Chen Yan entered the door, followed by two disciples. Chen Yan glanced back at them and made an impatient expression, waving his hand and lowering his voice: "All of you, leave."
He had deliberately imitated the voice of Zhong Hongliang tonight. Although it wasn’t a perfect match, his appearance at that moment was exactly like Zhong Hongliang, combined with identical clothing. The two disciples, typically under Zhong Hongliang’s intimidating presence, did not dare to question him. They bowed their heads in salute and quickly retreated.
In most houses, the master’s main bedroom is often the largest room on the top floor.
Guided by this assumption, Chen Yan went upstairs and soon found Zhong Hongliang’s master bedroom. He entered and closed the door behind him.
"The old man sure knows how to live well," Chen Yan sighed as he looked at the luxurious furnishings in the bedroom.
The decor here was more extravagant than that in his haunted mansion in Jinling Prefecture!
After a quick search, he found a small compartment inside. Upon entering, Chen Yan saw a shrine and sneered.
In the center of the shrine, there was a black stone, evidently emitting rhythmic fluctuations of primordial qi.
The primordial qi was pure and likely belonged to some rare treasure.
After a brief consideration, Chen Yan figured out that this must be the old ghost’s hiding place. Earlier, when the old ghost begged him to host his spirit for two hours, Chen Yan deduced that there must be some treasure in Zhong Hongliang’s home that could house a ghost body!
This black stone must be it.
However, the old ghost didn’t understand the proper methods of ghost cultivation, so he couldn’t nourish ghost qi. He likely found this treasure with high primordial qi content to host his ghost spirit.
The high primordial qi content of this black stone could indeed house a ghost spirit... but this rich primordial qi couldn’t nurture ghost qi; it could only maintain the ghost spirit’s existence.
"Not quite a perfect fit, but it could work," Chen Yan sighed, "Such a waste of a good treasure."
Without hesitation, Chen Yan pocketed the fist-sized black stone into his octagonal alchemy furnace.
He also found some items in the shrine’s drawer.
Upper-grade cinnabar, various talisman brushes, and a few compasses—all of which were high-quality, especially the ones with jade and one made entirely of gold.
They were much more impressive than the ones Chu Keqing used!
In the wardrobe, there were a few apricot-yellow Taoist robes, probably worn by the old man during his rituals.
After a thorough search, Chen Yan found his main target for this trip: a Cloud Order in one of the drawers!
This Cloud Order should have been left by Huang Mingyi for his senior disciple. Previously, Chen Yan had speculated that the Cloud Order would have fallen into Zhong Hongliang’s hands after the senior disciple’s disappearance, and it seemed like his guess was correct. Apparently, neither Zhong Hongliang nor the old ghost realized the significance of this Cloud Order and had casually left it in a drawer.
Other than the Cloud Order and the black stone, Chen Yan didn’t take anything else from the room.
Despite the apparent value of the compasses, made of gold and jade, they likely were worth quite a bit.
But Chen Yan didn’t want to cause himself unnecessary trouble by taking them.
He wasn’t short of money; there was no need to bring unnecessary trouble upon himself.
If he got greedy and took any valuables outside and got recognized... people investigating the case might trace it back to him. Wouldn’t that be troublesome?
Chen Yan even found a safe hidden behind a painting on the wall.
After a brief glance at the safe, he replaced the painting over it.
Given Zhong Hongliang’s reputation and wealth, the safe probably contained a significant amount of cash, but Chen Yan could only sigh.
He didn’t have the skills to break open a safe manually! His thumb’s Finger Sword might only be able to poke a hole; it wasn’t worth risking it.
The Formless Tribulation-breaking Slash could cut open the safe... but it wasn’t worth wasting such a precious life-saving technique.
As for taking the entire safe—his octagonal alchemy furnace didn’t have enough storage space to fit it.
"Forget it, forget it..." Chen Yan shook his head, "It seems wealth is not in my destiny for this trip; I can’t force it."
Chen Yan glanced around the room, carefully ensuring he hadn’t left any traces, such as fingerprints.
Opening the window, Chen Yan used the Escape Rune Technique and slipped out silently from the third-floor window, disappearing into the hillside.
By the time anyone in the luxurious house noticed Zhong Hongliang’s disappearance, it would probably be a long time.
This case was likely to become a headache for the Port City police.
Chen Yan returned to Huang Mingyi’s dojo at dawn.
He deliberately took a detour to the side, found a secluded spot, jumped over the wall, and quickly ran back to his room.
Once back in his room, Chen Yan took a shower, changed out of his blood-stained clothes, and stored them in the octagonal alchemy furnace. He dressed in clean clothes from head to toe.
Just as he walked out of the bathroom, towel in hand, drying his hair, he heard a knock at the door. Walking over to open it, he saw Chu Keqing standing at the door, smiling at him.