After dealing with the woman, Luo Yi didn't overlook a single suspicious spot. He carefully searched the room.
At last, beneath the woman's bed, he found a pitch-black passage.
He didn't know what lay inside the passage. There might be traps, or someone could arrive from outside and leave him trapped within.
Luo Yi didn't rush in. He returned to the room and threw the woman's corpse into the passage. After erasing all traces of the fight, he picked up the candle on the table and entered the pitch-black passage, guided by its faint glow.
After about half a quarter of an hour, he reached the end of the passage without encountering any danger.
The end of the passage was brightly lit, with three separate chambers set around it.
Looking at the tightly sealed chambers, Luo Yi guessed the woman must have hidden her valuables inside.
He went to the Stone Gate of the first chamber and examined it closely. Aside from a hollow in the Stone Gate, he found no keyhole or other mechanism for opening it. He guessed that the hollow was the key.
Luo Yi inserted his hand into the hollow and pulled the Stone Gate hard in all four directions.
A "click" rang out, and the Stone Gate opened.
Inside were three boxes made of wood and reinforced with fine iron. Each was about twenty centimeters long and twenty centimeters wide.
Seeing that the vast chamber held only three boxes, he guessed they must contain valuable things.
He swung his long sword and cut through the iron locks securing the boxes.
The first wooden box contained two manuals.
The second wooden box contained various deeds for houses and land. (Great Qi law required the deed holder to be present to transfer ownership of a property. The deeds in the box were of no use to Luo Yi, so he closed it again.)
The third wooden box was packed full of gleaming Bai silver.
He tucked the manuals into his clothes, picked up the wooden box of Bai silver with one hand, and headed toward the chamber next door.
"Click." Luo Yi, full of anticipation, opened the Stone Gate to the second chamber.
There were no treasures inside. Instead, there was a man with slanted brows that swept toward his temples and a handsome face. He was completely naked, and the eight-pack muscles on his chest glimmered faintly in the dim light.
"Spare me, heroine, spare me!" The man locked in the room thought the perverted woman had come to torment him again. He hurriedly bowed his head and begged for mercy.
Seeing the terror on the man's face, Luo Yi thought, If I hadn't beaten that woman, would I have ended up locked in here too, at her mercy?
At the thought, a chill ran through him.
He searched the room from top to bottom. Other than a bed, there was nothing of value.
He glanced at the man cowering and trembling in the corner, then turned toward the last chamber.
He pulled open the Stone Gate with a click and found five or six naked men locked inside.
"Now that's a wild way to live!" Even Luo Yi, who had seen plenty in his previous life, couldn't help admiring her.
The naked men in the room saw the handsome young man standing outside and assumed he was a slave imprisoned by the deputy gang leader, just like them.
One of them, worried his position was in jeopardy and consumed by jealousy, spoke to Luo Yi in a mocking tone:
"Kid, you're so fair and clean. Once you come in here, learn your place. The ones already living inside are your big brothers!"
Listening to the man prattle on, Luo Yi figured out who this group was.
After confirming there were no treasures, he closed the Stone Gate, picked up the box of silver, grabbed the candle from the wall, and ran back the way he had come.
He shoved the stone slab open and returned to the woman's room. He carefully checked the furniture and its arrangement; everything was exactly as it had been before he went down the passage.
Once he was sure no one had noticed, Luo Yi left the room and climbed over the courtyard wall.
Worried someone might be following him, he didn't return straight home. Instead, he deliberately took a detour. Only after getting rid of his tattered, bloodstained clothes did he finally head back.
As soon as he got home, he hurriedly shut the doors and windows.
"Huff, huff." After taking a couple of deep breaths, Luo Yi looked over what he had gained that night.
One manual was called the Wild Ox Flesh Refining Technique, and the other was called the Azure Crane Flesh Refining Technique. Both were Cultivation Techniques for the Body Refining Realm.
"Good stuff!" He hurriedly hid the two manuals under his pillow. He planned to wait until he had fully mastered the Berserk Bear Flesh Refining Technique before practicing these two.
After checking the manuals, it was time for the main event of the night.
"Clatter, clatter." The Bai silver spilled out of the box and piled up on the floor like a little mountain.
How much money was this? Looking at the Bai silver before him, Luo Yi couldn't help swallowing.
He casually picked up a silver ingot from the floor and weighed it in his hand. It was about five taels.
"One, two, three..."
After counting all the silver on the floor, he found there were five hundred and thirty taels in total.
He was rich! He was rich! As expected of the Green Wolf Gang's deputy leader—he had money to burn.
With these five hundred and thirty taels, he shouldn't have to worry about money again until he reached the Sinew Tempering Realm.
As the saying went, "A man couldn't get rich without a windfall, and a horse couldn't grow fat without nighttime fodder!"
After admiring his good fortune, Luo Yi worried the authorities might trace the money back to him. He dug a pit in the courtyard and buried the woman's long sword along with most of the silver. He planned to dig them up and use them once the heat had died down.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
Hearing the roosters crowing in the alley, Luo Yi thought back over the night: from Little Wolf Head leading men in a sneak attack to taking care of the Azure Dragon Gang's deputy leader.
After a night of intense fighting, he finally finished covering everything with the last shovelful of dirt. A wave of drowsiness swept over him.
He walked back to his room, lay down on the bed, and fell into a deep sleep.
"Knock, knock, knock."
He didn't know how long he'd been asleep when the knocking at the door woke him.
Could the Green Wolf Gang have come back?
Though he was puzzled, Luo Yi hurried out of bed and got dressed.
When he opened the door, five constables in official uniforms stood outside. The man leading them was Qin Feng, whom Luo Yi had met several times before.
"Kid, what took you so long to open the door?"
Seeing that it had taken a while for the door to open, Qin Feng questioned Luo Yi.
Luo Yi forced a smile and took a few bits of silver from his clothes, offering them to Qin Feng.
"Sir, I was taking an afternoon nap in my room and kept you waiting. This is just a small token of apology for you gentlemen."
Qin Feng swept the silver into his sleeve.
"Good lad. You know how to behave."
"We're here today because someone from the alley went to the county office this morning to report that there was a fierce fight in the alley last night. The county magistrate takes this matter very seriously and ordered us to find out the truth."
"Sir, I slept like a log last night and didn't hear a thing."
"Oh, is that so? But that's not for you to decide. We need to search your courtyard. Any objections?"
As he spoke, Qin Feng smiled at Luo Yi.
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