James stared at the startled little girl. He studied her pale face, her features only made it more obvious he was in an eastern setting. A few smudges made it seem like she had shadowed eyeliner. But he knew better than to assume she had access to any sort of makeup or toys like a child should.

  Not with the condition her robes were in.

  Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Sickly. She tried to voice a single word multiple times, but ended up unable to say anything at all.

  A frown grew on his face.

  Do they work kids so hard in this world? They can’t even talk anymore?

  Even standing seemed like a monumental task for her .

  The girl gulped at his expression. Taking a step back. Again she stumbled over her words struggling to put two or three coherent words together in a sentence. She was terrified of him. Terrified of the situation she found herself in.

  She probably had a point.

  He’d consider this already, but it was the truth. James was a random guy in the middle of a deep and thick forest. A stranger. Who knows what evils and monstrosities existed in these woods and under the foliage. Or worse yet, what type of people called these foreboding places home. Especially if society and civilization existed not too far away.

  The existence of the little girl provided him enough evidence to know that said society did exist. She had to know the area like the back of her hand to be out here with no equipment. No bag, food, ropes, nothing that she would need to survive out here.

  It meant adults were around somewhere. Real civilization he could take advantage of.

  He could imagine it already. Buying his own land. Servants. Marrying a gorgeous twelve out of ten.

  All he needed to do was convince the girl to take him back towards society. From there he can take care of himself instead of the wondering it would have required for him to figure it out by himself. A short cut to his goals.

  The girl’s eyes started to bubble up in tears.

  Shit.

  She started crying. Bawling like her life depended on it. She dropped to her knees and hugged herself like any normal kid her age would do. Sobbing uncontrollably. Only hiccups broke the rhythm she had built.

  Shit! Shit! Shit! I made a kid cry the second I left the floating island!

  James stabbed his spear into the ground. It sank without effort. He walked up to her and bent down next to her. He was afraid to touch the girl. Unsure what he was supposed to say. James had no clue what he was meant to do here? How was he supposed to get a kid to stop crying?

  Pat her head? Did that even work?

  Candy? He didn’t recall getting any food rewards. A quick look proved him correct.

  And he had no toys. Everything sharp and unfit for a child to carry. More liable to cut themselves in half than harm a tree.

  He couldn’t help but curse his luck. Almost any other situation and he would have made due. Give him the starting wolf quest. Or maybe even a single goblin to test his strength on. Anything that would have given him an idea of where his baseline was and who or what remained out of his league.

  For all he knew currently. Anyone past basic cultivation could launch him to the moon with a fireball, earthquake, wind blades, and a hundred other techniques he had no answer to without direct access to Qi and techniques.

  The understanding that he was physically dominant did not help in comparing that to superpowered freaks!

  Fuck! This is too personal of a moment!

  James hadn’t seen a single person in what could have been a million years. He eventually settled on giving her a hug. Everyone liked hugs. Right? A neutral response to a difficult situation.

  The girl leaned into him. He let out a mental relieved sigh—

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  She began crying even harder. His robe getting drenched in her tears. She rubbed her nose into the soft fabric, smearing it with snot and mucus. James closed his eyes. Fighting the urge to slowly hold her a distance away from himself. He would need to get changed if he wanted a good first impression on the new society they were going to meet after this.

  It took a while, but she eventually calmed down. A soft hiccup broke the silence for some time.

  “Old mister—”

  Fuck she call me?! Old?! I’m not a day over twenty…

  Twenty…

  He couldn’t remember how old he was back on earth. Nor did he know how long he had been on the isolated island.

  Fuck…

  By all metrics he knew and the majority he did not know, James was an Ancient Primordial Being. Human civilization back on earth had supposedly only existed for a short ten thousand years or something like that. James had been on the island for nearly a hundred times that on the short end.

  He gulped. Watching as his ‘finding love’ prospects slowly disappeared before him.

  “—my parents,” the girl's voice was low. Soft and shy. A whisper he could barely hear. “They died.”

  James felt his breath hitch. He closed his eyes. Taking a few breaths to calm the abrupt shift in the air. He opened them and looked back at the girl.

  Her eyes seemed glossed. Lost in memories and remembrances. Times of joy and eventually settling on something that made him frown deeply. Her expression changed, paling further than her already sickly color. James could feel her shake.

  Not good memories. Horrible ones if he guessed correctly.

  That was the cultivation world. Filled with the cruel and those that acted righteous but were equally as heinous. If even the perfect goody-two shoes Mc would eventually corrupt into a heartless, harem chasing killer, what chance did anyone else have from turning?

  He doubted many would. Unless they were hidden under a rock, locked up in a cave, or up a mountain with no access to civilization.

  It would be a miracle for a decent person to survive otherwise. Especially if they were forced to kill all their enemies lest they come back with more forces. Intending to kill you and yours without any mercy or thought.

  Just hate and anger driving them forward.

  Maybe, just maybe, being stuck on the floating island wasn’t that bad.

  It took a while for her to gather her bearings. Calming down. Breath even and eyes cleared from the vengeful memories that assaulted her. Everything came back to reality.

  She jumped away from him. Face burning red. Her eyes flitted back and forth from the snot stains and drenched areas of tears. James needed her to return to the calm placid trust they had built. Especially if he wanted her to lead him back to civilization.

  Qi was pulled from his body. The robe cleaned itself once more.

  Her eyes became saucers.

  James was finally in the real world with real people. He wanted to meet different kinds of folks. Laugh, share meals not made of rice, and experience the world in totality. Live everything he had missed during his isolated time.

  But above all else.

  Above even the buxom ladies and harems. He wanted to make friends and loved ones. People to care about and they in turn would care for him. James wasn’t an idiot. He knew the difficulties he would face and the likely betrayal eventually. He had been given ample time to fall into deep thoughts on this matter.

  How hard could it be to make friends?

  James sucked at it back on earth. It felt nearly impossible with his work schedule. Wouldn’t it be harder in an ancient world without conventional work hours? How would he meet people that would consider him, and they, family?

  What about those that would take advantage of his resources? Throw him away as soon as it ran out.

  Their love tied to his usefulness to them.

  James needed to be careful.

  “What’s your name?” He said. Trying to keep the softest, nicest voice he could muster.

  It wasn’t much considering how raspy it was.

  The girl kicked rocks. Hands behind her back. She mumbled words he could not hear. Even with his enhanced senses.

  James pressed the matter. “What was that?”

  She jumped. Eyes flitting left and right. Finally settling on his spear. Her face turned pale.

  Is she afraid I would hurt her? Does my voice suck that much?

  “Hu Shui!” She shouted.

  James needed to calm her down. Regain control of the situation. It felt like something was working against him. Terrifying the girl every time he finally got her to relax in his presence.

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

  “That’s a beautiful name, Hu Shui,” noting how the name came out perfectly even though he had no experience sounding words like that out. “Mine is James Anderson.”

  Hu Shui blinked. Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. Confused. It made him mentally curse. Of course, this was an ancient eastern setting. English names did not exist here. Maybe he should have made something up—

  “That’s a long name, Old Mister—”

  James struggled not to close his eyes. He wasn’t that old.

  “—and a very scary name.” Hu Shui seemed incapable of looking him in the eyes.

  It was his 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 began wringing her sleeves before her eyes shot up to his face. Wide and shocked.

  She stared at him for long moments. James wondered what mistake he committed this time. They seemed to pile up with his first and only interaction.

  “Yin hu!”

  “Hu what?”

  She pointed a finger at him. Trembling. For the first time during their long interaction, she finally gazed deep into his eyes. “You!”

  Me?!

  “Y-you’re the progenitor of my Hu Family!”

  James’s eyes twitched. The world seemed to shake and sway around him. Collapsing. A million and one curse words appeared in his mind. It was a perfect string that would have looped around the moon three times. How the hell had she concluded all that from his name? How could she tell he was supposed to be her greatest grandfather from James Anderson? Why did she keep trying to make him out to be old?

  And what did that have to do with the poem bullshit she said before that…?

  With the eloquence of an Ancient Primordial Being, he said. “Huh?!”

  For anyone interested. Patreon is up. 20 Chapters ahead!

  Thank You Patreons!

  ~~ Sam | Vinícius Zanchetta vieira | faitore trollnark | JAMAJ | lale2212 | musashi | Tom | ARHHH | Lam M?nh C??ng | Thragnar | pr0saic | Trey | villalon vivien | JM | Joey Brown | TwoChains | Jack Trowell | Benjamin White | Tyrant615 | Abdiaziz Ali | DragonOrigen | Chris peter | Laudable Effort ~~

  Join Zer0's Imperium! Walk among the stars! Conquer the Galaxy!

  [EntireBacklog] Roughly 20 Chapters of [Ancient Being] [Up to 50k words plus]

  [EntireBacklog] Roughly 10 Chapters of [AoD]

  [EntireBacklog] Roughly 20 Chapters of [SterK] [up to 75k words in total]

  On the same tier.

  If you've gotten this far, thank you lol

  Help me write full time! Or buy me some coffee!

  And I got a Join me there! Updates on current in progress works. Rewrites of other stories. And you can bother me with questions!