A few months passed, it was June and the middle of summer. The air arid and scorching.
Xiao San was crouched on the roof, a bead of sweat dripped from his brow. Underneath his feet was Cha Luo’s bathing room. Normally it would be under a sheet of darkness but today was blazing with light.
Inside, Ambergris incense drifted in the air, Cha Luo was immersed in the pool, sweat covered her forehead, her mouth half open and her eyes half closed. It was an alluring look.
Six male attendants knelt by the pool, topless with their heads lowered, silently listening to her every order. It did not take long before Cha Luo opened her eyes, dropped a Long Yan [1] into her mouth and instructed, “You may come down.”
One of the male attendants responded and dipped into the water. Cha Luo grabbed a handful of his hair and in a stern voice said, “You may not go back up without my orders.” And then pushed his head into the water.
As soon as the man entered the water, his feet immediately touched the bottom of the pool. Cha Luo glanced down, she trapped his manhood between her feet and promptly began to rub it between the soles of her feet.
It quickly stood up, Cha Luo’s movements quickened. The man lost control and gulped in a lungful of water from beneath the surface.
She smiled tenderly above the water at the sight. “Remember, without my permission, you may not come up for air.”
Her other hand came to lock his face below the water. The man soon fell drowsy beneath the water. But Cha Luo would not stop her rubbing. Death and pleasure came side by side. Underneath the water, his body reached a pleasure that he had never experienced before, his manhood thickened and he released his seed into the water.
Cha Luo finally loosened her grip on him, gathered the little strings of sperm around her hands and rubbed them around her nipples, her breaths quickening.
The man floated onto the surface, the other five men glanced at each other but none of them dared to save him, watching him die silently.
On the edge of the pool, a glaze bad started to cover Cha Luo’s eyes. “Who will put these Long Yan in me?”
One of the male attendants picked themselves up, grabbed handfuls of the Long Yan and jumped into the water and one by one pushed them inside Cha Luo’s private area.
She patted him in the head, “Good. Now I will bestow you the honor to eat these fruits. One at a time. Do not fight for it.”
The four other attendants reacted and all jumped into the pool each of them curling their tongues in her passage to ensnare the fruit from her body. Cha Luo felt pleasure from the movement and leaned her head against the rim of the pool to enjoy it.
The movement in the pool gradually increased, slapping against the corpse that was slowly losing it’s warmth. The sight made Xiao San who was still crouched on the roof take a cold breath in. He tightened his grip on the Soul Destroyer Sword.
Cha Luo was not one to normally engage in carnal pleasure but everyone in the Gate of Ghosts knew, that there were a couple of days in the Summer and Winter when she would look to fulfil her needs and the men who tended to her,….most of them would lose their lives.
The reason why was because the King of the Gu worms in her body would go through a phase where it would attack her, giving her much pain forcing she to look for a vent to distract her pain.
Of course only she knew the true reason but because Xiao San would often come here annually to investigate so he slowly grew suspicious.
He had noticed that her powers had receded in these last two days as she was unable to even detect that someone was on the roof.
That pair of rainbow crystal eyes that was famed across the entire pugilist world was not as sharp as normal.
“It is time,” he warned himself , covering his face with a cloth and pulled out the Soul Destroyer Sword. “If I soften my heart then I will never succeed. At most, I will just die.”
After saying the short encouraging speech to himself, the green tip of his sword lengthened and he dived like a shooting star aiming straight at Cha Luo’s heart.
Cha Luo was enthralled in the throes pleasure, by the time she felt the wind, it was too late. She grabbed one of the male attendants and threw the man up to meet the sword.
The sword pierced through the man’s body but the sword did not stop there. Under the control of Xiao San’s inner strength, it was a dynamic dragon, heading straight to its target, Cha Luo’s heart.
The Soul Destroyer sword was not a sword known for its sharpness but for the hidden green tip within the sword itself. It could separate from the sword bearer for 10 feet and kill. If it is a god, it will murder it, if it is a ghost, it will destroy it.
Inside the pool, Cha Luo glanced up in shock, in an instant, a bright light shone from her eyes, piercing the air like a rainbow crystal.
When the green tip clashed with this rainbow light, at first it was still able to dart through the air, but gradually slowed and completely halted when it was an inch away from her chest. Shattering into green dust, with a “Xiu” sound it disappointed back into the sword.
Xiao San knew he had failed and without any hesitation flew up onto the roof. Behind him he could feel a gust of wind follow him. It was a Long Yan fruit which hit him with such force that it penetrated his chest on the right.
Xiao San gritted his teeth, pressed down on his wound and used this final chance to escape into the darkness.
The courtyard was in an uproar. Countless people were swearing to catch the assassin. In a fit of anger, Cha Luo cut the throats of the other male attendants.
In the end 6 bodies floated within the pool, it’s color surprisingly matched her eye color, the color of dove’s blood.
The moon shone brightly, the stars were scattered across the sky. The fireflies in the courtyard joined together to have merry dance. In the darkness Wan Mei crouched in a corner and seeing the light finally going off in Xiao San’s room, she loosened her collar and headed in.
When she pushed open the door, Xiao San was already lying in bed as if he was asleep. She laughed lightly and put her arms around him.
Not waiting for him to speak, she quickly deposed of her clothing, her pale peaks rubbing against his lower body and then like a water snake, wrapped herself around him her mouth covering his.
His breathing grew heavy, both of Wan Mei’s hands reached out to explore him and push away the rest of his clothing her fingers slowly moving further and further down.
Finally, she felt the wound on his chest, although it was small but blood still poured from it.
“Let’s see what this is,” she said her tongue darting out to taste the liquid running down from it. The she lit a candle and stared at him, “Can you tell your mistress how you came about this injury?”
Xiao San pressed his lips together, scrambling to find a good excuse. But before he could Wan Mei had already answered her question. She leaned forward and resting her head against her hand she said, “Why don’t I answer it for you?”
“There is a good brother of yours amongst the Ghost eyes. His name is Jiu Jin. That day he talked to you about Pang De and showed you his details. You discovered that Pang De was responsible for delivering a sword named the Soul Destroyer Sword so you purposefully flaunted the fan the chief gave me in front of the Absolute Slayer so that she would be jealous and switch the mission.”
As soon as he heard her words, Xiao San’s expression changed, and a murderous glint reflected from his eyes.
Wan Mei laughed lightly and continued, “So I brought the sword back and you pretended to insult me, told me it was only good to chop firewood with and so in a fit of anger I gave it to you, just as you plotted. You got the sword and discovered it’s secret.”
“This sword is quite sharp but there are sharper swords than it. So why must you do so much to get your hands on it?”
Wan Mei leaned further forward and whispered in his ear, “Jiu Jin has already showed me the information about it. It once belonged to the Xie family of Jiang Nan. After the family was entirely killed, it somehow fell into the hands of a leader of the pugilist world. Say, as the leader of the pugilist world, and despite studying it for so long, he did not discover it’s secret, but it was in your hands for only 3 months but you already discovered it has a secret green tip. Why do you think that happened?”
Xiao San but seemed to remain unperturbed. He insisted in not knowing anything when he answered her.
Wan Mei leaned even closer. Her face was almost against his chest as she tenderly touched his injury. “I heard there was an attempted assassination on the chief after 9 tonight. And I, coincidentally found that you had disappeared. Tell me, should I report this to her?”
Xiao San’s face started to darken. His fingers wrapped around her neck.
“Then just kill me.” Wan Mei told him as she embraced him. Her eyes sadly looked up at him, “I think you must have used your best technique on her tonight. Kill me. The method to control the soul destroyer sword has disappeared for centuries. If you kill me, no-one else will know.”
The fingers around her neck tightened. Wan Mei’s breath came out in short pants. But she looked serenely at him.
In the end, Xiao San let go and he lowered his eyes, bleakness filled them.
“You have feelings for me,” Wan Mei sighed, clasping his hand on her chest. “Then you should believe that I have feelings for you too. I will never betray you.”
He raised his head at that. Watching his hand entwined with his, he felt despair swell inside him.
“Our love will not have a good end,” he gently mourned, “Wan Mei, I will drag you down with me.”
“Then why don’t we try and control our lives?” Wan Mei tightened her grip around his hand. “If you earnestly help me, one day I will help you kill Cha Luo.”
“That is true. Miss Slayer Mei is one with great ambitions. You have feelings for me because I am still of use to you,” he scoffed callously.
“I have feelings for you. And I wish to use you,” Wan Mei told him directly, “this is the Gate of Ghosts. We must do this if we wish to live.”
She watched him fall into silence and then climbed out of the bed and left. When she returned, she had a hot metal poker in her hand.
Xiao San understood her intention so gritting his teeth, he sat up straight and watched as she pushed the hot metal onto his injury.
The smell of burnt flesh disspitaed across the entire room. Wan Mei raised her hand and hit him across the face, and then in a loud voice yelled, “Do you feel so sorry for yourself because you have to serve me? If I do not punish you then you will not know who your mistress is!”
Sweat covered his body as he struggled to cope with the pain. Wan Mei sat in between his legs and pulled his manhood into her body.
“No matter who asks, I was the one rewarded you with that wound.” In between her moans, Wan Mei whispered in his ear, “you were with me the entire night tonight.
Xiao San nodded weakly, leaning his head against her chest and slowly felt pleasure build inside him.
“Then it’s settled.” Wan Mei replied softly as she moved up and down his length, “can you tell me what your real name is?”
“Huan.” Xiao An told her with a groan. Finally he spilled inside her before fainting from the exertion.
“Huan.” Wan Mei repeated as she helped him onto the bed and then laid her head on his chest, her finger tracing his pale lip. ” Eighteen years ago when the entire Xie family was murdered in one night, Cha Luo probably led the mission. You are probably one of the people who escaped the net. So your name is Xie Huan.”
The next day when the two of them woke up, they were still tightly holding each other. Wan Mei stretched and rested her head on Xiao San’s shoulder.
A commotion could soon be heard from outside. Xing Feng brought his subordinates over to investigate and as they expected, ordered everyone to remove their clothing to see who was injured.
Although he did have his suspicions about Xiao San’s injury but when all the attendants agreed that it was a reward from Wan Mei last night, he could not do anything about it.
“Gongzi highly regards Miss Slayer Mei,” he smoothed his sleeve as he stood in front of her, “I believe in his taste not because I believe you.” After he finished speaking he left with a sweep of his sleeve.
She sighed a breath of relief, her hands and feet were still shaking slightly when she returned to her room.
Beside her, Xiao San had already laid out the goatskin paper on the table, “Your mission this time is to kill a person, Qi Wei, the Dragon Tiger general of our dynasty. His weapon of choice is a long spear.”
“It should not be a problem.” Wan Mei slanted her head to look at the details. ” A month ago I killed deputy head Yu of a ministry without any effort at all. These government officials are all the same. They love money and women.”
“No.” Xiao San shook his head. “Qi Wei fell off his horse five years ago. A horse trod on his lower body. He is a true eunuch of every sense.”
Wan Mei pulled herself together. “Then can you overcome him with your martial arts?”
“I can.” He lowered his voice, “but there are Ghost Eyes monitoring us on every mission. I cannot show them my true strength so you must think of a way.”
Notes:
Long Yan 龙眼 a type of fruit, literally translates to dragon eye. It’s a small round fruit with a hard black stone in the middle and white translucent flesh that is sweet and juicy.