Chapter 441: Chapter 437: The True Identity of the Black-Robed Person Chapter 441: Chapter 437: The True Identity of the Black-Robed Person As night fell, the last box of gold was finally loaded onto the helicopter.

Sitting on the helicopter returning home, Fang Xiaocao’s heart, which she’d kept clenched the whole time, finally relaxed.

What Fang Xiaocao didn’t know was that shortly after she and Unhappy had left, the enemy–who had been watching in the shadows all day–finally bared their fangs and carried out a one-sided massacre on the more than fifty members of the Tomb Raider Sect’s rescue team who hadn’t managed to retreat.

The towering Lizardmen, under the cover of night, were like Evil Ghosts crawling out from the depths of Hell, bloodthirsty and insane.

The rescue team, whose average strength was only second-rate, was like children facing adults in front of the Lizardmen, whose strength surpassed first-class and whose bodies were impervious to blades and guns; they had no power to fight back.

They had resisted…

But it was all in vain.

Just as an arm will never have the strength of a leg.

Second-rate will never defeat first-class.

Aside from Xiaocao, there were very few who could achieve victory against a higher level.

Thirty-some Lizardmen against over fifty members of the rescue team–the rescue team didn’t last even one round before they all fell into pools of blood.

A giant Mechanical Lizard Person, two meters tall, in mid-transition, mechanized, dragging an alloy tail behind, pushed through subordinates and strode up to the vault.

A mechanical eye emitting a red light scanned ceaselessly amidst the rubble.

Quickly, it paused on a spot.

The Lizardman’s metal-clad arm frantically dug through the debris on the ground.

Huge stone slabs crumbled like tofu under its mechanical grasp.

Soon, a metal-encased human skull was unearthed from the ruins by the Lizardman.

Clutching the metal skull in hand,
A finger pressed at the center of the mechanical forehead.

Click–
The mechanical skull split in two in an instant.

A semi-metal pineal gland fell out from within the mechanical skull.

The Lizardman picked up the pineal gland and slammed it into the center of its own forehead, into a metallic covering that parted to reveal a hole just big enough for the pineal gland.

The Lizardman stuffed the pineal gland into the hole.

Click–
A slight noise, and it fit perfectly.

The pineal gland merged with the Lizardman.

The Lizardman’s two mechanical eyes–one flashing red, the other blue–alternated flickering uncertainly.

After a minute, they finally stabilized.

“Hehe…”

“I’ve returned…”

The hoarse voice of the Black-robed Person emanated from the Lizardman’s mouth, signaling the return of the Black-robed Person.

“Take this vault away. When I’ve melted it down to become part of this body, that will be the day Fang Xiaocao and Tom pay their blood debt with blood,” the Black-robed Person said coldly.

“I, Zuo Ci, risked my life to transform myself into an artificial eye, all for immortality, to have more time to unravel the mystery of eternal life for mechanical beings. Now I’m another step closer to immortality. Once I get back the Blood Jade Ring and the Phoenix Gall, this body will surely allow me to coexist with the world forever and achieve my wish of immortality.”

“HAHAHAHAHA…”

The Black-robed Person was the Zuo Ci from the Late Eastern Han Dynasty, who, born a hundred years after Xiaocao, had used futuristic technology to appear in the Late Eastern Han Dynasty and become an Immortal.

—
In the future timeline!

Two hundred years later!

Science and Technology Museum No. 5.

The very moment Zuo Ci was reborn through Mechanical Lizard People in the past timeline, a red dot lit up on the virtual screen hanging in the living room.

Old Tom, who was teaching a little boy that closely resembled Taotie how to make a bomb, instantly noticed the anomaly on the virtual screen and stopped his work, his kindly smile instantly overtaken by seriousness.

“Ancestor Tom, what’s wrong?”

The little boy asked in confusion.

Old Tom shook his head: “Xiaobao, be a good boy, go call your great-grandfather over, tell him there’s trouble at home.”

Xiaobao nodded and ran out of the living room.

“Old Tom, what do you want me to do?”

Old Taotie, still towering and imposing, with hair and beard as white as snow but without a wrinkle on his face, strode into the living room. However, one of his arms had become a mechanical limb wrapped in alloy.

The ever-younger-looking handsome Tom turned to Old Taotie’s mechanical arm and said, “Zuo Ci, the one who caused you to lose an arm, is alive again in the past timeline.”

“The past us still couldn’t completely eradicate him. We have to go and kidnap Princess Your Highness back. We’re over two hundred years old, spending our days amongst a bunch of twenty-somethings admiring their abs–what kind of dignity is that? If word gets out to the major powers, they’ll laugh us to death at Science and Technology Museum No. 5.”

Tom’s face, which seemed to grow more handsome with age, showed an irritated expression.

Taotie waved his hand unconcernedly, “That’s just what Her Highness likes. Just let her be. If any family dares to disrespect us, I’ll personally show up at their doorstep and beat them until they dare not laugh.”

“You keep spoiling her!”

“Matchmaker getting more and more indecent.”

Old Tom glared at Taotie with annoyance.

With a grin, Old Taotie chuckled, “Who can you blame? Princess Your Highness has given you chances, and even when you had them, you were no good.”

Old Tom shot a glance at Old Taotie and summoned up Old Cao’s intimidation, sending a message to Hot Noodles.

[Old Cao: Zuo Ci isn’t dead. Be sure to remind the past timeline not to repeat the same mistakes.]
—
Future Timeline!

Twenty years!

Quack quack quack–
Hot Noodles, vacationing by the beach, heard the message alert on their phone and reluctantly shifted their gaze from the abs of middle-aged handsome man Tom, picking up the phone.

Seeing the message from Future Old Lady.

Hot Noodles pouted and muttered, “Is this Zuo Ci that hard to kill?”

“We’ve been trying in three different timelines, and yet we still haven’t killed him…”
[Hot Noodles: Received, received.]
Having voiced their complaints, Hot Noodles replied and put their sunglasses back on.

Under the sunglasses, their eyes locked back onto the abs of a certain middle-aged handsome man.

—
Present Timeline!

Zuo Ci walked across the desert at night, with thirty Lizardmen behind him carrying the vault. It was like carrying a coffin, leaving behind trails of deep footprints on the sandy ground.

—
Jiang Family Manor!

“What?”

“They’re all dead?”

“And the vault is gone, too?”

Fang Xiaocao exclaimed.

Hearing Fang Xiaocao’s shout, everyone turned to look at her.

“Princess Your Highness, what happened?”

Tom asked in a stern voice.

Fang Xiaocao hung up the satellite phone, her expression as dark as if water could drip from it.

“The helicopter that went to pick up the rescue team just called. They said that the fifty-odd people left in the desert have all been killed and the emptied vault has disappeared as well.”

Fang Xiaocao’s mind raced as she pondered who could be responsible.

The Pawnshop?

Or the Black-robed Person?

Hearing Fang Xiaocao’s words, everyone’s expression became serious.

Everyone realized that this trip to the desert was destined to lead to a fierce battle.

Yet they could never have imagined that before the call to arms was even sounded, they had already lost over fifty people.

“Princess Your Highness, Number Three has spotted the Pawnshop’s figures; they’re headed towards the manor…”