Chapter 338

He didn't even say "You should go ask somewhere else," but He He Lingchuan already knew his attitude.

"What kind of illness?"

Wang Laohan turned his head to look at He He Lingchuan. "High fever that won't go down; I sought two doses of medicine at the medical hall, but they were useless!"

His eyes were full of hope. "This is a genuine artifact, please buy it!"

He He Lingchuan asked him, "What is written in this scroll of yours?"

"My ancestors said this is a profound divine ability!" Wang Laohan gave a bitter smile. "But I can't understand it either, and no one in my family practices cultivation, so I can only sell it."

"Can I take a look?"

"You can understand it?" Wang Laohan pulled the animal skin paper back a little, just a tiny bit. "Then take a look."

"Bring the child here, and I will find someone to treat him for you." He He Lingchuan said after taking a few looks. "If he is cured, this scroll of skin paper is mine."

"Ah?" Wang Laohan was startled. "Bring him here?"

"That's right, I have an appointment to meet a friend here; his medical skills are superb, and treating a child's high fever is nothing more than a simple task for him."

"Oh—" Wang Laohan nodded repeatedly, his face beaming with joy. "Good, good, I will go bring my grandson over right now!" Having said that, he rolled up the animal skin paper and walked away.

Neither of the two people behind him stopped him.

After Wang Laohan walked out of Yunlingdao, the sadness on his face disappeared. He walked for more than ten zhang before turning his head to see if anyone was following him.

No one.

He spat toward Yunlingdao.

Next, he strolled to the end of the main street, his manner becoming leisurely, not at all like someone who still had a sick patient at home.

He even bought two steamed buns and ate while walking. Soon, he left Wang Lin Street and turned into another street.

The foot traffic here was far less than on Wang Lin Street, and the shop signs were not as bright, but the street was very long and led in all directions. Wang Laohan threw away the oil paper, wiped the corners of his mouth and his hands, patted his face to set his expression, and entered several shops one after another.

When he came out again, his expression had already turned into one of smug satisfaction.

At this moment, he headed straight for the city gate, moving very quickly.

Once he was out, he would be safe.

However, just after passing a shallow alley, a hand reached out from the alley, grabbed him violently, and pressed him into the shadows.

Wang Laohan was terrified. He turned his head and was shocked to see the young man from Yunlingdao, who was smiling at him very brightly.

"You?" He shouted without thinking, "Robbery—!"

But just as he opened his mouth, He He Lingchuan poked him lightly on the throat.

The rest of Wang Laohan's words were immediately poked back. He pressed his neck and "ah-ed" for a long time, but his cry was no louder than a mouse's.

He He Lingchuan took five or six sheets of animal skin paper from his bosom and unfolded them; the content of each scroll was the same: faded handwriting, Ancient Immortal language script, and a thin sheet of paper that wasn't even full.

"What is this?"

Wang Laohan's face turned ashen.

Only then did He He Lingchuan take out the Great Wind military order and wave it in front of him. "The victim has already reported this to the authorities. There are major prisons in the west and south of the city; which one do you choose?"

The Great Wind army's token was very eye-catching, and He He Lingchuan wasn't afraid of him looking closely. Wang Laohan's eyes went straight, and he cursed his luck to himself.

How did he get exposed so quickly this time? Panlong City was truly not a place to come to.

The pain in his neck had already eased, and he fell to his knees with a thud:

"My lord, spare me, I will give you the genuine artifact!"

"You have a genuine artifact?" He He Lingchuan said disdainfully. "Forget it, the west city prison; just hand yourself over to the authorities nearby."

"If you spare me, I will definitely give it to you!" Wang Laohan was anxious. "I really have it!"

"Fine, I won't arrest you." He He Lingchuan reached out a hand. "Bring it here for me to see."

Only then did Wang Laohan take a scroll out of his boot.

The smell wasn't very pleasant. He He Lingchuan held his nose as he unfolded it, then threw the scroll back at him in a rage. "How is this any different from the fake ones! Are you playing with me?"

"I wouldn't dare, this is real!" Wang Laohan picked up the scroll and unfolded it. In fact, the old animal skin paper was already tattered and had been mounted in the scroll.

He took out a copper coin and pointed to a beast-head pattern drawn on the upper left corner of the paper. "Take a good look."

The drawing style of this beast head was very realistic, looking a bit like a large toad with bulging eyes and a huge mouth, but it had dense, sharp teeth, and the spots on its head looked like plum blossom patterns. It had its huge mouth open, and the inside of its mouth was pitch black.

Wang Laohan pressed the copper coin into the mouth of the beast-head pattern.

A miraculous scene occurred:

The copper coin suddenly disappeared.

He He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow and waited a few more breaths before saying, "And then? What changed?"

"The skin paper got bigger, didn't you notice?"

Reminded by him, He He Lingchuan noticed that the edge of the skin paper had indeed expanded outward by a tiny bit, but it was only a tiny bit; if one didn't stare at it, one wouldn't notice it at all.

"What are you trying to say?"

"This paper is alive, my lord!" Wang Laohan was eager to prove it. "But it only returns to its original size if it eats money or something valuable, and only then will the characters on it appear."

"Really?" He He Lingchuan searched him and actually pulled out several large silver ingots, each weighing about twenty or thirty taels.

He couldn't tell that this old man in tattered clothes was actually richer than him! "Is this what you scammed just now?"

Wang Laohan didn't know how to answer, and in the next second, he saw He He Lingchuan toss two large silver ingots into the beast's mouth.

"Oh no, don't!"

It was too late; the silver sank into the beast's mouth and vanished instantly.

Wang Laohan's vision went black, his heart aching as if it were being cut by a knife.

Afterward, He He Lingchuan indeed saw the animal skin paper expand outward a little more, by about... half an inch? The characters on the paper had indeed increased by a few because of this.

"Anything else? Come on, again."

Wang Laohan said with a bitter face, "My lord, please don't throw any more; no matter how much you throw, you won't be able to feed it!"

"You've tried? How much silver did you throw in at most?"

"I've thrown in two thousand taels of silver back and forth, and the most I threw in at once was seven hundred taels, plus two large oriental pearls!" Wang Laohan said with a heart full of bitterness. "I originally had some family assets; if it weren't for this bottomless pit, I wouldn't have ended up like this!"

He He Lingchuan asked for the reason.

It turned out that Wang Laohan was from out of town and had been a private tutor for many years, with a little surplus in his hands. One day after a heavy rain, he went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables, but before he had even dug half a basket, he encountered a dead body.

He didn't know why the deceased had died suddenly in the wilderness. Wang Laohan searched the body and only found a few pieces of broken silver and a piece of animal skin paper.

He laid the person to rest and went down the mountain with the animal skin paper.

Wang Laohan was educated and recognized that what was written on the paper was in the Ancient Immortal language, but unfortunately, it was tattered and incomplete, so he couldn't see the full picture. He took it to the city to sell, but no one wanted it.

Later, he found a capable person to appraise it, and the other party told him that this was the skin of a Gold-Swallowing Beast.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast was an extremely rare exotic beast even in ancient times, and the divine ability written on its skin material was precious beyond words.

This kind of skin could penetrate the test of time, and even after two or three thousand years, there was still a chance for it to be unfolded again.

But the Gold-Swallowing Beast was greedy for all valuable things while alive, and after death, its soul resided in its skin, still retaining its incomparably greedy nature. If Wang Laohan wanted to see all the content on the paper, he had to satisfy its appetite.

From then on, Wang Laohan embarked on the path of no return of feeding the Gold-Swallowing Beast...

He couldn't explain why he had lost his mind, but feeding this thing was truly addictive. He was just full of longing for the future of filling the Gold-Swallowing Beast, believing that he had a chance to obtain a rare divine ability.

At that time, the full text of the divine ability would certainly not fail his expectations, and it would be sold for a sky-high price, ensuring he wouldn't have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of his life.

Of course, reality was particularly harsh, because after this thing ate gold and silver, it didn't stay the same, but expanded for an hour or two before shrinking back, until it returned to its tattered original state!

In other words, if you couldn't fill it up all at once, it wouldn't show you the full text of the divine ability.

"What a trap." He He Lingchuan couldn't help but ask him, "Knowing it was a bottomless pit, why did you still keep filling it?"

"If I didn't keep filling it, wouldn't the gold and silver I threw in before have been wasted?" Wang Laohan squeezed out two bitter tears. "Later, I found a legend that the treasures of the human world simply cannot fill it!"

"It's a pity I found out too late; by then, I had already lost my family fortune!"

To make a living, Wang Laohan simply copied the content on the animal skin paper and disguised it as a complete divine ability to sell for money, using the same rhetoric he had used on Yunlingdao.

There were quite a few customers who fell for this.

It was just that after he scammed people two or three times, he had to quickly change locations to avoid imprisonment.

After listening, He He Lingchuan said, "You truly deserve it."

Wang Laohan's behavior was also a form of gambling addiction; if a person indulges blindly without knowing how to restrain their desires, they are unlikely to have a good ending.

He bowed to He He Lingchuan repeatedly. "I beg you, my lord, spare me!"

"Don't worry, I won't arrest you." He He Lingchuan grinned at him, stuffed the fake animal skin papers back into his bosom, and suddenly reached out to push him back into the middle of the street.

He really let him go? Wang Laohan was overjoyed.

Just then, two shouts came from not far away:

"Hey, it seems to be him!"

Wang Laohan was startled and turned his head, seeing two patrol guards running over quickly. With a guilty conscience, he turned and ran.

"Don't run!"

Wang Laohan ran even faster.

He was thin and small, but his speed was fast, and he kept diving into crowds. It took the two patrol guards nearly half an hour to catch him:

"Someone reported you to the authorities for forgery and fraud!"

Along the way, they even picked up several fake animal skin papers that had fallen off the old man.

The old man was unable to defend himself.

The genuine artifact was already gone, and no one believed anything he said anymore.

Watching Wang Laohan being taken away, He He Lingchuan walked back to Yunlingdao.

The fat shopkeeper asked him with a smile, "That old man was a scammer, right?"

He He Lingchuan gave a hum and asked him for a quiet room to stay in for a while.

The fat shopkeeper naturally had to satisfy this small request from his landlord. So, ten breaths later, He He Lingchuan entered a small appraisal room with a table and chairs, with some sundries piled in the corner.

He sat down, took out the original animal skin paper, spread it on the table, and lit a lamp to examine it closely.

Why go to such great lengths for an old scammer and a piece of Gold-Swallowing Beast skin paper?

Because this paper indeed recorded a divine ability: the Shadow-Splitting Technique, or "Cloning Technique" for short.

The outline of the divine ability on the visible part of the animal skin paper stated that once this technique was mastered, one could briefly summon a clone that would obey one's commands.

At first glance, this was very similar to the Mirror Image Technique that He He Lingchuan had originally wanted to go to the Pengcheng Bureau to exchange for, and even General Hong had recommended he exchange for that.

There will be another bonus update later.

(End of chapter)