Book 1 - Chapter 78: Penetrate

Chapter 78: Penetrate

Although Iron Cliff’s breath was not loud, it sounded like thunder in the black-clothed person’s ears.

His entire body trembled, as he suddenly turned around and yelled, “Who is it? Show yourself!”

His voice contained a trace of panic that he could not suppress.

When Su Chen saw this, he decided to stop hiding and walked out from the shadows.

When that person saw him, he was clearly shocked. “It’s you?”

“Is it so surprising to see me here?” Su Chen asked, his tone carrying a faint trace of mocking. “Mister Li.”

The black-clothed person in front of him was the Illusion Master Li that had been part of the seven-man black-clothed platoon from earlier.

At this moment, Li’s expression was incredibly ugly. His eyes slowly squinted. “Interesting. Brat, why didn’t you return to Northface City, instead coming here?”

“Naturally, it was to wait for you. To wait for you to return and open the real secret chamber,” Su Chen laughed.

Li’s expression became ugly. “How did you know?”

“It’s really not that strange,” Su Chen replied. “I knew as soon as we discovered this place that what we found could not be Li Mingtang’s entire wealth. He was in the Yang Opening Realm! If he wanted to, he could infuse hundreds of low-grade Origin Stones every day. As someone who plundered others for a living, would you believe that he had only stored up twenty thousand pieces?”

“But hadn’t we searched the entire treasury, and didn’t we interrogate everyone? And we still were unable to find anything in the end.”

“You were the one that performed the interrogation!” Su Chen replied. “In fact, Li Mingtang’s wife had revealed the true location of the treasury a long time ago. However, you purposefully concealed that from us and then killed her to silence her.”

Li coldly harrumphed, “But you also saw it that I had interrogated her in front of everyone. How could I conceal it?”

“That’s true, assuming that what was saw was indeed even there in the first place,” Su Chen replied.

Li couldn’t keep his expression together.

Su Chen sighed. “I must admit that you are very brave, and I also must admit that Illusion Masters truly are extraordinary. To trick every single one of us soundlessly so that we weren’t even aware…… Madame Li’s crying out that she didn’t know must have been created by your illusion techniques, right? You pulled all of us into your illusion technique and created a fake scene. In reality, you had learned from Madame Li the true location of the secret treasury and how to open the room a long time ago. You truly do have quite a bit of guts, even daring to trick Baron and succeeding.”

Yesterday, when Li had interrogated Madame Li, it had all been an illusion that he had created. This guy actually was able to ask about the location of the treasure in front of everyone, yet prevent them from knowing the truth.

Indeed, his courage encompassed the heavens!

At this moment, Li laughed darkly, “Illusion techniques were made for tricking people in the first place. It is like throwing everyone into a dreamscape; as long as you don’t shock the people dreaming awake, even cultivators in a higher realm can be tricked as long as the dreamscape exists. However, I never expected that despite tricking Baron, I was still unable to trick you.”

“No, you did trick me,” Su Chen replied. “Your illusions are invulnerable, and I hadn’t seen through them at the time.”

“Then how did you discover it in the end?”

“It was Qing He who reminded me,” Su Chen replied.

“Qing He?” Li was shocked.

He didn’t understand how this matter had anything to do with Qing He.

Su Chen replied, “Qing He was a servant of the He Clan, and the He Clan and the Su Clan have always been at odds with each other. Him and I were not friends either. However, the moment that he saw me, he instantly rushed over to me, pleading for me to save him. In order to do this, he voluntarily told me everything that he knew; I didn’t need to ask him anything. He wanted to survive so badly that he was like a drowning person. Regardless of what was floating on the lake’s surface, he wanted to grab it, hoping for a small chance to save his life. On the other hand, what about Madame Li? Apart from kowtowing and begging for us to spare her, she didn’t do anything else……”

Speaking to here, Su Chen laughed. “Do you not feel that Madame Li’s behavior was simply too mechanical compared to Qing He? She was Li Mingtang’s woman, so she must have known a few secrets about him – for example, the relationship between the Liu Clan and the Shadow Mountain Troops or some other things that we shouldn’t have known. But she didn’t say any of those things, and she didn’t even try to. All she did was repeatedly kowtow and beg for mercy, and even the rhythm of her kowtowing had been steady and mechanical.”

Li was dazed.

Su Chen smiled slightly. “Truthfully, your illusion techniques were very realistic, and the scenery you created was very accurate, tricking everyone. Unfortunately, you aren’t very good at telling stories. Although outwardly your painting was very beautiful, it lacked substantial content, which is why you failed. An excellent, successful scam not only requires a good performance, but also exceptional content and depth.”

Li let out a sigh. “So that’s why. What you said makes sense. I never expected that so many people with sight weren’t able to catch this mistake, but you, a blind person, was actually able to discover it. However, isn’t it still a little too far-fetched to suspect me solely based on this?”

“What if I add on this?” Su Chen pulled out a trunk from his ring.

The trunk rolled down the stairs in the secret passageway and automatically opened on its own. A large pile of gold, silver, and precious stones rolled out from it.

“This is……” Li was shocked into silence for a moment before continuing, “This is what you discovered in the Golden Name Workshop?”

“I found it in a nearby room,” Su Chen said. “This trunk contains valuables worth thirty thousand Origin Stones. If a person can keep thirty thousand Origin Stones worth of valuables in a branch storage place, then how could there only be twenty thousand of such valuables in his headquarters? When considering the fact that interrogating a woman was enough to make you so tired that you felt exhausted…… all these pieces together indicated that you were the one causing trouble.”

“So that’s how it is,” Li said, understanding dawning upon his face. “But I don’t understand how you were able to bring the trunk out with you? Baron inspected your ring before this.”

“It was not in the ring when he inspected it,” Su Chen replied.

Li first appeared confused. After looking at Iron Cliff behind him, and recalling the scene of the two of them rushing out from the ruins, he remembered that Iron Cliff was wearing a suit of armor at the time.

He finally saw the truth. “You placed the treasure in the trunk meant for the Melted Golden Armor. Because of our thought process, we only noticed your storage ring, but didn’t realize that the large trunk had become empty once Iron Cliff donned the Melted Golden Armor. Then, you purposefully allowed us to enter the ruins and search again, taking advantage of the opportunity to transfer all of the treasure in the trunk into your storage ring. Because we had already inspected your ring once, it was impossible for us to check it a second time. Once we returned, you allowed Iron Cliff to take off the armor in front of us, placing it in the trunk. Thus, you were even able to alleviate any suspicions about the trunk.”

Su Chen shrugged. “This was my own illusion, which is opposite to yours. Although it doesn’t have much dazzling skill, it has an acceptable amount of content. I hope you like it.”

Li couldn’t help but begin to laugh loudly, “Since you took care of the matters in the Golden Name Workshop on your own, I should be able to infer that you didn’t tell anyone else about this in order to swallow up all the treasure on your own, right? And you’re the only person here, delusionally thinking that you’ll be able to seize the treasure from me?”

“If I say that it is true, you’ll feel much more at ease, won’t you?” Su Chen laughed. “Then I’ll tell you: that’s right!”

Li let out a sigh. “If that’s the case, then I feel more relieved.”

He looked at Su Chen and said, “So now everything is simple. As long as I take care of my opponent, there shouldn’t be any more problems?”

“That’s right,” Su Chen replied politely.