Treasure Moves People's Hearts

The magistrate of Tongyang County is named Fang Yujie, and he has been in Tongyang County for five years.

According to Young Master Hundred Flowers, although he hasn't engaged in excessive taxation or caused harm to the local people, he has been involved in bribery, corruption, and bullying men and women, making him a complete corrupt official.

Therefore, Zheng Qian had no psychological burden when he started torturing him.

A few minutes later, faint screams echoed from the depths of the County Yamen.

But these screams only lasted for a very short time before disappearing without a trace.

There was no other way, Magistrate Fang Yujie's bones were too soft. Zheng Qian only made one cut on his leg, and he couldn't help but tell everything he knew.

And according to him:

Zheng Zhoushan, that is, Zheng Qian's predecessor's cheap old man, was once one of the top ten wealthy merchants in Tongyang County.

His Zheng's Trading Company, with Tongyang County as its center, spanned the surrounding four counties and even had interests in the prefectural city of Ziyang City. His family property could be described as enormous, and he had connections with many high-ranking officials and dignitaries.

It could be said that as long as he didn't court death himself, the Zheng Family could prosper for several decades or even a hundred years.

But all of this turned to ashes due to an ordinary transaction a year ago.

A year ago, Zheng's Pawnshop, which Zheng's Trading Company opened in Ziyang City, received an Ancient Green Jade from an unknown source.

The material of this Ancient Green Jade was just a Lapis Lazuli Jade with a decent purity, worth about a hundred or eighty taels of silver.

Zheng's Pawnshop offered a pawn price of seventy taels, with a term of three months, requiring eighty taels to redeem it upon maturity.

But until the end of the term, the person never came to redeem it, and this Ancient Green Jade naturally became the property of Zheng's Pawnshop.

Pawnshops want cash, so they naturally wouldn't keep this Lapis Lazuli Jade, whose value was already transparent.

It just so happened that there was a small auction at that time, and the pawnshop manager sent some pawned items of unknown value from the pawnshop, along with that Lapis Lazuli Jade, to the auction.

It didn't matter if it wasn't sent, but it turned out that the Ancient Green Jade was not a Lapis Lazuli Jade at all, but an Azure Nether Jade that looked very similar to it.

Although the two look similar, the difference in value between them is too great, as much as a thousand times.

In other words, the Lapis Lazuli Jade, which should have been worth only a hundred taels of silver, had now been transformed into an Azure Nether Jade worth more than one hundred thousand taels of silver.

It should be known that the entire Zheng's Trading Company was not worth that much money, and it did not have the strength to protect that much money.

But Zheng Zhoushan had no self-awareness and actually fantasized about obtaining this huge sum of money.

Then he set himself on fire and was framed, leading to the destruction of his family.

As for the person who framed Zheng Zhoushan, Fang Yujie only knew that the Li Family, one of the four major families in the prefectural city, and his father-in-law, the prefect Mu Tingzhou, were involved. He didn't know who else was involved.

Of course, he, the current magistrate, also took a share of the pie.

"Treasures move people's hearts... I didn't expect that a wealthy merchant who could be ranked in the county would end up being ransacked and exterminated because of a piece of jade."

After listening to Fang Yujie's story, Zheng Qian sighed and muttered to himself in a low voice.

The reason why Azure Nether Jade is so valuable, besides being extremely rare, is also due to its powerful effects.

Azure Nether Jade can actually help Half-step Grandmaster Realm experts break through to the Grandmaster Realm faster!

In this world, a Grandmaster Realm expert can already become the foundation of a country, which is simply not comparable to a mere one hundred thousand taels of silver.

The Xingyang Dynasty royal family, for example, relied on two Grandmaster Realm experts to secure their throne.

However, Azure Nether Jade can only speed up the breakthrough from Half-step Grandmaster to Grandmaster Realm, it does not mean that you will definitely break through if you get Azure Nether Jade.

If it was really the case that you could break through to Grandmaster by obtaining Azure Nether Jade, then let alone one hundred thousand taels of silver, there would be plenty of people vying for it even if it was one hundred thousand taels of gold.

In the backyard of the County Yamen, after obtaining all the information he wanted to know, Zheng Qian casually strangled Fang Yujie and his wife Mu Ruxin, who had lost their value.

Since they participated in the ransacking and extermination of the Zheng Family, then they deserved to die.

As for Fang Yujie's daughter, she was not in the County Yamen, but was sent to her maternal grandfather, the prefect Mu Tingzhou, in the prefectural city.

It wasn't that he foresaw that Zheng Qian would come to take revenge, but he was frightened by Young Master Hundred Flowers, this flower-picking thief.

Of course, there were not only Fang Yujie and his wife in the courtyard, but also four maids who served them.

However, Zheng Qian was not a bloodthirsty person, and he didn't like to involve the innocent.

Therefore, he just knocked all the maids unconscious in advance and did not kill them.

Afterwards, Zheng Qian began to search the courtyard for valuable things while muttering to himself in a low voice:

"Azure Nether Jade? I wonder how this thing helps Half-step Grandmasters break through to the Grandmaster Realm..."

He is now a Half-step Grandmaster, and it just so happens that he can use that Azure Nether Jade.

Of course, the premise is that the Azure Nether Jade is still there. After all, almost a year has passed, and who knows if it has already been used.

Unfortunately, Fang Yujie was just an ordinary person who didn't know martial arts. He only knew that Azure Nether Jade was very valuable, but as for how to use it specifically, he was completely clueless.

In addition, he didn't know who ultimately got the Azure Nether Jade.

"Forget it, let's go to the prefectural city and see..."

About half an hour later, after putting all the valuable things in the courtyard into his storage space, Zheng Qian muttered to himself, and then quickly disappeared into the vast night.

Since he has occupied this body, then he will naturally avenge him within his power.

And only by going to the prefectural city can he truly find out the whole story and lock down who the enemies are.

Of course, he also wanted to see if he could obtain a Grandmaster-level cultivation technique while he was at it.

Times had changed; with Zheng Qian's current formidable strength at the Half-step Grandmaster Realm, he could completely run rampant in this small Tongyang County.

However, he had no interest in wasting time with the guards and constables in the city.

In less than a quarter of an hour, he appeared like a ghost near the north city wall.

Then, he lightly leaped more than two zhang high, and after borrowing a little force from the city wall, he easily jumped onto the city wall and left the city.

Naturally, there were city guards stationed on the city wall.

However, Tongyang County had been peaceful for a long time, and these poorly trained city guards had long since fallen asleep in disarray, completely unaware that someone had just crossed the city wall.

Of course, even if they had noticed, it would have been useless; they simply didn't have the strength to stop Zheng Qian.

Tongyang County was about eighty li away from the prefecture city; at Zheng Qian's speed, if he went all out, he could arrive in at most half an hour.

However, he wasn't in a hurry; after all, it was still early, and even if he arrived, he wouldn't be able to enter.

The prefecture city was not comparable to the county town; not only were the city walls higher, but there were also more experts within the city.

Before figuring these things out, it was still safer for him to honestly enter through the city gate.