Read Online In the Orient by Art Collins - Free Book Online Page B

Feng what the word meant. Wu explained that the word had different meanings. Some ancient alchemists were said to be able to change base metals into gold, while others reputedly could impart supernatural powers to metal objects.
    Wu Feng
    Getting back to why he thought visiting Ming Wei was important, Wu Feng said that when he had called Ming earlier that night to say what he wanted, Ming had told him that not only was he familiar with Sun Wukong, the famous Monkey King, but that he also knew something that just might help rescue Jockabeb.
    Ming explained that when he had been Guo’s apprentice, Guo had told him an ancient Chinese legend about another immortal monkey with supernatural powers. According to this legend, a gorilla-like monkey named Kong began terrorizing a small Chinese village.
    Kong was killed only after an alchemist prepared two special daggers for the villagers to use. However, the alchemist told the villagers that the killing power he’d forged into the daggers’ metal could only be unleashed if the tips of the weapons were thrust into both of Kong’s eyes.
    Following the alchemist’s instructions, two villagers snuck up on Kong in the middle of the night. Seeing the giant monkey was asleep, they quickly plunged the daggers into Kong’s eyes. The moment the daggers pierced the closed eyelids, the vicious monkey’s body turned to stone. As a tribute to the bravery of the two villagers, the stone statue of Kong was put on display for all to see.
    “Do you think Ming Wei could make us daggers like the ones the villagers used?” Archibald asked.
    “I not know,” Wu Feng answered honestly. Then he turned and smiled, saying, “But soon we find out.”
    The dense fog that had descended over Hong Kong had severely restricted visibility. That was only one of the reasons Willow and Archibald began to get nervous when Wu Feng turned off the well-lighted street and proceeded carefully down a dark side street. The scene became even more eerie as the thick, foggy air combined with the smoke waffling up from pipes on top of several rickety lean-tos lining both sides of the narrow street.
    Two turns later, Wu Feng killed the engine. Opening his car door, he said, “Now we walk.”
    As the two young Americans closely followed Wu Feng and May through a maze of dark and narrow streets, the fog and the smoke enveloped them. Through the thick mist and dirty windowpanes barely illuminated by dim yellow halos of light, Archibald and Willow saw shadowy outlines of men and women smoking long pipes.
    The heavy, moist air smelled of too many people living too close together. In addition, the aroma of incense, or perhaps some other some other stronger substance being burned, caused them to wonder what was being smoked inside those lean-tos.
    Without warning, something black scurried across the street barely missing Archibald’s foot as it disappeared down a small opening between two of the lean-tos. Startled, Willow stopped in mid-stride and asked in a hushed voice, “Was that a cat or a rat?”
    Kong
    “It was big enough to be a cat, but looked a lot like a rat to me,” Archibald answered under his breath.
    Willow got the answer to her question a moment later when they passed close by an open trash can on the side of the alley. Inside, three rats, almost the size of hedgehogs, scurried around, fighting over a large fish head that was still attached to its skeleton.
    When Wu Feng finally stopped in front of a lean-to with a Chinese lantern hanging next to a freshly painted red door that had a doorknocker in the shape of a dragon’s head, he announced, “We are here.”
    “Why is the door painted red?” Willow asked.
    “It has always been red,” Wu Feng answered. He went on to say that Ming was highly superstitious, adding that the color red was considered to be very lucky by most Chinese.
    “It’s true,” May confirmed. “It’s not uncommon for many Chinese to paint their doors red right before the Chinese