Finn, Ratso, and Chow—when these three first made their appearance, they actually had quite an imposing presence.
After all, not just anyone could report directly to the boss of the Dark Hand, let alone know the organization's greatest secret: the statue in Valmont's office that was actually Shendu.
He was the Fire Demon, sealed away a thousand years ago by a human archmage. His power had been shattered by a spell and scattered into twelve talismans. Finding these talismans was the main questline for the first phase of this world.
Therefore, you couldn't just call these three mere lackeys in the Dark Hand; they were at least regional managers.
"Step aside, pal. We don't need to start a fight. We're just here on some private business."
The one speaking was Finn, dressed in his signature white suit. He was still maintaining basic politeness, but a hint of impatience was already showing on his face.
The person blocking his way was Reiner.
Everyone brought over from the Titan world had been enchanted with a "Comprehend Languages" spell by Serie, so communication wasn't an issue.
Reiner wasn't the type to actively pick fights, but as someone possessing the Power of the Titans, he was faintly being categorized by this world as part of the "Good Chi" faction. Instinctively, he felt a strong aversion to Finn's trio.
Zenith waved his hand from behind. The green Good Chi circled around them for a moment before leaving in utter boredom, as if it realized that this batch of "good seedlings" were completely unselectable targets.
This was just the world's automatic underlying mechanism. Misjudgments were inevitable for newcomers, which Zenith could understand. As long as it didn't try that again, there wouldn't be a problem.
Reiner suddenly snapped out of his daze, scratching his head as he stepped aside.
Finn and the other two squeezed their way to the shop entrance, looking Jackie Chan up and down. They had seen Jackie from afar once before. Now that they had found their target, they didn't waste any time. "We know you found a shield in Bavaria. Hand it over, and our boss will give you an offer you can't refuse."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zenith instantly interjected, "Well, that's unfortunate. I just bought every valuable item in this shop. I am the current owner of that shield you're talking about."
Standing to the side, Jackie hesitated to speak. He had no intention of handing the shield over to either party. However, drawing their ire onto himself right now wasn't a good idea.
He wasn't afraid of a dozen unarmed thugs, but this was his shop, and his niece Jade was here too. If a fight broke out, he would have to worry about collateral damage.
So, he planned to wait for both groups to leave and then quietly follow them to investigate what was really going on.
If they were just collectors, there was nothing to worry about. But if there was some dark secret involved, Jackie's sense of justice wouldn't allow him to just stand by and watch.
Finn looked back and forth at the people Zenith had brought with him, eventually resting his gaze on Serie. "What a cute little girl. Are those things on your ears supposed to be an elf cosplay?"
The underlying threat in his words was self-evident. Although Serie didn't care and was in absolutely no danger herself, Zenith's face still darkened after hearing Finn's remark.
"I suggest you rephrase that. You're half a gag character at best. Crushing you to death would be easier than squashing an ant."
Just as Finn was about to smile and say something else, Zenith delivered a backhand slap that sent Finn spinning through the air, crashing headfirst into the wall across the street.
Ratso and Chow exchanged a glance, both seeing a massive sense of cowardice in each other's eyes. *This guy is bad news, time to bail!*
*To slap a man that far away requires at least several tons of force. Even I couldn't have done it better.* Jackie nodded to himself, suddenly realizing he had completely misjudged the situation.
This seemingly unthreatening leader was actually the most powerful martial arts master among them.
"Shouldn't you serve a good pot of tea to a customer who just paid with a solid gold ingot?"
Zenith crossed his arms and teased. Jackie finally snapped out of it and hurriedly turned around to call Uncle out.
After instructing Jade not to run off, he leaped a few times to scale the roof, quickly chasing after Finn's group as they drove away down the street.
Weighing his options, he still felt that Finn's group was more suspicious. After all, using a little girl as a threat was truly despicable behavior.
Zenith had barely taken a sip of tea when he noticed Jade had already vanished. Under his mana perception, Jackie was sprinting across the rooftops at sixty kilometers per hour. Jade's little legs were pumping furiously as she trailed closely behind him.
The omnipresent Chi in this world was truly miraculous. What was even more miraculous was how it made people naturally accept all of this as perfectly logical.
"Valued customer, you have an excellent eye. According to the current market price of gold..." One second Uncle was staring at the gold ingot, and the next, his eyes locked onto Serie's ears.
"Aiya!" Uncle pointed at Serie's ears. With his sharp eyes, he could naturally tell that those ears were the real deal.
There were many strange creatures in this world, naturally including elves. However, in this universe, creatures with pointy ears were usually up to no good.
Vampires, cursed puppets, chupacabras—Uncle's mind rapidly recalled the knowledge taught to him by his archmage master.
Using Chi magic required a medium. Common ones included dried pufferfish, dried lizards, or slightly more advanced runic scrolls.
But obviously, Uncle didn't have a single one on hand right now.
The shield wasn't important; the talisman was. Jackie had brought back the shield embedded with the Rooster Talisman from Bavaria, kickstarting the progression of this world.
Dark Chi currently held the upper hand. The world's Good Chi hadn't yet had the time to buff Uncle, leaving him with nothing to do but panic.
Zenith pinched Serie's ears with both hands, flicking them up and down. "Uncle... going by that title really takes advantage of people. Anyway, there's no need to be so tense. We're actually very friendly."
Uncle was highly skeptical of this claim, but after glancing at the gold ingot on the cash register, he felt that this group did indeed look rather kind-hearted.
Zenith pulled out the shield hidden in the corner. With a flick of his index finger, the octagonal talisman embedded in the center of the shield popped out and landed in his hand.
One-twelfth of Shendu's power.
The talismans—these were the powerful artifacts that spanned the entirety of Jackie Chan Adventures, serving as the very soul of the animated series.
Simply put, these things were unreasonably overpowered. Each demon corresponded to one element and one ability, yet Shendu somehow possessed twelve of them.
Setting aside Shendu's identity as the Fire Demon, the fact that he was a "Dragon" was also a massive source of power in itself.
"Rule-based levitation, with the cost of power paid by this world itself. If that's the case, the talisman will become useless once I leave this world, won't it?"
Zenith pondered for a moment. Right in front of Uncle, he hand-crafted a Rooster Talisman from a Minecraft mod and handed it over.
Watching a bunch of square blocks appear and disappear—and even a perfectly cubic chicken that popped out of nowhere—Uncle fell into deep thought.
"I'll trade you this one for it. What? You're saying you want the original? Fine, I'll throw in a Rabbit Talisman too, how about that... Hey, people shouldn't be too greedy! If you keep this up, I'm not buying all that junk outside!"