Lu Shengnan did not understand what we were up to. The looks on our faces must have left her thinking that we were intending something untoward and she looked absolutely afraid. She was, after all, a girl and she had just come out of the bathroom, wearing only a thin white shirt aside from the bra visible inside. She must be thinking that we were up to something no good. In fact, anyone would. Two men pouncing on you and tied you up and then stripping off your shoes. What else would one think?

“Damn you, Murong Shiyan! You scoundrel! What do you want!?” Lu Shengnan screamed at the top of her voice. Ignoring her cries and howls, Lin Feng and I each held a leg and plucked off the slippers she was wearing. But we were both dumbfounded. The toes on her slender legs were normal; ten of them and each looking ordinary as ever.

Shaking at our manhandling of her, Lu Shengnan continued howling her protests as Lin Feng and I shared a look. “You’re sure about that legend?” I scowled. “How am I to know if it’s true?” “Have you ever seen anyone with nine toes?” Lin Feng answered again, “Nope, except for people who are injured or maimed.”

The edge of my lips twitched irritably and we let go of Lu Shengnan. She was drinking with us together and she seems utterly unaware of what happened, I reflected. Is she really innocent? But if she really was part of this plot, she wouldn’t be drunk herself. Moreover, she should also be attacking us when we were caught in the pocket dimension of the Bamen Dunjia earlier if she was indeed a co-conspirator of Huang Li’s.

Lu Shengnan got up, staring at us with an expression of terror and fright, all the while never stopped at pelting us with curses and admonishments for what we did as she curled into the sofa. “All right, everything is fine now,” I sighed and muttered. Lin Feng went to her and undid the cords that bound her and sank into the single-seater just opposite her, finally heaving breaths of relief.

My Spirit Wolves stopped their snarlings too when they sensed me calming down and they huddled around me, sitting down on their haunches demurely like obedient dogs. The Forest Sprite, still perched on the top of the sofa, stared dubiously at Lu Shengnan before looking at me. “Urm… Master…” “It’s fine now, Freaky. Thanks. You can come on down now,” I muttered to him, smiling weakly. With a wordless assent, he hopped down too.

Lu Shengnan was however astounded by our earlier roughness and now my Spirit Wolves and Forest Sprites turning docile, at a total loss for words as Lin Feng and I both set alight our cigarettes. Then I took out one and offered it to Lu Shengnan, who finally recovered from her stupor and glowered angrily at me, “What was all that for?!”

“Well, about that… It’s just a misunderstanding,” I answered sheepishly, “We thought you could be a cohort of Huang Li’s, see? But after thinking more deeply, you shouldn’t be. Relax, we’re not thinking of doing anything nasty to you. We’re the men having a girlfriend. Come on.” Lu Shengnan pouted her lips irately, still clearly miffed. “What about Huang Li? Why was she trying to catch you?” she asked. I took a swig off my cigarette before replying, “Surely you’ve noticed her calm and composed demeanor when we met earlier today? Do you really believe her word that her house was haunted and she needs my help? She only wants to lay a trap for me.”

Lu Shengnan beheld me with a disbelieving look, although her expression softened when she recalled Huang Li’s odd and smug disposition when we met, which was just as I described. “But why? What does she want you for? You two don’t have a vendetta so bad, as I recall?” “Well, that’s where you’re wrong there. If my guess is correct. She does have a strong vendetta against me. One which could only be destined by Fate.” “AH?!” Lu Shengnan yelped with incredulity which made me chuckle. “There are something which you should not know, Shengnan,” I expounded gently. “But since you’re knee-deep in this too, I might tell you as well.” Lin Feng and I traded a quick look. “Remember the time when I told you about how I got my name? That I was named after my sword?” Lu Shengnan bobbed her head. “Well, I’m not actually a human in the truest sense. I’m a Spirit. The Spirit of the Shiyan Blade, the legendary relic weapon that belonged to the ancient Yan Di of the South.”

Lu Shengnan’s mouth was hanging so large that she could not say anything. Obviously, this was just unbelievable to any ordinary person. One might even dismiss what I just said as a stupid joke. But coming from me, Lu Shengnan could only believe it to be true.

“By my deductions, Huang Li could be my nemesis who is the descendant of Tribe Nine Li,” I explained further, “In theory, I am the true heir to Tribe Shennong that issued from Yan Di and Huang Li, if I’m right, should be the last daughter of Tribe Nine Li, the tribe of Chiyou, the enemy of Yan Di and Huang Di in prehistoric China. That would make us sworn enemies. There is a strong possibility that Huang Li was the one who attacked me when we were at Shanggu Town.” I crushed my cigarette stub in the ashtray and took a breath before I went on. “As to why she wants to abduct me, I can only surmise it has something to do with the dragon leys of this country, based on the premise that whoever controls the Shiyan Blade possesses the power to awaken the dragon leys to build an everlasting empire. With me, the Spirit of the Sword, now separated from the Shiyan Blade itself, Huang Li and her confederates must believe that by controlling me, they achieve at least a 50-50 chance of achieving that motive. We misunderstood you earlier as a cohort of Huang Li’s because you took us for a drink this evening and all of us ended up drunk. And because of that, we nearly got into trouble just now. It seems like a minute possibility that this is a mere coincidence, so we had to check.”

It took more than mere seconds until Lu Shengnan finally digested what I said and closed her wide-opened mouth. She stared at me for another few seconds, as if in a trance, before she finally spoke. “Well, I would have thought that you have been reading too many fantasy novels, if not for your wolves and that whatever-is-that hideous thing just now…” Freaky Spirit scowled at her, baring his fangs wickedly at her for her overtly-truthful remark about its appearance. It would never hurt Lu Shengnan without my permission and it was only trying to scare her. But the Forest Sprite’s grotesque looks was enough to elicit a scream from Lu Shengnan who howled and covered her eyes with fright.

“All right, Freaky, that’s enough now. Time to go back.” I chuckled, patting his head. I unstoppered my Spirit Gourd and the Forest Sprite, who shot at Lu Shengnan an ugly look before he disappeared, snorted and disappeared, returning back to my gourd with a shrill whistle. With the Forest Sprite now no longer around her, Lu Shengnan finally sighed easily.

Then I remembered something else. “Ah, were you not drunk just now? How did you get up so early?” Lu Shengnan’s face blazed a bright pink at my question and she began mumbling incomprehensibly, lost for words. Lin Feng’s hand quietly reached for his pouch and the Spirit Wolves, sensing me tensed, blinked their eyes opened and stood up, regarding Lu Shengnan warily with the furs on their arched back standing.

The unfriendly stares from my Spirit Wolves and Lin Feng made her shuddered and trembled with trepidation and she quickly squeaked, “I, I, I was pretending…” “Huh?! So you were not drinking much just now? You’re only pretending to be drunk?!” Lu Shengnan nodded her head timidly and I growled, “What do you mean?! Why pretend?! To lull me into telling you secrets?! Are you Huang Li’s cohort, speak up!”

Lu Shengnan gave a mortified look at Lin Feng and her head sank, saying nothing. Lin Feng noticed and realized that whatever her reasons were, she could not divulge freely with him present. He stood up and feigned a stretch. “Whew… that bout just now had me bathing in sweat. I’d better take a bath first. Just carry on without me.” And he quickly slipped upstairs, carrying a straddling Chongxi up with him.

“So…” I turned my attention back to Lu Shengnan. “Now, can you tell me why?” “That… Urm…” Lu Shengnan stuttered shyly, her face now getting redder and redder by the second, “I was pretending to be drunk… But I was not pretending when I told you the things I said just now…”

I froze, my mind whirling back to what Lu Shengnan said to me. Wait a minute, she was making a confession just now! Oh, my God! She was pretending to be drunk so that she could confess her feelings! I felt my temperature rising and my cheeks flushing with blood. I hastily averted my gaze and stammered, “Urm… Er… That… I’ll just pretend that you said nothing just now and you pretend that I have heard nothing, OK?” Lu Shengnan nodded bashfully, her face now completely a scarlet shade.

Just when I was thinking of ways to extricate myself from the awkward and embarrassing atmosphere, a sudden rumble came from upstairs and amid the bedlam, we heard Lin Feng screaming, “Goddammit! You again?!” Shocked, Lu Shengnan and I sprang to our feet almost in unison. The six Spirit Wolves, sensing the spike in my emotions, got up too at once and bounded up the stairs rapidly.

We pranced up the stairs, taking them in twos and threes and when we got up, we saw Lin Feng with a hand in his pouch and another gripping my other sword; the ordinary one that I had hung on a wall. Chongxi was sprawled in a corner, still snoring peacefully. Before Lin Feng was a stranger cloaked in a dark hood. And from her figure, I immediately recognized her, the same woman in black who attacked me at the hotel in Shanggu! A window behind her was opened; clearly the point of egress which she entered the house stealthily.

The first thing my Spirit Wolves did when they reached upstairs was to surround the woman. They snarled menacingly at her, their canine teeth bared and fur fully bristled in a poise ready to pounce. “Shiyan, take this!” Lin Feng shouted when he saw me coming up. For a brief moment, he tore his eyes off his adversary to throw me the sword. But that was the moment of weakness that the woman was waiting for. She charged at him when he was not looking with something metallic in her right hand flashing dangerously!

Frantically, I shouted a warning, “Lin Feng, careful!”