Chapter 202 Rich Treasury
It was very easy to locate the treasury. It was simply under the bed in Daoist White Bird’s bedroom. After the bed was moved away, a trap door leading to the treasury was revealed.
“Teacher Sun, I’ve done a rough count, and there should be around 200,000 taels here.”
Old Wolf Ren was agitated.
Other than there having a moldy smell, there wAere over ten large chests that were stuffed with silver.
Ying Baiwu’s eyes gleamed as excitement stirred in her heart.
“Just these?”
Sun Mo frowned.
Old Wolf Ren started. After that, cold sweat trickled down his face as he hurriedly knelt and made a vow while pointing to the heavens. “Teacher Sun, I swear that I’ll die a terrible death if I embezzled even one copper coin from here.”
Old Wolf Ren’s expression was filled with anger. He felt that he was humiliated.
Honestly speaking, if it was before, he would surely take some for his own private stash. Who would know if he took a few thousand taels? But this time around, he really didn’t do so. This was because Old Wolf Ren wanted an official job, and this was why he was working so hard.
“I didn’t say you took any.”
Sun Mo helped Old Wolf Ren up to his feet. “This amount is really quite a meager!” Li Ziqi frowned. She then casually instructed, “You can go out first!”
How would Old Wolf Ren dare to say the word ‘no’? He immediately retreated out of the treasury.
“Ziqi, what do you mean?”
Ying Baiwu squatted beside a treasure chest and was stuffing the ingots into her clothes as she asked. The money here was too little? This couldn’t do, they must find it for sure!
“Call me eldest martial sister!”
Li Ziqi’s lips twitched. (Why are all of you so not respectful to me? But nevermind, I will explain first)
“This group definitely has a mastermind, and the capabilities of this mastermind are extremely great. If not, how could this group hide in the eastern outskirts of Jinling for so many years and wasn’t discovered? In addition, through the filthy transactions carried out for so many years, would they have merely earned 200,000 taels? I highly doubt so.”
“Could they have possibly spent it?”
Xuanyuan Po also felt that Li Ziqi was thinking too much.
“That’s impossible. These people are human traffickers. If they kept spending gold like that, they would be easily discovered. So, the money they earned has a higher possibility of being sent to their clans, and another large portion would be sent to the mastermind.”
Li Ziqi was very confident. “This is merely your conjecture.”
Xuanyuan Po didn’t believe it.
“I have proof.”
Li Ziqi laughed, she was very confident. “For such transactions, how could there not be an accounting book? These traffickers would surely keep one to leave it as a trump card to threaten the buyers. Moreover, Daoist White Bird would surely have other treasures, right? After all, everyone would have their own private stash of items. As there’s only silver in this place, it indicates that the money is for the mastermind, and Daoist White Bird’s true stash is located in another area.”
“How troublesome. It’s much easier just to fight!”
Xuanyuan Po scratched his head. He didn’t wish to use any of his energy to think.
“I’m going to look around,” said Ying Baiwu
However, after a few steps forward, she rushed back to the case to grab two bundles of silver, stuffing them into her shirt. “What are you doing?”
Li Ziqi was dumbfounded. By doing so, Ying Baiwu’s chest grew ‘larger by a size’. When she walked, the silver on her chest would ring out loud.
“The troops from the authorities would come by soon, and these people would eat humans up unblinkingly. If we don’t hide some silver now, we won’t even get a single copper coin later on.”
Ying Baiwu knew that the officials were like sharks that smelled blood upon seeing money. They would definitely clamp their jaws down and wouldn’t let go.
“Hehe!”
Li Ziqi laughed. “Usually, that might be the case. But this time around, whoever dares to have any ideas about the money? The person who tries to embezzle the money would immediately be banished to the border station as a slave soldier!” “Oh, I believe you.”
Ying Baiwu nodded and returned to the case. Although the silver was bundled up, with ten taels as a bundle, she still picked the two largest-looking bundles and stuffed them into her clothes before she walked out of the treasury.
IL11
Li Ziqi was speechless. (I thought you believe me?) Sun Mo’s judgment was the same as Li Ziqi. He recalled the data he saw from the Daoist White Bird. Hence, he returned to the hall and searched that fellow’s body while activating his Divine Sight.
A pale white corpse, death due to damaged internal organs.
Note: Cautious and careful, sinister, and cunning. This person likes to use the blind spots in the thoughts of others to plan his scheme.
Note: This person is filled with evil and is guilty of monstrous crimes. Dying like this was too easy for him.
It seemed like even the system wasn’t able to put up with the evil crimes committed by this Daoist White Bird.
“Why don’t you directly show me the location of the true treasury?”
Sun Mo asked.
“The system isn’t omnipotent.”
The system explained. “You have a brain, right? The system already gave you so many clues. It’s up to you to solve this.” “So you finally admitted that you are not omnipotent?”
Sun Mo mocked. After speaking, he sank into contemplation.
The blind spots in the thoughts of others?
He contemplated for over ten minutes and went back to the treasury they had found earlier. He then surveyed each spot carefully. Was there a blind spot here?
After a few minutes, Li Ziqi entered too.
“Eh? Teacher, you are here too?”
Li Ziqi was taken aback, after that, she became emotional. (Did teacher also feel that Daoist White Bird’s private stash might be hidden here?)
(As expected, I have a telepathy connection with teacher!)
Li Ziqi felt a little happy.
“Ziqi, what do you think?”
Sun Mo asked.
“Teacher, there’s surely a great secret hidden here!”
Li Ziqi walked over with a solemn expression on her face. This must be a test from her teacher. She must make sure to answer properly so she wouldn’t disappoint him.
“From the secretiveness of this group, this Daoist White Bird is a prudent, cautious, cunning, and intelligent fellow.”
The lips of Xuanyuan Po, who followed Li Ziqi to protect her, couldn’t help but twitch. Wasn’t this nonsense? If he wasn’t cunning, he would have long since been arrested.
“I’ve asked those captured daoists. Other than cultivating, Scum White Bird loves to sleep around with women. The place of his activity all seemed to be in this bedroom.”
Omeo
“I’ve also asked what they think of his personality. In the end, the answers were that Scum White Bird was a cautious, overly suspicious person. However, he is someone that’s filled with a heavy sense of responsibility. Every time he did something, he would act personally. Honestly speaking, this sense of responsibility could be seen as his distrust for others; hence, he had to act himself. Do you think a person like this would hide his private stash elsewhere?”
“Nope, he would surely arrange his true treasury at a place where he could see it anytime. Only then would he be able to set his heart at ease.”
Sun Mo studied psychology before. After getting a large sum of money, many people would constantly touch the money. Sometimes, their actions were all done subconsciously.
Every new year, the thieves would select their targets based on this method.
Seeing how overly-suspicious and cautious this Daoist White Bird was, in addition to the fact that he had a large sum of money, how could he place the money in a place he couldn’t see?
“For a place like a bedroom, there would usually be a secret space to hide some valuable items. Many people, upon discovering the first treasury and seeing the silver there, would assume that they have found the treasury and relaxed their guard.”
Li Ziqi continued.
“Mn!”
Sun Mo nodded. It was like problem-solving in maths. After coming out with the solution, one would heave a sigh of relief and no longer be as focused.
“The vast majority of people wouldn’t search anymore. Even if a minor portion of people discovered some clues and wanted to search further, they would conduct their search elsewhere instead of this place.”
Li Ziqi finished her analysis and began to walk toward the treasury to search for the location of the Daoist White Bird’s private stash.
“Very excellent deduction.”
Sun Mo praised. He then activated Divine Sight and observed the treasury.
“Hehe!”
Li Ziqi felt very happy upon being able to obtain her teacher’s praise. However, her teacher was truly impressive, having arrived here earlier than her. This meant that he could think of this point even swifter than her.
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Li Ziqi +50. Friendly (1,051/10,000).
Li Ziqi wasn’t impressed by those who were powerful in terms of cultivation. However, she was completely impressed by those with high intelligence.
Sun Mo swept his gaze through the treasury. Rocks and compound rocks consisting of mica and quartz formed the walls and floor. The quartz content was the highest, and the pressure coefficient was normal.
Sun Mo simply looked around. All of a sudden, he discovered that at an area three meters from the entrance, a row of data appeared in his vision. The materials used here were lime and wood, the pressure coefficient was smaller compared to the other walls.
Sun Mo immediately went over and began to inspect it. There should be a mechanism to open this thing. Sun Mo wasn’t able to find it. However, he had a clumsy but direct method.
“Xuanyuan Po, come and smash this.” Sun Mo instructed.
If it was in the modern era and he didn’t have machinery and other equipment, it would be impossible to blast through it. But in Middle-Earth Nine Provinces, the humans here were all proficient in cultivation.
Xuanyuan Po ferociously blasted his fist forward, and the wall immediately broke apart, revealing a set of stairs leading downward.
“There’s actually another treasury!”
Xuanyuan Po glanced over. He wasn’t worried and directly jumped down.
“Wait!”
Sun Mo didn’t have time to stop him. He had been thinking that there might be a lack of oxygen down below and he should toss a lit candle down first to test the oxygen level.
“Teacher, come quickly. Gold, there’s so much gold.”
Xuanyuan Po shouted.
He opened a few chests and illuminated their content with an oil lamp. The chests were filled to the brim with gold. Upon being illuminated, the gold immediately shone with a dazzling light that could blind the eyes of those who looked at it.
“Wow!”
“So much gold?”
Ying Baiwu suddenly called out excitedly and almost scared everyone to death.
“There is so much gold?”
Ying Baiwu immediately rushed down to the area where the chests were. She touched one and looked at another. After that, she began to grab the gold and stuffed her clothes full of them.
“Why did you come down?”
Li Ziqi frowned
“You want to embezzle the gold?”
Ying Baiwu instantly became wary.
“I’ll embezzle your head!”
Li Ziqi was speechless. She had wanted to ask if there were any situations above while also taking the chance to test Ying Baiwu’s intellect.
“Oh, I couldn’t find the true treasury so I came back to ask teacher if he had any discoveries.”
Ying Baiwu explained, but her act of stuffing gold into her clothes didn’t stop at all, not even for a single second.
“Hehe!”
Li Ziqi smiled. (Do you think I will believe you? You are nothing but a lass that loves money to death. How would you know that our teacher is in the treasury? You must have remained behind in the first treasury to stuff more silver into your clothes.)
Naturally, Li Ziqi wouldn’t expose such things. Because of her background, this little sunny-egg had seen too much money. Hence, she wasn’t interested in gold. What she wanted was the accounting book.
“I must find the mastermind and get revenge for all the girls who were kidnapped!”
Li Ziqi was filled with a strong sense of justice.
The second treasury was just so big. A few minutes later, Sun Mo and Li Ziqi discovered a smaller chest. The dust on the chest wasn’t a lot; evidently, it was opened often.
Seeing this scene, Ying Baiwu immediately ran over. “Teacher, let me help you to open it!”