14. Encountering a God

Mai didn't have time to respond, and with difficulty, she quickly got to her feet and limped backward. She drew an arrow and aimed it at the man's eye.

*whish*

*puchi*

The arrow hit the same eye, and the man roared loudly. Mai shot another arrow that hit the other eye. He roared loudly again and held his hands over his eyes. Defenseless, she limped toward him and thrust her sword forcefully into both eyes, stabbing multiple times. Black matter splattered out to the sides, and she got some on her face. After a moment, the man stopped making sounds, but she didn't know if he was dead. To be sure, she swung her blade at his throat, and this time it went straight through.

Mai furrowed her brow. "So, the eyes are the weakness."

She sat down and caught her breath for a moment. She stood up to go home but suddenly heard a clattering sound from the pile of bodies. Her heart skipped a beat, and she slowly turned her head. Is there a zombie coming? Her heart couldn't take any more right now.

Mai didn't want to stick around to find out, so she turned away. But as she was about to take a step, there was a deep voice speaking behind her.

"Can't one sleep in peace? I asked for quiet earlier."

The bodies were thrown aside, and a man dressed in a black cloak emerged, with long black hair and eyes glowing red. He was tall and slender, with a beautifully feminine face.

Mai tried to move, but suddenly he spoke again.

"If you take one more step, I'll kill you. Stay here and let's play. I've only just woken up from my nap." His voice was deep and echoed in the forest.

Nervously, Mai slowly turned around and made eye contact with the man's red eyes, resembling drops of blood. His body emitted a red glow swirling around him, and he exuded something otherworldly. She was reminded of her master and furrowed her brow.

"Are you a god?" She asked in a low, husky voice.

The man smiled confidently at her and replied in a cold tone, "A god? No. I am the god!"

His body suddenly lifted from the ground, and his cloak fluttered in the air. He extended his right hand in front of him and pointed at Mai with his index finger.

"Absorption." he said, causing Mai's alarm bells to ring.

*vroom*

A thick red wave shot out from his finger, rushing toward her. She pointed both of her thumbs at him and shot her energy out to her thumbs. She lightly tapped her thumbs together, and a thick white beam shot out, heading toward the wave. Mai felt a burning pain in her body, concentrating in her heart. It prickled and hurt terribly.

The man raised his eyebrows and asked, "Impossible! Who are you?"

"Your grandmother." Mai grunted as she felt pressure in her lungs and struggled to breathe.

The white wave collided with the red wave, causing it to disappear and rush forward toward the man who flew to the right side and dodged. He smiled, but suddenly the wave turned around and flew back toward him again. He flew around, dodging several times and laughing loudly.

"This is child's play. Who taught you that? Your master must be worse than crap." he taunted.

Mai felt a stabbing pain in her heart and shouted, "My master is the best in the world."

"Explode!" she commanded loudly.

The white wave accelerated, and a golden glow formed around it, rushing toward the man who flew toward a mountain. He turned around to taunt again, but suddenly the wave transformed into a large white hand that grabbed his hair and pulled him toward it. It squeezed around his body and quickly flew toward the mountain.

The man gritted his teeth and shouted, "Do you think you can get rid of me so easily? I'll haunt you."

He was pushed into the mountain.

*boom*

A huge hole formed in the mountain, as if something had passed right through it.

Mai didn't have time to celebrate her victory before the crocodile man suddenly moved. He took out a black horn and blew loudly into it. Her heart skipped a beat.

*tap tap tap*

Countless footsteps came running toward them, and Mai realized they were coming from behind her. She turned around and saw a massive horde of crocodile-like men, all looking alike. They all carried weapons and charged toward her like wild animals. She shot arrows at them and hit them in the eyes, but there were too many. She shot her energy out and aimed her trembling hands at them, but nothing happened, and she felt no warmth in her hands.

"Fuck!" she groaned and limped to the edge of the cliff. She spotted a branch sticking out and saw other branches sticking out.

It always worked in the movies. She took the chance and climbed down the cliff. She sat on a branch and carefully crawled further down. She suddenly heard men shouting and swords clashing loudly against something scraping.

"Is there a fight?"

Mai chose to be as quiet as a mouse, hoping not to be discovered. Her wounded leg burned, and it felt like something invisible was gnawing at her skin. It was heavy and smelled awful.

She held her right hand over it and muttered, "Avari's Cloak."

She pushed out her energy, but nothing happened and sighed deeply. "Okay. Never mind."

Suddenly, everything blurred for her, and she struggled to stay awake.

In the same area, Wang Hao was present with a large group of soldiers who were combing through the edge of the forest.

"Brother Hao, this should be the last for today. The priestesses finished their ceremony a little while ago." said a soldier who was bent over a crocodile man.

Around them lay large piles of them, and there hung a thick stench of potent blood and decay.

Wang Hao suddenly sniffed the air and looked out at the bog, asking, "Can you smell lilies too?"

The soldiers shook their heads, preparing to head home, but suddenly Wang Hao spotted the mountain and couldn't help but notice a large hole.

He furrowed his brow. "What happened here? That wasn't there yesterday."

He walked to the edge of the bog, looked down, and suddenly spotted a person hanging on the third top branch.

His eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Brother Luo Tian!"

He carefully climbed down and reached his right arm down. He grabbed Mai's neck and quickly pulled her up.

Mai felt something on her neck that felt like a gentle slap, and she sensed warmth in front of her. She couldn't see anything and didn't know what was happening.

"If you try to kill me again, I will haunt you this time." she whispered in a hoarse voice, feeling a dry throat. She coughed, and the pressing feeling in her heart worsened.

"It hurts so much!"

"Don't speak anymore." said Wang Hao in a soft voice, carrying her home.

When Mai opened her eyes, she stood in front of the temple on the Eternal Peak, where the sky was dark, and the stars twinkled. The wind was cool, and the temperature was cold. It was completely silent, and not the sound of any animal could be heard.

She blinked and looked around. "This is the temple where I lived with my master. Why am I here again?"

She suddenly remembered the crocodile men, and her heart skipped a beat.

"Am I dead?"

She slowly walked toward the temple.

*bumb*

She turned her head to the right and saw her master's head staring up at her. His skin was black, wrinkled, and thick blood flowed out. It smelled terribly of something rotten, like from a garbage bin, and Mai felt nauseous. Suddenly, her master opened his eyes and his mouth.

"You left me! You disrespectful rascal. I didn't raise you like that. The sky will fall on you!"

His voice echoed, and blood gushed from the corners of his mouth and eyes.

*crack*

His jaw turned sideways, dislocating.

Mai's heart skipped a beat and pounded faster.

"Have I been thrown back in time?" She suddenly became nervous.

"Master, you're not real. You're dead." Her voice was small and hoarse.

Suddenly, there was a loud laughter coming from behind her, and she turned around. There stood the same man in the black cloak whom she had killed earlier. He had a sword in one hand and held the corpse of a girl by the neck in the other hand. All her alarm bells rang, and her heart skipped a beat.

"How did you come here? This is holy ground."

The man smiled confidently and licked his lips. "I said I would haunt you even in your dreams."

Dreams? Mai felt relieved that she wasn't dead.

The man thrust the sword in front of him and ran toward her at full speed. She held her hands in front of her and shot out energy. She waited. Nothing happened. She shot out energy again, but suddenly she felt something cold and long piercing into her stomach. The sword bore straight through, and the man quickly pulled it out and stabbed her several times in the stomach. Blood gushed out, and Mai shivered. Her body trembled. It hurt, and she struggled to breathe. She felt something rising in her throat and coughed up blood, falling to the ground.

"I'll kill you over and over again if you dare to wake up." said the man in a cold voice.

He swung at her neck, and suddenly she felt her head fly to the left side. Everything suddenly went black.

Mai abruptly opened her eyes and felt the sweat sticking to her.

Her breathing was heavy, and her heart beat faster. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and she shivered in her neck.

She held her hand to her forehead and took deep breaths.

"He kept his word and haunted me."

She could still feel pain in her stomach and carefully removed the blanket so that only her stomach was exposed. She opened her robe and saw a long horizontal black line on her stomach.

Her heart skipped a beat.

"What the hell?"

Nervously, she touched her fingers over the mark but felt nothing. Suddenly, she felt a burning heat, and the line disappeared.

She became worried and was on the verge of panic but tried to keep her head cool.

Mai thought carefully about what had happened from when she met the man until her dream.

"If he's some kind of god, he can haunt me anywhere." She felt shivers down her spine and looked around her room.

She heard birds chirping and a dove cooing loudly. The sun's rays shone in, illuminating, and warming the room, and Mai was now sure that's why she was sweating so much.

She rubbed her fingers and furrowed her brow. "A dream isn't real, but yet I've ended up in this world through a dream. So what is real?"

She suddenly saw Inspector Lin's face in front of her and felt his touch all over. 

"That was definitely real."

"If that's not real, then what is?"

She knew one could also dream within a dream.

"No, stop yourself, Mai. You'll go crazy if you keep going."

Suddenly, she felt a soreness in her left leg and was reminded of the incident yesterday. She nervously lifted the blanket to check her leg.

"Is it bad? What if there's a big fat Lamprey on it!"