Changmin’s eyes narrowed, studying Zhou Mi as he mused, “Fresh blood! Or…no. He looks a little too weak to be one of you, doesn’t he?”

Qian backed up until she was standing next to Zhou Mi; her words came out in a soft hiss, “What the hell do you think you’re doing here? Get the hell back into the city.”

Zhou Mi stared blankly at her, not comprehending. His gaze moved to Changmin, to Kyuhyun, to Tao, and finally back to Qian again. “What’s going on?”

Before anyone could reply, Tao lunged forward, his staff swinging out at Kyuhyun’s head. With a practiced ease Kyuhyun ducked, his scimitar flashing out. Tao tried to step back, but he was a beat too slow, the scimitar slicing easily through his baggy uniform.

“Tao!” Qian launched herself forward, the dagger in her hand in an instant, rearing up to strike, but before she could reach her target, Changmin parried her blow, pushing her back.

Kyuhyun followed up with a series of furious stabs and slashes, so fast that Zhou Mi could barely see his hands. Tao was moving too – his staff parried and blocked blow after blow, a blur of silver metal as he moved.

Zhou Mi watched with open-mouthed awe, and that was when Qian shouted at him. “You imbecile, get out of here!”

Zhou Mi’s gaze jerked back to her, alarmed, but his feet were rooted to the ground, in paralysis. Qian cursed, but she had barely taken a step forward when Changmin slashed his sword at her – or rather, to her left, preventing her from moving towards Zhou Mi.

Qian shot Changmin a venomous look. “Don’t involve innocent passers-by.”

“Innocent? It seems to me you know him – so how can he be innocent?” Changmin’s smile was lazy.

Behind them, there was an especially harsh screech of metal as Kyuhyun dragged his scimitar along the length of Tao’s staff; both warriors leapt backwards, then began to circle each other, their eyes wary. Tao glanced toward Zhou Mi, and the scholar caught the slightest hint of exasperation in the warrior’s eyes.

At last, Zhou Mi took the hint. His feet moved; he took one step backward, but because he never had the best of coordination skills, he tripped over his robes and went tumbling.

In a flash, Changmin was next to him. Changmin stuck his hand out, as if to help Zhou Mi up, and instinctively, Zhou Mi reached up to take it.

“No!” Qian exploded, but it was Tao who moved first, hurling his staff toward Changmin like a javelin. There was a clang of metal; Zhou Mi could see Changmin’s muscles rippling as he struck the staff with his sword, throwing it back towards Tao, who took a flying leap and caught it neatly, landing next to Qian.

Before Zhou Mi knew what was happening, Changmin had hauled him up, his sword at Zhou Mi’s neck. “Easy there. You wouldn’t want innocent passers-by to be hurt now, would you?”

For the first time, Zhou Mi began to grasp the reality of what was happening. This was a fight, a brutal battle with real weapons. Foolishly, he had walked into the middle of it – and now he was a hostage. And he was terrified.

He could literally feel Changmin breathe down his neck, and he could sense that Changmin was smirking as he spoke, “Well now, disciples of Shushan. Are you just going to stand there, frozen?”

Tao’s fists clenched. “Let the nerd go, Changmin. This has nothing to do with him and you know it. Don’t you have any sense of honor?”

Changmin laughed, a sneer in his voice as he scoffed. “Honor? What has honor got to do with anything? Will honor earn you a bowl of rice? Will honor protect you, make sure you’re safe from all hurt? Will honor prevent you from dying? You see, that’s the problem with you Shushan disciples – you’re just so naïve, just so clueless about the real world, it’s absurd.”

Shushan disciples? The words rang in Zhou Mi’s head. He’d heard of them before of course, everyone had. The famous Shushan Sect, warriors of justice. Any unfairness, any injustice they witnessed would not go unpunished. They were a legend to the scholars who spent their days dreaming about joining the jianghu¹.

And, like any day-dreaming scholar worth his salt, Zhou Mi was well able to guess just who Changmin and Kyuhyun were.

His voice was a weak gasp, one that he immediately felt ashamed of for its weakness, “You’re from the Demon Sect.”

“How astute of you, scholar. But I’d advise you to keep your mouth shut.” Changmin’s voice was a low threat, suddenly devoid of the playfulness it had contained earlier. His grip tightened; the sword was suddenly pressing even harder against Zhou Mi’s neck. There was a sharp pain that made him jerk – or try to, anyway, but Changmin’s grasp was too strong – and something wet trickled down his neck.

Tao cursed. “You bastard-”

And suddenly, Changmin was shoving him forward with all the force he had. Zhou Mi pitched forward, landing right onto Qian and pushing her down with him.

Changmin leapt backwards, knocking the dart away with his sword. He eyed the flying dart coldly, then raised his voice, “Why don’t you come out now?”

A man emerged from behind the city gate. He was nondescript – if Zhou Mi passed him in the streets, he knew he would not have noticed him. He had a slight figure, his hair cut brutally short, and Zhou Mi noted his long, delicate fingers and the gentle, almost melancholy look in his eyes. One hand was empty; the other wielded a flying dart, the same one that had gone flying toward Changmin, and had caused him to let go of Zhou Mi.

Two others appeared behind the man, one male, one female. The male was toweringly tall, his face stern and cold, even more emotionless than Kyuhyun. The female had incredibly boyish features, and a playful smile on her face. “Well, this sure is a party.”

Qian shot the girl an annoyed look. “This is not the time, Amber!”

Amber just rolled her eyes.

The first man to emerge spoke; his voice was soft and lilting, reminding Zhou Mi of peaceful music that lulled one to sleep. “You’re outnumbered, Changmin. We know why you’re here, and I’m telling you, don’t bother. Shifu will be arriving soon – you think you might stand a chance of beating us, but we both know that you don’t stand a chance against him.” The words were stated as a fact, not a threat, and everyone present heard it.

Changmin’s eyes narrowed, his sword lifting. “I can take all five of you down and leave before your precious Master comes.”

Kyuhyun stepped backwards, just close enough to murmur something to Changmin; the taller man scowled, his handsome features turning vicious. “Consider yourselves lucky this time, disciples. But mark my words – you won’t get to the Saviour first. We will, and by the time we’re done, there’ll be no Saviour to speak of.”

Before any of them could say a word, the two Demon Sect warriors used their qinggong² to leap into the air, disappearing into the distance.

Qian shoved Zhou Mi off her, her expression furious. “What in the world were you thinking, you dolt?”

Zhou Mi stepped back, alarmed. His mouth opened and closed a few times wordlessly, almost resembling a goldfish.

Qian pushed herself upright, taking an angry step forward. “We would never have ended up in such a vulnerable position if not for you-”

The slight, feminine man lay a hand on her arm. “Qian. Enough.”

Qian’s face was still flushed, but she took a step back, bowing to the other man’s authority.

Zhou Mi looked about the five warriors – the excitement he had felt at seeing the stuff of his dreams was gradually fading. Three of the five paid no attention to him; Tao and Amber had loped away and were talking quietly to each other, Tao throwing Zhou Mi dirty looks every now and then. The taller man whose name had not been mentioned looked utterly disinterested, staring past Zhou Mi into the city. Qian still looked furious, but her poison gaze was now directed at the floor. Only the slight man, who seemed to be the leader, still retained any polite interest in Zhou Mi.

And it was the leader who spoke first, “Well, sir, I would advise you to avoid leaving your city gates for the next week or so – it is a dangerous period.”

Zhou Mi blinked. “Dangerous period?”

The man smiled easily. “Take my word for it, sir. Don’t leave the city. In fact, you should be returning to it right now.” He lay his hand on Zhou Mi’s back, slowly guiding him back into the city, away from the other warriors, away from Zhou Mi’s dreams.

The guards standing at the city gates shot them a disinterested look before turning away.

Unable to stop himself, Zhou Mi suddenly blurted out, “Wait! Will I…will I ever meet you all again?”

The man paused in the process of turning back to join his peers. He pondered Zhou Mi’s question for a moment; then he gave a slight smile. “I’m afraid that would be unlikely, sir. We rarely travel down from the mountain.”

And then he trotted away, the remnants of Zhou Mi’s dreams slipping away from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luhan rapped hard on Zhou Mi’s door, his voice worried as he called, “Mi, come on out. It’s been three days, just how long more do you intend to lock yourself in there?”

There was no answer, the silence filled only by the soft whistling of the wind, the whispering of the nearby greenery.

Luhan knuckled his forehead. “Zhou Mi, what happened? Is something wrong? Talk to me.”

There was a resolute, stubborn silence.

Luhan cursed. He knew Zhou Mi could hear him – it was just a matter of whether he wanted to listen.

He turned to leave, then stopped, abruptly, his mind flashing to something his sister Feifei had mentioned to him earlier today. “You know…Fei mentioned to me something that I thought you might be interested in.” He paused, and for a moment, he imagined that the silence had turned into a curious one.

“Shushan Sect is coming in town today with their Shifu. You know, the legendary Sect you’re always talking about? Apparently, they’re coming to see if the Saviour might be amongst us – whatever that means.” Another pause, but there was still no response.

Luhan shrugged. “I thought you might be interested, but it seems you’re not. I guess I’ll just go ahead, then.” He turned to leave, but had barely taken a step when the doors were thrown open.

Zhou Mi stood at the doorway; his clothes were filthy, clearly the same set as he had worn that day when he’d stormed out. His hair was disheveled, his breathing hard – completely unlike the scholarly air he usually carried himself with, the air that was expected of them as children of the educated. And yet Luhan could not help but notice his eyes – bright, hard, far more animated than Luhan had seen in a long, long time.

Zhou Mi’s voice was hoarse from disuse, but the words carried clearly, “Let’s go take a look.” 

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Here's the next chapter!

So this was mostly about the fight between Shushan/Demon Sects, and the remaining "Shushan Five" make a reappearance, albeit briefly. So far it seems that Yixing/Qian are closer, while Tao/Amber are like buddies-in-crime, and Kris is just the cool, stoic guy as usual. 

This chapter was mostly about conveying how much Zhou Mi wanted to be a part of the five - even when faced with danger, he didn't run off, not just because he was shocked, but also because subsconciously, he wanted to be part of the fight, which is why he stayed on. But he ruined his chances because he ended up pissing Qian and Tao off (since they didn't understand why he just stood there, plus they actually have strong senses of justice, so they don't want the innocent getting hurt) which led to his despair, which Luhan was trying to cure. 

I think my favourite bit of this chapter was with Luhan - he's a totally loyal best friend, and he really knows Zhou Mi well. Zhou Mi has been in that room for days, with no one able to get him out, but Luhan's smart and knows Zhou Mi, and a few of his words can get Zhou Mi out of the room and animated again, and that's the greatest thing about best friends. 

I'll try and update the next chapter asap, so please remember guys, comment and subscribe!