The Tale Never Ends Chapter 123

Yuan Chongxi's luopan was made of a block of wood from a peach tree that was struck by lightning. It was a sacred item immensely potent against ghosts and evil spirits. With hardly any shred of clemency, Chongxi slammed it down on the head of the powerless apparition! What an agonizing pain it must be for a soul to endure such a hit!

The soul of the fox demon wailed pain achingly that I almost felt my a tug in my gut. “Is this not a tad too brutal? Should I just destroy it completely to shorten its suffering?” The rest of souls of its kin inside my Gourd heard her screams and began to tremble with fright that my Gourd began to shake and terrified groans began to emit from its uncorked mouth.

The soul of the fox demon took several minutes, squirming painfully until it finally recovered. Surely Chongxi had not driven it into insanity, I hoped. The spirit whimpered between her intermittent sobs, “Show mercy, lord. I said nothing about hiding the truth… Please…” “Speak,” I said to her again, “Where is Aunt Ulan's soul?” But the ghost, hearing me speaking Aunt Ulan's name once more, failed to concentrate at all and instead became fidgety and jittery. Struggling to bring herself to tell the truth, she stuttered, “Sh-she… H-her soul's been taken…”

I have been dreading to hear something like this. But I could not help feeling even more morose and deject to actually hear the words. But unlike before, I longer lost my composure. “What do you mean by she's been taken? And what do you intend to do with her?” I asked coolly. The ghost paused as if she had detected that frosty tone in my voice before she could answer, “I-it was an old man. The old man saw us holding the Flask of Souls that contained her soul and s.n.a.t.c.hed it from us. We could not do anything; the old man has the powers resembling that half of an immortal.” My eyes narrowed. “Then what was your previous intention of taking Aunt Ulan's soul!?” I snapped and the ghost almost jumped with fright. “E-er… Your mercy, my lord, we had only wanted to use her soul to lure you into showing yourself before…” She could not bear to finish for the fear of angering me further. As if being decapitated, the rest of her sentence went on unspoken. But I knew what she was trying to say. Aunt Ulan's soul was merely the bait for them to lure me into a trap for them to try to kill me.

The ghost of the demon noted the uneasy and tense silence between us as I pondered and mistaken, thinking that I was wondering on ways to best torture her. She threw herself to the ground and began banging her head on the ground, prostrating herself at my ankles like a humble slave. “Mercy, my young lord! Please allow us a chance for rebirth! Please, my lord!” G.o.dmother had come up to me wordlessly. She patted on my shoulder and whispered into my ear, “Ask her, my son. See if they were doing this by the bidding of others. Somehow with their likes, I do not think they dare to darken the doors of Murong Hai! There must be someone else involved, especially when these worthless can hardly accomplish anything!”

Hearing this struck a bell in my mind! Indeed! These fools were too easy even for me! They should know they were no match for us, yet the fact that they still dared to offend us could only mean that someone else was the mastermind of this whole affair!

A cold and steely smile appeared on my face. “Heh heh heh! You're begging me to allow you all a chance for rebirth? Very well. But I require the truth from you. Who is behind all this? Who is this person who wishes ill upon me and what is his purpose?” I was confident that their purpose would hardly be anything more than revenge for what Father had done in the past towards them if these worthless fools were the ones planning everything. But a greater and more insidious scheme might be in the offing if someone else was behind everything! There was also the possibility of attempting to abduct me to force Father to divulge the location of the hidden Dragon-slaying Blade, now that I understood the link between Father and Bian Dashou, as well as the Dragon-slaying Blade. What was worst, any one who knew about the Dragon-slaying Blade would undoubtedly be informed about its capabilities and its potential to bestowing one the kings.h.i.+p of the entire nation!

The ghost was still mumbling incomprehensibly, with hardly any lucid words from her. It took her great exertion for the merest understandable message, “N-no one… W-we did everything on our…” I cut her off instantly with a roar, “So be it then! I'll have you all reduced into ingredients for my pills!” The prospects of completely disintegrating into nothingness struck panic into the ghost that she threw herself to my feet again, begging profusely, “Please, my young lord! Mercy, please!” My chest heaved as I breathed heavily. “Speak truthfully! Who ordered you!” I spat intensely at her again. Realizing that there was no other way for her, the spirit of the demon stammered, “N-no… P-please… I, I cannot speak of this…” Chongxi could take no more. With a stomp on the b.u.t.t of his cigarette, he stormed towards the ghost, his hand raising high his luopan as he prepared to strike again on the ghost, screaming loudly, “What the No, you say? I'll have you sprout the truth this instant!” The ghosts raised her arms to s.h.i.+eld herself, horrified beyond words, fearing that one more strike with the luopan might actually reduce her to bits!

I raised an arm to stop Chongxi from doing anything brash. “You mentioned that you cannot speak of this. Why?” I asked again sternly. The ghost squirmed and twitched restlessly with fear as if afraid that she might be watched. Grappling with hysteria, she finally spoke, “Death awaits whoever divulges this secret… Moreover, there is only a little that we know. We do not know the ident.i.ty of he who commands us, truth be told.” My eyes narrowed again as I held her in an inquiring gaze. “Oh? Really?” “Indeed, young lord. Many years ago, our mentor and the seniors of our sect were all slain by your father, leaving only the paltry wretch of us. At that time, our mentor intended to stop the protagonist of the legend from turning into a dragon and ascending into Heaven. Our mentor wishes for the Dragon-slaying Blade. But instead, they were all slain by your father. The news of our mentor's and seniors' fall sent us into hiding. So was the Blade, which slowly faded away under the sands of Time. It was then…” The ghost's voice trailed off. With a hard gulp, she fell silent, indicating that anymore she reveal would result in her death. “It was then, your benefactor appeared, is it not?” I asked, finis.h.i.+ng her sentence for her.

Still, the ghost merely cast frightened glances at me without even the courage to nod at what I said. That was enough for me to understand the rest of her story. The incident between Father and her mentor and seniors had alerted the benefactor of their existence and the said benefactor had then enslaved what remains of the flock of fox demons to do his bidding. Evidently, their slave driver coveted the lost Blade to forge an opportunity of kings.h.i.+p over China! The protagonist that the ghost had spoken of must be Bian Dashou, although Fate deemed it inevitable that only failure awaited his attempt for ascension into Heaven. But there must be more intrigues and conspiracies surrounding Bian Dashou's failed bid for immortality! The benefactor obviously knew about Bian Dashou; he might even be the mastermind who had engineered the failure! This could explain his precise information about the Blade that was lost and news about my parents and me.

Another long talk with Father might tick off all the question marks, I brooded. I became sure that there must be more than what Master Six and Father had told me about their affair. But now that the matter was beginning to involve me, there was no way I could continue without a need-to-know, more so, when every hostile around us apparently thought of me as the weakness of the great Murong Hai.

What a messy business, I mused. Just as I was still busy thinking, Edelweiss came patting on my shoulder. “s.h.i.+yan,” she asked, “Why are they addressing you as ‘young master'?” Only then it occurred to me: G.o.dmother must have cast a spell on Edelweiss and her sisters since entering the cave. This allowed them to see and listen to the ghost of the fox demon that I had extracted from my Spirit Gourd. They have heard every word that she had said.

But before I could reply Edelweiss' question, G.o.dmother sighed loudly. “How not to,” she lamented suddenly, “His mother is practically a living progenitor of all foxes and their kin! This makes him a young lordling in his own right!” Oh my G.o.d, I uttered to myself, “G.o.dmother is jealous!” With a benign and consoling voice as soft as a lullaby, topped by a gentle smile, I quickly said to G.o.dmother, “You are too a mother to me!” She broke into a cackle, all vestiges of sullenness gone instantly! No wonder Father chose to avoid her, with such tempers of hers!

I smiled weakly as a response and quickly turned back to business. Once again, I demanded for the ident.i.ty of the person who took Aunt Ulan's soul, only this time, G.o.dmother interjected before the spirit could barely react, “You might as well have asked me, my son!” What do you mean, I almost blurted. “Does G.o.dmother know the name of the person who took Aunt Ulan soul? Who could that be?”

With a curious glance at G.o.dmother, she threw back a sly and impish chuckle without saying a word!

With her chin, she gestured at the ghost still kneeling and bowing at my feet. “We'll talk later. Let's deal with them first!” I shrugged my shoulders before allowing them to fall loosely on my side. I set alight two yellow-colored talisman strips and waited. The fumes from the burning papers slowly snaked out of the cave. Before long, a strange and ghastly wind began breezing in the enclosed cave chamber and two shadowy figures stepped into view at the entrance.