Chapter 8: Lady of the Light (2)

Your Majesty!", Ai Lie yells at Xin Suan. She walks forward, and stands in front of him. She is starring at his eyes angrily.

"You may not treat a woman like that!"

"What do you mean? I thought you said you were fine?"

"Not me, I mean Her Majesty!", Her eyebrows are flinched.

"...", He didn't reply anything.

"You didn't have to throw her like that! You treated her like she is an unworthy trash!"

"Well, she is though.", Xin Suan lowers his voice.

"GRR! What if she wounded because of you!? What if she broke her bones!?", Ai Lie looks so worry towards that unalive creature. Actually, even if Bai Wu broke her bones, she will be fully healed in a short time. She is not a weakling mortal like Ai Lie. Her body is just a shell. But Ai Lie's humanity is dominating her heart.

"Relax, she will be fine.", He replied.

Black colored thick blood is dripping on Xin Suan's right hand. Ai Lie realized it. His hand is wounded quite bad because he tried to block Bai Wu's sword with bare hand before. She grabs his wrist and pulls him in the direction to the Lotus Pavilion.

"What are you doing?", Xin Suan is confused, but he follows her anyway.

"Just come with me!", Ai Lie seems to be so angry.

They both are entering the left wing. Ai Lie drags him to her room, without saying a word.

"Hehehe... Very bold, aren't you? To drag a man you barely know inside your bedroom. What are you going to do with me?", He chuckles.

"Just come here!!", Ai Lie increases her power, and drags him to sit on her bed. She shuts her door tightly, and grabs her bag. She is searching for something inside the bag.

"Hey, Ai, what is the meaning of this? Do you really want to sleep with me? I will gladly to do that though.", Xin Suan is teasing her. Actually, he is a bit flustered. They are alone in a bedroom, in the middle of the dark, and the door is tightly shut. This situation is very inappropriate, especially she forces him to sit on her bed.

"Stop your dirty mind!", She took a bandage, and a medicine that she always keep inside her bag just for in case if she gets wounded. She sits beside him.

"Let me see your hand.", Ai Lie pulls his wounded hand.

"Ah, this will be healed soon. Don't worry, small wound like this will not affect me. I'm not a human after all."

But Ai Lie doesn't care with what he said. She cleans his black colored blood with a clean towel, give the medicine on his opened wound, and wrap it with the bandage. But because she still a bit upset, she tied the bandage too tight.

"Ow! Hey, be gentle!", Xin Suan's eyebrows are flinched.

"Oops, sorry, sorry..." , She releases the bandage a bit.

"Here you go.", She releases his hand from her grip.

"Why should you do this? You know that I'm not a mortal anymore, right?"

"Uh... Think of it as my apologize and my thanks to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I... I have been so rude to you. You just saved me from Queen Bai Wu's attack. But, I'm such an ungrateful jerk... I'm so sorry."

"Pftt ahahaha! Just now you were swearing! I can't believe!", he laughs.

"No, but that's true... I shouldn't have treat you that way. I should have been on your side, not hers. After all, it was always you, Your Majesty, who saved my life, the one who always protecting me. So... The word 'Thank You' isn't enough anymore to show my gratitude to you.", Her face is sad.

"...", Xin Suan eyes are widened. He stares at her face seriously.

He tucks a part of her hair behind her ear with his long black nail. Their faces are getting closer to each other. She feels uncomfortable, but her cheek is blushing red without her knowing.

"You know, Ai, I don't care about how I treated other people. I don't care if they feel offended, threatened, or whatsoever. Even if they hate me, I won't care. I only care about your feeling.", He said it with very soft voice beside her ear.

Ai Lie's face become boiling red, she throws her face to somewhere else, trying to avoid his eyes.

"U-um..."

"What about you? Do you hate me?", He holds her chin with his fingers softly, and turn her head back to his face.

"I-i.. I'm...", she is a bit flustered.

"No... I don't hate you."

"Hmm, very well then. If you ever feel upset about me, don't be hesitate to tell me. I'll try my best to change.", He is smiling.

She can't reply anything, and nodding a few times, 'Why would he change for me?', that's what in her mind. The cold wind entered the room from her opened window. She forgot to close it before she left her room. The wind is colder than in her original world, maybe because there is no sun in here. Her body starts to shivering, but she tried to hide it. Xin Suan realized it.

"Are you cold?"

"I-i'm fine, Your Majesty.", She lied to him.

" Come here.", He holds her back, and pressed her body towards his.

"E-eh?", Ai Lie is a bit flustered.

Xin Suan wraps Ai Lie's body tightly, while one of his hand is stroking her head. Somehow, Ai Lie feels Xin Suan's body is warm. Usually his body is very cold, but she didn't realized the different. She immediately fall into his embrace, she rests her head and put her hands to his lower chest, her palms are a bit squeezing his black robe. She feels comfortable so she shuts her eyes. After a long silent, the two begin to have a conversation.

"Y-your Majesty...", Ai Lie starts to talk. She feels awkward if they keep continuing this moment in silence.

"Hmm?"

"I-I want to ask...", Usually she will ask anything she want to know to Hei She, but this time she decided to ask Xin Suan.

"What is it?"

"This is not so important..."

"Just ask.", As he continuing to stroke her hair.

"Is there any special requirements for a preta to be an asura like you?"

"Hmm...", His hand stops moving.

"I guess, there is. It depends on the number of upper realms creatures that they eat."

"What does that mean?", Ai Lie is a bit pushing her head away from his chest, but she is still in Xin Suan's embrace. She raises her head and staring at his face.

"The upper realms creatures, means mortals like you, or even the gods. Plants and animals are the foods for everyone, they are provided by nature, but they lack of power. The pretas has another nickname, the 'hungry ghosts', so it's certain that most of ghosts are power greed and gluttony. Humans and gods, although they aren't supposed to be preys, giving creatures like me so much power. That's why, to be the strongest, they have to eat so many humans, or if they are strong enough, they can eat a god too."

"D-does that mean...", She widened her eyes.

"Yes. I, too, was once commited so many crimes."

"H-how many humans have you eat?", She is actually hesitant to ask, but couldn't hide her curiosity.

"So many. Even more than you thought."

"About a hundred...?"

"Hundreds of thousands people, or maybe more."

"!?", Ai Lie gasped.

"I have lived for more than 3000 years, my dear, of course in order to survive I need to eat more. But that was long ago. That kind of behavior has ended 500 years ago.", He starts to stroke her head again.

"Oh... What happened?"

"Long ago, the three important realms were strongly connected to each other. The gods and demons could freely roaming in the human world. But there was an endless war between gods and asuras, and the human realm was affected. The gods and asuras, their strengths were similar, but the gods were stronger because they gained worshipers, that's how they obtained their power. The asuras were always lose, so they found their own way to gain power, and it was by eating human's flesh. However, it wasn't enough to win the war, until I stepped in. Since I ascended as an asura's king, the situation are changing. The gods began to be pushed back. I found my own ways to obtain power, not only by eating human's flesh. But in the process, my comrades were slained by the gods. I had to win with so little army. Then, I did something that was very terrible to gain more power, and the gods began to fear me. They kept sending me some karmas to stop me, but I was stubbornly continuing my power greed behavior just to destroy the heaven realm, until someone reminded me that the world needs to be balanced. After that, me and Wang Jin made a peaceful contract by joining our bloods and sealed away a part of our powers. The war ended without a winner, it was 500 years ago, and we have promised not to interfere the human realm.", He explains everything as he keeps stroking her hair.

'A terrible thing to gain power? what would it be? And what kind of person that could stop him?', Ai Lie is curious, but she didn't dare to ask, that kind of question seems to be sensitive.

"Who is Wang Jin, Your Majesty?", She asks someting else.

"He is the strongest god, the king of the heavenly realm. He is in charge of protecting the circle of reincarnation. He is also in charge of giving the sinners punishments, he is the 'God of Karma'."

"Oh I see..., speaking about reincarnation, can asuras reborn to be humans?"

"Hahaha you are full of curiosity, aren't you?", he chuckles, "The answer is, I don't know either. The circle of reincarnation is a nature's secret. No one knows what will they be after their deaths. Wang Jin is the only one who has the ability to meddle in it."

"Ah, I see..."

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Huh? Why should I?"

"I have eat so many humans in my past. I might eat you too.", He smirks evily.

".... No, I'm not. If my body can give some advantages for you, I'll gladly give it. Beside, I could never pay my debt to you, so... I guess that's the most valuable thing I can give." Ai Lie said it without hesitation.

"...", Xin Suan didn't reply, his smirk is fading away.

"I wonder who I was in the past... Am I a good person?", She talks to herself.

"..." He didn't reply a word and staring at Ai Lie's eyes deeply. He looks sad.

"Y-your Majesty?", Ai Lie had no idea why he gazed at her like that.

Xin Suan presses her head against his chest, and embraces her tighter than before. He replies in a soft voice, "You are always be a good person, but you don't have to know more about it. The past is already left behind."

They have been hugging each other for so long, yet this one hug seems a bit different. It feels like Xin Suan is afraid of losing her, and Ai Lie noticed that. Somehow, her heart feels a little bit sad.

"Your Majes--", Xin Suan suddenly stops her lips from moving with his finger, "Shhh! There's someone outside.", He whispers to her. Some ghost girls are passing by in front of her room.

"Queen Bai Wu went havoc in the dressing room!"

"I can't believe His Majesty ruined her mood so badly! They have never been like this before!", Another girl replied.

"Ugh! She's such a pain in the ass!" Another voice replied. It seems there are three girls passing by.

"Where is His Majesty? I haven't seen him anywhere!", the first girl speaks loudly.

"Your Majesty, they are looking for you!", Ai Lie whispers to him.

"Hmm... It seems I have to go to that old woman.", He releases his hands. Suddenly, the warmth that has been wrapping Ai Lie's body for a long time, is gone. Ai Lie starts to feel cold again.

"Here." He takes off his outer black robe and put it on Ai Lie's shoulders, "I'll give you some proper clothes tomorrow. For now, use this first. I'll shut the window.", He closed the window with a telekinetic magic.

"But, your robe...", Xin Suan wraps her body with his robes.

"Don't worry, use it to warm your body. I don't want you to get sick, there's no physician here. Oh, and if you feel hungry, just go to the dining room, I'll tell them to prepare you food. Hei She will pick you up, just call him by his name.", He pats her shoulder

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty.", She bows her upper body to him

"See you again, Ai.", He is smiling at her, as he vanished from her view.

"Why does he keep calling her old woman? Isn't he the older one?", Ai Lie talks to herself.

------

Inside the Yang Pavilion, Queen Bai Wu is cleaning herself up. She is still wearing her own robe, but the dirt and the stain have gone. She is so upset and throwing every items inside the dressing room. She is yelling and screaming as she throw away everything she saw to the walls, even the mirror there has already broke to pieces. Xin Suan's servants can't stop her because her power is too strong. That room is now a mess.

"Your Majesty!", The servants staring at Xin Suan hopelessly.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing in my place!?"

"You!! You little--!!", Bai Wu is still very angry to him.

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry! I won't do it again, okay? I promised!", Xin Suan is actually doesn't want to admit his fault, but he remembered what Ai Lie said to him, to treat women properly.

"Hik... hik...", She started to cry.

"What the!? Hey, don't cry! I have apologized to you!", Xin Suan feels annoyed by her cries.

"HUAAAA!!", Bai Wu cried louder. This woman is also an immature old fart. Fortunately, Ai Lie isn't here to watch this event, or else she will start to judge her.

"WHAT THE HELL!? STOP, I SAID, I'M SORRY!", Xin Suan is confused, doesn't know what to do.

"HUAAAAA!!", Bai Wu keeps crying.

"Huft...", Xin Suan slap his forehead with his palm. He is tired dealing with this woman.

"My Lady, my beautiful mighty Queen Bai Wu, hold your tears. Your face is pretty when you smile, so please, smile more for me.", Xin Suan is kneeling to her, and holding one of her hand. He is smiling. Behind that warm smile, he wants to smack this woman to the ground until her head exploded, but he hides his true feeling perfectly.

"Hik... hik... is that true?", Bai Wu sobbed.

"What?"

"I'm pretty... You always called me old and ugly! You even called me wrinkled! Hik.. hik..", Bai Wu keeps sobbing. This person is narcissistic and thirsty for compliments.

"Of course, you are! You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met!", He pulls her hand and rests his cold cheek on it. He is obviously lying to her.

"Really..?", she stops crying.

"Yes!", He smiles wider.

"What about that child...? Who is prettier? Me or her?"

"What?", Xin Suan eyes are widened. His smile starts to fading away.

"Answer me!"

"...", his eyebrows are a bit flinched.

"Don't test me.", He replied her coldly as he tighten his grip on her hand.

"Fufufu....", She covers her face with her other hand, and her body is trembling.

"HAHAHAHAHA! YOU FOOL!", Bai Wu laughs so hard.

"YOU-!", Xin Suan stands up and releases her hand.

"HAHAHAHA! WHY WOULD I CRY FOR A BASTARD LIKE YOU!?", Bai Wu pointed her silver slim sword that suddenly appeared on her hand straight to his face.

"... I should have turned you into dust. Why would I listen to that girl in the first place?", as he summoned his large crimson blade.

They jump forward to each other. 'CLANG!' The swords brawl began once again. The dressing room become messier than before. Most of the fancy clothes have been torn to pieces because of their attack. Their movement was so fast, until servants couldn't see anything. In panic, one of them came out from the room, to seek for a help. After a moment of hard tension, two young men entered the room.

"Your Majesty! Mother! Stop this!", The young man in a glamorous white silk robe yelling at the brawl in front of him.

"Your Highness!", Yin Ling also yells.

The two young men casts a spell, and something exploded between them. Bai Wu and Xin Suan are thrown away in different directions.

"Ugh!", Bai Wu's body crashes to the wall, while Xin Suan tried not to fall by thrusting his blade to the ground.

"Yin Ling!", Xin Suan yells angrily at him.

"Don't give me that look! You two are destroying this place!"

"Forgive me, General Yin.", The young man bows to Yin Ling.

"No, no, I'm the one who should say sorry.", He also bows to that young man, "You two! Get out of the room! And the rest of you, clean up their mess!", Yin Ling boldly gives an order to those highest rank of Asuras.

They went to the throne room. Xin Suan sits on his throne while Yin Ling stands beside him. The young man and his mother, Queen Bai Wu, standing on the lower floor.

"Your Majesty, forgive us for the trouble we have caused. Please spare my mother's live.", the young man kneeling to Xin Suan.

"What are you doing Yu Wen!? Get up!", Bai Wu, who stands beside him, pulling his arm.

"Look at them. I can't believe that young gentleman is actually has blood relation with that wrinkled woman. Who raised you, young man? Is she really your mother?", Xin Suan teasing her.

"Of course he is my son! He was born from my womb, you asshole! And you, Yu Wen, get up!", She pulls his arm stronger, and Yu Wen stands up.

"Huft... I actually came here not only for a fight, Xin Suan. I need to tell you something.", She became serious.

"Do tell."

"I had a vision. About the child you brought here."

"I'm all ears."

"The vision is... her death. Why would you drag an innocent child like her to this rotten world in the first place?", She is frowning to him.

"... Cause of death?"

"It seems she is being eaten by a group of pretas. I couldn't see the scene clearly, but I saw her blood everywhere."

"... I see.", Xin Suan closes his eyes.

"Be careful, Xin Suan. There will be a day that she will be kidnapped by someone, and she will be dragged to the demon's lair. My vision is 100% accurate."

"... I will."

"Who is she actually? Why are you so interested to her?"

"My hostage."

"A hostage? Fufufu... I think it's more than that.", Bai Wu smirks to him.

"...", Xin Suan didn't reply anything, and his eyes are still shut.

"Mother, it seems we have to go back to Sheng Guang, we still have some matters in there."

"Ha, you're right. Then, I supposed we have to stop our chitchat here. I'll take my leave, 'Your Majesty'." She bows to him.

"Till we meet again, Your Majesty, General Yin.", Yu Wen bows to each of them. They both walks out from the main gate of Lotus Pavilion.

"Yin Ling, help me to watch her."

"Yes, Your Majesty.", Yin Ling turns his head to him.

"Your Majesty, where is your robe? Was Queen Bai Wu torn it apart?", He realized that Xin Suan's outer robe is gone.

"I gave it to Ai Lie."

"What? But why?", his eyebrows flinched.

"She was cold. Her clothes are too open. Tell Jiu Lian to make her some new dresses."

"Huh... Such a weakling.", Yin Ling talks to himself, "And what's that on your hand?"

"She did this. My hand is wounded because of the fight."

"Is she stupid? That kind of thing doesn't work in this realm. A wound like that can't be healed by using a cheap medicine and bandage!"

Hearing the word 'stupid' reminds Xin Suan of something, "Hey, Yin Ling, have you apologize to her?"

"I haven't.", Yin Ling said it without hesitation.

"Do that when you meet her. And never call her stupid or whatsoever that will make her offended again."

"I will, I will... You don't have to repeat your words for so many times. I have ears!"

"... But you have no brain."

"Yea-- What!?"

"Now then, what should I do to her?", Xin Suan changes the topic.