The Tale Never Ends Chapter 53 The Evil Cult

Lin Feng burst into a raging frenzy when he heard me! Both he and Yuan Chongxi were gripped with fear, quivering like mice before cats when they thought we were dealing with true Jiangshis! But now that we had discovered that they were actually humans in disguise, Lin Feng, reflecting back at his humiliation just before, felt his pride immensely hurt! He thought of my lone stand against the two "Jiangshis" and was filled with rage! With a leap into the air, he delivered a kick at the tall man!

The tall man tried his best to stand his ground, but he could not resist howling in pain! With a loud "Argh!" he fell on one knee. The other imposter, his shorter partner, realized that things were not in their favor and was about to flee! Lin Feng tossed a dart swiftly and hit the shorter man in the wrist, forcing him to drop the item that he had earlier used to parry my sword! The object fell from his hand and clattered on the ground. The dart Lin Feng threw had a rope tied to its end; Lin Feng threw out his right hand and with a powerful heave, the rope coiled around the feet of the man. Lin Feng tugged at the line, and the man flopped heavily to the ground. It was a two-p.r.o.ng attack; Lin Feng had thrown the dart to disarm the man; but unbeknownst to the latter, the dart was tied to a rope which Lin Feng that jerked with all his might to restrain his quarry by hampering his movements!

Just then, the entire hill was flooded with the beams of light from the headlamps of the police cars! In the midst of the short skirmish, Lin Feng's dart had reflected light in the dark and was noticed by the police officers guarding both egresses downhill. The deluge of lights lit up the area, illuminating where we stood and exposed the two imposters! A horde of policemen charged uphill in a blitz and swiftly arrested both men, consigning them to handcuffs as the officers unmasked them! The tall man, the older of the two, looked around 50 while the shorter man was just a young man in his mid-twenties! I stomped forward and grabbed at the younger man. "Speak up! Where is the child!" Yuan Chongxi emerged from the crowd of policemen around us. "Leave this to me. This is my bread and b.u.t.ter!" He sneered, a demeanor that I had so rarely witness; even he was seething at the two men's duplicity. He gave a tight slap to the cheek of the younger man. Lin Feng had vented his anger and now it was his turn! Yuan Chongxi landed a few more blows to the young man in his hard-earned moment of reckoning. The man wailed painfully, begging for mercy. "Please! Please! No more! I'll confess! I, I lead you to..." I watched from beside them, feeling amused. Even the dull Yuan Chongxi could exhibit such rage!

With the short man in front, we followed him to a hollow grave where the cavity had been emptied and excavated to create a recess so large that it was underground cave with two chambers inside! The chambers were lighted with oil lamps and blankets were sprawled on the ground, and there was the little child, lying among the blankets, unconscious. I checked that his breathing was normal and surmised that he was fine; he might have been cast a spell and possibly hypnotized for the abductors' convenience. I carried the child and climbed out of the recess. The husband and wife had come now. A light breeze blew by, caressing at our faces and the child woke up from his slumber. At the first glimpse of his mother, the child cried out for her and the woman came rushing forward for her baby...

But even as we journeyed back, I was still restless and unhappy. Yuan Chongxi noticed the glum look on my face and asked me if anything was wrong. With my lips pursed, I grumbled, "That b.l.o.o.d.y fool had damaged my peach wood sword! If only I knew! I would have brought the steel sword that my father gave me and stab him to death!" "You would have been in trouble if you had indeed brought the steel sword and killed the man." Yuan Chongxi jested. With his eyes still on the road, Lin Feng quipped. "And how's that trouble? Zheng Shuang could easily report it as 'permissible self-defense by officers due to retaliation of criminals to avoid being arrested". That sent a laugh through the cabin of the car and we continued talking until we returned to the Center.

The next morning, Zheng Shuang came knocking with a glee on his face that he could hardly hide! He was overjoyed; the case of the abducted child was reported across various media: local dailies, news on the television, among others, making it the talk of the town. In just 8 hours after the case was reported, the child was found and the perpetrators were all detained; the news reports on the incidents, highlighting the lightning-speed efficiency displayed in the resolution of this case as good as crowned a laurel of praises upon the local police force that even the Mayor of the city called the local station to tender his commendation, saying that he would even attend their celebration party! Zheng Shuang had also received a call from the parents of the child early in the morning, insisting to buy us a meal and the father of the child had even made Zheng Shuang promise that he would invite us too. Yuan Chongxi's eyes instantly gleamed with joy at the prospect of another sumptuous fare.

Zheng Shuang took out something from his coat. "We were so excited that we did not retire for the night yesterday! When we returned, we immediately grilled both perpetrators! This is their interrogation statement," he told us. I took the statement from him and went through it briefly. "I had borrowed these for now before they are taken as notes for the prosecutors of this case." I continued flipping through the pages, paying no heed to what he said as he continued discussing the procedures of charging criminals. I continued reading the statement until I placed it down on the table. "I'm afraid that both criminals have not been entirely forthcoming. They have avoided much of the details!" Zheng Shuang's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean to say..."

"What they gave you is hardly the truth," I said wearily, my eyes squinted as Zheng Shuang gazed at me, confused. "According to this statement, they pretend to be Taoist priest and abduct children before trafficking them. But this is not true. These are not fake Taoist priest. These two men are part of an ancient cult; so old that its name was long forgotten in the pa.s.sing of Time. This evil cult is famous for using the internal organs of children in their sorcery and witchcraft. In the past, their actions have gone overboard with its ma.s.s kidnapping of children that the Qing Imperial Court ordered every instance of its existence to be completely eradicated. Acolytes of the cult were either hunted down like dogs or tried and executed mercilessly that many believed the cult to have withered or annihilated. It seems that we have been wrong; the insidious embers of its still-living survival have endured and now it has rekindled back to flames. When I went into the recess of the underground cavern, I found four urns. These urns were used by the acolytes to trap the souls of the children, and these jars were already opened when I found them. These means that the ghosts of the children have been released. I had also found talismans already drawn and prepared. Not being able to recognize them, I had quietly brought them back for further perusal. With information from my father, I then concluded that the talismans were proof that they are the part of the evil cult which should have long been completely wiped out ages ago! As if slaying innocent children to harvest their organs was not evil enough, these people even seal and made use of their souls! The poor children were nothing but objects to these cruel and bloodless monsters no matter living or dead! But my greatest concern now lies in the souls of the children. I'm afraid that their ghosts might be manipulated for some heretofore unknown schemes of sinister intent!" Zheng Shuang collapsed into the sofa, his face bewildered as he tried to comprehend what I just said. At length, he got up. "What should we do now, Brother Shiyan?" "Let us join in the interrogation! The three of us will come with you!" I instructed Yuan Chongxi and Lin Feng to pack our gear and we headed to the police station.

At the police station, we waited for the tall villain to be brought into the interrogation room. When he entered the room, Zheng Shuang banged his fist on the table. "Impudent scoundrel! How dare you utter falsehoods during your questioning!" I quipped immediately for added effect without allowing the criminal to speak. "Speak up! What are your purposes for kidnapping children? To traffick them or to kill them and harvest their organs? What of the souls of the four children that you have taken prior to this one? Your accomplice had just confessed! How long did you think you can keep on lying?" Beads of cold sweat began to form on his forehead. Mumbling helplessly, he said, "I, I'll confess... The four children souls were sealed in three boxes, wh-where w-we..."

And thus the detainee revealed that they were under orders of their mentor to help acc.u.mulate money. In addition to trafficking children, the two men had also used the spirits of children to scam and cheat those ignorant and uninitiated. The three boxes were already discarded as "gunks", so the tall criminal admitted. What were "gunks", I myself could hardly fathom, knowing only that the term did not bode well for the souls of the four children. But the term was recorded in verbatim into the interrogation statement until we could determine its true meaning. Recollecting back the souls of the children was the most pressing order of business. We questioned more about the location where the deed was done and we left. After making some calculations, we decided to split up; we would go to three different spots and try to summon the spirits. Lin Feng and I would take the talismans and urns while Yuan Chongxi would use my Gourd to first try to recollect the spirits. Lin Feng hitched a ride in Zheng Shuang's car and I drove myself as we went to our respective designated spot, whereas the proximity of the police station to his a.s.signed point of destination allowed Yuan Chongxi to go on foot. We would meet together at a restaurant when the work was done and be in time for the meal with the parents of the child yesterday!

I would first begin with Yuan Chongxi's experience instead of Lin Feng's and mine.

At the east of town was a custom-built bungalow which was owned by a man who came from the countryside. After his studies from the university in his youth, the man had returned to his hometown and started a business. He would operate as an agent by selling the harvest of the fruit farmers in his hometown at the city. When he first began his business, the farmers barely had enough of their stocks for him to sell; hence they were hardly worried that he would run off with their money. But as days pa.s.sed by, his diligence and effort bore fruits of its own; his business expanded and he began wholesaling greater quant.i.ties of fruits and even bought a car of his own. But he was an honest merchant and earned the trust of the fruit farmers in the nearby towns and cities who would gladly trust him with their wares, confident that they would be adequately compensated as usual. He exported Chinese hawberries to j.a.pan and made quite a fortune! With his newly-ama.s.sed wealth, he invested in a stone quarry, specializing in mining and masonry that produced dressed stones, or ashlar, as well as square stones. His ventures went well until one day, his fruit export business bogged down and his enterprises reached a bottle-neck. Troubled with despair, he died one day a sad and tragic man because of cancer, leaving only a wife and two daughters.

His wife was stout of heart herself. It was she who had encouraged her husband to return to his hometown to start a business in the first place. Undeterred by the dire state of her husband's business, she came up with a plan to salvage the family business by signing an agreement with the local fruit farmers who had already abandoned planting hawberry fruits and were already growing other fresh produces about 2 or 3 years before. The agreement was in time for harvest season. By first paying the farmers a deposit, the local farmers acceded to trading their stocks to her, thus injecting a new breathe of life into the fruit business. The mother of two then re-opened the stone quarry and re-established old ties and partnerships, thanks to their reliable and trustworthy reputation in adhering to proper channels and rules. The government was in a stringent crackdown of illegal quarries and mines with unlawful and unwarranted practices; hence her stone quarry was awarded the tender for providing materials to nearby building projects and rejuvenated the stone mining business as well.

Two years before present, an old Taoist priest came to the gates of this family. The youngest of the two daughters gave the priest some food, but was declined by the priest. Yet the man waited outside, persistently refusing to leave. The girl went to her mother and her mother said, "He might be begging for monetary alms for the maintenance of his monastery. Give him 1,000 yuan and sent him off!" But still, the priest rejected the offer of money. The mother of the girl came out of the house herself. She greeted the priest respectfully. "How can I help you, Master Priest? You refused both money and food!" The priest replied to her, "I am merely pa.s.sing by, but I could sense a foul and dark force swirling above your residence. There seems to be something wrong with your fengshui coordination; hence I needed to see the owner of the house!" But the woman was a shrewd and cunning person herself. "I would love to see how would he try to cheat me," she thought proudly and she asked in return, "What problems have you detected with the fengshui of my house, Master Priest?" "Your house is shrouded by a foul aura. Anyone in the house will be in danger!" The priest warned ominously. Surely this charlatan is here after hearing how my husband died, the woman deliberated quietly. "And what do you propose, Master Priest?" She asked, feigning ignorance.