Whoosh! The man and the box landed on the shore at the same time. Guan Heng chuckled. "Thanks for your hard work, Santai. Come back." With a wave of his hand, he returned Huang Santai to the Corpse Storage Bag. Then he walked over and patted the Rusted Box. Lifting it with one hand, he said, "Hmm, I didn't realize it was this heavy underwater. There must be quite a lot inside. Am I about to get rich? Ha ha!"
Guan Heng gave a dry chuckle, hoisted the box onto his shoulder, and hummed a little tune as he strode along. Before long, he was back near the large rocks by the shore.
"Dabao, where are you?" Guan Heng set the box down and called out.
Dabao sprang out from behind a rock, waving both arms to greet Guan Heng. Then he pointed to the two dragonfly carcasses behind him, gesturing excitedly to say that he'd killed them. He wore an ingratiating, pleased-with-himself expression.
"Good job. When we get home, I'll give you half a syringe of blood as a reward." Guan Heng nodded in praise.
Dabao bounced with delight. Guan Heng didn't waste any more time. "All right, hurry back." Then he returned Dabao to the Corpse Storage Bag.
Hmm, today's haul was pretty good. Guan Heng was in high spirits. He'd caught the Giant Dragonfly Emperor as a mount and found a big box. He'd accomplished what he'd set out to do and even gotten an unexpected surprise.
"Hey, Tony, come out!" Guan Heng called from beneath the yacht. "It's safe now. The danger's over."
"What happened?" Less than half a minute later, Tony poked his head over the deck. "What's going on?"
Guan Heng grinned. "I suddenly realized that just defending ourselves wasn't going to solve anything, so I decided to put an end to the problem once and for all. I went to the lakeshore to kill all the bugs."
Tony was startled. "Are you crazy? There were thousands upon thousands of giant bugs! You weren't hurt, were you?"
"Thousands upon thousands? There weren't nearly that many." Guan Heng shrugged. "I was really lucky. Those bugs fought among themselves over territory and mates. In the end, only one survived and became their leader, but it was covered in wounds. I beat that Great Dragonfly without even breaking a sweat."
"I see." Tony finally relaxed. "You've got some nerve." Then he asked, "Are there any giant insects left on the island?"
"None. Look." Guan Heng nudged the two insect carcasses beside him with his foot. "These are the last two. I just killed them."
Then Guan Heng suddenly grinned mischievously. "Now that the bugs are no longer a threat, why don't we keep camping tomorrow? We've still got a day off, don't we?"
"Don't joke around." Tony rolled his eyes. "Even if I agreed, the girls would refuse so desperately they'd rather die. We're heading back to New York City first thing tomorrow morning. God, I miss my armor more and more. I need to hurry up and develop that portable armor you told me about. I'll only feel safe if I can carry it with me."
"Come to think of it, this vacation has been full of danger." Tony frowned. "Next time you suggest that we go on a vacation at sea together, I'll have to think it over. We've run into so many dangers. Could it be that your bad luck is rubbing off on us?"
"Hahaha!" Guan Heng laughed. "You say I bring bad luck? Let me show you something good." As soon as he'd spoken, he jumped onto the yacht's deck with the box in his arms. The heavy thud made the bow dip under their combined weight. Tony stared in amazement. "Good heavens! What did you bring aboard? It's incredibly heavy!"
Guan Heng set the box down on the deck and planted a foot on it. "This box. I found it at the bottom of the Inland Lake. I haven't opened it yet."
With a wave of his hand, Guan Heng said, "Go get the girls. We've got something new to look at. If it's treasure, everyone gets a share. I, Old Guan, am a very generous man."
Tony chuckled. "At that weight, it might not be treasure. It could be a box full of rocks. Don't be disappointed if that's what you find."
Guan Heng shook his head. "So what? If they're rocks, I'll use my Alloy Knife to carve a few statues for each of you. A few hundred years from now, they'll still be priceless antiques."
Tony rubbed his chin. "As your best buddy, I sincerely hope you find treasure. But the statues are tempting, too. Sigh, I have such mixed feelings right now."
When Ai Wei and Lily heard that the insect threat was over—and that Guan Heng had found a mysterious box—their curiosity finally overcame their fear. The two girls walked onto the deck hand in hand. Everyone held flashlights or emergency lights and hardly dared to breathe as they waited to see what was inside.
Guan Heng, however, remained completely unruffled, as if he didn't care whether they found anything or not. He drew an Alloy Knife from his waist and, with a scrape, pried open the huge rusty lock on the box.
He kicked the lid open. A brilliant gleam immediately reflected across the deck. Inside the roughly two-meter-long rectangular box lay all kinds of jade, pearls, emeralds, and agate, shining dazzlingly—treasures worth a fortune. Guan Heng plunged both hands into the box, then held them out for everyone to see.
In one hand, he held a large, lustrous green emerald, a cat's-eye gem, rubies, sapphires, Purple Jade, and more. Even the smallest pearl was about the size of a walnut. In his other hand was a battered Leather Bag.
He casually tossed the jewelry back into the box, untied the leather cord around the bag, and pulled out a somewhat worn Parchment Scroll.
"Ah-ha! I wonder what it says. Tony, want to take a look?" Guan Heng waved the scroll, then handed it to Tony.
Tony unfolded it and took a look, then returned it to Guan Heng with a wry smile. "It's written in Huaxia script. Looks like this treasure really does belong to you."
"Is that so? Let's see what it says." Guan Heng began to read the writing on the scroll. "If someone has found this Parchment Scroll, then I may already have died a miserable death on this terrifying insect island. My name is Zhang Ke. I am a guard. My employer, Mandar, known as the Mandarin, is an extraordinary man. On his orders, I was carrying a number of treasures to meet him at a certain place. But our ship ran aground nearby. On the island, I was attacked by giant insects and lost my arms and legs."
"What a poor fellow." Guan Heng sighed as he read that far. "By the way, isn't A Man the head of the Ten Rings? The one who kidnapped you back then—" The last part was directed at Tony.
"Right," Tony replied. "I didn't know this unfortunate man was one of his subordinates. Keep reading."
"Don't rush me. I'm reading." Guan Heng lowered his head and continued with the scroll's contents. "At the time, my master had only just begun researching his magical Ten Rings. Besides the treasure, I was also carrying two of my master's spare rings. When they were made, they were every bit as powerful as the originals. One was Ice Storm, and the other was Flame Storm. When I was surrounded by giant insects, I took the risk of using both rings. At last, I drove them back and had time to record all this on the Parchment Scroll."
Guan Heng reached into the Leather Bag and pulled out two rings. One had a sky-blue gemstone carved to resemble several capsule-shaped cylinders. This was the Ice Storm Ring. It could emit freezing energy, freezing the air along its path and lowering its target's temperature to near absolute zero.
The other was the Ring of Blazing Flames. The infrared radiation—or heat—it emitted was mentally controlled by the wearer. Generally, this heat produced flames by burning the air molecules within the blast radius. The heat beams could trigger chemical explosions. The maximum amount of heat it could generate remained unknown. Its gemstone had a shape similar to the one on the Ice Storm Ring, but it was red and had four capsules.
However, both rings had grown dull in color. Clearly, their energy had been exhausted.
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