With a powerful kick to his chest, Wu Qi almost broke Yi Shan’s ribs into pieces.
Gazing at Yi Shan from above, Wu Qi spoke with a stern tone, "I’m here with an official document of the military. If you refuse to pay me money, then you’re delaying military tasks. Do you know what the punishment for delaying military tasks in the Lu Kingdom is? But I think, even if I kill you now, no one would say anything, right?"
Yi Shan looked around the room with a frightened gaze. All two hundred guards had been knocked down onto the floor. Wu Qi’s soldiers numbered ten times the number of coffer guards. Also, these soldiers never showed any mercy when attacking. Therefore, all of these guards were seriously injured. A few of them were even spitting blood and falling into coma. If they were not provided with medical treatment, someone might die soon.
Gazing at Wu Qi with a look full of hatred, Yi Shan said in an insidious tone, "Wu Qi, I’ll give you the money! Aren’t you just asking for a small amount? I’ll allocate to you. But, you better don’t forget that you injured me today. I’m the most loyal subordinate of the Mayor. I swear I won’t let this matter go easily!"
Staring back at Yi Shan’s twisted triangle-shaped face, Wu Qi felt annoyed, "So, you are forcing me to kill you right now?"
Wu Qi drew out the dagger which Number Two had used to injure his shoulder a few days ago. After all, this was a lower tier magical weapon, which was totally different from ordinary weapons. Its edges were reflecting a bright shining glow and emitting a chill that made anyone nearby feel cold. Yi Shan, feeling this chill, couldn’t help but let out a sneeze.
With a wave of his hand, the dagger drew past Yi Shan’s head. A wisp of hair was cut down by Wu Qi, and on top of Yi Shan’s head, a coin sized piece of scalp had been removed. Blood spilled from the wound. Wu Qi placed his palm on the wound, getting some blood and smearing it on Yi Shan’s face.
"Here. Smell it. Taste it. It is your own blood. I don't think you have ever smelled or tasted your own blood, right?"
Wu Qi had a very friendly smile on his face, and there wasn’t any killing intent that could be found in his eyes. But, Yi Shan had instinctively started to tremble. He was like a poor little lamb who was being pressed on the ground by a fierce tiger. He felt death was at his doorstep.
"I give up! I’ll give you the money! Not only the reward of 197,500 coins, I’ll also give you the one-year of military funds for the City Guards. I’ll give all of it to you now!"
Yi Shan was frightened. He started to twist and struggle madly, screaming and yelling with a loud voice.
Wu Qi took a few steps back, nodding his head while let out a friendly laugh, "How nice would it be if you had been like this when I was here just now? Did we really need to turn this into something so bloody? Officer Yi, actually, I hate to use violence!" Breathing out a deep sigh, Wu Qi pointed at his head and smiled, "Actually, there are many things we can solve with this. We don’t need to be violent, what do you think?"
Yi Shan gazed at Wu Qi insidiously, clenching his teeth tightly and walking to the door of the coffer room. He started to work with a complicated puzzle on the face of the door. It was an 18 x 18 stars’ chart, and unless it was arranged according to the correct order and the star chart was restored, the door wouldn’t open.
Wu Qi nodded his head silently. The design of the door was sophisticated, which meant this world had some advanced production capabilities.
While working with the puzzle, Yi Shan was grinding his teeth. His master had suffered extremely bad luck the past few days, with all his personal wealth was stolen. This had put his servants and subordinates in a state of anxiety. Therefore, when Laohei came to him with an official document asking him to allocate the funds through the proper method, he purposely spurned Laohei so he could teach Lu Chengfeng a lesson on behalf of his master.
But, for god’s sake, where did this freak, Wu Qi, come from? He actually brought a team of City Guards and attacked the coffer room! And it was all because he wanted to get the reward money for some barbarian heads. Did he have to go so far? Although Yi Shan knew there was not much money left in the CIty Guard’s coffer room as most of the military fund had been misappropriated by his master, but Wu Qi’s way of asking money was really too awful. He only wanted such a small amount of money, so did he really need to torture Yi Shan?
Staring at the black, huge footprint on his chest, Yi Shan had decided that later, when Yi Yan’s mood had calmed down, he would definitely make a serious official complaint against Wu Qi. If Wu Qi did not die, how could he vent his anger?
As the Bursary Officer of Little Meng City, he was sitting high above others and was in control of the finances of the city. Who would dare to show him even the slightest bit of disrespect? But, this Wu Qi actually dared to beat him, dared to make him bleed, dared to step on his chest and scold him!
The sound of a mechanism rapidly moving could be heard and the door to coffer room opened up slowly. As it opened, a cold breeze came out and swept across those who stood in front of it.
Yi Shan gave Wu Qi a disgusted gaze over his shoulder. He snapped, "Bring few of your men in and take all your money away! Let me make this clear, all the money in the coffer room was recorded precisely. Also, 90% of them are the offerings that will be sent to the Capital in the coming months. If any one of those go missing, you will find out that such things generally end with the one at fault losing their head."
Wu Qi would never fall into this trap. He just stood in front of coffer room, smiling and staring at Yi Shan, "No, no, the coffer room is a restricted area and no outsider is allowed to go in. Official Yi, please get your own men and bring out all 197,500 coins and one year of military funds for the City Guards. After that, we’ll leave immediately!"
Yi Shan was so angry his eyes almost popped out of his skull and he wanted to curse Wu Qi’s mother aloud. But, he dared not to curse, as he was still bleeding from the top of his head! Gazing at Wu Qi in anger, Yi Shan could only curse him inwardly. But at the same time, he felt surprised at Wu Qi’s caution.
Screaming with his high pitch tone, Yi Shan summoned dozens of clerks who worked in the Bursary Office and brought them into the coffer room. After some time, they had brought out all the money Wu Qi requested with push carts made from metal. 197,500 coins had filled up twenty big chests, and one-year’s military funds for the City Guards was equal to five hundred boxes of silver coins.
There were, in total, eight thousand City Guards in Little Meng City, none of which were official soldiers. According to the years they had spent in the army and their rank, they were paid from one to three silver coins a month. As for those who were ranked lieutenant and above, their salary was from ten to a hundred silver coins. It would require twenty thousand silver coins per year just to pay the salaries. If one included the wear and tear of the military equipment, and the living expenses for those footmen and steeds, the total expenses for the army in a year would be more than five hundred thousand silver coins.
Wu Qi didn’t waste any breath on Yi Shan. The reason he brought these two thousand soldiers was for this. With a command, all the money was removed from push carts by the soldiers. After waiting for all his men to leave, Wu Qi inked down on the issued document with a token of the General’s Office. Then, he held his fists out and bowed to Yi Shan, bidding him goodbye and leaving.
Yi Shan stared at Wu Qi’s back with an insidious look and cursed with a low voice, "I can’t wait for the thief to visit the General’s Office coffers and steal everything from it, and then I’ll witness how are you guys are going to die because of losing military funds!"
After wishing numerous curses on Wu Qi, Yi Shan locked the coffer room door hurriedly and rushed to the backyard of the Mayor Mansion. Yi Yan was still immersed in the sadness, suffering from the huge blow of losing the last bit of his money. He was currently lying on a bed and drinking medicinal soup. Yi Xing, Yi De, and Yi Cu were all staying by his bedside and taking care of him, so who would have the energy to handle all the matters within Little Meng City?
Currently, Yi Yan had gone into a hysteric state/ He became easily pissed off by anything, and he would order someone to drag those servants or guards who he didn’t like out from his room and have them cruelly beaten. Therefore, screams of begging for forgiveness kept coming out from the Mayor’s Mansion all day long.
At midnight, Wu Qi, who had spent a restless day assisting Lu Chengfeng, was striking again. This time, he was heading to the coffer room of Little Meng City.
The last few missions only created some disturbance in Yi Yan and his sibling’s mind, so they wouldn’t have the time or mood to find trouble with Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng. But this time, Wu Qi was going to give Yi Yan and his siblings a heavy blow. So, there were offerings stored in coffer room that were about to be sent to the Capital? Each year, Little Meng City had to pay a huge amount of money and treasures to the Lu Kingdom? So, what would be the punishment if these offerings were stolen?
Messing around with Yi Yan, who was just a good for nothing son of a rich family, was meaningless. By upsetting, frightening, and imposing fear in their minds for few days, then killing them with a single blow, he would save himself much trouble in the future.
Even the weather was on Wu Qi’s side tonight, as thick gray clouds were covering the sky and it was drizzling. The air was filled with moisture, causing fog to start appearing everywhere, which reduced vision down to a few feet.
Under such a perfect weather, and with the help of his Innate Water Energy Shift, Wu Qi had his body covered with thin layer of water vapor and was dashing through the night like a phantom.
There was water vapor everywhere, and the innate water energy had started to spin extremely fast in Wu Qi’s arms, flowing into all the other meridians within his body. The refreshing sensation entered Wu Qi’s body through all his pores, making Wu Qi feel as if his energy was slowly rising. Suddenly, he learned a trick in cultivating with Seven Foundation Establishment. By cultivating in the place rich with the respective elemental energy, his cultivation speed would double.
To cultivate with the Source of Water Chapter, he may need to find a lake or river and soak himself within it.
Moving swiftly like a phantom, Wu Qi landed on the flat rooftop of the coffer room. Stealthily walking to the edge of the roof, Wu Qi saw the outside of the coffer room, with rows of fire torches which made the place as bright as day. A few hundred guards were running their eyes over the entire place alertly.
Sneering silently, Wu Qi walked back to the center of the roof and then took out the lower tier magical dagger, carefully injecting a thread of energy into it.
A faded blood red glow burst out from the dagger, then Wu Qi used it to cut down three stone slabs from the roof, exposing the thick metal plate underneath. An ordinary thief would have to return empty handed when they met this metal plate, but in Wu Qi’s mind, it was just something that would spend him some extra time in cutting through. A lower tier magical weapon was truly worth its value. It was more powerful than Lu Chengfeng’s dagger, and he was able to use it to cut the metal plate like he was cutting through some soft dirt.
"Good stuff!"
While being amazed by the huge difference between a magical weapon and an ordinary weapon, Wu Qi removed the cut out metal plates, and soon had made a meter-wide hole in the metal plate. Underneath the metal plate, the man who built this coffer room had even installed three layers of green steel wire mesh.
Wu Qi narrowed his eyes, and a bright blue light started to glow within. These three layers of green steel wire mesh were not as simple as they looked. There were few tiny threads of wire linked outside the coffer room to some unknown places. It was not difficult to imagine where these tiny threads of wires were linked to. There must be some bells or alerting devices hooked at the end of these wires. Once they were triggered, it would alarm the whole Mayor Mansion.
But, in Wu Qi’s eye, this kind of anti-burglar mechanism was too primitive. With the deep knowledge of secret traps and mechanisms from Le Xiaobai, Wu Qi easily solved the threat of these wires, cutting through the three layers of wire mesh without alerting anyone.
Jumping into the coffer room like a slippery fish, Wu Qi started to rub his hands excitedly.
Different from the fatty and his siblings’ hidden treasures, there was not much gold, silver, or jewelry within the coffer room. Most of the items stored here were all sorts of rare stuff from the mountain and huge piles of ores. All kind of rare beasts’ leathers, their bones, horns, and also some rare and precious herbs, which were being kept within boxes made from jade or sandalwood, were present. They were all the expensive items produced from Meng mountain. In the capital of the Lu Kingdom, these items could be sold for a huge amount of money.
There were even some precious herbs which he had seen in the Scroll of Stealing. They were considered to be lower tier magical medicines and provided great benefits to cultivators. These herbs were getting their special attention as well, as they were stored either in warm jade or cold jade boxes.
Taking a quick tour in the coffer room, suddenly, Wu Qi saw something that made his heart start pounding quickly!
There were soul stones in Meng Mountain? Wu Qi found two thousand soul stones of each of the five elements, and they were all premium quality! There was total of twenty-seven hundred water soul stones, and each of them was emitting a watery aura that made Wu Qi feel extremely comfortable.
Besides the soul stones, Wu Qi also discovered many metal ores that could be used by cultivators. Although the quantity was not great, it was more than enough for him.
Breathing out a long sigh, Wu Qi raised his head and shook with mirth. So many treasures, this was too much! This was such a painful happiness!
Rolling up his sleeves, Wu Qi clenched his teeth tight and started about his business.
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