The Tale Never Ends

I frowned, my forehead creasing deeply. “When is this body found? Have you ascertained the time of death?” I asked the police officer. I would have peppered him with a flurry of more questions when I suddenly realized that I had not even known his name. Scratching my nose abashedly, I asked him, “Urm… I’m afraid I still don’t know your name, officer?”

The policeman looked nowhere near as perturbed by my inadvertent lack of manners. “The victim was found in this condition somewhere at around 17:30, which is almost an hour ago. Forensics shows that the time of death is somewhere between 3 to 3:30 pm. That means this corpse has been hanging up there for almost two hours before it was discovered. But it’s not surprising, considering that this scene is quite a ways from the main road and it lies away from the scanning range of our real-time cameras. Ah, yes. My name is Wang Qingwen, a Captain of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Yi County Police Force. I have once had the privilege of working with Officer Yuan and Captain Zheng from your station.”

It must be him, I mused. The officer who worked with Chongxi and Zheng Shuang when they first came to know Zhang Zhigui. Obviously, he could see that we were not part of the police force but we were just consultants helping the police. But without a proper way to address us in front of his colleagues, he had resorted to addressing us as fellow officers. After all, it was a police officer from a neighboring county and a civilian consultant who had helped solve a case that had given him a hard time. That alone was enough proof to him that we were no mere ordinary consultants. That, added with Chongxi’s propensity for exaggeration, Captain Wang had only the deepest respect for us in addition to imploring for our assistance.

Lin Feng came over and placed a hand on my shoulder. “So, what do you make of this?” I said nothing. Instead, I walked to Chongxi, who had been circling around the corpse, studying it. “You’ve found something, have you not?” “Course,” he whirled around to face us and said, “And that’s not all. This case would have been simple if it had been just a mere murder. But too bad, it’s not…” Before he could blurt more, I quickly put a finger to my lips, cautioning him for silence and Chongxi snickered knowingly.

The condition of the corpse and the direction it was facing were enough for Chongxi to glean ample formation; among them included facts of how was the corpse here, the history of the dead man and so forth. With even more clues, perhaps it would not be far off to hazard that Chongxi might even be able to divine the dead man’s former life and incarnations.

Chongxi understood full well my reasons for not wanting to divulge anything in public. Prying eyes and eavesdropping ears abounded the scene of the crime now teeming with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that saw the commotion like ants on sweet. With a curt nod, he muttered simply, “Let’s first start by retrieving the foul aura then.” I nodded quietly. The soul of the dead man was no longer here and only a whiff of foul aura left by the ghost due to the grisly murder remained. The savage manner of the murder had turned the ghost into something similar to the evil spirits we had encountered during our defeat of Ha’ri Naohai, only the dead man’s ghost was just an evil ghost still fresh and juvenile. Nevertheless, we had to retrieve the foul aura now. There could be evil people who would want to steal it for insidious purposes.

I took out my Spirit Gourd and looked for the speck of foul aura, drawing it into my Gourd while Chongxi finished his prescient calculations. When his calculations were done, he showed me the signs—the results of his contrivance and one thing instantly became clear: this man had committed sin. A sin that was retributed with a terrible death. But instead of the mixing of Yin and Yang in rape or molest, the signs we saw showed two Yang elements. I stared at Chongxi and asked, “Are you sure your calculations are right?”

He nodded profusely, extremely confident. “Of course. And this would mean only one thing. This man, hanging dead on top of this utility pole, is a homosexual.” That revelation made my gut churned and I had to hold back the urge to vomit. This man had committed the sin of lying with a man and for that, he had been punished to a death so gruesome that he was no more than a slab of meat on a spit.

The grotesque manner of the man’s murder and his homosexuality, as well as the foul aura now in my possession made it easy for us to guess the identity of the perpetrator. I lifted the curtain of the white screen and walked out. The first thing I did was to release my Spirit Eagle, then I said to Big Sister, “Do you have paper and pen, Sister?” She gave me a strange look but she nodded all the same and produced a pen and a small notebook. “Since when you do keep such items with you?” I asked and she smirked. “Well, I’m learning how to write now!” With a long “Oh…” I said nothing else, merely nodding.

I flipped to a blank page and wrote a line, “Murder case at the expressway to the east of the seat of Yi County. Death by impalement.” I tore off the page and rolled it up before I lifted it high and I whistled for my Spirit Eagle. It swooped down and snatched the message off my fingers and took into the air, flying away in the direction from where we were coming from.

It was a message intended for Zhang Zhigui, although I was not interested to know if he would guess that I was the author of the note.

Captain Wang approached us, hoping to get some answers or hints from us when a loud voice called from outside the cordoned area. “Come aboard! We are 5 passengers short! Where are you! Come on, this is a bus to Shanggu Town! Are you there?!” Captain Wang gave me a perplexed look and I smiled apologetically at him and explained, “That’s our ride.” I waved to the others, gesturing them to get a move on. Captain Wang opened his mouth as if to say something, but Lin Feng and the rest of every one were already moving back to the express bus.

“Well, my apologies, Captain Wang. I’m afraid I have to be going now. But I can tell you where you would find your answers.” The message came as a relief to the Captain and he drew closer to listen. “Head to Dongyubu Village and look for Master Zhang,” I told him. With that, I wheeled around and strolled away before he could react. Chongxi had once told me that Zhang Zhigui should be no stranger to Captain Wang. So, being aliens to this vicinity, it was only for the best that we left this matter to the locals.

We scrambled up the bus, much to the puzzled and peculiar stares of the other passengers. Our journey continued without any word from anyone. But after barely a hundred meters, the driver of the express bus could no longer bridle his inquisitiveness. He looked back and burst out, “How did you guys pass through the police tape?” “Urm… We know the police officer leading the investigation, that’s all.” A hint of realization appeared on his hardly-surprised expression. “I knew it. I heard some officers calling you as experts! You’re plainclothes officers, are you not?” And I could only manage to shake my head at the absurd idea.

That was it. The dam broke loose. No one in the bus could hold back the ballooning eagerness to find out more about what happened and the entire bus erupted into rushes of buzzing, whispers, and chatters. Some began bombarding us with questions, demanding answers from us, but we did our best to deflect the inquiries, especially those that pertained to the victim’s death, dismissing only with a curt reply, “You won’t wanna know how he died.”

Night was already upon us when the express bus finally reached its destination. Missing the last train to Wu Zhong, we could only spend a night in Shanggu before going back tomorrow. We booked a hotel room and went out for dinner. The first thing that Big Sister saw as soon as we stepped outside the hotel was the bright blazing signboard of a hot-pot chain restaurant beckoning at her. The knowledge of various hot-pot restaurants and their signages were one of the few things Big Sister made full sure to equip herself with since plunging into society. Without even asking us, she dragged me towards the hot-pot restaurant with Lin Feng and the rest grinning weakly as they followed behind.

The waiter at the door was also soundly surprised by Big Sister storming into their store and could only manage to whimper timidly, “Urm… You people are…”

If Big Sister had heard him, she certainly gave him no sign that she did. Still dragging me like pulling a stubborn mule, she made her way to an empty table while barking at the waiter, “I want to place an order!” The brief tumult was enough to make every other pair of eyes in the restaurant turning to our direction and that was enough incentive for Lin Feng and Chongxi to quickly sink into the chairs opposite us. As did Edelweiss, who could only sit down beside me with an obedient smile.

But Lin Feng looked at her and she too looked back. Then Lin Feng began to ask, “What happened there just now?” I saw Big Sister still busy reciting the names of every meat dish she could find on the menu to the waiter, I turned to the rest of my companions and revealed, “Remember Ha’ri Naohai? The one whom we defeated at the hospital in Mongolia?” And their heads bobbed. “It appears that crushing the Order of Pain—the evil cult that now Zhang Zhigui is fighting against—would be no less easier than vanquishing the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. What I retrieved from the corpse just now was not the soul of the dead man but the evil aura left by the malignant spirit. It was the same as when we were encountering Ha’ri Naohai.”

“Wait,” Lin Feng gasped with shock, “So you mean to say that the manner of the person’s death was also a type of corporal punishment?” “Yep,” I nodded and said, “Death by impalement. A most brutal way to take a man’s life. I’ll spare you the details. It’s too ugly and horrifying. But the fact remains: this is a feud between Zhang Zhigui and the Order of Pain that I find no reason for us to entangle ourselves into. Moreover, there’s nothing I can do with the Shiyan Blade in Zhang Zhigui’s keeping.”

Edelweiss and Lin Feng nodded finally. But she asked again, looking slightly worried, “But the Order of Pain had once tried to harm you too. Are you sure it’s safe for Zhang Zhigui to keep your sword?”

I chuckled. “You still don’t get it, do you?” I said to her.