Legend of Fei

33. Wo Ai Ni

"Don't wait a single moment after you hear her steps." Xie Yun said to the group around him. He looked them all in the eyes and felt anything but reassured in A'Fei's plan. He did have a backup and a few backups of that backup but that didn't stop him from worrying after A'Fei in the next room. He was leaning by the wall between their room. 

A'Fei next door was by the wall, sitting in meditation, practicing like she usually did. He was at the highest possible alertness in his most conscious mind, able to hear every movement in her clothes or shift in her position. He was at the height of his developed senses. He heard the liquid moving and the cup put back on the table, for his own hearing benefit. A'Fei could be soundless if she wanted but she didn't. It was all for his reassurance.

He heard a faint whisper, "I have taken the last antidote."

He raised his hand and motioned for A'Yan to hurry who placed a cup in his hand. He too gulped it down, noisily for her benefit. This was the first time they had been out of each others sight and it was nerve racking.

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder," he commented and heard her snicker, "keep telling yourself that. I was just getting sick of you sticking around so much."

"You can hear her from the other side of the wall?" Yang Jin intervened with confused surprise and HeCong responded for him, "Of course, all the best martial artists can."

"Brother Xie. When did you get best at martial arts? Did Zhou Fei teach you?" Xie Yun smirked at Yang Jin's interpretation and nodded, "She did. Heroine Zhou is really something."

"You are asking for a beating," he snickered as Zhou Fei declared from the other side of the wall.

"Hey. Zhou Fei, why did you refuse to...." he called loudest, forgetting their plan and Xie Yun covered his mouth hurriedly while A'Yan slapped the back of his head with all her might.

Under A'Yan's glare he looked apologetic and went quiet. Xie Yun heard a faint rustle, not the same as A'Fei shifting or her clothes dragging against the floor. It was a separate rustle, from outside his window. Feng Feng was here. As soon as he turned to the window he heard A'Fei's light steps hit the floor intentionally, she too had heard the movement.

Xie Yun reached the window just as it opened and he was met with a white powder.

"Sleeping drug," he heard HeCong faintly and held his breath but a large amount had already brushed past his face. He was the closest. He couldn't see past it, his vision blurred instantly. He knew more than he heard that A'Fei would be coming to him. Feng Feng had decided to take him out before going for A'Fei.

Wrong move. Even as the corners of his vision darkened, Xie Yun rechanneled his qi and used Cloud palm strike move, intending to hit the person standing right before him, a blur past the white dust.

He heard his friends behind him fall one by one and heard steps around the room. There were more people. His vision was gone and last thing he heard before he lost his senses was the clear sound of metal hacking through flesh. A'Fei. His palm didn't have enough energy, the powder had trapped his qi.

On the other side of the room, A'Fei couldn't see Xie Yun.

As soon as A'Fei kicked down the door and saw the whiteness hanging in the air, she knew it was a drug but she had taken a large amount of antidote against the knockout drug which Xie Yun had only taken in a minimal amount.

The first person she saw wasn't Xie Yun or Feng Feng but a dozen men, all martial artists surrounding HeCong and his hissing bag of snakes. These were White Tiger stooges but looked like those hired by him.

"A'Fei," she heard her sister call further inside. The men rushed to silence the women, swords raised, ready to slice but A'Fei was quicker, she moved between them, taking advantage of their miscoordination and blind spots, slicing through their necks in a clean line, letting them fall behind her like rice sacks.