Chapter 637: Chapter 637 The Price Of The Sword
When the mustached man heard my voice, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
He glared at me and snapped, "You’re like a damn ghost! Don’t you make any noise when you walk?"
I rolled my eyes at him. "You were just staring too hard at whatever caught your attention. I still don’t get it - what’s so scary about this coffin anyway?"
The mustached man waved his hand dismissively. "She... never mind, there’s no point explaining it to you. Where’s the loot?"
I didn’t bother with small talk. I triggered the Spatial Magic Artifact right away and dumped everything I’d grabbed from the auction.
Thirty treasures lay spread out in front of us.
The mustached man tossed aside the regular antiques without a second glance.
His eyes zeroed in on a sword, and he snatched it up eagerly.
"This is it!" he said, practically bouncing with excitement.
He clutched the sword, doing some kind of victory dance, his eyes lit up like Christmas morning.
I muttered, "That sword looks pretty ordinary to me. Nothing special about it. Why are you acting like you won the lottery?"
The mustached man kept stroking the blade as he replied, "You’re right, this sword isn’t much on its own. Otherwise the Capital City Martial Arts Association would never have let it slip through their fingers."
He stopped talking for a second.
He tucked the sword away, then gave me a sly grin. "But in my hands? That’s a whole different story."
"What’s that supposed to mean?" I asked.
The mustached man scratched his chin, thinking it over. Then he said, "Ah, what the hell. I’ll fill you in."
"There are four swords like this - they’re called the Four Swords of Immortality. They belonged to some big shot."
"As for who that big shot was, you wouldn’t recognize the name anyway. Just know it was someone really powerful from way back."
His words made me even more curious about this guy.
This mustached man seemed to have inside knowledge about everything, especially stuff that happened ages ago.
"Some big shot..." I thought about it for a moment.
Then I looked at him and asked, "Who’s stronger - whoever owned these Four Swords of Immortality or that masked woman?"
The moment I brought up the masked woman, his face darkened.
He said irritably, "How the hell should I know? They’d have to duke it out first."
I could tell this was a sore spot, so I dropped it. Instead, I got serious. "I handed over the goods. Now you need to tell me how to control those two male corpses."
The mustached man flashed a grin. "Sure, I can tell you. But here’s the catch - only I can actually control the corpses!"
I stared at him, pissed off. "What’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to back out of our deal?"
"No, no, no! I’m not backing out!" he said quickly, waving his hands around.
"I’m telling you the truth. This technique - only I know how to do it."
"But if you bring me the mask, I’ve got a way to bring those two male corpses back to life!"
He chuckled and added, "Look, it’s not that I don’t want to help you out. The problem is, I don’t have the mask."
I frowned, torn about what to do.
Even though I’d gotten to know this mustached guy pretty well over the past while, I still didn’t know jack about his background.
Nobody could say whether he was trustworthy or not.
If he turned out to be trouble, Watson Thompson would definitely be in serious danger.
"I can get the mask," I said coldly.
The mustached man waved me off. "Come on, don’t talk big. I’ve been hunting for that mask for years and came up empty."
I said firmly, "I really can find the mask. But sorry - I can’t hand it over to you."
When he saw how serious I was, his expression shifted too.
"You... you’re not messing around?" All the joking disappeared from his voice.
I nodded. "Yeah, but like I said, I won’t give it to you."
The mustached man’s brow creased. "That mask is sacred. If you really know where it is, I’d be happy just getting a look at it."
"Really?" I asked.
"Really," he nodded.
Even with his promise, I still felt uneasy about the whole thing.
After turning it over in my head, I looked at him and said, "Give me tonight to think it over."
The mustached man rubbed his chin. "Don’t you trust me? I did save your ass."
"This isn’t just my call, so I need to think it through properly," I said.
"I’ll have an answer for you tomorrow morning."
He could only shrug and say, "Fine, I won’t twist your arm."
I grunted acknowledgment and shut up.
I gathered up the treasures from the floor and headed into the back room.
——
By this time, chaos had erupted at the Capital City Martial Arts Association.
The incident dealt a massive blow to the Capital City Martial Arts Association! It was like getting slapped in the face in front of everyone!
"Our top priority right now is catching that black-robed man!" Sybil Cooper snarled at the meeting, his teeth clenched.
"Exactly. As long as we nail the black-robed man, we can at least give people some answers," his assistant chimed in.
"I’m betting it won’t be long before the higher-ups come down on us," Sybil Cooper sighed, worry creeping across his face.
Right on cue, a man in traditional Chinese clothing walked through the door.
Everyone at the Capital City Martial Arts Association jumped to their feet when they saw him.
"Jagger Shah, you... what brings you here..." Sybil Cooper said, his expression turning sour.
Jagger Shah said icily, "What kind of operation is the Capital City Martial Arts Association running that you can’t even handle basic security?"
Sybil Cooper tried to defend himself. "This... this was just an unfortunate incident..."
"Unfortunate incident?" Jagger Shah slammed his palm on the table.
"So many people got killed or hurt this time, and you’re calling it an unfortunate incident?"
"Your Capital City Martial Arts Association claims to be the official martial arts organization. Is this what you call results?"
Sybil Cooper opened his mouth to explain, but Jagger Shah cut him off completely.
"This mess affected a lot of innocent people. You better have a damn good explanation for me," Jagger Shah said coldly.
"Otherwise, your Capital City Martial Arts Association needs to take a hard look at its future."
After delivering that warning, Jagger Shah spun around and walked out.
Even though the confrontation was brief, Sybil Cooper and the others were drenched in sweat.
"It’s all that black-robed bastard’s fault..." Sybil Cooper’s body radiated killing intent that quickly filled the entire room.
Phoebe Billy quickly spoke up. "President Cooper, let’s go with my plan to take out the black-robed man as fast as possible."
Sybil Cooper glanced at Phoebe Billy. "Alright, I’m putting you in charge of this. I’ll give you authority to deploy the black and gold robes."
"Ah? Me?" Phoebe Billy’ face immediately went pale.
If he took action personally, wouldn’t that tip off Mason Raymond that he was the one pulling the strings?
"What’s wrong? Got a problem with that?" Sybil Cooper asked coldly.
Phoebe Billy gritted his teeth, his mind spinning.
"No problem!" Phoebe Billy grudgingly agreed.
"As long as Mason Raymond dies, who cares if he figures it out!" Phoebe Billy thought viciously.
