Absolute Double Power
Verse-14

Xi Xia tried to recall the breathing exercises he learned years ago, which could help release tension and anxiety.

You have to breathe in very slowly, hold it for a full six seconds, then exhale it slowly! he said to himself.

He could not tell where his stepmother and sisters were now, how far away were they from me? he wondered in his heart. Have they been dragged away? Xi Xia could no longer hear their voices, nor sense their presence.

Is it possible for all of us to be immersed in this terrible silence, losing each other, without daring to send a signal?

Is that all it takes?

They were in one group just a moment before and now they were isolated, blind, each curled up in a frozen solitude.

Xi Xia had no idea how long it had passed. He could hear drizzling on the leaves of the trees, footsteps, more sounds he could not recognize, like metal clanking about something here and there.

Slowly the girl began to breathe normally again, she no longer felt like she had cotton in her nose.

Footsteps approached him. That rough and brutal grip again. Xi Xia felt the hands swaying her waist, the pocket of her dress, turning her body left and right like an item, while pushing something sharp onto the girl's back.

The hand took his money bag. They touched the girl with an impatient and dangerous touch. They also forcibly opened her bracelet, clamping down on Xi Xia's wrist, trying to snatch away her silver ring that was too tight and unwilling to break. They may need olive oil if they really want it.

That person seemed determined to take everything away from Xi Xia, and was unwilling to let go of the girl's finger until he succeeded by twisting her to and fro.

Then the hand grabbed Xi Xia's hair and pulled it, fumbling around his neck, looking for necklaces and earrings. His hands were really rough and stinky. His touch made the noble girl feel disgusted.

Then managed to snatch his mother's gold necklace. Xi Xia had been wearing the necklace since the day of her birth mother's death without ever letting go. It had been ten years that the necklace was on his neck.

The girl really wanted to cry now.

"I hate you guys," Xi Xia spoke without a voice. "I hate you, motherfucker. You don't have to do this to us."

The dark silence has come down.

More than silence, the absence of life, as if one had just turned off the background hum of insects, birds, and plants and silenced the breath of nature.

In that terrifying void a metallic clash came back crackling aloud. Then the sound of screeching.

A distant, isolated slash, like a single instrument.

Then a rustling sound, a noisily around Xi Xia.

The girl heard footsteps being dragged on the ground as if they were being forcefully pulled and she felt fear at the footsteps.

They're taking everyone away, now. One by one. Maybe they died, he thought.

Shortly afterwards, there was another sound of slashing.

There was no scream. There's no fight.

A crow darted and roared over their heads, the only quick movement amid absolute silence.

There was another whipping sound.

Why didn't anyone react, or at least try to figure out what happened to the others? thought Xi Xia.

Why does no one call the other name?

I don't want them to die, no matter what happens to them. They're my family! wail Xi Xia in his heart.

But they follow passively.

Each person was covered in his own black sack, all space references, all orientations, were gone. Now all are just victims awaiting execution.

There were sharp blisters in the distance.

Is someone pointing his sword at my head, preparing to behead me if I move or even call out another name? thought Xi Xia.

They pulled her like a pile of cloth and pushed the girl forward.

Xi Xia tripped over the bushes, on the uneven ground, rough hands pushing his back. He could hear the heavy breathing of the people pushing him.

Then the hands pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him down again.

Xi Xia fell to his knees on the wet grass.

Those hands snatched his arms and crossed them behind Xi Xia's head.

Here I am, she thought sad. Kneeling with my hands crossed behind my head, waiting for the slash of a sword that I could not even see approaching. Like animals in a slaughterhouse!

This is how a person dies, on a cold and dark night like any other. No voice calls your name, not even another human being. Your head was put in a sack, alone. And you don't even know why this happened to you.

Memory and shadows mixed.

One day he was still in his carriage. And in the next moment he was already on the ground with a sword in his head.

Panic closed Xi Xia's throat. Now the metallic sense of death.

It's as simple as that, and the same for all of them. I thought I knew, he thought. But now I really know.

There was another screeching sound, this time so close above his head. Then a thumping sound by his side.

Xi Xia felt those hands untie the sack ties.

Beheaded, inevitably that was what came to his mind.

Someone pulled the sack from his face. And Xi Xia saw a white-robed middle-aged man covered in a black coat with a hood. Although the same black clothes were different from the horde earlier.

The man placed his hand on Xi Xia's shoulder and leaned his body towards the girl with a gentle smile.

"Everything okay? You okay?" He whispered.

Xi Xia nodded doubtfully.

The man smiled and spoke softly so that he could not be heard.

The man gave a cloth pouch containing Xi Xia's ring, bracelet and necklace. "Thank you," Xi Xia said in a choked voice.

And as he looked around, a number of men in mysterious ninja uniforms who had attacked them were scattered around him.

Nonliving.

Some of the guards were covered in blood—also lifeless, among the corpses of the robbers.

The stepmother and her sisters stood in groups sobbing and hugged each other near the front of the train, while the guards and the sais moved there and there with dazed steps and staggered, tidying up the valuables scattered everywhere, trying to get everything back into the carriage while frowning endured the pain here and there.

And before Xi Xia could react, before the girl realized what had happened, the middle-aged man who saved them had already disappeared.

Where did that guy go? xi Xia was surprised. He did not even see the man pull up his body.

"Xi Xia!" the eldest sister rushed towards Xi Xia and scooped up the girl's body while crying, then pulled her up and led her near the carriage, joining the others.

Concubine Yuwen hugged Xi Xia with a trembling body.

"Why didn't Shin Wu pick us up?" the youngest sister sobbed on the other side of Consort Yuwen.

Xi Xia still turned his head to and fro with a sharp looking gaze.

There's no sign the man was still here.