17 1.17: The Encounter (1/2)

”Old Master, I wish to thank you for this meeting that had been truly beneficial to me most. You had shown me the way of the Opening Chi and helped me to open the Third Eye that I had no idea of. Also, the way you showed me how to perform the cleansing of the keris fortnightly and the way I should be upgrading myself spiritually until I surpassed the level of Opening Chi. Thank you once again, old Master. ”I bowed courteously and given him my heartfelt thanks. The other brothers also kowtowed to the old Master.

” Tch..... Talk you many many. Little actions. Enough. Me sleep. Your talk make me giddy.” with that, the old Master waved us off and he straight went in.

”Sorry Ding. I stabbed you with the keris just now. It's to prove your bravery, you know. Or else how could you face off with the enemies that I had earlier faced too...” Dong eyed me with suspicion before he finally said, ”No problem bro. At least give me some heads up in the future. You know, I have a weak heart and anything that jumps up at me suddenly would give me a heart attack.”

”What are we gonna have for lunch ya? It's already past midday and the Master didn't even mention that he would be inviting us for lunch either,” said Eun as he clutched at his tummy indicating that he was famished as he had skipped breakfast earlier in the morning.

”How about we asked if they could spare us a baked bread or something? There's a stall at the entrance of this settlement right? Let's askthe owner...” Cheng said while he pointed to the direction of the stall and gestured us to follow him.

”Auntie, we are from Bamboo Village and was wondering if you could spare us a piece of bread or anything to fill our tummy before we set out on our journey since we came here to visit the Master?”

In a horror version:

”What Master? Do you even realize that he has been dead for so long...Look behind you then! ” the Auntie replied with a strange quivering tone in her voice. We looked behind from where we had our meeting earlier with the Master and saw a dilapidated house instead.

Abandoned like for many years, the state of the house was in such total disrepair. It seemed that the house was abandoned a long time ago and was simply left to rot by itself. The windows were broken and supported precariously by its hinges, and the gazebo that we were sitting gathered there before was so broken down that half of its roof had collapsed down beyond repair.

We stared at each other with eyes as big as saucers and our jaws dropping. Were certain that we were talking to a living old man a few hours ago and the gazebo and house were both in perfect condition!

Meanwhile...

In a twisted version:

”Muuuaaa... Hahahaa... Haaaaaa” the Auntie suddenly laughed out hard and threw her head back! The head snapped and was twisted at a very awkward angle. She then pulled her hair and adjusted her twisted head forwards and shrieked. Her horrendous shriek made us jump out of our skins!

The corners of her mouth suddenly stretched and tore up until it reaches her ears. Her teeth suddenly grew deformed and it was so grotesque that reminded the three brothers of the angler fish teeth that were made of half of her face.

She continued shrieking in a hair raising manner and even I am writing this gave me goosebumps all over! Her eyes that seemed normal earlier on popped out from its socket and dangled halfway across the face.

A sudden force made her threw the arms up in the air and crackling sounds of bones breaking was heard as she slowly stretched her legs, her arms and her body to an almost three meters tall deformed monster; with exposed sharp spines emerging from her back tearing up her clothes ...before emerging in front of us as a kind of beast too horrifying beyond words and recognition..... Huhuhuuuu.

However...

In the actual version:

The owner of the stall looked at the four of us with pity and took out 4 pieces of dough stick bread.” This is all I have that I thought I'm going to trade it with something else. Never mind, you all can have these. It's your gift from the Heavens. If you have something to give back I can accept. If not let the Gods repay me for the kindness.”

We thanked the Auntie profusely and even though she saw us having nothing to give in return, she just said those words as a figure of speech. She may have made a loss but her thoughts of the Gods repaying her with another form of rewards were more than enough.

We took the dough sticks and munched while we make our way out of the settlement, back to the path we had arrived. The sun was setting when we made our way out of New Hope Village and was sure that we would not be able to reach Stone Village before dark.

”Should we rest in the next settlement? You know that it's not safe to walk after dark in this region and we do not have any supplies and also nothing to shine our way back.” I advised with my hands spread open.

”We might as well. I know someone in Stone Village that could accommodate us.” Eun remarked as he made a thumbs up and walked ahead of the group leading the way.