Chi flowed from their hands to their swords. Ling Yue gulped. She was not ready to go against Chi users yet. She caught the other three off guard, but she wouldn't be so lucky this time with the five remaining…
She gritted her teeth. If she died today, she'd bring them to Hell with her.
A daring gleam entered her eyes, a look that startled the assassins. They knew a mad woman when they saw one.
"Kill this Imbecile at once! Don't be fooled, brothers! She got lucky--" The leader shouted.
The others jolted awake from their trance, charging at once. A flurry of swords came at Ling Yue. Red and yellow hues shone as swords flashed with Chi.
Ling Yue dodged their attacks, barely. Scratches and cuts started to cover her arms.
She panted heavily. Her body was getting more and more sluggish. It was a miracle she was dodging anything at all. Surprise crossed the assassins' faces as they tried in vain to stab at her big yet slippery figure.
Dread settled in Ling Yue's gut as her eyes started to become hazy. Sweat plastered dark hair to her face.
She was a mess, her clothes ripped and covered in dirt, her hair matted with blood and sweat. Only her eyes, sharper than the finest swords, glared through the assassins with great malice.
She was cornered to a wall, and as five swords pointed at her, her weak knees gave out.
Ling Yue was so spiteful she drew blood as she grinded her teeth. To think the Devil's Hand would be pushed to this pitiful situation... She refused to accept this kind of death. In her past life, no one dared lay a finger on her.
The shame rested heavy on her chest as reality sunk in - she was weak. She was at anyone's mercy.
The assassins started playing with her, refusing to deal the killing blow. They wanted to keep her alive, for just a while longer, to see the anguish in her eyes, to punish her for scaring them for just a moment before…
A sword thrusted into her shoulders. She kept her lips tightly shut. No, she wouldn't give the bastards the satisfaction of hearing her cry out. Blood gushed, dripping and blooming like fiery flowers on her hanfu.
If she survived today, the people who had ever trampled on her will pay.
Her shoulder burned, a sharp pain shredding through her body.
She felt light-headed, but she knew if her conscience slipped, she'd die. She'd lose this second chance in life that she'd just got. Maybe she'd finally disappear, and both the Devil's Hand and Ling Yue would be no more on this earth...
An assassin raised his sword above his head, muttering: "When you come to Hell, if you become a ghost, don't haunt us. Haunt your cousin who paid for your life…."
Ling Yue stared at the sword as it came down.
She didn't quiver, she didn't cower away. She didn't beg for her life, she didn't fear death. She stared at the sword that was about to take her life with a terrifying lust for life.
"My Lady! I came late!" A shrill voice interrupted the night's silence, a familiar voice.
Shadows creeped into the Yard of Blossoms with lightning speed. The Yue Clan's shadow guards. Without a sound, without blood, with swift movements like a shadow's, they ended the assassins with grace.
Loan, dressed in black, kneeled before Ling Yue: "My Lady-- Forgive Loan, to think someone would be after the Lady's life when Loan's out on a mission---"
Ling Yue's eyes gleamed in the dark like a cat's, eerily sharp. There was a certain ruthlessness inside those eyes that the guards had never seen before; those were the eyes of someone who had shed blood, of someone who had killed.
It felt as if the Lady has changed, as if someone different was standing in front of them. This intimidating feeling was one they'd never seen, coming from the Yue Clan's "Imbecile"…
"Do what you have to do. Speak nothing of tonight's event. Loan, follow me inside." Ling Yue commanded, her composure not once shaken from the night's events, shocking the shadow guards even more.
Something inside Ling Yue snapped after that night.
She had thought she could go on with her life peacefully. She was "the Imbecile" after all; she didn't have any enemies. But things did not go as she thought; already, someone had threatened her life. She almost died under those bastards' blade.
Loan discreetly observed the figure of her Lady, the Lady whom she has served for years. Something had certainly changed, ever since the Lady fell down the lake. Loan had watched over the Lady in the dark to protect her then, so she knew exactly what had happened. She knew Ting Fu kicked the Lady down the lake.
Maybe cruel rejection from her beloved had changed the Lady. She was a different person, someone… more dangerous.
Loan didn't know why she should be wary of the Lady - she was certainly still the "Imbecile" of the Yue clan, she was still the overweight noble who breathed heavily after a few steps…
Even so... Loan shivered as something gripped her heart. Her instincts told her to never disobey the Lady, for the Lady now, she had all her alarms ringing with just one look.
"Clean up the body, boys. I'll tend to the Lady."
"Yes, Leader." The shadow guards reverently bowed as they went on with their work. In no time, the yard returned to its previous state; no bodies, no blood – as if nothing ever happened, only the rustling of the blossoms remained throughout the night.
Inside Ling Yue's room, the smell of blood and herbs created a sickly scent.
"My Lady…" Loan gasped as she saw Ling Yue's wounds.
Various deep and shallow cuts covered her arms. A gaping hole penetrated her shoulder.
Loan's hands shook as her face blanched. She was used to seeing blood, yet what frightened her was the Lady's demeanor. The Lady had changed, for sure. She should have cried and screamed. Something, anything of a response, not this--cold gaze.
Loan stared, frozen in place, bewildered. The Lady now…. She sat on the carved wooden chair, not saying a word, calmly treating her wounds with the expertise of a master physician, lethally precise.
Yet Loan knew that the Lady was raging. Beneath those dark pupils raged a dangerous gleam, not once dissipated.
Ling Yue picked up her acupuncture needles. With swift movements, she pricked her own pressure points. Blood flowing out from her wounds slowed to a trickle. Ling Yue took her herb paste, applied it to her wounds, and carefully bandaged her arm.
"My Lady, the Clan Master sent an Upper-Class Healing tablet." A shadow guard quietly approached, handing Loan the precious medicine. "The night is long. The Master will visit you tomorrow morning. He asked you to get some rest."
Quickly as he came, the guard retreated into the shadows, soundless, as if careful not to disrupt Ling Yue's silence. Somehow, the guards also felt the same way Loan did - they sensed a change in their Lady, so by instinct, they treaded lightly in her presence.