Running as fast as she could to catch the thief, JiuTian felt that she hadn't been on an exciting chase for a long time. Her heart was beating fast, her veins pumping.

YongSan too was trying to catch up to her. He needed to confirm that she was her, the person he saw Sun YuQiao.

However, the first person to catch up with JiuTian was not JinGe, neither was it YongSan. It was ZhenYu.

ChunWah was saying how her wrist was hurting her, so ZhenYu thought of getting an egg to rub on her wound as a bruise might have been formed.

ChunWah who was happy that ZhenYu would be willing to do something for her, however she was still reluctant to let him out of her sight, but she was a lady, she had always acted the part perfectly, acting selfishly would destroy her image, so she thanked him and let him go.

He who had just came out from kitchen and was going back to the room, knocked into the thief. The waiter fell on the ground, ZhenYu who saw the man, tried to lend him a hand in getting back up.

The thief slapped his hand away, before ZhenYu could think or say anything in retort, he heard first, JiuTian's voice calling out to him, "Catch him."

The thief got up on his feet and ran again as he pushed past ZhenYu but as he stepped past him, ZhenYu caught his hand and in a simple movement, caught his hand and with his leg, he knocked him of the ground, the thief fell flat on his face.

"Good job," praised JiuTian to ZhenYu and then went to over to the thief and flipped him over to catch a look at his face and she was of course disappointed as he was not the person she was looking for.

JinGe was going after JiuTian, but when she was behind her, she too saw the same thing which had happened to JiuTian that the slit eye man was all over the place. Unlike JiuTian she had more training in magic, knew that there was something wrong.

She closed and opened her eyes, and her eyes turned into those of the wolves.

JinGe saw the real slit eye man hiding at the corner. However, to reach him she must first destroy the illusion. She chanted a spell and directed to one of the illusions. It cancelled out the delusion and the waiters who resembled him, reverted to their own self.

Instantly, JinGe could find out the location of the slit eye man. She rushed towards him, and he turned around to look at her. She rushed towards him, and he turned around to look at her.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

The man grinned which made his slit seem even longer than it is. "."You can't tell," said the man. Seeing how she still seems to be confused and unable to tell who he was, he told her, or more likely, he showed it to her. He moved towards her, and just as he expected she did not flinch back. The waiter covered her eyes and whispered into her ears, "It's me."

Upon hearing his voice, she immediately knew who it was and tried to back away, but the man caught her hand, and gripped onto her hand tightly.

Even if she could not get away, she doesn't want his hands on her eyes and used the other to knock it away, but the man had already known what she was going to do next and used the hand covering her eyes to block it, revealing his appearance to JinGe.

"QianHua," said JinGe. She never expected it to be him, he was severely injured with a wound which could have been fatal, yet he is now showing his face in front of her.

She was right. The feeling that she felt at that time, that he would be back; she did not expect it to be as promptly as now.

QianHua's transformation was seen by someone which scared him so much, he peed on the spot and then he cried out as loudly as he could, "Demon." This attracted the attention of everyone there and they all looked at him.

QianHua turned his head around and looked at them as well, grinned and showed his tail for them to see, it swished to the left and then right.

This caused another explosion of screams and cries.

The sudden appearance of a demon alerted everyone in the court area, and they were screaming, "Demon, demon. A demon has appeared," yelled the people as they ran away in all directions. Mother carried their children away; the young ones carried their elderly parent on their backs, everyone there, found a way out of the place until there were none left except for QianHua and JinGe.

"What do you want?" asked JinGe.

However, the demon, did not answer her instead talked about other things, "Once upon a time I was a god, and these people would worship me, to be called a demon, does hurt my feelings a little."

"You are a demon now. Haven't you realized it yet?" said JinGe sarcastically.

He grinned again, "But did not I help you just now?" said the man.

"When?" said JinGe.

"I just gave you a little gift just now. I casted a little illusion to let you see the person you wanted to see most," said QianHua with a little laugh.

"No wonder," thought JinGe, as she understood why the slit eye man whom she wanted to find, was seen everywhere and when she found him, it turned to be someone else entirely. "The actual one must have left long ago."

"How did you-"

"Recover," said QianHua completing her sentence. "Simply, I used a few thousands of my cultivation, to recover. Although, a little wasteful, but when to use it if it wasn't when I am dying and having such a huge amount of training, a few thousands is just a few specks of a large mountain. And we didn't have time, when we last meet. I really want to thank you for that powerful medicine that restored my sight."

"What do you want?" asked JinGe to QianHua. "Do you want to kill people again? Or do you want to kill me?"

"Kill? Maybe yes, maybe no," said QianHua, beating around the bushes. He looked at her again, closing in; she could almost feel his breath on her face, "That depend on the answer which you will give me."

"What answer do you want?" asked JinGe.

"Enough with the questions," said QianHua who was getting a little annoyed by all the questions which JinGe is asking him and to release those tensions, he.

The demon sent a burst of his Qi to the tables which destroyed them instantly. The debris flew all over the place, a piece of the wood, flew and scratched JinGe's face; a straight cut was formed on her cheek and tiny droplets of blood began flowing out.

QianHua looked at the droplets of blood flowing out from the wound and used his finger to draw one of it out. The tiny scarlet droplet glistened in the sun.

JinGe expression was unchanged; she showed no fear towards him and only thought about the answer; it may be her only way out, any way she still needed to stall for time, to think of a way to get away.

"Thought of it yet?" asked QianHua, the droplet of blood still on his hand.

Even though, she looked like she was unafraid of him, still the demon was a deity whose age would be tens of thousands of years, it might even be hundreds of years, she can't tell.

JianYu had mentioned after that battle at night, that encounter with the demon, it might have been likely their last night on earth. It was impossible to win if the demon hadn't let his guard off. He still remembered how JianYu had said when they were alone, "If he was not playing around, we would have died the moment we meet him." That shows how strong it is.

And she also remembered how she naively asked her master, "Even you Master?"

"The most I would only survive for another few minutes, in front of that deity. With him changing into a demon, his power would be even stronger as the Qi he possesses would also contain the evil or hate he had suppressed for thousands of years in WanYue Forest."

"If he was so strong, then why would he at first, be entrapped in the forest," asked JinGe to her Master.

"Only the powers of equally strength would have sealed him there, with a help of an ancient artefact, no doubt," said JianYu.

Seeing how he was tired, JinGe did not press him further and left it as it is.

JinGe was brought back to reality, as QianHua, looked at the person who came to the courtyard. It was JianYu, her master.

"He must have sense that I am in danger again, through the spell he casted on my bracelet," thought JinGe as she too looked at her master, her bracelet jingled in response.

JianYu spared no time to talk when he saw JinGe was held by the demon, and he tried to save her. However, QianHua who already anticipated that such pests would once more interrupt his fun, he sent the droplet of JinGe's blood into a sky with a gentle flick, he blew on it and the droplet spread into barrier, separating JinGe with the rest.

JianYu who was outside, was unwilling to let him has his way and took out his sword too and used the same magic as he had used before and covered the sword with his blood, however no matter how much he slashed at the barrier, it wouldn't even leave a scratch on it.

He smiled cunningly at him from inside the barrier and once more he shifted his attention back to JinGe and said, "Now we are the only ones in this barrier. No more pests, just me and you. Have you figured it out yet?"

It seems to JinGe, that with the appearance of others, her situation turned didn't improve, she wanted to run away but how? He held on her tightly, and with the barrier around them, her chance of escape from slim changed into zero.

She better focused on answering his question, trying her best to remember the events which had happened on that night.

"Do you want to die?" asked QianHua whose last shred of patience had ran out and he stretch out his claws at JinGe, reaching for her neck.

Before the tips of the claws reached her, JinGe looked at him and asked, "Did you feel worried?"

He stopped in mid-air, from further hurting her stunned no doubt and then, the man released his grip on her hand, and she quickly retracted her hand, and began rubbing the pain away.

She stayed silent as she looked at the purple robe man. He looked amusingly at her again, giving her that look, a look, which contained far more emotion than any words could ever achieve. Grief, sadness, anguish, agony? There wasn't a single trace of love in it, and he seems to bear it all, with a smile.

Before they both could continue their conversation, the barrier was broken. JinGe looked at the woman who had just appeared, a mysterious black coat while QianHua looked at JianYu, "How did you unlock the barrier? Not anyone could-"

JianYu did not gave him the opportunity to finish his sentence and rushed towards him while the black coat woman, ran in JinGe's direction and caught her hand and dragged her away from QianHua's side; however, QianHua caught JinGe's arm and used his strength to pull her back while simultaneously blocking JianYu's attack with his claw.

"Let go, Purple wolf," said the woman.

"Purple wolf?" thought JinGe. "How did she know about him? Are they related?"

"She has nothing to do with this. MengQian is no longer in this world," said the woman out loud.

The name struck the demon's heart deeply. His motivation and bloodlust dramatically decreased with the mention of her name.

"You are lying," said QianHua angrily. "She said that no matter how long, she will find me and so will I. This girl has similar smell. She must know about her whereabouts-"

JianYu aimed at his arm, forcing him to let go of JinGe.

The demon was unhappy and fought with JianYu; however, his heart was not in the battle anymore, and after pushing JianYu to the side with a very heavy blow to his right, the demon fled once more.

After he left, the black coat woman pushed away JinGe back to JianYu's side and she ran away, chasing after the demon.

"Who is she?" asked JinGe to JianYu. "I saw her too at our home at the arch. She and another were fighting the white clothes, and the man who was with her, protected me."

JianYu looked at JinGe and said it with an ambiguous expression, "She is an old friend."

For the first time, she could not tell what the man was thinking about at all as he stared off into the distance.

Black Coat

LiRen was walking in the forest alone, herb picking as the weather seems better that day, he was sulking a little as well that he was not invited to go to the city tour with the girls and children.

JiuTian had told him to stay put in the hideout, but it felt better to go out to release his tension.

"Even the twins are gone," thought the man as he pulled out a white herb growing at the base of a tree.

In his free time, as contribution to the hideout, he had become the part time teacher to them, although those two rascals were naughty and often played tricks on him.

He was still quite glad that there were there as it helped him passed the time and also longing for their mother, JinGe.

"Whether she is married or not, whether she have kids or not. I love her," exclaimed LiRen in his heart. However, just thinking back about the stupid incident he made on that night was already embarrassing enough, how the people in the hideout kept teasing him about it.

"Luckily, JiuTian did not take it seriously," thought LiRen. "Anyway, this is the last plant, I should be going."

It was this moment, which he looked up at the sky, where he saw a person flying by, and of course surprised him especially the girl he was carrying was JiuTian, who also happened to return his gaze.

Their eyes met and she shouted towards him, "Help me, Idiot!"

The man was flying across branches one after another; he was dressed all in black, although he was different from the demon which JiuTian had described to him before.

"Anyway, I need to help her." With that thought in mind, he ran across forest, following them.

A few minutes before, JiuTian was caught in a very sticky situation as YongSan almost saw her without her veil. Although, she would not have mind to show him, however JinGe had warned her specifically, if that man would have saw her, he might deploy all the white clothes and the rest of the mercenary to kill her off.

"It would be trouble," thought the girl and she quickly hid behind ZhenYu, using his broad back to hide her own slender figure.

"What are you doing, Miss JiuTian?" asked ZhenYu who was a bit surprised that she was hiding like that.

"Please just let me stay like this for a while," said JiuTian.

"YuQiao," said YongSan when he arrived at the scene. "I know that it is you. Come out."

"This doesn't sound like, he wanted to kill me," thought JiuTian. "However, JinGe had also told me in detail how he had betrayed her and her whole family."

ZhenYu stepped forward, blocking YongSan from approaching further and said to YongSan, "She doesn't want to meet you."

"Yes, you tell him," thought JiuTian.

"Who are you to tell me that? You are just a lowly adopted son of the city lord, you are not fit to tell me anything," said YongSan.

"How dare he?" thought JiuTian who was angry at how YongSan could spout such words without care. However, ZhenYu, did not care about such remarks, he was already past that stage where he still cared about such insults because in his heart, he knew how his father had seen and treated him.

ZhenYu repeated again, "Please leave, the girl doesn't wish to see you."

YongSan was getting pissed off at the man who stood in his way, he was ready to strike him when suddenly a blast was heard from behind, with debris flying around.

"It seems to be part of a table," thought ZhenYu as he was the first to see it. YongSan turned around and had the same conclusion as well.

Kidnapped

In that moment, JiuTian was caught and kidnapped by a black coat man; she was taken by surprise, without the knowledge of the two as she could not react in time to scream.

YongSan, who took the opportunity, pushed ZhenYu away and saw that there was nothing behind his back, was frustrated and without taking another look at him, walked towards where the blast came from.

ZhenYu followed YongSan with a question in mind, "Where did JiuTian went?"

Hurt

They rushed to the scene, where they saw JianYu and the barrier covering the demon and JinGe.

When they decided to approach them, someone jumped down from the second floor or the roof, they weren't sure, as they couldn't see it. They were exchanging a conversation which they were too far to hear any of it.

However, YongSan knew who it was, it was the black coat which CaiXia had reported seeing. He received the news via from the pigeon mails he had received from Xu Ji.

ChunWah who was wondering why ZhenYu was taking so long, went out from the room where she met a bunch of people who was running along the corridors, yelling, and talking about demons appearing in the teahouse.

She was worried about ZhenYu and she braved herself and went in the opposite direction of the running people. "Excuse me, pardon me," as she made her way to the court area. She arrived at the same time with ZhenYu and YongSan and she too witnessed all the happenings.

Seeing the girl being with the demon in something like crimson barrier, ZhenYu rushed out to help. However, YongSan grabbed hold of his hand, trying to stop him. ZhenYu pushed his hands away, "Are you going to stop and look by?"

The words were like knives stabbing into his heart, it was his duty to protect the citizens, yet he hesitated when the white clothes' problem is involved even if the person who got involved was JinGe. He suddenly felt that he was useless, especially since he had thought that he liked her. "In the moment of need, he would abandon her?" thought YongSan.

ZhenYu got away from YongSan and wanted to lend a help, however the black hair man who was with the girl that night, seems to have figured out a way to help her while the black coat woman stood by, watching.

The man did what JiuTian had done that night and covered his sword with his own blood, and he rushed towards the barrier and destroyed it. He could only look at how the woman whom he thought was not going to do anything, rushed into the fight and rescued the girl from the claws of the demon.

ZhenYu caught the attention of the demon who smiled at him amusingly while the black coat woman pushed JinGe towards the man with the black robe and then ran after the demon.

However, the demon seems to be unable to leave without leaving something behind, he sent one of his paralyzing fingernails toward ZhenYu, as he mouthed the words to him, 'Payback' to him.

ChunWah knew that she needed to save ZhenYu, however, her body did not move at all, when she saw how it was getting closer and closer to ZhenYu, her mind was assuring her, and "You do not need to help. Brother Zhen could take care of it."

As the girl had thought, ZhenYu would have deflected the nail with the sword he carried with him. However, there were actually two nails one which was aimed at his heart, and another which directed towards his hand. QianHua had calculated so that the first nail aimed at his hand would reach first, paralyzing his arm, causing the sword he carried to fall onto the ground and then second will follow, killing him.

The plan proceeded as he had thought, with his arm paralyzed; he could not block the second fingernail which was reaching for his heart. ZhenYu could only look at the approaching nail, which was coming to him with an incredible speed, one which he could not even evade at all.

While at the same time JinGe, who was talking to JianYu at that time, had noticed the second nail going for his heart, she did not think, she did not hesitate and used all her strength, trying to reach him in time.

Everyone gasped as the sound of the nail pierced deeply into JinGe's back. Blood as red as the autumn forest flowed out from her wound.

JinGe could feel the paralyzing effect of the nail, instantaneously and began spreading all over her body. Her legs gave out and ZhenYu grabbed hold onto her, she looked at him and smiled. She was just glad that he was safe; everything else seems to be behind her mind.

"No," he heard him say to her.

"You being with me really bring you bad luck," thought JinGe. "This event is once more proved how we are each other misfortune," who continued smiling at him. "But I will not let you be hurt again. It's good that you do not recognize me."

And her eyelids closed slowly as she remembered the taste of the tea, BaiMei, bitter yet sweet at the same time.

JianYu, YongSan and ChunWah all got over to take a closer look.

Quick in mind and action, JianYu quickly removed the nail from JinGe's back and tear off a piece of cloth from his tunic to ease the blood flow from the wound.

"Give her to me," said JianYu. "I am her guardian."

ZhenYu who was still in a state of shock was not registering the words that had spoken to him, thus JianYu had to snatch JinGe away from him and carried her on his back as they ran out from the teahouse.

In between, he met the twins and ZhenPing who were with the maid, Ah Lu, they evacuated from the room when they heard guests saying that there was a demon in the vicinity. Seeing their mother's master, with their mother behind his back, the twins ran after him, going back to the hideout after saying a quick farewell to ZhenPing and Ah Lu.

"Where are you two going?" asked Ah Lu.

"We are going back home," said the twins. "You do not need to follow us. We know the way back."

They ran off very fast, but ZhenPing who was curious about the boys, went after them with Ah Lu.