Once Upon a Time-

Once Upon a Time-

Mu Xiao Song

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The discovery of an invincible sword in the Mortal Realm brought about blood and carnage in its wake. Follow the tale of a group of young friends from a small town and their strange experiences... with the supernatural. So began the adventures of these young friends as they encountered the paranormal, the ghastly, and the indescribable, as they wended their ways to unravel mysteries and uncover secrets that would make your hair curl...

Chapter 1 Prologue

It was the year 1934, Sexagenary Year of the Wood Element, Zodiac Year of the Dog on the Chinese Calendar, in the first month of autumn, when it all began. At the tomb of the Bian Clan alongside Huan Xiang River which flowed at the foot of Mount Yan, the swift galloping of horses broke the silence of the night. Horse bandits were riding fast, holding flaming torches in their hands.

One of the bandits was barking hoarsely, ordering his men to round up the family, who had been the keepers to the graves, before restraining them with ropes, gagging them and covering their heads with black bags. A few of the men tied a thick rope to a tree before lighting it on fire. Some of the rest ran for the cluster of graves in the mausoleum of the Bian Clan, with shovels, pickaxes, and other tools.

Not far away, a large man, with a face covered by a beard, sat on his horse. With proud eyes and a stern gaze, the man, who seemed to be the leader of the bandits, pointed to a mound and spoke to the man who was barking orders:

"Send some of our men to take that vantage point. Fire some shots and warn the villagers off. We do not need curious onlookers crowding around here!"

The man with a hoarse voice replied meekly to his chief, "But sir, won't the gunshots attract the nearby soldiers?"

The chief waved off his subordinate's fear dismissively and replied, "No. This area is the demilitarized zone as sanctioned by the Tanggu Truce. Neither the Japanese or the Chinese military will be within a hundred miles from here. Tell the men to relax and do as they will!"

"Yes, sir!" His lieutenant croaked an assent and ran off, heading towards the clump of graves.

"Wait!" called the chief again. "Have men guarding every road that leads here. They are to drive away anyone who comes near. Shoot them if they must!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three gunshot sounds were heard from a distance. The people from the village nearby all slammed their doors shut, fearing that trouble would come knocking. The light spots shuttled through the cluster of graves and the smoke of the burning rope filled the air.

"Boss, this is not the one!"

"This one too!"

Numerous reports came from the bandits who were plundering the graves. They had not found the one they were after.

The chief took out a pocket watch and looked at it in the firelight. He leaped down his horse and walked quickly to his men still digging the graves.

"Time is running short! We must find it before dawn!" The chief shouted to his lieutenant.

Just then, another bandit came over to him, looking more mild-mannered than the others, although he carried a holstered pistol. He seemed to be the strategist of the group. The man spoke to his chief, "At this rate, Boss, we will not find it even when daybreak comes. The item we're looking for is ancient, so if we filter out newer coffins, we can find the oldest graves as soon as possible."

The band of robbers then split into groups, moving in several directions as directed by the strategist who checked the age of the coffins to decide which tomb would be further dug up.

"There's a stone tablet here!" One of the robbers cried out. The strategist hurried over and dusted off the dirt from the tablet. "It's an epitaph! Let's see the date..."

"It's among these graves here, Boss! The year inscribed here is not more than thirty years from the year of the item we're looking for."

They kept digging.

Time passed and the chief grew more restless.

"We've found it!"

A few of the men whisked off the soot from the burial items in the grave and placed them into a bag. The men then lifted a coffin from the grave and threw it outside. Another man, tall and large, hopped into the hole and pulled a knife out of his pants to test the earth beneath the coffin. He rose to his feet, saying, "This is it."

A few more men leaped into the hole.

"Enlarge it, but do not damage the item!" Their leader warned.

Carefully, the men slowly shoveled off the earth, revealing a trench filled with fresh soil. Digging further, they found the item that they had been seeking: an old and gnarly casket made of wood.

The casket was cautiously removed from the hole. Once opened, they found a bundle of silk wrapped around a sheathed sword.

"We've got it!" One of the men presented the sword to his chief.

He drew the sword for just a little to examine its blade, his eyes glimmering from the reflection off the steel blade. Satisfied, the chief chuckled and called for his lieutenant, signaling for the men to get ready to leave.

The lieutenant barked, "Let us go, brothers!" and the bandits left on their horses, fleeing the vicinity with the bounties they had found from the graves.

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Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

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SHANA GRAY
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I died on a Tuesday. It wasn't a quick death. It was slow, cold, and meticulously planned by the man who called himself my father. I was twenty years old. He needed my kidney to save my sister. The spare part for the golden child. I remember the blinding lights of the operating theater, the sterile smell of betrayal, and the phantom pain of a surgeon's scalpel carving into my flesh while my screams echoed unheard. I remember looking through the observation glass and seeing him-my father, Giovanni Vitiello, the Don of the Chicago Outfit-watching me die with the same detached expression he used when signing a death warrant. He chose her. He always chose her. And then, I woke up. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in my own bed, a year before my scheduled execution. My body was whole, unscarred. The timeline had reset, a glitch in the cruel matrix of my existence, giving me a second chance I never asked for. This time, when my father handed me a one-way ticket to London-an exile disguised as a severance package-I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart, once a bleeding wound, was now a block of ice. He didn't know he was talking to a ghost. He didn't know I had already lived through his ultimate betrayal. He also didn't know that six months ago, during the city's brutal territory wars, I was the one who saved his most valuable asset. In a secret safe house, I stitched up the wounds of a blinded soldier, a man whose life hung by a thread. He never saw my face. He only knew my voice, the scent of vanilla, and the steady touch of my hands. He called me Sette. Seven. For the seven stitches I put in his shoulder. That man was Dante Moretti. The Ruthless Capo. The man my sister, Isabella, is now set to marry. She stole my story. She claimed my actions, my voice, my scent. And Dante, the man who could spot a lie from a mile away, believed the beautiful deception because he wanted it to be true. He wanted the golden girl to be his savior, not the invisible sister who was only ever good for her spare parts. So I took the ticket. In my past life, I fought them, and they silenced me on an operating table. This time, I will let them have their perfect, gilded lie. I will go to London. I will disappear. I will let Seraphina Vitiello die on that plane. But I will not be a victim. This time, I will not be the lamb led to slaughter. This time, from the shadows of my exile, I will be the one holding the match. And I will wait, with the patience of the dead, to watch their entire world burn. Because a ghost has nothing to lose, and a queen of ashes has an empire to gain.

Chapters
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Once Upon a Time-
1

Chapter 1 Prologue

19/02/2024

2

Chapter 2 Volume 1 Young and inexperienced - Chapter 1 Man versus Ghost

19/02/2024

3

Chapter 3 Chapter 2 The White Fiend

19/02/2024

4

Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Nocturnal Sight

19/02/2024

5

Chapter 5 Chapter 4 The Battle With the Plastic Bag

19/02/2024

6

Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Subduing the Ghost At Night

19/02/2024

7

Chapter 7 Chapter 6 The Debt of Passion

19/02/2024

8

Chapter 8 Chapter 7 Aunt Fen and her Husband

19/02/2024

9

Chapter 9 Chapter 8 The Mysterious Girl

19/02/2024

10

Chapter 10 Chapter 9 Homecoming

19/02/2024

11

Chapter 11 Chapter 10 The Unlikely Brotherhood

19/02/2024

12

Chapter 12 Chapter 11 The Post-disaster Episode

19/02/2024

13

Chapter 13 Chapter 12 Fen's Death

19/02/2024

14

Chapter 14 Chapter 13 Resurrection

19/02/2024

15

Chapter 15 Chapter 14 Nuptial Preparations

19/02/2024

16

Chapter 16 Chapter 15 Xuan'er Shou

19/02/2024

17

Chapter 17 Chapter 16 The Mysteriously Lost Old Man

19/02/2024

18

Chapter 18 Chapter 17 The Belligerent Reunion

19/02/2024

19

Chapter 19 Chapter 18 The Cruel Stroke of Fate

19/02/2024

20

Chapter 20 Chapter 19 Undestined Romance

19/02/2024

21

Chapter 21 Chapter 20 Shiyan and Lin Feng

19/02/2024

22

Chapter 22 Chapter 21 The Seething Lee

19/02/2024

23

Chapter 23 Chapter 22 What Goes Around, Comes Around

19/02/2024

24

Chapter 24 Chapter 23 So Shall You Weep

19/02/2024

25

Chapter 25 Chapter 24 Hawker Stalls

19/02/2024

26

Chapter 26 Chapter 25 Yuan Chongxi

19/02/2024

27

Chapter 27 Chapter 26 The Ancient Zither

19/02/2024

28

Chapter 28 Volume 2 Probation- Chapter 27 The Requiem

19/02/2024

29

Chapter 29 Chapter 28 Xie Bingyi

19/02/2024

30

Chapter 30 Chapter 29 The Lecture

19/02/2024

31

Chapter 31 Chapter 30 Uncle Quan's Derring-Do

19/02/2024

32

Chapter 32 Chapter 31 Business Groundwork

19/02/2024

33

Chapter 33 Chapter 32 Maiden Voyage

19/02/2024

34

Chapter 34 Chapter 33 Fresh Beginnings

19/02/2024

35

Chapter 35 Chapter 34 Jiangshi

19/02/2024

36

Chapter 36 Chapter 35 Depraved Dividends

19/02/2024

37

Chapter 37 Chapter 36 The Debt

19/02/2024

38

Chapter 38 Chapter 37 The Grudge of the Bony Remains

19/02/2024

39

Chapter 39 Chapter 38 An Interview With the Dead

19/02/2024

40

Chapter 40 Chapter 39 The Ignominious Defeat

19/02/2024