The rain faded as quickly as it arrived. Just as the clouds began to clear up, the luminescence of the moon was once again unveiled in the night sky.

Back on the ground, the uninhabited island too had its own fair, round, ‘half moon’. It was pale as porcelain, supple and enticing. The beach was saturated with ‘evidence’ of its cheeky deeds.

“Who would’ve thought that this…” Tsukino Kyoko seemed to be reminiscing a certain something, yet her gaze and the smug look on her face seemed to elude delight and contentment.

“What about this?” Xia Lei mindlessly blurted. He was slightly tired, but happy nonetheless. At that moment, he was genuinely unproblematic, free from all worries and distress in life. All he wanted to do was stare blankly at the night sky, silently stargazing on the beach with the gorgeous woman lying beside him. It was paradise on earth.

“Hmm...I never thought it would be this interesting, this…” Tsukino Kyoko hesitated mid-way through her sentence. Slightly awkward, she continued nonetheless. “Exciting. Comforting even.”

Xia Lei chuckled in response.

“Boss, rest assured. I’ll keep everything that's happened tonight a secret from everyone else. They wouldn't know.”

Xia Lei sighed ever so slightly as he replied. “Even if you keep this a secret, what’s done is done. And I’m guilty as charged.”

“No, it’s not your fault. It was me, I couldn’t hold it in…”

“Alright, let’s stop this here.” Xia Lei shifted the conversation. “Kyoko, try giving it a deeper thought. What hallucination did you experience earlier? Did you hear a voice? Try telling me everything that you can recall, as detailed as possible.”

Kyoko pushed herself hard to recall everything that came to mind, but ultimately shook her head disappointingly, “Nah, everything seems to have slipped past my head. Did I really hallucinate just now?”

Xia Lei clarified. “Yes you did, you told me doomsday was approaching and you saw the devil feasting on human brains. These are all your words just minutes ago. Try concentrating harder, maybe you can catch something from the cracks.”

Tsukino Kyoko held her eyes tight, seemingly in deep contemplation, but her hand on the contrary seemed to reach out towards his forbidden spot.

Xia Lei felt instantly stimulated by a charge to his vital spot as his entire body reactively became tense. In response, he then declared, “Kyoko, I might be distracting you so I'm going to the ocean for a dip. Try to give it some thought and tell me later on about what you can recall.”

Tsukino Kyoko lovingly nodded.

“Wait, can I come along to scrub your back?”

Xia Lei sighed and continued walking.

The fair, alluring woman sat idly by the beach as she contemplated, while the man plunged into the water. He needed more than just chilly seawater to calm the tingling senses in his body, along with the anxiety that came with it.

Xia Lei while diving in the mildly cold seawater felt that it began to serve its purpose, clearing his head while also subduing the fiery impulses within his nether regions.

After his head was invigorated from the quick swim, his mind was rejuvenated. With it came a question that had previously slipped through his mind. Kyoko was engulfed in her hallucinations when her urges were at her peak. If I don’t solve her problem she might go crazy!

But her head was clearly manipulated, yet she had no memory of what she had experienced just moments ago. Why would the crystal skull target her as the main source of manipulation?

Zhu Xuanyue messed with Ning Jing’s head solely to send a message.

The crystal skull’s manipulation and utter possession of Kyoko’s mind were more of a joke than one with an actual purpose. But why would it play a prank of himself?

“Wait!” Xia Lei recalled a certain something. The reason why Zhu Xuanyue did not control my brain is because she couldn’t!

The crystal skull’s previous owner was presumably the same species as Zhu Xuanyue is. With only a single skull left, she couldn’t control my mind even if she tried. But she could mess with other people’s minds to send me a message!

Something like this was no secret to Zhu Xuanyue herself, that was probably why she used Ning Jing to send a message anyway. But this time, the crystal skull’s message was the end of the world!

Puh-huh!

Xia Lei emerged from the chilly ocean waves, taking a huge gulp of fresh air to keep his mind aware. In his vision, however, was Tsukino Kyoko in close observation of the crystal skull, in her possession.

Xia Lei was petrified, “Don’t touch it!”

Tsukino Kyoko seemed to be completely immersed in her observation as she stared soullessly at the crystal skull in the palm of her hand.

A second later, she collapsed on the beach.

Xia Lei paddled his limbs as quick as they could as he made his way back to shore. He then sprinted across the beach and scooped the unconscious Tsukino Kyoko up. “Kyoko, wake up! Can you hear me? Wake up I say!”

Tsukino Kyoko laid lifelessly, devoid of reaction. Her situation was similar to that of Qian Jun, unconscious after a slight interaction with the crystal skull. Even after Qian Jun woke up, he had lost all memory of the past hour. Could the same happen to Tsukino Kyoko?

Xia Lei attempted to wake her twice more only to no avail. He then took a quick check of her vitals, making sure she was still breathing. He gently lay her back down on the beach, before reaching out for the crystal skull.

“I don’t give a shit about who you are when you were alive, I don’t care where you were from, or what you set out to do. Here’s one last warning to you, if you hurt my people I will pulverize you into a thousand pieces, you hear that?” Xia Lei cursed at the skull in his grasp.

The crystal skull unsurprisingly gave no response.

Xia Lei chucked the crystal skull back into the backpack, then carried Tsukino Kyoko to the sea and washed off all the impurities on her body.

He then carried her to dry land and began dressing her up.

Halfway through, however, Tsukino Kyoko let out a petite moan as she awoke.

“Boss what…” Tsukino Kyoko stared bafflingly at Xia Lei and his antics.

Xia Lei was ultimately unprepared by the sudden turn of events as he solemnly glanced towards his bottomless half, and then towards his fully clothed top, before turning towards the thong hanging on his finger.

A sudden realisation struck him. At that moment, he looked less like a man dressing up, but instead, more like a man really to get down to business. Not to mention Tsukino Kyoko lying flat on the beach.

After a full three seconds, Xia Lei consciously covered his private parts with the remaining clothes in his hand, while reactively interrogating her, “Kyoko, do you remember anything at all?”

“Remember what?” Tsukino Kyoko giggled coyly. “Oh yeah I remember, you brought me here just to fulfil my wishes right?”

Xia Lei was stupefied.

Tsukino Kyoko crawled onto her two feet before she blushingly turned towards the far corner and then began removing her clothes. Her honourable and much-idolised leader had already stripped to his last piece of clothing. Why else would she turn down his invitation?

“Hold on, actually we’ve already…” Xia Lei reactively held onto her hand, “we already did it. Your wishes are fulfilled.”

Tsukino Kyoko was stunned in her place, biting on her lip from utter disappointment.

“No I’m serious, I swear we just...it’s true. It must be for the crystal skull that you’ve lost your memory from the past hour. And we just had an hour together, you get what I’m saying?” Xia Lei exhausted all the words he could piece together to explain their situation.

“I know you don’t love me, but you don’t love those two German girls too don’t you? Why can’t you keep your word? I’m disappointed.” Tsukino Kyoko frustratedly turned away.

“What...listen to me…” Xia Lei wanted to further explain but was himself out of words to describe the situation that they were in.

Tsukino Kyoko turned back towards Xia Lei, her dark pupils were plagued with dismay, her bubbly eyes watery. A woman bore all she had just to have the man for herself for just a fraction of his time. Yet the man had to lie to her that they had already done it. What insulting excuse that was!

Xia Lei shrugged awkwardly. “Next time alright, how about that? I’m owing it to you.”

Tsukino Kyoko cracked a sneer from his words. “You said it yourself, you owe it to me.”

Xia Lei thick-facedly nodded.

Bloody hell! It’s all that crystal skull’s fault, fucking hell!

Tsukino Kyoko took a quick turn and strode towards Xia Lei, her eyes filled to the brim with anticipation and lust. “Why not now? Nobody’s coming anyway.”

Xia Lei hesitated for a moment, and promptly stripped his underwear and tossed it to the side.

Kyoko and Xia Lei intertwined once more.

“Boss!”

Right then, Sa’im’s voice was heard from the far corner. “Where are you both? Let’s go! We found a ship!”

In full submission under him, the female ninja clenched her teeth as she grunted. “I’m gonna kill him!”

Xia Lei was dead silent as he solemnly crawled off the female ninja under himself, solemnly reaching for the clothes that he just tossed to the side just a moment ago.

Sa’im did not come alone. Trailing behind was Qian Jun as they navigated to where Xia Lei and Tsukino Kyoko were. And by the time they arrived, the two were already fully dressed and ready to go.

“What ship?” Xia Lei was especially sensitive to the word ‘ship’ as he interrogated, “Tell me, did you see a cruise ship?”

“What cruise ship?” Sa’im bafflingly replied, “It’s a Russian destroyer ship, seems to be on the way from Istanbul to the Black sea. Yeah, it’s a destroyer from the black sea fleet.”

Qian Jun added, “This is our chance, neither the Americans nor the European Union would dare touch the Russian fleet. If we can get on this ship we’ll make it back safely to China!”

Xia Lei glanced towards Sa’im, then to Qian Jun, “Y’all sure it’s not a cruise ship?”

Sa’im was dumbfounded, “Boss, are you feeling well? It really is a Russian ship. I got Anjum Khan and Yelena to light up an SOS signal on the beach. I’m guessing the Russian troops should’ve spotted us by now.”

Qian Jun continued, “Yelena is Russian, not to mention her connections. I’m sure a little money will do the trick.”

“Alright, last one and we’re done. Did you witness doomsday or lava or anything of the kind?”

Sa’im and Qian Jun were stupefied.

The truth was that it was not just Sa’im and Qian Jun who felt that Xia Lei was different from his usual self, even Tsukino Kyoko felt that there was something off about him tonight.

“Alright, we should go now.” Xia Lei abandoned his interrogation mid-way and decided to go with the flow. Any more and he was sure they were convinced that he had gone mad.

Contrary to their trip towards this side of the island, which took half an hour from casual strolling, this time around Xia Lei, Sa’im, Qian Jun and Kyoko jogged their way back, which took less than ten minutes.

Circling past the reef area that was shielding their view, they were promptly greeted with a burning ‘SOS’ signal.

Xia Lei turned towards the sea and there it was. It wasn’t an illusion this time, a massive destroyer with a Russian flag hung in the middle just meters away. Then came several rescuer pods drifting towards the atoll where they were positioned at lightning speed.

So it wasn’t an illusion after all.

Xia Lei took a long sigh of relief. He was finally homebound!