Artifact Report

Chapter 421 Chess - A Good Dog Doesn't Block the Way

The roar of the car engine suddenly shattered the thick shell that had enveloped my consciousness.

The blinding headlights illuminated his vision, and a dark shadow, carrying a heavy force as if breaking through the world, brushed past Chai Si—before he could react, the arm that the resident had grabbed was suddenly flipped backward, almost as if it were being forcibly pulled out of his flesh and joints.

He let out a low growl of pain, finally regaining his senses, only to find himself lying on the ground without realizing it.

The car that just rammed past me turned out to be from the Kai family.

It stopped a few steps away, its taillights piercing the night and staining the raindrops red; the residents and the driver it was with had all disappeared beneath the black car.

But only one long arm, connected to a hand covered with densely packed fingers, still stretched out from under the car, tightly gripping Chai Si's arm.

...Was it Han Liuyue's car that hit it just in time, just as it was about to be hit?
Chai Si gritted his teeth and endured the pain, twisting his wrist as if to grab the resident's arm from below—this was a fighting technique to break free from an enemy's grip, and it actually worked on the resident who barely had a human form, finally allowing him to successfully pull his arm out.

"Brother Chai,"

Han Liuyue leaned out of the car window and shouted, "Get in the car quickly, it's about to crawl out from under the tires!"

Indeed; half of the front of the car was shakily rising, and the headless, two-bodied creature was probably about to stand up.

When Chai Si turned around, he saw that the other brain resident behind him was also swaying and following closely behind him.

Didn't I tell you to leave?

As he scrambled to his feet, he swept his arm across the ground, grabbed the coat in his hand, quickly clenched it into a fist, and shouted without turning his head, "Go and move Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai to a safe place. Don't worry about me, I can protect myself!"

“Brother Chai,” Han Liuyue was clearly exasperated, “what I’m about to say is with the utmost respect for you, so please don’t misunderstand—what nonsense are you spouting?”

Before Chai Si could respond, he took a step forward and, with all his might, threw a punch that shattered the air and the rain, striking straight into the resident's brain.

Even through the outer garment, it still felt sticky and greasy to the touch, as if I had punched someone in the fatty liver.

A punch that could bend an iron gate only caused the driver, who was carrying the resident's brain, to stagger back a few steps and fall to the ground with a thud.

"If I hadn't hit this thing with my car in time, oh, it would have gotten up and said hi, hello."

Han Liuyue waved to the residents before continuing to back up the car while shouting, "If it weren't for me, you would have been in big trouble by now. How could you have protected yourself? Brother Chai, don't act like one of those self-sacrificing, rear-guard characters in a movie. Nobody needs you to cover their retreat. I'm begging you, Ancestor Chai, please get in the car!"

Why does Han Liuyue become more talkative when she encounters a crisis?
“I know you don’t need me to cover your retreat,”

As Chai Si spoke, he rushed forward again, arriving beside the brain inhabitant. He suppressed his nausea and examined it closely—but couldn't discern how the brain was connected to the body. "But I need you to leave. I need you to go find Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai."

"Knowing there's no need to cover the rear, why do I still have to walk by myself?" As soon as Han Liuyue finished speaking, he stepped on the gas and crashed into the headless twin-bodied resident again.

Despite not having a head, it actually has a brain.

As soon as the engine roared to life, the headless, two-bodied inhabitant took a long, long, long stride—its leg, like its arm, seemed to be able to unfold countless joints, and in just one step, it walked across the entire front of the car.

Han Liuyue's angry curse rose from the darkness along with the screeching of the car's brakes and swerving.

The headless, two-bodied resident turned around, his chest, with its countless intersecting bones, once again pointing at Chai Si.

The driver, dragged behind, was repeatedly struck and run over by the car. He was now almost rotten into a bag of unrecognizable flesh and blood, with broken bones sticking out of the skin.

It's strange, they both seem to have a special fondness for each other...

The headless, two-bodied resident was clearly closer to Han Liuyue just now, yet he ignored her and instead walked towards her step by step.

Although this is exactly what Shiba Inu wanted, but... why?
Now is perhaps not the time for doubt.

"Is there a knife in the car? Throw one to me!" Chai Si shouted.

Han Liuyue is becoming more and more disobedient. I told her to "throw a handful" over, but she pushed open the door and got out of the car herself and rushed over.

"I don't have a knife, but I have your T-shaped bar, is that okay? What do you need a knife for?"

The T-shaped bar wasn't very sharp, but it was heavy enough that it might serve its purpose. Besides, he had no other choice.

"Get back in the car," Chase grabbed the T-bar and yelled, "They seem only interested in me."

"Then I won't have to leave at all, right? You tell me to leave, but you don't leave yourself. I really don't understand why."

Chai Si wanted to curse her, or throw her out himself, but he knew there was no time left—he didn't have time to respond, so he swung the T-bar and smashed it heavily into the driver's throat.

In a single blow, the opponent's trachea, throat, flesh... were all smashed into blood-soaked fragments.

not enough.

"I'm leaving, what about the residents?"

Chai Si's attacks were ruthless and precise. Each strike landed precisely on the spot where the driver's throat had once been, and each strike penetrated deeper and was more forceful than the last.

With each heavy hammer blow, his face was splattered with blood. He could only squint, panting, and whisper, "I'm leaving... Aren't the residents still alive?"

With the final blow, his neck bone snapped, shattering into pieces amidst a pool of blood and flesh.

His neck finally broke.

The brain, having lost its connection to the body, can no longer stand up, right?
He knew that the reason he had time to completely break one person's neck was because Han Liuyue had helped him hold off another resident.

Chai Si turned around and was stunned.

He never expected that Han Liuyue would use this method to hold off another resident. Han Liuyue clearly knew she was no match for the resident and dared not touch him, so she only held tightly to the driver's upper body and pulled the driver, who formed the other side of the "compass," backward with all her might—the resident walked forward step by step, and she retreated step by step, and the "compass" was being pulled wider and wider.

"Brother Chai,"

She was struggling terribly, her legs constantly slipping forward, clearly unable to withstand the strength of the inhabitants, her face flushed red. "You...you alone...how are you going to get them back to their nest?"

Chai Si had no answer. He didn't know either.

When he first encountered inhabitants who could enter the human world without needing a passageway, he naturally didn't know how to drive them back to their nests.

All he knew was that if he got into the car and escaped with Han Liuyue, his thirty years of life would become a joke.

Either kick the residents back to their lair, or die here tonight.

Only one thing remained unchanged—he would not take a single step back.

"I...I can't hold on to them anymore," Han Liuyue cried out with difficulty. "Brother Chai, how about this, you get in the car first, and we'll drive the car into them..."

Who was driving?

"I'll drive."

"Are you kidding me?"

As Chai Si spoke, he swung the T-shaped pole around in his hand quickly, aiming it at the headless, two-bodied resident who was about to come close.

Strangely, it could have easily hit Han Liuyue behind it by simply stretching its arm back—with so many joints, length and turning wouldn't be a problem—but it ignored them and only walked towards itself.

why?
"Brother Chai," Han Liuyue suddenly shouted, "Behind us!"

Chai Si quickly twisted his body and found that the driver, whose neck had been completely broken, had actually stood up from the ground again.

No, it was his oversight—his neck wasn't completely broken.

The brain, located on the neck, is still connected to the body by a strip of skin; the brain hangs on the skin, swaying precariously in front of the driver.

Two residents, one in front and one behind, had trapped Chai Si in the center.

Why are they only interested in themselves?

As Chai Si swung the T-bar down on the stretched, thin strip of flesh, another thought flashed through his mind: it seemed he would have to move his feet now.

……and many more.

Since discovering the two residents, he had been standing in the same spot; perhaps he had moved a little during the struggle, but he had always stayed within the same few steps.

In other words, he always stood between the two groups of residents.

Just as the T-bar was about to touch the human skin, a sudden, clear realization flashed through Chai Si's mind—almost simultaneously, he tensed his muscles and forcefully raised his arm, the T-bar narrowly grazing the human skin and being lifted into the air.

He got it.

He finally understood what was going on.

Chai Si let go of the T-bar, bent down, and wrapped his arms around the resident of the brain.

Before another resident could pounce on him, he immediately shoved the brain resident onto his shoulder; flesh, broken bones, and a brain still hanging on the skin splashed all over half of his body like a bucket of water.

Carrying the residents on his back, Chai Si finally took a step and left the spot—not backward, but rushing towards Kai's car.

"Come quickly!" he roared without turning his head. "I know how to get it back to the nest!"

"How do I get you there?" Seeing that he was willing to get in the car, Han Liuyue immediately let go of his hand and followed closely behind.

Chai Si strode to the car, threw the nearly mangled body of a driver into the vehicle, slammed the door shut, and then opened the driver's side door for Han Liuyue. "Get in, drive."

Han Liuyue was still puzzled, but she immediately got into the car, started the engine, and asked, "What about you? Where am I going?"

"It doesn't matter where we drive, the farther the better."

Chai Si closed the car door and, sure enough, saw another resident with two bodies striding towards them. "We've all misunderstood; there aren't two residents here."

Han Liuyue was taken aback. "What?"

There is only one resident here.

Chai Si glanced at the swaying resident in the back seat who seemed to be struggling to sit up, and said, "Two dark abyss belts, one resident."

Han Liuyue suddenly realized.

“Ah,” she exclaimed softly, “emerging from the Abyss was a brain… and a body.”

“They weren’t just interested in me; they wanted to get back to each other, and I just happened to be standing in their way, blocking their way and refusing to move.”

Chess looked at another resident and whispered, "Drive away immediately, then take the brain into the nest. Secure the brain in place."

"how about you?"

“Once its head is back in the nest, its body can no longer remain alone in the human world,” Chai Si said. “I will try my best to hold it back… until you successfully enter the nest, then I will leave.”

(End of this chapter)