"Who is looking for me?" Hei Ya asked. He knitted his eyebrows as he saw Ying. "Young man, who are you? Are you the one who is looking for me?"
Ying nodded
"Are you one of Li Cong's sons or relative?"
"He is my friend's father-in-law."
"What happened to him? Why did he send you here?" Hei Ya a bit frowned. "How could he tell other people about this place?"
"Li Cong killed himself yesterday," Ying said. "Here is the dagger that he used to disembowel himself."
The word shocked Hei Ya, the man, and the girl.
Hei Ya took the dagger and observed it, "This dagger is not only deadly but is also very cruel. Once the dagger stabs a person's torso, then the person surely can not escape from death."
"Before he died, he wrote on a tree and admitted his past sins and crimes."
Hei Ya sighed and said, "It must be that Yue Beauty who forced him to commit suicide. Li Cong told me that the woman haunted him."
Ying said nothing. It seemed that Li Cong had told Hei Ya about her.
Hei Ya's face gradually changed and he looked disturbed. "Thirty years ago, Li Cong's father and I ran to this village to hide; because we killed a few soldiers who came to our village. Those soldiers not only took our crops and harvests. They also took many of our men to become soldiers and women to be sent to the Wu State as tributes. At that time, Li Cong's father and I only thought about how we could survive. Then, we saw a rich merchant who sold two girls from our village as slaves. "
Hei Ya sighed and shook his head, said, "We thought that sooner or later we would die. Why not we do something good before we die? Then we killed the merchants, released those girls, and took all of the merchant's money. We returned to our village as heroes. We didn't feel guilty about killing the dirty merchants. That day onward, he decided to rob more dirty merchants who were passing this mountain. We got the money and goods, and then we distributed them to our people in the village!"
Ying said in her heart, "You make it as if being bandits is such a noble deed!"
"As time goes by, more and more people joined us. And then we started to forget that we should only rob dirty merchants to feed the poor villagers. We became greedy, and even when at good harvest time, we still robbed chariots passing by our territories."
"That Yue Beauty and the troupe was the last robbery we committed," Hei Ya said in a choked voice. Many of our men died after the fighting broke between the Yue soldiers and us. From three hundred men, only a bit more than a hundred men returned home! Since then, Li Cong left this village forever. Before that, he often stayed in this village for a few days in a month. He told me that the look of the Yue Beauty haunted him and made him unrest."
"Do you know why Li Cong had to die by disemboweling himself?" Ying asked.
Hei Ya nodded and closed his eyes. "Because he disemboweled that Yue Beauty. Li Cong said that she's very young and lovely. He didn't mean to kill her. He meant to scare the girl. Who would have thought the girl was brave and fought back."
"That girl forged the dagger only to revenge Li Cong," Ying said. "She has another sword, with two characters written on each side. Benevolent and justice. She's determined to kill all of the bandits living in this village. But she's willing to spare the old people, women, and children in this village. She feels bad if she also has to kill them all."
Hei Ya's grand-daughter and the young man were surprised to hear the word.
Hei Ya raised his eyebrows and asked, "How does she know it? Did Li Cong tell her?"
Ying shook her head, "She sees the village herself. That's why she decides to give the people here a chance. Three days! You should order the people here – the women, older people, children, and those young people who are never involved in robbery to leave this village within three days. They may return later to this village…to bury the dead!"
Her voice was soft, but it was so cold and cruel. Hei Ya realized something was not right.
"You,…who are you?"
"My name is Ying. I am one of the Yue Beauties who were sent to Wu State almost thirteen years ago," Ying smiled and took the two branches dagger on the table. "But I've never reached Wu State since my chariot was plundered, and I …," Ying smiled at Hei Ya with such a beautiful sweet smile. "The rest, you and Li Cong know the story well!"
"You're the one who killed Li Cong!" Hei Ya surprised and raised his voice.
Ying shook her head,"I didn't kill him. I only forged this dagger and forced Li Cong to commit suicide!"
Hei Ya, his granddaughter, and the young man, were shocked.
Ying untied her hair, and in a moment, the handsome young man turned into a beautiful woman with her long, raven hair.
The young man spontaneously embraced his toddler tighter. "You must be a ghost! You're an evil woman!"
Ying turned her head and said, "When Li Cong and his men plundered my chariot and disemboweled me, perhaps you were only four or five years old. You're innocent! I will not harm you or your wife and child! Leave this place, now!"
The young man held her daughter, who was sleeping tightly, and he dragged Hei Ya's granddaughter, who was frightened, to leave the house.
Hei Ya was also shocked, but he didn't look panic. He looked at Ying thoroughly and said, "How come that you are the Yue Beauty? She's supposed to be in her late twenties now!"
"Cause I'm a dead person," Ying smiled. "Didn't Li Cong tell you how he stabbed my stomach and pulled out my intestine?"
Hei Ya might look like a weak old man. But he's not a weak person at all. As soon as he saw his granddaughter and the young man left his house, he took a sword hung on the wall and pointed it at Ying. With a firm low voice, he said, "Girl, leave this place while you can. We are not enemies. You have killed Li Cong, and many of the men involved in the attack that day also had died. Why don't we just over this enmity!"
"With the possibility that you or your subordinate may kill or rob other people again? No way!" Ying said.
"I will spare the women, children, and the men under twenty-five years old. Men over sixty, I will spare also." With her last word, Ying unsheathed the sword hung on her waist.
Hei Ya's eyes showed the admiration and, at the same time, trembled. He could tell the sword in the hand of the girl was a formidable treasure sword. And the girl, if she was the Yue Beauty who forged the weapons for Goujian's army. Then who could stop her?
Hei Ya sighed and said, "It will be an honor for me to die under that sword. But you have to spare the lives of all the people who live in this village."
"I will spare the women, children, the men under twenty-five years old and men over sixty years old. The rest, I will not spare. I'm not giving a chance for anyone who committed crimes," Ying said while she gracefully moved her hand and pointed her sword toward Hei Ya.
The young man and Hei Ya's granddaughter who left the house sought help from the other village men. Hei Ya was a good leader and loved by the people in the village. Therefore, the village men rushed to Hei Ya's house once they heard that Hei Ya was in danger.
The villagers rushed to go to Hei Ya's place to help him.
They could not help but astonished as they saw:
A young woman with her long raven hair
Tall and slender was she in stature,
With a face like a melon seed
Her eyes so beautiful and possessed in her gaze a bewitching flash
Her lips as sweet as the cherry blossoms in spring
A peerless, immortal beauty she was
With The Benevolent and Justice Sword in her right hand
She was about to seek justice and end her misery
With a loud voice, Hei Ya said to the villagers: "If I have to die under her sword, no one should ever take revenge on my behalf! This girl is the Yue Beauty whose chariot we plundered. On that day, we killed many of the Yue soldiers, and we also lost many of our brothers. Either I die, or this girl die – this enmity has to end!"
As soon as he finished his words, Hei Ya launched his attack using his sword.