"Good thinking." The golden haired woman said. Her voice echoed through the cavern they took up as shelter.
"I'm just glad we didn't have to fight them all, senior." Bai Guo said, a lit torch in hand. He was kneeling beside the unconscious Desolator of Life, his robe stripped off of him. Black lines stretched across his body like a web. "I can barely feel his pulse, but I don't see any injuries. He must have been poisoned."
"It's not poison. Can't you sense that? It's all over him." The woman sounded incredulous.
"Sense what, senior? What do you mean?"
They exchanged mutually confused looks.
The senior broke up their stare and knelt beside the injured man. "The qi flowing through his meridians is strange. I've never felt anything like this before. It's destroying him from the inside."
Bai Guo was a complete stranger to matters of internal energy. "Can you help him?" As soon as he asked the question, he wondered whether or not they should. The senior, meanwhile, wondered over whether or not she can. She covered her lips with one of her long fingers, staring at the man's bare chest as she pondered.
"There's something I want to try." She eventually said, and placed her palm over his chest. With a grunt, she pressed down. Black blood erupted from the Desolator of Life's mouth, and his eyes half opened. Bai Guo propped up the man's head so that he wouldn't choke.
Staring at the golden haired senior, he weakly muttered, "Meili?"
"Rotate your dantian." She said. "Your internal energy is out of balance. I shared some of my yin qi with you; circulate it throughout your meridians, keep it flowing to maintain some semblance of balance. In time, your balance will restore itself."
The Desolator of Life's eyes quivered in confusion, but his brows lowered, and he began to follow the woman's instructions.
Bai Guo asked, "Is your name Meili, senior?"
"No." She replied and stood up. "Feel free to ask him what it means. I'll go fight the Wuyi Sect headmaster. You should consider, perhaps, staying here. I won't be able to protect you during the battle."
"Senior...! Are you really sure about all this? Look at what they did to this man, and he's no weakling either!" Bai Guo's voice was racked with fear.
"Of course I'm sure. It's what I came here to do." The woman smiled slightly. "And besides, I think it might be easier now than it would have been a few minutes ago."
A raspy, gurgling voiced emerged from the Desolator of Life's throat. "Why... Why did you save me?"
The man looked into the woman's yellow eyes.
"I wanted to see if I could." She replied, and walked away. Cui Shen's mouth opened and closed, but he couldn't muster up the strength to ask her anything else before she disappeared from sight.
The cave descended into an eerie silence. Cui Shen closed his eyes, but his face remained tense; it was clear that he was still conscious. Whether he was following the senior's instructions or not, Bai Guo couldn't tell.
After a while, Bai Guo spoke up with a question.
"I must ask you something. Why did you attack the Xiang clan?"
Cui Shen's brows twitched slightly when he heard the young man's voice. Bai Guo knew that his question had been heard, but no response came. Bai Guo decided that, in his precarious state, Cui Shen should be allowed to take his time; but whether he was actually deserving of Bai Guo's patience depended entirely on his answer. Despite his desire to remain impartial, as the seconds dragged on, frustration mounted. Bai Guo grew conscious of the sword on his hip.
With his eyes still closed, Cui Shen finally parted his lips, speaking with the utmost resignation. "They gave my beloved to Deng Hong."
Cui Shen's bitter reply brought Bai Guo some relief. It seemed that they had not rescued a villain after all.
Cui Shen continued. "They employed her for her martial arts... But her skills, her life were less valuable to them than that maniac's favor." His voice rose, as did the black blood coursing through his veins. He erupted into violent coughing.
Bai Guo waited for him to calm down. "You should have let us help you. With you and the senior working together, we might have..."
Cui Shen interrupted him. "There was only one way for me to wash away my shame. Now... that opportunity has passed. Even if Deng Hong were to die, it would all be useless. I scurried away with my life like a common roach. There is no longer a place for a wretch like me in the jianghu. At this point, even death won't be enough."
Bai Guo hadn't had the words to alleviate him.
After another pause, Cui Shen half-opened his eyes and asked, "Your name is Bai Guo, isn't it? I'm afraid I couldn't recognize your companion."
Bai Guo still didn't know her name, and the idea of telling as much to Cui Shen embarrassed him greatly. He felt that the man deserved to at least know how to refer to his savior.
"That was the Golden Witch." He said.
"...I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that title." Cui Shen replied. "Why 'witch'? Can she use magic?"
"That's how it feels to me sometimes." Bai Guo answered with a small smile.
Cui Shen seemed to have caught on to Bai Guo's predicament. He closed his eyes. "Someone of her skill must be a master in disguise. But if she didn't tell you, there must be some reason..."
"Was your brief battle really enough for you to evaluate her skills?" Bai Guo asked.
"I used four stances from the Bronze Sundering Blows to test her. The second strike in the sequence is strong enough to cleave a man-sized bronze bell in two, and they continue to get stronger after that. And yet that woman was unperturbed after four." Cui Shen continued with more hesitation. "I was worried I'd break my own sword if I continued to test her, so I had to back away. Needless to say, her inner energy is one of a kind. I suspect she is far older than she looks."
"Do you think she might win against the sect master?"
Cui Shen hadn't answered for a long time. "Who can defeat who is a perennial, complicated question, especially when it comes to masters. But Deng Hong possesses immense internal energy, and has mastered one of the most evil finger techniques in the world. Without an ace up her sleeve, the Golden Witch will not come out victorious."
Bai Guo nervously swallowed. If the senior perished, he thought, their chances at making it out of these mountains alive were slim to none.
...
As the night continued, the Wuyi Sect remained on high alert. The countless torches and lanterns made the mountain town seem like it was the middle of the day.
Within the sect's main hall, in a spacious, dimly lit hall befitting royalty, the Wuyi Sect's headmaster Deng Hong sat on a throne of bronze. He let his hair down, and was staring through his dark locks at the closed iron double doors that served as the hall's entrance. An old man with a long, greying beard stood next to him in grim silence.
In the reddish light of the lamps, they were waiting for something.
Deng Hong broke the silence. "Can you hear something?"
The old man's ears twitched. "Not at all."
"Indeed, it's far too quiet. The patrolling disciples must have been taken out already." Deng Hong said. His voice was suffused with utter nonchalance. As he continued staring at the door, he looked almost bored.
"To take all of them out in complete silence is a feat worthy of admiration." The old man replied.
Deng Hong did not seem impressed by this veiled praise. He idly brushed some of his hair aside. "Ordinarily, that may be the case. But Cui Shen had most likely gotten his poisonous little toy by taking on the Five Venoms Devil as his master, so naturally, his companions must be her disciples as well."
"And victory through poison is no feat at all." The old man concurred.
One of the two heavy doors began to slowly slide open. In the dim light of the lamps, the two men caught a glimpse of a pale blue sleeve. A tall, golden haired lady almost sheepishly emerged from the opening. She was wearing a wooden mask depicting the crying face of a woman.
She began to slowly walk towards the center of the room. The two men stared at her for a time before she spoke.
"Now that I can feel you up close, it's all becoming clear to me."
Deng Hong remained outwardly impassive, but his eyes glinted with mild curiosity. "Feel me? What is that turn of phrase? Are you not well-acquainted with the local language? And what is the meaning of the mask? Is it symbolic? Do you mean to represent the women I have slain thus far?"
In truth, the thought hadn't crossed her mind, but now that Deng Hong had pointed it out, she found it clever, and her chest swelled up with pride.
Deng Hong continued. "Or is it a disguise? Well, if you were hoping to disguise yourself, you should have started with that lantern you have for a head."
The old man beside him, despite putting in a visible effort to stop himself, snorted with laughter. Seeing his reaction, Deng Hong burst into laughter. It was as if a dam had been blown open; the two began to cackle fiercely as though they were competing to see who could laugh the loudest.
Under her long sleeves, the intruder clenched her hands into fists. Hidden beneath the mask, her expression was inscrutable, but she was not pleased.
After a short while, the two men had calmed down.
Deng Hong rested his chin on the back of his hand. "But to think that you were the one in cahoots with Cui Shen. What do you think, Liao Cai? Do you dare to test your mettle against Wei Qing's killer?"
The older Liao Cai gave his beard a rub. His tone was that of a sycophant. "Who in this whole wide world would be foolish enough to miss out on such a great opportunity to impress master Deng Hong?"
Liao Cai stepped towards the masked woman and drew his short sword.
Deng Hong called out behind him, instructing the older man. "She doesn't have any weapons on her that I can see, and those long sleeves are ideal for concealing projectiles. Very fitting for a disciple of Five Venoms Devil. Watch out for poisoned hidden weapons. Don't take any chances. Kill her as quickly as possible."
The old man replied, "Yes, master!" and began to slowly approach. When Liao Cai was roughly ten steps away, his body blurred, a burst of speed instantaneously carrying him the rest of the way, his cautious stance preserved in its entirety. The short sword in his hand was thrust towards the woman's chest.
She moved backwards, just barely out of the reach of the blade. Liao Cai made to withdraw, but before he could, the masked woman's hands reached for his outstretched right arm. Her right hand latched onto his wrist, while her left hand grabbed his upper arm, above the elbow.
Liao Cai's eyes widened. Never would he have guessed that his opponent possessed such long limbs that he could have been grabbed in such a manner beyond the reach of his weapon. In all his years as a martial artist, he had never seen anyone with a build as absurd as this.
The momentum he had intended to use to retreat had been instantly neutered by the woman's vice-like grip. She had full control of his arm. Liao Cai felt himself getting pulled forward, and despite resisting with all his might, could not stop it. He was dragged along to his left side by his right arm, spinning back-first towards his foe.
And in such fashion his entire body ended up under her control. Restrained from behind, Liao Cai found his own arm thrusting his own blade into his neck. The moment he had the idea to drop his weapon to save his life, the woman adjusted her grip by grabbing his fist. Her hand, the fingers on which turned out to be considerably longer than Liao Cai's, began to crush his, and he lost the chance to get rid of his sword.
The old man's struggles bought him mere seconds. Already, the short sword had pierced through the skin of his neck. His face turned red and sweat poured down his brow, but all his efforts were in vain. Suddenly, the embedded sword slashed across his neck. Finally, Liao Cai was freed from the vicious grasp.
As blood sprayed across the polished stone floors, he stepped away from his foe and turned back around to face her. He gripped his cut throat, but could not stop the bleeding. With rage, frustration, and fear all in equal measure over his face, he stumbled backwards, his life extinguished.
...