The old man recalled, "Captain Lin's first strike was caught by him, and he then pulled Captain Lin into the room. Fortunately, Captain Lin still had her concealed throwing knives, which allowed her to escape his control."
"Throwing knives?" I pondered. "Then, did that traitor seize Captain Lin's throwing knives?"
"He did," the old man affirmed. "He snatched Captain Lin's knife pouch and injured several of our colleagues with the throwing knives. This scar on my face was inflicted by his throwing knife."
I closed my eyes again, reached out into the void, grasped the Flowing Hammer, and pulled Captain Lin into the room. Her close-combat capabilities should have been far inferior to mine, and she was under my control. In a moment of crisis, she drew the throwing knives from her person and attacked me like daggers. I swatted the knives away with my palm, seized her knife pouch from her lower back, which contained over a dozen willow-leaf throwing knives, drew them out, and flung them all around at the surrounding enemies...
"I know!" I opened my eyes, jumped onto the kang, then onto the windowsill, and looked around from the elevated position.
"It should be over there!" I pointed towards the main entrance of the courtyard.
"What?" Yaoyao asked me.
"Follow me," I led everyone across the courtyard, about twenty meters long, to the main gate. The gate itself was dilapidated and half missing. Moreover, the wooden door was too thin to be the target. However, the gateposts on either side remained. They were built with green bricks, with the tops partially broken off, but most of the bricks were still there, merely weathered on the surface and smoothed considerably.
I touched the green bricks and analyzed, "If I'm not mistaken, at that time, the traitor seized the opportunity of throwing knives to also fling out the Chuyun Bin. The surrounding experts were solely focused on dodging the knives and likely didn't notice his minor action. Look, the surroundings are all earth-based crumbling walls with no prominent landmarks, easily damaged by rainwater. Only these two gateposts are made of green bricks and would last a long time. If you were that expert, and truly threw the Chuyun Bin out like a throwing knife, where would you aim?"
"You mean, you threw the Chuyun Bin into this green brick gatepost?" Yaoyao asked in surprise.
I turned to the old man, "With his cultivation, could he have done that?"
The old man looked back at the distance from the room to this spot and felt the texture of the green bricks. He said definitively, "Effortlessly, and it would be deeply embedded!"
I used my dagger to write a "拆" (dismantle) on the gatepost, circled it, and said, "Let's get to it."
The demons attacked in unison. Four demons were responsible for dismantling one gatepost, layer by layer, from top to bottom, removing each green brick. When they reached about the eighth row on the east gatepost, the third demon, the tiger demon, suddenly stopped. He held up the green brick in his hand and walked towards Yaoyao, "Gege, look, is it this one?"
Zheng Bingbing shone her flashlight over, and I also leaned in to look. On the side of that green brick, there was a small hole, revealing a nail-like head. Yaoyao took the brick with her left hand, felt its weight, and then with her right hand, she struck it sharply.
*Crack!*
The green brick broke into seven pieces, but it didn't shatter, maintaining its shape. The force was perfectly controlled.
Curiously, I reached out and removed the bricks one by one. When I reached the third brick, I indeed found a small, thin golden rod. Removing the excess brick material, I carefully drew the thin rod from the brick cavity. It was a golden needle, about ten centimeters long and as thick as a toothpick. One end of the needle was semi-hollowed, engraved with auspicious dragon and phoenix motifs. The other end was solid and had numerous serrated protrusions. The entire golden needle was exquisitely crafted.
"Is this the thing?" I asked.
Yaoyao shook her head, "I haven't seen the actual item either, only know it's called 'Chuyun Bin'."
"Let's try it and find out!" Zheng Bingbing picked up the golden needle, moved behind Yaoyao, and attempted to insert the serrated end into her golden mask.
However, after fiddling with the lock for a long time, Bingbing couldn't insert it. To be precise, it couldn't be inserted...