The Tale Never Ends Chapter 140 The Forest Sprite

My cold and steely voice sent a chill down the monster's spine. It looked even more fearful than before as if Death was lurking from behind every syllable I uttered. Its lips quivered as it struggled to summon the courage to speak, until he spoke at last, "Er... Er... P-please! H-have mercy on me!" The monster's courage was no better than its hideous looks, I mused. Then I smiled and said, "Very well, mercy it is, for now," I added quietly, trying to sound insidious.

Hearing that its life was not in immediate danger, the demon heaved a breath of relief. An impatient Chongxi slammed his fist on the table. "SPEAK! Do you need us to repeat ourselves?!" The bellow from Chongxi scared the demon out of its wits and it threw itself to Chongxi's ankles. I held up a hand to signal for restraint and said to the demon, "Enough bootlicking for now. Answer my question."

There was something about my voice that the demon was especially fearful of. Even with a placid tone, the demon almost leaped with fright everything I spoke. "M-many many years ago... Y-you've slain all of my kin... I was the only one who barely escaped... Through the centuries, I could still hear the agonizing screams of my sires from within your gourd... The parents who sired me and nurtured me... All gone..." Realizing that the demon had mistaken me for Father, I spoke with a bit more warmth, "Rest a.s.sured that you will never need to suffer the same fate as long as you do as I say. Tell me everything about you. There's no need to fret!" The demon must have recognized my Spirit Gourd and believed that I was Father. Feeling more at ease, the demon began telling its tale.

For years, the demon had kept to itself by remaining underwater, shying away from contact with other life forms. Hence it had lost much of its ability to communicate effectively without our help.

A dense woodland once sat to the north of the lake. A brackish, inconspicuous pond laid hidden inside. Just outside the woods, perched atop the crest of a mound, was a villa; an estate owned by a young lady whose name was called Xiao Yanyan. She was the precious daughter of Xiao Siwen—a Warden of the Imperial Court of Liao—who later became Empress.

The heretofore-unknown Xiao Yanyan would then ascend into prominence, becoming one of the most famous figures in the history of China, Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao Dynasty. Following the demise of her husband the Emperor, their son was crowned as his successor and she as the new Empress Dowager. The villa then became one of her Imperial estates.

But no one knew that Forest Sprites were living in the forest just by the estate. The Sprites enjoyed the nourishment they derived from the dragon leys in the vicinity, allowing themselves to be vigorously strong and healthy, that many even had pure and angelic auras. With the mountain ranges of Mount Yan skirting the northern edges of the woods, the woodland was surrounded mostly by bodies of water and all sorts of life, plants and beasts alike, thrived robustly in the deep of the forest. To the south, was a sea that stretched far out of view; an endless blue ocean that met the sky at the horizon. The Sprites became accustomed to water and they roamed the place freely, unhindered and unafraid; there was barely thousands of humans living nearby for the area of Wu Zhong County then was at the borders of the Empire of Liao. The colony of Forest Sprites grew steadily until their luck ran out during the end of the Hongwu Emperor's rule. More and more humans began settling in the region during the rule of Yongle Emperor. The humans felled trees and dug for land, pioneering new settlements for human habitation. In the end, none of the lush forests remained, leaving only the lake here. Much of Wu Zhong was still lakes and lagoons then, and the vast abundance of marine life and the Forest Sprites were able to survive.

Until the final years of the Ming Dynasty, came a group of Taoist priests who then fought against the Forest Sprites. Both factions were able to hold their own in the struggle; the Forest Sprites being accustomed to fighting in water and the Taoist priests were capable sorcerers themselves. But the stalemate was broken when the Taoist priests enlisted the help of a sea serpent; a wrym which undermined the Sprites' superiority in marine warfare. With a simple heave from its snout, the sea serpent had all the water in the region all sucked into its belly, leaving only a few bodies of water far away from their battlefield. With its magic, the sea serpent prevented all water from flowing towards the battlefield. Some of the Forest Sprites tried desperately to reach the nearest bodies of water they saw, but none of them survived the onslaught of the sea serpent, leaving the rest unwilling but easy captives of the priests.

The demon paused in its tale to add that it was a juvenile in age when the fight occurred. The sea serpent and the priests gave the captured Sprites an offer: either to live and submit themselves to a lifetime of servitude, or end up as food for the serpent. Naturally, the chieftain of the Sprites chose to live and the sea serpent belched the water it sucked away so that the Sprites could once again survive in the lake. Before long, the first commands of the priests came. The Sprites were to go to Yahong Bridge Town and hide in the depths of the Huan Xiang River. A duel would be fought there and the Sprites were to a.s.sist the priests during the fight. Their opponent was of course Father. During the fight, the Sprites tried to capsize the boat Father was riding on. But instead, Father tossed the Spirit Gourd into the air and a huge vortex appeared in the center of the river. The lone demon held on to an anchor for dear life as it watched the rest of its kin swallowed by the vortex before being transported into the Spirit Gourd. Their screams and howls would forever haunt it until today...

At this point, I finally understood. The Forest Sprites were the ones hiding underwater to ambush Father in his duel against G.o.dmother's elder sister and her cohorts! They were the ones who were seized by Father with his Gourd, the ones that G.o.dmother mentioned in her tale, and this demon was the lone one who had slipped through the cracks.

"But why do you pull at peoples' legs underwater?" I asked suddenly. The Forest Sprite fumbled incomprehensibly with fear before it summoned enough courage to string a proper sentence, "We do not eat human flesh, but we absorb the vigor of any humans who fall into the water. With each consumption, our powers increases. In the early years when humans began settling in this area, they wear only thin clothing when they worked by the rivers or lakes. We would pelt them with mud and drag them into the water when they come near to clean themselves. Slowly, the humans began realizing that this was hardly a prank by fellow humans and they began fearing us."

I took a swig off my cigarette, with a prodding gesture to urge the Sprite to get on with its tale.

"We were so afraid, my brother who survived the first clash and I. We were so scared that if you were to notice us... Fortunately for us, you did not... Instead, you took a demoness, one who was allied with the priests against you. You took her with you and leaped off to the edge of the river. We saw you stripped her of her powers before you left, riding on your sword into the air. It was only then, we dared to breathe freely..." Then the truth of G.o.dmother's elder sister was enlightened to me: G.o.dmother had always believed that her sister was killed by Father, but the truth might be otherwise.

I cast a quick glance at the demon, hoping that the Sprite had not read my thoughts while restoring my stern facade. "But I heard the demoness did not live long?" I asked inquiringly. "S-she did not. Just moments after you left, the demoness gazed towards North longingly. She muttered something softly; I couldn't hear her. She then took out a dagger and stabbed herself in the chest." A voice muttered weakly, "So this was what happened..." It was Edelweiss beside me who gasped with surprise, her eyes distant and brooding. I gripped her hand tightly and gave her a gentle squeeze, indicating that I too finally understood. She nodded gently to me and I told the Sprite, "Very well. Continue."

After that, my sibling and I continued staying in the Huan Xiang River. The currents were strong there and floods occur almost every year. It became easy for us to absorb the vitality of humans who were caught up in the floods. Until decades ago, there were no longer floods at the Huan Xiang River. Without the vitality of humans to sustain ourselves we were forced to forage for human life force elsewhere. We traveled downstream and came upon a bridge hanging over a river fork, where we saw a convoy of carts and wagons moving on the bridge. My brother swam to the supporting beams of the bridge and shook them furiously; it was a trick he had used regularly. People might be thrown off-balanced and might fall off the bridge. But Brother did not survey the convoy before he acted; at the end of the convoy was an army officer. He saw my brother and immediately fired his weapon. With just two shots from his gun, and my brother was slain!"

Tears began streaming feverishly down its face. The Sprite's hands raised to his face to cover its sobbing face. Our eyes met, Lin Feng, Chongxi, and I; we c.o.c.ked our heads and traded sympathetic frowns to the Sprite's sad tale. Edelweiss' hand trembled. She was about to approach the Sprite to console her but I stopped her. It was not yet time for compa.s.sion, especially we still did not know about the Sprite's intentions.