After a long period of time, a familiar silhouette appeared from under the canopy of the trees. He landed gracefully on his feet, brushing away some dust and leaves before looking up at the house in front of him. His gaze settled on a door that stood slightly ajar. A slight creak sounded from inside the room and he walked forward, pausing just before reaching the door. He reached out towards the cracked door that seemed like it would fall apart with just a little force before gently turning it and pushing the door open.

It revealed the small house, with two small "rooms'', which were really the same space partitioned by a thin mud wall. The room he entered was empty except for the bed situated against the wall on his right. He smirked and moved further into the room. He had taken just two steps before a knife came flying at his head at the speed of lightning. He casually tilted his head, letting the knife fly past his ear and embed itself into the wall behind him.

"Is that how you greet a friend?" He smirked in amusement.

"Fuck off," a clear female voice came from behind the other side of the partition. "It's your fault for sneaking into someone's home."

He chuckled softly but didn't move again. He was sure if he did, the woman would make him suffer a loss at their next exchange. He sat down at the foot of the bed, looking at the small boy sleeping there peacefully.

"Your son is quite the heavy sleeper." He said softly.

"You are lucky he is," the voice was now closer. The man turned around to see the woman he had first met almost five years ago. "I told you not to come here when he is home."

He didn't reply. Instead, he tilted his head back. "It seems a rat sniffed around here."

The woman didn't look surprised at all. Instead, she frowned. "Yeah. A good one too. Knew how to hide. I found out late. Left a bit after I did."

The man raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't follow it."

She shrugged. "What's the point? I do not know who it is, or what it wants. Why endanger myself? If it wants something from me, it will come to me."

He stared at the woman for a moment, before a low chuckle rumbled out of his throat. "You are truly... fascinating, Samaya."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Yes. I heard you the first thousand times you said that, Siwang."

The man named Siwang scoffed and then leaned back, placing his arms on top of the headboard behind him. He looked over her shoulder, his eyes taking in the woman clad only in a simple robe and a loose sleeveless undershirt, revealing her smooth olive skin and well-built frame. Her black hair framed her face, falling softly onto her shoulders, and she kept one arm crossed on her chest with the other laying against it, resting near the curve of her breast. A thin line of sweat dripped down her neck, creating a wet stain on the cloth of her shirt.

His eyes trailed down further until they landed on her abdomen, slightly visible from under the robe. He licked his lips. 'I'm curious,' he pondered silently, watching the muscles flex with every breath she took. 'How is it that a young woman like her is so comfortable in such revealing attire?'

"Do you want anything?” The woman asked, interrupting his thoughts.

He shook his head. "No. Just admiring the view."

She snorted. "You're disgusting."

He grinned. "So you've said."

She rolled her eyes and then turned around, walking towards the kitchen. "I'll make us some tea," she called over her shoulder.

Siwang watched the woman disappear into the next room. Then he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. A strange curiosity burned in him, and it only got stronger and stronger. He wondered if he could finally seduce her one day, unravel her completely, and if at that moment this damned curiosity would be quenched.

Not that he thought he would have such an opportunity. She clearly did not want anything more than a business relationship and he had no inclination towards unwilling flowers. Not to mention, this flower was a poisonous and thorny one. And far, far too fascinating to break. He was satisfied with unraveling this mystery slowly.

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It should be quite the journey.

He was brought out of his thoughts as the woman came back with a tray. She didn't bother setting up a table. Instead, she sat down in front of him directly, with legs folded in front of her in a way that would be absolutely scandalous among decent young ladies. She put the tray down on the floor between them. He looked down to see an old clay teapot and similarly old teacups. The steam from the teapot told him there was something in there.

Tea or poison … that was the question.

He chuckled at his own thoughts before his eyes fell on the small pouch tucked into the side of the tray, just behind the teapot. His eyes flickered back up at her.

"The blue wildflowers you wanted," the woman said softly in answer to his unasked question. "God, you just have to get your eyes on rare, almost unattainable things. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get to the only cave that had these? It was under the edge of the cliff! Damn bastard! Do you have any idea how dangerous those mountains are? I almost died, like, ten times!"

Almost died? He held back a snort. Most of the people he had sent into the HongZhe mountains had disappeared without a trace. The concentration of dark qi made most people go mad. The ones that came back could never complete the tasks that involved going deep in there. And some of them were rendered incapable of continuing their work as spies and fighters.

And then came along this slip of a girl, who could complete almost every mission handed to her, could escape those dangerous enough that she failed, could get into places no one could get into, could get to people no one could come close to…. And she went into the deepest and highest parts of the mountain and got her hands on the elusive wildflower that could work both as a miraculous medicine and a potent poison, a flower some would kill for.

She was truly an enigma.

The first time he saw her was when he had been roaming the back alleys out of boredom five years ago. She had been looking for something. When he approached her out of curiosity, she had sensed his presence much faster than he had thought possible for a peasant woman. She had escaped then.

The second time he saw her was when he was roaming the black market. She had been trying to sell some stolen jewels. Of course, the peddler had tried to swindle her. She had smashed his face into the ground when he suggested she do some … rather lascivious things if she wanted more money. Both face and ego wounded, the peddler had called around some goons to “take the bitch down.” Siwang had whisked her away before a fight could break out.

He offered to buy the jewels from her. She hadn’t trusted him, of course.

“Nothing is free in this world,” she had said, wary eyes trained on him and body prepared to leap into action any moment. “What do you want in exchange for saving me?”

“Would you be willing to spend a night with me?” He had asked.

The look of sheer disgust on her face answered his question. His pride was a little hurt but he had no intention of forcing himself on an unwilling woman. And so, he decided to send her on a mission to steal a highly sought treasure - a jade statue - from a wealthy noble’s house. He hadn’t been expecting much. The noble did have connections with Unorthodox Sects and he had known for a fact that he had gotten his hands on some good amount of rare defense and attack talismans.

Siwang had thought she would either die or come back injured. Imagine his surprise when she showed up in the black market with the statue a day later, with barely a scratch on her body when she tore the talisman he had given her. He had bought both the statue and the jewels from her. And from then on, their business relationship started. She would go on high-risk, almost impossible, missions and he would pay her a high price for it. She refused to work under him, of course, and she insisted on taking half the payment before the mission. Anyone else and he would have broken their neck for the audacity. But this woman…. He had known the moment she had arrived with that jade statue in hand and a smug smirk on her face that she would be able to accomplish what others couldn’t.

He knew the reason why she was able to accomplish these nigh-impossible missions. He had figured it out in their first few encounters. She had no qi. None of that internal energy that he and all martial artists used existed in her. Not even latent qi, which everyone had. And yet…she somehow kept up with most of his skilled fighters. Her speed was frightening. Most of his mid-level martial artists couldn’t even see anything except a blur. Her lack of qi ensured that they couldn’t see her and her habit of silencing her movements only amplified her efficiency in a fight. She was catching up to him far, far quicker than he thought possible. But he couldn't figure out why or how.

It’s been years since he rose to the top of the food chain in the Underground of the Xin empire. He ran the biggest, most powerful, Unorthodox Sect filled with spies, assassins, informants, and fighters. There was nothing that Siwang of the Fallen Phoenix Sect could not grasp.

Except for this woman.

But he had to.

It was like an itch that he had to scratch. He wanted to peel off the layers of mystery surrounding this fascinating creature, one by one by one.

The snap of fingers in front of his face brought him back to himself. He watched the girl scowl at him. "Hey, what are you spacing out for? Give me what you promised."

'Yes,' he thought as he pulled out a pouch of gold coins and threw it at her, 'quite the journey. I look forward to seeing what you truly are, Samaya.'