FVN #305 - The Secret of the Treasure
#305 - The Secret of the Treasure
In the sight of Liang Jin's Fiery Eyes.
He saw that what was inside those large wooden crates was actually… stones!
Stones, one after another, filling the wooden crates.
Those countless wooden crates were all filled with stones!
Without exception.
This left Liang Jin somewhat dumbfounded.
He originally thought these boxes would be filled with gold, silver, and jewels.
How could they be stones?
"Could it be… some kind of precious ore?"
Liang Jin knew that some places in the Western Desert were rich in jade.
And the raw stones of some jade look very similar to ordinary stones on the outside.
Immediately, Liang Jin looked carefully.
He examined these stones inside and out.
However… they were still just stones.
Just ordinary, worthless stones commonly found in the vast Gobi Desert!
Now, Liang Jin was truly perplexed:
"The so-called treasure is just a pile of broken stones?"
"If they're just broken stones, why use wooden crates to store them, why have an army escort them, why hide them in this abandoned tomb?"
This made Liang Jin utterly puzzled.
A pile of stones, is it worth so much time and effort?
It's simply not worth it!
Why did those people do this in the first place?
Could there be some profit to be made here?
Liang Jin couldn't see any benefit in it.
"Could it be that the real treasure isn't buried in this abandoned tomb, but in other corners of Hidden Wind Valley?"
"I'll take a closer look."
Immediately, Liang Jin looked around in all directions again.
But after looking around, there was absolutely no sign of any treasure.
This allowed Liang Jin to confirm that within five miles of this Hidden Wind Valley, there was absolutely nothing hidden except for this pile of stones.
This was strange.
Liang Jin frowned.
He looked at the densely packed treasure hunters at the foot of the mountain and couldn't help but feel sorry for them.
These people traveled all the way here seeking the legendary treasure, but they didn't know that what they were risking their lives for was actually a pile of broken stones.
"Ordinary martial artists and small forces aside."
"Do the leaders of the three major forces know that the treasure is stones?"
Liang Jin began to think.
He quickly determined that the three major forces of the Western Desert probably didn't know that the treasure was a pile of stones, otherwise they wouldn't be so actively and diligently rushing to Hidden Wind Valley.
If there was anyone who wasn't actively and diligently pursuing the treasure…
Cang Du!
Liang Jin seemed to understand.
No wonder this Chief of the Bureau of Investigation was not very interested in the treasure from the beginning.
Even after he heard the rumors of the treasure's appearance, he still traveled unhurriedly, and didn't even mind arriving at Hidden Wind Valley last.
He must know the inside story!
When he first met Liang Jin, he said that he was looking for a lost item from the palace.
Later, he said that the purpose of this trip was to bring back the stolen Western Desert Ministry of War's defense map from the imperial palace, and to investigate the reasons behind it.
He indeed never said that he came for the treasure.
But Liang Jin also believed that this kind of secret agent was good at mixing truth and lies together, making it difficult for people to distinguish.
"Regardless of their purpose."
"Since I've come, I can't go back empty-handed."
Liang Jin's gaze turned to the treasure hunters in the valley again.
To be precise, he was looking at each and every head.
On this trip, he must kill enough people.
And, he must take Liusha City!
That was his goal!
"Oh, they're fighting again."
"From day to night, won't it ever stop?"
"Belligerent, truly the nature of humans."
In Liang Jin's sight, he saw people fighting and killing both inside and outside Hidden Wind Valley.
Some of them were forces that Liang Jin didn't know about, and some were people from the three major forces.
When there are many people gathered together, and there is nothing to do, conflicts are always inevitable.
Especially a group of martial artists who value martial arts.
It's even more likely to start fighting at the slightest provocation.
However, Liang Jin took a look and found that the real experts were all sitting tight.
Those fighting and killing were mostly martial artists below the fifth rank.
They were like chess pieces, sacrificing their lives for some meaningless things.
At the foot of the mountain in the west, there were many corpses piled up.
These corpses were all martial artists who had died in the fighting these days, or the bodies of laborers and slaves responsible for working and excavating.
To the extent that that place was almost becoming a mass grave.
If it was daytime, you could still see large flocks of vultures gathered there, eating the rotting corpses.
Liang Jin sighed helplessly:
"How can there be less of me in a fight?"
"Rather than dying in the hands of others and losing my life in vain, it's better to die in my hands and add to my mission progress."
Liang Jin got up, preparing to participate in those fights.
But at this moment, his gaze moved slightly again.
Faintly, he saw someone in the distance.
That was the direction Liang Jin came from.
When Liang Jin zoomed in, he actually saw three riders being chased.
And these three riders were actually acquaintances of Liang Jin.
"Why are they only here now?"
These three people were the Skhiri people who had bought information from Liang Jin before.
This group of Skhiri people originally had four people.
Liang Jin had seen the four of them purchasing supplies in Liusha City.
At that time, Liang Jin thought that these four people should have arrived at Hidden Wind Valley long ago, but he didn't expect that they would actually fall behind Liang Jin.
But now, only Ayina and two other men named Hagon and Chiguili are left, and a man named Aslan is missing.
At this time, these three Skhiri people were all injured and looked embarrassed.
They were riding their horses and fleeing desperately.
Behind them, there were more than a dozen horses chasing frantically.
"Who are these people chasing them?"
Liang Jin saw that although those chasing were wearing common folk clothes of the Western Desert, their appearance and temperament were very different from the people of the Western Desert.
Most of the local people in the Western Desert have deep eye sockets, high nose bridges, thin lips, and tall statures.
These pursuers were short and stocky, with large, round heads, broad faces, high cheekbones, flat noses, and thick lips. They had dense mustaches on their upper lips and only a small tuft of stiff beard on their chins.
Their facial features resembled neither the people of the Western Desert, nor the people of the Sahr Country, nor even the people of the Great Qian.
They looked more like…
…people from the Black Dragon Dynasty!
Liang Jin's heart stirred.
He suddenly remembered that Cang Du had said that the real enemy he would face this time was a prince of the Black Dragon Dynasty—Tu Xie Wang.
The attack Cang Du and his group encountered when they first entered the Western Desert was carried out by a fourth-rank peak martial artist under Tu Xie Wang.
And among these pursuers, the strongest was indeed a fourth-rank peak martial artist!
This fourth-rank peak martial artist sat on horseback, watching the three Sahr Country people fleeing ahead with a mocking expression.
He could have easily hunted down these three.
However, he carried a sense of ease in toying with his prey, seemingly wanting to enjoy the pleasure of tormenting them before killing them.
It felt like hunting!
Liang Jin stroked his chin:
"What's going on?"
"A treasure has not only attracted the three major forces of the Western Desert."
"Even foreigners like those from the Sahr Country and the Black Dragon Dynasty have been drawn here."
"It seems I might be able to get some information from these Sahr Country people."
"After all, I can't just watch my old customers get hunted down, can I?"
After making up his mind, Liang Jin floated down from the mountaintop.
He returned to the camp, mounted a fast horse, and headed towards the battlefield in the distance.
…
At this moment.
In this chase across the Gobi Desert.
Ayina, Hagan, and Chi Guili were desperately galloping away.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
Cold arrows kept shooting from behind.
Whenever this happened, Chi Guili would wave his beast-patterned steel arm shield to block all these arrows.
“Ayina, we can't escape like this!”
“You go! Hagan and I will stay behind to hold them off!”
Chi Guili shouted anxiously.
Hagan nodded in agreement, clearly having the same plan.
Ayina glanced back.
Her beautiful, wheat-colored face was filled with anxiety and ferocity.
She drew the two scimitars from behind her waist and said angrily:
“We can't escape!”
“These Black Dragon Dynasty people are toying with us, we might as well fight them!”
Her eyes glared angrily at the sinister man among the pursuers behind.
Only the powerful aura emanating from this man made her feel unmatched.
Hearing this, Hagan hurriedly advised:
“But if you die, how will we explain it to your father?”
Ayina turned her head and snapped:
“Are you cowards?”
“You two aren’t afraid of death, are you still afraid of facing my father?”
The word "coward" was a highly insulting term in the Sahr Country.
Hagan and Chi Guili felt ashamed upon hearing this.
For the sake of their dignity, they immediately replied:
“What's there to be afraid of?”
“If we die, we die together!”
Immediately, the three of them stopped desperately fleeing, quickly slowed down, and then turned their horses around to face the pursuers behind them.
Soon.
More than a dozen pursuers rode up and surrounded the three of them.
These pursuers had extraordinary auras, and were clearly martial artists.
Among them were two fifth-rank martial artists.
And the sinister-looking man leading them was a fourth-rank martial artist!
His skin was pale, as if shrouded in perennial darkness, devoid of any color. Two eyebrows like twisted black lines slanted into his temples, the ends of his eyebrows slightly upturned, revealing an indescribable sinister aura.
“Ayina, why aren't you running anymore?”
“Why don’t you continue to run?”
He pointed his finger at Ayina, and laughed mockingly:
His hands had long and dry fingers, like chicken claws.
Especially the nails, which were trimmed extremely sharp, exuding a cold metallic luster, as if a light wave could cut through flesh and leave a fatal mark.
Ayina said coldly:
“Huyan Di, if I die, my father will definitely not let you go!”
The man called Huyan Di snorted disdainfully upon hearing this.
His purple lips also curled into a lewd smile:
“Ayina, my beauty, how could I bear to let you die?”
“Our Black Dragon Dynasty has a custom of bride kidnapping.”
“So I'm going to kidnap you back and make you my bride.”
“As long as the two of us get married, your father and my father can work together on a grand plan!”
The marriage system of the Black Dragon Dynasty has two types: bride kidnapping and betrothal.
Betrothal is learned from the Great Qian Dynasty, where the man has to propose to the woman before the engagement. If the woman's family agrees, they can get engaged.
Bride kidnapping, on the other hand, is a traditional custom of the Black Dragon Dynasty and is much more barbaric.
Simply put, bride kidnapping is when a man takes a fancy to an unmarried woman and directly kidnaps her home with people to marry her forcibly.
Once the bride kidnapping is successful, it is protected by law and morality.
Both parents will accept the result.
Hearing this, Ayina said disdainfully:
“Huyan Di, you are a disgusting bastard.”
“I want to cut off your little brother and feed it to my dogs!”
Hearing this, Huyan Di's already sinister face became even more gloomy.
He didn't bother to continue talking nonsense, raised his hand, and said to his subordinates:
“You go and deal with those two men.”
“I will tame Ayina myself!”
A group of subordinates immediately galloped towards Hagan and Chi Guili.
Hagan and Chi Guili roared frantically, trying to protect Ayina.
Huyan Di stared at Ayina lewdly.
He held up his index finger and sneered:
“My beauty, do you believe it?”
“I can tame you with just one finger.”