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.

As Zheng Shuang led us into the house, I stopped short in my tracks. I could not believe what I was seeing! The entire interior of the villa today and during that night was utterly different! Not only the sitting area was fully renovated, but the interior was also fully adorned with pieces of furniture fit for a proper living! The last time we came, the whole place was as empty as a tomb! Our tomb, if we had failed to escape from the enchantment! Lin Feng, still gawking with disbelief, breathed, “The last time we come, this place was no better than the roughcast house the old man was living in… Wow, look at all these now… That chandelier… this carpet… Wow!”

Zheng Shuang gave us a look that sounded like he did not expect to hear this from us. “Why? Was everything different the last time you’re here?” “Course not,” I shook my head, saying, “Never mind that chandelier and the carpet, this place did not even have these wallpapers that night. Everything’s as empty as a new lot that night.” Zheng Shuang emitted an interested and thoughtful “Oh!” and he took out a notebook and scribbled something into it. “Well, that’s fishy, I suppose,” he muttered, “Her man’s just recently died and yet, she still has the heart to renovate and decorate the house.” “But you know what’s actually going on, don’t you?” I chuckled and said, “So why do you need to mark all these down?”

“Surely you don’t expect me to just write about Xiao Qi’s possession of the dead man’s body on my report?” He cracked and said, “I need to provide something that works.” I kept quiet and could only shrug.

We went upstairs to have a look with Zheng Shuang chaperoning us. In truth, I had had no more interest in the tour of the house. In every nook and cranny of the house, I had detected whiffs of foul aura that reeked of hatred and malice. The same that emanated from Cao Xuedong when we fought him that night. The aura in the house was so thick that I could not see anything else even with my Spirit Sight.

“So, did you find anything in there, Shiyan?” Zheng Shuang asked from over my shoulder. With a languish shake of my head, I said, “Only an aura of hatred and malice. In fact, the whole house is infested with it like an inflated balloon.” Zheng Shuang rubbed his chin, thinking as he uttered, “Every bedroom upstairs showed signs of inhabitants. Including Huang Li, a total of five people were arrested just now. But the number of bedrooms being tampered with far exceeded that amount.” I nodded my understanding of what he was trying to hint: the people that were arrested were just a small part of a larger band.

A young officer came to us suddenly and our discussion halted just at once as he snapped to a salute. “Captain Zheng, our chief would like to speak to you,” he reported but Zheng Shuang asked without so much as a look at him, “What is it?” The young officer hesitated briefly before he stuttered timidly, “Urm…” Zheng Shuang threw a strange look at him and the young officer’s eyes wandered about us slowly, tacitly indicating his misgivings about revealing the details in front of us. Placidly, Zheng Shuang gestured at us, saying, “These are all our fellow members of the Wu Zhong Criminal Investigations Division. You can speak freely.” The officer nodded finally and admitted, saying, “The suspects have all been interrogated at the District Headquarters. But they provided nothing. Or rather, they said nothing at all. They behaved just like a bunch of corpses, if not for the fact that they’re still breathing, ignoring everything we’ve said and done. Our chief is asking for you to discuss how should we proceed.”

Zheng Shuang regarded me with a quick look, which I reciprocated before I regarded Lin Feng and everyone else in turn. They nodded their heads at me and I told Zheng Shuang, “We’ll come with you. I have an idea.” With that, Zheng Shuang finally allowed an approving nod to the young officer who trotted off.

We tailed Zheng Shuang’s car to the District Headquarters where we were shown to the interrogation room where we were reunited with a deadpan Huang Li. Na San behaved oddly by coming near me as if to tell me something, but he stopped halfway before he croaked his first syllable. But I knew what he was trying to do, so I told the officer accompanying us, “Can you take us to the other suspects?” The officer nodded dutifully and led the way out to the other rooms.

We were shown to the other suspects arrested along with Huang Li: three men and one woman. Like Huang Li just now, they stared blankly into the spaces before them with the same impassive and stony gazes, reacting nothing to whatever questions the interrogating officers hurled at them. But to our dismay, Jin Qichen nor Lu Shengnan were among them; these were all strangers whom I had never seen before.

Na San seemed a great deal more anxious to see that his prince was not here. I patted on his shoulder gently, saying, “Relax. We’ll find him. He could still be okay, aside from being locked up.” Na San nodded weakly. He opened his mouth to tell me something but was interrupted by my phone ringing suddenly.

I drew my phone from my pocket and saw Zheng Shuang’s name on the screen. I answered the call and Zheng Shuang barked as soon as I listened, “Huang Li’s still not saying anything, Shiyan. I think this is where you come in.”