In a room reserved for formal disciples.
Casio lay on the ground, feeling the chill rising from the solid stone slab. He shifted his body, beginning to search for sensation.
The room was dim, the curtains already drawn.
He took a deep breath, with the last remaining scale in the upper right corner reduced to a mere trivial point.
Hum...
It's coming! Casio's brain swayed, holding his breath in an instant.
Around him, the pale red curtains, wooden tables and chairs, and the dim room began to fade in a bizarre way. It was as if an oil painting by a painter on a wooden rack was suddenly doused with water. All the colors mixed and fell together in a flash.
Shaking, spinning, trembling!
Despite the discomfort, Casio forced himself to open his eyes wide.
At this moment, his mind was extremely focused.
Pat, as if some layer of membrane was punctured by something.
The blurry senses became clear again.
"Poor... bug..."
Bang!
It wasn't the sound of a gunshot but the sound of a fist swinging and colliding!
"Ah!!!"
The expression of the Antique Commissioner named William twisted as he clutched his wrist, with a lump protruding from his skin; his right hand was dislocated!
On the ground, a black handgun lay quietly.
"Where is he!?" He swallowed the severe pain and looked down, only to find that Casio, who had been under his foot, had disappeared.
"Sam, help me..." William turned his head, his face changing dramatically because there was an extra silhouette behind his companion.
Ka-chak! Two robust arms reached out from the darkness.
And in the blink of an eye, twisted Sam's neck.
"Damn!" William spun around and fled wildly, making a fish leap towards the ground, trying to pick up the gun with his intact left hand.
Thud!
William flew out quickly, rolling back and forth on the ground. He felt his chest creaking, a pain transmitting from the bones to the muscles, his rib was definitely broken!
"Cough, cough, cough!" William coughed violently, suddenly noticing a black shoe stepping on his wound.
Following that, it ground forcefully and heavily.
"Ah..." William flailed his arms, he was in so much pain he wanted to curl up, but he couldn't. Even his pupils were somewhat distracted.
"Now it's your turn to be scared."
Above his head, a deep voice echoed.
William forced his eyes open, the tears squeezed out by the pain blurred his vision. All he could see was a blurry tall figure looking down at him, the hazy scene silently stern.
"Is he going to kill me?! Yes, I was just mocking him, taunting him, wanting to kill him. Of course, he wants me dead! He's just responding to previous insults and taunts..."
William blinked hard, the thought of death made him fear uncontrollably. When he pointed a gun at others and issued death warrants, he was arrogant and rampant. But now that it was his turn to be stepped on, his mind was filled with fear.
Without his control, William started to tremble all over.
"Seems like the one who's scared pissless isn't me, it's you. You poor, pathetic thing, I'm sending you to meet the great Hong Li right now."
At this moment, Casio repeated all the words William had once told him, uttering them with a calm, confident tone.
This confident declaration heightened William's fear, and he screamed, "No, you can't kill me! Fire Deer..."
Bam! A brutal straight punch brutally slammed down.
"Hmph!"
Bam! Another punch.
"Heh..."
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam...
Casio straightened up and stood, blood dripping from his fists hanging at his sides. William's face was a bloody mess on the floor; he was no longer breathing.
"Ha..." Casio exhaled and chuckled. The Sword of Damocles, which had been hanging nearly two hundred days over his head, finally broke.
He walked a few steps forward, wiped the blood spatter off on Williams's clothes, then picked up the handgun from the ground using the clothing as a barrier. Aftersome consideration, he shot both William and Sam with it.
The shooting was at close range, into the temple, and the blood poured out.
After some shots, Casio tossed the gun into the corner. It wasn't that he didn't want to use a more powerful firearm, but that he hadn't had professional training. In an emergency, his fists would be of more use.
It took him quite a while to aim at the two corpses with the gun just now.
In the dim tunnel, the air was heavy and nauseating, filled with dust mixed with the smell of blood, giving a vivid unpleasant sensation.
Casio weighed the pendant in his hand. It was a pure white ivory pendant that had saved his life - this antique.
With the pendant around his neck, Casio scanned the surroundings. He was at the end of a long corridor, behind him was a hall of ruins filled with faded murals. A pile of rubble lay on the floor where he had accidentally broken a stone pillar.
"Hmm?" Casio walked a few steps into the hall. He discovered a metallic object exposed in the middle of a pile of loose rocks. Pushing the rocks aside, he saw that it was a mask.
"Could this also be an antique imbued with obsession?" A thought flickered in Casio's mind as he flipped the mask back and forth. To his surprise, the back of the mask was also a face. This mask was not for wearing, but merely an ornament.
Just as he was about to examine it further, the mask in his hand cracked with a snap and fell to pieces on the ground.
"What a pity..." Casio shook his head, not just because the mask had shattered, but also because it didn't contain any obsession. It lacked that bitter taste in his mouth he got when he held the Wind Elephant Ivory Pendant.
A few minutes later, a silhouette silently advanced through the dim tunnel. Suddenly, he stopped, glancing left.
A corpse with gray hair lay on the ground at the fork in the road; its hair was dyed red with blood. It was Casio's professor from Zexi University, and also the leader of this archaeological expedition.
After a deep look, Casio didn't stop. His first priority was to leave this underground relic.
No one could guarantee that the Fire Deer Antique Company hadn't stationed more people outside. If they sensed something was wrong and sent more a team down, Casio had no confidence in his ability to fight off firearms.
Especially not several distant enemies wielding firearms.
Martial arts was not omnipotent, and flesh could not withstand gunpowder bullets. At least not until he had perfected a secret martial art.
Guided by his previous memory, he quickly ran up through the dim tunnel towards the ground. The sound of his footsteps echoed off the cave walls.
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Swoosh! Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!"
Casio suddenly stopped. He could vaguely hear the sound of gunshots and fighting. A negligible distance further, he suddenly heard a man's roar.
"Shadow Demon! You monsters can go to hell! Amen!"
The next moment, there was a violent shake, and the whole tunnel began to sway. The sound of one explosion after another reverberated in Casio's ears. "Someone set up explosives outside!"
Boom, the stone wall tunnel collapsed.