I scratched my head bleakly, still feeling sores all over me. I opened my mouth to speak but Master Six beat me to it. "What a sound sleep you had, boy," he said, "You've slept for one whole day." I scratched my head again sheepishly. "But... Why are you here, Master Six?" I asked. "You've caused quite a ruckus, boy," he said again, "Can you blame me for coming unannounced? More so, if you had indeed perished. All the years of my tough labor would have been for naught..." His voice trailed off as if he had suddenly realized he had spoken a little too much. But I was hardly perturbed nor annoyed; Father too usually spoke on such vague terms as if he was avoiding from revealing too much, a trait which I had grown too used to. The Sash of the Stretching Rainbow came to my mind suddenly and I scratched at my head again. "Urm... Master Six," I said meekly, "The Sash of the Stretching Rainbow... I'm afraid it's..." "I know," he said curtly, cutting me off, "The

Yuanyuan was a sales girl of female apparels and most of her colleagues were girls about her age. Females of their age all shared a common habit: gossiping. They would spend every minute of their spare time prattling about boyfriends, relationships, and of course, the ever-so enigmatic topic of paranormal incidents. Inadvertently, all eyes around the table were naturally directed upon the one single person who had no short of encounters with the paranormal: me! As the youngest and possibly the most powerful medium in town, the name of Murong Shiyan had become a household topic across the little hamlet of Wu Zhong County. As we ate, my companions and I endured the ceaseless bombardment of weird and strange questions unleashed upon us by the girls. "Oh, Brother Shiyan! Are the rumors about your encounters true, or were they merely publicity stunts?" One of the girls asked. My eyeballs rolled upwards involuntarily while I nearly scowled out loud. But Yuan Chongxi was quic

The sudden remark made everyone's head turn. It was Xiao Qi and the rest of the Seven Sisters. She approached us, patting on my shoulder before patting on Zhang Zhigui's shoulder as if wanting us to back down, saying, "We will buy everyone a meal for the trouble today. We'll have it no other way; our brother-in-law's life would have been in danger if not for all six of you!" Zhang Zhigui was flabbergasted to find six women appearing around him suddenly. With a dumbfounded look, he bowed to them. "My greetings. You are..." In what seemed to be a fit of magnanimous profusion, Xiao Qi began introducing her sisters proudly. "Greetings to you too, Brother Zhang. I'm Xiao Qi. This is Xiao Liu, and that's Xiao Wu... That would be Xiao San.." And Xiao San hissed with great annoyance, "Off with you!" With an impish chuckle to Xiao San, Xiao Qi continued again, "Mr. Zhang's wife is the eldest of us Seven Sisters. That is why we are thankful for your help today. But you three are

The cry of "Young Master" was clear and unexpectedly strong, that I instantly realized who it was! There was no one else among the female brigands at Aunt Ulan's encampment who would address me as such; only one: Alatan Qiqige! I looked hard at the woman, and there she was, the one and the same Edelweiss who once disguised herself as a village farm woman and had tried to steal my bag! I would not have recognized her, given her present appearance in au courant fashion and makeup! Her current look was a stark difference to the amazonian female brigand I met in Mongolia that I was too bewildered to react! Lin Feng let out a whistle before saying, "Oh my, it's Edelweiss! Look at you now! I would have mistaken you for a woman of the metropolitan!" The remark made me I eye Lin Feng with narrowed eyes. Quickly, I chuckled weakly and returned Edelweiss' salute. "Really, I was not able to recognize you earlier," I admitted and said, "So you are the messenger that

The members of the caravan who were dancing and singing merrily around the fire realized they were being surrounded by a ring of bandits and were horrified, more so, when Edelweiss let loose a shot from her gun which instantly smothered the music and laughter. We dismounted and marched ferociously into the campgrounds. The people inside were terrified by the sight of my six spirit wolves and the seething glares from the stony-faced female bandits. None of them dared move as Edelweiss raised her gun menacingly at them. There was even a plump tourist, clad in a windbreaker with a roasted lamb's leg in his hand, who was about to enjoy his feast when he was frozen in his tracks by our sudden arrival. I could see the fearful stares from the flickering illumination of the fire. They were no strangers to news of bandits roaming around the lands, although they did not expect to be assailed by a group of women led by a young man looking barely out of his early twe