Xie Yang saw that one among the slave was exceptionally tall and healthy. Although that person was also a captive, there was no sign of fatigue on his face whatsoever. Xie Yang signaled him to come near. The man dressed in rags was confused as he didn't know why the young noble was calling him, but as he didn't want to be discourteous to his savior, he went up to his anyway. With wide eyes, the tall, burly man saw the young man opening a magic pouch and pulling out a small, golden dagger.
"Mister, take this. Use it to break the rest of the prisons' locks and free the others." Xie Yang said as he handed over the dagger from Merchant Jin to the tall man.
"Young noble, please refer to this humble man as just Wen An. I don't deserve to be called mister by a person of status like you. As for what you want me to do, I will do it meticulously and immediately." The man said with a humble expression as he took the dagger, bowed, and cupped his hands towards Xie Yang.
Wen An? A big man using such a name seemed weird as hell.
Xie Yang scrutinized the man.
From head to toe, Wen An didn't seem like a peaceful gentleman at all.
He looked more like a village side ruffian who would terrorize everyone to eat meat daily, ah!
Xie Yang turned to leave after giving Wen An a weird look.
Wen An scratched his head, not understanding why the young noble had given him a weird look. His eye raised as he remembered that he wanted to ask something. Before Xie Yang could go out of this place, he hurriedly asked, "Young noble, what should I do after that?"
"Take them to the main hall and wait for us." Xie Yang said before disappearing around the corner with Leader Ye, the black dragon, and the sleeping Zang Xiu.
"Where to now?" Leader Ye asked.
Xie Yang replied, "Bandits, you see, don't hide all of their eggs in a single basket. A man like Merchant Jin, who had his hands in different illegal and immoral businesses, especially hides his wealth here and there. There might be more of it in this place. I want to search this whole place and find if there any."
Xie Yang was an old hand at searching for illegal goods.
Leader Ye, on the other hand, wasn't good as he used to be a soldier, fighting side by side with his master. He was good at killing at that time. After Xie Yong became the lord of Cloud City and the great commander of the Northern Army, Leader Ye became a Royal Guard, whose tasks were pretty much the same, such as killing whoever threatened his master and wholeheartedly following the command of his master. So to say, he wasn't good at this.
Xie Yang jogged around the place as if he was taking a stroll in his backyard. His sharp eyes were scrutinizing everywhere he passed through.
He suddenly came to a stop and went up to the wall on his right.
Under the watchful eyes of Leader Ye, Xie Yang pulled out a few bricks. "I will help you," Leader Ye said before joining Xie Yang in stripping the wall.
Behind the wall were a few leather pouches. After dismembering half of the wall, Xie Yang and Leader Ye saw them.
Xie Yang took them and opened them and saw that they held gold and silver taels. There weren't many, just a few dozens of them, but still good enough to feed many families for a long time.
After that, they didn't come across anything worthwhile.
Xie Yang thought that merchant Jin probably didn't trust anybody enough to hide essential things in places anyone other than him had access to. Because of that reason, he must have hidden everything in an area only Merchant Jin and his most trustworthy people could enter.
Where could that area be?
Searching for it, they reached Merchant Jin's private room.
It only had a few old pieces of furniture and a thick bed.
"Looks like nothing is here too." Leader Ye said in a somewhat disappointed voice.
He wasn't too disappointed as they had got a lot of things from this place, enough to fill the vault back home with a lot of treasure. What they got from the bandit's den was equal to a few months of revenue generated by the cloud city. From this, one could see how profitable this illegal trading business was, ah! There was no doubt that the immense amount of profit was why many people took part in something as disgusting as this business.
"Brother, never judge a book by its cover." Xie Yang took out his sword and brandished it at the bed. His strike cut the bed in two halves, revealing nothing but a floor beneath it. But if one looks closely at it, they would see a hole. Xie Yang jabbed his finger in that hole and pushed spiritual energy into it. Instantly, the spot before him caved in, revealing a staircase.
They took it and reached a secret compartment with many illegal goods, such as illicit ecstasy drugs, golden buddha statues, high-quality paintings. He didn't find any documents or ledger here either. The most eye-catching thing was a treasure chest in the center of the room. 'Maybe it holds the ledger and the name of Merchant Jin's vile customer,' Xie Yang thought as he went up to it and tried to open it.
It didn't have a lock, but Xie Yang couldn't open it. It seems like something was keeping it locked. What was it? He couldn't determine it.
However, he had an idea of what it could be. He didn't start pondering over this matter as he wanted to leave this sickening place and return home.
"These things, I think they are worth a lot. Maybe their value even exceeds a few years of the revenue generated by the entire city." Leader Ye gulped and said with a slightly amazed expression on his face.
"We will count how much they are worth after returning home." Xie Yang stored them all in his pouch.
They left the secret compartment and went to the main hall. All the captives were already there, Wen An included.
Xie Yang took them out of the bandit's den and into the dangers of the spiritual forest. Leader Ye, who Xie Yang had asked to guard the mortals, released his overwhelming aura, which spread outward, not touching the poor souls and shooting towards the sky. It was like a bright black sword sticking poling the clouds. The beasts saw it, and they turned away, not daring to go anywhere near Leader Ye's aura. None of the beasts in the spiritual forest dared mess with them. Even sensing his aura made the beasts feel a chill up their spine, so they dared not offend him.
Thus, without any problems, Xie Yang took all of them to the safest place in his heart, the city covered by the clouds.