Secret Escort Shipment

Body Tempering, Meridian Opening, and Blood Shifting all cultivated one's inner strength.

As long as one did not deliberately reveal their power, outsiders generally could not tell. Chen Yuan had no need to intentionally conceal anything.

After taking a bath, Chen Yuan called Zhang Xiaoyi and headed to Xiande Tower on Azure Dragon Street for lamb.

Having just entered the Meridian-Unblocking Realm, Chen Yuan needed a large amount of meat to replenish the energy he had expended breaking through his meridians.

Linked Mountains City lay in northern Youzhou, close to the grasslands, so the quality of lamb here was quite good.

Xiande Tower was the best restaurant in Linked Mountains City for lamb dishes.

After going upstairs and entering a private room, Chen Yuan directly told the waiter to serve every signature dish Xiande Tower had.

Xiande Tower's manager also recognized Chen Yuan and hurried to personally supervise the kitchen. They absolutely could not offend Young Master Chen of the Heavenly Wolf Gang.

Steamed sheep's head, braised lamb, spicy lamb soup, wine-roasted sheep's heart—the chef brought out every last one of his finest dishes, and Zhang Xiaoyi ate until his mouth gleamed with grease.

Chen Yuan ate far more elegantly, but his speed was just as astonishing.

Huge chunks of lamb entered his mouth, and he barely chewed before swallowing them after a slight taste.

Dish after dish arrived. By the time Chen Yuan was nearly full, he estimated that he and Zhang Xiaoyi had eaten almost half a sheep.

No wonder scholars were poor while martial artists were rich. The cost of food alone for martial arts training was not something ordinary people could afford.

However, once martial artists reached a certain realm, they would purchase pills to assist their cultivation and replenish their energy.

Otherwise, relying solely on food to recover strength was far too inefficient.

Some sects and aristocratic families even had dedicated alchemists who refined pills and raised all manner of rare beasts, precious spiritual herbs, and the like.

Chen Yuan half-closed his eyes, lightly tapping the table with his fingers as he considered what opportunity he should seek next.

He urgently needed an internal cultivation method. Under normal circumstances, he should first secure a martial arts manual.

However, thinking of pills reminded him that there seemed to be a recent opportunity related to pills. It was not particularly difficult, so he could take it first.

"Xiaoyi, do you know the Weiyuan Escort Agency?"

Zhang Xiaoyi's belly was stuffed round. Hearing that, he hurriedly nodded with some effort. "Of course. It's the largest escort agency in our Linked Mountains City."

"Keep an eye on the Weiyuan Escort Agency for me. The moment they announce an auction for a secret escort shipment, come back and tell me immediately."

Normally, escort agencies had to know what goods they were transporting so they could charge according to the value of the cargo.

A secret escort shipment was one where the escort agency was not permitted to inspect the goods, and the cargo remained sealed throughout the journey.

Since the goods could not be examined, their value could not be assessed. Thus, the escort agency's rule was to set a base price according to the distance.

The owner would then determine the declared value of the secret shipment. If it was lost or damaged along the way, the escort agency would compensate them according to the price declared by the owner.

The Weiyuan Escort Agency was the largest escort agency in Linked Mountains City. Its teams traveled daily between cities throughout Youzhou, transporting goods, and they often encountered abandoned shipments.

An abandoned shipment was one that arrived but had no recipient, while the owner could not be found either. Without receiving the final payment, the escort agency was left with an abandoned shipment.

Abandoned shipments were usually kept for three months. If no one claimed them after that time, the escort agency would sell the goods to make up for the unpaid balance.

However, if an abandoned shipment happened to be a secret escort shipment, the escort agency would be caught in a difficult position.

Some secret shipments merely contained private items that were not worth much.

Others were extremely valuable, but their owners declared a low value because they wanted to keep a low profile, conceal the contents, or save money.

If they opened a secret shipment only to find worthless items inside, the escort agency would suffer a major loss.

Thus, the Weiyuan Escort Agency chose not to open such secret shipments themselves and instead auctioned them publicly.

Whether there was anything valuable inside depended entirely on luck. As long as the escort agency recovered the unpaid balance, it would not lose money.

In the original plot, the Weiyuan Escort Agency would soon auction off a secret escort shipment.

A gambling-addicted player bet his entire fortune on one secret shipment, and he actually opened something valuable.

Among the secret shipments auctioned by the Weiyuan Escort Agency that time, one contained the Medicine King Valley's secret Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill.

Medicine King Valley was a renowned alchemy sect in the martial world. Any pill refined by Medicine King Valley was priceless; it could be said that even money could not buy one.

Usually, other factions had to trade all sorts of rare treasures or complete missions issued by Medicine King Valley before they could obtain pills produced by Medicine King Valley.

The Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill had an exceptionally domineering effect. It simply and directly increased one's cultivation, without any side effects.

That player had relied on that single pill to remain ahead of the other players in level for a long time.

Unfortunately, he never changed his gambling habits. After making money, instead of improving his cultivation, he gambled. In the end, he lost everything he had.

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded repeatedly, wiped his mouth, and immediately ran off to keep watch on the Weiyuan Escort Agency.

Chen Yuan had more than one trusted attendant, but after transmigrating, Zhang Xiaoyi was the one he used most often.

Though the young man's strength was only average, he was steady and reliable in his work.

He would not ask why Chen Yuan wanted him to watch the Weiyuan Escort Agency's secret shipment auction, or why he cared about things that only low-level martial world folk would find interesting.

He only knew that since Young Master had given the order, he had to carry it out well and could not be the slightest bit negligent.

Zhang Xiaoyi watched for three days before news finally came from the Weiyuan Escort Agency that they would be auctioning secret escort shipments.

Chen Yuan did not intend to attend the secret shipment auction himself, nor did he intend to send Zhang Xiaoyi.

That was because those who participated in secret shipment auctions were generally people from the lower ranks of the martial world.

Most secret shipments put up for auction had low declared values. If a shipment had a high declared value, the escort agency would open it themselves.

The rest were basically gambles on luck, and only those at the bottom of the martial world would be interested in them.

Chen Yuan was too conspicuous. Even Zhang Xiaoyi was conspicuous; neither of them looked like low-level martial world folk.

Like Hu Laosan, whom Chen Yuan had previously cut down with a single slash—someone with that sort of appearance was what low-level martial world folk looked like.

So Chen Yuan had Zhang Xiaoyi take one hundred taels to Worry-Free Tower and casually find a wandering martial artist. He was to bid on every secret shipment that came in the form of a small box, then hand them over to Zhang Xiaoyi.

On the evening of the fourth day, the Weiyuan Escort Agency's secret shipment auction began in the courtyard of its own headquarters.

Zhang Xiaoyi waited in an alley beside the escort agency.

Chen Yuan was on the top floor of a restaurant next to the agency, eating and drinking while observing the activity within the escort agency to guard against any unexpected developments.

A bearded escort master dressed in black fitted sleeves had several dozen chests carried over. He cupped his hands toward the gathered crowd.

"Everyone, this is not the first time our Weiyuan Escort Agency has held a secret shipment auction. You all know the rules, so I will not waste words.

"You have all examined the special seals on these secret shipments. None show any signs of having been tampered with, and our Weiyuan Escort Agency would never ruin its own reputation.

"Enough talk. The secret shipment auction officially begins now."

Individual secret shipments were not expensive. Even the most costly did not exceed fifty taels.

Chen Yuan's targets were the small boxes, whose starting price was only ten taels each.

The player back then had opened the Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill from one of the small boxes. Chen Yuan did not know which box it was, so he simply decided to buy them all.

The man Zhang Xiaoyi had hired was a burly fellow named Wei Yidao. He wore a wolfskin vest, had a shaved head, and reeked of a pungent animal odor.

Wei Yidao's appearance was the standard look of a low-level martial world man.

Such people generally made a living running errands, guarding homes, or occasionally taking temporary escort jobs. Among a crowd, they would not stand out in the slightest.

The moment the auction began, Wei Yidao fixed his eyes on the small-box secret shipments. He bid on every one he saw, and whenever someone competed with him, he would raise the price by twenty or thirty taels, acting exceptionally lavish.

"Damn it, Wei Yidao! You planning to stop living?"

Someone who had repeatedly been outbid by Wei Yidao could not help cursing.

Wei Yidao grinned. "I've got money, and I feel like it!"

Several hundred taels of silver flowed out like water, and Wei Yidao instantly felt incredibly exhilarated.

Still, he was puzzled. Why was this fool so determined to bid on secret shipments in small boxes?

Small-box secret shipments usually contained private letters and similar things. It was rare to find gold, silver, jewelry, or other valuables inside.

No one would normally send such hard currency as a secret escort shipment.

After the auction ended, Wei Yidao tied more than a dozen small boxes together and strode out of the escort agency. After circling around twice, he finally arrived at the alley where he had arranged to meet Zhang Xiaoyi.

"Did you win them all?"

Zhang Xiaoyi asked with a stern expression.

Before Chen Yuan, he appeared somewhat honest and simple-minded, but before these low-level martial world folk, he needed to show a bit more authority.

"Thirteen secret shipments in total, costing four hundred and eighty taels of silver. I have the receipts issued by the Weiyuan Escort Agency."

Wei Yidao patted the secret shipment boxes in his hand.

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded. "Including the payment promised to you, the total is five hundred and eighty taels. I gave you six hundred taels before. You do not need to return the remaining twenty; consider it a reward."

At that moment, Wei Yidao suddenly grinned. "Little brother, you calculated wrong. You still owe me five hundred taels."

Zhang Xiaoyi froze, then frowned. "What do you mean? How do I owe you another five hundred taels?"

Wei Yidao gave a strange laugh. "You dared to spend several hundred taels bidding on these little secret shipments. Whatever is inside must be worth a fortune. You think you can send me away with one hundred taels? That's a little too stingy, isn't it? You need to pay more!"

"You're courting death!"

Wei Yidao lifted the secret shipments, wearing a completely shameless expression. "You people are eating meat, so at least let me have a bowl of soup.

"I do not want to know what is inside these secret shipments, but if you do not pay more, I'll shout right now that there's treasure here. How many people do you think that will attract?"

Zhang Xiaoyi's face instantly flushed red.

He simply lacked experience in the martial world. For a moment, he did not know what to do.

Just then, a flash of blade light suddenly swept past behind Wei Yidao.

Accompanied by the soft ring of a blade returning to its sheath, Wei Yidao's head instantly fell to the ground, his face still bearing that arrogant, shameless grin.

Chen Yuan took the secret shipments and waved at Zhang Xiaoyi. "Let's go."

Zhang Xiaoyi looked at Chen Yuan with guilt. "I'm sorry, Young Master. I failed to handle this properly and actually chose such an insatiably greedy bastard."

Chen Yuan waved a hand and said calmly, "It doesn't matter. No matter how carefully you handle certain matters, accidents like this are unavoidable. Besides, it is perfectly normal for low-level martial world people like this to do such things."

"Why?"

Zhang Xiaoyi was somewhat confused.

This man might not have known Chen Yuan's identity, but anyone who could casually spend several hundred taels bidding on secret shipments could not possibly be a simple character.

How had he dared to threaten him and demand more money at the last minute?

"Because they are greedy, and because they cannot see themselves clearly.

"That is precisely why they can only struggle at the very bottom of the martial world."

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded as though he understood, then immediately retrieved the remaining silver from Wei Yidao's body and spat on him viciously.