Outside the city wall, all was silent.
Countless people stared at the gold and silver scattered across the ground, as if they had forgotten how to breathe.
Gurgle~
The soldier swallowed, staring blankly at the ground.
Clang~
The long saber slid free of its sheath.
The man in charge pointed the saber at Kong Wu and said in a low voice, "Where did all this... come from?"
Kong Wu's build was unlike that of an ordinary man to begin with. The long object strapped to his back was wrapped in white cloth, but anyone could tell at a glance that it was made of iron.
And now, with all this gold and silver added to the picture, the suspicion surrounding Kong Wu only grew heavier.
What ordinary person would carry so many gold, silver, and jewels while traveling?
He had seen merchants carrying large sums of money when they went out, but those were things like banknotes and land deeds—items that were convenient to carry.
Only those river-and-lake bandits would carry every piece of wealth of unknown origin on their own bodies.
As the man drew his saber, the two soldiers he had brought with him also raised their spears and aimed them at Kong Wu.
At the city gate, another squad of soldiers was running toward them.
Faced with such a scene, Kong Wu's expression remained calm. He said casually, "I cleared out a few bandit lairs and took this from them."
Faced with such a perfunctory answer, the other man's expression darkened.
He did not even bother pretending.
Moreover, despite facing more than a dozen fully armed soldiers, the man showed not the slightest trace of panic. He was clearly no weakling and had great confidence in his own strength.
Looks like I've run into a tough one.
Should I send someone to White Cloud Temple for help?
As he pondered, he suddenly spotted something among the gold, silver, and treasures scattered across the ground.
"Wait!"
He called back the soldiers advancing step by step and stared fixedly at the pile of treasures on the ground.
"You said all this came from the bandits? Then where are those bandits?"
"Who knows?" Kong Wu shrugged and said with a smile, "Maybe they've already finished drinking Granny Meng's soup by now."
The man in charge cautiously stepped forward and picked up a jade bead from the pile of treasures.
After studying the exquisitely carved jade bead for a while, he took out a book, flipped to a page, and repeatedly compared it with something.
At the same time, more than a dozen soldiers had surrounded Kong Wu.
The commoners waiting in line watched the scene without panic, merely pointing and whispering among themselves.
As the foremost county in Qingzhou, Purple Flame County had a hundred state soldiers stationed there, so its public order was exceptionally good.
"Squad Leader, there's something wrong with this man?"
A soldier asked the man in charge in a low voice.
The Great Jing Dynasty's army followed the ten-man-and-five-man system: five men formed a squad, and ten men formed a unit.
After comparing the jade bead with the book in his hand for a long time, the squad leader finally let out a long breath.
He looked at Kong Wu with a complicated expression. After waving for the soldiers to leave, he put the jade bead back, tied up the sack, and said, "That's enough. You may enter the city."
Kong Wu nodded and gave an "oh" before easily lifting the sack and walking toward the city gate.
Watching his departing back, a soldier rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, "Squad Leader, this man is obviously an outsider. Should we..."
The squad leader spun around and slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The soldier stared in bewilderment as the squad leader scolded him, "If you want to get yourself killed, don't drag me down with you!"
With that, he flipped through the book in his hand, found a page, and slapped it against the soldier's chest.
The soldier covered his cheek and looked down.
The page showed a portrait, with several lines of small text beneath it.
The person in the portrait had a ferocious expression. Only the right eye had been drawn as an eye, while the left was filled with a complex pattern.
Beneath the portrait were the words: "One-Eyed Dragon. Fierce and vicious in appearance. His left eye is filled with a jade bead. Qi Cultivation Level 5. His crimes are countless; slaughtering villages and wiping out households are all within his repertoire. If you encounter this person, immediately report to Purple Flame Hall. Under no circumstances act rashly. Reward: 2,000 taels alive, 3,000 taels dead."
Hiss.
The soldier drew in a cold breath.
Because Purple Flame Hall, a cultivation sect, was located in Purple Flame County, its people knew quite a bit about cultivators.
"That's not right. The man just now didn't look like this."
The soldier's first thought had been that Kong Wu was the person in the portrait, but after a closer comparison, it was obvious that the two looked nothing alike.
Seeing that he still had not caught on, the squad leader sighed and said, "Didn't that jade bead just now look familiar to you?"
"Huh?"
The soldier froze. He lowered his head and glanced at the portrait, then immediately understood. He swallowed, his voice turning hoarse.
"My heavens, that was a Qi Cultivation Level 5 cultivator!"
The squad leader watched Kong Wu's distant back and shook his head as he instructed, "Give our men a heads-up. Don't let money blind them. If they provoke that man, not even the chief will be able to save them."
The soldier nodded. He saw several people leave the line and disperse in different directions, and his gaze turned cold.
Judging from what had happened earlier, the great wealth Kong Wu carried had stirred improper thoughts in them.
If others wanted to court death, that had nothing to do with them.
After entering the city, Kong Wu casually grabbed a passerby and asked where the most luxurious inn in the county was.
Then, leaving behind the passerby who stood there dumbfounded while holding a luminous pearl, he walked along the street toward his destination.
For him now, money was no longer of much use.
With his strength, if he wanted to get some money, he had plenty of ways.
So when he slapped a gold ingot onto the counter and told the waiter to find him the best room, the waiter grinned so widely the corners of his mouth nearly split.
After taking the key, Kong Wu did not return to his room to rest immediately.
Instead, he tossed out another gold ingot and told the waiter to prepare some food for him.
He casually picked up the menu beside him and glanced at it before saying, "Bring two portions of everything on this menu."
Without caring about the waiter's hesitant expression, he found a seat by the window and sat down.
Purple Flame County truly lived up to its reputation as Qingzhou's foremost county. Even with dusk approaching, people still streamed along the streets, and the place was bustling with activity.
There were quite a few cultivators among them as well.
On the short journey from the city gate to the inn alone, Kong Wu had seen no fewer than ten cultivators.
Although their cultivation levels were not high—the strongest among them had only reached 12 points in Strength—they were still slightly stronger than Feng Yang, whom he had encountered at White Cloud Temple.
Clearly, Qingshan County, which had only a single cultivator, could not compare with this place at all.
After arriving here, Kong Wu felt like a mouse that had wandered into a granary.
So many cultivators made it difficult for him to suppress the greed welling up inside him.
Fortunately, he still had his limits. After frightening off several cultivators with a mere glance, he suppressed the urge to draw the Evil-Slaying Saber and harvest their attribute points.
He still had a bottom line. He could not bring himself to slaughter innocents and go on a killing spree merely for attribute points.
As he pondered, his ears twitched, and he looked toward the entrance.
A handsome man dressed in white walked in.
Kong Wu took a careful look. His nose twitched, and he realized that this pretty "man," who lacked an Adam's apple, was likely to suffer a bloody disaster in the near future.
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