Chapter 276 - Revisiting Unit 104 (1/2)

By the powers of Master Six and Father, my companions and I were sent back through time, back into ancient China where we embarked on a quest of pilgrimage to strengthen and temper ourselves. With little said about our adventures in medieval China, we returned back to the present, once again being tossed down into the spiraling chaos of the invisible war for the dragon leys of China.

It was during one of our many adventures in ancient history where Chongxi found himself a weapon. We left it somewhere in Wu Zhong before returning back to the present and recovering it was the first thing we did as soon as we came back. After retrieving it, we went back to town. Lu Shengnan had been abducted by Huang Li’s people during our absence and in the final message she had been able to send me, there was only a four-letter word: Help.

At the same time, Ji Qichen had been taken as well. His disclosing of vital information to me had been discovered by his confederates, the descendants of Tribe Nine Li, who bit back and took him. With no other recourse, Na San could only beg for my help to help rescue his prince.

With Big Sister, Edelweiss, and Na San joining us in the pursuit of leads at Lu Shengnan’s teaching center, our hunt had yet to yield any promising results. In our moment of despair, Zheng Shuang rang suddenly with an astonishing piece of news: Huang Li had been found and arrested. For all these while, we had been acting under the impression that it was Huang Li who had taken Lu Shengnan and the video footage of her being arrested by the police had begun to dissolve our only hypothesis. Was Huang Li away from Lu Shengnan after abducting her? Or was it somebody else who had taken Lu Shengnan instead?

I bounded to my feet and I barked, “We need to go back to the villa now!” Lin Feng was startled by my sudden reaction and he yelped, “What’s the hell is wrong with you!?” “Huang Li’s been found. She’s been arrested as we speak. We need to get back now. On the double.” A surprised peal of “AH?!” from everyone resounded like a gong. But I did not wait. I was already out the door even before anyone could move a muscle.

I leaped down the stairs in twos and threes, storming through the door and the large man, the proprietor of the hair product shop, came rushing out too. “What’s wrong?” he asked urgently. Not even stopping, I hurried by him as I muttered, “We have an emergency, Uncle. Please lock the door after us!” My friends were already coming down and I rejoined them as we sped around the corner to our cars.

It was almost six in the evening, where the tide of work goers rushing home was at its highest peak. We found ourselves bogged down in the middle of the busy traffic like a loaded mule in quicksand in the middle of a street jampacked with countless other vehicles. I was flustering with anxiety when my eyes trailed to the rearview mirror and I saw Lin Feng’s car window winding down. Then a white flash zoomed out of the window, shooting up into the sky on a sword like an arrow! “Goddammit, Big Sister!” I cursed loudly, “How would we explain a dog flying on a sword into the sky if this appears on the papers tomorrow?!” But I knew better than to parade my complaints out the car window car in case anyone else overheard me.

As I grimaced, my phone rang. It was from Lin Feng. I hit the “Answer” button and Lin Feng’s voice blared on the speaker, “Big Sister Lan’s making a first move to the villa. She’s too fidgety to wait any longer and I don’t see how we’re going to stop here, so I thought, “Why not?” “So be it then,” I breathed, “Let’s just hope nobody noticed it or that will be the next feature to be headlined tomorrow.” Lin Feng’s sigh came audibly through the line just before it clicked shut.

My watch was showing a few minutes past seven when we finally reached outside Unit 104. There, we found a grinning Big Sister waving her paw at us from her perch on Zheng Shuang’s shoulder. Without her clothes, she could not turn into her human form, so she remained in her true appearance. Fortunately for Zheng Shuang, his prior knowledge about Big Sister’s identity had spared him from a frightening shock that would come from a snowy-white fox that could speak in the human tongue.

We cantered over to Zheng Shuang and he spoke before we could even ask, “The District division had a complete canvassing of everything inside and found nothing fishy. They found a few other people inside and all of them have been taken to the District Headquarters. Do you want to have a look inside, Shiyan?” I pondered for just a second and I nodded.

He led us past the police line and into Unit 104. Lin Feng whispered to him as soon as he walked into the threshold, “This door is exactly where the bloody Bamen Dunjia enchantment began!” Zheng Shuang shuddered and stared at Lin Feng. “Brother Lin, so this is the door you told me about?! The door that gave you all that trouble that night?!” Lin Feng nodded. Zheng Shuang said as he handed a pair of gloves to each of us, “Wow, luckily for us, you have already taken care of that enchantment, otherwise, it would have been some unwary police officers who could have been walking right into a trap this time!” “Disregard what he said,” I placed a hand on Zheng Shuang’s shoulder, nudging my chin at Lin Feng. “He’s developed a penchant for ominous melodramatics as if we’re walking into a Lovecraftian horror.” The remark made Lin Feng scowl with pursed lips as he went in before us, pulling on his pair of gloves.

But I would hold no grudge against him. After all, Lin Feng was skilled only in martial arts. He might be unrivaled in his mastery of wushu knowledge, the External Magic, but this was one discipline that could rarely work against elements of the paranormal and this was proven many a time during our few years of pilgrimage in ancient China, where he could only stand back and watch helplessly and the many instances when Chongxi and I had continuously proven our value over him had made him quite easily nervous and overwhelmed.