Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu
For the rest of the night, the clamor outside the window never died down.
While lying on his bed, Yan Liqiang could still hear the sounds of people running past the alley outside from time to time. He slept extremely soundly on his bed, not worried about being discovered in the slightest.
In an era without any cameras, big data, tracking dogs, or even a complete criminal investigation method, everything could only be done by relying on manpower. It was nearly impossible to track a non-existent individual in a city as large as Pingxi City.
Putting aside this era, even in his previous life, one would know if they referenced the Elisa Lam incident. In the country which was known as the ‘Light of the World’, in a hotel where cameras were installed everywhere and the suspect was definitely among the limited selection pool of people, a Chinese girl had died just like that while her murderer got away with the crime. This was true reality.
And what was the main point about this? Everyone knew the person who had done these deeds was the wanted criminal, King Cobra. When he was still a penniless brat, King Cobra was already roaming around, committing crimes everywhere and earning his infamous reputation. Not only that, even his own father was one of King Cobra’s victims. Who would possibly think that this ‘King Cobra’ was actually Yan Liqiang?
…
Therefore, as long as he wasn’t stopped by anyone at the scene when he was leaving last night, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about. With just the few bailiffs in Pingxi City, it was impossible for them to find him even if they morphed themselves into Sherlock Holmes.
Clues and logical reasoning were vital for Sherlock Holmes to solve cases. However, there was no logic to the things that Yan Liqiang had done and they couldn’t be logically explained. Up to this point, he was still nothing but a stranger to those Shatu people and the Ye Clan; he was merely an irrelevant and insignificant individual.
As usual, Yan Liqiang woke up before sunrise. After training his eye and ear techniques along with his morning regime in peace, Yan Liqiang took out the stuff he raked in last night, placed them on his bed, and started doing an inventory check.
Yan Liqiang was quite impressed by his own patience for being able to leave these in the house alone for an entire night before checking on them the next day.
When he opened the black sack, the most dazzling items of them all were still those colorful jewels and pearls. Each and every single one of them was of the finest quality. Each of those red and blue jewels about the size of a dragon’s eye. Those diamonds and the pile of extremely expensive-looking and exquisite jewelry could really bedazzle one’s eyes.
Although Yan Liqiang wasn’t sure about the market price of these jewels and pearls, he was certain that the value of these jewels and pearls before his eyes were worth at least ten thousand taels of gold if their worth were to be measured in gold.
Even though Yan Liqiang wasn’t particularly an avaricious person, his eyes couldn’t help but shine as his face involuntary broke into a dumb smile while he drooled at the sight of these precious treasures for the very first time in both his previous and current lifetime. He wasn’t sure how these Shatu people managed to get these items in their hands, but it no longer mattered because from now on, these items belonged to the Yan Clan.
If the values of things like jewels and pearls were very difficult to estimate, then the value of those thick silver promissory notes would be a lot more straightforward as the amount of silver which could be exchanged for every silver promissory note was written on them.
A silver promissory note had two face values — five thousand taels and ten thousand taels. These were the most commonly seen denominations of silver promissory notes issued by the monetary house. After Yan Liqiang was done checking, there were 42 pieces of 5,000-taels silver promissory notes, totaling 210,000 taels of silver and 28 pieces of 10,000-taels silver promissory notes which totaled 280,000 taels of silver. With these two combined, the value of all silver promissory notes made up a grand total of exactly 490,000 taels of silver.
490,000 taels of silver was an astronomical figure. After Yan Liqiang recounted another two rounds and verified the amount, he couldn’t help but be stunned.
All the silver promissory notes were issued by Datong Monetary House. Hence, there was no need for any ciphers. They were the most widely circulated and best trusted promissory notes which were exchangeable on sight. The Datong Monetary House was also the most famous monetary house in the northwestern provinces of the Great Han Empire. Even the government and military funds in the northwestern provinces were all handled by the Datong Monetary House.
Although Yan Liqiang didn’t know what was inside the black bottle which had been sealed with wax, he didn’t hastily unseal it either. However, he saw three small words at the bottom of that black bottle —’Soul Reaping Poison’.
Yan Liqiang didn’t know what Soul Reaping Poison was, but if those Shatu people had especially hidden this bottle of poison in the hidden compartment of that box, then it must be an extremely important item.
That black metal cylinder that was half a foot long was quite heavy on the hand, and Yan Liqiang had no idea what it was either. He examined it for a moment and found a mechanism that could be pressed at the bottom of that metal cylinder. On the other end of that metal cylinder was a sieve which had a hole about the size of a soybean in it.
The ring of patterns beside the mechanism could be also be pressed. Within the patterned ring was an inscription of three Chinese characters — Dragon Demon Island.
Dragon Demon Island? Where was that place? Yan Liqiang had no idea either. But of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to press that mechanism to see how that metal cylinder would react. He pondered about it for half a day and came to a conclusion that this metal cylinder appeared to be a weapon, a hidden weapon or the like. Since he couldn’t figure out what it would do, he could only set it aside for now.
Yan Liqiang picked up the two items which were about the size of pigeon eggs. They glowed with a strange luster, and he examined it for a long while. Similarly, he couldn’t figure what they were. At this point in time, Yan Liqiang finally realized that he was still too ignorant and inexperienced. Within this pile of items, there were actually three items he couldn’t identify.
Yan Liqiang raked his brain, then set those two pigeon egg-like items down again.
Out of everything in there, there was only one remaining item — the thing which looked like a book that had been wrapped in a red silk cloth.
Yan Liqiang unwrapped the layers of silk cloth, revealing a blood-soaked manual before his eyes.
The impact of that manual was too shocking, especially with those bloodstains on it. It felt as though half of the entire manual had been soaked in blood. Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.
On the cover of that once blood-soaked book was a discolored title —’Five Elemental Poison King Divine Technique’.
This manual had once again corroborated Yan Liqiang’s ignorance and inexperience. However, upon seeing the manual’s title, Yan Liqiang couldn’t stop himself from skimming through the contents to satisfy his curiosity.
The moment he started it, he could no longer tear his gaze away from the manual as a world beyond his imagination unfolded before his eyes…
