A day later, at the Jing Mountain bandit stronghold.
Tap, tap...
Hurried footsteps rang out as a hunched, exceptionally ugly bandit lackey rushed into the room of Wu Pangzi, the Third-in-Command. "Godfather, Godfather, I saw him! It's Yan Bo, the man who serves the Dragon Head. He only stopped briefly in the front hall before coming your way."
Beside a square table, Wu Pangzi, whose body resembled a ball of flesh, wore an exaggerated wrapping of cloth bandages around his head and a white nightrobe, his hair hanging loose. He asked anxiously, "Just him?"
"Yes, just Yan Bo," his godson replied.
Wu Pangzi looked honest and simple, even a little dim-witted. His tiny eyes darted about before he immediately waved a hand. "He must be here to send me to Qingliang Prefecture. That job is far too dangerous. Quick, quick, help me into bed...!"
"Yes, yes." His godson immediately stepped forward, helped the "feeble" Wu Pangzi lie down, and covered him with a quilt.
Lying in bed, Wu Pangzi touched his recently cracked head with one hand and pulled a small porcelain bottle from inside his robe with the other.
When he pulled out the stopper, an enormous venomous centipede crawled out of the bottle, giving off a foul, fishy stench.
Wu Pangzi frowned at the utterly revolting centipede, but finally gritted his teeth, kicked his legs, opened his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
Beside him, his ugly godson was dumbstruck by the sight. "Godfather... that poisonous creature is terribly harmful, and utterly filthy. How is this any different from swallowing shit?"
Within moments of swallowing it, Wu Pangzi's cheeks turned purplish blue. His thick lips in particular became black as ink, and he looked ready to depart this world.
"Go... go...!" Wu Pangzi waved laboriously. "Go, you go...!"
"Godfather!