Tian Empire

  Her face sallow, her lips chapped and pale, Xi Huan shivered in the windowless back room of the tiny Eternal Sunshine palace. She couldn't even cry if she wanted to when she thought of the predicament she was in.

  Back then, the empress had sent her to Princess Ru Yu without saying anything. Ru Yu had also dropped a cryptic statement at that time, asking Xi Huan to die in her place. Now, over two years later Xi Huan was a shadow of herself, having been subjected to all sorts of experiments by the manic princess.

  According to Ru Yu, there was a malignant illness in her system that she was trying to expel by transferring it to another person, a little at her time. While the process was unimaginably painful and scary, Xi Huan had discovered something that she had kept secret with her life, and also ignited a hope and strong will that kept her alive in this dreary circumstances.

  She could now cultivate. According to her guess, she was now somewhere around the stage of Martial Skill. She had encountered a bottleneck due to not having a cultivation manual and also a skill scroll since she had gotten to this level. However, she now had a plan. Ru Yu was giddy with happiness these days since the illness had almost been completely transferred to Xi Huan. In her derilious state, she had even become quite friendly with her, declaring that after today she would give Xi Huan a status almost equal to hers so she could at least enjoy her last days. Xi Huan was hoping on this to ask for a favour from her; a favour to leave Eternal Sunshine palace. From there, Xi Huan mused, she would try her best to survive. It had been so long since she'd heard from her mother and her brother, although Ru Yu always told her that the empress had rewarded them and they were well.

  "Huan!" Ru Yu's personal servant came in to call Xi Huan. Opposed to her master, Li Yin was a young girl with a kind hearted soul. Asides from the secret of her new-found ability to cultivate, this bubbly girl was the only source of comfort to Xi Huan.

  "Li Yin," Xi Huan smiled but her haggard face hardly conveyed her appreciation of the girl's warmth.

  "Come, her highness is calling for you now," Li Yin murmured. Xi Huan nodded and got up totteringly. Li Yin quickly went to help her up. Together, they walked towards Ru Yu's alchemy room, a damp place lined with grotesque torture devices. Ru Yu was sitting in a chair clearly awaiting them. The two girls bowed.

  "Well, Xi Huan," Ru Yu smiled sweetly as if this was just a normal rendezvous of two close friends, "you're here,"

  "Yes your Highness," Xi Huan replied faintly. Li Yin led her to sit on the wooden stool opposite the princess. Ru Yu signalled to her maid and Li Yin nodded as she bowed and left. She soon returned with a box.

  "I already got your funeral clothes," Ru Yu said with a disturbing smile, "check them out, aren't they pretty?"

  Xi Huan looked into the box which Li Yin had opened. Inside was a white robe the likes of which the ghosts in those operas wore. However, Xi Huan smiled.

  "Your Highness is too good to me. This servant doesn't deserve it. After your Highness is cured, you can just dump me in the woods somewhere. There's no need to go to all this trouble," she scoffed in her heart.

  "That won't do. You *are* a princess after all. You must have a proper burial so you reincarnate well in the afterlife. Would you like to be sisters with me?"

  Xi Huan shivered.

  "Will you try it on?" Ru Yu gestured to the clothes. Xi Huan shook her head.

  "Fine then. Li Yin, take it away."

  "Yes, your Highness," Li Yim glanced at Xi Huan pityingly and left. Xi Huan shifted on her seat. This was the moment.

  "Your highness--" she murmured.

  "What?"

  "I-- I have a small request to make of you,"

  "Oh," Ru Yu looked interested, "what is it?"

  "Since your Highness is almost fully cured and this servant has almost served her duty," Xi Huan slowly got up and knelt on the floor, "I beg your Highness to allow me to see my mother and brother one last time before I go my way,"

  Ru Yu blinked. She seemed to be taken aback.

  "Why not let them come visit you here?"

  "No, no, that won't do. I don't want to break my mother's heart by letting her know I'll soon die. I want to go see them instead,"

  Ru Yu frowned. However, she shrugged as she thought that Xi Huan could never escape. She would send a few guards to escort her and bring her back.

  "Fine. I'll let you do that,"

  Xi Huan immediately kowtowed, tears springing into her eyes.

  "Thank you, your Highness! You're the most benevolent!"

  "Alright, alright. Let's get on with what we have to do,"

  ***

  Xi Huan slowly lifted the curtain of the carriage as it clattered along the muddy streets. She had covered her sallow face with a white cloth and only her eyes were visible. Li Yin walked beside the carriage and turned her head when she noticed the curtain ruffled.

  "Huan, what's the matter?"

  "Nothing, Li Yin," Xi Huan dropped the curtain. She was glad that Li Yin had accompanied her out of the palace. After reuniting with her mother and brother and Fei Nia, the five of them would make a run for it. Xi Huan suddenly remembered Qin Jiajia, the girl who'd helped her get into contact with the empress back then. She sighed. She didn't think Qin Jiajia would like to leave the security of her job and go off tramping with them even as they avoided whoever Ru Yu and the empress sent to pursue them. Xi Huan didn't even know where they were going to go. One thing was certain, though, she had to run.

  "Yin-er," Xi Huan lifted the curtain and softly called Li Yin. The latter walked close to the window and Xi Huan whispered into her ear. Li Yin nodded and then smiled. She seemed to know without words that Xi Huan was going to escape today. She went ahead to act on her errand first. The leader of the guards escorting Xi Huan called after her to ask where she was going and she casually responded that she was going to buy something to bring back for the princess and that she would meet up with them at the lodge.

  Xi Huan leaned back into her seat and closed her eyes. How would she give these guards the slip? The lodge was a crowded place. She had to lure them somewhere else where it'd be easy to escape. Her being a cultivator had given her leverage. These guys were just ordinary guards with little martial arts knowledge. Her and Xi Huazing would be capable of dealing with them just fine, she guessed. She wondered if she hadn't even surpassed her brother in cultivation.

  Not long after, they arrived at the lodge that Consort Ruang and Xi Huazing were staying in. Xi Huan got down from the carriage and went in, a resolute expression behind her mask.

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  "Huan-er!" Li Ruang got up quickly and ran to embrace her daughter. She quickly examined her at arms length and her face fell. In fact, she couldn't quite believe her eyes. Xi Huan, however, had little time.

  "Mother, we'll be fine, trust me. Where's ge-ge?"

  "Huazing is not here," Li Ruang's eyes were now red as she surveyed her daughter, "oh, Huan! I shouldn't have let you go!"

  "Mother, there's no time for this. Where is ge-ge? Where did he go?" She leaned in to whisper, "mother, we have to flee or I'll die! We have to go now!"

  "Is-- is that so?" Li Ruang did not for one second doubt that Xi Huan was going to die. She could feel it. "I'll ask Fei Nia to fetch him immediately," she called Fei Nia and sent her after Xi Huazing, then walked over to the window and opened it a little. She could see the menacing looking guards who had escorted Xi Huan.

  "But-- how are we going to get past them?" She murmured.

  "Don't worry about that. Brother must hurry here so I can inform him of my plan." Xi Huan moved from her place to sit at the small table in the room. Her whole body was tense and she started to tap her feet. Thankfully for her, Li Yin arrived at that moment.

  "Yin-er," Xi Huan turned towards her. She shrugged when she saw no Qin Jiajia. Even she wouldn't advise the girl to--

  "Huan, she's gone ahead to get a carriage and two extra horses." Li Yin reported. Xi Huan's mouth dropped open.

  "But-- I -- I didn't even--,"

  Li Yin smiled widely.

  "I know you want to escape, Huan, and I'm just helping you. We'll leave by the back door and enter Jiajia's carriage. It'll take a while before the guards outside realise something's up. Then they'll give chase. We'll lure the guards to the Jilian forest and deal with them. Your mother, you and your brother can take one carriage, while Jiajia and I will take the other. The Jilian forest is the border of Tian Empire with Dawn Empire, where we'll quickly mix in with the crowd. I doubt her highness can look for us there."

  "But how do you know--?" Xi Huan was still confused. She hadn't discussed anything with Li Yin. She hadn't even finalised the rough plan she had in her mind. She had been intending to work it out with Xi Huazing when he arrived. However, Li Yin had planned everything???

  "But, where is Qin Jiajia going to get a carriage from?" Xi Huan could only splutter and ask. The whole thing still didn't make sense to her.

  "She's going to steal one from the Sheng Opera House." Li Yin walked forward and looked around the room, "Aunty," she addressed Li Ruang, "you'd best start packing what you can,"

  Li Ruang was even more confused than her daughter was. Who was this one dressed as a maid calling Xi Huan 'Huan' and her 'Aunty'?? Why was she the one making the plans rather than Xi Huan? Li Ruang turned to her daughter.

  "This is--?"

  "I'm Li Yin," Li Yin introduced herself, "I'm her highness' maid but not anymore. As i said, you should quickly pack some things. I'll go down and see what more supplies I can get. I already asked Jiajia to get foodstuffs," she suddenly turned to Xi Huan, "you've unlocked your spatial space, haven't you?"

  "How--how do you know I'm a cultivator!" Xi Huan was suddenly alarmed. She'd kept this last secret to her bosom as a leverage! So Li Yin knew this as well!!?

  Li Yin laughed.

  "Do you think your aura is repressable?"

  "Then-- does Ru Yu know?" Xi Huan asked anxiously. Li Yin shook her head.

  "She doesn't." Only then was Xi Huan able to heave a sigh of relief. Li Ruang got up and went towards the back of the room and started to pack the few belongings she had left. Li Yin left to get the 'supplies'. Xi Huan resumed tapping her foot as she wondered what was taking Xi Huazing and Fei Nia so long.

  "I'm done," Li Ruang carried the small bundle and dropped it on the table. She sat opposite her daughter and reached out to hold her hands.

  "It's all my fault you have to go through all this, Huan-er," Li Ruang moaned, "I should have let you marry Ru Ziyan sooner--"

  "Mother, stop talking about that," Xi Huan snapped. She turned her head as she heard footsteps and tensed. It turned out to be Huazing and Fei Nia.

  "Brother!" Xi Huan jumped up and threw her arms around her brother. In the last two years she'd seen him last, Huazing had grown a beard and he appeared to be taller and more muscular as well. He hugged her back with astonishing strength and even nearly lifted her off her feet.

  "I've missed you so much!" Xi Huan wiped her eyes when they eventually released each other. Xi Huazing surveyed her with worry.

  "You're--!"

  Xi Huan raised her hand.

  "I know. I won't die. We have to run. Now. I've gotten everything arranged. We'll go out through the back door where another carriage is waiting for us. Brother, have *you* unlocked your spatial space?"

  "I have," Xi Huazing replied, unsure of why she asked such a question.

  "That's good," she grabbed her mother's load off the table and flung it into his arms. Xi Huazing caught it and it disappeared.

  "Huan," Xi Huazing called as Xi Huan turned around towards the door, "wait, let's sit down a minute. Where are we going?"

  "Dawn Empire," Xi Huan replied without turning, "follow me, now!"

  "Dawn Empire?" Xi Huazing repeated as they descended the stairs of the lodge and headed towards the back through a corridor, Fei Nia leading the way, "why Dawn Empire?"

  "Look at me well, brother, and you know something's seriously wrong with me," Xi Huan whispered fiercely as they arrived at the back courtyard, "Ru Yu, the princess, has been transferring her malignant illness to me all these years I've been with her. If not that I suddenly unlocked my cultivation ability, I would have died long ago! Now, she's almost finished transferring it to me and that's why I have this opportunity to escape as she's let down her guard. You think I purposely chose where we're going? No! I simply want to escape from here!"

  "Huazing," Li Ruang interrupted as Xi Huazing started to say something else, "let's listen to Xi Huan,"

  Fei Nia opened the door leading into the backstreet behind the lodge. The four of them stepped outside and looked right and left. It seemed Qin Jiajia had not arrived yet. Xi Huan tried to calm down, but she was very nervous.

  Presently, they heard the whinny of a horse galloping up the street. Xi Huan's heart jumped into her throat as she recognised the girl who had helped her almost two years ago. Qin Jiajia pulled hard on the reins of the horse from where she sat on the driver's seat.

  "Well hello," she raised her hand in greeting to the four people standing huddled together by the door, "get in out of sight,"

  Xi Huan, Li Ruang and Xi Huazing quickly entered the carriage. Fei Nia got beside Qin Jiajia. Almost as soon as she sat down, Qin Jiajia whipped the horse as she hastened it with "giddy up"s. The carriage clattered down the street. Xi Huan pulled aside the curtain in front.

  "What about Li Yin??"

  "She said I shouldn't wait for her. She'll catch up with us," Qin Jiajia replied. Xi Huan didn't know what else to say. She didn't know how Li Yin had convinced Qin Jiajia to come with them either. She had simply sent a farewell message, but the girl had said something else.

  "Jiajia--" overcome with emotion, Xi Huan called Qin Jiajia's name. However, Qin Jiajia only retorted.

  "Stay inside! You don't want anyone to recognise you. We have to get a good headstart to we can plan our ambush of your escorts,"

  Li Yin had even planned that far? Xi Huan could only conclude that she was dated to live. She leaned back and let the curtain fall.

  "Are we safe?" Li Ruang asked.

  "Not yet," Xi Huan smiled coyly. She could smile now. She and Xi Huazing were more than equal to those guards, she was sure of it.

  "Brother, what level of cultivation are you at now?"

  "Last stage of Martial Skills," Xi Huazing replied. Xi Huan smiled widely.

  "That's good. We'll survive. We'll be fine."

  *

  Jilian Forest Road

  Xi Huazing and Xi Huan crouched behind a low shrub. They could hear the ever nearing sounds of a hot pursuit. Through a gap in the trees, Li Yin burst into view, and pulled suddenly on the reins of her horse. Xi Huan nearly couldn't believe her eyes. She never could have imagined that the petite Li Yin could handle an horse so expertly. Even she couldn't.

  Li Yin jumped down from her horse even as her pursuers closed in on her quickly, their swords drawn.

  "You traitor! Quick, tell us where miss Xi is!" their leader bellowed harshly.

  Li Yin retreated a few steps, and the guards quickly advanced on her.

  "Now!" She suddenly shouted.

  Xi Huazing launched an attack on the guards almost immediately, blasting them off their feet with a fight skill. As opposed to his sister, his own cultivation hadn't been hindered since he had access to a skill scroll.

  He jumped out from behind his hiding place and quickly initiated hand to hand combat with the guards. Xi Huan jumped after him even though she had no idea how to fight. Her increased stamina and strength arising as a result of her cultivation allowed her to get an upper hand on her opponents, though.

  Before long, all the guards had been knocked out. Xi Huazing suggested killing them but Xi Huan disagreed. Li Yin had taken over the escort's carriage during the tussle and now rode it over.

  "Let's go!"

  Xi Huazing and Xi Huan thus left the guards there as they quickly entered the carriage. Xi Huan raised the curtain and took a deep whiff of the fresh forest air. Freedom.