Chapter 54: Glove of Ban Gu (1)
After they reached Guangzhou, Woojin checked into a hotel and told Miho to rest. She was tired from the long drive and she gladly went to her room to rest. Woojin also went to his room to take a shower before going over to Miho’s room. She was drinking a beer from the fridge.
“You want one?”
“No. I’ll be out. You should get some rest.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to Peking Street.”
“Oh, let me go with you then.”
“No. I need to take care of some business. You can go alone if you want.”
“But I can’t speak Chinese.”
“Then use English.”
“I can’t…”
Woojin looked at Miho who had a sad look on her face.
“How did you shop alone then?”
“I can ask at least ‘how much’…”
“Then do that.”
“No, never mind. I’ll just drink some beer and sleep.”
“You do that.”
Woojin then got out and took a cab down to Peking Street. He then retraced his memory. There was a place here that would give him information. It was good that he had some experience of working in Guangzhou in the past. He then went to a bookstore. There were a lot of bookstores in the area but Woojin went to a place that sold old books. Woojin spoke to the employee.
“I need Sima Qian’s Book of Ranks.”
The employee glanced at Woojin.
“You mean the Record of the Grand Historian?”
“No. I need Sima Qian’s Book of Ranks.”
The employee then got up and closed the door to the store and pressed on the fifth bookshelf. It then moved to the back and revealed a staircase downstairs and Woojin walked down. He then walked past the corridor past a man and found the person he guessed might be waiting for him.
Hwang greeted him.
“You’re here.”
“Yeah. How did you know that I was going to come here?”
Hwang sighed, “Shayna in Chengdu. Did you kill her?”
“You know that information will be expensive.”
“Right.”
Hwang placed his back against the chair and looked at Woojin.
“Wangjinjin got furious after you killed Shayna. She’s sent Gangzho.”
“Gangzho?”
Woojin frowned. Gangzho was one of the 2nd generation vampires who worked for Wangjinjin with her dirty business. Woojin didn’t think he would make a move already.
“Did you get into trouble because of him?”
“The stores in Chengdu and Xian are closed. He killed all the workers there,” Hwang said as he touched his neck. “If I wasn’t following you around, I would have met Gangzho too.”
“I know he doesn’t care much about anything else, but attacking the black market? He’s gone mad.”
“Yeah, but we can’t attack him either. He knows that.”
“So, are you going to leave him be?”
“There’s no one I can use that will not be afraid of retaliation from the vampires. All I can do is to ask Mr. Sun to stop him.”
Asking Mr. Sun to go to work to stop Gangzho and the vampires was fine, but that was a shame for the black market merchants. It was no good to show the world that they couldn’t take care of their own.
Hwang then asked, “So, can you get Gangzho for me instead?”
Woojin hesitated. He was going to kill Gangzho anyway, but he had come down here to kill Yangryou.
“Is that a formal request?”
“Of course.”
Woojin thought for a second and answered, “I’m here to kill Yangryou.”
“I expected as much. I knew you were going to come here when you killed Shayna at Chengdu. I’ll provide you with every piece of information you need to kill Yangryou for free and provide you with anything you need so you can fight Wangjinjin. So, after you kill Yangryou, kill Gangzho too.”
Woojin smiled bitterly.
“Isn’t that too cheap? That’s too cheap for fighting against them.”
“Do you think I’m some cheap bastard? This is just for the sake of helping. I’ve prepared a separate payment.”
Woojin became interested and Hwang smiled, “I will give you the Glove of Ban Gu.”
Woojin froze.
“You’ll give me what?”
“The Glove of Ban Gu.”
“You know that’s a divine object, right?”
“I know. Even Avatars want it.”
Glove of Ban Gu. Ban Gu was famous in China as a god related to the creation of the world. He didn’t have any Avatars, but there were a few divine objects related to the name. The Glove of Ban Gu was one of them. Woojin didn’t know it was being held by the black market but he remembered how powerful Ban Gu’s left eye was when it was used by the Avatar of Demon Eligos in the past.
It was not the same item, but it still was a divine object derived from the same name. Woojin answered, “I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
“I want it paid up front.”
“Up front?”
Hwang looked at Woojin with dumbfounded expression but Woojin explained, “Gangzho is not just any enemy. Using the divine object will give me a better chance at killing him.”
Hwnag smiled, “You’ve become an Avatar, haven’t you?”
Woojin just looked at him and Hwang laughed.
“I was suspicious when you captured Shayna, but now I can see it for sure. I wondered when you wanted to meet with Doctor Ahn but that is amazing.”
Woojin did not give the answer but just looked and asked, “So, can you give it to me?”
“I’m sure you know that no one can run away without paying the black market back, right?”
Woojin nodded.
“Then you can.”
“I’ll need a day. I didn’t think you would agree to it this easily.”
“Yeah. Can you erase my traces? I can’t be tracked.”
“Of course.”
Woojin went to Miho’s room. She was quite drunk.
“Oh, you’re here. Did you get something?”
Woojin didn’t answer and pulled out the Desert Eagle and threw it at her. Miho grabbed it.
“You need to be prepared to protect yourself.”
“I can run away.”
“No, you need to be prepared for the worst.”
Miho frowned with the gun in her hand.
“You know I’m an Avatar right? I don’t need to use this.”
“No, you need to. You don’t have a divine object, and you can’t even fight.”
She would’ve scoffed, but she couldn’t do it against Woojin. He was a hunter who killed vampires. And from what she had seen lately, he was more like an Avatar himself. Compared to Woojin, Miho didn’t know how to fight.
“I thought you only needed me to read memories.”
“Yeah, but things are going much faster than I expected.”
Wangjinjin had made a move already. Maybe Shayna’s death aggravated her, but it was for the better as aggravated enemies were prone to make mistakes. That’s why Woojin was going to train Miho so she could at least defend herself. Since she was an Avatar, she’d definitely be able to quickly catch up.
“You have a lot to learn.”
Woojin trained her all night and returned to his room to sleep. In the early morning before the sun came up, someone knocked on the door. It was Darkling. He handed a bag to him and Woojin went into the room while Darkling followed him in and handed over the phone. When Woojin pressed the phone against his ear, he heard Hwang’s voice from the other end.
[Did you check it?]
“Wait a second.”
He opened the bag and found a black fingerless glove. He wasn’t sure what it was made of, but it was certain that it was the divine object. Woojin brought it out and put it on his left hand and asked, “Why is there only one?”
[That doesn’t come in a pair.]
Woojin wasn’t sure why this glove was called the Glove of Ban Gu, but if he could use its power, he’d definitely be able to fight against Avatars.
[You should take care of what you promised to do.]
“Of course.”
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