This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

Zhang Chen frowned and pulled his leg out without any hesitation.

He hates these kinds of crying and wailing scenes the most.

He looked at the bronze box again, his gaze lingering on the strange inscriptions.

The more you look at him, the more his brows furrow.

"strangeness……"

He muttered to himself.

"This style of inscription, and this carving technique for cloud and thunder patterns..."

He seemed to be recalling some ancient record, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

When Mr. Zhao saw that he didn't speak, he thought that Mr. Zhao was unwilling to help, so he cried even harder.

"Master, you absolutely cannot stand by and watch someone die!"

Wang Xiaoer also came over. He looked at the bronze box, still feeling lingering fear.

He asked in a low voice, "Brother Chen, is this thing... very troublesome?"

Zhang Chen didn't answer him. Instead, he suddenly looked up at President Zhao and asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Where did you get this?"

Mr. Zhao dared not hide anything and quickly told the whole story, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

It turned out that he had acquired this item half a month ago from a tomb raider who specialized in operating in the border area between western Hunan and Guizhou.

It is said that it was dug out from a lonely grave in the mountains that had never been discovered before.

"Western Hunan... Guizhou and Guizhou..."

Zhang Chen repeated the two place names, and the confusion in his eyes was gradually replaced by a sense of understanding.

He lowered his head again, pointed to a special inscription on the bronze box that resembled a ghost face, and said in a deep voice.

"This thing is probably related to the legendary 'Yelang Kingdom' that has long since disappeared."

The name "Yelang Ancient Kingdom" may be unfamiliar to some people.

But for Boss Qian and General Manager Zhao, it was like a thunderclap in their ears.

They were in the antique business and had encountered far more strange and unusual things than ordinary people, so they knew all too well the mystery and taboos behind those four words.

It was an ancient kingdom that had vanished into the annals of history, filled with witchcraft, rituals, and all sorts of strange legends.

Can something that comes from such a place be a good thing?

Mr. Zhao's legs went weak, and his body, which had just stood up, fell to his knees again with a thud.

He completely broke down this time, almost crying, crawling on his hands and feet to Zhang Chen's feet, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Master! You must save me!"

"I don't know! I really don't know this thing has anything to do with that godforsaken place!"

His voice was choked with sobs, filled with despair.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have dared to touch it even if I had a hundred lives! Please, you must save me!"

Zhang Chen looked at the wealthy man at his feet, tears streaming down his face, without the slightest ripple of emotion.

He neither took immediate action nor offered any reassurance.

He simply looked at the bronze box and said in a cold, factual tone, "It's too late to say all this now."

"You placed this 'evil-nurturing box' here, connecting it with the earth's energy of your villa day and night."

"With the nourishment of your and your family's living yang energy, what's inside has already reached a point of great potential."

"If you rashly open the box now, the murderous aura will fill the sky, and none of you will survive."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhao stopped crying, froze, and only despair remained on his face.

Zhang Chen glanced at him, then turned to Boss Qian.

"Have your friend vacate the house immediately. Before midnight tonight, there can be no living creatures in this villa except the four of us, not even cats or dogs."

His voice was beyond question.

Immediately, he took out a pen and a notepad from his pocket, quickly wrote down a string of things, and handed it over.

"Prepare according to this list, nothing can be missing, and it must be brought back before midnight."

Mr. Qian took the order and saw that it read:

"A live rooster with a comb three inches high and a loud crow."

"Half a bowl of black dog blood, made from purebred black dog, with no adulteration allowed."

"Two ounces of high-quality cinnabar."

"A new inkwell, it must be made of peach wood."

"Five catties of top-quality glutinous rice."

Without the slightest hesitation, Boss Qian immediately pulled out his phone and frantically started making calls, while also dragging the paralyzed General Manager Zhao out of the room.

In the blink of an eye, only Zhang Chen and Wang Xiaoer remained in the huge villa.

Wang Xiaoer had just looked at the list and was filled with curiosity.

"Brother Chen, didn't you say before that printed talismans are more environmentally friendly and more efficient?"

"Why are we using real weapons this time?"

Upon hearing this, the seriousness on Zhang Chen's face vanished without a trace, and he returned to his usual carefree demeanor.

He didn't answer, but turned around and walked to his backpack, unzipping the innermost layer.

He casually pulled out an old wooden box from the deepest part of his backpack.

The box is made of rosewood, with a dark color and worn so much that the original grain is no longer visible. It has obviously been used for many years.

With a soft "creak," the lid was opened.

A rich, deep red cinnabar color and the mellow aroma of yellow paper instantly filled the air.

The box contained no miscellaneous items, only a stack of hand-painted talismans on fine yellow paper, neatly arranged together.

The cinnabar on each talisman was vividly red, the strokes flowing like dragons and snakes, the structure of the runes intricate and mysterious, and a faint spiritual light seemed to flow endlessly across them.

This was worlds apart from the ones he had casually printed out before.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Chen took out a sword from a hidden compartment in the box.

It was a peach wood sword.

The sword was about eight inches long, entirely black, and made of some kind of peach wood. It felt heavy and had the texture of black iron.

The blade, from the guard to the tip, was covered with fine, ant-like runes engraved in silver thread, gleaming with a chilling light in the dim light.

Wang Xiaoer stared wide-eyed.

This is the real deal!

Zhang Chen stretched out his fingers and gently stroked the dark sword blade, feeling its cool and heavy touch.

His voice rose a few decibels, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were deliberately speaking to some "thing" in the house.

"To deal with small fish and shrimp in the water, a fishing net is of course sufficient, saving time and effort."

"But this time, what came from the water might be a dragon."

"If you continue to use fishing nets to obfuscate things, you're just asking for death."

He turned his head, looked at Wang Xiaoer who was full of doubt, and finally a smile appeared on his lips, a kind of arrogance that belonged to absolute confidence.

"Today, I'll show you what I'm made of."

"Our Taoist master's real skill in making a living."

Wang Xiaoer felt a surge of excitement rush from the bottom of his heart to the top of his head. The fear he had felt when facing the copper box was swept away, replaced by endless anticipation and excitement.

Time passed by, second by second.

Night was falling.

It's almost midnight.

The world outside the villa seemed to have been muted; the incessant chirping of insects that usually filled the air had completely disappeared.

The air was eerily still, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Just then, the sound of a car engine came from the villa gate.

Boss Qian and General Manager Zhao returned with the prepared items.

Zhang Chen glanced at the clock on the wall; the hour hand was already very close to midnight.

He picked up the ink line, mixed cinnabar into the inkwell, dipped it thoroughly, and began to draw lines on the study floor.

"Snapped!"

A straight vermilion line was clearly imprinted on the marble floor.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

He moved swiftly and single-mindedly, his vermilion lines crisscrossing and quickly outlining the prototype of a complex formation.

Without looking up, he spoke to Wang Xiaoer, who was standing at the door, staring in disbelief.

"Waiter."

"No matter what you see or hear later, stay focused and keep an eye on them."

"Don't let them step outside the circle I've drawn."