Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

When Mo Yungao sat next to Zhang Haiqi, she looked at him coldly. The legendary man behind the conspiracy had apparently been suffering from insomnia for a long time. He appeared very weak, but his eyes seemed to flash with multi-colored lights like colored glaze, full of all kinds of changes.

You couldn’t see through this kind of person because they had no fixed form.

Mo Yungao stroked Zhang Haiqi’s ear before grabbing her earlobe and piercing it with the needle. He squeezed the blood out and dripped it into the bottle.

As the blood fell into the bottle, the ladybug inside began to frantically run around.

Mo Yungao couldn’t believe his eyes and shook the bottle. The ladybug fell, got up, and started flying around in the confined space. It constantly hit the wall in an attempt to get out.

Mo Yungao looked at Zhang Haiqi. “You really are from the Zhang family.”

He dropped to the ground in front of the sofa where Zhang Haiqi sat, covered his face, and remained silent for a while. Then, he knelt down and kowtowed respectfully to her.

Zhang Haiqi didn’t expect things to develop like this and stared at Mo Yungao, who didn’t get up for a long time. He seemed very pious, as if he had seen a deity performing a miracle.

But he didn’t untie Zhang Haiqi.

This person is a psychopath. He loves putting on a show.

After he sat back on the sofa, he said, “I’ve read a lot of ancient books. The last time an ordinary person caught a person from the Zhang family was during the Ming Dynasty. I don’t know if the novelist fabricated it, but it’s said that a great genius would pose a threat to the Zhang family every once in a while.”

“There’s no such genius in this era,” Zhang Haiqi said. “The only reason you can even pose a threat to the Zhang family is because there’s something wrong with the family itself.”

“I heard that you people are immortal?” Mo Yungao looked at Zhang Haiqi’s face.

“Nothing can live forever.” Even people in the Zhang family had their own lifespan. Nothing in the world was eternal.

Mo Yungao nodded. “You’re right. But why did Zhang Qishan give you to me? What do you have planned with him?” Mo Yungao asked as he suddenly took out a pistol and pointed it at Zhang Haiqi. “It’s easy for people in your family to untie ropes and handcuffs, right?”

The rope and handcuffs on Zhang Haiqi’s body were still tight and locked.

She didn’t move. “You should be asking him this question instead. Maybe he’s sending you gifts because he wants to make a deal with you.”

Mo Yungao took out a note from the side, wrote a telegram, and asked the guard to send it to Zhang Qishan.

“You’ve caught a person from the Zhang family, so can you not release the plague in those other places? We can talk to each other properly. What do you want to know?”

Mo Yungao laughed. “You can predict what I’m going to do, eh?” He looked out the window, “You’re wrong. I’m not looking for some random person from the Zhang family. You guys aren’t qualified to discuss those things with me. I want to meet that particular person.”

Zhang Haiqi looked at him. “How can you be sure he’ll even show up?”

“Because everyone else that shows up disappears. He’ll know that I’m looking for him. As long as your people disappear one by one, I can force him to come out and see me.”

The image of that pile of corpses flashed before Mo Yungao’s eyes. They arched up, as if something was about to come out of them.

He was dazed for a moment. “Don’t be mistaken. You’re not the first person from the Zhang family I’ve found. In fact, I’ve met three of you. But I have a lot of respect for your people, so your body won’t be wasted.”

As Zhang Haiqi looked at him coldly, Mo Yungao continued, “Why hasn’t my guard come back yet? Do you think he got lost because it’s his first time being my guard?”

Zhang Haiqi frowned, finally noticing that the closed doors on both sides of the carriage had electric-powered locks.

“You’re here to distract me. Someone changed his face and pretended to be my personal guard in order to find evidence of my plan, yes?” Mo Yungao said, “Zhang Qishan has always liked these kinds of parlor tricks.”

Zhang Haiqi moved her wrists, pulling the chain on the handcuffs to the limit. If she pulled any harder, it would break.

Mo Yungao continued, “Since I can fight against the Zhang family, do you think you can use ordinary people’s methods against me? You can’t get what you want.”

**

Zhang Haiyan, who was posing as a guard, took the telegraph and pushed open the door to the next train car. It was very dark inside and there weren’t any guards. The telegraph room was just behind this car.

He lit a flare and found that the train car was full of bottles and jars that had various organs soaking in them like wine.

He took a closer look and saw that there were hands in many of the bottles and jars. Some of the hands had very long fingers.

Then he saw a huge jar that had half of a person’s body in it. Considering how pale the soaked corpse looked, this person must’ve been dead for a long time. He didn’t know what method was used, but he could see that the person had a Qilin tattoo.

They had died from an explosion.

Zhang Haiyan looked around. When he saw that the coast was clear, he lit a cigarette.

The flare went out, so he lit another one and glanced at the reflection in the jar. There was a girl standing behind him.

He turned around. He didn’t know when the girl had shown up behind him, but she was slender and tall, and looked exactly the same as the one he had seen on the Nan’an.

He was stunned for a moment before he realized that something wasn’t quite right. They didn’t look exactly the same, but were very similar. They were twins.

“I’m here to send a telegram,” Zhang Haiyan said quietly.

“Can I have you?” The girl suddenly asked him.

“Hmm?” Zhang Haiyan said. Is the guard having an affair with this little girl? Are we doing it now? He asked himself.

“The commander is still waiting,” Zhang Haiyan said. “Give me a moment.”

“I want you now,” the girl said.

Zhang Haiyan touched the girl’s hair. Oh, my! He thought to himself. She’s so young. She shouldn’t mess around like this.

Suddenly, the little girl grabbed his hand.

**

He Jianxi took the money out and looked at it under the sun. He saw a smaller person carrying a bigger person who was carrying an even bigger person.

What did it mean?

In this sequence, the smaller the person, the greater the weight they carried, which in turn made them stronger.

**

Zhang Haiyan felt an immense pressure coming from the girl’s hand. This kind of strength wasn’t like that of human’s, but more like some kind of animal’s.

Zhang Haiyan had engaged in too many fights and knew things weren’t looking good as soon as he felt the signs of her strength.

He immediately opened his mouth wide, exposing the blades under his tongue. When the girl was distracted by the blades, Zhang Haiyan ripped his sleeve off and flipped over backwards.

The girl was already in front of him by the time he landed, fully prepared to grab hold of his hand again.

“I’ll have your hand first,” she said.

Zhang Haiyan suddenly felt a pressure on his hand and looked down to see that his wrist was now deformed.

He immediately felt pain and used his elbow to hit the girl with all his strength. She dodged a little to the side and then quickly grabbed his other hand.