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"Then do as you say, but after you go in, everyone must be vigilant and careful!" The Buddha warned.
Just as Zhang Qihai said, they no longer have any choice. If they want to fully find out the secrets hidden in the mine, they can only take the initiative.
As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Qi walked into the temple, and the remaining three followed him in.
As soon as we entered the ruined temple, we saw Master Qi Ba had already greeted the group of people: "Dear brothers, today a few of us are passing by your precious place and would like to ask for a meal. I wonder if you can do us a favor?"
This group of people ignored Mr. Qi Ba and just ate the food in their hands, treating the Buddha as if he were air.
Seeing this, Master Ba turned his head and said to Adjutant Zhang, "Give me the money."
Chapter 18 Ninja
Mr. Qi Ba took the money, handed it to the leader with a smile on his face and said, "Brother, can you please help me? Consider this money as my invitation to tea for all of you brothers. I haven't eaten all day and I'm really starving."
"Brother, in this world, money is not even as good as paper. It's useless for us to hold it, right?"
The leader said without even raising his head, not caring about such a small amount of money. This was normal. The currency of this era was too chaotic. The price changed every day. It was indeed not even as good as paper.
"Master Buddha, I remember you should have some silver dollars on you, right? Do you think this is okay?" Master Qi turned his head and smiled bitterly.
"for you!"
Zhang Qishan took out a few silver dollars from his pocket. He was the one who brought the Eighth Master here, so he naturally couldn't let him starve. Besides, the little money he had was nothing to him, Zhang Dafo.
"Thank you Lord Buddha!"
Mr. Qi Ba hurriedly took the silver dollar from Mr. Buddha, and then handed it to the leader of the other party, and said again: "Brother, do you think this silver dollar is okay? Can you help me? Things may change, and we are all away from home. You may need us in the future, right? Let's make a good relationship."
"What you said makes sense, but you also saw that there are only these things in the pot. It is not enough for the three of us brothers. If there are four of you, I'm afraid we brothers will also starve, so..." The leader was tempted by the silver dollars, and seeing that several people were dressed unusually, under the temptation of money, he wanted to raise the price again.
"Will these silver notes be enough? This is all we have. If you still don't agree, we can only find food by ourselves." Seeing the other party speak like this, Mr. Qi Ba naturally understood the other party's plan. If he wanted to raise the price, he quickly handed over the silver notes and silver dollars.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man who originally wanted to extort money had no choice but to stop raising the price and nodded in agreement.
"Brother, what are you talking about? We are all away from home, so we should take care of each other! Come and sit down, let's eat together. If it's not enough, we also brought some dry food."
The middle-aged man took the banknotes and silver dollars from Mr. Qi Ba's hand, and a look of joy instantly appeared on his face. His two brothers also very considerately gave up their seats for the four people.
Mr. Qi was already extremely hungry. When he saw that the other party agreed, he sat down beside the pot, picked up a pair of bowls and chopsticks, and started to eat from the pot.
Seeing that Mr. Qi had already started eating, Zhang Qihai and others also took a pair of bowls and chopsticks and started to eat with relish.
After all, they were all together. If only Mr. Qi Ba was eating alone, it would be too weird. Besides, the dish cooked by these three people was quite authentic, so they were very hungry.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes, everyone became familiar with each other.
Seeing that it was almost time, Master Ba began to tease the group of people and asked the middle-aged man, "Brother, what kind of business are you doing? There is no one in this desolate mountain and wilderness. You are so arrogant just to eat. What are you doing here?"
"What can we do in this deep forest? We are all hunters in this mountain, and we make a living by hunting. If we leave the mountain, we won't know how to do anything, so we can only stay here, and hunting is okay for us." The middle-aged man smiled bitterly, and then asked, "What are you guys doing in this deep forest, dressed like young masters?"
"We come here...here..."
When Mr. Qi Ba heard the middle-aged man's question, he was suddenly speechless. The question asked by the middle-aged man was too sudden and he had not prepared in advance.
Fortunately, Zhang Qihai took over the other party's words and helped Mr. Qi Ba out: "We are tired of staying in the city, so we came here to take a look at the scenery in the mountains."
"Oh, so that's it!"
The middle-aged man nodded and said nothing more.
"Oh, by the way, brother, our horse was injured on the way here. So if we want to go back, we may have to walk back. But this place is far from the city, and we can't walk for so long. I wonder if there is any other way to go back to the city?" Zhang Qihai asked tentatively.
"There may be no other way. If there were people in the town before, they could find a carriage to take you back. Now most people in the town have left. If you want to go back, you can only find a way by yourself except walking back." The middle-aged man shook his head, obviously unable to do anything.
"No way? When we came here, we saw railway tracks near the town? Is there no train to go back?" Zhang Qihai finally asked the point.
After these words were spoken, Lord Fo, Adjutant Zhang, and Lord Qi Ba all became alert and stared at the faces of these people to see if there was anything unusual.
After hearing Zhang Qihai's question, the middle-aged man's face suddenly looked a little strange, but he quickly returned to normal. He put down his bowl and chopsticks and laughed, "Train tracks? What train tracks? We brothers have never heard of them. You may have seen it wrong. We are full. You can eat slowly! Brothers, go back and rest."
After saying that, he waved his hand and asked the two younger brothers to leave.
Although the middle-aged man's expression quickly returned to normal, Zhang Qihai still caught the abnormality.
After seeing the strange changes in the men and their eagerness to leave, Zhang Qihai immediately smiled. His guess was not wrong, so he said confidently: "There must be something wrong with these three people. They may know something about the train."
"Ah? Little Master Fo, didn't their boss say that he doesn't know what a train is." At this time, Master Qi Ba still hadn't figured it out.
"Haha, unless they are fools, how could they not know about the huge railway tracks on the edge of the town and the sound of trains passing from time to time? Besides, if ordinary people heard us mention the train, they would definitely be curious and ask questions if they didn't know about it. But you see the three of them, they just left directly. I dare to conclude that these three people must know about the ghost train!" Zhang Qihai explained.
"And have you discovered? There is one thing about them that has already exposed them." At this point, Zhang Qihaihai kept it a secret and spoke mysteriously.
"What did you find?"
Several people were quite interested in Zhang Qihai's discovery and quickly asked further questions.
"When the middle-aged man in charge just now told the two brothers to leave, the two brothers subconsciously stood at attention. This reaction can only be seen in soldiers who have been in the army for many years." Having said this, Zhang Qihai paused and continued: "If they are really ordinary hunters in this mountain, how can they have such well-trained movements? I dare to conclude that they should be spies specially arranged here by the Japanese!"
"What is the purpose of the Japanese placing spies here?" asked Mr. Qi.
"The Japanese have arranged spies here to monitor every move of this town. If my guess is correct, they should take action before tomorrow morning. So, our trick of scaring the snake today has worked!" As Zhang Qihai spoke, the smile on his face grew deeper.
"Master Buddha is worthy of his name, he is really amazing. He can infer so much information based on these clues. What should we do next?" Adjutant Zhang agreed with Zhang Qihai's analysis.
"Let's eat first and rest here at night so that we can observe their movements. When they take action, we will follow them and should be able to obtain more useful information." Zhang Dafoye made the decision.
After they finished their meal, the moonlight gradually grew brighter.
The four of them found a place in the ruined temple that was convenient for observation and rested there.
Although they were resting, except for the heartless Eighth Master, Zhang Dafoye and others were just lying on the straw mat and dozing. Their attention was always on the direction of the three people. As long as the three middle-aged men who claimed to be hunters made any movement, they would immediately follow them.
The fact was just as Zhang Qihai expected. When it was almost dawn, the three people started to move.
On the straw mat on the other side of the ruined temple, the three hunters who seemed to be fast asleep suddenly opened their eyes at the same time, looked carefully in the direction of Zhang Qihai and others, and after confirming that no one had discovered them, they quietly left the ruined temple.
After they went out, Zhang Qihai, Master Fo and Adjutant Zhang on the straw mat also opened their eyes and smiled at each other.
"These Japanese spies are really patient. They didn't take action until dawn. I almost fell asleep." Zhang Qishan joked, and then continued: "Adjutant, wake up Master Ba quickly. We should be careful to follow their footsteps."
Upon hearing this, Adjutant Zhang quickly woke up the sleeping Master Ba.
The group left the ruined temple and followed the footprints along the way, quietly following each other and keeping a certain distance.
After chasing for a while, they saw several people going up the mountain. Suddenly, a thick fog appeared on the road ahead. Seeing this, Master Fo said vigilantly: "The fog in this mountain is getting thicker and thicker. We have to be careful! Adjutant Zhang, go protect Master Ba, and you must follow me!"
Zhang Qihai and Adjutant Zhang nodded quickly and continued walking forward.
When they were about to catch up, there were no traces of footprints on the ground.
"Master Buddha, something is wrong. It seems we have been discovered by the other party! They have deliberately cleaned up the footprints on the ground!" Adjutant Zhang said after careful observation.
"It seems that these people are undoubtedly Japanese spies. They should be around now and may attack us at any time." Master Buddha 018 ordered, and several people became cautious, always on guard against any disturbance around them.
However, Mr. Ba did the opposite and shouted to all around, "Damn little Japanese, you are all hiding in the dark like turtles. If you have the guts, come out and fight us! Is this your Bushido? I think you will be called turtle ninjas from now on! You don't even have the courage to fight head-on, can you not even beat a scholar like me?"
I have to say, Mr. Qi is not only good at fortune-telling, but he is also very sharp-tongued!
This speech almost cursed the other party's ancestors. The Japanese spies who were hiding in the dark and waiting for the opportunity to strike were forced to launch an attack.
'call out'
There was a sound of iron breaking through the air, and a dart broke through the mist and flew towards Mr. Ba's vital point.
Just when it was about to hit, Adjutant Zhang, who was in charge of protecting Mr. Qi Baye, acted quickly and shot down the opponent's hidden dart.
Mr. Qi Ba, who had saved his life, did not stop, but cursed even more unscrupulously.
At this time, the Japanese ninja hiding in the dark could no longer bear it, and threw darts at Mr. Qi Baye. Adjutant Zhang frowned. He could handle this one dart, but when several darts came, he was overwhelmed.
Fortunately, Zhang Qihai on the side pulled out the black gold ancient sword that he had kept in his backpack and blocked the hidden darts in no time.
"Thank you, Adjutant Zhang and Master Xiao Fo. If you hadn't helped me, I, Qi Tiezui, would have died here today." Master Qi Ba looked at the shot down hidden dart and said with lingering fear. If Master Xiao Fo hadn't provided timely support, he would probably be a corpse full of hidden darts.
"Eighth Master, you're welcome! Since I brought you out, I will send you back safely!" Zhang Qihai waved his hand and said when he saw that Eighth Master was fine.
After the other party exposed their position, Zhang Qihai no longer had any scruples. Without waiting for the Buddha to speak, he rushed straight into the fog. Only the sound of metal colliding was heard in the fog.
Zhang Dafo was afraid that his younger brother would suffer, so when he was about to rush into the fog to support Zhang Qihai, he saw that the fog automatically dispersed.
The person who came into view was Zhang Qihai, with three people under his feet. When they looked closely, they found that they were the three hunters, or the Japanese ninjas.
It was obvious that these three people were no match for Zhang Qihai, and they were captured by Zhang Qihai in no time.
"Master Buddha, you are so amazing! You have taken care of all three of them in such a short time." Master Qi Ba said admiringly.
"It's just a small matter. Oh, by the way, this is the money they cheated us of yesterday. I took it back." Zhang Qihai said with a smile, and shook the silver notes and silver dollars in his hand.
When Mr. Ba was about to take it, Zhang Qihai stuffed the banknotes and silver dollars into his arms.
"Really? Little Buddha, I accompanied you on this trip with great difficulty and almost lost my life here, but you are not willing to give me such a small amount of money. Aren't you too mean?" Mr. Qi complained and looked at Zhang Qihai with a resentful look.
"Okay, stop joking, let's interrogate these three people!" Buddha interrupted the two people's playfulness and turned to the three Japanese spies and said, "Tell us the truth! Who sent you here? And what happened on the train? Where did the coffin on the train come from? Tell us the truth!"
Chapter 19 Clues interrupted
"What train? What coffin? Big brother, we are just ordinary hunters in this town. These things have nothing to do with us! Is there any misunderstanding? Please let us go!" The middle-aged man in the lead wanted to continue to be stubborn, trying to distance himself from the matter and pretending to be wronged.
"Humph, what a hunter! I have never seen hunters as skilled as you. Look at the hidden darts you used. They are clearly engraved with your Japanese logo. Do you still want to continue to deceive us? Tell the truth quickly, otherwise, don't blame us for being rude!"
Zhang Qihai snorted coldly, the threat in his words was obvious.
"Since you have discovered us, there is no need to hide it anymore. You are right, we are Japanese ninjas, so what?" the middle-aged man sneered.
My identity has been revealed. There is no point in hiding it any further. I might as well admit it openly.
"Okay, now that you have admitted it, let's talk about something useful. First, tell me, who sent you here? Who asked you to kill us? And where did the coffin on the train come from?" said the Buddha with a serious face.
"Don't dream! We won't tell you! Long live the Empire! We swear allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor until death!"
"Swear loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor to the death!"
"Swear loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor to the death!"
After the middle-aged man finished speaking, the other two accomplices also shouted at the same time. Then the three of them opened their mouths and bit hard.
Seeing this, Master Qi Ba hurriedly said, "Hurry up and stop them! They are preparing to commit suicide by taking poison! If they succeed, our clues will be gone!"
Just when Master Fo and Adjutant Zhang were about to cut off the jaws of the three spies, it was too late. The three men had already bit open the poison bags hidden in their teeth. This poison took effect very quickly and killed people instantly. In a moment, the three men fell straight to the ground, and it was too late to save them.
Looking at the three bodies lying on the ground, Master Qi Ba said helplessly: "These three people are dead, and I'm afraid our clues are gone. Master Buddha, let's hurry back to Changsha City. There's no point staying here."
"Oh, I should have removed their jaws first!" The Buddha also sighed helplessly.