“It’s alright, it’s alright…I understand.” Se Lang did not want to have too much physical contact with Jia Ying ever since she took the initiative to kiss him. He did not forget about it at all and it had been bothering him every time he saw Shi Hui.
Nevertheless, Se Lang knew how it felt, being punished and tortured by your own insecurities. He lent his shoulders to Jia Ying. Just this once, to cry out her fears and to give her something to hold on to. To embrace her as an appreciation, a reassurance that she was not alone in this fight.
Se Lang was also thankful that Jin’s dungeon instance was not as torturous as he thought it would be. If not for a sudden blinking ball of light that occasionally floated around in the Hall of Mirrors, Se Lang too would have gone crazy within the mirrors despite the trail markers he had made with his own blood.
He was unable to think rationally enough to figure a way out. The ever growing fear was his silent companion in that quiet hall of mirrors, together with the echoes of the cries and shouts he made. However, the ball of light somehow twinkled on the trail markers and he followed it blindly. At that point, he’d rather be fighting against a physical monster or be killed in a freak accident than to be consumed by his irrationality and fears.
Fortunately, the blinking ball of light lead him to a door. He was able to open it, only to find Jia Ying being bullied by the two silhouettes. With Jia Ying rescued, the only thing left to do was to try and help Shi Hui, who had been fighting with all her might against not one, not two, but three Gingerbread Knights.
“Stop fighting against us, you know that we are not the bad guys. Se Lang and Jia Ying are. They are the ones who left you here all alone. They betrayed you.” The voice within the abandoned house kept calling out to Shi Hui and yet she continued to struggle against these monsters.
Not that she was able to ignore every word that the voice within the house was echoing through her mind. But she knew that there was a speck of truth in the nonsense or rumours that this particular voice was spewing, there’s no smoke without fire. Maybe, she knew that she was not good enough for Se Lang and she sometimes felt that Jia Ying might be a better girlfriend for Se Lang.
Shi Hui was not as sporty as Jia Ying and Se Lang. Although she was able to maintain her body figure through dance, unlike those two, she did not train her body more than that. Se Lang and Jia Ying had more topics and interests in common than Shi Hui had with Se Lang. For example, both actually liked the new pet card game and even devised strategies for each other but Shi Hui was not that interested in it. Cosmetics for her Shadowy Swan was a different thing.
Not to mention, it was out of impulse that Shi Hui decided to go for Se Lang because she knew that if Jia Ying sprouted a good comment about a guy, she was always right on the money. Because, almost every prediction she made about guys be it good or bad, would eventually come true. That was why she jumped the gun and started dating Se Lang.
Although it had only been a few weeks in which she courted Se Lang, Shi Hui managed to find some very redeeming points about him. Even though dating him was just a decision made on a whim, she slowly fell in love with him. What about the first date that was mentioned? She was after all experienced in theatrics, so kissing him was not really a big deal for her as compared to Se Lang.
As she was defending herself against the Axe wielding Gingerbread Knight in the squeezy corridor that connected to the living room of the abandoned house, a lance suddenly came crashing down from the top of the ceiling and scared the shit out of her. Shi Hui managed to avoid the attack and with her Icesteel War Fans, she froze the lance weapon, causing it to be stuck on the ceiling. “I didn’t know he could attack in such a manner from the second floor after I froze the room to temporarily block him from coming out.” Shi Hui took a quick breather but it was too late when she saw an axe flying towards her from the corner of her eye. Her War Fan was not able to block it in time and it slammed onto her right shoulder.
She screamed in pain and that was when Se Lang and Jia Ying managed to find the door connecting to the living room that Shi Hui was currently in, from the Hall of Mirrors. Unlike Se Lang, Jia Ying remained calm when navigating the Hall of Mirrors and the trail markers did wonders, allowing them to find the second exit.
However, they were not in time to save Shi Hui as the Gingerbread Knight with the Chocolate Cookie Shield bashed her to the ground and stabbed her once before turning to face Se Lang and Jia Ying. The horror on the cultivators’ face turned to anger immediately as Jia Ying’s chi burst and filled the room with her own version of death and destruction.
Even without saying a single weapon art out, she dashed to the Gingerbread Knight that stabbed Shi Hui with lightning speed. However, that was also the spot where the lance was stuck but Jia Ying was not wary of it until the ceiling suddenly gave way and Jia Ying was nearly doomed to be crushed by the falling lance and the Gingerbread Knight wielding it.
“Careful!” Se Lang grabbed Jia Ying and pulled her out of the area before the ceiling crashed onto her. The Lance Gingerbread Knight did not hesitate to pull a quick counter attack with his lance, but Se Lang managed to defend the attack with his Icesteel Scythe blade.
Jia Ying shoved Se Lang away even though she was saved by him and proceeded to engage the Lance Knight. “You are not worthy to wield a spear, Peasant!!” The Lance Gingerbread Knight shouted as he charged forward in that narrow corridor. “Try me, you piece of moldy bread.” Jia Ying sneered as she charged in again without shouting any weapon art. It was either him or Jia Ying that would emerge victorious within the next few second, was what Se Lang thought but no.
Each of them were exchanging blows so furiously that Se Lang had to step back to give Jia Ying some space. There was no way for him to even support Jia Ying in this tiny connecting room and he hoped that Jia Ying could end up victorious.
He thought that Jia Ying did not have any weapon art that would suit this particular situation or that she was too angry to even shout it out. The thing was, Jia Ying did not even need to do that as she had already trained her mind, body and soul to the point that the weapon was a part of her. Hence, executing basic weapon arts without shouting was a piece of cake to her.
“See… What have I told you?” The voice continued to linger in Shi Hui’s head as she started to lose consciousness from the pain of the axe stuck in her shoulder and from the sword stab in addition to the exhaustion and fatigue she acc.u.mulated fighting against three knights.
“Look, if you want to exact vengeance and keep Se Lang for yourself, do not hesitate. I am here to help.” A barely visible silhouette of Pyro Jack came into her vision, yet the other two cultivators did not see it because they were focused on the lance vs spear fight in the narrow corridor.
“Just take this. Taste it. Chew it a little and maybe swallow it.” Pyro Jack took out a rainbow-colored popcorn and pushed it into her mouth without much resistance. “You will be reborn, little duckling. Be the Swan that conquers everyone else.” Pyro Jack knelt down just to whisper these last words into her ear, after which she could not help but chew on it with tears rolling down her eyes.
