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Thread: Enter the Past

  1. #1
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default Enter the Past

    UPDATE: Ch 28 is up. From the last ch, Mei Mei's demon identity was revealed and Cecilia and Kai finally met. Now, in this ch, Mei Mei worries of people's judgement towards her. Cecilia questions Kai about her identity, but got more of what she asks. And a little surprise at the end. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

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    LINKS TO CHAPTERS:
    1: History's Gift | 2: The Assignment | 3: An Early Gift | 4: Unforgettable Night | 5: Another World Another Time | 6: Mysterious Beautiful Star | 7: The Sworn Brother | 8: Meeting Halfway | 9: Who Am I? | 10: The Epidemic | 11: The Secret | 12a: The Fallen Man | 12b: The Fallen Man (continuation) | 13: Escape | 14: The Encounters | 15: Surprises | 16: Identities Unraveled | 17: Moving Forward | 18: The Continuing Search | 19: The Quad Brothers Bandit | 20: The End of a Happy Day | 21: Vengeance | 22: Gege Master | 23: Fallen Immortal Goddess Ren Li Fen | 24: Bittersweet Reunion | 25: Memories or Dreams? | 26: The Young Man | 27: Lovers Reunite | 28: Questions Unanswered

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    TITLE: Enter the Past (I might change it in the long run...)
    GENRE
    : Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural, Action, Drama
    SUMMARY
    : An assassin couple and a wanted criminal accidentally traveled into another dimension full of mortals, fallen immortals, gods, and demons. During their time in the trapped dimension, they must try to survive and their choices will determine the fate of that world.
    NOTE: It contained profanity and mild violence. --- Hi Everyone! I applaud all of the talented writers in here for your stories. I am one of your silent readers and enjoyed reading them. Keep up the good work.
    ---

    Now the big thing. *Nervous* I've drawn stories but have never written one in my life. So, I decided to take one of my comic stories and write it out. This will be my first attempt so forgive me if there's some grammatical errors. I don't have great English competency skills but I'm learning. I would love to hear your positive feedback/comments of my story and hope to continue in writing as best as I can though. Enjoy.

    ---

    CHAPTER 1: HISTORY’S GIFT

    The sun rose high on a cleared blue sky over the vast forest of Mystic Mountain. This forested mountain was no ordinary mountain, but one of wonder and allure, made more pronounced by the thick mist that enveloped it. The land covered over hundreds of acres far and wide, filled with numerous of tall trees, rich green plants and wild flowers, and wild creatures called it their home.
    It had a rich ancient history that dated back to thousands of years ago. Some believed that the gods once lived on earth before they ascended to the heavens. Others believed that it was a gateway to where the gods lived. Whatever it was back then, the Forest of Mystic Mountain was a place that attracted thousands of visitors each year. It welcomed its beauty and history to the public in exchanged for deep respect. When given respect, Mystic Mountain would reveal its deep secrets that many had wondered for many centuries ago.

    That exactly happened one day when a hiker and his group led an expedition deep into the enchanted forest. They stumbled upon a white object that protruded through the mystical soil a few feet in front of them. The hikers thought that somebody must have tried to bury something, but as they got closer, this white object turned out to be something else.

    Curious, the hikers took out their hiking tools and started to dig through the earth’s soil. Minutes turned to hours as they continued to dig. Curiosity overcame them that they had forgotten their purpose in the first place. As the sun rested for the night, their source of natural light became dimmer, making it harder for them to see. They stopped what they were doing and stepped back to see what this object was. To their amazement, they had found what it seemed to be a historical treasure. The object was huge, about 7x7 feet. It looked like a top-squared base that was made out of white sand and clay. On the side of the small exposed base were strange hieroglyph writings on it.

    The hikers knew what to do. They contacted the National Museum of Science and Research and told them about their discovery.

    ---
    Two Months later.

    Song Shan Mountain was one of the five great sacred mountains in Henan Province. Like Mystic Mountain, it had a rich history that became homes to Taoists and Shaolin monasteries for over many centuries ago. With its massive vertical heights made out of rocks and foliage, and ancient temples and statues of gods everywhere, becoming a breathtaking site for one to see.

    Up on a lofty cliff, two thrill seekers stood at the edge wearing their wing suits, helmets, and parachute backpacks. One signaled to the other by a nod, and then it happened. Both of them extended their arms and jumped off the cliff together. They started to glide with the wind across the ancient plain like they were flying. As they got close to the ground, they deployed their parachutes and gracefully landed unharmed onto the earth’s soil. They took off their parachute backpacks and helmets to reveal their identity-a man and a woman.

    They turned and smiled at each other from the adrenaline rush that they had just experienced. The man came and hugged his female companion from the side, “That felt great!” he exclaimed.

    She nodded, “Next time, let’s jump from an airplane.”

    “I’m up for it Cici.”

    He quickly gave her a kiss on the cheek, making her chuckled a bit from his physical contact. As they rolled their parachutes back into their backpacks, Cecilia’s stomach growled for attention.

    “Kai, Let’s go grab something to eat.” He smiled and nodded.

    After they finished packing, they walked back to the car with their belongings to end their day.

    ---

    Along their way back, they saw five tall and slender men in black suits stood waiting around their car. Kai and Cecilia’s smiles disappeared and stood there, wondering what these men wanted.

    “Mr. Cho wants to see the both of you,” said the bald headed man.

    Kai smirked and stood cool with his hands on his hips. “Cici is hungry so tell him to wait.”

    They took a couple of steps forward and two the men in black blocked their way.

    “Come with us,” said one of the men.

    Kai slightly pushed the man to the side so they could get through. The man felt threatened and grabbed Kai by the arm. Kai’s defense instinct kicked in and quickly grabbed his fingers and bent it. The man yelped in pain and then he punched the man on the face. The other men quickly rushed in to join the fight. One by one, Cecilia and Kai injured them until the last man fell to the ground. Kai wrapped his arm behind Cecilia’s waist and they calmly walked away from the scene like nothing had happened. They got into their car and drove off.
    Last edited by skoo78; 09-24-14 at 10:15 PM. Reason: Chapters are linked for easy navigation

  2. #2
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default CHAPTER 2: THE ASSIGNMENT

    CHAPTER 2: THE ASSIGNMENT

    That night after dinner, the couple went back to their condos. Kai slowly walked Cecilia to her door. “Our three year anniversary is coming up, what would you like to do?” he asked.

    She crossed her arms in front and slightly tilted her head up to think. “What about a romantic dinner at my place,” she proposed.

    “That’s it? Nothing exciting?”

    She shook her head and smiled, “Not this year. Let’s do something different.”

    He turned to face her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Alright, but I’m cooking because your cooking skills suck.” He started to laugh which got her offended.

    She playfully punched him on the shoulder for mocking her. “Excuse me if I don’t cook often!”

    “Ok…ok…” he laughed some more.

    She was about to give him another punch, but he grabbed her fist to stop her. “Aren’t you afraid that if you keep on hitting me like this, I can end up in the hospital?” he joked.

    She yanked her fist out of his grip and crossed her arms in front again. “That is what you get for teasing me.”

    He came forward and hugged her. Her rosy scent from her body overpowered his nose, making him enjoy the sweetness on her. He pulled back and kissed her soft tender lips. Then he whispered, “Goodnight.” She smiled and replied softly back to him, “Goodnight.”

    Kai let her go and stood there while she turned around to unlock the condo door. Upon success, the door creaked opened to welcome her back home. Cecilia turned to look at him one last time and waved at him. He waved back and she finally went inside. He turned around to the other condo door right across from hers and entered his.

    Cecilia walked inside to her place and the lights automatically turned on. She jumped in surprised to see a couple of unexpected visitors stood silently in her living room.

    She recognized the two men. One was a man that she and Kai had encountered earlier this morning. He had a band aid on his nose and a purple bruise on his cheek. She grinned to see how pitiful he looked. Next to him was an older man in his 50’s-cleaned cut type of guy that has a thick ash mustache, and wore a black expensive suit.

    She stared at the old man and scolded, “Mr. Cho, you know that breaking into someone’s place is a crime right?”

    “I am your boss…” he replied.

    “WAS…” she corrected him.

    His cornered lip curled up as if it was funny to him. “Right…WAS your boss…Anyway, I won’t be long...”

    The doorbell rang. He directed his left hand to her front door. “Answer it,” he said with a devious look on his face.
    She became suspicious of this old man. Why is he here? What agenda does he have for her this time? Without questioning him, she slowly walked to the door.

    When the door opened, she was surprised to see Kai with the same four men from this morning. They had him in an arm lock from behind. Kai’s shirt was missing some buttons and was half tucked in his pants, revealing his bare, muscular chest. He also had a couple of red bruises nearby his left cheekbone and right jaw. The other men were in more worsen condition than Kai. Their lips had been busted opened, showing a small tint of blood on the side, and parts of their faces were red from the punches. She knew that the boys just had gotten into a brawl not too long ago.

    Kai smiled at her and said, “Hi,” like nothing had happened.

    She got upset at Cho San and turned around to stare at him rebuked. “Really? Do you have to go this far?”

    Cho San smirked and walked steadily toward them as he spoke. “You two didn’t need to beat your ex-colleagues this morning. All you had to do was come with them peacefully.” They stopped a few feet away in front of Kai and Cecilia.
    Kai looked at the man next to Cho San and remembered him from this morning. He was the one that grabbed him by the arm.

    “Well he started it,” he sneered.

    Cho San shook his head in disappointment. He ordered his men to release Kai. They released him and pushed him inside Cecilia’s place. Kai staggered forward and Cecilia caught him before he fell to the ground. The men closed the door behind them and guarded it in case Kai and Cecilia decided to escape.

    Cecilia crossed her arms in front and stared coldly at their ex-boss, “So, what do you want from us then?”

    Cho San raised a yellow enveloped in front of him for them to see. “I have a proposition for you two…I know that you two had resigned from the Black Ops Force, but I have no one else for this kind of mission except you two. Do you want to hear it?”

    Cecilia scoffed sardonically, “Well, we don’t have a choice do we?”

    Cho San laughed, “It is up to you both if you want to take this mission or not.” Then he purposely taunted them by waving the envelope at their face, “Ten million dollars can go to…someone else…”

    Both were surprised by the huge amount of money. Kai clarified, “What did you just say?”

    Cho San grinned knowingly that he finally had their undivided attention. “You heard me. So, what do you say?”

    “This mission must be very dangerous to be worth that much. Am I correct?” asked Cecilia.

    “Correct. You two were my top agents that had shown very high success rate in all of your missions. With your talented skills and tactics, you two can assassinate these guys.” Then he waved the yellow envelope in front of them again, “So?”

    Kai turned to nudged Cecilia on the arm and had a big closed smile on his face. She knew what he was thinking and it was the same vibe that she had also. She smiled at Cho San and answered excitingly, “Alright. We’ll take the mission.”

    Cho San was happy to hear their answer. “Take this and read it thoroughly.”

    Kai quickly took the envelope from Cho San’s hand and was stunned by it’s heavy weight underneath his hand. Cho San’s men opened the front door and left. As Cho San walked down the narrow hallway, he shouted back at Kai and Cecilia, “Welcome back guys,” and laughed happily. Cecilia closed the door and made sure it was locked from the inside. Like their ex-boss, she didn’t want any more uninvited guests over.

    Kai and Cecilia didn’t wait a single moment of their precious time and went straight to work. They quickly ran to sit down next to each other on the living room couch and Kai pulled the thick documents out of the yellow envelope. Out came a bunch of thick packets mixed with papers, photos, and USB disk. They quickly went to their computer and inserted the disk.

    Appeared on their screen was the Special Black Ops Force’s logo. Kai clicked on it and an automatic video played onto their monitor screen.

    CHO SAN’S VOICE:

    Special Agent Kai and Special Agent Cecilia. Welcome back to Black Ops Force. This mission was assigned to us from a third party’s request by CCIA. The mission is simple. Eliminate the two dangerous criminals, Tsui Man and Alex Wong (Their pictures showed on computer screen) on June 24th.

    “That is a week from today!” Kai became bummed. “Oh well, I guess that will be our anniversary present then.”

    Cecilia nudged him on the arm. “Well you wanted another exciting year, so there you have it,” and the both of them chuckled.

    CHO SAN’S VOICE CONTINUED:

    According to the informer, Tsui Man and Alex Wong are meeting at Mystic Mountain that night (A picture of Mystic Mountain appeared in replaced of the two criminals). Enclosed is more information of the assignment. I wish the both of you luck.

    The Special Black Ops Force’s logo popped up on the screen again and then a female voice started to speak. The disk will be destroyed in 3. 2. 1.

    The monitor screen showed the logo being dissolved and then everything one the screen turned black. Kai took out the USB, and to make sure no information existed, he took it to the fireplace and turned on the fire. The flames came out automatically like a gas stove and burned the USB until it became charcoal. He turned the fireplace switch off and the both of them went back to the couch.
    Kai spread the documents across the coffee table. Most of the photos were pictures of the two men that they were assigned to find. She noticed that in one of the two men’s photos, the man had a permanent scar on his left eyebrow. For sure, that will help them identify him easily from the rest of the crowd. Cecilia grabbed that man’s profile packet and started to read it.

    “Tsui Man…32 years old, 5 feet 8, 180 pounds, medium-built, short black hair, brown eyes…”

    Then his skills caught her attention and she showed the profile to Kai.

    “Look at this. Tsui Man was an ex-Black Ops also. He was an ex-sergeant in the military and in the Bomb Squad for over ten years…”

    Kai took the profile packet from her to read it, while she picked up another stapled packet. “No wonder this mission is worth ten million dollars,” said Kai.

    Kai saw a cut out newspaper clip that was dated two months ago. The heading read, “Hikers Found Treasure at Mystic Mountain” and showed it to Cecilia. They saw that a sentence was highlighted in yellow and read it.

    “Hikers found an unknown, white object in the deep forest of Mystic Mountain and is being excavated by Professor Choi and his team of archaeologist from National Museum of Science and Research. At this time, the area is closed to the public until further noticed.”

    Curious of what this had to do with their mission, they searched through the documents for more information. Cecilia came across a stapled packet that had a small picture of the other man and read his profile. As she read the general demographic information of the guy, she came upon something intriguing and got excited.

    She quickly showed it to Kai. “I think I’ve found the connections. This guy, Alex Wong, is a fanatic in Antiques. I guess there is something in Mystic Mountain that he wanted.”

    “Well whatever it is, that place must be heavily guarded, or else, Tsui Man wouldn’t have been involved then.”

    She agreed with Kai and nodded.

    They studied for a couple of more hours and then Cecilia got tired and yawned. She placed the papers down on the coffee table and got up to stretch.

    “I’m going to go sleep now…”

    There was no response from Kai. She turned and saw him still reading Tsui Man’s bio. She felt ignored and slightly punched him on the shoulder.

    “Hey! I’m tired, so aren’t you going to leave?”

    He turned and glanced at her with a cheesy grin on his face, “I can’t. The boys and I made a big mess in my place so…I may have to spend a night in yours.”

    “You boys sure love to destroy things…”

    He shrugged.

    She shook her head and sighed, “Alright, I’ll get a blanket and pillow for you then.” She got up and slowly walked into the bedroom to go grab the stuff.
    Last edited by skoo78; 07-04-14 at 11:01 PM.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Mandred Skavenslayer's Avatar
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    Good start. I take it you drew some inspiration from The Myth and Terracotta Warrior.

  4. #4
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Thank you and yes, my inspiration came from that and the Holy Pearl.

  5. #5
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default CHAPTER 3: AN EARLY GIFT

    In this chapter, it gets more intimate with the two lead characters. Just to forewarn that there is profanity and minor sexual violence.

    ---

    CHAPTER 3: AN EARLY GIFT

    The next morning, Kai went downtown to Lu’s Jewelry Store. It was a small, family-owned business that sold unique gemstones, gold, and diamonds. Besides selling, they specialized in making custom designed jewelries. He entered in and saw the owner rearranging gold rings behind the glass counter.

    The owner was a cute, little old man in his late 60’s-half bald with his white hair slicked back. He wore a little brown with white striped bow tie to compliment his matching brown, wool blazer. Kai heard about him through his mutual friends that he was the master of making designed jewelries. He had seen some of his unique works and loved it.

    Kai walked toward him and stood a couple feet away from the owner. “Good morning Mr. Lu,” he greeted.

    The owner looked up and saw Kai. “HEY! My number one customer!” Mr. Lu excitedly came over to Kai and shook his hand, while his other hand patted his shoulder. He leaned toward Kai with a big grin on his face and whispered loudly, “It’s finally finished…wait here.”

    Mr. Lu went around the counter into another room while Kai waited patiently for his return. A couple of minutes later, Kai saw Mr. Lu coming out with a small black box and started to get anxious of what was inside. Mr. Lu stood in front of him and lifted the lid off for Kai to see. Inside, was a 10-karat, white diamond engagement ring. The huge diamond sparkled when the ceiling lights reflected on it. The band was made out of platinum that was designed into multiple unique swirls, giving off an old Victorian look. It gathered upward to where it held the diamond in place. Kai stared amazed of its beauty that he quickly took it out from the box to have a closer look.

    After a careful examination of the ring, he said excitingly, “She will love it!”

    Mr. Lu was happy, knowing that he had satisfied another. Curious, he asked, “When are you going to propose to her?”

    Kai placed the ring back in the black box while he answered him. “Our three year anniversary is coming up in a week from now…” After the ring was in the box, he closed it and looked at him, smiling. Then he continued, “I’m planning to propose to her then.”
    Mr. Lu was joyful to hear the news and teased, “She is a lucky woman to have a guy like you; smart, romantic, and great looks.” Kai chuckled from his compliment and replied, “No, I’m the lucky guy to have her in my life.” The old man laughed and nodded in agreement.

    At the corner of his eyes, Kai saw something that caught his attention. He turned his head and saw a heart shaped necklace displayed inside the glass counter. On the silver lining of the shaped heart were tiny diamonds, sparkling for him to see.

    The owner saw that he was intrigued by it and smiled happily. “Mr. Yang, that necklace will compliment well with the engagement ring. Why don’t you buy it?”

    He thought about Cecilia and started to reminisce about the first time he met her and knew she was the one for him.

    He was nine years old when he came to the orphanage. Since he was a newcomer to the place, boys that were around his age bullied him daily, making him felt worthless and weak.

    One day during recess, the bullies cornered him and started to tease him, saying that he was a ‘weak sissy’. Then they pushed him a couple of times until he fell to the ground and cried. Suddenly, one by one, the bullies were being hit by a stick. The next thing he knew, they too were on the ground, hurting and crying. He heard an angelic voice hovered above him saying, “Don’t cry,” and looked up to see a tiny hand in front of him. Then he saw the heroic angel. A tiny girl with hair braided on each side, smiling warmly down at him. He grabbed her hand and she pulled him up by using all of her strength. When he got up, she turned and stared at the bullies coldly with her arms crossed in front while holding the big wooden stick in her hand. The bullies saw her and quickly got up, crying for mercy. She told them to leave, and they did without fighting back. That was when he knew his angel’s name.

    Cecilia Lin-A six year old little girl that came to the orphanage when she was a fresh newborn. She was quickly loved by the staff and children from her cute baby face; but, physical appearance was nothing compared to her personality. She was fierce and brave. She didn’t tolerate bad people and stood for the weak. Children called her a heroine; but to him, she was his angel.
    He wanted to give back to her for helping him, so he did her chores, did whatever she said, and even got in trouble with her.

    One time in the backyard, there were pretty flowers blooming in the rose garden. Cecilia took him to go and pluck rose petals with her. She plucked one and smeared the rose petal all over her arms, neck, and face, and said that it was to ward off bad people. She handed him one and forced him to do it also. He thought that was silly, but didn’t hesitate and did what she told him to do. He only wanted to see her happy.

    She wasn’t like the other girls in the orphanage where they love to play with dolls and dress up. In fact, the only girly thing about her was the scented rose on her skin. She never understood why people would still want to be close to her when it was supposed to scare people away. As a six years old child, her mind was so full of imagination and creativity that it made everyone enjoyed being with her.


    Kai had a huge grin on his face after reminiscing their childhood years and decided to buy the necklace. Happy, the owner quickly took the necklace out from the glass counter and put it in a small, red velvet box that has a white bow on top of it. Kai paid Mr. Lu and then left the store excited and anxious in giving the gift to her.

    ---

    Cecilia sat down to read some of Tsui Man’s criminal activities across the countries and had the television turned to the news channel. Suddenly, something caught her attention from the news and stopped what she was doing.

    News lady anchor: “Two months ago, a group of hikers stumbled upon an object and reported to National Museum of Science and Research. Professor Choi and his team of archaeologist went to the site to excavate it. What they found was so extraordinary that it may question our history.”

    The video clip then switched to Mystic Mountain where the site was being excavated. An old gentleman in his late 60’s was being interviewed on scene.

    Prof Choi: “What we’ve unearthed is something that we have never seen before. As you can see here…”

    The camera panned to the right where the excavation was. The camera showed an exposed entrance of a cave on the ground and next to it, was a huge, white pillar. Around the pillar were strange hieroglyphics carved in rows. It filled the whole pillar and in the middle, was a huge carved celtic, diamond-shaped symbol.

    Prof Choi: “…are hieroglyphics that are not from our writing system or from the Egyptians as well. Who are these people and where exactly are they from? We do not know. It will remain a mystery for now.”

    She was astounded by the excavation; but at the same time, it made her even more curious of Alex Wong’s motive. The doorbell rang and startled her, making her chuckled a bit. She laid the papers on the coffee table and went to answer the door. She opened the door and saw that it was Kai; he waved at her.

    “Hi beautiful,” he said with a cheesy grin.

    She crossed her arms in front, noticing that he was in a very good mood. Curious, she asked, “Ok, what are you hiding?”

    Kai simply shrugged his shoulders and made his way inside to her place, making her stunned by his sneaky behavior. Cecilia hated it when he does that to her. It annoyed her greatly not knowing what he was hiding from her. But to him, he loved it. He loved to drive her nuts and found it very entertaining; especially when she gets feisty at him. He walked straight to the living room and sat down, while she closed the door behind her. Kai picked up a packet of papers to read, but she quickly came over and snatched it out of his hands. Then she slightly punched him on the shoulder and sat down next to him. Her hazel eyes bulged as she stared intensively at him.

    He smirked, “What?”

    “Why are you such in a good mood?” she asked curiously.

    He laughed, “Why can’t I be in a good mood?”

    Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and shook her head as she scoffed at him. Since she was in a good mood, she let his mischievous behavior slide and focused on the mission. Cecilia told him about the excavation at Mystic Mountain.

    “What do we know about this Alex Wong guy?” he asked.

    “According to his criminal background, he stole some ancient scriptures and antiques back in 2013 from the Shang Gala. He also stole an infamous antique painting from another Gala show in 2008.”

    Kai thought about Tsui Man’s manpower and Alex Wong’s antique fetish. “So, we’re dealing with a terrorist and a thief. I guess Professor Choi must have known that Alex Wong was going to stir up trouble at the site. He must have teamed up with CCIA in this mission then.”

    “I believe so,” She asked.

    “Well, this will be fun then,” he said sarcastically.

    She nodded and some photos on the table to look. While she was doing so, he quietly took the velvet red box out of his back jean pocket and placed it on the coffee table close to her. She turned her head and saw the box.

    “What is it?”

    “Just open it,” he insisted.

    Excited, she picked up the box and lifted the lid off to see a diamond necklace neatly placed in there. “It’s beautiful…”

    “Happy Anniversary,” he said.

    She looked at him confused, “But our anniversary is not until next week.”

    He smiled, “I know. I wanted to give you an early present.”

    “So this is why you’re in such a good mood!” She pursed her lips and punched him on the shoulder. “You’re so devious!” ”

    He laughed. “Here, let me help put it on you.”

    She handed him the box and he took the necklace out. She lifted her long, black hair up and he placed the necklace around her small neck. After he finished, she let go of her hair. Cecilia touched the heart necklace and felt the smooth diamonds on her fingers tips. She smiled happily.

    Kai saw her face glowed and complimented, “Cici, it looks beautiful on you.”

    Then she pouted. “I feel bad that I didn’t get anything for you.”

    He thought for a second and then he had an idea. “I know what you can give me,” he said teasingly.

    She grinned, “What?”

    “A kiss!”

    She thought about it and nodded, “Alright.”

    Happy and excited for the kiss, he puckered up and closed his eyes. She leaned forward to his lips; then with quickness, she kissed him on the cheek instead. Surprised, he opened his eyes and looked at her in disappointment.

    “Hey! That’s not where I wanted!”

    She laughed at him, “You didn’t specify where.”

    “For that, I am going to tickle you until I get it then!” He began to tickle on her sides. She laughed so hard that she fell on the sofa cushion along with Kai. He was on top of her and stopped tickling her. They gazed into each other’s eyes as if they were hypnotized. His fingers stroked through her silky hair, loving how it felt between his fingers.

    Then he whispered, “I love you Cici.” His eyes sparkled when he said those words and she knew that he meant it from his heart. Her heart fluttered and replied, “I love you too Kai.”

    He slowly leaned forward and passionately kissed her on the lips. While kissing, he carefully laid his body on top of hers until their bodies became so close that they could hear each other’s heartbeats. He smelled the rosy scent on her and started to move his lips down to her chin. He kissed it, making her enjoyed his sensual pleasure. Then he slowly made his way to her right neck and found where the strong rosy scent was. He kissed it and then licked the area to taste it. She loved the way how it felt; but was ticklish and she started to giggle. He pulled his lips away from her neck and giggled with her. Then he made his way back to her lips and kissed her more.

    Kai slowly pulled his lips away and leaned his forehead to hers, so their noses could touch. He stared at her as his hands touched her head, stroking her hair. Both of them smiled at each other and then he whispered softly, “Stay alive for us,” he said.
    As a secret agent, the person never knew if he/she would make it out alive from a mission. For Kai and Cecilia to make it thus far was a miracle because of those encouragement words. One has to stay alive for the other no matter what the circumstances were until the end. They also had made a promised that if one did died, the other have to move on with his/her life until it was the person’s last breath on earth. Life was too precious to be wasted when grieved.

    She smiled and nodded. He kissed her again on the lips and then laid his head on her chest. She held him in her arm as he listened to her heart beat. Cecilia stroked his short, black hair and felt them poked her fingers. She let out a sigh and thought about the mission.

    “After this mission, let’s move somewhere far away from here.”

    He knew that she was tired of this kind of work. Although the work was full of hardcore action and high adrenaline rush that they loved to experience, both were also afraid of losing each other. There were times when one of them would be seriously injured from the missions-getting beaten, shot at, and stabbed multiple of times, but survived. Out of all the missions that they had encountered, there was one particular mission that scared them the most; it was also their last.

    It was on a cold, winter night in a secluded place out in Moscow, Russia. They were assigned to assassinate a Russian terrorist group before a missile was launched. During their assassination attempt, they were captured and detained in a secret base.

    Kai hung from the ceiling by his feet, with heavy chains wrapped tightly all over his body. Underneath him, was water that was in subzero temperature. His face was barely unrecognized from all of the beatings-eyes swollen shut that he could barely see Cecilia, and blood gushing out of wounds from his nose, head, and mouth. A few feet away from him was Cecilia, hanging by the arms above on land. Cecilia wasn’t beaten as badly as he was, but was shot on the shoulder.

    The leading terrorist, Vadim Kubyshkin, came over to Cecilia and grabbed her jaw with his large fingers, pressing her cheeks inward. He stared in rage at her with his bulging eyes. “It’s time to payback for what you have destroyed!”

    Then he gave her a lustful smile and she knew what he was going to do next. She tried to struggle free from his grip. “The more you struggle, the more I’m going to make sure you get ****ed hard by me and my men!” he threatened. His men started to laugh and whistle in the background.

    She decided to stop struggling and he let go of her cheeks. “Good girl, now give this daddy a kiss.”

    She spat on him on his face and his men became silent in disbelief. Vadim got upset. “You *****!” and punched her hard on the stomach.

    She gasped in excruciating pain and coughed. Then he grabbed her hair close to her scalp hard, feeling the roots being pulled out as she yelped in pain. He turned Cecilia’s head toward Kai and taunted him.

    “Your girlfriend smells so sweet…” and licked her neck up to her face. She was too weak to fight back and limped there.
    Enraged, Kai struggled around like a dangling fish to get free, so he could come and help Cecilia. He threatened, “I’m going to kill you!”

    They laughed at his little threat. Vadim replied to him, “By the time I **** your girlfriend, you’re already dead.” Then he ordered his men, “Release the rope!”

    The rope that held Kai from the ceiling was released and his body plunged into the frigid waters. Cecilia yelled his name in horror and started to struggle to get free again. The boss grabbed her shirt and tore it off, exposing her blood soaked bra. Then he groped her breast hard, licking and sucking her neck and bloody chest like a wolf devouring its prey. His men got excited and walked closer to them, wanting a piece of her meat for themselves as well.

    Meanwhile, Kai struggled to get free from the frigid waters. The heavy chains were too strong for his body to get out. Then his body started to numb from the cold…and then air. He started to panic and tried to gasp some air, but all that entered in his body was cold water-Gulping it down one mouthful…and another. This was the end. This was the last that he would see Cecilia-her smile, her kiss, her warm body next to his…He took his last breath and his body stood silently as the heavy chains dragged him deeper into the abyss.

    Suddenly a hand grabbed onto his body and tried to pull him up. His body moved upward to the familiar face; it was Cecilia. She pulled him up close to her bare shoulders and held onto him. She fought with all of her strength to swim up to the surface as the heavy chains tried to drag the both of them down. Finally, they reached to the surface and she gasped for air. Quickly she pushed Kai’s cold body out of the water and onto the cemented floor. Then she got out and leaned close to him.

    Kai’s face was blue and she began to worry. She cried out, “Don’t you dare leave me, YOU HEAR!”

    She started to blow air into his mouth and thrusting his chest numerous of times while tears strolled down her face. Her tears dropped into his mouth while she blew air and it dropped onto his icy cold body while she thrust down his chest. She did this for a while but realized that it was too late. He was dead and her heart sank in dismay.

    “KAI!!!!” and him tightly, crying and burying her face in his.

    Seconds later, Kai’s face started to turn to a peach color and then his fingers started to move. He began to cough out water from his mouth and nose. Cecilia felt his movement and lifted her head up to be in total shocked. He was alive! Full of joy, she quickly hugged him as tears strolled down her cheeks. Her hug was so tight that he didn’t have air to breath.

    “I thought I lost you,” she cried happily.

    He coughed out more water. “I thought I would never see you again,” and smiled.

    Kai raised his hand to her cheek and wiped her tears. Then she leaned toward him and kissed him on the lips. They could feel their warm breaths as they exchanged air and their warm tongues as it touched. Their cold bodies were now warmed from the kiss. CCIA-Black Ops Force finally found them and saw dead bodies everywhere. They helped Kai and Cecilia up and gave them warm blankets to cover their bodies.


    Now that they took another mission because of the lump sum of money, they wanted to make sure they disappeared for good. No more hounding down from Cho San and his men, CCIA, and Black Ops Force. There was going to be only Cecilia and Kai, living peacefully from the chaotic world forever.
    Last edited by skoo78; 06-15-14 at 08:48 AM.

  6. #6
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default CHAPTER 4: UNFORGETTABLE NIGHTS

    Up in the puffy white clouds, Cecilia flew gracefully like a heavenly fairy as her white, long dress trailed behind by the wind. She giggled like a child as the coolness of the wind as it blew on her face. Up ahead, the clouds started to move to the sides, revealing a mystical paradise. It had gigantic mountain peaks covered with green foliage, and numerous of waterfalls that poured out from the center of the mountains’ mouths, like clouds, into the deep blue sea. As she got closer, she saw transparent plants and flowers that glowed neon colors. It wasn’t like any other scenery that she had seen before. It was more. It was magical.

    She landed on the paradise and felt the soft green grass underneath her bare feet. Excited, Cecilia ran through a field full of beautiful transparent flowers, laughing and twirling around with her white dress. Blue butterflies started to fly around her and she became amused by its friendly welcome gestures. One of the butterflies landed on her hand and felt it tickled in her palm, making her giggled.


    Suddenly, everything that was once beautiful faded into darkness. In seconds, plants and flowers around her started to wither away, waterfalls poured out thick blood, butterflies vanished into thin air, and the animals around the valley morphed into horrific demons. Their teeth became razor sharped and their pupils turned blood red.


    From distant, shadowy figures lurked from the dark forest. They stared intensively at her with their glowing red eyes, making her feel very uncomfortable and scared. She turned around and tried to fly, but her body wouldn’t let her. It grounded her on land, making sure she cannot escape. Then she heard an evil laugh from behind her. It got louder…and louder…as if it was right beside her. She panicked and covered her ears tightly with her hands so she couldn’t hear it, but it was too late. The evil laugh had already embedded into her mind. All of a sudden, the mystical paradise disappeared underneath her feet and she started to fall into the dark abyss, screaming in horror.


    She quickly woke up, screaming from the top of her lungs and breathed heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Then she looked around and realized that she was in her dark bedroom. Relieved, she let out a sigh, realizing that it was only a dream. It had been a long time that she had nightmares, so why now? She shivered from the thought of it and quickly got up to put on her robe.

    ---

    In Kai’s place, he was awaken by the doorbell and forced himself to get up from his bed. He stood up and yawned, while stretching his arms. Kai looked at the clock and saw that it was only three o’clock in the morning.
    The doorbell rang again. “I’m coming!” he shouted being annoyed by it.
    He dragged his tiring body to the door and opened it. To his surprise, he saw Cecilia stood there, dressed in her white cotton robe and trembled in fear. Worried, he helped guide her inside to his place. Kai closed the door and as he turned around to face her, she had already hugged him. Her hug was so tight that he felt her body shaken in him. He wrapped his arm around her and stroked her back to comfort her.

    ---

    She lied next to him on his bed, staring at the bright stars from his opened window. Kai held her in his arms and pondered of a similar scene from their childhood years.

    In the orphanage one night, he felt something pressed down next to him on the bed as he was sleeping. His little body started to tremble in fear, thinking that it may be a ghost. He wanted to sneak a peek at it, but was too afraid that it may stare back, grinning at him. Then a familiar floral fragrance filled the air around him and he knew who it was. Cecilia. He opened his eyes and saw her tiny, silhouette body asleep next to his. Relieved, his body tension lessened; but at the same time, he was puzzled by her strange behavior. He didn’t want to wake her up, so he let her slept next to him through the night.


    The next morning, the boys saw them sleeping on the same bed and they didn’t dare to question them. After she left, they gathered around Kai and told him about her strange behavior. They told him about a boy who came into the orphanage a month ago prior to his arrival. He didn’t have a name, so they called him ‘Nameless’ and became Cecilia’s Gege.


    One day, there was a ruthless boy who came into the orphanage and started trouble with all of the children. On one fatal afternoon, she and Nameless snuck up to the roof to eat some candies that they had stolen from the staff lounge. They met the bully there and he started trouble with them. He stole their candies and started to call them names. Then the bully pushed Cecilia and she fell to the ground, scraping her knees and cried in pain. Nameless got upset. He ran up to the bully and tussled with him. Since the bully was a bigger boy, he pushed Nameless away from him and he staggered backwards uncontrollably. Then Nameless’s small body fell off the cement rail and plunged to his death.


    Nobody knew what happened next, but all they knew was that the bully was hospitalized after the incident. The staff and police questioned her about it, but she was too shocked and couldn’t remember what happened. At the end, they could only rule it as an accident.


    After the incident, it was hard for her to go to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in terror, waking everyone up in the girl’s unit. There were many times when she snuck out of the unit to go sleep on Nameless’s empty bed as if he was still there to comfort her.


    As months went by, her nightmares lessened and so were her nights, sleeping next to Kai. Although he missed her presence, he was happy that she was healing inside from the trauma. That was what he wanted for her anyway; to get better. If she was happy, he was also happy.


    Tonight, he was surprised that she had nightmares again and wondered what triggered it this time. He snuggled closed to her to get comfortable. “Do you remember when we were young; you would come to my bed and sleep? It was the only way that you felt safe and protected,” he explained.
    T
    hose were the good old days. Just like ‘Nameless’, Kai was like her Gege who took care of her. He protected her, never judged her, and never asked questions. He made her forget her grief, her guilt, and her night terrors. Her eyes started to get heavy and yawned. The next thing he heard was her breathing heavily. She had fallen asleep and he smiled.

    He leaned close to her ear and softly whispered, “When we’re married, I will promise to protect you with all my life. Then you won’t have any more nightmares…my lovely Cici.” He kissed her on the back of her head and continued to cuddle her until he fell asleep also.

    ---

    The day of the Mission.

    It was a clear night at Mystic Mountain. Only billions of stars shone in replaced of the moon to be its light. Tsui Man and five of his men stood outside in front of the forest, waiting for the other parties to show up. A couple of minutes later, they heard faint footsteps and turned to see Alex Wong and his five men walked toward them. Comparing to him and his men’s outfits-black muscle shirts and camouflaged pants, Alex Wong and his men all wore expensive suits as if they were going on a business trip. The most ridiculous thing was that out of all the men, Alex Wong stood out the most, wearing his bright white suit. Tsui Man placed his hands on his hips and scoffed by their outfits. He felt like he was working with bunch of newbies that needed to be taught.

    “Tsui Man, you must have waited for a while,” Alex Wong said as he and his men stopped in front of them.

    Tsui Man smirked, “Let’s cut to the chase. Where is my money?”

    Alex waved his hand to signal one of his men to come forth. The man came up to the front with a black leather suitcase and opened it to reveal millions of dollars in cash in front of Tsui Man. Tsui Man’s face lightened of excitement from the amount of money in front of him. The man closed the suitcase and handed it to him. Tsui Man took it and gave it to one of his men.

    “Alright, now that’s done. Let’s go in shall we?” said Alex Wong.
    Alex Wong and his men started to enter into the forest, but Tsui Man stopped them. “Wait, don’t rush in there too quickly. You may need these.”

    One of his men handed Tsui Man a night vision goggle. It looked like a pair of small binoculars that had a band wrapped around it to secure it in place. “We need to see in the dark, and at the same time, be invisible for the cops…” Alex Wong thought that was a genius idea and happily nodded.

    Then Tsui Man stared down at Alex Wong’s expensive white suit. “I suggest that you change also. You will attract the cops with that fancy outfit of yours.”

    Alex Wong put his hands on his hips and scoffed upsettingly. He thought about what Tsui Man said, and then stared at one of his men. “Give me your clothes.” His man didn’t hesitate and did as he was ordered.

    After the exchanged of clothing and putting on their night vision goggles, they were ready to enter into the forest. They stepped inside, and a gust of wind blew at their face as if the forest was angry at them for disturbing the peace. They weren’t bothered by it and continued to move inward.

    Tsui Man was curious of Alex Wong’s agenda. All he knew was that Alex Wong came to him for help. “Tell me, what so interesting about this pillar and cave s**t?”

    Alex Wong smirked, “As an antique collector, I have stolen many old scriptures. There was a scripture that talked about this Mountain thousands of years ago. It said that this place holds mystical places to different dimensions and the pillar is a gateway to it. So if I get my hands on that pillar, I can travel to other dimensions as pleased.”

    Hearing his ridiculous reason, Tsui Man started to laugh out loud. “You are full of s**t do you know that?”

    Alex Wong huffed angrily and pulled out his gun to aim at him. Both of their men pulled out theirs also and aimed at each other. Alex Wong stared dead straight at Tsui Man with his cold eyes and Tsui Man knew this crazy fool was serious.

    “Dare to laugh at me again s**thead? Just remember who have the upper hand around here,” warned Alex Wong.
    Tsui Man huffed angrily and replied coldly, “Just remember this too. I am your source of getting what you want. If you kill me and my men, then you get nothing.”

    Alex chuckled and nodded. “This is what I like about you Tsui Man. You fear nothing.” He lowered his gun down and the rest of the men did the same also. Then he continued, “If I didn’t have to worry about these s**tty cops, I wouldn’t need you. But since I know this is going to be big, I do.” They continued to walk through the dark forest.

    Tsui Man wanted to know more about his fairytale. “So, what are you trying to achieve with this then?”

    Alex Wong smirked. “Fortune and Power.”

    Tsui Man raised a brow. Alex Wong saw his confused look and smirked. “Just imagine the endless possibilities…selling it to the highest bidder or go and rule other dimensions…” He grabbed something underneath his shirt and pulled out a necklace. On the necklace was a circular pendant made out of the purest green gemstone, and carved on it was the celtic diamond-shaped symbol. “I stole this pendant five years ago at Mu Gala. According to the scripture, this pendant was Princess Ru Lan’s of the Celestial Realm. If I am correct, this little thing is the key to that dimension and more.” he explained excitingly.

    Tsui Man contained his laughter by not wanting to upset the crazy fool, so he nodded instead. He didn’t really care what Alex Wong’s purpose was, but he knew that the pendant was a rare piece of jewelry that may worth a fortune and he would love to get his hands on.

    ---

    At the excavation site, twenty mixtures of CCIA agents and police officers guarded the whole premises, making it impossible for anyone to enter in. A bomb went off two yards away from the excavation site, alarming the officers and agents. Some of them ran to check it out while others stayed behind. Then another bomb went off on the opposite side and more ran to check it out, leaving a few of them to guard the site.

    One of the officers scoped around the area when suddenly, a bullet pierced through his forehead, killing him instantly. His body dropped to the ground, alarming the other officers and agents. They quickly raised their guns to aim at the dark forest and saw nothing. Suddenly, a couple more bullets came out of the dark and shot two more officers dead. The other agents ran for cover and tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. They started to shoot in the dark in hoping that they hit the person, and then they paused. From the distance, they heard gun shots fired and their colleagues’ dying cries; they knew that they were ambushed.

    One of the Agents that hid behind a tree yelled out to the dark forest, “COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF!”

    Suddenly, the agents heard footsteps coming out of the forest, crushing the dead leaves and twigs as the person made his way toward them. The agents came out of their hiding place with their guns aimed at the person. It turned out to be Alex Wong. He walked calmly toward them and took off the night vision goggle.

    They saw that he had a gun in his hand. One of them yelled, “Drop your weapon and put your hands up!”

    Alex Wong smiled and did as he was told. He dropped his gun onto the ground and put his hands up for them to see. As the agents got closer to him to make an arrest, out of the blues, shots were fired from the dark. Bullets went through the agents’ bodies, killing all of them on site. Alex Wong snickered at the dead bodies on the ground and thought that it was too easy. His men came out of the dark with their night vision goggles and guns in their hands.

    Seconds later, Tsui Man and his men ran out of the dark forest toward them after killing the others and took off their night visions as well. Tsui Man saw dead bodies on the ground and turned to Alex Wong. Impressed, he clapped his hands sarcastically, “Not bad.”

    Alex Wong smirked and then they turned to look at the excavation site. They were amazed by its massive size. The cave was nine feet high and ten feet wide. The team of archaeologists had done a great job in digging that the cave and the pillar were fully exposed from the ground up. Excited, Alex Wong ran to touch the pillar and felt the rough sand texture.

    “This is amazing!”

    Tsui Man walked toward the pillar and looked at the carving. “Do you know what these shapes mean?”

    “No. All I know is that it’s not from this dimension,” he answered.

    Alex Wong took off his the necklace around his neck and felt the pendant’s smooth gemstone against his hands. He compared the two symbols from the pillar and the pendant and saw its similarities; he began to laugh excitingly.

    Tsui Man looked around and asked, “So, where’s your portal then?”

    Alex Wong stared at Tsui Man and smiled, “Inside.”

    They each took out their flashlight from their belts and turned it on. Tsui Man turned to his men, “Keep a watch outside while we go in.”

    “Yes boss.”

    Tsui Man’s men watched as their boss and the others’ bodies engulfed by the cave’s darkness. Suddenly, they heard deadly echoed cries inside followed by some shots fired. Out came Tsui Man and Alex Wong from the cave, stumbling backwards as if they were hit. Both men fell onto the ground and the pendant was dropped close to Tsui Man. He saw the pendant and quickly turned to see if Alex Wong noticed it. Alex Wong was still busy trying to get up, so he quickly grabbed the pendant and put it inside his back pants pocket.

    From the dark cave, came out Kai and Cecilia. They stood cool with their cornered lips curled up. Tsui Man recognized them and grinned, “So it’s the love birds, Yang Kai Li and Cecilia Lin.”

    Alex Wong was surprised to hear Tsui Man knew their names and turned to look at him, “You know them?”

    Tsui Man nodded, “I use to work for the Black Ops so I know everything.”

    Alex Wong thought about his pendant and searched his neck area. He started to panic. “My pendant! Where is it?!” He started to search around on the ground like a mad man while Tsui Man secretly smirked at him.

    Kai and Cecilia glanced at Alex Wong strangely, wondering what this ‘pendant’ that he was desperately tried to find. Enraged, Alex Wong stopped searching, pulled out his gun, and shot at Kai and Cecilia. They dodged the bullets in time and quickly pulled out their guns and shot back at them multiple of times. Tsui Man, Alex Wong, and two of Tsui Man’s men dodged the bullets, but the other three men weren’t as lucky. The bullets had pierced through their head and chest areas, killing them instantly. All of them ran for cover and exchanged gunshots through the night until there were no more bullets left.

    Tsui Man took out a small bomb that he made and threw it at them. They saw what it was and quickly dodged it, but the bomb exploded in mid air, forcing Kai and Cecilia to fly a couple more feet away. They landed hard onto the ground and became dazed by the explosion. Kai got up, but Tsui Man was already in front of him. He punched Kai’s stomach a few times and then threw a side hard punched to the right cheek. Kai staggered backwards and met Tsui Man’s other two men. The men teamed up with Tsui Man and continued to fight with him.

    Meanwhile, Cecilia and Alex Wong exchanged fist fights. Alex Wong swung a couple of punches at her but she swiftly dodged them. Then she punched his abdominal followed by an upper cut to the chin. Alex Wong flew backward and hit the ground. He became dazed by the blow and shook his head to refocus. As he got up, small tint of blood was on his cornered lip so he wiped it with his thumb.

    Upset, he charged toward her. They exchanged more punches and kicks, bruising each other along the way. Then he secretly pulled out a big pocket knife from his back pocket belt and slashed her side arm. It started to bleed but that didn’t stop her. She ignored the pain and continued to dodge his knife strokes. He tried to stab her in front, but she grabbed a hold of his wrist and hit his chest area a couple of times. Weakened by her hits, she finally grabbed the knife from his hand and slit his throat. Blood started to ooze down as he gasped for breath. Then she ended it by stabbing him on the stomach with his own knife. He fell to the ground dead.

    Cecilia saw that Kai was still fighting with the three men and ran to join the fight. She jump kicked one of the men from the back and he fell uncontrollably to the ground. She helped Kai fought one of the men while he fought with Tsui Man and the other.

    As Kai was fighting with them, Tsui Man took out his huge knife that hung from his side belt and slashed Kai on his collar bone and chest area. Tsui Man then tried to stab him, but Kai got a hold of the knife and knocked it out of his hand. The knife dropped to the ground and then Kai did a couple of combo hits on Tsui Man’s chest area, forcing him to stagger backwards. The other man charged at Kai, so he quickly picked up the knife from the ground and threw it like a dagger. It flew with great speed and protruded into the man’s chest. He fell to the ground and died instantly.

    Cecilia was punched a couple of times on the face and body by the man and fell to the ground. As she was trying to get up, he picked her up by the neck and lifted her tiny body off the ground. Losing air circulation, she tried to pull his fingers out from her neck but his grip was too strong. Then she gave a hard kicked to his groin area and he instantly let her go. She fell to the ground gasping for air while the man held onto his groin in pain. She saw that this was her opportunity to kill him, so she quickly ran behind him and wrapped her arm around his neck in a lock position. She tightly squeezed his neck with her arm and the man started to lose air circulation. He raised his arms to try to grab her but couldn’t, and his vision started to blur. She then yanked her arms to the side hard and heard a ‘SNAP’. His neck broke and died.

    Cecilia let go of the dead man and was sore and exhausted. She turned to see that Kai was getting beaten badly by Tsui Man so she ran to help him. She intervened and started to fight with Tsui Man while Kai recuperated for a bit. Tsui Man finally kicked her and she flew, hitting the pillar. She bounced off of it and was on the ground, bleeding from the mouth by the hard impact. Kai saw that she was injured and charged toward Tsui Man. Although Cecilia was seriously injured, she got up and ran to join the fight.

    All three of them got into a lock position, unwillingly to release each other’s grip. Suddenly, the hieroglyphic writings from the pillar glowed a bright, white light, and where the celtic, diamond-shaped symbol was, it glowed a bright green light. They turned and stared at the bright lights frozen in awed. The lights became so bright that they began to squint their eyes. Then their bodies started to shine as bright as the lights until no outline of their human form were left to see. A couple of seconds later, the lights disappeared and everything was back to normal. However, the three of them had disappeared.

  7. #7
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default CHAPTER 5: ANOTHER WORLD ANOTHER TIME

    White clouds hovered slowly across the blue sky like floating cottons in the Valley of Mystic River. This river ran southward to all kingdoms, becoming one of the largest and deepest channels. It has a massive waterfall that was more than five hundred feet drop. Mortals called it, Mystic Falls that was knowingly by its enchanted beauty and destruction. Its clouded mists soared from the bottom like heaven, yet lied hidden beneath were deadly rocks, making it hard for anyone to survive if fallen. In the horizon, heavenly mountains filled the whole valley’s background like a huge painted canvas, making it breathtaking to be viewed. Different wildlife of species ruled this valley. Some were unknown and hidden in the eyes of Mortals for they do not want to be found, while other were friendly or curious lurkers when saw an unfamiliar face.

    Up in the blue sky, it sliced opened by an invisible sharped object. A bright beam of light shone down at the raging river and spat Cecilia, Kai, and Tsui Man out into the Earth’s surface. At the same time, a huge surge of invisible energy shot across the blue sky. It was so powerful that the clouds moved away from the area with great momentum. The light disappeared and the opened sky mended itself closed.

    The three of them splashed into the raging river and struggled as they swam to fight the current, but it was useless. Their tiny bodies meant nothing to the massive river, so it took them wherever it wanted them to go. Since Tsui Man was closer to the shore, he saw a dead tree laying at the edge of the river and quickly swam with all of his strength toward it. He grabbed a hold of the end of its trunk with one of his hands right before he passed it, and pulled his heavy body towards it. Finally, his body got close to the trunk and he quickly hugged it tightly with his dear life.

    As for Kai and Cecilia, they were in the middle of the river, so their percentage in being saved was slimmer. Up ahead, they saw the huge waterfall and knew that they were in deep trouble. Their anxiety amped up and they started to panic.

    Kai tried to find Cecilia in fear that I may be the last time he would see her; however, splashes of water kept covering his face repeatedly, forbidding him to reach her. Minutes later, the raging river threw them off the edge of the earth. It was a long drop, but it felt like seconds as they splashed into the water beneath them.
    Underneath, Cecilia’s right side of the head hit hard on a sharped rock and opened a huge gash. Blood spurted out from her side head and mixed with water, creating a red trail with the current. She lost consciousness and the current swept her unmoving body away.
    Kai survived the ordeal and slowly swam to shore. He pulled his drenched body out of water, and helplessly plopped onto the earth soil as he tried to catch his breath. He could smell the moist from the green grass and was relieved that he survived. Exhausted and weak, his vision began to blur and slowly slipped into unconsciousness as well.

    ---


    At the Black Forest of Wu Mountain, there was a tiny, yet long piece of red string tied from tree-to-tree all across the entrance of the forest. It acted as a fence barrier to forewarn anyone who stepped into its forbidden territory. It extended miles away through the vast forest, so wherever the forest stopped, that was where the red string would end also.

    Up in the sky, the invisible surge of energy traveled to Black Forest and instantly broke the red string. Massive amount of demons in forms of different colors of ball trailed-smokes shot outward from the forest in every direction like missiles and disappeared.

    A middle-aged man in fine red and gold clothing, along with his cohort of warriors, flew in front of the Black Forest and started to cast the “Wu Sealing Spell” on it. They did a hand scrutinized formation and out came a glowing yellow light along with a circular shaped seal from their hands. Inside the circle, it was divided into eighths and in each section were different strange-looking symbols. The seal expanded as it came out from their hands and blanketed the forest to trap the remaining demons. It was a struggle at first between them and the demons, but a couple minutes later, the forest was resealed again and the broken red string snapped together like magnets. Everything was back to normal, but puzzled faces grew among the group as they tried to figure out what just happened.

    A broad shouldered man with scruffy beard walked toward the middle-aged man. “Your Majesty, what caused the string to break?”

    The middle-aged man, Wen Jian Tao, was the King of the Wu Tribe in Zu Mountain. He wore the Wu crown made of gold that wrapped around his head to secure his long black hair, framing his squared face. In the middle of the crown, was the Wu’s tribal symbol of two red swirls that vertically mirrored the opposite from each other.

    He has two trusted Chiefs that helped him run the Wu tribe. One was his blood cousin, Chief Wen He Ping, a very loyal and dedicated man in his early forties that oversaw the Wu people’s well beings. The other one was Chief Li Kang -the broad shouldered man with the scruffy beard. He was a loyal and ambitious man in his late forties that oversaw the Wu warriors and borders of Black Forest.

    Jian Tao replied, “I don’t know. But whatever it was, I am afraid that most of the Demons had escaped from the Black Forest. Priest Grandmaster Huang will need to be informed about this.”

    Jian Tao turned to his Chiefs and ordered, “Chief Wen, I want you to go check on the Demon Realm’s Seal and report it to me. I also want you to gather a couple of men and come with me to Mount Songgao.”

    Chief Wen bowed his head, “Yes.”

    Then He turned to Chief Li and continued his order, “Chief Li, I want you and the Wu warriors to guard the border of Black Forest while we are gone.”

    Chief Li bowed his head also, “Yes.”

    Jian Tao patted them on the shoulders and the Chiefs and the Wu warriors quickly walked back to the Wu tribe to prepare the orders. Jian Tao stood silently as he looked at Black Forest and pondered, “What would be that powerful to break the red string?”

    It took ten years to finally capture every demons trapped in the Mortal Realm for the Realm to become peaceful again. Now that most of the demons had escaped, it was unknown if among, were some of the strongest and most powerful ones. He started to get worried, knowing that this was going to be another chaotic time for mortals again. He let out a big sigh and slowly paced himself back into the black forest to Wu Tribe.

    ---

    Inside the secluded and hidden place of the Black Forest, Chief Wen stood in front of the thick vines that were filled with thorns and poisonous snakes. He waved his hands sideways at the area; the snakes slithered away quickly while the thorny vines opened like curtains to welcome him. He walked inside the area and the thorny curtains closed behind. Chief Wen reached to a dark area where there was no plant or animal life anywhere. There were only tall dead trees that looked like creepy creatures and dirt that was dark as night. It reminded him of how Demon Realm may have looked like from the stories that he had heard as a child-a place only cold and darkness existed. There was no life or rules. Death and sorrow was all that was there, making it one of the most tortured realms of all.

    He finally reached to a lake that was filled with blood-like waters. They called this lake, “Bloody Devil Lake” because of its color and like the Demon Realm, there was no existence of life in the water also. As he got closer, a cold gust of wind blew onto his face and his hairs on his skin rose. Bravely, he focused on his task to now let fear take over him.

    To see the Demon Realm’s portal, Chief Wen used the “Wu Eye Enhancement Spell” to open the hidden spiritual realm. When activated, he looked down at the Bloody Lake and saw the invisible portal. It was a circular-shaped sealed that had a gold-glowing light over it. He looked closely at the seal, observing to see if he found anything unusual. There was nothing odd from his observation, so he deactivated the spell and left the area to go back to Wu tribe.

    Underneath the sealed portal revealed a small and well hidden crack that he had missed.

    ---

    In the Wu palace bedroom, Jian Tao was getting ready for his departure. His queen, Fan Li Hua, walked in and saw him putting on his common robe. She was a woman in her late thirties, but looked far younger. Beautiful as a peony flower, she walked elegantly by taking small strides as her long red robe trailed on the ground behind her.

    She came toward him and fixed his clothes to make sure he looked presentable to his people. He stared at her and smiled warmly while he stroked her soft porcelain cheek lightly with his fingers. She finished his clothes and raised her hands to grab his, feeling his warm flesh against her cheek one last time before he departed.

    “Be safe out there my king,” she said.

    He pulled her close to his chest and held her in his arms. He could smell her sweet mixture of floral fragrance from her body and already, he missed her. He held her even tighter as he kissed her on the forehead and replied, “I will, my love. Watch our people while I’m gone.” She smiled and nodded.

    ---

    In the front of the palace, the Wu warriors and Chiefs stood patiently with the four horses. Jian Tao and Li Hua came out of the palace and were greeted by their men. Chief Wen walked in front of Jian Tao and bowed his head to report.

    “Your Majesty, I didn’t see any signs of the Demon Realm’s seal being disturbed.”
    Jian Tao nodded in relief. “That’s good news then. Let’s not waste any more time now.”

    “Yes,” said Chief Wen. He turned to his side and extended his arms to direct his King down the steps to his horse.

    Jian Tao turned to Li Hua and bid his farewell. Everyone bowed their heads and wished their king a safe journey. Then he walked with Chief Yao to join with the other two guards and rode off to Mount Songgao.
    Last edited by skoo78; 07-02-14 at 09:14 AM.

  8. #8
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default

    Hi everyone. I do not know if anybody is reading my story but if you are, kudos for you my silent readers. I've decided to post two of my characters that I've drawn on here just to give all of you a look of how my characters look like. The two are my Wu Tribe King and Queen-King Wu Jian Tao and Queen Fan Li Hua. I'm not the best at shading (still learning) so enjoy.

    Attachment 9772
    or you can check it at http://skoo78.blogspot.com/2014/06/dfefa.html since I do not know how to upload it on here.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by skoo78; 06-15-14 at 10:07 PM.

  9. #9
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    Default CHAPTER 6: MYSTERIOUS BEAUTIFUL STAR

    CHAPTER 6: MYSTERIOUS BEAUTIFUL STAR

    “Stay alive for us…”


    Cecilia woke up from hearing Kai’s voice. She tried to sit up on the bed, but was dizzy and plopped back down again. It took her a couple more tries until she finally sat up. She inspected the room and founded herself in an unfamiliar setting. The room was small and didn’t have much-only a wooden square table with four long rectangular chairs placed on each side, on the opposite corner were a couple of big wooden chests placed neatly against the wall, next to it was a blue blanket that covered the doorway, a window made out of squared rice paper, and the hard bed that she was on.

    Then she started to have migraines. It felt like someone had taken a hammer and pounded hard on her head. She touched her right side of the head and felt a sharp pain. She yelped, and at the same time, felt a cloth wrapped around it.

    Confused, she pondered, “What happen to me?”

    Suddenly, a young man entered through the blanketed door carrying a tray with a small bowl on it. He saw her sitting up on the bed, “You’re finally awake,” and smiled.

    Her eyes fixated on him, trying to figure who he was. The men looked as if he was in his early 20’s, slim body, and have an elongated face with sharped cheekbones. His black hair tied highly up into a bun and as for his clothes, he wore a brown rugged shirt tied with a black sash, and black pants.

    “Where am I?” she asked.

    He walked to the table and placed the tray there.

    “You’re in the Yu residence of Chu Kingdom.” Then he picked up the small bowl and carefully walked toward her.

    Her brow raised, “Chu Kingdom?”

    She tried to recollect her thoughts, but her head hurts. The man sat next to her on the bed and handed her the bowl. “Here, drink this medicine while it’s still hot. It will minimize the headaches.”

    Cecilia glanced down at the bowl and then back at him, hesitant in taking the medicine. He saw that she was unwilling and understood.

    “I mean no harm, Miss.” He took a spoonful of medicine, blew to cool it down, and then sipped it to show her that he didn’t tamper it.

    “See?” and gave her a big, goofy grin.

    Cecilia searched deep into his umber eyes to see if she could find any faults in him, but there was none. He seemed harmless and took the bowl from him. She blew the medicine to cool it down and then sipped it. Her face scrunched up from the bitter taste.

    He saw her facial reaction and chuckled, “I guess you’re not the type that likes to drink medicine.”

    Then she did the unexpected. She placed the spoon down on the bed and forced herself to down the drink fast like a thirsty beast.

    He got worried, “Be careful, you may burn your mouth.”

    She ignored his warning and continued to drink from the bowl. Her mouth and throat burned as she took each gulp, but it was the only way she could taste the bitterness all at once. He was in awe to see a daring woman that would drank hot liquid down in seconds and didn’t retract. She handed it back to him and wiped her wet lips with her sleeves.

    She cleared her throat. “How did I get here?”

    “I found you unconscious nearby the shore and took you in,” he answered.

    Unconscious? She pondered.

    “My name is Yu Xing Fu. May I know your name Miss?”

    She was going to answer him, but somehow she couldn’t. Her mind was blanked and couldn’t figure out why. She looked at him in distraught.

    “Wh…why can’t I remember my name?”

    She began to panic and grabbed a hold of his right arm tightly with her hands. His cheeks flushed red and felt his body getting hot.

    In desperation, she demanded, “What’s my name?!”

    Xing Fu didn’t know what to do. “D…Don’t worry. Physician Wei will be coming here shortly to check up on you, ok?” That was all he could say to comfort her.

    He lightly grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her hands off of his arm, but her grip was too strong. She noticed what he was trying to do and immediately let him go.

    “I’m sorry…” she shied away.

    He shook his head and smiled, “It’s ok,” and rubbed his arm where she held.

    Then an old man entered in the Yu residence, carrying a wooden box full of medicine on his back. He looked around and saw no one.

    He stroked his grey beard and shouted, “Xing Fu, are you home? …Xing Fu!”

    Back in the bedroom, Xing Fu heard a familiar voice calling his name and got excited. He turned to Cecilia. “He’s here. Wait here while I go get him.” He quickly got up and walked out of the room.

    A few minutes later, Xing Fu came back in with the old man. She saw them and stared at the man to see if she recognized him, but nothing came to her mind.

    They stood at the side of the bed. “This is Wei Li Yi. He is the Mu Village’s physician. ”

    “It’s my pleasure to finally see you awake,” said Physician Wei.

    She gave a nod to acknowledge his presence. Xing Fu explained to Physician Wei of Cecilia’s situation and his eyes widened in surprised.

    Stroking his beard, he asked politely, “Miss, may I check your pulse please?”

    Cecilia didn’t hesitate and extended her arm. He placed his index and middle fingers on her wrist and focused on her pulse. Shocked by what he found, he quickly let go of her wrist and openly stared at her, wondering who she really is.

    His stare made her nervous and uncomfortable. She gulped and asked, “Is something wrong with me?”

    He brushed off the thought and answered, “Your injury to your head caused you to lose your memories. That is why you didn’t remember who you are,” he explained.

    Appalled by what she had just heard, she slumped against the wall. She felt pain from the impact but didn’t care. The pain actually made her felt relieved, knowing that she wasn’t dreaming all of this.

    Concerned, Xing Fu turned to Physician Wei, “There must be a way for her to regain her memories right?!”

    Physician Wei noticed that Xing Fu seemed to care a lot for the woman’s wellbeing and had a huge grin on his face. “There are some ways…” he paused for a second and then continued, “…One thing you can do is to take her around the kingdom to see if her memories triggered anything.”

    Xing Fu thought Physician Wei’s suggestion was brilliant and smiled excitingly. “I will do that!” Physician Wei laughed at Xing Fu’s enthusiasm and stroked his beard again.

    Then he looked at Cecilia. “Flashbacks of your memories will come to you unexpectedly, so my suggestion is for you to record it on paper if can. It may help you on your journey to recovery. I will come once in a while to check on your progress. Make sure you drink the medicine that Xing Fu provides for your headaches daily.”

    She nodded and thanked him for his help. Xing Fu happily escorted him out of his residence. While they were gone, Cecilia tried to recollect her thoughts again, trying to remember her name and how she got injured. Nothing came up in her mind, so she slammed her fist on the bed in frustration.

    “What happened to me?!”

    Xing Fu came back into the bedroom and saw her frustrated look. He walked and sat next to her.

    “Don’t worry, you will regain your memories again,” assured Xing Fu.

    She glanced at him and saw his warm smile. She relaxed and thought to herself, if he hadn’t found her on the shore, she would have been dead. She owed her life to him and slowly nodded.

    “Good. I have a pair of clothes for you to get changed in.” He quickly walked to one of the wooden chests and opened it. Xing Fu grabbed a yellow folded outfit out of the chest and walked back to hand it to her.

    “This was my late sister’s that I’ve kept. It’s never been worn by her. Take it”

    She took the outfit from his hand. “Thank you.”

    “I’m going to step outside so you can change. After you’re done, come out and eat.”

    He turned around and left the room. One by one, she unfolded parts of the outfit and was baffled by the design. The clothes looked unfamiliar to her, so she let out a big sigh.

    Thirty minutes later, she came out of the bedroom wearing the yellow outfit. From a distance, she saw Xing Fu setting the table with plates full of delicious meat and vegetables. She could smell the different aroma sauces that were used to prepare the food and was heavenly taken by it.

    Xing Fu glanced up and saw her stood across the room, wearing his sister’s outfit. The sunlight snuck through the opened windows and shone uupon her, illuminating her whole body. He stood frozen and speechless with the last plate of food in his hands, wondering if he had saved a heavenly fairy instead. He snapped back to reality and placed the plate on the table.

    He quickly walked toward her with a big smile on his face. “My sister’s outfit suits you well.”

    She shyly thanked him for his compliment. Xing Fu then escorted her to the dining table and had her sat down. She stared at the colorful food and her mouth started to water.

    “You’ve cooked all of this?”

    He proudly admitted, “Yes I did.”

    “It looks delicious,” she complimented.

    Then her stomach growled, loud enough for Xing Fu to hear. He chuckled and she felt a bit embarrassed.

    “I don’t blame your stomach for crying. You’ve been unconscious for a couple of days.”

    She was in disbelief for being unconscious that long. Xing Fu noticed she was bothered by it and changed the subject. “Let’s eat.”

    Each bite that she took from various dishes mesmerized her. The taste of herbal spices from the meat and the vegetable’s sweet sauce were delicious. Xing Fu watched her gobbled down each plate like nothing, and laughed slightly from her unlike lady behavior. As they ate, he kept glancing at her.

    She caught him staring, and with her full mouth of food, she asked, “What?”

    “I was wondering. I can’t call you ‘Miss’ all of the time, so how about giving you a name?”

    She swallowed her food. “What name do you have in mind?”

    Xing Fu started to think for a while, and then he got a name for her. “How about…XIAO in ‘Beautiful’ XING in ‘Star’…Xiao Xing. What do you think?”

    She thought about the name, “Xiao Xing…” then she nodded, “I like it.” She gave him a big smile, showing her teeth, and was happy to finally have a name.

    Xing Fu laughed joyfully, “Great!” He picked up some more vegetables from the dish with his chopsticks and put it in her rice bowl. “Here Xiao Xing, eat more.” She nodded and started to eat the vegetables that he had given her.

    ---

    Cecilia stood in the center of all-white scenery, wearing her ivory satin nightgown. All she saw around her were thick white fogs and wondered where she was. As she slowly paced through the fog, she looked around to try spotting anyone that might come to view, but there was no one. She was alone.

    Suddenly, images of her past memories projected from the fogs in front of her like a movie. She saw the time when Yang Kai Li kissed her on the cheeks, him putting the diamond necklace on her neck, them laying on each other’s shoulders, their passionate kiss, and his words “I love you”. However, in all of these images, their faces were blurred and unrecognizable for her to tell who they really were.

    Then the images abrupt in flames and she jumped in sudden fright. The deadly flames began to spread everywhere around her. Frightened and disoriented, she tried to find an exit but it was too late; she was trapped. Flames got closer… and closer…until it finally engulfed her by its fiery wrath. She shrieked in agonized pain as it crept its way inside of her, devouring her flesh and tissue organs
    .

    Cecilia woke up and quickly sat up on her bed, expelling in shuddered breath as a pool of sweat dripped down from her face and onto her clothes. She started to check her body for flames and found nothing. Relieved, she realized this was just a dream.

    ---

    The rooster crowed, alarming everyone of a new day. Xing Fu woke up and sat on his bed half dazed. He yawned and stretched his arm. Then he sensed something was on his bed and quickly glanced to his side to see Cecilia sleeping there. He jumped back and hit his body against the wall, covering his mouth with his hands, and tried not to scream. He was bewildered by her strange behavior, but at the same time, stared at how peaceful and cute she looked sleeping. Careful not to disturb her, he got off the bed. Upon success, he pulled the blanket up to cover her and grabbed his day clothes. As he headed out of his bedroom, he turned one last time to look at her and thought about his reaction a while ago. He thought it was funny and chuckled silently. Then he turned around and left the room.

    Hours later, Cecilia woke up from her peaceful slumber and looked around. There were more stuff in the room-painted pictures hung from the walls, more chests, a couple of bookshelves against the walls, and the on the bed, it was more decorative with white and blue cloths. She realized that she wasn’t in her room and panicked. She got out of bed and left the room in a hurry. As she opened the blanketed door, she recognized the parlor, relieved she was still in the Yu’s residence.

    Questions started to float in her head as she tried to figure out how she slept in Xing Fu’s room. Then she remembered her nightmare from last night and how she felt afraid. Cecilia concluded that she must have come into his room and slept there, knowing that she felt safer being with him, than alone in her own bedroom. Xing Fu entered in from outside and saw her stood there in silence. Cecilia turned and saw him at the doorway. In his hands, he held a basket full of different fresh herbs that he picked up.

    Embarrassed by the bed scene, she apologized. “I didn't mean to sleep in your room.”

    “Don’t worry about it. You have your reasons. Now go and get wash up. After that, I will dress your wounds.”

    She was surprised to see how nonjudgmental and calmed he was. She shyly nodded and walked straight to her room. Thirty minutes later, she came out and saw Xing Fu pounding the herbs he picked earlier with a pestle in a small, clayed mortar.

    He glanced up and saw her stood there and stopped pounding. “Come here and take a seat,” and continued to pound the herbs.

    She walked over and sat down next to him. The pungent smell from the herbs quickly stung her nose, so she leaned back and covered her nose with her hands.

    “I know the smell is strong, but it is very effective to treat open wounds like yours,” he said.

    “Are you also a physician as well?” she asked.

    He laughed and shook his head. “No. Physician Wei had taught me some surviving skills when young.”

    She became curious and wanted to know more about him. “Where’s your family?”

    He stopped pounding and thought for a bit about his life. He responded in a sad tone of voice, “They died from sickness…Physician Wei tried to save them, but there was nothing he could do.” He continued pounding the herbs while talking to her. “After my parents and sister died, he took me in and taught me basic medicine skills to survive.”

    “I’m sorry to hear of your losses, but why didn’t you stay with him in Mu Village?”

    He finished pounding the herbs and grabbed a cleaned white cloth from the side. He laid it flat on the table and started to scoop the mixed herbs on top of it.

    “I wanted to enjoy a simple life of being independent,” he answered while scraping the rest of the herbs from the mortar onto the cloth.

    She understood and respected his decision. Xing Fu finished and turned to her. “I wish I can ask you about your life, but due to your circumstances, I know you cannot.”

    She felt bad and sat silently with her head tilted down.

    “Don’t worry about it.” Then he pointed at her and stared straight into her hazel eyes. “That is why I’m going to help you regain your memories. Now, let me replace the old herbs from your head wound,” he said.

    She sat still while he came behind her. He carefully unrolled the cloth from her head. After it was off, he gasped. His eyes widened in shock and his body shuffled away a step or two from her.

    His voice trembled and stuttered to find words. “H…How c…could this be? Y…Your wound…”

    She saw Xing Fu’s face was white as a ghost and started to freak out. “You’re scaring me! What is it?”

    “Your wound…the stitches…are gone…”

    It was her first time feeling her bare wound so she raised her hand to touch the side of her head. She felt a long bump on her scalp and traced her fingers on it. There were no stitches and only a linear scar.

    Her brows rose in confusion and affirmed, “Are you sure that there were stitches in the first place?”

    His bobbled his head. “That day when I found you, your wound was opened and you had lost a lot of blood. Physician Wei came over and stitched your wound together. Since then, we’ve only applied herbs on it.” Then Xing Fu remembered her other wound and pointed at her arm. “You had a wound there also.”

    She looked down at her arm and touched it puzzling. She shook her head, “I didn’t recall any wound there. In fact, after yesterday, my body didn’t ache anymore…”

    “What about your headaches?”

    She shook her head again, “No…it’s gone”

    He looked dumbfounded and collapsed onto a nearby chair. He thought to himself, “How could somebody healed so quickly?”

    He couldn’t explain it and stared at her, trying to figure out the cause. Feeling uncomfortable, she looked down to avoid his eye contact.

    “Let’s go visit Physician Wei,” he said promptly.
    Last edited by skoo78; 08-22-14 at 04:59 PM. Reason: Just revising some errors. Nothing major changes of the story.

  10. #10
    Senior Member skoo78's Avatar
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    Default CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER

    CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER

    Mu Village was a place that had everything-from small vendors on the side streets, restaurants and inns for people to dine and stay, to different entertainments for the crowds to watch. Although it was a small village, visitors from different ethnicities loved to travel there to experience the leisure lifestyle and foremost, their infamous 10,000 years old wine from Plum Blossom Inn.

    Amazed by all of this, Cecilia pointed out little things shouting, “Look at that!” or “I can’t believe that!” to Xing Fu to see. She was like a little child experiencing the outside world for the very first time, making him enjoyed her company.

    “So far, do you see anything that looked familiar to you?” he asked.

    Looking around, she scratched her head sadly. “No.”

    “Cheer up, this is only the beginning. We still have the world to venture off to,” and gave her a big smile, showing his teeth.

    They finally reached the open gate entrance to Physician Wei’s clinic. She stared at the huge red signage that hung above and saw the some strange writings on it. She pointed at it, “What does that say?”

    He glanced at where she was pointing; then he turned to her surprised. “You can’t read?”

    Feeling dumb, her smile quickly faded to a frown and tilted her head down. He placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

    “Don’t worry. I can teach you how to read and write then.”

    Her head rose up immediately from his words and was happy. He pointed his finger at her and gave her a serious look. “But promise me, no more frowning ok?” She gave an easy wide grin and nodded.

    “Good.” He pointed at the characters from the signage and read it to her. “It says Wei.Chen.Clinic.” She carefully analyzed the strokes of the characters and repeated it a couple of times.

    “Wei. Chen. Clinic.”

    She clasped her hands together in excitement that she could read and Xing Fu chuckled at her reaction.

    “So, shall we go in?” he said. She nodded happily and both of them walked inside the entrance gate.

    As they walked through the front courtyard toward the clinic, Cecilia saw a young man sitting down across from an older woman. She saw that this man was youthful, possibly in his late teens at the most. The young man wrote something on a piece of thin paper. After he finished writing, he handed it to the old lady.

    “Here is the prescription for your arthritis. Make sure to drink the medicine three times a day and come back for treatments.” The old lady thanked him and got up to leave.

    Cecilia slightly turned her head to Xing Fu and whispered, “Who is he?”

    “His name is Chen Guo Jing.”

    “Chen Guo Jing…Isn’t he a little too young to prescribe medicine for patients?” she asked curiously.

    Xing Fu laughed and she gave him a blank stare.

    “He’s in his forties,” he answered.

    Her jaw dropped, stunned by the young man’s age. She shook her head in disbelief. “Stop lying. He is NOT in his forties.”

    “Trust me, he is. He aged very well.”

    She crossed her arms in front and commented, “Too well!” as if she was a bit jealous of his youth.

    Guo Jing saw Xing Fu and Cecilia stood a few feet away from him. He got up and walked gracefully toward them. As he got closer, she saw his skin-flawless to perfection with high cheek bones, his hair was longer than hers-silky jet black and half tied up with a silver head band, and his eyes-amber like wolf’s eyes. He was the most beautiful creature that she had ever seen. They met half way and the young man greeted them formally, extending his folded hands in front.

    “Greetings Mr. Yu” and then he bowed his head at her and greeted, “Greetings Miss.”

    Xing Fu greeted him back while Cecilia stood there speechless in awe of his beauty.

    “She is a friend of mine, Xiao Xing. Xiao Xing, this is Chen Guo Jing, Physician Wei’s sworn brother.”

    “It is my pleasure to meet you Miss Xiao. You can call me Physician Guo.”

    He gave her a charming smile and she saw those dimples. Her heart thumped loudly and quickly covered her chest with her hands, hoping that he didn’t hear it. Guo Jing could tell that she was intrigued by his great looks and gave her a wider smile. Her eyes turned slightly away to avoid his stare and took a deep breath.

    Then he looked at Xing Fu. “She must be the ‘Miss’ that lost her memories.”

    Cecilia blinked profusely, surprised that her presence was already known by him. Anxious, she asked hastily, “How did you know?”

    Guo Jing and Xing Fu laughed at her. “Brother Wei told me,” Guo Jing replied.

    STUPID! Of Course he would know! They are SWORN BROTHERS! She felt like digging a hole to hide now.

    Guo Jing didn’t want to embarrass her anymore and turned to Xing Fu. “What brings the both of you here?”

    “We wanted to see Physician Wei. Is he around?”

    Guo Jing shook his head, “He left up north to see a patient and won’t be back for a few weeks. Can I assist the both of you of anything?”

    “Since you know about Xiao Xing’s serious head injury from Physician Wei, I won’t go much into details then…” Xing Fu directed his hands to Cecilia’s head for Guo Jing to see. “…It’s been only three days from the incident and already, her wound has healed greatly. I don’t understand how and hope you can shine a light upon this matter.”

    From hearing the situation, Guo Jing got curious about her. “Come inside,” Guo Jing said calmly.

    He took them into the clinic and she sat down next to the table. He looked at her and asked politely, “May I check your head wound?”

    She blushed and nodded. He got up and stood behind her. With his fingers, he delved into her silky, black hair to locate the wound on her scalp. He found the wound and became astounded. The wound showed only a linear pink scar as if it was at the end of the last stage of healing. He saw no traces of stitches that his sworn brother Wei had told him before. Odd, he was lost at words.

    He looked at her, “Let me check your pulse.”

    She knew what to do. She pulled her sleeves up and laid her wrist on the table. He placed his fingers on her wrist. Then, he felt what Physician Wei had felt before, but MORE.

    Guo Jing felt something strange happening to him. His eyes bulged out like it was going to pop out of his eye sockets and started to hyperventilate, so he quickly let go of her wrist. Then his perfect body crumbled to the ground in front of them to see. Xing Fu and Cecilia quickly got up from their seats to help Guo Jing up and grabbed his arms. Guo Jing felt Cecilia’s touch on his arm and violently pushed her away from him.

    “DON’T TOUCH ME!” he yelled angrily at her.

    She backed away and stood frozen in confusion. Xing Fu got upset at Guo Jing and let go of him to run to Cecilia’s side. Guo Jing dropped onto the ground again.

    “Are you ok?” he asked her.

    She nodded, “Go and help Physician Guo up.”

    Xing Fu hesitated at first, but seeing her cared for Guo Jing’s wellbeing made him have no choice but to go help him. Xing Fu grabbed Guo Jing from the ground and helped him up to sit back on the chair. His breathing began to stabilize normally but narrowed his eyes at her.

    She saw his hands on the table trembling uncontrollably and felt guilty. “I’m sorry…I…”

    Guo Jing held his hand up to interrupt her. “Speak no more…”

    Xing Fu asked Guo Jing, “What happened to you?”

    Guo Jing carefully tried to find the words to answer Xing Fu and exhaled. “Brother Wei was right…” Xing Fu and Cecilia looked at each other puzzled. Guo Jing swallowed and continued, “Miss Xiao, unlike others, your qi is very special. If I had prolonged it any further…I would have…” His voice started to shake, “…died…”

    A sudden coldness hit the core of her body. How could she have the capability of killing? It was one thing that she didn’t want it to happen. She shook her head as tears started to well up in her eyes. She promised Xing Fu that she would not frown anymore, but after hearing this, she could not control it. Xing Fu saw her troubled expression and walked toward her to comfort.

    “Stop!” she warned Xing Fu. He yielded at her command.

    “Xiao Xing…”

    He took another step but she stopped him again. Her voice started to choke as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

    “Don’t come any closer. I…I might kill you too…”

    Guo Jing sighed in frustration. “Miss Xiao, your special qi can’t kill him, so you don’t need to worry!”

    Both looked at Guo Jing confused. He continued, “…I’m not going to say anymore but trust me. Whatever you are, we fear.

    Cecilia pondered about his last sentence. “What does he mean ‘We’ and why did he identify her as ‘What’?” It didn’t make any sense to her so she needed to know.

    “I don’t understand.”

    Guo Jing didn’t want to talk anymore and waved his hand at them. “Please leave. I need to recuperate from the loss of my qi.”

    Cecilia refused to leave until she got some answers. She took a couple of steps forward, but Xing Fu blocked her way, staring straight at her.

    “Xiao Xing, let’s just go and wait until Physician Wei comes back.”

    She wiped her tears and glared at Guo Jing coldly. Guo Jing was too afraid to look at her and stared at the far wall to avoid eye contact.

    “Fine,” she said angrily.

    They left the room and disappeared from his sight. Guo Jing buried his face in his trembling hands and repeated, “What is she? …What is she? …What is she?” He thought of all the possibilities of her identity. Only a god has that power…but she’s not one of them. His head started to pound heavily from thinking too much and massaged the temples of his head.
    Last edited by skoo78; 08-31-14 at 12:57 PM. Reason: Just editing minor mistakes.

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    This is a poster that I've made for fun.
    enter the past-fan fic.jpg
    You can also check it out from my website. http://skoo78.blogspot.com/

    Enjoy.
    Last edited by skoo78; 06-20-14 at 04:46 PM.

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    Jian Tao, Chief Wen, and their two guards camped at a nearby lake for the night. It had been three days already and they were halfway to the border of Shan Kingdom. Since Mount Songgao was located in the high northern parts of the kingdom, there was another four days until they finally reached to their destination.

    As they slept soundly, the fire died down until there was only a streak of swirled smoke left. Then, in the middle of the glistening lake, two water demons quietly rose up from the water, molding into two female shaped bodies. There they saw four sleeping me around the dead bonfire and licked their watery lips, yearning for fresh meat. Their liquid arms began to extend on shore, like predators creeping at their prey, toward them.

    As their arms slowly made onto land, the horses started to freak out and made some noises, alarming Jian Tao and the others. By the time they woke up, the two water demons had already wrapped their watery arms around the two guards’ feet and began to drag them to the lake. The two soldiers screamed in terror for Jian Tao and Chief Wen to help them. Jian Tao and Chief Wen quickly ran to grab their soldiers’ hands, but the water demons swung their other arms and struck them hard across their bodies. They flew like ragdolls, hit the nearby trees, and fell onto the ground injured. The terrified guards disappeared into the lake from their sight and quickly, the water demons dove down into the water to collect their food. Burst of blood mixed with water came gushing out of the lake like a huge fountain, throwing pieces of limbs onto land. Jian Tao and Chief Wen watched in horror and knew that it was too late to save their men.

    The water demons came out of the bloody waters. Their liquid body had transformed into their solid forms-hairs silvery white, skins leathery blue as the morning sky, eyes black as night, and teeth sharped as razors. They let out a banshee cry and extended their sharped claws in front, flying in great momentum toward them.

    Chief Wen and Jian Tao worked on casting their “Wu Demon Binding Spell” when one of the demons swung her arm sideways. Out flew water-like daggers from her, aiming straight at Jian Tao and Chief Wen. They didn’t have time to finish casting the spell and quickly dodged the daggers. The daggers struck the dark ground and returned to its original liquid form. Then they sprinted to the bonfire to grab their swords. Jian Tao grabbed his Five Element Qi Sword and pulled the blade out of its sheath. The blade casted a luminous blue light to indicate that evil was close by.

    The water demons landed on shore and started to fight with the both of them. Jian Tao used his sword and swung at one of the water demons. It disappeared into droplets of water and then reappeared behind him with her razor teeth close by his neck. He felt her cold breath on his skin and quickly swung his sword around. Again, it disappeared and reappeared behind him. This time the water demon swung its sharped claws and scratched his back. He staggered forward and swung the sword around, missing it again, and fell onto his knees. He felt hot blood oozed down from his wounded back and it stung painfully, weakening him. Chief Wen saw that his king was in trouble and quickly swung his sword at the other water demon; it flew backwards to avoid being struck.

    Then he quickly ran to Jian Tao’s side to help him up. The water demons regrouped and sniggered as they slowly made their way toward them, taunting Jian Tao.

    “Your Majesty, go back to your kingdom. You are too old for demon hunting.”

    “Your Majesty, you are a pathetic Mortal Protector. Without the Five Element Qi Sword, you are nothing!”

    Infused by their provoking words, Jian Tao gathered his qi into the five element sword. His blade ignited into a green, powerful flame-like torch. The water demons jerked their heads back and second thought about their comments.

    Jian Tao swung his sword in an upward position and the earth beneath them rumbled. Little pieces of earth rose up in the air in front of him and with another swung of his sword sideways, the pieces flew at the water demons, turning into thousands of little sharped earth particles. The water demons’ faces struck with horror, knowing that there was no escape, even if they disappeared into liquid. In an instant, the pieces struck the water demons everywhere on their bodies until they became unrecognizable, and they let out a shrill cry of pain.

    Then Jian Tao flew toward one of them and stabbed it in the chest. The water demon let out a deadly shriek and disintegrated into ashes. In fear, the other injured water demon didn’t want to encounter the same fate as its companion, so it turned around to flee back to the lake. Weaken and badly wounded, Jian Tao had used up most of his qi already and couldn’t chase after it.

    Chief Wen finally casted the “Wu Demon Binding Spell” and his entire body lit a gold aura; then it went into him. He flew to chase after the water demon and caught up with it. His hand grabbed a hold of its ankle and pulled it away from the lake. In rage, the water demon turned around and swung its claws at him. He swiftly turned his body to avoid the hit and came behind the water demon. With his palm, he hit the demon’s shoulder blade hard and it flew to the ground, lying next to Jian Tao. The water demon struggled to get up but couldn’t. The binding spell had bound its body onto the ground like a prisoner.

    Jian Tao forced himself to get up and slowly walked toward it, dragging the green aura sword on the ground. When he finally reached to the water demon, he raised his sword up high, the point aimed down at the water demon.

    Fueled by rage he said, “This is for my men.”

    The blade plunged deep into its heart. The water demon let out an agonized shriek of pain and disintegrated into ashes. The green aura from the Five Element Qi Sword disappeared and became a regular sword again. Jian Tao collapsed onto his knees, holding on to his sword to support his weight, as Chief Wen rushed to his side. He got a hold of Jian Tao and felt his back drenched with blood.

    “Let me see your wound.”

    Jian Tao nodded and Chief Wen helped him take off his bloody common robe. With the moon as their only source of light, he saw the wounds on the back and became horrified. The wounds were very deep that small white bones were visible.

    Chief Wen got worried, “Your Majesty…We will need to abort this mission and go back to heal you…”

    Jian Tao shook his head in pain, “No. Mortal lives are in danger…Use what we have to tend the wounds.”

    Chief Wen hesitated and was concerned about his king’s health, “But you won’t make it!”

    “THAT’S AN ORDER!” Jian Tao shouted in frustration.

    Chief Wen lowered his head and replied softly, “Yes, Your Majesty…”

    Chief Wen hurried to grab the medicine bag from his horse’s saddle when all of sudden, a blue light shone brightly from the corner of his eye. He turned and saw that it was the Five Element Qi sword, glowing, and on the ground, was Jian Tao’s body.

    A few feet behind Jian Tao, was a very tall and slender demon-skin paled as a ghost and his hair was the deepest black that reached down to his knees. He wore a long cape that covered his whole entire body, except for his head. Chief Wen knew what it was. A Night Lurker-one of the blood sucking demons that only came out at night to seek for mortal’s blood. No matter if a mortal was freshly dead or alive, if it smelled blood, it would come and drained the life out of a mortal until no dropped was left.

    Chief Wen yelled angrily at it, “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

    The Night Lurker saw Chief Wen and hissed at him, showing his razor teeth and blazing dark as night pupils. Although he was too far out of reach to help Jian Tao, he had to stop this blood thirsty demon from killing him. It was about to grab Jian Tao when all of a sudden, a blade protruded from its heart. Chief Wen stopped at his track, shocked by what just happened. The Night Lurker died and disintegrated into ashes and the Five Element Qi Sword’s blue aura disappeared. Stood behind, revealed two Elder Priests that he recognized-Elder Shi and Elder Tao.

    They were the Elders of Taoist Sect from Mount Songgao whom were loyal students of Grandmaster Huang Zhi Wei. It was a coincidence meeting them, but he was glad to see them. Chief Wen quickly ran toward them with the medicine bag in his hand.

    He bowed his head and folded his hands in front. “Thank you for saving His Majesty Elders.”

    The Elders saw Jian Tao on the ground and recognized him immediately. Elder Tao quickly kneeled down to check Jian Tao’s pulse and was relieved. “He’s unconscious, but had lost a lot of blood. We need to take him back to get healed.”

    Elder Shi asked Chief Wen, “What happened here?”

    “A while ago, we were attacked by the water demons and his highness got wounded during the fight,” explained Chief Wen.

    Elder Shi turned to Elder Tao, “Since it’s very late, let’s rest here for the night to treat King Wu’s wounds.”

    Elder Tao agreed. He extended his arms and in full concentration, he locked his hands together and chanted the “Taoist Protection Spell”. A huge half transparent bubble came out of him, and it grew large enough to protect them and the horses. Demons that lurked inside the bubble became ashes right away. Chief Wen’s was in awed by the Taoist’s magical spell. Comparing to Wu Tribe’s protection spell, where it only protected the individual, the Taoist’s protection spell protected within a hundred feet radius.

    ---

    Elder Shi started a fire, while Elder Tao and Chief Wen tended Jian Tao’s wounds. Elder Tao poured some white powder medicine on his opened wounds and then bandaged him tightly. Around the open fire, they sat down to keep themselves warm for the night. Chief Wen told them about their purpose in traveling to Mount Songgao and the Elders were stunned by news.

    Elder Shi turned to Elder Tao, “The demons are spreading in all directions of the world. Grandmaster Huang will need to be notified quickly to send the alarm out to others.”

    Elder Tao agreed. He took his horsetail whisk out and stroked his hand on the horsetail forward. It stiffened like a paint brush and then he started to write a letter in the dark sky. After he was done, the characters from the letter formed into a white dove and it flew away to deliver the message back to Mount Songgao.

    Chief Wen was amazed by all of this and joked with Elder Tao. “If Wu Tribe could do this, it could have saved the time and trouble for us to travel.”

    Elder Tao laughed and stroked his gray short beard. “We have different masters so we learned different spells and techniques.”

    Chief Wen also laughed and agreed. Then Elder Tao thought about the Black Forest. It didn’t make sense of how the red string could be broken that easily. No one, even mortals, could break it except the creator herself; Wu Li Ling-a fallen immortal goddess of the Celestial Realm. She was the one that created the infamous demon trap for demon hunters to use, after the Demon Realm was sealed off. Then he glanced at the Five Element Qi Sword that was on the ground next to Jian Tao and thought about its magnificent powers.

    “The Five Element Qi Sword is one extraordinary blade made with 5 elements mixed with goddess Wu Li Ling’s blood…Once the sword finds its new owner, only he can use its powers until his last breath is taken away…” Elder Tao sighed as he reminisced the past. Then he continued, “…Wu Li Ling was one admirable goddess to mortals…”

    Elder Shi and Chief Wen agreed with him and nodded. They knew the history of different realms battling for the sake of Mortal Realm. Some wanted to destroy it, while others wanted to save it. Like goddess Wu Li Ling and the other gods, they sacrificed their immortality to live among mortals…to help rebuild what once was completely destroyed, in their eyes.

    Elder Tao glanced up in the night sky and stroked his beard. “Mortals do not live eternity as gods, yet when gods become fallen immortals, they die earlier than us.”

    “Aren’t there still some Fallen Immortals left in our Realm?” Chief Wen asked.

    “That is unknown; but if there are any, they are the ones that have strong will to live.” Elder Tao looked at Jian Tao’s sleeping body and let out another sigh, “King Wu will have to choose a new Mortal Protector for the Five Element Qi Sword soon. He cannot do this for long.”

    ---

    The next morning, Jian Tao woke up and turned to see Chief Wen preparing the horses. Next to him was the Taoist priests, so Jian Tao called Chief Wen’s name in his hoarse voice. Chief Wen and the others heard him, turned around to see Jian Tao fully awake, and rushed by his side.

    Jian Tao tried to get up but was too weak. “Your Majesty, let me help you,” said Chief Wen.

    Chief Wen lifted his body carefully up so he could sit. Jian Tao recognized the two Taoist priests and was happy to see them. “Elder Tao…Elder Shi…”

    The Elders bowed their heads. “Greetings Your Majesty.”

    “Now that the both of you are here, we do not need to go to Mount Songgao anymore,” Jian Tao joked.

    Elder Tao laughed at him, “Old friend, you still know how to joke at a time like this.”

    Chief Wen turned to Jian Tao in excitement. “Your Majesty, Elder Tao had sent a letter to Grandmaster Huang about Black Forest.”

    Jian Tao looked at the Priests and was relieved. He being worried of not able to accomplish the mission was over and thanked them for their help.

    “Let’s take you back home and get yourself healed,” said Elder Tao.

    Jian Tao nodded. All three of them helped him up and walked him to his horse. He tried to get on the horse but was very weak, so they helped him by carefully pushing and pulling him up until he got on. They got on theirs and the four of them rode back to Wu Tribe.
    Last edited by skoo78; 07-02-14 at 09:11 AM.

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    Thanks skoo 78

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    Cecilia stood in front of her bedroom wall, staring at the drawings that she drew from her dreams. They filled half of the wall, making it looked like a montage for her to look. There was one particular image that she fixated on. It was an image of a faceless couple, a man putting the heart necklace on the woman’s neck, and she reached to touch it. Her fingers traced the outlines of what she drew, pondering who they might be that visited in her dream.

    Xing Fu entered into her room to check on her. He saw her stood across the room, with her back towards him, like a statue. Ever since the incident with Guo Jing, Xiao Xing had withdrawn herself from him and hadn’t been eating for days. He felt bad and wished that they had never gone to the clinic in the first place if he knew this was going to happen. On the wall, he saw her drawings; she had turned his wall into a wallpaper of art, making it unrecognizable to him. He walked toward her and stood next to her.

    “You drew these?”

    “Yes,” she answered sadly.

    He saw her hand placed on the drawing of the couple and scratched his head. “Why didn’t you paint any faces on them?”

    “In my dream, they were faceless.”

    “Oh…” Then Xing Fu saw something on the wall that intrigued him. It was a picture of the heart necklace and he pointed at it.

    “Hmm…I’ve seen this before.”

    She raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him. “Where?”

    He remembered something and hit his forehead with his hand, “Stupid me! Wait here. I needed to give it to you.”

    He turned around and left her bewildered by his strange behavior. What does he mean ‘give’? Unknowing what it may be, she waited patiently for his return. A couple of minutes later, Xing Fu came back with a wooden box in his hands. He placed it on the table and lifted the lid up. Inside were her folded set of clothes and boots that she wore before she came to Mortal Realm, and in the center, was the diamond heart necklace. It was the exact duplicate from her dream.

    “You wore these when I found you,” he said.

    She slowly picked up the necklace and felt the smooth texture from the small diamonds against her fingers. Besides seeing it in her dreams, there was something familiar about its meaning, but she couldn’t grasp what it was.

    “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about this earlier. I had forgotten about it when I was…” He started to blush and continued, “…worrying about you…”

    Cecilia gave him a warm smile, “I understand.”

    With one hand still holding on to the necklace, she touched the folded outfit with her other hand. She felt the smooth leathered shirt against her hand and just like the necklace, it felt familiar to her.

    “I must say, I’ve gone to many vast lands but had never seen any clothes like yours. You must be from somewhere far.”

    She thought about what he said and remembered the different ethnic groups of people she saw at Mu Village, wondering if she was also from a similar place like theirs.

    Xing Fu continued, “…and as for the faceless couple that you drew, I believed the woman is you and the man must be…” he hesitated to say it and took a deep breath. In a low tone of voice, he continued, “…someone that you loved.”

    “loved?”

    Her smile got wider, knowing that there was a little hope for her. The mystery man was the only one that may know who she was.

    “I need to find him.”

    His heart dropped to his stomach for a bit from hearing her words. For the past week of knowing Cecilia, he had developed feelings for her and was hoping to know more about her. Now that he knew she might have a lover, it became hopeless for him. Xing Fu was a man that had high respect for others, so for him to take another man’s woman, especially in Cecilia’s situation, was unfair and too cruel.

    He faintly smiled, “I will help you then.”

    “Thank you.”

    “You’re welcome.”

    ---

    In her bedroom she wore her black outfit and necklace and looked at herself in the small mirror. The clothing style looked very different from what she was used to or anyone else that she had seen. They were tighter and single layered. She touched the necklace and asked herself, “Who am I?”

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    Your Welcome Anh Nam. Thank you for reading and enjoy.

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    Thanks skoo78. Your writing is starting to get better as you go along.

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    Thank you Anh Nam. I hope readers are enjoying it also. Forgive me for the grammar errors so I hope readers can look beyond that. I'm revising my chapters with the help of a second pair of eyes. Hope it will be polished with no grammar errors then.

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    CHAPTER 10: THE EPIDEMIC

    At Mount Songgao’s Taoist sect that night, Grandmaster Huang was in his chamber meditating. He was the oldest master of the Taoist sect and many gave him the nickname, “The Great White One”, due to his all-white appearance-White robe, white hair, white eyebrows, and white long beard. He may seem like a frail old man, but he was the most powerful Taoist master in the sect. One hit on a man could cause the man to lose his life instantly. He was also a man of great wisdom, renown throughout all the kingdoms.

    Elder Tao’s white dove flew into Grandmaster Huang’s chamber and circled up on the ceiling to get his attention. His eyes opened and he looked up. When it finally got his attention, the words from the dove began to unravel into the letter for him to see.

    "We met King Wu and Chief Wen and King Wu was severely injured during a demon attack. We were notified that the Black Forest’s demon trapped was broken and most demons had escaped. We are taking King Wu back to Wu Tribe to get healed. -Elder Tao”

    After he read the letter, he waved his arm up in the air sideways and the letter dispersed into many little particles before it vanished completely. Worried, he called his student that was standing guard outside of his chambers.

    “Li Wei.”

    Li Wei entered in and bowed in front, “Yes Grandmaster?”

    “Tell Elder Tung to come see me.”

    “Yes.” Li Wei turned around and left.

    Moments later, Elder Tung got the message from Li Wei and entered in and greeted Grandmaster Huang.

    “The demons from Black Forest had escaped. Send an alert to all kingdoms and demon hunters.” he ordered.
    Elder Tung’s eyes widened in surprised of the news. “Yes, Grandmaster Huang,” and hurried out of the chamber. Grandmaster Huang stared out of the window at the clear night sky.

    “This time, we must protect this realm without the help of the Celestials.”

    ---

    Jian Tao and the others reached the entrance of Wu Tribe and were glad to be back home. Jian Tao looked exhausted from his encounter with the water demons. His face was deadly pale, but his will remained strong for his people to see. On each side of him rode Chief Wen and Elder Tao, to keep a close eye on him just in case he collapsed. The Wu people were full of joy to see their king returned home safely and bowed as he made his grandeur entrance.

    In the palace, Queen Li Hua heard of Jian Tao’s return and anxiously hurried to meet him. When she got to the main entrance of the gate’s palace, her joyful face became horrified when she saw his condition. Streamed of tears quickly fell down to her cheeks as she ran toward him. Jian Tao saw her and bravely gave her a weak smile. Li Hua quickly embraced him, digging her face into his chest as she wept.

    “I’m still alive so don’t cry my love,” he said softly as he cradled her in his arms. She nodded and tried to stop crying. He slowly pulled her away from him and wiped her tears.

    Elder Tao walked up to Jian Tao, “Your Majesty, we should take you to Immortal Tears right away.”
    Jian Tao slowly nodded. Chief Wen and Elder Tao helped him go inside the palace, while Li Hua and Elder Shi trailed behind them.

    ---

    Deep inside the palace walls was a hidden, sacred cave called Immortal Tears. Inside was a pool of pure crystal water hidden beneath a thin layer of fog. There were strange but beautiful green foliage that surrounded the cave. It danced lively back and forth like seaweeds in the ocean while small yellow dots of lights emitted to the surface like fireflies. Growing next to the foliage were flowers made out of different neon colors and sizes. They were transparent, like jelly fishes on stems, swaying gracefully with the foliage.

    Alone in the cave, Jian Tao’s body soaked in the crystal water while he meditated. The healing water slowly healed his deep back wounds. After six hours later, his wounds was completely healed and he opened his eye, feeling refreshed as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber. He got out of the water and dressed.

    Li Hua and the others stood patiently outside of the cave. Minutes later, they saw him coming out revived and were glad to see him. Li Hua quickly hugged him tightly crying happily while he stroked her back to comfort her.

    “Welcome back Your Majesty,” said Elder Tao as he smiled.
    Jian Tao pulled Li Hua away and held her hand as he turned to them. “I’m glad to be back.”

    “Your Majesty, Chief Wen had told us about the Black Forest. We would like to access the forest with your permission,” said Elder Tao.

    “You have my permission.” Jian Tao turned to Chief Yao, “Take them to the guest rooms and make sure they are properly taken care of during their visit.”

    Chief Wen bowed, “Yes.” Chief Wen directed them out of the cave while Jian Tao and Li Hua stood silently as they watched them leave.

    “Elder Tao told me what happened to you,” she said.

    “I’m sorry that I’ve made you worried,” he replied. Then he kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly in his arms again.

    ---

    News of the demon epidemic spread like wildfire from the Taoist sect and people’s personal encountered with demons. By the end of two weeks, most kingdoms were alerted and hung powerful talismans around their cities. Meanwhile, Demon Hunters from different sacred sects and tribes used their wits and bravery to roam through every part of the kingdoms to capture or kill demons. Some died during their demon encounters, while others continue to protect their Realm from these infested demons.
    Last edited by skoo78; 07-02-14 at 09:07 AM.

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    Thanks skoo78

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    Default CHAPTER 11: SECRET

    CHAPTER 11: THE SECRET

    Chickens flew everywhere as Cecilia tried to catch them. She caught one by its wing, struggling to be free like a mad chicken and startled her. She quickly released it and it landed onto the ground, scurrying away from her. Cecilia placed her hands on her hips, upset of this whole situation. It has been almost an hour of unsuccessful attempt in catching these chickens. She thought it would be nice to cook for Xing Fu since he had been taking care of her for the past few weeks. However, these chickens wouldn’t let her catch them without a fight.

    She brushed loose strand of hair from her face and wiped the sweat from her forehead. A chicken slowly walked passed her and she knew it was the perfect opportunity to catch it. In silent, she crept slowly like a predator behind it. Suddenly, she leaped in the air, like a pouncing cat, and down she went to grab it. The chicken was quicker and escaped, making her grab ground dirt instead. Frustrated, she slammed her hands on the ground.

    She knelt and stared helplessly at the chickens. “I understand that you do not want to be on top of someone’s plate, but today is special. I want to cook for your master to show my gratitude for all he has done for me, so please…PLEASE understand this. Just give me face for today uh?”

    Although it was silly talking to chickens, it was the only way she could vent her frustration to them. As she was going to give up, one of them clucked its way toward her and stood there. Her face upturned and clasped her hands together with joy. She swooped down to grab it quickly, to her amazement, it didn’t run away. She held it like a baby, gently petting it as she got up.

    “OH THANK YOU! I promise that you will be the best dish for your master!”

    Excited, she walked back inside the house to prepare the feast.

    ---

    Xing Fu woke up and turned to his side to see if Cecilia was sleeping next to him, but she wasn’t. A part of him was relieved that she wasn’t here, but then, another part wished she was. Ever since the first time she slept on his bed, he couldn’t shake the feeling off of seeing her beautiful face close to his. Now, it became a regular routine of anticipation, where every morning he would wake up and hope to see her presence. His face beamed just thinking about it.

    After getting ready, he walked out of his bedroom. To his surprise, he saw Cecilia putting plates of food on the table.

    She turned and saw him standing at his bedroom door. “Good morning,” she smiled, showing her teeth.

    Xing Fu could tell that she was in a very good mood today. Since Guo Jing’s incident, in the last couple of weeks, they had been traveling to nearby villages in search of her lost memories and the faceless man and came back with no results. She had been disappointed and exhausted throughout this journey, so it was great to see her happy again.

    He walked to the table of food and greeted her. Then both of them sat down.

    He saw her face smeared with dirt and lifted his brow. “What happen to your face? It’s dirty.”

    She didn’t notice that her face was dirty and quickly used her sleeves to wipe her face clean.

    “I was trying to catch chickens.”

    He laughed and joked, “Chickens?! They sure gave you a hard time.”

    She was offended and instinctively punched his arm.

    “Ow…” He rubbed his arm.

    Surprised by the unexpected punch, she was about to apologize but held back instead. She crossed her arms in front and huffed upsettingly. “You deserve it.”

    Xing Fu chuckled a bit and apologized for offending her. Not wanting to upset her any further, Xing Fu decided to focus on the array of food before him. He had a satisfying look on his face.

    “Mmm…smells good. Let me try your hardworking food.”

    Her face lit up from hearing his compliment. Then she picked up a roasted chicken thigh with her chopsticks and placed it on his bowl of rice.

    “This chicken offered itself to be food, so I promised that it will be the best dish for you.”

    He tried not to laugh and gave her a tight smile instead. He didn’t want to be punched by her again since he knew she would get offended. He grabbed the chicken thigh from his bowl while Cecilia nervously watched, and then he took a bite. His eyes widened as he felt his mouth stung like it was about to explode and started to cough.

    Scared, she got behind him and patted his back. “Are you alright?”

    Still coughing and gasping for air, he grabbed the empty cup on the table and held it up.

    “Wa…Water!”

    She quickly grabbed the cup, poured water in it, and then handed it to him. He grabbed the cup and drank it in one gulp. After he placed the cup back on the table, he grabbed his bowl of rice and started to gobble it down to cool down the spiciness.

    He cleared his throat. “That chicken was spicy,” and then he coughed a couple more times again.

    “I must have used too much pepper then.”

    She picked up some vegetables from another plate and placed it in his bowl. “Here, try this instead.”

    Worried that it maybe spicy too, he hesitated; but then he thought about not wanting to disappoint her and bravely took a bite of the vegetables. His face scrunched up, giving a souring look. Quickly, he poured a cup of water and drank it while she stared at him speechless.

    Xing Fu placed the empty cup on the table and asked, “Did you taste any of these foods before serving?”

    She thought about it and shook her head.

    “Try it so you will know.”

    Slowly, she picked up a piece of vegetable with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. Her face started to scrunch up like his from the saltiness and immediately spat it into her rice bowl. He poured a cup of water for her; she took it and drank it right away.

    “Have you ever cooked before?”

    She scratched her head and thought about it. Nothing came up in her mind so she shook her head.

    Feeling disappointed, she lowered her head and spoke softly, “I only wanted to show my gratitude…”

    He gently held her wrist that was on the table. “Xiao Xing…” She glanced at him with those puppy eyes and pouting lips.

    “I am touched by your thoughtfulness, thank you,” he smiled.

    She blushed and then turned to the food. “Let me throw these foods away then since it’s not good.”

    She stood up but Xing Fu didn’t let go of her wrist. Cecilia raised her eyebrows. In his sincere voice, he said, “You have put so much effort into this, so I am not going to have it be wasted.”

    “But…”

    He shook his head. “No buts. Sit and enjoy the food with me.”

    She slowly sat back down and he let go of her wrist. Cecilia observed him pulling the skin off from the chicken and then he took another bite of the meat. This time he wasn’t gasping and coughing like before.

    “Although it is still a little spicy, it’s actually not that bad.”

    She was relieved from his compliment. Then he grabbed the other thigh on the plate and started to pull off the skin again.

    “Taking off the skin will minimize the spiciness.” After the skin was off, he put it in her bowl. “Now try it.”

    She took a bite of the meat and could taste a little bit of the pepper.

    “If you want, I can teach you how to cook. Then you can cook whatever you want for me.”

    Happy, she nodded and continued to chew on the meat. Xing Fu glanced at her neck and saw the heart shaped necklace.

    “I see that you have been wearing the necklace for a couple of weeks now.”

    She stopped eating and looked down at the heart necklace. She placed her fingers on the necklace and felt the stones.

    Her face sombered. “Besides the clothes, it’s the only piece that I felt connected with my past.”

    Xing Fu saw her expression and didn’t know why, but felt a little jealous of this faceless man, knowing that the faceless couple from the drawing was she and the faceless man. Not wanting to overreact because of jealousy, he let it go and reminded himself that he was only her friend.

    “You will find him.”

    His words seemed unbelievable. She thought that the task of finding her memories and the man would be easy, but it was harder than she thought. At the end, her hopes became slimmer. Upset, she placed the chicken thigh down in her bowl and folded her arms in front.

    “It has already been weeks with no success…I don’t know how he looks like, so what makes you so hopeful that I will find him?”

    “If there’s a will, there’s a way. If you and the faceless man’s love are strong, the both of you will be reunited again no matter what the circumstances are.”

    Love. She asked herself, how could she feel the love that was lost? If she did find him, would that feeling come back? What if it didn’t?

    He placed his hand on her shoulder, “I know you are tired, but you have to be patient and don’t lose that hope…”

    His encouraged words made her felt hopeful again and she let out a big sigh.

    “You’re right. I have to.”

    Then there was a knock on the door. Both glanced up to see Physician Wei peering inside through the open door, smiling at them.

    “Good morning!”

    Xing Fu got up and went to greet him. Physician Wei saw Cecilia standing by the table and greeted her as well. She was upset at him for not telling her about her special qi. She had to find out the hard way by unknowingly endangering Guo Jing’s life because of him. She kept her cool and greeted him.

    Physician Wei saw the table was full of food and felt bad. “I apologize if I came at a bad timing.”

    She shook her head, “No, you came at the right time,” and curled her lip.

    He could smell the sweet aroma coming from the food. “It smells good.” Tempted, he turned to Xing Fu, “May I?”

    Xing Fu glanced at her speechless of what they should do. She wanted Physician Wei to go ahead and try the food to get even with him, but she knew Xing Fu would be very upset at her. She grabbed a couple of plates of food off from the table to it looked like she was cleaning up instead.

    “Actually, these foods are cold already so it isn’t good anymore. Xing Fu can make another dish for you instead.”

    Not wanting Physician Wei to have the same fate as Xing Fu, he nodded agreeing with her. “Yes, let me make a dish for you.”

    Physician Wei chuckled, “That is ok. You don’t have to. Actually, I needed to get back to the clinic and help Brother Guo after my visit here. Lately, we have an increase number of people coming to Wei Chen Clinic to get treated because of the demon epidemic.” He sadly sigh thinking about it.

    “Demons?” Xing Fu and Cecilia exclaimed in unison.

    Cecilia placed the plates back on the table and walked toward the men to listen more. Physician Wei figured that they were clueless of what has been happening. “The both of you must have not heard about the news then.”

    “We’ve been busy traveling in search of Xiao Xing’s memories. Can you enlighten us?”

    “A couple of weeks ago, demons escaped from the Black Forest…” He looked away and shook his head as he sighed in sadness. “It’s unfortunate that in some kingdoms, the alert reached to them too late. Many demons had massacred, inhabiting them as their own.”

    Then he turned to them again and glanced at Cecilia with a strange look on his face. He tried to figure out a reasonable explanation of their safe traveled without demon protection. Physician Wei pushed that thought to the side and pulled out from his shirt pocket, two small gold circular objects that have strange symbols engraved on it. It dangled in the air by red strings for Xing Fu and Cecilia to see. Xing Fu knew what it was.

    “Talismans?”

    Physician Wei nodded. “Everyone has to protect themselves from being killed by wearing talismans again.” He handed it to them, “Here, take them. It’s a good thing that I’ve bought extras.”

    Xing Fu grabbed the talismans from him and handed one to Cecilia. To her surprise, the little talisman felt heavy in her hand. Physician Wei took out another talisman from his shirt pocket. This one was as big as his palm and handed it to Xing Fu.

    “Place this on your door entrance to ward off demons.”

    Cecilia quirked her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front. “I’m sorry, but do you people really believe these things?”

    The atmosphere changed to a silent eerie feeling as all eyes were on her, making her felt uncomfortable. They wondered where she had been over the past many years. This has been a constant battle with demons for centuries. Their ancestors had passed knowledge and experiences to their decedents in preparing to protect themselves for this very situation.

    Physician Wei stroked his grey goatee beard, and in his serious tone of voice, he spoke, “Miss Xiao, you may not believe these things, but I assure you that demons are real…” he pointed out the door at the direction where Mu Village was. “…At my clinic right now are people that have been seriously wounded or dead by these demons. Some were scratched or have bite marks that no type of animals could have done it. If you want, you can venture out there without the talisman to figure if demons are real then.”

    Skeptic as she, somehow his words gave her the shivers. She didn’t want to pursue in upsetting him anymore and stood in silence. Physician Wei stared at her and shook his head with a sigh of disappointment.

    There was a moment of silent and then Xing Fu asked, “Do you want me to help you and Physician Guo?”

    Physician Wei nodded. “The more hands, the better.” Then he glanced at Cecilia. This time he had calmed down.

    “Miss Xiao, Brother Guo had told me what had happened. I know that you are probably upset at him for what he did, but he had his own reasons for not revealing more information to you.” He stroked his beard again. “In fact this is the reason I am here. I wanted to tell you and Xing Fu all that I know in hope that it will help ease a little about your identity.”

    She didn’t know why, but she started to get nervous. Is she ready? She had anticipated for this very moment of the secret that Physician Wei and Guo Jing kept from her. She took a deep breath to shake off the nervous feeling. She needed to know and bravely answered, “Thank you.”

    ---

    The dining table was cleared and they sat down. Xing Fu and Cecilia were ready to hear whatever Physician Wei had to say.

    “Miss Xiao, Brother Guo told you that you have a special qi flowing in you. I’ve also felt it when I first checked your health. As you saw what happened to him that day, it took a huge toll on him…” He paused and stroked his beard. Then he continued, “There is something special about you Miss Xiao. Brother Guo told me that this special qi is something that you have inherited.”

    Inherited? Surprised, she wished she had regained her memories. Then at least she knew her family’s heritage of where this special qi came from. Now, it was only a mystery that she had to wait to be solved.

    Physician Wei sighed as he gathered the right words to say next. “What I am going to tell the both of you is a secret about Brother Guo. Miss Xiao, this will help you understand your special qi.”

    They lend their attentive ears to hear what Physician Wei had to say about his sworn brother.

    “It’s his secret, and because of your special qi, he has allowed me to speak about it, though it is imperative that this must not be spoken of outside of these walls.”

    Xing Fu and Cecilia gave an affirmed nod. “We will,” he replied.

    Physician Wei continued, “Brother Guo almost died that day by Miss Xiao’s special qi because he’s very different.”

    Flashback of Guo Jing checking her health came rushing into her mind like a flood-Guo Jing fell to the ground hyperventilating, his horrific facial reaction, and his trembled voice saying that he almost died when checking her health. How different was he? She pondered.

    “Miss Xiao…” She glanced at Physician Wei. “Besides your rapid healing, your special qi can also kill demons.” Xing Fu and Cecilia were dumbfounded. Demons? That word was brought up again.

    Physician Wei got up from his seat and took a couple of steps away from the table as he continued to explain. “Brother Guo…He was a demon that became mortal forty years ago.”

    Xing Fu’s jaw opened wide, shocked by the secret. Cecilia didn’t know what to think or feel about all of this and remained expressionless.

    “How can that be?” Xing Fu asked curiously.

    Physician Wei turned to them and stroked his beard. “Many hundreds of thousand years ago before all realms were divided, a demon manual, The Righteous Path to Mortality, was written by Zhu Yong Zheng who was a god of mercy and the youngest half-brother of the Celestial Emperor, Zhu Guo Zhi. He believed that demons should have a chance to redeem themselves in the path of righteousness and pure heart and gave demons the gift of becoming mortal by writing it. However after the Battle of the Split Realms, the book was lost and later became a legend to demons.”

    Xing Fu was amazed of the story. “And to think that my ancestors told me everything about our realm’s history, I’ve never heard about the battle and the demon’s manual before.”

    Physician Wei glanced away, “Uh…some histories are better off not knowing…It’s better to leave it in the past.”

    Then Xing Fu scratched his head, “But I don’t get it. If Physician Guo has already become mortal, then why does he still have the effect from Xiao Xing’s special qi?”

    “Although he is now mortal, to others (BEINGS), his identity will always remain a demon no matter what. I remember my ancestors telling me that a god can sense and kill ANYONE. No matter if anyone tried to hide their identity, a god can detect it. Her qi reminds me of a god, but like I’ve said before, she is mortal…” He sighed and stroked his beard again. “That is why I am puzzled.”

    Overwhelmed by all of this, her head began to throb and she massaged the temples from her head with her fingers. Xing Fu and Physician Wei glanced at her.

    “Are you ok?” asked Xing Fu.

    “All of this is giving me a headache. I need to lie down.”

    Physician Wei understood and nodded. “Miss Xiao, I know the information is overwhelming, but all that I’ve said is true. I apologize if I didn’t tell you when I first checked your health. I didn’t know that it would be to this extreme where Brother Guo’s life would be endangered.”

    She smiled faintly at him, “I appreciate that you told me about this.”

    “You’re welcome. I’ve told you all that I know.”

    “Can anybody help her then?” asked Xing Fu.

    Physician Wei shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m only a physician and my resources are limited. I’m sorry.”

    Xing Fu was disappointed and turned to Cecilia. It broke his heart to see her go through all of this and wished that he could take all of her burdens from her.

    “Let me help you get to bed.”

    She shook her head. “It’s ok. I will go by myself. Go and help Physician Wei at the clinic.”

    “But the demons…” he said, being worried for her safety.

    “I will be alright. The talismans will protect me. Now go.”

    He didn’t feel right leaving her alone, but he had no choice. Physician Wei and Guo Jing needed his help.

    “Alright. I’ll be back soon then.”

    After abiding farewells, Physician Wei and Xing Fu left the residence. She stood there and watched them disappeared from her sight. Then she closed the door and leaned against it, pondering.

    “I should be happy to know all of this, but why do I feel afraid? It’s a part of my identity…”

    She remembered Guo Jing’s words, What you are, we fear. Cecilia finally understood what he meant and let out a big sigh. “What am I really?”
    Last edited by skoo78; 07-26-14 at 08:55 AM.

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