Chapter 289: Warehouse by the River

"Hmm..."

An ambiguous syllable emerged from Miao Yu's nose.

Miao Yu very much wanted to refuse directly and maintain his pride.

But he really wanted it.

His two trusted subordinates were looking at him eagerly from the side.

My lord, please agree quickly.

If my lord does not take it, how can we take it?

Xu Yuan was also thinking silently: If you don't take it, how can I continue holding the Tiger Head Cleaver?

Miao Yu's heart twisted again; if he took the boar-tusk's bones and integrated them into his "law-object," his strength would increase by at least fifty percent!

This would give him great confidence when breaking through to the Fifth Grade in the future.

Starting from the Middle Third Grade, every layer is an impassable chasm.

Moreover... even if he truly took nothing, Xu Yuan had still saved them this time.

Without Xu Yuan, everyone would have become food for the boar-tusk.

With this debt of gratitude, could he really bring himself to ask him about the origin of that Tiger Head Cleaver?

Miao Yu persuaded himself, so he lowered his head, remained silent, walked forward, and began to strip the bones.

... Then he awkwardly discovered that his own sword could not cut through the boar-tusk's flesh and blood.

He cultivated the laws, so his body lacked strength.

And his sword was a Seventh Grade artisan object.

It was a very beautiful weapon; Lord Miao had originally liked this sword—it was very suitable for matching with some majestic clothing in daily life.

But now Lord Miao blamed this sword, making this lord lose face.

Lord Miao turned around and looked at his two trusted subordinates.

The two quickly averted their eyes.

Fortunately, these two were not too stupid; they pushed each other, and finally Zhang Jianxiao stepped forward with a stiff neck, bowing and saying: "May Lord Xu lend us a sword?"

Xu Yuan suppressed his laughter and lent them one of the Dragon-Slaying Swords.

The Dragon-Slaying Sword could not pierce the boar-tusk's thick skin, but cutting through flesh and blood was no problem.

Miao Yu took the sword and quickly stripped out all the boar-tusk's bones.

Taking advantage of this time, Xu Yuan went to the corpses of the barber and the old black dog.

The barber's entire set of tools were artisan objects.

He was quite wealthy.

He had done dirty work for the people behind the scenes for decades; he had no glamorous identity, but he had indeed received many rewards.

That razor was of excellent quality and was a Sixth Grade artisan object.

The other fire tongs, fire stoves, and the like were all Seventh Grade.

Xu Yuan took them all without hesitation.

The razor could be kept for his own use; the other things could be shown to the stepmother upon returning; if nothing was precious, they could be directly placed in the private treasury.

They could not be sold for the time being, as it would be easy for the people behind the scenes to trace the clues back to him.

The old black dog had not brought anything, and there was nowhere on his body to store things.

Xu Yuan felt very regretful.

The old black dog must have secretly saved up a large sum of silver.

Regrettably, both of their souls hid a secret method, even more sinister than the "Pulling Thread Method"; the moment the two died, their souls instantly turned to ash and scattered.

There was no way to find clues to this sum of silver in their souls.

The barber also had a cultivation manual titled "The Method of Keeping the Head" on his body.

This method was too sinister; although Xu Yuan put the cultivation manual away, he did not intend to cultivate it, nor did he plan to let others cultivate it.

Miao Yu had already stripped out all the bones and came over to say to Xu Yuan: "Shall we leave the mountain?"

Xu Yuan thought for a moment and nodded: "Good."

There were too many good materials gained this time, and the material on the boar-tusk was too large to fit into the "Foul Wrap."

They could only tie it with ropes and hang it on the saddle.

Doing this was very dangerous, but everyone could not bear to give it up.

The horses were all used to carry things; even Xu Yuan and Miao Yu could only lead the horses and walk.

Hurrying as much as possible, the group returned to the canal dock before nightfall.

Qin Ze looked at the sky: "My lord, we won't make it back to Huicheng today; shall we spend the night at the dock?"

The dock was extremely busy, with many inns and cargo stations.

Xu Yuan nodded: "Agreed."

This time Miao Yu did not seek help from the Canal Gang or the Canal Office; he paid for the inn himself.

The cost was bound to be high.

Because those good materials needed a specialized warehouse for storage.

Such warehouses existed at the canal dock; Qin Ze took people to ask about the price, and the cost to store all the materials for one night was five hundred taels of silver!

They really weren't ripping off customers; this was the market price.

Such warehouses were only available at the canal dock.

To ensure these materials would not undergo strange transformations at night, the owner of the cargo station needed to make various arrangements.

Everything on the dock escaped the Cao Bang's eyes.

As Xu Yuan and the others arrived at the dock, someone quietly reported to the Chief Manager: "Miao Yu has returned, bringing back many items."

The Chief Manager changed into tattered clothes, disguised himself as an ordinary laborer, and went to take a look himself.

Then he went to the River Administration Office.

He entered through the back gate and soon met a my lord.

He gave a detailed report on Miao Yu's situation.

Finally he said: "I inspected it myself—there was no such batch of silkworm feed."

The my lord frowned and waved his hand: "Leave."

After the Chief Manager left, the my lord tapped the table.

From behind the study's screen, a figure stepped out: "What are your orders, my lord?"

"Send someone to inspect again tonight."

"Yes, my lord."

……

After dinner, Xu Yuan saw Miao Yu standing at the door, gazing in a certain direction.

"What is Lord Miao looking at?"

Miao Yu pointed with his hand: "Over there—that's the stolen River Administration Office warehouse."

Xu Yuan glanced once and quietly memorized it.

All the buildings on the river dock were constructed radiating from the dock along the river.

The positions closest to the dock were all taken by the River Administration Office.

The warehouse stood right by the riverbank.

It had two large gates, front and back.

Goods could be loaded directly from the warehouse onto boats—extremely convenient.

Miao Yu added: "I still don't know what was stolen from the warehouse. The River Administration Office doesn't actually want me investigating this case."

Xu Yuan asked: "What are your thoughts, my lord?"

Miao Yu shook his head lightly, then said after a long pause: "The water's too deep. Don't get involved, Brother Xu."

Xu Yuan thought inwardly: I'm already caught up in this.

The two returned to their rooms to rest; Xu Yuan seized the opportunity to ingest part of the pigskin and pig-tendon bait.

The Skin Core was greatly strengthened—it could now fully envelop Xu Yuan like a leather armor.

Its defensive power had reached the level of a Sixth-Rank Wu Xiu.

If he ingested all the pigskin bait, it would surely reach the level of a Fifth-Rank Wu Xiu.

It was even with Wild Boar Fang's in strength.

The Tendon Core was even tougher—entirely usable as a weapon.

After ingesting all of it, even a Fifth-Rank Craft Item could not cut through the beast-tendon rope.

After resting awhile, Xu Yuan coiled the Skin Dragon around the beast-tendon rope, quietly opened the window, and sent it out.

The beast-tendon rope extended a hundred zhang, lowering the Skin Dragon into the river.

Gloop!

The Skin Dragon entered the water and immediately activated.

Several malevolent spirits were lingering near the riverbank.

Every night they waited, hoping someone would stumble into the river during nighttime travel, granting them an easy blood meal.

The malevolent spirits didn't know the idiom "waiting by a stump for a rabbit."

Tonight, something glooped down—they rejoiced wildly, thinking they'd finally been rewarded.

A swarm of malevolent spirits surged forward; the Skin Dragon lashed its tail, instantly dispersing two of the water ghosts.

The rest scattered in panic.

The Skin Dragon suddenly lifted its head from the water—there was indeed a person on shore, sneaking toward the inn where Xu Yuan and the others stayed.

(End of Chapter)