THREE
Miao Shaotian walked at the very end, gripping the pair of golden rings tightly in his hands, so tight that the blue veins on the back of his hands almost popped out.
He shouldn’t have come, but he must.
That merchandise seemed to be emitting a strange field of attraction, sucking him close one step after another. He was not going to give it up until the last moment.
Two statue-like guards stood at the entrance of the underground tunnel. Then for every dozen steps forward, two more guards stood along the way, their faces as grim as the green stones in the walls.
A rampant green dragon was carved onto the stone walls.
It was said that the Green Dragon Clan had three hundred and sixty-five secret branches. This was undoubtedly one of them.
At the end of the underground tunnel stood a gate made of very thick iron railings.
Gongsun Jing took out a large chain of keys from his waist band and then opened three locks with three of them. Only then did the two guards behind the iron bars pulled the gate open.
But this was still not the last gate.
“I know many people can get in here. The guards here are not difficult to deal with. But from here onward would prove to be an arduous task,” Gongsun Jing explained.
“Why’s that?” Young Master Zhu asked.
“Between here and that stone door over there, there are a total of thirteen hidden traps. I can guarantee that there are no more than seven people in the entire world who could successfully get through all thirteen traps.”
“Luckily I am definitely not one of those seven people,” Young Master Zhu heaved a sigh.
“Why don’t you give it a try?” Gongsun Jing smiled even more politely.
“Perhaps I’ll give it a try at a later time, but not right now,” Young Master Zhu said.
“Why not now?” asked Gongsun Jing.
“Because I am perfectly happy staying alive,” replied Young Master Zhu.
The distance between the iron bars and the stone door was actually not far, but after hearing Gongsun Jing’s words, the path seemed to be ten times farther, and the stone door seemed to be even heavier.
Gongsun Jing used another three keys to unlock the door.
Behind the two-foot thick stone door was a nine-foot wide stone cell.
The room was ghastly and chilly as if it were the center of an ancient emperor’s tomb, only that a giant iron chest sat at the spot instead of the coffin.
Opening the iron chest of course required another three keys, but that was not the end of it because there was a small iron chest inside the giant one.
“Such maximum security perhaps deserves some higher prices from us,” Young Master Zhu said with a sigh.
“Young Master Zhu is very clever indeed,” said Gongsun Jing with a big smile.
Taking out the small iron chest, he unlocked it and opened the lid, but all of a sudden, his affable smile disappeared and his face looked as if someone had just shoved a rotten tomato down his throat.
The small iron chest turned out to be empty except a single piece of paper.
The paper only showed nine words, “Thank you! You are such a nice guy!”
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Yay! New translations are always a good thing. So are all the interesting posts about robotics and AI. I don't comment much, but it always makes my day when a new article shows up here.
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