There Really Were Countless Jewels and Gold Coins!

"Don't you think they look like two million walking around?"

The two men, who had been watching the spectacle as the two important figures chatted about everything under the sun, suddenly found themselves at the center of it.

Their faces immediately turned pale with fright.

"Your Holiness, please see the truth! Though I'm the director of the City Guard Office, I've always worked diligently and done my duty! I've never embezzled anything! Please don't raid my home, Your Holiness!"

Director Li dropped to his knees with a thud.

Before the fat on his body had even stopped jiggling, he hurriedly began to plead.

He put on a moving performance, wiping away tears with his sleeve as he spoke.

With the greasy shine on his face to complete the picture, he really did look like a good official devoted to his duties.

When Xiao Li, standing beside him, saw what his superior was doing, he immediately followed suit.

"Your Holiness, you are mighty and wise. I too have faithfully performed my duties and always gone straight to the front lines among the people! Even when it comes to the beggars outside the City Guard Office, I know life is hard for them, so I don't drive them away. How could someone as kind as me embezzle money?"

Xiao Li was now bawling, tears and snot streaming down his face.

However.

Xiao Li was clearly the one who bullied people the most viciously on ordinary days.

The moment he finished speaking.

A storm of curses erupted throughout the prison.

"You bastard, are you trying to be a chameleon? You change your face so fast, why don't you join an acrobatic troupe? Staying here at the City Guard Office is a real waste of your talents!"

"How do you have the nerve to say that? If I were your ancestor, I'd be so ashamed I'd crawl right out of my coffin and slap you across the face twice. Is this how your mother raised you? To tell lies?"

"Fuck your mother! You dare cry and claim you wouldn't embezzle? If you didn't embezzle, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. If you didn't embezzle, the rivers would flow uphill. If you didn't embezzle, I swear I'll be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!"

"What the fuck are you acting for? How dare you cry? Have you forgotten what you looked like when you were trying every trick in the book to squeeze every last coin out of us? If you can't remember, let us refresh your memory!"

Xiao Li lowered his head, his face terrifyingly dark.

He had never imagined that the people he had toyed with before would all jump out now and curse him to his face.

It was a case of everyone pushing a wall that was already falling!

You lowly commoners, remember this! If I survive this disaster today, just you wait. I'll deal with every last one of you!

Xiao Li made vicious threats in his heart.

However.

He was destined to have no such chance. Because of everyone's verbal attacks on him, Bibi Dong had already grown suspicious.

"Go search his home."

Looking at Xiao Li, who was kneeling with his head pressed to the floor, Bibi Dong's eyes were full of suspicion. She then gave the maid beside her a direct order.

"Yes!"

The maid cupped her hands in acknowledgment and soon disappeared from the dungeon.

Hearing the conversation between Bibi Dong and the maid, Xiao Li, prostrate on the floor, felt his heart skip a beat.

He knew that once the maid reached his home, he would have no way to defend himself.

After all.

He knew exactly what was in his home.

There lay all the money he had embezzled and taken in bribes during his years at the City Guard Office: more than nine hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, along with countless jewels and rare treasures, enough to fill an entire room!

Every night, he slept sprawled on a golden bed made from piles of those Gold Soul Coins.

Now.

With the Pope's maid going there, there was an extremely high chance he wouldn't get away with it.

The reason he said it was an extremely high chance.

Was that Xiao Li had put all that treasure in a basement!

The basement was beneath his bedroom, a full five meters underground.

An ordinary person would have a hard time discovering that there was a basement beneath the bedroom.

So.

Xiao Li still held on to a sliver of hope.

Prostrate on the cold, damp floor, he seemed to be proclaiming his innocence to Bibi Dong.

In truth, he was silently praying that the maid who had gone to his home would not discover the basement hidden beneath his bedroom.

As for everything else in his home, he wasn't worried in the least.

All his valuables were in the basement. There wasn't a penny elsewhere in the house!

Meanwhile.

Director Li, who was likewise prostrate on the floor, let out a long sigh of relief.

The fact that he wasn't being investigated put him much more at ease.

As the director of the City Guard Office.

The money he had embezzled and taken in bribes in Spirit City over the years was no less than Xiao Li's, and probably more!

However.

Unlike Xiao Li.

He had a wife at home, so he had entrusted all that wealth to her.

As for how much there was, he wasn't quite sure.

After embezzling it, he had handed it all to his wife for safekeeping and had never looked at it again.

Those things were of little use to him anyway.

On ordinary days.

As long as he was in Spirit City, whatever he wanted to eat, wear, or drink.

All he had to do was "let it slip" and a whole crowd of people would immediately bring it to him.

Even.

When he went for massages and baths, or to enjoy dancing and the company of women, he didn't have to spend his own money.

Every day, people invited him to banquets.

So he didn't know how much money his wife had.

However.

There was one thing he knew: it had to be a great deal!

If Her Holiness discovered it, he would probably be removed from his position on the spot.

Not only that.

He knew quite a few things, and had some understanding of Bibi Dong's temperament.

If the rumors were true, he would probably lose his cultivation along with his position.

Even if he survived the disaster.

The enemies he had made in the past would never let him off.

In the end, his family would surely be destroyed.

However...

It was possible his wife would survive.

After all, he had maintained his bearing, looks, and figure quite well, and was also very alluring.

He couldn't rule out the possibility of certain people with special tastes.

He knew such people existed because he had encountered some with unusual tastes while frequenting pleasure houses.

Soon.

A faint sound of footsteps echoed through the dungeon.

The maid who had left returned.

At that moment.

Xiao Li lay prostrate on the floor, his heart pounding as if it were about to leap from his chest.

Whether the maid had discovered the basement remained unknown for now.

All he could do was silently pray that she hadn't found it. If she hadn't, everything would be fine!

The maid cupped her hands and began to report what she had found in a completely emotionless voice:

"Your Holiness, it was just as Elder Mubai said. In Xiao Li's home, I found a large number of Gold Soul Coins, as well as jewels and rare treasures, enough to fill an entire room!"