Hi again! :D I'm glad that I could finish this chapter, and I hope you shall enjoy reading this one. :) Thanks for all the awesome reviews, which never fail to motivate to keep me writing! And thanks for reading too!

Mei Wen: Happy belated Chinese New Year to you! xD Hope you got many ang-paus! Don't forget to give me a 'dim-sum' treat! Joke, joke... xD Wow, you have many favourite characters from Half Prince! :D All the characters in the manhwa are actually unique and lovable! :) My fave ones are Gui, Wolf and Wu Qing! I love handsome boys, haha... xD I like Feng Lan/ Prince too, because she is very different compared to the other heroines that I have read about. :) Thanks for liking Mei Ling, Mei Wen! But I hope you won't hate her in this one... xD The next coming chapters would focus more on Wen Zi, and I just realised that my story tends to focus more on romance now? :S I hope that you will like 'Shonen-Ai' romance though? XD

Mercy: Thanks! :D I'm glad that you like the story, and I hope you will like this chapter too! :)

This chapter is slightly longer than the others, and it has some some angst? I'm not sure whether it is 'angst'... Anyway, please enjoy this chapter! :)

I don't own Half Prince or its characters.

Chapter 34 – Meaningful Duel 3

Never in my life I would ever imagine that I'm doing something like this. It was even harder to believe that I was actually doing it in my 'sleep'...

But I got to do what I got to do.

I made a few quick steps forward towards the crowd, close enough to see the overwhelming sea of faces, but not close enough to be a fun scratching post for my aggressive-looking anti-fans.

My slit-lined-eyes enlarged (albeit slightly) to perform a 360-degree scan around at the tight, energetic and totally-fired-up crowd of spectators; those strangers were made up of so many kinds of races, skin colours and heights unimaginable that it didn't make my last-minute task of searching for that sneaky 'mosquito' a walk in the park. Not that he was as tiny as a mosquito...

Even though I could still remember his whole appearance like I had only met him a nanosecond ago, I got to admit this was even harder than finding a metal toothpick in a haystack. I could easily take a terrifying-powerful magnet to attract that object, however microscopic it might be. Whereas as for this case...

I could only sigh like a dying old man.

Looking at these ugly circumstances, should I really just give up then?

"Hey, Wen Zi. Just asking here... Where are you now?"

I made that private enquiry as my last resort, but I doubted it would be any helpful.

"I am right here."

I winced at his prompt response. Okay, that was really helpful.

"I'm not in the mood for crappy jokes now. Seriously, where the heck are you now?"

"I am right at one place where I'm supposed to be."

My teeth gritted even tighter than before. Was there any slightest difference between that answer to his previous one? I shook my head speechlessly, as my glassy eyes went skimming over the blurry dots and spots of heads among the loud, colourful audience.

Soft free-flowing green hair, dazzling blue azure eyes, and a tall slim figure - With such flattering physical qualities of a beautiful-looking adult man, why couldn't he shine, just shine like a mutated radioactive firefly or something? That would definitely make my life (or Second Life) so much easier...

"Ahem!"

At that sudden interjection, my never-ending search came to an premature halt.

I turned towards the source of the voice; it was the voice of someone that my brain cells had carelessly dropped on their way to the RAM of my brain. In simpler terms, that poor guy had just slipped off my brain.

Behind his over-used flowery fan, Wu Qing's face was still radiant with a smile oh-so-suave and oh-so-sweet it tasted like pure honey, especially to the star-struck female admirers of his.

Though I could easily tell from his face that he looked like he had just swallowed a bitter pill hard.

"I understand the reason for Hei-xian sheng's enthusiasm and passion towards the heavenly maidens in the fascinating crowd..."

His calm voice then strained to emphasise further, "But our duel isn't quite over yet."

I couldn't help but to sweat profusely.

Jeez, did he just think that I was ogling at some 'heavenly maidens'? I could easily pick a fight with him over this, but it was better not to.

Just pretend to be stupid and act normal.

"I hate to tell you this, but you got it all wrong there, ah-hahaha!" I forced out a natural-sounding laugh, "I was just looking for my friend. Maybe you can tell me if you see him?"

Wu Qing's thick eyebrows creased in mild confusion. Phew... At least his face didn't look so murderous anymore.

"How does your friend look like? You may describe her briefly."

"I guess that he's this tall... Only slightly taller than me..." I began by making some awkward gestures with my sweaty hands.

"His eyes are light blue and bewitching..."

"And well..."

"Wait, I think he has a small mole below his left eye... Or is it his right? Hmm..."

"Forget about his mole. I remember he has silky doll-like hair, just like yours, you know..."

"But his hair is green and longer, so long that he can curl it around his neck like how you would tie up your neck with a neck-tie..."

"And not only that-"

Snap!

Wu Qing abruptly flicked his fan close to cut my words short. It could be that he had already recognized the person that I was looking for, or he had begun to yawn mentally in his grey matter after listening to my boring and monotonous descriptions of Wen Zi. Most probably he was just bored to death, as he had started to pace around slowly, as though wanting to get rid of his sleepiness.

Much to my surprise, that dashing scholarly warrior merely shook his head in a disapproving manner.

"I see your mind was filled by the gratifying thoughts of your beloved. It's truly regrettable that you're not viewing me as a worthy opponent."

My body and mind froze hard at his words.

"Gratifying thoughts of my beloved?" Oh my. This guy couldn't have just mistaken Wen Zi as a 'heavenly maiden', could he? But really, no doubt at all that Wen Zi would be very pretty if he were to be a girl...

"If that's the case," Wu Qing's fierce glint in his eyes pierced straight through me, "Allow me to change your mind!"

Before I could catch what was going on, that terribly-incensed warrior already jumped forward at me. He swung his shiny deadly blade down in a wide arc, almost cutting my head open in the process. I would have served my head raw on his hot dinner plate, if I didn't block his surprise attack with my metal shield, which I had took much pity on.

One after another one of his relentless strikes, I raised up my shield higher and higher to withstand the increasing damage. It was all the same old boring cycle again, but he had clearly made it harder this time. God, wouldn't he ever get tired?

Worst of all, since I was being defensive the whole time, my silver mace remained cold and untouched, as though it existed solely only for decoration purposes.

If that wasn't bad enough, someone else had noticed this too.

"How long do you keep on hiding like this?" Wu Qing's voice started to shake with laughter, "Is this the best you can do?"

I bit my wet lips as I struggled hard to poke at him from behind my large shield, "You got any problem with my fighting style?"

"I have no hard feelings towards you, Hei-xian sheng..."

At that very moment, I could see Wu Qing's sword already raised high up to the sky. It was glowing brighter and brighter till it burned red-hot, before he brought it down in a flash!

"BUT YOU FIGHT LIKE A WOMAN! SLASH AND BURN!"

"WINTER BLOCK!"

BOOM!

What happened next was truly something that I had already expected from the moment that I was called a 'woman'. My mind was a complete empty blank, but I could feel the harsh yet true reality began to sink in painfully.

I was still in one perfect piece. It was all because of someone being helpful enough to cast a protective spell, which had already absorbed the damage caused by Wu Qing. But it was not all because of that alone.

My stinging eyes fell upon both the silver mace and pink shield in my trembling hands; I did not even have to sacrifice any sweat, blood or tear for them. Hell, even my heavy armour and everything were given to me free-of-charge.

I got to be the most pathetic player ever logged into Second Life ever. Any female player could definitely have done better than me. Those vociferous boos and jeers from the audience thundered in an unanimous agreement.

My heart laughed at the irony. All this while, I had been nothing more than an useless parasite. Sir Knight my ass!

I shut my eyes tight and breathed in hard, hoping that I would never ever shed even a single tear, promising to myself that no matter what happens, I was not going to wallow in self-pity. That would be worse than being humiliated in public itself.

"Psycho, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"To think that you would enlist someone's help to interfere in this battle," I could hear Wu Qing's soft tutting sound that sounded so painfully-loud,"That's more despicable than inflicting cruelties on defenseless creatures."

"He didn't ask for my assistance. I helped him out of my own free will."

My drooping head unconsciously turned to gaze at the silenced crowd, who were also turning their heads to check out for the source of that voice.

A tall hooded figure walked out briskly from the throng of people. His face was hidden in the shadows beneath his hood, but every eyeball was still fixed on him like he was a transcendental celestial being. What was standing out about him was he was all in glowing white, since the white velvet mantle that he was wearing practically covered him from head to toe.

My shoulders slumped down as I let out a long sigh. "No wonder I couldn't see him just now..."

"So you're the one who cast that spell?" Wu Qing flicked his paper fan close and pointed at the person he called a 'heavenly maiden', "Who are you, if I may ask?"

"I'm his-"

"He's the friend I was talking about," I interrupted with purpose and turned to my opponent, "I admit defeat but the next time we meet again, Feng-xian sheng..."

"You will see me as a stronger person."

I made that promise, not only to Wu Qing but to myself as well. Once I become stronger, there was no need for anyone to protect me. Once I am strong enough, then only I can protect the people around me, since I was the so-called the 'guardian of the whole party'...

"To put it another way, you're our 'meat shield'. Once you die, we all gonna die."

"I'll take your word for it," Wu Qing's calm and confident voice crashed into my thoughts of Abyss's words. He merely looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"But I'm still not satisfied. How about if we have another duel?"

I stared at that crazily-persistent warrior, lost in bewilderment. Is this guy for real?

"Okay, you're not satisfied, pal? Take all your winning loots!"

Without any hesitation or regrets, I dropped my pink-panther shield on the ground and removed my whole heavy armour and chain mail shirt. Not even my metal boots were spared. It wasn't exactly the brightest thing to do, but if there was one thing from the past that I could change, I would obtain all these items with my own hard-earned money. No more free goodies for me.

Surprisingly, I thought anyone would be happy to receive early Christmas gifts (with capital letters of F, O and C), but the only sign of gratefulness that Wu Qing could give me was the "O" shape of his mouth.

"What? Why are you giving me all these? What am I going to do with them?"

"Erm, that depends on you," I shrugged while taking my iron-fisted gloves off my bruised hands, "Maybe you can make some quick bucks if you sell them at the store. If they don't even worth a cent, you know..."

I gave my shield and armour a deep longing look, before averting my gaze away from them.

"Just get rid of them. Wen Zi, this mace is yours."

Without looking at that wizard's face, I grabbed his wrist and put the weapon in his hand. He held it silently without any argument nor objection, as though any words from him would send me over the edge into a crying fit. I smiled to myself at that ridiculous thought.

"I haven't really cried properly since... Was it 5 years ago? 10 years ago? Nah, I don't even want to remember any stupid things that made me cry. Think happy thoughts."

"See you in our next duel, Feng-xian sheng!"

After waving my hand 'Sayonara' as wildly as possible, I sprinted off and rushed past the dispersing crowd, ignoring the loud, irritating hollers that could only come from that narcissistic warrior.

There was no way I could understand why on earth he was so into having a 'meaningful duel' with me.

Oh well, I got to leave this huge question mark aside for later.

O O O

As I was on the 'walking marathon' to search for my elf priest buddy (I thought I could run like the Road Runner, but after some time, I had to walk like a 150-year-old tortoise instead), I could not help but to stare at my hands. Although it was already getting dark with the hot sun no longer in the middle of the sky, I could see my skin colour fading to a lighter albino-like tone.

If I didn't act fast enough, if I didn't do something, anything about it, who knows what would happen next?

I shook my head hard, finding it ridiculous to worry over things that may not happen. And if they do happen, well, I guess there's not much of a big deal about it.

It was all just a game, wasn't it? Quoting what the Joker says, 'why so serious?'

Despite that, I still could not take my eyes off my translucent-looking hands. How long would it take for Hei_Psycho to vanish completely, I wonder? I could always create another avatar, be it a male or a female but...

"If Hei_Psycho no longer exists in Second Life, would it be possible for anyone that he knows in this gaming world to feel sad? I really doubt it..."

"Your hands look heavy. Can I hold them for you?"

My heart leaped at the sound of that familar male voice.

"Wen Zi?"

I instinctively kept my hands in my pockets, "Weren't you there just now? Since when you're here?"

A soft smile appeared beneath his hood. Without any words, he unfastened the shiny ribbon around his neck and removed his long-flowing white garment. As expected of a romantic gay, he placed it over my shoulders. I cringed.

"Wear this, or you'll catch a cold."

"Thanks but I'm not feeling cold now," I grabbed his white clock and tossed it back at him, although my whole body from top-to-bottom was actually freezing to death.

"You take care of yourself and leave me alone."

I gave him the coldest glare that I could muster and proceeded to walk on my original path. I hope my glare would work, because I did not want my 'best' glare to be wasted just like that.

"If I leave you alone, promise me you'll be happy?" He suddenly spoke.

I stopped abruptly. How could he still worry over someone else's happiness, when that someone else was the one who had been trying to tear him apart over and over again?

I wasn't quite sure whether he was being serious towards Hei_Psycho, but still...

"Wen Zi," I turned behind and licked my dry lips, "You see, there's something you got to understand, and that is-"

Out of nowhere, a sudden high-pitched shriek shot through my ear drums and almost shattered my teeth into tiny chunks.

"OH MY GOSH! HE'S SO HANDSOME! I WANT HIM!"

"NO WAY! I SEE HIM FIRST SO MAKE NO MISTAKE, HE'S MINE!"

"HOW DARE YOU PULLED MY HAIR, YOU UGLY BITCH! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GET HIM!"

I sweatdropped at the sight of the incensed 'Super Saiyan' girls fighting over Wen Zi. Is it just me, or they were like housewives fighting over fishes in the wet market?

I was slowly staggering away from the scene, knowing that sooner or later, they would make a deadly chase for the 'exotic mer-man' standing just a few inches beside me. I could only hope that that poor 'mer-man' would make it safe. No nearby sea for him to jump into and hide with the other fishies though. So sad...

As I raised my hand up to bid Wen Zi farewell, he snatched it in a strong grip and pulled me to 'elope' with him.

"Oi, Wen Zi! What the hell?"

"We'll talk later!" His face looked very pale for the very first time, "Run!"

"Run? Why should I run too? You're the one they're after!" I snapped back.

"LOOK! THAT BRAT IS KIDNAPPING OUR MAN!"

"LET'S KILL HIM!"

In the end, I continued running like I never ran before in my life.

If I were given a choice, I would have preferred to stop this insane marathon and explain to them that Wen Zi was the one who kidnapped me. But seeing that he was the 'handsome' one and I was the 'not-so-handsome' one...

Yeah, better not. Is there a nearby sea that I can jump into and hide with the other fishies?

RAM - Random Access Memory

Super Saiyans – A powerful transformation by the characters in Dragon Ball.

In Mandarin, there are no words such as 'he' or 'she' to differentiate two genders, so Wu Qing thought that Psycho was talking about a girl. Just like what had happened between Gui and Wicked when they were talking about Prince/ Feng Lan... xD