The Tale Never Ends Chapter 130 The Windchaser, Zhu Mei

Old Shang began laughing loudly. "Hahahahah! That squat shorty is the Fifth of the Six Terrors! A friend as close as a brother of mine!" He gulped down his liquor and went on, "We enjoyed quite a reputation out here away from the borders. Hence, people began calling us the Six Terrors of the Frontier! All six of us served during the relief of the great earthquake long ago and we met your father then. It was during our battles together that we came to respect and admire him. He is not one of the Six, but he remains a brother to us. I'm the Third of the Six, so you can call me Third Uncle. The shorty is the Fifth, so you can just call him Fifth Uncle too."

So these are the Six Terrors, I thought to myself. The name of the Six Terrors traveled far and wide; their exploits were known to all pract.i.tioners of magic and arcane skills across the land. Each of the Six was rumored to possess extraordinary powers or skills, but they rarely ventured away into China proper, preferring to remain in the frontier. But the name of the Six Terrors summoned to mind the impression of outlaws. The younger Shang had confessed to knowing that his father was somewhat of a marauder in his younger days. The Six Terrors were hardly simple and nice folk, but they were hardly evil too.

Just when Old Shang revealed to us the ident.i.ty of the stocky old man from the canyon, G.o.dmother's hand banged on the handle of her chair with shock. "Could he be... Zhu Mei, the Windchaser?!" She gasped. Old Shang merely smiled thinly, his head nodding faintly. "If only we knew..." She muttered under her breath, "s.h.i.+yan could have learned a thing or two from this great man!"

Shang Pei chuckled. "This brother of mine may appear ugly and unpleasing to look at. But rest a.s.sured, he is a kind man! He had wanted to attend the opening of s.h.i.+yan's investigation agency when he got wind of it. But I stopped him. Your appearance will only frighten the guests, I told him!" Shang Pei laughed again.

Most of the conjurers and mediums who had worked with Father during the great calamity of the Tangshan Earthquake were non-partisans; independent hermits or vagabonds who neither mingled nor lived with ordinary folk. Many of them, the Six Terrors among them, chose to live far away from the common people. Hence Fort Enigma was in truth an enchanted fortress. The entire structure of Fort Enigma was under a powerful spell; enchantment cast upon the very foundations of the stronghold to remain unseen and unnoticed by others to prevent any prying folk. The fortress would never be accessible to us, if not for G.o.dmother. Instead, we would have been walking in circles around aimlessly, even if the fortress was just beside us!

As we talked and drank, our subject looped back to Zhu Mei. "I'm afraid Zhu Mei's name has as much respect as a scorpion in a desert. He is feared by many, but only a handful of people like him. He just loves to toy with people. It's a bad habit of his that he has never been able to sever from himself. But he has always been a kind man. The Labyrinthian Canyon, as you now know it, was a haunted area. An army was ambushed there and none of its soldiers survived. As a result, the place became a haunted forest due to the grudgeful spirits and wraiths that still reside in that area!" "But we did not find any remains of humans save for a lone skull of a dead man!" It was Lin Feng who had quipped after clinking cups with the younger Shang. "It has been centuries since the ma.s.sacre. Time and weather have done much of the work to bury the soldiers' remains several feet underground now. The skull that you see might be Zhu Mei's warning to ward off hunters! It was a gesture of kindness so that no hunters will get lost there!"

"But we did not see any ghosts!" Yuan Chongxi countered, before he fell into a subdued mutter, "But we did encounter something strange nights ago..." We related to Shang Pei about the ghastly encounter with the evil aura during the night we stayed in the Canyon. "When we first came here hundreds of years ago, there was a fortress outside the canyon. The chief of the brigands occupying the fortress was a man called Gao Jun. He was known to be a great runner before he was discharged by the army and became a bandit. The horde of brigands were ordinary outlaws without any magical powers. There is a cliff that hangs over the canyon. Birds would fly past every day, only to be struck down by the evil aura of the vengeful spirits in the canyon. The terraces under the cliff became known to the bandits as a bountiful trap where bird carca.s.ses would crash to the ground every day for them to forage as food, until the day we came. Zhu Mei went to the fortress and challenged the bandits. In the end, the chief of the bandits, Gao Jun, was frightened into p.o.o.ping his pants!"

Lin Feng adjusted himself in his seat, displaying a sudden amount of interest, saying, "What did he do to frighten the man so?" "He fought against Gao Jun in single combat with the rest of the bandits watching. Unbeknownst to the marauders, he cast a spell on the ring they were both fighting in. Whenever they tried to enter the ring to help their leader, they could not reach the ring no matter how they walk. Even the arrows they fired at him vanished immediately as soon they entered the ring. Gao Jun was armed with a long and large sabre while Zhu Mei was weaponless, but the bandit leader was helpless against him. None of his strokes still to hit Zhu Mei who merely yawned lazily. After a few rounds, everyone heard a loud crack. It was Gao Jun who was. .h.i.t with a powerful flick on his forehead by Zhu Mei!"

Zhu Mei was having fun teasing the powerless Gao Jun. The latter almost jumped with pain when he was. .h.i.t. "How's that!" Zhu Mei taunted him. Gao Jun got up and threw himself at Zhu Mei again, only for Zhu Mei to flick at his forehead again. A pair of swells could clearly be seen on the bandit leader's forehead as he grimaced with agony. Still, he got up again, refusing to give up. This time, Zhu Mei hit so hard on his forehead again that blood began trickling down on the forehead wound. "Oh my!" Zhu Mei yelped with joy, "Your head is burst open like a watermelon!"

Gao Jun realized that he was being played like a fool! He began fleeing, running out of the ring and sped towards East. Confident with his speed, he forsook what pride he could, hoping only to retreat to safety. For more than ten miles he ran until he stopped under a large tree, gasping for breath. But he had barely taken two breaths when Zhu Mei appeared from behind the tree, smiling viciously at him. "You're here!" he said, "I have been waiting for you!" Gao Jun leaped with fright and bolted away, heading towards South. After another few leagues, he stopped at another tree. He made sure no one was behind the tree before collapsing down on the ground, panting hard. "Finally," he muttered under his breath, "I've shaken him off!"

But instead, Zhu Jun's voice rang again, striking him like the toll of a bell! "You did! Only you shook me to your front!" Zhu Jun was sitting on a branch above, waiting for him! He jumped down and Gao Jun was on the verge of fainting. He scrambled up and ran again. This time, he thought of the adage, "The most dangerous place is the safest," and fled back to his fortress, hoping that Zhu Mei would never think of chasing him there. Gao Jun was already exhausted when he reached before the gates of his fortress. He sat down on the ground. His men came to him, wanting to help him up. But none of them could seem to reach him! Strange, yelled some of the bandits. Suddenly, Zhu Mei walked out from inside the fortress! "No, it's not strange!" He boomed loudly. How was it possible that he is in the fortress, the bandits began to think. Zhu Jun reached for a broom and tore off a bamboo bark and continued sauntering slowly towards Gao Jun while using a knife to sharpen the bark. "I wonder how it would be if I were to slowly pierce this into somebody's eye!" He uttered, much to everyone's terror! He reached before Gao Jun and slowly pointed it at his eye, moving gradually towards him. But Gao Jun, now utterly spent, could not even move an inch! Horrified beyond his wits, he began p.o.o.ping his pants! Everyone dropped to their knees and begged for Zhu Mei's mercy. They demolished their fortress and moved somewhere else!

Old Shang laughed and so did we. "That's the Windchaser for you!" G.o.dmother exclaimed with a hint of pride on her face, "No one escapes from his clutches!" Indeed, I mused quietly, so this was the magic that had us walking in circles in the Labyrinthian Canyon days ago. Not even my Spirit Sight was able to help me see through the deep magic. Ghost Barriers were merely sorcery that causes hallucinations to anyone affected, whereas this is true magic! The magic that could be used to actually bend the physical laws of Time and s.p.a.ce!

Old Shang Pei spoke again as our laughter subsided. "We had noticed that this was a haunted area when we came. Zhu Mei realized that the place was immensely rich with Yin energy due to the vengeful spirits wandering in the canyon, hence he wanted to keep the place as his own. Informed of your arrival this time, he cast a spell to seal off the vengeful spirits in the canyon for your safety! Still, the evil aura endures. What you heard and felt was the sensation of the carnage during the ma.s.sacre. It was a spiritual sensory reenactment of what happened then that you almost felt you were there yourself. This ill.u.s.trates how strong the aura is, and how deep was the grudge borne by these spirits. As to why Zhu Mei refused to reveal his name, he is abashed that his sorceries are nothing if compared to your father's. He was afraid of being embarra.s.sed to have the son of Murong Hai learning some parlor trick from him! Just like what your G.o.dmother just said herself, she would surely have you to learn something from Zhu Mei if you realized who he is. But learning from him is not without its disadvantages: Zhu Mei's magic is of the Fire element, hence he chose a place rich of Yin energy to practise magic. So are you, s.h.i.+yan, learning from him might be more helpful to you than we know."