1

"Finally?" Kilian eyes widen. "Have you ever met anyone before me?”

The lady nods her head.

"Yes. At first, I thought you were Klaus. Then your vibe doesn’t match," she said.

"Different soul, using the same body,” Kilian said, leaning back in his chair. Placing his sword beside him on the table.

The lady summoned a bottle of wine out of nowhere and snapped her fingers, revealing the glass on the table. She poured hers and passed the bottle to Kilian. He looks at her glass being full before pouring only a fourth into his. She took a sip of hers first before he did.

Kilian finished his in one gulp after the first sip. He placed the glass onto the table, not requesting for seconds or seizing the bottle.

“You don’t like wine?”

Kilian shook his head, “I’m more into beer.”

The lady expressed no reaction to his opinion. The table simmered to silence as the two didn’t talk momentarily.

“You a spirit?” Kilian glanced at her, noticing a slight transparent aura, reaching over his hand on the table. Breezy to his hands.

“Technically in between,” she said and tilted her head briefly, slamming to her left side of the table, summoning a stack of paper. Kilian’s eyes focused on the paper and leaned up to the table. The lady pulled three papers from the table and spread each out in front of Kilian on the table, face down.

He picked one up and flipped it, revealing an emblem sketch. “This reminds me of the emblem I saw on the tower’s wall as I headed to my house.”

“One of the three sects. Two others are clans. Much of the town is ruled by these five. They all share territories within and all follow such rules and expect the residents within their regions to follow."

He observed the designs to be all polygon orientated, specifically hexagonal perimeter. The center of the hexagon contained a pattern shaped to represent fire along with a dragon's head within it.

"Where would my house be?"

"None. The neighborhood the house is in is the only free territory."

Kilian's eyebrows raised, “Can you spy or sense outside of this realm?"

The lady sipped more wine as he asked the question. She was about to grab the wine bottle before Kilian stopped her. "Seriously. How do you know Klaus is the first thing I got here?" He looked at the sword. "That voice earlier emitted from the echo. Was that you?"

She was hesitant to answer further, pushing Kilian to ask more questions, making her uncomfortable. Even more unusual the more questions he asked, the sword emits aura from its blade. "I ain’t leaving till I get my answers. I’ve come back alive to find the katana and conical hat hidden under his house floors. Now that you appear, you should answer my questions." He senses his hand while holding the bottle, tingling, and glances over noticing his hand is emitting smoke hot red.

He lets off grasping the bottle but it won't come loose. Kilian looks back at the lady seeing her smirk. Her right hand is gripping on top of the bottle and is not letting go either. He then felt something sharp like a needle puncturing his palm followed by something unbearably hot blowing through the wine bottle.

The wine swirls very fast in the bottle as the heat blows through the drink, creating a liquid funnel.

Kilian saw something coming off her fingers through the dark tint of the wine bottle. Such trouble. This is what you are trying to do. He thought and instinctively he seized his sword and gave a slash through the wine bottle.

The lady's smirk dropped as her mouth opened with eyebrows raised. Her jaw dropped hyperventilating before the shattered wine bottle exploded from Kilian's hand sending both flying to the floor. A wave of wine splattered across multiple directions. The explosion generated the heat in the wine, causing it to evaporate simultaneously splashing onto his face, rashing the side of his head.

As Kilian got up, he was back in his dining room in his house. His fingers tremble as they feel the warm swollen throbbing on the side of his head. "Damn it. What the hell was that for?!" He blurted out loud and saw the table lying across the floor blown to pieces. He observed his right hand, now black as coal with all the fingerprints molted. His fingernails are stained brown. The damage has been done. The conical hat was on the floor adjacent to his feet and picked it back up. I need to know why. Damn it, my hand. Leaving the conical hat on the counter, he went to the kitchen sink with the mirror imprinted on the shelf beside. He sees the swollen red crusty skin along the sides of his forehead. The part of his face grew sore and tender when he twitched.

He looks for ointment creams through the storage closet behind him in the kitchen. Grabbing the petroleum jelly container, he ran back to the sink, tossed the lid, and rubbed the cream on his forehead. “Jeez,” he muttered while observing the mirror, spreading the jelly across the burn wound. It stings but it's cold. He clenched his facial cheeks till he finished rubbing the jelly to his remaining untreated wound. He dipped his finger in the container and rubbed it around his dark right hand one layer over the other.

Closing the container, Kilian put it back in the storage closet. He heads back to the sink and lets his left hand be flooded by the faucet before thrusting the water onto his lower face. Letting it soak, he turns off the faucet heading back to the remaining seat alone with the wreckage, grabbing the conical hat from the kitchen. Kilian returns to his chair, wondering how to get back, he tries on the conical hat again.

Whoosh.

Motion jerked him back to the dark void once more, and Kilian saw the lady lying on the floor on the side.

He walked up to her, withdrawing his sword and pointing the tip at her. As angry as he is, he keeps it to himself "OK now we are at loose ends here. My right hand is scalded from your ludicrous attempt and my forehead,” Kilian said directly at her, revealing his injuries in front of her.

The lady trying to escape his grasp, Kilian thrust his foot over her arm, locking her in place. "You are making this hard for both of us," He said before hovering his blade at her, leaving the tip an inch away from her throat. "Die or not. I'm thrusting this blade if you don't"

"Alright Alright!" She surrendered in defeat. "Can you please get your foot off of me?" Kilian responded by tightening his foot on her. The lady grunts, holding the pain. He shook his head.

“I died around five to six years ago but my soul migrated into the conical hat leaving me here trapped and alone.”

“Do you know the cause?” he asked her while his foot still applied to her arm.

The lady shook her head, “I don’t know myself. What I will say is that before my death, that emblem you saw earlier was the sect I formerly was part of. That one day during training, I was practicing my magic on my opponent and he startled me with an illegal suffocation technique. Nobody in sight came to intervene and rescue me from asphyxiating.”

What in the world? Kilian sighed as he stared at her briefly, and looked away.

“Please! I told you how I at least got here!” she shouted before coughing dry. The foot must have incapacitated her energy to the bare minimum where her face grew pale.

“Then you better be ready to explain,” Kilian said, noticing her pale face and lifting his foot from her arm. The pressure he inflicted on her arm has caused sustainable damage her upper arm is covered in heavy marks from his shoes. She slowly regained her stamina while grabbing her chair and sat down.

“I was desperate for control and wanted to go back out there to seek revenge. There's no other option for me to do other than possess the user who wields the hat," The lady said as she shed tears.

"Oh come on now. If you had said this earlier, this bullcrap wouldn't have occurred." Kilian sheathed his sword at his left waist and walked up to her. "Wake up for once and look at the bigger picture. You'll probably die again or such crap if it’s just you alone." He went to the table's ruins and grabbed the remaining stash of papers, mentioning she could try but best to have him collaborate on the matter.

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Kilian then pulled up his chair and sat in front of her. “That wine. You are trying to subdue me with it. Is that one of the tricks you learn from them?” Kilian asked, curious about her abilities. The lady nodded while focusing on her slumped right arm. She is holding her right shoulder and not wanting to put her eyes up at him.

“What you decide is very important, Klaus gave me his best wishes before he passed, but never said anything other than to find this sword and conical hat. You are trapped in here, I get that, but be more straightforward, and maybe it could work out in the end,” Kilian said while feeling stingy coming from the sword. The energy emitted from the sword while gripping it can be felt by the lady. Same energy as her coming from this blade. He thought and noticed the purple flashing colors from the edge of the hilt and blade.

Is this what he meant by finding the sword and conical hat? Something to do with her. Kilian looked at her slumped.

Internally, the lady’s loss of stamina puts her in a state of depression making situations worrisome when Kilian notices her slumped, leaning on the chair. Shouldn’t have done that… Her mind repeats the phrase constantly unaware Kilian is glancing at her confusingly.

“Uh, Hello?”

The lady was spooked upon immediately realizing she had been stared at. Causing the chair to split, tipping her off the seat. Kilian thrust his leg, holding her from falling to the floor midair. He lowered her down to the floor slowly. “Can’t blame your loneliness for making you this vulnerable after half a decade,” he said bluntly. She rolled off from his leg, slamming him down to the floor, crushing his bottom back. That woman. He laughed it off and sat down on the floor with her. “That feels intentional.”

“Can we just move on from this,” she said and sniffled, prompting Kilian to proceed. “Was this katana also yours since the exact energy I sensed from you is also in here too.”

The lady’s downward expression rises as if bliss has been thrown at her and she focuses on Kilian’s hand removing the sheath placed at his waist, unsheathing the sword, revealing the purple hilt katana. “My katana,” she muttered.

“This was yours?”

She nodded. Her hands reach up closer to the blade. Traces of purple energy flowed between her fingers and the blade as if a bridge connecting. Kilian’s hand held tight on the hilt as he let her inspect the blade.

“Hell’s delight,” she said. The engraved characters flash bright purple. Kilian grunted from the stab-like feeling coming to his knuckles. Refusing to let go of the hilt, traces of bright purple mist generated from the engravings flew upward before speeding right to his bones.

Kilian went to his side, nudging the lady out of the way, barely missing her, striking the sword through the floor. His right hand refused to let go and cracked, vibrating his entire arm. He tightly gripped his right forearm and stood himself up quickly, turning to the lady. “What the hell did you do?”

“To use the katana properly, you need the qi of the blade to be implemented into you,” she said while pointing to the purple energy heading into his knuckles, flowing up to his upper arm.

“Qi?” he asked. His hand suddenly lets go. The lady’s eyes glazed upon seeing his right hand let go of the hilt. Kilian glanced over his hands seeing his veins around his hand and a portion of his lower forearm turned purple.

“Right, I forgot,” she muttered. Feeling better out of nowhere, to Kilian’s surprise, she stood and pulled the katana out from the floor.

Kilian blinked, bewildered at her. Ok, so she was really enervated a minute ago. Only to recover from ignoring prior. This is bizarre. Alert around her for now. The lady passed the katana to him. His purple veins illuminate while catching the grip of the hilt.

“Qi is the basic foundation of manipulating our energy. Knowing it exists means you can utilize it for the sake of your benefit,” she said and the engravings too glow by the contact of Kilian’s hand. “Feel anything coming from your hands?”

“No, just slightly heavy. Kind of similar to when I was resisting the urge to resheathe the katana. Was that your qi too?”

He’s pretty quick. What the hell was I doing to him at the beginning? Welp, this is the least I can do… She thought as she was listening to his question. She nodded in reply

Kilian wondered what was next following the situation. The lady sat back down, now criss-crossed directly in front of him. She told him about the house he was living in, including the town.

“Jinsu…” the name sounded familiar if he knew what it was. Leaving blurs in his mind. Damn it. Clouds. “Who rules this town?

“The sects and clans all ruled them. Shared regions geographically between the five. Three sects and two clans. You can call them cruel whatever but formally it is called The Five Groups of Jinsu or Five Groups,” she said with an abrupt stop.

Five groups. Each of those towers must represent one of the five. Kilian recalled then asking her curiously about the five. She went the other route, focusing on the one where she originally came from. “Hong An is the one we should deal with first. It’s been a long while now but if the other four still exist, they will too.”

Kilian sheathing his katana away, returning his sheath alongside his waist, “Hong An. What to consider?”

The lady shrugged, having no certain response to answer. That brings him back to the question of where she could spy. Finally, she gave a nod. I don’t know why it took that long to just give a reply when a nod or no would have been less catastrophic. Kilian internally laughed.

Well, it answered his main question leading to the last bit. “This qi thing from the katana, am I technically borrowing yours instead of utilizing mine?” The lady scratched her head and her eyes glowed purple. She stared at Kilian with her purple color emitting from her pupils, beaming at him illuminating like a flashlight. Simultaneously his eyes did the same but blue. The two went silent for half a minute till both turned it off. “Did you do that?”

“I did your eyes went blue which shouldn’t have been supposed to happen.”

He grew confused as to what that could even mean.

Ok maybe not quick but fine. “It means you already have your qi established.”

“That could only mean, Klaus might have left some behind. Just a theory,” Kilian muttered.

The lady changed her mind now knowing Kilian got his qi established by default, “I guess we can take a couple days or so before we proceed. One thing though. Not even five percent of the town have knowledge of qi. With your standing, any would enroll you,” she said.

“You make it sound easy-peasy like if there are no catches involved. Come on, what’s the catch?”

“For as I know, There’s not a major catch. Lucky you. You already have qi and currency. In this house…Well worry about that later when the time is ready,” she said and coughed sparingly. With nothing else in mind, she said he could leave.

"Will I see you again?” Kilian asked.

“I hope you are not furious from our first meeting.” the lady replied.

Kilian grins as he turns away before redirecting back to her, “Come on. That is behind us now. What’s more important is dealing with those five groups first being the one you got killed by. Now that you mentioned it, you know my name but never introduced yourself.”

Rubbing her arms around her eyes before looking up at Kilian, “Mei Zhan.”

He nodded and seeing Mei looked towards the wreckage as he took his conical hat off, returning to his dining room. She really is lonely though. How unfortunate of her left in the dark abyss.

2

Growl.

Followed by touring the house, Kilian felt his stomach. He hasn't eaten anything since getting out of the church so he went upstairs to find a shaver if Klaus has one. To his frustration, there wasn't any, and grabs a knife instead. He sprinted back to the kitchen and glanced at the mirror. Time consuming as it took him fifteen minutes to sweep all the rough beard from his face.

A chest hidden in the storage room upstairs contains currency. He took a small fully stocked sack from the chest, tied the conical hat to his back, and left the house. Here goes nothing. Sprinting from the neighborhood back into the town’s main street, funny enough the same neighbor reacted otherwise and greeted Kilian. He nodded back and reached back to the main street.

Unreliable as most of the memories are, Kilian went to ask one civilian passing by about the town's restaurant preferences.

"Head back up to near the church and you'll reach North Jinsu Eatery.” the guy said while squinting his eyes due to the sunlight.

“Thanks,” Kilian responded and gave the guy a gold coin from his sack. He was reluctant as he initially refused. Kilian was disturbed by the fact the generosity was refused as the guy insisted that he didn’t need it, so Kilian put it back in his sack bag while keeping his tense thoughts inside.

Such ungrateful people.

Kilian sprinted upwards, and the sun flashed his eyes from above the highest point behind the church. He eventually reached the eatery and opened the door, grabbing a seat, adjacent to the eatery’s entrance, in a crowded, loud eatery.

His knees hit the table and he glanced under seeing an open shelf. The shelf contained a book, and he opened the book, revealing the menu. There's a diverse selection here. Oh, this looks appetizing.

"Ready to order?" A waiter appeared alongside the table.

"Yes, one eatery's special and a bottle of Baijiu," said Kilian.

"Coming right up. Complementary water will be coming shortly,” the waiter said, returning to the kitchen.

Kilian sat back, observing the eatery till then.