activa-t Chapter 8 Population Census, Please Line Up
Chapter 8 Population Census, Please Line Up
The person who just came in was kneeling on the prayer mat, kowtowing and muttering incantations.
Zhou Xing glanced around; he was the only one in the hall. There was a small door on each side, with curtains hanging from it.
He heard snoring behind the left door and rustling sounds behind the right door, like something being moved.
He moved.
The kneeling man had just finished his third kowtow and was about to stand up when he suddenly felt a numbness in the back of his neck, and his whole body went limp.
Zhou Xing helped him up and gently laid him down next to the prayer mat, making it look like he had fallen asleep while kowtowing.
From the door on the left, loud snoring could be heard.
Zhou Xing lifted the curtain and went inside.
It was a small room with a wooden bed. A lean man lay sprawled out, reeking of alcohol. On the bedside table sat a half-empty bottle of strong liquor and a dish of peanuts.
He walked to the bedside and pressed his hand against the man's neck. The snoring stopped.
The sound continued from the door on the right.
Zhou Xing pressed his ear against the door to listen. There were two people, one humming a tune and the other complaining:
"...This godforsaken place, making us move things in the middle of the night. That bastard Liu San must have been slacking off and sleeping again."
"Stop talking nonsense and get this done quickly. It needs to be delivered before dawn."
Zhou Xing knocked on the door.
Who is it?
As the heavy object landed, a voice from inside asked.
"Open the door and check the water meter."
After a murmur, footsteps approached, the door opened, and a dark-skinned man appeared.
Seeing Zhou Xing in his police uniform, he asked in confusion:
"So early today?"
Zhou Xing glanced inside and saw that the room was filled with wooden crates, and a man in short clothes was dragging a crate toward the door.
He didn't answer, but took a step forward.
The man who opened the door sensed something was wrong and was about to close it and call for help when Zhou Xing arrived. He pressed the door with his left hand and then struck the man's Adam's apple with his right.
The man groaned, clutched his neck, and collapsed.
The person in the inner room was so frightened that they backed away and tripped over the box.
Zhou Xing caught up, grabbed the man's chin with his right hand, lifted and twisted it upwards with a soft "snap". The man's eyes widened, and he collapsed to the ground.
The room fell silent.
Zhou Xing then looked around.
Some of the wooden crates were open, revealing bottles and jars filled with various powders, dried herbs, and clumps of things wrapped in oiled paper, emitting a pungent odor.
There was another iron gate in the corner, which was closed.
Just as they were about to continue, a sharp whistle suddenly came from inside the iron gate!
It was shrill and piercing, like the cry of an owl.
Zhou Xing thought to himself that something was wrong; the whistle sounded rather eerie.
Footsteps came from inside the iron gate, hurried and disorderly. Judging from the sound, there were at least three or four people.
He stepped back and dodged behind the wooden door.
The first one to rush in was a burly man with a face full of scars, carrying a ghost-head knife.
Seeing that the house was empty, he was stunned for a moment.
Then he rushed to the wooden door, and just as he was about to open it, at that very moment,
Zhou Xing took a half step back, lowered his waist and hips, and used his strength to rise from the ground, twist through his waist and hips, and reach his heels.
His entire leg slammed into the lock of the wooden door, like a swung iron rod.
Wing Chun foot support!
"boom!"
The wooden door shattered with a crash, sending splinters flying.
The burly man was stunned by the flying splinters of wood and dust, and instinctively raised his arm to cover his face.
Zhou Xing swayed and rushed out from the breached door, instantly cutting into the opponent's center goal.
He took the dagger from his waist with his right hand, and with a flash of black light, he aimed straight for the "Yanggu" acupoint on the opponent's wrist holding the knife.
Fast, accurate, and ruthless!
"Well!"
The burly man felt a sharp pain and numbness in his wrist, and he lost his grip on the dagger, which slipped from his hand with a clang.
Before the knife hit the ground, Zhou Xing's left hand caught the opponent's left fist with a spread-out motion, then his palm flipped over and stuck to the opponent's forearm, pulling him to his side.
The burly man, already off balance from his forward momentum, was propelled forward by this clever force, staggering and falling forward.
Zhou Xing didn't even look. He turned his waist and stance, and his right elbow, like a spear, slammed into Zhou Xing's ribs with a side elbow strike!
"Bang!"
The dull thud was like the sound of leather being struck.
The burly man groaned, crashed into the earthen wall of the corridor, slumped down, and fell silent.
At that moment, the second and third people pounced on each other simultaneously.
One wielded a short stick, the other a water-splitting spike; their teamwork was impeccable, blocking Zhou Xing's movements to the left and right.
It moves forward without retreating.
He stood firmly on the ground, his body as stable as a rock.
As the short stick came slashing down, he parried with his left hand, sticking to the stick and pulling it away, causing his opponent to lose his balance.
As the water-splitting dagger pierced his ribs, he twisted his waist and hips to dodge the blade, then thrust his right elbow, like a spear, into the opponent's heart.
"Bang!"
With a muffled thud, the water-split thorn's eyeballs bulged out, and it collapsed to the ground.
The man with the short stick tried to pull it back, but found that it was as if it were being clamped by iron clamps and could not move at all.
Zhou Xing advanced smoothly, his right hand thrusting upwards like a venomous snake spitting its tongue, the tip of the knife precisely striking the Tanzhong acupoint on Zhou Xing's chest.
The man felt a sudden numbness in his chest, and the short stick clattered to the ground. Without even a groan, he collapsed.
The fourth person had just rushed in when he witnessed the three people fall to the ground in a flash. He was so frightened that he turned to run away.
With a flick of his wrist, Zhou Xing sent the dagger flying out of his hand and "whoosh" it embedded itself in the back of the man's knee.
"what!"
Amid screams, the fourth person fell to his knees.
Zhou Xing leaped forward and kicked the man, sending him sprawling forward and kicking him into the dust.
The room fell silent.
From the moment the door was breached to the moment the three people collapsed, only seven or eight breaths had passed.
Zhou Xing tugged at his collar and clicked his tongue:
"The census failed because everyone is an unregistered person."
He walked to the half-closed iron gate and listened quietly for a while.
There were breathing sounds inside, very soft, but drawn-out. There was also the sound of paper turning, and a kind of... faint buzzing, like the flapping of insect wings.
Zhou Xing pushed open the door.
It's a laboratory.
Wooden shelves lined all four sides, filled with glass jars containing various organs—hearts, eyeballs, and fetal embryos—floating in murky liquid.
In the center was a large table piled high with ancient books, talismans, and grinding tools. In front of the table were three black lacquered coffins, their lids open.
A man was sitting behind the table, wearing a gray long gown and round-framed glasses, looking down at a yellowed book.
Hearing the noise, he looked up. He was in his forties, with a fair complexion, and looked like a schoolteacher.
Upon seeing Zhou Xing, he smiled slightly:
"From the police station? You're quite agile."
Zhou Xing didn't reply, his gaze sweeping over the copper bell beside him, the clapper made of a human finger bone.
"Just you?"
Zhou Xing asked.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to handle too much."
The man put down his book and stood up.
He was not tall, but had a broad frame. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing arms covered with dark blue-black runes.
"Let me introduce myself. My surname is Qin, and I am the 37th generation successor of the Xiangxi Paijiao sect. Have you dealt with those good-for-nothings outside?"
Zhou Xing nodded.
"pity."
Mr. Qin shook his head. "They're not very useful, but they're okay at moving things. Now, I have to do it myself."
Before he finished speaking, he had already grabbed the copper bell with his left hand and shook it violently!
"Ring ring!"
Three people slowly sat up inside the three coffins.
No, it couldn't be considered human anymore. Its skin was bluish-black, its eyes were sunken, and its body was covered with purplish-black lividity. But its movements weren't stiff; instead, they possessed an eerie agility.
They climbed out of the coffin and stood beside the old man, their lifeless white eyes staring at Zhou Xing.
"A medicinal puppet that has been refined for forty-nine days."
The schoolteacher smiled and said, "It leaves no mark from a knife cut and doesn't decay from water immersion. The material is just like you, a martial artist. If you're interested, you can become roommates with them..."
"Bang!"