The Tale Never Ends
/ The Tale Never Ends Chapter 103-104 Dead Man Driving Chapter and Turmoil at the Zhang Residence
Inadvertently, all eyes around the table were naturally directed upon the one single person who had no short of encounters with the paranormal: me! As the youngest and possibly the most powerful medium in town, the name of Murong Shiyan had become a household topic across the little hamlet of Wu Zhong County. As we ate, my companions and I endured the ceaseless bombardment of weird and strange questions unleashed upon us by the girls. "Oh, Brother Shiyan! Are the rumors about your encounters true, or were they merely publicity stunts?" One of the girls asked. My eyeballs rolled upwards involuntarily while I nearly scowled out loud. But Yuan Chongxi was quick to answer; mumbling through the food in his mouth, he barked incredulously, "That's up to you! It's only true if you choose to believe, and these things do not exist if you don't!" It was a just a bunch of nonsense Chongxi sprouted to keep the girl occupied, but I almost vomited my food when the girl yelled pompously, "Oh, My God! What deep wisdom!" My eyes rolled again.
But another girl badgered me with another question, "Brother Shiyan, Brother Shiyan. People say ghosts are just around us, even though we can't see them? Is that true?" At last, a question of substance, I almost breathed with relief, however menial it was. My fingers instinctively traced along the already-healed scar on my face, feeling the prickly sensation grazing on the tip of my fingers as I pondered a response. "Urm... Well... The statement is right and wrong at the same time, I guess. Some people only believe in what they see. But there are times when what we witness are merely illusory distractions meant to lead us astray. On what grounds are we to judge if a person standing before us is a human or a ghost?" The girl immediately pointed at her own eyes. "Our eyes of course!" "That is true, only if we are looking at humans," I said, giggling gently, "But the same cannot be said for ghosts. You see them, and sometimes you don't. We rely on our minds."
The table had turned quiet suddenly and all other chatters across the table died down as I began to feel the weight of the gazes from everyone at the table upon me. The girl was about to ask some more, when another girl beside her rummaged for her mobile phone. She fiddled at the controls of her phone and clicked at an icon that looked like a streaming app to me. She raised her phone and began speaking to its camera, "Hi, everyone! Here we are, at a gathering where renowned medium..." My voice was stuck halfway at my throat and I fell silent, watching as the girl began receiving "gifts" from other users of the app...
Suddenly I heard a disembodied voice emitting from her phone, "Hey, it's Shiyan! Guess who I am!" Flustered, I barked at the direction of the girl's outstretched hand holding her phone, "How can I know who the hell you are?" Another voice, unfamiliar to me, rang too, "What medium! Just a bunch of shysters and charlatans!" And I choked hard, speechless beyond words...
Nevertheless, it was plain and clear that the girl had managed to reap a heap load of pixelated gifts from fellow users of the app, by using my face.
Girls today were so attracted to the mystic and mysterious such as the paranormal and supernatural. I was only able to breathe easily when we reached the end of the dinner, having weathered the shelling of bizarre questions. But to my dismay, that was not the end of the gathering; the girls wanted to adjourn to a karaoke joint for some more fun. Immediately, Yuan Chongxi and I quickly bowed out with the pretense of business, leaving Lin Feng to fend for himself among the girls. He was looking at us incredulously as we left, with Yuanyuan dragging him with her...
Yuan Chongxi and I immediately fled to our car and I pedaled hard on the throttle. Within ten minutes, we were back at the Center. But we had barely sunk ourselves into the sofa when Lin Feng called. I was thinking of teasing him as soon as I answered the phone, only to hear his agitated voice. "Shiyan! We need you! There's been an emergency!" My brows creased into a frown. "What's wrong?" "We were on the way to the karaoke joint when we witnessed an accident! A bus filled with people had collided with a heavily-laden truck! Blood is everywhere!" "Ah..." I murmured. Lin Feng would have been calling first to Zheng Shuang and not me, if this was a simple and straightforward accident. "What did you see, Brother?" I asked again, sounding more definite now. And he answered, "It's not just me... Even Yuanyuan and the girls saw it too..."
A chill dread ran down my spine suddenly. "What is it that you saw?" I pressed again. "I saw a female ghost, her hair disheveled and wild, who has only the upper half of her body! The bisected ghost was stuck to the rear axle of the truck when I saw it, grabbing on desperately to the shaft of the truck with her two arms wrapped around it tightly..." Ghosts would not easily allow themselves to be so easily seen by humans. But Lin Feng had explicitly mentioned that everyone was able to see her! This was no ordinary female ghost, I mused; she might have mutated into something worst and more malevolent. Most spirits retain their former emotions and awareness even though as ghosts, they have weaker willpower than humans, allowing them to be easily affected by other elements, especially hatred and grudge!
Xiao San was the only one among the Seven Sisters to die in an accident. This was also why she has the strongest hatred among them all. Without her sisters to keep her hatred in check, Xiao San would have long turned into another female ghost with as much malevolence as the one Lin Feng witnessed, one most commonly known as vengeful spirits.
These were not vengeful spirits we usually see in fiction; in fact, true vengeful spirits were not technically ghosts anymore, but an entity devoid of the ability to reason and feel, an impartial and neutral natural occurrence like a shark or a tsunami. But unlike most natural catastrophes, vengeful spirits dwell and lurk only at a designated spot, most likely the location where it died, such as the site of his or her fatal accident and among others.
"Get to somewhere safe at once!" I barked into the phone, "Have the girls go home as soon as possible! I fear that our problems are only beginning. That is heavy stuff you witnessed there. Chongxi and I are on the way!" I slammed the phone back to its cradle and dragged Yuan Chongxi out the doors of our Center. Bewildered and perplexed, Yuan Chongxi did not know what was happening. "Something bad has happened with Brother Lin," I said before telling him the whole story. Chongxi began making calculations, trying to divine whatever he could on the way. He too had noticed that there was more than meets the eye to this case than a simple vengeful spirit.
"It's OK. We'll be fine," Yuan Chongxi said suddenly, breaking my train of thoughts. He had finished his calculations and concluded that everything will be well. I was relieved to hear this. A bad omen now would spell disaster for us all.
We reached the scene of the accident within minutes. Apparently, the accident had occurred hours before Lin Feng and the girls passed by. Zheng Shuang was present when we came, and we found him talking to Lin Feng. He came to us when he saw us and we exchanged words of greeting. "How is the situation? I did not expect you to be here?" Zheng Shuang's forehead creased. "I was notified by the Traffic Police about this incident, hence I was summoned here. This is a terrible accident, and the driver of the truck..." He paused for seconds before he continued, "According to the coroner's report, the time of death of the driver does not match the time of the accident! He was long dead for at least two hours even before the accident!" "Interesting... A dead man driving..." I muttered with a sly smile forming slowly on my face.
"You have noticed something, did you Shiyan?" Zheng Shuang asked, noticing my wry smile, "Could this be another plot of the..." "We cannot be sure yet," I said sharply, "I'm sure Brother Lin had reported to you everything that he witnessed, did he not? Nevertheless, there are still some details that we need to iron out before we can be certain..." I gave Zheng Shuang a short summary on what vengeful spirits really were and instructed him to find out everything he could about the pickup truck and its driver. The information would be crucial to our investigations. Accustomed to our ways, he would report at once any information that he could glean before his superiors heard of anything!
As soon as I finished, my phone rang suddenly. It was a number that I could not recognize. I clicked the "Answer" button only to hear nothing, save for the noisy static buzzing on the line.
"Who's this? Say something! Bad signal?" I barked into the mouthpiece of my phone, feeling annoyed and exasperated.
But with no response to my yellings, I ended the call. Who was that, Zheng Shuang asked and I shook my head, saying, "I don't know. There was no one. Leave it." I followed Zheng Shuang to the scene of the accident which was just in the middle of the road. A police officer stepped in my way with an arm forward to bar me. "Halt! Unauthorized personnel..." He realized it was me and immediately swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Brother Shiyan. Please, please." I thanked him and went straight to the wreckage of both vehicles. The bus was empty; its passengers and driver had already been sent to the hospital and the driver of the pickup truck had already been detained by Zheng Shuang and his team. All that was left, was the unrecognizable heap of the wreck which was once the two vehicles.
I went to the rear of the truck and crouched on all fours. I examined the rear axle of the truck with my Spirit Sight and found nothing wrong, contrary to what Lin Feng had told me. But it was hardly unexpected, although I began to feel uneasy. My phone rang again, much to my chagrin, and I saw a new message. I was feeling annoyed when I opened the message to find that it was sent by the number that called me earlier! Scrolling down below, I saw the message: Where are you, there's an emergency here! Come quick! At the bottom was a name, Xiao Qi!
So the phone call earlier was made by Xiao Qi! That would explain the incessant static I heard! But Xiao Qi and her sisters were all ghosts! It must really be an emergency if even they could not handle it! I spun and ran to Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi, hastening them to our car. "Hey, Shiyan! Where are you going?" Zheng Shuang yelled from behind. I merely reminded him to give me a call if they find anything, pulling my companions with me and we rushed off.
"What's wrong?" Lin Feng asked me on our way to Aunt Fen's home and I merely muttered a curt "don't know". The tone of Xiao Qi's message unsettled me deeply. I merely told my companions of Xiao Qi's message without much elaboration. "This could be serious!" Yuan Chongxi said, "The Seven Sisters are not your average ghosts. There isn't much that they could not handle!" Yuan Chongxi and I shared the same sentiments, I noticed, although Lin Feng was thinking otherwise. "We cannot be certain," he said, "They are but ghosts nonetheless, unlike us mediums. It may be something that only we can handle, since she explicitly asked for us. Something might have happened to Aunt Fen or Mr. Zhang!" "I don't know. There's no use guessing now," I said, my finger caressing my scar instinctively, "Just get there quick."
We were nearby Aunt Fen's residence when I began to feel an ominous aura sweeping across the neighborhood. Something bad has indeed happened, I thought. Our car came to Aunt Fen's home and we found her already waiting anxiously for our arrival, and she was so relieved to see us.
Immediately, I asked Aunt Fen what happened and she replied hastily, her expression worried and distressed, "Go upstairs quick! My husband, he's... He's gone mad suddenly! Xiao Qi and the others are still trying to hold him down!" So, Mr. Zhang was possessed! Despite being the eldest of the Seven Sisters, Aunt Fen no longer wielded the powers she once had as a ghost after she was resurrected. She could only rely on Xiao Qi and the rest of the Sisters for help.
The three of us bolted up the stairs and Lin Feng, who was at the front, immediately kicked open the door. Xiao Qi and her sisters were embroiled in a fierce tussle with Mr. Zhang, whose eyes were blood-shot and his face pale as Death as he roared and grunted like an angry bull trying to break free! Yuan Chongxi immediately began calculating with his fingers, trying to divine what had happened, only to exclaim with alarm, "Oh my God! The omens are bad!" I was stunned to hear this and immediately shared a dark look with Yuan Chongxi, who was still grimacing from the dire signs he had just received. A bad omen, of all times! I threw my gaze back to the raging Mr. Zhang. As if sensing my gaze, he channeled his strength and his voice boomed like a deafening thunder, shaking off the six Sisters who were trying to subdue him! He threw his head back, roaring again triumphantly and glared at me with his wild, red eyes!
A rush of aura gushed from his angry stare; the feeling of hatred and grudge! Like an unstoppable tide, a malevolent aura spreading hate and anger swept over the entire room, sending chills down my spine. Beside me, I could see that Lin Feng had felt it too. But Lin Feng was more accustomed to violence than I was. The wave of hatred tainted his soul when it hit us and he too emitted a roar himself like an intoxicated beast high on the thirst for blood! He lunged at Mr. Zhang, throwing at him a diversion before landing a kick into the older man's face!
Lin Feng's kick hit Mr. Zhang squarely in the face, but the older man held his ground! He was as sturdy as a rock! Instead, he reached up and grabbed Lin Feng's ankle and was about to swing him around like a chain mace when Lin Feng used his other foot to kick himself free! With a somersault in mid-air, Lin Feng landed safely on the ground. This is terrible, I realized. There was no way I could strike without endangering everyone! But even with my Spirit Sight, there was no indication that he was being possessed; there was no foul aura emanating from him! He looked as if he was all right!
But there was no way that a normal Mr. Zhang would be able to defeat Lin Feng in a fight! Lin Feng emptied his entire bags of tricks, still, he could not even injure the madly-frenzied Mr. Zhang who was running amok! Instead, Lin Feng began to tire from the successive attacks he had delivered. With one last heave of strength, he kicked at Mr. Zhang's calf. It began to swell, but the man felt no pain nor fatigue! He caught Lin Feng's leg again and yanked at the leg, pulling Lin Feng close to him and releasing Lin Feng's leg, his hands grabbed at his throat, trying to strangle Lin Feng to death! Seeing this, everyone, including me, rushed forward to stop Mr. Zhang!
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a horse blowing its nostrils outside. It was a sound I could easily recognize due to the time I spent in Mongolia. But a horse, here in Wu Zhong County? Mr. Zhang too froze in his tracks, his hands still gripping tightly at Lin Feng's throat although the latter finally had a moment of respite to breathe. But before we even realize, the sounds of a horse galloping rapidly came from the stairwell, rushing towards us!
The pandemonium in the room immediately gave way to a silence that was pierced only by the swift galloping of horses. A gust of wind, dark and menacing, flooded into the room as the dark form of a strong stallion in a coat of jet-black fur charged into the room, dashing past me and Yuan Chongxi while headed straight for Mr. Zhang! Mr. Zhang cast aside the now-feeble Lin Feng and made ready to evade. But the horse was too fast; it zipped across the room like a bolt of black lightning and with a loud bang, Mr. Zhang was hit off his feet and crashed into the wall! He staggered to his feet, but the black stallion allowed him to time to gather himself, thundering at him with a furious neigh. It raised its front hoofs and stomped into Mr. Zhang's chest, trampling him to the ground that he could not move!
Yuan Chongxi and I were stunned by the sudden turn of events, our mouths gaping wide! A cascade of hurried footsteps rumbled up the stairwell and three men rushed up the landing into view. The leader of the trio was holding an ordinary-looking bundle of cloth. But when he unfurled the bundle, it contained a collection of fine acupuncture needles! What was more, these were no ordinary needles; the needles were all radiating with a strong aura! These needles were a rare set of magical instruments!
The leader motioned his companions, and one of them nodded knowingly, producing two papers from his pockets before setting them alight. The papers, engulfed by flames, slowly reduced into crisp flakes of black, charred remains. Two wisps of smoke rose from the ashes and transformed into two armored sentinels! Without further ado, the two conjured knights hurried forward and manhandled Mr. Zhang, dragging him from the floor!
Chapter end
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