The Tale Never Ends Chapter 107

The Creed of the Eight Trigrams was finally decimated after a long and arduous struggle. But that was hardly the end of my trials; or rather, it was only the end of the beginning. From Master Six and Father, I then found out that I, Murong s.h.i.+yan, was an unnamed orphan of unknown origins. Father had found me when I was still a toddler, and there was a sword with me which bore the name “s.h.i.+yan”. Hence, I was so named, and I was raised until I reached adulthood.

Something about how Master Six and my parents conveyed the trembling message told me that they knew about me and where I came from. I could see that there was something against them telling me the truth. But that mattered not to me. In anyhow there was nothing I could do save to wait and see.

For a motor accident later cast us into another mysterious adventure where we met the three Champions of Yishui—Zhang Zhigui (born Zhang Ying), Lu Bugong, and Yan Jis.h.i.+.

The sudden appearance of my father and the maven of Chinese medicine, Xie Bingyi, at our meal together had surprised me. But there was more: Zhang Zhigui even addressed Old Man Xie as his granduncle on his mother's side! Zhang Zhigui scrambled to his feet at the sight of Old Man Xie and immediately gave a deep and respectful bow while muttering something along the lines of “I have no idea of your coming, dear Granduncle”. With his ever so haughty aloofness, Xie Bingyi merely snorted with contempt, “Hmph! Leave!”

The benign and reserved Zhang Zhigui merely uttered his thanks in spite of the scorn shown to him by his granduncle. “All right now… Everyone have a seat,” Father said subtly. With his usual smugness, Father moved a chair away and sat on the table while reaching for a flask of liquor and filled a gla.s.s with the amber-brown liquid. Wearing a slight frown, I asked quietly, “Er… Father, Uncle Xie… What brings you here?” Father took a draught of his drink before he replied, “We just came back. We were at Mr. Zhang's earlier…”

Father began giving to us his account of what happened. He had long foreseen that Mr. Zhang would be in trouble. But he did not come to his friend's aid, no matter how close they were, for he realized that this was part of the cycle of Karma; what goes around comes around. But what he only discovered later was that the matter had exceeded my ability to handle adequately. Knowing that Zhang Zhigui and his companions would be around, Father had intentionally asked Old Man Xie to come along to Mr. Zhang's residence, and after making sure that Mr. Zhang was fine, they came directly to the restaurant in search of us. From the looks of things, it was clear as day that Old Man Xie had only loathing and dislike for Zhang Zhigui. Still, Xie Bingyi deferred only to Father, and so here he was at Father's behest.

“Not bad, young one.” Father regarded Zhang Zhigui. “To think that you have such impeccable command of the magic of Zhuyou at such a young age! You're hundred times stronger than my hopeless son!” Father glanced at me briefly. I kept silent, despite the churning displeasure at what my father said. “Hmph! What are you waiting for, boy?” Old Man Xie snapped at his nephew. “Thank Master Murong for his kind words!” Zhang Zhigui might have heard of Father's name. Immediately he sank into another low bow with reverence towards Father, saying, “I thank you for your kind words, Senior Murong. I am merely millions of miles away from what my granduncle is capable of.” That earned him another snort from Old Man Xie, who mumbled in a low voice, “Such sophistry from your lips, brat.”

Later I found out that Zhang Zhigui, like any other children of his age when he was young, began his tutelage under Old Man Xie once upon a time ago, hence his skillfulness in the magic of Zhuyou. Somehow, he began emulating his grandfather, whom Old Man Xie disliked and hated, and started to behave more genteelly to a point until Old Man Xie got angry of him and abandoned teaching him.

With the atmosphere more amicable, Old Man Xie began talking to the rest of his juniors at the table. He saw the ruler Lu Bugong was holding and remarked, “You are the boy from the Lu Family, are you not? Hmph… You're very much better than your old man and his before him.” Lu Bugong shuddered and reached for his cup, raising it with appreciation to Xie Bingyi. Old Man Xie waved him off coolly, and peered at Yan Jis.h.i.+. “Heh heh heh! Look at your sullen looks! You remind me of those who died by hanging! You are a son of the Yan Family!” But before Yan Jis.h.i.+ could reply, Xiao Si cut him to the chase instead, barking at the elder man, “Come on! You have something against us to died by hanging?!”

And the whole table fell into a fit of laughter.

“Father,” I asked as our laughter slowly subsided, “Do you have any idea as to why these maleficent spirits targeted Mr. Zhang?” “I have contacted Zheng Shuang about this,” Father replied, nodding his head, “And we found out that the truck belonged to Mr. Zhang's company. That is why. But take no more heed in this case…” Father flicked his wrist and conjured a pocket watch. He handed it to me, which I studied it briefly before something made me scream with shock, “Th-this!” Everyone around the table turned towards me and Father nodded. “Yes,” he said, as an answer to the question I have yet to ask, “This is Ulan's pocket watch. Something has happened up Inner Mongolian. Without any way to directly contact us, she has sent somebody here to look for us. As you well know that it is hardly appropriate for me to go there; so I'm sending you. I'll see to the things here in Wu Zhong, don't worry.”

Even so, what Father said merely piqued my curiosity. Father was one who would never consciously intercede in such mundane matters yet this time, he was acting out of character. He seemed to notice my apprehension, and immediately said, “This is a case that is related to me somehow. So it might only be trivial to me, but I will have to intervene this time, whether I like it or not.” The word “trivial” did not escape my notice; what seemed to us like a difficult case was only a trivial matter to Father.

Zhang Zhigui puffed his chest at the news of us going to Inner Mongolia. “Brother s.h.i.+yan! Let us come with you!” he said, “Especially, since all these issues stemmed from our case.” Zhang Zhigui was eager to solve the case of this Order of Pain, not unlike how I felt when we were trying to defeat the Creed of the Eight Trigrams too. But before I could agree, Old Man Xie immediately retorted, fis.h.i.+ng out a letter from his pocket and handing it to Zhang Zhigui. “Have a look at this first! You'll have no time to go to Inner Mongolia!” With shaking hands, Zhang Zhigui carefully took the letter and opened it. As he read its contents, a fearful expression formed on his face and he looked with horror at his granduncle. “Grandgranduncle! Th-this! I, I'm afraid this is beyond my ability to handle!”

Much to everyone's surprise, Old Man Xie glared at Zhang Zhigui. It was the first time since his entry that he truly set his eyes upon his grandnephew; he had been avoiding looking at him as if Zhang Zhigui was nothing but filth earlier. “I'll go with you!” He growled, “No one from your Zhang Family will dare defy me as long as I am present!” The whole table was stunned by this; this was one of the rare moments where Old Man Xie would agree on a trip! I did not ask about the contents of Zhang Zhigui's letter, more so since I caught the gist that it was a private family matter. At the end of our meal, Old Man Xie immediately headed to the train station with the three Champions of Yishui following behind.

Whereas my companions and I went back to my home with Father that night. It was already midnight when we arrived. We walked through the door and there was a tall lady, dressed in Western style, sitting with her back to us. She was talking to Mother, although I could hear from her voice that she was clearly embarra.s.sed and disturbed by my mother's youthful looks and warm hospitality.

The lady's head turned as she heard the door clicked opened. As she turned, our eyes met and I felt a strange tingle in my heart. The girl was pretty; but not lavishly gorgeous like princesses or n.o.ble ladies, but she wore a remarkable temperament about her, a spirit of tremendous vim that no city girls embodied. But something about her seemed very familiar to me! But I could not remember if we had truly met before!

Hence I was standing dumbstruck at the door, staring at the lady. Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi too were staring at her, equally speechless beyond words just like I was. But the lady stood up, and held right hand to her chest and bowed, uttering, “Well met again, Young Master!”