Storage Secret Treasure

Moonlight flowed like water across the clearing in the dense forest. Ye Yun squatted beside Sun Yu's corpse, his fingers gently brushing the blood-soaked brocade robe. As his fingertips touched a hidden pocket at the waist, he suddenly felt a faint fluctuation of vital energy.

This is...

Ye Yun carefully retrieved a palm-sized brocade pouch. At first glance, it was merely an exquisitely crafted purse, its dark blue satin embroidered with intricate cloud patterns, the opening cinched with gold thread. But when he attempted to infuse a wisp of Essence Qi into it, fine silver runes suddenly appeared on the pouch's surface, flowing ceaselessly in the moonlight.

Storage Bag!

Ye Yun's pupils contracted. He had seen records of such spatial artifacts in the surviving ancient texts of the Ye Family—made from Void Beast Skin, refined by at least a third-grade Technique Cultivator with great effort, containing an inner universe capable of holding all things. Even in the Capital City, such treasures were only possessed by core members of top families.

The Sun Family was merely a prominent clan of the prefecture; how could they possess such a treasure? Ye Yun's brow furrowed, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of the brocade pouch. Suddenly, he recalled the dying roar of the masked man: That lord will not let you go.

Everything became clear.

So that's how it is... Ye Yun sneered. This Storage Bag must have been a reward Sun Yu received for pledging allegiance to some Big Shot. He glanced at the sky; the east was already showing the pale white of dawn. He had to deal with the scene quickly.

Tucking the Storage Bag securely inside his clothes, Ye Yun continued to search Sun Yu's body. Inside the lining of the brocade robe, he found another hidden pocket containing three tokens: one was the Sun Family's direct lineage token; one was bronze, engraved with the same eye symbol as before; and most astonishing was a purple-gold token, embossed with nine coiling dragons on the front and a single ancient character on the back.

Ye Yun's heart trembled. Great Zhou Dynasty, Xiao was the imperial surname! The owner of this token was likely a member of the imperial family!

With no time to ponder, Ye Yun quickly put away the tokens and then examined the Storage Bag. Following the method described in the ancient texts, he bit his finger, dripping a drop of blood onto the gold thread at the pouch's opening. The blood was instantly absorbed, the silver patterns on the brocade pouch's surface flared brightly, and then returned to normal.

Ye Yun felt a subtle spiritual connection form in his mind. With a thought, the scene inside the Storage Bag unfolded before his eyes like a scroll—a gray, misty space about ten feet square, with several jade bottles and over a dozen spirit herbs piled in the corner. Most striking were two familiar bronze boxes, the very containers that had held the Nine Nether Spirit Ginseng and the Thought Spirit Pearl!

As expected... Ye Yun's eyes gleamed. Sun Yu had pretended to hand over the treasures but had secretly swapped them; the real items had been hidden in the Storage Bag all along. Such a masterful deception likely fooled even that Big Shot.

He turned to the corpse of the masked man and retrieved several bottles of pills and a short blade emitting a blue light from his embrace. These items, along with the purple-gold token, were placed into the Storage Bag. Having done this, Ye Yun took out Corpse Dissolving Powder and carefully sprinkled it on both corpses. A pungent white smoke rose, and the flesh and blood quickly dissolved into a pool of yellow liquid, seeping into the soil and disappearing.

Time to go.

Ye Yun activated his Lightness Skill, his figure darting through the forest like a ghost. Along the way, he found a stream and meticulously washed the blood from his hands, changed back into his original Constable uniform, and burned the night-clothes and mask. Finally, he deliberately rolled around in a patch of thorns, tearing his robe and scratching his face with a few bloody marks.

When the morning light had completely dispelled the darkness, Ye Yun finally caught up with Chen Qingzhou's group. From a distance, the group appeared particularly miserable—Chen Qingzhou was unconscious, carried on a makeshift stretcher made of branches and clothing by two constables; the others were also injured and staggering. Yan Xiao Liu walked at the front, looking back occasionally, his eyes filled with worry.

"Brother Liu!" Ye Yun burst out from the woods, feigning exhaustion and stumbling.

"Ye Yun!" Yan Xiao Liu shouted in surprise, rushing forward to support him. "Are you alright? That 8th Rank martial artist..."

Ye Yun shook his head, his voice hoarse. "After I lured him away, I was about to be defeated when a masked man suddenly intervened... That person's strength was unfathomable; he killed the 8th Rank martial artist in a few moves." He deliberately panted, pointing to the wounds on his face. "I was injured by the residual shockwaves and had to recuperate for a while before I could catch up."

A hint of understanding flashed in Yan Xiao Liu's eyes as he nodded in agreement. "Heaven has been kind! It must have been a passing hero who came to our aid. He lowered his voice. Head Chen is seriously injured; we need to get back to the city quickly to find a doctor."

Ye Yun glanced at Chen Qingzhou on the stretcher. Constable Chen's face was as pale as paper, but his breathing was steady; the pills from earlier were taking effect. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and took out several bottles of Healing Medicine from his person (actually from the Storage Bag), distributing them to everyone.

"Let's go, we shouldn't linger here."

The group quickened their pace and finally saw the city walls of Chun'an County at noon. The guards at the gate, seeing their disheveled state, quickly opened a side gate to let them in. Shortly after entering the city, they ran into the county lieutenant and over a dozen yamen runners who had heard the news.

"What's going on?" County Lieutenant Zhang Dehai barked, his gaze sweeping over everyone. "Where is Young Master Sun?"

Ye Yun stepped forward, cupping his fists in a salute. "Reporting to you, sir, we were ambushed by mountain bandits. Young Master Sun... is missing."

"What?" Zhang Dehai's face changed drastically. He grabbed Ye Yun's collar. "Explain clearly!"

Ye Yun calmly recounted the story he had prepared: "On our way back, we were attacked by a large group of mountain bandits. Sun Yu took two guards and pursued the bandit leader, and they haven't returned yet." The other details were half-true and half-false, and the injuries on everyone's bodies served as proof, leaving Zhang Dehai no choice but to believe him.

"Useless! All of you are useless!" The county lieutenant roared in fury, but he was helpless. He could only order the yamen runners to escort the injured back to the yamen and send someone to report to the garrison camp.

Back at the County Yamen, the physician examined everyone. Chen Qingzhou's injuries were the most severe, but fortunately, the Healing Medicine had protected his heart and he was out of danger. Ye Yun politely declined the physician's treatment and returned to his own office, closing the doors and windows tightly.

After confirming no one was around, he took out the Storage Bag again and examined the items one by one:

The two bronze boxes went without saying; five bottles of pills—three were for healing, Qi Returning Pills, one was a poison, Soul Severing Powder, and another had a blurred label, emitting a strong fragrance when opened. Ye Yun guessed it was a Qi Gathering Pill to aid cultivation; twelve spirit herbs, three of which were the main ingredients for refining the 8th Rank Breakthrough Pill.

Ye Yun's gaze finally fell upon the short blade emitting a blue light. It was seven inches long, entirely a deep blue, and the hilt was wrapped with the sinews of some kind of Demonic Beast. When he attempted to infuse vital energy into it, the blade suddenly lit up with strange runes, the temperature in the air dropped sharply, and a layer of frost condensed on the tabletop.

"What a Yin-Slaying Blade!" Ye Yun quickly withdrew his vital energy. This kind of weapon was clearly tailor-made for those who practiced Yin-elemental cultivation techniques, clashing with his True Martial Gangqi, making it unusable for now.