Cui Fen and The Brothel

The three men seemed to have noticed her and turned around. Fear swept over them as they looked into her eyes, it was cold and ruthless.

The leader of this group of three, the one who took the woman away, had barely recovered from his state and slowly sneered.

"Brothers...It is only a young girl, what can she do with that sword?" he said.

The other two soon recovered as well and began to approach Ming Yue.

The woman feared for her and said, "Run! You will only hurt yourself!"

Ming Yue paid no mind to her warning and prepared herself. These men are evil, to use someone's daughter for their own gains is unforgivable. She sympathized with the woman who worked for her daughter as Ming Yue's father had also sacrificed much for her. Now she was going to end the lives of these men who had no place in this world.

"Come on, girly, you want to join in on the fun, don't you?"

"Your skin looks so clean, makes me want to dirty it...'

They walked closer and closer with their hands ready.

Being in such a small alleyway, she could not use wide swings or attack even horizontally, thus she took this chance to work on vertical attacks as she never really used them. The moment the two men reached her attack range, she struck with such incredible speed, however, it seemed that they were somewhat skilled as they dodged.

But as the fight went on, they had suffered small nicks and they no longer treated her like she was a girl but an actual fighter.

"She is dangerous." they both thought.

They took out their own blades and began approaching her but this time they were prepared. Ming Yue noticed this but she struck again, aiming for the man on the right. He blocked it and then the one on the left rushed forward with a fast blade that seemed like a shadow. She then pulled her blade back and defended against his attack.

The one from before saw the opportunity and tried to run behind her and grab her. Ming Yue then pushed the man in front of her away. Before he could react, she stabbed his foot and the man fell back, screaming in pain. But in such a place like this alleyway, no one could hear him. 

Then she turned to the man that tried to grab her and swung her blade upwards, cutting off his arm. He shuddered and was in shock. He could not see such a swing!

The third man saw this scene and felt scared in fact.

"It's impossible!" He thought.

Yet it was happening right before his eyes.

"Do you know who we are?" the 2 men threatened, "We are the Dark Shadow Trio! Our leader is stronger than the both of us!"

They thought they could scare her but it didn't work. They were part of the Dark Shadow Trio, who have attacked and killed before. They were beginning to build up a name for themselves, but now they were going to be taken down by a little girl!

Ming Yue had never heard of this Dark Shadow Trio and she didn't care, they just needed to die.

With that thought, she cut off their heads, leaving only their leader. The leader was scared but he could not escape. But then he thought of something and immediately looked at the woman next to him, suddenly he grabbed her and put a knife to her neck.

"Don't come near me! O-or I'll kill her!"

Ming Yue momentarily stopped but it was only for a moment as she continued walking towards the two. At this point, no one knew what she was thinking. The man was scared, extremely scared as he continuously told Ming Yue to step away.

Then when she was only several feet from him, she stopped, her blade pointed at the ground. The man sighed in relief, a feeling of victory washed over him but it did not last long.

The moment he relaxed, Ming Yue stabbed her blade into his foot and twisted it, causing immense pain and agony to spread up his leg. The leader tightened his grip from the pain but he felt much weaker now and the woman saw this chance to escape. She pushed out his arm, running to Ming Yue, who stepped forward.

The man knew that his time was up but he did not go down before secretly pulling out some more knives. As Ming Yue approached him, she pulled her blade up and prepared to kill him but at that moment, he struck out, throwing knives at her.

She tried to dodge but still got cut in the shoulder.

But that did not deter her as she attacked him and pierced him through the heart.

With all three of them dead, she put away Parting Sun and then rummaged through their clothes, finding multiple items that were of use to her.

There were some gold and silver coins, a blade manual titled, "Shadow Blade Arts", and a ring. She didn't know what the ring was but the other two things helped a lot. Especially the Shadow Blade Arts, although it wasn't suitable for her style of fighting, it could help her improve and maybe she could create some techniques from it.

With the end of that, she began to leave again to find an inn and recover but then the woman grabbed her arm.

"Wait, please. I need to thank you for your help. My name is Cui Fen, come with me, we can't have you walking around with that shoulder."

She was right. Although Ming Yue had managed to dodge most of the knives, she did suffer a somewhat deep wound on her shoulder. She silently agrees and followed her back but not before introducing herself.

"Ming Yue..." She said quietly.

"Oh, what a pretty name! It quite suits you."

As they walked, Cui Fen talked along the way, she needed to take her mind off of what had just happened and tried to keep herself from breaking down. Or rather, the shock of what she saw had yet to settle in. Then they stopped in front of a building. It was quite large and fancy with all sorts of colorful decor. But the most eye-catching thing were the women right outside flaunting and flirting to the men on the streets.

It was a brothel, to be specific, the one that Cui Fen works in.

"Oh! Cui Fen, where were you? Who is this?" said one of the brothel girls.

She had not been here for several hours since her work was supposed to start and now she came with an injured girl.

Cui Fen replied, "I'll tell you later, just let us in first."

The girls decided not to interfere any longer and chose to wait until they were done to hear her story. Ming Yue felt somewhat uncomfortable here. 

Cui Fen seemed to have sensed her unease and reassured her that this place is different from what she may think. 

"They're like family. They've treated me and my daughter well. You don't have to worry about a thing."

Ming Yue relaxed after hearing that but she still kept her guard up. After all, this was a brothel and she had heard a few things about such places from her father.