Since he regarded Artoria as a companion, Lin Xi naturally would not hide crucial information from her.
Not long after summoning her, he had told her every detail of his situation.
"I see, so it has nothing to do with the Holy Grail..." Artoria had sounded a little disappointed at the time, but she soon regained her dignified bearing. "Very well. Since you summoned me, you are my Master. I shall be your sword and cut down the obstacles in your path."
And so, Lin Xi had smoothly secured the help of an exceptionally powerful Heroic Spirit.
Leaving the orphanage with Artoria, he soon arrived with her before a tall building.
Several large characters were written on the building's entrance plaque.
White Tiger Duke's Mansion.
In other words, the place where "Huo Yuhao" currently lived.
As the original protagonist's birthplace, the Duke's Mansion had naturally been scouted out by Lin Xi long ago.
On that visit, he had pretended to be a child who knew nothing, fishing for information everywhere and gathering quite a few useful details.
And the most important of those was probably "Huo Yuhao's" situation.
It directly determined Lin Xi's plans from here on out.
Lin Xi's expression darkened slightly. "Artoria, do you think I'm underhanded? Planning to deceive a little girl who doesn't know anything."
If Artoria answered yes, he would not bring her along for what came next.
After all, he did not know whether this Artoria was the version written by the Mushroom or the one written by Old Butcher. If she was Old Butcher's version, she might be a little too rigid and cause his plan to go awry.
"No." Artoria shook her head. "Often, even seeds of deception can ultimately blossom into beautiful flowers. You do indeed intend to deceive her, Master, but this deception will not have any negative impact on her. It might even become her salvation. I will not interfere."
"Good. Thank you for understanding." A smile lifted the corners of Lin Xi's mouth. Although he could handle what came next alone, having someone willing to help was naturally better.
He led Artoria to a nearby corner.
Sure enough, a young man was leading several children in cornering a little girl.
The girl had very delicate features, but unfortunately, dirt and wounds marred her appearance. She had a pair of large, unforgettable eyes, now brimming with tears of fear.
"Haha, look how scared she is! How ridiculous!"
"Exactly! What a disgrace to His Grace!"
"She thinks she deserves to be His Grace's child? A bitch really can only give birth to another bitch, huh?"
The girl had been gritting her teeth and enduring it, but at that last remark, she finally could not hold back.
"Y-you're not allowed to insult my mother!"
Anger burned in her eyes. Clearly, her mother was her reverse scale.
Yet this only invited even fiercer bullying.
"Hey, you actually dare talk back?!"
"Been too long since your last beating, so you've forgotten your place, huh?"
"Beat her! Show her what we can do!"
As the sounds of punches and kicks rang out, Artoria could no longer bear to watch. She looked at Lin Xi in confusion.
"Master, is this the child of destiny you mentioned?"
"Yes." Lin Xi shrugged. "Surprised? So was I."
Indeed, this world's Huo Yuhao was a girl named Huo Yutong.
Perhaps because of this change in gender, her circumstances were even worse than those of Huo Yuhao in the original story.
She was frequently bullied by all sorts of thugs and brats.
From Lin Xi's observations, these people had probably heard about Huo Yutong and wanted to use this to curry favor with the duchess.
The duchess naturally paid them no mind, but since this did her no harm, she had left them alone.
If this continued, Huo Yutong might someday be beaten to death by these rotten brats.
But since Lin Xi had decided not to steal Huo Yutong's opportunities, he would not let that happen.
He darted out from the corner and grabbed one child's hand.
The child jumped in fright, then put on a vicious expression. "Y-you, what do you want?!"
"What do I want?" Lin Xi gave him a smile as pleasant as a spring breeze. "To do what you're doing, of course."
Then he slammed the child to the ground.
"W-waaaah!"
Ultimately, this child was only a few years older than Huo Yutong. He had never experienced anything like this and immediately began bawling in pain.
"B-boss!"
"Wh-what do we do?"
Seeing things taking a bad turn, the other children all looked to the young man for help.
"Tch, a bunch of useless trash." The young man yawned and kicked the brat on the ground. "Enough. Stop crying. You're so damn noisy."
Then he turned his gloomy gaze on Lin Xi.
"Brat, do you know what you're doing? If you don't want a beating, get lost. You still have a chance."
He had spent many years as a thug in Star Luo City and knew very well whom he could and could not afford to provoke.
Judging by his clothes, the brat before him did not come from a wealthy family-the sort he could beat up as he pleased.
"Q-quick, run! He's a Soul Grandmaster! You can't beat him! Mmph...!"
Huo Yutong hurriedly warned Lin Xi, but her mouth was covered as soon as she shouted.
Lin Xi glanced at Huo Yutong and gave her a gentle smile.
"It's all right. Don't worry."
Then he took out the wooden stick he had prepared beforehand and crooked a finger at the young man.
"Come on."
"...Very well. I'll make you regret that choice."
The young man laughed in fury and loosened up his body.
Then he kicked off the ground and lunged at Lin Xi.
"!"
With Lin Xi's physical condition, he should not have been able to dodge this blow.
Strength, speed, build-the young man surpassed Lin Xi by far in every respect.
Yet, as though he knew where the young man intended to strike, Lin Xi narrowly dodged the attack by a hair's breadth and swung his wooden stick hard.
"Ugh!" Although the strike did little damage, it instantly sent the young man's temper boiling. "You little brat! I'll make you pay!"
He had actually been struck by a six-year-old brat. He had been throwing his weight around this area for some time-when had he ever suffered humiliation like this?
Then, eyes red, he attacked again just as he had before.
"...!"
Lin Xi gritted his teeth. This time, he was not as lucky as before, failing to dodge quite a few blows.
But that was fine. He dodged the attacks he could and traded injuries for those he could not.
As a result, despite the young man's overwhelming advantage in size and age, he actually failed to gain much of an advantage for quite some time.
Only after a long while did he stop, panting and glaring viciously at Lin Xi.
In truth, that little bit of exertion should not have left him in such a state.
He was not exhausted. He was furious.
He could not believe that, without activating his Martial Soul, he had failed to take down a six-year-old child after so long.
Lin Xi also let out a deep sigh of relief.
His current body was still too weak. Fighting to this extent was already his limit.
And that was only thanks to having Artoria "train" him over and over in that cramped room during these past three days, greatly sharpening his combat instincts. Otherwise, his performance would have been even more pathetic.
But things would be much better from here on out.
By the look of it, this young man was about to enter his second phase.
The young man's expression darkened, and he said in a low voice:
"Black Snake, possess me."
As his words fell, his body underwent a drastic transformation.
A layer of black scales appeared on his skin, his pupils became vertical slits, and his tongue extended far out of his mouth. Two Soul Rings, one white and one yellow, floated beside him.
This was the basis of his arrogance. In this world where Soul Masters were destined to stand above others, a Soul Grandmaster like him already counted as quite powerful among petty thugs.
Unfortunately, he was destined for bad luck today.
After all, he was up against a transmigrator from the Celestial Empire.
A yellow Soul Ring lit up beside Lin Xi.
"Come forth, Artoria."