Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 577 - 9: Battle for the Lapel Flower
Just by hearing the peculiar name of Tiger Tooth Tower, no one would think that it referred to a newly opened Cantonese restaurant. The signature dishes were crispy skin barbecued pork, soup-filled roast goose, shrimp dumplings, and pineapple buns, with business hours limited to six hours a day, for two meals in the morning and evening.
Despite the short business hours, leveraging authentic flavors and wallet-friendly prices, within less than a month of opening, Tiger Tooth Tower had become the hottest restaurant in the entire Jianxi District and even the whole of Luoyang.
But today, for some unknown reason, Tiger Tooth Tower was extremely quiet, and the leftover food on the tables remained uncleared. A man sat in a corner, sporting a white lapel flower on his chest and puffing on a cigarette, producing clouds of smoke. Only a few empty beer bottles were set on the table. The signboard outside Tiger Tooth Tower had dimmed as well. It looked as though it was about to close for the day.
The kitchen was bustling with activity: sink, chopping board, pantry, food prep, wok, vegetable washing, dishwashing, casserole, and roasted meats—the staff in these areas alone totaled over twenty people, not to mention a dedicated bakery and chocolate room. It was a notch above a certain fly-infested, sub-200-square-meter diner in Jinhai that spans two floors.
"Xiaozheng, I’ll take this dish to the customers, you can clock out,"
said Ding Ru, the head chef and also the owner of the restaurant, to a waitress nearby.
Ding Ru spoke with a bit of a southern accent, his tone always mild, and he too wore a white lapel flower on his chest. Rectangular glasses perched on his nose, and his eyes seemed to squint unconsciously.
"Okay, Mr. Ding."
After seeing Xiaozheng off, he took off his chef’s hat and called out to the others busily moving about the kitchen: "Pack up for today everyone, and resume regular work tomorrow, off you go."
"Mr. Ding, is there a problem? Should we call the police?"
The look of concern was evident on the sous chef’s face.
"No need, it’s just a private matter."
"Well, okay then, goodnight Mr. Ding."
"Goodnight Mr. Ding."
"Goodnight Mr. Ding."
"..."
One by one, the chefs left.
Ding Ru wiped his hands clean with a towel, left the kitchen, and pushed a dining cart towards the corner where the smoking man was seated.
The white lapel flowers pinned to both of their chests contrasted with each other interestingly.
Hearing the footsteps, Cha Xiaodao lifted his head.
Ding Ru placed the upside-down sea bowl on the round table and then sat down directly opposite Cha Xiaodao. The lights in the kitchen and above had all been turned off, leaving only Ding Ru and Cha Xiaodao in the entire Tiger Tooth Tower.
"Cantonese restaurants are expanding to Luoyang now?"
Cha Xiaodao greeted with a smile.
"I have a few old friends in the north, and I travel from the south to the sea. Since Mr. Qin passed away, it’s rare that everyone has a chance to meet up, so we must have a place to eat and talk. I straightforwardly took over this place, not expecting to run into you first. Congratulations, by the way, you’ve made a lot of progress in one year."
Ding Ru unravelled the sleeves that he typically folded up while cooking, his gaze fixed intently on the white lapel flower on Cha Xiaodao’s chest, he sighed lightly: "No wonder Zhou Ang and the others have stopped contacting me; it appears they’ve made a mistake."
Cha Xiaodao grinned: "You are quite straightforward, willing to acknowledge that you’ve set a trap."
"Times change, and you’ve already set foot into the Yan Zhao Club. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the future, so there’s no need for such stiff relations. We were quite good friends for some time, after all."
Cha Xiaodao’s eyebrows twisted into a frown: "Sometimes I think there’s no wonder I can’t beat you, you have a way of making betrayal sound like no big deal."
Ding Ru spread his hands: "Everything in the underworld relies on what you say, and you know what it’s like to live on the edge of a knife, but you’re just being a bit childish occasionally. You don’t seriously consider your brotherhood and chivalry as real, do you?"
"All I know is I would never step on a friend to climb higher."
"Who cares?"
Unperturbed, Ding Ru continued, "Knife, the world of Yan Zhao Club is different from your past experiences. The annual death rate of Proxy Travelers is less than 0.2%. Those fearful days you used to fret over are gone forever. Money, women, status—I know these things don’t satisfy everyone, but longevity, wisdom, and supernatural abilities beyond the mundane are just as easily within reach for us. Do you still need to engage in the vendettas of wuxia novels? If you want to play that game, the Yan Zhao Club has plenty of heavy hitters who can suffocate you. We have known each other for a long time, after all. Think about it carefully."
"Let me tell you, when I join Yan Zhao Club, the first thing I’ll do is kick you out so I won’t have to see you again," Cha Xiaodao put out his cigarette butt, staring directly at Ding Ru, "Someone I know wants that flower on your chest."
Ding Ru frowned, looked at the cigarette butts and ashes on the floor, and finally said after a long while, "If they want it, let them come and get it themselves."
"He wanted to come, but I told him there’s no need; I’m more than enough by myself."
Cha Xiaodao lifted the sea bowl to reveal a steaming bowl of barbecued pork rice underneath.
But the pork was raw.
"The barbecued pork isn’t even cooked; you’re ruining your reputation."
Cha Xiaodao scoffed coldly.
"There’s a hellish stop called Evil Dog Village on the road to the netherworld; toss a piece of raw meat to the evil dogs, and they won’t trouble you anymore," Ding Ru spoke without looking up, "About that flower on your chest, actually, I also have some friends who are interested. They will be here soon."
Cha Xiaodao smirked without humour and gave a thumbs up: "How considerate."
A hint of a cold smile appeared on Ding Ru’s face too: "You’re welcome."
————————————————
"Is it really this cold at night in Luoyang?" Bai Xiao stretched her hand out of the car window: "It’s getting foggy."
She was wearing a light blue shirt and capri pants, looking very capable. If one looked closely, they would see that Bai Xiao also wore a white lapel flower on her chest.
But Yang Zheng did not.
The speeding SUV plowed into the increasingly dense fog.
"How much farther to Tiger Tooth Tower?"
Yang Zheng asked casually as he drove.
"Almost there. Just turn at the intersection ahead."
Suddenly, Yang Zheng slammed on the brakes.
An abrupt stop around the curve, the white SUV halted at the corner.
"What’s wrong?"
Bai Xiao turned to ask.
"Something isn’t right."
Boom!
A gigantic footprint suddenly appeared on the right side of the SUV, stamping a foot-deep depression into the asphalt road. It was quickly followed by a second footprint, then a third...
Standing on the footprints was a bald man in a heavy coat, his stern eyes filled with fierce and startling light. Behind him, faintly visible, was a giant with green skin, holding an old turtle in his left hand and a red python coiled around his right arm, his long hair dancing with the tall buildings around him. An ancient and wild aura rushed toward them.
Inheritance: Ganci of Dragon Patron - Heavenly Punishment
The patron of dragons has grown tall, thirty feet to stand tall. His few strides encircle the world, his breath forms massive clouds. The vast void is his room’s ceiling, the North Sea serves as his basin. At one stroke six ao are killed, two mountains sink to form land.
— From "Into the Sea" by Zhang Shuo
"Tsk tsk."
Yang Zheng in the car showed no expression.
The bald man glanced across the men and women in the car, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.
Not just the patron of dragons, in the midst of the dense fog,
A variety of men and women began to converge from all directions toward Tiger Tooth Tower, their faces stern and eyes unanimously fixed on the dim sign of Tiger Tooth Tower.
Seated on the steps of Tiger Tooth Tower was a tall, thin man in a black hoodie. If An Jing were here, she would recognize at a glance that his hoodie was a matching couple’s set with the one Lady Dan wore.
A myriad of splendid projections rose towards the sky,
Tianwu, Empress Jiang, Qing Ji, Teng Snake, Cheng Huang...
At this moment of tension, Yang Zheng shook his head and sealed the SUV’s windows shut.
The fog suddenly changed!
The previously white mist began to show unnatural streaks of black, and the thick fog that could not be dispersed contracted inward, wrapping these mysterious figures from Yan Fu layer by layer.
The SUV’s windshield was completely covered by the fog.
Yang Zheng reclined his seat a little and then lay down, turning a deaf ear to everything outside the window.
Outside the car, the bald man with the projection of the Dragon Patron giant sensed danger and subconsciously held his breath. However, to his complete surprise, the fog did not need his breath to guide it. Like a conscious beast or venomous worm, it crazily burrowed into his nostrils, eyes, and even his ears!
The fog of Yunmeng Marsh seemed harmless, but once it’s transformed into the Disaster Water fog, it becomes an invisible killer weapon. Especially since someone who has opened their Divine Court, is now able to freely strip and add complex toxins from the Disaster Water, creating a colorless and odorless deadly fog was as easy as flipping a hand!
Thump~ Thump~
The bald man heard consecutive sounds of bodies hitting the ground, and with a thought, the Dragon Patron giant’s beard and hair bristled, a greenish glow lighting up from his body, separating him from the bizarre fog. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he was suddenly overwhelmed with a terrifying force, as if a mountain was crashing down upon him. He hadn’t even seen what it was before he was struck head-on!
Within the mist, the man in the black hoodie moved through the crowd like a glitching black and white film, without gaps, teleporting. The people, already desperate from the strange fog, had no chance to fight back and were knocked down one by one.
What was supposed to be a united assault by elite forces quickly turned into one person’s terrifying game.
Five minutes later, no one was left standing on the scene, and suddenly, the strange fog lifted, leaving the entire street clean.
Thump thump.
Li Yan knocked on the window of the SUV. He stared expressionlessly at Yang Zheng and Bai Xiao inside.
Yang Zheng lowered the window and leaned out to say to Li Yan outside, "Just passing by."
Li Yan nodded, stepped back a couple of paces, and motioned for them to leave.
Yang Zheng shrugged at Bai Xiao, "Let’s not eat, let’s go."
With that, the domestic SUV turned around and left the way it came.
Bai Xiao watched Li Yan through the rearview mirror, shrinking until he vanished before she nudged Yang Zheng in the side, "Who is that guy? Is there such a person in the Yan Zhao Club?"
Those wanderers from Yan Fu seemed numerous, but they were merely at the level of the Eight Extremes Peak, at most having gone through a few secret enhancements. Bai Xiao believed she could handle them as well.
But whether she could handle them as effortlessly as that man remained a question mark.
"He’s not from the Yan Zhao Club."
"Then, a new Proxy Traveler?"
Yang Zheng shook his head: "He’s not a Proxy Traveler either."
