Those Hūna brutes had been stricken dumb. They pillaged, they raped, they tortured, they killed. However, never had they seen a woman, a Hua woman at that, calmly coming out of a tent after having been stripped naked. Her spine straight, her chin kicked up high, her eyes glistening with contempt, she treaded forward. They took a step back as if they had seen an evil spirit.

Deep laughter broke through the reigning silence. Right in front of her was he. Seated on a stool at the head of this little congregation, wiping the blade of his sword clean. The man whose eyes were like mother-of-pearl. Heyan Yu. She advanced towards him with all the confidence in the world. As if she were not about to be violated by a group of sordid barbarians. As if she were still the grand Noble Imperial Consort Huihuang. He observed her with those eyes she admired jealously. His smile was as full of contempt as was her posture.

When she finally came to him, the expanse of her white skin blocking anything else from his view, he lifted his head. His voice was deep and reverberated through her whole body.

“What does the beauty want from this humble one?”

That is when her palm made contact with his face. Igniting a fire that would not be extinguished in their lifetimes.

Stupidity deserved punishment. Heyan Yu truly was young. So young he had fallen into Ah-Li’s more than obvious trap. But she would set everything to right.

His face contorted in shocked anger as his men let a horrified gasp escape them. Everyone who was the least familiar with his character would have known at that moment that blood would flow. But that Hua wretch simply turned around, her jet black hair twisting about her calves, and asked in a sing-song voice:

“Well, who wishes to go first?”