The Tale Never Ends Chapter 153 Canine Conflic

I drew another breath. Then I noticed the boy was eyeing my cigarette. I chuckled and offered him one from my own. "I'll have to first meet your friend—The one who did the ritual—before I can be sure," I said. The young lad took my cigarette with a blank look in his face. He looked at it and asked, "How do you know I smoke?" "Because we're the real deal," I muttered, handing him a lighter, "Your teacher might not know. But nothing escapes my eye."

"What a simple lad," I mused, "He's fallen for it." There was no longer any doubt or suspicion in his eyes. There was no need for magic to know that the boy was a regular smoker; one simply had to observe how hungry he looked when he eyed my cigarette.

But with a smoke, the boy seemed more relaxed and at ease. "My friend returned to his dorm that night and tried to see if he could end the jinx with another ritual. But it is as you might have guessed; the jinx remained." I nodded. "The ritual that your friend use must be taught to him by someone. But it is clear that the person has other insidious intents!" A simple student like the young lad or his classmate would never be able to cast magical rituals without skill and knowledge, both of which hardly comes from fantasy novels and stories. Rituals like this require sacrifice; something in offering to request help from the otherworldly entity which would be summoned. In most cases, roasted chicken, swine's head, or the like are used for such rituals. But the main question remained: what came as a result of the ritual? What being had answered his calls?

"What has my friend done?" The young lad asked, only to be answered by a disdainful snort from Chongxi. "What else? Your friend has conducted a magical ritual. You've got yourselves involved in something worse than silly Ouija boards, which you can easily put an end to by destroying the boards if you feel something is not right. But this... This is something very much worst, especially if the cauldron is broken..."

But Chongxi's voice faltered; the boy had jumped when Chongxi mentioned "the cauldron is broken" as if he was jolted by electric. "Oh, no," I thought, "Surely his friend did not?!" Our deepest fear was answered: the boy fearfully confessed. "Ah... For many times my friend has tried, but he could not withdraw the jinx, or whatever it was he summoned. He's a little strange, angry even, most of the time. In his frustration and rage, he smashed the cauldron on the floor..."

As if on a cue, Chongxi and I slapped on our foreheads in unison. What was it with kids these days?! How reckless of them! The boy continued his tale, "Then, on the second day, after smashing the cauldron, that friend of mine... H-he, He was...." I cut him off. "He's fainted, is he? And the doctors cannot seem to find out what's wrong with him, am I right?" The young lad bobbed his head profusely, saying, "Not only that. In his coma, he's barking mad, saying things like, 'I want to die! I want to die!'."

I shook my head. "Well," I gasped, "What are we waiting for? Bring us to your friend. Let's have a look at him." Lin Feng went to retrieve his car keys. He depressed on a button on the remote and heard the car's alarm chirped once dutifully outside.

The classmate of the young lad lived in the city center and that was where we headed. As soon as we were nearby, my Spirit Sight alerted me to the presence of foul aura lurking around. I looked up, and saw two demonic auras, in the forms of fumes, swirling outside one of the windows of a building ahead. I threw a finger at the building and patted on Lin Feng's shoulders. "There! That building, Brother!" Without any shred of doubt, Lin Feng immediately knew what I had seen. He maneuvered the car and brought us towards the direction of the building. Sitting with us in the car, the young lad looked silently at us with a disbelieving expression, bewildered at my sudden knowledge of our heretofore unknown destination.

From my seat in the car, I looked up again. The air outside the window was thick with the two demonic auras entangling into one another furiously as if one was trying to devour the other whole like fishes in a fierce fight. From the strength of both auras, I could feel that their conjurers must be powerful entities themselves. While they might not be as powerful as the weasel demon of the Creed, but they would certainly be as powerful as my Forest Sprite. I could defeat one such demon with hardly any difficulty, but handling two in the same time was a completely different matter!

We stopped at the nearest parking space we could find and rushed up to the house of the young lad's classmate. The lad led us into the house and we filed right in after him with our equipment at the ready. The door was unlocked and we entered the house to find a woman, presumably the unconscious boy's mother, sitting with a bewildered expression on the ground as if she was under a spell. The young lad ran up to her and helped her to her feet, leading her away to a corner. With the way clear, we rushed into the room where the demonic auras were churning outside.

We barged into the room and were immediately astonished! In the room was an old man with a haggard almond-shaped face which was lined and creased like a monkey's. He was peering down angrily at the unconscious boy who was sprawled upon his bed with needles around his body like acupuncture! A dark shape emerged from the boy's mouth like fumes and hung in mid-air, slowly assuming the shape of a huge and menacing fox!

The woman outside was clearly shocked out of her wits. But from the churning auras outside, I could see that there had been a fight or some sort in here.

Chongxi quickly closed the door and threw me a curt nod. I drew up a chair and sat down, facing the dingy silhouette of the fox and the lean old man. I stared them down and lighted a cigarette for myself. "The boy must have summoned a fox spirit for help, no doubt," I thought. Banking on my authority as a young lordling of the foxes, I said to the fox spirit, "First, dislodge yourself from the boy." "As you command, Lordling," the fox spirit squeaked. Its diaphanous form, in its entirety, flew out of the boy's mouth and landed on the ground before turning into a fox with earth-colored furs. I could almost see a pair of mustaches; it must be quite old. With a salute, it bowed and squeaked again, "My respects to you, dear Lordling. I'm sorry for the messy greetings earlier..." I raised a hand to silence it and threw a look at the old man. "You are a weasel demon, are you?"

The old man cast me a scathing look in return and snorted without so much as a reply. So much for beastly manners, I mused. But that was hardly surprising, considering the many lessons I had taught its kind. But the old weasel demon's unkindly snort angered the old fox spirit at my heels. It barked and charged ahead, snarling with its fangs bared. Seeing this, the old weasel quickly made several hand seals and muttered incantations. The atmosphere in the room immediately turned tense like a tinderbox ready to explode. The rising pressure seemed to take the breath out of everyone in the room that I began to feel uncomfortable and restless. Feeling annoyed and irritated, I snarled loudly, "ENOUGH OF THIS!"

Unexpectedly, the weasel and the fox demons immediately backed down obediently, turning suddenly docile and bewildered as the air around the room turned normal once more.

I took another swig off my cigarette. "Can anyone just explain what in the world is going on here!?" The weasel demon recovered from its shock and gave another disgusted snort. The fox spirit scowled at it before it bowed again and said, "My dear Lordling, this boy has done the rituals that summoned for my help. And it was my help that I had accorded him, as per the covenant established during the ritual. But the boy did not offer any sacrifices once the deed was done. Worse still, he destroyed the cauldron that was used to worship me! With that, I decided to teach the boy a lesson. But this mongrel interfered with me and even tried to expel me from his body by using his needlework! I have long got wind of what happened with our kin at the Yellow Soil Ridge. But here he is, thwarting my efforts too!"

I could not say anything. "How nice of you talking from above the high horse when you had almost killed an innocent man at the boy's behest!" But I was careful: everything that the fox spirit had just related to me was merely a one-sided account, at least before I was certain at its veracity. There are always bad apples in every group, humans or demons alike. There was no reason that I can fully take its word as gospel only because he was a kin of my mother.

I crushed the butt of my cigarette under my shoe and turned to the old weasel demon, who was looking revolted and angry. "He's finished his tale. What say you?"

Chapter end