Speaking so bluntly without leaving room for face-saving, Luo Ren couldn’t help but admire: honestly, the world was still rather treacherous, yet this Shen Gun had wandered north and south for so long, speaking so carelessly and unpleasantly, and somehow still managed to live peacefully until now—truly one of the great astonishing cases of the age.
He asked, “If we weren’t specifically chosen, why did everything match up so perfectly?”
Shen Gun’s answer was: “Simply because you four happened to be at the scene at that time, so each of you was assigned one element!”
Luo Ren drew in a sharp breath: What kind of selection was this? Just grabbing random people off the street? Whoever gets caught is it?
Luo Ren asked again, “Then how do we find the fifth fire?”
“When you dealt with the second evil bamboo slip, was there an extra person? If so, that’s the one. If not, just grab anyone randomly, and whoever you grab will be it.”
So childish? Luo Ren didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Shen Gun, on the contrary, became serious.
He said, “Little Radish, don’t read too many of those random novels and stories, thinking that this is all about some predetermined fate, thinking that you were chosen because of your extraordinary talents, so the Phoenix Luan Buckle investigated your ancestors for eight generations and painstakingly brought you all together. You’re overthinking it—I’ve thought about it over and over, it’s just random.”
He continued, “If I had also arrived at the scene at Xiao Shang River that time, there’s an eighty percent chance I would have been fired.”
Luo Ren found it inconceivable: “How can it be so casual?”
Shen Gun laughed, “You think it’s casual? I think it’s perfectly reasonable.”
“What was the situation back then? After waiting for so long, a person of great virtue, Laozi, appeared, drawing seven malevolent qi into seven evil bamboo slips, and then sealing them with the Phoenix Luan Buckle.”
“The Phoenix Luan Buckle and the bamboo slips are materialized things, they are physical objects, do you understand?”
Luo Ren rubbed his forehead and sighed. What did this have to do with physical objects?
Mu Dai saw that this phone call wasn’t going to end quickly, so she went into the cabin to eat first.
“These materialized things could be created even before Laozi’s time, even created in large quantities.”
Luo Ren seemed to understand a bit. Shen Gun meant: the Phoenix Luan Buckle and bamboo slips existed before Laozi, but why couldn’t they seal the seven malevolent qi back then?
So the crucial factor in the sealing wasn’t the Phoenix Luan Buckle, but Laozi. Or rather, both were important, but Laozi’s importance was greater.
Shen Gun said, “If you want to find someone like Laozi in the present age, it would still be very difficult, so I vaguely feel that the Phoenix Luan Buckle is borrowing human power.”
“It’s as if there are five empty positions that urgently need to be filled. Following its guidance, people need to do certain things. Who these five people are, what their character is like, whether they’re special or not—it doesn’t matter. It just needs to fill the vacancies immediately.”
Having said this, Shen Gun sighed again: “Actually, saying you’re not special isn’t quite right either. You are indeed special—you might be the first group to stand up against the evil bamboo slips.”
This was true. Before them, it seemed the evil bamboo slips had only been continuously harming people, unchecked, transferring from Zhang Guanghua to Liu Shuhai, and then from Liu Shuhai to Luo Wenmiao. Those who knew about it only viewed and discussed it with curious eyes, but no one had truly connected the cases and taken action.
At Xiao Shang River, they had genuinely fought against the evil bamboo slip, and not only that, they had trapped it, making a “metal, wood, water, fire, earth” box according to their understanding—although that box lost its effectiveness not long after.
So, they were “chosen” in this way?
Luo Ren smiled, “Being chosen is fine with me. After all, to make Pin Ting fully recover, my original goal was also to find all seven evil bamboo slips and seal them—if that’s the fundamental solution.”
Uncharacteristically, Shen Gun didn’t respond.
This unusual silence brought Luo Ren a sense of unease.
“What’s wrong?”
Shen Gun hesitated for a moment.
“Little Radish, I need to warn you. I’ve seen many similar situations. Don’t simply think that the seven evil bamboo slips are the embodiment of evil, and the Phoenix Luan Buckle represents justice and goodness. The boundaries aren’t that clear. To achieve a goal, any means might be employed.”
Light laughter came from the cabin. Luo Ren instinctively looked up. Cao Yanhua was inexplicably lying face down on the table, with Mu Dai impatiently pulling him up.
He turned around and lowered his voice: “What do you mean?”
“For now, these are just my conjectures, but for some reason, this feeling is very strong—I feel that the five empty positions I just mentioned, once you’ve filled them, you might not be able to get out.”
“That is to say, when you were chosen, you had no option to refuse. After participating, you also don’t have the freedom to just quit.”
A chill rose Luo Ren’s back, and he suddenly reached out to grasp the ship’s railing.
What did that mean?
Even earlier, when he had an open and frank conversation with Mu Dai, he still had plans for her. He didn’t want Mu Dai to be drawn into so many dangerous and mysterious affairs. Yes, Mu Dai might actively request to participate, but that was completely different from being unable to withdraw!
This reminded him of the bewitched red shoes in fairy tales—putting them on unknowingly and then never being able to take them off until death?
He voiced this question: “Until death?”
Shen Gun said, “If you die, new people will fill your place, until the matter is finally completed.”
Understood.
Luo Ren hung up the phone in silence.
If what Shen Gun said was all true, then the Phoenix Luan Buckle didn’t need them specifically; they were just people who could fill the vacancies.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth—these weren’t referring to specific individuals, just symbolic masks that anyone could wear. Those who couldn’t handle the responsibility couldn’t withdraw; they would only die in office, immediately followed by replacements, one after another.
For the Phoenix Luan Buckle, the five paths of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth always needed people at their disposal. It didn’t care at all whether the person was male or female, surnamed Luo or Mu—it just needed someone.
He, Mu Dai, Yi Wansan, Hong Sha, and Cao Yanhua were the first batch of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
With so many dangers and unknowns, any one of them could be replaced along the way, and replacement would only happen in one situation.
Death.
Luo Ren stood by the door, looking at each person inside.
They had all known each other for a very short time. Except for Mu Dai being his girlfriend, with the others, they couldn’t be called friends who would die for each other, nor could they be said to particularly admire or approve of each other.
But he didn’t want to see anything happen to any of them.
Who knows how much time passed before footsteps sounded behind him. He recognized whose footsteps these were.
Luo Ren smiled a little, not turning around, but reaching his hand backward.
Sure enough, someone took his hand.
Warm, slender, and soft. Luo Ren returned the grip, gently pulling, and drew her to sit beside him.
He asked her, “Finished eating?”
She took some food from her pocket and handed it to him—flattened little bread and crushed cookies.
She said, “Cao Fatty and the others are terrible now, eating like they’re snatching food. If you don’t use force, you can’t compete with them.”
She sighed again, “Having a boyfriend increases the pressure; you have to grab double portions when eating.”
Luo Ren laughed heartily. He tore open the bread bag, took out the flattened bread, and bit into it, saying, “But having a girlfriend makes eating sweeter than before.”
Mu Dai blushed a little, but was also extremely delighted. Her eyes were bright, like scattered starlight. She hugged his knee, lightly resting her chin on it, watching him eat, urging him: “Eat up.”
He liked her, couldn’t find any reason not to like her.
Luo Ren thought for a moment and asked her, “Did you take Cao Yanhua as your disciple?”
Mu Dai nodded, “I think he’s not a bad person. He might not learn top-notch martial arts, but strengthening his body is also good.”
Luo Ren nodded, “When you have time, teach him more. In the future…”
Thinking about what might happen in the future, his heart felt somewhat heavy, so he changed to a seemingly lighter way of putting it: “In the future, when we fight groups, we’ll have another helper.”
Early the next morning, the two boats set off again.
The people were divided into two groups: Luo Ren, Mu Dai, and Yan Hongsha on one boat, Yi Wansan and Cao Yanhua on the other.
Yan Hongsha could walk now and was kicking her legs and bending her back on the deck. Cao Yanhua watched enviously from the other side. During their chat the other day, he had already learned that Yan Hongsha also practiced martial arts and had no problem sparring with others.
It was unfair—Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha both knew martial arts, while he and Brother San were frail scholars who couldn’t lift or carry anything.
They hadn’t had time to exercise these past few days. Cao Yanhua was suddenly alarmed, so he quickly got down and did two push-ups.
Yan Hongsha saw this from across and asked Mu Dai, “What is Cao Fatty doing?”
Mu Dai glanced over casually and said indifferently, “Probably tired, lying down to rest.”
They stopped the boats, turned off the engines, cast ropes, and set up a rope path above the two boats.
Luo Ren helped Mu Dai push the small wooden boat into the water, saying softly, “Be careful.”
Mu Dai said, “Don’t worry, I won’t fall into the water.”
She slowly moved the oars, rowing towards the center of the water.
Splash, splash, the oars stirred up water waves. The sunlight was good, but there were many clouds. Sometimes they covered the sun, and then there was no sunlight on the sea, making it eerily cold.
Luo Ren and Yi Wansan had already put on their diving suits, each carrying a small oxygen tank. Cao Yanhua was checking the chain net winch, while Yan Hongsha was checking the water sensor. After a while, she waved to Mu Dai: “It hasn’t come yet, relax.”
It wasn’t easy to relax, after all, she couldn’t swim. The world beneath her feet wasn’t solid; it was swaying unsteadily.
Splash, splash.
Mu Dai couldn’t even say how many trips she had made. People on both sides were leaning against the railings, watching her, like they were observing a boat-rowing monkey in a zoo.
After glancing at the computer screen, Yan Hongsha yawned lazily: “It hasn’t come.”
Perhaps the old clam had become smarter and wasn’t so easily lured to the surface.
Mu Dai was tired from rowing. She laid the oar across the boat, hugged her knees to rest, with her chin on her knees. Whether it was because she hadn’t slept well the night before, drowsiness came over her, and she couldn’t help wanting to yawn.
About to yawn but not yet yawning, she suddenly froze.
In the distance on the sea, there was a water line—straight, snow-white, fast—coming towards them. Initially, it was far away, but in the blink of an eye, it had already come much closer.
Mu Dai couldn’t help but stand up and take out the mini telescope to look.
Water splashed and churned. At the point where it rose and fell, a blue-gray clamshell could be seen.
It was that old clam!
It hadn’t surfaced directly from the seabed in this area but had come around from a great distance, so the water sensor hanging below the boat couldn’t detect it.
It had even broken convention, standing completely upright, like a high-speed rotating gear standing in the water, leaving only a narrow water line.
And the direction of that water line was…
Mu Dai was horrified: it would almost perfectly split her small boat in two!
The water line instantly approached, and her pupils almost reflected the splashing water.
Luo Ren shouted, “Mu Dai! Abandon ship!”
Mu Dai felt cold inside, her limbs trembling slightly. As practiced countless times before, she instantly gathered her qi and leaped up. Her hand just touched the rope, and with a light body lifting technique, her entire body was twisted onto the rope.
At this moment, something happened that no one had expected.
With a huge splash, the spinning old clam broke the water surface and launched into the air, cleaving towards Mu Dai on the rope.
Mu Dai heard Cao Yanhua’s voice, which had become shrill and strange due to extreme terror.
“It flies! It can fly!”