The Tale Never Ends Chapter 56 Execution of the Thirteenth

With the way things were, I was afraid that this man might not even survive the night. "We're from the De Chang Center for Paranormal Studies. Come, eat freely and relax. Come with us to our Center after this meal and I shall find a way to solve this problem for you! I'm sure you'll be able to brave through this obstacle safely!" I said to him. But the man had neither the stomach for dinner. He waited beside us until we finished, and followed us back to the center.

Back at the center, I took the sword that my father gave me and handed it to the man. "This sword will protect you from all evil and foul beings. Hang it over the head of your bed. It will vibrate and buzz when evil is near. Remember! Hold the sword tightly by its hilt! Do not let it fly!" The man accepted the sword with trembling hands. "Would you not come with me?" he asked hesitantly. "Of course not!" I remarked, and he immediately said, "But you know not of where I live! How would you find me then!" "Have no worry. I will find you and take back the sword myself!" I replied. Stammering words of gratitude, the man walked falteringly out of the center and left.

The man went home and immediately hung the sword as I instructed over his bed. Fearing for his life, his eyes could hardly close! He waited anxiously in bed for almost an hour, when the rustle of ghostly winds could be heard outside, its ferocious scurry kicking up dust and gravel into the air as the silhouette of a woman appeared and slowly drifted like a wraith en route to the house! She descended gracefully on the ground when she reached the house, and began walking to the door. The sword began buzzing strongly like a bomb about to set off. Struggling against the spasms of panic that gripped him, the man slunk to a corner. The sword, detecting the nearing presence of a nemesis, started shaking and bucking like a horse trying to break free of its reins until it suddenly shot out of the house with a deafening "SNAP"! The wild and ghastly turmoil outside immediately died down—not just diminished, but stopped entirely, as if everything that had happened outside was nothing but a dream. In the throes of his hysteria, the man had completely forgotten about my instructions to hold the sword still! He stayed in the corner for some time, until he regained his senses and remembered my directions. But he was still too afraid to venture even a step outside! At the corner of his room, he remained motionless the entire night, curling up as he shook with fear until the morning sun shone through his window. Only then, he crept out of his house slowly, hoping to find the sword and possibly the corpse of the woman. But he found neither; the sword and the woman were nowhere to be seen.

The three of us came to his house the next morning. At the sight of us, the man stumbled forward and plopped to his knees, muttering "Brother" under his breath profusely for so many times that I lost count. "I'm sorry for I have lost your sword!" He admitted. I smiled thinly to him. "The sword will not go missing," I said to him, "I only want to spare her life. The woman, after all, has yet to endanger you, moreover, she would be more useful to us alive than dead. Nevertheless what's done is done. It is fated that she should be executed!" I went to the car and retrieved the scabbard of the sword. Standing outside of the house, I began chanting, muttering words of invocation and with a loud "Clank!" and the metallic flash of steel, the sword raced through the air and returned to its sheath. I took out my Spirit Gourd and recited another incantation to summon the spirit of the woman and kept the soul in the gourd before we shook hands with the man and left.

Along the way, Lin Feng asked me, "Aye, Shiyan! Since when did you learn such awesome skills?" I threw him an embarrassed look and giggled. "Nope. I have just learned it actually! When we returned last night, I told my father of this matter and he mentioned that the sword would never return on its own after its deed, hence I nudged for a solution until my father revealed to me that the spell to recall the sword was in the booklet he gave me although I had not seen it before! Eventually, I found it. In fact, I was still trying to memorize the spell when we were on the way to the man's house earlier!" Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi were sniggering at my confession as the former said, "D*mn! You looked like a divine sage just now! Careful not to bungle everything next time!" We burst into laughter as we returned to the Center.

A few unexciting days passed by until a call came. It was Zheng Shuang, "Hi there, Brother! Are you free this afternoon! Let's have lunch together! It's my treat!" "Where shall we meet?" I had barely uttered a word; it was Yuan Chongxi who had scrambled to answer the question! The man had a strange gift somehow; he would not be able to listen to what others were saying on the phone normally, but if the speaker on the phone mentioned "food", he would never fail to pick up every single word like a shark's sensitivity to blood! Sometimes, I could not help but wonder if this was truly the actual skill that his mentor had imparted to him!

Half an hour later, we reached the restaurant we had agreed to meet at and found Zheng Shuang, now wearing civilian clothing, in a VIP room. As I surmised before, the case of the evil cult was nearing an end; Zheng Shuang could either be giving us an update or there might be another snag in his operation that he might be needing our help again.

With our familiarity with one another, we dove into business after two rounds of whiskey. The perpetrators of the case were operating in more than one area or municipality and they were all part of the same cult. The police had yet to amass enough intelligence on the details of these people who looked the part like a Taoist sect on the surface that masked their insidious schemes. Of the two disguised Jiangshis that we had helped to arrest at the old and decrepit tomb, the tall and older cultist was the Fourth of the Thirteen Apostles of this diabolic denomination, the one who was responsible to help gather funds to sustain the operations of the group. The shorter man was his student who had only recently joined under his fiendish tutelage. The man that we had arrested at the caverns beneath the abandoned brick factory was the Fifth of the Thirteen Apostles; while the woman was his lover. The pair acted as handlers to receive goods for the others. They had minions scattered across all five districts and ten counties of Tangshan and all of them had been found and caught. But the police still failed to procure any inkling about three more cliques within the Thirteen Apostles that belonged to the First, the Third, and the Thirteenth of all Thirteen Apostles.

However, those who had been arrested had revealed snippets of what they knew: the Thirteenth was a gorgeous woman who looked to be in her early twenties. None knew anything else of her background nor where she came from, save the fact that she had been acting as a gofer for the Third, traveling around and disseminating orders from the third of the Thirteen Apostles, whose face was never known to anyone else. A most mysterious person even among the cult itself, the Third was the strategist for the cult and the contriver of the cult's fraudulent operations and perverse devices. On the other hand, the First Apostle acted freely on his own without being part of the spectrum of the Third's designs, although they had heard the Thirteenth Apostle once mentioning that his surname was Yan and he seemed to have a wholly different mission in the locale. Even though intelligence suggested that the crews of all three Apostles were now concentrated in the county of Wu Zhong, our movements were exposed as they continued operating surreptitiously in the shadows. It would hardly be long before they realized their confederates had been picked off one by one and practiced greater caution and secrecy in their endeavors. Hence Zheng Shuang's main objective for the meal to see if we had any ideas.

I reached for the whiskey bottle and filled my glass with another round of the amber liquid before taking another gulp. "Have no fear. The Thirteenth Apostle had just been executed by me!" I said matter-of-factly. Zheng Shuang blurted an emphatic and disbelieving "Ah?", nearing spitting whiskey from his mouth. "Were you able to question her?" I shook my head. "She was the weakest of all Thirteen Apostles, inducted only to fill the ranks of the Thirteen when her predecessor died. Surely you have never heard of a female Apostle? Then again, she might have shoddy combat skills, her sense of smell was as good as that of a hound, or better. She also has the deplorable proclivity to seduce men which she had continually failed to abstain. It was during one of her conquests that I found her. Knowing that she has acute senses, I refrained from showing myself in fear of alerting her, and hence I lent my sword to the man who had almost become her prey for him to protect himself. But I'm afraid that the man lost his nerve during the clash, failing to remember my directions and had inadvertently caused the Apostle's death by the sword."

Zheng Shuang sighed with a dash of disappointment on his face. "So we can only wait for the other two crews to make their move. Until then we can only be on the defensive. D*mn! If only we were able to interrogate the Thirteenth Apostle for some useful information!" Zheng Shuang growled, his head hanging over his shoulders with dejection. He looked up again, only to find us snigger mischievously at him. "So you think that there's no way to interrogate her after we've executed her?" Yuan Chongxi muttered, grinning devilishly. Zheng Shuang looked blankly at us three, unable to comprehend what Yuan Chongxi had just said. With his chopsticks, the latter pointed towards me; Lin Feng too followed suit. Ignoring my companions, I reached for some vegetables with my chopsticks and deposited the food into my mouth, chewing as I spoke, "I might not be as powerful as my father who can communicate with various entities across the Three Realms of Existence, but I sure can communicate the mere ghost of a person who had just died. But suffice to say, the information that we procure will hardly be accessible as proof for prosecution; but it will be more than enough for us to act and regain our initiative! Heh heh heh!" Understanding finally, Zheng Shuang cried, "Oh my God! Think of the number of cases that we would have been able to solve if we had your abilities! There would not be any cold cases at all!" I nodded. "Indeed. Because we can easily find out the truth by investigating in reverse to look for proof and evidence!" I said, nodding to him. "So this case would be as easy as..." Zheng Shuang trailed off, taking a small bun and spread some condensed milk on it before biting a chunk out of it and continued, "As easy as eating a bun?" "That would depend on varying circumstances! Take a look at the souls of children that we have recollected for example; they are too young to have sufficient cognitive abilities to pick up any details! Moreover, there are still many ways evil can be committed, ways which rarely adhere to rules and order of Nature!"

Zheng Shuang lighted a cigarette. "So, Brother Shiyan? What advice do you have for me in regards to our next move?" he asked, "Although I cannot safely say the same for other neighboring districts, as long as they are here in Wu Zhong, I will be able to ensnare them! I already have a plan, in fact! Glad tidings will come in only a few days!" I assured him.

Zheng Shuang rose up immediately and patted his chest. "Anything you need, just let me know! Men, logistics, funds; I have everything at your disposal, Brother!" I giggled at his antics. "But this time, it's a tad different," I said to him, "I might need you to utilize what personal ties you have, and you might even have to plea and beseech a person nicely before the deed can be done!" "Ah?" He looked questioningly at me. "Do you know a man called Zhou Kun?" I asked, and he nodded. "That's a distant uncle of mine," he replied. "I'm afraid our next move revolves around him. You will need to deal with him and persuade him to follow our instructions!" I told him. "This uncle of mine is a nice person. Surely it would be easier than it sounds?" Zheng Shuang asked. "Nay." I cut him off. "This time, the matter might involve a certain personal secret of his. Things will turn ugly if we fail to handle this delicately." "What ugliness do you mean?" "Your uncle is a wealthy man. But he has another woman aside from his wife; a mistress with whom he has a child. But the child had just died and both your uncle and his mistress are grieving. No one else in your family knows of her existence. Hence your inopportune appearance will displease him. Do nothing to aggravate him! Just do as I say when we meet him then!" "Very well, my friend!" Zheng Shuang replied, "I'll leave it all to you!"

The next morning, Lin Feng drove Yuan Chongxi and me from the Center. We stopped halfway to visit a hardware store where we purchased a mallet, much to their bewilderment who were still oblivious of my plans. I instructed Zheng Shuang to wear plain clothes and meet us with his men at Xiguan town (Xiguan, Hebei). Before getting off the car, I muttered something into Yuan Chongxi's ears and the latter's eyes instantly went wide as he gasped, "Just what kind of plan is this!"

Chapter end