Stranger Danger-Chapter 1696: Rich

Before they could finish, a man and a woman walked up to them like a pair of celestials.

In fact, many people had noticed the strangers’ arrival.

In the past, they would have charged them and attacked them like wolves or tigers.

Now though, no one was stepping forward. No one was even talking.

It was because they lost their consciousness and their lives the moment they saw the two strangers.

“Who dares to invade the Plum Mountain?!”

The bandit chiefs who heard the report rushed out of the hall.

As soon as they dashed out of the entrance, they immediately saw Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou and felt an inexplicable, terrible sense of terror. They did not hesitate to follow their instincts and escaped.

“It’s rude to leave a guest unattended.”

Ye Qing lowered his palm, and the five bandit chiefs in the middle of escaping abruptly stopped in their tracks. They felt as if they were trapped in a quagmire.

Obviously, all five bandit chiefs were strong. Blood Plum would not raise them to their current positions otherwise. They might be weaker than Blood Plum, but they were all ruthless, heartless people who could rule a town or a city should they so wish.

But of course, they were as weak as grass before Ye Qing.

Knowing that their lives were hanging in the balance, they abandoned all pretenses of dignity and begged, “Mercy, seniors!”

“You are guilty of monstrous crimes. Death is too kind for the likes of you!”

As Ye Qing said this, the five bandit chiefs felt themselves being crushed by an irresistible force. The pain was unbearable.

“Argh! Mercy, senior!”

Before they could even finish, the five bandit chiefs exploded into showers of blood and gore not unlike the falling petals around them.

The rest of the bandits had died in an instant as well.

Ye Qing never even looked at them. He simply lowered his palm again and flattened the symbol of Plum Mountain’s authority, the Plum Hall.

After the Plum Hall collapsed, a passage was revealed on the ground.

“Let’s go.”

Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou followed the passage into the underground.

There was a big hall in the underground, and the hall itself was constructed out of precious valuables. The beams were carved from gold, the walls were forged from silver, the ground was made of jade, and the lamps were shaped from pearls. It was like a celestial palace.

This wasn’t the most impressive part though. It was the hoard that was stored inside the hall. Gold, silver, jewelry, relics, calligraphy art, paintings and more piled up like mountains on the ground. The shelves were covered in Strange Artifacts, treasures, martial arts manuals, secret arts manuals and more as well.

“Holy... I had no idea she’s this rich!”

Even Ye Qing, for all his years of robbery, was stupefied by what he saw. This was one of the biggest treasure hoards Ye Qing had ever seen in his life.

Although he already knew from Blood Plum’s memories that there existed a treasury underneath the Plum Hall, and it was where she stored all her valuables, it paled in comparison to what he was right now. “Are all bandits this rich these days?”

“No, only the bandits of the Golden Road are filthy rich.”

Feng Qingyou was unmoved by the sight though. “Blood Plum’s business is no-cost, and she does not fear any faction as she is backed by the Pingshun King himself. It is not surprising that she is able to accumulate so much wealth.”

Ye Qing remarked, “If Wei Nandou’s dog is this rich, surely the man himself is richer!”

Blood Plum was the Pingshun King’s dog, and her job was to collect wealth for Wei Nandou. Therefore, the large majority of her loot must have gone to Wei Nandou, meaning that what they were seeing right now was but a tiny portion of the true amount of wealth she plundered. Just how rich was the bastard?

Feng Qingyou’s lips curled into a smirk. “And? This has nothing to do with you, does it?”

Ye Qing rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It could be, if I decide to pull a robbery. It’s not like he’s a good person.”

Feng Qingyou shook her head. “The Pingshun King is not Blood Plum. Dealing with him will not be easy.”

“Maybe, but it certainly isn’t impossible.”

Ye Qing shrugged. At his current level, killing Wei Nandou was not a difficult task. Sure, his identity presented a problem, but he could always just cooperate with Xiahou Zun. He was sure that half the loot was enough to tempt the Sage into shouldering the blame for him.

That said, Ye Qing was just daydreaming. He wasn’t actually planning to pull a daylight robbery not just because he wasn’t a man who would resort to unscrupulous means to rob someone, but also because his first priority right now was the evil suppressing spiritual treasures. He wasn’t so blinded by the promise of wealth that he had forgotten what was truly important.

Therefore, if Wei Nandou was smart enough to recognize the dangers and stop coming after them, then this could be the end of this whole fiasco. He really did not have the time or the energy to spare right now.

But if Wei Nandou was stupid, then sure, he did not mind killing a Sage and a king for “fun”.

Of course, they took everything in Blood Plum’s treasury. It so happened that they recently visited the Celestial Market On A Cloud and spent most of their wealth. This was just what they needed to fill up their wallets once more.

With one wave of his sleeve, Ye Qing pulled everything in the hall into Nine Heavens.

After they went outside, Ye Qing made a grasping motion and split the earth in half. Then, he pulled out the hall itself from the underground.

The hall itself was forged from gold, silver, and jade. This too was money, and he did not have the habit of wasting money.

“Let’s go.”

Ye Qing got ready to leave after putting the hall into Nine Heavens as well.

It was at this moment Feng Qingyou asked, “What, we’re leaving already?”

Ye Qing looked puzzled. “Er, yes? Is there anything else we should be doing?”

Feng Qingyou smirked. “Did you forget what I said? The bandits on the Golden Road are filthy rich.”

“Oh yeah! Thanks for reminding me.”

Ye Qing slapped himself in the head. “They’re all ill-gotten gains anyway. As heroes, it is our duty to rob the rich and give back to the poor! Let’s go let’s go!”

......

Something big—really big—had happened on the Golden Road recently.

The brutal Five Evils and their fellow bandits who had occupied the Golden Road and committed evil for many years had all perished.

Who were the Five Evils? They were the nightmare of all merchants using the Golden Road. They were powerful warriors who were strong enough to resist both the armies of nations and the heroes of the jianghu. They were immovable mountains who had rooted themselves in the Golden Road for heavens know how long.

If even one of them died, everyone in the Golden Road and the western nations would be in an uproar about it. For every single one of the Five Evils and the bandits under them to die, and even their forts and headquarters uprooted and annihilated... it was so outlandish that countless people thought it was a joke, at least at the beginning.

This wasn’t all. Besides the Five Evils, three of the Four Villains—Snow Grandmother, Four Directions Ghost Temple and Wind Beckoning Sky Centipede—had been destroyed as well. The one Villain who managed to escape justice, the Yu Jin Demonic Tree, only survived because its area of activity was farther away from the Golden Road, and it did not do as much damage as its fellow Villains.

In other words, three of the Four Villains and all of the Five Evils had been eradicated. If this wasn’t the biggest news of the decade, then what was?

But who eradicated the Four Villains and the Five Evils?

No one knew.

Some people claimed that the heavens themselves had punished the Four Villains and Five Evils via divine lightning for their many years of rampant villainy and slaughter.

Some people claimed that they encountered an especially powerful Anomaly or Stranger and perished in a single night.

Some people claimed that they offended a powerful senior and were eradicated.

Some people claimed that they fought each other to the death over a priceless treasure.

Some people said that a god who happened to be passing through the Golden Road pitied the lives who were lost and enacted divine judgment upon them.

......

Whatever the truth was, this was a good thing. A great thing that deserved a toast.