Artifact Report

Chapter 422 Chess's Son
Han Liuyue drove away with the residents' brains in his car, but that didn't mean the battle was over.

Chai Si was breathing heavily, his white breaths coming in clumps that plunged into the damp, cold, and dark December night.

This night was too long.

He couldn't wait to get back into his car, back inside where the downpour wouldn't reach him, take off his wet clothes clinging to his body, and make himself a hot cup of coffee...

And knowing that Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai were safe, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

But before Chai can return home, this resident must first disappear from the world.

Chai Si wiped the water off his face, stared at the swaying Compass Residents not far away, and picked up the T-pole again.

It not only knew that its brain had run away in the car and which direction it had gone, but it also knew the fastest and most efficient way to catch up. As soon as Han Liuyue left, Chai Si turned his head and found the residents of the circle crawling into Morgan's SUV on all eight limbs.

...Is this guy going to chase after him in his car?

One of the residents is quite adept at taking advantage of worldly conveniences.

Chai Si quickly walked around to the other side of the SUV, opened the passenger door, and watched as the headless resident dragged the driver's body and struggled to climb into the car.

The driver's seat is a space that can only accommodate one person; it is difficult to squeeze in or arrange for a family. The driver's body thudded into the car several times but could not fit, and once it even pulled a resident out of the car.

This scene wasn't something you could just see anytime, so Chai Si stayed put and watched the show for a while.

The residents finally came up with a solution: they first lifted one side of their buttocks onto the seat, then tossed the driver's body onto the back seat like a ponytail swing, finally managing to sit down properly—and it was at this moment that Chai Si reached out and pulled out the car keys.

He put away his car keys and watched as the headless resident turned into a headless fly.

It frantically searched the car, but couldn't find the keys or start the engine. The longer it was in the car, the further its mind wandered, and the more frustrated it became. The more it groped and thrashed, the harder it hit the bodyguard's corpse in the car. After a few swings of its arm, it had smashed the body into a bloody mess.

Chai Si thought for a moment and then stepped back.

The residents finally lost their patience and suddenly swung their arms again, shattering the entire windshield into a shower of silvery shards—if the driver hadn't sensed something was wrong and left early, he probably would have been disfigured by the countless shards of glass that erupted.

Chai Si sneered, walked around the SUV, and watched the residents climb back down from the car.

It pinpointed the direction Han Liuyue had gone, slowly bent down, placed its hands on the ground, bent one leg slightly, and stepped back with the other.

If you ignore the driver's body on its back, it looks like a standard starting position for an athlete.

Chai Si strolled over to its side, ready to go.

“Run!” he grinned in the rain. “Are we waiting for the signal flare?”

As if they had heard it, the residents took off running the next second.

Under the rainy night, the T-shaped pole hugged the ground, drawing a semi-circle—this strike caused Chai Si's waist and back to twist, and the force he unleashed seemed to crack the earth.

It cut through the residents' skin, and with overwhelming force, devoured deep into the layers of shinbones.

The resident probably didn't expect that as soon as he took that step, his lower leg would break first, and he would lose his balance and fall heavily onto the road.

Chai Si immediately rolled backward, just in time to avoid the long arm that the resident swung at him at the same time—under the rainy night sky, the resident's arm cut a fan-shaped afterimage in front of his eyes, each fan bone being an arm of different shapes.

“Oh, so you can see me,” he said, leaping up and taking a few quick steps back, laughing breathlessly. “You were so focused on your brain that you didn’t want to pay attention to me?”

Fortunately, he didn't have to hear the residents' disgusting noises—the headless resident in front of him was obviously anxious, annoyed, and irritable, half-lying and half-kneeling on the road, and had actually started to pound the ground in a fit of rage.

Chess could almost picture its scream.

“Blame yourself for coming in,” he whispered. “If you just go back to your den, you can continue being a pest. There is no place for you in this world.”

In the time it takes to say a few words, the resident's leg bones had miraculously closed up again, layer by layer. When it finally calmed down and stood up again, the driver's body draped softly over its back like a cloak.

It first "looked" in the direction Han Liuyue had left for a few seconds, then suddenly turned around and walked towards the SUV next to it.

Chai Si stepped back two paces, patted his pocket, and found that the car keys were still there.

Since it's still there, let it be. Even if you recast the car with molten steel, it still won't—wait, right?

Chai Si was taken aback.

This time, the residents opened the back door instead.

What's in the back seat? Just the corpses of two bodyguards who were almost turned into mincemeat by it.

A resident stretched out one arm, pointing at the car as if to say, "You're not allowed to come any closer," while his other hand pulled a corpse off the back seat.

One on your back isn't enough? You want to carry another one?
Under Chai Si's bewildered gaze, the resident raised a hand, and twenty or thirty fingers swayed in the air like countless gentle willow leaves, lightly brushing against the corpse's neck.

The neck, as if coated with hot butter, slipped smoothly off the body; the head turned and met Chai Si's eyes.

The unfamiliar male face on the ground was quickly embraced by two hands.

The residents lifted the human head, weighed it in their hands, and began to place it into the black mist on their necks.

……and many more.

What do you mean?
Does losing a brain mean it's okay, as long as you can just install a new one?
Chai Si didn't know whether it was just daydreaming, making up a story, or actually using some unthinkable method—but as long as it was something the residents wanted to do, he couldn't let it succeed.

He gripped the T-bar tightly and lunged at the resident, his muscles taut with power; he was confident that with one strike, he could smash the head away and render it useless to the resident.

By the time Chai Si realized he had been tricked, it was too late.

He had been keeping a close eye on the residents' hands and heads; perhaps he had been careless.

But after fighting with it for so long, Chai Si never expected that the residents would have something new that he had never seen before.

Just as he lunged at the resident, raised his arm high, and before the strike could land, a long, fleshy shadow suddenly shot out from between the resident's thighs, which were tucked high into his chest, and struck Chai Si's ribs.

He couldn't even utter a sound.

The intense pain, exploding like fireworks, vanished into darkness in an instant.

Chai Si only vaguely felt that he was falling, falling endlessly, as if death was a never-ending descent.

It wasn't until the back of his head slammed hard against the ground, causing him to groan in pain, that his shattered, snowflake-like consciousness began to fall back into his mind.

...If the residents could laugh, they would probably chuckle.

With a flick of its wrist, it tossed the severed head aside, where it landed and rolled away.

Chai Si felt as if he were groaning softly, but he wasn't sure. He struggled, barely managing to prop himself up on his elbows, and slowly raised his head.

My vision seemed to have been submerged in water, becoming blurry, dim, and shaky.

Between the resident's legs, a third arm—it was indeed an arm, white and plump, clenched into a fist.

When Chai Si clearly saw the third arm, the residents noticed his gaze and suddenly became shy and embarrassed.

It twisted its body, its two legs intertwined, tightly covering its third arm, as if not allowing Chais to see any more—when it turned around again, the third arm had already retracted back into its chest.

The residents walked easily toward the engine room, casually picking up a T-shaped pole as they went.

Forget about fighting or escaping, Chai Si couldn't even crawl at this point. He simply collapsed to the ground, just like Fu Tai Lan had done a dozen minutes earlier. He lay on the road, gazing up at the rain and the night sky.

Death is not a problem; everyone has their share of mishaps. It's just that this resident's mishap was rather disgusting.

He smiled silently.

Well, he lived his life in the shadows and filth, so he wasn't a respectable person and didn't deserve a respectable death.

It's frustrating to die at the hands of the residents, but it's better than dying at the hands of others, isn't it?
My phone vibrated slightly; a message had come in.

That's right... the hunters from the family always say that the residents are a very curious bunch of creatures...

"Wait a minute, I have a message," he said hoarsely, his gaze still fixed on the white, grassy sky. When a man is about to die, it's best not to let his last glance fall on the residents.

"I want to see who posted it and what they said."

The residents remained silent—which was to be expected—and after a few seconds, Chaisi realized that it hadn't continued walking up.

Was it really curious?

Since the residents didn't react, he simply reached for his phone—only to discover that all his ribs on his left side seemed to be broken. Just by stretching out his arm, he felt waves of pain and his vision went black.

Panting, Chai Si finally managed to hold the phone up to his eyes. Unlocking the screen in the pouring rain was practically impossible.

It was a message from Han Liuyue.

"Brother Chai, by the time you see this scheduled message, I've already opened the passage and brought the brain into the nest. So far, everything has gone smoothly. From now on, even if things don't go smoothly, I'll make sure it does. Be careful and go home as soon as possible."

Really... We've finally entered the lair.

Unfortunately, it was too late. It seems he won't be able to go home.

Chai Si closed his eyes slightly, his arm slumping down. His mind and strength seemed to have been soaked by the rain, gradually melting away, about to flow into the earth of Blackmore City like undiluted liquid.

No...that's not right.

Even if residents are curious about the information, its silence seems to have gone on for far too long.

He opened his eyes.

Chai Si mustered his strength again, enduring waves of excruciating pain that would have made an ordinary person faint, and slowly sat up from the ground—the residents were standing in front of him.

Its feet remained motionless, not attacking Chai Si, but its body was slowly leaning backward, like a dancer gradually bending over backward.

However, with each step the dancer leans back, it disappears a little further into the abyss.

...Chai Si understood.

Han Liuyue succeeded; his guess was correct.

After she brought the brain into the nest, she was probably using it to slowly pull the residents into the nest... right?
Perhaps the pain was too heavy, or perhaps it was the shock of surviving a near-death experience, but Chai Si forgot to even stand up for a moment. He just sat there, staring blankly as the residents retreated back into the black fog.

When it completely disappeared and the driver's body hit the ground with a thud, he seemed to be jolted awake from a dazed dream by the muffled sound.

……it's over?

It seems to be over.

He had never had a passage in his life, and it seemed he would never have one again, yet he still managed to drive all three residents from the human world back to their lair...

Isn't that a bit ridiculous?

Unfortunately, he was almost out of breath and couldn't laugh.

Chai Si had no idea how he managed to stand up and walk step by step to the SUV, and even suspected that he had actually died once while getting into the car.

He took out his car keys and started the engine.

There were still two bodies in the car, but he was too weak to deal with them.

The simple act of closing the car door and stepping on the gas pedal felt like an endless ordeal—thankfully, the end of this ordeal was home.

Chai Si dialed Uncle Kai's number.

"...Your Aunt Hai and I are currently in the parking lot below Tempation."

His voice, heavy with worry and exhaustion, pressed against my eardrums. "The convoy you arranged is all here, ready to go. Blackmore City is no longer a place to linger... We'll set off as soon as you return."

The Kai family invested heavily in building a safe house in Shangzhou District—calling it a "safe house" is really an understatement; a place that even artillery shells could hardly gnaw a corner of should probably be called an underground fortress.

Uncle Kai said hoarsely, "We're a family, let's go together."

As Chai Si stopped the car and staggered out of the SUV, he could still hear Uncle Kai's words echoing in his ears.

He clutched his ribs tightly with one hand, his steps heavy; in his hazy consciousness, only one thing remained: to walk towards the row of glaring white car lights in the distance.

Like a moth drawn to the light.

Half of the underground parking lot was illuminated by the lights of the Kaijia car fleet, a light that filled people with hope yet left them bewildered.

Several hunters from different families saw him from afar and got out of their carriages to greet him; however, for some reason, they all stopped halfway and just watched him from a distance.

……What's wrong?
Chai Si was in so much pain that he couldn't make a sound, so he couldn't call for them to come and help him. He could only continue to stagger forward step by step.

In the very center of the car, the door had been opened.

Uncle Kai stood up from behind the car door, his eyes meeting Chai Si's—the distance was too great for him to see Uncle Kai's expression or hear his voice.

...Let's walk together as a family.

Uncle Kai walked around the car door and suddenly strode towards Chai Si.

Aunt Hai pushed open the car door from the other side, stood there blankly, and stared straight at Chai Si.

“…Uncle Kai?” Chai Si reassured him in a low voice, “Don’t worry, I’m fine, just some minor cuts and bruises…”

He didn't finish his sentence.

Uncle Kai's lips trembled, and his pupils dilated, round and dark. When he spoke, his voice was like a withered leaf blown by the wind onto a dry riverbed—something that was dead, yet trembling slightly.

"……son."

Chai Si stopped in his tracks.

He stared intently at Uncle Kai, scrutinizing his expression.

After a few seconds, Chai Si slowly turned around.

...Not far behind him, on the parking lot ramp that was gradually rising as if it were about to touch the ceiling, was another figure.

(End of this chapter)