Episode Twenty

    Kai had just finished his nightly bath, his sore muscles now relaxed from the epic training Qing yuan had been doing. He was really surprised about the stuff he did, that up until now, he is still baffled by the turn of events. Maybe the necklace's enchantment is stronger than he thought. So because he is disguised as Li Jen, he automatically gets all her skills and abilities. Maybe he got her Mage powers too. But another thought occurred to him, a thought that he put to the back of his mind, but still remained. Itching at the curious part of his brain. The day of his sixteenth birthday, when he saw the Prospectors for the first time. The way he leaped over the cabbage cart, the strange voice and sensation that he felt, and the one that got him curious was how he was able to see their aura. He wasn't born a part of the cultivation world, so how come he could have seen their aura? But then again, he could have seen wrong. He has been with Qing yuan, but never saw his aura. He just looks like any regular cultivator, but you can feel the power and authority radiating off him. But again, what Li Jen told him about the auras, matched everything that he saw. All these buts, what if and then again are getting him even more confused than he already is. The best thing for him to do, is to leave it alone and just count his luck from not getting caught as yet.

His mouth had already resigned him from his stable boy's job, when Jun had asked where he was. His mother also told him that everyone had been asking about him, and his father had become suspicious when he met a farmer who gave him best wishes for Kai's speedy recovery. She said that he worries about him everyday, and most times she has to stop him from coming to the palace to demand what happened to his son.

   "I am so tired of the lying Kai, but I will always do it because I love you so much." His mother had said to him, and he felt so bad that he started to bite his fingernails throughout the day without realizing. 

Qing yuan was the one that saw him, narrowing his eyes at him.

   "What?" Kai asked, looking at Shui up and down with a weirded out expression.

   "Don't you hate when people bite their fingernails, so how come you are doing it?" Kai quickly pull his finger from his mouth and place his hands behind his back. Scolding himself for being so careless.

He has to be extra careful now, because all that lying and effort that his mother put out for him, will certainly go down the drain. And he didn't want that. So, always be on the lookout. And never do anything out of the ordinary until Shui is gone and he is ready to blow this popsicle stand.

    Kai is now ready to go to sleep, after the last of his serving ladies had exited the room. He was walking to the bed after lighting a scented candle, when he heard a little creaking sound. He turned around in the direction from which the sound had come from, but saw nothing. Even though his mind still wasn't at ease, he shook the feeling off and continued to the bed.

Just as he was about to climb on to the bed, he felt a presence behind him. And he moved to the side out of the way, when the person behind him grabbed after him. He grabbed the intruder's arm, and twisted it clockwise. Flipping the person over, and making him fall hard on his back.

Kai took a chance to look at the person, but he was wearing a full face mask.

   "W-wh-o.."  Kai doesn't want to sound weak, but he couldn't control himself. He is shaking from head to toe. Someone is trying to hurt him, and he doesn't know who. "W-ho are you?" Kai manages to say, without giving the intruder any that he is scared. Even though he is dying with fear.

The person didn't answer, he just swiped his right foot under Kai's, knocking him off balance. Kai fell hard against the marble top table, hitting his head slightly against it. 

   "Ouch." He mumbled, rubbing the spot that he hit.

He gasped in horror when a fireball came straight at his face, but he dodged it. And the fireball instead hit the curtains around the bed, catching it on fire.

Kai sat looking at the burning curtains in bewilderment too scared to move

The intruder took advantage of Kai's distraction, and grabbed a hold of his feet. Pulling him across the room. Kai clawed at the marble floor, kicking his feet to get the intruder to release them. But it all went in vain. 

 The fire started to spread throughout the room, and the smoke inhalation caused Kai's lungs to tighten, resulting in him coughing, as his eyes started to sting.

   "H-help!" Kai screamed, his voice hoarse from the coughing. And he slowly started to panic even more, due to the fact that he can't get free from his captor, and the mere fact that the fire is spreading rapidly around the room. "Someone, please help.." But he didn't get to finish his plea for help, when he felt a sharp jab raking down his back. 

 He cried out in pain, making his lungs burned for more oxygen.

The panic attacked came on in full blast, and it felt like he is in a dream with no where to turn. But it wasn't a dream, and at the rate of how things are going. Now one will come and rescue him soon. And with that one thought, it was like something triggered deep inside Kai's body. And a he suddenly found the strength to pull his feet free, and do a black flip. Landing perfectly on his two feet. 

He then run up to the intruder, kicking him in the stomach. Knocking him backwards, making his mask fall off.

Kai gasp in surprised, shocked and horror when he saw that it's Feng Gao. The man that he had seen earlier, talking to Li Jen's father. The same man that reminsed about the past of when he used to visit the Dragon's kingdom. Feng Gao was trying to kill him, and he didn't know why. But one thing for sure, is that Kai will not let him win.

   "You!" Kai yelled, which made Gao chuckled darkly.

   "Yes me." He got up off the floor, and wipe the smear of blood of the corner of his mouth. "But what about you, you are not Li Jen." Kai stood frozen, as Feng Gao's words registered in his head. 

Feng Gao laughed like the mad manaic he is, as he quickly walk up to the stunned girl.

   "You have all of them fooled, but you can't fool me." He yet again, grabbed Kai. But this time by his throat, and Kai thrash around. Clawing at his hand, which helped the smoke to cut his oxygen level. "Li Jen is a skillful Mage, and good a martial arts. And since I have attack you, you once never used your powers to have the upper hand. But then again, those moves you did today. Oh, they are moves that shouldn't be coming from a Mage." His grip tighten around Kai's throat, and all he can see are black dots. "So it got me thinking, if you are not Li Jen. Then who are you and where is she?" Kai's eyes, started to flatter closed as the beams started to fall with fire, and Feng Gao still strangling him. "But who care anyway." Feng Gao laughed, as he gave Kai's neck one last squeeze and Kai's hands slipped from off of Gao's.

   'So, this is how I am supposed to go? Strangled by a deranged madman, the get burnt?' Kai thought as the darkness took him. But before his eyes closed, all he saw around him was fire. And a hard feeling as he fell from Gao's hand, and heard fighting. He started to slipped in and out of consciousness, when he saw something white approached him. And he felt himself being carried, softness and the smell of water lilies invaded his nose. And when his eyes fluttered semi open, and  he looked up. He looked up in the face of Qing yuan. His body strong, and face determined. As he rush with Kai, from the burning room. And that is the last thing that Kai saw before he sank in the darkness.