The Tale Never Ends

The coffin Father and I were peering into had damaged so badly that its sides were littered with holes and slits from neglect and disrepair, from which the fluids and watery flesh were seeping out like vomit being belched from a person’s mouth. But what was inside left my mouth agape with surprise! There was a body lying inside!

The body lying inside looked nothing like the rest; it was a man who had died only recently. A brown-copper rag bundled a bun on his head, as was the common fashion for men in the Ming Dynasty, but he was looking positively horrified as if he was screaming for his life when he died. The gaunt and scrawny man, short in height and small in girth, had green and purple wounds all around him. A closer inspection revealed that those were bite wounds; Jiangshis, no doubt. But who had left him here in this coffin?

A thin smile lined across Father’s lips. Saying nothing, he continued walking, heading towards the dark corridor at the end of the hall.

I thought about the fresh-looking firepit outside the cave. Clearly, this corpse belonged to the man who camped there. But who he was, I wondered. Was he a peasant from the village nearby? Or a grave robber hoping to plunder some gold and riches?

I was still grappling with the mystery of all this when I noticed Father’s step slowed to a careful tread as if he had discovered something. I walked past his shoulder to find out what was it this time and I saw something lying on the ground. However, it was too dark for me to make out what it was.

Father strode to that thing and I followed just behind. It was a bundle made of something leathery. As we drew closer, we saw that it was not so much a bundle than a bag. A large leather bag that could have filled something the size of a basketball. Father crouched to study. He opened the bag and found everything inside the bag were neatly arrange and organized.

He took out something that almost made me double over with laughter. It was a book. A book of erotic illustrations! Father chuckled and shook his head, tossing it aside snidely and rummaged for something else.

This time, he took out some flasks. Porcelain flasks containing medicine. But they were all unmarked and we knew nothing of what was inside them. But Father seemed hardly concerned by them. He dug again and found a little booklet and a letter. He frowned and delved again and finally found a little bundle wrapped in white rags.

He unfurled the little packet and found some dried buns. I stared at Father incredulously. He’s looking for food! But it was hardly surprising; Father and Mother, despite their state of divinity, still have to maintain their physical bodies and that requires the sustenance of food.

Father gave one of the buns to Mother and he began nibbling on another. But he seemed rather unpleased; the bun must taste bad. But as he munched, he kept himself busy by riffling through the pages of the little booklet.

This was hardly anything bawdy or obscene. The first page bore only the words of a name, “Zhao San’er’ – The third son of Zhao. This could be the name of this booklet’s owner, although one scarcely thought over. Father continued to the next page and found some dates and some entries; this is a journal. He skipped to the end and read through the final pages and found nothing mildly informative and instructive.

But before he could slam the lid of the booklet shut, something caught his eye and he stopped. I stooped down to see what was it and saw written on the page was an entry saying, “The seventeenth year of Chongzhen Emperor’s rule; the eighth day of the fourth month on the lunar calendar. Confirmed sighting of a tomb in the mountains.” Father flipped to the next page and it said, “The seventeenth year of Chongzhen Emperor’s rule; the ninth day of the fourth month on the lunar calendar. A party of five including me were led by two peasants from the village at the foot of the mountain. We traveled through the woods at the northern face of the mountain and we found the entrance.” A strange foreboding lulled over me that very instant. What is this all about?! I looked towards the direction of the coffin where the fresh corpse laid and everything dawned upon me finally!

So I was right; whoever the owner of this journal was, he and the dead man now lying in the coffin were graverobbers! The owner of this booklet must have kept this journal to make notes and this leather bag must be his bag of tools!

When I looked back at Father, he was already several pages ahead. I returned my attention to the page he was at and it said, “The seventeenth year of Chongzhen Emperor’s rule; the fourteenth day of the fourth month on the lunar calendar. It has been three days, I am nowhere near getting out of this accursed crypt. I am the only one left of the party of seven. Danger lurks at every corner and traps abound every square inch of this foul place. There is no way out and the monsters are coming.” The last thing written is in a mournful, trailing scrawl, “They are coming.”

That was the end of the entries in the journal; there was nothing more in the rest of the blank pages that followed behind. Father stuffed the last chunk of the stale bun into his mouth and chewed as he tossed the book aside. He switched his view to the letter and tore the top off the envelop.

There was no mention of any writer or recipient. Not even a wax seal. It was just a simple letter, with barely a few words scribbled on the thin piece of paper, saying, “Over Shandong and far away; A village sat gloom and alone; At Mount Tianzhu many turned away; A town wallowing in forlorn. In the holes in caves the dead still dwells; Beckoning like ringing bells, In places deep, where riches sleep; In dreadful halls beneath the fells.”

Father chuckled, grinning to himself. “I knew it,” he breathed. Someone must have written to these graverobbers, betting on their greed and need for money while prodding them here this way. Obviously the anonymous author of this letter had intentionally left out the details about how dangerous this place was. But why? Why this evil scheme to set these plunderers on a quest of doom?

Father seemed to share my thoughts. “They are still oblivious about the site of the dragon leys of the Ming Empire,” he muttered, “But they were certain that the Dragon-slaying Blade will once again reveal itself to the world when the change of a dynasty is at hand. That explains why they are still looking to destroy the dragon leys of the Ming Empire to trigger the rising of any undead watching the tombs to force Bian Dashou into walking into certain death. And with the keeper of the Blade death, they will swoop in and take it. But they know nothing. There’s no way they’ll succeed even if they know where the dragon leys are. Heh heh heh heh.”

I immediately caught the gist of Father’s words; by then, he must mean the parties hiding in shadows, preying on the Dragon-slaying Blade! The extent of Bian Dashou’s wretchedness was no secret to me and these sinister parties must be lurking around him, waiting for a chance to strike at him!

Having earlier comprehended the significance of the Dragon-slaying Blade, I could understand the pith of what Father was trying to say. The “they” that he mention must be the insidious people that had masterminded all the troubles around me; the very same hidden hand which I have been trying to make sense of! Still, despite not knowing yet who they were, it was plain as day that their endeavors begun as early as this era until my time. Never had they faltered nor wavered from their quest even after so many centuries.

Then again, it was fortunate that Bian Dashou had avoided falling into their trap by not searching for the dragon leys of the Ming Empire; instead, he had sought out Li Zicheng’s dragon leys and destroyed them. But one way or another, the dragon leys of the Ming Empire and Li Zicheng would have been destroyed eventually, no matter it was by Bian Dashou’s hand or not.

Mother voice rose up suddenly, “But would Bian Dashou be in danger, seeing as this failure might serve only to frustrate them?” My head lurched at once towards Father whose head shook. “There’s no point anymore. The Ming Empire is in ruins now and Li Zicheng’s demise is at hand. The Jurchens are perfectly in place to step in to establish the Qing Empire. The opportunity for them to harm Bian Dashou has long gone now and they would have to wait until the end of this dynasty for the Dragon-slaying Blade to reappear once more.” But I knew full well that there will not be another dynasty anymore after this.

Ending his meal, Father got up to his feet and clapped the crumbs off his hands. The exploration continues as Father ventured deeper into the crypt’s darkened corridor. This crypt must also be on certain dragon leys, although clearly not the Ming Empire’s, since the dragon leys’ Qi was not yet activated nor manifested. Moreover the articles in this cavernous tomb that honeycombed this entire mountain clearly showed that they preexisted even the Ming Empire.

As we walked, I tried to piece together the information I have gleaned thus far: Until now, the motive of them was unequivocally the Dragon-slaying Blade. It was they who had instigated Godmother’s sister in attacking Father and it was also them who had tried to locate the Blade at the Bian Dashou’s graveyard to no avail. Then there were the Japanese people who charged the brigands to find Blade…

My thoughts were interrupted suddenly when the stone tunnel we were walking in ended. When I looked up, my breath stopped at once. We were in an underground cave chamber with length and breadth of enormous proportions!