"Stay in your room, and hide somewhere! This is dangerous for you!"

"Then how about you!"

"I will have to go to the front. I need to defend the garrison!" Huang Shu said. He wanted to go immediately, but Bai Yunyu grabbed his arm. His eyes showed anxiety, afraid that something might happen to Huang Shu.

"Shushu, you might get hurt for real this time," Yunyu said. He wasn't a stranger to war and massacre in the previous timeline, but Huang Shu never experienced one in this timeline because he had no memory of it.

Huang Shu understood the worry that Yunyu had because he was facing a real barbarian this time. But this was part of his duty as a soldier.

Like a husband who went to war, he kissed Yunyu's forehead again and then said, "My beloved, you must hide now. I don't want you to get hurt."

"No, I can protect myself. But you—"

"This is my duty. I am a soldier," Huang Shu said. He smiled and released Yunyu's hand on his arm, "You must return to your room now. I will come back later."

Yunyu watched as Huang Shu rushed to the front, fighting against the invading barbarians.

Yunyu was worried that Huang Shu might get severely injured.

[He won't get hurt, right? We don't have any more chance with the Rewind Stone, you know.]

[Pupa: Relax, he will be fine. Let's just return inside. Don't you feel cold?]

[Now that you said it, I do, brrr… so cold.]

Yunyu returned to his courtyard, and he frowned when he didn't see his servant. Though he assumed that his servant must've gone to hiding right now. He went inside and then tucked himself in his blanket.

…

…

[Something is wrong here like I have a bad feeling about this.]

[Pupa:… under the bed!]

Yunyu reacted immediately. He looked down and saw a pair of eyes glaring at him. It was a man who hid beneath his bed with a machete.

Yunyu's soul left his body for a second due to shock, and the man emerged, then swung his bloodied machete towards Yunyu.

Pupa materialized and reacted because Yunyu was frozen due to shock. It couldn't afford Yunyu's death in this world because they were bound with Rewind Stone.

"Code 88: Wind Deflect!" Pupa instantly summoned a gust of wind and pushed the man to the wall.

"Urk!"

Pupa then slammed its body to Yunyu's head, "You, wake up! We'll be in big trouble if you die here before completing the Breakmeter!"

Yunyu regained his composure after Pupa yelled at him. He glared at the man wearing all black, with a bloodied machete in his hand, which was presumably the blood of his servant.

"Bastard!" Yunyu jumped and snatched the machete. He slashed the man's neck and, for an instant kill. He dropped the machete, and his chest was pumping up and down.

Pupa suspected there would be more people here. Thus it used its skill again, "Code 05: Heat Scan."

Pupa scanned the body heat of everyone around its radius and noticed two… no, four…. eight… TEN!

"Spicy Chicken, there will be ten people coming at you at this point. I've used up almost all my energy. I can only enhance your body at this point!

"Code 07: Sharp Strike!"

The bind between Pupa and Yunyu glowed as Pupa transferred its energy to Yunyu. After that, Pupa went invisible again, only floating around Yunyu lazily.

[Why didn't you do this to me in the past ah? My life would be a lot easier!]

[Pupa: I don't like using it, what do you think I am? A free golden finger? I only do this when we're in a terrible condition like this. We can't afford your death.]

[Can you do this to me in the future?]

[Pupa: Meh, I would rather preserve my energy for something more beneficial than giving you a free golden finger. Besides, this is not free! I have a limit of how many times I can use my skills!]

[Ish, you're so devious to your own host!]

[Pupa: Just do your stuff and go full Jackie Chen on them, defeat them all.]

Yunyu picked up his own dagger, which was the only weapon he liked using. In a few seconds, someone broke the window and attacked Yunyu with a sword.

After getting an enhancement from Pupa, Yunyu felt that he had a Sharingan. He could detect the movement of his attacker one second faster, "Oh wow, I'm gonna go full Uchiha Itachi massacre on y'all!"

Yunyu predicted the attack that was about to come. He dodged effortlessly and stabbed the attacker's neck with his dagger. The next ones came as two, and they attacked together.

Yunyu also predicted that he took the dead enemy's dagger and then threw two daggers at his attacker, stabbing their forehead. More came, and Yunyu took the bloodied machete on the ground.

He then massacred everyone who dared to come near him. In the end, there were twelve corpses near him, eleven attackers, and Yunyu also found the corpse of his servant, who was stuffed under his bed.

Yunyu was grief-stricken when he found his servant's corpse because he was such a good young man. He wanted to give him a proper burial, but he had to find who was targeting him for now.

He searched the corpse of each attacker. After a few searches, he found a letter written by someone inside an attacker he presumed was the leader.

- Kill Bai Yunyu. I've informed the barbarian about the sudden invasion and gave them the right moment to strike. As long as Bai Yunyu is dead, the prize is in your hand. -

There was no name on it, but Yunyu knew this handwriting, this was… Empress Dowager Aixi, or in this timeline, Imperial Concubine Ai's handwriting.

"That old witch still wants to kill me?! She's literally far away, across the country!" Yunyu clenched the letter in his hand. He wanted to help Huang Shu fight against the barbarian right now because he wasn't sure if there was any more trap in this invasion.

But what he didn't expect was the toll his body took after the enhancement from Pupa had been depleted out of his body.

Yunyu slumped on the ground like a puppet whose string had been cut, and he could only move his eyes left and right. He looked at Pupa, who was floating in front of him.

[Wait, why can't I move my body? Don't tell me that I will be in this state for a while?]

[Pupa: You just need to rest, I will guard you.]

[But Huang Shu…]

[Pupa: He will be fine. I guarantee you.]

[Shushu…]

Yunyu was too exhausted to stay awake. Thus, he closed his eyes slowly and fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, Pupa was busy using his heat scan to detect the surrounding in case if there was another attacker.

After it made sure that Yunyu had taken them down, Pupa started counting the number of skills it could use.

[Pupa: Hm… I've used my skills five times right now. So I only have ten more chances before I…]

Pupa floated around Yunyu and then smacked Yunyu's head with its shell.

[Pupa: You better do good, or my sacrifice will be in vain, you spicy chicken host!]