The black broken cauldron was also moved onto the bus. The cauldron looked only about a foot tall, its walls not particularly thick, but it was unexpectedly heavy. The middle-aged man and three muscular young men, after setting it down together, were already drenched in sweat.

Henry Brooks sat in the middle seat of the back row, facing the black cauldron in the aisle. The fierce dragon-head handle of the cauldron was also facing him. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t shake off the strange feeling of being stared at by the carved dragon, as if the dragon engraved on the black cauldron had a soul.

The bus left the city, and the road became a bit bumpy. With a sudden hard brake, Henry Brooks, who had been staring at the black cauldron in a daze, was caught off guard and thrown from his seat, crashing into the cauldron.

It didn’t hurt much. Henry Brooks clutched the cauldron and awkwardly climbed up. Through the front windshield, he saw a teenager ahead, frozen in shock, almost hit by the bus. The driver cursed loudly.

Grace Sutton handed over a tissue, and only then did Henry Brooks realize a warm flow was coming from his nose—he already had a puddle of nosebleed dripping into the black cauldron.

Everyone else’s attention was drawn to the near-accident. Henry Brooks took the tissue, covered his nose, and leaned over to look inside the cauldron, intending to use another tissue to wipe away the blood.

At that moment, a bizarre scene occurred: the puddle of nosebleed he had dripped into the cauldron was slowly seeping into the cauldron wall, and a faint light began to emerge from the wall, weaving a palm-sized three-dimensional image in the center of the black cauldron. It looked like a landscape painting—mountains, rivers, seas of clouds. The carved dragon seemed to come alive, condensing into a phantom that soared menacingly through the clouds...

Henry Brooks was startled, thinking he was seeing things. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but there was nothing in the cauldron—not even a trace of the nosebleed he had dripped in.

He really felt like he’d seen a ghost. This black cauldron could actually absorb blood! Henry Brooks’s hair stood on end!

Henry Brooks opened the tissue covering his nose, already stained with a large patch of blood, confirming that it hadn’t all been a hallucination. But what was that faintly glowing, interwoven image in the cauldron?

Grace Sutton leaned over in confusion, but seeing nothing inside the cauldron, she glanced at Henry Brooks in puzzlement, not understanding why he looked as if he’d seen a ghost.

Only then did the others notice that Henry Brooks had hurt his nose. Seeing how disheveled he looked after the fall, they all burst out laughing.

Chapter 3: The Police’s Informant

After the bus entered the mountains, it drove a bit further, passed through a village, and stopped in front of a courtyard that looked like a warehouse.

Inside the warehouse courtyard, two young men were standing guard. When they saw the bus coming, they hurried to open the main gate, and the bus parked in the drying yard inside.

The middle-aged man had no intention of returning everyone’s phones, simply saying that the goods were all inside the warehouse.

Walking into the fairly spacious warehouse, there were several piles of items covered with waterproof tarps. Henry Brooks couldn’t tell what was under the stacks. At this moment, the two young men from outside came over, glancing at Henry Brooks and the others.

“Open it up and show them the goods,” the middle-aged man said.

The two strong young men pulled back a waterproof tarp in the corner of the warehouse, revealing a pile of old items—cauldrons, seals, cooking pots...

There were seventy or eighty pieces in total, but most were damaged, with only seven or eight in perfect condition.

“How do we make the deal?” Everyone’s eyes lit up, but they didn’t forget the key question.

“Pick your items first, agree on a price. If you can transfer the money on the spot, we’ll arrange a car to take you and your goods away. If you can’t transfer the money immediately, we can have someone go with you to the city to get the cash...” The middle-aged man, who had looked like a construction site technician earlier, now had a sharp glint in his eyes, no longer looking so ordinary, making it clear he was the one in charge. “Of course, although we can’t confirm the age of these goods, if you think you can just throw out a random lowball offer to get rid of us, I advise you to save your breath.”

At this point, the other three people and the driver also brought over the black cauldron.

Once the black cauldron was moved into the warehouse and placed with the other goods, it didn’t stand out as much.

Henry Brooks was still thinking about the bizarre scene earlier and the strange mental pressure the black cauldron gave him. Although there were many other old items in the warehouse, some even larger, none gave him the same special feeling.

He casually pointed at the black cauldron with the dragon-head handle and asked, “How much for this one?”

The middle-aged man held up one finger.

Henry Brooks thought the man was asking for a hundred thousand, but when he saw Fatty Goodwin frown, he realized the price was one zero higher than he’d thought.

Henry Brooks took a deep breath, thinking that since Fatty Goodwin had dealt with the middle-aged man before, he must have already inquired about the price of this broken cauldron. If it were only a hundred thousand, Fatty Goodwin would have already bought it and wouldn’t be getting involved in this mess.

A million!

Henry Brooks hadn’t expected these people to ask for such a high price. Seeing that others were also interested in the black cauldron, he decided to stay silent for now. The others also said nothing, clearly dissatisfied with the price.

Everyone was willing to take this risk for a shot at something big, but since the age of these old items was uncertain, there was no market price to go by, nor any guaranteed buyers. Taking such a huge risk and spending a million on a mysterious broken cauldron was more than anyone had expected.

No one asked for more prices, but that didn’t stop them from squatting down to examine the pile of goods. Henry Brooks joined them as well.