Chapter 7: Lady of the Light (1)

"Ah, right. You may not wandering in this manor alone. I'll call Hei She to pick you up.", As Xin Suan walks by to the door.

"Wa-wait, Your Majesty!", Suddenly she remembered the promise Hei She has made.

Xin Suan stops his feet, "Do you need something else?"

"Uh.. Actually, Ge Ge Hei She promised me to explore this manor together. I don't have anything to do, so..."

"Go on. As long as there is someone who accompanies you, it's fine."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!", Ai Lie bows to him happily.

"Ge Ge? Why would you call him that way?", He is a bit frowning to her.

"Because he is already like my own brother.", Ai Lie said that bluntly.

"Oh? Then, what about me? Can I be your brother too?"

"Huh??", Ai Lie was shocked. She couldn't believe what he just said.

"I want to be your brother too. Then, don't call me 'Your Highness', call me 'Ge Ge'.", He is teasing her.

"What!? No! That would be very impolite!", Her cheek is burning red.

"Hahahaha", He laughs, "You are too fond of formalities. Just think of me as your brother, like what you did to Hei She. Next time we meet, you should call me 'Ge Ge' too."

"No, I can't do that, Your Majesty!", Her cheek become redder than before. She is frowning to him.

"But I want to be your brother too!", He keeps teasing her.

"No! That's impossible!", She shooked her head powerfully, as if she rejects him to her bones.

"Pfftt hahahaha! Look at you, you are so cute!", He laughs so hard until he cried a bit.

"... Stop that.", She starts to get upset to him. This time, she wasn't fall when he calls her 'cute'. She doesn't like to be teased too much.

"Alright, alright...", he stops laughing after seeing her upset red face, "I have to go now, goodbye Ai."

"... See you later, Your Majesty.", She bows to him, hiding her burning red face.

After he leaves the room, there are some woman ghosts wearing some weird shaped masks that she has never seen before, entering the room. They are cleaning the table without speaking a word to her. She can only stand near the opened door, waiting for Hei She to pick her up.

"Ai Lie.", It's Hei She's voice.

"Oh, hello again, Ge Ge!", She is smiling. Hearing the words 'Ge Ge', she remembered the moment Xin Suan teasing her. She become a bit upset, but she tries to be calm.

"I can't believe I can fulfilled my promise this soon.", Hei She chuckles.

"The sooner the better. Let's go!", She seems to be very excited.

They are exploring the Yin Pavilion. There aren't many rooms there. Only the dining room, the kitchen, and the storage room for food. But each room is very wide. At the end of the pavilion, there's a some kind of open terrace. That terrace has a small stair, connecting to the ground on side of the pool.

"Do you want to see the courtyard's pond?"

"I'd love to!"

They are going down to that small stair, to the side of the pool. Ai Lie can see the black water closely, she can even touch the lotus flowers. Somehow the water isn't dirty, it's clean but the color is absolute black.

"Be careful, there are some creatures living inside the water.", Hei She warns her.

She pulls her hand from those lotus flowers, "Oh, okay!", she didn't dare what kind of creatures that living inside the water.

"Where do you want to go next? The Yang Pavilion?"

"Yes, but I'd like to passing the bridge once more."

"Very well."

They are walking to the bridge. Ai Lie is admiring the beautiful big black bridge that she stepped on. There are so many ornaments on the bridge's handle. Suddenly, Hei She stops walking.

"Hmm... It's seems we have an uninvited guest here."

Ai Lie is turning her head around, "Who? There's no one except us."

"I have to inform His Highness. Ai Lie, please stay here for a while.", Suddenly, the snake vanished within air.

She is alone now, and doesn't know what to do. She starts to humming as she stares at the black water below the bridge while waiting for the snake to return.

"My, my, my, look who we have here.", Suddenly a woman's voice coming behind her

"!?", Ai Lie gasped, as she turns her head around.

A beautiful elegant woman, dressed in white silk robes. She wears a golden belt, necklace, earrings, and bracelets. In the middle of her forehead, there is a small sun emblem. Her skin is extremely pale, and she wears a heavy make up. Her beautiful golden hair is shining. Her eyes color is like an orange sapphire. She covers half of her face with a white hand fan. Ai Lie is amazed by her appearance, but a half of her feels terrified.

"Hello, little girl.", She is smirking to Ai Lie.

"W-who are you?", Ai Lie walks away from her, on the direction to the Lotus Pavilion.

"My name is Bai Wu. I came here just to see you."

"H-huh? Why me...", She suddenly remembered that Hei She has warned her. Someday, she will meet the other asuras. But, it's not 'someday', it's still today!

"Oh my, look at you, you are so cute! How old are yoy, little girl?"

Hearing the word 'cute' reminds Ai Lie of Xin Suan. She suddenly hates that word.

"Yeah, she is cute, not like you. Old and wrinkled.", A man's voice came behind of Ai Lie's back. Ai Lie turns her back, and it was Xin Suan.

"You again! How dare you called me old and wrinkled!", Bai Wu yells at him.

"Why so angry? It's a fact though.", Xin Suan is smirking at Bai Wu.

"You, my child, don't get too close to that bastard behind you! He is dangerous!", Bai Wu talks to Ai Lie.

"E-eh?", Ai Lie couldn't believe her ears, she just called the mighty Xin Suan, a bastard. Well, he is a bit 'bastard' though.

"You are safer with me! So why don't you come along with me instead of staying in this old fashioned manor? I will give you all the glory you want!", Bai Wu is approaching her slowly. But Ai Lie tries to avoid her.

"Come!", Bai Wu stretches out her hand. Ai Lie is confused. The man behind her is doing nothing but watching her, so she thought it's gonna be okay. But when Ai Lie tried to reach her hand to Bai Wu's, suddenly some flying white silk come behind Bai Wu's back are approaching Ai Lie's face in a high speed. 'BOOM!', Something exploded in front of Ai Lie's face.

"KYAA!!", Ai Lie immediately closes her eyes.

Ai Lie felt something tries to wrap her body, and when she opened her eyes, Xin Suan's cold hand is already covering her ears, and pressing Ai Lie's head to his lower chest. Ai Lie is stunned, as she stares at his face.

The bridge is fall of a bit because of those attacks, "Hey, make sure you'll pay for it!", Xin Suan yells at Bai Wu.

"Don't worry, this costs nothing to me!", As they continuing to attack each other with some kind of magic.

Xin Suan parries every of her attack while making sure the girl in his embrace is fine. Feeling triggered, suddenly Xin Suan lifts Ai Lie's body with one hand, like he is carrying a child, while his other hand summoning a large crimson blade. That blade seems to be very heavy.

"Ha! This is what I've been waiting for!", Bai Wu is also summoning her silver thin sword.

"Eh???????", Ai Lie's brain is still processing what was happened in past five minutes.

"Hold on tight.", Then Xin Suan jumps forward to Bai Wu quickly.

'Whoa, his movement is too fast, like I'm riding a roller coaster!', Ai Lie is afraid, she curled both of her hands on Xin Suan 's neck, while hiding her face to his shoulder. She shuts her eyes tightly.

'CLANG!', The sound of the swords beating each other, for so many times. Ai Lie is stuck in the middle of this sudden brawl. She has no idea why they are fighting each other with so much tension as if they were actually arch enemies. Their fight become more intense than before. She starts to feel uncomfortable with this situation. When Xin Suan increases his movement speed, Ai Lie become more terrified. She curled her hands tighter than before and pressed her face to his neck while she still shut her eyes, Xin Suan realized it. He kicks Bai Wu away when she is off guard.

"Huff.. huff.. You... Even with one hand, you are still this strong!", Bai Wu seems to lose all of her energy. The bright sky above is now a bit darkened.

"Try harder next time.", Xin Suan's blade is vanished from his hand. Feeling a bit safer, Ai Lie finally raised her head up. The first thing she saw is a zoom in version of Xin Suan's face, and she feels a bit awkward, so she turns her head to Bai Wu, but she still secured her hands around Xin Suan's neck tightly.

"No! I can still fight!", Bai Wu raises her sword.

Bai Wu jumps forward to Xin Suan, and her sword swings to the direction near Ai Lie's face. "Wah!!", Ai Lie once again shuts her eyes, and hides her face to Xin Suan's neck. Xin Suan's block her very powerful attack with one bare hand. His eyebrows are a bit flinched.

"Cih!", Bai Wu's hand are trembling, Xin Suan locks her sword tightly. The sword starts to break a little.

"Wait, what is that on your face?", Suddenly, he changes the topic.

"Huh? What's wrong with my face?", Bai Wu seems to be worried.

"Oh my, is that a pimple?", Xin Suan suddenly throws a weird question. Ai Lie is curious on what happened, so she raises her head. She stares on Bai Wu's face, but her face is clean, no pimples at all.

"What? Really??", Bai Wu starts to touching her face, searching for the pimple that he meant. It seems this woman loves beauty more than anything, until she forgets that a minutes ago, she was in a sword battle. Xin Suan releases her sword.

"Yeah, go take a look on the water.", Xin Suan points his finger to the side of the bridge.

Bai Wu walks to the side of the bridge, trying to look her reflection on the surface of the water. Suddenly, Xin Suan pushes her back with some kind of telekinetic magic, and Bai Wu and her sword falls from the bridge. When her head is popped out from the surface of the water, her heavy make up is already ruined.

"HAHAHAHAHA! LOOK AT YOU!! YOU ARE SO UGLY!!", Xin Suan laughs and yells at the same time, making Ai Lie's ears hurt.

"XIN SUAN, YOU FUCKER!!!!!!!", Bai Wu screams out loud.

Ai Lie is observing Bai Wu's bare face. Her appearance is like a mature woman, about early 40's, but she isn't ugly, or old, or wrinkled just like what Xin Suan said. Her skin is white, smooth, and firm, but the man that has been carrying her along the way just simply loves to mock someone, just like his general. Ai Lie feels sorry to her, to be bullied by the stronger one badly.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA" He laughs unstopably, until he takes a peek at the girl that he carried on his shoulder.

"...", Ai Lie stares at him, sharply, with a poker face. Disappointment written all over her face, just like a mother who is fed up raising her naughty children. 'So childish, just like his underling! They can talk their problems nicely, why should he push her to the water?', her impression towards him is now change, from an intimidating strong man to an immature old fart, just like Yin Ling.

"Hahahaha....", He tries to stop laughing and asks, "w-what's wrong?", as he sobbed a bit.

".... Nothing.", Ai Lie hates bullies. She is a bit upset towards his improper actions.

"Are you hurt? I tried to avoid every of her-"

"I'm fine, please put me down, Your Majesty.", She cuts his words, as she releases her hands from his neck.

"I will put you down to a safer place, who knows she will attack you again."

"She won't. Just put me down. Even if she does, you ARE the one who should protect me.", She said it coldly. Just now, she bravely gives him an order.

"O-okay...", Xin Suan suddenly terrified by her anger. This has never happened to his life, not once ever, to be intimidated by a human, especially a little girl. What he meant was to stop the battle, it was too dangerous for a human like Ai Lie to be involved in. Ai Lie understands his good intention, but she thought that Xin Suan was doing it too far.

He puts her down. She rushly going down from the bridge to the side of the pond, and Xin Suan follows her. Bai Wu is still struggling, she can't swim well. She tried to reach a steady ground beside the pond, but she kept swimming back to the water.

"Please, take my hand, Your Majesty!", Ai Lie is kneeling, and stretching her hand to Bai Wu.

Bai Wu takes a short pause, she is amazed by the little girl's heroic action, 'She is... so kind!". Bai Wu tried to attack her, but Ai Lie seems doesn't even bothered because of that. She still try to save her anyway. The sky above become even darker than before. The red lanterns start to glow.

"C'mon, Your Majesty!", Ai Lie yells at her, trying to reach her hand.

"W-Wait!", Bai Wu struggling to take her hand.

Seeing Ai Lie's action, Xin Suan become insecure. He is afraid if Bai Wu will pull her into the water. He cast another telekinetic magic, and lift Bai Wu's body from the water. He throws her body to the ground hardly. Ai Lie gasped, and she instantly turn her head to Xin Suan. Her eyebrows are flinched.

"Ugh!", Bai Wu's body crashed to the rocky ground hardly. She tries to stand but she can't. She keeps coughing because there were too much water that she drank. The sky above has covered with absolute darkness. Her power has reached the limit, she couldn't summon her sun anymore. She is all wet, and her beautiful white robe is now dirty and stained because of the black water.

"Qing Qing! Ming Ming!", Xin Suan yelled.

"Yes, Your Highness.", the twins suddenly appeared behind Bai Wu's back.

"Bring her to the dressing room, take care of her. Clean her up properly!"

"Yes, Your Highness.", They both helped Bai Wu to stand, and delivered her inside the Yang Pavilion.