The lid of the wooden sarcophagus slowly opened, the wooden board grinding heavily to the side until it fell off its edge. A head popped out of the opening; a female head with long, unkempt black hair. From the distance, they could not see her face in the dark. The female stood up, revealing herself to be dressed in bright-red clothing that oddly reminded the two observers of blood before she hopped out of the coffin and began walking outward.

Yuan Chongxi and Lin Feng stayed their positions, crouching in the shadows. It was as I had instructed: they were only to engage anything that came out of the coffin only if it returned. The female figure left the compound of the factory for a little more than an hour, and returned later, cradling a bundle in her arms. She meandered back to the coffin, replacing the lid back unto the coffin but she kept it half-opened. With a leg already inside the coffin, she placed the bundle into the coffin before climbing in herself and was about to shut the lid after her.

But she did not expect any intruders! Yuan Chongxi pounced from his hiding place, dashing across the compound with the agility of a panther and yanked at the lid hard, preventing the female from closing it! Caught off-guard, the female emitted a cry of shock! Her head popped out of the opening of the coffin, only to see a short, young man gripping tightly at the lid. Even though the dark that had obviated their attempts to see each other clearly, Yuan Chongxi could feel the pervading fear and panic coming off her. They tugged at the lid from both ends, both of them not willing to surrender. The female ducked back into the coffin suddenly. The bloody hag must be trying to get a mask to frighten me, Yuan Chongxi surmised. Indeed, when the woman showed herself again, she was wearing a mask of a demon with long, menacing fangs! Her long, scrawny arms stretched forth at him like a monster lunging for its prey; but Yuan Chongxi was hardly perturbed! His eyes were still locked on his quarry. Her fingers nearly grazed his face, when a sudden “Crack!” echoed through the still night! It was Lin Feng who had been waiting in ambush! His whip lashed savagely on the bony hand like a ferocious serpent!

With an anguished shriek of pain, the woman withdrew her arms! Yuan Chongxi roared with laughter. “You hardly look frightening! I can do better!” He crossed his eyes, teasing her while trying to look scary. “Only the superstitious will fall for this ruse!” He leaped forward, trying to claw at the woman’s mask. Terrified with shock, the woman scrambled back into the coffin with a loud cry! Without any hesitation, Lin Feng threw himself into the coffin, chasing after the woman and Yuan Chongxi followed close behind! The woman fell into a hole and began screaming, “RUN, SENIOR!”

What Yuan Chongxi and Lin Feng found inside the recess under the coffin was a cave with the size of a room. There was a table at the center of the space and a blazing oil lamp which illumination cast their shadows upon the walls of the subterranean stone chamber. There was a side door which looked as if it led to sleeping quarters. There was another right opposite it where they heard footsteps and saw a man running through that door: that must be an emergency exit and somebody was escaping! But the man was barely through the door when he slowly backtracked with both hands held high in resignation. Step by step, he paced backward, forced by the barrel of a gun in his face as Zheng Shuang and I entered from the exit…

When Yuan Chongxi and Lin Feng was observing from their hiding place, Zheng Shuang and I were together, watching over them. Once I was certain that my companions were well hidden, I said to Zheng Shuang, “It’s time. Let’s go!” And we walked to the back of the brick factory. On the way, Zheng Shuang asked me, “Urm… are you certain that Brother Lin and Chongxi will be able to handle things on their end? I saw the coffin…” I giggled. “Have no fear. There is nobody else but two unlucky fools inside the coffin.”

We drudged through waist-deep thickets of bushes, searching for so long that we had almost lost track of time when we finally discovered a hole which was so carefully concealed by tall grasses and thick shrubbery that we nearly missed it. Zheng Shuang and I traded looks. “Do you think this is it?” he asked. “I guess it is. Look at how meticulously concealed it is!” I remarked. The entrance of the hole was very narrow that only a lean man could slide through. A person of larger girth would find it terribly tedious to slip through that opening. “Load your gun!” I hissed to Zheng Shuang, encouraging him with a nod. He cocked the pistol in his hand as I signaled him to move in, and we slipped into the hole as quietly as we could.

The cramped entrance of the hole certainly belied the vastness of the cavern we discovered inside! We slid into the hole and found the ground level lower than it was outside. Like a blind man tapping on the ground with his stick, Zheng Shuang stretched his feet to navigate through the darkness. “D*mn! It’s a staircase leading down!” I nodded, instinctively giving him a light push, signaling him to go down quickly. The steps of the stairs were poorly furnished that they were steep and crude. One might wonder if one might slip and fall when coming downward. The stairs led deep down underground; so deep that I would have thought the entire hill had in fact housed an underground catacomb or even a subterranean necropolis if not for the brick factory above us. At the bottom of the stairs, we found a large and spacious chamber, flooded feebly by the flickering flame of a candle that gave off an eerie ambiance. There was a door just opposite the portal we came from. I crouched below the door and listened, hearing the anxiously shuffling footsteps of a man inside. I sneaked back out the portal and gave a thoughtful nod to Zheng Shuang, who scrambled stealthily up the stairs and peeked out of the hole. He hissed some orders into the mouthpiece of his walkie-talkie. Minutes later, we were joined by a group of armed policemen who slowly filed down the stairs quietly without alerting anyone.

This was part of our plan: the policemen who came with us were split into two groups, one of which would remain on standby near Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi’s position, while the other would join us in closing off the perpetrators’ exit. After nearly an hour, we heard the ruckus coming from outside the main chamber, followed by the fearful screams of a woman. Zheng Shuang and I were just ahead of the whole group that had been huddling covertly at the bottom of the stairs, standing just behind the portal that led to the main chamber of the cave. I made a signal to Zheng Shuang, hinting him to be on guard. We were all ready like a pride of lions waiting on the prowl. At the sound of a “Bang!”, the door in front of us was kicked opened and we saw the face of a man rushing in, his mind barely registering our presence until he was fully through the door. The policemen around me all cocked their rifles and aimed their weapons at the man, who was stunned to find that he had been surrounded. Relenting at last, he raised his hands over his head in defeat, as Zheng Shuang and I slowly paced forward, forcing him to retrace his steps backward.

The success of the sting operation was all thanks to the information that we had managed to wring out of the two disguised Jiangshis we had caught earlier. From the accounts we had procured from the shorter man, these two perpetrators were the ones from whom the four children souls had come from. The two arrested cultists confessed that they obtained their supplies of children souls from this very location, and it was they who had informed us of the entrance to this cave and its emergency exit. Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi were to wait until her return, so that we could nab them all red-handed! We took our leave directly, surrendering Zheng Shuang to slave through the grinding chores of policing duties and slipped away. It was in the wee hours of the morning and we were in need of some middle-of-the-night sustenance.

We stopped by some hawker stalls and ordered some skewers and two hotpots to go with some iced beer! Both Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi felt fatigued kicking in finally after their exertions and immediately gulped down their brew thirstily, only letting some dribble out of their mouths. The refreshing taste of beer sent a chilly and exhilarating sensation through them, as Lin Feng gasped, “Good!” Yuan Chongxi emptied his can. “What Jiangshis! What demons! Hmph! Nothing but nonsense! Foolish of her to try to frighten me! I’ve let her try a dose of her own medicine! Heh heh heh! I’m the conqueror of ghosts and demons!” Little did he know that his remarks did not go unheard… Immediately after Yuan Chongxi’s outburst, a burly man came up to us! To my surprise, he began tugging at the crook of Yuan Chongxi’s arm, muttering “Savior!”, “Help us please!”, much to our amazement.

Despite his deftness in speaking to both Lin Feng and me, Yuan Chongxi, the particularly shy and dull person especially when it came to strangers, was stunned by the behavior of this unknown person who had popped out of the woodwork to beg for his help. I looked at the man and swallowed hard! I rose and patted him on his shoulder. “Turn and face me. Let me have a better look of you!” With my Spirit Sight, I studied him once more. This time I was certain: there was a dark and horrid strand of energy swirling around him. He had been haunted by foul beings for more than a few days; any more delay would see him dying soon! “Give me your hand,” I barked and I checked his pulse. “All six of your nerves reeks of Death, my friend. Have you taken a ghost as wife?” I asked. “More or less, my friend. What you say is close!” He frowned miserably. I gestured him to a chair beside me and the man began telling us his tale.

The man had been on a trip two weeks ago. On his way back from the countryside, his car overheated and he was forced to stop by the road. But being stuck in the middle of the wilderness, he could call no one for help. He got down his car and found a river hundreds of meters away from the road. With a pail he got some water, going back and fro until his work was done. In the end, he slumped down. All tired and flat. But the sun was setting down the western ridges now.

Just then, out of nowhere came a young woman, wearing a green dress that fluttered as she approached him! The man gulped as he noticed the woman’s beauty! He stared hungrily at the woman who looked coquettishly back at him and flashed him a smile. The man was instantly mesmerized. But he was suddenly overwhelmed by the throes of anxiety and speechlessness as his mind went blank and he could find nothing to say to the lady! “What a useless fool I am,” he cursed himself, watching blankly as the woman slowly drifted farther and farther away. Disappointed at himself for ruining a possible romance, he got into his car and drove away.

He reached home late that night, the soreness and weariness of his body screaming for him to rest. He took a quick bath and went to bed immediately, forgoing his dinner. But his eyelids were barely closed when he heard a knock on his door. He peered through the peephole and saw the young woman in a green dress; the very same woman he had encountered earlier! With a euphoric glee pulsing through him, he nearly opened the door when he suddenly realized, “Impossible! It was more than hundreds of miles away when I met her! How did she find me! Something is wrong! The door must not be opened!” He asked through the door, “Who is it?” “I am the lady you met earlier. Seeing that we might be fated to be together, I have decided against my concerns to come to you! I sure hope that you will not rebuff me!” The man paused. “It’s not appropriate that I, a lone man, and you, a single lady, should meet in such late hours, even though times are different now. I only fear for any accidents which may take place! Please leave!” But the woman was persistent; she remained, urging him and goading him with whispers of seduction and passion until the man could take it no longer and ignored her, returning to bed.

But as he slept, he dreamt of himself indulging in carnal pleasures with the same woman! For an entire night, the amorous delusion endured until daybreak and the man woke up, feeling exhausted and spent. He had initially thought that he might have been gripped by lust and desire. But the same dream came to him in his slumber the following night, and again, he woke up fatigued and drained. This went on for a few nights and the man could feel his vitality waning like a disease! He began fearful of sleeping, afraid that he might one day never wake up again, hence his loitering in the wee hours of the morning until he heard Yuan Chongxi’s awfully eloquent tirade and realized he had found his means for salvation!