Thinking Too Much

"Little Fatty, was my junior brother's identity useful?"

A line of small writing sat on the note. The handwriting was utterly ordinary; there was no way to infer what sort of person had written it from the script...

And there was even a smiling face drawn at the end...

Little Fatty held the note, his arm trembling as his face nearly turned green.

An expert... This time, he had run into a true master. His work left no drop of water leaking through. Even the writing on his note was so ugly—any random person dragged off the street could write like this. There was not the slightest charm to it, nor the slightest distinguishing trait.

Judging a person by their handwriting, he could not imagine in the least what kind of person the other party was.

And that grin at the end, smiling without the smile reaching its face, was enough to make his scalp crawl.

He put away the note and looked again at the cloth bundle in his hand. The gravity on Little Fatty's face deepened.

He recognized this cloth bundle. It was the most ordinary sort of coarse cloth bundle, and only the Fence Shop behind them had such things. Precisely because it had no distinguishing features, no one would notice it even if it were thrown by the roadside...

At that thought, a flash of realization suddenly crossed Little Fatty's face.

That was it. It had to be that disguised fellow from before. It was him! No wonder he had seemed strangely familiar. He had been following me all along. Today, he deliberately came to see me and even deduced my route, getting here ahead of me so I would never suspect he was tailing me!

That had to be it. How could an ordinary person sell one hundred and twenty-eight low-grade Storage Bags in one go? This was that damned thief's Senior Brother—it was him! It was absolutely him! All this time, I had considered myself an unparalleled genius in this trade, unmatched among the younger generation. Yet someone had followed me for so long, and I had not noticed a thing. I had only felt a faint sense of familiarity...

He had probably walked past me face-to-face like today many times already...

The more Little Fatty thought about it, the worse he felt. It was as though someone had stripped him bare and seen through him completely, every secret exposed beneath the other party's eyes without the slightest concealment.

For someone like him, reaching this point meant he was already dead.

Little Fatty stood at the mouth of the alley with the cloth bundle in hand, his face shifting from green to white. After several changes, he finally gritted his teeth.

"Dead or not, since this man was willing to reveal himself, he must be trying to lead me over! That means there's room to negotiate!"

After muttering a few words under his breath, Little Fatty took a deep breath, strode out, and followed the traces Qin Yang had left behind.

In less than half an hour, Little Fatty caught up to Qin Yang. When he saw Qin Yang actually enter a branch of Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce, he could not help but freeze...

After squatting outside and spying for quite some time, Little Fatty could not help but feel as if he were gazing up at a towering mountain...

This was the supreme realm of being a thief. There was not even the slightest attempt at concealment. Not only had Qin Yang gone to Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce, the biggest spender's den in Green Forest City, he spent money without even blinking. In such a short time, he had spent at least three hundred Third Grade Spirit Stones...

Even the shopkeeper of this branch had been alerted and specifically sent someone to guide his shopping one-on-one. Three hundred Third Grade Spirit Stones—that was thirty thousand First Grade Spirit Stones! If a thief reached such a realm, even if Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce were robbed right now, no one would ever suspect him. Truly brilliant.

As Little Fatty squatted outside and spied, his heart surged with waves, and he felt as though he had been reborn. For the first time, he realized that a thief could actually operate like this.

Just as he was thinking, Qin Yang emerged from the branch of Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce, his face dark as still water, and headed straight down the main road.

Little Fatty's eyes flickered. Qin Yang seemed to calmly sweep a glance in his direction. Nine times out of ten, he had been discovered...

Yet in truth, that was not the case at all...

Qin Yang truly had not noticed Little Fatty this time. His face was not calm—his heart was bleeding.

More than three hundred Third Grade Spirit Stones, spent just like that. He had made two deals before and after, earning less than six hundred Third Grade Spirit Stones in total, and half of it had vanished in one purchase. How could he not ache over it?

As for why he had come to Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce, he had been forced into it. Elsewhere, pill quality varied wildly, and sometimes worthless pills were mixed in. Magical Artifacts were even worse—few varieties, high prices, and no guarantee of quality. At a critical moment, the artifact might just fail him.

With no other choice, he could only buy from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce. The quality of the pills here was complete. Besides the Qi Nurturing Pills taken during the Qi Cultivation Stage, they also had superior Yellow Sprout Pills. Only Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce sold them in the entire city. A bottle of Yellow Sprout Pills cost forty Third Grade Spirit Stones—outrageously expensive.

As for Magical Artifacts, he looked down on low-grade ones. Mid-grade Magical Artifacts started at one hundred Third Grade Spirit Stones, and anything remotely decent cost three or four hundred. He could not afford them...

In the end, he could only buy five bottles of Yellow Sprout Pills, along with a pile of the finest materials for making talismans.

As for why the people inside had been so enthusiastic, it was purely because they had taken him for a true talisman master. Apparently, the talisman-master retainer stationed at Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce had died a few days ago...

They were now worrying over their supply source...

After all, anyone willing to buy so many of the finest materials was certainly not some talisman master who had only just learned how to make talismans.

Qin Yang carried his pile of materials in a roundabout route back to Wang's small courtyard. He was preparing to make some talismans properly, then make some of the newly learned Ink Talismans as well, in case of emergencies...

"Knock, knock, knock..."

Just then, knocking sounded from outside the door.

When Qin Yang opened the door, he found it was the rather friendly-looking Little Fatty he had met before.

"Big Brother, I was wrong. I shouldn't have used your junior brother's name. Please spare me. I have long admired your sect and wanted to join it, but I could not find where the mountain gate was. I was truly muddleheaded for a moment..."

Little Fatty came right out with a flood of words, leaving Qin Yang thoroughly bewildered. What was going on? On second thought, did the Divine Thief he had buried before really have a sect behind him? No wonder he had felt there was something unusual about him.

"Come in first." Qin Yang remained expressionless and gave nothing away, but an idea suddenly formed in his heart...

Once Little Fatty entered, Qin Yang led him toward a room on the side.

A large lock hung from the door. Qin Yang brushed a hand over the lock, then gave it a light grasp. The lock abruptly opened on its own. He casually tossed it aside and stepped inside.

A flash of understanding crossed Little Fatty's face as he followed behind.

"I've always heard that the sect's rules state that none of its locks have keys. I never thought it was true. Senior Brother, is this legendary technique of yours the White Colt Hand? It truly was like a white colt flashing past a crack, gone in an instant. Incredible."

Qin Yang's expression did not change. After entering the small room, he opened the fire inlet beneath the heated brick bed. With a sway of his body, it was as though all his bones had vanished. His body shrank by half, and he slipped directly into the hole, which was barely a foot wide.

Little Fatty's eyes lit up behind him, and he followed him in.

Only after entering did Little Fatty discover that below was an underground space nearly as large as the courtyard above. It had everything one could need, yet its only exit was merely a foot wide.

"Big Brother, my name is Zhang Zhengyi..." Little Fatty began to introduce himself, but Qin Yang suddenly raised a hand to stop him. Then Qin Yang sat down in a chair, held a teacup, and looked indifferently at Zhang Zhengyi.

"Tell me first. Last night, were you the one from the Three Mountains Gang? How much do you know about the map?"