activa-t Chapter 9 Guns and Fire
Chapter 9 Guns and Fire
Zhou Xing didn't wait for him to finish speaking.
He drew his Colt pistol, raised his hand, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
The movements were completed in one smooth motion.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Empty the magazine.
All seven bullets hit Mr. Qin in the chest.
His smile froze. He looked down at the bloody hole in his chest, then looked up at Zhou Xing, his eyes filled with confusion and shock.
"You...you..."
"What?"
Zhou Xing blew on the smoke from the muzzle of his gun. "Lord Qin, times have changed."
Mr. Qin stumbled back two steps and bumped into the wooden shelf, shattering the glass jar into pieces on the floor.
Then he fell backward, twitched twice, and remained still.
The copper bell rolled out of his hand, spun twice on the ground, and then its light went out.
Zhou Xing raised an eyebrow, about to put his gun away...
Those three medicine puppets moved!
Three figures rushed at the same time, bringing with them a strange smell of herbs and blood.
The movements were slow, but the route was straight, blocking any space for dodging to the left or right.
"Damn it, this thing can still move even though its master is dead?"
Zhou Xing cursed under his breath, tucked the empty gun back into his waistband, and instead of retreating, advanced, crouching down to crawl under the armpit of the leftmost medicine puppet.
He circled around behind a medicine puppet, pulled out a dagger, and plunged it hard into the vertebrae at the back of the neck!
"laugh."
Once the knife tip has penetrated two inches into the flesh, it's like piercing through oil-soaked cowhide; it's difficult to go any further.
The medicine puppet didn't react at all, but instead reached back and grabbed, its fingernails black and hooked.
Zhou Xing stepped back to avoid the attack, his brow furrowing. After one exchange, using his listening skill, he could "hear" that these things had no heartbeat, no blood flow.
There was only the sound of some kind of viscous liquid sloshing around, and a faint hissing sound of red lines rubbing together at the joints.
Ordinary vital points are useless against them.
The three medicine puppets had surrounded him.
They don't attack together, but they feel no pain, they don't know fear, they just mechanically pounce and tear.
Zhou Xing used Wing Chun's Siu Nim Tao combined with Ting Qiao, dodging and weaving in a small space, alternating between Tan Shou, Fu Shou, and Bang Shou, to deflect and deflect the grabbing arms time and time again.
But each contact sent shivers down his spine, leaving his arm numb. These things possessed an abnormally strong force.
We can't fight it head-on.
Zhou Xing's gaze swept across the laboratory.
Broken glass jars littered the floor, various medicinal liquids spilled out, an incense burner still smoking, talismans scattered on the table, and the copper bell that had rolled to the ground beside Mr. Qin…
Have it.
He deliberately created an opening, allowing a medicine puppet to grab his left shoulder.
Just before the contact, he stepped to the side, delivering a powerful right-hand punch to the opponent's ribs, using the force to push back.
He crouched down, reached in, grabbed the copper bell, and shook it vigorously. "Ding-a-ling..."
The medicine puppet showed no reaction.
"This bell isn't working."
Just as Zhou Xing was feeling somewhat helpless, he saw the medicine puppet being knocked back two steps and crashing into another wooden frame.
Several earthenware jars on the shelf shattered, spilling a thick, black liquid with a pungent, acidic smell, which then spread all over the ground.
When the drug puppet stepped on it, white smoke immediately rose from its feet, making a "sizzling" sound, but it remained oblivious.
I'm not afraid, but...
Zhou Xing's heart skipped a beat.
He stopped lingering and waded through the mud, moving quickly through the laboratory. Wherever he went, he either kicked over wooden shelves or swept bottles and jars aside.
Soon, the ground and the medicine puppet were covered with various medicinal liquids:
The sour, black water, the dark red cinnabar mixed with blood, the foul-smelling green slime, and the lamp oil flowing from the overturned oil lamp.
When it moves, it makes a sticky "smacking" sound.
Zhou Xing stepped back to the table, grabbed a short stick from the side of the table, and picked up the still-smoking brass incense burner.
The incense burning in the stove wasn't ordinary incense, but some kind of lumpy mixture of medicinal herbs, which was burning brightly and reddish-brown.
He grinned at the nearest medicine puppet:
Here's a hand warmer for you.
He smashed the incense burner over his head!
The medicine puppet neither dodged nor avoided the blow, and was hit squarely.
The burning lumps in the furnace exploded, scattering sparks that landed on it and in the mixed medicinal liquid at its feet.
"boom!"
It ignites instantly.
The flames were not the normal orange-red color, but a strange color mixed with green and blue, rising to about half a person's height.
The medicine puppet instantly turned into a human torch, but it continued to move forward, its body engulfed in flames as it reached out to grab Zhou Xing.
Zhou Xing twisted his waist and stepped aside to let him pass.
The second medicine puppet bent down to grab it, but Zhou Xing crouched low and lunged forward, smashing his staff into the back of the medicine puppet's knee.
Turning around, he flicked his toe, tossing the oil lamp on the table, which hadn't yet been overturned, into the air. It spun around and landed on the staggering medicine puppet.
"puff!"
The liquid-covered puppet arm suddenly burst into flames.
The puppet's movements faltered, and a strange "gurgling" sound emanated from its body, as if the viscous liquid had been boiled.
The third medicine puppet was already behind him.
Zhou Xing had already sensed the force, so without turning around, he lowered his waist and twisted his hips, directly kicking back with his leg, striking Zhou Xing squarely in the chest and abdomen.
The medicine puppet retreated, stepping into the sea of burning medicinal liquid.
Flames climbed up its legs.
The laboratory was ablaze with fire and sweltering with heat.
The three burning medicine puppets staggered in the fire, their movements becoming slower and slower, and the gurgling sound inside their bodies growing louder and louder.
Finally, the first medicine puppet collapsed with a "bang" and stopped moving.
Then came the second and the third bodies.
Zhou Xing stood by the table, his face illuminated by the flickering firelight.
He was breathing rapidly, his internal energy surging within him, his pores almost bursting shut, but apart from a little cigarette ash on his body, there wasn't even a scratch.
He walked to Mr. Qin's body, kicked away the broken wooden frame that was pressing on his legs, and squatted down to feel around.
The body was still warm, and the talisman tattoo on the side of the neck turned bluish in the firelight.
"It does not rot when submerged in water..."
Zhou Xing muttered to himself, "Isn't this a reminder to use fire?"
After quickly turning over the body, he pulled out a hard-covered notebook and a palm-sized wooden plaque from his pocket. The front was inscribed with "Tianjin Chinese and Foreign Charity Association," and the back had two lines of Japanese characters.
Zhou Xing didn't look closely and simply put it in his pocket.
Most of the documents on the table had been burned, and the rest were curled at the edges.
He quickly rummaged through the documents, pulled out a few that hadn't been burned completely, and found some more documents in the cabinet, stuffing them into his back pocket.
He looked around.
The fire was raging, and had climbed up to the roof beams. The smell of burning food mixed with various medicinal odors, making people's heads ache.
We can't stay any longer.
He didn't linger any longer, retreated to the outer room, and closed the iron door behind him. Thick smoke billowed from the crack in the door, carrying with it the strange smell of burning flesh.
The hall remained the same as always.
The blue-faced demon statue bared its teeth on the offering table, and the three sticks of black incense in the incense burner were half-burned, with the gray smoke rising straight up.
Zhou walked over and kicked the ghost statue off the altar. The wooden statue fell to the ground and cracked in two.
He then picked up the fresh head from the table, whose it was, and placed it carefully on the altar.
He pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook out a Hademen cigarette, and lit it over the black incense burner.
After lighting the cigarette, Zhou Xing paused as if he had remembered something.
"I forgot, you can't whip your fists when practicing boxing."
He pursed his lips, and just as he was about to throw it away, he looked up and saw the head.
His eyes lit up.
He stuffed the cigarette holder into his half-open mouth.
"I'll light one for you, and you can take the blame for the fire. That'll be considered revenge."
The cigarette butt glowed and dimmed, as if the head were actually smoking.
Zhou Xing pulled the yellow silk tablecloth from the altar, wiped his hands, and plopped down on the altar.
His left leg was bent and placed on the edge of the platform, his right leg was hanging down, and his back was right next to the smoking head.
He sat there, by the candlelight, flipping through the notes and documents he had just collected, waiting quietly.
The firelight illuminated his profile, making it appear as if it were outlined in gold.
The pages rustled, and in the distance, the faint sound of church bells rang nine times.
It's 7 PM.
About half an hour later, footsteps came from the other end of the passageway.
There were also conversations in Annamese.