Chapter Sixty-Six: Fourth-Rank Sorcerer
Li Yunjie frowned and gently twisted the vase.
With a creaking sound, the desk slowly moved aside, revealing a hidden door.
Li Yunjie's eyes lit up. He slipped in first, the others following close behind.
“There’s actually a secret chamber!” The chubby man raised his voice in surprise as they entered the passage.
The thin man remained silent, his gaze fixed intently on the sword at Li Yunjie’s waist, his brow tightly furrowed.
“How did you know where the mechanism was?” the woman asked with curiosity.
Li Yunjie replied without hesitation, “With such lavish décor throughout the room, why would there be an ordinary vase without any ornamentation?”
The woman was taken aback, looking at Li Yunjie with a complex expression.
The passage was dim and winding; before long, they reached the end—a hidden chamber.
Lighting the torch on the wall, the room was instantly illuminated.
On the floor lay about thirty wooden chests, large and small.
The chubby man hurried forward, eager to open the chests, but suddenly felt a chill at his back, sending shivers through him. He whirled around!
Almost at the same moment, the light in the room was extinguished by a surge of sword energy.
A metallic clang rang out.
Pitch darkness enveloped everything; nothing could be seen, only the sounds of chaotic footsteps filled the air.
Each person quickly scattered, hiding behind the wooden chests.
“You’re up to something, aren’t you!” the thin man shouted, “Miss, are you planning to keep it all for yourself?”
“And what if I am?” the woman replied coldly, brandishing her sword and slashing toward his voice.
A chest was split open, and silver ingots clattered to the ground.
“But you can’t possibly swallow all this silver alone!” The thin man’s voice came from a new location, clearly he’d moved.
“None of your—” the woman’s words were cut short as sparks suddenly burst from the wall beside her.
It was clearly the chubby man, swinging his broadsword against the bricks.
“In that case, I’ll just kill you all!” The woman’s icy voice came from elsewhere in the room.
With her words, a surge of bright light erupted. At the top of the chamber, a purple array appeared.
But the woman herself was nowhere to be seen!
“Magic from the Northern Desert!” the chubby man shouted, “Run!”
He grabbed the thin man and dashed for the door.
“Come on!” The thin man looked urgently at Li Yunjie, who lingered in the corner.
Li Yunjie’s brow was tightly knit as he quickly scanned the scattered silver ingots on the floor.
Eleven, seeing his hesitation, simply shoved him out.
---
Standing at the doorway, they watched the room as the purple glow grew brighter, flickering for several breaths before descending in a flash.
The hidden chamber was plunged once more into darkness.
Li Yunjie struck a fire-light. Inside, all the items had vanished without a trace!
Not even a sound had been heard!
“Obliteration spell...” the chubby man murmured, “A fourth-tier sorcerer’s trick.”
Li Yunjie frowned, “You seem to know quite a bit about sorcery, my friend?”
The chubby man chuckled, “Not really, just some wild guesses of my own.”
Li Yunjie paused, then asked, “Have you ever heard of the Soul Severing spell?”
The chubby man thought for a moment, then shook his head.
Li Yunjie sighed inwardly.
They stood in silence for a while. Then the chubby man spoke again, “Why did that woman destroy all the silver?”
Li Yunjie sighed, “A guilty conscience, I suppose.”
“What do you mean?” the thin man asked, puzzled.
Li Yunjie shrugged, “She didn’t take the silver, just destroyed it outright.”
“If that’s not guilt, what is?”
With that, he turned and headed out of the chamber.
The two men exchanged a glance and followed him.
Outside, the chubby man immediately began rummaging through the paintings and calligraphy in the room, muttering, “Since we’re here, we can’t leave empty-handed.”
Li Yunjie laughed, “I wonder how much silver Song Yongnian has stolen from you two?”
The chubby man snorted angrily, “Countless.”
“For years, my brother and I have run a shipping business in Jiangnan. That dog of an official would send men every so often to demand silver.”
“If we didn’t pay, the magistrate’s men would make trouble for us under all kinds of pretexts.”
As he spoke, he handed Li Yunjie a scroll of Gong Qingfeng’s ‘Splendid Rivers and Mountains’, smiling, “Take something for yourself.”
Li Yunjie accepted the painting awkwardly, rolled it up, and thanked him.
He then clasped his hands and said, “I’ll leave you to it, gentlemen. I won’t intrude further.”
“Wait.”
Just as Li Yunjie reached the door, the thin man spoke.
“I noticed the pattern on your sword is unusual. May I ask where it came from?”
Li Yunjie paused, replying, “It was left by my father. Just a broken sword, nothing special.”
The thin man was silent for a few moments, then smiled, “You’re mistaken, my friend. If it belonged to your father, it must be meaningful. You should cherish it.”
“You’re right. I will take good care of it,” Li Yunjie replied, then turned to leave.
Inside, the chubby man looked at the unmoving thin man and complained, “What are you standing around for?”
“Come help me.”
---
The thin man stared long after Li Yunjie’s departure, his voice trembling, “Ma Hua, that man just now... I think he’s the young master.”
“Who?” The chubby man dropped the scroll in his hands, startled.
The thin man took a deep breath and said solemnly,
“The heir of Northern Tomb.”
“Li Yunjie!”
---
Riverside Inn.
Li Yunjie’s room.
“How did it go?” Su Qingmeng asked eagerly. “Did you find anything?”
Eleven pouted and shook his head. “We almost found a clue.”
“But the silver was destroyed by a sorcerer from the Northern Desert…”
“An assassin?” Su Qingmeng frowned. “Sent by the Crown Prince?”
Eleven nodded, “Most likely.”
“I told you to take me along. Now look, the clue is gone.” Her tone was tinged with schadenfreude.
The implication was clear: If I had been there, that sorcerer would never have succeeded.
Seeing Li Yunjie’s troubled face, Su Qingmeng patted his shoulder and gently consoled him, “It’s all right, really. Just one failure, it’s nothing.”
“As the saying goes, if you walk by the river often, you’re bound to get your shoes wet.”
Li Yunjie could not help but laugh.
Was that really how it was meant to be used?
Clearly, matters of literature and wit were a challenge for Su Qingmeng, who had been trained in martial arts since childhood.
“I just can’t figure it out,” Li Yunjie suddenly said. “Who were those two men in black?”
“There were two more?” Su Qingmeng was momentarily stunned. “The Song residence was lively tonight, then?”
Her expression made it clear she regretted missing such a spectacle.
Li Yunjie mused, “A Jiangnan boatman who knows about sorcery from the Northern Desert…”
“He’s definitely no ordinary man!”
Eleven nodded in agreement.
Li Yunjie sighed and turned to Su Qingmeng, smiling, “Besides, who said the clue is gone?”
With that, he pulled a silver ingot from his sleeve and slapped it onto the table.
Su Qingmeng’s pupils contracted as she saw the inscription on the silver ingot.
[Year 48 of Qingyuan]
[Yongzhou Tax Silver]…