1314: A Thousand Peonies Bloom
Light and Shadow

We are two different

But it comes from the same one

Which path you choose from both

Only you yourself can answer it

Since childhood, he always hoped that his life would be happy. Dancing in flower gardens, swinging in parks, eating gulalis, and chatting with family. Living a calming life filled with light. If everyone had it, in this world there would be no such thing as evil.

However, whatever happens is also the destiny of the Almighty. Some live bathed in light, some live in the darkness of the shadows.

War, poverty, divorce, loss, sacrifice, vengeance are the shadows of a glittering fun life.

Crimes that often arise become one of the reasons for them to survive. Even if the road is wrong, and full of risks. If many hearts care to embrace, they will surely return to the path of light they should have.

Although many gendala arals appeared, the journey of Shuwan, Jiao, and Zhang still had to continue until the end.

The sound of horse footsteps echoed amidst the dense wilderness, until the black-robed and masked man blocked the break of silence.

Jiao and Zhang, who were controlling the horse, stopped the horse's steps suddenly, causing Shuwan, who had been on his way, to lean on Zhang's back and fall back to the ground.

“Aduh.!” Shouted Shuwan who fell from the horse.

“Hey, Zhang stupid! Do not stop the horse suddenly like this if you are tired. Look, I fell like this!”

“What are your eyes blind? Look ahead there!” Zhang said to Shuwan.

Shuwan immediately looked ahead, and found a black-robed, masked man blocking their path. Until Shuwan was a little upset because the man became because he fell from his horse.

Shuwan cursed the man, “Hei, Sir dressed all in black! Whatdoyouwant? Why block our path? Because of you I fell like this!”

Shuwan's question has not been answered by the mysterious man, but suddenly appears the men's subordinates carrying sharp weapons with looks that seem ready to pounce on anyone in front of him.

“It is better to give up the horse and also the treasure you have if you want to survive from here. If you refuse, I have no choice but to finish your lives!” Said the black-robed man.

Jiao replied, “We refused! On what basis should we submit to your words?”

The black-robed man laughed, saying, “We are the criminals and murderers who rule this place. If you reject my words, then your lives are in my grasp!”

The initial attack is launched by the assassins, Zhang confronts the mysterious man, while Shuwan and Jiao confront their subordinates.

Zhang fought fiercely against the black-robed man. He then asked, “Who are you really?”

“Don't I tell you from the beginning that I'm a murderer. Why are you still asking for my identity?”

“Now, I feel that you really don't want to do this,” Zhang saw the difference in the look on the man's face, but the man still denied what Zhang said.

“Know what you are! We don't know each other, how could you know so much about my life!”

“I always believe what my heart says,” Zhang smiled at the man.

However, a different reaction was actually shown by the cloaked man, he bluffed by saying, “Your mouth turned out to be very talkative huh?”

The man again attacked Zhang with his sword. Zhang who also has martial arts can avoid his attacks.

“I will not strike you back, nor hurt you. Because I know, you did all this because you had to. Everything can be clearly seen from the look in your eyes,” Zhang said after observing the man who attacked him.

The annoyed Shuwan immediately attacked the man's subordinates to a pulp. So did Jiao, who had finished her fight.

There was doubt on the face of the man named Yu Hao, he was just speechless. He spoke again, “People like us can only survive this way. Unlike you who live with wealth, power, and happiness. People like you can understand what we are about?”

“Do you think people who look full of light are always happy? Sometimes he who is currently glowing was also a person who drowned in the dark shadows. Losing a family, and restarting everything from scratch again. Do you think everything looks so easy?”

Zhang's face looked red and his face looked sad. He recalled his dark life, his family members burned to death, along with the treasures he had.

The difficult life he went through afterwards, the pain of the loss and the illness he suffered, all mixed into one to make his emotions almost uncontrollable.

Yu Hao was only speechless looking at Zhang with a blank look. Zhang then resumed his words, “We all must have a dark life each, no matter how he must have a dark side of his life. I understand that, I understand that. Suffering and pain, we all must have felt it. No matter big, or small, it still feels so painful.”

Jiao, Shuwan, and the subordinates of Yu Hao were just staring from where they stood at the moment.

Shuwan said, Zhang, I don't know much about you. Your feelings turned out so deep. Very contrary to his messiness all this time. Now I feel like he's just like me.

“Hei, Yu Hao! Quickly finish him!” Shouted one of the subordinates who had already lost the fight.

Again Yu Hao fell silent and ignored the words of his evil partner. Until he dropped his sword which made his comrades, Shuwan and Jiao surprised.

Yu Hao then said, “Can I trust you guys?”

It seemed like the words Zhang spoke managed to affect his heart as well as his mind. Inner Shuwan.

Zhang looked at Yu Hao with a bright face. He smiled then nodded, confirming Yu Hao's question.

Shuwan is back. You finally managed to tear someone else down without having to hurt him. Congratulations, Zhang. It's a good move.

One of the battered subordinates then shouted at Yu Hao, “What are you doing? Are you going to just let them go?”

With a firm face Yu Hao replied to him, “Then why would I let them go? I'm tired of all this! Can't I choose my own path?”

The men Shuwan and Jiao defeated stood up, one of them saying, “We will report this to the chief, that you have betrayed! Listen to this carefully, Yu Hao. One day you will regret it!”

They also ran away from the place where their defeat had been.

Yu Hao only fell silent lethargic after those people left. “Maybe someday I will regret it,” he said.

Zhang approached Yu Hao and patted his shoulder while saying, “You don't have to regret it. It's time you chose the path you wanted. Listen to your heart. After all, unsheathing the sword on an innocent person like you have done before is also the wrong path.”

“I've taken many lives, will my sins be forgiven?”

“There is always a second chance for people who want to change, Yu Hao,”. “Some time ago I was also a criminal, until Shuwan and Zhang arrived and my life began to change. Then, I finally decided to follow them.”

Shuwan enters the conversation, “If you want, you can come with us on this trip.”

“Can I really?” Ask Yu Hao.

Shuwan, Jiao, and Zhang nodded with smiles. Yu Hao also smiled with tears suddenly flowing down his cheeks.

“Thank you,” said Yu Hao. “I want to start a new sheet of my life,”.

Yu Hao eventually agrees to follow Shuwan, Jiao, and Zhang as he sees that they and this journey could change his life story. A new story of this journey has been waiting to sail soon.