Return of the Blood Drippers: A Feng Shui Story

By K. T. Fung

This novel combines mystery, adventure, fantasy and martial arts all into one story, intended for pure entertainment. It is based on a unique, one-of-a-kind plot that resulted in an overall intriguing, mystifying storyline. As another unique feature, a Feng Shui theme is incorporated as part of the plot, allowing the reader to gain fascinating Chinese I Ching and Feng Shui knowledge. CIA agent Peter Cushing was given the unenviable task of investigating into the mysterious deaths of a world-renowned Feng Shui master and a number of world religious leaders, within the United Nations compound, in New York City. His adventure brings him into not only the mystifying world of building-leaping, dagger-throwing members of the ultra secret society, the Blood Drippers Clan, an integral part of China's history for more than two hundred years, but also the intriguing practices of Feng Shui, as he found himself engulfed in a controversial scheme that promised to save the world from its current course to destruction. Surprise developments happen in every step of the way, as more and more clues came into light. The final ending is totally unexpected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 22, 2007
• ISBN: 9780595918911

K. T. Fung

K. T. Fung was a computer science professor and worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories in data networking and telecommunications. He is the author of two technology books and had several papers published in technical journals and conference proceedings. He also wrote the first Peter Cushing novel entitled Way of the Blood Drippers .

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Copyright © 2007 K. T. Fung.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-0-5954-7626-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-5959-1891-1 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 02/22/2018

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

The Characters

The Blood Drippers Clan

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1 Death Of A Feng Shui Master

Chapter 2 The Bishop’s Death

Chapter 3 The Blood Drippers

Chapter 4 The Secret Project

Chapter 5 Samantha Li

Chapter 6 What Does the Project Do?

Chapter 7 Model of the Universe

Chapter 8 Model of the Universe: The Secrets

Chapter 9 The Ba Gua Connections

Chapter 10 Tiffany Li

Chapter 11 Mi Zhi City

Chapter 12 The Feng Shui Battle

Chapter 13 Sha Jia Dian

Chapter 14 The Mysterious Lake

Chapter 15 White Lotus Society

Chapter 16 The Li Village Temple

Chapter 17 Back in New York

Chapter 18 Tiffany in New York

Chapter 19 The Protective Celestial Animals

Chapter 20 Peer Gynt

Chapter 21 The Five Elements Principle

Chapter 22 The Religious Caretakers Theory

Chapter 23 The Exhaustive Cycle Theory

Chapter 24 Deaths at the Goldwater Memorial Hospital

Chapter 25 Sam Meets Tiffany

Chapter 26 Sheikh Ali’s Death

Chapter 27 The Flow of Chi

Chapter 28 U Thant Island

Chapter 29 Sam’s Secret

Chapter 30 Sam and Master Wang’s Battle

Chapter 31 Dr. Ram

Chapter 32 The Real Story

Epilogue

Glossary

To Jacqui and Aji as well as Sophie and in memory of Fox and Bigs

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable comments provided by a number of reviewers on previous versions of this work

The Characters

The Blood Drippers Clan

(from Way of the Blood Drippers)

Preface

Martial arts fantasy stories became popular reading material the moment they first appeared as short, daily installments in newspapers, in Hong Kong and parts of China, in the early 1900s. They quickly mushroomed during the mid-1900s, in the form of novels that were written on epic sagas, as well as on folksy lore. Some of the more prominent novels, many of them exceptionally well-written, were repeatedly made into action-packed movies, and eventually found their way into seemingly never-ending TV series. In short, marital arts fantasy stories have very much been an integral part of a large portion of Chinese society, for several decades now.

The legend of the Blood Drippers has appeared in various forms in many of these martial arts fantasy stories, and is used as the backdrop for the story in this book. Heroics of the Blood Drippers, including their use of the patented decapitation weaponry, which is sometimes called the ‘flying guillotine’, have fascinated the author all through the years, and this is the author’s second effort to introduce this mysterious group of people to a wider audience. The author made his first effort in an earlier book entitled Way of the Blood Drippers.

In this book, the author has further added a number of other fascinating Chinese historical and legendary events and anecdotes into the storyline. A Feng Shui theme is also incorporated into the overall plot. While not a Feng Shui practitioner and not claiming to be a Feng Shui expert, the author has always been intrigued by the writings in the classic book I Ching, or Book of Changes, and all of its theories and principles that form the basis of the modern-day practice of Feng Shui. In particular, the author considers the formulation of a storyline with an I Ching and Feng Shui theme a great personal challenge. While there have been many attempts in literature at introducing these and other Chinese stories and practices into the non-Chinese media, including the translation of several of the icon Jin Yong’s popular martial arts novels into English and other languages, the author believes that the unusual interplay of these classical and folksy aspects of the Chinese culture with a modern-day storyline done in this book is fairly unique in its attempt.

In spite of its many efforts to cite past and present historical events, news pieces, people and places, this book, just like Way of the Blood Drippers, is a creation and is pure fiction. There are some ideas presented in this book that certain people might consider controversial or objectionable, but no one should be offended, or take any of the events described in the book seriously, as the book is intended solely to provide entertainment. In addition, in the spirit of the high-minded save-the-world project described in the book, and central to the book’s storyline, it is hoped that the book will also provide some mental relief, for people who have been burdened by all the recent man-made and natural disasters that are happening around the world.

Mark Twain once said, Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

PROLOGUE

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

—George Bernard Shaw

There, it’s all done, the distinguished-looking man in his 50s uttered, as he slowly stood up from the base of the podium, his face glowing with satisfaction and pride.

Great, Master Tse. We can now proceed to complete the activation of the rest of the five elements, responded the younger man standing next to the older man, whom he addressed as Master Tse.

That’s right. But we’ll have to do that first thing in the morning. It’s getting late. The U.N. security friends will soon be looking for us, Master Tse said, as he used his handkerchief to wipe sweat off his forehead.

It’s too bad. It means that the world will have to wait one more day.

Master Tse and the younger man began to walk towards the back of the room, to collect their briefcases and other belongings. Just at that moment, Master Tse saw, in horror, a thunderbolt-like, blazing trail of green light bolting towards him. Before Master Tse could react, his body dropped heavily on the floor, as the trail of light cut through him like the blade of a buzz-saw. Blood gushed out from the body and quickly formed a pool of blood around his mutilated body. Another trail of green light came quickly, and the younger man’s body also fell on the floor, forming another pool of blood, only about five feet from Master Tse’s.

*     *     *     *

Peter Cushing took a sniff of the delightful bouquet of the Pinot Noir red burgundy in his wine glass, and could not resist the urge to compliment himself. This is not bad at all. I’m glad that I had the foresight to upgrade my seating with my frequent-flier mileage. He had been on too many cross-Atlantic flights in recent months, to know that a seat in the coach section of a plane could get uncomfortable pretty quickly, even for a relatively short journey like this one. He decided to lean back in his seat, and, after taking a sip of wine, closed his eyes and began to relax as he slowly regressed on the events that transpired, culminating in his current trip, from Frankfurt, Germany back to New York City.

Peter Cushing, who had been with the CIA for ten years and with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations Division for five, normally would commute from his apartment in Washington, D.C. to CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. For the last three months, however, he had been working in Frankfurt on a special assignment, and had just begun to get settled in the city. He had found himself a small, comfortable apartment in the Bornheim district, in the northeastern part of the city, and had managed to scout the neighborhood on weekends, to get familiarized with Bornheim’s quiet surroundings.

Just a week ago, Peter was even able to find a nice lady living nearby to come in to clean his apartment and to feed Charlie and Cuddles, the two cats that he had brought over with him from New York. And just in time too, he muttered, loud enough to oblige an annoyed glance from the woman sitting next to him. This was a totally unexpected trip for Peter. Being a devout animal lover, Peter would have hated to send the two cats to a kennel, for potentially an extended period of time.

*     *     *     *

Peter was working in his cubicle at the CIA office in downtown Frankfurt, when he received a phone call from his boss, Sandra Pooling, in CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

How are things on the other side of the pond, Peter? Sandra began.

I can’t really complain, Sandra. We’re getting some new leads which can help us go forward with the Watson case. We’re quite encouraged by the progress. I’ll summarize what we recently found in my next e-mail to you.

Good.

How can I help you today, Sandra? Peter knew that Sandra would not normally be calling him, if not for something important or urgent.

Well, let’s see. Peter, do you still remember the assignment that you worked on, about two years ago, in which you and your partner had to chase after some wall-leaping, dagger-throwing, ninja-like assassins, to solve the mystery of a series of murders and accidents in the United States?

How can I forget, Peter quietly muttered.

Without waiting for Peter’s reply, Sandra went on. We now have another set of mysterious murders that seem to fit into the same pattern as the murders in that particular case. I won’t bother you with the gory details now. Suffice to know that someone who was familiar with that previous case had volunteered you to take on this new case. The fact that you speak the Chinese language might have also played a part. I told them that I would have to talk to you first, before we would make a decision.

Peter suddenly found his body shaking a bit, and he had to take a deep breath to regain his composure. He had on many occasions dreamed of coming into an assignment that would allow him to return to those two months of adventure, with his partner, the two months that he had cherished so dearly over the last two years.

Sandra, you said that the murders fit into the same pattern as in the other case. Did you mean that there were people who had been decapitated?

"Decapitated? I didn’t know anything about that. I was simply told that the murders might have been committed by the same group of people, that is, the Blood Drippers. I believe they’re called the Blood Drippers, am I right?"

"Yes, you are. They’re called the Blood Drippers."

I’ll fax to you all the relevant information that’s in my possession right away, and you can take a look at the information before you give me the OK or not.

That sounds good to me, Sandra.

After he put the phone down, Peter just sat motionless in his chair, still in some mild shock. He had not seen the partner that Sandra mentioned since the two of them parted ways at J.F. Kennedy Airport, two years ago. They had talked over the phone a few times since, but he was really looking forward to seeing her again. Would this new assignment offer the chance to bring the two of them back together, one more time?

CHAPTER 1

DEATH OF A FENG SHUI MASTER

It’s so great to see you again, Peter, Tom Lockhart said. I believe it has been two years since we last met.

Yes, Tom, it’s been almost two years now, Peter replied, as the two old friends shook hands. I remember I moved to the Langley office in June, two years ago.

How was your flight from Frankfurt?

It was alright. There’s nothing eventful to speak of.

Peter, I’m sorry to drag you away from your assignment in Frankfurt, but we really need your help here.

Well, I hope I won’t disappoint you.

Tom asked Peter to sit down, as he went over to the file cabinet to retrieve two folders. He promptly came back, plopped himself down next to Peter, and laid down the two folders neatly on the coffee table in front of him. He then took out a picture from the top folder and showed it to Peter, saying, Peter, this is Master Tse, one of the murder victims. The other victim is Master Chan, Master Tse’s assistant.

Tom, how much do we know about this Master Tse, his background and his current work? asked Peter, after he had taken a look at the picture.

Well, I believe we have managed to gather quite a bit of information on Master Tse. He was a Chinese national, staying here on a United Nations employee visa. He was a few days from his fifty-fifth birthday on the day he was killed. He had been in the Feng Shui business for pretty much his entire life, and is currently a scholar in a Feng Shui research academy in China, near his hometown. He was hired by a group of people in the United Nations headquarters in the city, to work on some Feng Shui-related project within the U.N. compound. This report contains his personal data as well as some general information on the U.N. project that he had been working on.

Peter took out the report and started reading the summary portion, as Tom Lockhart waited patiently by.

After he was done, Peter looked over to Tom Lockhart, and said, Tom, the report summary does not specifically say how Master Tse was killed. It only suggests that he was killed in a way similar to one that was recorded in an earlier CIA case. It also says that, just like in the other case, no murder weapon was found near the crime scene.

That’s correct. I’ll tell you some more about how Master Tse was killed in a bit.

What about the death of Master Tse’s assistant, Master Chan? Can you say something about that too?

Tom Lockhart picked up the second folder from the table and handed it over to Peter. Master Chan was actually a disciple of Master Chan, according to the report. One paragraph in the report says that Master Chan was also killed in exactly the same way as Master Tse. Their bodies were found less than five feet apart. There was no clue left behind in the room to suggest how many killers were involved.

Peter asked Tom who had prepared the reports, as he put both reports back down on the table.

The reports had been prepared by people in the U.N. Security office, and had been reviewed by some of our folks in this New York office, Tom replied. In particular, I know that the summaries had been edited by our folks. That’s when wordings relating this case to the other CIA case were added, and your name was mentioned.

Who has been leading the overall investigation?

The U.N. Security office is supposed to be spearheading the investigation, since the murders happened within the U.N. compound.

I see.