No One

The Sun Residence, study.

"Father, Xiao Ming has spoken; he's demanding 100,000 taels of silver from his son!"

Sun Hu said with some dissatisfaction, "The thousand taels of gold they asked for earlier was indeed a test."

Sun Ren laughed and said, "The fact that Xiao Ming asked you for a quote means he's satisfied with our offer. Immediately notify everyone to withdraw!"

Sun Hu then said, "Father, Xiao Ming said he wanted silver notes from the four major money houses, not cash. They want us to pay another 100,000 taels!"

"Hmm!" Sun Ren was slightly taken aback. "Is that really so?"

Sun Hu nodded and said, "That's right. My son even confirmed it. Xiao Ming said he didn't want cash, he wanted silver notes!"

Sun Ren thought for a moment, then snorted coldly and said, "Asking for another 100,000 taels of silver is truly insatiable. Give it to them; as long as the trade with the Hui Kingdom continues, this amount of silver will be returned quickly."

"Then I'll go and take care of it right away. First, dismiss the people from the general store, then send the silver notes to Xiao Ming!"

*****

Fang Yu delivered Xu Ning's body to his home, explained to his family that Xu Ning had been killed by thieves, and then left.

He has no time to worry about Xu Ning's funeral arrangements. With Xu Ning dead, he's now directly in charge of Xiao Qi from the Embroidered Robe Bureau.

This person is Sixth-Rank Strongman, two major realms below him, so this task cannot be done half-heartedly; at the very least, a show of force must be created.

Upon arriving at North Peace Avenue, he quickly found Zhou Daqing and the others.

"What?! Master Ning is dead!"

"How is this possible? Master Ning is Seventh Grade Battle Soldier!"

" With Master Ning dead, our status as hangers-on will soon be gone!"

"Hey, how about we go and seek refuge with Master Wu?"

"You're the Master Wu needs!"

"Now that Master Ning is dead, we'd better hide quickly and wait until things calm down before we get beaten to death!"

"Yes, yes, yes! Master Fang, let's hurry up and leave the city to hide for a while!"

"..."

The idlers panicked. They had relied on Xu Ning's status as a hanger-on to commit countless despicable acts and offend many people. Now that Xu was gone, their patron was gone too, and some of those who had previously dared not speak up might harbor thoughts of revenge.

Getting beaten up is the least of your worries; it's not impossible for someone to be beaten to death.

Fang Yu, of course, couldn't let these people disperse now, so he reached out and took out his token, tossing it to Zhou Daqing.

"Everyone sees this, what is it?"

Zhou Daqing took it, and several people around him also gathered around, their eyes fixed on the token. Then a suspicious voice said, "This... could this be the Embroidered Robe Bureau's waist token?"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Fang Yu, their eyes filled with awe. "Master Fang, you... you're from the Embroidered Robe Bureau?"

"That's right!" Fang Yu nodded. "Not only me, but Xu Fang is too, and so are you all!"

"Ahhh..."

Screams immediately rang out, and the several idlers were so frightened that their legs went weak and they collapsed to the ground.

"Master Fang, you... you must be joking with us. We want to live a few more years!"

"Yes, Master Fang, when did we become members of the Embroidered Robe Bureau?"

"What... what do you mean by this?"

Fang Yu reached out and took the waist token, then looked at everyone and said, "Do you know how Xu Ning died? He was ordered to find someone, but he couldn't, so he died. Now this task has fallen to me, and to all of you. If we can't find the person, not only will I die, but none of you will escape either."

"Ahhh..."

The crowd gasped in surprise again. Fang Yu then took out the gold ingot and said, "Look, what's this?"

As the gold ingot shone brightly, everyone's eyes and minds were immediately drawn to it.

"Brothers, we were all Xu Ning's men. Now that Xu Ning is dead, if we don't find a backer, we won't be able to survive in Bei'an Prefecture City. Now, we are from the Embroidered Robe Bureau. With this status, who would dare to easily touch us?"

Fang Yu glanced at everyone, waving the gold ingots in his hand, and said, "From now on, as long as you listen to me and do your jobs well, you'll be paid as much as you want. I will absolutely not treat you brothers unfairly!"

He tossed the gold ingots to Zhou Daqing, saying, "Go, take the brothers to the money exchange and exchange them for copper coins. Give each of the brothers who are willing to stay three thousand coins. Then go and call the other brothers over, and give the same three thousand coins to anyone who is willing."

"Alright!" Zhou Daqing was no longer worried or afraid. His eyes were only on the heavy gold ingot in his hand. The other hangers-on also followed Zhou Daqing to the money shop with shining eyes.

A smile appeared on Fang Yu's lips as he strode slowly toward the money shop.

When they arrived at the money exchange, Zhou Daqing had already exchanged the gold ingots for copper coins, a total of 120 strings of cash, which filled a large box.

Fang Yu sat to the side, watching Zhou Daqing distribute money to everyone. Soon, they finished distributing the money to their group. But as they returned from searching for the missing person, Sun Laizi's group and some of the hangers-on who hadn't come today also arrived after hearing the news, each receiving three strings of cash.

Soon, not only did the twenty hangers-on under Xu Ning receive their money, but other idlers and thugs also rushed over upon hearing the news, gathering in large numbers, numbering about fifty or more.

For these people whom he was not very familiar with, it was naturally impossible to give them three strings of cash; instead, he gave each of them one string.

After the money was distributed, Fang Yu had his cronies bring out all the portraits that Scholar Zhang had painted for him and distributed them to the newcomers, ensuring that each person received at least one.

"Listen up, brothers! These people are major suspects the Embroidered Robe Bureau is after. Now, go door-to-door, asking everyone you meet if they've seen them. Report back to me immediately if you find any clues. And look for me next to that unopened general store on the west side of North Peace Avenue. If the information is accurate, I'll reward you with one hundred taels of silver!"

As soon as Fang Yu finished speaking, a commotion broke out, and then the many hangers-on dispersed in groups of three or five.

Fang Yu led Zhou Daqing and the others towards the general store. Along the way, these idlers asked everyone they met for directions.

Have you seen this Hui Barbarian before?

"Look closely, have you seen this person before?"

"Look, have you seen this person before?"

"..."

By the time Fang Yu arrived at the general store, almost everyone on the street knew that the ' Embroidered Robe Bureau ' was looking for three Hui Kingdom.

Since the higher-ups had given him instructions, he did just that. He spent all the allocated investigation funds, hoping to at least show some commitment even if no useful clues were found later.

Moreover, he did have a clue. Since he had already Divine Sense the barbarian from the Hui Kingdom, as long as he was still in the city, he would definitely not be able to escape his perception.

Suddenly, he paused slightly, his gaze sweeping over the area around the grocery store, and realized that everyone nearby had vanished.

The general store where ten thousand taels of gold were kept was left unattended.

What's going on here?