The Old Man's Visit, Part II

Sky Yun looked at the group who were sat there frozen, his sights gazed only at Chen Fei who was looking at him as if he was an alien.

“Fei, the shop is closed. Go prepare for your lessons elsewhere.”

Without waiting for Chen Fei to respond, he then turned and looked straight at the old man who was acting as if it wasn’t any of his business.

“You better explain why you came over; I know you just don’t go to anywhere without a certain goal.”

Sky Long continued to feign ignorance, he stared at Sky Yun whilst smiling like a child eating sweets.

“Oi, if you don’t answer then fuck off. Simple as.”

Sky Yun did not wish for the old man to stay, although he considered the man his real father, his abrupt visit has caused him to feel that the situation currently is not good.

“Alright, jeez. You really are a cold bastard; you should really be considerate of this old man’s feelings.”

The old man started to laugh but as soon as he saw Sky Yun’s serious look, he quickly removed his facade and stared straight at him.

“The Conference starts in a month’s time, and the factions are getting restless as the head of the conference was assassinated. Although the many claims to not know who assassinated the chairman, it was obvious after reports from my spies that the Hashimoto Clan of Japan was behind the assassination.”

Sky Yun listened in, at first, he was shocked to hear that the chairman was assassinated and he knew the type of power that man had over the underworld.

He recalled the phone call he had with the old man last time, talking about an artefact that at first Sky Yun was supposed to investigate.

“Is it about the artefact?”

The old man’s face started to distort; Sky Yun raised his eyebrows as the atmosphere around him started to be filled with killing intent.

“The artefact… I guess you have some questions about it huh…”

Sky Long placed is cigar on the table, he sighed as he looked straight into Sky Yun’s eyes.

“I had a family once, a wife and son, many years ago…”

“They were my world, I worked hard so that I can provide for my family. I took high risk missions when I was contracted as a mercenary that gave me huge rewards, just so that my family lives in luxury.

One day, I stumbled upon a mission to retrieve a certain sword. I did not know what sword it was at the time, but the pay check was so high it could even give the next generation of my family a luxurious life. I just couldn’t reject it and so I accepted it and went to the mission location Yorkshire, England.

I only then realised that the sword I was trying to retrieve was actually the mythical sword ‘Excalibur’, at the time I thought I was sent on an impossible mission and regretted accepting it but then after countless weeks of researching on the topic, I then realised that the sword was real.”

Sky Yun was sceptical, how could research prove such a sword was real. He thought that seeing was believing, and that any sort of research can be proven false.

The old man knew Sky Yun didn’t believe him and sighed.

“You think that we just did research? At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but after different stories from different beliefs and faiths about a sword that had the power to destroy a mountain with a single strike, we started believing it more and more.

We then continued to find leads to where the location might be, which led us to Rome, Italy. After months of walking to places that were dead ends, we nearly gave up on the mission. But then, I saw it.”

The old man stopped there, the killing intent before increased to the point that if any ordinary citizen walked in, they would faint.

Even Sky Yun felt uncomfortable, so he continued to listen in on the story.

“It was the most beautiful sword in the world, the gold handle with the shape of a goat, at the end of the hilt, the steel shining brighter than any light I’ve ever seen. It was mesmerising.

I picked it up, and I felt like I was in a dream. I dreamt of the stars and what I could have been, the life I could have chosen.

But then I woke up, and realised that I wasn’t where I was before. I was standing in my own house, sword in hand and blood covering the floor.

I looked around, and found my wife and 8-year-old son dead on the floor.”

The old man didn’t look at Sky Yun, but lowered his hat as tears rained upon his face. Sky Yun was shocked, it was impossible for a sword to just make a man dream and suddenly wake up in his own home.

But he knew it couldn’t be false. For the first time, he had seen the old man cry. The invincible old man, the demon of the underworld, crying silently as he remembered the family he had lost.

“It doesn’t make sense; then would it be that you had murdered your own family?”

Sky Yun couldn’t resist not asking, but he had to in order to understand what the artefact has to do with the current situation.

“The sword is magic; how could I murder my own damn family?!”

“This sword is a fucking curse, I placed it on a boat, and let it loose to the ocean. I did not care where it would end up, but then I realised that I just committed the biggest mistake.

Before the conference chairman had retired, he told everyone that one of his spies located a sword with a gold handle in a shape of a goat. He had explained that it was the most beautiful sword he had ever seen, and I realised that it was the sword I had thrown away many years ago.

I planned for you to retrieve it, by retiring you and making you secretly search for the artefact before the chairman did, so he wouldn’t get his hands on it.”

Sky Yun listened in, and asked a question of his own.

“So… why did you stop me.”

The old man lifted his head, his eyes still wet with tears but he had a serious expression.

“Then, the chairman was assassinated.”