## Chapter 5
Around 3 AM, she confirmed she needed to speak to Li Ming. This time I deemed it necessary, so I told her to go to Li Ming while I followed—I also needed to see Li Ming after such a long time to see how he was surviving.
As she was about to leave, I asked, "Your name?"
"May," she replied, then ran into the darkness.
I followed her, moving through the darkest shadows while Wei kept her distance in the sky above. As May approached Li Ming's temple and began climbing the long stone stairs, she suddenly turned and called to the darkness: "Why did you follow me?"
Knowing she was referring to me, I didn't reply but remained calm, watching her ascend. She opened the temple gates, and the moment they closed behind her, I moved with lightning speed. Something whistled past my head at incredible velocity—I spun around to see more than a thousand arrows flying toward my position.
My cat-like reflexes took over as I dodged each arrow without receiving so much as a scratch. It seemed my training in the jungle had truly paid off. I scaled a wall of brick and bamboo that stretched forty feet tall, then crossed over, trying to locate what I remembered was Li Ming's room.
I peered through a hole in the bamboo that carved out his room within the temple. There he sat, meditating with only a single candle flickering before him. Without opening his eyes, he picked up a kunai from between his legs and threw it directly at the hole I was observing him through.
I moved quickly and quietly into Li Ming's room. Eyes still closed, he hurled another kunai toward me, but this time I caught it and threw it over the candle, extinguishing the light. Li Ming moved through the air toward me like the wind—faster and more precise than I remembered. Every strike carried deadly accuracy, but my superhuman reflexes gave me the edge.
"I'm not here to fight you, but to help," I said from the darkness.
He responded by smashing the wooden pillar I leaned against with his bare hands. I took to the air, performing a flip over his head.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
At that moment, May and two others burst in. "May just survived an attack from Three Claws," one announced.
"Impossible," Li Ming said.
"I want to be left alone with May." The others set down the ointments they'd brought and departed.
Li Ming turned around as if he could no longer sense my presence. Meanwhile, I perched in the ceiling like a lifeless bat—that's how I concealed myself.
May helped Li Ming light the candles in his room. He took the ointment and approached her as she sat down, allowing him to apply it to her injuries and wounds.
"Tell me how it happened," Li Ming asked.
May replied, "I took out only two of the three claws that attacked me after a long and exhausting battle. Then there was the third one—it overpowered me and was about to finish me off when something moved as swift as light but dark as night. Within a second, the claw was dead. Then I was attacked by a bird, and when I woke up, I found myself cleaned and cared for in a farmhouse. The bird was still there."
"What kind of bird?" Li Ming asked.
"An owl, I think."
"Strange. Something spoke from the shadows, asking questions, but I could only see the owl. I guess its only request was to destroy the claw."
"I see," Li Ming continued. "With whatever that is on our side, we might stand a chance against the claws."
May smiled as Li Ming accompanied her to her room, telling her to rest. After checking around for me with a smile on his face, he returned to his own room. By then, I was already in May's room, though she couldn't spot me until Wei flew in.
I could see excitement in May's eyes the moment she saw Wei. She tried not to scare the owl away as she took out some grains from behind her and fed them to Wei. Wei picked at the grains while May gently and softly touched her feathers.
Then May turned to the darkness and said, "I know you're here. Thank you for earlier—I'd like to repay you."
"I don't need your reward," I replied. "I just want every member of the claws dead."
As I prepared to leave unnoticed, she called out, "Where can I meet you?"
I hesitated before replying, "The farmhouse."
She nodded in agreement, and Wei flew away into the night.