บท 30: Bronze Chest
บรรณาธิการ: Zayn_
Apparently, that car had finally escaped the chase of police. Nowadays, it was so difficult to get rid of the police in an area covered with cameras; besides, the driver had escaped in his car instead of abandoning it, which was even more amazing.
The car stopped in front of one of those workshops. Two men got off.
One was a yellow-haired man wearing a peaked cap with a cigarette between his fingers. He appeared like a punk, but under his flighty appearance, there was some kind of fierceness.
This guy got off from the driver’s seat, so he must be the one who knocked down those policemen. He had got determination and decisiveness that no common men could have.
The other man was much older; he seemed about 50 years old. He was wearing a Tang-style suit[1], which was kind of retro; half of his hair was already white, but he was vigorous and energetic. When he was walking, there was some sort of coercion appearing faintly.
Su Bai hid himself beside a wall on the other side of the workshop; in front of him, there was a barrier made up by a pile of tires, shading his shape entirely.
Then the old man and the peaked cap guy opened the trunk and carried out a bronze chest together.
Seeing all this, Su Bai somehow understood why they decided to break through and escape at that time— they saw there were criminal policemen checking vehicles and opening trunks. They must be cultural relics traffickers, that was why they had to take the risk.
In fact, it was pretty funny. If they had know there was actually a body in the car in front of them driven by Su Bai, they would regret what they had done, because if they had stayed still, it would be Su Bai that broke through.
Of course, no one could predict such thing.
At a barrier set up for checking DUI, a car in the rear was carrying a piece of trafficked culture relic, and another car in the front was carrying a dead body. What a coincidence!
Su Bai just stood there watching these two men carrying the bronze chest into the factory.
He hesitated for a few seconds; Su Bai was planning to do nothing, except going back to his car and driving away immediately. He didn’t want to get involved; he had got plenty of crap to deal with, so he would rather not waste any time.
However, things didn’t go as Su Bai imagined. After carrying the chest into the factory, the old man walked out soon and directly headed toward Su Bai.
His nose was sniffing constantly.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed. That was indeed a sensitive old nose; he must have caught the smell of the body Su Bai had just burnt and was following that smell.
Taking a deep breath, Su Bai started to step back, but in the meantime, he secretly picked up a steel tube from the ground and held it tight.
The old man had steady steps; apparently, he was an expert, so Su Bai would not be reckless.
When the old man turned around, Su Bai sprang forward and waved that steel tube.
These two guys could knock traffic policemen down with their car just in order to protect their trafficked cultural relic; if they found out he was here, there would definitely be a hard fight. So he’d rather strike first to gain an advantage.
In Su Bai’s mind, there was nearly zero respect towards human life before he could even know it. Maybe it was the experiences in the story world of Dreadful Radio that had made Su Bai’s lust for killing spread. He didn’t have to hold it in, and he would not hold it at all, just find himself a proper excuse and do it.
Against the tube, the old man raised his palm and just slapped sideways.
“Buzz!”
Su Bai felt a harsh pain come from between his thumb and index finger. Next, the tube in his hand flew off, and the old man threw himself at Su Bai like an arrow that had left the bow.
Like…
…an unleashed tiger!
Su Bai knew that he had picked up a tough rival. And he really missed Chu Zhao’s gun. After he got to Sichuan, he would definitely think of some way and get some firearms. That stuff would be of more use at critical moments.
Actually, after taking in the Broken Vampire Blood, Su Bai was remarkably enhanced on his reaction and strength. But this old man was indeed amazing; he was not like those martial club owners swaggering around, but a real martial master.
The old man pounded Su Bai with both fist as a collapsing mountain. Though Su Bai interfered with his arms crossed, he was knocked off by that horrible strength for four or five meters. And he felt a burning pain from his arms.
The old man wasn’t going to let him escape. In other words, he meant to kill. This thing, this article, could afford no accident.
When the old man rush at him again, he kicked sideways at him. But the old man just bended a little and kicked back at Su Bai’s shank. Su Bai, who was still lying on the ground, rolled two times and then hit the wall.
Su Bai was being very careful, but the old man was much stronger than he had expected. If his scent was not so pure, if his age and temperament didn’t fit an old expert, Su Bai would have considered him an audience of Dreadful Radio.
“Bang! Bang!”
With two gunshots, Su Bai was shot twice in his underbelly. He fell down, struggled a little and stopped moving.
The old man frowned. He stood by Su Bai and sensed. After confirming he was not breathing, he turned his head around and looked at the peaked cap guy behind him:
“Guns are so boring.”
“Better than wasting time like you. I’ll go check over there, you pull his body to the workshop.”
The old man nodded, grabbed Su Bai’s ankles and pulled him into the workshop, where the bronze chest was placed.
After a little while, the peaked cap guy returned.
“There’s a car, kind of familiar. It’s the one chased us and stopped after a while.”
“So he was an acquaintance.” The old man smiled.
“Let’s deal with his body later. We’re running out of time. Let’s deal with this thing first and contact the boss again.” The peaked cap guy pointed to the chest.
“Yes, sure.”
“Crack!”
With a crisp sound, the peaked cap guy flew up and hit the wall like a kite with a broken string; his chest was entirely sunken but he had not died yet. He yelled with thick blood foams running out of his mouth:
“You old thing… How dare you to double cross! …This is… Our boss has required this thing specifically, how dare you to take it?”
“Our boss… Ha.” The old man shook his head, “I was hesitating, but now, even if he comes, there will be only one more body here. So I won’t hesitate any more.”
“You are gonna disguise him as you?” The peaked cap guy was not stupid; he immediately understood the old man’s plan.
“Yes, well, time for you to shut up.”
The old man had just arrived right in front of him. He stretched out his hand, pinched the peaked cap guy’s neck and suddenly twisted it; with a crunch, the peaked cap guy’s neck was broken, and his head hung at one side in an unnatural way.
After that, the old man took out a handkerchief from his pocket, cleaned his hands and walked to the bronze chest. Then he put away the handkerchief, took a breath deep into his belly, crouched in a horse stance[2], grabbed the bronze chest with both hands and started to push it.
Inside the bronze chest, there must be something like magnets; therefore, it still required a lot of strength to open even though it was not locked.
There was even green smoke coming from the top of the old man’s head, and he was sweaty. Obviously, it was painstaking to move this chest, even for a master of Internal Energy like him.
After a moment, the chest finally opened with a crack. It was filled with non-transparent liquid, but after the cover was removed, the liquid gradually dropped and a mirror appeared at last.
The old man stared at the mirror for… half an hour.
But someone else couldn’t wait any more.
Su Bai got up with difficulties, with one hand against the ground and the other covering his belly. And he murmured:
“That damn Nancy boy called it a mistake that I chose this physique. Without this, I wouldn’t even last long enough for the next story!”
After standing up, Su Bai closed his eyes and felt his way forward to the bronze chest. He reached out one of his hands and pushed that old man; then the old man just fell down with his posture unchanged.
Just at that time, from inside Su Bai’s body, there came a harsh scream of a woman, then a white smoke flashed out and entered the mirror in the chest.
On Su Bai’s face, cold sweat began to run down.
What the hell was in that chest?
A living person’s spirit would be absorbed once he looked at the mirror…
…and a spirit would be swallowed entirely once it got close!
———————————
FOOTNOTES
[1] Tang-style suit: A Tang-style suit is a type of Chinese clothing which has evolved from mandarin jacket, another traditional form of Chinese clothes, and integrated with stand collars, knotted buttons and western stereoscopic cut.
[2] Horse stance: The Horse Stance (sometimes called Horse Riding Stance) is an important posture in Asian martial arts and takes its name from the position assumed when riding a horse. This stance can not only be integrated into fighting but also during exercises and forms. It is most commonly used for practicing punches or to strengthen the legs and back. —by Wikipedia
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