After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 339: Chapter 338: Gold-devouring Beast

Bai Guo was unmoved. ”I really can’t help you. You should take this back.”

He didn’t even say, ”You could ask around at other shops,” so Hee Lingchuan knew where he stood.

”What’s the illness?”

Elder Wang immediately turned to Hee Lingchuan. ”A persistent high fever. We got two prescriptions from the infirmary, but neither worked!”

His eyes were full of hope. ”This is the real thing, I’m begging you, please buy it!”

Hee Lingchuan asked him, ”What’s written on this scroll of yours?”

”My ancestors said it’s a profound Divine Technique!” Elder Wang gave a bitter smile. ”But I can’t read it, and no one in my family practices Cultivation, so we can only sell it.”

”May I see it?”

”You can read it?” Elder Wang peeled back a tiny bit of the Beast Skin Paper, just a little. ”Then have a look.”

”Bring the child here, and I’ll find someone to treat him,” Hee Lingchuan said after a few glances. ”If he’s cured, you give me this paper scroll.”

”Huh?” Elder Wang was taken aback. ”Bring him here?”

”That’s right. I’m meeting a friend here. He’s an excellent physician, and treating a child’s high fever is a trivial matter for him.”

”Oh—” Elder Wang nodded repeatedly, his face breaking into a smile. ”Yes, yes, I’ll go get my grandson right now!” With that, he rolled up the Beast Skin Paper and headed out.

Neither of the two men behind him stopped him.

After Elder Wang left Spirit Island, the tragic expression on his face vanished. He walked another ten or so zhang before turning his head to see if anyone was following.

No one.

He spat in the direction of Spirit Island.

He then strolled down to the end of the main street, looking leisurely, not at all like someone with a sick family member at home.

He even bought two steamed buns and ate them as he browsed. Soon, he left Wanglin Street and turned onto another road.

The foot traffic here was much lighter than on Wanglin Street, and the shop signs weren’t as flashy, but the street was long and connected everywhere. Elder Wang threw away the greasy paper, wiped his mouth and hands, patted his face to set his expression, and entered several shops one after another.

When he came out again, his expression was one of smug satisfaction.

He then headed straight for the city gate at a quick pace.

’I’ll be safe once I’m out.’

However, just as he passed a narrow alley, a hand shot out, yanked him inside, and pinned him in the shadows.

Elder Wang jumped in fright. He turned his head and saw the young man from Spirit Island, who was giving him a brilliant smile.

”You?” Without a second thought, he yelled, ”Robbery—!”

But he had just opened his mouth when Hee Lingchuan lightly poked him in the throat.

The rest of Elder Wang’s words were instantly choked back. He clutched his neck, ”ah”-ing for a long moment, but his cries were no louder than a mouse’s squeak.

Hee Lingchuan pulled five or six sheets of Beast Skin Paper from the man’s robes, unrolled them, and saw that the content on each was identical:

Faded handwriting in the script of the Ancient Immortal Language, on a thin sheet of paper that wasn’t even full.

”What are these?”

Elder Wang’s face turned ashen.

Only then did Hee Lingchuan take out his Great Wind Army Token and wave it in the man’s face. ”The victim has already reported this to the authorities. There are prisons in the west and south of the city. Which one do you prefer?”

The Great Wind Army’s Token was very conspicuous, and Hee Lingchuan wasn’t afraid of him taking a closer look. Elder Wang’s eyes went wide. ’It’s over,’ he thought.

’How did I get exposed so quickly this time? I really shouldn’t have come to Panlong City.’

The pain in his neck had subsided, and he dropped to his knees with a THUD.

”My lord, spare me! I’ll give you the real one!”

”You have a real one?” Hee Lingchuan was contemptuous. ”Forget it. The west side it is. I’ll hand you over to the nearest official.”

”If you let me go, I’ll definitely give it to you!” Elder Wang grew frantic. ”I really have it!”

”Fine, I won’t arrest you.” Hee Lingchuan held out his hand. ”Let me see it.”

Only then did Elder Wang pull a Scroll from his boot.

It smelled awful. Hee Lingchuan pinched his nose as he unrolled it, then threw the Scroll back at him, roaring, ”How is this any different from the fakes! Are you making a fool of me?”

”I wouldn’t dare! This is the real one!” Elder Wang picked up the Scroll and unrolled it. In truth, the old Beast Skin Paper was so tattered that it had been mounted within the Scroll.

He took out a Copper Plate and pointed to a drawing of a beast’s head in the upper-left corner of the paper. ”Watch carefully.”

The beast’s head was drawn in a very realistic style. It looked a bit like a large toad, with bulging eyes and a huge mouth, but it had fine, sharp teeth, and the spots on its head resembled plum blossoms. It held its great mouth open, and inside was pitch black.

Elder Wang pressed the Copper Plate into the mouth of the beast’s head in the drawing.

A magical scene unfolded:

The Copper Plate suddenly vanished.

Hee Lingchuan raised an eyebrow and waited a few breaths before asking, ”And? What changed?”

”The paper got bigger, didn’t you notice?”

Thus reminded, Hee Lingchuan noticed that the edges of the paper had indeed expanded a tiny bit, but only a tiny bit. You wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t staring intently.

”What are you trying to prove?”

”This paper is alive, my lord!” Elder Wang was desperate to prove his point. ”But only after it consumes money or valuables will it return to its original size, and only then will the words on it appear.”

”Really?” Hee Lingchuan frisked him and, to his surprise, pulled out several silver ingots, each weighing around twenty to thirty taels.

’Who would have thought this old man in his tattered clothes was richer than me!’

”Is this what you just scammed off people?”

Elder Wang didn’t know how to answer. The next second, he saw Hee Lingchuan toss two silver ingots into the beast’s head.

”Aiyah, don’t!”

It was too late. The silver sank into the beast’s mouth and was gone in a flash.

Elder Wang’s vision went black. His heart felt like it was being twisted by a knife.

Then, Hee Lingchuan indeed saw the Beast Skin Paper expand a little more—by about... half an inch?

And a few more words did indeed appear on the paper.

”More. Let’s go again.”

Elder Wang’s face was a mask of misery. ”My lord, please don’t throw any more in! No matter how much you feed it, you’ll never satisfy it!”

”You’ve tried? What’s the most silver you’ve thrown in?”

”I’ve thrown in two thousand taels of silver in total! The most I ever put in at once was seven hundred taels, plus two Grand Eastern Pearls!” Elder Wang was filled with bitterness as he spoke. ”I used to have some savings. If it weren’t for this bottomless pit, I wouldn’t have fallen to such a state!”

Hee Lingchuan asked for the whole story.

It turned out Elder Wang was from out of town. He had been a private tutor for many years and had a small surplus of money. One day after a heavy rain, he went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables, but before he’d even filled half a basket, he stumbled upon a dead body.

It was unclear why the man had died suddenly in the wilderness. Elder Wang searched the body and found only a few pieces of broken silver and a sheet of Beast Skin Paper.

He gave the man a proper burial and went down the mountain with the Beast Skin Paper.

Elder Wang was an educated man and recognized the writing on the paper as the Ancient Immortal Language. Unfortunately, it was old and incomplete, so he couldn’t see the full picture. He tried to sell it in the city, but no one wanted it.

Later, he found an expert to appraise it, who told him it was the hide of a Gold-devouring Beast.

Even in Ancient Times, the Gold-devouring Beast was an extremely rare Exotic Beast. The value of a Divine Technique written on its hide was self-evident.

This type of hide could withstand the test of time, with a chance of being restored even after two or three thousand years.

However, the Gold-devouring Beast was greedy for all precious things in life. After death, its spirit inhabited its hide, retaining its incredibly avaricious nature. If Elder Wang wanted to see the full text on the paper, he had to satisfy its appetite.

From then on, Elder Wang started down the irreversible path of feeding the Gold-devouring Beast...

He couldn’t explain why he had lost his senses, but feeding this thing was truly addictive. He was full of hope for a future where the Gold-devouring Beast was satiated, believing he had a chance to obtain a rare Divine Technique.

At that time, the complete Divine Technique would surely not disappoint him. It would sell for an astronomical price, leaving him without a care in the world for the rest of his life.

Of course, reality was harsh. After eating gold and silver, the damned thing didn’t stay changed. It would expand for a quarter or half an hour, then shrink back to its original, tattered state!

In other words, if you couldn’t fill it up all at once, it wouldn’t show you the complete Divine Technique.

”What a rip-off,” Hee Lingchuan couldn’t help but ask. ”If you knew it was a bottomless pit, why did you keep feeding it?”

”If I didn’t keep feeding it, wouldn’t all the gold and silver I’d already thrown in be wasted?” Elder Wang squeezed out two bitter tears. ”Only later did I find a legend that said the treasures of the Mortal World could never satisfy it!”

”Unfortunately, I learned that far too late. By then, I had already bankrupted myself!”

To make a living, Elder Wang simply copied the contents of the Beast Skin Paper, disguised it as a complete Divine Technique, and sold it for money, using the same story he’d used at Spirit Island.

And quite a few customers fell for it.

But after running the scam two or three times, he had to quickly change locations to avoid ending up in prison.

After listening, Hee Lingchuan said, ”You really deserved it.”

Elder Wang’s case was a kind of gambling addiction. If a person indulges their desires without restraint, they’re unlikely to come to a good end.

He bowed repeatedly to Hee Lingchuan. ”I beg you, my lord, let me go!”

”Don’t worry, I’m not going to arrest you.” Hee Lingchuan grinned at him, stuffed the fake Beast Skin Papers into his robes, and suddenly shoved him back into the middle of the street.

’He’s really letting me go?’ Elder Wang was overjoyed.

Just then, two shouts came from not far away:

”Hey, I think that’s him!”

Startled, Elder Wang looked back and saw two Patrol Guards running toward him. With a guilty conscience, he turned and fled.

”Don’t run!”

Elder Wang ran even faster.

He was small and thin, but surprisingly fast, and he kept diving into crowds. It took the two Patrol Guards nearly half a `ke` to catch him.

”Someone reported you to the authorities for forgery and fraud!”

Along the way, they even picked up several of the fake Beast Skin Papers that had fallen from the old man’s robes.

The old man couldn’t talk his way out of it.

The real one was gone. No one would believe a word he said now.

...

After watching Elder Wang get hauled away, Hee Lingchuan walked back to Spirit Island.

The portly Shopkeeper asked with a smile, ”That old fellow was a swindler, wasn’t he?”

Hee Lingchuan grunted in affirmation and asked for a quiet room to use for a while.

The portly Shopkeeper was naturally happy to oblige such a small request from his landlord. So, a dozen or so breaths later, Hee Lingchuan entered a small appraisal room with a table and chairs, and a pile of junk in the corner.

He sat down, took out the original Beast Skin Paper, spread it on the table, and lit a lamp to examine it closely.

Why go to so much trouble for an old swindler and a piece of Gold-devouring Beast hide?

Because the paper did indeed record a Divine Technique:

The Clone Shadow Transformation Technique, or Clone Technique for short.

The outline of the Divine Technique, visible on the revealed portion of the Beast Skin Paper, stated that learning this Spell would allow one to temporarily summon a Clone that would obey one’s commands.

At first glance, it seemed very similar to the Mirror Image Technique that Hee Lingchuan had originally planned to redeem from the Pengcheng Bureau. Even the Red General had recommended he make that exchange.