faraway wanderers/Word Of Honor [ Oneshots ] -Wenzhou-

Arc One - Reveled

Wen Kexing tightened his grip on the neck, as if he wanted to snap his clavicle.
Zhang Chengling gathered all his strength and yelled, "SENIOR STOP, IT'S SHIFU!"

Wen Kexing relaxed his grip on the neck after hearing his voice. Zhou Zishu began coughing in an uneven manner.

Wen Kexing soon felt a surge of hatred, as if he wanted to kill the person in front of him. he tried to calm himself and threw him on the ground and looked at him viciously.

"What did you do to him?"

Zhou Zishu was taken aback. "What are you on about?"

Wen Kexing shook his head and looked at him with disgust.
"You really think you can fool me, Mei?"

Zhang Chengling froze when he heard this. He shifted his gaze away from Wen Kexing to see the man sitting quietly and staring at the ground, as if he had nothing to say.

Wen Kexing snarled, "How? How did you persuade the grave diggers? They dug a grave for you! they stole books for you, just how did you convince them?"

"Convince?" She smirked and looked at him, saying, "I didn't convince them, senior; it was greed; they were just chain snatchers who came to this village for festival; at our tavern I saw them," she scoffed. "I told them about the story, and just like that, they went to dig the grave."

"How did you get your hands on Madam Jiayi's books?"

"I worked at the village master's house and made a duplicate of the book and replaced it; he's too dumb to notice."

"Why...just why did you do all of this!"

"Why?" She paused for a moment and began to giggle.

"My uncle murdered my father for Tavern when I was only three years old. My father owned that tavern! It was all ours. He murdered him, and when my mother refused to give him a stake in our business, he murdered her as well! and kept me as their slave; they did not provide me with proper food or clothing.
Even the villagers knew what a jerk my uncle is; they saw how they treated me and beat me but said nothing. Don't they deserve to die? They all pretend to be good, but inside they are all rotten"

She paused, and her rage lessened as she added, "But that day everything changed."

A faint smile appeared as she remembered, "That day I was so tired, my whole body was hurting, but still they made me carry those heavy logs." She raised her head to see Wen Kexing, "When I fell on the ground, I saw you senior, how you caught all those logs; you asked me if I was hurt; it was you...."

Wen Kexing had had enough of her nonsense and interrupted her in mid-sentence. "What exactly did you do to him?"

She clenched her fists in rage. "Why do you care about him? He doesn't treat you both fairly! Didn't he scold you at the tavern?" She asked Zhang chengling.
"Didn't he hit you on the way to the lake, Senior? He doesn't give a damn about you!..... I promise I'll look after you."

"What did you do to my shifu?"

She yelled, "He's no longer alive! I struck a deal with Madame Liu. I told her to take my body, where she can pretend to be Mei and live her life, and transfer my soul to his body." She turned to face Wen Kexing. "It's his body, Senior. Can't you just love me as much as you love him?"

"SHUT UP!" His head was throbbing like someone was hammering a nail inside; he held it and said in a low voice, "What do you take me for? I won't do anything?" Then he looked at Mei and said, "You are still breathing because you are in his body."
His demeanour drastically changed, like he was returning to the darkness where he came from.

He continued, "I'm going to drag that Liu and you to Ghost Valley, torture you, rip your filthy soul apart from his body, and make that damn Liu return him. I've spent my entire life in the darkness; I'll crush your soul to the point where you'll never be able to return to life again."

With that, he turned to leave, saying, "Keep an eye on her."

She just stared at him silently before beginning to mumble, "Why... why am I unable to find love? My parents died, whenever I tried to be a good girl my aunt beat me, not a single villager came forward to help me, and now that I've fallen for you, you want to abandon me, drag me to the ghost valley, rip my soul, and scatter it."

"WEN KEXING! YOU WILL ALSO ROT IN HELL." She immediately drew a dagger from the robe and slashed her throat.

Before he could act, he watched Zhou Zishu's body fall to the ground.

"SHIFU!" Zhang Chengling yelled as he approached, "No, no, please, shifu." He tried to stop the bleeding by covering the cut on the neck with his hands, but he failed miserably.

A low voice called out to him, "Zhang Chengling," and he turned around to see Wen Kexing sitting on the ground.
"Go to Nanjiang and tell Lord Seven everything. He'll accept you as his disciple."

Zhang Chengling understood why Wen Kexing was saying this. His only reason for living was Zhou Zishu, and without him, his senior would prefer to obliterate his existence as well.

But what about him? How can he go on with his life after going through the same agony he did when he lost his family? He had no one to rely on until Zhou Zishu accepted him as a disciple, and now the person who provided him with warmth and love has left. For a while, he couldn't speak and just stared at Zhou Zishu.

He turned to face Wen Kexing, who was whispering something. He gulped and said, "Sen-."

"He died right in front of me."

"Senior"

Tears welled up in his eyes as he cried, "I told him I'd protect him!"

"Senior!"

"Today.... I promised you today that I would protect you." With this he broke down.

Zhang Chengling held his shoulder and said, "Get a hold of yourself, senior; Shifu doesn't have his sword with him."

Zhou Zishu's sword was the last remembrance given by his master; it did not have a solid form to it; it was more like a whip, which he tied around his waist. It was impossible for a normal human to notice. such an important thing, he wouldn't lose it like that.

Wen Kexing was not in a mental state to understand what he was trying to say; he was just staring at Zhang Chengling, who went near Zhou Zishu, and thought, 'Shifu wouldn't lose his sword; his body does not show any evidence that he had engaged himself in a fight, and why would someone take away his sword?'

He gulped when he saw the cut on Zhou Zishu's neck and reached out to touch it. He paused for a second before grabbing Zhou Zishu's face and ripping it apart, revealing the visage of a man in his late 30s.

Wen Kexing saw everything; his eyes widened and he dashed towards the dead body, saying, "Human skin mask."

________________________

Some become evil because of circumstances.
And some are so fascinated by the darkness, that it consumes them.

I will be back with a new chapter soon till then take care ✨