A Prophet - Chapter 14 (Part 11)

Chapter 11 - The Decisive Battle 

On August 16th came the Qiantang River tidal bore.

This particular tidal bore was the largest the Qiantang River had seen in a decade. Grandpa Zu was waiting precisely for such an opportunity. The newspapers had long since published the information regarding the tide-watching, and even General Feng Yuxiang was set to personally travel to Yanguan to observe the tide on the day of the event.

Earlier, fearing that the timing of the tidal bore might be miscalculated, Grandpa Zu had Pei Jinglong cast a hexagram using the Qimen method to make a prediction. After analyzing it, Pei Jinglong told Grandpa Zu: "Grandpa Zu can rest easy. At the third quarter of the Xu hour, the tidal bore will sweep across the entire Zhoushan Archipelago, at which point the waves will rise seven feet high, and our grand undertaking can be accomplished!"

Grandpa Zu nodded deeply, then looked toward Pei Jinglong and said, "Brother Pei, let us part ways here. When the war ends and China attains peace in the future, the flourishing of Yijing studies will depend entirely on you, my brother!"

Pei Jinglong looked at Grandpa Zu with deep admiration and said with emotion: "Grandpa Zu, although you and I are not of the same generation, we are as close as brothers; having a single true confidant in life is enough. This upcoming battle will undoubtedly be nine deaths to one life. I cannot leave; I will ascend the island together with Grandpa Zu! Those Qimen mechanisms were designed by my own hand, and at the critical moment, perhaps I can lend Grandpa Zu a hand!"

Grandpa Zu gazed at the young man before him, nodded, and then patted his shoulder. The two sworn brothers embraced tightly, sharing complete loyalty.

Grandpa Zu's judgment had not failed him; Pei Jinglong's conscience was indeed not yet extinguished. On the day the Yijing debate conference concluded, Grandpa Zu and Mei Xuanzi held a secret meeting with Pei Jinglong. When questioned about why he had surrendered to the Japanese, Pei Jinglong finally revealed the truth: the Japanese had taken his mother hostage, threatening that if he did not cooperate with the Imperial Army, there would be no amnesty. Pei Jinglong was a notoriously devoted filial son; since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety could not both be fulfilled, so he had no choice but to endure humiliation and compromise for the greater good. Upon hearing this, Grandpa Zu calculated in secret. Less than a week later, through the connections in the Zhili region of Qian Yuelin, the head of the Northern School "Snow Sprout Grass," and by spending a heavy sum of money to bribe several traitors, he successfully secured the release of Pei Jinglong's elderly mother.

Afterward, Pei Jinglong wept tears of gratitude. Seeing that the timing was ripe, Grandpa Zu revealed the true plan. Filled with boiling blood, Pei Jinglong requested to follow Grandpa Zu to the death! Grandpa Zu, however, refused: "The 'Jiang Xiang Faction' is not suited for you. You are a true scholar of the Yijing; live uprightly as a human being and pursue scholarship with genuine dedication, and you are bound to achieve greatness in the future!" Pei Jinglong nodded through his tears: "Grandpa Zu has bestowed a kindness as heavy as a mountain and an ocean—how shall I ever repay it?"

Grandpa Zu patted his shoulder and spoke in a low, gentle whisper...

At noon on the 16th, Grandpa Zu, the dam leaders, Huang Farong, Mei Xuanzi, Pei Jinglong, and over two hundred leaders of various sectarian doors who were controlled by the Japanese all boarded the island to observe the largest tidal bore in a decade.

During lunch, Yoshiko Nishida purposefully sat at the same table as Grandpa Zu.

"Grandpa Zu has rendered extraordinary service; I toast Grandpa Zu a cup." Yoshiko Nishida's gaze was filled with adoration.

Grandpa Zu smiled faintly and said, "It is entirely thanks to the cultivation of Miss Nishida."

Yoshiko Nishida gave a charming smile and said, "The moon represents yin, and the sun represents yang. Through the attraction of yin and yang, tides are formed. I have heard that the moment of the tidal bore is when men and women are most prone to romantic stirrings. I wonder if Grandpa Zu has heard of this?"

Grandpa Zu remained smiling and said nothing.

"After tonight's tidal bore passes, Grandpa Zu might as well rest here." With that, she placed her hand over Grandpa Zu's hand.

This time, Grandpa Zu did not pull away; instead, he placed his other hand over Yoshiko Nishida's hand, grasping it tightly. "The moon in China is truly unlike that in Japan; the moon in Hokkaido is still more beautiful."

Yoshiko Nishida froze.

After 7:00 PM, as the sun neared the western mountains, the tide gradually surged in.

Everyone gathered on the second-floor rooftop of the main hall to watch the slowly approaching tide. Before long, the tidal surge drew close, forming ferocious waves that rushed forward like ten thousand galloping horses, crashing against the reefs and sandbanks to kick up giant waves dozens of meters high! Crossing the obstacles, the myriads of miles of sea waves formed a massive white curve, rolling, turbid waters charging forth to empty the heavens, overwhelming everything with an irresistible force! The protective seawall outside the nine halls was heavily overtopped by the sea waves, and the crowd burst into cheers!

At that moment, the moon rose. The lingering reflection of the setting sun and the pristine moon emerged in the east, the sun and moon shining together! The ocean waves rolled and tumbled, and the crowd boiled with excitement!

Suddenly, Yoshiko Nishida's brow furrowed tightly. Noticing that some wriggling objects were mixed within the waves, she hurriedly whispered a few instructions to the guard beside her. The guard immediately rushed back into the room, emerging a moment later with a military telescope.

Yoshiko Nishida took the telescope, looked through it, and cried out in alarm, "Not good!"

As it turned out, the water was filled with countless snakes. With the churning of the giant waves, they had all surged into the "Sino-Japanese Friendly Yijing Exchange Institute."

"Where did all these snakes come from?" Yoshiko Nishida looked closely and saw that these snakes had peculiar patterns and were all exceptionally venomous. She panicked and screamed, "Close the stone gates! Quickly close the stone gates! There are snakes in the water!"

The soldiers rushed downstairs, but it was already too late. Tens of thousands of snakes had long since entered the buildings. People had been completely preoccupied with watching the ocean waves, never realizing that venomous snakes had already entered the architectural complex along with the crashing seawater.

At the stairway entrance, a soldier raised his rifle, aiming at the swarm of snakes and preparing to fire. A venomous snake flicked its tongue, darted with a swish onto the soldier's forehead, and sank its fangs straight in. Total chaos erupted among the soldiers, and they opened fire into the air to sound the alarm!

The moment the gunshots rang out, the crowd froze in shock. When everyone lowered their heads to look, they could not help drawing in cold breaths of air. Countless venomous snakes, as if cursed, darted like lightning back and forth among the trees, walls, and grasses, before suddenly leaping into the air and lunging onto the rooftops. With a collective cry, the crowd broke apart and fled in all directions!

Blind Liu had only one eye, and he ran blindly amidst the fleeing crowd. Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes, and just as he opened his mouth to shout, a venomous snake darted straight into his mouth with a swoosh, biting down hard on his tongue! Blind Liu suffered agonizing pain; wanting to scream, he could not let out a sound, and his hands clawed desperately at the snake's belly to keep it from entering his stomach. Suddenly, his body swayed, and he tumbled straight off the second floor, plunging into the mass of ten thousand snakes!

Half-Immortal Zheng panicked and hid inside a wardrobe, closing the cabinet door tightly as he panted heavily. Suddenly, he heard a hissing sound right above his head. "Not good!" Half-Immortal Zheng muttered inwardly. A venomous snake had already slipped into the wardrobe, and right as Half-Immortal Zheng raised his head to look, the venomous snake let out a hiss, its venom glands squirting a stream of venom that sprayed directly into Half-Immortal Zheng's eyeballs. "Ah!" Half-Immortal Zheng let out a miserable shriek, his body listing sideways as he instinctively crashed open the cabinet door, and hundreds of snakes instantly swallowed him up.

Long Yufeng and Ding Zixia ran to the stairway corner of the main hall, only to find their path blocked by a horde of venomous snakes. Several soldiers were holding rifles and flamethrowers to put up a defense.

The intense flames spewed by the flamethrowers burned the venomous snakes with a sizzling sound. Countless venomous snakes writhed and twisted, sliding down from the stairwell in heaps.

Yet the venomous snakes came wave after wave, swarming forward with an unstoppable momentum.

Long Yufeng and Ding Zixia spun around in sheer panic, and Ding Zixia shrieked at the top of her lungs in terror.

Long Yufeng yanked her hard and shouted in a heavy Tianjin accent: "What is this nonsense! Stop screaming, you mother! Your hollering is driving me out of my mind! Don't you have the Queen Mother protecting you? Where is the Queen Mother!"

Ding Zixia glared viciously at Long Yufeng. "Slut, shut your mouth!"

Just as the two women were cursing at each other, a creaking sound rang out, and not knowing what made it, they both instantly fell silent.

"What is that sound?"

"Ah!" Ding Zixia let out another miserable shriek. It was the sound of a soldier's bones being crushed and snapped. At some point, a giant python had slithered up. Possessing a high degree of spiritual awareness and agile movements, the python coiled and shifted a few times to evade the flame spray, then suddenly leaped into the air and wrapped itself tightly around the soldier holding the flamethrower. As the snake's body tightened, the soldier's bones shattered completely, his cervical vertebrae snapped, and his head instantly drooped limply.

The other two soldiers panicked and opened fire on the giant python with their rifles. The python's tail took a bullet, and it abruptly flung away the dead soldier, slithering up the handrail toward a higher vantage point with a slish. Before those two soldiers could even react, it fiercely leaped down from the air, instantly coiling around them both and binding them together. With a violent squeeze from the python, a series of crack sounds echoed as both of their skeletons broke completely, and they collapsed to the ground like paper cutouts.

Immediately afterward, the giant python lunged toward Long Yufeng and Ding Zixia...

At this moment, Grandpa Zu was closely tailing Yoshiko Nishida; he was determined to witness with his own eyes the death of this ruthless spy leader!

Clutching a pistol, Yoshiko Nishida made her way downstairs under the protection of her soldiers. By now, night had completely fallen, seawater was backflowing, and snakes were dancing wildly in all directions. Several soldiers carried flamethrowers to clear the path. Buildings designed according to the Eight-Gate Array were already disorienting in layout and resembled a maze; in the darkness, it was even harder to discern directions. Yoshiko Nishida said anxiously, "Quickly find the Life Gate! Only by entering through the Life Gate can we exit through the Rest Gate!"

Easier said than done—finding it in earnest proved exceedingly difficult. Abandoning any concern for secrecy at this point, Yoshiko Nishida shouted, "Run along the direction of the river flow, and you will find the Life Gate!"

Upon hearing this, Grandpa Zu looked up to the heavens and sighed deeply. After over a year of meticulous planning, his wish was finally going to be fulfilled today!

This was the exact result Grandpa Zu had gone to such painstaking lengths to achieve. He had willingly endured humiliation to act as a "traitor," deliberately schemed to attain the title of "Grand Master of Chinese Yijing," and subsequently used the pretext of constructing the "Sino-Japanese Friendly Yijing Exchange Institute" to drain the financial reserves of the various sectarian doors, ultimately setting up this exquisitely intricate Eight-Gate formation alongside Pei Jinglong!

The Nine Palaces and Eight Gates, with four dragon veins (rivers) weaving through them—from the Life Gate to the Death Gate, everything followed a predictable pattern. Grandpa Zu had been waiting precisely for this tidal bore, the largest in a decade. When the great tide surged in, it would cause the river current to reverse. Once the current reversed, the mechanisms would move in reverse, the dragon veins would be blocked and broken, the qi of the Five Elements would instantly shift, and the qi of the Nine Palaces would transform abruptly as well. The Life Gate would turn into the Death Gate, and the Death Gate into the Life Gate. The physical structure of the buildings remained unchanged, but the layout of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness had become radically different—this was the marvelous magic of the Eight-Gate Array!

Grandpa Zu followed Yoshiko Nishida and her entourage as they ran along the river current. After about a quarter of an hour, they finally spotted a stone gate with the two characters "Life Gate" inscribed upon it.

Yoshiko Nishida smiled faintly. "Heaven is aiding me!"

With that, several of them squeezed inside.

After making a few turns, a stone gate blocked their path. Yoshiko Nishida said, "This stone gate is one-way; it can only be pushed open by entering from the Life Gate." So saying, she holstered her pistol and reached out to push the door.

The stone gate did not budge. Yoshiko Nishida pushed again, still to no avail, and several soldiers came over to help.

At that moment, Grandpa Zu quietly slipped behind Yoshiko Nishida. In the blink of an eye, he whipped out Yoshiko Nishida's sidearm and, with lightning speed, fired three shots in rapid succession—bang! bang! bang!—striking down all three soldiers. Instantly, Grandpa Zu turned the muzzle directly toward Yoshiko Nishida.

Yoshiko Nishida froze. After all, she was a veteran spy who had undergone years of rigorous training; she understood everything in an instant and said calmly, "So this was a conspiracy orchestrated by you?"

Grandpa Zu nodded. "You have killed so many Chinese people. Old grievances and new hatreds—it is time they were settled."

Yoshiko Nishida smoothed her sea-dampened sideburns with her hand and gave a bitter smile. "It seems Grandpa Zu has been deceiving me all along..."

"You have been deceiving the Chinese people all along."

"And here I felt such genuine affection for Grandpa Zu..." Yoshiko Nishida said mournfully.

"Heh." Grandpa Zu let out a chuckle. "Personal romantic attachments are small; the life and death of the nation is paramount. Did Miss Nishida not also come to China for the sake of Japan?"

Yoshiko Nishida shed a tear. After a long silence, she said: "My father was a fisherman. When I was young, I especially loved lying on the sandy beach to look at the moon—to look at that big, beautiful moon. Now I have joined the army and become a spy; a spy's body does not belong to themselves, but to the Emperor of the Great Japanese Empire, and I can no longer turn back. How I long to return to my childhood days, lying carefree on the sandy beach, watching that big, round moon..."

"Why must there be a war? Why can we not live together in peace?" Grandpa Zu said somberly.

"The strong prey upon the weak; this is the universal law of the mortal world. Even if Japan did not invade China, other countries would have... What a pity that there are far too few people like Wang Qiaolao and Grandpa Zu in China..." At this point, Yoshiko Nishida gazed at Grandpa Zu with deep affection. "Grandpa Zu, I have a question for you—please answer honestly."

Grandpa Zu nodded.

"Have you ever felt even the slightest bit of romantic stirring toward me?"

Grandpa Zu looked at Yoshiko Nishida and nodded firmly.

"Then... hold me in an embrace."

Yoshiko Nishida shifted her posture, slowly leaning in. The moment she opened her arms, she suddenly jerked her left hand forward to block Grandpa Zu's right arm, twisting her body to execute a grappling maneuver in an attempt to snatch the pistol from Grandpa Zu's grip.

With his right arm restrained, Grandpa Zu spun and pushed forward, shifting the pistol to his left hand and pulling the trigger. With a bang, Yoshiko Nishida collapsed into Grandpa Zu's arms.

Her very last breath was exhaled toward Grandpa Zu. Smiling as she lay in Grandpa Zu's embrace, she spoke in a weak voice: "If... there were no war, I would have been willing... to watch the moon together with Grandpa Zu." Having spoken, she closed her eyes forever, yet a smile still lingered at the corners of her mouth.

At that moment, the shrill whistle of an incoming artillery shell tore through the night sky, followed immediately by a deafening roar that shook the earth and mountains. The crossbeams in the corridor collapsed from the shockwaves. Grandpa Zu removed his long robe, wrapped it around Yoshiko Nishida's corpse, and then broke into a run toward the exit. Another massive explosion rang out, sending plaster and dust cascading down from the walls. The instant he dashed out of the corridor, Grandpa Zu could not help turning back for one last look; Yoshiko Nishida's body was gradually being buried beneath rolling clouds of dust and smoke. Unable to bear watching any longer, Grandpa Zu turned his head and charged out without looking back.

Outside, shrapnel and gunfire flew everywhere, and flames lit up the sky. The Japanese warships patrolling near the Zhoushan Archipelago had received the distress signal sent by the spies on the island, and countless artillery shells fired from the sea streaked across the night sky, exploding with thunderous roars. Mud flew in all directions, and venomous snakes and people alike were blown to pieces. The magnificent and grand "Sino-Japanese Friendly Yijing Exchange Institute" collapsed with a thunderous crash amidst the raging flames of war...