The sound of horses in the distance galloping nearer caught us off-guard. The Sisters all cowered behind us; for reasons I knew not why, it was said since ancient times that the sound of horse hooves battering on the ground could frighten ghosts.

I stretched my neck for a better view. The horse riders were all armed with semi-automatic rifles! First, we had eagles, and then wolves, and now, a band of armed brigands! “What awry luck we have! Has Inner Mongolia had always been so ravished with turmoil?” The riders rode past us only to suddenly double back. They yanked at the reins of their horses when they were near, and one of them called, “Is it Master Murong?” It was a woman, I realized. I stood up. “I am he!” The rest of the riders turned their steeds and drew nearer to us. It was the female thief who had tried to escape with my bag; one of Ulan’s henchwomen! The riders dismounted. “Why are you three here?” the henchwomen asked. She went to her saddle and retrieved a water pouch. She handed it to us, which I took gratefully and took a gulp before Yuan Chongxi had another swig too. I offered one of the roasted wolf’s leg to her and said, “Are you hungry? Do you want a bite?” The female riders looked around and noticed the wolf carcasses strewn on the ground and their eyes went wide! “My god!” one of them cried, “You’d encountered wolves?”

“The pack is quite large,” I replied, smiling, “There were about tens of wolves altogether! For quite some time they had pursued us, and we were forced to kill them all when they left us no choice!” The female brigands looked at us with disbelief. Nonchalantly, I lighted a cigarette and changed subjects. “Where are you going?” “The chief has realized that this could be a plot against you, and hence we were sent to hunt for the traitor!” The henchwoman admitted. “You should’ve asked me!” I said. “You know where she is?” “Not yet. But it won’t be long till her trails are found!” I said, while calling for Yuan Chongxi. “Come divine for me the location of the woman now, Brother,” I said to Chongxi. He made some calculations and said finally, “Ah, that’s weird. We’ve missed her! She’s at the mountain lodge where we parked our car!” “That’s easy!” I cackled and turned to the henchwoman. “Please get your sisters to bring along the dead carcasses on your horses and come with us to the mountain lodge. Together, we’ll nab the perfidious duo!”

We traveled back to the mountain lodge and Lin Feng went in to collect the car. With the carcasses still slung over the horses, we waited outside. There could be wildlife or animal sympathizers who might find the sight of the carcasses distasteful; or worst, some who could be overtly sanctimonious might exploit the opportunity to create havoc, professing to advocate and champion the cause of protecting wildlife. I, for one, never liked such self-righteous and hypocritical jerks. In fact, I’d like to see what would they do when faced with a hungry and savage pack of wolves themselves!

As Lin Feng went inside, we waited at an obscure corner outside, huddled together as we began chatting to kill time. “What’s your name?” I asked the leader of the bunch who replied to me that I could just call her Ala for short. “Your chief is called Ulan, and you’re Ala? What do your names mean in Mongolian? Are all your names normally so short and simple?” “No. The chief’s full name is Ulan Qiqige and mine is Alatan Qiqige!” What? I did not catch her clearly. Aladandan… Tage? I gasped quietly. I could make nothing of the gibberish that she had just so effortlessly muttered to me. “My name means ‘edelweiss’, the flower,” she said. Our conversation was cut short; Lin Feng was driving the car slowly out of the compound and came to a stop near us. “How do you intend to catch them both? Where are they?” Edelweiss asked. “That’s easy,” I remarked, “Just wait here. The couple that we are waiting for us will come to our car on their own, and we’ll have them!” “I know you have mysterious powers,” she scoffed, “But surely this is too ludicrous for us to believe to be true!” I made no reply, merely smiling quietly. I made some hand signs and signaled Xiao Si and Xiao Wu who were lurking behind Yuan Chongxi. I slipped some quiet instructions to the ghostly Sisters and they drifted into the lodge, sniffing out the trails of our targets. The Sisters would be able to recognize imposter who had pretended to be a police officer, since we had met him personally. Flushing out his female companion would also prove to be a piece of cake once the imposter was apprehended. The Sisters would scour the lodge for both of them and possess their bodies before slowly walking them out to our car!

Edelweiss and the rest of the riders stared at me with the same look they would cast upon a raving lunatic. They did not know what I was doing, watching blankly as if I was babbling incomprehensibly to no one. From their early schooling years, they have been exposed to learning Mandarin; but they heard that I was neither speaking Mandarin nor Mongolian, and hence they were all puzzled at my seemingly-deranged behavior. They did not realize that I was speaking in the speech of the dead to convey my instructions to the Sisters. But I paid them no heed, focusing instead on trying to tame the spirits of the eagle and wolves that I had captured. These were the souls of ferocious beasts of prey with a fiery streak! I would not be able to bend them to my will without some work!

In my young age, I had trained bees and birds for fun; the bees being the Bee Scout that I had put to use with great efficacy. But domesticating the spirits of wolves and eagles were of another difficulty entirely! To use magic and sorcery including curses or spells, we require the use of mana, or spiritual energies as my father used to call them. Taming the spirits of wolves and eagles which were ferocious and vicious would require a great store of mana, while my own spiritual powers would have to be strong enough to intimidate these spirits into utter submission otherwise everything would be for naught.

Being similar to the spirits of birds that I had tried before, the spirits of eagles would still be manageable, as long as I exert more mana. But the same could not be said for the wolves’ spirits, which I have had zero experience in handling before! In no time, the spirit of the eagle had finally looked to me as its master, but the spirits of the wolves had been doggedly unyielding. It took me countless attempts, at long last, I finally subdued only one of the six wolf spirits. I would need more time to go one by one until all of them surrender. But without insufficient mana, my mind was so weary and spent that I nearly fainted when I had finally tamed my third wolf spirit.

I decided to call it quits, at least for now. This was my limit, I mused. Unlike my father, who could have easily pummeled these spirits of the wild into whole-hearted compliance and obedience even without the use of the Spirit Gourd, I needed to rest to replenish and restore my mana and vigor! I lighted another cigarette and took a respite, only to realize that Edelweiss and the rest of her companions had been watching me intently. I shook my head lightly and smiled weakly, embarrassed at being observed like a specimen under a microscope. Fumbling bashfully, I offered them cigarettes, asking them, “Do you smoke?” The women were hardly timid; one after another, they emptied my box and they began puffing in the corner with the smokes rising like mists in the midst of snow-capped mountains. There was still no signs of the Xiao Qi and the rest of the Sisters, and I began talking to Edelweiss. “Urm… Edel… weiss…” I choked; I was still finding it hard to address the Amazonian woman with the name of a flower so gentle and soft. Edelweiss was in a cheery mood, a complete reverse to the glum look she wore when she was trying to steal my belongings. “What is it?” she asked. “This might seem a little boorish, but how old are the lot of you?” It was commonly viewed as a discourtesy for a man to ask a woman of her age; but if they felt annoyed or displeased, Edelweiss certainly made no indication of feeling so. Her companions began to speak up frankly, reporting to us of their ages, “Seventeen, twenty, eighteen…” Huh? I thought quietly. You should be in school or university! Yet here they were, being robbers and brigands even at such a young age! “What about you?” I eyed Edelweiss, asking her. She smiled. “I’m the oldest of the girls, like a big sister to them. I’m twenty-three.”

Twenty-three? I nearly blurted with disbelief, because she was in every way a thirty-three-year-old woman to me! But I kept the thoughts to myself, trying my best to hide my surprise for the fear of annoying her. I feigned a cough and gasped, “Ahem ahem… But you hardly look your age, you look young.” Edelweiss smiled and said nothing. In fact, the girls were far from ugly and hideous; the harsh weather and daunting living conditions of surviving in the grassy wildlands had made them into the muscular and strong female warriors they were. We continued talking as we continued waiting, and our conversation strayed to the matter of Aunt Ulan and Edelweiss revealed that Aunt Ulan was also a brave and stout person to have founded and built up a paramilitary force of brigands of such magnitude and strength with her own estate and assets. Her reputation preceded her across the surrounding regions; the notorious ringleader of a band of female highwaymen! Their entire organization did not have a single male!

The girls too were interested in the matters between their chief and my father. Slowly, our subject wandered to my mother. One of the girls said, “Heh, Brother Shiyan. What do you think would happen if the affair between your father and our chief were to reach the ears of your mother…” “Relax,” I said, waving her off vainly, “It would not be as you have imagined. My father is the dictator of the family. The authoritarian of the house whom my mother has never failed to defer to even for the simple matter of dinner.” “Why is it so?” the girl asked. “I don’t know myself,” I said, my shoulders shrugged helplessly. “Whoever holds the strongest power calls the shots, I guess,” I remarked, sending a ripple of laughter into everyone. We waited for another hour, finally, the figure of Officer Zhang and a woman, now dressed in Han Chinese garb, walked slowly towards the car. They meandered stiffly to the cars, as if in a trance with a blank look on their faces, opened the doors and sat inside quietly.

The female brigands were all shocked beyond words! Edelweiss raised a quivering finger, pointing at them, and she was unable to speak as she looked at me! Her stunned expression nearly made me laugh! I waved at everyone, signaling to leave! With the riders leading the way, we followed behind and slowly traveled back towards Aunt Ulan’s encampment. It was a semi-developed territory with real and actual houses instead of traditional Mongolian yurts.

Aunt Ulan saw me when we reached her encampment. She hugged me and lifted me off my feet, spinning in a circle as if I was really her son. Edelweiss came to her and reported her success. Aunt Ulan noticed the carcasses on the horses and asked, “You were attacked by wolves?” “Not us,” Edelweiss replied, flashing a thumbs-up approvingly, “The three of them were attacked by a pack of tens of wolves. But without having firearms and horses, they had emerged unscathed and had killed the entire pack of wolves! What’s more, I had just witnessed how he caught the traitor without moving a finger! It was truly spectacular indeed! Like a proud and remarkable eagle of the wild!” “This is the son of Murong Hai. He is blessed with extraordinary pedigree and stock!” Aunt Ulan declared, beaming proudly. “The son of yours too!” I quipped modestly, grinning. I remembered something and turned to Lin Feng. “These wolves were not poisoned by you, no?” “Don’t worry,” Lin Feng replied, “These wolves were not poisoned. The ones poisoned had long collapsed and were far behind. But it would not be a problem even if these carcasses were poisoned. Just heat up the meat up to 70 degrees and the poison will be dispelled!” Tugging my hand, Aunt Ulan led me indoors. We discussed and decided that we would interrogate the duo separately. I called for the female traitor to be brought to me. I spat a mouthful of liquor into her face to wake her up and left her there for Aunt Ulan, while I went to another room to deal with Officer Zhang.