Smoke and dust colored the world, their grey coloration competing against the bright blue of the sky. The clanging of swords, twanging of bowstrings, cries of horses and men as they fell onto the blood muddied earth filled the air. The scent of sweat, blood, urine, and dung had long since covered the fragrance of the flowers that once bloomed on this battleground.

Yet on a hill above, as though looking at a poorly performed play rather than the destruction of allies and foes alike, two figures sat in a portable pavilion, drinking tea and playing go. One figure, dressed in black and red robes, had the lush figure of a woman in her sexual prime.

Her long black hair was styled intricately, with only a braided strand forming a pseudo-diadem against her forehead, on which a red lotus was painted. Her eyebrows were gently curved, like her lips, as she placed a black go stone and captured her fellow's white stones.

"Please yield." Her voice purred, its soft murmur caressing the guards who stood at the four corners of the curtained space.

"Mistress, I yield." Her opponent's voice held a trace of laughter as she lifted her hands and saluted.

If one used a flower to describe the previous lady, it would be a rose. One which was bright red, in full bloom, and whose thorns could never be cut. Her companion, on the other hand, would be a piece of bamboo. Her back was always straight, like a blade, her face unpainted, her hair in a simple braid, and her clothes, though fine, were grey.

Her eyes twinkled and her lips were tilted in such a way to look as though she perpetually smiled. One was the sun in the sky and the other a wisp of cloud. And that was how the poets would always describe the Leader of the demonic sect Blooming Blood, Hong Hua Long, and her hand maiden, the Smiling Blade, Gu Xiao Wai.

"I lift this cup in salute to your brilliance." Xiao Wai laughed as she lifted her tea cup and downed it.

"I don't dare." Hua Long smiled as she returned the gesture.

Both put down their cups and gazed down at the bloody scene below.

"I suppose I should make my appearance soon." Hua Long pouted before rising.

"Even if you did not, the outcome is obvious." Xiao Wai shrugged, before getting to her feet as well.

Hua Long threw back her head and laughed, long and coldly.

"Indeed," she sneered, "we have lost. I have lost. Against that man."

Xiao Wai's smiled turn bleak as she watched the emotions flash across her mistress's face.

"Indeed." She lowered her head in shame, "I apologize that I did not take his head when I had the chance."

Hua Long turned to her and snorted, "As if I would let you. Love." She spat out the word as though it was poison.

Raising one hand, the forefinger extended to the figure gallantly seated upon a white horse on the opposing hill, Hua Long spat the word out again.

"Love. For that man. I gave my everything. I betrayed my family. I fell to the demonic path. All because of love! For. That. Man!"

Her eyes started to redden as tears welled, her face looked lost for a split second before rage suffused it again.

"I did everything for him. And he tossed me aside!" black energy crackled along that raised forefinger.

"Please Mistress, do not be angered." Xiao Wai kneeled and looked at Hua Long fiercely, "Before I die today, I shall cut out his traitorous heart and force him to join us in death.

Hua Long fully faced her hand maiden and kneeled as well, "Don't kneel. Xiao Wai, big sister Wai. I don't deserve that. I have forced you onto this path. Of everyone who has left me, died before me, or renounced me, you were the last person I expected to stay by my side to the end."

Hua Long lifted her hands and grasped Xiao Wai's shoulders, tears leaking form the corner of her eyes.

"You are my sister. I do not understand, why it is that you stayed loyal."

"It is because you were the most interesting person to follow, I guess." Xiao Wai shrugged, her smile sheepish.

Hua Long blinked in surprise before she giggled.

"I was such a little hellion."

Xiao Wai smiled fondly, "I shall never forget the day we met. I still remember all of our adventures together."

Hua Long sighed before getting to her feet, "A shame that most of them revolved around him. Come Xiao Wai. Let us die together, as we once swore."

Hua Long picked up her blade, Bleeding Rose, and waited for Xiao Wai to rise and pick up her own sword, Whistling Wind, before the pair stepped out of the enclosed space and flew down into the midst of the battle.

With a single rise and fall of their blades, hundreds of their foes died. With a single swing of hands and kicking of feet, bones broke and men were disabled. The followers of the Blooming Blood Sect felt their blood stir and energy fill their body as they watched their leader and vice-leader cut down those who faced them. Their allies felt both joy and trepidation at this show of strength from the two female cultivators. And their foes felt despair as their numbers dwindled.

"Hua Long!" The cry bloomed across the battlefield, its vibrations shattering the eardrums of those whose cultivation were too weak. Those whose cultivation were strong stumbled a little.

Hua Long looked up as her enemy flew down to her. He's white robes fluttered behind him, like the wings of a crane. His posture was like an arrow as his blade came for her heart.

"Mistress!" Xiao Wai hurried to stand in front of Hua Long, her blade in a guard position. With a sharp singing clang, Xiao Wai and Hong Lou Zhang's blades met. The force of his descent pushed her back. Only by shifting her body to the side did Xiao Wai manage to keep their entangled bodies from hitting Hua Long's.

"Xiao Wai!" Hua Long felt anger well up as she saw this and raised her own blade to cut into Lou Zhang's back.

"Don't even think that I would allow that, Demonic Whore!" Hua Long froze as she heard the crystalline voice of the woman behind her. She turned and faced the woman who had stolen everything from her.

Bai Shi Du, how many times had she cursed this name? Hua Long had lost count. The albino whose red eyes and fair features had bewitched their mutual love and caused Hua Long's demise.

"Shi Du. As sneaky as always." Hua Long sneered. "Shall I tell you? I never expected it to be you when I started to be suspicious. I actually wrongfully accused Xiao Wai of being Lou Zhang's mistress?"

Shi Du lifted her chin, her face impassive.

"You were never in his heart." Her gentle voice was just as emotionless as her face as she slowly uncoiled her Dragon Tail Whip.

Hua Long started to laugh, "No, I guess not." With a jerk she sent Bleeding Rose straight at Shi Du, who flicked her wrist and tangled the blade with the whip.

"You were always too blinded by emotion to see what he needed!" With a swing, Shi du sent the blade back.

"Too ignorant! Too stupid! Too arrogant! Too self-centered!" With each statement the whip rose and aimed for Hua Long. Hua Long shifted to evade each strike.

"He was my fiancée!" Hua Long cried out.

"He was forced into the betrothal by your family!" Shi Du's face was no longer impassive as she remembered the hurt and despair that Lou Zhang had experienced as he was told he had no choice.

"How could a branch family dare to oppose the main family?!" Shi Du's eyes reddened as more memories came to her. The corruption she saw as Hua Long's handmaiden. The bodies the main family buried. The choices which led to today's battle.

"And yet he did!" Hua Long cried as she grabbed her blade and swung it down. Shi Du raised her whip between both hands and blocked the strike, channeling chi to strengthen it. "MY FAMILY IS DEAD! MY MOTHER! MY FATHER! MY BROTHERS!"

"THEY WERE MURDERERS!" Shi Du yelled back. She remembered the smiling face of her elder sister, who had been raped and killed by the Hong Eldest Brother. She remembered the elder manservant who had tricked her into almost being raped by the younger. And the disdain the Mistress of the family had shown on both accounts.

"THEY WERE MY FAMILY!" Hua Long screamed, her emotions raising her demonic chi as she broke through the whip.

"AAAAAAHHHHH" Hua Long froze as she heard Xiao Wai's voice raised in pain. She turned around to see Lou Zhang's blade sticking out of Xiao Wai's back. Blood slide from its tip and stained the grey robe red.

"XIAO WAI!" Hua Long started to go to her friend only to feel something coil around her, locking her arms and legs to her body. With a despairing cry Hua Long fell to the earth.

Shi Du panted as she used her chi to control the broken ends of the whip. She struggled to draw her short sword as she watched the writhing form before her.

"DON'T YOU DARE LOU ZHANG! NOT XIAO WAI! XIAO WAI! XIAO WAI!" Hua Long screamed, her eyes crazed as she watched Lou Zhang withdraw his blade and Xiao Wai slowly fall to her knees.

"Mistress." Xiao Wai turned her face to look at her mistress, her eyes starting to fog. The sweat iron taste of blood filled her mouth and dribbled out, "It has been a pleasure to serve you."

Xiao Wai's eyes turned glassy as death took her yet her face still smiled. Lou Zhang, uncertain if she had a demonic art to revive herself, raised his bloody blade and, with a single mighty swing, lopped off her head. Xiao Wai's braid unraveled as her head slide away from her body.

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!" Hua Long's cry chilled the hearts of all. Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head. Hua Long struggled to reach Xiao Wai but found she could not. Maddened by grief Hua Long's chi started to surge unchecked, striking out and pushing Shi Du back. The dark red chi soaked into her skin.

"Shi Du!" Lou Zhang hurried to his wife's side.

"Don't worry about me!" Shi Du called out as blood escaped her mouth, "Kill her quickly! We must end this battle!"

Lou Zhang stopped, conflicted, before determination filled him again. With a regal nod, he turned back to face Hua Long.

"For all the lives taken! For all the lives ruined by you and yours! I execute you!" Lou Zhang raised his sword and brought it down upon Hua Long's neck. Her demented cries stopped, her head fell to the ground with a thud. Lou Zhang reached down and grabbed the head with a hand before flying into the air.

"I HAVE SLAIN THE MISTRESS OF THE BLOOMING BLOOD SECT, HONG HUA LONG! KNEEL IN SURRENDER OR DIE!" His voice boomed out, freezing all battle.

Cries of despair and triumph rose from below him as several demonic sect members turned and fled while others kneeled and let go of their weapons. For those who stilled tried to fight, as their hearts were demoralized and numbers depleted, death was truly their only option.

Lou Zhang quickly flew back down to his wife and was shocked at the transformation. Bai Shi Du had always been an albino, one of the reasons Hua Long never considered her a threat. Her white pigmentation and red eyes had always been considered as a form of bad luck.

Yet the dark red chi that had flowed out of Hua Long as she died had dyed her. While Shi Du's eyes were still red, they were now so darkly red to be almost black. Her hair too had absorbed most of the chi and had also changed into a pinkish color. Lou Zhang's heart quickened in desire.

"Wife." His voice quavered as he slowly lifted her to her feet, "Are you well?"

After so many years beside her husband, how could she not know what was in his mind? While he had never been disgusted by her appearance as others had been, he had never shown her such desire before. Shi Du could only see this as a blessing. As such she kept quiet about the conflicting chis battling in her body.

"I am well." Shi Du smiled brilliantly and grasped his hands tightly. "We are well."

"And they…turned to face…the warriors who had followed them…before heading back home…end of last chapter!"

With a deep sigh the girl leaned against the back of her chair and finished tonight's typing.

"Ugh. I'm sick of this story already!" Gu Xiao Wai moaned as she stretched her arms up. "Guh I even killed off myself. Maybe I should just end it like that?"

Gu Xiao Wai looked at her screen seriously considering it before shaking her head.

"Cliffhanger epilogue? The chi that saturated both MCs go into Shi Du's body and merges into their baby? Or twins? Twins would be nice…But I really don't want to live in this world anymore? So maybe just Hua Long is revived? Like the return of Chucky? Hmm…"

Xiao Wai shrugged before saving and exiting out of Microsoft Word.

"I'll ask the forum. After all, they're the ones who have the actual ideas."

Xiao Wai shut down her laptop before looking at the time.

"Ugh…I should sleep."