heart aches.”
*Don’t act like my guardian.*
…Though Sasha didn’t hate the worry.
“Let’s move,” Tina said, leading the way deeper into the forest. “Follow this path to the Lionbite Shark’s territory. Go far enough, and we might meet up with Autumnwater’s group.”
…
Minutes later.
“Hm?”
A number flickered in the upper corner of Sasha’s Faithhunter Goggles:
‘30’
“What is this?”
She asked plainly—too much about these goggles remained unfamiliar.
The young mistress turned, hands behind her back, smiling. “So someone’s already watching?”
“Watching?”
Sasha tilted her head. Agnes, in sync with Tina, tapped her phone and showed Sasha the screen.
A three-second clip: Sasha, barely ten, subduing a Grade E beast barehanded.
Title flashed boldly:
[Ten-Year-Old Prodigy Girl Takes Down Grade E Beast Barehanded]
A little sensational—but undeniably gripping.
Who wouldn’t wonder how a child felled such a fearsome creature?
“This…”
Sasha hesitated. Tina slipped behind her, crouched slightly, and rested her chin on Sasha’s shoulder, voice soft:
“Does little Sasha dislike having her footage shared?”
“…”
*How could she like it? Being judged by strangers betrayed everything a mercenary stood for.*
