This time Pamella assured to take with her an oil lamp. It warmed her just a little, but at least a little was better than nothing. Out of nowhere a vicious cold had taken over the whole trip. Her ears had been freezing all the while, and the fingers on the hand that wasn't holding the lighted oiled lamp had turned a bluish purple. Every time a sneaky wind blew on her, Pamella would shiver, and her teeth would clatter together.

Those guys of the so called "Wú Chù Zhī" only gave Pamella a historic Chinese folklore, and legends book that contained the description of where it was, and how it was the place she needed to get to. The book most probably was stolen, as well as these herbs, and "post-sticks" that supposedly vanished evil. Why would Pamella be doing this, instead of getting out of trouble to think clearer on what to do with this necklace, and how it could help her get back to her World. It didn't matter how much she thought about it still ended with she couldn't stay still, thinking, and waiting that some time, or another, the answer would magically arrive to her.

Other matter was, the fact that this was not her body. This was that Wú Chù Zhī's body. Then, where was her body? If this was her soul, but not her body, where was her real body? It couldn't have dissipated into thin her when she was separated from it, could it? If "Wú Chù Zhī" had been carrying this necklace, at the same time in her World she had touched the same necklace, then could they have switched bodies?

No, scratch that!

They were different moments, each happening at the same time; like the physic's multiple universe theory. It was possible the real Wú Chù Zhī's soul had transported into her real body in Beijing of 2019, as well as it could have disappeared in the process. This accounted to her as well; in terms of her body.

UGH! This is so confusing. First time in my life I have confused myself with my own way of speech!

One thing was for sure; this whole mess was related to the "Lord of Darkness" necklace.

A sound of running water could be heard near where she was walking. She took this as a chance to wash herself at least superficially; until her punishment was done.

She followed the splashing sounds of the water hitting the surface of rocks. Even if she was confident enough to go out of her way for some water, she still had her senses in alert. This forest didn't just have insects. If she wanted to last until she could go back home, then she needed to be wise, and not act either rash, or irrational. She couldn't daydream. She needed to be awake, and ready for action.

At first, she saw her situation as a part of her imagination, that nothing that she was living was real, but in just a flash everything turned into disaster; it all had felt horribly real. This drew the line on her way of thinking, and even if she didn't want to believe it, she had to; for her own mental, and physical health.

When the sound of the splashing grew louder, she could see a not so big waterfall, maybe medium sized; from which water fell at low pressure unto a small water body, that at the same time connected with a river. She went towards the small lakes border.

Since it was dark, the water looked grimly dark.

This lake is small, but it's surely very deep.

She brushed away all her suspicions of the lake being filled with man eating creatures. It was going to be a fast face-soak, nothing more. She didn't need to be scared by water. She never had anyways. Her swimming was on an acceptable level, even though her friends would always tease her by how clumsy it looked. Like a dog swimming for its dear life. Pamella chuckled at that past thought. It was true she wasn't an expert swimmer, but she could "swim" for her dear life.

She laid the lamp on her side; a little further away from the border, and her; just to be careful not to bump unto it, or make it fall into the water. That didn't bring any good feelings in Pamella. If she lost that lamp her remaining resort was her spiritual energy for lighting her way. This was another thing explained to her by those four bandits. If her lamp ever ended not working, or lost, she could use her Qi to generate light, but this would make her waste all her VERY LOW spiritual energy. Thus, she needed to be careful with her lamp.

The small amount of light that made its way towards where she was kneeling, and the clearness of the water, allowed her to see that her face was indeed covered in dirt. It wasn't to much, but it didn't appeal to those wonderful eyes this man's body possessed. If the eyes were alluringly pleasant to the sight, then what about the face. Pamella immediately cupped her hands, dipped them into the water, and splashed her face. She repeated the same thing five more times, and with a smooth brush against her chin to take out of the way any excess water on her, she peered down to her reflection, and was stunned. She lightly touched that face which was both hers and not.

She was a man; a handsome with a dash of cute man. Wú Chù Zhī's face was slender, with a celestial nose, and soft angled brows that complimented the almond shaped, but slightly larger eyes. Two beauty marks could be seen; one near her left eye, and the other at the near left of the mouth. The one reflected on the water was a stranger. The only things that this body had that was hers was the dark brown color of her eyes, and her soul. The rest of this body didn't belong to her. The "Adam's apple" in her neck went slowly up, and down as she breath in and out, and as she gulped down her shock. She softly touched that too; to affirm that this was her reality; that this was her now.

Do I have THAT as well?

Pamella was thinking about whether to, or not to venture into an anatomy checkup, but her curiosity got the best of her. Her hand proceeded from her neck, to her flat chest. It brushed pass, and stayed a little at her hard, but not dramatic abdomen.

If I ever meet the real Wú Chù Zhī, I'll be sure to ask him what exercise he does that he has a six pack. In all my years, of trying to get them, doing kick boxing, taekwondo, resistance yoga, and cardio, I couldn't get them! Wú Chù Zhī! WHAT'S YOUR SECRET!

The hand ventures some time on each of the packs, and as it went lower, Pamella hesitated. This was now her body, why couldn't she touch it as much as she pleases.  Wú Chù Zhī was not with her to accuse her of touching his body in a shamelessly perverted way. She had never had a man's body this close to her as she did now. It was an even better situation; she didn't have to spend the night to see it naked. For Pamella, it was like winning the JACKPOT!

TO HELL WITH IT!

And with that, the hand went in her trousers, but the same fast way it went in, it went out with an extra loud scream.

-          AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The scream was so loud that it made the birds fly, and the dead to die again. Even the people back at Luoyang Zhèn, wonder who the poor wretched soul was to whom the voice had disturbed their nightly doings. What they all could do was pray for the unfortunate. A kid asked his mother,

-          Mom, what was that scary sound?

-          Dear, don't worry about it. Hush and prey, hush and prey.

Back at the forest, Pamella went over to the water to wash her hands off any essence of whatever THING that resided on her lower region. Her face was crimson red, and she was hot all over. She won't dare touch that part of her body again.

Well that says it all! I AM DEFINITELY A MAN! Oh, what to do!

She placed her washed hands on her face, splashing herself again to cool down, and brushed off the perverted action she had performed moments ago.

As soon as she came to her senses, she grabbed the lamp, and walked towards where the small lake connected with a river. She walked along the border, and realized, that where there was a river there needed to be a lake where it leads. The river's current was going forward, not back to the small lake she had already abandoned. That meant that there was another lake up ahead, and as she looked at the map in the book again, she was going where she needed to be going.

As soon as she arrived at the rivers end, she found in front of her a majestic clear lake. It was obviously a deep, deep lake, and its diameter was outstanding. But what really took her by surprise, was that far away, in the middle of the lake, there was another piece of land from which a penetrating light shown with all it's might. The figure of its source couldn't be pointed out, but Pamella could tell that was the tree the book mentioned.

Pamella came upon a problem. If she was at the faraway border from the grand lake, and the tree was far away over there, then how in the world, would she be able to get the leaves that dammed boss wanted. As she pondered her head, and paced along the lake's boarder, she noticed that under one of the various of trees near the water's side, there was a tied boat. She ran towards it.

The boat was quite small, its wooden built had the dark grayish color of decay, and part of it had been eaten by moths. It had jus one oar, with only one blade; the other one had disappeared by means unknown. Pamella wondered,

Will this mess of a boat help me get to that piece of land without getting me drowned?

Boats like that one only got people killed, so why would she even think about getting on the boat? She didn't have another choice. She carefully landed one of her feet inside of it, placed the lamp in a corner, and while grabbing hold of the thin rope that had been steadying the ship, she brought her remaining foot inside. As soon as she had, the rope which she held unto broke, and if shed hadn't had good reflexes she would have fell into the water.

-          Ah... Ow... Seriously! Is there no way for me to be somewhere without constantly having to say "OW"!

The verbal routine was already making Pamella loose her sanity. In any case, she was already on the boat, and in moving motion. The only thing left was for her to row towards the far away piece of land, get the leaves, and to her dismay, row back to land, and walk back towards town. Even thinking about all the things, she still needed to do made her go hypochondriac.

Pamella grabbed the shaft of the decomposed ore, and she slowly rowed on her right side. The boat glided forward, but when she rowed on her left side, the boat suddenly changed its direction to the right. She quickly rowed to her right side, and then back again to her left, then to her right, and left again. She maintained this exhausting routine until in one careless move she rowed to hard on one of her side and made the boat spin in a ridiculously fast speed. She grabbed unto one of the boat side, clamping her feet under one of the sitting regions of the boat, and with her free hand held still the oiled lamp whose hot liquid threatened to spill not only on her, but on the boat, then that would be a "bye- bye" for her.

The spinning came to an abrupt stop and flipped to one side when it met with land. Pamella thanked her common sense when she quickly removed the hand that was holding the oiled lamp in place. As soon as the boat had flipped, Pamella rolled some feet away from the boat, and the already spilled hot oil lamp. After regaining her stance, she walked towards the already empty and extinguished lamp. From where the oil had spilled, a dark spot of bunt grass remained.

If that hot oil had spilled on me... Never mind that! Now I don't have a lamp to light my way through this hell of a forest!

After internally crying because of her bad fortune, she turned to look at the object for which the majestic light came from.

Pamella was unprepared for what came into sight. It was as the boss, and the book had said. The tree wasn't as big as the boss, and the book had made it appear, but its sturdy trunk, and the glowing silver, and gold leaves threw that matter out of one's mind. Pamella walked slowly forward.  Even with the wind blowing, the leaves didn't show any movement. It was as if they were glued, or better say solid, and unbending as the metals from which they were rumored to be made; silver, and gold. Crimson red flower buds added to the out of this world beauty. Pamella raised one of her hands to touch the magnificent leaves on the tree, ignoring the fact that the tree shined even heavier as she grew closer. As her hand closed in one of the golden leaves, a stinging pain enveloped her whole body. She fell unto the floor in excruciating pain. She had only cut her palm, yet the pain flooded her body's systems. She rolled and howled.

WHAT IS THIS!!

I HURT!

IT FEELS AS IF MANY KNIVES STABBED ME AND SHREEDED ME APART!!

During her crying out of pain moment, the blood that was left behind on the leaves, disappeared, as if the tree itself had zipped it into its system. Followed by this, a too many to count arms, and figures emerged from the dark lake's water. The creatures were humanoid looking yet their clawed fingers hands, jawed mandibles, and completely black eyes took them far away from the word human. Pamella still hurt but tried to get the seals from her bag.

The creatures whizzing breathing, and the drool that dripped unto the grass made Pamella loose her grip on the roll of seals. The wind picked up, and the seals went with it.

The scene could be said to carry both a fun yet a scary vibe to it; wind blowing, four of the so many creatures closing in on Pamella with their opened clawed hands, and paper seals flying like confetti in a party. Extremely breath taking. Not in a good way.

Pamella closed her eyes.

So, this is it?! This is how I was born to die?! Eaten by... by... BY WATER ZOMBIES?! DIDN'T THAT ONLY HAPPENED IN RESIDENT EVIL MOVIES?! IN SHAWN OF THE DEAD?! IN TRAIN TO BUSAN?!!

As she pondered on this, she closed her eyes, and refused to accept her fate.

A moment passed, and without opening her eyes she wondered why she still couldn't here or feel the ripping of her own flesh.

As she took a peak, she abruptly sat up, to find all the creatures halt on their attack, four black colored steam clouds, and a figure of a man in a kneeling fighting stance with a dark blooded stained sword. Red and black flares of energy danced over his body. The energy's strength gave out a feeling of crushing one's own. He only gave Pamella his back.

Who was this man?