No wonder why it was possible.

Though, they were able to sleep in the early morning, before the first crow, they were still at alart to any movement.

The first to get up was XiMei. She looked around and saw Wenli's eyes wide open.

"You didn't sleep?" She asked but LuPeng answered instead.

"Only a tiny bit"

"You're awake too?" Wenli asked surprised, jacking up from bed.

"Guess the incident took our sleep. "LuPeng said before slowly getting up as well.

"I was really thinking of ways to face the demon. But that just hypothesis not a theory" Wenli said. The two looked at her in confusion. And, she found herself explaining, "I mean, I'm not yet sure if it's going to work, I'm not 100% sure it would work"

"Me too, my magic can't be compared to many that I'm sure, but to the demon we're about to face, I'm not sure" XiMei said frowning.

"Listen, we don't have time to wallow in thoughts like this. Let's bait ourselves first, observe their weak points then, try our best to escape before coming back to fight it " LuPeng suggested.

If not for the aura LuPeng carried, Wenli would have mocked him for being so foolish. Going without knowing what they're facing was just like submitting to death. Master Wu had warned her not to jump into conclusion without being well prepared. She had also promised Hualia to come back unscathed and she can't fail to break that promise. Her master would murder her, before Hualia could bombard her with an uncomfortable care and worry.

???

Suddenly, she remembered what XiMei said.

Magic? She knows magic? That would be great. It has always worked in the movies and novels she had read, but not sure if it was going to work in this real life danger.

"XiMei, can you do something for me?" She asked eyes fixed on her.

"What's that? I hope it's not letting me go fight that demons all by myself?" She teased though a bit fearful.

Wenli blinked twice before snapping her mouth open. Seeing she has nothing to say, she closed it back.

Just what on earth was going on in this girl's mind? She is not an evil woman, though people had jumped into danger to save her, she would rather be selfish to run away ignoring everything than force people to die uselessly.

"You told us that you can perform magic, right?"

XiMei nodded, "yeah, why?"

"Can you perform empathy on someone not here with you?"

"That's empathy not some simple trick. I can't perform that when she's not here. But, I can trace her by her name. I don't know if she's alive or dead..."

Wenli somewhat relaxed when she heard of that. She smiled.

"Are you okay?" XiMei asked scrutinizing at the young beauty that was smiling like she's had her first kiss from the man of her life, while they were in delimma.

"That's okay then. We'll go with it " she spoke, XiMei looked at her wondered if she has finally lost it. Just how could what she had said be okay? She was thinking so deeply, but not LuPeng.

LuPeng inspected the lady before him, thinking trying to understand from whatever angle she was thinking from.

"To find her location is better than nothing I suppose" he finally said after a brief thinking.

"That's why I call you a teacher. You could be a lecturer...I mean, a scholar, it could suit you, teacher LuPeng " Wenli praised.

"Ah!!!" XiMei clasped her palms together making a 'dom' sound.

"I get it now elder sister. Finding her place could be a better way to call out that demon where ever it is"

"Tst, tst, XiMei, you have such a great master but you don't understand simple logic" LuPeng ostracized.

XiMei pouted at the unwarranted statement. But she ignored it. She has business to do.

She would deal with him when she's done with the demon that dared to give her sleepless nights. Until then, their handsome leader should wait for her scrunching words.

"They said her name was Mo Xue. I can start with that" XiMei said with the cracking of throat that sent shivers to the man next to her, warning him of impending doom coming his way.

Again, everywhere became quite as XiMei touched her forehead after a few hand seals. She muttered the name Mo Xue amid the thudding sounds that bothered Wenli's soul.

After something that seems forever, but was just few minutes, XiMei opened her eyes, feeling tired.

"Anything?" LuPeng asked.

"She... she...she... s..."

"Don't start now to scare us. What happened. Why are you shuttering?" She asked her voice fidgety.

"At the Dai Zu village, in a deserted place, that can furrow even Dean Liu's calm visage.

"Okay, that's heart scourging" Wenli stood up feeling her heart in her mouth. She could taste her own iron taste from biting...

"Dai Zu village? Hmmm!" LuPeng heaved heavily. He shouldn't fidget. He's the man here... He could act cool to calm the girls nerves even when he was equally scared.

"Tonight, we be the baits" he bravely said, masking any tinge of fear that could be visible.

"Let's head to the village now. We can look for inns to stay and prepare further" he suggested.

The two girls nodded, and with that, they left for Dai Zu village to an inn farther away from the so called deserted place but nearer for them to run to that place.

Night came as a flash of lighting that they wondered if this was always the attitude of time when one is in distress. When one is eagerly praying for time to go slower than the normal ticket of the clock.

Near the isolated place, no one was seen only the calm but trembling visage of Wenli who sat legs crossed as if in deep meditation. The firelights from the talisman Master Wu had given her shun brightly in the sky, even brighter than the modern day torch light.

She waited and waited for things to happen, but nothing came. She was beginning to doubt if those villagers from the Dai village told them lies.

About getting up from her sitting position, she heard the rustling of leaves and the more chirping of birds.

It was utterly strange, firstly, the place was as quiet as a graveyard, even crickets were afraid to disturb the quiet yet disturbing viscosity of the place. Secondly, there was no trees around that place. Even the inn they got out from, was with fewer trees with more fewer leaves, how possible? And finally, it was a dead night, why on earth were the birds chirping. Shouldn't they be asleep by now? What on earth is this place?

This thought scared Wenli to the bone marrow that she clenched tightly the garment she wore, trying to find comfort in holding it.

Why on earth did she decide to be the one to seat here receiving all this torture? Were her partners feeling this Gothic aura from where ever they are hiding? If so, have they run away leaving her to die in the hands of devilish creature that were extinct in her timeline? She can't die yet.

She needs to go back to that dammed place called the ' reconciliation hall ' and asked what she had done wrong to deserve this.

From a distance, she could hear a dragging feet, as though he was woken up forcefully from his dreamland of romance and porn of youth of their age in the modern world.

Ah!!! What a hefty man that was. She could tell. But when the steps got closer to her, it stopped as if savouring at its prey surrendering herself to it.

"What do we have here?" The voice was surprisingly lyrical giving Wenli a pang of what ithe fuck was that.

"A girl? You really want to sacrifice yourself to me don't you?" The lyrical voice asked.

"I had no choice. I just want to know what you want from that innocent village" she stated refusing to open her eyes.

"Innocent?..." She could hear the slightest yet the most agitated scoff a hungry angry man could give. "Why don't you open your eyes?"

"I prefer it closed" Wenli stated again.

"Then, I'll go back to my tub..."

He made way to leave but was stopped by her.

"Wait... I'll open them " she said in defeat slowly opening her eyes. But she regretted it soon after. She thought that since the voice was melodious, the person she was talking to would be. But she was wrong.

It wasn't. It's was a gory cloud like bloody mist. That hovered around her.

If aura was a viable thing, she would count herself as one of those of had seen them. But not like this. That one would give her the sleepless nights of everlasting nightmare if she dared close them. She looked at it again, after closing her eyes trying to calmly organize her thoughts before she does something that even the gods and goddesses would mock and laugh at her till the day she breathes her last.

When she opened it again, the gory was peeking through her, as if trying to undress the lady. Instead of fear, Wenli scoffed.

"You pervert, how could you try and scare me with that? Didn't they teach you in school to treat girls nicely?" She blurted out. That even the gory was dumbstrucked, she herself was frightenly amused at her sentence.

"Thanks Master Wu" she thought scoffing again at the realization of something she didn't know of.

She looked closely as all the fears that she was building about the chirping birds, blah blah blah, and seeming the culprit of her fear, she muttered.

"Ah, no wonder why it was possible" she closed her eyes again, fully standing up, dusting her lightest pink flowing robe.

As determined as she was, she was now ready to heed her master's advice.