Chapter 481: Confiscating the Estate?

River Realm Stage Four, River Realm Stage Five.

"Don't stop, don't," Lu Ran prayed silently, naturally hoping Master Yu Fu's divine statue would continue to vibrate.

But in the next second, Lu Ran let out a sigh.

Master Yu Fu's divine statue halted at River Realm·Stage Five, then fell silent.

No longer expanding in scale?

Damn!

Not counting the six guards at the mountain foot, the members of the Ran Sect eliminated a total of twenty-five bandits within the Shanzhai.

Among them, there were as many as eleven disciples of Master Yu Fu; could they really not push the divine statue to the Jiang Jing?

It should be known that advancing a River Realm statue is relatively easy.

It only requires one hundred River Realm souls to help a River Realm statue ascend one minor stage.

Converted, that is ten Jiang Jing souls, or ten strands of pure Holy Spirit Qi.

Had these eleven believers of Master Yu Fu, committing evils here for so many years, failed to collect even a few dozen strands of Holy Spirit Qi?

Lu Ran was deeply puzzled.

Could it be that all the Holy Spirit Qi had been absorbed by Bandit Chief Luo and Lady Kong?

How much Holy Spirit Qi must be contained within the souls of that dog couple?

Lu Ran's heart pounded with excitement!

If I could kill the two of them and capture their souls—wait a minute!

"Slap!" Lu Ran slapped his own forehead.

I was saying, why did the numbers always feel off; it turns out I missed capturing three!

My brain really was muddled by the vibrations.

Inside the ancient bronze coin on Great Dream Demon's wrist, three souls were still imprisoned!

【Great Dream Demon, where are you?】

【Searching the mountain,】 Deng Deng Yuxiang replied, 【no fish slipped through the net; the intelligence provided by those few guards downstairs should be accurate.】

【Give me your location; I'll come find you.】

【One hundred meters west of the main peak, in the largest house; this should be Luo Luo Tiantu's residence,】 Deng Deng Yuxiang transmitted while kicking open the door with one foot.

She stepped inside, looking around to discover no small amount of furniture, all constructed with considerable exquisiteness.

Eight-immortal tables, wooden stools and chairs, dressing tables, canopy beds...

Among the Shanzhai crowd of Luo Tiantu Mountain, could there actually be skilled craftsmen?

"Heh." Deng Deng Yuxiang snorted coldly, her gaze sweeping over the exquisitely polished stone teapot and teacups on the table.

They certainly know how to enjoy life.

She searched for a moment, her gaze fixing on a large wardrobe.

She yanked the cabinet doors open, her sharp eyes turning somewhat stunned.

A wardrobe is naturally used for storing clothes.

The problem was, there were simply too many clothes, and they were all uniformly white garments!

Although some were long and some short, some skirts and some robes, without exception they were all white.

"Ho?" A slightly surprised voice came from behind.

Deng Deng Yuxiang turned her head to see Lu Ran walking in, curiously examining the wardrobe.

She gestured toward the wardrobe: "Now you have clothes to wear."

In this primitive world, exquisite clothing from the human realm counted as a rather precious resource.

Lu Ran, however, gestured to his own attire: "This outfit of mine, the Straw Raincoat and Bamboo Hat, is the 'Holy Lingshan Chapter·Ran God Limited Edition Skin'; how could I change it so easily?"

Deng Deng Yuxiang was quite speechless; she turned and walked aside to continue searching the residence.

"It's true!" Lu Ran took off his conical hat, pointing to the small braid at the back of his head, "You tied this hairstyle for me personally this morning; did you forget? This is also part of the limited edition skin."

Deng Deng Yuxiang gave Lu Ran an annoyed yet amused glare, then went to the dressing table and pulled open a drawer.

"Clatter-clatter~"

Her ears caught a series of clinking sounds, crisp and pleasant.

The drawer beneath the dressing table was filled with all sorts of gold and silver jewelry.

Golden and glittering, silver and flowery, gemstones flashing with light!

If this were in the human realm, one probably wouldn't need to worry about money for the rest of their life.

Lu Ran took a distant look and cursed inwardly: "Truly fucking bandits!"

Not everyone who entered the mountain wore gold and silver jewels, nor did everyone wear white robes and white skirts.

Yet Luo Luo Tiantu and his wife had actually collected so much?

How many people must they have robbed?

And within this Holy Lingshan Realm, could bandits possibly only commit robbery?

Murder and plunder! Murder must rank even higher than robbery.

"Clatter-clatter~"

Deng Deng Yuxiang casually rummaged in the drawer, picked up a gemstone earring, looked at it, then casually tossed it back in.

She bent down, reached out, and pulled open the lower drawer.

Compared to the upper drawer piled high with jewelry, the lower one contained only a single short dagger.

An exceptionally ornate short dagger!

The hilt was crafted from pure gold, inlaid with several gemstones of different colors; the blade was as long as a forearm, flashing with cold light.

Deng Deng Yuxiang toyed with it for a moment, then casually tossed it to Lu Ran.

"Oh?" Lu Ran's eyes lit up.

"Is this the Seven-Star Precious Blade Cao Boss used when assassinating Dong Zhuo?"

This was, of course, a joke; Lu Ran didn't actually know what the Seven-Star Blade looked like in detail.

The short blade before him featured a pure gold hilt inlaid with seven gemstones the size of fingertips—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple—truly luxurious and exquisite, looking immensely valuable!

"No wonder so many people have loved suppressing bandits since ancient times; they're simply dripping with oil," Lu Ran muttered.

This was just from casually searching the house.

One had to remember that Luo Luo Tiantu and his squad were carrying at least four Divine Weapon Artifacts!

Lu Ran remembered it clearly!

There was the Sky-Scar Sword, the Earth-Scar Sword, the Weeping Blood Waist Blade, and the Jade Flower Hairpin inserted in Lady Kong's head.

If the Ran Sect could successfully annihilate this bandit lair, those treasures...

By then, how fat would the Ran Sect become?

"Tsk~" Lu Ran clicked his tongue in admiration, running his fingertips over the steel blade; he didn't feel this short blade was merely fit to be an ornament.

This ought to be a weapon for charging into battle and slaying enemies!

You cannot relegate it to sit alongside gold and silver jewelry just because it is expensive and gorgeous.

"Hehe." Deng Deng Yuxiang smiled as she watched Lu Ran's eyes shine, then turned and left to continue ransacking the bandit chief's home.

Moments later, Lu Ran put away the "Seven-Star Precious Blade," stepped over to the dressing table, pulled open the first drawer, and found that gemstone eardrop inside.

Lu Ran had witnessed every move Da Da Mengyan made just now.

Her aesthetic sense had never changed.

Since their first meeting at the high school gate, she had worn a sparkling ruby stud on her earlobe.

Just now, amidst this pile of gold, silver, and jewels, the only item worthy of her attention, the only one she picked up to examine, was this single ruby eardrop.

Lu Ran rummaged through the drawer again, found the matching ruby eardrop, and casually took it out: "Sister."

"Hmm?" A woman's voice came from outside.

"Give me the dead souls from the Reincarnation Coin. By the way, what sects were they believers of?"

"One Prison Demon believer, one Master Yu Fu believer, and another unknown."

"Unknown?" Lu Ran looked toward the doorway.

"That person lacked the courage to resist and kept begging for mercy, so I executed him," Deng Deng Yuxiang said casually as she walked in.

Good heavens~

Lu Ran grinned.

Thinking about it carefully, it was actually understandable.

After all, even when Lu Ran himself faced Deng Deng Yuxiang, he wasn't much better off.

Even though he knew clearly in his heart that she would never harm him, her terrifying aura still made Lu Ran's heart pound and his flesh tremble.

"Not planning to keep the dead souls to ask for more intelligence?" Deng Deng Yuxiang shook her wrist.

Lu Ran said, "Keep the Prison Demon disciple; I'll take the other two dead souls."

Deng Deng Yuxiang: "."

The Reincarnation Coin was merely a fragment of an artifact and lacked a complete artifact spirit.

It could roughly comprehend Deng Deng Yuxiang's intent, but performing more refined operations was naturally extremely difficult.

Fortunately, Lu Ran possessed the Eye of the Death Realm!

After learning the appearance of the Prison Demon disciple, he had Deng Deng Yuxiang activate the Reincarnation Coin to release all three dead souls.

Then he quickly retracted the Prison Demon disciple back inside.

"Buzz!!"

As the two dead souls entered his body, Lu Ran's face broke into great joy!

Within his Sculpture Garden of Gods and Demons, the Divine Sculpture of Master Yu Fu stirred once more.

This divine sculpture had already reached River Realm · Stage Five; expanding its scale further now meant heading straight for the Jiang Jing!

Watching Lu Ran's expression of joy spreading across his brows, Deng Deng Yuxiang roughly deduced what had happened.

"Here." A few seconds later, enduring the buzzing in his brain, Lu Ran casually tossed the pair of ruby eardrops over.

Deng Deng Yuxiang caught them effortlessly; looking at the exquisite earrings in her palm, she felt somewhat surprised.

Lu Ran smiled: "If you like them, keep them; swap them with your studs occasionally."

Life on Holy Lingshan was already bitter enough.

Everyone here lived with today but no guarantee of tomorrow.

If some little trinket could make her a bit happier, then she should just take it.

Deng Deng Yuxiang's eyes flickered slightly; she softly uttered an "Mm," and slowly closed her hand around the ruby eardrops in her palm.

Lu Ran added, "By the way, you mentioned earlier that you discovered a slave?"

"Yes, he is an old man, a believer of the Curse Master."

"Let's go, take me to see him," Lu Ran said immediately. "As for ransacking the house, wait until we capture Luo Luo Tiantu's soul and have him lead us to ransack his own home."

Deng Deng Yuxiang's lips curled slightly: "Alright."

The two quickly exited the large mansion; under Deng Deng Yuxiang's lead, Lu Ran arrived at a rather concealed cave entrance.

The cave was dark and damp; even his dog-like nose detected the distinct scent of an elderly person.

After walking several dozen paces forward, Lu Ran saw a wooden prison cell from a distance.

Kneeling inside was an old man, dressed in tattered rags with his hair disheveled.

The old man also sensed someone approaching; he slowly raised his head, "gazing" at the newcomer with deeply sunken eye sockets.

Lu Ran's brows furrowed slightly: "Elder, may I ask your honorable surname?"

The old man remained silent for a moment, then slowly spoke: "Bai."

Lu Ran stepped forward and patted the wooden pillar of the cell: "Your strength has reached Jiang Jing; I fear this wooden prison cannot hold you, can it?"

The old man surnamed Bai did not speak again.

Since the prison could not confine a servant, then its purpose...

Lu Ran pondered silently.

Was this wooden cell likely meant to insult and remind this old man that he had become a prisoner?

If so, this old man's former status must have been quite high?

If he had originally been a mere servant, such a grand display would certainly not have been necessary.

Inside the cave, all was silent; Deng Deng Yuxiang leaned against the stone wall, turning her head to watch the direction of the entrance, maintaining a silent vigil.

Her hand rested inside her pocket, her fingertips lightly rubbing the ruby earring.

Lu Ran suddenly spoke, breaking the silence: "I have heard that Elder Bai is a believer of Yi Ming Zhou? If that is the case, you ought to be treated as an honored guest?"

The old man finally spoke, his voice hoarse: "This old one once belonged to the Valley of No Sin."

(End of Chapter)