Chapter 68: Distraction and Ambush, Like a Thorn in the Back!

At this moment.

Under the thick, pitch-black night sky, Lu Yuan was wrapped entirely in a Night Suit, with only a pair of indifferent eyes exposed.

Jin Zhenglin, who was suffering from serious, debilitating injuries, was trembling like a sieve, his blood running cold.

Although he was a frequent visitor to brothels and taverns and had heard many folk tales of strange and supernatural occurrences, he had always dismissed them with disdain, treating them merely as jokes.

Yet, the ghostly means by which the figure before him had appeared out of thin air completely overturned his previous understanding.

However, facing Jin Zhenglin's trembling inquiry, Lu Yuan had no time for nonsense and merely chuckled softly:

"Very good. Since you know who I am, it saves quite a bit of time. I will ask you a few questions; if you can satisfy me, you will have a chance to live."

These words undoubtedly confirmed his identity. Jin Zhenglin felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar; he was utterly terrified and lacked even the slightest courage to be stubborn:

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you! Please ask, Your Excellency, I will tell you everything I know!"

"I ask for nothing else, only that you spare my lowly life!"

Lu Yuan said slowly:

"Where do you get your opium, where is it stored, and which high official in this Fengyang Prefecture is protecting you?"

This question was obviously extremely fatal.

But facing a terrifying figure like Qingyike who killed without count, Jin Zhenglin only hesitated slightly before turning pale and confessing honestly:

"When my father and I were visiting friends in Jinjin, we happened to meet the manager of a foreign firm. He claimed he could provide us with a batch of cheap opium, and selling it in Fengyang Prefecture would yield a profit of over ten times.

I knew that this opium was a scourge that poisoned the bodies and minds of the people, so I tried my best to dissuade him, but my father could not resist the temptation and reached a cooperation agreement with that manager."

"The opium we transport back is processed within the gang before being sent to various opium dens. Currently, there are only a dozen or so crates of stock left, all stored in the gang's warehouse. As for the high official protecting us, it is the Assistant Prefect of Fengyang Prefecture, Lord Zhang Taiming. He has a good personal relationship with my father, and he even holds a twenty-percent stake in the opium dens; he helps us settle any issues immediately."

The Assistant Prefect is the deputy to the Prefect, an official of the regular fifth rank. Each prefecture generally appoints one or two, responsible for overseeing local affairs such as salt, grain, catching thieves, river defense, coastal borders, river engineering, and water conservancy.

In reality, Lu Yuan had already inquired about the backer of this Money Gang during the day; the reason he had abducted Jin Zhenglin was still to confirm whether the information he possessed was incorrect.

Seeing Lu Yuan silent, Jin Zhenglin, deathly pale from the fear of dying, begged:

"Lord Qingyike, the decision to open opium dens and sell opium was made entirely by my father. Although I, as the Young Gang Leader, had the heart to stop it, I was powerless. As the saying goes, every debt has its debtor; I have done nothing heinous. If you spare me, I will go back right now and burn all the opium, and the Money Gang will never again engage in such wicked business!"

Under the crisis of life and death, Jin Zhenglin sold out his own father without hesitation.

Lu Yuan watched his performance with a mocking gaze:

"Is that so? Then tell me, how much money has the Money Gang made selling opium over the past two years, and where is the money hidden?"

Jin Zhenglin did not hesitate for a moment, gritting his teeth:

"We've made a little less than one hundred thousand Silver Yuan in two years, all hidden in the silver vault. The vault is in the basement of our family's back courtyard, but it is cast in iron and has two locks; each lock requires two keys to open.

Currently, some of the keys are with me, and the others are with my father. If you need them, I will go steal those keys, open the vault, and offer up all the family wealth, only asking to atone for my crimes!"

"Very good."

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes and asked a few more questions.

For the sake of survival, Jin Zhenglin dared not hide anything and answered them one by one.

After answering.

Lu Yuan's emotions remained unreadable. Jin Zhenglin, unable to gauge his attitude, asked urgently:

"I have told you everything you wanted to know. Can you please raise your hand high and spare me? I guarantee that after I go back, I will turn over a new leaf, reorganize the gang, devote myself to doing good, and bring benefit to the people!"

"You are certainly one who can bend and stretch."

Lu Yuan chuckled softly:

"Fine, I will not kill you myself."

Having said that, he formed a seal with his hands, and Dharma Power surged forth; his entire body seemed to sink as he instantly submerged into the ground.

What!?

Witnessing this inconceivable scene, Jin Zhenglin was shocked on the spot, as if turned to stone.

Then, he hurriedly forced his battered body to crawl forward, his palms feeling around, but all he touched was the cold, hard ground.

What is this? A Dharma Technique, a Supernatural Power!?

Is Qingyike an Immortal, or did he use some kind of illusion?

An incomprehensible event had occurred before his eyes once more; Jin Zhenglin was dumbfounded and unable to speak.

Just as he was extremely suspicious and secretly rejoicing that he had escaped a disaster.

Suddenly, a large hand reached out from the ground and grabbed his ankle.

Before Jin Zhenglin could scream, he suddenly felt an inexplicable fluctuation envelop his entire body. The solid ground beneath him suddenly became as buoyant as a water surface, causing his entire body to plummet into the earth, wrapped in suffocating darkness!

"No—"

In extreme panic and horror, Jin Zhenglin felt himself fall at least several zhang into the ground. Just as a terrified scream escaped his throat, he immediately felt the hand grabbing him suddenly let go, and the power that had enveloped his body and pulled him into the earth also vanished. Subsequently, the pitch-black, cold soil all around crushed in like a collapsing mountain and sea!

"Mmph..."

Enveloped by desperate suffocation, the already severely injured Jin Zhenglin had no power to resist. In an instant, his eyes bulged from the pressure of tens of thousands of pounds of soil, blood flowed from his seven orifices, his internal organs ruptured, and he died of suffocation.

As the Young Gang Leader of the Money Gang, he died just like that, several zhang deep in the soil, silent and soundless, not even a single scream escaping.

Afterward.

Under the dim light of the stars and moon, Lu Yuan's figure slowly rose from the ground, gazing at the earth beneath:

"Using the Earth Travel Technique to kill; I suppose this counts as a creative application."

The Earthly Fiend Arts were originally meant for escaping and tunneling, and this was the first time he had used them to kill and dispose of a body.

Moreover, the effect was quite good; after all, the deeper one went underground, the greater the pressure. Coupled with the crushing of the surrounding soil, any Martial Arts expert dragged down would be at his mercy.

However, during the process of using Dharma Power to wrap and drag someone underground, the enemy could still resist. It worked against a crippled Jin Zhenglin who had no strength to fight back, but it would likely be a struggle against a higher-level Martial Arts expert.

"Next."

Having obtained enough intelligence from Jin Zhenglin, Lu Yuan did not delay and immediately headed toward the Money Gang's headquarters.

To conserve Dharma Power, he sprinted like lightning through the dark streets, arriving at the perimeter of the headquarters in just a moment.

The Money Gang's compound is not small; lanterns are lit everywhere, and some important areas even have gang members specifically assigned to keep watch at night.

Because he had scouted the location both last night and during the day, and combined with the intelligence provided by Jin Zhenglin, Lu Yuan used his Invisibility Technique to sneak in with ease and found the location of the so-called cargo warehouse.

The Money Gang has several cargo warehouses located in the heart of the compound, but the one storing opium is a unique secret warehouse, built in a large courtyard next to the cargo warehouses.

The courtyard entrance not only has the Money Gang's vicious dogs and sentries, but even on the roof at the entrance of the secret warehouse, several tough gang members are keeping watch at night with Firearm strapped to their waists.

With such a setup, an ordinary person would never be able to get close, but Lu Yuan used an Earth Travel Technique to enter the secret warehouse with ease.

The secret warehouse is not large and is pitch black inside; relying on his superhuman eyesight and sense of smell, he immediately locked onto the dozen or so wooden crates placed in the corner.

He walked forward, drew his Short Blade, pried open a wooden crate in the darkness, and after inspecting it, immediately confirmed that this was the opium he needed to destroy.

Opium cannot simply be destroyed by setting it on fire, otherwise, the smoke from the burning would spread and cause even greater harm.

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, then immediately placed his hands on the wooden crates one by one, and while covering them with Dharma Power, he used the Earth Travel Technique to sink these wooden crates more than ten zhang into the ground.

Sinking them into the ground to never see the light of day again is also an extremely effective way of destruction; after finishing all this, Lu Yuan's Dharma Power was mostly exhausted; if it weren't for the fact that he had refined four more wisps of Dharma Power in the past two months, his energy bar would have been completely drained at this moment.

Thus, he immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, took out two Three Treasure Pills, put them into his mouth for Ingestion and refinement, and recovered his Dharma Power.

After recovering a portion of his Dharma Power.

He wasted no time and once again used the Earth Travel Technique to sneak underground, heading straight toward the residence deep in the compound where Jin Taihong lived.

And this time, almost without needing much repeated searching, Lu Yuan quickly found the location of the so-called silver vault.

Because when he was traveling underground to the back residence of the Jin family, he suddenly encountered an obstacle that even the Earth Travel Technique could not pass through.

The Earth Travel Technique can pass through soil, sand, stone, or ordinary thickness of stone slabs; the only things that can block this technique are pure rock mountains or metal.

According to what Jin Zhenglin said, the walls and floor of the silver vault built by Jin Taihong were cast with a layer of pig iron; what blocked the Earth Travel Technique was clearly the walls of the underground silver vault.

However, this small obstacle could still not stop Lu Yuan; he arrived at the underside of the silver vault, first tilted his head to listen to confirm that there was no one there, then reached out his hand, which he had long prepared, pointed his fingers to form a sword, and performed 【Generating Light】.

I saw that in the pitch-black underground space, a condensed golden glow, no more than three inches long, suddenly emerged from his fingertips, and then he gently stabbed it toward the obstacle above his head.

Chi.

It was as if a red-hot knife had pierced through butter; the thunderous golden glow easily pierced through a thick layer of iron plate and carved out a large hole.

After all, it is an Earthly Fiend Immortal Art formed by extremely condensed Dharma Power; ordinary iron naturally finds it difficult to block the sharpness of Generating Light.

Breaking through the obstacle, Lu Yuan slowly rose from the hole; relying on the bright light blooming from his fingertips, he saw that he was now in an underground secret vault about a zhang square, with pig iron-cast plates on the ceiling, floor, and all sides, which could be called as solid as a fortress.

And in such a narrow space, there were four large wooden crates placed.

After he stepped forward and opened them, he saw that they were filled with a large amount of copper yuan, Silver Yuan, Gold Yuan, and even some antiques, calligraphy, paintings, jade, and jewelry.

Under the illumination of the pearls and treasures, even Lu Yuan, a cultivator, had his expression flicker, his gaze deep:

"What a Money Gang, what a Jin Taihong."

This was clearly the majority of the wealth accumulated by the Money Gang; according to Jin Zhenglin, it was worth about 100,000 Silver Yuan, and one could only wonder how many families' flesh, blood, and tears in the south of the city this represented.

Having no mood to admire this treasure, which could be called enormous, he immediately closed the crates, then pushed the four crates to the large hole in the floor he had cut, sank them one by one more than ten zhang into the ground, and left them to be retrieved later.

After doing all this, the Dharma Power he had not recovered much of was completely exhausted.

Subsequently, Lu Yuan sat cross-legged in the silver vault just like that, putting a large amount of the pills and medicinal materials he carried with him into his mouth for Ingestion and refinement.

A large amount of essence and energy rose from his abdomen and was then refined into True Qi.

It was not until an hour later, when his Dharma Power had recovered seven or eight tenths, that he slowly opened his eyes in the darkness, his gaze like cold electricity:

"Next, it's the turn of the main culprit..."

At the same time.

In the main bedroom of the Jin family's back residence.

On the bed, the sturdy and vigorous Jin Taihong slept in his clothes, with a sheathed Golden Ring Blade and a repeating Firearm by his hand.

His legal wife had passed away, and although he had married five concubines, he never spent the night in any of their rooms.

Especially when the storm surrounding Qingyike was intensifying, he knew that the business the Money Gang was engaged in might attract the other party's attention and lead to an assassination, so for the past few months, he had been extremely cautious and alert even when sleeping, never letting his blade or gun leave his side.

Just like at this moment.

Dong, dong, dong...

In the silent darkness, a faint, muffled sound was transmitted.

Jin Taihong, who was only in a light sleep, suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed the Golden Ring Blade beside him like lightning.

"This sound...?"

There was still a faint movement, extreme to the point of being almost imperceptible, coming through the absolute silence; after listening carefully, his expression changed abruptly:

"It's the silver vault!?"

He stood up abruptly with his blade, pushed the door open, and rushed to the front courtyard.

The front courtyard was a garden, and the entrance to the silver vault's cellar was also located there; he walked with the stride of a dragon and the gait of a tiger to the cellar in the corner, only to find the entrance locked tight, with nothing unusual.

At this moment, it was not just him.

The old butler who lived in the adjacent courtyard also heard the movement and rushed over with a lantern, his posture agile, asking in surprise: "Master, the sound just now?"

Although the old butler was also over fifty years old, he was a trusted aide who had followed Jin Taihong since he first started out, and it had been twenty years now; his Martial Arts had reached the Fourth Thunder Sound Realm, making him the second-strongest expert in the gang, second only to Jin Taihong.

It was precisely because of this level of Martial Arts that he was able to detect the movement from across the courtyard in the other residence and react immediately.

"Strange..."

Looking at the intact iron lock, Jin Taihong narrowed his eyes and scanned his surroundings with a dangerous gaze:

"Could it be that someone just tried to enter the silver vault? Where is Zhenglin?"

The old butler replied solemnly:

"The Young Gang Leader went out with his men in the evening, saying he was going to the Warm Fragrance Pavilion; he hasn't returned yet, so the sound just now definitely has nothing to do with him."

"Hmm?"

At this, Jin Taihong's expression became even colder and more severe, his murderous aura surging like an angry tiger king in the mountains.

Without a word, he immediately took out the key he always carried with him and never took off even when sleeping, and opened the cellar door.

"Master, let me go down first."

The cellar stairs extended more than a zhang underground; the old butler walked down the stairs carrying a lantern, then illuminated the space inside the cellar.

The space inside the cellar was neither too big nor too small, and there was not much clutter, nor was there anyone who had broken in or was hiding.

And embedded in the wall at the very back was a thick, heavy iron door, which was the gate to the silver vault.

Jin Taihong also walked down into the cellar at this moment and arrived at the entrance of the silver vault, which showed no signs of any intrusion; his brows immediately furrowed tightly, as if he did not understand what the sound from just a moment ago was all about.

But since he had already arrived here, out of caution, he still took out the two keys to the silver vault door, inserted them into the locks separately, and gave them a gentle turn.

Click—amidst the crisp sound of the mechanism moving, the locks sprang open, and Jin Taihong used a little strength in his robust arms to slowly pull open the heavy iron door.

And at the very instant the iron door was pulled open.

The light from the old butler's lantern beside him shone into the cramped space of the silver vault, and Jin Taihong's expression changed drastically!

Because he was shocked to see that the four large chests containing all his wealth stored within the silver vault had vanished into thin air, while at the same time, a large hole had been cut into the iron floor, as if someone had already broken in!

Just at the moment his mind was shaken to the core.

Behind them, suddenly, brilliant and cruel golden light flashed through the air in succession, instantly illuminating the entire silver vault!

(End of this chapter)