I’m not sure when it started, but I

I’m not sure when it started, but I ended up following Ah Yi, Ah Lun, Xiao Mi and Yi Jing from a distance when school let out. If you asked me why I didn’t just walk by myself, but instead followed them like glue, I really couldn’t say. Maybe I was waiting for something.

Today when I ripped up the paper Yi Jing had passed to me, well, maybe I had gone a bit too far.

Walking the little path down Bagua Mountain, I looked at Yi Jing from afar. I could hear them talking. Yeah, due to my increasingly solid inner force foundation, I could now vaguely make out sounds from very long distances.

Suddenly, my heart seized.

It started beating rapidly. Warning me.

There was an aura of death.

“Is Master nearby?” I looked around suspiciously.

No, it wasn’t Master. This aura of death couldn’t compare to his.

Well then, whose was it? Could there be other experts of the martial world at large in society?

Off in the distance I saw a group of middle-aged men, wearing leather outfits and colorful plaid shirts, advancing toward Yi Jing and the others. They carried rolled up newspapers. It looked like there were about seven or eight of them.

The aura of death roiled forth evilly from them. I hoped they weren’t connected to Ah Yi in some way.

As I hurried down the stone steps, I saw them surrounding Ah Yi and the others.

Agck! So it was trouble stirred up by Ah Yi.

“Are you the leader, Ah Yi?” The man glared at Ah Yi. His face was criss-crossed with knife scars.

“What the hell?” said Ah Yi snappily.

At this point I was about five paces away from them, but I could sense the terror roiling forth from Ah Yi’s heart. And there’s no need to even mention the intense fear of Yi Jing and the others.

“You guys are looking for Ah Yi? He’s still at school playing basketball!” Ah Lun grinned and clasped Ah Yi’s shoulder. “Sheng Yao, just hold on a moment, we can go play video games at your house in a bit.”

Ah Yi nodded automatically. The faces of everyone in the group were pale white with fear, except for Ah Lun, who had reacted so quickly to the danger.

My fists clenched nervously, wet with sweat.

“Don’t move!” The lead thug grabbed Ah Yi. “Lying punk! You’re not Ah Yi? **** you, you ****ing pussy! You dare to mess with my brothers at Yangming Middle school! And you're not ****ing willing to admit it?!”

Ah Yi’s face flickered between green and white. “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

Sweat dripped down Ah Lun’s nose. He wiped it away and said, “Brothers, if there’s something you want to say, let’s discuss it. Why don’t we allow the ladies to leave first, okay?”

One of the men, a burly fellow, pulled an iron rod out from his rolled up newspaper. “No one leaves,” he said angrily. “Come here, drag them into the woods for me!”

Two thugs grabbed the trembling Yi Jing and Xiao Mi, dragging them toward the dense woods bordering the mountain path. Ah Lun and Ah Yi had no choice but to follow. In a panic, I tried to calculate the distance to the nearest police station.

No way, it was too far.

“Hey! What the hell are you looking at? Come here!” One of the men, his neck covered with tattoos, a stick in his hand, pointed at me. I gritted my teeth and walked into the woods.

“What are you doing?” Ah Lun said angrily, bemoaning the lost chance to get the police.

“Yi Jing.” I looked at the iron rods carried by the thugs.

The woods.

A good place to beat someone up.

Cold sweat covered my body. My instincts were telling me that we were currently in very real danger.

“They’re all good students,” said Ah Yi, his face white. “It doesn’t have anything to do with them, let them…”

“****er!” The husky fellow gave Ah Yi a fierce kick in the stomach. Ah Yi doubled over onto the ground, his face contorted with pain.

An expression of hesitation filled Ah Lun’s face. He looked at Ah Yi, then looked at me, as if he was trying to pass along some sort of message.

I looked at Yi Jing and Xiao Mi. They were so frightened that they wouldn’t look up. Tears streamed down their faces.

Ah Lun nodded slightly.

I understood. No problem.

From my leather handbag I pulled out two thousand-yuan bills and respectfully handed them toward the scar-faced leader. “This is for you, sir. Please let the girls go. This doesn’t have anything to do with them. We can talk things out after they leave.”

The scar-faced thug took the money coldly. “You think I’m an idiot? Let them go so they can go get the police? They’re so pretty, it would be such a waste to let them go.”

Ah Lun and I suddenly charged toward the thugs holding Yi Jing and Xiao Mi. “Run!” we shouted.

We fell to the ground with the two thugs. Xiao Mi and Yi Jing tried to run, but they were immediately grabbed from behind by the burly fellow. Ah Lun and I were held tight on the ground.

“If you dare to touch those girls,” shouted Ah Lun furiously, “I’ll kill you!”

“Let them go!” yelled Ah Yi. “I’ll let you beat me up for as long as you want!”

I looked at Yi Jing, struggling, her eyes filled with terror.

The scar-faced thug hit Ah Yi in the head with his rod. Blood instantly covered his entire face.

The tattooed thug kicked his head. Laughing, he said, “**** your mother! Kill us? You better not get killed first!”

Feet kicked down at me randomly. I struggled to rise, blood clouding my eyes. I could faintly make out the sight of some of the thugs groping Yi Jing roughly.

“Master.” I struggled to my feet, forcing my breath under control.

There was Ah Yi, being beaten underneath a tree. Ah Lun lunged wildly toward Xiao Mi, but then got clocked in the face by one of the thugs’ rods and fell flat onto his face.

“Nighttime Song, Nine Fragments…” I slowly stretched out my right hand. The thug slammed his rod into my stomach.

I accepted the pain, my legs bending slightly. I continued: “Ox Breath, Flat Ring, Seedling Chestnut… Guarding Flank…”

Blood spurted out from my head, but my eyes never left Yi Jing’s tear-stained face.

“****! What the hell are you saying? You trying to cast a spell on us or something?” The burly fellow bashed my nose.

“Ascending Tide… Shifting Heaven,” I murmured, blood flowing from my nose.

“Still casting a spell!” cursed the burly fellow. He raised his iron club.

“Bam.” My head split open, and blood spattered. However, my palm had already connected with the burly man’s chest. His face contorted.

He slowly dropped to the ground, kneeling in front of me.

Everything suddenly became very quiet.

“There is something in this world called justice…” I staggered toward Yi Jing, continuing to recite: “Nighttime Song, Nine Fragments… Ox Breath… Shifting Heaven…”