The Tale Never Ends Chapter 119 Godmother's Pas

I smiled weakly to myself and lighted a cigarette. "I recognized a woman from the group of people who attacked us earlier," I said to everyone, "they had tried to abduct me when I was very young, and they failed. Seems like this time, they came prepared. This would mean that Aunt Ulan's soul is with them! But still, we know little of them and I am at a loss of what to do now." Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi too nodded morosely. Not only we did not know why were they targeting me like sharks on a trail of blood, they seemed to know every bit of our movement.

G.o.dmother was puzzled to hear about Aunt Ulan and asked me about her. Sheepishly, I began telling her what happened between Father and her. At the end of my story, G.o.dmother turned melancholic. Like sisters in suffering, she felt sorry for Aunt Ulan too. This, however, sparked a curiosity within me. "How about telling us how you met my father, G.o.dmother?" I asked at once. She smiled and caressed the back of my head and began her tale.

It began more than three hundred years ago, when G.o.dmother was still a feral fox. She could speak in the tongue of humans but she did not have the magic to turn into humans yet. Her family was in a struggle with other tribes on the spat of territory and most of the males in her family were dead due to the strife. But in the final battle against the opposing tribe, came a troupe of human hunters! They slaughtered everyone fox there, regardless of tribes or not.

G.o.dmother had an elder sister then. Despite not having magical powers like G.o.dmother, she was blessed with intellect and wit. She escaped with G.o.dmother, who was injured by the humans, and they fled into a cave. But the cave was not part of the lands they were familiar to, but due to the pressing need, they had to enter into the depths of the subterranean tunnel without knowing what awaited within.

The sisters crawled deeper into the cave. Strangely, the human hunters did not pursue them into the hole. The two sisters finally drew long breathes of relief. Without the panic of being chased by the hunters, the sisters began to survey their surroundings. Not far from them was an underground lagoon. At the banks of the water was a huge boulder, upon it was seated a man. The sisters looked closely and saw a fox sitting on the man's shoulder! The man, young and comely, was sitting cross-legged on the boulder in meditation and the white fox opened its eyes, peering warily at their intruders with its sparkling blue eyes.

The sisters knew better than to anger the man and his fox, knowing that they must wield powerful abilities. They could not discern if the pair were true deities or immortals, still, they decided that proper niceties should be observed. "Our apologies for intruding your peace, dear lord. We had no knowledge that you were here. We were escaping for our lives. Our apologies again for the disturbance. We'll just..." The "leave" word came without a sound from her mouth, for to both sisters' amazement, the young man opened his eyes and regarded the newcomers! He studied them for seconds and smiled thoughtfully. Suddenly, without warning, the man and his fox vanished and re-appeared before them in the blink of a second! A single thought flashed through the minds of the sisters: This must be a powerful person with magical powers! They did not know how did he move to them, knowing only that the young man must be wielding powers that could crush them into dust. Additionally, there were no flaming torches in the cave, yet the entire cavern was illuminated by a mysterious source of light!

Beads of cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the sisters. Fear and panic gripped them so hard that they could barely move an inch. Immortals were often known to be eccentric or strange, regarding minor demons as nothing but specks of dirt and soot. They would never have any qualms in disposing of them like ants or vermin. Fearing the worst, the sisters began to regret entering the cave and incurring the wrath of the immortal!

But to their surprise, the young man unleashed no such horror! He bent down to look at the young G.o.dmother who was in her elder sister's arms. An arrow was protruding from her frail body and her life was slowly ebbing away. The young man magically conjured a small calabash gourd and uncorked it. He tipped it over and poured some white medicinal powder on G.o.dmother's wound, and gently tapped on the arrow with another hand. Instantly, the arrow vanished into thin air like fumes and the wound began to heal quickly!

I took out my Spirit Gourd from my pocket. "Is this the same gourd he used?" I asked and G.o.dmother nodded. That must be Father when he was younger, I mused. He just seemed to enjoy making dramatic appearances! My thoughts were cut short as G.o.dmother continued her tale, "My powers were very low, but I can communicate with humans. It was then when I began to develop feelings for your father. But my powers were still too weak for me to transform into a human form then."

That was not Father's only act of kindness; he allowed them to stay and take refuge in the cave and even provided her with more medicinal pills. He had even taught her magic, helping her to a.s.sume a human form at will. The sisters grew closer to Murong Hai and began to discover that he was hardly the cold and aloof immortal that most people encounter. Later on, they even helped Murong Hai in providing aid to other people in need when they left the cave.

All was fine until one day, a military convoy came to the area where they were providing food to victims of natural disasters. The soldiers of the convoy immediately stopped their carriages and wagons and got off. The soldiers came and confiscated the wicker baskets containing food for the poor and needy and were about to leave when the sisters got into a rough spat with them! With their magical powers, the sisters could defeat the small number of soldiers. But the soldiers escaped and radioed for reinforcements! It did not take long for a larger contingent of soldiers to arrive and the sisters were forced to flee into hiding!

Murong Hai was sitting on a horse carriage when the larger force of soldiers came. He was hardly perturbed by the sight of the army, merely smiling benignly at the commanding officer of the troop that arrived. "Which of you are the rebels who dared attacked the celestial armies!" Murong Hai heard him and giggled as if he had heard a joke. "Celestial armies, you say?" He mocked, "how celestial were you? You are soldiers of the Imperial Court! The armies of the Ming Empire! You are sworn to protect the people, not oppress them! You failed to repel the invasion that has had the people running away in fear and dest.i.tution, yet you dare take their food! You are not soldiers! You're nothing but mere brigands!" Murong Hai paused and continued, "Let Heaven be my witness today that I hereby exact judgment upon you!" A sword appeared magically out of nowhere before he had finished and shot into the air before piercing down the sky like a bolt of lightning and beheaded the officer!

Trumpets blared suddenly and roars of bellowing soldiers came suddenly, filling the entire region like the roars of a thunderstorm. But the noises came not from the pillaging soldiers, rather, they came from another huge host of an army that appeared suddenly! The army, like a swarm of ants pouring out of a nest, immediately filled the entire landscape, surrounding the marauding soldiers of the Imperial Court. Frightened like a pack of beaten dogs, the soldiers quickly leave, limping away with their tails hanging between their legs.

"Wait a minute," I interjected, "from where did the army appear?" G.o.dmother merely smiled. "I did not know too myself then. But later your father revealed to us that he knows magic that allows him to turn any blade of gra.s.s or any single tree around him into the guise of soldiers." I nodded quietly. Father has so much powers and magical abilities that not even I, as his son, could fully comprehend. I had heard of such magic of turning plants into soldiers, but never did I expect Father to know such magic.

When the marauding soldiers had left, Murong Hai hopped off his carriage and knelt beside the corpse of the dead officer. With a smile, he muttered, "It's best that someone like you are gone for good." He pointed at the corpse and immediately it was reduced into ashes that disappeared into the scuds of breeze that blew by!

The incident made the sisters truly admired Murong Hai. They would often visit him at the cave. One day, a senior of the elder sister came looking for her. He left her some instructions which the elder sister went to her younger sibling and bade her goodbye. There was something she had to do, said the elder sister, and she would only be back after some time.