First attempt at writing

This is my first attempt at writing, let me know what you think i can't think of a name for this yet, any suggestions for chapter names are welcomed. Thanks in advanced.
P.s. I can never think of good names, but that's only one of reasons my characters don't have names, it'll make sense later. Also I'm a english speaker trying to write an wuxia novel so if there are things that dont make sense I apologize in advance.

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Chapter 1

A lone figure riding down the dark road, his cape flapping in the wind, a hood pulled down low over his eyes, and a sword tied to his waist. One can barely see him because of the black clothes and sword he's wearing, and the black horse he's on. He stops suddenly in front of a mansion.
Who's is it?
What's he doing there so late?
He hops down swiftly from his horse and jumps easily over the tall wall. He runs quickly, but somehow manages not to make a single sound. He runs through the court yard like he knows exactly where he needs to go.

Suddenly a voice rings out, "Is it done?"

The man in black immediately gets on a knee and replies, "Yes."

The voice says, "Good, that's one less problem, hahaha. Was it difficult?"

"No problems at all."

"And no one recognized you?"

"Of course not, no one will even be able to prove I was there let alone killed him."

"Good you can take a break, but you know what will happen if news of this gets out right?" the voice says.

The man in black took a louder than normal gulp and with a shiver replies, "I know."

"Good you may go now."

The man in black gets up to leave with a bow, turns around and while he's walking away he hears a single sound. The sound of a sword penatrating human flesh. As he looks down at his chest he realizes "All loose ends right?" Then he collapes on the ground with a sword sticking out of his back.

"Hahaha" the voice echos throughout the mansion.

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"AAHHHHHHH!" The servant screamed after seeing the body of his dead master.

Everybody came rushing to see what was the matter. And after getting there everybody stopped in a daze staring at the corpse. Then a handsome man of about 18 or 19 walks in and cries out "Father!"

Next, a child around 10 walks in asking "What's wrong with fa...." he stopped upon seeing the corpse of his dead father.

The young man roars "Get him out of here! Now!"

All the servants scramble quickly and grab the small boy and drag him out of there as quickly as they can.

They young man kneels in front of his father and says out loud "I don't know who killed you but I swear I will get revenge on whoever did this."

Next walks in a man in his 30's who screamed out, "Big Brother," then dropping to his knees he makes the same oath. Turning to the young man he says, "Nephew, dont worry we will avenge his death no matter what"

"Who could of done this? It doesn't even look like he put up much of a fight was this man really that highly skilled?"

The man replies,"Your father is one of the top pugilists in this era, no one could defeat him this easily, my guess is someone used underhanded tactics to defeat him, maybe poison?"

"Your right second uncle Ma thats the only way." said the young man as a matter-of-factly.

"Maybe one of the servants....."

"NO!" the young man shouted "They're all trusted servants, none of them could of done it."

One thing his family was known for is taking in servants that had bad pasts and none of them would turn on them because they saved them from certain doom by their master and they would repay them with there lives if they ever could. So, they could be no way the servants would turn on them. "Well then there's only one explation then," Uncle Ma said.

"And what's that?" asked the young man.

"He was killed by the assasin Flying Ghost, but that can't be possible"

"Why not?" Shouted the young man.

"Because he killed his last person last night"

"What?"

"That's the reason I came over here this morning to tell your father, Flying Ghost was killed last night after killing Thunder Sword Bai Xi Feng"

"Thunder Sword was killed by this man too."

"That's why I said it's impossible, even though he's an assasin he's very uptight and only accepts one job at a time so if he accepted the Thunder Sword job he couldn't of killed your father too, plus your houses are atleast 100 li apart."

"So we don't even know who are father's killer is....... we're pathetic" the young man wanted to cry, but knew now he was in charge of the family so he put on a brave face a secretly swore he was going to find his father's killer no matter what.

The best way to learn to write is to write. Then let some friends read it and encourage them to tell you honestly what they think. Don't get upset if they criticize. Don't stop writing if you're unhappy with what you've written. Keep writing.

And more importantly, keep reading. Read all kinds of things, not just wuxia translations. Reading what other people write will help you learn about writing techniques.

Another recommendation I'd make is to try to find your own writing style rather than imitating someone else's. The wuxia translations you may have seen here are just that, translations into English. They're never going to read the same in English as they did in Chinese, and the style of the translation is also influenced by who did the translating. Don't worry too much about trying to mimic the way those translations are done. Write in a way that makes you enjoy writing.

Chapter 2


The young man walked out of his father's room only to see his little brother crying his eye's out staring at their father's room kneeling on the ground.

The young man walked up to the boy and kneeled down next to his brother and asked , "Are you alright?"

The boy stopped crying, looked at his brother and asked back, "Do you know who killed him?"

"No" was the only response. Then he said, "But we'll find out no matter how long it takes."

The boy looked at his brother and noded. Then he knowtowed his father got up and walked towards the training hall. Before his father died he was teaching him everything he knew. The boy started to think about his father and tears started to roll down his already tear stained face. He walked straight into the hall and started going through every martial arts stance his father taught him, from the first one going through each one, not stopping for a break at all.

He moved through each stance thinking exactly how his father explained the moves to him, and repeated them time and time again. With each stance came a great memory of his father teaching him or just joking around with him. And with each stance came a new set of tears running down his face.

He kept punching and kicking the training dummies and walls until he was too tired to even move. His brother walked in to picked him up and carried him to his bed saying, "Don't hurt yourself to much, it wasn't your fault." Then he placed him gently in his bed and covered him with a blanket, "Don't worry from now on all protect you in fathers place.... just sleep for now." The boy fell right to sleep, with his brother looking down on him thinking, "I just want you to grow up well." He then smiled and left the little boy laying on his bed alone.

The next day they buried there father and paid there proper respects. The didn't let anyone in except their family. Even though their father was one of the most respected figures in the whole pugilistic world, the just didn't want anybody there. The next day the young boy was in the training hall again training with all his heart. The young man worked the family business by day, and trained by night. They knew their families martial arts was one of the top styles in the world, so they knew if they trained hard enough they could get their revenge.

A year went by like this, the boy training everyday until the point of exhaustion, falling asleep and doing the same thing the next day. The boy turned 11 and decided he was going to see how much stronger he became from all his training.

He had to sneek out of his house, he knew ever since his father died his brother became like a hawk watching him at all times refusing to let him go out and play or just do normal kid things. Running to the back door he had to dodge servants constantly. There was the door in his sight, as he was tip-toeing to it he knew it was too quiet. Making to the back door meant freedom. "Oh, sweet freedom," he thought outloud. He heard the shuffling of feet and the low whispering of the servants, "It's now or never." The boy ran for the door and slipped out before the servants even rounded the corner. He escaped from the house and headed straight for the town.

Once he got into town he was looking everywhere for someone to test his martial arts skill on. He saw all kinds of shops everywhere, he didn't realize this was only a small portion of this huge town. He thought to himself, "My brother never lets me go out, this would be the first time I've been in such a big city. I really need to find someone to save so I can be a hero just like my father." Once he thought of his father his eyes started to tear up. Fighting the tears back he went back to his quest to find someone to save. The day flew by and he was about to give up when he saw two big guys picking on a lonely little girl. Everybody was pretending they didn't notice and just kept walking by. The girl was on the ground crying when the boy shouted "Leave her alone!"

The bullies looked startled for a second then saw it was just a small boy and started laughing, then shouted, "Get out of here kid if you don't want to get hurt."

"Yeah, dont you know who we are you little brat?" replied the other one.

"No!" the boy replied with a laugh.

"We are Big Boss Guo's subordinates!" answered one of the bullies with a confident smirk on his face. He thought if he mentioned the name of his boss, this little boy would run for the hills.

"So what, your just two bullies picking on a little girl, two great heroes, haha!" the boy mocked.

The look on the two bullies face disappeared and they stared at the little kid then looked into the crowed that started to form around them and shouted, "Whoever's kid this is better pick him up quickly before before we have to kill him too!"

The crowd started to look around to see who was going to come forward to pick up this liitle boy. Then they heard the boy start to laugh at them. "Even if my parents could come out they would kick the crap out of you. I don't think you should try to call them out, haha." The boy ended his sentance with laughter just to tick off the two bullies.

"Fine don't blame me when you don't live to see the end of the day," One of the bullies said.

Then the other one bully charged at him, with a laugh the boy dodged the oncoming bully easily. The other bully seeing this boy having pretty good martial arts skill joined into the fight punching where the boy just dodged to. With another laugh the boy ducked under the punch coming at him and with a light jump backward got away from the two bullies. When everbody saw this the crowd started cheering, but quickly covered it up when the saw the look on the two bullies faces. The boy was just standing there smiling at the bullies, then said, "Well if you let the girl go and promise to never bother her again, I can let you off with a stern warning this time, haha." This just made the bullies angrier and they charged him again this time they coordinated their attacks, one attack followed by the other, but the boy managed to get away everytime, sometime dodging left, sometimes to the right, he was moving around the two bullies like they were standing still. The bullies faces change color so many times everyone lost track. The whole time the crowd was trying to supress its' laughter when suddenly the boy grabbed one of the bullies by his mustache and ripped half of it off. The crowed couldn't hold back any longer and they laughed hard at the two bullies. Finally the boy said, "My turn." And just as he ducked under the second bullies fist he took a step forward and let out a punch of his own. BAM! He connected right into the second bully's stomach.

"Haha" The second bully mocked, "his fist feels like a feather."

Chapter 3


The look on the boys' face changed, he knew he didn't punch the bully with all of his strength, but he thought it would atleast hurt him a little. Both of the bullies looked at the little boy and they launched their attack again not caring if the boy starts counter attacking. The boy started to dance around the two men, left and right he moved, swaying back and forth, as the two bullies couldn't even touch his clothes. They were getting fustrated and embaressed as they couldn't take care of this little boy. The boy figured he could hurt one of them if he unleashed all of his strength into one hit.

So, the boy let out a second punch this time with all of his strength and hit the first bully in the stomach. The bully winced in pain before hitting the ground holding his stomach, much to everybodies amazement. With a groan the first bully got back up to his feet with an angry look on his face and snarled, "No more nice guy." He pulled out his long and sharp sword from his waist, while the second bully followed the lead of the first one and drew the sword from his waist too. The two men were swinging there swords madly before charging at the young boy. The boy looked at these two men coming at him, this time with swords drawn and was a little scared.

The crowd looked at the developing scene and knew he was done for, as they all turned away from horrible scene they were about to witness. So no one was looking when they heard, CLANK! Sword hitting sword, when they all looked again they saw an old man standing over the boy. Holding one of the bullies swords in one hand he stopped the other one dead in its tracks with the other hand. The crowd gazed upon the strange scene in awe as this skinny weak looking old man stopped these two men easily in one stroke.

"Awesome skills," exclaimed the boy looking at the old man with astonishment. Looking at the boy the old man smiled then, with a sweep of his hand he pushed the two bullies away and broke both the their swords. The two bullies eyes grew wide and then scrambled up to their feet and took off shouting back, "We'll remember this!"

The old man smiled at the young boy again asking, "Are you all right there little boy?"

"Y...Y...Yeah" stammered the boy.

"Good, then take care," And the old man started to walk away from the boy.

"Wait, who are you?" asked the little boy.

"Do you want to know?" asked the old man. The boy shook his head.

"Okay, then follow me." The old man led him out of the crowd and out of the town. The boy just following behind him without paying attention to where he was going. He wasn't asking the old man where they were going either, afraid that if he said anything the old man would just leave him and disappear. Slowly the old man was getting faster and faster, and the boy was sprinting behind this old man that looks like he is just walking slowly, but the boy could bearly even keep up. The old man started getting further and further ahead, when the boy figured he couldn't keep up anymore he saw the old man just stop suddenly in the distance. The next thing he knew they were in front of his house. When the boy looked up he was surprised that the old man knew where he lived.

"Why are we here?" questioned the boy.

"Do you want to avenge your father?" the old man suddenly asked. The boy shook his head. "Then you should learn martial arts from me," he paused, "don't get me wrong, your families martial arts is one of the best in the world, but I can see it won't help you at all." The old man stared directly into his eyes with no sign of deceit.

"Why not?" The boy asked.

"Because you think of your father while practicing and you do it exactly how he showed you, but what you don't realize is martial arts is a living thing, constantly changing, so if you don't adapt it to yourself and change it according to the situation," the old man let out a sigh, "you'll never improve even after a million years of practice. Pity, pity." The boy stood there in shock and just when he was about to say something the old man said, "If you want to improve yourself meet me behind your mansion at 8 am tomorrow. Then the boy blinked and the old man was gone without a trace. The boy was left there standing alone, when a servant came out the front door, "Young Master get in here quick before Master notices you left."

As the boy went inside the door he saw his brother coming toward him, he tried to get back to his room, but he was caught by the back of his clothes. BAM! His brother it his ears hard shouting, "I told you not to leave, what if something happened to you, what would I do if you disappeared then, TELL ME!"

The boy looked at his brother and smilied, "Nothing happened see and nothing missing all together." He said hitting all of his limbs.

The older brother turned to walk away and said, "Fine I'm wrong."

The boy realized that his brother was just concerned about being left alone after the rest of their family had died. So he quickly said, "Sorry brother, I'll tell you before I leave from now on." His older brother just smilied at him and kept walking.

The next morning, the boy quickly left out the back door and waited for 8, he paced back and forth waiting for this old man to show up. 8 came and went and as 11 was slowly approaching, the boy was about to give up and head back inside when he heard a cackle coming from the bushes right behind him. The boy turned around and he saw the old man sitting there. The boy stared at the old man while the old man stared right back into his eyes before finally saying, "I wanted to see if you really wanted to learn from me or not. By waiting you habe confirmed that you are willing to change and learn correctly."

The boy looked at the old man and dropped to his knees knowtowed and said, "I really do want to learn....Master."

The old man looked at the boy and asked, "Why do you want to learn from me though?"

The boy quickly responded, "I need to be the best, so my brother doesn't ever have to worry about me again. If something happens to me my brother would be sad for the rest of his life."

The old man smiled at him again and said, "Good reason, good reason, okay first lesson." As he said this he starts to throw punches at the boy, the boy could tell there was no energy behind the puches, but each was still filled was speed and strength enough to hurt him severely. At first the boy was scared and only reacted to each hit, but slowly the boy started to gain confidence enough to make his attacks in between defending himself. The old man smiled again, "Alright, how about we call it a day?"

"But we just started..." the boy looked around and noticed it was starting to get dark and he realized that he started to feel tired, so he agrees to meet the old man the same time the next day and goes back inside. When he gets inside his brother sees him and comes running over. The boy at first thought he was going to ask him about where he was, but the look on his face suggested that he wasn't mad at him, "So, what's wrong?" The boy asked.

The young man smiled at him like always and said, "I got some good news for you little brother, I'm getting married!"

Chapter 4


"What?" The boy shouted.

"When you meet her you'll understand. Let me show her to you, little brother." the young man said. Then he lead the boy to the main hall, walking into the hall the boy lays his eyes on the prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his life. Everything about her just seemed perfect; eyes, nose, mouth, ears, lips, all resting magnificently on the beautiful girl's perfect body. The boy stood there with his mouth open wide and forgot to breathe. His heart missed a beat as he stared straight into the pretty girls brown eyes and she giggled at him with her fairy like laugh again. The boy woke up from the shock of seeing her with a nudge from his brother. He looked at his brother and gave him a happy smile, then looked at the girl a final time before saying, "Good night sister-in-law, big brother I'm tired and I need to sleep I've been training hard all day you know."

"Okay little brother, but the amount of time you're training you're soon going to be better than me. Good night."

"Good night.......brother-in-law," the girl spoke softly followed by another fairy like giggle.

Once the boy was out of the room the young man looked into the girl's eyes and said, "He's not usually like that. Ever since our father's death, he's been keeping to himself more and more, I just don't know what to do about him." The young man sighed loudly.

"I thought he was kind of cute. I suppose his manners could improve a little, but he's still young." The young girl said.

"Glad you think so."

As the boy walked towards his own room he thought about his future sister-in-law. Until he reached his room and he crashed onto his bed too tired to even change his clothes. That night all he could dream about was martial arts, he was tossing and turning remembering everything his master had gone over the day before in his dreams.

He awoke the next day and went right out the back door ready to start training again, and again waiting for the old man to show up. "Master, are you here yet?" The boy called out in hope that his master would just appear like the day before.

With a little laugh the old man hopped out from behind a tree, "Been here for a while. Alright, your second lesson begins now." And they began to spar like the day before, but this time the old man was moving slow and putting a little of his internal strength into each punch. If the boy could block the punch, the old man would either increase the speed or increase his internal strength behind the punch. Each time the boy would successfully block a punch the old man would also give a satisfactory grunt before attacking again. Days went by like this, each day the boy was showing more and more promise, and the old man couldn't believe at how fast this young boy was comprehending complex martial arts. After six days of this kind of training the old man said to young boy, "Sit over there and meditate right now."

"Yes, Master," the young boy replied.

They both sat on the ground in the sun for half a day before the boy started to get antsy, he kept shifting around on the ground. "Don't move." The old man said, but it vibrated the boy's ears making him feel temporaily deaf.

"I wasn't....." the boy started, but knew better than to argue with the old man, so he stopped and tried to concentrate on not moving.

"Don't think about not moving, think about the air, think about the trees. The more you concentrate on something the harder it becomes to avoid." The boy was dumfounded by what the old man was saying, "Well you might not understand what I said right now, but you will someday."

That night the boy thought about the old man words and what the might have meant, but he just stored them away and went to sleep. The following day the old man asked the boy to meditate again. This time the boy was ready this time and sat down and after an hour he started to get antsy again, this time he thought about his masters words and stopped moving. What the boy didn't realize is by concentrating so much on not moving he was over stressing his muscles causing his uncomfortabality, but by thinking about something else his muscles relaxed.

After a couple hours of meditating the old man started to teach the boy the theory to his internal strength. "This is a theory I created on my own, I don't want to brag, but it's one of the top martial arts theories in the world, so use it well." Next the old man showed him new martial arts stances, "These stances are also a new set of stances I created, no one else in the world knows them, so you would be able to surprise anyone with these magnificent martial arts, again use them well." The old man laughed again. "Do you remember everything I have taught you?"

The boy bowed and said "Yes, Master."

"Good, now train everyday and I'm sure one day soon you'll be better than even your father." Once the word "father" was mentioned a tear formed in the boy's eye and fell down his face. When his eye's cleared up the old man was gone. He stood there in shock for hours just staring at the spot where his Master was just standing.

"Thank you Master." The boy whispered.

After the old man left the boy didn't stop training, he trained his physical martial arts in the mornings and his internal strength martial arts in the evenings. Training was all the boy did, it was all he breathed. Things continued on like this for years. The young boy's older brother ventured out into the pugilistic world to try and find out who killed their father leaving the boy, his wife and new daughter at home. While that young man was out he made quite the name for himself, saving villages, and punishing outlaws and bandits. But the boy stayed at home training, he knew if he went out he could make an even bigger name for himself than his brother, but he knew he couldn't show his older brother up, he loved and respected him too much than to put him through such humility. Seven years passed in this way, and his older brother was out looking again, this time he had been gone for seven months.

The boy had become a young man, but he just stayed home and trained. One day his 6 year old neice came running up to him, "Uncle, Uncle guess what, guess what?"

"What?" this now 18 year old handsome young man replied while picking up the girl.

The little girl answered, "My father's home!"

The young man hurriedly ran to the main hall with the little girl in his arms, "Big brother," "Daddy," both the girl and young man said at the same time.

The young man put down the girl in his arms and she charged into her father's arms. As the young man came up to him ready to embrace his older brother too, he quickly said, "Wow you grew up pretty fast young lady, you too little brother, you're almost a man now."

"Hey, I am a man" replied the young man, "Well I heard you made quite the name for yourself out there this time too...... So, did you find out anything?"

"You know, I might of heard my name a couple of times." Then he looked at the little girl in his arms before replying, "No, nothing, but remember Uncle Ma said he would defintely find Father's killers." Then he looked at his little brother and asked, "Why haven't you tried to go out there and make a name for yourself yet? With all the training you do I'll be surprised if you're not better than me."

The young man looked at his brother and said, "Well someone needs to stay back and look after the family right? There's no way I can be better than you though." He then looked at his older brother and smiled and said to the little girl, "Don't you want daddy to take you to go see your mommy?" The little girl's eyes lighted up and she shook her head vigorously up and down. The young man just smiled at his older brother while he looked at his little brother with disapproving eyes before carrying the little girl out of the room to look for her mother. At that time an older gentleman walked in and looked at the young man.

"I heard your brother is back."

"Yes, he just got back, Uncle Ma." The young man replied.

"Good, I've been wondering when he would finally get home," Uncle Ma replied with a gleam in his eyes.

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Later that night, the young man woke up to a slight rustling noise outside the window. As he got up he thought he heard someone whispering outside his window. Knowing something was wrong he slipped out the window on the other sider, and under cover of darkness, set out to find the source of the noise. When he got back around to the window he heard the voices coming from he saw 2 figures in black dousing the outside of his room with oil. Knowing something was wrong he quickly slipped behind them and with 2 pokes of his finger the two figures ceased moving. "What are you doing here?" he questioned.

"Like we'd tell you." The one on the right said. With another poke of his finger the figure on the right collapsed and didn't move or say anything else.

"I hit his death acupoint, unless you want to suffer the same fate don't say anything either." the young man threatend.

"Okay, okay," the figure whimpered, "A man paid us half a million taels to kill everyone in this household." After the other blacked figured man said that, the young man stuck out his finger once more and the man collapsed. He didn't kill them, but knocked them out, the figure in black was just too scared to notice the breathing coming from his partner. The young man then raced to his brothers' room only to find two more people dousing his room with oil too. "Big Brother!" The young man called out, "Get up now!" As he said this one of the figures set fire to the oil, but his brother flew out the doors before it caught on fire screaming, "I'll take care of these guys, go get my daughter now!"

The young man flew to his nieces room, luckily the figures in black hadn't reached her room yet. The young man raced into her room, scooped up the little girl from her bed before dashing back to her father. Once the young man got back he saw his brother standing over two bodies looking at the fire engulf his home. Their family of four stood there in disbelief as the entire household started to catch on fire. All of the sudden one more black figure jumped out to attack his family.

Does anyone like this story? If not I just stop posting or something. I get like no comments is it the writing or just the story? I promise the story gets better in a little bit.

Naruto1029,

Please keep posting. Sometimes, even if we do not leave comments, it does not mean we dont read it. Often, we read and wait for the continuation of the story. Thank you for sharing your story with us!

Chapter 5

Everyone was shocked by the sudden appearance of this new enemy, and they all managed to dodge the flash of the sword that was being waved at them. The young man's older brother realized he was the only one able to fight the figure in black equally, based on skill alone. He thought no one else would even stand a chance fighting against this powerful opponent. Knowing that even he might not be able to beat this new enemy, he thought about his family. Then he said to his little brother, "I'll take care of this, you get everyone out of here while I have him distracted." The man only thought about his little brother, wife, and child, he knew only he could protect them long enough for them to escape.

Suddenly, the young man yelled at his brother, "I'm not leaving you here alone! You could die!"

The man glared at his little brother, "I'm not asking you to run away, I'm asking you to save our family's lives.....protect all of them for me, okay? Little brother."

The young man nodded his head toward his older brother and glanced around the room. Looking to find a way out he kept looking around, but with the fire behind him and the figure in black to the front, where could he run to?

The man then pulled out his own sword, then he looked at the reflection coming off his sword and he stole a final glance at his family. He sighed before turning his eyes back to the figure in black, he kind of thought the the figure in black was waiting for him to turn his attention back to him. Casting aside that thought he then charged at the figure in black, swinging his sword as hard as he could the two swords crashed into one another sending sparks in all directions. The two swords seemed stuck together, everywhere the figure in black moved his sword the man's sword seemed to follow it like the blades were fused together.

The young man was amazed at how good his brother's sword techniques were, they had sparred together before, but now he saw that his older brother was holding back and he saw his families martial arts being utilized in a manner he never thought possible. His master's words came back to him, "Your families martial arts is one of the best in the world, but I can see it won't help you at all.... Because you think of your father while practicing and you do it exactly how he showed you, but what you don't realize is martial arts is a living thing, constantly changing, so if you don't adapt it to yourself and change it according to the situation, you'll never improve even after a million years of practice. Pity, pity."

He finally saw the true extent of his brother's martial arts in front of him and he stood in awe of him and thought to himself, "Brother is one of the best in the world, even though I too never used my true abilities when I fought him, I thought I could of atleast seen that he was holding back in our fights. Still I could never show him up, especially in front of his wife and kid, I let him handle it for now."

Then the man screamed, "Get them out of here now, little brother." Waking up the young man from his thoughts, he was about to get his family out before coming back to help his brother. Then, he thought his brother might not make it that long, even though he was good, his opponent had only used a two basic moves, that showed he had high internal and external fighting skills.

With the fire still blazing hot behind them and this fight going on in front of them, they couldn't advance or retreat. They stood frozen where they were, refusing to go either way, but even if they weren't trapped the young man didn't want to leave his brother alone in a fight to his death by himself, where the outcome was hazy. The man realized his family was still trapped behind him and sighed, with that break in concentration the figure in black used that moment and gave the man a swift kick to his chest, and the two swords came apart.

The man rolled back and with slight push off the ground, he cause his whole body to come up and he landed lightly on his feet facing his opponent. Taking advantage of his plight the figure in black charged at the man and put all his strength into this next attack, attempting to end it quickly. The man brought up his sword and using all the strength he could muster he threw his own strike, and when the two swords crashed together with a loud crack, causing both swords to break in half.

Throwing down his sword he looked at the figure in black, and assumed a fighting position waiting for the next opportunity to strike. The figure in black seeing there was no opening on the man decided to make one, so he ran at the man. Suddenly, he changed direction and headed towards the little girl. The figure then threw is half of his sword at the little girl. The man screamed and tried to catch up to the sword, but it was to far in front. The young man saw the oncoming sword and with a simple push, pushed the little girl and the woman away from the sword. The man was impressed at his brother's skills, and let out a sigh of relief, turned towards the figure and then said through clenched teeth, "Now I'm serious."

The two figures came towards eachother and started exchanging blows, each man exchanging right punchs. As each figure threw out a punch it was blocked, then the other would throw out a punch of their own. The family looked on in disbelief as the figure in black started to attack more and more. Each strike was set to confuse and it was accomplishing its goal. Just when the man thought it was hopeless he saw the flaw in his attackers stance. Not wanting to let go of this opportunity and knowing any hesitation will cause his death he attacked it. Tsing! "OOWWWW" screamed the man staggering backwards clutching his fist. As he looked down at his fist he saw a needle sticking out of it. The young man knew his brother wasn't going to win, now that he was hurt, and after debating in his head for several seconds, the young man walked over to his brother, gave the girl to his brother and said: "Get out of here I'll take care of him."

The young man started to walk toward the figure in black when he was grabbed by his brother from behind, "I can't let you fight him by yourself." The young man shook off his brother's hand with one swift move, much to his brother's surprise. "Get out of here now!" screamed the young man to his brother. The man looked at his little brother one last time then he took his family left while saying, "Little brother you are a man, so get out of here and see me again."

"So you think your good right, well let me tell you, you're not making it out of here alive." The young man goaded the figure in black.

The figure in black charged at the young man, while the young man stood there straight up waiting. The phrase his master taught him kept running through his head, "Use soft to overcome hard, and hard to overwhelm soft; use speed to overcome power, and power to overwhelm speed." His mind entered a state of enlightenment and as the figure in black's fist was just about to reach him he suddenly moved behind him.

The young man took 5 steps back, while the figure in black cautiously followed him back towards the spreading fire. Suddenly the young man's right fist was heading towards the figure's head, while the figure in black lifted his left hand to block the oncoming fist, it changed directions instantly and ended up heading towards his waist. With a sudden turn the figure in black managed to dodge this newly directed fist, then the young man's left hand reached out and grabbed black mask off the face of the man. The young man stopped and stared at the man behind the mask in disbelief. "You?"

"That's right, me! But you're not gonna tell anybody ever!" screamed the man in black.

"Uncle Ma, why?" questioned the young man.

"Your family has everything in the world: wealth, power, and fame. What do I have? Does anybody remember me? No, they only remember your father, it didn't matter what I did, I always lived in your father's shadow."

"Of course people remember you, but why try to kill your own nephews?"

"If I could kill your father I could even kill you two little bastards too."

"You're the one that killed my father?" the young man asked. "But you were sworn brothers, you couldn't kill him over money."

"Yes, I did." sneered Uncle Ma

"Why?"

"Because he had everything I wanted and with him, and you two little bastards gone, I could get it all, hahaha." laughed Uncle Ma. "He even took the only woman I ever loved."

"What?"

A soft looked appeared in his eyes for a second before disappearing and being replaced with hate. "Your mother was the only woman I ever loved, and your father knew this and still went after her. That's why I had to kill her too."

"NO, my mother died after giving birth to me."

"HAHAHA, that's what I made it look like. Once she had you I knew I didn't have a chance with her anymore, so I didn't want your father to have her anymore." Ma mocked the young man.

"NNNOOOO!" The young man screamed, "You killed my whole family, and you want all my families possesions too. You killed them all just for THINGS! Now I'm getting revenge for my father and mother." He attacked Ma for real this time. Each strike of his hand was like a charging horse, and each kick like a tidal wave crashing down on him. Ma was startled by the ferocity of each attack, and was wondering how that little boy he knew could become so powerful.

Ma knew he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, he knew he had to come up with a plan so he quickly said, "Big Brother," and pointed behind the young man. The young man not realizing it was a trick looked behind him. At that moment Ma picked up the bottom half of his first opponents sword and slashed at the young man. Noticing it too late the young man took out his own sword and blocked it at the last second right in front of his face. Ma put all his weight and strength behind his push and the young man's sword started to dig into the left side of his face, deeper and deeper it went until the young man threw his right foot toward Ma's chin.

He connected and Ma stumbled backwards feeling like he had been kicked in the face by a horse. The young man then sweepted out his sword and cut Ma across both his eyes blinding him. Ma stumbled backwards, screaming in pain as he yelled at the young man, "You bastard, I'll kill you!"

Ma was a tested fighter and relied more on other senses in a fight other than sight, so even though both his eyes were cut, he still fought with the same speed and strength he showed at the beginning. The young man took a step forward, and started to unleash his sword play. Ma was confused by the sounds he was hearing, he knew their families swordplay and this wasn't it. "What kind of swordplay is this?"

The young man didn't say anything, with revenge in his mind he attacked endlessly, his sword couldn't even be seen it was moving so fast. Cuts were appearing on Ma's body everywhere, and within less than 20 seconds he became a bloody mess. Ma looked like he was struggling and faltered a step backward.

Even though the young man might have better techniques and internal energy, Ma has more experience. The young man took another step forward to be within stricking distance of Ma, but with that step forward Ma let out a desperate chop with his half sword, and while the young man dodged the oncoming sword strike he tripped and banged his head against the wall and fell down stunned and moaning. Upon hearing this Ma started laughing and walked towards the young man's body and raised his sword ready to chop.

Chapter 6


All the sudden there was a huge explosion from the buckets of oil left there, and everything was now on fire. Ma saw the fire surrounding the young man and himself and he knew if he didn't escape from there at that moment then he would be burned to death in here as well. So, he left the young man for dead on the floor, bleeding to death with a gash on his head and a cut on his face. Ma stumbled his way out of the door, trying to think of an excuse for the reason he is now blinded and injured.

After a few seconds the young man sat up in a daze and glanced around the room blankly as the fire jumped at him from the walls. The heat was starting to dry out his face and the fire was burning it. The blood on his face had dried due to the heat and stopped the blood. He managed to push himself onto his feet, got up and saw a window behind the flames. He managed to stumble out of it, but not realizing where he was he kept going, out of his house and off his families property, out to the middle of nowhere before his waning strength finally gave out and he collapsed on the ground.


************************************************** ****


He awoke with a loud scream, looking around everywhere trying to figure out where he is. He glanced at everything, but nothing seemed familiar to him. He noticed he was lying on the floor with the covering of an old worn out blanket on his legs. As he looked around all he saw was a typical farmers house. After hearing his scream an old woman came into his room and sat down next to him, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Where am I?" asked the young man.

"You're on my farm, about 25 li to town," replied the old lady, "Where are you from? What are you doing here? What's your name?" She questioned him.

The young man stared at the old lady quizzically before responding, "I..I...I don't know. Who am I?"

The old lady looked at him and tears filled her eyes, "You poor little thing, don't worry about a thing, you can stay here until you remember."

The young man looked at her and smiled, "So what's your name?"

"You can call me Aunt Li, I live here with my husband, he's tending to the fields right now, so you can meet him later."

The young man smiled again, "Then just call me nephew for now, don't worry I'll help your husband out with the fields, if your letting me stay here."

"No need," Aunt Li said as she smiled at him.

"No, I must," said the young man as he tried to stand. All the sudden he felt pain through his entire body and his face started to throb. He reached his hand toward his face and felt the bandage tied across the left part of his face. "It's going to leave a scar, sorry I couldn't do more we found you in our field 3 days ago unconsous. You had that nasty cut on your face, so we brought you back here and you've been sleeping ever since."

The young man stared at the old lady and said his thanks again, then laid back down because he felt tired suddenly. The next morning he woke and started to look around the unfamiliar place. He walked outside and stared at the sunrise over the field, "Oh, so your up." said an old man looking at him.

"Uncle Li?" The young man asked.

"Nephew?" The old man asked back with a smile, then he started to chuckle.

"Well since your up mind giving me a hand with this farming stuff? I know it's not difficult, but an extra hand wouldn't hurt." Uncle Li said to him.

"Sure." said the young man excitedly. The young man was wanted to do something for this old couple that has been taking care of him for the past few days without asking for anything in return. He rushed over yo Uncle Li and asked, "What do you want me to do first?"

"We need water for the animals and us, how about you go get some from the river over there." Uncle Li said.

With this young man helping him, what usually took the old man all day only took the two of them hours. Uncle Li was surprised at the strength this young man possessed. He was lifting the heavy buckets and moving farm equipment like it was nothing, and the young man wasn't even tired after they were finished. "Your pretty strong there nephew, do you remember what you did before you came here?" Uncle Li probed.

"I wish I did Uncle." The young man replied.

The old man looked disappointed for a second before saying, "Well the first thing I think you need is a proper name.... Nephew doesn't really sound like a good name, and since you can not remember it, how about I just name you?" The young man looked at the old man hopefully, "How about Ah Ke?"

"That sounds pretty good, Ah Ke. I like it a lot, thanks Uncle Li," Ah Ke replied. Ah Ke expression changed as he looked at the old man again, "I have one more question to ask you...... Can I......" He started.

"HAHAHAHA, Of course you can stay here," Uncle Li interrupted, "Until whenever, to tell you the truth we have been getting kind of lonely out here and if a young man like yourself would keep us company that would be great." Ah Ke smiled at the old man before heading back to the house.

Weeks flew by in this manner, of Ah Ke doing farm work and just talking to the old couple.

Then one day, after everyone had gone to bed, Ah Ke awoke from the sound of animals. He rushed outside and saw 15 men stealing all the farm animals, and he hid as quickly as he could before anyone saw him. He didn't remember how to fight and the sight of the armed men stealing scared him into hiding. "Make sure you don't leave even one behind," the biggest guy that looked like he was in charge shouted. All the other men started moving faster grabbing everything they could, when the old man came flying out of the house with something in his hand. From his hiding place Ah Ke saw the gleam of the knife he was carrying in the firelight. The bandits stopped working to look at this oncoming old man, then after staring at him for a second one moved forward to stop the old man, "No witnesses," the man in charge commanded his man. The old man heard this and stopped charging at the bandits.

"Okay, take what you want I didn't see anything." Uncle Li said quickly and tried to head back into the house.

"Too late," the bandit coming towards him said while laughing.

As the bandit was moving toward the old man Ah Ke knew he had to do something, but what could he do against 15 armed men? But with his Uncle Li in danger he jumped out and shouted, "STOP!"

"I thought you said there was no young men here, just an old couple which would make this job easy." The man in charge said to one of his men.

"I haven't seen him before," a man answered with a flustered look on his face. Ah Ke stood there defiantly waiting to see if these bandits will just get scared and run away from this unforseen threat that just appeared.

They all started laughing at him, "Nephew, quickly get out of here," Uncle Li begged Ah Ke. "You can't handle these kind of guys, they kill without batting an eyelid." The old man wanted him to get out of there to at least save himself, "There's no use the both of us dying."

"Too late for that," and the bandit drew his sword from his waist, raised it above his head and swung it downwards towards the old man's head.

Chapter 7

There was only silence in Ah Ke's ears as the sword went through the old man's body. "NNNOOOO!" Ah Ke screamed. Then a second ear piercing scream was heard coming from the house. The old woman came outside to check on her husband, and see if he could be saved. Ah Ke stood there in disbelief as the old man crumpled onto the ground in a bloody heap. Then, she started heading towards him, but she could see from a distance that the old man wasn't moving or breathing, lying in a bloody mess on the ground.

"Take care of the other two," the man in charge commanded.

"Yes, boss," the bandits answered in unison. Then 14 guys separated into two groups of seven and encircled the two remaining people. They closed in on the two slowly, each starting to draw the swords that were attached to their waist's, brandishing them to these two seemingly innocent victims. The first bandit swung downward toward Ah Ke the same way Uncle Li died. Aunt Li was watching Ah Ke the whole time, so she gasped when she thought his life was going to end.

TSING! Much to everyone's surprise the sword didn't chop Ah Ke in half like it was intended. Everyone at the scene couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. Somehow at the final second the young man slid his body to the side grabbed another one of the bandits swords from his hand and cut off all seven of the bandits hands that were surrounding him. All seven bandits couldn't believe their eyes either, but what they saw was just this young man dodge a killer sword strike and steal a sword from another bandit, then cut off seven hands in a split second.

As a matter of fact the only one to see what happened in that split second time frame was the man in charge of the bandits. He witnesses this young man's almost god like skill and became extremely flustered. "You seven stand back."

"Come on boss we can still take him." his underlings protested.

"How are you going to fight with only one hand?" the man in charge asked. The bandits looked down at their hands and finally realized that their hands had been cut off. They started screaming in disbelief, as the clutched their bloody stumps. "Might I know who you are, young man?"

"My name has been Ah Ke ever since I can remember." He half lied, it has been Ah Ke since he can remember, but his memory doesn't go back that far.

"Mine is Gou Tian Bo, people call me Big Boss Guo," Boss Guo said. After saying his name he expected the man to run away, or at the very least show some kind of fear, but Ah Ke just stood there preparing for Boss Guo next move. Ah Ke really couldn't understand how he could perform the magical move from earlier, but he hoped he could do it again. The other seven abandoned their original target and came for Ah Ke, surrounding their boss and him. "You are only the second person I know about who hasn't ran away upon hearing my name, either your just plain stupid or you got some serious moves to back you up."

"Neither, I'm just a poor farm boy." Ah Ke said. The other seven men were hesitant to make the first move because they would look at the other seven lying
on the ground clutching their still bleeding stumps where their right hands used to be. They thought to themselves, "I don't want to end up like them, so we should stay back and wait for our boss to finish off this farm boy, then we can go back to taking anything we want." But they were still worried that their boss would make them fight him, and it showed on their faces.

"Fine," Boss Guo finally shouted sarcastically, "I'll take him out if you fearless bandits are too scared." Upon saying that all the bandits faces relaxed, and with a scowl Big Boss Guo stepped forward. He drew his precious sword from his waist, this sword he had since the first time he became the big boss. This sword was like his good luck charm, with it he hadn't lost yet. Many famous pugilists trying to make names for themselves had fallen under this precious blade, never to be heard from again. So, the killing aura radiating out of this bandit is completely overwhelming to an ordinary person, but Ah Ke just stood there.

Truth be told he couldn't remember any martial arts, but because the amount of training he had done his body reacted instinctively to this life and death situation he was thrown into. Standing there facing the intense killing aura emanating from Boss Guo was sparking back some memories, he kept seeing fire and the spark of swords. As he was seeing the scenes in the back of his mind, he back distracted and you could see it on his face.

Boss Guo decided to attack right when Ah Ke looked the most distracted. Swoosh! Ah Ke managed to dodge at the last second and all Boss Guo killed with that strike was the air.

Missing this obliviously untrained man caused Boss Guo to become furious, he started to swing his sword more and more, each strike becoming faster and stronger than the previous strike. This brought back memories of an old man. Ah Ke's knew these were fond memories because of the sweet feeling he felt. He couldn't see the face of the old man yet, but he could tell he was old by his features.

With the strikes becoming fiercer, Ah Ke couldn't figure out how he could dodge all of the attacks. The years of practicing martial arts weren't in vain, because his body again started to react automatically. His right foot took a step forward and with a little kick one of the bandits swords flew into his outstretched hand. BANG. The two swords collided, sparks flying in all directions. Ah Ke's feet moved as fast as lightning as he danced around Boss Guo. Even though his movements were extremely fast and surprisingly agile, it looked like he didn't have enough actual combat experience so his movements were awkward at times and other times it looked like he moved in the wrong direction depending on where Boss Guo moved.

But Boss Guo had fought powerful men before, even though his movements were hard to predict, he still managed to fend off his attacks for more than 20 stances. All of the sudden Ah Ke moves changed again, this time he remembered all the martial arts he had forgotten. Instead of just getting faster he began varying his speed. Slow then fast, hard then soft, Boss Guo could hardly keep up with this young man's sword. Then the big boss finally realized the reason he hadn't lost yet. Ah Ke was practicing on him, making sure he remembered every stroke and how to apply the proper amount of internal energy to each strike. Ah Ke was just playing with him and he realized it, luckily none of his men were good enough to see the overwhelming advantage Ah Ke had over him. Boss Guo was furious, but there was nothing he could do, he realized he was far below him when it came to everything, strength,speed, and skill.

After more than 300 moves just as Boss Guo was getting tired, Ah Ke applied his abundant amount of internal energy and cut Boss Guo's sword in half. Everybody gasped in unison, and Ah Ke brought his sword swinging towards the bandit's neck when he heard an old man's voice in his head, "...Use it well...." Thinking on these three words he stopped his sword a hairs breadth from Boss Guo's neck.

"Get out of here and never come back." Ah Ke told them. The big boss's eyes were closed tight waiting for his death, his life had flashed before his eyes and he thought that life was over. He stood up with a grateful look in his eyes and hurriedly ran away with his men right behind him.

"Why didn't you finish him off you ungrateful bastard?" Ah Ke turned to look at the old woman holding a piece of her husband in her hands.

"I wanted to but...."Ah Ke started.

"But what, we weren't good enough for you to get revenge for us. My husband saw you run outside so he went to protect you and with all those marvelous skills you couldn't have saved his life, or taken revenge for him? Get out of here and never come back."

"But Aunt."

"But nothing, be gone don't ever let me hear you call me aunt again."

Ah Ke turned around and with tears in eyes he headed toward the barn before the old lady could yell at him again, he hurriedly dug a grave for the old man, and paid his last respects, giving thanks to him for giving him something he never had, a name.

Chapter 8

With no food or water he turned and left the farm behind him. Wandering around aimlessly for days not knowing where to go next. Many people thought he was a beggar, and always tried to get rid of him. He was tired from the many weeks of travel, dirty from having to sleep outside the whole time because he had no money to stay at an inn, and hungry from just not eating. Including the scar on his face, it made this handsome young man all the more terrifying.

He traveled and traveled who knows how many li, until at last he came upon a town. Dirty and poor as he was people would avoid him like he was the plague. After wandering around the town for a few hours his nose finally caught the whiff of food and his stomach rumbled so loud some people forgot they were ignoring him and stared right at him. He moved slowly toward the smell of the delicious food and found himself in front of the most expensive restaurant in the town. He looked to where the source of that enticing smell was coming from and he saw two men dressed like rich businessmen slowly eating all the food, and he couldn't help himself anymore, he walked towards the table so slowly that first nobody really paid attention to him, but then his stench started to overpower even the most delicious of foods. A waiter stepped forward to stop him and with a slight move he moved passed him right towards the table with the two businessmen. "Can we help you?" one of them asked smelling the young man as he came up.

"Not really, I was just really hungry when I smelled this food and my stomach overpowered my mind for a second and I wondered in after the food, I'm sorry for disturbing you."

After saying that Ah Ke turned around to leave when one of the businessman stopped him. "What's your name beggar?"

Ah Ke turned around slowly not sure if he was talking to him, "Sorry, but I'm not a beggar never once did I ask you for food or money yet you still address me as such and I really don't appreciate it." After he finished talking he turned around to leave again.

The two business men laughed loudly, "I'm sorry friend the way you dress and look makes you look like a beggar, but the way you talk I can tell you have plenty of pride. Now young friend can you tell me your name?"

"I am called Ah Ke." He replied. He then turned around again to head outside.

"How about this?" said the business man to Ah ke, "We just made a deal that will make us very wealthy, and as you are not begging I don't want to insult you by giving you money, so how about you sit down here and join eating these delicious dishes, and we will just take it as treating a friend to lunch."

The waiter looked at the dirty young man and said, "The only way I'll allow this beggar in here is if he at least takes a bath and changes into some good clothes."

The business man looked at the waiter and shouted, "Are you looking down on me?" the waiter started to look scared, "I just told my young friend here he can sit down and eat with us, but now you want to tell him he can't."

The waiter looked utterly scared and stammered out, "No, N..No, j...j..just ta...ta...take it as I was speaking out my butt."

"Good, now sit down little friend and help yourself to the food." Right when he sat down he started eating everything he could grab, meat and vegetables everything.

The businessmen chuckled as the dirty and poor young man engorged himself on all the food in front of him. After he ate and drank his fill he leaned back in his seat and let out a big yawn. "Well we're staying at an inn down the street, care to join us?"

Ah Ke looked at the two men and smiled and the two men left the restaurant heading for the inn. When they walked into the inn they shouted, "Innkeeper one more room."

The innkeeper then saw the dirty young man following them and said, "Sorry sirs, we don't have any more rooms available, but if you want I can put him out back in the old store room."

"How about you give him a good room, and prepare a bath for him, and good clothes," the businessman said to the innkeeper while tossing him a gold tael.

His face lit up a the sight of the money and he looked at the three men and smiled. "Right away," the inn keeper said, "follow me."

He led Ah Ke to his room, "I don't want to bathe right now first I want to sleep." Then he turned to the two men and said, "Thank you friends, do you mind if I sleep first before we speak again."

"That's all right we'll see you before we head for dinner than." The man started to walk away, but then turned back. "I'm sorry it was really rude to not introduce myself to you, I'm Zhang Man Lou and this is my little brother Zhang Yan Tie. Alright, we'll see you tonight then." Then two two men walked away for real.

Ah Ke, walked into the room and collapsed on the bed, the days and days of traveling combined with the all the food he just ate made him fall fast asleep as soon as his head touched the soft bed. He felt extremely comfortable, it was the first time he has ever remembered sleeping on a real bed, and it felt strangely familiar. He awoke later that night, wondering why the two brother's hadn't stopped by his room before they headed for dinner.

As soon as he left the room he saw the innkeeper and he walked over to him.

"Where are the two Zhang brothers?" Ah Ke asked him.

"Ummm, they went out for a stroll." The innkeeper answered. His eyes started to look around everywhere, but into the eyes that lay directly in front of him.

Ah Ke could tell he was lying, so he asked again, "Where are the they?"

"A stroll I told you, they went for a stroll. That's all I know I swear." So, Ah Ke headed outside and that's where he saw two burly men kicking his two new friends to death. He came over to them and shouted, "STOP!"

The two burly men didn't stop at all, they were still kicking the two men on the ground. "I said stop," as he said this he stepped forward slightly and with a push of his hand two big men were sent flying backwards. That's when he heard a laugh coming from behind were the two men were standing. Standing there was a girl, she looked about 17 years old, anyone that saw her would describe her a one of the top beauties in the world. Ah Ke stared at her for a second in shock before coming back to his senses saying, "What did my two friends do to you that caused you to be so offended?"

The girl laughed loud, "What did these two thieves do to me? HAHA, easy they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I need to let my frustrations out somehow, right?"

"Well, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop." Ah Ke said in a commanding tone.

The girl laughed again, "Well I'm gonna tell you, no. And your gonna get out of my way before you join your two friends here getting a beating, little beggar."

"Little friend Ah Ke, don't mind us two brothers, get out of here before you join us in this beating." Man Lou said.

"I can't leave two friends in the lurch like this, or how can I call myself a man?" Ah Ke announced. The two burly men got back up and the girl nodded to the two. Both men charged Ah Ke, but he just stood there stubbornly, not budging. When the two men reached Ah Ke, he stretched out his arm again and the two men flew back again, this time unconscious.

The girl laughed again, "Alright let me try you this time." She charged at him this time thinking to herself, "There's no way I'm losing to a little beggar." When she reached him her right hand made an attempt to strike his temple, he raised his left hand, but that was all just a feint to get him to open up his left side from an attack to his ribs with her right hand. When she was almost there she felt his right hand was holding her's.

"What?" she thought, how did he catch my attack. She managed to wrench her hand away from his grip, and she started desperately fighting, trying to overcome this powerful opponent that appeared out of nowhere. Each attack she made became more desperate and more lethal, until she was running out of moves to make against this beggar. Ah Ke noticed this girl's martial arts were very strong, but nowhere near close to him, but he still didn't want to hurt her, so he focused on defense. Angrier she became with each move he would dodge, or block, slowly building up inside her. Then, she finally got so angry she decided to use one of the three lethal moves that her dad had taught her. These moves were so lethal that he forbade anyone from using it unless they're in a life and death situation.

Just at that time a man of 27 or 28 came out of nowhere and yelled, "Stop little sister, don't use that move." The man saw his sister set up for that forbidden move, so he came in right between the two thinking that if he hadn't the young man would have died. He stopped his sister with one hand in the young man with another, but he was surprised with how little strength the young man possessed. He judged that this man, didn't have even half the strength he had. He hadn't realized that Ah Ke saw him coming and cut the strength of his attack, turning his strong block to a weak attack.

"Stop this pointless fight little sister, father just asked you to bring back what was stolen, not to pick a fight with everyone you see. Look at you picking on this beggar. If dad saw you right now you would be in a lot of trouble, using a forbidden move in a fight like this." He then turned towards Ah Ke, "Sorry if my sister offended you young man, but there must be a misunderstanding that caused you two to fight."

"I was just helping out my two new friends here, they were getting beaten up out on this street for no reason, so I needed to stand up for them. You just can't go around bullying people that are weaker than you for no reason." Ah Ke said.

"No reason.." The young man echoed, "Apparently you don't know the whole story, you see I'm from the Zhao family, A couple of days ago are family's treasure was stolen by these two thieves. It was a precious sword that a been passed down from generation to generation in my family. My little sister came out to find out who stole it and after a couple of days search we found out it was these two. We were just finding out if they sold it yet or still have it."

Ah Ke looked at his two new friends, "Is that true?"

"It might be." The younger brother said while avoiding his eyes, not daring to look into them.

"Do you still have the sword?" Ah Ke asked them.

"No, we don't we just came back from selling it. Remember that deal we were telling you about." Man Luo told Ah Ke.

"They don't have it anymore, so can you leave them alone if they tell you who they sold it to?" Ah Ke said to the man from the Zhao family, figuring the young lady was too unreasonable.

"Okay," The man from the Zhao family said, "If they can tell us where to find it we will spare their lives."

"Who did you sell it to?" Ah Ke asked them.

"We sold it to a man, we don't know his name or what he looked liked, he always wore a mask when he talked to us. But, he did pay us two brothers a lot of money to steal that sword, so he must be rich." Man Luo said.

"There, they told you all they know, now you promised to let them go." Ah Ke said.

"We promised to let them go, if they told us where the sword was, but they didn't tell us anything. So I'm not going back on my word." The young woman said.

"How about this," the young man from the Zhao family said, "We bring them back to my father to tell him what happened and then we'll let them go."

"Okay, but on one condition." The man nodded at Ah Ke, "You take me too, so that way I know there safe."

"You don't believe we'll take care of them?" The young lady snapped.

Ah Ke smiled and said, "I'll just feel better."

"Of course you can come." The young man said, "but we haven't introduced ourselves properly yet. I am Zhao Te, and this is my younger sister Zhao Hua. We'll leave tomorrow morning for our house, let's meet here tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Ah Ke agreed.

Chapter 9


The next day Ah Ke showed up with the two brothers. "Are you ready yet?" Ah Ke asked the brother and sister upon arriving.

"Whenever you are." they said back. They started out on their journey, the Zhao family hired a carriage to make travel easier on them. With the two brothers and Ah Ke with them, they traveled non stop for the whole day before seeing an inn. "Lets stay here." Zhao Hua said.

"Okay." Zhao Te said. They stopped in front of a small inn and he looked at Ah Ke and said, "We'll be there tomorrow, so rest up tonight and those two thieves will meet my father tomorrow."

They walked into the inn and shouted to the boss, "Three rooms please."

The innkeeper looked at the group and said, "Sorry," he looked at Ah Ke in disgust, "We only have two available at the moment."

Zhao Hua looked at Ah Ke and the two brothers and said, "That would be fine since they're sleeping outside anyway."

"That's fine with me." Ah Ke replied while smiling. Zhao Hua looked at him with disgust before heading towards her room. Ah Ke and the two brothers headed outside to sleep in the carriage.

"Ah Ke, you don't even know us that well, so why did you speak up for us and save our lives? We should have died back there." Man Lou said sadly.

"I might not know you, but I can tell you are good people." Ah Ke said smiling at the two brothers. There was something about his innocent face that put them at ease and they smiled back at him.

"Fine, we'll tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone else." Yan Tie whispered to Ah Ke.

"I promise," Ah Ke whispered back.

"We might be thieves by trade, but we didn't want to steal that stupid treasure in the first place."

A long wind blew through the trees as Ah Ke looked out the window, smiled and replied, "I knew you were good men."

"Not at all, we might not be bad, but we aren't good either. Well anyway, one day we were planning on robbing this rich merchant, we had everything set up perfectly and just when we were about to launch our attack another group surrounded us. We were shocked at how quickly they moved, each one of these men were all dressed in black from head to toe, and each had a sword pointed at our necks. They said to us, 'I'll let you and your men off and handsomely reward you, but you need to do something for me.' I was shocked, wondering what this man could possibly not do, that we brother's could." He let out long sigh and continued, "He wanted us to steal that sword, I don't know for what, but he said he would spare not only our lives, but the lives of our men and their families. We had no choice but to accept." He let out another long sigh, this one seemed to release all the pressure he had been holding on to until then.

"That's why you didn't tell them who sold it to." Ah Ke pointed out.

"Exactly, because I didn't want to put our subordinates lives in jeopardy over ours. But we also really don't know what he looked liked either." Zhang Man Lou said.

Ah Ke started laughing, "So I didn't wrongly judge you two. Thank you for telling me. Don't worry I won't tell a single soul."

Ah Ke looked up at the sky and smiled as the wind blew through the trees again. After staring at the sky for a while longer he looked at the two brothers and said, "Alright I'm going to sleep now, you two should sleep too since we'll meet those two siblings father tomorrow." The look on the two brother's become solemn. Ah Ke saw the look on their faces change so he said, "Don't worry, whatever it takes I'll get you two off." The two brother's looked a little more relieved, so they just turned over and went to sleep.

************************************************** ******

The next morning they all woke up and headed out again. They reached the Zhao residence late into that day, and the men the Zhao's brought with them led the three men into the main hall while the brother and sister left to go get their father. After a couple of hours of waiting a man in his 50's walked in, Ah Ke noticed that the man carried a majestic air and he glanced at the three men waiting in the hall. "So these men are the ones that stole our family treasure." The old man said.

"No Father, just the two clean ones." Zhao Te said.

The old man looked at the three, "HAHA, my name is Zhao Bo, may I know yours?"

Ah Ke looked at him, "My name is Ah Ke, these two are brother's Zhang Man Lou and Zhang Yan Tie."

The two brother's hit their knees, "We beg your forgiveness we didn't want to steal it. We are sorry."

Zhao Bo stared at the two of them, then looked at the dirty beggar that was with them. "I just want to ask you two one question, why did you make friends with this dirty kid here?"

The two Zhang brothers looked up at the old man, "I don't know, maybe he just had a air about him that made us want to help him out."

Zhao Bo looked at Ah Ke, "Why did you save their lives?"

Ah Ke was shocked that he suddenly asked him a question, "Well they just seemed like good people."

Zhao Bo looked at the three people in the hall, "Well, my children told me what happened and I'm going to let you go."

"Thank you, Thank you." The two brothers cheerfully replied. "If there is anything we can do for you let us know and we'll risk our lives for you."

Zhao Bo said, "Well it's getting late, so why don't you three stay here the night and head out tomorrow?"

"We'll take you up on your offer than."

Zhao Bo looked at them, "Zhong Jing, show them to the guest room."

Zhong Jing came to the main hall. "This way please gentlemen." he said pointing out of the hall. He showed them to the guest room and said, "If you want to take a bath, it's that way."

Ah Ke smiled at the servant and said, "I think I need one of those."

Zhang Man Lou said, "I think we all do." Then the three men started laughing.

************************************************

They came back to the room after taking a bath, and after Ah Ke put on some clean clothes the two Zhang brother's looked at Ah Ke. He stared back at them, "What's wrong?"

They looked back at each other, "We didn't realize you looked so different after you got cleaned up."

Just when he was about to respond there was a knock at the door, "Master Zhao wishes to meet Mister Ah Ke."

"Okay, give me a second." Ah Ke answered.

He looked at the two brother's then left, following the servant to Zhao Bo's room. He walked into his room and saw Zhao Bo sitting in a chair drinking tea. He looked up and saw Ah Ke, and a surprised look came over his face. The dirty beggar from earlier became a prince right before his eye's. "So, Ah Ke who are you really?"

Ah Ke looked at him in surprise, "I can't answer that question."

"Why, because you don't think you can trust me?"

"No, because........I don't even know who I am."

Zhao Bo looked at him in disbelief, "To tell you the truth my daughter showed me some of the moves you were using in your fight against her and no matter how much I try not to think about it some of the moves just seemed familiar. My master Chen Jun Yi, moves similar to the way you do, so does that name mean anything to you?"

Ah Ke thought for a moment, "Sorry Sir, it doesn't."

"Well it was worth a try. So where did you get that scar from?" Zhao Bo asked pointing to his face.

Ah Ke rubbed his fingers over his scar, then looked at the old man, "I don't know, truthfully I woke up with this scar."

Zhao Bo looked like he was thinking and stared at Ah Ke again, "That's all I wanted to know, good night." Zhao Bo stood up and showed him to the door, but then he put out his arm blocking Ah Ke's path out. Ah Ke lifted up his arm to move the man out of his way, "Excuse me," he said while touching the man's arm, but amazingly it didn't budge. "Ah, he is testing my strength," he thought to himself. This time using some of his internal strength he push Zhao Bo's arm out of his way. "I'll take me leave now." He walked out of his room while Zhao Bo smiled and stroked his beard. Ah Ke made it back to his room and crashed out on his bed. He woke up the next day and went to get the Zhang brother's. He walked in their room and saw the two brother's still asleep in their beds. "Get up!" he shouted.

"What morning already?" Zhang Man Lou said. He stood up and asked Ah Ke, "So what did Master Zhao want with you last night?" Yan Tie's eye's opened and looked at Ah Ke too.

Ah Ke looked at the two and said, "I think he was curious about me." The two brother's face relaxed.

"I say we leave here today brother." Yan Tie said to his brother.

"I agree, Ah Ke do you want to join us?"

"I think I still want to travel by myself for a while longer. Thanks anyway for the offer though."

"Well let's tell these Zhao's we're leaving." They informed Zhong Jing to get the Zhao's, and they waited in the main hall.

Zhao Bo came in with his two children, "So your leaving already?"

Ah Ke smiled at them and said, "Since you forgave them we'll just take our leave." He smiled at them again and looked at Zhao Hua, she stared at him for a second before looking away.

"Well, Ah Ke you can come back here anytime you want," then he turned to the Zhang brother's, "although you two stole from us I know you did it to save your subordinates lives and for that reason I'll let you leave alive." The two brothers turned and looked at Ah Ke. "Before you blame him, he didn't tell me, that night my son heard you from a tree outside. Well since that has been settled I bid you.........."

"Master, I hate to disturb you, but there is someone at the door for you." Zhong Jing interrupted.

"They can wait a second." Zhao Bo said.

"Well it's a young man and he has the family treasure."

================================================== =====

Sorry it took so long for the update been busy as hell with work, and no time to do anything.

Chapter 10


"What?" The Zhao's shouted in unison. "Show them in here, you three I'm going to ask you to wait here."

Zhong Jing showed a young man into the hall, he had several big men following behind him, showing off that they're highly skilled fighters. The young man around 24 or 25 and handsome strutted in like he owned the place and slightly bowed to each of the Zhao's saying, "Master Zhao good morning to you. You as well Zhao Te. And last but most certainly not least, the incomparable beauty, Zhao Hua."

"Well you have us at a disadvantage young hero, you certainly know us, but we don't know who you are."

"Sorry my name is Feng Fei." he replied. "I came here today to present you with this gift." As he said that one of the men following him brought out the Zhao's family sword.

Zhang Man Lou turned toward his brother and nodded then leaned toward Ah Ke and whispered, "That's the man who paid us to steal the sword. We might not recognize the face, but we don't forget a voice when we hear it. But why would he ask us to steal the sword, then just return it to the owner? He must have a hidden motive."

Zhang Yan Tie said, "Let's wait to reveal his identity until we find out what he wants." Both Man Lou And Ah Ke agreed.

Zhao Bo nodded his head and said, "So, where did you get this? It was stolen from us a couple of days ago. I sent my daughter and son out to find it, but they came back empty handed. How did you come across it?"

Feng Fei replied, "I found this sword at a pawn shop and since your family is so famous, I knew it was yours right away. So I rushed here to return it to you."

Zhao Bo laughed at the young man, "Well, thank you for giving it back to us. I'll see that you're rewarded."

"No need for that, my father respects you very much and he would've wanted me to give it back to you, with or without a reward."

"And your father is...?"

"My father's name is Feng Li Ming." Feng Fei replied.

"You mean Thousand Legs Feng is your father?" Zhao Bo asked shocked.

"Who's Thousand Legs Feng?" Ah Ke asked Zhang Yan Tie.

"He's the richest person in the south, and his martial arts are the best in the south too. His name comes from his fast legs attacks that move so fast that you can't see only his two legs, it looks like thousands. Why would he pay to steal a sword though?"

"Since I am here," Feng Fei started, "I heard you would marry your daughter to whoever could beat you in a match."

Zhao Bo's eye's lit up, "Yes, I have said that before."

Feng Fei looked at Zhao Hua, "Well then I challenge you to a match then Master Zhao Bo."

"I'll take care of him, Father don't even waste your energy," Zhao Te angrily said.

Zhao Bo nodded to his son, "Okay young hero, if you beat my son consider it that you beat me today."

Zhao Te stepped forward taking a stance prepared for any attack that he might throw at him. Feng Fei took a stance to, "After you," Zhao Te told him. Feng Fei took a step forward and struck out with fist, Zhao Te thought it was weird that a man from a family whose martial arts are known from their kicks would use a punch, but he suddenly realized why when a kick flashed by his face. The punch was just a distraction so he could launch his real attack, thankfully at the last second Zhao Te saw it coming and blocked the kick with his arm. Just when he thought he was safe another kick was coming at his head. He blocked that one with his arm too. Zhao Te started to unleash his own skills, sending out his own attacks. Feng Fei was surprised, he thought that this Zhao Te was all just talk and didn't have any real skills, but the strength behind each punch was real enough to seriously hurt him. Feng Fei started dodging each attack and in between launching his own attack of a series of kicks. After ten minutes neither man was gaining the advantage, then Feng Fei gave a little laugh, "This is all the great Zhao family has got, pathetic." Then he started laughing louder and harder.

"What are you talking about you can't even beat me after over 300 stances." Zhao Te mocked him.


"Fine let's finish this then." Feng Fei the gave a quick chop, this time Zhao Te didn't want to fall into the trap of the fake chop so instead of blocking he sent out his own counter attack. Zhao Te's attack was just about to strike Feng Fei's head when his vision went black and he fell to the ground.

What Zhao Te didn't realize was the fake attack let out by Feng Fei was a real one and his strike was swift and strong. Zhao Hua and Zhao Bo gasped together and rushed over to Zhao Te. "So, Miss Zhao, when do you want to get married?" Zhao Bo looked worried for a moment, the stood up and started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"What to do, what to do?" Zhao Bo said worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Feng Fei questioned.

"Well, it would normally work that way, but it just so happens you showed up too late, pity, pity."

"What do you mean?" Feng Fei asked.

"Well it just so happens last night I was defeated by another young man and I promised him, my daughter, pity I don't have two daughters, but since I already promised this other young man my daughter I can't go back on my word now, can I?"

"Who is this young man that defeated you?" Feng Fei asked.

"He's right over there." Zhao Bo said pointing over to the group of three men.

"Which one?"

"Do you really have to ask? You know the saying 'beautiful girl matches a young hero', which of those men looks like a young hero."

Feng Fei knew exactly what he meant, so he walked right over to Ah Ke, "What's your name?"

"Ah Ke."

"What family are you from?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? So, your just a beggar off the street, there's no way you beat Zhao Bo in a match." He turned to Zhao Bo, "You're going to marry your daughter to this guy who doesn't even know who he is?"

"That's right, I won't go back on my word. I said whoever beat me would marry my daughter, and while you defeated my son this morning, this young hero beat me last night." Zhao Te woke up at this time and looked at his father, then looked down. "Don't worry, you fought bravely."

"Fine, then how about this, I fight this young man here, and the winner gets to marry your daughter?" Feng Fei asked.

"Either way it doesn't matter I already promised this young man. Well if you're not satisfied with that how about this, we'll let my daughter decide."

All eye's turned to Zhao Hua, she looked at Ah Ke and remembered how he had almost beat her and humiliated her, so she thought to herself, "This is my chance for revenge. There is no way this beggar, that became so handsome, can beat this young man from a martial arts family. If my brother can't beat this young man there's no way this handsome beggar can." She smiled and said, "I like Mister Feng's idea, I'll marry whoever wins in a match between the two." She didn't realize her father gave her the choice, so she didn't have to marry either one, but she was to busy thinking about revenge against this young man who humiliated her.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Ah Ke said.

"Why, scared you're going to lose?" Zhao Hua mocked him laughingly. Feng Fei thought to himself that this was his chance to win the heart of this beautiful young girl. Feng Fei also thought to himself, "This young man couldn't have possible have beat Master Zhao in a fight, he's just doesn't want to marry his daughter to me. I'll make quick work of this young man, then I can achieve my goal of this young lady."

Ah Ke was not only in shock that Master Zhao had promised him to marry him to his daughter, but also said that he defeated him in a match. He wasn't sure what he should do next when Master Zhao said, "Since my daughter decided to marry whoever wins in a match between you two," and he let out a sigh, "She'll keep her word and you two shall fight. Since Young Master Feng just finished a match we'll give him a few hours to rest, then we'll start the match a noon."

Both young men agreed and Feng Fei decided to come back later. After he left Master Zhao asked, "Can everyone leave, I need to talk to Ah Ke alone?"

Everyone turned to leave, the two Zhang brothers came and helped Zhao Te up and back to his room to rest. "Ah Ke, I didn't mean to, but I heard the conversation between you and the Zhang brothers. I knew that young man wasn't up to any good when he first came in here, that's why I tried to get my daughter to not marry him, but little did I know she would be so dumb." He looked right into Ah Ke eyes and continued, "I know this is asking a lot from someone I just met, but you have to beat that young man, don't let my precious daughter marry such a horrible man."

"I'll try." Ah Ke managed to get out.

************************************************** ***

At noon the two young men met in the garden, "Okay Mister Ah Ke, please take it easy on me, I don't want to get hurt." Ah Ke just smiled at him, while Feng Fei took a stance. "Prepare yourself, I going to start now." He mocked Ah Ke thinking that this match should be even easier than his previous match.

Zhao Te thought to himself, "With this young man's power being even less than mine this match will not even be close, that Feng Fei is going to end up killing him. What was my father thinking letting such a young man fight against this powerful opponent."

Feng Fei noticed that Ah Ke was not taking a stance, and he wondered if this man even knew martial arts. "Well then I'll finish him quickly, then take my prize," he thought to himself. Ah Ke just stood there motionlessly staring at Feng Fei, all of the sudden Feng Fei made his first attack, a swift kick to Ah Ke's head. WHOOSH! His attack only struck air, and Feng Fei stood there in disbelief. "Ha, that was just a warning, quit now and I will spare you life."

No one saw Ah Ke move, so they thought what Feng Fei told him was true, the only one's that knew the truth were Ah Ke, Feng Fei, and Master Zhao. "Fine if you're not giving up I'm not going to hold back any more." Sweat started to build up on Feng Fei's forehead, worried that he might have underestimated this new opponent.

Finally, he started his attack, right and left kicks flashing past Ah Ke's head, body, and legs, each one aiming for vital spots on him, but each attack not even touching their intended targets. The spectators then starting wondering why Ah Ke wasn't even moving, but each attack wasn't hitting him. The sweat started to really pour down Feng Fei's face then. Not wanting to give up and embarrass himself, and also not wanting to keep attacking air and making himself look like a fool he slowly started speeding up his legs.

"I can see why they called his family thousand legs now," Zhang Man Lou said astonished at the speed of Feng Fei's legs. The thousand legs flashed all around Ah Ke, when all the sudden Feng Fei hit his knees gripping his stomach. No one saw in the midst of the kicks Ah Ke stretched out his arm and stuck Feng Fei. The look of awe on everyone's faces disappeared and was replaced by shock when Feng Fei hit the ground, because no one thought that Ah Ke was that good. What they didn't realize with him constantly dodging, Feng Fei's temper rose and he unconciously open a major flaw in his attack that was exploited by Ah Ke.

"Well, I would say that ends the match then." Zhao Bo said.

Feng Fei then stood up and said, "Not yet, I'm just getting warmed up." Then one of his servants threw him a curved saber, "Let's play for real now."

Ah Ke looked at him, then turned to Zhao Hua and smiled, and Feng Fei started attacking him with his saber. Ah Ke started dodging again, but his saber moves were more vicious then his kicks and he was struck with his saber in his arms. Ah Ke's arm was cut deep and Zhao Hua gasped, while his leg was cut too.

"Here, take this," Zhang Yan Tie yelled tossing him a sword.

Ah Ke rocked back and grabbed the sword with one hand, then rocked back and the sword and saber clashed against each other. The sword flew around the saber, going left, then right, Feng Fei couldn't keep up with the subtleties and changes in each attack and was soon focused only on defense. With a flick of his wrist, the saber in Feng Fei's hand flew out and landed far away, while Ah Ke pointed his sword at his neck. "Why did you pay the Zhang Brother's to steal the Zhao's family sword?" Ah Ke questioned.

"I don't know what your talking about." Feng Fei said definitely.

Ah Ke forced the sword into his neck a little more and a drop of blood dropped down his neck to the floor. "Are you sure?"

"Okay, I'll tell you, please just stop!" Feng Fei begged.

=============================

This is it for a while again.

Chapter 11


"I just wanted an excuse to win the Zhao's daughter hand in marriage. I thought if I returned this stolen family treasure, Master Zhao would want to have me as his son-in-law, I swear that's it."

Every body was amazed at Ah Ke's proficiency with a sword. Not only were his unarmed martial skills, but his sword skills were both phenomenal. Zhao Te thought back to when he stopped, to what looked like a full strength hit to him. He came to the conclusion that when he blocked both his sister's and Ah Ke's attacks, Ah Ke must have seen him coming and pulled back his strike. "Good, Good, no marvelous skills," Zhao Bo said watching Ah Ke intently. "Well, that was a great display of skill." He then looked at Feng Fei in disgust, but with respect to his father his face changes back to normal and he said, "Sorry Young Hero Feng, like I said before, this young man defeated me last night. Now I'll reward you for returning our treasure, but when it comes to other matters......I hope you will concede and go back home." Zhao Bo nodded to Ah Ke, and he pulled the sword away from his throat, sheathed the sword and bowed to him.

Feng Fei unconsciously rubbed his throat trying to forget what just happened to him. He stared at Ah Ke with hate remembering the humiliation he just went through. His face turned blank again as he stood up slowly.

Feng Fei glanced at Zhao Bo, then turned to Ah Ke and said, "Well, I concede for today, but remember this Ah Ke, one day you'll fall into my hands and I won't be so forgiving," as the look of hate appeared on his face for a second before disappearing again. Looking towards Zhao Bo, "Don't worry about a reward, I have all I need. Just don't forget the kindness I showed you in returning that sword. I'll take my leave." He then turned around and rushed for the door pushing around the men he came with.

"Ha ha, " Zhao Bo laughed again, but then his face turned serious and he looked at Ah Ke again, "Are you sure the name Chen Jun Yi doesn't mean anything to you?"

Ah Ke looked at the old man, "I wouldn't lie to you sir, I don't even know who I am, I really forgot everything. My name is just something the people who saved me gave to me. I can't remember anything about mys..." he face started to contort, and everyone realized he was holding back his emotions on not knowing anything about himself.

"Well....I believe you. HA HA HA." Zhao Bo's powerful laughter rang throughout the mansion. "Then, I guess we'll start preparing then."

"Preparing for what?" Zhao Te asked.

"What are you stupid? The wedding of course." The look on everyone's face changed, "I don't go back on my word, and neither should my children."
Everyone looked toward where Zhao Hua was standing, but she was no where to be seen. She slipped out right after she realized that she would have to marry the beggar that she fought earlier. "Where is Hua'er?"

"She left earlier," Zhao Te said really low voice.

Zhao Bo turned back to Ah Ke and looked a little flustered. "Don't worry I can't marry your daughter anyway." Ah Ke said.

"What? Why?" Zhao Bo stammered out.

"I told you I don't know who I am, how can I get a wife if I don't even know if I can provide for her. I can't do it, I'm sorry."

"Well how about we just put it on hold then."

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The scream pierced the silence that came over the hall.

"What was that?" Zhang Yan Tie asked.

"Hua'er?" Zhao Bo wondered. Then everyone realized who it was and everyone sprinted towards the scream. Zhao Bo was flying as fast as his legs would carry him, while Ah Ke was right on his heels. Ah Ke would have been the first to arrive, but he thought following Zhao Bo would be faster. The arrived just in time to see Feng Fei trying to pull Zhao Hua into a carriage. Zhao Bo then disappeared from Ah Ke's sight and reappeared next to Feng Fei, "What do you think your doing?"

Feng Fei looked at Zhao Bo in disbelief, at how fast this old man can move. Even Ah Ke was amazed at how fast this man truly was. Zhao Bo looked down at Feng Fei and he let go of his daughter, "I asked you a question."

"Um, Um, Um." was all he could get out.

This all started right after Ah Ke won and Zhao Hua realized her father would make her keep her word. So she was planning on running away long enough that her father would hopefully forget about the promise. She hurried back to her room and tried to pack really fast and escape before anyone noticed she was gone, but on her way out of their mansion, Feng Fei saw her and tried to force her to come with him. That's when Zhao Bo showed up. Touching the young man's arm he couldn't resist but to let go of Zhao Hua. The amount of strength Zhao Bo used caused her to fly out of Feng Fei's arms and into Ah Ke's arms. Staring at Feng Fei, Zhao Bo said, "You escaped our house once and when you were let off, you do something like this. Tell me why I should let you off this time?"

Feng Fei's face sunk in and he tried to turn around too run, but there was a man in front of him. It was Zhao Bo! He tried to run the other way, but again a man was standing in front of him. He lifted his arm and Feng Fei flew back and landed on the ground hard. "I...I...I" he managed to get out.

"I swear, if I even see a glimpse of your shadow around here, I promise I'll kill you." Feng Fei managed to get up to his feet with the help of his men and he scampered away like a dog with its tail between its legs.

"Father, I'm so....."Zhao Hua started, but was immediately cut off.

"STOP! I don't want to hear your excuses. I gave you the chance to cancel any wedding, but you insisted on revenge. Not only did you almost have to marry that man, but then you didn't even keep your word and tried to run away. I am ashamed to call you my daughter." Zhao Bo looked into her eyes and frowned.

"But father, I didn't want to get married yet." she tried.

"Didn't I say I didn't want to hear your excuses." He said angrily. "Now apologize."

"She really don't have to." Ah Ke said to Zhao Bo.

"No, she really DOES have to." Zhao Bo snapped back.

She looked at her father, then glanced toward Ah Ke and back to her father. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"What was that?" Zhao Bo said.

"I'm sorry," she said a little louder. Her father then cleared his throat especially loud. "I'm sorry!" she shouted.

"Now don't you feel better?" He asked his daughter. Feeling embarrassed by looking at Ah Ke she ran back inside the house. "Well that settles these matters for now. How about you rest here one more day before you head off?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt." Ah Ke said.

"Of course your friends are welcomed to join us." Zhao Bo said looking at the Zhang Brothers.

"No, No, we shall take our leave. The only reason we stayed was make sure that bastard, didn't hurt Brother Ah Ke. Now that we have settled that matter, we shall head back to our real job. But remember, Master Zhao, anytime you need us all you have to do is call and me and my brother will brave water and fire to do whatever you request of us." Zhang Man Lou said. Then, he turned towards Ah Ke, "Anytime you ever need anything remember to call us. If you hadn't helped us out and stuck up for us, we two brothers wouldn't be here right now. Thanks again. Oh, and good luck on your wedding." Turning back to Master Zhao he said, "We shall take our leave."

Both brothers left, leaving Ah Ke and Zhao Bo standing in front of their house alone. "I didn't know you were so fast," Ah Ke blurted out.

"I'm not that fast, but I did notice you were holding back. Well how about we get your wounds bandaged up for you. Zhong Jing, call Hua'er to meet us in the main hall."

"Right away."

"After you," Zhao Bo said to Ah Ke. Then, they walked to the main hall and saw Zhao Hua in there waiting.

"What do you want father?" she said as sweet and innocent as she could.

"I want you to take care of Ah Ke's wounds." Zhao Hua gave her dad a sad look, then looked at Ah Ke fiercely. "Well since you both don't want to marry each other I won't force you, but you owe him some debt seeing how he got hurt while keeping you from marrying that little punk."

Her eye's dropped and she nodded her hand. She grabbed him by the arm and said, "Let's get you cleaned up then." They left and went back to Ah Ke's room to get him fixed up. Zhong Jing showed up a second later with bandages. Ah Ke removed his outer robes and Zhao Hua saw his muscles bulging out. "Why did you take it easy on me when we fought?"

"What are you talking about?"

"When you fought against Feng Fei you were moving like, like lightning, but when you fought against me you moved so much slower. Were you just taking it easy on me since I'm a girl?"

"No....I was..I didn't mean to hold back, to tell you the truth my body just moved on it's own and I didn't even realize i won until it was over....OOWW"

Ah Ke screamed when Zhao Hau hit him on his wound.

"Didn't realize you won. Did you even care that you won?"

"I..I..I did." he said shyly. They both looked at each other for a second before turning away.

She finished bandaging his wounds and she looked in his eyes again. "Where did you get that scar from?"

"I really don't know. The last thing I remember is feeling really hot, then I woke up on a farm." Ah Ke looked sad.

She looked at his sad face and felt her heart skip a beat. She jumped up as fast as she could and said, "I got to go, just rest here until dinner," and she ran out of the room.

Ah Ke sat on his bed in disbelief, he couldn't believe what just happened between them. "What a pity I can't marry her, she seemed so mean at first, little did I know she was so good. Too bad." he said to himself sadly.

Chapter 12


The next morning he got up and tried to leave before Zhao Bo could catch him. He gathered all his things and left the room, and managed to get to the front doors before he heard the same familiar voice coming from behind him, "So, your up already?"

He froze in mid-step when he recognized the voice. He turned around and saw Zhao Hua standing there staring at him, expecting an answer from him. "I was just going for a walk," he lied.

She looked at him and asked, "With all your stuff?"

He just smiled at her and kept walking out the door, saying behind him, "I got hungry, I was just going out to get something to eat."

Zhao Hua smiled back at him and said, "I think I'll join you. I'm feeling kind of hungry too." Zhao Hua walked over to Ah Ke, "Ready?"

Ah Ke felt a jolt run through his body when she asked him the question, so he stood there in a daze until finally he shook his head and said, "Okay, let's go."

The two people walked together before stopping outside a restaurant, "This place is really good, want to eat here?" Zhao Hua asked.

Surprised and disappointed at how short the walk was he said, "No, I don't want to eat here. Let's go somewhere else."

They both walked further, stopping every now and then with Zhao Hua asking Ah Ke where he wants to eat and Ah Ke rejecting every place with no real reason. They walked until they finally reached the last restaurant on the street and Ah Ke said, "Let's eat here."

"Here?" She yelled, "This place is cheap, and look how rundown it looks. This place can't be half as good as the other places I wanted to eat."

"I thought you had learned by now not to judge a book by its cover. But if you don't want to eat here with me that's fine , but I plan on eating here." He hoped by eating here she would not want to eat with him. No matter how much he enjoyed the walk they had together, he remembered that they can't be together. As he walked into the restaurant he noticed Zhao Hua was following him.

Together they walked in and sat down, while a waiter ran up to them to take their order. "We'll take...."

"Everything," she interrupted him. Then she turned towards Ah Ke and said, "Since the food here isn't very good we might as well try everything, maybe something will be good, right?"

Ah Ke just sat there looking at Zhao Hua when a group of five guys walked through the door. "Hey Boss, we want the best seats in the place." The waiter just nodded his head at them and lead them to an empty table. The guys looked at the table and started laughing, "Is this a joke? I said the BEST table, not the free one." With a wave of his hand one of the men following him pulled out a golden saber and chopped the table in two pieces. "You really think joking with us is good? Since you don't seemed to know who we are I'll tell you. We're the Golden Sun Bandits." Everyone froze after hearing who they were. The Golden Sun Bandits were the fiercest thieves around the area, and no one wanted to make these guys angry. "Now, I think the best table around here would be that one right there." He said while pointing at where Ah Ke and Zhao Hua were sitting.

"I..I..I don't think that's such a good idea." The waiter managed to get out.

"Well, I do." The bandit snapped back.

"But she is..." The waiter tried to get out.

"Beautiful," The bandit finished.

"What do you say, Beautiful? Care to ditch this kid and keep the company of real men?" The bandit said while walking toward their table.

Just when Ah Ke was about to stand up and take care of these guys he felt Zhao Hua's hand on his arm. Then he heard a voice from across the room say, "Real Men? HA, you don't even look like a person to me, let alone a man."

Every one turned and looked at who would want to make the Golden Sun Bandits angry. The voice came from a young man, his clothes were tattered and torn, with only a sword tied to his back so loosely that it looked like at any moment it would fall out the sheath and land on the ground. He just sat there eating his meal, not even looking at the five men. "What was that?" The bandit asked.

"So, not only are you not men, but you're deaf and stupid too. What a terrible combination." the man said.

The five men glared at the man sitting there, "Fine I guess you just want to die then, Men," the bandit said pointing at the man. All five golden sabers were pulled out, catching the sun and shining on the young man's face trying to blind him. Four of the men attacked waving there sabers madly all around the young man, but none of the sabers could even touch him. The young man laughed and his sword fell out of his sheath, falling towards the ground and all his attackers secretly laughed at the sight of this young man with no defenses. In the blink of an eye his sword had stopped falling toward the ground and started heading towards all the bandit's swords. With the clash of steel on steel all four men backed up without their golden sabers.

The last bandit stood there in surprise staring at the young man, and the next thing he knew the young man was right in front of him with his sword pointing at his neck. "I think it's about time for you to leave and stop bothering the young ladies," he said while smiling at Zhao Hua, "Especially if you don't know who they are."

"What do you mean?" the bandit asked.

"Well you should have listened to the waiter before attacking the first beautiful girl you saw."

"Why?"

"Do you know Zhao Bo?" The bandit nodded his head. "Did you know he has a daughter?" Again the bandit nodded his head. "Then, did you know the girl you were just trying to go after is his daughter?"

The bandits faces changed to a look of utter fear upon hearing who the girl was, and the five bandits ran out of the restaurant faster then they came in and were gone before anybody could even utter a word.

The young man got up and walked over to Ah Ke and Zhao Hua, and stared at them a bit. "Hey there pretty lady." The young man said to Zhao Hua. "Want to take me home?"

Ah Ke was just about to stand up and thank the young man just before he said that. "I think you can find your own way home," Zhao Hua said to him with a smile. Ah Ke couldn't believe Zhao Hua let that comment of his slide by so easily.

The the young man started staring at Ah Ke. "I guess I'll see you tonight," the young man said while turning around and heading towards the door. "Good bye."

And the young man disappeared out of the door and was gone before Ah Ke could gather the words and say anything to him. "Who was that?" Ah Ke asked Zhao Hua with a tone a pain in his voice.

"I would say a handsome and talented man, wouldn't you?" she said with a simile and that's all she said. Then, she left the restaurant and Ah Ke left right behind her. Together, they walked back to her home in silence. Every time Ah Ke was about to say some thing Zhao Hua would turn away from him or start moving faster. So, the whole way he couldn't say anything.

Once they arrived at the door Zhong Jing rushed over to them, "Where have you been? Master Zhao been looking for you all morning. We have a special guest that just got here."

"I know, I know," she replied.

"You know?"

"Master Zhao wants him to meet Mister Ah Ke. They're in the main hall," Zhong Jing said.

"I thought so. Let's go Ah Ke." She said while pulling him toward the main hall.

As they went into the main hall Ah Ke saw three chairs filled. One was of course Zhao Bo, in another chair he saw another older looking man, and in the last one he saw a young man dressed in tattered and torn clothing. When Zhao Bo saw Ah Ke walk in, he stopped talking and smiled at him and said, "This was the young man I was talking about. Not only did he save my daughter, but he is extremely talented too."

The old man laughed and looked at Ah Ke, "Good to meet you young man, I'm He Yan Zhu and this is my son He Yi."

"We met," the young man said.

"Hello, Uncle He, good to see you again." Zhao Hua said to He Yan Zhu, then she turned to He Yi and said, "Though seeing you isn't as good."

"Oh you just say that to all the people you don't like. I just heard some terrible news though." He Yi said.

"What?" Zhao Hua inquired.

"Just that you weren't single anymore. Pity I missed my chance." Then, his serious face became contorted and he couldn't keep himself from laughing anymore, "Sorry I couldn't hold it in, I thought if you went long enough without getting married my father was going to force me to stick that sword in my chest."

"What?" She yelled at him.

"Thank you Ah Ke, I really didn't think anybody in the world would have the guts to marry this girl. Turns out heaven does have eyes and got me off the hook." Zhao Hua was so angry at what He Yi was saying, so she charged at him and started to attack. He Yi's arms were blocking left and right at Zhao Hua's attacks, while Zhao Bo and He Yan Zhu just sat there laughing and smiling together and Ah Ke was just standing there in disbelief, staring at the unbelievable scene that was happening in front of him.

Chapter 13


"That's enough," both their father's yelled after them fighting for a while.

"Wow, your son just keeps getting better and better everyday I see him. In a couple of years he'll be better than me." Zhao Bo said.

"No, he's alright, but your daughter gets more beautiful with each passing day." He Yan Zhu said back.

"Well thank you for the praises."

"Though now that we've seen our childs abilities let's see your new son-in-law's abilities. If he could beat you he must be amazing."

"No, no, no, not at all. I really am not any good at all," Ah Ke responded quickly.

"If you're not good what does that make me? If you could beat me and your not good, that makes me really terrible." Zhao Bo said.

Ah Ke became flustered and blustered out, "That's not what I meant."

"Well since you're not good, and my son here isn't good either, then if the two of you spar it won't hurt anyone's feeling, right?" He Yan Zhu said to Ah Ke.

With that He Yi moved in front of Ah Ke and bowed and said, "Please take it easy on me."

Ah Ke bowed back quickly, "You should take it easy on me." Ah Ke didn't really want to fight, but he respected Zhao Bo and didn't want to make him into a fool, so he agreed to fight. As he looked at He Yi he thought back to what he remembered of his martial arts. Bits and pieces of the once great martial abilities he once had floated through his mind. All the times he had been fighting he hadn't really remembered all his martial abilities, or how to utilize it correctly, so a lot of his internal energy and movement had been wasted. If it wasn't for the years of training he did to the point his body moved before he told it to, then he would of died in every fight he fought in.

Of course Zhao Bo had noticed all the wasted movement in his strokes and thought that he had more martial abilities than he was letting on. Zhao Bo talked it over with He Yan Zhu, and they both had come to the conclusion he was holding back. They thought the only way to pull out his real abilities is to fight him against some one about as good as he was, and they didn't have to look very far to find one either. He Yan Zhu's son He Yi was not only brave and just, but was a martial arts genius, a natural that comes around about once in a 100 years. With this match up, they thought not only to see how good Ah Ke was, but maybe find out where he was from.

Ah Ke and He Yi stared at each other, but Ah Ke's mind was far away and He Yi noticed the distraction and decided to take the chance to make the first move.

Without thinking Ah Ke's hand went to block the fist coming at him, but in mid-strike it changed to a kick, and again Ah Ke looked like he was about to stop it. With his first attacks being unsuccessful He Yi became more determined and a flurry of fists and legs were coming towards Ah Ke, but it seemed like Ah Ke somehow slipped past every attempted hit. With his last onslaught unsuccessful He Yi backed up hoping to think about what he needed to do next against this unstoppable man that just appeared before him.

All the sudden Ah Ke's eyes lit up and it looked like he snapped back into reality, then he looked at He Yi and calmly said, "Are you ready to start yet?"

At first everyone thought he said that just to entice He Yi into making mistakes, but then they realized he was serious and he hadn't even paid attention to the whole start of the match. He Yi also knew the reason he said what he did, so he looked at Ah Ke and smiled, "Whenever you are."

If his body didn't react automatically to each attack, he would have lost after the first hit. Ah Ke had spent the whole time thinking, thinking back to all the bit and pieces floating through his head when something finally clicked and he connected the bits together. Ah Ke took his stance and He Yi followed suit. He used those first few strikes to gauge Ah Ke and he knew Ah Ke was better than he was letting on, so he decided this time to go seriously at him.

Both men stood there facing each other, both not blinking, just staring at each other. Zhao Hua walked over to her father and asked him, "Why haven't they started fighting for real yet?"

"SHH," he said, "they are waiting for the right moment. The battle has already begun."

"What do you mean?" Zhao Hau asked.

This time He Yan Zhu responded, "Your father means that in their mind they have already traded hundreds of hits."

"But that haven't moved."

"You're right, but when high level fights take place, the one who makes the first bad move loses."

"So whoever moves first loses."

"No, whoever makes the first BAD move loses," Zhao Bo said. "Even if they aren't moving, that could be the bad move, or maybe them moving could be the bad move, you never know until the move has been made."

"And it can only be considered a bad move only if the other person takes advantage of that split second." He Yan Zhu added. Then all attention went back to the fight.

He Yi was still staring at Ah Ke, when all the sudden he started to move slowly forward. In the blink of an eye Ah Ke launched himself forward and attacked He Yi, but He Yi was focusing all his attention on Ah Ke and he managed to block the first attack with a sweep of his arm. Then, He Yi saw an opening in Ah Ke's defense and attacked with a kick to his waist. Ah Ke saw the attack coming and at the last second evaded it. Things continued on like this for what felt like hours for everyone. He Yan Zhu said while watching, "I really didn't think there was anybody in my son's generation that was even close to being as skilled as him. To think that there was someone this good."

Zhao Bo responded, "I didn't realize both these kids were so good, they're both better than us when we were when we were younger. But I'm going to say that your son is a little better."

"No, I'm going to disagree, I think your son-in-law is better," He Yan Zhu said, then turned towards Zhao Hua and said, "Congratulations on your new husband young miss."

Zhao Hua blushed for a second then turned towards He Yan Zhu and shouted, "We are not getting married, there's no need for congratulations."

He Yan Zhu looked at Zhao Bo concernedly, before he returned with a smile. "Don't worry," he finally said, "it will work out somehow." Then his attention snapped back to the fight. He saw He Yi attacking at what seemed to be a pace anybody would have trouble keeping up with, but Ah Ke always managed to block or divert each attack. "This might end sooner than expected." This time their positions had reversed, Ah Ke was attacking at a blinding speed, while He Yi
was blocking the attacks. Neither man seemed able to best the other in offense or defense, and their "friendly" match became that much more dangerous.

Ah Ke looked at He Yi, and he was staring right back at him. Ah Ke thought to himself, "If I don't end this quick I might lose. I never remembering pushing myself so far before." He didn't know that He Yi was thinking the same thing, and both of them decided to stake it all on one last hit. Both of them thought, "He'll never see it coming."

So both of them ran towards each other staking it all on one last strike, and as they neared each other they each thought the other would would feint the

first hit, so they could put the other one into a defensive position. It wasn't until the had already each unleashed their full strength and couldn't pull back their hits when they struck each other at the same time and everything went black in their eyes. They both crumpled to the ground and didn't move, even while Zhao Bo, He Yan Zhu, and Zhao Hua all called both their names.

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This is a short chapter .

Chapter 14


He Yi was the first to get up. His face hurt where he got hit, but he got off a little lighter than Ah Ke. Because He Yi was taller than Ah Ke, his arm reached Ah Ke sooner, and a lot of the force coming from them was diffused once He Yi started to make contact. Zhao Bo and He Yan Zhu looked at them both in awe. "Are you okay, son?" He Yan Zhu asked He Yi.

"I...I....I th-think so." He Yi answered back. "I feel like I've been ran over by a horse." Then he looked at Ah Ke still lying on the ground. "I've never pushed myself so much in a fight. This match could have gone either way, good thing I'm taller than him, or I would be the one still lying on the ground.

"The world is bigger than you realize, one day you think you're the best the next day some young guy is almost showing you up." He Yan Zhu said to his son.

"So Hua'er, how did you like seeing your future husband get beat up?" After saying that he turned towards where she was saying only to find her not standing there. Then, he looked at Zhao Bo, "Where did she go?" He looked back towards Ah Ke, and he found the answer to his own question. She was helping Ah Ke stand up, and got up to his feet with a daze in his eyes. He Yi looked in disbelief at the scene in front of him, "How could that shrew of a woman be nice to anyone?" He thought to himself. Then he said out loud, "Hey, I got knocked down too, why didn't you help me up?"

"Because you don't count as a person, and I only help people." she snapped back.

"Then what am I?"

"A dog!" The answer came so fast and loud, even both their fathers' stopped talking to each other.

"Why am I a dog and he's a person?" He Yi asked her.

"Because." was her only answer.

"That's not a very good reason."

"I don't need a better one." she said while helping Ah Ke sit down in a chair.

Zhao Bo then walked over to him, "I'm sorry I lost Master Zhao." Ah Ke apologized.

"No need to worry about it, it was a well fought match that could have gone either way. Today you just weren't as lucky, but you never know tomorrow you maybe." Then Zhao Bo turned to Zhao Hua, "Hua'er, I guess there's no need to ask you if you like Ah Ke or not. So, we'll not get into that now, but you can't just go around calling your friends animals." He looked at her and let out a long laugh, shortly joined by He Yan Zhu and He Yi. Turning back to Ah Ke he said, "Ah Ke, who are you really?"

"I've told you before I really don't know."

"I'm going to tell you this much, whoever you are you have to be related to my master in some way. After discussing this over with my martial brother He, we both came to the conclusion that your skills originate from our school. Though occasionally some of your movements are strange, and come from some where else, the majority comes from our school. Your internal energy is also strange, at first I thought it came from our school, but after our duel with internal energy I found you had a strange power that you don't even know about. Also, yours was the same as mine, but different on many levels." Zhao Bo looked right at Ah Ke, "After discussing all of this with martial brother He we came to the conclusion that your skills originate from the same source as our skills, but yours seem to be of a higher quality."

Ah Ke was listening intently on every word he was saying, hopefully something he said would make his memory return to him, but none of it did. He stared at Zhao Bo and asked, "What does this mean for me?"

"It means if you find our master, then you might find out who you are." He Yan Zhu answered him instead.

"Where can I find your master?" Ah Ke asked.

He Yan Zhu answered again, "This is the problem, Master Chen is a very..... obscure person. He comes and goes at will. For us, his disciples, he only visits us on occasion. I've only seen him once in 10 years."

"I have only seen him twice in 15," Zhao Bo chimed in.

He Yan Zhu continued, "Since his traveling doesn't really have a destination, it's really hard to track him, but I'm sure you can find him by finding our other martial brother, Lui Kai."

By this time Ah Ke had recovered all his senses and he shot up and asked, "Where can I find him?"

"Hold on," Zhao Bo said, "Just wait, we were getting to that."

He Yan Zhu continued again, "He doesn't live too far from here. If you go four towns over to the west, two towns north, then head into the mountains outside of that town, and go as far as you can until you reach a lake. His house is somewhere by that lake."

Ah Ke listened to what He Yan Zhu and Zhao Bo had to say before getting up to leave. "Its been great meeting everyone, but I must bid you farewell." And Ah Ke turned to leave.

"Wait!" Zhao Bo shouted. "Stay one more day before you leave, I have something to ask you before you leave."

Ah Ke debated for half a day before saying, "Okay, I'll stay one more day." Then he left and went back to his room and Zhao Hua followed him out.

"He's an interesting young man just like you said, Brother Bo. What did you think of him son?" He Yan Zhu asked He Yi.

He Yi rubbed his aching joints and finally said, "He's definitely stronger than I thought he would be."

He Yan Zhu replied, "He really surprised me. Brother Bo, what you said was correct, he has something to do with our master."

"I still think he was hiding something though." He Yi said. "It felt like he was holding something back."

"But you still won in the end, how could you tell?" Zhao Bo asked.

"At the very end, with that last attack, even though I attacked first his fist still caught up and past mine. When he hit me I could tell he was still holding something back. I wonder if he will ever show us his true strength."

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"Are you alright?" Zhao Hua asked Ah Ke.

"Yes, just hurting a little," Ah Ke replied.

Zhao Hua was walking right behind Ah Ke, "Are you really going to leave tomorrow?"

"I need to, I have to find Master Chen. It's the only way to find out who I am. How can I do anything if I don't know who I am."

"Does it matter if you know who you are or not?"

"YES! If you woke up tomorrow and had no idea who you were or where you were, wouldn't you want to know who you were?"

Zhao Hua stared at Ah Ke then turned around the other way, "If you leave tomorrow, I don't want to see you again." Even though Ah Ke stared to feel they were getting closer, he knew he couldn't allow himself to get closer to her without finding out who he really was. He kept walking towards his room hoping to get enough rest for his long trip the following day.

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"Get out of here now!" screamed Ah Ke surrounded by fire. A man holding his family looked at him then said, "Little brother you are a man, so get out of here and see me again."

Ah Ke saw a sword flashing down toward him, at the last second he managed to put up his sword, but just a second to slow, and as the figure in front of him shifted his weight and strength behind his sword, Ah Ke's sword started to dig into the left side of his face, deeper and deeper it went, until Ah Ke threw his right foot toward the figure's chin. He connected and the figure stumbled backwards and then Ah Ke took a step forward and tripped and banged his head against the wall. With fire growing slowly around him and the left side of his face in pain, all he could hear was soft laughter coming from the darkness that surrounded him.
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sorry about the delay again, long days at work. leaves less time for me. It will probably a while before I can get the next chapter done.

May I know, what the tittle this story??

It didn't have one at first, but I think I'll go with "The Forgetful Swordsman".
I said at first, I'm not good at coming up with names or titles, but I guess this one seems the most fitting.

Chapter 15


"AAAHHHHHH!" Ah Ke screamed as he awoke. "It was only a dream," Ah Ke thought to himself. "Was it only a dream? It felt so real, like it really did happen to me. I felt the heat from the fire, and the the sharpness of the blade on my skin. But who was that man, that man with that evil laughter?" Ah Ke laid back down, thinking over his dream, about the fire, the sword, and that evil laughter. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he wasn't able to with his mind filled with so many new things. Finally, he started to think about Zhao Hua and eventually his eyelids started getting heavy and they forced themselves closed.

Ah Ke awoke the next morning early, forgetting about the dream he had in the middle of the night, replacing it with the sweet one fresh in his memory. After he got dressed he heard a knock at the door. "Who is it?" Ah Ke questioned.

"It is Zhong Jing, Master Zhao is waiting for you in the Main Hall." the servant answered.

"Thank you," Ah Ke said while walking out, chosing to follow the servant there. When Ah Ke arrived Zhao Bo and He Yan Zhu stood up and Zhao Bo said while pointing to the chair across from him at the round table, "Sit down here."

Ah Ke nodded and said while walking to the chair. "Good Morning Master Zhao, Master He."

The two men nodded and all three of them sat down together. Once they sat down Zhong Jing and some other servants started serving food. All the food looked delicious and Ah Ke couldn't wait to eat because he was starving, but he didn't want to be rude and start eating before both Zhao Bo and He Yan Zhu. "Go ahead and eat, it delicious," Zhao Bo said to Ah Ke.

"Thank you," Ah Ke said, then he started eating the food. Ah Ke found it was the most delicious food he ever had in his life, that he could remember. None of them talked the whole time Ah Ke ate, when Ah Ke was finally done he looked at Zhao Bo and said, "What was is you wanted to ask me, Master Zhao?"

Zhao Bo looked at He Yan Zhu and said, "It wasn't so much a question, but a favor. After you visit my martial brother Liu, come back here. Even if you intended to or not, I promised to marry my daughter to you, and I am not a man the goes back on his word. Also. my daughter made a promise too. So by not accepting your making both me and my daughter both break our promise to you." The way he said it was more of a command then a favor.

Ah Ke looked back at Zhao Bo and contemplated before answering, "I believe your requirements to get your daughter's hand was to beat you in a match, which I never did. I did save her from that Feng Fei, because he was a b@$tard. Right after that you saved her from him and put me to shame, with your fast movements, then I fought He Yi and lost again. Though through your good intentions I have the chance to marry her, I can't accept your request."

Zhao Bo looked at Ah Ke for a moment with scorn before repling, "Well to let you know, you haven't heard the last of me about this matter. But, since you are related to my master in some way I do hope we meet again."

"As do I, but farewell for now." With that Ah Ke turned around to leave again. He finally made it out the doors of the mansion and started to head to the west. Ah Ke looked back again at the mansion that had just turned his life around, and the girl he had just met. A sweetness filled his chest, then he thought that he just left her without saying goodbye and the sweetness evaporated as quickly as it came.

Following the instructions of Zhao Bo and He Yan Zhu, he headed towards the next town. It took Ah Ke a while to get out of town heading towards his next destination, to find out his past.

After traveling for half a day Ah Ke came upon the next town. Not feeling tired he didn't stop and kept moving trying to get to the next town before the sun went down. Half way through this small town Ah Ke saw a man beating on a small kid, "Steal from me will you, I'll make sure you don't ever do that again."

"I was just hungry," the child pleaded back between hits. Ah Ke stood there watching, but his chivilarous spirit kicked in and then he knew he had to act.

He dashed toward the man and arrived there in a flash. As the man's hand came down it suddenly stopped in mid-air. The man looked at what stopped his strike when he saw the arm stopping his.

"What do you think your doing? This doesn't concern you." The man said to Ah Ke.

"If you're hurting children it becomes my business." Ah Ke answered back.

"He stole from my school, he's lucky I don't kill him." The man stared into Ah Ke's eyes, "So just stay out of the way young man, before I have to kill you." Then the man raised his hand to strike the kid again, and again an arm was in front of him stopping his strike. "I told you not to interfer...."

Then Ah Ke used the momentum of the man's strike to flip him onto his back. The man had no idea what happened, he started to strike, then all of the sudden he was staring right up into the sky with a look of disbelief on his face. "What did you do?" the man muttered.

"I just put my arm out," was Ah Ke's only reply, before he walked away.

Ah Ke walked to the closest inn to get some sleep. He awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of the wind whistling through his room. Ah Ke thought to himself, "I can't believe this guy came back." He still pretended to be asleep, but glanced around the room and saw 4 or 5 men surrounding his room each brandishing a sword. Ah Ke rolled over and adjusted his hand on his own sword readying for the attack. When a black shadow slipped in through the window and knocked out each of the men. Afterward, he sat up and stared at his would be savior. "Oh you are up?" the voice said in suprise, "I didn't realize." Ah Ke looked at the figure in the dark, but from the voice he already knew who it was.

While lighting a candle Ah ke said to her, "Why did you follow me Miss Zhao? I thought you didn't want to see me again."

Zhao Hua looked him and her face turned red, "You didn't say good bye to me, so I figured you didn't want to leave me."

Ah Ke looked at her in disbielf, he couldn't believe this girl could like him already when they had only just met. He didn't say goodbye to her because he knew if he tried he probably wouldn't have the heart to leave. He too had feelings toward her that were indescribable. He didn't know what the feeling was, but it was a blissful feeling and felt he wanted to stay close to her, but he had to stay away, atleast for now. So when she said that, he knew exactly why he didn't say goodbye to her, and it was just that reason he blushed too. "I..I.." was all he could muster up in his mouth.

"Well now that you've seen me I guess we could travel together from now on. Make sure you don't forget me tomorrow when you leave." Zhao Hua said before slipping out through the window and back to her own room. Ah Ke sat there for a long while thinking about what he just got himself into.

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The next morning he got up and started to leave his inn when he felt someone behind him. Ah ke knew who it was and tried to ingnore her, "Are you teying to leave me again?" Zhao Hua asked.

"I was just about to get you," he lied.

"I'm sure you were, but since I am already up we can just leave."

They walked out of inn and headed down the road out of town. Ah Ke kept looking at her and noticed she kept looking at him. They finally left the town and after a couple of hours they found themselves facing 8 men in masks each brandishing a saber. Ah Ke sighed and looked at them in disbelief. "HAHA, your not leaving here alive." One of the masked men shouted.

"Again, didn't you feel embarressed enough the first time you lost." Zhao Hua mocked him.

Ah Ke looked at her before turning to them and said, "How many times must you lose before you give up?"

"Last time didn't count we didn't know you had helpers hiding in the dark." One of the masked me aswered.

"So you're allowed to bring 5 people and ambush one person while he's sleeping, and if someone else helps him out that's cheating?" Zhao Hua asked.

"Exactly" the masked man responded.

"Amazingly you guys are the biggest losers I have ever come across, but I'll tell you right now if you don't leave us alone I'm going to cut off all of your arms and legs, then cut of your tongue so you can't call for help and dig out all your eyes so you can't see." Zhao Hua threatened. Ah Ke glared at her after she said this, so she whispered to him sofly, "I'm not serious I'm just trying to scare them away."

Ah Ke didn't like to kill so when he heard how she treatened them he was worried that they would all try and fight both of them to the death. As he stepped foward to block her from the oncoming attack 30 men appeared behind them. Each man pulling swords and sabers from their sheathes. Ah Ke looked at the attacking men and smiled.

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Sorry about the long break, I'm gonna try and get more chapters posted.