A Failure's hopeful Journey

You Xi Wang first opened the message from his sister. It said, 'Snow Wistrom is a hard-working girl, and she came this far on her merits with no external support from anyone. Her family members are very humble people, her father is a senior explorer in the pharmaceutical sector. He is well known, but sadly exploration doesn't pay much. She is trustworthy, don't be paranoid. AND WHAT THE HELL WAS ON WITH THAT MESSAGE YOU SENT ME? DO I LOOK LIKE AN ASSASSIN TO YOU? YOU BETTER STOP ACTING LIKE SOME BIG SHOT. NEXT TIME BE CLEAR. Take care out there."

He couldn't help but chuckle. His sister would always reprimand him for talking like that in texts, even though she could understand it. He sighed in relief knowing that Snow was who he thought she was, He had this suspicion in his mind that Snow might be someone from Seedling Inc. and is using the identity of Micheal Wistrom's daughter. All this time he was gauging her strength and was ready to go in for the kill any moment, something turns out fishy.

You Xi Wang stopped thinking about that and checked out the message Richard had sent him. This message was regarding the number of dark dwellers appearing in the town. You Xi Wang called Richard with his Holo-phone. After a few moments, the call connected, Richard spoke, "Hello, bro Wang."

You Xi Wang said, "Hello, did you find out what is their motive?"

Richard replied, "They are here to look for a girl. I caught one of the weaker ones and asked him nicely. They were contracted to do this as that girl was investigating too much. Though their task is to capture her alive."

You Xi Wang was smart and put things together, "The girl has White long hair?" he asked.

"Yes, I will kill the dark dwellers. Don't worry." Richard assured him in a confident manner.

You Xi Wang then said, "No need, just direct them to the mid-section of the first layer in the woods."

Richard was surprised at first but before he could say anything You Xi Wang interrupted him, "You will draw too much attention if you kill them all. Direct them to the woods, and I will take care of them. Also, give me the info on their power levels. The accurate the better. Try to delay them for as long as possible. We have to arrange a good party for them."

Richard then said, "Alright, anything else you need?"

You Xi Wang said, "Extract some poison from the pain-inducing leech and get it to me via drone. Hehehe..." he let out a peal of eery laughter which made Richard shiver as the scene of interrogation that night flashed in his mind.

Richard agreed and told You Xi Wang that the poison will be delivered by the morning along with the information of the assassins. He disconnected the call, and he heard a whooshing sound coming from behind him. He turned to find Snow practicing her basic sword moves.

He stood up, walked up to her, "How is your progress with the crane sword?"

She stopped and faced him. Beads of sweat could be seen forming on her forehead, "I could comprehend nothing from that folded paper."

You Xi Wang smiled, raised his hand with his palm outstretched towards her, and said, "Give me the paper, let me show you."

She complied and handed him the paper crane, You Xi Wang unfolded the paper and said, "What do sword moves look like?"

Snow thought for a while and said, "Straight lines." You Xi Wang nodded. He looked into her eyes and said, "Everything in this world comprises shapes, Crane is like that too. Other than attacking like a crane, you can use the lines along its body too."

He gave her the unfolded paper, Snow looked at it in contemplation and saw a paper full of lines. She was confused for a second, she understood what he meant. Her gaze was now soft and filled with gratitude towards You Xi Wang.

She said in a soft voice, "Thank you very much, from an early age I have worked hard but was never sharp enough to understand the profoundness of things but you just taught me that blind hard work will make me be focused on the rocks and ignoring the mountain of treasures around it, thank you."

You Xi Wang smiled and said, It's fine. Now, let us talk some serious business." he was not smiling anymore. Snow nodded with no words after looking at how serious his face was suddenly. He sighed and said, "There are some dark dwellers coming here to abduct you."

Snow was shocked when she heard about it. She regained her composure and said, "How about I leave first? That will save you from trouble."

You Xi Wang shook his head and replied, "The first thing is, that the dark dwellers are multiple. The second thing, they are here to abduct you and not KILL. This info came from a trustworthy source. The third fact of the matter is that we are friends and allies now so don't worry. I have texted my friends, we will take care of it together."

Snow looked at him for a bit. She bit her lower lip behind her veil, she let out a sigh, "Okay, Let's do it your way then. What is the plan?"

You Xi Wang smirked, "Wait for a bit and you will see."

With that said, he contacted his friends and told them to meet up at the border of the inner and the mid-section of the first layer. The package from the drone was also delivered by a drone along with the information of the dark dwellers. This will prove very helpful in countering the enemy.

Tonight the group will gather. They will plan how to deal with these dark dwellers. You Xi Wang met the others and they discussed the plan to face the coming assailants. Just as the moon came up they settled on using guerilla tactics.

With all said and done they all waited for the assailants to come.