Once Upon a Time-

Once Upon a Time-

Mu Xiao Song

5.0
Comment(s)
28
View
359
Chapters

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...

Once Upon a Time- 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.

Continue Reading

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Secret Triplets: Mom's Revenge

The Billionaire's Secret Triplets: Mom's Revenge

HONEY MULLINS

Six years ago, I was a naive girl sold by my father to the powerful Sanders estate, only to be tossed onto the streets after a brutal assault they labeled "marital infidelity." I fled the country pregnant and broken, hiding from the shadow of a husband I had never even met. Now, I've returned to New York with my triplets to sign the final divorce papers and disappear forever. But Archibald Sanders-the man I was told was a crippled recluse-intercepted us with the cold precision of a predator. He didn't see the woman his family destroyed; he saw a gold-digger who had shamed his name. His security team hunted us to a grimy motel, using tactical force to snatch my children away and drag me to his glass-walled empire. In his office, he loomed over me, demanding a DNA test and threatening to throw me in prison while my babies were lost to the foster system. He was convinced I'd cheated, yet he stared at my sons with a haunting confusion, unable to ignore the stormy blue eyes that were a perfect mirror of his own. I stood there, paralyzed by his scent-the sharp tang of rain and expensive leather that triggered the icy dread of my worst nightmares. How could he accuse me of betrayal when he felt exactly like the monster who had shattered my life in that dark hotel room? "I'll sign anything," I sobbed, "just give me my kids." But the game changed when my five-year-old son hacked the tower's security, holding the skyscraper hostage to save me. In the chaos, a fragile, silent boy-Archibald's secret son-wandered into the room and reached for me as if I were his missing soul. Archibald's face turned to stone as he tore up the agreement and locked the doors. "Until I find out why my son is looking at you like that," he growled, "you aren't going anywhere."

The Silent Bride's Billion Dollar Contract

The Silent Bride's Billion Dollar Contract

Landslide

My bank account showed exactly $42.18, and my student loan notifications were flashing red. I lived in a sweltering Queens apartment with my Aunt Lydia, where the air was thick with the smell of stale frying oil and the constant threat of being homeless. Lydia handed me a grainy photo of a man twice my age and told me she had already "sold" me to him. He was a dry cleaner looking for a wife, and in exchange for my hand, he would pay off her credit cards and my debt. If I didn't show up for the date that night, my boxes would be on the curb by midnight. I arrived at the cafe in a state of panic, my selective mutism making it impossible to even breathe. In the crowded room, I accidentally sat at the wrong table. Instead of the man from the photo, I found myself facing Gerhard Holcomb—the cold, terrifyingly handsome billionaire whose family owned the very museum where I worked. He didn't send me away; instead, he studied my trembling hands and offered me a different deal: a two-year contract marriage, a two-million-dollar payout, and a strict clause forbidding any children. I signed the papers and moved into his Park Avenue penthouse, thinking I was finally safe. But when I went back to the old apartment to retrieve the only memento of my dead parents, Lydia lashed out, leaving me bleeding from a head wound. Gerhard’s retaliation was absolute—he had her arrested and her building foreclosed on within hours, claiming he was simply "protecting his assets." As I recovered in his silent, glass-walled home, I saw a call from a famous socialite flash on his phone, and a cold truth settled in my gut. I wasn't just a wife; I was a placeholder, a silent shield used to fend off the women from his past. I looked at the massive pink diamond on my finger and realized the silence I had lived in my whole life was about to become my most expensive prison. I had traded a life of poverty for a high-stakes game of shadows, and now I had to survive the man who claimed to own me.

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

Nathaniel Stone

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner-my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn't offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend's apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I'd spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend's face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Once Upon a Time- Once Upon a Time- Mu Xiao Song Horror
“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...”
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