Volume 2: The Ancient Country of Lando Chapter 23: Clues

  This time, the witch king's tomb trip can be said to be nine deaths and one life. The mysterious collapse of the underground palace happened to let us escape from the threat of "black button". However, the horned golden number is still in their hands. I was worried that Ai Xia would get into trouble, so I let everyone rush back to the entrance of the underground palace. Just as Youzi was checking Li Xiang's injuries, Ai Xia suddenly appeared in our line of sight.

  She lowered her head and stood still, her long bangs covering her eyes, looking particularly strange. Su Qin also felt that something was wrong, so she shone a flashlight on Ai Xia's face and asked: "Ai Xia? Are you okay?"

  At this moment, I suddenly felt a sense of inexplicable unease, worrying that Su Qin would get into trouble, and hurriedly followed closely behind her.

  The two of us slowly approached Ai Xia, but she still didn't react. I don't know what happened to her, and my heart grew more worried. I hastily examined her carefully. Just then, I suddenly discovered that Ai Xia's right hand was hidden behind her back, as if she deliberately didn't want us to see it.

  This situation is similar to Stephen Chow's previous "changing face" scene, except that Stephen Chow avoided us with his side face, while Ai Xia did not show her right hand to people.

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but turn around and take a few more glances at Zhou Xing. He was still in the same state, sitting alone in the corner without saying a word. However, his face had indeed changed, no longer resembling a woman's, but rather as if he had suddenly aged a lot, with wrinkles all over his face. I was extremely curious about why his face had undergone such a change, but since Ai Xia still didn't know what had happened, it wasn't convenient to ask him.

  Youzi also caught Aixia's attention, just as I turned my head to look at Zhou Xing, Youzi suddenly sucked in a breath of cool air and pointed at Aixia, shouting: "Be careful! Quickly dodge!"

  As soon as I heard this, my heart skipped a beat. I immediately turned around and saw that Ai Xia's right hand was already raised high. It turned out that she was holding a large stone in her hand. At this moment, she suddenly made such a move, and Su Qin had no way to react. By the time everyone realized something was wrong, Ai Xia's stone had already smashed down towards Su Qin's head!

  Everything happened too fast, Su Qin never thought that Ai Xia would attack her before. At this moment, it was unavoidable, I stood beside the two women and watched clearly. If Ai Xia succeeded in hitting her this time, even if Su Qin didn't die, she would end up as a vegetable.

  I don't know why, but at this moment I suddenly felt a sharp pain like needles on my forehead, and the scene in front of me suddenly slowed down. A strong thought flashed through my mind - neither Ai Xia nor Su Qin can get into trouble!

  As soon as he made up his mind, he took a step forward and pushed Su Qin away.

  In the darkness, I only felt that the back of my head was heavily hit by a hard object. Then it was like several hundred million tons of ** exploded in my skull, "Boom" and my thinking short-circuited instantly. In a daze, I only heard that the surroundings were very noisy, as if everyone had gathered around, and then I didn't know anything else.

  I admit that I am the first and second tomb raider in history who ended up unconscious, but this does not mean that my luck is bad. I woke up in a hospital room and heard the doctor say that if the person who hit me had used a bit more force or hit me at a slightly different location, I might have never woken up again. This time, I was unconscious for two whole days.

  My companions managed to get me out of the ancient tomb, but I don't remember how. Fortunately, everyone was unharmed, and Li Xiang, thanks to wearing a bulletproof vest, only suffered serious injuries despite being shot four times. Ai Xia's abnormal behavior, on the other hand, was likely due to some mysterious sorcery, probably a curse cast by Gao Yexing. In any case, both Li Xiang and Ai Xia eventually returned home for treatment, while the remaining people stayed by my side.

  When I first came to, only Su Qin was sitting beside my bed. When she saw me wake up, she cried. This was the first time a woman had cried in front of me. All I remember is that before I even realized what was going on, Su Qin's crying almost made me pass out again.

  In the two days I was unconscious, Oil continued to track down "Black Button" until the day after I woke up when he rushed back to the hospital. Interestingly, Zhou Xing also came back with him. This is the first time I saw Zhou Xing's true face, it turned out that his "changing face" in Wu Wang's tomb was because the human skin mask on his face was damaged, previously we were all deceived by his disguise skills, unexpectedly Zhou Xing was not of the same age as us, he looked much older, should be a man in his thirties. Worth mentioning is that his true face seems even more handsome than when he was disguised, and it's very obvious that he is Eurasian.

  Seeing that nothing had happened to him, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, Zhou Xing still refused to reveal his true identity and always wore a mask when going out, as if he was afraid of being recognized. Su Qin suspected that he was a fugitive, but considering the hardships they had shared together in the past, she didn't say anything.

  These two days, Youzi and Zhou Xing have been tracking the "Black Button" without leaving any stone unturned. They found that the four members of the "Black Button" who escaped from the Wu Wang tomb that day had not left the country but instead entered the Three-eyed Temple again. It seemed like they took something out from inside, because they added more manpower, so Youzi and Zhou Xing didn't dare to get close. Youzi guessed that what they took out of the Three-eyed Temple was likely the "Dragon Ball".

  Apart from this, Youzi also received a message that Interpol had been mobilized, which was also the reason why they turned back halfway.

  I heard him laugh and say: "I thought you guys came back to see me because I woke up, but it turns out you were just following me all the way here and had nothing better to do."

  "You little brat, don't come here often, I've seen your medical report, I know you won't die."

  Su Qin said to You Zi: "Then what will you do next? If Interpol retrieves the Jiao Jiao Jin Hao first, your curse won't be lifted."

  You Zi said to Su Qin: "I'm not worried about this, 'Hei Niou' has been fighting with Interpol for a long time, when have they ever failed? Their power is great, and after my two days of soft and hard work, Zhou Yuba (Zhou Xing) finally revealed a clue to me."

  "What clue?" I was eager to know this vital intelligence, and sat up in bed hastily, without realizing that I had not yet fully recovered, and my head spun again and lay back down.

  Yóu zǐ duì wǒ shuō: "nǐ xiān bié jī dòng, zhōu yā bā shuō..."

  Translation:

  Youzi said to me: "Don't get excited, Zhou Yaba said..."

  "Hey, watch your mouth." Zhou Xing coldly interrupted You Zi. It seemed that You Zi had been bothering him a lot lately, and he no longer had much patience for him.

  Youzi suddenly realized that the "Zhou Ah-ba" he had been calling out to was standing right next to him, and hastily made a bow and apologized: "Sorry, sorry... uh... Brother Zhou said that this group of people will probably go find Langong next."

  "What's going on with Lan Palace? What kind of trick are they trying to play now?"

  Youzi shook his head and said to me: "I don't know about this either, but it's clear that Brother Zhou next to me knows a lot of things, but he has been unwilling to confess."

  Su Qin and I heard this, turned our heads to Zhou Xing, unexpectedly this kid's face didn't redden or heart skip a beat, still expressionless said to us: "What should be said, I will say."

  "Look," said Youzi, shrugging his shoulders at us, indicating that he couldn't get any more words out of Zhou Xing.

  I've gotten used to Zhou Xing's attitude, seeing this I can only shake my head and sigh, saying: "Forget it, forget it, since we know they're going to Lan Palace, then let's just follow them. But I'm still very curious, what do these people want to do? They wouldn't possibly think of using the Dragon Ball and the Golden Horn Number to revive the buried Ashura clan, would they?"

  Who would have thought that after I finished speaking, he shook his head and sighed, saying: "Who knows, this is also uncertain."

  I was surprised that he would say such a thing, and just as I was about to ask him something, I heard him say: "When I rushed over, I had already contacted your Uncle Liu at home. He'll be right over to see you, and in a minute you'll understand everything."

  I was startled and shouted: "What are you contacting him for?"

  Who would have thought that Cao Cao was mentioned, and Cao Cao arrived. As soon as my words fell, the door of the ward was opened, and Liu Shu carried a bag of fruit into the room, smiled at me and said: "You little devil, you've been away from home for so long, and the first thing you do is let this old man come to the ward to see you."

  "Uncle Liu..." I looked at him with some embarrassment and smiled slightly.

  Uncle Liu waved his hand and said, "Don't say anything else, it's fine as long as you're okay."

  Su Qin got up and moved a chair for Liu Shu, Liu Shu looked at her, then looked at You Zi and Zhou Xing. Seeing this, I quickly introduced them to Liu Shu. Liu Shu said to You Zi: "Oh, so you're the young master of Fang Fu, it was you who contacted me about Long Qiu's accident before?"

  You Zi hastily nodded and said: "Yes, originally I didn't know where your esteemed residence was, but unexpectedly my great uncle and Uncle Liu knew each other, which is how I got in touch with you."

  "Youzi said after finishing and then told me: 'I've already talked to your Uncle Liu about this matter.'"

  I looked at Youzi, then at Uncle Liu, and really didn't know what to say. It was Uncle Liu who spoke up first: "You little scoundrel, if Master Fang hadn't told me, I'm afraid you would have kept me in the dark until now. Well, well... Although people from the Long family are all destined for greatness, I never thought something like this would happen."

  I listened to Uncle Liu and thought that I was really wronged, thinking about how to explain it to Uncle Liu. Suddenly, I remembered something and asked him in a hurry: "By the way, Uncle Liu, what about that jade pendant... the one left by my father?"

  Uncle Liu furrowed his brow and said to me: "I was just about to tell you this, it happened a few days ago, that piece of jade was stolen."

  "What?" I was shocked by what he said and sat up again. This time, no matter how dizzy I felt, I couldn't lie down anymore.

  Liu shook his head, looking very annoyed: "I thought it was just an ordinary little thief at first, but later Mr. Fang told me about your business, and I realized that this matter is not simple."

  "Youzi interrupted at this time: "Long Qiu, do you still remember the introduction of the Jiao Jiao Jin Hao in the exhibition hall?"

  I nodded and said, "Remember, this point left a deep impression on me. The Su Jiao Jin Hao excavated by the archaeological team couldn't be blown at all, and I thought it was because the horn core was missing. Now it seems that the horn core my father left behind was also stolen by those 'black button' people. Judging from their movements in recent days, they probably wanted to get Su Jiao Jin Hao and Longzhu, these two treasures. Old Zhou said their next target is Lan Palace, so..."

  "I said this and suddenly felt very surprised: 'Could their goal really be to revive the ancient Yaoshen tribe?'"

  Youzi shook his head and said, "This is not clear, but I really can't think of any other possibility that would make them do this. The era of the Ya Shen tribe was too long ago, so there must be many things we don't know about. No matter what their goal is, it's not going to be easy for them to achieve it, and we should still have plenty of time."

  Adding up to this, I suddenly thought of a very important question and turned my head to ask Zhou Xing: "Old Zhou, where is the Lan Palace built by the Asian Queen's order back then?"

  Zhou Xing said to me: "I only know the approximate location."

  I asked again: "What about the 'Black Button' gang? They've already set off for Lang Palace. If they knew the location of Lang Palace beforehand, we might not be able to catch up with them."

  Zhou Xing heard this and fell silent for a moment, then said to me: "They probably don't know more about the Orchid Palace than I do."

  "Are you sure?" Su Qin heard Zhou Xing say this and was somewhat uncertain.

  Zhou Xing didn't respond, only nodding slightly at us. I knew that since he was willing to say so much, there was no reason not to believe him. For now, the plan was to continue tracking the "Black Button" group, firstly to retrieve the stolen Corner Gold Number, and secondly to see what they were up to. Since Interpol had already started hunting them down, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to escape.

  Uncle Liu has seen me grow up, and at this moment, seeing my expression, he knew what I was thinking. He said to me: "This trip is a matter of life and death, if you're not careful, your head will be gone. I think you'd better not act rashly, think about it first, see if there's another way."

  I said to Uncle Liu, "Uncle Liu, you've also seen the situation we're in now. We really have no choice but to follow these people. Don't worry about me, I'm not a kid anymore. Rather than living out my next five years trying to avoid danger, it's better to go all out and fight. The worst that can happen is death, just losing my head and getting a big scar!"

  Su Qin pulled my sleeve, indicating that I should calm down and not speak to Uncle Liu like this.

  At this moment, I suddenly felt that I had spoken a bit too sharply, but Liu Shu's face didn't show any sign of anger. Instead, he looked somewhat dejected, like a defeated rooster, and remained silent for a long time.

  "Alright, alright. You and your father are just the same, both of you have a stubborn temper. This time you want to go, then go ahead, but you must promise me to bring someone along." Liu Shu suddenly said.