The Tale Never Ends

The ground gave another shudder and the walls of the compound of Uncle Quan’s house buckled and fell over the young Uncle Quan! Acting by reflex, I dashed towards him at all speed!

The boy was hugging for his life at a tree, lurching wildly as it shook to the violent undulations of the destruction occurring around him. I somersaulted and reached him just in time to deliver a kick at the wall crashing down on him, snapping the wall into half and sending the upper half careening elsewhere.

The wrecking din of the falling wall made Uncle Quan looked around. But he saw nothing but the rubbles and debris that once was the wall that ringed the compound of his home crashing down before his very eyes! What remained of his house continued wobbling as if its bedrock was made of jelly and all the walls came coming down like London’s Bridge. A surge of iridescent glow flooded from Master Six’s direction suddenly. He has recovered! The tremors in the ground softened and relaxed like a monster being cooed to sleep. I looked back at Uncle Quan’s house which was now nothing more than a four-pillared barn or shed with no walls.

I heaved a silent breath of relief. Master Six must be all right now, I surmised. Uncle Quan went to his house and got a basin with pots and pans and ran back to the embankment while I darted towards Master Six. But before I could reach him, a dark, murky shadow dove straight at my face!

It swooped down on me like a bat so quickly that I could barely see what it was before it missed me by inches! But I knew exactly what it was, or rather, who it was. That was Father, flying at intense speeds on his sword towards Tangshan City! But that would also mean that he was just returning from Inner Mongolia!?

I wheeled around to follow after Father! But the notion died as swiftly as it came; Father disappeared out of sight just before I could see his back! But I knew, despite the letdown, that my place was here with Master Six, not with him and I flew back at once. The noon sun blazed cheerily in the sky, oblivious to the destruction and carnage beneath. My gaze wandered down and I saw three little children sitting by the side of a river ditch. This is not Huang Xiang River, I realized. In fact, just a little trench nowhere near it. And there was nobody else in the vicinity save for these little children.

Feeling strange and puzzled, I landed beside the children. One of the children puffed his chest and said proudly, “Our ages are almost the same. We should pledge ourselves as sworn siblings!” “Of course, Brother Zhang! I agree with you. After all, it was you who had saved us both!” Another boy said after hardly a heartbeat of hesitation. The lone girl of the trio nodded, “I agree too! It’d be like the tale of Water Margin! We should be sworn siblings since we were brought together in adversity!”

The three children propped to their knees and they bowed to the sky. It can’t be… I almost gasped aloud with shock.

The stocky boy pronounced solemnly, “With the Heaven as our witness, I, Zhang Baoguo…” “I, Nie Xiaojun…” added the other boy. “…and I, Dong Xuefen!” The little girl squeaked. “shall henceforth be sworn siblings. From now till our last breath. We so swear by the Heaven that watches us on high!” The children bowed to each other again.

Good Heavens?! They are the children Mr. Zhang, Aunt Fen, and Mr. Nie?! I could scarcely believe what I was looking at. What twist of luck was this that I was able to witness this very moment!

I return to Master Six to see that it was already evening. Master Six used every chance he could to recuperate whenever the earthquake paused. Came the dusk, the aftershocks have reduced to mere feeble trembles that no longer threatened the foundations of any building that still stood. Master Six departed for his home at last after his day-long exertion.

Trucks came the next morning, carry emergency service personnel who came from afar. The roads continued to be busy the rest of the day with lines of vehicles of the disaster relief services passing by, heading straight for Tangshan City. From above the sky overhead, the column of vehicles could have easily coursed from one end of the horizon to another.

I sat under the pale moon that night, on the mass of scraps and scree that was formerly a wall of a farmhouse. Then a sudden gust of wind blew in the air. An unnatural blast of wind that howled ominously in the black night! Good Heavens, could this be something foul or evil?! But Master Six was still weakened by the strain of his magic today and I must do something then!

I sat up at once and looked towards the direction of that foul wind. It was blowing towards the west side of Huan Xiang River and I could see a dark, humanoid-shaped figure zipped by in its wake. But it made no sign of stopping when it came near Huan Xiang River, instead, it picked up its pace, racing straight towards Wu Zhong City, the eponymous seat of the county! This must be one of them, one of the foul beings and entities who seek to exploit this calamity to their profit! One of the reasons that have compelled all mages, witch doctors, and practitioners of mystic arts to come to Tangshan. They were here not only to help to keep the peace, but also to protect all beings, man and ghosts, from these sinister parties hoping to hatch insidious schemes.

I got up at once and raced after that black fleeting shade before it could escape my sight!

It hardly took long before I caught up to the dark shadow darting through the night sky. It flew as swift as a falcon, but it circled backward and veered off-course many times like a blind bull and that allowed me to close in on it somewhere around the eastern outskirts of the city, which was the No.2 Middle School of Wu Zhong in present time. In my year, this place belonged to the Balipu Village to the east of the county seat. But in 1976, the school was the first middle school of Wu Zhong before it was renamed when another school was built. There were scarcely any buildings in these parts and wild meadows and plains blanketed much of the landscape here. The dark silhouette descended into the sea of grass and I landed just beside him.

I took out my Spirit Gourd at once and prepared myself. But when I saw the face of the man, I swallowed hard as goose pimples oozed my skin again! Another face which I knew! Shang Pei’s son! No, wait, I remembered the timeline, This is Shang Pei when he was young!

I see it now! Shang Pei must have come to Wu Zhong at Father’s bidding! I had mistaken him for the enemy! Well, I would have wanted it no other way. No one would welcome an invasion in such small hours of the night.

Shang Pei surveyed everything around him as soon as he landed and found nothing but placid emptiness aside from forests and fields. There was nobody else. He scratched his head, looking positively puzzled and confused, and continued moving west towards Wu Zhong City.

When Shang Pei finally arrived at the county seat, he was aghast with horror and so was I. The county seat of Wu Zhong was like a ghost city, a necropolis under the moonlit night ravaged by death and disaster with virtually nothing remained standing. The entire city of Wu Zhong was in utter ruins! Despite the veil of night, howls and cries could be heard every now and then, emitting from unknown crevices and corners, beset by the sporadic clatter of rocks and debris as people raked through the wreckage for loved ones. It was a hideous sight. Shang Pei might not have been a completely blameless man, but he tried to be as veracious and righteous whenever he could. He rushed forward and helped to dig through the rubble. Anyone with any conscious would have known that it was the right thing to do: to offer any help without needing any behest or instruction. Those were kinder days and people were more helpful to others then. All it took was a knowing nod to one another and it was off to work for everyone. The work to save lives. A man close to Shang Pei tossed him a hoe and the latter took it without so much as a glance, and the long toil to rescue anyone caught below the rubble began.

Rescue points were being set up in various spots around the battered city to provide relief to the sick and wounded. Shang Pei slung the two people he found on his shoulders and jogged towards the nearest rescue point. His hands shone with a glow as green as grass as he moved, slowly channeling his powers to restore the two men, salvaging them from death. Following behind him, I could see what he was doing. He was funneling his divine aura into them to save them from dying!

I followed Shang Pei to the rescue point and we saw a man with a hair of disheveled, twisted wisps that reminded me of a raven’s nest, busying himself with tending to the wounds of any injured survivors and bandaging them. Shang Pei said nothing, merely stepping into the tent and lowering the two men he carried on two mats sprawling on the ground. He was about to leave but the young, sloppy-looking man looked at him through narrowed eyes which then widened and he cried, “You there, please wait!” Shang Pei spun and stared into the dusty face of the young man, “What is it?”

Instead, a smile curled upon the lips of the young man. He pointed a hand towards the left and said, “Go there! There’s somebody dying down there!” Shang Pei stared at him incredulously before he peeled his eyes off the boy and looked towards the direction he was pointing at. It was the site of a huge pile of wreckage that once belonged to a tall building. A huge mortar slab sat just over the mound of rocks and boulders and Shang Pei understood the young man at last. This was no job for a mortal but someone like him!

Shang Pei gave a thoughtful nod at the young man and hurried over. With his superhuman powers, he lifted the humungous stone slab and rescued a little girl trapped below and he ran back to the tent. As he rushed back, he cradled the little girl in his arms and a gentle glow like fresh moss shone around her and she came back to life, drawing a long, hard breath as she panted for life.