The Tale Never Ends Chapter 122

Seeing the girls rushing into action, we too leaped forward and followed their lead into the cave. We were welcomed by the crackling of the flames on the torches that hung on the walls of the bowels of the cave at intervals, illuminating the path deeper inside like beacons in the darkness. I released my spirit wolves, and much to their surprise, the girls yelped and screamed with shock. It was the first time they had actually seen my wolves as their enormous opaque girths shimmered into visibility. This was only because the wolves were unleashed under the brightness of sunlight where they could not see them.

I held up a hand to signal for silence and assured everyone that my wolves only act on my bidding. With a nod to my orders, my familiar spirits dipped their heads and sped off into the darkness. I looked at Lin Feng, who returned a knowing glance to me. With a swing of his arm and a steely swish, he brandished his whip, giving off with a glistening sleekness in the fiery glow. Chongxi was smiling, having already taken out his teacher's heirloom, his Luopan. My face contorted into a frowning grimace, “You lot seem to be enjoying yourselves like we are going to a park?!” With an exasperated smile, my hand reached over my shoulder to tug at the rope, undoing the knot that tied the scabbard of my sword to my back. With my other hand, I caught my sword and I drew my weapon, readying myself for the upcoming battle!

We began moving deeper into the cave, following the trails of my spectral wolves. After some time of walking, we found them all halted to a stop dead ahead. They began shuffling around uneasily as if stopped by an imaginary wall. What was wrong, I thought when I heard Chongxi's mutters, saying, “Why are the torches ahead all dead?” Then I realized that only a pitch-black wall of darkness laid ahead. The line of torches that stretched intermittently from the entrance had ended here! Something must be wrong, I brooded, otherwise my spirit wolves would not be behaving so strangely!

I walked my past my wolves and hazarded a step into the peal of utter blackness before us. But as soon as my foot plunged into the black shroud, it vanished! Panicked, I quickly yanked my leg back and my foot was fine! A murk of darkness loomed ahead of us, obscuring our sights of what was inside. Yuan Chongxi came forward and walked headfirst into the smog, muttering testily, “What's all the surprise about? Look at me! I'm fine… Argh!” He had barely finished when he quickly retreated outwards. He gasped for breath, gagging on the verge of throwing up. “What is wrong.” I was the first to ask, until he finally uttered only a one-syllable expletive, “Fart!”

Bewildered, I did not understand what he was trying to say. Godmother walked up to Chongxi and flicked at his nose grumpily. “You just don't know how to express yourself, do you?” She snapped. But her gesture of flicking at his nose must be some kind of spell, for Chongxi immediately recovered from gasping. “What is wrong,” I asked again and he squatted down, setting a cigarette ablaze. He took a sip. “I thought it was only darkness inside, but it is not! It's a smokescreen! A mass of black fumes blocking us!” Behind him, Godmother merely snorted edgily. Still, we were confused and puzzled about the barricade of blackness that now impeded our progress.

I took out my flashlight and shone it inwards, but the shaft of light from my flashlight seemed to hit the wall of blackness and could penetrate no further. It was as if the light had been swallowed by a deep and unfathomable black hole from the point where it hit the screen of darkness. Wearing a troubled expression, I turned to Godmother, the only one who seemed hardly perturbed by what laid before us. “Do you know what is this, Mother?” I asked. Hearing my voice seemed to calm her down from her exasperation. “You have to remember that your enemies are also fox demons, Son,” she said to me, “This is merely one of their magical contrivances, a petty one too at that. I'm guessing that the line of torches actually extends further inwards, but our sight ahead is merely blinded by this magical smog of their device. It is miasmic flatulence created as a byproduct during their meditation and training in the arcane arts. Ordinary humans will feel nauseous and sick once entering the smog for it is slightly toxic. Inhaling too much will kill you.”

Finally, I understood! No wonder Yuan Chongxi had said the word ‘fart'! It was not intended as an expletive after all, although the word did slightly annoyed Godmother. But now with Godmother's full explanation, everyone finally understood what before us was merely the toxic miasma expelled by the fox demons during the cultivation of their magic, rather than a true abyssal blackhole!

“So it is just a simple parlor trick!” I exclaimed, extracting my Spirit Gourd with a glee. With a recital of a spell, the smog of darkness quickly vanished as the fumes were all drawn into my gourd and the way ahead was once again opened. Indeed, the way was reopened to us again as the darkness began to subside. The same fiery radiance once again filled our eyes with the line of torches continuing inwards.

We continued our exploration. Before walking long, Yuan Chongxi's luopan gave a gentle shudder. Even my spirit wolves seemed to be more and more agitated. “We are near,” I said to myself! With no stomach for niceties, especially since these demons were the first to initiate hostilities towards me, I gave a shrill whistle, siccing my wolves ahead. At the sound of the signal, my minions jostled against each other and tore ahead with fury and bloodlust. I unsheathed my sword and performed some hand seals while reciting a spell. With a sonorous ring, the Shiyan Blade shot out of my grasp like a released arrow. Realizing from my actions that we were finally near our quarry, everyone began readying themselves with cascading echoes of rifles being cocked batted to and fro the walls of the rocky tunnel we came in.

By the time everyone charged into the cave chamber, the fight had already ended. The wolves had set upon the foxes without remorse, leaving carcasses of foxes strewn around the chamber, numbering at more than thirty of them. From the looks of them, they were already prepared for a fight. But clearly, they have underestimated my powers. I reflected upon the efficiency of my wolves at their dealing of death; none of the foxes were left alive. I extracted my Spirit Gourd. But before I could absorb the souls of the dead foxes, I heard Godmother's curious gasp. “It looks dead, but… Strange!” she said. I turned to face a corner of the chamber and saw her moving towards a dead carcass. Unlike the others, there was not a splatter of blood on this carcass. The carcass shrank into a corner with its face obscured, until I saw that it was still breathing; its chest was still heaving for air! It was still alive! But Godmother was merely steps away from it, still unaware that it was still alive until the fox suddenly sprang up, producing a crossbow aimed at her!

I heard the distinctive twang of the crossbow as its bolt was instantly released! D*mned, I cursed as I could only yell, “Mother!” At the same time, I dragged her aside, only to inadvertently place myself in the path of the arrow as I felt the intense surge of air barreling towards my throat!

Courage leaked out of me as quickly as a punctured balloon. Death was circling over me and the bolt from the crossbow was coming at me as time seemed to slow down. The only thing that flashed through my mind at that very instant was the actual cognizance of my impending death!

What Master Six had said to me before, it was the last thing on my mind at that very moment. I had completely forgotten that he had told me about Father's enchantment on me. His enchantment would protect me in the face of certain death, said the immortal to me when I woke up in my sickbed months and months ago. For a split second, I braced myself for my doom, when I realized that the bolt did not hit me after all until Lin Feng's furious roar jerked me back to reality. “How dare you!” And the sound of something being lashed raw by his whip filled my ears.

I lowered my gaze and saw one of the most unbelievable things in my life: the bolt was hanging in mid-air just a foot from my throat as if its travel had been magically stopped by the suspension of time.

Oh my God! Those the words that almost escaped my lips, if not for my still-bewildered state at the inconceivable spectacle before me! With a crack, the bolt fell to the ground helplessly. But Godmother was still peering around every corner of the chamber, as if she was looking for something. “What are you searching for, Mother?” I asked, and she said she seemed to have felt Father's presence when I had pushed her away from danger. She might be thinking that he might have appeared to save me and had quickly hidden himself. I gave a feeble chuckle, followed by a helpless shrug of my shoulders. There would be no stopping her, hence I could only allow her to her whims for now.

I returned to my work of collecting the souls of the dead foxes before I began interrogating them.

I first looked for the fox demon who had turned into a woman who cheated me when I was a boy. “You still owe me 5 yuan!” I shouted once I found her. Everyone, including Lin Feng and Edelweiss, burst into waves of stifled laughter. The woman begged miserably, “Please, my young lord, we are all dead now! I can only beseech for your mercy to allow us into the Underworld for a rebirth!”

“So it's ‘young lord' now?” Yuan Chongxi pouted through his pursed lips, sipping slowly on his cigarette. With his luopan, he smacked it hard on the head of the wraith-like apparition of the woman, “Too late for that now! Speak up, where is Aunt Ulan's soul!”

Chapter end