妙 赫 欲

My name is Miaoshi Yoku, the closest translation in your language would be "luminescent crimson passion", not a perfect match, but acceptable. I was born in early February 1881, the very end of the year of the Dragon, in a small fishing village in the province of Zhe Jaing. Every year, in order to insure that we would have a good harvest from the ocean, a Demon called Xici would demand the sacrifice of a young girl from the village. My name was drawn shortly after I became six years of age.

Not wishing to see my life end so soon, my father went in search of a Demon Hunter, to slay Xici and free our village from its wrath. He returned with a Shih, a warrior willing to take on our foe. As payment, the Shih required that the girl's life that he saved became his. I was to leave with him, never to see my family or village again, and train to become a demon hunter myself. My father agreed, even though it meant losing his daughter forever, at least I would be alive and the sacrifices would end.

Even though I was only six, I knew what my duty was, and vowed to serve the Shih without question. I would make my family proud, even if I would never see them again. I learned much in the ten years I trained with the Shih, and became a practiced demon hunter myself. We would ride across the countryside, sending demons back to hell whenever the reward was bountiful enough.

On my sixteenth birthday, the Shih informed me that my training with him was finished. He had a debt to a landlord in Changsha, and I was to be given to him as payment in full. We would travel to meet Xiang Jaing the following morning.

I spent the next three years acting as personal bodyguard to Xiang Jiang . I would roam his palace, searching for intruders, and ending their lives. I cannot fathom the amount of blood I loosed on those grounds.

During one very memorable raid on Xiang's quarters, after defeating the attackers, I found two children hiding under a cart. Guessing that their parents were killed in the attack, I brought the new orphans to my master. Xiang agreed that they must have belonged to the newly deceased, but decreed that they should not suffer for their parents crimes, and Xiang vowed to take them in and raise them as his own. Relieved, I continued the evening's rounds.

The next few days were quite nice, it was a welcome change to have laughing children in the compound. I played with them when I was not on duty, secretly wishing that I would be able to have a family of my own someday.

I relive the last day of my life often. It was June 16, 1900, and on my evening rounds, I stopped to check up on the children. They were not in their rooms. Scouring the grounds, I heard odd noises coming from one of the quarters in the rear of the palace. Entering the room, I saw Xici, the demon from my past, feasting on the bodies of the two children. Drawing my sword and uttering a curse of final death to the demon, I advanced on him. I distinctly remember the sudden sharp pain of steel entering my flesh from behind, severing my body in two.