Clash of the century.

Xuan yu knew that running was futile. He had worked for this organization before and nobody was ever that capable of running from them. He was actually amazing to have survived for four days. Nobody really got to the second day. He was not really running though. In fact his efforts to run were so sloppy he was a bit disappointed that it had taken them four days to find him.

"All those years I taught you and for nothing." He muttered in his breath.

The reason he ran was to think. The previous events were not adding up to him. Even he could not tell the situation clearly and he was the smartest man he knew. He had heard that phrase a lot as well. He did not think he had a reason to kill them. He would achieve nothing from it. Yet he did not put out the possibility. After all when he got back to his senses, he had the sword in his hands, all bloody up to his clothes and everyone around him was dead.

He did panic at first. He ran because he panicked but in these four days he had found sometime to think and had eventually learnt to accept the reality. If it was a set up, it was too clean, extremely perfect and almost impossible. Was he compelled? He had not known a drug strong enough to do that yet. When the set up agenda seemed to be making less sense as he thought, he finally accepted the possibility. Then came the guilt. He was not the type to care much but Master Zhi was like a father to him. Only the worst of evil would be at ease after committing such an act. He owed the biggest apology to Yujing. That was the second reason why he ran. He could not face him.

He could not even begin to imagine how badly he had hurt him. He beat himself up for it as time went by. Even as he showed up tonight, it was because he could not take it any longer. Maybe he wanted to see how he was coping, maybe he wanted to pay for his sins. But he went with one thought I his mind. By morning he would not be alive. If that was the case, he would rather he die by Yujing's hand. He deserved to die by his hands. Earlier he had avoided all open areas and green spots. He was one of the aces of Bronze Orchid. The third grand master Yu. Having the title of grand master at such a young age was a serious achievement in such a competitive organization. So he knew all the bases and roots. Where they would check, who they would talk to. He had been doing this for so long. Even the organization knew it was going to be hard to find him. To be honest, they did not even find him eventually. He came to them.

Xuan yu: "How can you tie me up when I came willingly?" He complained from the tightness of the ropes they had tied him with. He felt a gutwreching punch against his chin.

"Ugh!..." he grunted painfully.

"Keep your mouth shut you traitor!" a man he could not see hissed harshly after punching him. He was blindfolded and they were taking him somewhere. All this parade for one man. How important am I really? He sneered at the thought. His jaw stung with pain from the punch and was unable to lift himself up from where he had lost his balance so he just kept laying there sideways. The car rocking him occasionally. These men worked for him once. It must be fun having him in such a situation. Even before they dragged him into the car, they had already beaten him to pulp. His face was barely recognizable. He was a pretty man. Too pretty indeed. When he first came to the manor, Yujing, a boy who never spoke to anyone after his mother's death that people thought he had gone mute had whispered unconsiously, visibly awestruck, eyes wide with wonder. "So beautiful!" His hair curled naturally and slid effortlessly when held between one's fingers. It was now caked with blood and mud. His lips were normally so pink and his eyes changed color to golden when in the light but we're originally glistening grey. But now they were bloodshot and swollen. His pale clear skin had bumps and pink bruises. His lips were cut open and blood trickled from them. A couple of broken ribs and fractures.

He could have easily fought back but he did not.

He felt like they had been driving for so long. He had a premonition about where they were taking him and indeed when they finally arrived, he rolled his eyes. They couldn't be any more obvious. The warehouse. It was very far removed from the city. The place was responsible for most missing bodies, top secret.opperations and meetings. He was very familiar with the place, after all he had been there occasionally.

He had thought they'd drag him inside to torture him but they didn't. Instead they dragged him to the opposite side of the building. The building was standing on a cliff. Below it was a heavy flowing mass of water. The whole warehouse was built deep into a Forrest that snaked up a mountain. The building was at the very top of the mountain. That is why it was so hard to find. One only saw a blanket of greyish white mist below when staring down the cliff from above. The mass of water was not visible by sight but one could tell how massive and violent it was by the raging sounds of flowing water. It was supposed to be peaceful and calming, making one become one with nature but the nature of dealings taking place there had corrupted the serene feeling or at least that is what Xuan yu usually thought. So even before all these, he was already uncomfortable with the place. To make it worse, he was most scared of heights. He would rather take a bullet. The men that held him captive seemed to know this for they were dragging him closer towards the edge of the cliff. He felt a chill run down his spine.

"Shit."

"Xuan ah, you still do not like high places?" A lady's voice spoke from slightly behind him. He recognized it immediately. Lady Huang. The mistress of the Huang family. Of course she had to be present. She was known for her cruelsome torture techniques. She was quite smart. She believed that humans tend to break easily like twigs when exposed to their greatest fear which was more cruel that being cut bits by bits with a knife.

Xuan had no weakness or fear. On the surface, he was impossible to break. Even Lady Huang knew that throwing him down from that cliff may not be enough. She had to work with what she could for now though.

Xuan yu: 'Lady Huang, don't waste your time huh? Just throw me over."

He chuckled, trying to hide the trembling of his voice as one of the men grabbed a fistful of his hair and forced his head down over the edge so that he was staring directly below.

Lady Huang: "Tsk tsk!" She was clearly enjoying this. " Don't worry about my time. I have plenty of it."

She said laughing as she moved closer. Xuan yu had a couple of cars come in. More audience. This was really a show. He wondered if all the families will be present. Will he be there? He was so brave when he decided to come out but now the thought of seeing him again made his knees go weak with anxiety. The men held him up as he crumbled to the ground. His stomach began to hurt. Whenever it did that, he was really loosing it.

Lady Huang: "You know, you're really so impressive Xuan yu." Her voice had genuine admiration. "He must have been shocked when you slit his throat...he trusted you even more than his own son."

she was laughing at this point then leaned down to his ear, her hand sliding down his open chest tenderly. The clothes that should be covering it had been torn away. She whispered in his ear in a way that was meant to be seductive but Xuan yu felt so disgusted instead. "I never really liked them anyway...." This lady was married for heaven's sake.

Xuan yu: "You should really have some self respect... you're old enough to be my mother. In fact my mother is young..."

He felt his chest collide with something metal before he finished his sentence. It was excruciatingly painful. His head felt dizzy and he felt galons of blood gushing out from where the knuckles met. Lady Huang had metal knuckles on and they teared the delicate part of his skin off. She smiled.

Lady Huang: "Don't be so quick to annoy me, I really have tolerated this condesending attitude of yours for so long. But don't worry, I'll wipe that arrogance out of you today. "

She held her hand out and her men dropped something in her hand. Oh no. He said under his breath. Death was the last thing he should have been worried about tonight.

"Enough." A booming voice of a man said strictly from somewhere. "Remember why we're here." He addressed Lady Huang who said alright in a pouting baby voice. Being so old as she was and doing that was really ridiculous. If Xuan yu was not in extreme pain that time he would have bursted out laughing. Master Xie of the Xie dynasty. The second in rank of the five main families. Even he was here? Interesting.

He now fully turned to Xuan yu and asked calmly;

"Where is the ring?" The ring? Xuan yu thought then he remembered. Oh, that is why they were here? He couldn't help but laugh. His ribs hurt like hell but he laughed louder,his shoulders violently shook from laughter. He laughed for a really long time. The audience around him thought he was going mad.

Lady Huang: "You! What's funny huh? Why are you laughing?" She asked defensively.

Xuan yu: " You all are the most interesting. Your boss just died. Is it not revenge you want? But deep down your intentions are really different. What makes you so different from me?! " He was really amused. One could hear it as he spoke. Actually he had already forgotten about the ring. It was a bloody tool, it walked around with death.

Master Xie: "Our intentions should not be of concern to a dead man. Neither should the ring. You won't need it in hell. Hand it over. "

Xuan yu: "You're too incompetent to have such a thing in your possession." With those chilling words, Master Xie froze. Nobody could utter insults at him unperturbed like the young man in front of him but he held his stance. Xuan yu continued.

" I may have hid it, or maybe I destroyed it, or maybe...(He smiled at he stared squarely at him)...the ring is not what you should be looking for."

Master Xie lingered on the last words. Was there something else? He was about to ask when a fleet of cars drove past the entrance, not reducing their speed. The fleet looked so familiar that Xuan yu's breathing stopped for a moment. The Zhi had arrived.

He had expected that he'd come but seeing him step out of that car really hit him hard. He looked so cold and lifeless. His eyes were dead. Not the same eyes he found comfort staring at before. In only a couple of days, he had grown up so maturely. He.was only seventeen. What had he done? Regret crept up on him. His mischievous look was instantly replaced with shame. He lowered his head to the ground and didn't dare to look up.

Yujing did not expect that kind of reaction from himself either. Earlier, he was full of rage, All through the car ride, he thought of the most cruel ways in which he would torture him. He recounted how he would kill Xuan yu with his own hands in his mind until he was satisfied. That was the one agenda he had when he got out of the car that night. The moment his eyes landed on him, badly bruised and bloody he could not recognize him, his heart wrenched. That time he had resisted all urge to rush over and hold him in his handsm and checkon his bruises. His glare came back without even him noticing it. The kind that he usually had when someone messed with Gwen or Xuan yu. He chuckled miserably to himself. He really was hopelessly miserable. That man killed his father, he tok away from him the only living parent he had but he could not even stand it when others hurt him. How could he bring himself to hurt him. 

Zhi Meng, his uncle had seen this too and had dragged him back., He really did know him so well. He sighed in dissapointment as he got his men to have him seated. Xuan yu could feel as eyes bore holes into his body. He could care less about the others attention. There was one particular look that he could feel the most though. It was like it tore into his skin abd burned him. What was worse is he did not say a single thing. He just sat there among all these important men and starred as he stood before them, his sins and shame compketely exposed and they were the judge. Like a court room. Yujing was always like that though. Most of the time, he just sat still and stared. Xuan yu had long given up on trying to figure out what goes on in his head. As time went by he had found confort in his ability to act like a complete statue. It brought him extreme peace and tranquility. He liked to just sit beside him and would feel a ten years burden being lifted off of him. Tonight he was exactly the same but abit different and his cold calmness was really unsettling to him, ironically. 

Yujing sat there, mainly due to shock. Things were not going as he had thought them to go. He was having difficulties breathing. The elders around him got themselves busy questioning Xuan yu. Occasionally he would hear steel metal fall on skin. They were hitting him with steal rods and sharpened edges of metal. He could not bare to watch it so he shut them out. Xuan yu tried to make it seem as painless as possible. But how could one feel painless when his skin was being shredded bit by bit. Still, he tried. He had great control of his emotions. He was espeecially good with pain. He was raised that way. so he held uot really well.

In the end, all that tolerance was for nothing. For when one of the masters among the gathered families dragged Yujing before him, shoving a gun in his hands, he visibly shook. He felt all his strength and self control leave his body so quickly the moment he looked up and met with that good looking face of his, atarring back at him with shock and terror.