Yan Mei Ling was still looking for Jinzhou Lu Wang Wei and his party when she noticed something glittered like beautiful gems from afar. She felt excited upon realizing that it was a river and decided to take a bath before joining Wang Wei in the hunt when she would see them.

She was already near the river when she heard someone cried for help.

"Help! Someone please help me!"

"You are really giving me a hard time, bitch." He heard a male's voice filled with malevolence.

Upon hearing the girl's desperate call for rescue, Yan Mei Ling wasted no time in searching for the exact location of the voices. The need to save the girl from the clutches of her attacker had been so strong, she immediately sprang to action.

She followed the echoes of the struggling girl's voice and that of the wicked man's taunts. The sound of the voices led her to the river where she intended to take a bath - there a shocking scene was presented to her.

A fiendish man was pinning a helpless-looking girl beneath his weight while he ruthlessly tore off her clothes. He began to kiss her in a barbaric and lewd manner when a vast expanse of her skin was exposed. Bile quickly rose to the throat of Yan Mei Ling in sheer revulsion for this was the very first time that she witnessed an actual rape.

Fury began to fill her heart at seeing such iniquitous deed, and the need to kill someone instantaneously came to her. She detested killing but any animal who dared to push himself on any defenseless and unwilling women did not deserve to live.

"Well, I shall not linger any longer and take you now!"

Yan Mei Ling heard the man said to the girl - that was her cue. She hastily picked up a palm sized rock and hit the man on his back.

"You are indeed a glaring example of what those lecherous Hsien pigs represent. You are a disgusting pervert; a lowly scum on this earth! Get off the lady now!" Yan Mei Ling told him in a voice full indignation and disgust when she realized that the man was a Hsien soldier.

The rapist stopped his assault on the half-naked girl and faced Yan Mei Ling. He began to laugh hysterically.

"How brave of you to insult me, little boy. Now, since you interrupt me from my pleasure, it is only rightful for me to kill you."

"You don't deserve to live, Hsien scum." Yan Mei Ling said with certainty, curbing one of her fists at him. "And, mind you, you are the one who will die, not me!"

She initiated a duel against the odious molester by doing the Praying Mantis stance.

The rapist stood and laughed, still not taking Yan Mei Ling seriously.

"Oh, the boy is really serious." He clucked his tongue while eyeing Yan Mei Ling with condescension. Without any warning, he took something beneath his clothes and adroitly threw it to Yan Mei Ling.

As swift as a falcon, Yan Mei Ling immediately ducked it. She lunged her knee forward, bent down and took another palm size rock, throwing it accurately on the Hsien rapist again.

The man staggered a few steps backward but did not fall down. The man was extremely irritated at what the boy did to him that he decided to give the weakling a parting lesson before he ended his miserable life.

He started his real attack by sprinting towards the foolish boy, jumped above and unleashed a lethal straight kick with the back of his feet aimed at the head.

But Yan Mei Ling was alert, she hastily reacted with a swift turn, levitated above and gave him a strong butterfly kick attack that landed him to the ground a few feet away from her.

Jiangjun Han Li looked at the boy whom he fought with extreme shock. He could not believe it. Did the boy just avoid his thrashing and attack him instead?

Utter disbelief was written all over his face as indicated by his gaping mouth. However, after recovering from the shock of the boy's unbelievable skills, he bounced back from the ground and tried his luck by charging at the boy again. He vaulted to the thin air, mimicked the nefarious twister by turning around his lower body quickly with both of his feet directed to the boy.

Jiangjun Han Li had successfully hit the boy but the latter already shielded himself with his slim arms. He smiled with triumph upon realizing that the boy was sent backwards - the pressure of his kick was evident on the straight line dug by the boy's heels on the ground. He continued his assault and did another attack by striking the boy with a series of kicks similar to that of a turning wheel's movement.

The enemy's attack surprised Yan Mei Ling and, against her heart, she unbiddingly admired his combat techniques. But she would not allow him to win so she avoided his upcoming attack by pivoting to the side. She further eluded him by somersaulting to his back.

When the evil man was stunned by her amazing fighting tricks, she expeditiously performed a whirlwind kick by launching her leg in a perfect circular rotation before throwing a snap kick to the air with the other leg. To conclude her technique, she briskly delivered a wrenching blow from her shin to the back of the enemy. She did not give her enemy a chance to recover so she released another attack and thoroughly punished him by welcoming his stomach with a thrashing from her instep.

Jiangjun Han Li threw spit mingled with blood from the intensity of the boy's attack - it was unexpectedly strong that it seemed like several slabs of huge ceramic bricks toppled over him. It was utterly unimaginable! He had made a dire error by underestimating his enemy. Beneath the deceptively weak exterior of the boy was a strong and trained warrior.

He took a deep breath and flinched at the sharp pain nettling his body. He roughly wiped the spit and blood from his mouth before shouting in rage and dashing forward to assail the boy.

Yan Mei Ling saw the retaliation from the Hsien soldier coming so she swiftly hopped to the side when he was almost near. She swung both of her arms opposite to the man's direction, fists clenched, and swung them back to the man following an invisible crescent shape pattern landing painfully at his ribcage.

Jiangjun Han Li's vision darkened from the excruciating pain but he expected the movement too. He did a counter-attack by releasing a side kick to the boy's abdomen which had sent the boy flying to the ground on his back.

Yan Mei Ling's face grimaced from the impact of the Hsein soldier's attack. She groaned as she took a handful of air to ease the pain in her abdomen. Before regaining back her composure, the enemy was already surprisingly near her with the sole of his feet aimed at her visage.

Jiangjun Han Li was about to deliver a deadly stamp to Yan Mei Ling but she swiftly rolled away from the brutal stampede thus avoiding it. She quickly regained her footing and ran to the nearest huge tree.

The man heedlessly pursued her but Yan Mei Ling had a fatal surprise stored for him. She sprinted to the tree's trunk, somersaulted behind the man and then slugged the enemy with extreme force.

Yan Mei Ling continued the attack by striking the man sharply with her elbow. When the man was about to stumble down to the ground, she let his lower back connect with her knee to slam him back to the rough skin of the tree's trunk.

Jiangjun Han Li felt as if a huge rock connected with his back that he was thrust toward the tree trunk head on. He faced the boy but another kick landed on his stomach. He groaned in pain, twisting and turning helplessly. "Who are you?"

Yan Mei Ling ignored Jiangjun Han Li's question first by swiftly putting the bridge of her foot beneath his back and dribbled his body upward like a weightless object. When he rose above the air, she hurriedly jumped above the Jiangjun Han Li until her chest was in level with his gravitating figure, she raised one of her arms up and strike him down with her elbow.

Jiangjun wriggled from the searing pain, he almost lost his ability to breathe - it was as if his lungs were removed from his chest. He sputtered more blood to the ground, his nose streaming with sanguine liquid. The boy was strong - unbelievably strong!

Yan Mei Ling looked at him impassively and said, "I am an Imperial soldier bound to protect the Son of Heaven and save the princess from your evil lord's clutches."

Jiangjun Han Li laughed at the boy's statement despite the blood that continuously ooze from his nose and mouth. "Truly, I admire your strength and fighting prowess but the princess has already been abducted by Tongjun Linghua. There is nothing your pathetic Emperor can do but hand Chixian Shenzhou to Lord Hsien Mao Dong in a silver platter!"

Yan Mei Ling was incensed upon hearing the Hsien soldier's words and tears began to form from her eyes. She grabbed him by his clothes and threw an upward punch to his chin. "I will save Princess Li Lei Shuang, you deceitful pig! Should your evil lord lay one filthy hand on her, I will make him suffer!" She continued to threw a series of attack to the helpless Jiangjun.

Jiangjun Han Li almost fell unconscious from the pang of the boy's relentless attack but he managed to grab one of his feet and threw the boy like a mere toy. With all the strength that he could muster, he tried to stand up. "I see what cracks you up. The princess isn't it? Who are you, her pathetic admirer? Perhaps, her lover?"

Yan Mei Ling was momentarily stunned from the attack. Her backside felt sore from its collision with the ground. The enemy advanced towards her while she writhed in pain. Before she could stand up, the Hsien soldier held her up by the collar and kneed her hard to the stomach.

She threw up spit from too much pain, the spittle landed straight into the face of her aggressor. The action angered the man that he furiously kneed her again and connected another fist to her abdomen.

His hard grip remained on the collar of Yan Mei Ling's shirt. "See? Emotions can very well distract you. Anyway, considering that it is already a few days since the princess' abduction, I think that she is already married to Lord Hsien Mao Dong. Probably, at this very moment, he had already consummated their marriage. Our lord is an animal beneath the sheets, princess or not, he fuck them hard just the same. The princess might not be able to walk for a few days!"

He laughed as if he had gone terribly insane. Blood spilled from his mouth as he cackled.

Yan Mei Ling felt numb upon hearing the words coming from the man's mouth. It seemed that her hopes had diminished and the will to live had gone. She could not bear it.

Oh, Li Lei Shuang...

She was grieving for what had happened to her beloved best friend and she was not even there to save her.

Tears streamed from her eyes but not because of the Hsien soldier's relentless assault on her - her senses seemed to disconnect from her body. She wanted to die and, at this very moment, she would gladly welcome her death.

She closed her eyes in anticipation of her death when the attack suddenly stopped. She stumbled to the ground along with the Hsien soldier.

Yan Mei Ling looked at the enemy's bleeding head in bewilderment and realized that the girl who she tried to save was the one who hit him with a huge rock.

"Are you fine?" The girl gently asked her as she inspected Yan Mei Ling with tender hands. A frown crossed the girl's beautiful face. "You are badly injured."

"I want to die." Yan Mei Ling said softly, tears of agony incessantly flowed from her eyes.

"You should not believe in whatever that despicable man said to you. You have the upper hand in the fight but he toyed with your emotion so that you will lose focus. Who knows that the princess has not reached this man called Lord Hsien Mao Dong."

Yan Mei Ling smiled weakly, her body ached and her vision was slowly blurring out. "I hope that Princess Li Lei Shuang is fine."

"She will be fine, promise," the girl whispered to her, trying to make her feel better. "I will get us some help from my father and have this traitor castigated."

Yan Mei Ling wanted to thank the beautiful girl again but then everything blacked out.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Author's Note:

Hello, guys, I hope that you love my fight scene. I put so much effort writing this particular chapter. In my own opinion, this is the best fight scene of this story as of the moment. Oh, there will be more fight scenes to come in the succeeding chapters. :)

-Midnight_Carousel