"Hmm?" Qin Yuesheng couldn't help but turn his gaze, thinking to himself that this kid's ideas were quite dangerous.
"It's quite realistic, mainly because the carpenter's craftsmanship is excellent. The face and body are lifelike, and with a bit of dressing up, they could almost pass for the real thing." Du Tankang replied seriously, stroking his chin.
"I have an idea, brother. Over by our pear garden, maybe we can invite a carpenter to make some realistic wooden puppets of the famous actors, then sell them at high prices to those wealthy patrons who come specifically to see the stars. This low investment could yield a significant return."
Qin Yuesheng turned his gaze again, life-sized wooden figurines? Your idea isn't bad, kid.
"Let's discuss this later. I'll first show Yuesheng some of the other things." Du Tankang closed the cabinet and led Qin Yuesheng forward.
A few steps away from the wooden cabinet, there was a tall stool with four legs. On this stool sat a Buddha statue about two feet high, colored in alternating shades of yellow and black. The material seemed neither copper nor iron, appearing very smooth and even capable of reflecting light. The details of the Buddha were crafted perfectly, making it an exquisite Buddhist artifact.
"Yuesheng, this Buddha statue is something I brought back from Dunhuang. It cost quite a bit. According to the collector who sold it to me, it's a treasure that wandered from Shaolin Temple years ago. Dozens of accomplished monks have blessed it, and it's said to absorb the essences of the sun and moon, converting them into spiritual qi to nourish the person who touches it."
"Is it really that mystical?" Qin Yuesheng immediately reached out to touch the Buddha's head but did not feel any difference.
"Touching it once or twice won't work; it requires years of companionship with the Buddha. The collector who sold it to me is already sixty-eight but looks like he's in his early forties, thanks to the effects of this Buddha statue." Du Tankang laughed.
Upon hearing this, Qin Yuesheng grew suspicious, "With such a valuable artifact, did that person go mad or make a grave mistake to actually sell it to you?"
"Yuesheng, you don't know. Though he is a collector, his family fell on hard times in his later years, leaving him not very wealthy. Plus, when I met him, his son had gotten into trouble and was imprisoned, urgently needing money for bail, allowing me to get such a bargain."
Qin Yuesheng patted the Buddha's head, "Interesting, so what's the price?"
"If you want it, Yuesheng, you can have it for a thousand silver taels." Du Tankang smiled.
"A thousand..." Even Qin Yuesheng couldn't help but choke upon hearing the price.
This thing sells for a thousand taels. I don't even know if the mystical effects you mentioned are true or false. If this item is essentially a piece of metal, wouldn't I suffer a huge loss?
In an instant, Qin Yuesheng gently shook his head, "Forget it, let's see something else. I don't have the leisure to worship a Buddha daily."
"No worries, let's look at something else."
While the three were chatting casually, not far away, an elegantly dressed Great Han suddenly had a change in expression, and his entire face instantly twisted, looking vicious and bizarre.
From an angle where Qin Yuesheng couldn't see, the man slowly turned his head, moved his feet, and quickly approached.
He grabbed a sword from the nearby rack, drew it from its scabbard, and in a swift motion, swung the blade toward Du Beilun, who was standing at the back.
"Ah!"
Listening to Du Tankang introducing the various origins of the treasures, Qin Yuesheng suddenly heard a painful cry. When he looked back, he saw Du Beilun clutching his arm with panic and running over, his hand pressed against a clear sword mark that was bleeding profusely and had stained most of his sleeve red.
"Brother, Yuesheng, save me!"
Behind Du Beilun, the elegantly dressed Great Han was hotly pursuing with a sword, and in the blink of an eye, landed two more sword strikes on Du Beilun's back, leaving him severely wounded and bleeding heavily.
"Such audacity!" Seeing someone dare to commit violence and injure his own brother in his own treasure chamber, Du Tankang shouted angrily, leaping into action. His foot swiftly swept the treasured sword out of the man's hand, and upon landing, used a single leg to pivot, delivering a spinning kick like a top, hitting the elegant Great Han's hand and sending the sword flying half a meter away.
The disarming was executed seamlessly, showing that Du Tankang also had a foundation in martial arts.
Even without a weapon, the strong Great Han was unfazed, extending his arms to seize Du Tankang with a fierce bear hug. Standing at eight feet tall with broad shoulders and a muscular build, even his brocade robes couldn't conceal his bulging muscles, immediately revealing him as a brute.
Du Tankang was tightly gripped and couldn't bear it. Despite flailing his legs wildly, he had no effective resistance.
Everything happened too suddenly, and Qin Yuesheng couldn't possibly stand by and watch Du Tankang be strangled to death. He rushed forward and unleashed the Tiger Crane Double Form Fist on the elegantly dressed Great Han.
Yet, this person's body was extraordinarily hard, clearly flesh and blood, but Qin Yuesheng felt like he was hitting an iron plate, his fists and fingers recoiling painfully.
"Could this person have trained in iron-body kung fu?" A thought flashed through Qin Yuesheng's mind.
Immediately deploying the super assistance device, he maximized his strength to the current limit.
Since his fists couldn't harm this person, he decided he must rely on external objects.
Qin Yuesheng turned around, grabbed the head of the Buddha statue, and directly swung it towards the arm of the brocade-clad man. This Buddha statue was estimated to weigh more than ten pounds, and when swung with force, it acted like a blunt weapon, with a power that not just anyone could endure.
Bang!
The statue smashed into the elbow, and the brocade-clad man immediately loosened his grip, dropping Du Tankang to the ground.
Qin Yuesheng was about to muster enough strength to strike again, but at that moment, a large amount of white mist suddenly emanated from the spot on the man's arm where the statue hit. Concurrently, a distorted white human face appeared on his face. With this face's silent scream, the brocade-clad man crazily waved his hand, knocking over the surrounding cabinets and shelves, shattering a large number of treasures on the ground, which made Du Tankang feel quite pained. How much silver taels would be lost?
"It's that thing again!" Qin Yuesheng thought in shock; this was the second time today he had seen such a white human face.
The loud commotion on the second floor naturally attracted the attention of the guards downstairs in Baozhai, and within a few breaths, four Hospital Guards from Qin Mansion and Du Tankang's Baozhai guards quickly rushed upstairs. Upon seeing the brocade-clad man wreak havoc like a madman, the Baozhai guards immediately took out the standard octagonal copper sticks given by Du Tankang and rushed forward, intending to subdue the person and teach him a lesson in the process.
Although Baozhai is a legitimate business on the surface, opening such a store without troubles requires some connections and manpower.
Connections can keep you from being harassed by gangs and prevent subtle interference from the underground forces.
Manpower can handle special situations like defaulting, theft, switching items, and the current situation is one such special occurrence.
"Young master, are you alright?" The four Hospital Guards from Qin Mansion did not bother the brocade-clad man but quickly ran to Qin Yuesheng to ask.
"I'm fine." Qin Yuesheng put down the Buddha statue.
The eerie white human face that appeared on the brocade-clad man was already gone, but he showed no sign of returning to normal. It seemed the strange white face might still be affecting him from within.
Looking down at the Buddha statue, Qin Yuesheng quickly pondered, "Earlier I hit him with this statue, which temporarily caused his abnormal behavior. It seems this statue has a certain restraining effect on targets possessed by the white face, or rather, a restraining effect on the white face itself."
The frenzied brocade-clad man was exceptionally fierce, relying on his resilient skills to withstand eight Baozhai guards without a disadvantage. On the other hand, the Baozhai guards were simply unable to endure the man's fists, with almost every punch resulting in someone coughing up blood and teeth, and suffering fractured bones.
"Quick, go help them. Kill if necessary." Qin Yuesheng immediately said.
"One of you stay and protect the young master, the others come with me."
With the addition of three skilled Hospital Guards from Qin Mansion, the situation instantly improved a lot. Although the brocade-clad man's resilient skills could withstand punches and kicks, they couldn't endure the sharpness of knives. After several slashes, he became riddled with knife wounds, and his brocade attire became tattered.
"Roar!!" The muscles beneath the man's attire suddenly swelled, as he grabbed one unfortunate Baozhai guard who couldn't dodge, and fiercely tore off his arm.
Using this severed arm as a weapon, the man swept like a typhoon through the crowd, carving out a large blank area where no one dared step, lest they suffer a head-on blow from the arm.
"What kind of lunatic is this?" Du Tankang, shocked, stood up from the ground.
After running through numerous places in the past few months, he gained some knowledge, met some people from the underworld, and heard of some masters.
But he had never heard of anyone who could easily fight ten at once like this.
Even with the constraint of the Hospital Guards from Qin Mansion, the man's terrifying strength persisted, revealing blood-red eyes and a ferocious demeanor, clearly having lost all sanity.
As everyone began to retreat in fear, suddenly a figure quickly approached the man from behind, raising a hard object and forcefully striking the man's back head.
Such a clumsy attack was detected by the man immediately, who instantly turned to slap backward.
At that moment, the three Hospital Guards from Qin Mansion abandoned their daggers and leapt to grab the man's waist and legs, stalling his movements and preventing him from turning, forcing him to endure the full impact of the sneaky strike.
The figure behind the man was Qin Yuesheng.
"Ha!"
With both hands gripping the Buddha's head, he smashed it down with all his might, producing a muffled sound. The man's brain instantly emitted white smoke, and the white face appeared again, poised to rush towards Qin Yuesheng and enter his body.
But how could Qin Yuesheng give it such an opportunity? He promptly placed the statue in front of himself, causing it to collide with the white face's essence.
Hiss hiss hiss!
In a blink of an eye, the white face disintegrated instantly, bursting into the air and disappearing completely.