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Lingering light silhouettes from earlier, his arms hug his legs after he grabs a seat by a tree. The atmosphere slowly gets darker when the domineering sun sets. With night approaching, birds hiding in the trees step out chirping as they flap their wings in the air. Disturbed by the sudden change of weather, the trees also begin to move haphazardly.

 “Shouldn’t we find an abandoned building to stay in for the night?” Irritated, A’Ying rolls her eyes and returns a gloomy look. “For the night? Here? I’m not staying behind.” She sighs and looks around in search for a place to lodge in. After throwing her delicate eyes over the area for countless minutes, Mo Yan drums in between his teeth and slowly approaches her

With a soft whisper of words, she quickly steps back disturbed. “Didn’t know you were scared to stay alone with me. I still remember how you barged into my space.”

His words come to a halt when he suddenly feels a sharp cold metal lay over his neck. As his eyes widen in surprise, she moves the sword a bit closer to his neck than earlier.

“One more word and you’ll lose your neck.” He gradually lifts his hand and place his fingers on the sides of her sword smiling heartily. “I’ll be quiet, okay. Now, don’t disfigure my handsome neck with this harsh blade.” Although she didn’t seem convinced with his answer, her grip slowly loosens allowing him to lower the sword away from his neck.

At each drag above his neck, he keeps a good smile to distract her quite until he’s able to get a total grip on the sword. “Ladies shouldn’t be too harsh. Most spend time dolling themselves up to find a good match. But all you do is play with swords.”

“What I do is none of your business.”

Crunching his nose, he sighs and retorts in a soft tone. “See that tone too. Which man would marry you with such rude manners?” Hearing him nag her on the same issue makes her patience dwindle at each passing minute. After having enough of his nagging, she drops her sword into its sheath and turns away from him.

“But I don’t mind. You just have to say two words.”

“Shut up.”

“Ouch,” he exclaims.

Compressing his chest with his hands, A’Ying looks up studying him closely. “Such harsh words break my heart.” When her eyes close, she shakes her head oblivious to his reactions.

How long was she going to endure working with him?

With the sun setting, the atmosphere becomes darker. She brushes the cobwebs along a tree away with a swing of her sword and gets comfortable under it. With a sigh, she hugs her legs and sits under the tree in silence. After spotting a set of firewood under a tree ahead of them, he walks up to it and returns with a bundle.

“What are you doing?” As he drops them on the floor, he sparks fire with a set of stones and set the wood on fire. “It gets colder at midnight. Since we’re lodging here, we’ll need to make this.” Her silence was enough to make him complete his set up. He quickly smacks the dirt off his hands by rubbing them together before sitting under the tree too.

For countless minutes, they sit still under the gloomy forest with only the light from the burning fire. After a while, Mo Yan gets up and moves forward to get more firewood. But when he gets back, he finds her sleeping by the tree.

“Wonder when I can sleep peacefully like that.” Heaving a sigh, he takes his coat off and adjusts it over her to keep her warm. With a light smile, he sits beside her watching her sleep. “Who would’ve thought that she could be this calm when she sleeps.” After sitting in that position, he finds himself staying away till morning.

As the sun rises and brightens up the dark forest, her head lies by a tree with her sword in her hands. When she feels a cold splash of water on her face, she springs up pulling her sword out in anger. “You’re finally awake!”

After taking in deep breaths, the drops of water glide over her face, soiling her dry hanfu. “Don’t draw that sword on me. We don’t have all day. The dancers are probably on their way now.” With a palm slide over her face, she storms off leaving him behind her.

“Wait for me!” When they get to the end of the desert, they find a group of dancers getting worked up for the program. After gathering at the end of the forest area, their leader calls them over with a fling of his left hand. “So what’s the plan?”

Mo Yan smiles and crosses his arms. “Leave it to me.” He quickly walks up to them blocking their way with his hands. Before A’Ying could wonder what his plans were, he starts weeping and shaking his head.

“Could you help me get my goods back? A few bandits in the desert robbed me . I’ll give you compensation for this, please?” Turning to each other in confusion, they exchange puzzled looks. A’Ying stands by watching them closely. “Bandits? What a good excuse to give in this area.”

After a careful deliberation, they turn back to him. “Sorry, but we don’t offer free services. The desert bandits are too fierce to work with. Moreover, we have an important meeting.”

While studying them closely, he lets out a sigh and pulls out a gold coin. “I have tons of this. If you don’t believe me, you can hold my sister as hostage first.” Her eyes almost pop out of her sockets when she hears this. She immediately steps down pointing her sword out.

Hesitation on his words, he runs his hair playfully and moves closer to one of them to whisper in his ears. She watches him keenly keeping her sword forward.

“He’s obviously lying! Let’s move on,” one of them declares. Standing away from his colleagues, his demeanor was quite different from the others. There was something about him A’Ying couldn’t just place right.

“I guess I have to find other martial artists to help me get my gold back. Take care, fellows.” With a grateful and melancholic look, he turns away and pulls A’Ying along. The three men quickly exchange hesitating glances at each other while the other one remains reluctant.

“What’s this about?! Mo Yan, we’ve wasted two days.”

“Wait!” He quickly turns around and let’s go off of her hand smiling at them. The reluctant one seems surprised by their reply. “You must fulfill your promise.” Beaming with joy, Mo Yan nods and bows to them. “Thank you. Please follow me. My sister will stay with-”

“Me.” Turning to the reluctant guy, her eyebrows twitch as she studies him closely. When she tries to call him back, he just smiles and leads the three away. At just a few minutes walk from their abode, he quickly unleashes a white powder from his hanfu into the air. After covering his nose with his hands, the three collapse unconscious.

“Mo Yan-“

Hearing her soft croaking voice from behind, he quickly turns around only to find her being strangled under his tight grasp. “A’Ying!”

Crossing her hands, she stands by the end of the wall. Her sleeves fly according to the tune of the wind along with her bottom red hanfu. Her sharp makeup distinguishes her from the entire Jianghu with her hair tied to the middle.

With her fingers interlocking slowly, a disciple dressed in red hanfu more plain and ordinary than hers steps in lowering her head. Two maids by the door move back opening the door for her. Her footsteps alarm her ears when she looks up into the sky.

“Master, everything’s ready for Former Master’s twelve years death anniversary.” With a sigh, she nods and firmly shuts her eyes. “What about the spy?” After a careful consideration, she looks up and responds, “Nothing from him since he departed.”

Her hands start to tremble after speaking. Expecting a bad reaction from her, she quickly drops her head and stands still. After she turns around, the maids close the door and retreat from the room.

Standing a feet from her, their master remains silent carefully deliberating. “I deserve to die for this. Please have mercy.” It was when she noticed her grip on her sword that caused her to panic that she moves back and continues staring into the sky.

“No need for that. What about the last mission I gave you?”

“Yes, after looking into his disappearance, I found several suspicious points. First of all, his body was never found after the massacre of the Ming Palace. Everyone presumes he killed after being caught by all the other elders. None of the elders gave us a proper reply as to whether he was alive or not.”

“Moreover, he was the only one who knew the secret to making Guo Se sword, the swiftest sword that can break any sword in this world. Knowing how greedy the martial arts world is, I’m sure someone kidnapped him.”

When she lifts her hand for her to continue, she gets up and drops a paper in her hands.

“As the entails read, he wrote a letter to Elder Yu to discuss about something before his identity was announced to the public.”

“Elder Yu?” Nodding, she retorts, “That’s right. But they never met. The handwriting is obviously not from Elder Mo, Leader of Ming Palace. Here’s a sample my guards got from the abandoned Ming Palace. It’s a desolate and deserted place now. Only the back remains kept. I heard the sect’s despatches disciples to cater for that place.”

Her lips curl in thoughts. With a smile, she turns to get disciple and helps her to stand up. “Keep investigating his disappearance and find someone to track the owner of this handwriting.” She quickly nods and twirls to leave. But she calls her back again.

“What else do you need from me?”

“That Lu Zhao Yun, tail him too. His appearance in Jianghu isn’t just a coincidence along with his matchless martial arts.”

“The one always with Bai Ying?” At the mention of her name, a cold expression takes over her face. Her disciple gets a hint of this and doesn’t ask further. Bowing again, she steps back and moves out of the hall, leaving her in the cold, silent room all to herself.

As I run after him, he keeps on walking forward without waiting for me. Pissed, I crunch my nose and pout feeling unnecessarily bored. By the time we get back to the inn, it was already afternoon. The sun was already out and brightening enough to hide our shadows almost too perfectly.

“Shifu,” I exclaim. He stops for a moment only after calling out to him three times. Just when I walk up to him thinking he stopped because of me, I find that annoying lady boss walking up to him.

“Watch them send our things back carefully. Not even a clink is allowed.” I quickly walk forward and open my arms wide open to keep her away. Chuckling, she calls her men over to move the things upstairs to our room.

“Would you want anything to eat? Drink? It’s a nice day.”

“No, thank you.” Zhao Yun sighs and turns around ready to leave. “We’re leaving. Be careful with my boxes!” When I turn around, I find him far ahead of me.

“Shifu!” By the time I get to his side, I realized that we were moving towards t the mountains. “Are we going to blow this place up?” He doesn’t respond but I find a tense, cold expression taking over his face.

“Shifu?” He keeps walking forward in slow steps. Without much of a choice, I follow him side by side until he stops by tablet holding several dusty characters. The floor was covered in all withered leaves with the trees almost dead. Standing in an almost collapsed state, the dry branches fall down slowly after each passing minute.

I begin to cough when the dusty air blows over us. He didn’t seem much disturbed even after a gush of dusty wind. He slowly approaches the dilapidated building covered with dark brown cobwebs and dirt.

“Ming Palace?” After contemplating on the name, I remembered the words of some girls during the Bloom Session. “Shifu?” My lips seal when he points the edge of his sword on my neck. With a stern look, he stares into my eyes without uttering a word. As the cold touch from his sword lingers over my neck, my eyes tear up.

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What is he planning?

Who keeps the backyard of Ming clean?

Who attacked A’Ying and why?

Why is Master of Demon sect investigating the two?