Mind Games

YuHan Pov:

"YuHan, are you ok?" ZiNuo asked as he reached his hand out to grab my hand.

"I'm fine, just a bit exhausted," I said.

"You think coughing out blood is fine?" ZiNuo asked.

"We have unfinished business, let's worry about me later," I said as I let go of his hand, walking towards the beast in the cage. I kneed to the ground and looked at the beast. "Tell me what's inside that cave," I said.

"Even I don't know," the beast said as he laid himself down in the cage.

"Why not we find out," I asked ZiNuo.

"If that's what will get you to rest and speak about your coughing, then yes," he replied with his hands crossed. I grabbed the cage, but ZiNuo took it away from me. "I'm not making you hold heaving things, especially that sword in your hand," ZiNuo said as he then grabbed my sword and placed it back into the casing. I felt weak and threatened when he held onto my sword. "Leave your things to me and I won't kill you, so calm down. Didn't I promise you at the beginning when we met?" ZiNuo smiled.

"How do I know if you weren't lying?" I asked.

"Why would I be so concerned about you then?"

"Cause-" I paused in the middle of my response to think of something to say.

"You see, even you can't make an excuse as to why I would kill you. So there's no reason to worry." I smiled slightly when he looked away, a warm feeling filled me.

We walked all the way to the cave opening and we started to walk into a small path. ZiNuo has a glowing yellow needle that brightens up the place. Black smoke starts to come out of nowhere and the light coming from the needle disappears. The black mist blurred my vision and before I knew it, The mist had split me and ZiNuo. "Yin Gongzi, where are you?" I shouted, but I got no response.

I looked around before I could draw my sword out, I realized ZiNuo had my sword. A huge body of mist forms into a skull and looks at me. "Been awhile since a human has stepped into my territory."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to show you your deepest desire," the voice chuckled. It circles around before it transforms itself to a young lady. "Does a pretty female attract a young man like you?" it spoked as it walked around. "Or perhaps you miss your family," it said as it takes the form of my mother. I held onto my sleeves, the urge of wanting to run to the arms of mother left when the mist took the shape of ZiNuo. "Oh, seems like this one does something." I flinched.

"What?"

"Though you think he's your enemy, your body and especially your eyes gave you away." The mist turned back into a skull. "I don't need a heart that is occupied by something already. Especially when it's a Bai Sect and a Yin Sect member," the mist spoke before it disappeared. The mist cleared, "Yin Gongzi?" I shouted.

"I'm over here!" he shouted. I followed the sound of his voice. I looked at his face and he was in shock. I turned around to realize what ZiNuo had found. "Look at this place! It looks like a place from the novels I read." The place was bright and a cherry blossom tree in the middle, the petals fell gently down onto the ground. "Where are we?" ZiNuo asked.

"We're at my master's favorite place," the beast spoke.

"What do you mean by that?" ZiNuo questioned the beast.

"This is the place where my master meets the young lady everyday. Well I don't know how he was able to put a piece of land that no longer exists under a mountain."

"Elbarote," I spoke.

"This piece of land was burned down 400 years ago by fire, a fire that the Yin Sect started. It's near the border between the Yin and Bai sect. So the Yin Sect has all rights to burn the place of land down. I heard from the master that they wanted to make the place into a town, but when it was burnt into crisp, it turned into forbidden land where ghosts roamed. So they left the land alone since they thought it was cursed."

"Why didn't your master stop the fire?" ZiNuo asked.

"He did try persuading the Yin sect members, but no one listened to him. He even tried to make a barrier, but it didn't work because those sneaky Yin Sect members found a way to spark the fire in the barrier." ZiNuo walks towards the tree and tries to catch one of the petals. His eyes widen as he sees the petal disappearing into golden dust.

"Seems to me that this place is made of magic," I said as I kneel down and pulled a piece of green grass out of the dirt, the same thing happened to the grass like the petal. "It's a very detailed replication spell, no mere mortal can do this."

"My master was no mere mortal-"

"What about the young lady?" ZiNuo interpreted.

"I think she was a mortal, but she could cultivate magic."

"Enough about the lady, let's take a look at the tree," I spoke.

We walked closer to the tree, the tree started to shimmer, the petals falling turned from pink to gold and the grass started to turn into a gold color. The petals that remained on the tree turned into golden butterflies that flapped their wings, flying upwards, towards the middle where there was an opening that wasn't there before. I turned around to look at the tree which had disappeared, but left a chest in its place.

"Should we open it?" ZiNuo asked.

"If you insist." I looked at him. He opened the chest to reveal a chest filled with white lilies and a letter on top. ZiNuo grabbed the letter and opened it. There was nothing written on it, but I heard a faint deep voice. "You've died at such a young age, perhaps we'll meet one another again when the skies are blue, the grass is green, and the petals are falling off the tree. Your bright smile is what I want to see every spring." ZiNuo searched in the pile of flowers to find a scroll.

"Look!" he shouted as he unscrolled it. He flipped the painting to face me and I saw a lady with hair as dark as ink and pretty brown eyes. She was wearing white with small details of water lilies that were wove with grey thread. "Isn't she pretty?" ZiNuo asked.

"Well not as pretty as my mother," I spoke bluntly.

"You must love your mother," he continued to search in the chest till he touched something at the bottom. He grabbed it out to reveal a sword. The handle was black and complemented with white patterning of water lilies. The beast in the cage widened his eyes.

"Anything you have to say?" I spoked.

"Leave the sword here and let me out of this cage. I warn you both, do not try to take the sword away or you will face consequences-"the beast was interrupted by the sounds of erhu. "Master-" the beast spoke softly before his eyes were closed shut.

"It seems that it's time I have returned," someone spoke. A male with long black hair with a part of his hair braided. He was wearing a black outside layer and white layers. Half of a white colored mask decorated with gold colored spider lilies, covered his left part of his face. His right eye had light red eyeshadow and he held a fan in his hands. He walked towards us and held a scroll out. "Seems like you two were the ones who were capable of entering my domain," he smiled.

"Who are you?" ZiNuo blurted.

"There's nothing you need to know about me, all you have to know is that you two are invited to the Ping sect and make sure to keep the sword well protected," he handed the scroll in his hand to me. "You will learn about everything if you come. Well only if you make it," he said with a sly smile before he disappeared.