Zhou Zishu said, "My surname is Zhou."

The Scorpion nodded. “Zhou-xiong has good martial ability, and a good mind for tactics, but…”

He uncurled his fingers. A thin needle lay flat on his palm. As he brought it to his mouth, the Scorpion smiled and said, "I'm afraid that it's a draw this time."

Yet, Zhou Zishu uncurled his fingers unhurriedly too, and revealed a needle that he too had secretly hidden in his palm at some point in time. He did not eat it, only brought the needle in front of the Scorpion, and measured it against his--the Scorpion’s expression changed abruptly. Only now was he discovering that the needle in his own hand was a segment shorter; at some point in time, it had been shorn into half by the force of this person’s palm strike.

Zhou Zishu ground the thin needle in his hand into fine powder, and said, smiling, “Two needles to one and a half, what do you say?”

The Scorpion glared at him acidly. Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu thought he was going to raise trouble, but while this head Scorpion’s character was unremarkable, his gambling manners were rather decent. A beat later, he turned his gaze away impassively, and said, “All right. One must be willing to admit defeat if he is willing to bet. What do you want to ask about?”

Zhou Zishu said, “Other than Sun Ding, who paid to have Zhang Chengling killed?”

The Scorpion paused, then looked at them again, and as though he realised something, he said, “Zhang Chengling? Oh, I know who you two gentlemen are now...my men lost track of you in Dongting. I had not thought that you have already found this location, you are omniscient indeed--come with me.”

While he spoke, he ripped the bed boards out, and wormed into the opening. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing followed closely behind.

The two men followed the Scorpion down a secret tunnel--the exterior of this place was all rouge and beauty, but its interior was extraordinarily gloomy and sinister. The Scorpion led them on a journey of twists and turns, down innumerable stairs, before they finally reached the bottom. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing glanced around, only to find that this place was a dungeon. Repressed growls that sounded human, but also inhuman rang all around them, and the two of them instinctively went on their guard.

The Scorpion retrieved a torch from the wall, stood in front of a cell, and said with the ghost of a smile, “You gentlemen can come over and look at this thing, you should be old acquaintances.”