Book 2: Chapter 14


    "There are only a few special operations that can cure my throat," Chuchu signed to ck sses. "Its very expensive and I dont have the money to do it. My brother said that after finishing this project, Ill have the money to cure this disease, but I know hes lying to me."


    Chuchu''s signnguage was so fast that ck sses was a little dazzled. He grabbed her hands, secretly wondering if she was doing the Northern Praying Mantis style of martial arts (1). "Expense is never a problem for my friend, he said. And he doesn''t necessarily use modern methods."


    "I dont believe it." Chuchu gave a wry smile and pointed to the ancient temple, You should deal with this matter first. Have you found my equipment?


    "No. It''s not inside. But the person who gave us the info was very sincere. He wasnt lying. He looked at the sorceress, "Please help me ask this sorceress where the stuff is."


    Chuchu proceeded to ask, but the sorceress wouldnt look her in the eye. ck sses knew that the sorceress was lying, but he noticed that her eyes kept looking down.


    He also looked down. The thing the sorceress wanted to hide turned out to be the foundation of this ancient temple.


    There was something under the temple.


    He looked at the vegetation around him. If there was a hollow space under the ground, the vegetation would grow differently from other ces because of the limited root space and difference in temperature.


    But the vegetation growing around the temple waspletely different from what ck sses had been expecting. He thought that there would be more shrubs here, but there were towering trees around the temple that were actually bigger than the other ces.


    Whatever was underground seemed to provide a lot of nutrients to the nts in this area.


    He suddenly smiled at the sorceress. She looked at him in horror, but he quickly squeezed her neck, caused her to faint, and then put her on his back. He turned to look at Chuchu and saw that she had a frightened expression on her face.


    "Don''t worry. If youpress the blood vessels and nerves for a short time, youll immediately faint. You won''t die, ck sses said.


    "What are you doing?" Chuchu immediately asked him.


    "Are you scared of the fact that I can stun others in an instant? Do you think Im a bad person?"


    "What do you mean?" Chuchu took a panicked step back and made a defensive move. But because she had to sign while defending, she just looked ridiculous.


    ck sses stretched his fingers out in front of Chuchu, "I have a reasonable exnation. Look at my situation. I have this understanding of nerves and blood vessels because Im a blind masseuse."


    Chuchu paused for a moment, but maintained her defensive position, not believing him at all.


    ck sses pointed to her raised hand, "When defending, you should tense up your chest, twist your waist, and then throw your punch. Otherwise, its useless. You also have to stay focused."


    Chuchu waspletely blindsided, but as ck sses put the sorceress back on the steps of the temple, she suddenly felt that he looked a little familiar.


    She looked at ck sses, "You"


    Her mind suddenly shed back to the fire. She was screaming and coughing when someone rushed in to save her. He put her on his back, but she was so frightened that she put up a desperate struggle. Then, the man squeezed the back of her neck and she immediately fell half unconscious. There was only the feeling of being carried,ing out of the fire, the sound of fire engines, and the bubbles from the fire-fighting foam flying everywhere.


    She was standing there in a daze when ck sses suddenly threw a punch, instantly stopping right before he hit her face. He took a look at her raised fists and saw that she didnt tense her chest up at all. He sighed, "No talent."


    Chuchu waspletely stunned and continued to stand there dumbfounded. Just now, her hair had blown back by the force of his punch.


    By the time she finally reacted, ck sses had already walked straight into the ancient temple.


    Chuchu waited at the door for a while. As she nced around, she noticed that the primitive jungle looked especially gloomy now that ck sses was gone. There was a strange ancient temple in front of her, while the three other sides were primitive jungle full of miasma and pythons.


    She shuddered and immediately went into the temple, nning to look for ck sses everywhere.


    But just as soon as she entered, she didn''t even get to turn her head to look around before she was lifted up and shoved behind a pir. Pressed up against the post, she was just about to start struggling when she heard ck sses whisper, "The Lei Zu statue here is alive." He turned his head to let Chuchu get a look at the shrine.


    There werent any statues on the shrine at all.


    She couldn''t figure out the situation, but she felt ck sses grab her hand and push her down slowly until they were squatting on the ground together. ck sses poked his head out from behind the post to try and find the statues location.


    When he came in just now, he immediately noticed that the statue was gone. He quickly took cover, but he couldn''t hear anything in the room besides the sound of insects and birds in the woods outside.


    Either someone moved the statue or it moved by itself, but neither possibility was good.


    Chuchu wanted to sign and ask ck sses what was going on, but he grabbed her hands and indicated that she should look in a certain direction. When she did, she saw a face on the ground, sticking out from below the altar.


    It was the face of the statue. It was moving very slowly, which was a technique the special forces used in the jungle. It took a lot of patience, but any sounds would bepletely buried in the jungle noises.


    Chuchu was so petrified that she kept clutching ck sses, but it only took him a quarter of a second to react. He immediately grabbed her and jumped out.


    He saw the statue suddenly roll out from under the altar. It turned out to be a thin man with a shotgun in his hand. He fired at them directly.


    Iron pellets hit the ce where they had just been standing with a loud "bang!", immediately turning the pir to sawdust.


    Chuchu covered her ears as ck sses lifted her up and ran out of the ancient temple at breakneck speed.


    The statue chased them out and fired another shot, but ck sses speed far exceeded the shooting speed of their opponent. ck sses instantly dragged Chuchu into the minefield and hid behind a tree.


    "There are guards." ck sses found it a little funny. <em>Of course. Since this temple is so important to the locals, its obvious that itll be guarded.</em>


    The statue fired two more shots at the jungle, and ck sses suddenly had an idea. He grabbed Chuchu and ran wildly around the minefield.


    <em>This is a minefield!!!</em> Chuchu was having a mental breakdown.


    ck sses directly rushed three or four steps away from the statue. When it raised its gun, ck sses used Chuchu as a weapon and threw her directly at it. As soon as the statue was knocked to the ground, ck sses stepped forward and bent the barrel of the shotgun.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Its an aggressive style of martial arts that focuses on striking. It mimics the praying mantiss fighting style, which involves the use of whip-like/circr motions to deflect direct attacks, and then precise attacks to the opponent''s vital spots as a follow up. Info here.