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"Edrick Lucien… Anoteros? Hum, pleasure to be meeting you, Sir Lord!" he had absolutely no clue how to respond, something short-circuited in his brain for a moment there.

For some reason, that name did not ring any bell whatsoever, neither did his looks in fact, but this guy was the lord? The so-called weakling antagonist of a mini arc that even the weak-ass Xiao had defeated in the story without problem?

'No way in hell… That can't actually be the right person… Wasn't the lord's name something like… Zi… Zhi… Zixu- Zixuan Elt!' he managed to remember as later on in the story, Xiao would encounter the Elt family and get into a fight with them over the fact that he added one of their daughters to his harem.

And it was then mentioned as a callback that the wretched town lord from the beginning had been of that family as well.

"Aherm… Excuse me, Mister… But I had been told that the town lord was called Zixuan Elt…" he tried to be as smooth as possible, there was no way a plot point would be changed that much for no reason, especially when relating to a rather powerful cultivation clan, although unimportant in the story itself, when transposed into an actual world, even a worthless descendant was a descendant, by all means, Zixuan should exist.

"Fortunately, the late lord has returned to his family and I am the one that took up the glove and took on the role of this town's lord- By the way, you did not answer my question… Are you heading for the Myriad-Arm Sect? There is quite a bit of passage lately, I supposed the previous generation's offspring are all maturing and deciding what to do with their lives" Edrick made something up on the spot, spewing nonsense as easily as he breathed.

Xiao felt uncomfortable, which was weird, as despite the sheer size and bulk of the man before him, no signs of aggression or otherwise ill-intent had been displayed, and he was rather sensitive to those, or at least, this body was especially prone to noticing killing intent and the likes, probably a perk of being the protagonist.

But Anoteros wasn't giving anything off, if anything, the cute blonde and well-endowed dark-haired girl seemed to hold more prejudice toward him than the lord, which he was assuming was because they were servants of his and weren't appreciating that a vagrant like him was addressing their master.

'He is the one who engaged in conversation with me!'

"Well yes, that is exactly right, Sir, I am indeed intending on learning the art of cultivation at this sect…" Xiao knew of the other sects, but truly, following the script would lend him well enough to live comfortably as an immortal cultivator accompanied by countless beauties, there was no need to bother with going off-track, at least, until the story derailed by itself, lending him in this odd situation.

"Ah, so you are a would-be warrior then? Do you know how to wield this sword" Edrick pointed down at the blade attached to Xiao's waist, unlike Linmin's dao sword with a single edge, the one the protagonist wore was double-edged and of a completely different style, sign that it had come from lands where cultivation wasn't really that popular.

From what Anoteros had learned, this weapon was incredibly important to the plot as it was the long lost heirloom or something like that and held an ability that was perfect for what the Myriad-Arm Sect's cultivation and martial art styles, though, he had no concrete clue of what this ability actually was.

He could probably just ask Xiao, the fellow would know for sure, but it did not escape Edrick that the otherworlder wasn't an utter fool, the young man hid it well, but he was feeling nervous and confused, he wouldn't blabber on about the value of anything he owned to a complete stranger, even less someone in an authoritative position.

"This sword? It's just something that was laying around, it's a bit nicked and-" as one would do, Xiao looked down at the sword as Edrick pointed to it, managing to spit lies convincingly, doing his best to not show the fact that it was actually a highly valuable, legendary artefact.

The very second he looked down, it felt like his jaw was tingling, like it was numb, about the same sensation as when one slept on their arm and woke up feeling like ants were crawling over their limb.

But there, it only lasted a brief instant, followed by blinding pain and a vertigo caused by being taken off his feet, and swiftly sent to the ground.

"Ouch" the one who expressed pain was Edrick, pulling out a shard of teeth that got embedded into his finger.

"Please, be careful where you put your teeth, Lord Edrick is bleeding" commented Linmin, keeping cool despite having not seen any of this coming at all, the swiftness with which the lord went from casually speaking to slugging that stranger right in his open mouth was absolutely staggering, the shift had been so smooth that it took everyone a full second to process.

"Are you okay?" asked Fanqia, checking the barely bleeding injury left upon her husband.

"You cur! How dare you-"

"Don't worry Fanqia, it's just a flesh wound" simply petting his wife on the head, Edrick walked up to Xiao, who was more than a little confused right now, not only hadn't he even seen what happened, but the force carried by Anoteros's superb sucker punch was nothing to scoff at.

The explosive power carried within his massive body was impressive, but was only multiplied by his lifetime of experience, posture, balance, inertia… He knew it all, and he had had plenty of time to transpose that knowledge to this new body of his.

"That looked pretty painful- Who knew that hailstones could get so big and fly horizontally like that… The seasons are pretty wild, huh?"

"Huh?" even through the daze, Xiao reacted to the load of bullcrap being unapologetically unloaded directly onto his face.

Kneeling down, Edrick put his knees against the protagonist's forearms, pinning them in place whilst taking the sword, throwing it back for Linmin to catch.

"Now-" raising his index finger, Edrick pressed up against a particular spot "-Here is your liver, and here is your spleen…"

"...Did you know that you can live without some organs?"

"Urgh… What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Xiao, genuinely curious.

"You all asked the same questions, ask me about the weather and I'll happily respond- Or do you actually expect me to know the answer to that question? I am beating you in the street and wondering if I should press on your organs until you die of shock, I obviously don't care about it" rolling his eyes, he grabbed Xiao's nose and cracked it like a glowstick.

The protagonist kicked his feet in an attempt to break free, but without any sort of cultivation, and after already getting hit hard enough to make his sight blurry, there was little hope of toppling a full grown man, and certainly not one as heavy as Edrick.

'Dammit… What the hell is happening! I am the freaking protagonist! Where is my plot armour? And why is there a maniac here anyways?' spitting out saliva mixed with blood and bits of teeth, he had not been expecting like this until at least a bit later into the plot, this was supposed to be the easy part showing how awesome Xiao was!

He growled, trying to muster up some more strength.

"Shhhh… Keep quiet for now" Edrick grabbed Xiao's entire face with his palm, staring at the air.

*Lady Irandelle would like to warn you that trying to kill the protagonist so early will result in him breaking his seals, the world's fate favours him still as the script hasn't derailed enough to be considered broken!*

'Heh, who said I was planning on killing him? I am not one to cut the fun short…' and with that, Edrick pulled out a small dagger from one of his pockets, too small to comfortably fit in his hand, but enough to do what he intended.

"Don't move unless you want to know how many ribs one can live without" he said, his two wives peering over his shoulders to take a look at what he was doing.

"Oh my…" Fanqia covered her mouth, this was a bit much even for her, whilst Linmin just leaned forward with curiosity.