The Tale Never Ends

I staggered and lurched. With a kick of dust, I flew up into the air before I could fall again. The ground was shaking! There was nothing wrong with me! The terrifying blue flash of light and the shaking of the earth told me enough: it was an earthquake!

What else could it be but the Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976 and here I was, standing in the Yahong Bridge town near Wu Zhong County, merely leagues away from the epicenter of the quake. The ground’s shudder aggravated with fury under me and I began to see people running from their homes to safety like ants abandoning their nests.

The Bian Family’s burial grounds were just to the west of Huang Xiang River. Looking east at the other side of the river, I saw a little tent erected using some poles and a felt blanket. An old man walked briskly out of the tent hurriedly as I rose into the air, his long white beard waving as he moved towards north along the river’s flood embankments. With another few steps, he vanished! A strange sensation of deja vu rose in my mind although I could not remember what it was. The blue flash of light engulfing the earth died down finally, and darkness returned to take its place. The clamor of anxious cries and shrieks from the people below me filled the air. But I was occupied by something else: a dash of multi-colored lights streaked before my eyes when I was scanning the surroundings with my Spirit Sight and the river of rainbow circled across the sky like a long and wide river, showering its magic on every inch of Wu Zhong County. The earthquake continued rumbling and the houses, buildings, flats, and everything else were wavering precariously, threatening to topple and collapse any second. But they were held with an invisible power that supported them as long as the river of rainbow flowed in the sky!

I followed the streak of lights, flying to find out its origin as it extended like a ribbon of rainbow across the air. It did not take long to locate it, or rather him; a young man was on the ground, with his both hands on the ground and the rainbow was bursting from his back like powerful jets of water! I landed at once and peered at him, it was Master Six!

Then I realized: Master Six was using his magic to support the buildings to buy time for the people to escape. I might not have magic or sorcery as powerful as Master Six’s, but I needed to do something to help! I leaped into the air and flew to the villages. I saw a little cottage nearest to the embankment of the river and a boy, barely the age of ten, scampered out of the small house. He ran to a man standing just outside and the man yelled loudly, “Get out of the house, all of you! It’s an earthquake! Run!” The boy ran to the young man, “Big Brother, where’s Mother?” “Huh?! Mother’s still not out yet!? I thought she was with you! Dammit! Quick! We need to get Mother out!”

The little boy was already whirling even before his brother told him and they ran back home. But just when the little boy turned, I saw his face and I nearly keeled over at the familiar face of the little child my eyes had set upon. It was a young Lin Feng!

But there was something in his appearance and temperament, then I realized how mistaken I was. That’s not Lin Feng, it’s Uncle Quan! The young Uncle Quan!

The boy Uncle Quan reached his home and was about to dart inside but the house was in its final death throes, groaning and shaking violently as if it would be crashing down any second now! I darted forward without hesitation. I placed myself under the falling beam of the house and held it up and the battered house stopped its groaning death rattle! Uncle Quan dove headfirst into the house and came out seconds later with a middle-aged woman on his back. With brisk footsteps, he escaped to safety and I released my hold of the beam and I ran. A deafening boom crashed behind me and when I looked back, the house was in ruins save for a roof still perching on its pillars; its walls had caved in right where Uncle Quan’s mother formerly was. The dread that she could have well been dead if not for my intervention sent a shiver through me.

It was a strange sight to see the house still standing although its walls have all fallen like a house of cards. Lacking that, I would have looked like a fool trying to support the beam of the roof earlier.

Everyone in the village deserted their houses and the air was thick with the screams and wailing of babes in their mother’s arms. Some were so petrified with fear that they could hardly even move, their feet weighing like lead under them. The tremor had begun in the wee hours of the morning and this had caught everyone by surprise. They had hardly even the time to dress themselves properly before fleeing their collapsing houses. I sat beside the boy Uncle Quan and we saw a young man helping an old gnarly man across the street, running towards us.

The pale glow of dawn was showing overhead us; an hour or more had passed and the tremors were beginning to lessen. A cry rang from the crowds, “The Qiuzhuang Reservoir has broken!”

There was hardly a croak nor a whimper from the crowd of evacuees as the news registered! Then the ice broke and all hell broke loose as chaos and panic ensued. The Qiuzhuang Reservoir was a water catchment just upriver of Huang Xiang River. It breaking due to the earthquake would mean that a terrible flood was afoot! The plains on either bank of Huan Xiang River would be swarmed by an unstoppable tide of rushing rapids before long and nothing in miles would still be left standing! Everyone rushed to higher ground: the flood embankments at the sides of the river and the brick and mortar dikes were crammed with people huddling together for dear life!

Uncle Quan carried his mother up the dike and set here down safely up there when he remembered something he had forgotten. He tore his eyes back down and cursed under his breath and he ran southwards as quickly as he could!

I ran down with him and we reached the little felt blanket tent. He looked around anxiously as if searching for something, or someone! Because I then understood: the old man I saw earlier running across the street was Uncle Quan’s teacher!

Failing to find his teacher, Uncle Quan sighed heavily and walked back to his mother with his head hanging between his shoulders. Unbeknownst to him or everyone else for that matter, a little boy was crouching on the ground just at the foot of the flood dikes, with his hand firmly placed on the ground. It was Uncle Quan’s childhood friend, Master Six, who was using his magic to help suppress the earthquake!

A dull but rumbling “hum” came from the earth beneath us as if a monster had awakened from a dormant slumber. The hues of the rainbow lights still spraying from Master Six’s back dimmed suddenly and I immediately understood. Something is wrong, Master Six’s powers are failing!

The ground began to resume its shaking and I almost lost my balance and fell down myself. I flew up to the air and looked at Master Six. He was still maintaining his posture, doing his best to regain control of his magic, but his face was deathly-pale now. It dawned upon me synchronously; despite being reborn with his magic and divinity of a former celestial being, Master Six’s current physical form was still the body of a 15-year-old human boy! The frail body of a mortal child could not contain the massive strain due to the continued use of his magic and he looked as if he was going to collapse any moment himself!

I ran to him and stooped beside him. But there was nothing I could do. No amount of screaming or fidgeting would do any good for the immortal boy who was now at his limits but I could do hardly anything to help but sweat profusely with anxiety. Then I thought of my Spirit Gourd! I took it out. There must be something that I can do to help! I clutched the calabash gourd in my hands, muttering a desperate spell and the spirits of the yetis inside immediately roared furiously!

Producing a rejuvenation elixir with the Spirit Gourd normally takes up to one day. But it was sink or swim; I began channeling my powers and will into my Spirit Gourd, willing it to dissolve the spirit of the yetis inside. The angry and defiant snarls from the yetis began to subside and I could almost visualize what was going on inside the Gourd. Tens of crystalline pellets, all of varying forms and sizes, began to form inside. This was the first time I was able to see what goes on inside the Gourd. Unlike my usual way of perceiving the contents of my Gourd with my spiritual senses, this time it seemed as if I had become one with my most sturdy tool!

A sweltering blaze melted the crystals in the Gourd and reduced them into clear and limpid beads of liquid soul. The beads boiled and quivered and slowly solidified as the anger and ferocity of the yetis and other chaff were all separated from them. Finally, they gradually congealed and hardened into round, almond-like pills. The chaff removed from them continued swirling like flies over them until the blaze within the Gourd incinerated everything and baked the pills to perfection.

This was the first time I had a glimpse of how pills came to be inside the Spirit Gourd. I have always been accustomed to sparing myself of all these copious details by allowing the Gourd to produce the pills automatically while this time, it was different; I was controlling the process myself. When I dragged myself back to the present, the morning sun was hanging brightly over us and Master Six had gone so pale that I would have mistaken him for a corpse if not for his shuddering hands! I immediately unstoppered my Gourd and poured out a pill and fed it to him.

But before I could slip the pill through his lips, Master Six’s body jerked and down he fell, passing out in exhaustion! The ground beneath my feet groaned again and the tremors resumed violently and the buildings around us were throbbing to the pulse in the earth. I immediately forced opened Master Six’s mouth and shoved the pill inside before I flew up the sky.

I instinctively looked towards Uncle Quan’s house and saw him clinging to a tree with a trunk as wide as a little bowl. The tree swayed uncontrollably to the trembles of the earth, its crown nearly hitting the ground every time it bent and it looked as if it could be crashing down any second!