The full moon was seen again, under the starry autumn night. "At last," thought JinGe as she watched the clouds passing over the moon. She reached her hand towards it and scooped a handful of essence and replenished herself.

It surged her body with a sense of energy. Maybe because she was weaker than usual, thus, the moon essence in her body felt stronger. The flower pattern on her forehead appeared by itself and shone in the darkness.

She circulated her Qi and balanced the moon essence and her soul. And then she controlled her powers and the pattern on her forehead disappeared.

"Finished," thought JinGe, she turned around to look once more at JiuTian who was sleeping soundly. She tucked in the covers around her.

"I am sorry that I keep doing things on my own, but I have to. I can't have all of you guys put in danger because of me," thought JinGe as she jumped out from the window.

Paws outstretched when she landed gently on the side roof.

JinGe had turned into a white wolf and ran along to reach the enemy campy. She must hurry and save her brother. If last time, she was not poisoned and injured in the process, JinGe would have come earlier.

"Sorry father and mother that I did not fulfil my promise to take care of everyone," thought JinGe as she ran to the enemy camp.

It was hard for her in her wolf form to approach the camp because no matter what, she could not change the colour of her fur. Her white fur would be striking in the forest or along the buildings. Without a choice, she changed back into a human.

JinGe had thought that 'once infiltrated., the second time would be easier'. And it had been more than twice she came here.

With that thought in her mind, she changed into a set of men white clothes that she had bought together with her and jumped over the wall and entered into the camp, the same way she had come before, across the wall on the east side, where they were less people.

She knew as her hearing was better than others. There were a lot less of footsteps here compared to the other spots.

JinGe walked along with the guards, but they all seem to be staring at her whenever she went. "Did I do something wrong?" thought JinGe.

In the camp, all the guards that are guarding the place are normal people. They are usually normal mercenaries hired to protect the place and the lowest in ranks in the whole place.

The second in command was the white clothes group. These groups usually moved mechanically and don't have much will.

The top ranks were those white clothes group who had a red plum blossom print on their shawl. These have their mind and are able to orders around.

However, above all, the greatest was still YongSan and his partner. He was not the only one in charge. JinGe heard snippets from the mercenaries that YongSan was in charge of the operations, but the partner was the one who provided him with people, specifically the white clothes and resources.

Until now, JinGe still had no idea who is the other person.

However, that was not her priority, JinGe prowled the place with only one thought in mind, "I need to quickly reach the place where I last saw brother being held captive."

Five years ago, when she was travelling, it was a miracle as she had found her brother, YuWei. It was hard for him at first to believe that JinGe was her sister YuQiao because she took LiQin's body and looked different.

It took her a long time and many secrets until he finally trusted her and then he too opened to her and told her his life thus far.

"I thought that I had died at that time, but it seems that YongSan had missed my vitals. I was in an unconscious, dead yet alive. From the pile of corpses, I rose," said YuWei who was recounting the horrible experience.

From what she heard, after escaping from the house. He was wounded and injured and was saved by his current wife.

She belonged to a travelling entertainer's group, when he woke up, they were already far away from XinYe. Due to his injuries, he can't leave the group. The following months he was travelling with them and before he knew it, he had fallen in love with the woman who saved him.

"We were married not too long ago," said YuWei to her.

"I am glad that you are alive and living happily," said JinGe and then she asked him about the past.

"About father, about our family-"

YuWei looked at his sister and said, "I will never let that man go. As of now, my mind is still filled with the thought of killing him yet when I looked at the present life I have, all the things that had happened seems so far away almost as if I had dreamt of it."

JinGe understand his feelings as well. Just like how she had lived with ZhenYu, when she woke up, the flames, and her family everything felt like a bad dream, and she desperately hope it wasn't true.

"Brother, seeing you again. I am very happy. Please focus on your own life. Our family's revenge. I will take it upon myself to get revenge against him and the one who planned all this," declared JinGe as she stood up from her seat, turned around and was leaving.

She already took a few steps when her brother said, "But-"

JinGe, who heard him leaving his seat, said "No, you have a family. I do not want. I do wish to involve you in any of it. You must carry on the Sun's bloodline. Our family grudge, I will bear it by myself."

Her brother was unwilling to give up and wanted to stop her, but JinGe turned around and looked at his face, "Brother, I am part of the Sun family too even if I am adopted."

"YuQiao," said YuWei who bowed at her.

However, after that short conversation and brief reunion, the next day he was captured by the white clothes. Once again, she was separated from him. It was another regret and another bitter debt she wished to return towards the white clothes.

Infiltrating the enemy camp previously, she had known about her brother's location, and she wanted to save him but now, why is everyone looking at her? Was it her clothes? Does wearing men's cloth looked weird on her?

This will be dangerous, and she tried to be less conspicuous and walked down the path slowly, normally in order to avoid attracting more attention.

JinGe saw her chance and turned to a garden. They seemed to be less guards here.

She calmed herself down and remembered to walk around the place imitating all the others white clothes while investigating the area.

The place felt like it was meant for someone who is mediating or, "Someone who is sick and needs a place to recuperate. Not only humans will find this place to be especially beneficial but deities as well. There is an abundant of Qi here," thought JinGe as the almost invisible Qi were circulating around her.

JinGe could feel the Qi was travelling and accumulating in a centre point in the garden and went towards it, trying to figure out whether a human, a deity or a sinister demon might be residing in the camp.

"It's getting more complicated," thought JinGe her mind began to ponder whether all that had happened might not be as simple as she had initially thought, and everything was connected to a greater scheme.

The girl arrived and found herself in a garden full of plum blossoms. It was not the seasons for it yet which made it more the mysterious.

She walked into it and felt that it was like a dream. The place was so familiar, yet strange at the same time.

Everything in it was real as something could be real. The smell of the flowers, the sight of the five petals blossoms, with its yellow whiskers growing out from its green base. It was all too surreal and at one point, JinGe could see a man, dressed in deep blue, playinga flute; it was captivating. An enchanting melody which was happy, cheerful andgives off an emotion which made the heart flutter.

JinGe walked closer, but then the man stopped and looked over. "Did he saw her?" thought JinGe but he did not. He turned his head to his right and saw a woman coming out from the trees and flowers. She walked out from underneath the branches, and then looked towards the man.

When he saw her, JinGe could tell that he was totally smitten by her, as he quickly kept away his flute and walked over towards her. There were very happy to see each other but their happy reunion seems to be a quick one as the woman's expression changed and began to cry.

He comforted her, she pushed him away, but he would not let her.

In their struggle she almost fell which made him even more anxious about her. He scolded her and somehow assured her and then they finally hugged. It seems they have an uncertain future in front of them, thought JinGe.

While she was watching the scene in front of her, she had forgotten about her situation and in a moment of defencelessness, she was caught off guard and did not notice that someone was behind her.

The person tapped her on her shoulder. She was surprised by the sudden touch, swiftly took the dagger that she hid and swiped it over at the man's neck.

"Calm down It's me, your master," as he held her hand, stopping his death. Under the moon, the white hair man stared at her.

"JinGe, why are you here?" asked the black robe man.

He rephrased his question and asked her again when she looked at him dumbly, "What are 'you' doing here, my good student?" asked JianYu back at JinGe.

JinGe did not reply him because she knew that he knew about her reason and intentionally asked her about it in order to make her angry.

She stood up and looked behind her, the image of the man and woman had slowly begun to fade away, leaving the plum blossom forest behind.

JianYu walked closer to her and said to her, "What did you see?" he asked her casually while holding his fan in his hand.

"A couple," she told him truthfully.

"You and your lover?" he asked again.

"No, someone else. Someone who I do not know and haven't seen before," said JinGe.

"Strange, the forest should reflect your heart. It would not show something that you would not know about," stated JianYu.

"Then maybe the person, who made up the spell, did not set it up as it should, and it malfunctions?"

When JianYu heard her say those words, gave her a disappointed look as if she had said something wrong and began to shake his head and making 'tsk, tsk' sound at her.

"What's wrong?" asked JinGe who knew all about his personality. Whenever he said something like that to her, it would usually mean that she had done or said something stupid or wrong.

He looked at her disappointedly, "Do not tell others that you are my student. It would prove to be shameful to have receive and recognize you as my disciple."

"Why? What did I do wrong this time?" she asked him again.

When the both of them aren't feeling sad or nostalgic their relationship are actually very good.

"This-," as he pointed all around them, "is not a spell. It's caused by the Qi that accumulated in the place. Normally it would not become like this but due to the condensation it began to take shape on its own and due to the fact that it didn't happen naturally, the Qi took shape of the person's dearest place. Maybe the person has a fond or deep memory connected to the forest, that's why it is reflected in the form of a plum blossom forest."

JinGe nodded as she finally understood about the supernatural phenomenon that is happening around them. "But why the images?" asked the curious JinGe as his explanation only told her about the forest, not the images she saw just now about the couple.

"As I said normal Qi doesn't possess such abnormalities. It is due to the condensation of it that made all this. A normal human who entered here, would not see the images but due to your powers, they have gotten more even more irregular."

JinGe nodded again but then another question appeared in her mind, "But I did not release any of them. I mean my powers, I did not release even an ounce of it," said JinGe who was not aware of the bright blue flower pattern on her forehead and how her eyes had turned bluish.

Even through the translucent shawl any person who was next to her could tell that she had blue eyes.

"If you did not, how did I found you," said JianYu. "Anyway, where are we now? You must leave quickly-" with a very serious tone of voice, one that almost resemble a command.

There was a tingling sensation that was felt across his body. It was screaming danger at JianYu.

"No," said JinGe out loud, still haven't realized the gravity of her situation and also thought that what JianYu meant was for her to leave the camp.

"You must leave here quickly," said JianYu again. "T-"

Before he could utter another word, someone came out from a corner, wearing a white robe adorned with gold leaves. He was wearing a mask over his face with plum blossoms etched over at the left.

Whether he was ugly or was he handsome, she doesn't know but she was certain that when their eyes met, she could feel the man's hunger for power and also a certain fear which he projected onto her making her fear him with all her body through her skin, her bones as if with one glance he could see through her.

"My, my, I did not know that a guest would be visiting today. Someone I have been searching for," said the masked man as he looked at JinGe which gave her a shiver even though there was a shawl hiding her face.

"Master, who is he? Where are we?" asked JinGe to her master.

"We are in danger. Run."

"You will never be able to escape from me," shouted the masked man loudly so that JinGe wouldn't be able to miss it and then he laughed, big burst of laughter which vibrated in the air.

JinGe disregarded his words and turned away, running as her master ordered.

However, he leaped and jumped past JianYu with an incredible speed which JianYu could not even react to it and grabbed onto her hand. He was like a nightmare chasing after her, she was so scared. So truly afraid but her mind was suddenly propelled back to the real world.

It seems like what she saw just now was an illusion, everything that had happened were just a fantasy. The plum blossom forest disappeared in front of her eyes, and she was actually standing there in the hallway which she had tried to turn before.

But even though, the hallucination had disappeared but the sensation of a person grabbing onto her arm was still as real as real could be.

She did not dare to turn around to face the person; maybe he was there, holding onto her. But then a childlike voice was heard. The person who grabbed onto her seems like a child as she felt his small slender finger on her wrist and he said to her in his clear and sweet voice, "Follow me," and he lets go of her.

JinGe was still nervous, and her hands were icy cold, but she has to calm down. She is not there; she is here, with this child. "Think calmly, regain your composure," thought JinGe.

Normally, lower ranking white clothes never talk. They only follow orders from the higher ups such as this person yet the strangest thing about this child is how he is giving her orders.

She had seen how the higher ups ordered the lower rankings, they only need to utter one word and they will follow but this person instead of 'follow' he said, 'follow me'. Maybe because he was still a small child that he doesn't know?

Maybe it was a mistake or an intentional test for her, so she only turned around and looked at the boy but did not move an inch and stood there dumbly as he walked away.

He stopped and turned around and scolded her, "You are really stupid."

Then his expression changed again, maybe because he knew that it was useless to get mad at the white clothes as they held no emotion while being controlled, thus he got frustrated instead.

She really wanted to laugh at the boy, but she must act her part or else her identity will be known so she tried her best to keep a straight face yet somehow, a tinkle of laughter escaped from her and was overheard by him.

He looked up at her but seeing that there was not any abnormality, he gave up, "I am getting delusional. Anyway-" He seems unable to give a correct instruction and said, "Argghh screw it."

The boy gave up, held her hand and dragged her away with him. She had no idea where she was going but being in character; she did not dare to disobey and just followed him meekly.

Even though, there were moving very fast but not one person stopped them. "It seems that this person seems to hold a lot of authority," thought JinGe to herself as they sprinted across corridors. Although, this place is said to be a camp, but it looks more like a mansion instead and there is also a barrier set up on the place, hiding it from view. How long has it taken for her to find this place; if she hadn't chance upon it when she was running through the forest to meet up with troupe.

The barrier was strong, according to the knowledge taught to her by JianYu, the barrier had at least three layers and was strengthened every fifteen days to keep it functioning.

The person who set it up or the person who maintained it would possess power stronger than her and maybe even JianYu combine together.

They arrived at a small pavilion.

JinGe was dragged to sit with him. They did not do anything, they just sat there, and the boy just stared at her. She thought that he knew about her as the boy took something from his pocket and she too, was ready to kill as her hand reached for the dagger in her sleeve.

Even if he is still a child, she would not treat him any different. In this place, she might lose her own life at any moment, it's a dog-eat-dog type of world.

However, what he took out was a flute, not a dagger. "Listen to me," he told her, giving the wrong instructions again. "It's been so long since I have played the flute," said the boy as he fumbled with the bamboo flute.

"It seems that the boy had carved it from the surrounding bamboo," thought JinGe. "Maybe it would still sound good," as she looked at the poorly crafted attempt.

But in reality, it seems that the fault lies with the boy rather than the flute as the boy appeared to be tone deaf, because he could not play any tune normally. It sounded like he was trying to torture her in a whole different way.

Yet, as she looked upon his face, the boy seems to be enjoying himself. He was cheerful, innocent, and honest. Even though, she is a puppet right now, the youth treated her just like a normal human being which she found comforting knowing that a person like this exist in a place like this.

After a while he seems to have figured out that he could not play the flute and annoyed threw the thing onto the ground. "I can't-" he stopped for a while before finishing the whole sentence, "Play.... it."

To her it sounded like an instruction, and in the mood as well, she stood up and went towards the flute and picked it up from the floor and played the flute for him, a simple folk song.

The music circled around him, and he was surprised by her. He had never thought that a puppet like her would be able to play the flute that he could not play so well. It was pleasing to his ears, and he closed his eyes to savour the music played by the girl.

Suddenly, someone said, 'Stop' to JinGe and she obeyed the individual orders and stopped playing the flute. When she looked at him, it seems to be another white cloth man, but he seems to be a high ranking official as there was a plum blossom on the corner.

"Master Cai, it's time for the meeting," said the man emotionlessly.

"LuLing, why are you making me go to the boring meeting. It doesn't even concern me," said the boy. "And I just find myself to cure me of my boredom in this place."

"But-" before LuLing could finish, CaiXia, said to the man, "I want this puppet."

"No," said LuLing firmly. "They are not toys, for you to play with."

"Then I would not go," said the young boy.

"The Elder wanted to see you," said the man again without a hint of emotion.

The mention of the word 'Elder' quickly made CaiXia obeyed the white clothes man's words and he said, "Fine, fine. I will go now." The boy stood up from his seat and wanted to leave with the man when he suddenly turned back and looked at JinGe. "Go. Fetch tea," he said to her.

JinGe followed his directions and leave towards the kitchen area in the mansion while the boy walked with the man known as LuLing to the meeting area.

"Where is it? The meeting place," thought JinGe as she still had a problem of grasping the whole layout of the mansion while carrying a tray of tea.

The boy had given her the perfect disguise to enter and listened to their conversation without raising any suspicions, maybe she could get a lot of information through this meeting.

JinGe was slightly lost but luck willed it and she found the place. However, when she arrived the people inside the room, seems to be in a heated argument, arguing among themselves.

JinGe didn't dare to enter and stood at the empty corridor next to the room and listened to their discussion.

"Xu Ji, what do you think? Am I right or am I wrong?" said a large able-bodied man as she overheard the man's voice inside bickering.

The woman mentioned by the burly man did not agree nor did she disagreed and said, "FangXiong have a job and he had one too."

"But I could do a better job than him," argued Brother Fang.

"He is already doing a fine job," said Xu Ji. "There haven't been any problems when he took over the job."

"But his way of doing things is too slow. The collection will not be finished on time until the gate opened again," disagreed Brother Fang.

"The job is decided by the Elder. We can't change it without his direct permission," said XuJi who was also getting a little impatient by the argument. JinGe could tell it through the slightly annoyance in the woman's voice.

"LuLing, you are in charge too," said Brother Fang. "You have the Elder's authority."

"We are the Elder's right and left hand. We are equal in power," said the white cloth man. Although, JinGe could not see his face, but she could tell from the tone of his voice that he was displeased with the conversation and where it is heading.

JinGe could not see the person as she only had a limited sight from where she stood while Brother Fang continued to arguing with the person. It was strange, that although the man continued scolding him, the person never said another word. In the corner of her eye, JinGe could see that CaiXia was yawning at the side.

This continued for a little while longer until it seems the individual had had enough and he slammed his hand on the table, quieting everyone in the room and stormed off the room, leaving the others dumbfounded. Seeing that the person was coming out and would find her standing there, making her seemed suspicious. The girl hurried to the door, making it seem like she was just coming into the room.

The person almost bumped into JinGe, as they nearly collided into each other. It was then that JinGe saw the person in the room, it had been YongSan.

"Luckily he did not notice me," thought JinGe as she entered the room while YongSan left.

She took a step and walk along the side of the room while they were still busy arguing, that JinGe's presence in the room goes unnoticed. She was like air to them except maybe CaiXia who was smiling in her direction.

Maybe owning her really made him happy. She was not sure and continuing like how she was supposed to, standing there with the tray in her hands as she stood next to the youth.

"Serve tea," he told her, and she began placing the cup and pouring the tea into the empty cups while listening attentively to their conversation. The first person she poured it to, was the white clothes man, LuLing.

"That man, who does he think he is," said FangXiong to another person sitting on his right, who seems to agree with the statement. Although, the room was not large, it could fit six to seven people cozily.

XuJi was sitting in the center with Brother Fang at her side. And there was an empty seat next to her, presumably to be YongSan's. Next to the empty seat sat LuLing with another young man at his side while CaiXia sat opposite next to the burly man.

"If the Elder hadn't picked him up from the streets, he would have long been dead," continued the man. JinGe felt that he was getting to the point which he might explode any moment.

"FangXiong," said XuJi, trying to calm him. "The Elder trust him, so you should too."

At the mention of the word 'trust', made the muscular man, popped a vein. He had reached his limit. His anger needed a place to be exploded and he took the nearest reachable outlet which was JinGe.

The man took her by the neck and tried to strangle her.

JinGe tried to resist the man, but it was no use, she was too weak in comparison to his immense strength. Under the shawl, JinGe looked at the others. None of them offered to help her at all.

In this place, white clothes or the puppets are treated lower than dogs and the mercenaries because at least the mercenaries were under YongSan's protection. There was none for the puppets.

"Do it less violently," said XuJi. "I don't like it if the blood or whatever splattered. Makes a mess of the place."

"Stop it," said LuLing coldly.

"You can just make more," said FangXiong.

"It takes time," replied LuLing as he sipped his tea.

It was lucky that CaiXia took a liking to JinGe, or else he might not have JinGe. "FangXiong, let him go," said the young boy as he tried to stop the man.

"How could you trust him? He is a human unlike us from the realm. What we are telling him to do is like making him kill his own kind. I am just worried that he would turn on us for the benefit of his own kind," replied FangXiong as he used even more strength as his anger rose.

"But the boy is someone raised by the Elder himself," said Xu Ji as she grabbed onto the man's arm too, trying to make him return to his seat but the man pushed her hands away and said to everyone in the room, in a loud booming voice as if scared that they would not be able to hear him, "Mark my words. Even dogs would bite the hands that feed it."

As soon as he finished what he wanted to say, the man lets go of JinGe, threw his cup onto the ground, and stormed off into the distance.

JinGe was catching her breath at the side but only for a while because she scared that the very act would expose her and gingerly stands again using the wall to support herself.

However, the surprised hadn't ended yet.

Suddenly, a man who had a white robe with beautiful chrysanthemums sewed on it, entered the room and all the others were a little bit surprised.

Everyone stood on their legs as the man arrived. JinGe could not see his face as the man himself had a mask on him. It was the exact same mask which the man who fought JianYu wore.

JinGe was feeling terrified at the thought that the person might recognized her. "Is he coming for me?" thought JinGe who did not even dare to look at him.

Despite her initial plan, JinGe have ventured again to the enemy camp. Acting alone, do you think she is foolish? 

There are more new characters in this chapter. Do check out Chapter: Characters (the last chapter in this book) if you have forgotten the characters. You can forget characters but do not forget to vote. 谢谢.