Chapter 23: I'll Have a Word with It!
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Comments:
“????”
“Brother Xuan, that’s going too far. If you don’t want to help, then don’t, but there’s no need to force them to kneel.”
“Brother Xuan did nothing wrong. Those people need to be taught a lesson!”
“So Brother Xuan has a side like this too? Still, this is a little damaging to his reputation.”
“Brother Xuan doesn’t need to stoop to arguing with them.”
“.............................”
Zhang Xuan’s words startled the viewers in the livestream as well.
..........................................
“Kneel?”
Inside the ancient tomb, Zhou Zeyi’s eyes widened. He seemed unable to believe his ears.
Although he did not want to die there, he was still a man with pride and spirit.
The livestream had an audience of one hundred thousand people.
And Zhang Xuan wanted him to kneel before all of them?
Never mind that Zhang Xuan might not even have a way to save him. Even if he did, once they got out, who would still respect Zhou Zeyi?
Telly’s face had darkened too.
Even when killing someone, one usually showed them some dignity. Wasn’t this simply humiliating them?
Zhou Cheng was stunned as well.
He was a fan of Zhang Xuan and had been watching his livestreams for several months. He had never imagined that Zhang Xuan would treat them this way at a time like this.
It was true that they had ignored the warnings and were in the wrong first.
But still...
“Alas!”
He sighed and looked at Zhou Zeyi’s livid face.
The bronze coffin was shaking more and more violently.
The terrifying noise raised gooseflesh all over their bodies.
Yet none of them said a word.
A trace of hesitation flashed across the tall, lean man’s face. But when he saw that Zhou Zeyi still gave no response, he could only sigh.
“Third Master?”
He called out, but when Zhou Zeyi remained motionless, he immediately understood what the older man was thinking.
The tall, lean man gritted his teeth and suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud.
“A true man knows when to bend and when to stand!”
“If we lose our lives, what use is our pride?”
“If none of you will kneel, then I will!”
The tall, lean man knelt without the slightest hesitation, leaving the other three utterly dumbfounded.
Zhou Zeyi seemed somewhat moved as well.
He glanced at Zhou Cheng. His grandnephew was still so young...
“Shriek!”
Just as he was hesitating, a sharp sound suddenly rang through the ancient tomb.
He fixed his eyes on the coffin.
The bronze coffin lid had actually been lifted into the air by a burst of black vapor spraying from within!
That bronze lid weighed over a thousand pounds!
And yet it had been pushed up so effortlessly?
Just what kind of cultivation did the lord inside possess?
Cold sweat broke out all over Zhou Zeyi.
The heroic spirit in his heart scattered by more than half in an instant.
“Thud!”
He abruptly fell to his knees.
The terror of death surged straight into his chest.
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Seeing that even Zhou Zeyi had knelt, Telly and Zhou Cheng followed suit.
Zhou Cheng even placed the phone directly in front of them and said to Zhang Xuan, whose expression was grave, “Brother Xuan, should we kowtow to you twice?”
Zhang Xuan’s stunned expression instantly turned speechless.
“Damn it!”
“I told you to kneel to the lord inside the bronze coffin! Why are you kneeling to me?”
All four of them froze.
Zhou Zeyi seemed to realize something. Staring at the bronze coffin, he asked, “To him?”
Zhang Xuan’s voice came through the phone.
“Obviously!”
“You were about to open his coffin and angered him. If you don’t kneel to him, then whom are you going to kneel to?”
“Besides, he was once the Son of Heaven of the Western Zhou Dynasty!”
“That makes him one of our ancestors, more or less!”
“Is it really so shameful to kneel before the ancestral Son of Heaven?”
“Stop dragging your feet. What are you hesitating for?”
Zhou Zeyi’s expression changed drastically.
“The Son of Heaven of the Western Zhou Dynasty?”
“Could he be...”
Zhang Xuan’s voice rang out again.
“That’s right. It’s King Mu of Zhou, Ji Man, the man named on the bronze bell!”
Zhou Zeyi suddenly sucked in a sharp breath. The shock in his heart was beyond words.
Although he had already suspected as much, hearing Zhang Xuan confirm it so decisively still filled him with an overwhelming震撼.
He turned and glanced at the statue of the Queen Mother of the West on the great bronze tripod behind him.
The statue happened to be facing King Mu of Zhou’s coffin.
So the legend was true after all!
He came back to himself and stared at the agitated bronze coffin.
“Kowtow!”
With that, he began kowtowing repeatedly toward the bronze coffin.
The four of them struck their heads against the ground like pounding garlic.
The tall, lean man kept apologizing through his tears, muttering things like, “Forgive us, Ancestor!”
The sight left the livestream audience speechless with astonishment.
“I knew Brother Xuan wasn’t the sort to take advantage of people in trouble. He was telling them to kneel to the person inside the bronze coffin!”
“That’s actually King Mu of Zhou’s coffin?!!!”
“Brother Xuan, you’d better be responsible for what you’re saying. Is that really King Mu of Zhou?”
“My God! Are we watching tomb raiders dig up the coffin of King Mu of Zhou live?”
“The ancient tomb of King Mu of Zhou, the Son of Heaven of the Western Zhou Dynasty—this is news that could shake the entire country!”
“............”
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Inside the ancient tomb.
Zhou Cheng felt as if his brains were about to be knocked loose. He raised his head and glanced at the coffin, only to discover that the black vapor had not dissipated. Instead, it had grown even denser.
The thousand-pound coffin lid was being pushed up like the lid of a teapot. It could fly off at any moment.
It was not hard to imagine that if the lord inside truly emerged, they would probably be torn to pieces.
“We’re in trouble, Third Master!”
“It’s not working!”
Telly had noticed it too and cried out in terror.
The hope that had just ignited in Zhou Zeyi’s heart instantly turned cold by half.
“Could Heaven really mean for Zhou Zeyi to die here...”
He clenched his teeth, his heart filled with unwillingness.
Yet at the same time, there was nothing he could do.
It seemed that his father’s warning when he had first entered this line of work had come true.
Once you step into this profession, you must be prepared to die an unnatural death.
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“Stop kowtowing!”
“That lord has quite a temper!”
“He probably thinks you came too late. It looks like he has no intention of sparing you!”
“You could knock your brains out now and it still wouldn’t help.”
Zhang Xuan’s voice came from the phone.
The four men’s faces instantly turned as white as paper.
“Then... are we doomed?”
Zhou Cheng had begun to stammer.
In the face of death, no one could remain calm.
He could even feel the coldness spreading through his legs.
“Enough... enough...”
When Zhang Xuan did not respond, Zhou Zeyi closed his eyes and sighed.
Telly wore an expression of despair as well.
The tall, lean man looked like a deflated balloon and simply lay down on the ground.
“Glug!”
“Sorry, I just took a drink of water.”
Zhang Xuan cleared his throat.
“Actually, it’s not that there’s no way out.”
A light instantly blazed in Zhou Cheng’s eyes.
“What way?”
The tall, lean man sprang upright as well, ears pricked.
Zhang Xuan said, “If the gentle approach isn’t working, then we’ll use force!”
Zhou Cheng stared at him in astonishment.
“Force?”
“But... we can’t overpower it!”
Zhang Xuan ignored that.
“Do you still have detonators?”
Zhou Cheng looked at Zhou Zeyi. Zhou Zeyi looked at Telly, and Telly looked at the tall, lean man.
The tall, lean man glanced into the backpack.
“We’ve got plenty!”
“Okay!”
“Strap the detonators to yourselves. I’ll negotiate with it.”
Zhou Cheng froze again.
“Strap them to whom?”
Zhang Xuan sounded somewhat speechless.
“Obviously not to us. Any of you will do!”
Telly suddenly scrambled to his feet.
“I’ll do it!”
Then, beneath the tall, lean man’s touched gaze, he took the detonators from the bag and fastened them around the man’s waist.
Afterward, he patted the tall, lean man on the shoulder.
“No need to thank me!”
The tall, lean man: “..................”
Zhou Zeyi turned and glanced at the detonators strapped to the tall, lean man. If they all exploded at once, the entire ancient tomb would be blown into the air.
It amounted to dying together.
He had no idea what Zhang Xuan hoped to accomplish by having them do this.
What puzzled him most was Zhang Xuan’s final remark.
“I’ll negotiate with it?”
“Young man... may I ask, who exactly are you planning to negotiate with?”
His words seemed to jolt the other three as well. All four pairs of eyes fixed intently on the screen.
In the image, Zhang Xuan answered casually, “Naturally, with the lord inside the coffin!”
“Who else would it be?”
The four men immediately drew in sharp breaths and exchanged incredulous looks.
Zhang Xuan’s urging voice came through the phone once more.
“Bring the phone closer. What if it’s hard of hearing and can’t hear us?”
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