BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 39 The Mechanism

Seeing the figure right in front of him, Che Qianzi had no intention of letting it escape.

The young Taoist leaped forward and tackled the figure from behind.

Then he raised his short sword and drove it down viciously toward the figure’s face.

If the strike landed, it would pin the man’s head directly to the ground.

At the very last moment, Che Qianzi finally got a clear look at the figure’s face.

It was none other than the missing Xiong Wanyi.

By then, it was too late to completely stop the attack.

In that split second, he could only shift the sword’s point slightly.

The blade scraped across Xiong’s cheek and plunged into the ground beside his head.

Even so, it left a deep cut across his face.

Che Qianzi had used so much force that nearly half the blade sank into the earth.

As he bent down to pull it free, Xiong Wanyi suddenly threw him off.

Just as Director Xiong was about to attack, another gunshot rang out from behind.

The sound startled him, and he immediately fled.

“Fatty! It was Xiong Wanyi!”

Che Qianzi climbed to his feet while yanking the sword from the ground.

“Something’s possessing him.”

“Strange… really strange.”

“Normally whatever possesses people should be afraid of me.”

Hearing Che Qianzi’s voice, Sun Desheng hurried over, carrying Ximen Lian on his back.

After the two met up in the fog and Che explained what had happened, Sun frowned.

“So Old Xiong really is possessed by something.”

“He’s a veteran of the Bureau. How could he fall for something like this?”

Then he added:

“Brother, you need to be careful.”

“Whatever’s possessing him is using him as a shield.”

“Now that we know it’s Xiong, we won’t dare go all out.”

“That’s your problem, not mine.”

Che deliberately raised his voice.

“I barely know Xiong Wanyi.”

He shouted into the surrounding darkness:

“I beat him half to death inside the Bureau before, and I can do it again.”

“If Old Xiong’s unlucky enough to die, then the blame belongs to the bastard possessing him.”

Then he turned to Sun.

“Fatty, if I accidentally kill him, you’ll help deal with the aftermath, right?”

“Of course.”

Sun nodded seriously.

“If it comes to that, we’ll dig a hole and bury him right here.”

“We’ll just tell everyone he’s missing.”

After a brief pause, he continued:

“The Second Division should be arriving soon.”

“And the Sixth Division’s specialists too.”

“Director Wu Renyi—”

“—Wu Mian will be here as well.”

“Then we’ll see who’s really pulling the strings.”

When he said the name Wu Mian, Sun deliberately raised his voice.

It had once been Director Wu’s alias.

If their enemy had any background in the supernatural world, there was a good chance he would recognize the name.

Yet the darkness remained silent.

No response came.

Apparently, whoever was behind all this either had never heard of Wu Mian—or simply didn’t fear him.

Seeing there was no reaction, Che said, “Fatty, looks like even Old Wu’s name doesn’t scare anyone.”

“Forget that.”

“Let’s figure out how to get out of here.”

“This fog’s so thick we can’t even tell east from west.”

“You got a plan?”

“Just follow me.”

Sun grinned.

“Brother, you’re lucky.”

“If Director Wu were here, he’d have trouble telling left from right, never mind finding his way out.”

As he spoke, Sun grabbed Che’s hand and began walking straight ahead through the dense fog.

Had Che been able to see him clearly, he would have noticed that Sun had his eyes completely closed.

He was navigating purely by instinct.

Whatever method Sun was using, it worked.

After more than ten minutes of walking, the fog gradually began to thin.

When they could finally make out their surroundings, Che discovered they were moving through a wide corridor.

Murals covered both walls.

Unfortunately, years of moisture had blurred them so badly that their contents were impossible to identify.

After another five or six minutes, the fog disappeared almost entirely.

Ahead stood two enormous stone doors.

The doors had already been opened.

A gap just wide enough for one person remained between them.

Fresh drops of blood stained the entrance.

Clearly, Xiong Wanyi had opened these doors not long ago.

At this point, there was no reason to hesitate.

Sun Desheng and Che Qianzi cautiously approached.

After confirming there was nothing unusual nearby, they slipped through the opening.

Beyond the doors was a place resembling a grand library.

The chamber was roughly the size of a basketball court.

Bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see.

Ancient texts from countless eras filled them.

There were wooden and bamboo slips tied into scrolls.

Books written on animal hide.

Scrolls that looked remarkably similar to the Registers of Life and Death in the underworld.

Most numerous were books bound from paper.

Together, there were easily tens of thousands of volumes.

The murals outside had nearly decayed away.

Yet these texts remained perfectly preserved.

Sun casually pulled out several books.

He wasn’t reading them.

Instead, he was examining the condition of the writing.

These looked like treasures destined for the Bureau’s archives.

He couldn’t afford to damage anything.

Che followed suit and opened a few books.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand a single character.

Putting one volume back onto the shelf, he grumbled:

“This isn’t something normal people can read.”

“Fatty, what does it say?”

Sun laughed.

“If I could understand this stuff, I’d already be an immortal.”

Then he carefully laid the unconscious Ximen Lian on the floor.

While sweeping his flashlight around the chamber, he explained:

“Probably cultivation methods.”

“Or instructions on how to become immortal and achieve eternal life.”

“Unfortunately, your brother here doesn’t have the talent for that.”

“This is more the Fifth Division’s specialty—Ouyang Pianzuo.”

“Or someone from the Sixth Division.”

Just as he finished speaking, Sun discovered the library’s exit.

Hidden behind a cast-iron bookshelf was a black secret door.

Without the trail of blood leading toward it, they probably never would have noticed it.

Che spotted it too and was about to open the door.

Suddenly, Sun grabbed him.

“Too easy.”

“Brother, think about it.”

“You cut Old Xiong’s face.”

“You didn’t injure the hand that made these marks.”

“If he’s leaving signs for us, why would he stop at a door?”

“When did you two become such good friends?”

As he spoke, Sun turned around and began searching through Ximen Lian’s belongings.

Eventually he found a short stick of incense.

After lighting it, he watched the thin stream of smoke rise into the air.

Walking around the bookshelf, he observed the smoke carefully.

The smoke gradually drifted toward the black secret door.

Then, instead of dispersing normally, it seeped directly into it.

Seeing this, Sun explained:

“This is Detection Incense.”

“If someone’s hidden a magical trap somewhere, the smoke will reveal it.”

“Judging from how it’s behaving…”

“If we open that door, neither of us is getting out alive.”

He then turned away and shined his flashlight toward an area the smoke seemed completely uninterested in.

Eventually he found something strange beside several burlap sacks filled with bamboo slips.

The blue bricks covering the floor looked unusual.

More specifically, the gaps between the bricks were suspiciously clean.

Che noticed it too.

After a brief discussion, he inserted the tip of his sword beneath one brick and pried upward.

To his surprise, that brick was connected to seven or eight others.

It wasn’t a floor tile at all.

It was the cover of a hidden passage.

Sun immediately raised his revolver and aimed it at the concealed entrance.

Meanwhile, Che used all his strength to lift the disguised stone cover.

Sure enough, beneath it was a dark opening leading downward.

The moment the entrance was exposed, the metallic voice echoed from below once more:

“I truly have a newfound respect for the two of you.”

“Take your time.”

“I’m waiting down here.”

Before the speaker could finish, Sun fired twice into the darkness.

Bang! Bang!

After the shots echoed away, the voice laughed.

“What a remarkable weapon.”

“You’ve combined a magical artifact with a firearm.”

“And a high-quality artifact at that.”

“Quite extravagant.”

Then the voice continued mockingly:

“But the bullets inside are limited, aren’t they?”

“When you’ve fired them all…”

“…won’t that artifact become nothing more than a piece of scrap metal?”

Sun smirked.

“I’ve got plenty of bullets.”

“And whether I run out or not…”

“I’ll definitely save one for you.”

“Not that I’m bragging, but I don’t mind stalling.”

“The longer this drags on…”

“…the worse it will be for you.”