The Tale Never Ends Chapter 179 Clash from the Pas

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It was the second day of my break when Lin Feng, Chongxi and I went to one of our most-frequented town squares in Wu Zhong. We were watching a bunch of kids having fun with their roller skates. We usually hang out or eat together, all three of us. I would have gone to the internet cafe if I was alone; but with Lin Feng's lack of interest in computer games and Chongxi's lamentable ineptitude to master any computer game, loitering around seemed the only thing we could do together.

We were just idling about when a voice called from our backs, "Are you Murong Shiyan?" I whirled and saw a burly man, sullen and visibly irate, standing behind ME. We eyed the stranger apprehensively and I said, "I am Murong Shiyan." The man gave a curt nod and said, "Please come with me then." I got up and the man was already walking out of the square, heading towards a small alleyway in the corner. Then I saw from a distance that two rows of men were waiting for us, numbering to at least ten.

The three of us traded quick looks but I tore away first and followed the stranger. Lin Feng and Chongxi could see that trouble might be coming; they looked at each other and chased up, forming up to me and the former whispered, "Shiyan, have you offended anyone?" "Impossible. Who would dare to anger us, least of all in Wu Zhong?" Chongxi quipped from my other side. I chuckled and waved them off; there was no way we would cowardly back away from a brawl.

And so indeed, we stepped into the gloom of the dark alley and saw the thugs all wielding weapons, watching us with unfriendly and nasty glares. The stranger, who was obviously the leader of the band, turned to face me. He thrust a finger at my shoulder and said, "You have guts, boy!" I giggled and answered, "I DO have guts, all right. But what are you trying to accuse me of?"

When the stranger first showed, I had instantly realized what this was all about: Huang Li. It could only be her, for she was the only one I had offended, if one were to insist that way, recently. Naturally, she had employed these thugs to teach me a lesson.

And indeed, the man laid a beefy hand on my shoulder and rubbed his neck. "I'm sure you know what you did!" He growled, speaking as if he knew the truth. I giggled. "Oh? But I dare say I don't know what you're talking about!" A wicked glee curled at his lips. "Very well! You'll need some help remembering, I think!" He raised a thickset arm the size of an elephant's trunk, ready to give me a slap to my face but I gave him no time and instead delivered a powerful kick into his beer belly and he lurched backward, clutching his stomach as he groaned with pain.

Without a word, all hell broke loose. The rest of the thug's underlings sprang into action, bearing down on us with their weapons like birds of prey.

But it was a street brawl in a darkened alley that merely lasted barely five minutes. Despite the advantage of number, our attackers clearly misunderstood their position, mistaking themselves as the predators when they were actually preys. We sat on a heap of badly bruised ruffians, all sixteen of them piled up like a large mound, some whimpering in agony while some already fainted to make even a noise. We sat on them and treated ourselves to a cigarette and I asked the leader of the band at the top of the heap whose back I was sitting on. "I seem to remember that you had said something about helping me to remember..." The man was still trying to sound tough. "Do you even know who you offended?!" "Of course not," I replied casually. In unison, all three of us bent down to look at the terribly-swollen face of the ringleader, "How about refreshing my memory?"

The ringleader of the bandits was about to say something defiant, when one of his underlings from below screamed, "Please get them to come down, Boss! The guys below are not gonna make it any longer!" The ringleader looked at us and hissed, "You'll never get away with this! Not especially if one of us dies! Get off!" I smacked at his forehead. "Then just die! Like I care! You'd think I'd worry if one of you worthless scums dies? I'd hardly do!" I raised a leg and propped it on his back lackadaisically and ignored the painful cries from below that ensued.

But it was true: some of those below might have been squashed or suffocated to death if they were not stout, able-bodied men themselves! Even so, I was hardly worried about any deaths; I could have easily had any wandering spirits help me deal with any corpses by possessing the body and transporting it somewhere else where no one would find it. But I was still young and simple then, unlike the present me who no longer had any scruples in exacting the judgment of death upon those who deserved it like what I did in Inner Mongolia.

Realizing that I was never going to allow them to go and understanding fully that they were strangers in a place alien to them, the ringleader of the thugs quickly came to a decision before any of his men indeed dies. "What is it with these three young boys?! Do they know someone so powerful that even being accused of murder hardly appalls them?! No, this is not worth it for me! For all I know, I might be trying to bite off more than what I can chew!" He began to beg. "Please, we surrender!"

Fortunately for him, his surrender came just before I lose patience. I leaped off his back and so did my companions. The mound of badly-bruised and groaning men collapsed with all of them panting for breath while those who were most below were already foaming at their mouth. Each and every one of them was injured one way or the other; some had even broken bones and twisted tendons. The ringleader clambered to us, his face swollen and battered that I could have burst out laughing. But I did my best to put on a friendly smile. "Go back to your master with your tails between your legs, you bunch of worthless mongrels. Tell your master that I, Murong Shiyan, was merely trying to save her. But now she's repaying me by wishing ill upon me! Tell her that if she wishes more, I shall be expecting her!" My companions and I allowed them to pass and the thugs, seeing their chance to escape, immediately scrambled out of the alleyway, the pathetic and wretched things they were.

But that was hardly the end of my troubles. Gangsters and ruffians came to me almost every day in school, all trying to beat me up and teach me a lesson, although none of their attempts had triumphed. It continued for almost six months, when Huang Li suddenly tendered her request to leave school. She would then slowly ebb from my memory. Even until today, no one knew her reasons. She might have found out something about me and realized that she would never be able to punish me. But there were mixed reactions in school pertaining to her departure, that I at least I knew. Most of every one was rather pleased to see her leave, although Lu Shengnan, for one, was among the ones unhappy. Especially so, since she had lost her only friend in school.

Back in the Labyrinthian Canyon with Edelweiss, her face was brightened with thrill to listen to my story. "So what happened between that tomboy Lu Shengnan and you later?" she asked with brimming interest. I shrugged. "Why? You're also thinking that we were a couple? Come on!" Edelweiss chuckled and gave no answer. I grimaced quietly; despite her good looks, Lu Shengnan's temperament was hardly a fit with mine. "She's a tomboy," I said frankly to Edelweiss, "Her attitude will never fit mine. Moreover, she's far from what you are capable of. Remember our meal with Zheng Shuang? When you wanted it as a meal to offer your apology for the fiasco in the police station? The one where I have to run between two tables because a few of my former classmates from university were here? There's a tall girl with short hair; that's Lu Shengnan." "Ah?!" Edelweiss exclaimed with mocked surprise, "She's a girl?! I thought that's a boy all this while!" Our eyes met and held for seconds and we burst out laughing together.

Our pillow talk continued until it was almost twelve. Then the tumultuous noises of galloping horses pierced the silence around us, just like before! The fact that we were sleeping in sleeping bags on the ground made the experience no less comfortable, but we were not anxious and worried this time. A shadow of anxiety hung over us as the clamorous din of battle cries, clashing of weapons, and last but not least, the unmistakable and suffocating atmosphere of bloodlust and carnage lingered over the air, sweeping forth the breadth of the whole canyon like the radioactive plume of an atomic bomb! Edelweiss stole a glimpse at me, her face curdled with fear and angst and so was I. "Something is different this time! But what?!" It was a feeling that we both felt, although we could hardly put it to words. I listened intently for seconds; the first time when we came, the bedlam of a raging battle came from nearby, but this time, it seemed as if the battle was being fought just outside the makeshift shed we were in!

"True! The sound of leather scuffing on dirt just outside!" Everything else was the same, but we heard no footsteps so close to us the last time we came! Edelweiss realized this too; she dove out of the sleeping bag and prepared to storm outside. Beside me on the ground, the Shiyan Blade trembled anxiously as if waiting to join in the battle! I leaped up, snatching the Shiyan Blade. With a quick look at Edelweiss and a curt nod, we rushed outside.

A blast of the infernal aura that reeked of blood and malice slammed into our faces as soon as we stepped outside. An apparition, a spectral warrior riding on a huge but scrawny wraith-like destrier charged at us! The ghostly warrior, despite its bulgy fur clothing, was only a bag of bones; but it was no less menacing with its crescent-shaped scimitar as the weapon hewed mercilessly down on us!

I instinctively parried with my sword and a loud clang rang out with sparks from the gnashing of iron and steel! A ghost wielding an actual weapon!? But it was a weapon long left to centuries neglect and disrepair as if snapped into splinters as soon as its blade met the indestructible edge of the Shiyan Blade.

I tossed the sheath of my sword to the ground and made a hand seal while muttering a spell, while my other hand flourished my blade. Then I raised my sword up to my shoulder, pointing it at the spectral warrior rounding his horse back for another assault. With a whoosh like the howl of wind, the Shiyan Blade tore through the ghost and his apparitional beast like a powerful spear and they faded into the darkness, leaving only the broken hilt of a rusted scimitar and a rotting piece of horsehide. Only now we heard: our horses were whinnying with fear! They would have long escaped the gorge if we had not kept their reins bound tightly to a very strong branch!

Another fresh series of horse gallops thundered through the darkness and Edelweiss and I quickly spun on our heels. Another ghostly warrior, his curved scimitar glinting in the moonlight as he swung it at his opponent, a cavalry rider clad in armor of full-black. The latter raised his shield to deflect the blow and we were stunned! “That jet-black armor?! Impossible! One of Li Shimin's Black Ironclads?!”

Chapter end