The Tale Never Ends

“I can’t believe it! A will-o’-the-wisp!” Chongxi spat furiously. “What do you think this place is? Wildernesses like these are where people usually abandon corpses and carcasses, of course, there’d be will-o’-the-wisps here!” Big Sister quipped with a giggle, to which Chongxi uttered a surprised “Ah?”, not comprehending what Big Sister was trying to say.

“I’d not be surprised if Huang Li’s father has indeed killed to cover up secrets of his. This area is deserted and he could easily dig a hole and hide any dead body without being seen. That’s what she means.” I explained and Chongxi emitted an “Oh!” finally.

We reached the inside of the compound. Crouching by the corner of a wall, Zheng Shuang whispered to me, “Go on then! I’ll keep watch here!” I felt like a little child leading his band of merry men bent on mischief and Zheng Shuang’s pretense of “I’ll keep watch here” struck as being as best an excuse he could come up just to mask his cowardice like the timid little straggler who could not keep up with us. I chuckled and shrugged. After a moment’s thought, I fished out my Spirit Gourd and summoned Smoky. “I’ll leave Smoky here with you. At least he can accompany you or defend you in case you’re attacked.” Zheng Shuang nodded anxiously and rushed to hug the black cat which resembled more of miniaturized panther to me and Smoky meowed twice snobbishly, even though it did not struggle to free itself.

We gave him silent nods and we gently pushed opened the door, finding it unlocked, and we wriggled our way in like fishes in a channel.

The slivers of light pouring through the slit in the doorway into the security control room were the only source of light in the darkened hallway. Sneaking on her toes, Big Sister crept closer to the room and peeped through the slit. Having the best eyesight among my friends, I could see that the guard sat alone in his control room, staring up at a bank of screens, all of them CCTV monitors. Then I saw us, clearly being shown skulking surreptitiously outside the security control room on one of the screens. But the security guard seemed to not have noticed us. Big Sister gave me a quick look before she blew a gust of air through the slit. A green mist drifted through the room towards the guard before his head drooped down and his hands went limp and fell, releasing the cell phone he was holding. Just before it clattered on the floor, the recognizable voice from the Arena of Valor AI announced, “Get ready, minions will be deployed in five seconds.”

That put a grin to my face and I pushed my way in quietly. The snores of the guard reverberated through the control room like the rumbles of thunder. “He’d be as dead as a log until the morning,” Big Sister beamed proudly, saying, “Not even a thunderclap would wake him.” “This is a useful trick, Big Sister!” Chongxi praised, flashing a thumbs-up and her smile grew even wider.

I groaned and shook my head at the banter and redirected my attention to the bank of CCTV screens on the wall, which featured footages from almost every corridor in the building and I saw no one else. I lighted a cigarette. “I wonder if there are more people besides Huang Li’s father and this guard. We’d best proceed carefully and quietly. We’ll look wherever we can and we’ll be depending mostly on your sense of smell, Big Sister.” I instructed and Big Sister nodded her assent.

We left the security control room and I motioned towards the elevator. As we stepped inside after the doors opened, I felt as if something was amiss although I did not know what. We walked in and turned around and I reached forward to hit the buttons when my hand froze! There were only ten buttons during the day when we came earlier. Ten buttons for ten floors. But now, there was another extra row of buttons! We exchanged terrified looks and I whispered to my friends, “Look!” “Wait, the building doesn’t have so many floors when we came just now. I don’t remember it being so tall,” Edelweiss gasped and Chongxi clicked his tongue, saying, “Not only just now. This building does not have so many floors even when I looked at it from the outside when we’re sneaking in just now!” Chongxi added.

I snorted. “Just look properly!” I said to everyone and they studied closely the two rows of buttons and they inhaled deeply with disbelief! The buttons for every floor each have a double just beside it; a pair of 2s, a pair of 3s, a pair of 4s and so on, until the bottom where the last two buttons side-by-side both showed the same number 10.

Everyone turned to face me, everyone with dubious expressions on their faces. “Urm, what now?” Big Sister asked first. I paused several seconds to think, then I said, “We’ll split up. Na San and Edelweiss with me. We’ll take the left column buttons. Big Sister, you’ll go with Lin Feng and Chongxi. You guys will take the right column buttons.” When everyone nodded their agreement to the plan, I hit the “2” on the left.

With the chime of a bell, the elevator doors glided open. Through the dark, one could not miss the red sparkling dot at the end of the corridor that denoted the position of the CCTV camera. With a last nod to my friends who nodded back, I led Na San and Edelweiss out of the elevator. The doors closed behind us, plunging us into complete darkness.

When I looked back, Na San had already produced a shamanic drum and in his hand, his fingers clasped tightly around the handle of a drumstick that looked like a miniature riding crop. He realized the stare coming from me and smiled goofily. “I guess this is all I have for now, since I no longer have my knife and staff.” I gave him an encouraging nod. Na San seemed to have missed my curiosity as to from where did he produce that little drum of his. A pair of snakes, a pair of toads, and a pair of lizards were illustrated on the face of the drum head. Six animals around in a circle, surrounding a tortoise. The drum was a meticulous work of art and would have cost a fortune, whether it had magical abilities or not.

Edelweiss, however, hardly cast a look at Na San. Her hand immediately drew to her back and her golden dagger came out with a steely swish. I muttered a simple incantation while uncorking my Spirit Gourd. My sword, the ordinary one, appeared, along with all a half dozen of my spirit wolves. My weapon glinted coldly in the dark as my six Spirit Wolves began sniffing around. They must have felt the strangeness of this place too, given their sharp senses as predators which were further honed when they became my spirit minions and even mine could not ever hope to match theirs.

For a second, the wolves began to be tensed and I knew they had found something. They spread out, pausing to sniff at each door one-by-one with us shadowing behind, until the wolf at the forefront sprinted around a corner and we gave chase at once.

Another darkly-ominous corridor panned out just before us as soon as we turned the corner. Yet, despite its unsettling emptiness, the wolves could not stop smelling around as if they have found something although they did not know what. The common link shared between my wolves and my mana pool allowed me to feel their emotions and me theirs, so I realized what they had found. Someone was here. Or could still be here, even though my wolves could not see him.

Edelweiss read the hesitation in my expression and she asked quickly, “What happened? Is there anything wrong?” I held up a hand to motion for silence and I activated my Spirit Sight to look around. Still, all I got was a gloomy hallway. Nothing looked wrong. Edelweiss looked around warily, finding nothing too. Suddenly, Na San urged, saying, “Please leave the young lordling be, for now, My Lady. He’s realized something is wrong here too and so did I.”

“Huh? You felt something too?” I spun frantically to face him, asking, “What did you feel?” “I could feel the presence of something here, Young Lordling,” he frowned and said, “It’s should be just in front of us, yet we see nothing.” “Yes, my wolves have felt something too,” I nodded and said, “But I see nothing…” A huge BOOM from somewhere around this floor resounded suddenly, startling us! The loud crash echoed off the walls of the quiet and barren corridors like the explosion of a bomb, nearly sending us into a fright.

Our eyes met. Yet when Na San and I were looking at each other, he misunderstood the look I was giving him! He returned a brusque nod and raised his shamanic drum aloft as he sprinted back where we were coming from! I sped after him. You idiot fool, Na San! I was screaming in my head, Do you not value your own life! He looked at me and thought I was ordering him to charge headfirst into enemy lines like a foolhardy foot soldier! Edelweiss realized what happened and followed after me.

Before my quest of pilgrimage through Time, I was so many times weaker than I was now that I used to be slower than Edelweiss. But now, in steps of twos and threes, I easily caught up to Na San.

We ran back to the same corridor we first came into right after leaving the elevator. One of the doors had been kicked open, its lock mangled beyond repair. Standing in at the door of the overshadowed room, I looked inside and saw it was nothing but an ordinary-looking office with rows and rows of desks. We looked at each other uneasily, still puzzled by this. The door was clearly kicked from outside. But there seemed to be no one else but us! Could it be true that we had something lurking about around us? Something invisible that not even my Spirit Sight could detect?

The thought of having an invisible intruder prowling like a slithery snake around us made goosebumps ooze out of my skin! Even Edelweiss was giving off a slight tremble; a sign that she too noticed what I realized. Na San, however, was looking rather indifferent. The dread and premonition of imminent danger seemed to hardly daunt him. As usual for a fool that rushes into battle at the first sign of trouble, I guess, I mused as I wonder if the notion of death caused by knife’s chopping and the creepiness of being frightened by a ghost would seem the same to him.

Edelweiss tugged fearfully at my arm, asking me, “What should we do now?” My forehead creased with concentration and worry. I did not know what to do myself, truth be told. I was still raking my mind for solutions, when suddenly, the corridor came alive with the noises of cracking glass and all three of us jumped as one!