“Boy, how can you be so thoughtless? Stay calm however the situation changes and keep composed even bearing the weight of Mount Thaishan.” Liu Shuai patted Long Fei on the shoulder, shaking his head with self-satisfaction on his face. He turned to look at the person in black, and shouted out, “Shit! Why do they have that?”
That was exactly the self-absorptive type who laughed at people’s short-sightedness but contradicted himself instantly.
Hao Ning turned to the gang in black, too, seeing the overreactive behaviours of them both.
One of them held a small golden yellow container in his hand, which seemed like a tiny pot, with a significant crack on the upper side. Moreover, the part faced with Hao Ning displayed an uneven colouration, some areas of which were in cyan, as if it didn’t get proper paint, or it were meant to be prominent.
It didn’t occur to Hao Ning at once what it was. He just thought it odd. But since Long Fei and Liu Shuai were stunned like that, it shouldn’t be something ordinary. Nezha’s eyes were full of appalled expression. Besides Long Fei and Liu Shuai, he even saw Zhou Yuan behaving strangely.
“What is this, anyway? I know nothing about that.” Hao Ning patted his head without any idea coming to him, and inquired in confusion, “Why are you getting nervous?”
“How on the earth can I forget about that!?” Liu Shuai said bitterly in regret, “No wonder they dare threaten to regress Nezha to Formless Fragrance Flame! I thought they were boasting! How stupid I was! I should have unlearned Hunyuan Vat!”
“Hunyuan Vat? In their possession?” Hao Ning was stumbling his words under great shock, and he instantly got it clear. Formerly, no, it was narrated in Creation of the Gods, that with Hunyuan Vat, Sanxiao Goddesses got rid of Three Lotuses of Twelve Golden Immortals on their head and extinguished Five Qis in their bosom, which damaged a thousand-year devotion of them. Let alone Nezha bound by Immortal Tying Rope, even Hai Hui God in his vigorous condition would be wiped out at ease.
“Very likely.” Liu Shuai adjusted his glasses, squinting, “I see no difference here from the image I saw when studying in my dream. By the way, nothing else could fulfill the functions the three described but Hun Yuan Jin Dou. But why should it appear? It’s impossible that… and why is it gripped by such a gang of ridiculousness?”
“What can we do now?” Long Fei literally didn’t look like a Long God now, although he never did. And he pushed Liu Shuai, “Cool guy, can we deal with that using our Falling Treasure Coin?”
“Hard to say...” Liu Shuai peered at the two Falling Treasure Coins they just copied, hesitant. It would be okay doing with other magic weapons, but for Hunyun Vat, it would be complicated. They could take gambles with a real Falling Treasure Coin in hand. While they would run out of fortune beating down Immortal Tying Rope with the two knockoffs. It was impossible to beat down Hunyuan Vat with the two.
Hao Ning told the unsureness of Liu Shuai by his silence. Liu Shuai held the best knowledge base of magical weapons and theology, regardless of his waggish daily behaviours. If he thought they wouldn’t make it, then they could fairly give up hope. Though he wanted to save Nezha and ask about the stuffs he had been puzzled about, they’d better be the wise man who looked after his own hide.
“You… Who are you?” Nezha knew about the weapon too, and he raised his voice at the sight of Hunyuan Vat, “Where did you get that? What are you doing with Yunxiao, Bixiao and Qiongxiao, Sanxiao Goddesses?”
“Big bro, what nonsense is he speaking? What the hell are three siu yehs?” One of the black gangs presented confusion in his words, “Their poverty only allows for mung beans in their siu yeh? But why do they insist on three siu yehs under such financial condition?”
The group of Hao Ning watched each other wordlessly. Liu Shuai felt confused, “They don’t seem to know about Sanxiao Goddesses, then where did they get Hunyuan Vat?”
“I have no idea.” Hao Ning scratched his hair without any thought, “Hunyuan Vat is so renowned that I don’t believe one could have it while knowing nothing about its background.”
The big bro was stupefied by his question, and his blankness verified his lack of related knowledge. He scratched his head too, and said a mixed sentence in Chinese and English, “You ask me, I ask who? What an evil day! Let’s try the new facility we got right now on the little boy.”
“Great! But how does it work?” the man in black responded quickly, but when he turned and scrutinize the good, “We’ve never used such high-tech before.”
“High-tech? New facility?” Hao Ning who had been overwhelmed by despair now stiffened at his words, turned to Liu Shuai, “Shuai, Hunyuan Vat is a high-tech? Have you heard of that?”
“No way. Don’t listen to their nonsense.” Liu Shuai felt it odd, too, but seeing that none of them knew using it, an idea occurred to him and he said, “Maybe they got it somewhere, but they didn’t know about that, so they took it as a high-tech. No wonder they are unfamiliar with Sanxiao Goddesses. That’s interesting. Since they can’t utilize it now, let’s take the time when they are looking into it and liberate Nezha from Immortal tying rope, then save him out?”
“Good idea!” Hao Ning was about to give him a thumb-up and praise his crafty when the man in black shouted, “I get it!” He pressed Liu Shuai down with the half-stretched hand who was ready to act, “Wait. Security first.”
“I know.” Liu Shuai got a layer of cold sweat. If he acted boldly just now, and the man absorbed him into Hunyuan Vat, too. He might be decomposed directly at the absence of a thousand-year devotion.
“Big bro, here we have the specification!” the man continued, “oh, first, we have to reach here…” he put out his hand to the back of Hunyuan Vat, rubbing there. His eyes fixed to the specification, “Here, have some rubs…”
“With the devilish steps?” Another guy in black followed instinctively.
“Hahaha.” Hao Ning couldn’t hold back his laughter, “They’re really ridiculous, aren’t they? Godslayer Sect? Are they kidding? And how can Hunyuan Vat have a specification?”
“I don’t know.” Liu Shuai refrained his giggles, and took on a serious look, “It doesn’t matter whether they’re ridiculous or not. My point is that the magical weapon they hold is quite powerful.”
“Steps? What’s wrong with you? Having too much Douyin?” the big bro hit him on the head, “Stop chitchat and look into the specification!”
“Aye, with three light tipping.” The man in black went on with the specification on mobile phone and had three tips on the back of Hunyuan Vat, clapped, “We should make it now!”
The whole vat began shaking. The golden light around it was originally the reflected light of the road lamps, but now it was from the vat itself. The golden light filled the air, and spectacularly at the top of the vat there were a highlight. Then from the fore part, it pulled out three rope-like things, swinging in the air.
“Goodness! Tentacle erotica?” the man cried.
“Fuck you!” the big bro got unbearable, and beat on the back of his head, “What are you watching all the days! Kick the Erotic things out of your mind! Don’t you want to run your business?” Then he turned to another one in confusion, “But what’s this? How can we use it?”
“See?” Hao Ning inhibited his smile and told Liu Shuai, “Qili and Long Fei are much more reliable comparative to them.”
“What is a tentacle erotica?” Zhou Yuan asked abruptly, “One magical weapon?”
“Please…” Hao Ning stared at Zhou Yuan in a gloomy face, “Don’t you watch any erotic films or read any novels?”
“Why do I watch those things?” Zhou Yuan said in slight, “My parents said it was not good, and I have to be a paragon boy since my childhood. And I’m the moment god…”
“You’re a freak.” Hao Ning said with a bitter smile. Finally, he got to know the reason why Zhou Yuan would pursue progress at the expense of his soul to Lan Ruo. He was always living up to parents’ and seniors’ expectations, and never went beyond the border. He had only the good, the nice, the tender, and that led to his ignorance of the less good, to which people like Hao Ning were exposed. However, humanity is divided into two sides, so Zhou Yuan was probably escaping from, or restraining the dark one of him all the time. Or he wouldn’t have committed such extreme acts as cutting his body with a knife after losing his soul.
At the thought of that, Hao Ning said to Zhou Yuan, eyes on him, “Do you know about ‘Yin is rather inside Yang than against Yang?”
Zhou Yuan was stunned. His lips quivered, without any answer coming out of it.
“Ah, it’s voice-controlled!” the person said after a long research, “Big bro, we have to call the sentence out, activate it, and tell it whom to hit-whomever we want!”
After that, he continued, “Hit whomever we want? Ah, in a northeastern style.”
“My God, what a waste!” Liu Shuai couldn’t stand it and he roared at them, “That’s not a ‘hit’! That’s a ‘rid’, the ‘rid’ of ‘getting rid of the Three Lotuses on the head’, the ‘rid’ of ‘eliminating devotion of a thousand year! Not the ‘hit’ in northeastern mandarin! I’ve got enough of you fucking theology idiots!” he raised up, as if he were to instruct them himself.
Luckily, they wouldn’t be noticed whatever they did under virtualised reality effect, or Liu Shuai would have been a trial subject of Hunyuan Vat.
“Calm down. Calm down!” Hao Ning and Long Fei dragged Liu Shuai, knowing that his pride of theological expert didn’t allow him to leave aside the idiots who possessed Hunyuan Vat but had no insight in using it. Hao Ning was puzzled as well. Why Hunyuan Vat could be a voice-controlled one? And he got it after several thoughts, the so-called “voice-controlled” was actually a spell.
“But big bro, why is the words for activation in English?” the black one continued, “I’m not good at English. Come and have a look.”
“English?” Liu Shuai was struck. So was Hao Ning. He asked Liu Shuai, “During your study of theology in your dream, have you heard that the spell of Hunyuan Vat is in English?”
“Nonsense! Do you think Sanxiao Goddesses are seniors of Harry Potter?” Liu Shuai laughed at the joke himself, and he took on a serious face, “I’ll accept it if it’s in a Chinese dialect, but English? How?”
“Dialect? Like Henan dialect? Hunyuan Fat?” Hao Ning imitated it, thinking it funny, “But they said it was in English. So, it’s actually not the Hunyuan Vat?” he continued his deduction, “If that’s true, then there’s no reason that we flinch!”
“Good! Here we go!” Liu Shuai got Falling Treasure Coin from Hao Ning’s hand, about to throw, and was stopped by Zhou Yuan, “No hurry. If that’s not Hunyuan Vat, Nezha would be safe. Wait and see. For more, if you wanna throw it out, I have to cancel the virtualised reality effect on that, or it can’t even touch Hunyuan Vat and will go through it directly. So, take your time, we shall match up!”
When they talked, the big bro had already taken the mobile phone with specification on that, he read it out without any thought, “Hey, Siri!”
“Bullshit!” Liu Shuai and Hao Ning got shocked at the same time, “What is it? Isn’t this the order for iPhone’s artificial intelligence assistant? Has Hunyuan Vat already been gripped by Apple? No way… Stop all the kidding.”
“Eh… Sorry, I got it wrong.” the big bro rubbed his forehead awkwardly, took a closer look at the specification, and read with uncertainty, “Hey, Hunyuan Doo.”
“Yes.” At that time, the part of Hunyuan Vat in face of Hao Ning, where used to be lacking in paint, now became lightened. It was brightening and flashing, and some voices came out at the glint, virtually in the same tone of Siri, “What can I do for you?”
“Fuck! All English?” the big bro was somewhat despairing, from which you could tell his English level, “Why this? What happened?”
“No, we’re done for!” another man in black clapped his head and said, “We were so hasty today that we took the one in the process which should be delivered to America by mistake. I was puzzled at the specification of half Chinese and half English! Big bro, can we use it?”
“I’ll talk to you later!” The big bro stroked his forehead, sighed, “Who can predict that we have to pass the CET4 to kill a spirit? What a dreadful world for non-literacy people. I’ll try.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand…” Hearing that, the vat dimmed.
“Why it died?” he flapped it, “Out of charge?”
“Piss it. That’s really an electric device!” Hao Ning wiped the sweat on his forehead, “We’re tricked.”
Liu Shuai nodded, and was about to talk to Zhou Yuan when another man in black said, “Out of charge? It’s functioned by souls, okay?”
Saying so, he put out a small glass bottle. Hao Ning and Long Fei got stiffened at the sight of it, while Liu Shuai still blanked, “What’s up?”
“Can’t you see it?” Hao Ning got frozen for an instant, and turned to Zhou Yuan, “No… It’s really souls in the bottle! No wonder Shuai can’t see it.”
“That’s it!” Zhou Yuan understood. Hao Ning, thanks to the power he borrowed just now, could see it as well, so he went for Long Fei, certainly, while Liu Shuai, not equipped with magical power, was blind to the souls in the bottle. Then Liu Shuai tipped on his forehead, “Watch it now. Can you see several spirits there?”
“Shit, the spirit, it seems familiar…” Liu Shuai blinked and looked closer, “That’s one of the people who got into the accident in hospital!”
“How do you know that?” Hao Ning asked, and he understood right away, “You saw them then, in hospital, right? I’m stupid.”
Liu Shuai nodded, with no answer, and his brow wrinkled intensely, “Are they the guys who exchanged the souls of human for animals’?”
“Lucky little Nezha,” the man in black swung the bottle, “We borrow this from our comrades not long ago. We didn’t expect to use it on you for the first time.”
“Borrow?” Nezha scorned, “Based on your style, I bet the comrades who lent it to you are vanished since long.”
“Haha, no comment.” He didn’t answer the question.
“I see. That is ‘to kill for money’. This Godslayer Sect must have killed the one who gave them the fallen souls and stolen them.” Liu Shuai nodded, and saw Hao Ning shivered, “The staff with Mr. Fei are virtually ruthless and cruel. Such cheats, betrayals and slaughters happen even within the association. It’s creepy even only to think about that.”
During their talking, the man in black put on a pair of gloves, white, on his hands, which seemed a pair of hands flourishing in the night sky and added some gloominess to the atmosphere.
Seeing the gloves, Long Fei reeled unconsciously, as if not able to support himself. He tilted forward, about to fly away. Hao Ning noticed his oddness and gave him a hand, “Are you well?”
“Yes.” Long Fei pressed his temple, composed himself, and turn back his head to avoid looking into that person, “His gloves are unusual. I couldn’t see it clearly, as if it were half existent and half not. And it shows a bizarre suction of fragrance flame. I was about to be sucked there under distraction.”
“Eh? Does such an item exist?” Hao Ning, with Long Fei in his arms, looked at Liu Shuai, “which is able to suck the soul?”
“Hard to say. I don’t think there is.” Liu Shuai wore a confused face, pondered carefully and looked at Hao Ning, “I know one thing… but that’s impossible! Absolutely not!”
“Be straightforward!” Hao Ning got a bit impatient, “Tell us.”
“Don’t you remember? You once made a knockoff of that.” Liu Shuai’s lips quivered, “The depiction in the book was ‘One dot of spirit, flew to it’.”
“League of Gods?” Hao Ning and Hao Ning exclaimed in sync.
No wonder they feel stunned. That’s the words from The Creation of the Gods. When the people in league died, they would speak “one dot of spirit”, then fly to League of Gods, which was the source of Liu Shuai’s assumption.
But that was outrageous. Hao Ning glimpsed at the white gloves, but only shook his head, “Can’t be that.”
Wearing the gloves, the man opened the glass bottle. The soul fell to the ground, and his mouth as like being sealed by glue, unable to utter any word. At his landing on earth, he rushed madly and reached dozens of meters away in moments. However, the man in black stretched forward his hand and made a grip at ease, and then it looked like that the soul was sucked forcefully and couldn’t help moving towards the man. The man grasped one arm of the soul and laughed, “We’ve kept you alive for such long days, so now it’s your time to devote yourself!”
Saying so, he made a tore up sign in the air, and one arm of the soul was split instantly!