Chapter 57 - Inspection

"Cultivators, huh…"

The manager froze for a split second before smiling at Hao Yu, saying, "What are you talking about?"

"We'll do the inspection right away." Hao Yu's eyes became cold.

"This…" The manager was at a loss for words. He could normally escape just by talking to the opposite party, but Hao Yu continued bombarding him with a lot of hard arguments, so Hao Yu completely had the initiative.

Even the manager had a hard time finding any words to counter Hao Yu.

"Don't forget that you are in the Dragon City right now." Hao Yu glared at the manager. "If you are expelled, you will not be able to deliver the goods. And the cultivators will definitely chase you for not complying with the government."

Wan Fei took a deep breath before saying, "I understand. Let me bring you to our warehouse so you can inspect the goods."

Wan Fei still had one last trick hidden in his sleeve. He thought, 'The goods are hidden in a place that even he won't dare to touch, he will surely not be able to find it out.'

As soon as they reached the warehouse, Hao Yu saw numerous sealed boxes. There were a lot of things mixed in this place from food to metal.

Hao Yu couldn't differentiate the smell, but he could get a good grasp of what was inside the warehouse.

"Please." As soon as Wan Fei gave the confirmation, Hao Yu immediately moved around and opened the boxes one by one, inspecting the items.

At the very front, he had seen a lot of food items like spices or salt. They didn't raise any suspicion for Hao Yu, but things changed when he entered the second section.

He could see a lot of weapons hanging on the wall or sticking out of the boxes. Normally, he wouldn't really care about these weapons, but the quantity was simply too big that he thought the merchant association was funding a war.

"Hoh?" Hao Yu squinted his eyes. "The Dragon City is closed because of its natural terrain. Its position is not near the border as well. Yet, there are more than one thousand weapons in this warehouse. I wonder what you are planning to do with these weapons…"

"That's…" Wan Fei looked troubled as if he didn't want to explain.

"Let's see… the weapons don't seem to be mystic items, which the cultivators use. So, it must be for mortals. There are two places near this place that have conflicts, so are you using the Dragon City to store all these weapons and deliver the goods once they're ready?"

Hao Yu's expression darkened.

Wan Fei gritted his teeth. The frustration had reached its peak as he couldn't help but raise his voice, "So, what? We are merchants, not the government!"

"Imperial Law Section 5, subsection 3. Merchants are allowed to trade weapons but the number is less than five hundred to avoid unnecessary conflicts."

Wan Fei was fuming with rage. He was thinking about bribing Hao Yu, but it didn't seem like he was the type that would fall that low after all this provocation. So, he changed his approach by stating, "The merchant association is just providing the merchants a warehouse to store their goods while waiting for their next trip."

"So, you're saying that these weapons come from several merchants?" Hao Yu frowned.

"Yes." Wan Fei nodded. "We haven't broken any laws. The merchants are carrying less than the number stated in the laws…"

"There is no statement regarding how many merchants can participate after all." Hao Yu nodded. He thought he was able to use the momentum to pressure Wan Fei a bit further, but it seemed that Wan Fei had regained his composure.

"That's right. If you think we have done something wrong, then you're mistaken. As the association under the dynasty, we will definitely do our best to comply with the regulations."

"Then, it seems that I have to check the log books. I want to see whether there is a merchant bringing more than the limit." Hao Yu didn't back down and applied more pressure.

Wan Fei's body shook for a split second and said, "We have all the logs, so you can check it if you want."

Both of them were staring at each other for a moment before Hao Yu turned around and continued with the inspection while saying, "Alright. The merchants comply with the regulations, and the association is just storing their goods, correct?"

"…yes." Wan Fei never thought that he would be so troubled when talking to a young man like Hao Yu. However, when Hao Yu didn't press any further, he noticed that Hao Yu might not be as strict as he imagined.

They finally entered the third section. In that instant, something shone from Hao Yu's pocket, alarming both of them.

"Hmmm? This is…" Hao Yu took out the shining item from his pocket, which turned out to be the measuring crystal. It had detected a huge amount of Spiritual Qi in this section.

In fact, the crystal had been shining since he entered the room. But because the association had built the containment section, it only glowed dimly, so it wasn't noticeable at first.

But as soon as he entered the third section, it gave the indication of a high density of spiritual qi.

Wan Fei never thought that Hao Yu had brought a measuring crystal with him.

"This…" Wan Fei wanted to explain, but Hao Yu had opened the boxes inside this section and found all household goods on top of them like nails and other things. But because it was filled to the brim, normal people wouldn't find out about the spirit stones underneath them unless they brought out a measuring crystal. One crystal was expensive, so he didn't expect that this administrator would have one.

"Interesting… isn't it?" Hao Yu smirked as if he had found what he had been searching for.

"If you take them out, you won't be able to escape the wrath of the cultivators! It's not me who will be against you, Sir Administrator. It's the cultivators. Since you are new here, you might haven't heard about that tragedy…"

"Of course, I have heard about it." Hao Yu smirked. However, there was one thing that bothered him.

As someone who wanted to kill cultivators, Hao Yu had learned almost everything related to the cultivators, especially this measuring crystal.

After calculating the number of boxes and measuring their quantity roughly, the shine in the measuring crystal seemed to haven't reached the level where he expected it to.

In other words, the merchants were actually hiding something else on top of the cultivator's goods.

He knew that even if Hao Yu was an Administrator, he wouldn't dare to touch the cultivators, thus leaving the goods alone. But he would never expect that his aim was different.

What is the merchant association actually hiding in this place? Hao Yu thought.