Heavily guarded and claiming that not even a fly could get in, Section 13 was robbed once again, just one week after Shendu's physical body was destroyed.
All twelve Talismans were stolen by Valmont and his crew. Yet, holding these powerful magical artifacts, the only thing their brains could imagine doing was robbing banks.
Valmont's skills were quite good, at least much stronger than trash like Finn and Ratso, but he was just too obsessed with money and wealth.
Of course, that was before he was possessed by Shendu's soul. The Talismans were meaningless to the current Shendu. Trapped in a mortal's body, only by unsealing the other seven demons could the man and the dragon both gain their respective freedom.
To unseal the demons, they first needed to find the sealed doors and the key to open them: the Pan'ku Box. The ancient tome recording this treasure was stored in Uncle's antique shop.
Holding sharp weapons naturally stirs murderous intent. Valmont, Ratso, Finn, Chow, and the Black Tiger Hak Fu formed a new five-man villain squad, preparing to storm Uncle's antique shop.
Holding all twelve Talismans, tell me, how could they possibly lose?
However, an accident still occurred. That's just how things go—the more flawless you think a plan is, the more likely an accident will happen.
When these fools executed their robbery plan, Serie was visiting the antique shop, exchanging knowledge with Uncle about the Chi magic unique to this world.
Don't be fooled by Uncle using magic while holding a dried pufferfish, hopping on one foot, and chanting "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao"—Chi magic was actually a very high-level concept.
Although the floor for Chi magic was very low, its ceiling was boundlessly high.
Serie loved doing two things in her life: one was researching and collecting more magic, and the other was acting like a tsundere while teaching her disciples.
Anyone who interrupted her magic research, every single one of them, was put on her little black book.
The Talismans were strong, but no matter how strong an item was, it depended on who used it. After fleeing with their tails between their legs, the group could only choose to outsmart them.
They decided to steal it using invisibility. The modded Snake Talisman came with an infinite duration Invisibility X effect. In this situation, only Zenith could find out where they were via the minimap; everyone else was out of luck.
Having gotten used to being robbers, turning back into thieves was really a bit uncomfortable, but they were forced by the circumstances.
By the time Uncle discovered this, Shendu and his crew had already arrived at the first seal location: Tokyo, Japan.
This was only because Captain Black made a phone call, plus Tohru noticed a missing book while cleaning the bookshelf. Otherwise, those two would still be immersed in their passionate magic discussion even now.
Zenith listened in for a while and felt that learning this was worse than learning normal magic. At least science-based magic could be calculated with math. Uncle's Chi magic blended shamanism, wizardry, and the Five Elements of Yin and Yang, making it as profoundly mysterious as an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
Zenith's brain temporarily couldn't handle the ideological conflict between two magics with completely different foundations. After thinking it over, he decided to provide Serie with material support, becoming a glorious chef during their magic exchange.
"We must snatch back the Pan'ku Box before Shendu and the others. Jackie, I'm leaving this to you. Uncle needs to research the Chi magic to seal the demons."
An eager Jade was left at home to watch the shop. Zenith knew Jade was about to start causing trouble; the Jade army was about to go online.
Teleportation couldn't reach an unexplored map, so Zenith chose to take a plane and follow Jackie to Japan.
"By the way, what did you think after watching your own movies earlier?"
On the plane, Zenith and Jackie chatted idly, but Jackie himself wasn't interested in that topic; his actual job was an archaeologist.
The flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo took nearly twelve hours. Since Jackie didn't like small talk, Zenith didn't bother him and read a novel out of boredom. Beside him, Jackie slightly closed his eyes and began breathing rhythmically.
This actually caught Zenith's attention.
'Shendu's scroll?' Zenith raised an eyebrow and activated his mana vision. He could see that with Jackie's rhythmic breathing, the righteous Chi between heaven and earth began to circulate back and forth within his body, slowly wandering through his meridians bit by bit.
Good grief, did we really just switch to a wuxia movie set? This thing was much more advanced than that True Meditation technique he created himself.
He could ask Jackie about it when he had the chance later; the latter probably wouldn't refuse.
Without the vehicle destroyer Joseph on board, the plane arrived safely from Los Angeles to Tokyo without any accidents in between.
Upon arriving in Tokyo, Zenith subconsciously glanced at his minimap and was surprised to find that Optimus Prime was actually here too, and his icon was right next to Shendu's group.
Good grief, don't tell me the car Shendu and the others are driving is Optimus Prime in disguise? Could there really be such a coincidence in the world?
Tokyo wasn't that big to begin with. Zenith quickly flew above their coordinates, looked down, and sure enough, saw Ratso driving a red-and-blue flatnose truck, with Valmont and the others sitting in the cab.
No, seriously, what was Optimus Prime trying to do? Was he planning to start a war with Earth's dark Chi forces right now?
Following the truck from the sky as it circled around Tokyo again and again, from noon until sunset, Zenith finally confirmed it: these blockheads were lost.
The Pan'ku Box would give the general location of the sealed lands, but the exact location was indicated by a riddle. Just like this time, the riddle was: "It runs but cannot walk, leading to a mouth that cannot talk."
He couldn't guess it, couldn't guess it at all. Zenith had long forgotten such minor details. Riddles like this were better left to Jade or Jackie.
"Do you have any thoughts on this riddle? I've been listening to Shendu and the others blabber about it for so long my ears are getting calluses."
Zenith activated his brainstorming mode, but it was clearly useless. Speaking of which, where was Jade? Did she really stay obediently in the shop this time?
He and Jackie had taken a commercial flight to Tokyo. Under these circumstances, there was no way Jade could have passed security through normal means.
So, Zenith opened the closet and looked at Jade, who was smiling sheepishly inside, asking with a shocked expression, "So how exactly did you get to Japan? This is thousands of miles away from Los Angeles!"
She couldn't have taken the stairs again, right? That was just a meme, not an actual causality-altering skill!
Jade scratched her head and said a bit sheepishly, "Optimus Prime brought me here. I wanted to call El Toro and Viper, and add Optimus Prime to form a Super J-Team!"
That made sense; it actually connected perfectly. Although Optimus Prime was a truck, he was a bona fide alien. His speed and method of movement couldn't be calculated using Earthling logic.
It was only natural that he could run faster than a plane.
But seriously, why would Optimus Prime listen to Jade?! And how did he end up mixing with the Dark Hand gang?