Just as Zhi Wei pulls back her sword, Ning Yi who was standing opposite from her and had been listening intently suddenly points towards her back. Not bothering to look back, Zhi Wei thrusts her sword up and backward under her left arm. A man holding his throat crumbles to the floor, unable to figure out as the last of his life drains away how the sword managed such a bizarre angle to pierce his throat. The death of four men obviously created some noises and promptly woke everyone. While the remaining men blink in surprise upon waking to find everything in front of them shrouded in a foggy mist, Zhi Wei jumped on the moment of the men’s confusion to quickly send her sword into another man’s throat. Not even bothering to extract the sword, Zhi Wei flung her sword with the dead body still on it towards another man. The man could only tell through his foggy vision that someone is coming towards him and naturally assumes it must be an attacker. With an angry yell, the man strikes with his open palm on the dead body and shuttered the poor guy’s head. In the next instant, the man felt a sharp pain on his palm then loses all consciousness as a black sword pierces through his hand and right into his brain. Two more down. Those who were closest to her are the weaker fighters so Zhi Wei chose them to kill first. The leader of the group is obviously the best fighter but he slept the furthest away and there is no way to approach him without being noticed so they might as well use this time of confusion to kill as many as they can.
Someone else is coming towards Zhi Wei’s direction, their blurry vision obviously didn’t affect their ability to discern positions or fight. Her heart sinking, Zhi Wei knows that each subsequent enemy will become harder and harder to kill, especially since the poison has less effect on those who are better fighters. Zhi Wei holds up her sword against a fierce strong wind but before she can even raising the sword all the way up, a pain seized her chest and forced her arm to slump down. (So, in Wuxia novels, good fighters can send out energy blast which is what the fierce wind represents. Again, not a special ability in this world…just something most fighters worth their salt would be able to do.) Zhi Wei thought silently: I am done for! Her body suddenly pushed away to the side, as Zhi Wei rolled on the ground she sees Ning Yi in a lighting speed slides his body under the man and thurst his sword up. The man shouts as he tries to catch his internal organs that are spilling out but Ning Yi just sneers coldly and twists his sword.
The man crumples to the ground and splashed Ning Yi a face full of blood. Ignoring the angry shouts that are coming all over now, Zhi Wei grabs Ning Yi and runs into a side room in the old temple. Zhi Wei swiftly kicked the door closed just as a wave of darts and short knives nail themselves into the door. Silently thanking the heavens that she moved out of the way in time as the door shook violently from the force of the weapon assault, Zhi Wei leans against the door to try to catch her breath. Surprised when Ning Yi promptly yanked her away from the door, Zhi Wei looked back to see the place she was leaning against was replaced by a small hole blasted away by three daggers. If Ning Yi hadn’t reacted so quickly then those three daggers would be buried in her back right now.
Letting a long sigh, Zhi Wei mutters “You saved me again…”
“You don’t have to keep count.” His face pale, Ning Yi says “You have saved me many times as well.”
Listing to the sounds coming from outside, Zhi Wei laments “This poison still wasn’t potent enough. It blinded them but didn’t do much to their fighting abilities. We are in trouble now…” Zhi Wei suddenly stopped mid-sentence when she remembered the way the first guy had moaned in pain. They had only used a few droplets of Ning Yi’s tears and it was even diluted by a big bucket of water before the water was then divided up amongst so many people. If after all that, the poison was still strong enough to cause a fighter with a robust constitution to moan in pain, then how crazy potent is that poison? And Ning Yi, who suffers from that undiluted poison…how much pain must he be in? Yet, it has almost been two full days since he has been poisoned and she has not heard a single yelp of pain from him nor any complaints. Staring at Ning Yi’s pale face, Zhi Wei suddenly doesn’t know what to say.
Leaning against the wall to support himself upright, Ning Yi listens intently to the noises outside. They couldn’t get close to the old temple door before and ended up getting cornered into this small side room. The room has no windows at all and the only exit is blocked. The poison wasn’t able to incapacitate their enemies. They killed seven men but there are still five left…and they are the better fighter out of the bunch. Their situation truly can’t get any worse. After an initial ruckus, the men outside have quieted down. They have apparently decided that since there is no way for their prey to escape they might as well sit down and take some time to force the poison out of their bodies.
After a moment, Ning Yi slides down against the wall then waves at Zhi Wei “Come, sit.” Zhi Wei smiles, walked over and started a small fire with some old fabric she found. Both of them are the type to remain calm no matter what extraordinary circumstance they find themselves in which is how they could sit side by side in front of the fire now as they listen to the sound of the falling rain outside.
Zhi Wei says after a bit of silence “Ning Yi.”
“Hm.”
“It looks like luck is not on our side this time.” Zhi Wei coughs then stealthily wipes away the bit of blood in the corner of her mouth. Giving Ning Yi a smile, Zhi Wei continues “We will probably die here.” She tried to keep her smile bright but the smile felt stiff on her face. Her heart is beating fast then slow, fingers are shaking uncontrollably and her vision is turning dark. After two days of running day and night, without a chance to take care of her internal injuries, Zhi Wei knows well that she has reached her limit. To make matters worse, she could feel the river of energy deep inside her is restless…as if a sleepy volcano is about to erupt any moment now. Perhaps she really is about to die…from exhaustion. Ning Yi’s voice seemingly coming from a long distance away “Oh, not because we lost the fight?”
“Yes.” Feeling like countless steel balls are hanging on her eyelids, Zhi Wei closes her eyes and murmurs “I got tinted with your bad luck.”
“I feel like I am the one that got dragged down by you.” Ning Yi retorted.
Too weak to bicker, Zhi Wei mutters “Oh…”
Zhi Wei suddenly felt a shot of pain on the back of her hand. It was Ning Yi who had reached out a hand and pinched her hard. “Zhi Wei, don’t sleep. Don’t sleep.”
Zhi Wei gives Ning Yi another silent smile but Ning Yi just asks “Why did you come to save me?” Zhi Wei was too exhausted to answer yet Ning Yi continues to pinch her “Answer me! You dare to not answer my question?! Did you really want to come rescue me or did you have another purpose in mind? And why where you trying to get me to say when you got me drunk? What do you know?”
This man is so noisy…Zhi Wei tries to use her extremely sluggish brain to think about Ning Yi’s questions but the more she tries the more twisted her mind became until she falls right into Ning Yi’s arms and mutters “…all bunch of stupid questions…”
Holding Zhi Wei, Ning Yi feels his own head spinning as well. At first Ning Yi thought maybe he is exhausted too, then he thought maybe it was caused by the impact of catching Zhi Wei…until he suddenly smelled something and realized the men outside had begin to burn some sort of poisonous incense! Zhi Wei was too tired after all her fighting so she fell prey to it first. He was worried about Zhi Wei and couldn’t see anything either so he didn’t discover in time. A sense of total exhaustion rushing over Ning Yi, accompanied by the pain that has been churning away at his internal organs all this time. Perhaps…he is about to die as well…
Tightening his arms around Zhi Wei, Ning Yi could feel her small petite body against him. So soft and warm, like everything that is seductive in this world…but at this moment none of that is in his thoughts. The only thing he wants is to just hold her tightly and sit until the end of time.
Perhaps he should feel bitter regrets for not accomplishing his great ambitions. He should feel the ridiculousness of it all for him to die in a shabby old temple. But when it really came, he somehow can’t muster up the energy to be furious or to regret. Instead, all he could think of is that this kind of peace and tranquility is rare…if it really ends like this then it’s not something he can’t accept. Lowering his gaze, trying hard to not wake Zhi Wei, his long slender finger trembles before he gently touches her brow. As the fire dies down slowly, the sound of the rain seems to be close by at times then far away at others….
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Cliffhanger!!! Nooooo!! I want more😭😭😭
😱😱😱😱 can’t wait for next week!!
I can’t wait for next week either, what a climatic ending!!!!!!!!!!!!. I still can’t believe that they left out so much in the drama. this novel episode so much more.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
‘
oooohhh…next week is going to be good! Thanks!
I wish I could quiet the entire world with all its political ambitions and bloodthirst, just so these two can have these peaceful moments together. Sigh.