Chapter 103: A Thorn in the Eye (Part One)

After listening to the kaleidoscope’s description of the underground creature, I cursed silently. I thought to myself, so this guy is just a freakish monkey; its appearance is terrifying, like a living version of something out of “Saw.”

Nearby, Iron Crutch Liu poked the corpse on the ground with his crutches, sticking out his tongue in disgust and spitting twice. “This monkey looks damn disgusting. Besides, there’s no way those iron nails just grew inside its eye sockets.”

The kaleidoscope chuckled. “Is it really that hard to catch something like this?” He glanced at Ghost-Faced Zhang and Hou Qiankun. “If you ask me, this monkey was definitely tampered with after being caught. Those nails are suspicious.”

“Nails are suspicious?” Ghost-Faced Zhang took a drag from his cigarette, frowning as he examined the two nails lodged deep in the monkey’s eye sockets. The nails were driven so far in they might have penetrated the brain’s central nervous system. Or perhaps the nails were pushed so deep they touched the nerve centers. But that was abnormal—if the brain or central nerves were pierced, the creature wouldn’t still be standing intact for Zhang to hack at. This defied all logic.

“Go, remove the nails,” Zhang ordered, glaring at the kaleidoscope and signaling him to take action.

The kaleidoscope’s expression grew serious. “Third Brother, don’t be so harsh. Let me handle the iron pipe tapping and nail removal.” He gestured toward us—the iron crutch Liu, Dragon Lord Xu Fatty, Mengya, and everyone else. “These guys just stand around poking at it. The crutch guy’s silent now, but he just checked the coffin. The rest of them expect us to risk our lives, then they’ll just scavenge the spoils. What’s the point of having them here?”

His words made us all on this side uneasy and a bit embarrassed. After a long pause, Dragon Lord finally relented and waved his hand. “Sixth Brother, you’re not entirely wrong. Removing these nails isn’t complicated—it’s not a skillful task. Let Old Sha Qi take care of it.” He took a few steps forward.

“Master,” Fatty Xu called out from behind, steadying Dragon Lord’s shoulder. Dragon Lord turned to look at him, and Fatty Xu gave a subtle signal. Dragon Lord frowned, glanced at the only surviving assistant—a young man of about twenty—and seemed to understand. He nodded slightly, then smiled kindly at the assistant.

“Little Du, you’ve worked under Xu Yang for three or four years. How have we treated you?”

Little Du dared not say no. He quickly nodded. “Seventh Lord has shown me great kindness. I’ll go ahead and remove the nails.”

I cursed inwardly. After Iron Head Liu’s death, this guy acted all mournful, but now at the first sign of danger, he uses his men as shields. And then he talks about brotherhood? Pure hypocrisy. I had thought Dragon Lord was a sincere, decent elder, but it turns out he’s all an act, a theatrical performer worthy of an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Life in this underworld is perilous; it’s no surprise. Compared to them, I’m lucky—they won’t let me risk my life poking around traps. Thinking this, I sighed deeply, hoping this tomb-raiding venture would end soon so I could return to being a simple antiques dealer and never deal with these hypocrites again.

Little Du talked boldly but hesitated, not taking a single step forward.

“What’s wrong, Little Du?” Fatty Xu gave him a cold sideways glance and sneered, a veiled threat.

“I’m going! I’m going!” Little Du stammered, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He wiped the sweat and hurried to the upper half of the corpse, trembling as he reached to pull the nails from the eye sockets.

“Idiot!”

Just as he was about to touch the nails, Ghost-Faced Zhang’s low growl suddenly echoed in our ears. In the blink of an eye, Zhang appeared beside Little Du and delivered a powerful “Yingmen Kick” to his chest. Little Du yelped and rolled away like a ball, barely managing to get up.

“Third Brother, what are you doing?”

Dragon Lord furrowed his pale brows, clearly irritated. But before he could react further, Ghost-Faced Zhang was already before him, raising his right hand and delivering a fierce slap to Dragon Lord’s wrinkled old face, nearly knocking him to the ground.

“Ghost-Faced Zhang!” Fatty Xu, seeing his master struck, grew furious and lunged forward, pointing at Zhang with a roar. Yet, despite his shouting, his legs trembled uncontrollably, clearly intimidated.

Zhang frowned sharply at being addressed by name, then swiftly moved like a ghost shadow to Fatty Xu’s side. “Your skin’s itchy? Let me scratch it for you.” With that, he unleashed another brutal “Yingmen Kick” straight into Fatty Xu’s large belly. The blow was so forceful it sent the two-hundred-pound man flying backward over ten feet. Xu crashed onto the ground with a loud thud, sprawled out like butchered meat.