A new hideout

Bai Mei Li allowed her spiritual energy to surge and follow into the complicated lay lines in the rune array. She carefully and rapidly examined every centimeter of the array. Now that she actually knew how they worked she was looking at this array with new eyes.

After a few minutes she'd looked through the entire thing, she realized that though the array was very simple in the design still throughly challenge those attempting to break the array.. There were no tricks and no traps. This was clearly just a test to see if the one that approached the wall had any talent for arrays.

Because arrays inscribers or those with the talent to even deal with them was rare she assumed that there were a number of ways to open this wall that she just currently couldn't see.

She felt a lot more secure in knowing that whoever these people where they weren't malicious in their first contact at least.

After she broke the array the other runes placed in the wall lit up and the wall opened.

She walked in cautiously. Once she walked in several feet, in front of her were two podiums that were made out of earth. Each one was in front of one of the two pathways.

She walked up to the podium on the left and there were words in English carved in it.

-Infuse your Qi into the right and top rune to open the entrance at the end of this pathway-

She looked at the other podium and walked to it to read what it said out of curiosity.

It too had words written in English -If this was a 80s scary movie flick you'd be the hot blonde that died five minutes into the movie. Proceed forward for a great surprise… idiot-

Bai Mei Li's eyebrow twitched. She chuckled a little and went back to the other podium and followed the direction. Once she was finished she walked down the path. It took her about five minutes to walk down to the end of the pathway. When she reached the end there was another set of instructions.

-Infuse your Qi into every other rune… welcome-

She smiled and once again followed the instructions and the wall opened.

In front of her was open, well lit, and spacious meadow. It looked somewhere between a village and developing city. She found that she wasn't exactly shocked. If these people where like her… from earth… then it stood to reason that they would obviously want to try to mimic some of the comforts that they'd grown accustomed to. She skimmed the area quickly then focused on the 'street light' they looked remarkably familiar but not exactly like modern street lights.

She walked to one and then walked in a circle around it.

It certainly wasn't electrical… and it wasn't fire. She couldn't really tell because of what looked like a glass covering the light source. Plus it was pretty high up and she wasn't tall enough to get a really good look at it.

"Curious?" A masculine voice came from behind her.

"Yes actually. It's not electric right? What did you use?" She asked as she turned around and faced the man. She wasn't startled because she wasn't so engrossed in the street light that she'd ceased paying attention to her surrounding, and also because the man hadn't been hiding himself. So she'd felt his presence as he'd approached.

"No it's not. It's rune powered. They last about a week before they need to be replaced with new ones." He said kindly.

Bai Mei Li nodded her understanding then she looked carefully at the man in front of her. He was very handsome. His angular face a classical masculine beauty to it. His sharp eye brows were heroic and his eyes were ripen with humor and intelligence. He was very tall well over six feet, his arm muscles where practically bulging out of his very modern looking cotton t-shirt. The pants that he was wearing were something akin to sweats and sandals. He looked very relaxed and approachable.

"How clever. I'm Bai Mei Li." She extended her hand for him to shake.

"Chai Ying." He said with a smile as he extended his hand to shake hers firmly. "Come on I'll show you around and introduce you the guy in charge." He was able to hide his shock very well. He'd never seen a woman so beautiful. Her skin was so fair that it looked nearly translucent. It was like extremely fine jade. She had ample breasts and a slim waist. Her large eyes in her small oval face with her delicate features gave her a fragile appearance. He felt himself immediately attracted, but he understood that it was just a knee jerk reaction to her extreme beauty. He held no ulterior motives toward her. He thought if she took this face to the modern world she'd certainly be Hollywood bound.

Bai Mei Li nodded and followed him as he showed her around the meadow.

There were homes and shops. There were places for public gathering such as a park and man made pond. The buildings were styled with a mixture of ancient and modern eastern and western design. The building were extremely beautiful in the simplicity and merging of different cultures. Bai Mei Li was very impressed. A lot of care went into the design of this little city.

Chai Ying had explained that everyone had job varying from normal to governmental. He explained that while there was a leader. The leader wasn't all powerful and that behind him was a council behind that had the power veto orders from the leader with certain circumstances.

"Alright, the boss is in here." He said as he opened up the door to the building they'd just walked up too. "Go on in. He's waiting for you." He held the door open until she walked through it and then walked in himself and closed the door.

She was led down a corridor until the reach the door at the end. Chai Ying opened the door for her and then walked in as well.

"Hey boss I brought the newbie." He said grinning and then patted Bai Mei Li on the shoulder. "I'll see you later." He smiled at her an then left.

"Welcome, my name is Fan Tao. I founded the sanctuary five years ago. Its open to anyone like us that have transmigrated to this world from earth. Do you have the memories of the previous bodies owner?" He introduced and then questioned.

Bai Mei Li looked at the young man in front of her. He was ordinary looking, but until Chai Ying one could feel a subtle pressure from him that was frightening. He felt extremely dangerous even though it was clear he had no intention of attacking. It was like his aura was a sharp as steel and could barely be hidden. His extraordinary baring simply didn't match is ordinary appearance at all.

He wore traditional soft looking cotton cheese clothing. His shiny black hair was in a single long braid that hung over his shoulder fell half way down his chest. His hands where behind his back and he was standing on the side of his desk.

Bai Mei Li didn't answer immediately. Instead she studied him carefully. Although his face looked stern and callous she could tell there was no malice directed towards her. He wasn't being rude… he was just being himself. she could tell this was just his personality. She didn't know if it was this world or the last one that had shaped his currant harsh personality, but she could see the signs of trauma on his face and posture.

The way he angled himself said that he was ready to move at a moments noticed, his eyes shifted slightly from time to time taking in everything in room including herself multiple times every so often.

He did this even though he was obviously more powerful then her and would likely be able to handle her without lifting a single finger. Instinct told her that he was far more powerful than she was. These actions were conditioned and spoke to the fact that he'd been dealing with danger on a constant basis for a very long time. It suggested that his fight or flight response was likely permanently switched on. She couldn't be positive of course but she had about a seventy-three percent confidence in her conclusion based on these observations.

"It's nice to meet you Fan Tao. I am Bai Mei Li, and yes I inherited all her memories. Are there those that don't?"

"That's good. That'll make things easier for you. And yes, due to certain circumstances some people don't get the memories. What was your profession?"

"I was a Psychiatrist specializing in investigations. I worked for the American F.B.I for a time."

"Did you live in America?"

"I did for nearly ten years. Then I moved back to china where I opened up my own practice and advocated the end of stereotypes of therapy in China." She was quite proud of the progress she'd made. Her clientele was steady. It had really felt as though she was making progress in getting people to understand how important mental health was to the country at large.

"I see. Do you have an other skills?"

"I'm very good with my hands. Carpentry, painting, and string instruments are all my long time hobbies."

He nodded. "That's all useful stuff. You are more than welcomed to stay here for as long as you like. If you stay we ask that you contribute. Of course you're free to leave, if you do leave you'll be given a way to contact us and for us to contact you so that we can still support one another no matter where we are. What do you say?" As usual he was straight to the point. He wasn't a man that liked mincing words or wasting time.

"I wouldn't be adverse to staying, but I have a child with me. He's around three or four. His family was likely murdered and I've been taking care of him. I won't abandon him so if he isn't welcomed I certainly can't stay. Of course I would then welcome the ability to at least be able to contact and be contacted."

Fan Tao was silent for a long while before he nodded. "Alright. Bring him here for us to see. We'll give a final answer after we've seen him. Please blindfold him on the way back. Chai Ying will go with you. Is that acceptable?"

"That's completely reasonable. Thank you very much." She said with a smile.

"Alright. Chai Ying." He called out.

Chai Ying opened the door and walked in here. He'd obviously been waiting just outside. "Boss?"

"Go with her to pick up a child then escort them safely back here."

"Got it. Ready?" He asked looking to Bai Mei Li.

"Yes, thank you." She gave a slight bow to Fan Tao and then followed Chai Ying out.

Fan Tao watched them leave. His deep eyes unwavering and unfathomable. It was impossible to know what he was thinking about.

(Edited)