Just got home after spending time w/ my family outside… as always it’s not edited, especially in my English grammars.

I didn’t know for how long I have been sleeping, when suddenly I faintly felt a chilling wind blew on my face. I opened my eyes subconsciously and found that ghost—Miss Daiyu, had stood near the bedside.

I immediately jumped out of the bed and put on my training pack hurriedly. Because I was absolutely sure that if I were too slow and lazily moved, this Miss Daiyu would have shown me her “most beautiful” face!

Only an outstanding people could recognize the current trends. (T/N: 識時務者爲俊傑: Shí shíwù zhě wéi jùnjié. It’s an idiom, which means a wise man submits to circ.u.mstances).

Miss Daiyu was satisfied to see the “diligent” me, and said: “Today I give you these 2 sandbags, each has 10kg, and your task now is tying these sandbags to your back and chest and run for 5km. You are not permitted to have a breakfast or go to school before you finished this task“. (T/N: These sandbags tied to MC’s body felt like a kind of adjustable body weight vest for fitness training, I think)

“Lady, aren’t you making a mistake here? You tell me to run 5km with 40 jin sandbag?

“You don’t want to go?”

“I will, I will!” I quickly nodded and answered. If I incur her wrath, the consequences must be very serious, so d.a.m.n serious. But… carrying 40 jins of sandbags and running for 5km, would make me exhausted… d.a.m.n silly me.

80 minutes! Finally I completed this morning task! I was so very out of breath, and deadly tired. My chest was as if it was burning and made me spat out some blood. I was soaked with sweat and my clothes were wet and glued to my body. The legs were so numb I almost felt that I lost them, and I couldn’t even move freely since my body was sore.

Crawling up the stairs was almost impossible task, and I fell down directly on my bed. Miss Daiyu stood at the door any said: “Your willpower is good. I don’t want to make you suffer intentionally. But your age are too late to cultivate the solid basic foundation for training Daoist arts. Your physical fitness is very poor, and it is imperative that you must strengthen it quickly, otherwise you are unable to learn Daoist skill.”

Since I’m so dead tired, I couldn’t speak a word, only humming twice at her in reply. Miss Daiyu left quietly. Shortly Mom calling me to eat breakfast, but I don’t have the strength and appet.i.te to eat, and brought a pack of biscuits instead, and weakly walked out of the door.

My bicycle’s tire went flat last night and I haven’t had it repaired. It seemed that I can’t ride to school and must call a taxi to go to school.

As usual, my arrival in campus was always eye-catching! However, I have been long accustomed to being obsessed and wors.h.i.+ped; and regardless their gazes of love and jealousy, I strode directly to my cla.s.sroom.

Xiaohui hasn’t come yet.

I lay directly on the table, and silently slept in instant. This morning exercise consumed most of my physical strength. I have lost the will and spirit to attentively listened to the lecture given by the teacher completely.

I was being in dazed as Xiaohui calling me twice. I mumbled at her when she called for a second time. Xiaohui stopped calling me after she saw me stumbled and gave no other reaction.

It was until noon when the school break has come did Xiaohui wake me up: “Zhang Xiaolong, how can you sleep? It’s not a good habit; Anyway, I had put the sword hilt in your table drawer”.

I quickly took the hilt from the table’s drawer, put it into the bag; and walked with Xiaohui out of the campus together.

I went home and had some lunch. This afternoon I have decided to solve Xiaohui trouble. I know that I knew nothing about any Daoist art, but fortunately there is a vial of cattle tears and a Shadowbane sword in my hand. Cattle tears gave me the ability to see the ghosts and the Shadowbane sword was one of the 10 most famous swords since ancient time—and as Miss Daiyu said yesterday—this thing has great deterrent effect to evil spirits and ghosts. Therefore even though I was so timid, but these magical things in my hand gave me some courage.

I put the cattle tears’ vial and the Shadowbane sword into the bag. Since I told Mom that I was going outside to buy a book at the Bookstore, I took 250 RMB from my deposit into my wallet.

In the bookstore, I bought a Chinese traditional dictionary. The Niu School’s Past Records on Demon Subjugation book were written in traditional Chinese characters. So the dictionary is a must to have if I wanted to comprehend anything written in it.

Afternoon came. I had arrived in the cla.s.s and then realized that Xiaohui hasn’t come yet. There are few people inside the cla.s.sroom.

I took out a cattle tears’ vial from my backpack, dipped my finger and coated the tears liquid around my eyes. Miss Daiyu said that the cattle tears effectiveness last for an hour. After putting the vial in my desk’s drawer, I looked around the cla.s.sroom. There was no ghost around here.

When I was pondering about it, a boy came and sat beside me with ridiculing and disdaining expression on his face: “Hey you sucker, you come early today eh?”

This boy was called Xia Chaoran, about 175cm in height, and has Russian blood lineage or so I heard. His hair was yellowy with a pairs of blue eyes. The arrogance and superior personality was clearly expressed on his face. He truly has the capital to feel superior though, as he has handsome looks, good grades at school, and coming from a rich and powerful family. It was said that his family company alone has a.s.sets of more than a hundred million yuan.

I was wondering somehow; he and I have never had anything at all, even we never exchanged words before. So I was not sure how to reply to him. However I spoke to him indifferently: “Oh isn’t it Students Commissary, you have some advice for me?”

“No, I don’t have anything important for you, but I have to warn you. Do not walk and being so close to Zhou Huiqing, otherwise I will fix you up! In this city there are many traffic accidents, therefore you Zhang Xiaolong, you must be careful on your way back and forth to school”. Then he patted my shoulder and returned back to his own seat. There was a group of male students and many female students who quickly came and surround him. He was after all the famous-handsome-rich Xia Chaoran.

I secretly pinched my fist as I heard Xia Chaoran’s threat. But as he was saying; if he wanted to forge a car accident, it was very easy to make it, considering his family was rich and powerful. Even my parents would have been implicated!. It seemed that he liked Xiaohui… humph…. Originally, after seeing a big change on Xiaohui; I realized that I started to like her, coupled with the misunderstanding in my childhood, it could be said that our relations.h.i.+p was very subtle. However Xia Chaoran was famous as playboy, he would perhaps chased Xiaohui and eventually kicked her out after. I didn’t want this kind of thing happened to her.

It seemed like that the only hope for me was quickly learned Daoist art! This very moment I’ve decided that I must learn Daoist art! From now on I would give all my efforts for all tasks given by Miss Daiyu! If she told me to run 5km, I’ll run for 10km! For my own sake, for my parent’s sake; for saving Xiaohui, and finally become the guardian of Yin Yang harmony… and the guardian of peace… (T/N: what a dream. :P)

Soon after, Xiaohui came. I secretly took a glance on her vague black forehead. The faint black gloomy color seemed to be more vivid than before. Perhaps it was because I had coated my eyes with cattle tears; because under normal circ.u.mstances I could only barely see a trace of the black gloomy Yin Qi on her forehead.

This cattle tear was really great! Unconsciously, I’ve became more convinced of Daoist power! Xiaohui chatted with some other cla.s.smates until the bell rang. And when we sat on the desk, Xiaohui said: “Xiaolong, you have to learn diligently, aunt and uncle would be very happy for you. If you don’t understand about the subject, you can ask me, you know!”

I gave her some promises and said yes for several times; and Xiaohui no longer paid attention to me and listening carefully to the teacher. I was quickly bored by that boring-confusing-uninteresting textbook. I took out a “Daoist Incantation” compilation book on top my textbook and tried to figure out the first drawing on its first page.

Last night, I have read it for a few minutes and vaguely remembered this painting, but I don’t know anything about its effect and its usefulness.

During afternoon in the cla.s.s, I looked several times to the clock; and once for every hour, I took a dip of cattle tears with my finger and coated my eyes with it. However I didn’t feel the chilling wind sensation again, I couldn’t even see any ghosts in the surrounding. The only one that close was Xia Chaoran, with excuse to discuss research exercises, had moved his seat close to Xiaohui and gave some threatening gaze at me for a few times.

The night has come and the school ended. I still proposed to send Xiaohui home, despite Xia Chaoran threat; and she didn’t refuse. As for Xia Chaoran; since he was a resident student, he couldn’t get out of the dormitory.

Today, since I didn’t take my bicycle, I walked with Xiaohui slowly. But I saw a few people with pale faces floating and fleeting with the wind on the road. I was so scared that my face even paler than those ghosts, even my speech was very faint and vague when I replied to Xiaohui. Xiaohui asked whether I got sick or felt uncomfortable and I made up an excuse by saying that my uncle had came to my house yesterday.

Xiaohui had just walked downstairs when a chilling wind blew! And I could see a baby covered with blood all over his body pa.s.sing through the door and floated near her.

The door seemed that it was locked from the inside. But at the same time the b.l.o.o.d.y baby floated and flew and quickly perched on Xioahui back. Xiaohui s.h.i.+vered a little, and spoke to me with a slightly trembled voice: “It was quite cold”, she looked at me and smiled: “Thank you for sending me home”.

My teeth were slightly trembling, and my heart secretly mused that Xiaohui really was haunted by the ghost! That little devil was too scary as it made me paralyzed by fear. I gritted my teeth, suppressed the fear and avoiding to look at that crimson blood baby; I let out an awkward laugh, took a sword hilt from my backpack and gave it to Xiaohui: “Xiaohui, sorry if I trouble you again, please keep this hilt again and give it back to me tomorrow.”

At the instant I removed the hilt from the backpack; the crimson baby became restless and stared at me with his red blood eyes tightly staring at the sword hilt in my hand. As Xiaohui took the hilt, a yellow energy instantly enveloped Xiaohui body and the little devil let out a resentful howl and flying to avoid that yellow aura!

“Great! Its working!” I could have sworn that I could only see this kind of scene in movie. But I didn’t expect that this great head of mine could also do this! Mwa hahaha…

My fear gradually faded and talked to Xiaohui: “Well, Xiaohui you go inside and take a good care of my sword hilt, don’t lose it okay?”

Xiaohui entered her house, and I proudly walked back home with my head held up high. But as I walked a little far from Xiaohui house, a dreadful horrible thing came; I was so frightened that I almost wet myself at the scene!

That little-crimson-b.l.o.o.d.y-little devil had been tracking me!!! He had been floating about 5m behind me! And I also found a very strange thing; that is, I had been walking for more than 10 minutes, but I seemed to wander in circle. I remembered that I had walked down this street; there was an old doctor’s clinic specialized in venereal disease; a wide variety of small ads pasted on this street lamp, a traditional Chinese medicine store, a wholesaler that sold magical oil from India, and an office card. What I most remembered was, there was a rag tied on the street lamp being fluttered by the wind. “d.a.m.n… I had been strolled here for long time! According to my calculations, I should have arrived near the highway on-ramp by now. “Is this the legendary ghost’s wall in the fable?”

The thoughts scared me s.h.i.+tless to death. This uncle had just started to learn this Dao life, how such a dreadful-horrible-difficult to handle thing could came testing me? I took a deep breath, hypnotizing myself that this was not the time to get panicked; since this little crimson devil had come. Then I must show my power!

I turned around immediately and shouted to that little devil: “Hey flying imp! This Daoist priest has intention to set you free! But you don’t know your own good! Instead, you want this Daoist priest giving you a heavy hand; do you want your soul vanished thoroughly? AMITABHA, HALLELUJAH, JÍ JÍ RÚ LǛ LING…” (T/N: 急急如律令: jí jí rú lǜ ling, Literally: Promptly, Promptly, in Accordance with the Statutes and Ordinances… if I’m not mistaken it’s a Daoist incantation used to ward off evil spirits)

That floating crimson little devil seemed to have been intimidated by me, as it floated motionlessly. But then, its eyes flas.h.i.+ng a glimmering red light and rushed forward toward me in instant.

I instantly urinated on the spot! The smelly water flowed down like irrigation here and there. I didn’t have time to think anymore, and ran in a flash for my own life. However, when I brutally ran, I clearly felt that a cold chilling sensation penetrating my body. It was felt like as if I was stripped naked in the middle of snowfield in winter. My body s.h.i.+vered and trembling violently but it didn’t stop me to run like h.e.l.l.

I kept running, running and running… I didn’t know how I arrived to the avenue. I hurriedly called and blocked a moving taxi, rushed inside. But still my body unceasingly shaking and trembling. The cold sensation enveloping my body made me s.h.i.+vered incessantly. When I got home, I quickly ran over the clothing cabinet and took out my winter coat. Dad hurriedly asked me about my condition, and I told him that I caught a cold. He touched my forehead and the heat made him shouted in alarm, “Take out thermometer examination!”; he placed it in my mouth and find out that it was 39 degree! Mom and Dad anxiously prepared everything in hurry to take me to the hospital. However, at this dire time, Miss Daiyu appeared! It was certainly that both my parents unable to see her.

Miss Daiyu lightly spoke: “Oh… is it a Yin Qi? It’s alright, as long as you remove the Yin Qi inside your body; you will be all right, okay, let me do it for you!”. While she was talking to me, her palm patted on top of my head, and 5 seconds later, I could felt my whole body became comfortable. That cold s.h.i.+vering sensation was gone! This female beautiful ghost was awesome! At heart I was sighing, feeling low about my own weakness and quickly talked to my Dad: “Lao Li you don’t have to be so stressed, that thermometer should have been broken, I think that I’m much better already. If you don’t believe me, you can touch my head!”

Mom and Dad took their turn and touched my forehead. But still they used that thermometer to check my body temperature, its 36.5 degree now. I told them I could be caught a cold but this might be a false alarm; finally I spoke to them: “Oh, Mom, Dad, let’s have a dinner, I’m really starving now!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end of Ch.5