After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 467: Chapter 466: The Genuine Assurance Seal and the Account Books

Zhongsun Mou asked him, ”What about you?”

”I’m going to look for more clues around here, see if there are any suspicious people,” Hee Lingchuan said. ”How about we divide the work? You chase the killer, and I’ll go after Mr. Mai.”

Zhongsun Mou snorted. He didn’t object and walked out the door.

But before he had taken two steps, he held out his hand to Hee Lingchuan. ”Hand it over.”

”What?”

”The thing you took from the curio shelf,” Zhongsun Mou said. ”I’m taking it back to inspect.”

Hee Lingchuan took out the Ivory Ball and turned it a few times in his hand, a hesitant look on his face.

But in the end, he handed it over.

Zhongsun Mou took it, not noticing that a small spider had also been passed over by Hee Lingchuan and was now stealthily crawling into his sleeve.

Back in the courtyard, a Guard came forward and whispered a few words. Zhongsun Mou glanced at the study again before leaving with his subordinates.

General Antelope made a point of going back into the study for another look. When he came out, he said to Hee Lingchuan, ”That ball-hider! He took the chance to have his men completely empty the study! Nothing’s left!”

”He took the vase, too?”

”Huh? What vase?”

”Never mind, forget about it.” Hee Lingchuan waved his hand. ”The culprit left unhurriedly, so they probably didn’t leave any clues.”

Although Mr. Mai had fled in advance, the study was orderly and hadn’t been ransacked.

’What could have spooked him?’

Hee Lingchuan returned to the main point. ”By the way, General Antelope, why did you call him a ’ball-hider’?”

”When Merfolk enter the water, they get their fish tails back. On land, their tails split into human legs, but their... ’equipment’ is hidden deep inside their abdomens, completely different from us land-dwellers.” General Antelope grinned, chuckling. ”He’s just a ball-hiding, tail-baring creature, isn’t he?”

He asked Hee Lingchuan, ”What do we do now?”

Both were Special Envoys, but Hee Lingchuan felt much more approachable. Having hung out with Hee Lingchuan for a few days, the general was now firmly in familiar-acquaintance mode.

”There are a lot of contradictions in this case that don’t add up,” Hee Lingchuan said, also thinking hard. ”A moment ago, when Zhongsun Mou heard your name, General, he seemed a bit agitated. Do you know why?”

General Antelope shook his head. ”How should I know what he’s thinking? But he’s not the only one who gets annoyed just by seeing me.”

’Right. With this old goat’s temper, he was a thorn in many people’s sides.’

Hee Lingchuan walked back into the study, took a Mirror from his robes, and began scanning it around the room.

General Antelope saw it and immediately said, ”That Mirror of yours is a pretty good Magical Artifact.”

”You’ve seen one before?”

”The patterns on it... hmm, they seem unique to an Immortal Sect from the Middle Ages.” General Antelope pondered for a long time. ”Where have I seen it before? Ah, I can’t remember.”

Hee Lingchuan was slightly alarmed. He recalled that the Soul-Catching Mirror had a shady origin, seemingly related to Lingxu City. ’Looks like I can’t just flash this Mirror around in the Beiga Kingdom.’

He said calmly, ”It’s a replica.”

After scanning the room, the Soul-Catching Mirror reported back to him: ”No eavesdropping Divine Techniques or items detected.”

’This Mirror is a great counter-surveillance tool.’

Just as General Antelope said, the study had been virtually emptied. The entire bookshelf was gone. The curio shelf survived only because it had few items on it to begin with, and the desk had been emptied out. Zhongsun Mou’s subordinates probably didn’t have enough Storage Space to take away such a large desk.

Hee Lingchuan specifically checked the spot where the vase had been. Hmm, empty.

Only a circle of dust remained on the floor.

’Is this Lord Zhongsun part locust or something?’

Hee Lingchuan had his two Wind-Drilling Beast guards stand watch outside the door while he took several scrolls from his Storage Ring and placed them on the desk.

General Antelope asked in surprise, ”Where did those come from?”

”They were in the vase on the curio shelf.” Hee Lingchuan rubbed his hands together. ”I was just about to inspect the shelf when Zhongsun Mou burst in.”

Jiao Yu was also curious. ”Why only take these few scrolls?”

”The vase was in the far corner, covered in dust. Only these few scrolls... or more accurately, the end of this one scroll was smooth and new, not a speck of dust on it.” There were three scrolls in total; he had just grabbed them all to save time. Hee Lingchuan untied the cord and slowly unrolled the Scroll. ”Which means Mr. Mai opened it often.”

The Scroll wasn’t large, only about two square feet.

It was a painting, but it didn’t depict the usual flowers, birds, insects, fish, mountains, rocks, or pines. Instead, it showed a round, lidless jar.

And the jar seemed to be transparent, because inside were a Red Jade Ring, several booklets, and a few round orbs.

Red orbs.

’Who would paint something like this?’

The more General Antelope looked at the orbs, the more familiar they seemed. ”These look a lot like Blood Pearls.”

Hee Lingchuan, however, was looking at the Red Seal by the side of the painting.

To be honest, it didn’t look much like a seal; it was more like a painted-on Talisman.

He pressed lightly on the painting.

Every part of it had the texture of soft paper, except for—

Except for the jar in the painting.

Both the tiger and the goat let out a sound of surprise.

As soon as Hee Lingchuan’s hand moved over the jar, it sank in.

A hand had actually appeared in the painting, hovering over the jar.

’And it was drawn quite realistically, too.’

”There’s a whole world inside this painting.” Hee Lingchuan simply reached in and pulled out all the red orbs from the jar.

When he pulled his hand back out of the painting, the others saw several bright red pearls lying in his palm.

”They really are Blood Pearls!” General Antelope wouldn’t mistake the scent. ”What are these things used for, anyway?”

Jiao Yu, however, said, ”Take out the booklets and let’s have a look.”

Hee Lingchuan took out a booklet and opened it, only to find it filled with line after line of entries, listing the year, month, and day, how many Pulp Pearls were collected, and where the pearls were harvested.

”It’s a ledger.”

Hee Lingchuan flipped to the back and found that every page was filled; there were no blank pages.

”The ink is a little faded. These are all old ledgers.”

Jiao Yu sucked in a breath of cold air. ”They actually hunted this many Demon People!” A quick flip-through showed that a single ledger recorded the hunting of over two hundred Demons, and there were a full seven ledgers here.

That was the tragic history of at least fourteen or fifteen hundred Demons.

Although Beiga was known as a Demon Kingdom, the Demon People population was less than a tenth of the human population. The silent disappearance of over a thousand Demons made even Jiao Yu’s heart ache.

General Antelope pulled out one with his teeth. ”This one’s new.”

Hee Lingchuan opened it. The ink in this one was indeed fresh. The latest entry starkly read: ”Niutou Mountain, Wind-Drilling Beast, two.”

Judging by the date and location, this was the record of the death of General Antelope’s descendants.

General Antelope muttered a curse, then said, ”How could it only be two!”

Hee Lingchuan shot him a sideways glance. ”Isn’t your focus a little off?”

”My descendants were brimming with vitality, strong and vigorous, all in their prime! How could seven or eight of them only yield two Red Pearls? Even a few from that nest of weak and useless Porcupine Demons can produce a Blood Pearl.” General Antelope paused. ”What are they called again, Pulp Pearls or Blood Pearls?”

”It’s written as ’Pulp Pearls’ here,” Hee Lingchuan recalled. ”Wan the Wealthy called them ’Blood Pearls’.”

’Naturally, we should go by Mr. Mai’s records.’

’However, General Antelope’s complaint, though bizarre, made sense. Was there a mistake in the ledger?’

Although Hee Lingchuan had never met Mr. Mai, he figured the man must be a cautious person; otherwise, he wouldn’t have fled at the first sign of trouble, getting away before he and Zhongsun Mou even arrived.

’Would such a cautious man make a mistake regarding his own core business?’

’If he hadn’t made a mistake, then did that mean Wan the Wealthy had embezzled the extra Blood Pearls?’

Hee Lingchuan then took out the Red Jade Ring.

The jade was fine quality, with tiny lines on it that looked like capillaries. But the ring wasn’t a Storage Ring, just an ordinary thumb ring, worn for looks.

General Antelope subconsciously stuck out his tongue and licked the Scroll—a habit of goats when they encounter paper or grass.

However, something on the painting actually came off from his lick.

The bright Red Seal.

”Huh?”

Hee Lingchuan picked up the Seal and found it was a layer of soft, papery leather, quite tough and not easily torn.

’This thing is movable? Removable?’

He reached out to touch the painting again.

It was solid. The painting was just a painting now; the small space within was gone.

The remaining items in the picture were also frozen, becoming a still-life drawing.

’So the painting’s magic came from this strange red Seal?’

Hee Lingchuan looked closely. The Seal had two words written on it in the Ancient Immortal Language: ”Genuine Assurance.”

He stuck the Seal back on, and the items in the painting could be taken out again.

’Interesting.’

Hee Lingchuan casually grabbed another piece of paper, drew a picture of a chick pecking at rice, and then stuck the Seal on it.

’Could he pull the chick out?’

The experiment proved: he could not.

The drawing was just a drawing. Things you drew could not be ”taken out.”

But they had clearly taken out the Red Pearls and the ledgers.

An idea struck Hee Lingchuan. He went to the kitchen, grabbed a handful of rice, came back, and pressed it onto the drawing.

The rice grains vanished instantly.

The man and two demons stared intently. Around the chick in the drawing, many grains of rice had appeared out of thin air.

Before Hee Lingchuan could reach out, a caramel-colored, tiger-striped paw stretched over and started digging around in the painting.

The man and the goat watched as a tiger paw appeared in the picture, scratching and clawing at the crudely drawn chick.

When Jiao Yu pulled back his forepaw, a dozen or so grains of rice were indeed lying on his paw pad.

”So you can only put things from the outside world in and take them out.” Hee Lingchuan peeled off the Red Seal. ”Peel this thing off, and everything is sealed inside. Interesting.”

’Even in this modern age of weakened magic, there are still so many strange little gadgets.’

But back to the matter at hand, their attention returned to the ledgers.

Jiao Yu’s tiger eyes widened as he scanned the pages. Suddenly, he said, ”These ledgers have the time, quantity, and harvesting location, but no delivery location.”

”Good eye, Lord Jiao! That’s because the delivery location doesn’t need to be recorded.” Hee Lingchuan knew with a single glance. ”In other words, they only conduct their transactions here.”

Jiao Yu was incredulous. ”You mean there’s only one team hunting Demon Beasts?” Otherwise, the ledgers should have recorded the different teams.

”They must have an incredible Magical Artifact, to be able to run around committing crimes all over Chiyan in such a short time.”

General Antelope was also stunned. ”That can’t be right. Didn’t the old man sweeping the courtyard say that people often came looking for Mr. Mai?”

”Perhaps it was a cover?” Hee Lingchuan considered. ”Mr. Mai also conducted legitimate business.”

At this point, he instructed the two demons, ”For now, let’s not share this information with Zhongsun Mou. I have a feeling his sudden appearance here is far too suspicious.”