The Book of Jade

After the binds were removed I was left alone in the room. Food would be delivered and Doctor Fa would come to check on me. As the deadline came close I couldn't help but be nervous.

The last time I was kidnapped for a ransom was back in Agymista in my previous life and I was only eight back then. Well me and my brother were the ones kidnapped. I remembered the fear that kept creeping up on me, but I couldn't show it for the sake of my younger brother who clung to me for life. That incident awakened my brother's ability to manipulate time to save me from dying.

Well it was a long time ago and no matter what, being kidnapped was not a good feeling.

Doctor Fa was doing his usual check-up and I decided to know more about him. From what I could tell he was only a few years older than me yet he was a doctor who was working for a really troublesome guy.

"So… Doctor Fa, how old are you?"

"Twenty-nine years old."

"I see. Uhm how did you ended up working for Fa Xiao Min?"

"That's none of your business."

"Just humor me. I'm curious."

"Then don't be curious."

"Look doc, what you guys are doing is illegal; abducting people, threatening them and locking them up. There are many laws about this in any country all over the world." I explained.

"Fa Xiao Min's ways are wrong even I know that much but the cause is not as bad as you think."

"He wants power. He's greedy and creepy."

My arm suddenly stung and saw my blood getting drawn by a syringe.

"Hey!"

"You talk too much." he snarled. "I know he's greedy, yes a little creepy, and despicable in ways more than one, but he's still my father and he's doing this for family."

"He… He's your… father?" I studied his looks. "You don't look alike."

"Whatever." he rolled his eyes.

"Even if he's your dad there's still a limit on how much you'll help him!"

"You… you don't understand anything so shut up!"

"Ow! Look! No matter the reason he'll still pay for his crimes! And the more he commits for the sake of his conscience, the heavier his punishments will be! He's your dad and you should be the first one to tell him that he's doing something stupid."

He went stiff.

"But," his eyes became teary. "It's the only way he could think to save my sister."

"Your…"

"My sister is suffering from a mysterious illness. We've consulted every doctor we could but they never found a way to cure her. That's the reason why I became a doctor in the first place. My mother died while giving birth to my sister so my father only has us."

"And you need the Book of Jade for her?"

"Three years ago my father met someone. He claimed to be a Daoist cultivator and that he can cure my sister."

"Let me guess… he did."

"Once a month, he would give these pills to my sister which helps her regain her strength and lengthen her life and if she stopped drinking those pills her body would give out. Father had no other choice but to keep asking the cultivator for the pills and pay him a handsome sum of money.

"Six months ago my sister's illness worsened and her body started rejecting the pills. The cultivator said he'll have to do more ways to cure her. After that my father started researching about Emperor Yue, Liu Qing and the Book of Jade. He also started financing excavations that were related to Western Han Dynasty tombs."

"What is the Book of Jade?" I asked.

"I'm not sure but the Daoist cultivator said that it has a method to cure my sister."

"Didn't you ever think that he might've been tricking you? You're a doctor and you believe in fairy tales like that?"

"I saw him in action. His methods became indisputable."

"Qi'er you're really a sentimental person." we turned to the voice and saw Mister Fa. "He only gave you a little pep talk and you already divulge your sob story."

"Father…"

"Eight more hours until your fath is decided Lei Zhang. And you! Fa Yuan Qi! You're not coming back here again!"

***

BOOM!

The sound of explosion woke me up from my nap and sounds of alarm followed suit. I ran to the door and tried opening it but it wouldn't budge.

"Hey! What's going on out there?!"

Another explosion and the room I was in shook which meant it was closer. I heard footsteps so I backed away from the door and took a defensive stance to prepare for anything. It was suddenly opened and I could see the leg that made it happen with just a kick.

I was very surprised when Chen entered the room first.

"Chen?"

"Lei!" he yelled and hugged me.

One by one they filed inside. I saw Artemis, Seven, Kyle and Fa Yuan Qi.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"Tracker." Kyle answered nonchalantly.

"Track… wait you tagged me?"

"It's been three months since I did." Artemis said and winked at me.

I sighed in disbelief and decided to find the tracker later.

"Doctor Fa, what about you? Why are you here?"

"Everything happened so fast so I'm not really sure. One minute I was changing my clothes then they came crashing down out of nowhere."

I gave them a skeptic look.

"I discovered a teleportation spell inside the book. I activated it and transferred us here with all our limbs intact." answered Artemis sheepishly.

"Wait," Chen interrupted. "There was a possibility that we'll get dismembered?"

Artemis nodded and my brother's eyes widened, fear was evident in it, and just stayed silent.

"Anyway they told me who they were and I just led them to where you are." Doctor Fa continued.

"Why? All of a sudden?"

"I… I can't stop my dad. I suppose I really am a coward but you guys… you guys can. So please… please stop my father before he regrets everything."

My eyes caught Artemis smiling.

"What?"

"Yuan Qi told us what's happening. There is a spell in the Book of Jade that can heal all sorts of ailments but I think the symptom his sister is showing is quite suspicious."

"Artemis is right." Chen said. "I remembered reading a document in our family archives and it made me realize that the symptoms resembled someone with blocked meridians and has poison running through their veins."

"Doctor Fa," Seven called in Mandarin. "Has your sister always been sickly?"

"No. She used to be a healthy and cheerful child."

"Then do you remember anything suspicious about her or around her before she got sick?"

Fa Yuan Qi was silent, thinking. "She had always been healthy, too healthy actually, until three years ago when we found her after going missing for almost a month."

"That's it!" Chen exclaimed. "During the time she went missing, she probably received all those things that time!"

"That would explain it." I agreed. "Wait… why are Chen and Seven here?"

"Lei, you ask that just now?" Seven grimaced. "I wanted to help plus it was Liu Fen who told me to come with them."

"Why?"

"He said, you guys will need my expertise."

"I volunteered!" Chen piped. "I was cooped up in house arrest while you guys went and ventured a tomb, so I came to save you! We're twins after all!"

"Your statement absolutely makes no sense." I commented. "Anyway blocked meridians and poison seems wuxia-ish to me, what can we even do about it?"

"That's why Seven's here, he's a cultivator. He practices martial arts."

My eyes widened but it made sense. When he told us he used to practice judo yet when he fought against Blake in a practice match he was using moves that weren't found in judo, it made me suspicious. So that was why…

"Eh? Do Koreans even do that?"

"My master is Chinese." Seven answered. "Anyway, I probably know a way to open Doctor Fa's sister's blocked meridians… poison though not so much."

"Leave that to me." Artemis inserted. "I found a detoxification spell inside the book."

I turned to Doctor Fa. "Lead us to your sister."

***

We all headed to another area to sneak inside Doctor Fa's sister's room.

His sister was named Fa Meng Ruo and she was sixteen years old. We reached her room and fortunately found nobody else inside.

The female teenager was lying on the bed. She looked very thin and her face was very pale and contorted with pain. Her breath was also ragged and she was sweating bullets.

"Xiao Ruo!" Doctor Fa called. "Gege's here."

"Qi-ge." she said weakly. "The master said I only have a week to live. I'm scared. Qi-gege, I don't want to die."

"Ssh. You won't. You won't die. Please… please save my sister."

"We will do our best doc." Artemis answered.

Artemis went first and used the detoxification spell she found inside the Book of Jade. Both the book, Artemis and Meng Ruo were glowing as she cast the spell. Once the light died down she stumbled forward and the book dropped to the ground, surprisingly still intact. I caught Artemis before she could fall to the floor.

"I'm fine. Just a little drained. I haven't mastered being a witch yet. I think it worked."

It was true. A little color was coming back to Meng Ruo's face and her breathing was getting steadier.

"Seven-"

"YOU!"

We all turned to the door to see Fa Xiao Min barge in with a suspicious man following him. The man was wearing a grey traditional Chinese Republican Era garb and was carrying a staff at one hand. A pair of round sunglasses hid his eyes and it went really well with his shoulder-length hair to finalize the look that screamed 'he's-a-schemer-so-stay-away-from-him'. Either Fa Xiao Min was stupid to trust him or he was too blind to see it because of grief.

'He must be the Daoist cultivator.' I thought.

"Yuan Qi! How dare you betray me!" snarled Mister Fa.

"This is too much father! Ruo'er will not want this!"

"It's the only way to save her!"

"No! You have been deceived by that man!"

I stared at the man and the longer I did the more queasy I felt with his presence. It was a familiar feeling and the last time I felt such a thing was back in my previous life.

"That guy's dangerous." I whispered to Artemis.

"I can see that."

"No Artemis. Not just dangerous-dangerous. It's like 'he's the bogeyman' kind of dangerous."

"I know okay? I can see this black smoke curling around him."

I was surprised at her statement.

"You can see what?"

"A black smoke. Wait… can you see it?"

I only shook my head and her expression became that of a confused one. I guessed she could see something only people like her could see. But if I only had my set of magic eyes, I could probably see it too. Unfortunately, my abilities in Agymista weren't carried over in my current life.

Doctor Fa stepped away from her sister and held a defensive stance in front of his father.

"These guys can… no…. they will help her. So please stop this."

"They're deceiving you Qi-er!"

"No! You're the one being deceived father! He's deceiving you!"

"Get out of the way son."

"NO!"

"Mister Fa!" Seven interrupted. "Your daughter is being cursed. Her meridians are blocked by an evil energy, and there should be strange markings on her body!"

"How did you-"

"And if my suspicion is correct the person who caused her to be like this should have the same mark. Am I right Mister Daoist cultivator?"

The man laughed. A very sinister one.

"And a Korean knows that? How surprising." the man said. His voice was hoarse and creepy.

"The Dao Sect is not supposed to use such abilities in harming others." Seven added.

"Ha! How to use a tool will always be up to the wielder. You have good skills boy for someone so young. Who is your teacher?"

Seven only stayed silent so it was Artemis who retorted.

"Why do you care who is his teacher? So you were the one that cursed her!"

"So what?"

I saw Fa Xiao Min pause on his tracks and looked at the cultivator with a confused look.

"Master Li… why?"

"Simple. I needed the Book of Jade. You seemed like someone who would do anything for it so I tricked you."

Mister Fa was in so much shock and disbelief that he collapsed to the floor.

"Father!"

"Why? Why do you need the book?" Kyle asked.

"I don't want to sound like cheesy villains in movies but what else? The book has unimaginable powers and spells. They were created by Hauria Celestine herself. And she was one of the renowned Celestial Maidens who bears the symbol of the moon. The Celestial Maidens who hold the power of life, death, space and time in their palms. It's just absolute."

"You're…"

"My Ruo'er." I heard Mister Fa cry.

"The person who wields the Book of Jade is the one who will stand on top!"

I eyed Artemis who just shrugged and motioned that our enemy was a loon.

"Is the book really that powerful?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure yet. It's Hauria's journal and there's a little bit of her background on it even a few spells but according to the descriptions, the spells aren't even that powerful."

"You lie!" exclaimed Mister Li.

"It's true!" Artemis defended. "And the how the hell are you going to use it? Only Hauria's successors can read and use the book in the first place!"

"What?"

"The Book of Jade is an heirloom to the Maiden of the Moon of the next generation, of course only a few can use it! Unless you have another Maiden of the Moon at your disposal to do your bidding, then this Book of Jade is mine."

"Then I suppose I should just take you."

Mister Li vanished in the blink of an eye and appeared in front of us instantly. On instinct I stood in front of Artemis with Advos already in my hand.

"I won't let you."

Mister Li wielded a dagger and struck it at us but I was able to parry his attack with a resounding clang. Some sort of force broke when our weapons clashed which then threw him away. I could feel Advos vibrate in my hands.

"That… is Emperor Yue's personal sword, Advos. Why do you have such treasure in your hands?"

"I just do and that is none of your concern." I swung the sword forward but he was able to dodge it.

"I see. So even after a long time he's still an obstacle in our way. And you are the one who inherited his will." he smirked. "Taking the book will be impossible now I suppose. The Witch of the Void with her Knight is fearsome, especially when I am only by myself."

Mister Li held his hand out and bowed.

"it seems like I have failed my mission but make no mistake, The Sect will get their hands on the Book of Jade."

He ran to the nearest window, crashed into it and jumped off. We checked it but he was nowhere to be found. I felt a sensation of relief and promptly kneeled to the floor. I felt very weak.

"Lei!" Chen came to my sound. I saw him touch Advos but he hissed in pain. "Dude… your sword has an attitude."

"It's bound to me now so I'm the only one that can use it."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Advos uses a lot of energy when drawn so unless I get my original powers, Advos can drain my energy very easily."

"Err… original powers? You're not making any sense." my brother asked with a confused look on his face.

"We have a lot to talk about and secrets to tell you. All of us."

"We'll talk about it later." Seven said. "First, we have to help Meng Ruo."