Murder and Arson Lead to Golden Belts!

There was no way they could have killed Qin Zhen and his companion.

Where exactly had things gone wrong?

"Let's just assume you miscalculated."

Lu Yuan increased the pressure of his grip: "Tell me, why target me? Who are you people? And what is this so-called Holy Cult of yours?"

The tightening pressure on his throat sent a wave of terror through Li Yu's entire body. In a state of sheer panic, his face twisted in agony: "Don't kill me, I'll talk! I'll talk!"

"Speak then."

Lu Yuan eased his grip by thirty percent.

"I speculated that you were in possession of the pill formula for the True Essence Blood Refining Pill..."

As expected.

So that's it, Lu Yuan thought.

"And if I didn't have it?"

"If you didn't, then you didn't. We wouldn't have lost anything anyway."

Li Yu took a few greedy breaths: "We are all members of the Taiping Sect. The two men who went to deal with you tonight were our Helm Master and his trusted aide. We are all subordinates of Qin Zhen, and Qin Zhen is the highest-ranking official of the Taiping Sect in Taikang Prefecture."

"What is this place?"

"It's a secret stronghold of the Taiping Sect. Only a handful of people know about it."

"Since it's a stronghold, there must be plenty of good things hidden here. Take me to them!"

Under the threat of death, Li Yu did not hesitate for a second and led Lu Yuan to the secret chamber where they kept their stash.

From the outside, the residence looked unremarkable, but it was actually quite large, featuring four courtyards and winding corridors.

Throughout the journey, Lu Yuan kept his hand firmly gripped around Li Yu's neck, ready to snap it at the slightest sign of trouble.

Li Yu, knowing his place, did not dare to make any suspicious moves.

They entered a room, pushed aside a bookshelf, and triggered a mechanism.

Click.

A stone door rumbled open automatically.

Lu Yuan did not rush inside. Instead, he slapped Li Yu unconscious and tossed him into the secret chamber. He waited for a moment, and when there was no movement from within, he stepped inside.

The secret chamber was small, barely over ten square meters, with five chests placed on the floor.

He opened them all. Three of the chests were filled with silver ingots.

One of the chests was filled with gold, though it was not full, containing only about a third of its capacity.

Inside another chest were rows of porcelain bottles, each containing medicinal pills. Lu Yuan could not identify what kind of pills they were.

A sword, a saber, and a bow hung on the wall of the secret chamber. Lu Yuan did not stand on ceremony and took them all down.

"So much money!"

Looking at the wealth in the chests, Lu Yuan's eyes were filled with excitement.

"Adding all this silver together, it's worth nearly one hundred thousand taels, and the gold bars are worth another twenty thousand in silver. Since this sword, saber, and bow were hidden here, even if they aren't Divine Weapons, they must be top-tier armaments. As for these pills..."

Lu Yuan could not recognize the pills, nor could he estimate their value.

The wealth in this secret chamber was roughly equivalent to the entire fortune of the Lu Family.

In truth, this was not an exaggeration. After all, Qin Zhen was the person in charge of the Taiping Sect in Taikang Prefecture and controlled astonishing resources; this secret chamber likely held only a small fraction of them.

"And there's more..."

Lu Yuan found a hidden compartment on the wall, inside of which was a small wooden box.

The wooden box contained two martial arts manuals.

Yellow Court Sensing Chapter

Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method

Lu Yuan immediately stuffed them into his robes, muttering to himself, "This hidden compartment is made so crudely; I found it just by feeling around for a moment."

In reality, one could hardly blame the crude construction of the compartment. Because this was a secret stronghold, only a handful of people from the Taiping Sect in Taikang Prefecture knew of its existence. Under normal circumstances, outsiders would have no way of knowing where the secret chamber was located.

Why would one need to go to great lengths to build a hidden compartment?

Having looted the secret chamber clean and achieved his goal, Lu Yuan lifted his foot and snapped the neck of the unconscious Li Yu, ending his life while he slept.

He found some rope in the stronghold, stacked the five chests together, tied them up, and with a slight exertion of strength, carried the five chests out of the stronghold.

The sky was still very dark, and there was basically no one on the streets. Lu Yuan chose to take secluded paths and returned to his small courtyard without anyone seeing him.

Setting down the five chests, Lu Yuan gazed at this massive fortune with burning eyes, excitement surging in his heart:

This method is far faster than working hard to refine and sell pills myself. Truly, murder and arson lead to golden belts, while building bridges and repairing roads leave no remains...

Setting the gold and silver aside, Lu Yuan opened the martial arts manuals he cared about most.

He first opened the Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method.

What he craved most right now was a horizontal training method.

Martial arts blood-refining cycles provide a balanced enhancement of the body in terms of speed, strength, defense, and agility, with different techniques focusing on different aspects.

Horizontal training methods, naturally, focus on strengthening the physical body to the point where it becomes impervious to blades and swords.

Lu Yuan was most wary of long-range attacks like bows and crossbows. A powerful bow or heavy crossbow could easily pierce his body; if he practiced a horizontal training method, he would at least be able to resist such projectiles.

Once trained to a certain realm, one could become invulnerable to blades and spears.

After reading through the Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method, he realized that this technique could definitely be classified as a mid-tier technique, superior to any he had practiced before.

Of course, this excluded the Dragon Elephant Longevity Art.

It was difficult to evaluate that technique at the moment.

As for the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter, the moment he opened it, Lu Yuan discovered that the concept behind this breathing technique was incredibly profound—far higher than the Dragon Elephant Longevity Art, to the point where he couldn't even see its limits.

After finishing the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter, Lu Yuan was lost in thought:

"This technique is a fragment, not even half of the complete version. If it were the full text, it would be at least a top-tier technique, but as a fragment..."

With his current knowledge, Lu Yuan could roughly distinguish whether a technique was good or bad, superior or inferior, just by reading it.

Thus, he easily discerned that the concept of the Yellow Court Sensing Chapter was extraordinary. He didn't know if it was an internal technique of the Taiping Sect or if Qin Zhen had obtained it from somewhere else.

"However, the threshold for practicing this technique is very high. Even if most people obtained it, if their comprehension wasn't sufficient, they would never be able to enter the door to it even if they practiced until they died..."

The night faded, and the sky began to brighten. Seeing that the time was right, he hid the boxes away before leaving to buy the Mithril and the Snow Fox Heart Blood.

Having gained a huge harvest last night, Lu Yuan did not intend to return to the Leiji Town Ghost Market anytime soon, so he bought one hundred portions of Mithril and heart blood at once.

It wasn't that he wanted to buy more to hoard, but he feared that buying too much would attract the covetous eyes of others.

One hundred portions of Mithril alone were worth nearly twenty thousand taels of silver.

If he bought more, he wasn't sure if Shopkeeper Qiao would resort to foul play.

This man conducted business in a secretive manner; one look told him it wasn't exactly a legitimate operation.

Perhaps for the sake of Xu Ziyi, he wouldn't harbor crooked thoughts under normal circumstances, but if the profit were large enough, the face of a Bronze Badge Constable might not be enough to hold him back.

After purchasing the Mithril and heart blood, Lu Yuan bought a carriage, loaded all the boxes onto it, and returned to Lingbao County.

Fearing his father and brother would worry, Lu Yuan did not tell them about the boxes.

After arriving home, Lu Yuan began his practice of the Heavenly Dipper Horizontal Training Method.