Chapter 3: The Soul of the Gun

  Name: Cang Long

  Sex: Male

  Age: Appearance around forty

  Occupation: Proprietor of a weapons shop

  Address: No. 3 Xikou Street, Bomei Community

  The man in black raised the cold iron tool in his hand and pulled the trigger without hesitation, and several soft puffs sounded from the dark gun barrel. Red and yellow thick liquid quickly flowed out on the ground. He calmly observed whether there were any omissions or negligence around him, turned around and walked away with ease. Even when he was far away from that absurd market, he still thought of the last look of the fallen shop owner, as if it was a smile.

  The creaky door was pushed open, and a round face of a little girl peeked in. Inside the large store, a dim lamp flickered on and off, illuminating a sturdy body lying in a pool of blood. There were five holes in his body, two in his head. One bullet had entered from the back of his head and exited through his temple, while another was lodged in his skull.

  "Hey, get up!" The little girl ran over and kicked the corpse, swinging a huge plastic bag in her hand. "Think you can welch on your debt?" She added another kick to the soft ribs of the corpse.

  The corpse let out a loud "waah" and sat up with a jerk, frantically rubbing the spot where the little girl had kicked it.

  "Hey, the ten bottles of ketchup and five boxes of oatmeal you wanted, plus those seven pieces of clothing from last time, that's a total of fifteen souls."

  "It's so expensive!!" Qing Long exclaimed in a loud voice, "Your family is really black-hearted."

  "Cut, don't pull down!" The little girl turned around with an indifferent expression and was about to leave.

  "Quickly! Quickly!" The dragon hurriedly snatched the bag, got up and walked to a black iron cabinet, opened the door and took out a pile of bottles and jars.

  "I say, you're using our family's ketchup and egg porridge like this!" The little girl looked at the messy mixture of red and yellow with disgust. "Your guests are so gross, they actually like looking at this kind of thing!"

  "No choice," Cang Long carefully opened the bottle cap, using a pair of chopsticks to pick out clusters of dark red glowing orbs from a large glass bottle. "My guests all have rather unique tastes, so I can only sacrifice myself to entertain the masses. Look at me, being beaten and battered, isn't it a bit cheaper this way?"

  "No way." The little girl glanced at the dragon, "Have you heard of 'ten merchants and nine cheats'? Ah, that gun was taken back?" She pointed to a shiny wooden handle .45 caliber Browning pistol on a long row of weapon racks, "This gun has been out for... over 60 years, right? I still remember that little guy looked pretty good..." She tilted her head, trying hard to recall the past about that young man.

  "When a person dies, the gun will naturally return." Cang Long replied without lifting his head, covering the bottle cap and handing a small glass bottle to the little girl's hand. "Hold on tight, fifteen souls, give me the receipt, so you won't cheat next time."

  "Then you've also taken his soul?" The little girl reluctantly pulled out a receipt and placed it in the large palm, silently cursing this big oaf whose mind was far more cunning than his appearance.

  "Sorry, I won't see you off." Cang Long opened the door and made a welcoming gesture.

  "Hmph, won't tell if you don't want to know! Don't buy anything from my family next time!" The little girl stomped her foot and disappeared into thin air with a pout on her face.

  After Cang Long waited for her to leave, he closed the shop door and took out an iron box from the deepest part of the iron cabinet. Inside the box was a crystal clear white jade small bottle lying on red silk, with a faint blue glow flickering inside the bottle.

  "Old friend, I've come to visit you again." Cang Long said, gently stroking the bottle.

  "My gun can sense future dangers and destroy things that pose a threat before they happen, my gun can also hit any target you want to strike in any situation, but my gun needs to be fueled by the enemy's blood and your soul to work effectively. Perhaps before you achieve your wishes, it has already devoured you. Even so, do you still want it?" The Azure Dragon patiently explained everything about his product, this fifteen-year-old boy being one of the few customers who had the patience to listen to him finish his introduction. Most of his customers, those assassins, thugs, and spies, would have "silenced" him before he even got this far.

  "I want to become a legend of Shanghai! I want my name to be left in history!" The young man clenched his fists, and his black eyes shone with a fierce light. That kind of determination is something that only people with unshakeable willpower can have, and it's also something that only hot-blooded young people would have. With that kind of determination, one becomes fearless, charging forward even in the face of hardship and suffering! This is a characteristic unique to humans, and it's something that the Azure Dragon cannot comprehend.

  "Alright, I'll entrust this gun to you." Cang Long handed the teak-handled pistol over to those youthful palms.

  "Canglong, I've been taken in by Master Du and now I'm a third-generation disciple of the 23rd Hall."

  "Canglong, my marksmanship is being appreciated more and more!"

  "Cyan Dragon, I've received my first mission!"

  "Cang Long... I... killed someone, but it's okay," he lifted his head and smiled. "The one who died was a bad person, the common people all applauded. But... why do I still remember his appearance when he was dying? Those bulging eyes, pale face and that pool of red..."

  "If you want to back down, I can make an exception and take the gun back." Cang Long looked at the young man's lowered face and suddenly felt a bit of pity. Most of the people he dealt with were cold-blooded, and it was rare for him to encounter someone like this young man.

  "No!" The young man shook his head, "I must achieve my ideals, and then, one day, I will let everyone have a good life, Hei Pi, A Mao, Ya Ya, Zhang Da Shu, Zhang Da Shu... I will let them live in the best house, wear the best clothes, eat good things every day, no longer suffer from hunger and cold, no longer be beaten all over for grabbing food from rich people's dogs. I must become stronger!" The young man's eyes seemed to have an additional heaviness compared to before.

  "Canglong, I've risen to the position of hall master," said the young and handsome man standing in front of the gun rack, watching the stout shopkeeper busily wiping and adjusting the guns. "These hands have already been stained with the blood of enemies." The man revealed a hint of melancholy smile. "Uncle Zhang has passed away, Hei Pi and Ya Ya are about to get married, it won't be long before I can fulfill my promise and give them the best days!"

  Cang Long looked at that young yet worn face several times wanting to persuade but couldn't open his mouth.

  "Cang Long..." The man walked in with a lost soul, his originally white shirt stained with shocking red splatters.

  Cang Long stopped his action and waited for him to continue speaking.

  "I just killed three people," he laughed hysterically, laughing wildly, laughing nervously, and then started crying. "That man was here to avenge his son's death, his son was a brave general under the heavenly king, I finished him off last month." He began to shake violently, "The old man must have been over 70 years old, holding a gun, his hands were shaking..." He painfully hugged his head, his eyes dazed.

  "He cursed me... He kept cursing me, I couldn't bring myself to shoot him, then he rushed over... and then..."

  "My gun can sense the dangers of the future and destroy things that pose a threat before they happen..." These were the words said by Qing Long to the young boy many years ago, verified countless times without ever making a mistake, and this time would be no exception.

  "He died, and when he took his last breath, he still looked at me with that gaze." He shook his head desperately trying to forget the face. "That sorrowful gaze... Later, the woman rushed over with her child, crying and wailing for her husband and father-in-law... And then she also died..." The man weakly lifted his eyes to look at Cang Long, "Your gun is indeed as notorious as its reputation."

  Scoffing tone but a sad taste.

  "That child... why did you kill him?" asked Cang Long.

  The man was stunned for a moment: "Such a small child, can't survive in this world at all. Rather than being like me, I'd rather let him sleep forever in his mother's arms!"

  In this string of narrative, only this last sentence is firm and unwavering.

  "You're regretting it!" Cang Long looked at the young face swaying in the candlelight and asked, "Still unwilling to back down?"

  "How can I accept it? How is it possible for me to accept it?" The man shook his head, as if he had heard something ridiculous.

  "I can help you, change your name or something else..."

  "No one can help me, no one!" He stumbled out of the store like a drunkard and disappeared into the night.

  This walk is for decades.

  "Welcome, how can I help you?"

  A young man walked in, wearing a well-fitted suit, with a warm and elegant smile, but that face and those eyes were just like the boy who had vowed to leave his name in history all those years ago. In an instant, Cang Long felt as if time had flowed backward by several decades.

  "You must be Mr. Cang Long," the man said, pulling out a paper bag and handing it over, "My father's last words were to make sure I returned this old item to you."

  Cang Long took it over, and the sandalwood-handled pistol lay quietly in the bag, at this moment it didn't have any murderous aura.

  "How did your honorable father pass away?" The Azure Dragon saw that the faint blue light lingering on the gun body was precisely this blue light, which had washed away the gun's own evil and murderous aura.

  "My father passed away peacefully at the age of 88," said the young man calmly. "Before his death, my father mentioned that this item was a gift from Mr. Bai, and it had saved his life several times during the war. Therefore, I must personally thank you on behalf of my late father." He bowed respectfully as he spoke.

  "My father also said that he should have returned it in person, but because they had been together for so long, he had developed feelings and thought about returning it several times but couldn't bring himself to do it until today. Please forgive me, sir." He bowed again and took his leave. After talking for dozens of minutes, I didn't even ask how the old man came to know Cang Long, who looked like he was only in his forties. It seemed that he was a perceptive person.

  Cang Long put the gun back on the rack, closed up early, locked the door, turned off the lights, and sat in the darkness to admire the warm grip of the gun. A pale blue glow wrapped around the body of the gun, making even the cold hard metal seem gentle.

  "Old friend." The Azure Dragon softly called out, and the blue light suddenly brightened up a lot, slowly flowing around the gun body as if responding to him.

  "I'm delighted, old friend, your return really makes me very happy!"

  The dragon opened its mouth and smiled, as if it had returned to that warm afternoon, the young man looked up at the sky with clear and determined eyes!