Tang Yin ushered the elderly behind her and drew her sword, holding it firmly as she quietly readied some hidden weapons in her other hand. Her gaze was keenly fixed in the same direction as Ning Wu's.

  They were utterly silent, their surroundings quiet, too quiet, and only the elder's hard breathing could be heard.

  "What is going on?" Tang Yin whispered to Ning Wu, and he stiffened up.

  "I don't know exactly, but I sense spirit power, and something with it is very wrong," he answered her. She nodded as she threw caution to the wind, unleashing her spirit power and revealing the blue-silver grass she called her own.

  Behind her, the elderly woman, whose name she still couldn't remember but knew was important, gasped at seeing her surrounded by spirit power.

  She gnced back at her. "Ning Wu, whatever it is, I don't want to involve the people in this vilge," she said, looking at him. "We need to move. They are just ordinary civilians."

  "As long as I don't know what we are dealing with..." he gritted his teeth, seeing her pleading look and the elderly woman she guarded behind her.

  "...Alright. I understand. We have to leave. Madame, is there a backdoor?"

  The elderly woman nodded. "Down the hallway, the second door leads to the living room and has a veranda door that you can use. Little Yin, what is going on?" she asked, looking at her with worry. Tang Yin sent her an apologetic look and pressed down her hand. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

  She kissed the woman's cheek as Ning Wu moved closer and nodded at her; he was ready.

  "I don't know, but it appears so," she told the old woman with a sad smile. "I just hope we are wrong and this will not cut my visit short. If you have some hidden, safe room with firm walls where no one can see you, can you head there?"

  The elder nodded and trembled as she grasped her hands. "I know where I can go. I haven't lived to see this age for nothing. Please take care, Little Yin."

  "I will," she smiled at her and then grimly nodded at Ning Wu, who kept her close to him as they left through the veranda door. Outside, he nodded toward the forest. The good thing was Elder Jack lived at the vilge's edge and not the center, so they could easily leave without crossing the vilge and possibly causing damage.

  They went into the more remote zones at high speed. Yin's body took paths her mind could not remember with dead precision. It knew this territory, and she knew this territory.

  "I sent a quiet arm to the caravan," Ning Wu informed her. "So they know something is amiss."

  "Alright," Tang Yin nodded and then followed Ning Wu. "What is wrong? I cannot sense anything."

  "I will only noticed this soon since I am more sensitive than most to spirit power. But it feels ominous. I have never felt a spirit power so totally warped."

  "Warped?" She asked him, surprised. Curious about what hers might look like to him, but then again, it was not the time for it.

  "Attention, it's coming closer. Stay with me. I cannot protect you when you are too far away," he grumbled, and she nodded. Why now, the first time when Uncle Jian was away, had they known?

  But if so, then how?

  Suddenly, she felt something ominous, her spirit quivering as she could hear something whistling through the air, as if metal was cutting through it.

  Be careful...

  A familiar voice in her head hummed.

  They aren't as strong as the swordsman, but they are wrong. This is something forbidden.

  She turned around and saw a rge man walk toward them. He was tall and nky, with long brown hair trailing after him. He swayed left and right, almost as if drunk. She felt the beast inside her keenly stare at the man, whose eyes suddenly fshed red beneath the sun. Gulping, she wrapped her blue silver grass around the man.

  He stopped.

  "What are you?" she asked. Then suddenly, her blue silver grass seemed to corrode. She wrapped increasingly around him until she noted something wrong seeping into her.

  Draw it back.

  The voice inside her said, and she nodded and drew it back.

  It's infecting, and the rot spreads.

  "Watch out, the rot is infectious," she said to Ning Wu, who grunted in displeasure as he drew backward.

  Tang yin took a deep breath, the conciousness inside her head was usually silent but hearing it like this armed her almost the most.

  "I want nothing form you." The man said and then raised his hand pointing at Tang Yin. "I want her." He said and Tang Wu gred at him.

  "No." He growled, and the man shrugged his shoulders.

  "Stupid." he then commented, and he vanished before Tang Yin even reacted. Ning Wu, in front of her, slumped to the ground, a gurgling sound coming from him as he colpsed.

  Down!

  By reflex, she went down something, cutting the air above her as she noted blood on her cheek. She rose, and in front of her, blood spread beneath Ning Wu.

  She gasped and turned around, the man stood where he had stood before, his head tilted as his eyes were fixated on her. He stretched out his hand. "Come." he said and Tang Yin flinched back.

  Buy time.

  "Why?" She asked, the command in her head uring her to. Buy time, maybe he would talk.

  "Unimpotant." He said and then was in front of her grabbing her arm before she could even react. Her hands spirit moving quickly as she tied herself to the trees, not to be dragged away. Her bde lunching forward and her grass shooting thorns at him.

  Her eyes widened as the bde broke apart and splintered, and her thorns stopped around him before they could touch him. His pure force ripped her forward, and she almost screamed in pain.

  Driven by pure survival instinct. She released her second martial spirit, shimmering silver in her hand as the sword gleamed in a dangerous light. She attempted to cut herself free again. This time, it hit something. Driving itself into flesh as the man vanished and let go of her.

  Everything had happened in less than seconds. Trembling, she ran but didn't get very far as he stood right in front of her.

  "That hurts," he said. Her hand and arm were numb, and her heartbeat fluttered like that of a butterfly as she looked for a way out.

  Up!

  The voice in her head barked, and she felt the wings on her back stretch out, rip through the fabric, and then she tried to flee into the sky; once again, something grabbed her, oppressing gravity.

  [Lock]

  For a brief split second, the pressure was gone. She tried to escape, but then it thundered down on her again, her nose bleeding as she tried to resist in a futile attempt.

  "Lucy said I am not supposed to hurt you...but you hurt me." he stated, almost like a child. "and I am out of time." It was like he was pouting when a sword hit the ground where he was standing just seconds ago, thrumming with spirit power, the man gone.

  In Tang Yin's mind, though, only one word remained.

  Lucy.

  She shuddered as she turned around, the sword in her hand vanishing as her mind returned to a cool thinking state. Above her, Uncle Jian, panting, visibly exhausted, his gaze fixed on the hand that had just held a sword and on the wings still spread on her back. The pressure was gone. She had them vanish as well.

  Her dress was torn on her back, and her hand was numb as she felt nothing, the small amount of feeling she had recovered once again gone.