The members of the caravan who were dancing and singing merrily around the fire realized they were being surrounded by a ring of bandits and were horrified, more so, when Edelweiss let loose a shot from her gun which instantly smothered the music and laughter.
We dismounted and marched ferociously into the campgrounds. The people inside were terrified by the sight of my six spirit wolves and the seething glares from the stony-faced female bandits. None of them dared move as Edelweiss raised her gun menacingly at them. There was even a plump tourist, clad in a windbreaker with a roasted lamb's leg in his hand, who was about to enjoy his feast when he was frozen in his tracks by our sudden arrival.
I could see the fearful stares from the flickering illumination of the fire. They were no strangers to news of bandits roaming around the lands, although they did not expect to be assailed by a group of women led by a young man looking barely out of his early twe
I smacked my lips with surprise and relief! Yuan Chongxi was not only idling and enjoying his food; he had quietly worked his magic when the culprit fled away! The three bones on the tray were arranged to resemble the sign of Li (South in Yi Jing terminology) from the Manifested Bagua Signs! The sign itself represented the direction of South; the culprit must be fleeing south now, I realized! Yuan Chongxi's keenness whenever he was eating had yet to let us down! Behind me, Lin Feng was smiling too, obviously thinking the very same thing too. "What will we find due South?" I asked the woman still holding the tray of bones. The woman pondered for seconds. "There's a small town not far from here if you ride South. The journey on horse will take about an hour." I nodded and muttered a curt "thanks" and she replied with a bow, "Don't mention it. And urm..." I was about to leave after thanking her but her hesitation made me turned quickly. She pulled some notes
What an oaf, I thought. Despite recognizing my Spirit Gourd, Ha'ri Naohai deeply underestimated its power. With all of the malignant spirits drawn into my Gourd, I did not stop. Instead, I continued reciting my incantations and aimed the mouth of my Gourd at Ha'ri Naohai. With a low hum, the culprit immediately collapsed to the ground, dead. But as soon as Ha'ri Naohai's soul entered my Spirit Gourd, the entire hospital erupted into a clamorous cacophony of shrieks and howls from the ghosts roaming in the vicinity like a sirening horn. In the midst of the pandemonium, my thoughts wandered to my Godmother, wondering if she might be around. "Where is my Godmother's soul!?" I spoke bitterly into my Gourd. But instead of answering me, the soul of Ha'ri Naohai cackled gleefully inside. "So, this is how the Spirit Gourd looks like from the inside! Interesting! You wish to know your Godmother's whereabouts? Impossible! Heh heh heh heh!" A rush of anger filled me
According to the signs of Bagua divination that Yuan Chongxi had given, I hacked at the directions of East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, North, and Northeast with my sword where the flow of energies swirled uncontrollably around us. With each stroke, the flow of the energies was immediately sealed as if blocked by an invisible wall. Could this be the hidden ability of the swordsmanship Father taught me? As if on cue to my thoughts, noises like splintering glass and snapping wood began cascading from every corner of the hospital before slowly intensifying into a chaotic amalgam of crashing din until everything stopped, giving way only to a still blanket of silence. But with my Spirit Sight, I could see countless of ghosts, vengeful spirits, drifting away like air escaping from the puncture of a balloon. The ghastly spectacle of wraithlike figures escaping to their freedom sent me a jolt of shock. How could I have forgotten the countless innocent souls t
I scoured through my memory. The name of Xiao Yu sounded familiar to me. Finally I remembered. It was when we had split up to deal with the spirits of the slaughtered infants during one of our bouts against the Apostles of the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. Yuan Chongxi had rushed to the rescue of a wealthy widow and her two daughters. Xiao Yu was the eldest of the two daughters. She would be graduating this year. What a blissful pair of lovebirds! Due to his help, the widow and her family had more-or-less recognized him as the future husband of the eldest daughter who had, by a stroke of luck, immediately fallen for him! It was just like how his teacher had prophesied that he might be enthralled by the sweetness of romance! In a stroke of mischief, I immediately keyed in a message, "Chongxi's still sleeping. I'm Shiyan. Do you want me to kick him up?" I promptly recorded a short footage of Yuan Chongxi salivating in his sleep with the drumbeats of his snor
My cigarette nearly fell out of my mouth. "What the hell? So how are we going to pursue the enemy without any information?" I hissed. I could feel the annoyance slowly showing on my face. "But I can really do nothing," Chongxi muttered with a discomfited smile. "Even so, we'll scour through every fen and hollow of the whole Mongolian prairie to look for our Chief!" Edelweiss growled fiercely which elicited by a couple of whoops of assent by the rest of the girls. I turned back to look at Mother, who was still watching us from her perch on the rooftop. As if she had heard what we were saying, her arm rose suddenly, pointing into the distance. She was pointing towards Northwest, I realized. She was telling me that we should go to the northwest! I nodded to her and scrambled up the saddle of my horse, and we rumbled out of the encampment with our hunt renewed. Despite rarely being at my side to mollycoddle me, my parents had always been there for me whenever I needed them
Quickly, I instructed Lin Feng to bleed the boar out thoroughly by using his darts otherwise the meat would taste bad. He rode over and took out one of his darts and began to work on the carcass. Edelweiss' mouth fell open. "Your Gourd is a hidden gun!? Where's the trigger?" I handed her my Gourd and she looked at it. "But there's no trigger here! How did you use it?" "It's magic," I replied, "You'll never understand!" She continued harassing me for the fun of it. "It's a silenced weapon! Where's the silencer?!" This time, I said nothing, merely pointed to the horses, gesturing her to bring them to us. She strode to the horses and had it knelt down so that they could lift the carcass and set it on its back. "Well, Mr. Boar, due to your actions in your former life, you have been reincarnated as a boar. I'm now ending your suffering. This is the end of your penance! Let's send you back to the Underworld for your rebirth!" I muttered into the mouth of my Gou
The demoness tossed me my scabbard quietly. There was a distinct change to her expression. She appeared to feel more relaxed to know that I was not born by Mother. I caught the sheath and slid my sword slowly back into it and hung it over my back. The demoness, her eyes still fixed upon the sight of me and Edelweiss, lamented with envy. "Look at you! Kind and adoring towards each other! Look at your father! A block-headed fool!" "Where is the son of the block-headed fool? Let us all have a look!" A yell came from outside just then. A group of people entered the cave, all wielding arms. The old crone leaped before us, blocking their way. "They are my playthings! Mine! Why should I allow you a glimpse of them?" She barked furiously. Behind her, I scowled, so I am now a plaything! I threw my gaze over the band of newcomers; a group of men and women that looked ordinary, until I recognized one of them! A woman whom I encountered when I was very young! The wom
We began talking. The cave was where Godmother resided. She was roused from her sleep yesterday morning by the sound of gunfire. As a fox spirit who had drudged for centuries to achieve her current powers, she had only the deepest loathing for firearms. She left her cavernous lair and was just in time to witness me pushing Chongxi to safety when the avalanche fell. On the path through the mountains, there was a chasm which hung precipitously beside. The torrent of snow and ice had swept me off into the ravine as everyone could only watch in horror, except for Edelweiss, who threw herself off the cliff after me... I immediately glowered at Edelweiss, "What are you thinking of?! What help is there in jumping off the ledge to death yourself?" But my temper subsided as quickly as it came; I knew Edelweiss was being silly, only because she tried to save me, although it was an ill-advised move. It was Godmother who then climbed down the ravine and dug us out of
Along the way, Qiao Yu asked the sword bearing youth, "The youth senior just now is ......" The sword-bearing youth replied with the same color as usual: "My old man." Although Qiao Yu had already heard the previous conversation between the two, but at this time the youth personally said number, or let Qiao Yu again ate a shock.The accompanying magistrates were all confused as well, and the martial youth laughed and said, "Don't you guys always talk about gods and goddesses, but this time you've seen a real one, why don't you all recognize it?" The crowd was instantly startled and turned back to look, even though they had long since left the place of the incident by a great distance. Qiao Yu at this time sighed: "Immortals can only, heaven and earth with spring. At today's sight, it is really so!"The sword-bearing youth laughed, at which point the shorter youth asked, "Do you think that this old Uncle Hai is the same person he was three hundred years ago, or the same p
And this is the end of the southern part of a place called Chao Luowo, the county's two big rivers, return to the township, artichoke transport through this place. Because Wuling has been very close to the sea sea water rise and fall along the river, up to this, so the name Chao Luo nest.The military rations of Xingzhou Zuotunwei and the nearby guards established by the imperial court had to be transported through here via the Huixiang River. Because of the return to the countryside of the river turned a corner here, the river flows here, and then with the tide upstream of the sea water meeting, will cause the river siltation. Nine floods in ten years, often affecting the transportation of military rations. Therefore, the court ordered Yutian to dredge the river. Qiao Zhixian field survey, decided to straighten the bay some, the project involves the shore of an ancient well, already do not know how many years. It was the digging of this ancient well that brought considerable
And said no end of the three absolute and Qiao Zhixian line back to the city, not yet into the courtyard will encounter a messenger led a little girl kneeling down in front of the four people crying for help. Negative sword youth went forward to pick up the child, this is a little girl of eight or nine years old, on the fat side, long and sturdy. Round face is very cute, negative sword youth asked her: "What's wrong ah? Saving whose life ah? Who is trying to harm you?" That child was very much in tune with the negative sword youth and hugged the negative sword youth's neck, saying, "Uncle save my father!"The officer who led her said, "This is my relative's child, who traveled thirty miles to the city to look for me, saying that her father had been lost for three days. The village can't find him, so I think the three masters can calculate what's wrong with this relative of mine!"The short youth shook his head like a rattle drum and said, "How can the child say her fathe
It is said that a family in a village in the southern part of Wuling held a wedding ceremony, and the groom died violently on the wedding night. The county magistrate, Mr. Qiao, received a report of the case and took the coroner to the scene to investigate.The pallbearer examined the body and saw that the groom had no visible trauma. Face serene, slightly smiling. Asked the bride, the bride said the morning found the groom sleeping, greeted get up did not answer, lifted the brocade quilt only to find the groom is dead! In-laws rushed to find their son died violently, rushed to find someone to the county to report! Lord Qiao saw that the groom had no external injuries and no signs of poisoning, so he could only conclude the case by saying that the groom had been over-excited on his wedding night and had died violently.Not a day and the people reported that the southern part of the county, a wedding night groom died violently. Mr. Qiao, the county magistrate bu
It is said that there is a Lian Sheng Inn in this Endless City, and this day a merchant came to live in the store.After the meal, the merchant greeted the fellows to ask the shopkeeper to come to see, see the shopkeeper, the merchant took out some loose silver, said to the shopkeeper: "My name is Wang Hui, is a few hundred miles to the west of Qizhou, do the business of medicinal herbs. I have a store in the capital, and recently I've expanded my business, so I'm planning to open another pharmacy in this city. Before staying in the store in the city around, to open a pharmacy is best with the city now several pharmacies to distance themselves. I have already looked at a street frontage and negotiated with the owner there, but the shopkeeper and the doctor-in-charge must have family members to come with them, so I need to buy another mansion not far from the store. Although I have found a house, I don't know if the owner is willing to sell it. I'd like to ask the shopkeeper ab
It was said that there was a village in Wufeng called Xijiatun. There was a villager named XI Maungzhao, who was a businessman. Catch this summer to Henan for business, unexpectedly Henan flood capsized the boat, folded the capital. And encountered porcelain extortion, only to engage in penniless, then picked up the eight rope. From the market on credit some vegetables, pick to the village to sell, to make up some money. After a lot of hard work, the next year only bounced back home. After coming back, he got very sick, and used up all the family's savings before he could barely save his life, but he could not work and often vomited blood.This day, sitting on the stone in front of the door to rest cool, came three guests passed by the door. Xi Maung Zhao recognize that these three is the famous endless three great, said that they have been unlucky for years, recently met the three immortals, I heard that some people know them, then mixed with the county's errand boy. Why don'
That said, the two to the county government office two people are still tearing. Qiao Yu busy asking why the conflict, the Taoist priest said that the fortune-teller to their own insults for no reason, but also blinded his eyes.Qiao magistrate immediately asked the short young man for what reason conflicts with Taoist priests, short young man said Taoist priests involved in plotting to take people's wives, killing and harming life, he is for the yin and yang line clean up the door. The specific case only need to Wan Zidong couple of Wan Jia Zhuang in the east of the city will be summoned to the hall, a question from the clear.Less inclined Wan Zidong brought, saw the hall kneeling that Taoist priest, immediately ate a shock.Qiao magistrate immediately slapped the shocking wood: "Daring Wan Zidong, how did you plot to take a man's wife to kill and harm life, tell us the truth!" That Wan Zidong shivering, can not say a word.The short youth said, "All you ne
And that out of the endless mountains, east out of the pass, is the Luanzhou territory. In Luanzhou, there was a Huang Xiu Cai, who had failed in his repeated attempts, and became obsessed with shadow puppetry. He traveled all over the country performing on weekdays to make ends meet.This day, Huang Xiucai is a village performance of shadow puppet theater, the stage down three dressed in strange costumes, one of the visitors actually still carrying a sword. Generally, the sword is across the waist, but this person is carrying it on his back is very strange! These three people did not watch the play in the front stage, but went around to the backstage to watch Huang Xiucai operate. The audience has never seen this dress of people, have wondered if the shadow man alive, a closer look, three people dressed and shadow man is not the same, then they have been curious to watch. For a while, no one watched the play, all around the three people, do not know what the origin of the thr
And say this day, no end of the mountain slopes in front of the path came a pick eight rope. What Wuling called "picking eight ropes" was in fact a cargo man. At that time, the income of the cargo man was not as high as that of the farmers, so he had no choice but to make a living.This pick eight rope, saw the hillside in front of a tree under the three people are resting in the cool, recognized that it is the Terminal Three, then went up to chat with the cool. During this eight rope picking, asked the endless three, said: "small Pu two, three masters of the magic power is profound, can you show me, I'm tired of running around every day, when I can buy a few acres of land, when an honest farmer ah?"The short youth of the Three Jedi smiled and said, ''Your requirements are not too high. Although people's lives are predestined by heaven, but it is not like the legend of the difference. This sometimes ah, the same opportunity, people's character is different approach is d