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As the saying goes, "Earthenware pots always break near wells." It seems that I, this tomb raider, will eventually suffocate in a coffin in an underground tomb, which would be considered a peaceful death. I thought drowsily that even a hundred years after my death, Shirley Yang and Fatty probably won't find my remains. Maybe they'll even believe that I, Hu Bayi, was shot and buried alive by the hijackers Yegev and his gang, or even cooked and eaten in some secret base. Anyway, the police won't be able to find Yegev and his gang of dead men either.

Just as I was about to burst into tears, I suddenly heard someone banging on the coffin outside the stone box, whispering about whether a corpse had risen from the dead. Startled awake by the commotion, I kicked the coffin walls even harder. After a while, someone pressed down on the sides of the coffin lid, carefully lifted it, and a dozen or so submachine guns, accompanied by bright flashlights, were thrust into the coffin. Someone inside shouted in Turkish—(What was that? I don't understand, so I'll just guess. I think he was shouting, "Mummy, hands up, surrender or you'll be spared!"—who knows?)

I secretly tossed the two pistols into the corner of the coffin and pretended to have passed out.

Wait a minute longer (what a waste of time, I was almost asleep) – finally someone came over, looked at me carefully for a while, touched me with the muzzle of a submachine gun, and when they saw that I didn't react (damn it, if I reacted, he would be so scared that he would wet his pants and shoot me like a big zombie), they breathed a sigh of relief, ordered people to carry me out of the coffin, put me on a stretcher, and walk straight out.

Believe it or not, I was so tired that I actually fell asleep while being bounced around on the stretcher. I slept like a log, and when I woke up again, I was in the city center hospital of Halikanassus, a small town in southwestern Turkey.

Shirley Yang and Fatty were sitting beside me, waiting for me to wake up from my coma, little did they know that I was just taking a nap.

Beside the bed, saline solution was dripping into my body through the IV tubing. Seeing me awake, Shirley Yang was overjoyed and asked how I was feeling and what I wanted to eat. You know what, being tortured by those two monsters and ending up with bruises all over my body was really quite a sight.

Just as I was about to explain what had happened, I saw a group of people moving around outside the door—it was the police. I immediately pretended to be weak and said, "I want to eat congee with preserved egg and lean pork. I'm hungry, I'm as hungry as a wolf."

Shirley Yang and Fatty smiled when they saw me pretending to grimace, realizing that I was actually fine.

The fat man punched me and hissed, "Old Hu, you're in big trouble now. You've become the world's most wanted terrorist. There are Egyptian and Turkish Interpol agents crying and begging to arrest you. You're really embarrassed. They say that once you wake up, they'll charge you with hijacking, drug trafficking, possession of weapons, murder, raping an old woman, prostitution, and many other crimes. They'll even bring up that time you secretly peed in your neighbor's flowerpot when you were a kid."

Seeing him smiling seriously as he listed my crimes with his wrench, I deliberately sternly raised my leg as if to kick him. Unexpectedly, as soon as I moved, I found that both of my legs were also in casts, thickly wrapped in white gauze, and hanging from the bed frame. It turned out that my left leg had been kicked and trampled by the hooves of the human-headed horse-bodied monster, resulting in swelling and injury to my tendons and bones.

I laughed and cursed, "Damn it, you fatso, get me some food! I'm starving! I haven't had a drop of water in three days and three nights! Hurry up and get me some food, let me have a little private chat with Shirley Yang, please! Please!"

No sooner had the plague gone than misfortune struck. Just as Fatty Wang left, a large group of criminal police officers walked in. These guys unceremoniously ushered Shirley Yang out, then stood around the bed, giving the impression of a joint trial by three courts.

Damn it, I don't give a damn about you. I closed my eyes, pretended to groan in pain, and turned my face to the wall, completely ignoring these parasites of the nation.

No matter how many times they tried to chat with me in English, Turkish, Arabic, Javanese, or even broken Chinese, I ignored them completely. Damn it, I'm not a suspect. Later, Shirley Yang came in, turned my shoulder, and coaxed me, acting as my translator. Only then did I reluctantly open my eyes and try to talk to this rabble.

It turns out that this morning, a group of tourists, led by a tour guide, entered the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (the white temple-like building), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in Turkey, to visit each level. When they reached the basement of the mausoleum, they were shocked to hear screams and screams coming from the huge coffin inside. The first elderly tourist to reach the coffin was so frightened that he had a heart attack. The group of tourists, terrified, climbed out of the basement to call the police for help.

Just then, police officers from both countries, who were pursuing Yegor and his gang of hijackers through the night, were searching the area near the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus when they heard that a corpse had risen from the ancient coffin and rushed over to provide assistance.

Only now do I realize that last night I was kidnapped by Yegov and his gang, and we were taken deep into the underground crypt of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Yegov and his gang were most likely after the rare treasure in the cold metal box that I had searched in the sarcophagus at the bottom of the tomb.

Thinking of this, I secretly reached out and touched my clothes. Oh my god, the jade hairpin and the metal box were gone! I was shocked, but I couldn't make a sound in front of these policemen, so I frowned, pretended to be in pain, and said to Shirley Yang, "Excuse me, I need to pee."

When Shirley Yang translated these words, the policemen all wrinkled their noses and looked at each other, as if I had just let out a super loud, smelly fart that had disrupted their sense of taste and smell.

I had no choice but to let her go, and Shirley Yang helped me to the bathroom. In the hallway, I quietly asked her where my things were.

Shirley Yang beamed and pulled out the jade hairpin, saying, "Here it is. A nurse gave it to me, saying it was yours."

I gently placed the ancient jade hairpin in her dark hair and whispered, "You're so beautiful, I want to kiss you."

Shirley Yang immediately put on a shy and coquettish expression, like a peach blossom with dew, and said angrily, "Go away, you're such a jerk."

I quickly asked her, "And what about that cold, icy metal box?"

Shirley Yang shook her head and said in surprise, "What box? Nobody's mentioned it."

I knew something was wrong, so I quickly told her to check with my doctor and nurses to see who had taken it. The metal box, neither iron nor copper, was about the size of a palm and extremely cold inside. I hadn't opened it yet. Although I didn't know what kind of treasure it was, it was something that the hijackers, including Yegor and his gang, were extremely eager to possess, acting on orders from Robert.

Shirley Yang looked at me, probably worried about my health. I said anxiously, "I'm fine. I'll go back and deal with those idiots myself. You go quickly, or things might get complicated."

Watching Shirley Yang's lithe figure disappear quickly into the distance, I breathed a sigh of relief, then ran to the bathroom and lingered there for a while. Back in my room, I chatted haphazardly with the Egyptian policeman, who spoke broken Chinese.

I just kept repeating what I had learned: I, a poor foreign tourist, was knocked unconscious by the hijackers, Jagev and his gang, and taken hostage to the high-altitude jungles of southern Turkey. I suffered all kinds of torture along the way, being punched and kicked at every turn, and was almost shot to death in the home of an old couple in a small town. Later, I was knocked unconscious again, and when I woke up, I found myself locked alone in a stone coffin. I was terrified, which is why I screamed for help...

It seemed that they couldn't get any other information. I pretended to be an innocent victim and claimed to know nothing about the whereabouts of Yegev and his gang. The super police shook their heads in disappointment and had no choice but to give up.

Just then, chaos erupted inside the building, followed by the sound of gunfire. Shirley Yang rushed in, frantically saying that there were robbers outside. The super police officers drew their guns and rushed out to help.

After a chaotic fight, with everything in disarray, the five thugs abandoned the bodies of two of their accomplices and fled through the garbage chute on the third floor. Three patients were accidentally injured, and one police officer died.

What was even more terrifying was that Shirley Yang put me in a wheelchair and pushed me to the door of the attending physician's office that she had found earlier. It was here that she encountered the fleeing thieves while she was searching for the doctor who stole the metal box from me.

Through the glass door of the office, we were astonished to find that the enormous doctor's office was completely covered in a thick layer of ice, everything frozen in ice crystals. In the center of the room, a male doctor in a white coat, with a strange expression, was clearly frozen. He bent over, turned his head as if to flee, but was instantly frozen into a bluish-purple corpse, solidified within a block of ice the size of the room. Not far from him, a frozen Turkish man, carrying a submachine gun, reached out and waved to the frozen doctor, a sinister smile on his face.

We were both dumbfounded, never expecting the treasure inside that cold metal box to possess such immense power. It seems that after the jackal doctor took the metal box from me, he summoned his accomplices, and out of curiosity, they opened the metal box, leading to this incredible consequence.

Seeing this, I was actually glad that I was only focused on escaping in the underground tomb and didn't open the metal box. Otherwise, I would definitely be frozen in a large block of ice crystal the size of the entire tomb, like a small mosquito specimen in ice amber, to be studied and admired by people thousands of years later, becoming a mystery.

Shirley Yang, Wang Pangzi, and I sneaked out of the hospital amidst the chaos and drove back to the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. This temple-like mausoleum, built entirely of milky-white marble and standing 135 feet tall, gleamed in the sunlight, resembling the palace of a handsome prince on a white horse from an Andersen fairy tale. It is probably the most beautiful above-ground mausoleum structure ever built on Earth.

As we traveled along, we could see in the distance that an ancient four-wheeled chariot was faintly visible on the small pyramid-shaped structure at the top of it, pulled by four handsome horses, which was very much in the style of Greek mythology.

According to Shirley Yang's explanation, the Mausoleum of Mausoleum was designed by two Greek architects and took 13 years to complete. It was jointly completed by King Mausoleum of Calia in ancient Asia Minor and his wife, Queen Artemisia II, and is also their joint tomb.

It is said that the small kingdom of Gallia was a small kingdom in the southwestern part of the Ayetoli Plateau at that time, ruled by the Persian Empire. King Mausoleum, as a local lord, was frustrated throughout his life. He claimed to be the son of the sun god and wanted to revive the glory of his ancestors, the Ekadominidi dynasty, but he was unable to do so. In his later years, inspired by the pyramid tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, he built this tomb. Two years after his death, the Mausoleum of Mausoleum was completed under the rule of his queen.

Another secret is that, in order to prevent the dynasty's power from falling into other hands, the Kingdom of Galia has always practiced a system of marriage between siblings within the royal family and has not accepted people of foreign blood.

We ascended the wide, majestic marble steps to the midsection of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, where a series of arched columns formed a continuous arcade. The walls were covered with paintings and reliefs, just like the ones I had seen in the Underworld earlier—unique in style and fluid in technique.

I stood before a colossal painting depicting the Lapiths battling centaurs, unable to move for a long time. The two winged monsters in the Underworld were strikingly similar to those depicted in the painting. When I hurried to the portraits of King Mausolus and his queen, I was stunned; it all seemed to be a dream come true. The face of King Mausolus, the figure of Queen Artemisia—I was dizzy.

When I told Shirley Yang about this, Fatty actually burst out laughing, saying I had a nightmare. Only Shirley Yang agreed with my description of the centaur and the human-headed horse-bodied monster. Only then did I truly understand the deep sorrow the centaur felt when facing the remains of the human-headed horse-bodied monster. It turns out that King Mausoleum and his queen were not only childhood sweethearts and biological siblings, but also a devoted couple who had shared a lifetime of love and support in the dark, sunless underground palace.

At that time, the three of us were on our way to Istanbul International Airport in Turkey. We could not afford to waste any more time and had to fly back to San Francisco, USA immediately to do everything we could to rescue Shirley Yang's biological father, Yang Xuanwei, from Robert, whether he lived or died.

Unfortunately, the return journey was fraught with peril. On this short stretch of road, we were first chased and collided with by an unidentified large truck, which forced us onto a sloping cliff below the winding mountain road. Fortunately, Shirley Yang, the driver, though impatient, was quick-witted enough to swerve sharply at the crucial moment, propelling our SUV down the cliff edge. We tumbled and rolled into the dense forest, flipping several times before finally making a steady descent to the bottom of the road and continuing our journey.

Shirley Yang wiped the cold sweat from her face and said, "We're really lucky to be alive."

Later, as we entered the outskirts of Istanbul, we were attacked by snipers from an unidentified high-rise building. Despite everyone's heightened vigilance and caution, the long lead bullet pierced the windshield and then went through the back of the passenger seat.

Shirley Yang slammed on the brakes, and the SUV veered sideways and crashed into a sign tower on the side of a suburban road. It was thrown into a nearby gas station, where the fuel tank ruptured and gasoline spilled all over the ground.

We had just escaped the car and hadn't run far when the sniper's burst of fire ignited the SUV, and the gas station caught fire at the same time. One after another, huge explosions erupted, sending flames soaring into the sky. The massive blast wave threw us over the gas station wall, nearly killing us in the inferno.

Fatty, Shirley Yang, and I extinguished the flames on our backs and got up, our faces blackened. We had escaped death, walking through the gates of hell once again.

Hearing the sounds of people and horses behind the wall, and the honking of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks, the three of us fled into the residential area, through several crisscrossing narrow alleys, and flagged down a taxi on the street. We ran non-stop into Istanbul International Airport and caught our booked flight to San Francisco, ending our perilous journey in Turkey.

Upon landing, Shirley Yang received an anonymous email from our mutual Thai friend, Susa, a senior international intelligence agent. The email stated that the Thai military intelligence agency had secretly investigated Robert, a senior advisor to the CIA, who, using the CIA's vast global network, had planned and organized a series of international terrorist attacks. These included the recent helicopter robbery of the Jadeite at a Bangkok hotel, the Blackjack grave robbery at the "Japan-Mongolia Joint Archaeological Team" camp in Mongolia, the motel bombing at the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Yegev hijacking at Cairo International Airport (Yegev was later confirmed to be a former junior agent under Robert of the CIA), the shooting at the central hospital in Halicarnassus, Turkey, where the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is located, and the recent car crash and gas station sniper bombing that occurred to the three of us in Istanbul.

Through this series of frequent major cases, the Thai intelligence agency has reason to believe that the CIA is intensifying its pursuit of various sacred objects and treasures from the ancient esoteric legends of various ethnic groups around the world, intending to combine the magical power of these objects to form a so-called Yin-Yang and Five Elements matrix, thereby altering the feng shui and geographical landscape of the United States and reversing the direction of ocean currents, in order to achieve the sinister goal of dominating the world.

Damn it, so that's why we've been having so many strange things happen to us these past few months since we met Robert, and they almost killed us several times.

Shirley Yang immediately became alert and led us around the San Francisco airport terminal, avoiding the searches by unidentified mysterious people inside. We took the subway to San Francisco's Chinatown and secretly checked into her seaside villa.

As night fell, the three of us didn't dare turn on the lights in the villa. We ate instant noodles with ham sausages, and the more we talked about Robert, the angrier we became. Fatty couldn't help but stand in the dark room and shout angrily, "I'm going to kill Robert!"

Volume 3, Yin Yang Five Elements Formation, Chapter 66: Breaking the Formation

Hearing Wang Pangzi's shouts reminded me of the scene of the Red Guards "destroying the Four Olds" in front of Tiananmen Square back then, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

I told Shirley Yang and Fatty that the most important thing right now isn't killing Robert, but finding out where Yang's father is and rescuing him and Professor Chen. Tomorrow, Shirley Yang should secretly inform the company's senior management to find out if Professor Chen has returned to the San Francisco hospital.

Furthermore, according to Susa, the Yin-Yang Five Elements Matrix established by the CIA covers a vast area, but its main core hub should be located in San Francisco, as Robert, the main person in charge of this matrix, has been frequently seen there. Looking back now, Ah Xiang's inexplicable suicide by jumping into the sea from the Golden Gate Bridge six months ago is also quite suspicious, and it is highly likely that it was caused by the hyperspace magnetic field of this Yin-Yang Five Elements Matrix.

By the way, Shirley Yang, could you contact Ah Xiang's older brother, Ah Hai, the eldest son of Uncle Ming, again? Find out where he went after we were abducted by Robert onto the submarine, and whether he knows anything about the inside story. We're in the open, the enemy is in the shadows. Right now, it's inconvenient for the three of us to act, so we need to contact as many people as possible who know anything, track down every clue, and try to deduce the possible conclusions of the incident as quickly as possible.

Tomorrow, Fatty and I will dress up, slip out of Chinatown, and scout out the area around San Francisco. Based on the characteristics of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Array, which is modeled after the Hetu and Luoshu on the back of a tortoise, as long as we find any one of the five array points belonging to the tortoise's head or feet, I can draw the location and general area of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Array, which will also help us deduce Robert's approximate whereabouts.

However, the most important thing right now is to clarify whether this large-scale deployment was a decision made by the highest levels of the US government, or whether Robert himself, using his position as a senior advisor to the CIA, was abusing his power to satisfy his own personal desires. Only by clarifying this can we better formulate further rescue plans.

After listening to my long and detailed explanation, Shirley Yang and Fatty's eyes lit up, and they felt hopeful. The atmosphere in the room became lively.

Shirley Yang pondered for a moment, then added, "There's another very important point, concerning our current personal safety. According to Susa's intelligence, the CIA is planning to gather various religious and esoteric treasures from around the world and arrange them within the Yin-Yang Five Elements Array."

Currently, the rare treasures we've obtained are as follows: aside from the lost Holy Demon Token used by King Solomon to rule both the Yin and Yang realms, we also have the Evil Blood Mandarin Duck Swords from the ancient werewolf tribe found in Spartacus's tomb, the Spirit-Gathering Purple Jade from the Thai Vajrayana sect, the Soul-Capturing Pearl from Genghis Khan's secret tomb, the Sun God Stone from the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and an unknown treasure from the cold, metallic box that Hu Bayi obtained from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Turkey. Three of these five treasures are already in Robert's hands, while the Soul-Capturing Pearl and the Sun God Stone were secretly sent back to San Francisco while I was in Egypt.

Unless Robert possesses two other extraordinary treasures, he will inevitably rush to find us and seize the remaining two to complete his Yin-Yang Five Elements Matrix. If that's the case, even if we remain inactive, the CIA will come knocking on our door to rob us.

Hearing this, I shook my head and said, "Considering Robert's repeated assassination attempts on us along the way, and the incompetence and deaths of his Black Jack gang, Robert doesn't possess the other two treasures. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been tracking us. In the future, we should be especially careful with that cold, strange treasure from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus to avoid any unnecessary accidents. Also, after we've finished our business, we should thank Susa properly; the information he provided was invaluable."

After I finished speaking, I turned to the fat man and asked, "Do you have any ideas? You can share them with us for reference."

The fat man, who was listening intently, paused upon hearing this, then stood up and paced around the room a couple of times, rubbing his hands together and saying, "Um, this, that, that, this—"

He suddenly raised his arms and shouted, "I will kill Robert! I will kill Robert!"

Shirley Yang and I burst into laughter and fell onto the sofa at the same time.

The fat man suddenly turned his head and asked in a low voice, "By the way, I just remembered a crucial question, which is—"

He grunted twice, then raised his hand to clear his throat and said, "That's why Susa is so eager to provide us with classified information."

I nodded in agreement, saying, "Great idea, Fatty Wang, you've got it! Susa's feelings are definitely not just based on friendship—"

The fat man quickly picked up where I left off, saying mysteriously, "I know! It's because Susa has a crush on Shirley Yang. Our old rascal Hu Bayi has a rival in love."

Upon hearing this, Shirley Yang's pretty face flushed red, and she hurriedly retorted, "Fatty Wang, don't talk nonsense."

I pointed at the fat guy and laughed, "You little brat, I just praised you a couple of times and you're already getting cocky." The first half of my sentence was in the sky, the second half had fallen into a dung pit.

Even if Susa had a slight liking for Shirley Yang, I glanced at Shirley Yang and deliberately drawled, "That's only natural." After all, our beautiful and generous Shirley Yang is naturally stunning; wherever she goes, she attracts countless admiring glances.

Of course, most importantly, the intelligence agency behind Susa saw the value in our exceptional skills and abilities to travel to other worlds. They deliberately stirred up old and new grudges between us and Robert, hoping to exploit them, adding fuel to the fire and creating a turmoil. They wanted us, these civilian heroes, to act as free mine-clearing engineers, thwarting the CIA's sinister plans to the greatest extent possible. After all, this was a Cold War, and as the official authorities, they couldn't openly intervene.

Upon hearing this, the fat man cursed, "So they all had ill intentions, a bunch of little devils! Right, why don't we take this opportunity to extort some money from them? That's my specialty!"

I nodded repeatedly in approval, saying, "Yes, yes, that's a good move." Shirley Yang then sent a secret message to Susa, requesting that they provide us with a batch of highly destructive supplies to expand our military.

Shirley Yang couldn't wait until tomorrow. She immediately opened her laptop and sent an email to Susa requesting assistance. Then, she contacted the elderly Columbia professor who specialized in history and religion, inquiring about the cold, exotic artifact found in the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

Soon, the old professor replied with a letter, saying that it was very likely a sacred object from the legendary Ekadominidi dynasty, which was once world-renowned—the Ice Essence Jade.

Legend has it that during the ancient Ice Age, a piece of ancient ice essence was inherited and buried deep within the Demon Sea. This ancient ice essence was originally the size of an adult sperm whale, and was actually a ley line of earth veins. Because it concentrated the essence of the Earth's ice energy during the Ice Age, it was extremely cold, freezing the Demon Sea into the last ancient glacier, hidden deep within the Mariana Trench. Later, the Mother of the Deep Sea discovered it and refined it into a few drops of ice essence, storing it like water in her eight-treasure perfume bottle. She always carried this bottle with her, and from then on, she could float out of the deep sea and roam the world's continents.

Later, during a journey, the Mother of the Deep Sea traveled to the icy continent of the far north, where she happened to encounter the Ice Bear King, the lord of the continent. The Ice Bear King coveted the Mother of the Deep Sea's perfume bottle, which contained the essence of eternal ice, and made a bet with her: whoever could freeze themselves the longest within the Earthly Black Hole of the icy continent would win. The stakes were the Ice Bear King's territory on the icy continent and the Mother of the Deep Sea's perfume bottle. As a result, both remained inside the chilling, eerie Earthly Black Hole for a thousand years, unable to determine a winner. Then, the Ice Bear King, with a sudden glint in his eye, ambushed the Mother of the Deep Sea, shattering her water essence with a single blow. As the Mother of the Deep Sea lay dying, she transformed the jellyfish stinger from under her fingernails into a sharp arrow, piercing the Ice Bear King's heart and impaling him within the Earthly Black Hole.

The dying Mother of the Deep Sea escaped the icy continent but collapsed within the territory of the Ekadominidi Dynasty, where she was rescued by the royal family. On her deathbed, she bestowed upon the royal family the Eight Treasures Perfume Bottle along with the Eternal Ice Essence, and infused her remaining spirit into the bodies of the King and Queen, granting them supreme magical powers to control the wind and rain. She instructed them to worship the true form of the Mother of the Deep Sea for generations to come, and not to disobey, or disaster would surely befall them.

From then on, the Ekadominidi dynasty, possessing supernatural powers, commanded the winds and rains, carrying the Eight Treasures Perfume Bottle to conquer the east and west, once subjugating two-thirds of the world's ocean territory and becoming the dominant force in the oceans at that time.

However, the king and queen, possessing supernatural powers, must transform into centaurs every full moon and dive into the deep sea to replenish the magical power bestowed upon them by the Mother of the Deep. They transform into centaurs because the Mother of the Deep is the daughter of the sun god and the sea god, and her original form was a giant seahorse. Meanwhile, the king and queen of the Ekadominidi dynasty also inherited the hermaphroditic nature of the Mother of the Deep, and to maintain the supernatural powers bestowed upon them by her, they began a special clan practice of sibling marriage. They called the eternal ice essence within the eight-treasure perfume bottle "Ice Essence Jade Marrow."

After the fall of the Ekadominidi dynasty, the Ice Essence Jade became an unsolved mystery, its whereabouts unknown. Ancient legends say that this Ice Essence Jade possesses a chilling aura that permeates heaven and earth, capable of condensing extremely cold bodies, absorbing the cold yin of other realms, endowing them with magical powers, enabling them to regenerate limbs and achieve immortality.

Upon seeing this, Shirley Yang and I breathed a sigh of relief, finally understanding the origin of this object.

I was about to turn around when I heard the fat man muttering, "I want to eat braised pork, I want to kill Robert, I want to eat Robert's braised pork."

It startled me. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this fatso really could eat and sleep a lot, and in just a short while, he started talking in his sleep.

Shirley Yang and I laughed. I gently told her to go to bed early, as we had a lot to do tomorrow.

Nothing happened that night. Early the next morning, Shirley Yang disguised herself and went out to contact a group of former members, and also to inquire about Professor Chen's whereabouts. Before leaving, she took a small bag from her room and handed it to us. Upon opening it, we were surprised to find the Soul-Capturing Pearl and the Sun God Stone inside.

Shirley Yang said softly, "From now on, we may encounter danger at any time, and this house will not be very safe. You should keep these two beads with you at all times and not let them fall into Robert's hands easily."

After Shirley Yang left, Fatty and I put on baseball caps and sunglasses, dressed in flashy plaid short-sleeved shirts, plaid shorts, and flip-flops. I also casually tucked a small package containing the two beads around my waist. We walked out of the back door of the villa and strolled around the city streets with an air of nonchalance, looking around as if we were tourists from out of town.

We first took a car to the long-missed Golden Gate Bridge for a stroll. Fatty and I stood by the bridge, walked to the spot where Ah Xiang had jumped into the sea to commit suicide, felt the whistling sea breeze, and looked up into the distance under the sun.