Mingliang had read it hundreds of time, he had memorized almost every spell and runes, but only now, he truly understood. Earlier, he accidentally shifted to another dimension. But now, he believed, he could go and return as he wished. Slowly, all his physical senses were flooding back into his consciousness. Mingliang closed his eyes and calmed his mind. Slowly he let his mind absorbed all the new experience in each of its detail.

Somad secretly let out a deep breath. A moment before Mingliang closed his eyes, the attentive Somad saw Mingliang's unfocused wide opened eyes were slowly focused, and all the tension was gone from his face. Everyone in the room was relieved, knowing the worst was over.

Now, they patiently waited for Mingliang to open his eyes. As they looked at Mingliang, there was a sense of awe in their eyes. Somad noticed it.

He felt his chest wanted to burst with pride, wanted to jump and shout, 'That's my teacher! That's my teacher!'

It was hard for Somad to keep his face straight. He remembered how Mingliang taught him of humility, but it was hard for the boy not to feel proud. He had this wide grin on his reddened face. Almost everyone held their laugh inside. It was so obvious, how Somad felt. Some of them wanted to tease him, but they afraid they would disturb Mingliang.

Only the pastor seemed annoyed by the signs of success.

No one could guess what the pastor had in mind right now, but his expression was as sour as a glass of vinegar.

The room was silent and peaceful. The previous gloom and horror, seemed unreal, just like a bad dream that disappeared when the sun revealed its presence in the sky.

When Mingliang opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Somad's grinning face. Mingliang couldn't bear to keep his laughter from bursting out. His laugh quickly spread around.

“Ha ha ha ha, I thought I saw a boiled crab demon.”, Mingliang grabbed the boy's head and messed up his hair.

“Teacher, teacher, have you defeated the ghost?”, Somad struggled and escaped from Mingliang's playful lock.

“Brother Mingliang, is that true? How's Nina's condition now?”, Sarah impatiently asked, her hands unconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes.

Mingliang checked Nina's pulse and tried to sense her mental condition, before he turned to Sarah and Robert, “I think she's fine now, but let's wait until she wakes up, to make sure she's alright.”

“Oh, thank God, thank God she's okay.”, Sarah threw herself to Robert and cried.

“Well, well, now..., Doctor Ibrahim, Brother Ming, you'll stay here until she wakes up right?”, Robert turned to the doctor and Mingliang, while gently patted his wife's back and comforted her.

Mingliang and the doctor were looking at each other. Unlike the pastor, the doctor didn't seem to hold any prejudice. He was rather curious instead.

The doctor turned to Robert and nodded, “I'll wait here until she's wake up. I don't think it won't be for long. I also to discuss many things with Brother Mingliang here.”

Mingliang laughed politely, he liked the friendly doctor, “Of course, we'll stay until Miss Nina wakes up.”

The pastor opened his mouth but hesitated. He saw no one seemed to need him here. His face turned bitter. After some time, he cleared his throat to get Robert's attention, “Robert, I have to go. I have some matters waiting for me at the church.”

“Oh, of course, of course, we really appreciate your help pastor.”, Robert felt guilty. He called Mingliang when he already knew the pastor would not like it.

The atmosphere became awkward for a while, but Robert and Sarah politely accompanied the pastor leaving the room. Once they left the room, the other began to chat warmly. They all wanted to listen to Mingliang's explanation of what happened earlier.

--------o-------

There wasn't much story to tell afterward, the girl woke up fine. The whole family and the doctor listened to Mingliang's experience in that other dimension. After that, they listened to the girl's story. The atmosphere was warm. People had many questions, and Mingliang genially answered them all. Overall they were satisfied by Mingliang's explanation, although some questions only received vague answers.

They exchanged phone number, and Mingliang went home with a decent amount of money in his pocket.

Mingliang felt grateful for their hospitality and generosity, but the truth, Mingliang wanted to go home as soon as possible. He had many things he wanted to know from the demon snake that now coiled on his right wrist, unseen by physical eyes.

Martin, one of Nina's cousin, drove Mingliang and Somad home in his car.

“Finally...”, Mingliang was alone in his room.

He observed the snake who was flying around the room.

The snake timidly flew around the old pictures of Mingliang's ancestor. She reverently observed them. She felt something in there. Something powerful and awe-inspiring.

Mingliang patiently waited for the snake to satisfy her curiosity, while at the same time kept their spiritual connection opened.

The snake flew back to Mingliang. It fluttered around before finally decided to settle on the computer, about a meter away from Mingliang. Although she already swore allegiance to Mingliang, apparently she was still holding some grudge.

'Tell me how you ended up living in that house?', Mingliang asked through the spiritual connection.

A fuzzy and unintelligible sensation came from the snake. But vaguely Mingliang sensed a question mark.

'Hmm... I guess she hasn't developed an ability to communicate with language.', Mingliang curiously observed the snake more closely.

He tried to ask another. Something much more simple question, without words he sent a question about the snake's origin.

Another sensation came from the snake, this time Mingliang could parse the information.

He wrinkled his forehead and fell deep in thought, 'She seems accidentally crossed over and arrived at that house.'

Mingliang tried to ask more questions, but either the snake failed to understand, or the snake herself didn't know much.

'I guess, I need to check the house my self. Maybe she can tell me more when we're there.', finally, Mingliang gave up.

He took the bronze medal. The medal lost its brilliance. The battle had drawn many of its energy. Whenever Mingliang saw it, he felt a loss in his chest. The medal meant a lot to him. Inside it, was his grandfather's and father's energy.

Mingliang hesitated for a while, but he knew he had to. Sighing, Mingliang used the energy from the medal, to draw a rune on the computer table. The snake watched him intently. Mingliang could feel her excitement.

Once the rune completed, Mingliang nodded to the snake, “Go, get some rest.”

The snake jumped in joy, it flew toward Mingliang and rubbed his cheek with her head, like a spoiled child.

“Ha ha ha, stop that, have a rest, for now. Tomorrow you'll accompany me to visit that house.”, Mingliang laughed and rubbed the snake's head before sent her away to rest on that rune.

The rune was simple. It contained gentle spiritual energy. It gave many benefits for the wounded snake demon. The snake demon quickly rested on that rune and fell asleep.

Mingliang stretched his back and smiled. Looking at the snake, he felt satisfied. It was his first spiritual pet. Having a spiritual pet, was something he never imagined in the past.

Mingliang couldn't rest yet. As the pet's owner, he still had a lot to do. Mingliang sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes. Softly he chanted a prayer. It was Sukha Vagga, a chapter in Dhammapada, teaching about the joy that came from living righteously.

Mingliang decided to read this particular passage after he understood the snake's nature. This snake was just a little kid, naughty and only wanted to have fun. It scared people to make fun of them. When Nina with her skepticism, didn't fear her, the snake got angry and attacked her. That moment, the snake learned to be cruel. It saw it as a game. By reading the scripture, Mingliang tried to affect the snake's mind. He tried to suppress her wild and cruel nature by cultivating her righteousness and compassion.

The chants radiated good intention and compassion. While at the same time, the rune where the snake rested, had a soothing and comforting effect. Using both Mingliang tried to change the snake's character and behavior.

The night passed and the next day came.

Mingliang waited for Somad first. He gave the boy an assignment then went to the haunted house riding his bicycle. There wasn't any problem for him to enter the house. No one lived there, and the doors were left unlocked. The moment he entered the house, Mingliang felt the Yin energy within the house was richer than usual.

The snake flew ahead. It was enjoying the environment inside the house a lot. Considering the level of energy inside the house, Mingliang thought it was normal for the snake to like it.

'It wouldn't be a bad idea if I cultivate my qi here...', Mingliang took a deep breath and circulated his qi.

Inside the house, it was humid and a bit cold, rich with Yin energy. Mingliang's qi cultivation technique, gathered both Yin and Yang, so he wasn't disturbed by the Yin energy inside that house.

'Show me where you came from.', Mingliang gave an order to the snake.

Mingliang walked, following the snake. The house was big. It took a while before the snake arrived and stopped before a small building at the backyard, separated from the main building. The entrance door to that building was closed and locked. Mingliang could feel, the energy in this house was coming from this small building.

Mingliang checked the padlock. It was a simple padlock. He looked around and found an old crowbar. He used the crowbar to forcefully broke the lock. When he entered that small building, he couldn't believe his own eyes.

Someone drew large and complicated arrays of ancient rune on the floor. It nearly filled the entire room. Although there was some of its energy left, it was long dead. Mingliang didn't recognize the runes. It wasn't a rune from ancient China or Indonesia. He had no idea, what did the array suppose to do?

Carefully Mingliang traced the pattern of energy, that was left behind.

On several occasions, the snake provided additional information. Mingliang never saw an array as complicated as this one. The fact that he didn't know the origin of the runes, made his job harder. But the difficulty incited his curiosity instead. He took out a small notebook out of his pocket and started to draw the pattern there.

He was absorbed in the process of copying the rune. He didn't realize there was a sound of steps from outside.

A man dressed in all black was walking toward the building. He was young probably about 20 to 25 years old. He haunched his shoulder. His pace was quick, and his eyes were cold. The corner of his lips was drawn downward, half sneering. He saw the world as if he despised all he saw in it.

The snake fluttered toward Mingliang, circling his head and warned him about the man in black. Mingliang now put in an awkward position, not only he entered the house without permission, he even broke into one of its building.

'No, you can't do that.', Mingliang quickly prevented the snake who wanted to get rid that person.

Mingliang gritted his teeth. He almost finished copying the rune. He decided to focus his attention, to finish as soon as possible. He would deal with that person later. At worst, he would apologize and maybe got scold.

He was drawing the few last lines, when he heard a man swore outside, “Damn! Who dares to intrude?!”

Mingliang quickly finished his notes. It was just at the right time. When he turned to face that man, that man also reached the room. For a few seconds, there was an awkward silence.

Mingliang opened his mouth to apologize, “Listen, I...”

But before he could finish his sentence, that man saw the note in his hand, “Bastard! Fuck you man! Are you asking for death?”

“Look, wait...!”, Mingliang felt great irrational animosity from his opponent. He tried to mediate the situation when he felt a tremendous threat coming from that man in black.

'Wait! You!', Mingliang jumped away from his position.

His eyes couldn't follow that man in black's hand, but his intuition told him to jump away. A flashing knife flew toward him. It hit a few inches before his chest. If Mingliang jumped a split of seconds late, he would have a knife decorating his chest right now.

“Are you nuts!”, Mingliang's anger finally rose, “Attack him!”

The snake was growing bigger and congealed into reality, as it charged toward the man in black. The man in black's eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the snake. He jumped back to avoid the snake's attack. His hand took something out of his pocket.

“You damn thief!”, he shouted angrily to Mingliang, taking out a small kris with his hand.

*Kris is Javanese traditional dagger, there are several different type and size.

There was something about the small kris that brought pressure to the snake's strength. Mingliang saw it and understood at once. Someone created that array to summon and cultivate the snake. Probably it was the man in black, or maybe his master. Now, it was the time to subdue the snake, but accidentally Mingliang got the snake a day before the schedule.

'Avoid!', Mingliang commanded the snake.

“Wind!”, Mingliang shouted, his hand drew a rune.

The wind blew, bringing debris and dust to surround the man in black, forced him to close his eyes.

“Earth!”, quickly he chanted another spell, before the man in black had a chance to respond.

The man in black felt the earth trembled and lost his balance.

“Break!”, the man in black pounded his right feet to the ground as he shouted.

“BAM!” The sound reverberated in the room. The wind stopped blowing, and the earth stopped trembling. The man in black broke the illusions with his spell.

When the man in black was busy breaking the illusion, Mingliang hands danced in the air. A circle of arrays was formed, right above the man in black's head. Mingliang didn't miss even for a second. When the man in black just broke free from the illusions, Mingliang's hand moved downward.

“Mountain of Tai! Imprison!”, the array fell toward the man in black.

“Damn! You son of a bitch! Shit!”, The man in black, felt tons of weight pressed his body. He glared at Mingliang with intense hatred.

The man in black dropped on all four. His whole body trembled, trying to push against the weight that wanted to press him flat to the ground. Mingliang was winning but didn't mean he had it easy. Sweat was pouring on his forehead, trickled to his eyes, but he didn't dare to wipe it.

A sound of chants came from the direction of the man in black, and Mingliang felt something pricky crawled on his skin. The sensation was growing more intense as if thousands of needles pricked his body. Mingliang clenched his jaw in pain. Veins were bulging on his forehead. The attack was pricking deeper and deeper.

No one was willing to give up. Both young men were racing against death.

The snake flew far above, her eyes warily watched the small kris. She watched Mingliang shivered in pain. She wanted to help, but the kris brought her great pressure.