CLANG!
Inside the newly captured command hall of Tiger-Jaw Pass, Hong Ling swung her heavy Rank 4 kitchen cleaver like a can-opener and sliced the thick bronze padlock right off Master Pill-Fire’s third and largest iron safe.
“Whoa! Look at all the shiny rocks!”
Hong Ling’s eyes turned into two spinning gold coins as the heavy iron door swung open.
Stacked neatly inside the safe were eighty thousand glowing Low- and Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, three hundred crates of rare century-old mountain herbs, and a foot-high stack of Royal Bank silver drafts totaling over six million taels of white silver!
Sitting on a wooden stool in the corner of the hall with a yellow DRY-WELL DEBTOR vest over his wet shoulders and a heavy Spirit-Lock Collar around his neck, Master Pill-Fire let out a heartbroken wail.
“My Spirit Stones! My century-old Purple Blood-Mushrooms! I spent twenty years squeezing every noble family in the capital to collect those!” Master Pill-Fire cried, trying to lunge toward the safe before General Meng Hu pressed him back down onto the stool with one thumb.
At the long oak table in the center of the hall, Abacus Su didn’t even look at the silver drafts first. Instead, he picked up a thick, black-leather notebook locked with a small brass clasp that had been hidden at the very bottom of the safe under a false iron floorboard.
