Chapter 218 - 109: Fame Shakes Yuhe

Only after finishing did he turn to the entrance.

He saw Li Tieyun and his two men walking in, their gazes fixed on the scattered silver notes, expressions of surprise on their faces.

"This is..."

Li Tieyun looked at the silver notes covering the floor, then at the cracked statue, and instantly understood. "So the valuables were hidden here. Li Qianxiong was truly cunning!"

Yang Jing composed himself, pointed to the crack in the statue, and said calmly, "I felt this statue was a bit odd, so I tested it. I didn’t expect to find this inside."

He deliberately omitted any mention of the True Skill manual.

As far as Yang Jing knew, True Skills were of extremely high quality, but they were also incredibly difficult to cultivate.

Although Li Qianxiong had obtained this True Skill, he hadn’t made any real progress with it, likely because he was stuck at a cultivation bottleneck.

Even if he told Li Tieyun and the others about the True Skill, they most likely wouldn’t be able to master it. If news of the True Skill got out, it would only cause trouble.

Thinking of the *Indestructible True Skill* manual now tucked in his robes, Yang Jing’s heart burned with excitement, even though he hadn’t looked through it yet.

’This must be my fated opportunity.’

’For others, a True Skill is monumentally difficult to cultivate. But for me, someone without bottlenecks, it’s absolutely perfect.’

Li Tieyun nodded and walked to the table. He bent down to pick up a few silver notes that had fluttered to the floor. As he rubbed the words "one thousand taels" on the note, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

’Even a typical merchant caravan might not have many of these high-denomination silver notes. I can’t believe Li Qianxiong had so many hidden away. Or did he convert most of his wealth into them?’

Meanwhile, Yang Jing gathered the scattered silver notes from the table, stacked them neatly, and turned to hand them to Li Tieyun. "Gang Leader Li, you should keep these as well."

Li Tieyun hesitated for a moment. He looked at the hand Yang Jing extended toward him, took a deep breath, and accepted the thick stack of silver notes. It felt heavy in his hand. A quick count revealed over a hundred notes, amounting to more than one hundred thousand taels of silver.

He grew even more astonished, and his gaze toward Yang Jing was now filled with a newfound respect.

’Such a huge sum... Anyone else would have claimed it for themselves long ago. Yet Yang Jing can hand it over for safekeeping so calmly. That kind of integrity is truly rare.’

After all, though the twenty gold bars from before were valuable, they were nowhere near the worth of these silver notes, which totaled over one hundred thousand taels.

’With Yang Jing’s strength, even if he kept all these silver notes for himself, my men and I wouldn’t dare object. What’s more, he was the one who found them in the first place.’

But the other man didn’t seem to care at all. This display of trust was deeply gratifying to Li Tieyun.

"Young Master Yang, rest assured. I will keep them safe, and we will do a final tally of everything at the end."

Li Tieyun nodded solemnly. He carefully placed the silver notes deep inside his bundle, along with the gold bars and manuals from before, and then tied the straps securely.

The burly man and the skinny man also went forward to inspect the cracked statue. After confirming there was nothing else inside besides the silver notes, they placed it back in its niche.

"Let’s go. We’ll check the other cabins," Li Tieyun suggested, picking up his bundle.

The four of them immediately began searching the surrounding cabins, using Li Qianxiong’s as the center point.

The residences of the other Flying Horse Thieves leaders weren’t as grand as their boss’s, but they still contained plenty of hidden valuables.

Some had gold ingots hidden under the bed boards, others had silver notes stuffed into cracks in the walls, and some wooden chests were piled high with stolen silks, jades, and jewels.

Yang Jing and the others worked together, gathering all these valuables for Li Tieyun to keep.

Before long, Li Tieyun’s bundle was bulging, a clear sign of a bountiful haul.

Yang Jing, meanwhile, made a special trip back to the silver carts to pick up the silver ingots that had been scattered when the bandits were looting them.

He tossed all the silver ingots back into the wooden chests on the carts, replaced the lids, and found some rope to tie the chests shut to prevent them from spilling open during transport.

Once he had finished, he walked to a slightly larger wooden cabin nearby.

Judging by the furnishings, it must have been the residence of some Clear Strength-level core member. Inside was only a wooden bed and a broken cabinet. A search of the cabinet only turned up some loose pieces of silver, amounting to no more than a dozen or so taels.

Yang Jing shook his head and walked out of the cabin.

...

「In the cabin of the Flying Horse Thieves’ second-in-command.」

This cabin was more refined than those of the common bandits. The bed was covered with thick bedding.

The skinny man was searching with extreme care. As his fingers explored beneath the bedding, he suddenly felt a slight bump.

"Hm?"

His eyes lit up. He yanked back the bedding to reveal a neat stack of silver notes tucked under the pillow.

They were all one-thousand-tael notes, twenty of them in total.

The skinny man’s heart skipped a beat. He glanced left and right, saw no one was coming in, and quickly pulled out five notes, stuffing them into his robes. He clutched the remaining fifteen in his hand, but his face remained a mask of indifference.

He continued to feel around under the bed, and his fingers brushed against a cold wooden box.

A jolt of joy shot through the skinny man. ’Another big score?’

He opened it. Inside, there was no gold or silver, only a palm-sized black Token. Its edges were engraved with intricate patterns, and the front bore the word "Jiujiang." It felt heavy in his hand, as if forged from some rare Profound Iron.

"What is this?"

The skinny man frowned. Though he didn’t know the Token’s purpose, his intuition told him it was something extraordinary.

He hesitated for a moment, then tucked the Token into his robes, planning to investigate it later. After one last check to confirm there was nothing else, he turned and left the cabin.

Not far away, Li Tieyun was emerging from the cabin of the third-in-command—the one with the thick beard—holding a stack of silver notes.

The skinny man hurried over to him, holding up the fifteen silver notes in his hand. "Gang Leader, I found fifteen thousand taels in this cabin."