I was surprised when I saw Qing Ren, I thought Qing Ren was a burly and rough-looking man like Liao Jian’s father, Liao Que. But no, the moment when I saw Qing Ren, I almost thought I saw my brother, Ying Kong Shi. They have the same delicate features and distinct profile, flowing long hair, so unrealistically beautiful. He has a scar in between his eyebrows, like a blade. It’s in faint ivory colour. I knew that was where all the spiritual powers gathered, just like cherry blossom petal mark between Ying Kong Shi’s eyebrows. I have a lightning mark between my eyebrows; Yue Shen has the mark of the moonlight while Xing Gui has the mark of a hexagram. Qing Ren’s hair were scattered gently down, his eyes looked drifted away and free-spirited, his smile looked evil and innocent. I wasn’t sure what kind of power was hidden under this appearance, making him the East Guardian.
Wing Ren seated on his throne, smiling at me. “You are the king of that ridiculous castle, Ka Suo?”
“Yes.” I said.
He laughed and some of his hair fell and scattered over his eyes. “All of you can come together, I don’t want to waste my time.” He said.
“The one who wanted to kill you is Liao Jian, not me. Liao Jian is the real Eash Guardian.” I said.
“Real East Guardian? Haha! Don’t make me laugh. All of you just come all at once.”
I used the Ice Tribe’s illusion skill to freeze my left arm and said. “Liao Jian will kill you, I won’t do it.”
Yue Shen said. “My king, granny told you not to pay attention to equality…”
“Yue Shen! This is my decision. I don’t want Liao Jian to disappoint his father.”
Then I heard the sound of Liao Jian’s footsteps coming from behind. He said, “I’m Liao Jian, East Guardian of Ren Xue City.”
Qing Ren’s gaze became extremely cold all of a sudden; I could feel the murderous aura surrounding us. He said, “Ren Xue City only has one and it’s this one, there’s also only one East Guardian and that’s me.” Before Qing Ren could finish his sentence, Liao Jian went forward to attack Qing Ren. But this sneak attack didn’t pose any threat to him.
I’ve finally witnessed Qing Ren’s incredible power; Liao Jian didn’t even fight ten rounds with him. But Qing Ren still lost the battle; he has lost it since the beginning. Because he underestimated Liao Jian and I, and he shouldn’t even believe in us.
When Liao Jian made his first attack, he bent down and retreated suddenly before Qing Ren could touch him, and I charged forward quickly with fiery curse dagger in one hand, stabbing it straight through his heart. When Qing Ren fell before me, his eyes were wide open; he couldn’t believe that someone outside of Huan Xue Mountain has defeated him. During the last moment of his life, his handsome face still has the unbelievable expression on it. Liao Jian and I didn’t say a word when we saw Qing Ren turning into a puddle of snow water.
We had never thought that we could defeat Qing Ren so easily; we expected either Liao Jian or myself would be seriously injured and we have also gotten Huang Tuo to get ready with his healing enchantment to send us in if we got hurt. But surprisingly both of us remained unharmed.
But the scars appeared at the invisible places, only at the time when the sun fell onto the horizon.
Liao Jian was walking alone ahead of us, not talking at all, his back view seemed so isolated. I knew he was sad because he abandoned the expectation that his father had on him. Giving up one’s dignity was somehow worse than death, and I knew the sacrifices made by Liao Jian for me. If it weren’t for the journey ahead of us, Liao Jian wouldn’t resort to using a.s.sa.s.sination.
That night we settled on a hillside filled with cherry blossoms for the night, the bright moonlight was like water splashing on the ground. I woke up in the middle of the night and I saw Liao Jian standing at the highest point of the hill with his back facing me, the moonlight was flowing down his hair and robe, I could sense his despair from his back view.
That night it was my first time hearing Liao Jian singing, it was the kind of song that would be sang repeatedly in the barrack at the battlefield, sad and desolate, his loud broken voice resounded high above the clouds. I recalled the time when I was young, I repeatedly heard this song during the holy war, and the warriors would always sing this song in the sorrowful nights. They would continue singing without any rest.
Then Yue Shen went up to Liao Jian’s side, I heard their conversation.
Yue Shen said, “Liao Jian, sometimes a person has to give up a lot of things, because there must be another thing that worth us doing that. For example, you have someone that you want edto protect, something you wanted to accomplish, waiting for the chance to realize a dream. Liao Jian, you know, I have been looked down on when I was a kid, because I only knew a.s.sa.s.sination skill. Despite having the highest spiritual powers among the kids of the same age, my parents still looked down on me, they said I’m a kid that brought shame to the family. When I have yet to reach adulthood, the older kids loved bullying me. There were times when the boys would push to the floor, pulling my hair and manipulating ice to throw on me. Everytime I would hug myself, not saying a single word, waiting for them to get tired of me and then I would pat myself clean before heading back home. My mother was a beautiful woman; she would get angry everytime when she saw my dirty look. She didn’t even ask whether I was being bullied, she would only say I’m a kid that upset the family.”
“Yue Shen, why do you learn black magic instead of white magic, and only learn a.s.sa.s.sination?”
“When I was still very young, my older sister, Yue Zhao and I were learning witchcraft together, we were very well-behaved and our spiritual powers grew stronger day by day. My father would always stroke our hair, telling us that we would become the best illusionists after the royal family of Ren Xue City. At that time, my father’s face was very gentle looking, snow was falling around us but they didn’t fall on us because my father would always shelter us under his protection barrier. I knew the meaning of warm at a very young age. But one day, my older sister was being killed, died so suddenly on her way home, I remembered I was still pointing at the cherry blossom tree by the roadside telling her how beautiful the cherry blossoms looked on the tree. Yet when I turned to look at her, her pupils had already went blank, I saw her dazed expression on her face then I saw her robe being blown by the wind before she fell straight down in front of me. I was too scared to say anything, the cherry blossom petals in my hands scattered all over the ground… M family came out to look for us, by the time they found us, my sister was already dead, and I fainted next to her. The time when I woke up, I found myself sleeping on the snow fox fur. Later, my people came to tell me for a long period of time I could only speak one phrase and that phrase was, “Sister, don’t scare me! Wake up…”
“That was when you started learning a.s.sa.s.sination skill?”
“Yes, because I do not wish that in future when I want to protect someone, I just stand there powerlessly and watch the person die before my eyes.”
The sound of the s...o...b..rd echoed throughout the sky. I looked the sleeping Xing Gui next to me, she curled up in the enchantment created by Huang Tuo, looking so peaceful as if she was lying in a huge egg safely.
The back views of Liao Jian and Yue Shen were exceptionally clear that night; they stood high up the hill with the robes flying in the air.
I turned away and continued sleeping, then I dreamt of my brother, dreamt about the winter when I killed him. Snow filled the entire city.
