Liu A'dou was facing an army—a whole army of Terracotta Warriors under someone's control. He had no idea what their goal was.
Just as Liu A'dou was sneaking closer, planning to catch the leader first, he suddenly saw the Terracotta Warrior general sharply look his way. Before he could react—
Clatter! The army turned as one. Crack! Bows were drawn.
A cold sweat broke out on Liu A'dou's forehead. He hadn't expected them to be so alert—they noticed him from a hundred meters away. There must be some kind of special detection method.
Run.
Every instinct told Liu A'dou not to try fighting head-on. Before the hail of arrows could rain down, he leapt away, springing to safety. Even so, he tossed a stone as a test. Before it even got close to the leader, another Terracotta Warrior blocked it with a hand. The stone, infused with Ripple, had no effect at all.
Run! Arrows slammed into the rocks where he'd just been, showing that their power was no less than bullets. Since they were all Terracotta Warriors, they could use much stronger bows than humans—making them even deadlier than firearms. Even Liu A'dou wouldn't dare take that risk. Where the arrow rain landed, nothing was left—no grass, no life. This was the Qin army's most terrifying ranged attack.
"Capture the intruder. Kill on sight." Squads of Terracotta Warriors marched at a brisk, disciplined pace, chasing after Liu A'dou.
'What kind of nightmare is this?' Fleeing like mad, Liu A'dou thought, 'How can there be a Terracotta Warrior army in South America? This doesn't make any sense. What on earth is going on?'
He ducked away, making for the seashore. On the cliff, he saw a cave and dove right in to hide from his pursuers.
"What the hell, this is just insane." Being chased by a bunch of ancient relics—this was a first, even for him. Before Liu A'dou could even catch his breath, he suddenly felt a cold flash slicing toward his throat.
Quicker than thought, Liu A'dou shot out his right hand and caught the cold light between two fingers. Looking closer, he saw a scruffy young girl glaring at him with big, angry eyes.
And that spearhead looked familiar—it could only be Leopard Head, Lin Long. So she was here, too, escorting the relics. "You?!"
"You?!" Lin Long recognized him, too. It wasn't a Terracotta Warrior. Right now, she had no interest in fighting Kaitou Kid. Her tension gave out, her whole body slumped, and she collapsed.
Liu A'dou rushed over to check on her—turns out, she was just starving. Lin Long had been hiding in this cave for days without food. Liu A'dou pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket and fed it to her, figuring she probably knew something about this Terracotta Warrior army.
For now, they were on the same side. Lin Long didn't hide anything and told him everything she knew.
The Terracotta Warriors on the ship came to life and started killing everyone onboard. Lin Long fought one and barely escaped. These things were immune to blades and bullets—they weren't ordinary clay statues.
Then, somehow, everyone who died turned into Terracotta Warriors, and the ship changed course, eventually running aground here. Lin Long left the ship and hid in this cave, too scared to go out—every time she got near the Terracotta Warriors, they sensed her. Over the past few days, the number of Terracotta Warriors had only grown. Lin Long guessed all the people from the nearby villages had been turned as well.
"Turning people into Terracotta Warriors—can that even be possible?" Liu A'dou asked, skeptical.
"It's impossible for most, but there's one person in Qin history who could," Lin Long answered.
"Who?" Liu A'dou asked.
"Zhao Gao!"
Lin Long said the name. It wasn't Xu Fu or Ying Zheng, but Zhao Gao—the notorious schemer who called a deer a horse to seize the empire.
Lin Long explained, "If Zhao Gao could call a deer a horse, it means he had real power—maybe as strong as an immortal."
"You mean Zhao Gao could really turn a deer into a horse?" Liu A'dou asked, voice full of doubt.
"According to the secret records, that's actually true. Back then, Zhao Gao and Xu Fu were the two strongest mystics in Qin. But Zhao Gao got tricked by Xu Fu and became a eunuch. He later entered the palace and met the Qin King, then deliberately told him that Xu Fu had an elixir of immortality. The Qin King summoned Xu Fu and ordered him to make the elixir. Xu Fu, knowing Zhao Gao was trying to harm him, pretended to need three thousand boys and girls to go to sea to find the medicine, then disappeared and never returned."
"??" Liu A'dou thought to himself, 'Is this loli just making up some web novel nonsense?' But the plot wasn't bad. "And after that?"
"After that? No one really knows. It's only known that after the death of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao spent all his efforts trying to find Xu Fu for revenge, but failed. As for what happened in the end, nobody knows." Lin Long continued, "Looking at things now, it seems he became a Terracotta Warrior. But somehow he survived for two thousand years and even got stronger."
So it really was a monster that's two thousand years old. "Now they have strength in numbers—what should we do?" Liu A'dou started thinking.
"Zhao Gao is really dangerous. I saw him turn people into animals with my own eyes, just like Sun Wukong in Journey to the West."
That made things even harder. If Zhao Gao was gathering an army, then something big was about to happen, and Liu A'dou couldn't just ignore it. "Since there are so many of them, I should summon some allies too."
These things were immune to blades and bullets, showed no sign of life, and were no worse than steel golems. The Terracotta Warriors weren't just fragile statues; Liu A'dou's test attacks had already proved that. With this kind of enemy in both defense and attack, Liu A'dou thought of the Justice League. If these Terracotta Warriors were actually innocent villagers transformed, he couldn't just use deadly force.
Liu A'dou was not a lone wolf. When he ran into trouble he couldn't handle, he would call for help and would help others too. Like in the detective world, whenever he got a treasure map, he'd just go find the kid detective to solve it together. All those weird riddles in Japanese katakana were too much for one person.
"Come on, I'll take you somewhere safe first." Liu A'dou thought, even if she was with the Liangshan Outlaw group, she was just a kid. "I hope you learn your lesson and do fewer bad things from now on."
"The place is crawling with Terracotta Warriors. If I go out, I'll get caught. I really don't want to become a Terracotta Warrior."
Kaitou Kid glanced at the terrified loli and chuckled, "You really underestimate me, Kaitou Kid. If I want to run, none of those Terracotta Warriors could ever stop me."
Just as he finished speaking—boom—the Archimedes transport plane landed right at the cave entrance on autopilot. "After you."
The weird-looking airship made Lin Long's eyes light up. She finally stood, leaning on her spear, and walked over.
The Terracotta Warriors noticed the airship, too. They could only raise their bows and shoot at the sky. The powerful arrows sparked off the armor and even cracked the bulletproof glass. Liu A'dou was amazed—these Terracotta Warriors were like they'd taken steroids, way more fierce than expected.
Lin Long, still weak, stared at the unique airship. She thought, 'Kaitou Kid really has some serious tech. Liangshan Outlaw has some black tech, but it's nowhere near what America has. Even if I'm exhausted, I can still keep my eyes open and watch.'
"I didn't expect you to have a ship like this," Lin Long said, a little jealous. She belonged to the armory division, but she'd never flown a plane. And now this young Kaitou Kid even had his own airship—there's really no comparison.
"Jealous, right?" Liu A'dou grinned. "Well, it won't help. There's only one Archimedes."
Lin Long went quiet, just watching Liu A'dou pilot the airship.