I ripped open the door quickly, and a sweet, fresh scent wrapped all over me as a young policewoman crash headlong into me, followed by another person, and another… As the whole corral of blue-clothed eavesdroppers tumbled over me like the falling walls of a castle.

It had been more than a decade since I last enjoyed something like this as an 8 years old child. But to have more than seven or eight people at the age of 20 years old or more on me now almost seemed like I was trapped within the rubble and debris of an earthquake! In the midst of the whimpers and shrieks, including my painful yelps, Zheng Shuang quickly helped everyone up and pulled me.

As the vestiges of the short-lived turmoil quickly subsided, I looked at the seven or eight junior policemen and women now standing sheepishly at Zheng Shuang’s office door. “What were you all up to?” Zheng Shuang barked at them, looking confused. “Heh heh heh! It’s nothing, Sir. We’re just curious about your further plans ahead…” Exasperated, I shook my head. “And you know nothing of knocking first? Why the trouble of trying to snoop at the door? Too many spy movies, have we?” I muttered, rubbing my still-throbbing waist. “You should work out,” Lin Feng jeered, “Why don’t you come train with me!” I shot him a glare and said nothing.

One of the young junior policemen said to me, “Honestly, Brother Shiyan, I have been with you both together for a few times. But I had never once seen how you find the criminals. Just like that time, when we caught the perpetrators who abducted the children!” Zheng Shuang and I traded looks and we smiled weakly. I turned back to the young cop and said, shaking my head, “It’s different this time. Those that we caught before were either incompetent or foolish. Moreover, the enemies were unprepared for our attack. But this time, Bai Chuanwei was already wary of us. It’s difficult to find him now! Surely you’ve looked into his former address? You have no more leads now, do you?” The young policeman fell silent at what I said. “We had,” he replied, “There were fingerprints in the house; all left by the same person. But the fingerprints had no match in our system! Damn! How did this Bai Chuanwei manage to remain at large for so long!”

I waved him off before he could continue rambling on. “The rest is hardly something you should be concerned with,” I muttered, “We can only wait for the enemy’s next move for now.”

We left the police station later on. It was already lunch time, hence Zheng Shuang offered to buy us lunch. At the restaurant, I chewed on a toothpick and asked Zheng Shuang, “So your meals are mostly covered by the station? Is this one of the perks of being a policeman?” “Nay, Brother!” Zheng Shuang said, “This lunch is approved by the Director as a show of appreciation for your troubles!”

He popped open a bottle of beer and filled our glasses. “Say,” he began to ask, “The evil cult, the Creed of the Eight Trigrams… They seemed weak sometimes yet at other times, they appeared to be very strong. The bat demon and even the Third Apostle we had arrested without great trouble. What happened during your foray into Inner Mongolia? I could not shake off the feeling that there was more than what you allowed in your report. I remember Brother Shiyan you did mention that the one at Mongolia is the Seventh, no? Were they not ranked according to their strength?”

Yuan Chongxi’s glass came down on the table with a faint thud. “You do not understand,” he said, “The Third Apostle, which was the mastermind of the group, and the old bat demon called Yan were not weak actually. Their fighting strengths alone were actually miles beyond all three of us put together!” Food was already laid on the table; Yuan Chongxi fished for his chopsticks and filled his mouth with two slices of beef before he mumbled through the food. “The Third Apostle, despite being a mere strategist, was skilled in magic and sorcery. He would never have been so easily caught if not for his own carelessness. As for the bat demon, he was not the First Apostle without reason. I had overhead their people talking among themselves when we were in Inner Mongolia that the bat demon was already heavily hurt in the first. This would explain why he could be so easily taken down when we attacked him!” Sitting at the same table, I could only marvel with awe at Yuan Chongxi; he always a different person whenever when he was in an eating mood!

Zheng Shuang listened to his story with equal bewilderment, murmuring a dull “Ohhh” as Lin Feng added, “During our battle against that bat demon—his name is Yan, is it not? I was already feeling puzzled myself. I realized that his attacks and blows were quick and fierce, but they lacked strength. I had initially thought that he might be hiding his strength for a ruse. It turned out that he was already at his limits.” Finally understanding, Zheng Shuang asked again, “But what about this Bai Chuanwei? He is the Sixth Apostle, is he not? This means that he’d be weaker than the rest, no?” I shook my head; I was not sure of the answer to that question myself. “But we know that Bai Chuanwei was formerly a pickpocket,” I elaborated, “We have no intelligence about his strength in combat. But I’m afraid that his movements must surely be quick and agile, otherwise, he would not have such a moniker: the Invisible Hand.”

Our discussion came to an ineffectual end as we finished our lunch. It was already past 1 P.M. We said our goodbyes to Zheng Shuang and we returned to the Center.

With a brief interlude to our strife against the remnants of the Creed, I went up to the stairs, heading to the second floor with the manuscript that my father gave me. My studies into the techniques illustrated in the book had shown great improvements: I could now summon my sword and cast it out at will. Yet, I still lack the finesse to truly handle it to perfection. Even to this day, I failed to find the key point which I was missing. Father’s control of his levitating swords was so flawless and impeccable; fluid and precise even, that one could have argued that the hovering blades that fluttered around him were part of his anatomy.

Yuan Chongxi and Lin Feng both went out that night to meet their respective dates, leaving me alone at the Center. The sun sank below the horizon, and a shadowy figure glided through the doors into the second floor and came to perch on my head. No one else but Xiao Qi would do so. She observed how focused I was in poring over the manuscript and teased, “Oh my, what a studious one…” I gave no answer. She remained perched on my head for quite some time, until she drifted away to the adjacent room, feeling bored.

Xiao Qi’s voice rang suddenly from the adjacent room not long afterward. “Come here, Shiyan! Come! Teach me how to play with this!” I breathed hard, my nostrils flaring with annoyance and meandered to next door. “What is it you’re up to?” I growled. She was squatting beside a television, waving a joystick at me. I walked to her and yanked the joystick from her. “Very good. You’ve outgrown playing computers now and are now beginning to learn using the PS4?” Xiao Qi flashed an impish smile. “Hmph. Not that it was hard in the first place. But I noticed that you seemed to be enjoying a game here a while ago. I want to try it too.”

After a short 5-minute introductory, Xiao Qi planted herself in front of the television, her eyes staring intently into the screen as her fingers yanked and pushed with so much force on the joystick that it began to screech violently as if in protest, doing her best to defeat her 3d-rendered enemies in one of my games titled Resident Evil 7. “Be gentle, woman!” I hissed with a shred of disgust and pain, “That joystick came originally with the whole set. You better not damage it with your grace that resembled that of a drunken mastodon! Moreover, you’re a ghost! Should you be terrified and frightened by imaginary creatures of a mere video game?” Xiao Qi mashed hard on the Pause button to put the game on hold and patted a hand on her chest, trying to calm herself down. “Oh my God! That was terrifying! I need a rest!” I stared at her with disbelief.

She brandished the joystick like a magic wand. “Aye, Shiyan,” she began asking inquisitively, “How does this joystick work? It does not even have a wire. During my time, I remember there were Super Mario Brothers gaming consoles with gamepads similar to these, but they all have wires.” “You have been dead for too long that you’ve become detached with society,” I scowled at her, “This is a wireless joystick. It does not need a wire; it only needs a wireless signal! Just think of it as something akin to television remote controls. There’s no use in boring you with the details if you won’t understand them.”

Xiao Qi held the joystick with her fingers and began examining it more closely, mumbling incomprehensibly, “Wire? Wireless? Signal?” I watched from beside her, frowning at her antics.

But suddenly it struck me! I breathed in a gulp of air heavily, repeating what Xiao Qi said in soft whispers, “Wait… Signals… Wireless signals…” I bolted out of the room and clawed my manuscript off the couch I was lying on earlier! I invoked my recollections of Father’s demonstration with the sword and began thinking, “What if I were to control my sword like how I control my in-game characters with a joystick! Wielding a sword is like using a wired joystick, whereas Father’s way of controlling the flying swords without holding them was like using a wireless joystick! What a genius I must be to think of such a way!”

My heart beat loudly in my ears as I reflected upon my new-found revelation. I made a few hand seals immediately, no longer being to hold back my anxiousness. “Come!” I called out to my sword, and it shot out of its sheath and into my grasp. I pictured the manuscript’s strokes and techniques in my mind and began performing the techniques like how I would with a normal sword in my hand. To my surprise, the sword came to life in my grasp and began to move! I released my grip of its hilt, and began steering it with a finger. It began to dance in the air, flicking around and slashing in mid-air with a razor-sharp grace based on my movements! My discovery had worked!

But just as I felt the rush of adrenaline and joy at my success. A sudden dizziness came over me. My sword fell to the ground with a loud “Clank”, and I felt everything turning dark around me…