All Chapters of Once Upon a Time: Chapter 201 - Chapter 210

Father cast a long look at the mountain, smirking wryly to himself. But there was something about his that indicated he knew what it was that made the hideous howl just now. But if anyone could remain calm and collected after hearing so ghastly and terrifying a sound, I could think of no one but Father and Mother. No one else! A shaky voice rose from the crowd of terrified villagers, "W-what... what in the world is that..." But Father did not attempt to explain. With a lazy and dismissive wave of an arm, he declared, "Go back to your homes and have a good night's rest. But remember! None of you will ever again venture into the woods at the northern face of that mountain. You'd do well to remember these words." He got up and sauntered casually towards the entrance of the village. No one moved an inch. They watched as Father meandered slowly away, staring at him wordlessly with shock and bewilderment! With hardly any concern about their fate thereafter, I scampered after

The coffin Father and I were peering into had damaged so badly that its sides were littered with holes and slits from neglect and disrepair, from which the fluids and watery flesh were seeping out like vomit being belched from a person's mouth. But what was inside left my mouth agape with surprise! There was a body lying inside! The body lying inside looked nothing like the rest; it was a man who had died only recently. A brown-copper rag bundled a bun on his head, as was the common fashion for men in the Ming Dynasty, but he was looking positively horrified as if he was screaming for his life when he died. The gaunt and scrawny man, short in height and small in girth, had green and purple wounds all around him. A closer inspection revealed that those were bite wounds; Jiangshis, no doubt. But who had left him here in this coffin? A thin smile lined across Father's lips. Saying nothing, he continued walking, heading towards the dark corridor at the end of

I stood, a miserable soul alone in the dark. Gut-wrenching powerlessness and helplessness swelled in me as I felt a tingle in my nose and tears were threatening to burst. Ever since I became a man, this was the first time I had the urge to cry. The first time I felt so alone and forlorn, powerless and weak; and me alone in the shadowy passage with complete blackness around me merely reified this sensation. I rubbed my nose and calmed myself. I have to think, and sniveling in tears would help me escape this accursed place not one bit. Wait, I thought suddenly. We took the leftmost path at the fork after leaving the main underground palace. That brought us here... I could go back and try the middle and the last path! There must surely be a way out! With my mind made up, I whirled and retrace my steps back. There was no more need to mosey around. But to my dismal astonishment, I turned back, I reached another three-way fork! The words from the

The band of riders arrived at the burial grounds in no time. But something about the graveyard perturbed me. I looked and only then I realized that Bian Dashou's grave was hardly the only one there. A cluster of tombstones now littered the burial grounds of the Bian Family and the riders were dressed not in the fashion of the Qing Dynasty! Then it dawned upon me: I have been hurled through time again. This was 1934; the night when Bian Dashou's grave was plundered! The brigands acted swiftly. They quickly apprehended the three people living in a hut nearby and had them tied to a tree with their heads covered in black bags. Unlike the unruly bunch they usually were, these marauders worked with order and system. Some began coiling ropes as thick as a boy's arm atop the boughs of the trees and set them alight. The pungent scent of mugwort rose and filled the air around the craggy cemetery grounds while another fired three warning shots into the

The ground gave another shudder and the walls of the compound of Uncle Quan's house buckled and fell over the young Uncle Quan! Acting by reflex, I dashed towards him at all speed! The boy was hugging for his life at a tree, lurching wildly as it shook to the violent undulations of the destruction occurring around him. I somersaulted and reached him just in time to deliver a kick at the wall crashing down on him, snapping the wall into half and sending the upper half careening elsewhere. The wrecking din of the falling wall made Uncle Quan looked around. But he saw nothing but the rubbles and debris that once was the wall that ringed the compound of his home crashing down before his very eyes! What remained of his house continued wobbling as if its bedrock was made of jelly and all the walls came coming down like London's Bridge. A surge of iridescent glow flooded from Master Six's direction suddenly. He has recovered! The tremors in the ground softened a