The Tale Never Ends Chapter 181 The Champion's Bane

I was dumbfounded. "What did you say? Dragon's roar?" I spun to look at Edelweiss incredulously and she too, was staring at me; her large eyes egging me for an explanation. Then I realized even Zhu Mei's muted son was also staring strangely at me, hoping for an answer as well.

I stared into a blank space, trying my best to remember as much of the details as I could. At length, I said, "Well... I don't know what happened myself. I saw how Edelweiss was injured and that made me very angry. Then I screamed suddenly. But it sounded like a normal scream to me. I wouldn't say it's that thunderous to the point that it's like a dragon's, to say the least..." Zhu Mei frowned at once. He placed down his cup and began thinking. I cast a confused look at the muted young man, who was mumbling incomprehensibly to himself as he was trying vainly to make several hand signs to communicate but I failed to understand him. Then I looked at Edelweiss, who was looking at me with a surprised expression as if I had unknowingly done something wrong.

"Why are you looking at me like this? Do you not know what I did last night?" She nodded in response. "Of course I do. I was almost stomped to death by a ghost horse and then you fed me a pill. Then..." Her voice broke and she whimpered. Impatiently, I pressed, "Then what?!" Edelweiss jumped at my voice raising, frightened, and she squeaked, "Then you emitted a roar. But that was not a human's voice that came out of you... Actually, this is not the first time you did something like this. But I thought you have always been aware of this... I thought this is one of your tricks..."

"Not the first time?!" I barked dubiously, "When did you hear me scream like this before?" "The first time I saw you did something like this was when we were chasing the Black Dog (Ha'ri Naohai means "Black Dog" in Mandarin). It was at the county seat hospital in Inner Mongolia when I heard you roar at the spirits in the hospital then. Then there was also the time during the Battle of Yellow Soil Ridge! I was fighting against Lu Bugong when you emitted the same roar too. And I agree with what Uncle Zhu Mei just said; it does really sound like a dragon's roar... Well, not that I'd heard a dragon roaring before, but it definitely sounded like one!"

"I see... What I thought was just a yell out of frustration and restlessness at the hospital when we were trying to rescue Aunt Ulan was actually a dragon's roar... No wondered everyone, both humans and ghosts, were all petrified by my voice..." Then I remembered vividly what happened at the peak of the hill during the Battle of Yellow Soil Ridge: Edelweiss and Lu Bugong were locked in a furious battle and it was that frantic cry from me that stopped them.

Then I remembered something else; I asked Zhu Mei, "Uncle. I remember Father telling me about a deep magic called the Champion's Bane, although I never really got deep into it. Is this it? Had I used it without knowing how I did it?" Zhu Mei stared at me, shocked and disbelieving, before he pondered silently again. After several minutes, he answered, "Definitely possible. I believe so, and that is what happened. You are your father's son after all!" He broke into another peal of laughter, absolutely pleased and proud of what I had become as if I was also a son to him.

Then came another question from Zhu Mei. "When's your wedding, Nephew?" I looked at Edelweiss, who now turned abashed and looked away. "I'm afraid the wedding ceremony will have to be delayed, Uncle. I'm still busy at the moment. As you well have realized, the date of the next Crucible is not far ahead; many minor demons and mages are hoping to exploit on the off-chance that the Crucible will be weakened by a strong demigod vying for full immortality. What's more, there are still sinister undercurrents underneath this whole affair. I'd be busy at least until the end of it." Zhu Mei guffawed again, booming and boorish at the same time. He patted my shoulder encouragingly. "Hahahaha! It's good! I'm pleased to see that you are able to decide by looking at the big picture! You've become a man!" He knocked his cup against mine and emptied it.

But coming to pay my New Year's respects to Shang Pei and Zhu Mei was hardly the main reason I came to the Labyrinthian Canyon; seeing as the time was ripe, I said at last, "Uncle Zhu Mei. There is something I need to speak to you about." Zhu Mei lowered his cup with an inquisitive "Oh?" and looked at me, tacitly indicating for me to go on.

"I have made a few discoveries during my adventures and I found out that Father is entangled within the webs of mysteries surrounding the Dragon-slaying Blade. I heard that he was bidden by an unknown party to guard the Blade, is that true?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as still and calm as possible.

Zhu Mei's face instantly curdled into shock, despite his best attempts to look placid. "I see. But I know nothing about this, my boy! Your father is on a wholly different level to us; it'd be no wonder that he might have some mission that none of us ordinary demigods are aware of. I'd only knew your father for a little more than a handful of years then. It'd be understandable that he'd wish to keep matters like this a secret!" I nodded. But the slight change in his expression did not go unnoticed by me. Still, I could see that he would wish to divulge no more about this matter and I would best let it go for now.

But he might have noticed a frown forming on my face. He immediately chuckled. "I might know nothing of this. But perhaps your Uncle Shang Pei can tell you a little about this. You can speak to him tomorrow. In his younger days, he used to travel a lot. I'm sure he might have heard of something!"

Knowing that there was no use in dwelling on the subject, I steered the topic of our conversation somewhere else. "Ah! Uncle! Godmother had told me that you'd teach me something! Come on, tell me about your Windchaser magic." That made him chuckled proudly, although he tried feebly to be modest. "Nah... It's nothing compared to your father's Autumn's Decline! Surely you have no need for my Windchaser?" I made a pained expression, "Come on, Uncle Zhu Mei! You know Father! He refuses to teach me that, saying that it would have to wait until he is satisfied with my skills in sword fighting!" I extended my middle and index fingers of my left hand, my thumb pressed against my folded ring fingers and pinky; the Seal of the Sword gesture which I so commonly used whenever I used telekinesis to control my sword. With a flourish of my left arm, the Shiyan Blade escaped its scabbard with an imperious "Chink!" and circled in the air like a little flying dragon before it flew to my outstretched hand.

"Heh heh heh! That is no ordinary skill you have there, Nephew!" Zhu Mei giggled approvingly. "No ordinary mortals can reach such level of mastery like you have there! But I suppose this proves you have a flair for the mystic arts. All right then! Let me tell you about the Windchaser enchantment!" I quickly sat upright with close attention like a student readying himself for a lecture.

And so Zhu Mei began. "The Windchaser is an amazing enchantment that allows its user to manipulate the ground..."

Like the common Chinese mantra in Fengshui and Bagua, "the manipulation of the cosmos and the reversal of Yin-Yang," the Windchaser enchantment allows its user to do exactly that. There is a total of 88 order of directions in the study of Chinese esoteric cosmology, each bearing a name of its own and its own place in the entire sequence of the whole system. The ability to freely manipulate all 88 of these directions, is part of the crux of the Windchaser enchantment. The other half of it, is the reversal of the two sides of everything, the Yin and Yang of everything in the universe: the ordered systems of directions, the human body, and even our limbs. One would fully master the Windchaser enchantment when one fully understands all 88 of the ordered systems of directions and the control of yin-yang. In certain ways, it bears striking resemblance to the magic of onmyodo of Japan. In a race between an ordinary person and one who wields the Windchaser magic, the latter would be able to use the enchantment to make sure that he gains the geographical advantage while subjecting the former to the opposite. The Windchaser magic changes the directions and route of one's movements, not the person itself, hence ultimately changing the path that one is taking.

But still, nearing the end of the lecture, I still could not fully understand how should one switch the directions and how should I choose which directions to swap. "What would happen if I switch which and which? Which directions am I to change to Yang? And which should I change to Yin? Which directions would naturally switch their Yin-Yang properties when I make certain changes?! It's all confusing!!"

Nevertheless, in spite of Zhu Mei's detailed explanations, I could not bear to cram anymore of these infinitesimal and mind-boggling minutiae into my mind. I interrupted Zhu Mei at once, scratching the back of my head sheepishly. "It's too hard, Uncle Zhu Mei... I hardly understand half of what you're saying!" The stocky and stout old man howled with laughter. "I've bored you with my ramblings! Ha hah hah! But you just have to remember the main formula of this trick and you'd do well. Everything in the universe has its place in the cosmology of existence. Understand it and the power to manipulate it at your will shall be at your fingertips!"

But for all his life of study, Zhu Mei admitted that he had only been able to unravel the mysteries of the cosmology of the ground, which culminated in his prized oeuvre, the Windchaser enchantment. It was his life's work, even though the study of this alone had robbed him of the opportunity to venture into the study of something else. But in the face of Father's greatness and awesome power, the Windchaser was but a mere drop in the bucket. What did Father say about this Windchaser enchantment, I asked him curiously, and Zhu Mei merely squinted, caught within the fantasy of the reminiscences of his time together with Father.

Zhu Mei then told me about the story when he contested Father in a race. It was a story I had heard once before, but out of respect for him, I listened to his recounts nevertheless. In the end, the old man rubbed a gnarly hand on his coarse, wrinkled cheek. "Wow, now that I think of your mother's slap at me... That's one slap I'd forever remember..." A visible trace of horror and trepidation flashed briefly on his face as if the pain from Mother's blow was more terrible and scathing than Father himself.

"After the earthquake," he said again, "I came back here. I began thinking about how your father beat me and how he did not even touch the ground. He was floating in the air, that was why I failed to manipulate his steps. But how on earth was I been manipulated by him in return?!"

He paused. His face twisted into a wry smile laced with apparent admiration. He took a gulp of liquor and went on, "For years, I thought and thought... How did he do it, I kept asking myself this. Finally, after two decades, the answer came to me at last!"

Chapter end