Chapter 323: Money is Hard to Earn (Debt)

Dawn broke.

Today's bans: levitation, cave exploration, shaving hair, whispering.

In the Nancheng patrol station, a Wen Xiu painted a picture in colors.

Shen Qingpeng draped himself with this painting, transformed into Xu Yuan's appearance, and quietly surrounded Rongxing Inn with a group of subordinates.

Then, with the highly professional coordination of the entire Quhui Bureau, they advanced step by step to the few guest rooms at the west end of the second floor.

At a single whistle, everyone moved at once and rushed in to kill.

"Quhui Bureau on business!"

Clang!

Crash!

Kicking doors and breaking windows.

Inside, tables, chairs, benches, trunks, and wardrobes lay overturned.

"My lord, no one is here!"

Several rooms were empty.

The thieves were already nowhere to be found.

Di Youzhi and other inspectors led people to search and soon discovered some clues in the Lady's room.

A fortune interpretation from the Empty Pure Temple outside the city.

Several ticket stubs for listening to opera at the "Mei Troupe" in Chengnan.

A package of fine tea from the "Three Cups Clear" tea shop in the northern part of the city.

And a basket of exquisite pastries from "He Feng Yuan" in the eastern part of the city.

Everyone immediately made a decisive decision, splitting into four groups to investigate each clue separately.

"Xu Yuan" chose the Mei Troupe.

If the Lady likes listening to opera, she might go today just as she did yesterday.

This line of investigation holds the most value.

Immediately, "Xu Yuan" took only Di Youzhi, Mao Dabin, and two squads of Captains, and headed for the Mei Troupe.

The Mei Troupe is not a local opera troupe; they arrived from Luocheng for a tour only ten days ago.

They are the undisputed number one troupe in Southern Jiaozhi.

This year's tour is planned to circle through all the cities of Southern Jiaozhi, build up enough momentum, and then sing northward across the entire Jiaozhi region to clash with the "Liu Troupe," known as the number one troupe of Northern Jiaozhi.

To seize the title of the number one troupe in Jiaozhi.

The Mei Troupe has money, so they rented the largest opera stage in Chengnan separately.

This stage is very large; three hundred people can sit below it.

Therefore, the location is somewhat remote.

"Xu Yuan" led his people running swiftly, and when passing a row of dilapidated houses, suddenly the shadows on the wall twisted and floated up, rushing at Di Youzhi with a whoosh!

The shadow was like a piece of black cloth that could not be torn or ripped, wrapping Di Youzhi tightly inside.

Almost simultaneously, a small golden melon was thrown out from the dilapidated house.

Mao Dabin raised both hands high, holding a three-eyed pistol in each hand.

Each gun barrel was the size of a pigeon egg.

Boom, boom, boom...

That small golden melon exploded, scattering a large number of metal grappling hooks connected to each other by chains, which clattered and bound Mao Dabin.

"He's a Jiang Xiu too!" Mao Dabin cursed; the opponent's skill was higher than his, and he was captured without any chance to fight back.

Immediately following a boom, the low wall was directly smashed down, and a tall, strong figure holding a huge shield came rushing out.

On the shield, nine battering horns sprang up vertically and horizontally in a three-by-three formation with a chattering sound.

The Wu Xiu was like a speeding war chariot.

He fiercely crashed into the Quhui Bureau's ranks, causing men and horses to topple over at once.

"Xu Yuan" hurriedly dodged to the side but felt as though he had fallen into some sort of trap.

A gray moth flashed past him and vanished.

"Xu Yuan" thought he had seen things wrongly, but immediately after, where the gray moth had disappeared, a beautiful pale hand, tightly gripping something like a small sword or a hairpin, swiftly thrust toward his eyes.

Shen Qingpeng was startled and spat out a sword pill with a "puff," colliding with that hairpin.

Ding!

The sword pill transformed into a flying sword but failed to knock the hairpin away.

Instead, the hairpin's spiritual aperture wrapped around, using a "binding" force to trap the flying sword.

Shen Qingpeng noticed with his peripheral vision that another gray moth flashed past on the left.

A second hairpin appeared immediately after.

Shen Qingpeng threw out a Longzhu Waidan, which exploded with a "pop," releasing a "Corpse-Carrying Ghost" from inside; its face showed great toil, it bent its back, and on its back it carried a Bai Mao corpse.

Clang!

The hard Bai Mao corpse blocked this hairpin strike.

But what followed was that in the void beside him, gray moths flashed and vanished one after another.

Hairpins kept thrusting out; Shen Qingpeng used every trick he had but still retreated again and again.

He stepped on a hairpin protruding from the ground.

"Ah—" he let out a wretched cry; he had been outmaneuvered after all.

The other two guards, one a Rank Dan Xiu and one a Wen Xiu, rushed out together to surround and annihilate the Captains of the Quhui Bureau.

That Xu Police Inspector will be dealt with by his Lady.

They cannot intervene yet; the Lady will be angry.

Suddenly, a large seal flipped into the air, and a voice roared: "Assaulting officials, by law, you shall be executed!"

Beneath the seal, a surge of power erupted, crushing the Rank Dan Xiu to the ground.

Behind Miao Yu, accompanied by two trusted subordinates, came rushing from afar: "In broad daylight, under the clear heavens! What audacity these thieves possess!"

"Do not panic, members of the Quhui Bureau; Shanhe Bureau's Law-keeper Behind Miao Yu is here!"

The Lady's gaze turned cold; how could they have run into people from the Shanhe Bureau?

No more playing; strike with full force and capture that scoundrel Xu Yuan!

Thus, countless gray moths took flight, with tally sticks somewhat similar to the "Three Hairpins" hidden behind the gray moths.

The gray moths flickered and vanished, while the tally sticks teleported.

Pfft, pfft, pfft...

One by one, the tally sticks pierced into Shen Qingpeng's body.

Shen Qingpeng's eyes bulged wide; earning these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver was indeed no easy task.

He lunged forward desperately, risking his very life.

"Hoo—"

A thick blast of Fu Zhong Huo from his belly spat out, heading straight for the Lady's face.

The Lady flicked her sleeve; a seventh-rate Fu Zhong Huo posed little threat to her.

Yet, hidden within this Fu Zhong Huo was a Longzhu Waidan.

The sleeve struck the Longzhu Waidan, and the Longzhu Waidan shattered with a crack.

A wisp of purple-black gas erupted, wrapping around the Lady like a living creature.

The Lady's expression changed; she waved her sleeve several times but could not drive away this purple-black gas.

Enraged, the Lady thrust a tally stick forward, which pierced Shen Qingpeng's heart with a pfft!

Yet that purple-black gas still clung to her like a festering sore on the bone, binding her tightly.

"Old Corpse Plague Qi!" The Lady recognized it.

This thing was not only extremely poisonous but also incredibly tenacious.

Often, only a thousand-year-old corpse could refine a single mouthful of it.

Xu Yuan nodded in the shadows; indeed, this official had not misjudged Shen Qingpeng.

This traitor who had caused such unrest within the Third Lady Society must possess some hidden trump cards.

Xu Yuan had sent him specifically to exhaust the Lady.

Shen Qingpeng had claimed his men were secretly tailing the culprits and discovered the mastermind was staying at the Rongxing Inn.

Xu Yuan did not act immediately; instead, he inspected the area circled in red thread—confirming the culprit was highly experienced, he deduced Shen Qingpeng had been set up.

Shen Qingpeng waited outside the Nancheng Patrol Station without deliberately concealing his tracks.

The hidden culprits must have spotted them long ago.

How then could they have been tailed in return?

Therefore, Xu Yuan turned the trap against them, having Shen Qingpeng impersonate himself to draw out the mastermind, while also using Shen Qingpeng to wear them down.

After learning of Shen Qingpeng's actions within the Third Lady Society, Xu Yuan had no intention whatsoever of truly saving him.

Not to mention this fellow had used "clues" to blackmail him: if Xu Yuan did not beg for his life, he would not reveal the clue.

Trapping him brought Xu Yuan not a shred of psychological burden.

At the moment Shen Qingpeng fell, Xu Yuan quietly released the beast-tendon rope.

This rope, as thin as a hair, slithered along the ground, unnoticed by anyone.

The two ends of the rope wrapped around the ankles of one Rank Artificer and one Rank Spirit Cultivator respectively, then snapped upward toward the sky.

Bang!

The two were flung directly several zhang into the air.

"Ah—"

The two screamed; flying was forbidden today!

A massive black claw appeared out of thin air, seized the Rank Artificer's head, and twisted—Crack!

The Rank Artificer instantly lost all strength in his body, falling like a tattered sack. One zhang below, a circular maw suddenly appeared.

The maw opened, revealing endless rows of sharp teeth inside, which swallowed the Rank Artificer's corpse, chewing and gulping it down!

(End of this chapter)