"Great Venerable!"

Schmidt, the gatekeeper, let out a low growl, apparently the conversation had exceeded his expectations.

Qin Beiyang shook his head in fear: "I'm just a little craftsman, I really can't afford it!" Please be wise, Your Holiness! ”

"I'm old, I got cancer four years ago, and my days are numbered." The Great Venerable began to cough again, and life was slipping out of his eyes, "The three archdeacons outside - the American Johnson, the Englishman Schellingham, and the Frenchman Macron, are just waiting for me to make a will and choose one of them to inherit my place...... But, Schmidt, you name it! ”

"These three people are all careerists, each cultivating dividends within the Artisan Alliance, and they also have the power of their respective countries behind them."

Schmidt replied with a gloomy gaze, knowing what the three men were in the granite living room outside the secret room.

"If the Artisan Alliance fell into the hands of any one of them, it could become a tool of a great power. More than 600 years ago, the first generation of the Great Venerable Qin Jin, because he had the skills of craftsmen, and did not want to be at the mercy of any of the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, or the King of France, so he founded the Craftsmen Alliance. ”

"Great Venerable, I understand your concerns! The Artisan Union belongs to all the master craftsmen of the world, not to any king or president. ”

"You are a descendant of the first generation of Great Venerable Qin Jin, the descendant of the greatest artisan family in China, as long as you can eliminate the Assassin Alliance and make the greatest achievements in the past six hundred years, you are naturally qualified to become the twenty-fifth generation of the Great Venerable of the Artisan Alliance!"

"Are you asking me to hand over the name of Shangliang Mountain first, and then give me the throne of the big boss?" Qin Beiyang said a word in Chinese, smiled wryly and said in German, "Great Venerable, I'm sorry, I can't complete this task!" I have no desire for your throne. And when I became the heir of Assasin, I did not intend to insert willows and willows, not my own intention. I'm just the son of a craftsman, and I'd rather be a craftsman for the rest of my life, inventing and creating something interesting by the way. ”

"When you say inventions, do you mean the Tomb Beast Flying Machine Factory in Shanghai?"

The Craftsman Alliance really came prepared, and had already figured out the details of Qin Beiyang.

"Yes, although this goes against the ancestral teachings of the Qin Clan's tombsmith clan, I think this is the wish of the first generation of Great Venerable Qin Jin, so that the technology of the tomb beast can be carried forward, not only for the dead in the mausoleum, but also for all the living people now."

"Qin, you should know that the larger and more complex the factory, the easier it is to be destroyed by a trivial detail!"

"Are you threatening me?"

Qin Beiyang had already heard the evil intentions of the Great Venerable, as long as he sent one or two highly skilled craftsmen, he could destroy his Ink Heavenly Craft Flying Machine Company.

"Don't dwell on it anymore, I'm running out of time! Before I die of illness, before I make the will of His Holiness, please give me an answer. ”

"Nope."

"Qin, you have disappointed me so much! Between the great League of Artisans and the shadowy League of Assassins, you have chosen the side of evil! Choose the assassin who once killed your adoptive parents! Are you willing to be the spokesperson of evil? Defile the glory of your great Qin ancestors? ”

"Tell me, Great Venerable, what is justice in your mouth? What is evil? What are the standards? ”

"I don't want to discuss this topic with you."

Seeing that the Great Venerable's face was not very good, he covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed, and the gatekeeper Schmidt raised his cross bow and put it on the back of Qin Beiyang's heart.

The last time in Kyoto, Schmidt hit Qin Beiyang's forehead with a marble, but this time it was a steel arrow that pierced the heart.

"You're going to kill me?"

Schmidt didn't say a word, and with a lot of strength in his hand, he dragged Qin Beiyang out of the secret room - the other door could go out, and he wouldn't be discovered by Jiuse.

"You can't imprison me...... Because everybody here is going to die! ”

Qin Beiyang roared, Schmidt stopped, and the Great Venerable turned his head: "What? ”

"Didn't you find anything out of the ordinary? Since last night, the crows have taken off in the dark, the rats have fled, and the well water has been gushing upwards...... You see, there is a strange mist and a strange light in the ground, which is the earth and the light that the earthquake portends. ”

He was right, the churning earth breath poured out from the cracks in the tiles, gradually drowning their ankles.

"Well, I noticed."

"The Japanese archipelago is located at the junction of the Eurasian plate and the Pacific plate, and the address structure is extremely unstable, and Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano, especially in the Kanto region, and the probability of a major earthquake is very high."

Schmidt, however, retorted with the rigor of the Germans: "Earthquake prediction is a worldwide problem, and no scientist or instrument can accurately predict earthquakes." Many of those who claim that a great earthquake is imminent are fortune tellers or wizards who claim to have the power of unpredictable prophets. ”

"I'm not a wizard, but I believe in the sentience of the Grave Beast. The ancient tomb is connected to the pulsation of the earth, especially the nine colors that possess the power of several tomb beast spirit stones at the same time. Qin Beiyang tried his best to convince Schmidt, "In the face of nature's catastrophe, any powerful force, from the emperor Lao Tzu to the artisan alliance, is simply insignificant and as small as an ant!" ”

"What are you talking about? Will we all die in an earthquake? ”

"Yes, since the early hours of this morning, the purpose of my coming to the World Congress of the Craftsman Alliance is not to discuss anything important, neither a junior member of the Craftsman Alliance, nor a puppet leader of the Assassin Alliance, but to warn you, please escape from this underground as soon as possible! Retreat to an open place on the ground, or you'll all be blown to death! ”

The Great Venerable, who had been silent for a long time, spoke again: "According to the practice of the Craftsmen Alliance, the annual World Congress will be held in the underground temple for a day and night, and the grand event has just begun. ”

"Retreat! Retreat all! I don't care who you are? Master craftsman or tramp or beggar? I don't care what the 600-year war between the League of Assassins and the League of Artisans is, it's all pointless children arguing and hooligans fighting! I just want you to get out of the ground! Damn it! Qin Beiyang stared at the wall clock on the wall of the secret room, "It's 11:50 a.m. on September 1, 1923, Japan time, just above our heads, on the streets of Tokyo, on the Nihonbashi, people are coming and going, they will all escape, and we will be sent to hell." ”

"Are you sure?"

Faced with the hesitation of the Great Venerable, Schmidt whispered to him: "Don't fall for the conspiracy of the Chinese boy, he just doesn't want to be locked up by us, and suddenly makes up a ridiculous reason......"

Before the words fell, there was a slight tremor under the soles of the feet.

The old age spots on the Great Venerable's face were trembling, and the water cup on the table rippled in circles, and even splashed out of the bottom of the water......

"Inform everyone - emergency retreat!"

The twenty-fourth Great Venerable of the Craftsman Alliance struck the ground with his scepter, which was the most powerful sentence he said today.

"Great Venerable!"

"Execute the order! Schmidt! ”

The gatekeeper Schmidt couldn't disobey the order, he opened the door of the secret room, and shouted to the three deacons in the granite living room: "The Great Venerable has an order, all the personnel evacuate, immediately retreat to the ground!" ”

The three deacons looked puzzled, but they also felt the movement under their feet.

"Retreat now!"

While Schmidt changed to English and French and roared, Jiuse picked up the Tang knife in his mouth, held the crossbow on his front legs, and flew under the gatekeeper's crotch and ran into the secret room.

The Great Venerable pressed a mechanism, and the door at the other end of the secret room opened, and he coughed and said, "Qin, you should hurry up!" It's a little faster to get out of this way! ”

"Great Venerable, I will protect you from retreating!"

"I was brought in on a stretcher, and if you carry me out again, I'm afraid I'll be buried in the ground together!" I have less than two months left in my life, and it is a relief to end it early, but you are the hope of the Artisan Alliance, hurry up! And Schmidt, you have to protect him out! ”

The Great Venerable had been sitting in this chair all along, and his strength had been exhausted by those words just now, so that he was close to fainting.

Schmidt also wanted to try to carry him on his back, but the height of the Great Venerable was more than two meters and his weight was more than a hundred kilograms, so it was impossible to carry him on his back and escape quickly.

Jiu Se returned the Tang knife and the cross bow to his master, and quickly rushed out of another door in the secret room. The stone bars above his head had fallen one after another, and he saw that the Great Temple of the Far East of the Craftsmen Union was about to collapse. Qin Beiyang forcibly dragged Schmidt out of the secret room, leaving only the Great Venerable on the back chair, calmly waiting for the doomsday judgment to come.

At this moment, in the twelfth year of the Taisho year of the Imperial Japanese Empire, September 1, 1923, 11:58 p.m.

The Great Kanto Earthquake broke out.