I lighted a cigarette. But deep inside, I was grimacing quietly. Huang Li looked utterly ignorant about the woman in black. I jabbed a finger at the black plastic bag on the floor. “That is the souvenir left by a mysterious guest who came calling last night after we solved the problem at your house. Don’t you want it back?”

Huang Li’s face convulsed into a disdainful moue. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered firmly and that made Lin Feng and I looked at each other again. “Oh yeah,” I went on, “That guest has a stare that resembled both you and Cao Xuedong. So I wondered if you might know each other.” Looking rather pale now, Huang Li hissed, “I don’t know who you’re referring to. And what have you done to Xuedong!?”

Huang Li’s apparent ignorance rather bothered me but it did not prevent me from keeping up my smile. “Well, since you insist that you don’t know our mysterious guest. I guess we’d better just leave it at that. As to Cao Xuedong, I’m sure you know what happened to him. You guys employed the Bamen Dunjia so you tell me what happened to him. You must know.”

Huang Li’s eyes flared with rage as their edges twitched irritably intensely. She said nothing, reaching only into her purse for a checkbook. She wrote the cheque and stormed off, carrying the glass bottle that contained Cao Xuedong’s ghost with her. As she reached the landing of the stairs, I gave a final jab, “Neighbors should contact each other more often! Come find me just opposite! I’m in Unit 105!” Refusing to deign to even reply to me as she drifted down the stairs, all we heard was her slamming the door on her way out.

“She doesn’t seem to be our mystery hitwoman,” Lin Feng uttered, “You saw how she wrote the cheque. She was writing it with her right hand.” I nodded. We were still making no headway with the enigma surrounding the identity of our guest last night.

“Judging her behavior just now, it looks like she doesn’t know about me or the possibility that she could be a daughter of Tribe Nine Li. Maybe she’s not at all, but who knows? Still, were we wrong, I wonder?” I said as I rubbed my chin. Lin Feng and Chongxi nodded quietly, all quiet in ponderous contemplation.

A few beats of silence ensued until a sudden shriek from Lu Shengnan shattered the peace, “LOOK AT YOU! ARE YOU ALL NOT EVEN BOTHERED BY SOMETHING BLOODY JUST LYING ON THE FLOOR! COME ON! DEAL WITH IT, ANYONE!? I DON’T WANT TO BE A SUSPECT IN A MURDER CASE!”

After disposing of the broken arm, albeit in a sanguinary manner, Chongxi said, “What I am certain of, is that something is not right with all of them – Huang Li, Cao Xuedong, with the woman in black included. At least, this I can say because I can’t seem to read their fortune through their faces. Let’s just leave out those who have taken an active part against us – Cao Xuedong and the woman in black – and just look at Huang Li, even I don’t know what role is she playing in all these.” I nodded, my gaze was drawn by the sight of my Spirit Wolves feasting ravenously at the broken arm. “Well, it’s not just you. My wolves can’t seem to track the woman either, even with her scent. We have no leads at all for now. Whoever these people are, they are not simple folk, that’s for sure. Compared to the enemies we’ve dealt with before, I dare say they’re definitely a cut above the rest.”

In the past, my Spirit Eagle and Spirit Wolves have always been able to track enemies using their scent. But this time, none of them could do anything with the broken arm left by our woman in black. Between that and Huang Li’s unreadable face, my instincts were ringing madly, informing that we were no longer dealing with foes that were of a similar class to the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. These were enemies with abilities and powers we could not afford to underestimate.

“Shiyan!” Lu Shengnan squealed again through her pursed lips as she gagged, trying to hold back the urge to puke. “I had never taken you for a cruel savage! You allowed your wolves to EAT THAT ARM!” I tossed her a careless glance. “And now you know why I’m against you joining us?” Lu Shengnan bobbed her head like a bobble-headed doll.

Then again, I had my reasons for allowing my wolves to gnaw on the broken arm. It was a show of threat in case Lu Shengnan was an enemy in disguise. Her true allegiances were still unknown and the sight of the flesh being ripped and torn by my wolves would create a lasting impression on her. She stared at the gory scene with all colors leaving her face. “Things like these are common to people like us,” I muttered nonchalantly, “In fact, Lin Feng is the worst. There was this time where we were lured into a village and we nearly died. Lin Feng swung his whip with so much anger and it split the head of an enemy like a watermelon with grey and white matter flowing out from the man’s skull…”

“ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT! THAT’S ENOUGH! URRGGHH!” Her brain was filled with the recollections of the doufunao she had in the morning and she rushed off to vomit, looking green and purple.

The work this time to earning this one hundred thousand yuan had been edgy, bordering on dangerous and harrowing. Still, we escaped with both our bounty received and our dignity upheld. The money was not all we received from Huang Li; we had also found out more information from our encounter with Huang Li and Cao Xuedong in addition to crippling that woman in black. With his ghost now stripped from his physical body, Cao Xuedong was as good as dead, unless Huang Li had someone to help. That would allow me some time of peace for now especially with the woman in black now having lost an arm.

We said our goodbyes to Lu Shengnan and we headed back to Wu Zhong.

We were thrilled to have our wallets flattened with the one hundred thousand yuan. I called Edelweiss to tell her we were coming home. Then I noticed Edelweiss sounding as if something was wrong from the other end. There was also the unmistakable clamor of an argument ongoing in the background. “Tell me, Edelweiss,” I said gingerly, “What’s going on?” Edelweiss said, “Urm… Not really…” I asked again, “Then what? I know something’s wrong. But what?” “Urm… Master Six is here…” Edelweiss squeaked hesitantly.

My heart raced. “Master Six is at our house?” Edelweiss responded with a meek “Hmm” before she drew a breath and explained, “He’s here now… B-but… He’s quarreling with Father…” I almost groaned with exasperation. I could still remember how Father was seething like a boiler about to blow a bolt the last time Master Six came. “It’s all right, my dear,” I spoke into my phone, “It’s all too usual with them both. They always bicker whenever they meet.” “I’m afraid it’s rather a bad day today. They’re on the brink of fighting now,” came Edelweiss’s worried voice from the other end.

“What are they fighting about this time?” I scratched my head. A bemused Edelweiss then told me that Father and Mother were preparing to leave for a trip somewhere far when Master Six appeared all of a sudden. He stopped Father from leaving and this was how their quarrel began.

Hearing that, I understood immediately what was happening. The date of the Crucible of Heaven loomed near with the passing of this month. Father must be looking for somewhere remote! There, he would bide for the eventual coming of the Crucible of Heaven—a terrible bolt of lightning from the sky which would come certainly if and when he refused again his chance to Ascend and it would come with the strength of an atomic bomb which could completely lay waste to all of Wu Zhong County! Master Six’s appearance must also mean that he had guessed Father’s intentions and here he was, trying to stop Father from escaping his Ascension once again.

But why can’t this be a peaceful debate between two Demigods about their Ascensions instead of a rowdy debt negotiation marred by bitterness and anger?

Our car barely eased into a stop in front of my house when I could hear Father bellowing upstairs, “So what makes you think you can stop me?! I am going to leave and I’d like to see you try!” “Go!” Master Six responded vehemently, “Try leaving! Of all the demigods I’ve seen, you’re absolutely the worst!” “Try bounding me in ropes and force me to! I’d never go! Try making me!” “All right!” Master Six retorted with a roar that sounded like a madman, “Come! Let us try!”

A litany of pops and bangs came from upstairs, making the neighbours walking by our house looked up with shock and confusion. Everyone around must be wondering which house was it that was causing all the ruckus.

All three of us looked at each other, each grinning weakly. We went inside and headed straight upstairs. The door leading into the sitting room upstairs was ajar and we pushed ourselves in. Everything inside was in a complete mess as if a typhoon had just hit us. There was Master Six, his hair disheveled and unkempt. His clothes were crumpled, creased, and slightly stained and his face and ears were a patch of red with rage. Father and Mother were seated on the sofa facing him, both pouting their lips in apparent indignance. They looked relatively fine. Obviously, their greater numbers had worked in their favor.

I quickly hurried over to Master Six like a dutiful butler. “Master Six, you’re here. You should have told me you’re coming.” The immortal demigod narrowed his eyes at me and remarked with a wordless but no less irate “Humph”. With a placating smile that looked like a waiter in a restaurant, I tried placating everyone. “Please, Master Six, Father, Mother, everyone. Please come down. There’s no need for hostilities.” Father’s and Master Six’s eyes met and they emitted a pair of irritable “Humphs” again.

Oh, my God… What can I do to cool things down… I wondered. I offered Master Six a cigarette and offered another one to Father. “How about a change of pace. Let’s set the matter of the Ascension aside for now. Let’s talk about something else,” I said to them. Master Six plopped into a sofa and propped a leg over another and grumpily asked, “What something else?” I put up a smile as benign as I could and started with, “Well, we were in town yesterday and we encountered the Bamen Dunjia enchantment. Then…” I told them everything about what happened in detail, including my suspicions about Huang Li and Cao Xuedong being descendants of Tribe Nine Li too.