“We have one hour; we need to hurry, or we might attract the attention of some sect’s protector, and that would be troublesome.”
Murong Suyue was clearly doing this for the first time, her expression somewhat tense.
Despite her towering two-meter-five stature, she moved with surprising lightness.
“That’s enough. At worst, we can eat while we take.”
Gu Wen was quite confident in his capacity to devour spiritual items.
He walked ahead, noting that the architectural layout of the court buildings was largely similar; the layout of the Luoshui Taifu Office was not much different from Bianjing.
The first room they entered in the inner courtyard was where the account books were stored.
A clerk was dozing off, and after being awakened, he obediently took out the account books, only to be tied up and tossed into a corner.
Pushing open the warehouse door, they were greeted by a mountain of goods piled haphazardly.
Unlike the orderly layout of Bianjing, it resembled a wholesale market.
“Surprisingly, there’s no categorization.” He Huan said, somewhat speechless. “With things piled up like this, it’s a wonder nothing’s broken.”
“It’s precisely because things are broken that there’s loss; with loss, one can line their pockets. Otherwise, how could those few officials in the court sustain themselves?”
Gu Wen was accustomed to this.
Da Qian had a bad habit of favoring integrity.
Its integrity only required officials to be honest while continuously reducing their rations.
Although the rations were enough for them to live comfortably, the thought of studying hard for ten years only to end up with empty sleeves made them eager to make money.
Especially in the current situation, not being greedy could lead to starvation.
Following the areas marked in the account books, they arrived at the only two small rooms—one containing official silver and the other containing spiritual herbs, both locked behind a thick iron door.
Just as Gu Wen was about to use his gun qi to break it open, Murong Suyue had already pried it open with her hands, her strength making him feel somewhat embarrassed.
One could only say she was indeed a master in weapon forging.
Murong Suyue pushed open the iron door, revealing a dazzling sight of gold and silver, with ten large chests filled with silver and a half chest of gold.
The three of them were momentarily stunned.
“We’ve struck it rich!”
He Huan couldn’t help but exclaim.
This Da Qian silver and gold were also useful to them as cultivators, especially for those managing a local power like Da Qian.
You couldn’t rely solely on beating and threatening the common folk, could you?
High-grade spiritual herbs could be traded, while low-grade spiritual herbs could be purchased with silver and gold.
Gu Wen glanced at the account book, his breath quickening: “This is the commercial tax from Luoshui for the past three months—ten thousand taels of gold and four hundred thousand taels of silver.”
Da Qian gold was fifteen times that of silver, so ten thousand taels equated to one hundred thousand taels of silver, totaling five hundred thousand taels of silver.
With five hundred taels for a pot of spiritual wine, that was a thousand years of heavenly marrow!
Luoshui was a commercial giant city, with tax silver starting at a million taels each year.
The city had a hundred thousand troops stationed, and a thousand-man battalion was permanently stationed outside the Taifu Office.
But mere mortals couldn’t guard against cultivators; Gu Wen and the others had flown in directly, making it somewhat unreasonable to expect them to guard against such intrusions.
Indeed, they needed to find a way to sit in that bird position!
Suppressing his agitated emotions, Gu Wen said, “Take all the gold; leave the rest.”
At least twenty tons of gold and silver; even a day might not be enough to move it all.
“Oh, oh.” Murong Suyue was already somewhat dazed, continuously stuffing gold into her Qiankun bag, her previously elegant face gradually breaking into a smile.
The immense wealth struck her heart; for the first time, Miss Murong felt what it meant to have a ‘golden belt from killing and arson.’
In the second room, still with the strength to move mountains, Miss Murong pried open the door, which slowly creaked open, revealing an empty interior.
“Hmm?”
Gu Wen’s gaze sharpened.
He looked down at the account book; clearly, the spiritual herbs inside were measured by the jin, with something called Earth Herb Pearls totaling eight hundred jin.
Where were the spiritual herbs?!
“Where are the spiritual herbs?”
He Huan was getting anxious; he had been waiting for several days and even had Murong Suyue specially create tools to break the formations.
“I clearly heard that the Earth Herb Pearls had a bountiful harvest recently, at least over a thousand jin. According to the rules, each major family is required to give the court thirty percent; how come there’s not a single one here?” Suddenly, a burnt smell wafted in.
Turning around, they saw that the Taifu Office outside the warehouse was already engulfed in flames.
Gu Wen’s expression darkened; he had a faint feeling that something was off. “First, take the money.”
The three turned and rushed into the room where the silver was stored, frantically stuffing silver into their Qiankun bags.
However, within half a stick of incense, they sensed over a dozen auras approaching.
“Go.”
Gu Wen decisively issued the command, then turned to Murong Suyue and said, “Give me the best gun; don’t bring the previous long spear.”
He took hold of a high-quality mortal weapon.
Stepping outside, an old man seemed to have been waiting for a long time, his Dao Foundation at the sixth level.
“You few take the wealth, and you’ll bear the court’s blame.”
“You’re plotting against us?”
He Huan immediately reacted, simultaneously sending a voice transmission to Gu Wen: “Brother Hongchen, I miscalculated; these Luoshui families have no intention of handing over to the court; they plan to pin the blame on us.”
Gu Wen took a couple of steps forward, his face covered, his voice low as he said, “Give me a hundred jin of spiritual items, and I can take the blame.”
He had already killed the crown prince; he wasn’t afraid of adding another sin in Da Qian, but this little benefit was far from enough.
Silver and gold couldn’t be quickly converted into spiritual items, and moreover, these families had taken over a thousand jin of spiritual items; asking him to take the blame for just one-tenth was not unreasonable.
Gu Wen had always been quite sensible.
The old man was momentarily stunned, then couldn’t help but laugh: “Which sect’s little brat is so arrogant?”
He didn’t recognize me; it wasn’t directed at us.
Today, no matter who came, they would end up in a mess.
With that thought, Gu Wen stepped forward, and a wave of energy swept up the surrounding flames.
The old man had been prepared but was already too late; he was dead without a doubt.
The Red Dragon Dharma Image enveloped the opponent, and amidst the silent killing calamity, a flash of red light appeared.
Puchi!
The long spear pierced through the old man’s body, and his blood was instantly absorbed by the Red Dragon Dharma Image, the spear qi solidifying slightly further.
A sixth-level Dao Foundation cultivator was on par with him, yet he was unworthy to stand before him.
Gu Wen withdrew the long spear, lightly flicking it to remove the last traces of blood, leaving only a dry corpse.
Behind him, He Huan and Murong Suyue swallowed hard; after all, this was a sixth-level Dao Foundation expert, yet he died so easily?
Gu Wen sensed several auras approaching; he had no time to search the corpse, so he hoisted it over his shoulder and ran outside.
The three of them fled the scene, using He Huan’s talismans to completely conceal their figures along the way.
In an empty alley, after confirming that no one was pursuing them, they began to count their spoils.
A total of ten thousand taels of gold and one hundred thousand taels of silver, which amounted to two hundred fifty thousand taels of silver.
And a corpse of a sixth-level Dao Foundation expert.
He Huan laughed, “Actually, it’s not a loss; Brother Hongchen, you take sixty percent, which is six thousand taels of gold, while Murong and I each take fifty thousand taels.”
“Fifty thousand taels; from now on, I won’t have to worry about silver anymore.”
Murong Suyue beamed with joy; without her muscular build, she would have been a beautiful and gentle woman.
However, Gu Wen’s gaze turned cold as he took out the account book from the warehouse and said, “Eight hundred jin of Earth Herb Pearls; are we just taking this yellow and white stuff?
Ten thousand taels of gold, converted into spiritual wine, is three hundred days of heavenly marrow, enough to reach the fourth level of Dao Foundation.
But is there really that much spiritual wine? Once one starts purchasing a large quantity of something, it inevitably leads to a price increase in a short time, especially since these items are monopolized.
Where are the Daoist’s Earth Herb Pearls?! They took eight hundred jin and didn’t even leave five hundred jin for this poor Daoist?”
Today, I went to check my teeth; I didn’t write for half a day.
Let me see if I can add another chapter.
(End of Chapter)