THE VILLAIN's APPRENTICE ✔

04 🗡 Strange World

The cars zoomed on the road, some blaring their horns. The traffic light blinked and began its countdown as pedestrians hurriedly crossed the street. Darkness fell and the lights in various establishments were switched on. Even at night, the city was surprisingly alive.

The loud noise and strange sights made Meili's head spin. She had been roaming around with no clear destination. Her stomach was grumbling in hunger and her muscles were aching, but she couldn't use her power since her qi was already consumed in hiding Dana's body to the 'boundless realm' – a realm that exists between the world of the living and the dead.

If she used any more of her qi, Dana's body would be expelled from the realm, and she didn't want that to happen. Blending in to this strange world was her priority until she could find a way to go back to her own world.

In the end, she traced her steps back to the library and sat stiffly in a corner table. Meili couldn't understand how and why she was pulled into this world.

Warned by her apprentice that the people of Yellow Dirt City enlisted the help of Flaming Rock sect to execute her, she decided to leave the manor and hide. Flaming Rock sect was known for their ruthless ways of slaying witches and other dark arts practitioners, and their sect held a number of skillful 'awakened' masters. It would be foolish of her to confront them by herself.

Her plan was to ask the help of her sworn sister whose location was unknown to her. To communicate with her without alerting the enemies, she could only pass a message by forming a communication link with her through water during a full moon. Hence, she hid at the Temple of Evening Sky located at the deserted part of the mountain and waited.

Water linking was the medium of communication between a dark arts practitioner and another person she formed a link with. It could normally be done any day, but the risk of the enemies finding out about it would be higher. Doing it in a full moon when their dark power was at its highest would be safer.

When the full moon finally arrived, Meili stood by the pond in front of the temple and began the ritual of water linking. But before Meili could finish her yin gestures, a beam of light appeared on the water that reached the sky.

In a blink of an eye, the light exploded in a wide circle, engulfing her. Then, when her consciousness came back, she was already in this world. Was this the deity of the pond's doing? But she didn't feel any divine being residing in the pond.

Bringing her gaze outside the library's window, she couldn't help but notice that she almost couldn't see the night sky due to the tall structures obscuring the view. Back in Chun Empire, no matter which sect a person belonged to, almost everyone enjoyed staring at the moon and the stars.

What a pity that the dwellers of this world would rather look at the small, rectangular light-emitting object (a.n. cellphone) on their hands instead of marveling the sky, she thought.

"Excuse me," a young, good-looking guy with a kind face who seemed to be seventeen or eighteen years old wearing blue jacket over white inner clothes coupled with black pants approached her. "Can we share this table? All the books I need are in this section and there are no vacant tables anymore. I just need to finish my paper quickly before my part-time work shift starts."

There was an awkward silence as Meili stared at the young guy cautiously. As much as possible, she wanted to have minimal contact, or none at all, with the residents of this world. With what she witnessed while roaming outside, these people might be practitioners of a secret, powerful art that was more advanced than Chun Empire's. If they were to find out that she did not belong in this strange world, what would they do to her?