Rude Awakening

"Wait-!" suddenly rising up, the world flooded in darkness, Xiao hit his head against something hard, recoiling as something slid off his face, the sudden influx of light momentarily blinding him, raising his arms up, expecting himself to get struck again, but nothing happened.

'Where am I? Did I pass out?' confused, he looked around, Xiao was currently inside of what could only be qualified as a dilapidated house, planks of wood missing or dangling about away from their expected placement.

"You're finally awake! I thought for sure that you had died back then!" a deprived-looking young man spoke up, rubbing his forehead, he was sitting next to the lying protagonist.

"Wait… I really am not dead? I feel like I should be dead! What happened?" he asked, suddenly feeling lacerating pain all over his face, it must have been there since the beginning but only now was it showing it ugly maw.

"Well… Lord Anoteros sort of- No, he definitely hit you in the mouth, pinned you down and-"

Xiao reached from his waist, the absence of his sword sending a deep feeling of malaise coursing through each and every bone making up his skeleton, the exact same sensation as when he instinctively tried to reach for his phone still, but pushed up to the limit.

"Did- Did he take my sword?"

"Huh? Yes, yes he did… But-" confirmed the stranger.

"But what?"

"But I think there is something more worrying, Good Sir" the young man cleared his throat, pointing at Xiao's face.

"Lord Anoteros, sort of took liberties concerning it…" not knowing how to describe it accurately, the stranger pointed to a small bucket of water which he had been using to lay a wet piece of fabric over Xiao's face, thinking that this would help soothe the pain.

Xiao swallowed his saliva, starting to remember the events more clearly, Edrick Lucien Anoteros was a total and utter psycho, attacking him out of nowhere for what reason? To steal his sword? How would he know that it was particularly valuable? The artefact's true worth was still sealed completely, it truly had the appearance of an old sword with bits of the edges broken off, even if weirdly sharp still, it should have no visible value.

'Dammit… Did the plot change or something? Is it because I know the story already? It caused some things to change?' he couldn't be certain, but he felt that it made the most sense that his transmigration into the novel he had been reading was just not as straightforward as he had imagined, Zixuan Elt had probably been replaced with a more dangerous antagonist instead.

With his head full of possible explanations and rationalisations, Xiao slowly approached the water, first seeing his brown hair come into view, quickly stopping in his tracks and pushing his hair back to get a better look.

There was… Something new on his forehead, right where he could feel some of that searing pain.

Right there, three characters of this place's language were etched, E, L and A.

Edrick Lucien Anoteros's initials, Xiao had been branded, marked by the edge of a dagger, and quite deeply at that, these injuries would not be healing on their own unless he achieved quite a high mastery of cultivation or found a special means to enhance his regeneration, but it was undeniable that these wounds would grow into scars and settle as part of his appearance before he could reach either, making the possibility for wiping that humiliation away rather low.

But that was not all, Anoteros seemed to have had some fun as random symbols were also carved all over the rest of Xiao's visage, not to mention that his nose was still absolutely broken and that quite a few teeth were missing bits of themselves, large bruises left over his face from the punch, forearms from being pinned by Edrick's knees and also on his back from being sent right down and scraping against the rough soil covered in rocks.

In short, Xiao was messed up, he had been beaten down, humiliated and robbed in broad daylight by a guy that was several heads taller than him, a mass of muscle and accompanied by two gorgeous babes, there literally was nothing to comfort himself with, the only thing he had over the lord was the fact that his cultivation talent was better, but that was useless when that thing was still sealed.

'Damn… I might need to cry a bit to get some emotions out of me…' he wanted to rub his nose in annoyance but caught himself before that happened, though…

"My friend, thank you for your assistance" it was pretty nice to come help him at all, considering how maniacal the town lord was, Xiao would have probably just looked the other way without trying to get even remotely involved in any of that madman's business.

"However, would you put my nose back in place? Will work better if someone other than me does it" not only did it hurt, but Xiao was noticing that his nasal breathing was impaired and that his voice was sounding ridiculous due to that, it wasn't the largest of his problems but one that could be solved rather easily.

"Sure" without even a shred of hesitation, the young man reached for it and twisted it back in place.

"Ah! Fucking shit! Hum, I mean, thank you, nice decisiveness, I guess… Who are you?" checking that it was back to its usual position, although still broken, it was preferable for it to not start healing in its crooked state.

"My name is Nong, and I know that your name is Xiao- Listen, for some reason, the lord already knew that you were going to come days ago, he forced me and my family to look out for you by holding the women hostage"

"That's a big info dump out of the blue…"

"Huh?"

"Ignore it…" Xiao shook his head, ignoring the pain radiating from his many injuries, what that peasant boy was telling him was rather worrying, this sound like a later plot point when an old enemy of the protagonist's family learned that Xiao was the last living member and that thus, the clan had not been completely eradicated.

Being rather influential and powerful, that antagonist would basically put up a bounty on Xiao's head and get basically every official and sect to try and murder him.

Was that plot point already in effect? Had he done something to already attract attention? Impossible, he had tried to be much more lowkey than the actual protagonist.

'If that's the case, then does it mean that this Edrick was ordered to attack me, but decided not to kill me? Was I perhaps only targeted for the sword itself? Does someone else know of its power?' he groaned, only the lord of this town knew the answer.

"Well… Did he release your relatives?"

Nong looked down.

"No, he- He killed them, probably after abusing of their bodies"

'Damn'

"But there is still someone left to save! The lord married my sister, Fanqia a while back, and he hasn't killed her yet! I know you have a bone to pick with him, so would you help me assassinate him?"

"Whoa! Hey now… Don't say that so loudly… And how do you even want to do that? We're just two random guys and he's a lord, he must have guards and-"

'Did he just freaking say Fanqia?'

"He has no guards! He only has one servant, that yellow-haired girl, only Fanqia, the lord and her are inside that residence, if we can sneak in at night…"

"Hold on, you said your sister was called Fanqia? Was she the one accompanying him when he attacked me?"

"Yes, why?"

Xiao didn't respond and only stared at the wall blankly.

'He stole my girl too!'