1 A Taste Of The Untwisted Past

Dancing trees, whispering wind, and the sound of the horse's gallop was all you could ever hear in a quiet, deserted place. And in the midst of the expanded area, was a walking warrior.

Looking around her, all you could see was the green pastures, expanding from hundreds of miles away and her never ending pathway serves as her gateway to death and grievance.

Recalling what happened before she got into that middle of nowhere, all she could ever feel was a mixture of guilt and deep anger.

Guilt for she had murdered her one, true dream, and anger for letting herself be driven by her dark emotions. Because that moment, she became a living dead.

After running away from her prison, she found herself being followed by the law of justice. Using the horse she just found on the den's stable, she galloped her way endlessly.

All night, she ran nonstop and when the day came, she decided to face the noblemen who was following her ever since she ran away.

Doing what she was born to do, she yields her sword with a carved character of her name and slashed the men's throat to death. She was never afraid of blood; she was never hesitant of killing people mercilessly.

And when all the men was now breathless, she left every corpse behind and started walking in that isolated place, hoping she would either find the door of a new life or the door of her death.

No food, no water, no any source of living, she was like that for several days and night, as if stranded in a desert under the scorching heat.

On her stop overs to rest, she manages to sleep under the bright and scarred moon, but it wasn't a peaceful one because every time she slumbers, she was haunted by her nightmares.

She dreamt of being chased down by the men and meeting death with their hands. That if she hadn't trained martial arts when she was young, she could've been killed easily.

But then she ignored and endured every bit of it until she reached an end of the not-so-never-ending pastures.

Beside a big tree stands a wooden house. It was peaceful and open. But despite of the opened lamps and torches, she saw no one. She looked inside, searching for some resources and there, at the other end of the place, she saw food and water.

Absentmindedly, she walked inside to grab a drink or bite but to her surprise, it was gone, in a blink of an eye. She was disappointed and in the verge of crying, thinking about how fate and karma is playing at the tips of her finger.

"In the darkest hour, all you could ever think about is turn back the hands of the clock," a woman then spoke from her far back. A woman who's old and dusty and with teeth that one's look like gold- with an ordinary heart but a mysterious and miraculous mind.

Startled, the warrior yielded her sword onto the old woman, thinking it was another ally from hell she came from but when she thought it was not, she settled down her weapon.

The woman laughed in her old, fancy way as she examined the warrior from head to foot. The warrior did the same to herself but then her eyes caught the hands of the old woman.

Judging by the plate and bowl, she was sure it was the food she saw at the table from the inside.

'How did she got that so fast?' she thought to herself but the mysterious woman seemed to read her mind and offered the food.

"In the darkest hour, all you could ever think about is turn back the hands of the clock," the woman said again as she sat across the warrior in a wooden bench outside the house.

The warrior was weirded out but she chose to ignore the woman's rants but she spoke again.

"You wish to turn back time but all you could do is walk ahead until you meet the doors of fate, yes?"

"Pardon me, old lady, but I don't understand what you're saying," the warrior replied. For her, it was a white lie because deep within her, she knows every word she heard struck to her like lightning.

The woman barked another hearty laugh as she shook her head.

"You wish to turn back time, yes, Li Wang?" and at the mention of her name, the warrior's eyes widened as she stood up, distancing herself from the unknown woman.

"Why do you know my name, old woman?" her hands immediately gripped the handle of her silver sword, ready to charge in any moment.

"What else are you longing for, my dear?" the woman, ignoring the warrior's question, asked.

"WHY DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?! Who are you?!" the warrior insisted on her question and began sliding her sword out of its case.

The old woman laughed again. "Why, you were the one who brought an end to the Zhou Dynasty palace, of course,"

"Where you there? Did you saw me?" the warrior asked again.

"No," the old woman answered as she pointed the bright sphere above. "The moon did," she added.

The warrior scoffed, ridiculed by the elderly's statement. "The moon is just a scarred orb, old woman. It does not have eyes,"

"If you see further you would know," the woman replied meaningfully.

Being dumbfounded, the warrior left her words unanswered. But as she went full silent, the words of the old woman suddenly lingered in her head.

"In the darkest hour, all you could ever think about is turn back the hands of the clock…" she mimicked her words.

Upon hearing that, the old woman smiled as she watched the warrior in deep thoughts.

"What do you mean by that, old woman?" the warrior asked.

"Hmmm… Why don't we change fate, Li Wang?" the elderly smiled, yet again, meaningfully.

Confused, the warrior only looked at her companion.

"Tell me how, old woman,"

"Hmmm… I see your tough disposition is now being conquered by grief and longing, little one,"

"Oh I know I am such a cruel person but I was never guilty of any of it until I killed my own," the warrior said vaguely, assuming that the mysterious elderly knew what happened some nights ago.

"Then if it's in your will, little one, we will twist the past for you,"

"But how is that, old woman?"

"Stop calling me old woman, you murderer. You stumbled on a deity, little one," the old woman said.

Being enlightened by the news, the warrior, Li Wang started to discuss what she would like to do.

"In the next thousand years, you will be reincarnated in a new mind but different living. The future you would never be a thief and a killer, but a girl who lives an abundant life," the old woman, who appeared to be a deity, she says, explained.

"Thy would travel back the clock to save the kingdom and its General from what you have turned into a bloody mess, thy would save your one and only love, and she will grant the wish you have been longing for while travelling your way through here,"

Upon hearing the deity's words, the warrior could have never been happier. Never mind that she would wait for a thousand years to rewrite the past.

"Upon that, little one, welcome to the scorching fate's trial," was the deity's last word.