Chapter 115

  Back at the county governor's mansion, without Qiu Zhen reminding him, Tang Yin found Cheng Jin and asked him to investigate what kind of villain was behind the night market and who was supporting them.

  Cheng Jin listened and repeatedly responded with approval. After thinking for a moment, he asked again: "Sir, during the investigation, it may be unavoidable to use some strong measures, I wonder if sir allows it?"

  Tang Yin thought for a moment and then replied directly: "If it's necessary, just go ahead and do it."

  Cheng Jin blinked his eyes and asked again: "What if someone dies?"

  Tang Yin thought for a moment and said: "As long as it doesn't exceed the scope of the investigation, I can turn a blind eye."

  Hearing Tang Yan say this, Cheng Jin completely put his mind at ease and cupped his hands to say: "This subordinate will go investigate now, within two days, I will give Your Excellency a satisfactory answer."

  After finishing speaking, Cheng Jin made a gesture to leave, but Tang Yin suddenly remembered something and called him back, saying: "There is also a teahouse near the night market called Chunxiang Pavilion. Tonight, there will be government soldiers going to seal it off. You can check on that too, which battalion those soldiers belong to."

  "Yes! Sir!" Cheng Jin replied, turning around and quickly walking away.

  Tang Yin allowed Cheng Jin to use private punishment in the investigation process, and this was also carried out by Dark Arrow all along. One of the reasons why Dark Arrow was feared later on was its cruel and complicated punishments.

  It's easy to investigate the local tyrants in the night market, and it's not difficult to check out the identity of the officers who sealed off the tea house. Cheng Jin, Ao Qing, and Jia Xi divided their efforts and soon got to the bottom of things.

  The local tyrants in the night market are also quite powerful, they are all Wang Meng's family members, the lord of the city, who have been extorting money and goods from the merchants in the night market for a long time, causing the merchants to complain bitterly, but fearing Wang Meng's power, they dare not speak out.

  The common saying is that the county official is not as good as the current official. Wang Meng was the lord of Heng City, in charge of major and minor affairs in Heng City. He suppressed the fact that he had collected taxes by force. Tang Yin and Shangguan Yuange, who were in charge of internal affairs, were unaware of this. Moreover, the soldiers who went to seal off the teahouse were not from the five battalions of Pingyuan County, but were official soldiers within Heng City. These soldiers were not many in number, nor were they incorporated into the battalion, and did not participate in training or combat. They were usually in charge of maintaining law and order within the city, under the direct command of the city lord.

  The officers and soldiers of the Horizontal City went to seal off the tea house, which was also an order from Wang Meng. The play in the tea house performed all the things about Wang Meng's forced collection of property, and Wang Meng was also afraid that the news would spread and reach Tang Yin or Shangguan Yuanyi's ears, then his situation would be bad. But he never thought that what happened tonight would be encountered by Tang Yin who was wandering around in disguise.

  After figuring everything out, Cheng Jin should have reported the news back to Tang Yin and considered the matter settled. However, he didn't do that and instead planned to continue investigating.

  Ao Qing and Jia Xi looked at each other in confusion and asked, "What else are we supposed to investigate?"

  "Let's investigate Wang Meng!" Cheng Jin said slowly: "We are now just clarifying the general situation, and we don't have conclusive evidence in our hands. What if when His Excellency asks Wang Meng, he refuses to admit it? We might even be blamed by His Excellency for not handling things properly!"

  Ao Qing and Jia Xi thought for a moment, then Ao Qing asked: "What about Cha Wang Meng?"

  Cheng Jing said, "Search his family's treasury. Wang Meng privately collected merchants' goods, and his family must have a lot of money. He is just a city master, and he can't get much salary every year. As long as we investigate his family's wealth, we won't be afraid of him denying it again."

  Upon hearing this, Ao Qing and Jia Xi exchanged a smile, both thinking that Cheng Jin was clever and thorough in handling matters.

  That night, Cheng Jin, Ao Qing and Jia Xi secretly sneaked into the City Master's mansion. The three of them were all exceptional Dark Spirit Cultivators, and sneaking was second nature to them. Moreover, the City Master's mansion wasn't some sort of dragon's lair or tiger's den, there weren't any powerful Spirit Warriors inside, making their actions even smoother.

  Three people, clad in pure black armor, crouched on the rooftop, motionless, as if they had merged with the darkness of night. If one didn't look closely, it would be hard to discover that there were three large living people lying on the eaves.

  When the two night watchmen walked past the house, Cheng Jin gave a signal to Ao Qing and Jia Xi, and the three of them simultaneously used their Shadow Drift technique, appearing beside the two watchmen like ghosts.

  Before the two family servants could react, Jiaxi struck like lightning, hitting one of the servants' necks with her palm. The servant didn't even make a sound, his eyes rolled back and he fainted. The other servant was so scared that his face turned pale, just as he was about to shout loudly, but found himself unable to utter a word. A large hand had come from behind him, tightly covering his mouth.

  Ling's armor was icy cold, and the housekeeper felt as if his mouth had been blocked by an ice cube.

  "Don't shout! Dare to make a sound, and I'll have your head moved!" Cheng Jin covered the housekeeper's mouth with his hand and whispered in his ear.

  When did Jia Ding ever encounter such a scene, scared stiff and trembling like two noodles.

  He couldn't speak, but his head was still moving, nodding repeatedly.

  "Take me to Wang Meng's silver vault!"

  “……”

  Jian Ding didn't react, so Cheng Jin took advantage of the situation and raised the Ling Knife, pressing it against his face. In a stern voice, he said: "Don't make me repeat myself!"

  Upon seeing the eerie, glowing and razor-sharp spirit knife, the house guard's eyes welled up with tears and his nose began to run. His last shred of hesitation vanished, and he nodded repeatedly, responding in a trembling voice.

  The silver vault of the city lord's mansion was located at the end of the compound, with a guard standing outside. For ordinary guards, the three were naturally not to be underestimated. Ao Qing took the lead and knocked out the guard, then used her spiritual knife to cut off the lock on the vault door and pushed it open.

  As they entered the silver pants, the three of them looked closely and saw rows of neatly arranged boxes, roughly twenty or more.

  Open any trunk at will, inside are vases, calligraphy and paintings, with an ancient charm, looking like they have been around for a long time.

  Cheng Jinsan and the other two didn't know that these were antiques, nor did they know their value. They just thought they were some vases and felt disappointed. Then they went on to check the other boxes. Just like the box they opened earlier, the other boxes mostly contained antique items, fabrics, brocades, etc., but not a single piece of gold, silver or jewelry was seen.

  "Damn it!" Cheng Jin cursed in a low voice, grabbing the house servant who was almost frightened silly and asked: "Are you sure there's only one silver vault here?"

  Jia Ding nodded blankly and replied: "Yes... yes! Only... only this one silver vault!"

  "Where the hell is the money? Where did Wang Meng put all the money?" Cheng Jin leaned close to the housekeeper, his black mask gleaming with a faint light.

  Jia Ding was about to wet his pants, he shook his head repeatedly and said: "Master, I don't know, I really don't know..."

  Cheng Jin nodded, sneered and said: "I don't think you'll confess unless I beat you!" As he spoke, he tore a piece of cloth from the servant's body, rolled it up, and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, with his fingers extended forward, the long fingernails formed by the Ling armor stabbed straight at the servant's eyes.

  He's going to poke out Jia Ding's eyes.

  At this moment, Ao Qing suddenly spoke up and said: "Captain, there is a secret room here!"

  Oh? Cheng Jin's spirit was greatly lifted upon hearing this, and he simultaneously retracted his fingers and turned his head back.

  Only to see Ao Qing standing in front of the wall in the middle section of the silver warehouse, lightly tapping, and a hollow sound came from inside. She searched everywhere for the switch of the secret room, but after touching it all around, she couldn't find where the switch was.

  Cheng Jin pushed the family guard towards Jia Xi, then walked to Ao Qing's side and pulled her away. Immediately after, the spiritual knife in his hand stabbed fiercely at the wall. If the wall was really stubborn, his spiritual knife wouldn't be able to stab deep. However, as soon as he stabbed, without even using much force, the entire blade had already entered within.

  Inside, as expected, there was a trick! Cheng Jin didn't draw his sword, but instead used force to cut horizontally and then vertically. In the blink of an eye, he had carved out a half-meter long square shape on the wall. He then drew out his spiritual knife, lifted his leg, and kicked the wall with a loud thud. The section of the wall that he had cut into a block fell inward, revealing a large rectangular hole in the wall.

  Cheng Jin smiled at Ao Qing and said, "This is so much more convenient!" As he spoke, he had already slipped into the waist of his pants.

  The small room inside the wall was not large, but the silver ingots stacked neatly inside were astonishingly numerous. The glittering silver bars piled up to a height of over five feet, and even by conservative estimate there must have been at least eighteen million taels.

  In such a poor and desolate Pingyuan County, in such a bleak Heng City, Wang Meng was able to get so much money, it's really hard to imagine, unthinkable.

  Looking at the piles of silver, Cheng Jin was stunned, Ao Qing and Jia Xi were also stunned, even the butler was equally stunned. Not even the butler knew that there was a secret room in the treasury, and inside the secret room, there was such a huge amount of silver.

  After a long time, Cheng Jin came back to his senses. He casually picked up a silver ingot and weighed it in his palm, sneering out loud and saying: "What a great city master, what a greedy official!" As he spoke, he said to Ao Qing: "Xiao Qing, you immediately return to the mansion to find the adults and explain the situation here!"

  Before Ao Qing could respond, he turned to Jia Xi and said: "Jia Xi, stay here and guard this place. Don't let anyone in. If someone tries to force their way in, kill them first and report later!"

  "Captain, what about you?" Ao Qing and Jia Xi asked in unison.

  "Me?" Cheng Jin waved his hand with the spiritual knife and said: "I'm going to find that dog official Wang Meng!"

  So much money was found in the silver warehouse of the city master's mansion, which can be called conclusive evidence. Cheng Jin no longer hid his appearance and dragged the family servant to the bedroom where City Master Wang Meng lived.

  On the road, patrolling guards and family servants saw Cheng Jin in his spiritual armor, and they all jumped in fright, rushing to surround him.

  Cheng Jin scattered the spiritual armor on his body, took out the military emblem from his bosom, and shouted loudly: "I am the battalion commander under the command of County Governor Tang Yin, who has come to investigate this place. Who dares to block my way?" At present, no one knows the title of the Dark Arrow, so in order to avoid trouble, Cheng Jin can only claim to be the battalion commander of Tang Yin, and Tang Yin also said that his official rank is the same as that of the battalion commander.

  The commander of the county guard? The guards and servants at the city lord's manor exchanged glances, unsure whether to stop him or not.