Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

Xu Si came out with a cigarette in his mouth, followed by Xu San and Wang Zhenqiu. Xia Liuqing walked at the back, still rubbing her head.

"Fourth brother," Cheng Mo called out to him, "Tell me the whole story in detail, and perhaps I can help you figure it out."

Xu Si paused, turned to look at him, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes: "Master Cheng, or a sorcerer?"

"I have a little knowledge of it," Cheng Mo said.

Xu Si and Xu San exchanged a glance and gestured for him to proceed: "Please."

The group returned to the meeting room.

Xu Si stubbed out his cigarette, walked to the computer, sat down, tapped a few times on the keyboard, and the projection screen lit up.

He cleared his throat: "The Divine Weapon project was first proposed by Huang Boren. After the board of directors approved it, the North China branch was put in charge of research and development."

He pressed a button on the remote control, and a scanned document appeared on the screen, filled with dense text and stamped with the official seal of NaDuTong.

"The design concept is actually very simple—combining the 'divine invocation' techniques of the performers with weapon crafting skills, using the power of faith to power the armor. This way, ordinary people with supernatural abilities can gain the power of mythological or historical figures when they wear it."

Xu Si turned to the next page, which contained a structural diagram. The armor was divided into six parts, each with a detailed description of its patterns.

"We disassembled the armor into six parts and forged them separately to reduce the failure rate. Each part was engraved with different patterns, and when combined, they formed a complete Qi circulation."

He pressed it again, and photos of three people appeared on the screen.

"Three people were selected for the experiment. Liu Wenzhou, you've met him before, he's in charge of the Zhuge Liang part. The other two are Qian Wanli, who's in charge of the Wei Zhongxian part, and Zhao Dezhu, who's in charge of the Zhong Kui part."

Xu Si then explained the selection criteria for the experimenters, the psychological assessment reports of each person before they put on the armor, and the differences between the three sets of armor during the forging process.

There were some details that Xia Liuqing didn't know, some that Wang Zhenqiu didn't know, and some that even Xu San was hearing for the first time.

When recounting the specific events of the day the situation spiraled out of control, he slowed down his speech and clearly described every point in time—the exact moment they put on the armor, the exact moment the anomaly occurred, the exact moment the white light erupted, and the exact moment they rushed into the laboratory.

Xu Si has now laid bare the company's secrets.

After he finished speaking, he leaned back in his chair and lit another cigarette: "That's roughly the situation."

Cheng Mo sat in the chair, tapping his fingers on the table, lost in thought for a long time.

No one spoke in the conference room except for the hissing sound of Xu Si smoking and the hum of the projector fan.

After a long while, Cheng Mo finally spoke: "I can divine the situation of these two people. Fourth brother, you should also find a sorcerer to take a look at that note."

Xu Si waved his hand and flicked the cigarette ash into the ashtray: "Forget it, that person is suspicious, and this stuff he left behind is probably suspicious too."

Cheng Mo looked at him with a half-smile: "Haven't the company handled enough problematic matters already?"

Xu Si chuckled, his expression a little unnatural: "That depends on what the higher-ups think."

He didn't say anything more. Anyway, he would report the matter, and how the higher-ups dealt with it was none of his business.

Xia He turned to Xu San: "Third Brother, do you have any local county gazetteers? Or some local chronicles, folk customs materials, etc.? Could I borrow them to take a look?"

Xu San pulled a stack of documents from the cabinet, picked them up, and placed them on the table: "These are what we collected, and they've all been organized. Take a look if you're interested."

Xia He took it and turned to the first page.

Cheng Mo leaned over and glanced at it—it was local folk customs information from Heng'an, listing the origin, development, and evolution of Nuo opera in detail.

He patted Xia He on the shoulder: "You keep an eye on things first, I'm going out for some fresh air."

Outside the conference room, Xia Liuqing was whispering to Wang Zhenqiu in the corridor.

Seeing Cheng Mo come out, Xia Liuqing let go of his hand: "Kid Cheng, let's go. The company should still foot the bill for finding him."

He pointed at Wang Zhenqiu: "We need to keep an eye on this scoundrel, lest he really mess things up and get himself killed."

Following the updates on Cola Novels has never been so enjoyable.

Cheng Mo looked at Wang Zhenqiu with amusement: "I never thought a scoundrel like you would have this day."

Xia Liuqing snorted: "This is also a trial for him. He was too impetuous before."

Wang Zhenqiu snapped out of his daze, looking unconvinced: "Old man, you can't say that. I'm just naturally impulsive, but I'm very steady and reliable."

Xia Liuqing scoffed, "Reliable? If you were reliable, would you have gotten yourself into this mess?"

Wang Zhenqiu opened his mouth, but after a long pause, he managed to utter, "...That's not something I can control."

Cheng Mo clenched his fists so tightly they cracked: "Actually, I have a plan."

Wang Zhenqiu took a step back, looking at him warily: "I think it's unnecessary."

Bang!

Cheng Mo's fist had already arrived.

Wang Zhenqiu tried to dodge, but Cheng Mo's fist seemed to have eyes, changing direction and landing solidly on his shoulder.

Wang Zhenqiu staggered a couple of steps, steadied himself, and swept his leg across the room.

Cheng Mo raised his hand to block, and then punched him in the chest with his other hand.

Wang Zhenqiu crossed his arms to brace himself, but was jolted back three steps by the impact.

He shook his numb arms, got into a fighting stance, shifted his feet, and lunged forward, using both fists and feet.

Cheng Mo neither dodged nor avoided, taking two punches and a kick head-on, and then punched him in the abdomen.

Wang Zhenqiu groaned and bent over.

Cheng Mo punched him in the back again.

Wang Zhenqiu lay on the ground, rolled over, and curled up in a ball, covering his head: "Don't hit my face!"

Cheng Mo laughed: "I didn't slap you in the face."

Wang Zhenqiu looked up. His face was indeed clean, without even a bruise. But his arms, shoulders, back, and thighs were all in pain, burning as if someone had rubbed them with sandpaper.

Cheng Mo squatted down and patted his head: "Do you still want to die now?"

Wang Zhenqiu lowered his head, clutching it, and his voice came from under his arms, muffled: "I never wanted to die, okay!"

Cheng Mo exclaimed, "Oh! You really think you're Nezha? You can return your flesh to your mother and your bones to your father and still survive?"

Wang Zhenqiu mumbled to himself, his voice indistinct, and no one could understand what he was saying.

"Looks like my fist really does have magic power." Cheng Mo rubbed his fist with satisfaction, then turned to Xia Liuqing: "Right, old man? How about we try to beat away your simp tendencies?"

Xia Liuqing's face turned green. She grabbed Wang Zhenqiu's arm and dragged him outside. The old man ran faster than a rabbit and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Xia He peeked out of the conference room and looked at the empty corridor: "Look how scared you've made them."

Cheng Mo smiled and said, "Let's go find a place and do some calculations too."

……

In the conference room, Xu Si stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, took out his phone, found his father's number, and dialed it.

The phone rang a few times before being answered.

"Dad, it's me."

"Feed." Xu Xiang's voice came through the receiver, sounding quite energetic. "Finished the business?"

"It's done. Old Xia got the guy out." Xu Si leaned back in his chair, propped his feet up on the table, and said, "Dad, something's not right with that thing."

Xu Xiang asked, "What's wrong?"

"That guy left a message before he died." Xu Si held the paper in his hand and waved it around. "It's a tattered piece of paper with two lines of his birth date and a bunch of scribbles on it."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone: "The warlock's methods?"

"I don't know, I'm not a sorcerer." Xu Si put the paper on the table, took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

"Dad, I'm telling you, we shouldn't have taken this on ourselves. This was the board's decision. Now that we've confirmed that guy isn't Zhuge Liang, keeping this thing in our hands is a hot potato. We should just hand it over to the board and let them make the decision."

Beside him, Xu Sanchong gave him a thumbs up.

Xu Sichong winked.

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