Holding the treasure chest in his hands and examining it for a while, Chu Liang suddenly felt a bit awkward.

If it were something from those three little creatures, he wouldn’t feel guilty about taking it, after all, they weren’t exactly good beings. But this treasure chest looked quite valuable, and those three little creatures couldn’t possibly have anything worthy of being stored inside.

This must be stolen goods they had taken.

If it belonged to someone else, Chu Liang naturally couldn’t claim it as his own. But those three little creatures ran away so fast, it was impossible to catch them and ask who the owner was.

After some thought, he decided to return to the First-Class Sword Cottage first and ask Xu Suo if he had any way to help find the owner.

When he returned to the Sword Cottage, Xu Suo happened to be out, probably delivering food and water to Xu Kunwu in the sword casting hut. Chu Liang sat in the hall waiting for him, playing with the treasure chest in the meantime.

At this moment, Di Nvfeng walked in nonchalantly and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I found a treasure chest and don’t know where to find the owner, so I thought I’d ask Brother Xu if he could help.” Chu Liang replied.

“Why don’t you open it and see what’s inside? You might know who the owner is then.” Di Nvfeng suggested.

“But this treasure chest is quite mysterious, it should only be able to be opened by a specific method…” Chu Liang held it up and said.

“Let me do it, I’m the best at opening treasure chests.” Di Nvfeng confidently smiled.

With that, she extended a finger, and a precise purple-gold flame, like a bird, leapt from her hand, swirling in the air and disappearing in an instant.

Looking at Chu Liang’s palm, there was only a thick book left, no sign of the chest.

“Where’s the chest?” He blinked and asked.

“It’s opened.” Di Nvfeng calmly said.

“No…” Chu Liang gestured in the empty space, “It’s opened, but where’s the chest?”

“You’ve already opened it, what do you need the chest for?” Di Nvfeng asked, puzzled.

You make a good point… Chu Liang was left speechless.

He then turned his attention back to the book in his hand. If it was stored in such a precious chest, it must be of great value.

When the master and disciple opened it, they found it was a thick ledger, densely filled with accounts from over the years.

“All of this is…” Di Nvfeng also stared at it, her expression serious, “Numbers!”

Chu Liang nodded, and mused, “This is a ledger recording the secret transactions between the Beast Hall and the Wolf Fang Gang. The profits were all taken to other places to be converted into cultivation resources, and then re-entered into the Wolf Fang Gang.”

“I suspect this is a transaction conducted by the higher-ups in the Beast Hall selling spirit beasts privately, because the Wolf Fang Gang is just a channel, not the buyer. In theory, the Beast Hall, backed by the Whale Gang, doesn’t need such a high-commission channel, not just in Glutton City, but anywhere in the world.”

“If there are higher-ups embezzling public funds for personal gain, then it makes perfect sense. This ledger is kept so securely, not because it’s valuable, but because once discovered, it would expose this dirty deal.”

Money laundering in this world is too easy, just go out once and come back saying you found treasure in some secret or dangerous place. The source of the huge amount of money is impossible to trace, just need to convert it into a rare treasure and carefully hide it. If you want to thoroughly investigate these tricks from the top, the only thing that doesn’t add up is the number of beasts currently in the Beast Hall…

The arrival of Xu Hongqiu, the young lady of the Whale Gang, the turmoil in the Beast Hall, the performance of the middle-aged man trying to kill last night… Because of this ledger, suddenly everything connected in Chu Liang’s mind.

So that’s how it is.

He showed a look of realization.

But Di Nvfeng was still confused on the side, “You can see all this from a bunch of numbers? Is there some kind of code?”

Sigh.

Chu Liang sighed silently, not blaming her.

Master is already very capable in combat, if she were also educated, how would others compete?

At this time, Xu Suo also returned from outside, seeing the two of them, he greeted, “Senior, Hero Chu, are you here to find me?”

“Yes.” Chu Liang looked up and asked, “Brother Xu, do you know who the owner of the Beast Hall is?”

“Hmm? Beast Hall…” Xu Suo paused, thinking, “That’s a major business of the Whale Gang, it’s run by someone surnamed Xu, I think his name is Xu Nanling.”

Chu Liang smiled slightly, it was indeed him.

…

Later, the Beast Hall received two unexpected guests.

Because the name reported was Di Nvfeng of Shu Mountain, Xu Hongqiu put down her work to personally greet them, followed by Xu Nanling and Elder Cangxing, as well as two teams from the Whale Gang.

It could be said that all the fighters in the Beast Hall had come.

“Junior Xu Hongqiu of the Whale Gang, I’ve long admired your name, senior.” As soon as she saw Di Nvfeng, she took the initiative to bow and salute.

Then she raised her bright eyes and met Di Nvfeng’s gaze, her aura not losing in the slightest.Di Nvfeng didn’t put any pressure on her, instead, she lazily glanced at her with her hands tucked into her sleeves, and immediately laughed, “Oh my, are you the daughter of Xu Bazhan? He’s so ugly yet he could give birth to such a beautiful little girl, it’s really…”

“Master.” Chu Liang gently tugged at her sleeve.

“What’s wrong? I’m just making polite conversation with her, it’s courtesy before force.” Di Nvfeng turned her head and whispered.

Well, that’s a new definition of ‘politeness’.

“Thanks to the help of the senior and her disciple in the case of Nanguan City, I’ve been wanting to formally thank you. However, I’ve been tied up with affairs recently and haven’t been able to make the trip. It’s really shameful that I had to wait for you to come to me.”

Xu Hongqiu kept her composure and exchanged pleasantries with Di Nvfeng.

“Eh—” Di Nvfeng waved her hand, nonchalantly saying, “There’s no need to mention eradicating evil, I do hundreds of such things every year. I came today mainly to ask about last night’s incident.”

“Last night?” Xu Hongqiu looked at Chu Liang.

“Ah…” Chu Liang sighed, pretending to be coy, “I’ve been saying I’m fine, it’s all a misunderstanding, but Master insisted on bringing me here to clarify the situation…cough, cough, cough!”

As he spoke, he coughed heavily.

There was no other way, after leaving so righteously last night, it wouldn’t be good for him to suddenly turn hostile now. So, before they came, the master and disciple had agreed on a plan: one would play the good cop, the other the bad cop.

“My disciple is honest and upright.” Di Nvfeng acted as if she was deeply hurt, “When he’s out, he’s especially easy to be bullied. As his master, I have to protect him. I just came to ask, who hit my disciple last night?”

“Senior, this is our fault…” Xu Hongqiu showed a difficult expression, thinking about how to explain to Di Nvfeng.

However, Xu Nanling behind her stiffened his face. He was no fool and could see that this master and disciple pair were here to cause trouble.

Most likely, they were here to blackmail.

But he was not afraid at this moment.

Because after the chaos in the Beast Hall last night, all the losses of the beasts were recorded, although it was very suspicious, without concrete evidence, his position was still unshakeable.

Even if Xu Hongqiu came with an order, she couldn’t do anything to him.

In fact, he had always looked down on Xu Hongqiu. Because she was just a little girl he watched grow up, not even twenty years old this year, what could she do?

When he heard Xu Hongqiu admit her mistake first, he was immediately displeased.

If she admitted it was the Beast Hall’s fault, wouldn’t that be the same as admitting it was his, Xu Nanling’s fault? This little girl not only conceded to outsiders, but also sold him out.

Saying she was incompetent was indeed true. If someone with experience in the Jianghu handled this, they would definitely insist they were not wrong, at most it was a misunderstanding.

So he stepped forward and interrupted Xu Hongqiu’s words loudly, “I did it!”

First, he took control of the momentum.

In an instant, he had thought of various contingency plans in his heart. No matter how Di Nvfeng questioned him, he was confident that he could refute each one, making her return without success.

Unfortunately, the imagined verbal battle did not happen.

Seeing him suddenly step forward and interrupt loudly, Di Nvfeng’s smiling eyes slightly narrowed, she lifted her left foot, raised her right leg, and kicked out.

Bang——

Rumble!

This kick seemed neither fast nor heavy, but it hit Xu Nanling’s chest, and his figure instantly disappeared from the hall. Then there was a bang from the wall of the hall, followed by another bang from the outer wall of the courtyard, and then another bang from the wall of the shop across the street…

With each bang, the faces of the people in the Beast Hall trembled a bit more. Finally, after six or seven bangs, the sound stopped.

This seemingly casual kick actually kicked Xu Nanling out three streets!

Di Nvfeng put down her leg, dug her left ear with her hand, and looked unhappily in the direction where Xu Nanling disappeared, asking a question to no one in particular:

“Why are you so loud?”