Chapter 120 - I Can't Stop Laughing

As soon as the guard dropped, Feng Xuan heard a shout. "Hey!" said the voice. His voice sounded young and nervous. His hands scrambled along the gun's length but Feng Xuan only needed those short seconds. She made a beeline for him, jumping on one foot, arcing her blade in the air before piercing it on the man's chest. Red liquid immediately poured from his mouth as he choked.

Her shattered elbow was crying in pain. But she didn't listen to it. She could not afford to pay attention to it right now. She'll tend to the agonies of her body later. It needed to listen to her that moment.

Feng Xuan smoothly removed the man's gun from him before he fell, disappearing into a corner as she heard other men shouting orders. She braced the gun against her shoulder—she was never fond with using ammunition. At least with a blade and her hands, she knew it was a sure kill.

The sounds grew louder and she crouched down from the corner and started shooting at the men. Their bodies danced before plopping to the ground. She did not know how many there were. She was just getting lucky. Or maybe… they weren't anticipating an attack this early.

She huffed out a breath as she slowly walked, looking at every possible dark nook of the forest. She pressed herself against the wall. The property was bigger than she thought. What was a house doing in the middle of the woods? She needed a door. But the one on the next corner was a window.

She didn't hear anything. No movements. She used the hilt of the gun to bust it open, quickly releasing the latch and swinging herself inside just as a moment later a group of men was jogging in search of her.

Everything in her screamed this was a bad idea. She should just wait in a corner and her father would come for her. But she burned the shack… they knew she was out. Well, then she would have to hide. She was too injured to actually infiltrate this place. Her ribs felt like it was breaking off on its own. There was no way she was going to be able to take this place without dying.

She was about to concede with herself but she heard a cry that made her bolt upwards. "Stop!"

The voice was her mom's. It was as if all the pain in her body slipped off her mind and all she wanted was to get to her. It was a challenge to get up, but what were those years of training for?

She raised the gun to her shoulder. Just a few more dead men and she and her mom were going to go home.

**

It was as if all the men had been sent out in search of her. She was taking cautious steps, looking at each corner, snapping and gun ready to blow. But all she heard was the sound of slapping, more of her mom's cries, and an indecipherable man's voice. She had been dying to get to her but Feng Xuan knew if she rushed it would mess everything up.

Finally at the last corner, she saw the doorway from where weak light was pouring out of the crack. Even her body knew it was trouble that was waiting for her. Her skin felt like it was being pricked by needles.

Her body was not wrong. The moment she was a foot away from the door, it swung open and a man appeared, ready to catch her. She squeezed the trigger but the man already rolled away to the side and then he was raising the gun, making holes on the ceiling. 

Feng Xuan felt a bone-crushing pain on her cheek and she toppled to the ground. He punched her and she almost didn't get up. She swung her feet against the man's leg and he dropped next to her. Her hand flew to her waist and plunged the knife in the man's chest.

Feng Xuan was on her feet just as another man came barreling for her and came for her stomach. She landed on the floor on her back. Warm liquid seeped her pants and she pushed the man on top of her to the side. Oh god, she felt like she actually broke a rib.

She struggled back on her feet, pulling her blade from the man's side and sliced his throat. She wiped the blood off her sleeve and staggered to the room, clutching on her rib.

Finally, she saw her mother, crying and wailing on her knees while a man towered over her, his back on Feng Xuan. "You bitch! What did you do?!" the man was slapping her mom. Her lips were already cut and she had a black eye.

Feng Xuan started running and then she jumped, her legs and arms holding onto the huge man. His arms were ripped with muscles and he was HUGE. Like a tall building. She was aiming for the neck but the man moved and her knife sunk deep to the hilt on the man's back.

He let out a howl of pain and moved furiously that Feng Xuan lost her grip and fell to the floor. Her mother was thrown to the side. Knife still stuck to his back, the man reached her with a huge hand and lifted her off her feet. His eyes widened when he saw her face. She was young. "The one who's killing my men is a kid?!" he laughed. "What a live wire!"

Feng Xuan's feet longed to touch the ground but her fingers were curled against the man's fist on her shirt to avoid herself from choking. His face was huge and his eyes were tiny. His teeth were yellow and his face had a lot of stitches on them. He looked like Frankenstein. 

"You'll make a find addition in our team. I'll cage you up and let you out to put all that energy to use, eh?" he laughed again.

Then Feng Xuan was laughing with him. "Me? Work for you?" she laughed more even though her breaths were short. "You wish," she said and drove the heel of her hand on the man's nose. There were no reactions from him for the bone already hit his brain. He dropped to the ground and Feng Xuan rushed to her mother. 

"Mom… mom!!!" Feng Xuan flipped her mother over and saw that her face was badly beaten. The wound from the crash had not been tended to. "Wake up!!"

But her mother's eyelids did not open. She moved to position her better but her hand came away stained from her head. Blood was running, her chest wasn't rising, neither it was falling.

It was like she was showered with ice-cold water. Her fists pounded on her mother's heart. "No!!! No!!! You can't die! Mom!!"

Suddenly, guns were going off outside and she hugged her mother to her chest. Not really feeling anything. But she felt so broken. Like her own heart had stopped beating. She wanted to die. "We'll be okay," she whispered and caressed her mom's head. "We'll go home."

She was crying, really hard. No, this is not happening, she thought. I came all this way. All too far. She can't die. There has to be a way.

But the blood didn't stop running. Her mother grew paler as gunshots outside continued. She knew it could only be her father.

Funny, wasn't it? She had spent years training herself because she knew one day a situation like this would arise and she wanted to protect her loved ones. But it didn't work.

She looked at her hands, they looked black and the smell of rust hit her nose. Whose blood was it? she chuckled. Was it that mountain of man over there? Was it the men at the corridor? Was it the one from under the tree? Or was it from the idiot at the shack? She didn't know.

Feng Xuan's cries of pain turned to laughter. She tried to purse her lips to stop it from coming, but her body shook with it.

That was how her father found her, on the floor with her dead mother. "Blood is funny. Help me, Father. I can't stop laughing."