Cold beads of sweat broke out on Mingyan's head as she looked behind. Staggering behind her were two fellow disciples, Qingyi and Menghao.
Both of them were supporting an unconscious and disheveled Xiaohua, who was dressed in female robes. Another heave as he slipped slightly down their shoulders.
They have escaped from the quarters while the rest of the disciples were trying to hold off the intruders. The back was the only viable escape route.
"I don't think I can hold up the cloaking field…," she mumbled as all of them hurried quickly.
"Try as long as you can," Qingyi panted.
Menghao nodded.
Her ling qi was almost exhausted. No cloaking field meant detection by those who were looking for Xiaohua. The ruse worked so far. If the field dropped, they could only use the female robes to delay. What the intruders were looking for was a young man.
Exhausted and battle weary, she wiped her face on the soft cotton sleeves. They needed to get past the bamboo grove and make a right bend after the end of the grove laid the path towards Clear Dragon Pond. An easy distance made difficult by the burden they had.
They were at the start of the dark, towering bamboo grove.
*THUD*
Something black suddenly flew out of the grove. Along with it was another figure flashing past them, slamming down foot first on the front before landing. They stopped and stepped backwards while watching in aghast, as a loud crack was heard.
A shimmer of a blood-like aura surrounded the victor briefly and faded.
Mingyan's eyes widened in horror - the killing aura was deep reddish. This man had killed more than a hundred people in his life. Three of them plus Xiaohua won't be a match for him.
"That would teach you to play with me," the man spat on the body coldly as his face turned towards the four of them.
Mingyan's heart was racing along with her mind. Could he see them? Keep calm, keep calm. She inhaled deeply. He did look a little familiar, but she couldn't recall.
"Your ling qi is exhausted, little girl," he sneered. "The cloaking spell failed a while back."
She panicked. A million thoughts were zipping through her head. Was she going to be killed, along with the three of them? She was too young to die and Wugang was coming out of reparative seclusion the next day.
***
Those fairy tale endings of earthly romance movie type always sickened me. The typical scene was when the man runs towards the woman in the sunset, arms outstretched and they finally sink in each other's loving embrace. Throw in some soppy pop song about love finally conquering all crap.
And there is a similar scenario before me. Real time.
Not of a man and woman. No pop songs - this isn't Earth. No cheesy crooning.
But an overjoyed (and very relieved looking) Xuanjing grabbing Xuanyi forcefully, in fact.
Bromance, much?
No sunset scene, just intermittent bursts of illuminating hues from the great ling beasts overhead from a distance. Like a disco ball.
Around more than ten ling beasts were fighting up in the skies - presumably all were those of the more powerful elders and the intruders, judging by the size and impressive form they were fighting in.
In front of me was a pale Mingyan and two weary looking guys supporting a slumped body of a girl. Who was the unconscious girl?
Chen Xiu or Wenyi? I thought better of asking. I didn't care for them.
Besides, the knocked out girl can't talk and annoy the f**k out of me.
"I thought you were seriously injured!!!!" Xuanjing exclaimed while squeezing a red faced Xuanyi. "Couldn't get to you."
Just four very confused teenagers staring at my bodyguards with our mouth agape. I facepalmed.
"Let go of me!" Xuanyi yelled while attempting to wriggle free. "I am cloaking them! That's why!"
Xuanjing meekly obeyed and finally let go, quite unwillingly I might add. Awwww… no reciprocation of whatever bromance they have. Heartbreaking… NOT.
Side-note to self, this type of ling qi cloaking field can cut off telepathic contact. Not bad, learnt another new thing today.
Then Xuanyi turned to Mingyan and asked, "Go to Clear Dragon Pond?"
She nodded.
"Alright, GET MOVING… you two, let Xuanjing help with that girl," Xuanyi ordered.
The two relieved disciples snickered softly as Xuanjing piggybacked the girl.
Xuanjing looked back at the girl with a raised eyebrow. He looked puzzled.
"She isn't a girl. I mean, he isn't a girl," he muttered.
Frankly, I don't want to know how he found that out.
I looked at Mingyan, who gingerly answered, "It's Xiaohua."
I took a step back. WHAT THE F**K.
"Why is he…"
"They are after him," Mingyan replied quickly as we walked along.
Xiaohua? What is in Xiaohua which is so important that twenty highly skilled practitioners were sent after him?
Come to think of it, his entire story did not make sense. He was too overpowered. Even when compared to Ji Feng's former prodigious self.
*Squish*
My foot stepped on a soft jello like substance.
I cringed back as my eyes glanced at the lifeless body of a former someone, now rendered impossible to identify. Distracted by the bromance scene and all the hoopla of the situation, I barely noticed the corpse laying in the shaded area.
Where the head should be was rendered into a bloody mangled mess of unrecognisable mince. Like spaghetti meat sauce. Maybe more like those Japanese Hamburg steaks with tomato sauce splatter. Yeah, the familiar stench of blood, sweat and raw meat from the butchers.
Probably some grey matter from the brain as well. Damn… need to really scrub my boots now. Too bad they don't have dry cleaning service or bleach in this world.
My stomach growled loudly in protest of my hunger pangs gnawing away at it. I gross myself out sometimes. Why the f**k am I thinking of food now? I should be throwing up.
"Hurry up!" Xuanyi called from a distance now.
Mingyan tugged on my sleeve as we made our way towards him with the two other male disciples.
Xuanjing was no longer in sight.
I ran up to Xuanyi and asked, "where is Xuanjing?"
"He went first," his head motioned up ahead while we walked together.