In the latest scene, in the group that had died, there was a man with a hulking build. Li Du thought his face was familiar, like he had recently met the man. It was then that he realized: this man was the King of Hpakant.

Instantly, he thought of Old Thaw’s words. “Everyone who looked for jade here ended up dead. The sixteenth son of the King of Old Hpakant died here, rather gruesomely, too. His entire body was littered with green and blue bruises—”

There was no way he could doubt this. The stove set was undeniably linked to the deaths of these people!

However, here was the issue. First, how did the people die? Did someone poison the soup in the basin? That did not make sense, though. Those people had been on the mountain to mine for jade, and there was no reason for them to have been unprepared or unguarded.

The people in the gemstone industry were normally ready to resort to any measure, to stoop as low as they had to, in order to get what they needed. They were all extremely alert and shrewd, and it would be just too difficult to poison them.

Li Du’s team was a good example. Though he trusted Maung Kyaw Zin a good deal, he was still guarded against the food the man brought up for them. The bodyguards were only eating so freely because the mayor’s wife and daughters were eating with them. If there was anything wrong with the food, the pair would not get away unscathed either!

However, if it was not an issue with the food, how did those people die, then?

Li Du could not figure this out. The scenes flashed like a slideshow, frame by frame, so it was difficult to make sense of them. The only thing he could be absolutely sure of was that he had to destroy the stove set for the sake of his life. At the very least, he could not stay around the stove set. There was a possibility the thing was radioactive.

Not that that made sense, either. Maung Kyaw Zin’s entire family had been living with the stove set in their home the entire time, but they were fine. Evidently, there were specific conditions that had to be fulfilled for the stove set to be lethal.

In pursuit of the truth, Li Du turned back time even further to find a scene that would explain all of this. In a later scene, he saw another familiar face, similar in the same way the sixteenth son of the King of Hpakant looked like the King of Hpakant. That was Maung Kyaw Zin; more accurately, it was a younger version of the mayor. Looking at the man now, he looked to be about 45, 46 years old. The scene showed him to be in his thirties, but no older than 35 or 36. The scene made it clear that Maung Kyaw Zin and these people were connected to these deaths, though Li Du could not even begin to guess what role they played.

He could not figure it out at all, but he decided to deal with the stove set first. He sent out a message to Brother Wolf, who acknowledged it with a nod of his head. Under the man’s instructions, two bodyguards snuck out to the perimeter of the mining area without anyone noticing. About five to six minutes after, Brother Wolf suddenly looked out at the forest and shouted, “Who’s there? Look out!”

The moment his words left his mouth, several loud sounds rang out.

Li Du’s face was colored with shock. He hollered out, “Guns!”

As he shouted, he tackled Maung Kyaw Zin to the ground. Just then, Brother Wolf brought a few men with him and they ran, crouched. Brother Wolf shouted out, “Boss, are you alright?”

Li Du shoved Maung Kyaw Zin toward Brother Wolf and said, “I’m alright. Take the mayor with you and hide. Hurry, all of you, go hide — what’s going on?”

Several portly bodyguards split the two of them apart from each other. The moment Maung Kyaw Zin was distracted, Li Du flew towards the stove.

At the same time, he released the little bug. He did not attempt to restrict the little bug this time and it immediately flew to the stove and basin, aggressively absorbing the time capability from them.

The gunman at the edge of the forest was still firing indiscriminately at the area, forcing the group of people to stay hidden behind a boulder at the mine.

Maung Kyaw Zin called out, “My stove and basin, hey, let me go, I have to go get my stove and basin!”

Li Du held him back as he shouted, “Are you crazy? It’s just stove set, the enemy has a gun! Do you want to die?”

Maung Kyaw Zin continued to struggle against his hold. “No, you don’t understand, the stove and pot are really important to me and my family—”

Li Du restrained the man and had him dragged away forcefully. “How important could it be? More important than your life? Hurry up and go. Brother Wolf, take the mayor and leave, hurry. F*ck, what’s going on here?”

The gunshots continued to ring incessantly and the crowd gathered to take cover behind the boulder.

Li Du asked, “What’s going on?”

Brother Wolf called out, “I’m not sure. Why is someone firing at on us?

Young Markelov asked, “Could it be the damned owner of the casino? Did he come back to open fire and reclaim his land?”

Maung Kyaw Zin was alarmed. “There are a lot of people armed with guns, but those are all hunting rifles. This, this one… this is a different kind of rifle, isn’t it?”

“You’re right, it seems like a military rifle. Could it be guerrilla troops or a powerful army?” Young Markelov replied.

Brother Wolf shook his head. “That’s impossible. It doesn’t sound like there are a lot of people or guns on the other side. F*ck, it’s a damn shame we have no guns on us. There are so many of us here, if we cover each other we’d definitely be able to counter the attack!”

The gunshots continued to ring out. They were all trapped behind the boulder. All of a sudden, a loud crackling erupted not too far from where the stove and basin were left. After a bit, the basin leaped up in the air, as if something blew it up.

At the sight of that, Maung Kyaw Zin was stunned into silence. He stood still, very evidently shocked. Then, a heart-wrenching cry tore from his throat, “That’s my basin! Let go of me, let go of me!”

The little bugs returned. Li Du was not entirely sure when they returned, but they crawled up to his shoulder and sprawled over it in satisfaction. At that moment, their two pairs of wings had doubled into four wings. The body of each bug seemed to have been elongated, and it was a black so glossy it seemed to glow. The little bugs were just mesmerizing!

Li Du had no time to scrutinize the change too closely and hurried to hide the little bugs. He then dragged Maung Kyaw Zin, who was still struggling, away from the site and shouted, “Mayor, do you want to die?”

Maung Kyaw Zin called out desperately, “The basin! My basin! Let me go, let me go, I have to go look for my basin!”

Li Du asked in bewilderment, “What basin? Are you talking about that pot?”

Brother Wolf held Maung Kyaw Zin down and said, “You can’t go, f*ck it! Just hold on for a while longer, I’ll bring some men out to circle around the forest!”

He ordered a bunch of people, including the Markelov brothers, to go scouting, but the gunshots stopped as soon as he did. After that, Firecracker and Madman ran out of the forest. They shouted, “It’s alright! They’ve left.”

Hearing this, Li Du stood up in a frenzy and questioned, “Who were they?”

Firecracker shook his head. “I don’t know. Madman and I were right behind them, but we had no guns so we couldn’t get too close. We could only throw rocks at them, and they left the moment they discovered us. They didn’t seem local. They were really tall—”

Maung Kyaw Zin did not wait for the man to finish speaking. He rushed out towards his stove set, stumbling and almost rolling along the way.

The stove set was done for. The bronze stove was now covered in cracks and the bronze pot had broken into several pieces. Maung Kyaw Zin reached out to touch the stove set, only to be scalded. He screamed out in despair, “Ah! No!”

Li Du, who had been following the mayor, placed a heavy hand on the man’s shoulder. He said, “Don’t worry, mayor, it’s just a stove set. I’ll buy you another one, a more modern one—”

“What do you know?” Maung Kyaw Zin interrupted with a shrill cry. “Huh? What do you know?! You really think this is just a regular stove set?”