They talk for the entire night. It helps Kyuri stay awake and alert. Kyuri keeps her eyes on Li Jun, Wu Yixing, and the bag. The carriage finally stops. Wu Yixing pulls the curtain of the window and looks out.
"We have arrived," He says to Yoori. "Wait in the carriage. We will be right back."
"We will wait for you." Yoori is somewhat happy. She is impressed by Wu Yixing's kindness. In this era, who will ever spend priceless medicines on a stranger boy? Wu Yixing is a kind man. He's also down to earth. He doesn't look half bad either.
Li Jun gives a glance to Kyuri. Her fingers are curled inward. She doesn't meet his eyes. He smiles faintly and follows Wu Yixing out of the carriage. When Kyuri sees them enter the rural house, she tries to push open the carriage door.
"Kyuri, what are you doing?" Yoori frowns at her. "It's not bad to stay with Lord Wu. I am sure that he will give us jobs if we stay."
"Aunt, we are halfway in our graves. Your lord Wu is the fifth prince. The other man is Li Jun."
Yoori gapes at her. "Kyuri, you are joking. Our luck can't be this bad."
"Our luck is the worst." Kyuri picks up her bag. "We have to break the lock of this carriage. We don't have much time. We have to leave before they come back."
Even if the timekeepers weren't after them, getting entangled with someone from the royal family is the worst. She even badmouthed him right in front of him. Yoori doesn't have time to regret her actions. In a hurry, they jump out of the carriage. Kyuri groans in pain when she collapses on the ground. Yoori helps her stand up. "We can't stop here."
The carriage driver looks at the cause of the loud noise. He sees the two young boys running away from the carriage. He relaxes on his seat. They can't run far. Master's shadow guards are already following the boys.
Li Jun looks around the empty house. "We are late."
Wu Yixing utters wistfully. "Fate cannot be changed."
"Shall we leave now?" Li Jun asks quietly. "We might be able to catch him on the road."
Wu Yixing chuckles. "You are here for the witch only."
They come out of the empty rural house. Wu Yixing stares at the empty carriage. "They ran away."
Li Jun climbs into the carriage. "We don't have time."
Wu Yixing touches one of the beads in his bracelet. "You heard him."
***
We run through the forest. I can't shake off the feeling that something is following us. It's been too easy to run away.
Six masked men in black clothing drop from the sky and surround us. I recognize them from the memories of Li Jun. They are the mysterious masked shadow guards of Wu Yixing. I knew it. It was too easy to run away.
"What the... " Aunt Yoori looks for a weapon and realizes that she doesn't have one. Suddenly, she moves fast. In less than the blink of an eye, she has the keeper's daggers in her hands.
Her secondary abilities?
"Let us go." She has a smile on her face. "If you don't, you won't have a good end."
She reminds me of the time when she was General Yu. It's not easy to live in this era. I can leave this place anytime, but I can't help shaking with fear when I surrounded by people who can kill me in less than a second. She is burned out and unable to travel in time, but she shows no fear or hesitation in her action.
"Drop the weapon." A masked man comes forward. "We don't want to hurt you. Our master is waiting for you."
"Did the keepers send you?" She glances at their weapons. "Do they hire assassins now?"
I lean closer to her and whisper, "They are Wu Yixing's men."
"Tch!"
At that instant, the masked man attacks her with his bare hands. She pushes me back and dodges the attack. I fall back on my arse. I yelp in pain. She throws the dagger at the man approaching me. It hits him right at his throat. I open my mouth in awe. She is amazing.
She doesn't pause for a second. Three masked men approach her with weapons this time. Two of them are moving toward me. I watch her vanish and appear as she slits the throats of two men. By the end, she is gasping for air. I realize that she can't use her secondary abilities for long. She is breathing fast. She has overused her abilities in her burned-out state. Her body is slowing down.
"Leave me." She stands up with the dagger. "Go. You can't fight with them."
Leaving her here like this?
I reach for my bag and take out one of the vials from my bag and throw it on the man coming toward me. Black flames cover his body. I reach for another vial. The fifth shadow stops before me. He clutches my wrist hard. I hear the sound of my bone cracking. The vial drops and cracks. The purple smoke rises out of the broken vial. I don't think and run forward in time. The guard is not lucky.
***
The cracking sound of the vial is loud. The moment slows down. Yoori sees that her niece is no longer standing there. She tries to use the last of her energy to go away from the rising purple smoke. The purple smoke is slowing spreading around. The purple smoke melts away the bag.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
All the glass vials are broken one by one. The purple smoke gradually becomes white.
10 seconds are over. The time resumes its normal pace. The white smoke spreads like wildfire and eats away anything in its way. The fifth guard shrieks in pain as his skin begins to melt. The sixth guard is too slow to move away from the rapidly advancing smoke. It envelops his body in an instant.
Yoori slows down the time again. 10 seconds. She doesn't turn around to look. 1 moment could become the reason for her death. She keeps running with the last of her energy.
In 30 seconds, the entire area is wiped out, leaving a deep cavity. There is nothing left.