SWNOVELXO Chapter 910: Sudden Wealth
Wang Chen had just slipped back into his inn room, still clad in his night clothes when suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.
He turned his head towards the window and saw flames and thick smoke rising from the Ling Clan ancestral hall!
The inn Wang Chen was staying in was not far from the Ling Family, and he had booked a room on the third floor with the most expansive view, so he could see everything very clearly.
"Fire, fire!"
At that moment, someone rang a warning gong and loudly shouted for help with the fire.
Wang Chen watched the ancestral hall burn intensely, and his heart continued to sink.
He had not been away from there long; the fire could not have started without reason. The only explanation was that it was set by the uncle guarding the hall.
As for the reason this elderly relative would do such a thing...
Wang Chen wanted to say, "Old man, you really didn't need to do this!"
Although he had revealed his current identity to the uncle, Wang Chen had never intended to hide it—the Blood Cloak Guard would never recruit someone of unknown origin.
It was only a matter of time before the Ling Family received news.
It would have been fine for the uncle to speak out.
But this elder chose to die alongside the ancestral hall he had safeguarded for half his life!
Could it be he feared the secrets of the last two levels of the Mysterious Sun Haven Seven Fiend Wheel Cultivation Technique being extracted under duress?
It was a secret not even Ling Hongyun had been privy to.
Or perhaps, did the uncle also know about the secret chamber beneath the hall?
Choosing self-sacrifice to keep it hidden?
The truth, it seemed, would be destroyed along with the burning ancestral hall!
Wang Chen stood in front of the window, unable to calm his emotions for a long time.
It seemed as if a remnant soul of Ling Zhiyuan still lingered in the deepest part of his memory, making this scene resonate deeply with him.
The fire at the Ling Clan ancestral hall was extinguished not long after, without affecting the neighboring Ling Family.
Yet, the repercussions of the event were just beginning. The next morning, while Wang Chen was eating breakfast at a local eatery near the inn, he overheard other patrons chatting noisily.
Some schadenfreude, others sighed remorsefully, and a few murmured mysteriously about the Ling Family's bad luck, how a Family Head had died before and now the ancestral hall was burned—sooner or later they would be expunged from Anyang City!
This person, with shifty eyes, spoke with flying saliva, face flushed with extreme excitement.
He acted as if he knew many Ling Family secrets, drawing a crowd around to listen and join in the laughter.
And the more listeners he had, the more spirited he became, his words turning more venomous.
Tsk!
Suddenly, a stone flew from nowhere and struck the show-off right in the throat.
"Ah!"
He immediately let out a pitiful and hoarse scream, hands clasped around his neck as he collapsed.
His limbs twitched as he frothed at the mouth, unable to speak!
The onlookers were terrified, screaming as they scattered, fearing they might be affected by the same fate.
The restaurant owner was so anxious he stomped his feet: "Don't run, you haven't paid yet!"
At that moment, Wang Chen rode past the door on a fine horse.
He glanced indifferently at the chaotic eatery, then swiftly whipped his reins and rode away.
Before long, Wang Chen had left Anyang City far behind.
He steered his horse off the main road, galloping down a secluded path toward a deserted wilderness, eventually finding a cave to take shelter in.
When night fell again, Wang Chen used a stone to block the cave's entrance and began to check the plunder from last night in the ancestral hall.
Under the illumination of the campfire, one box after another was opened.
The first box, Wang Chen revealed a whole box of gold, brimming with gold bricks half a foot in length.
Dazzling gold light!
Although the box wasn't very big, Wang Chen estimated that there were at least ten thousand taels of gold inside.
This was an astonishing amount of wealth.
Then, the second and third large boxes contained all official silver, but in terms of value, they did not come close to the first gold box.
Next, Wang Chen opened to reveal knives, swords, Jia-grade armaments, and bottles of pills sealed within Jade Vases.
These weapons were all top-notch; well preserved, and the pills covered a variety of types, including healing, detoxification, strengthening, blood replenishment, and Qi-nurturing.
The sheer quantity was enough to satisfy a small family's needs for decades.
And the surprises continued.
In another three boxes, there were stored valuable medicinal materials such as ginseng, lingzhi, Yellow Essence, gastrodia, and goldthread.
Among them, a ginseng of at least five hundred years was a rare natural treasure that one could only hope to encounter!
Wang Chen was very satisfied.
The potential points he most needed were to be eaten, and the higher the grade of the ingredients, the more points he could gain.
This five-hundred-year-old ginseng, once stewed into a soup and fully absorbed, would yield an impressive number of potential points!
Including the other medicinal materials, if Wang Chen could just find a recipe for a nourishing medicinal diet, he wouldn't need to worry about potential points for a long time.
Even when these materials were consumed, it didn't matter; he still had plenty of gold and silver taels to buy more!
The last box was particularly special, featuring nested boxes with three layers of sandalwood trimmed with golden edges.
Upon opening the smallest inner box, the first thing that caught Wang Chen's eyes was a book.
Mysterious Sun Haven Seven Fiend Wheel!
Prominently, the cover had five bold and vigorous characters.
Wang Chen couldn't wait to pick up the book and flip through it, quickly feeling a weight lift from his heart.
His main purpose of coming to Anyang was to find the fourth and fifth level Cultivation Techniques of the Mysterious Sun Haven Seven Fiend Wheel.
The content recorded in this manual covered the general outline and all cultivation heart mantras from levels one to five of the Mysterious Sun Haven Seven Fiend Wheel!
Not only that, Wang Chen also found at the bottom of the box a thick stack of silver notes along with several land and house deeds.
The total face value of the silver notes alone amounted to more than five hundred thousand taels, and what shocked Wang Chen even more was that all these land and house deeds were properties in the Imperial Capital of Daye from Great Liang!
All the deeds looked very new, undoubtedly the work of Ling Hongyun.
Wang Chen might not know the specific prices, but he was aware that the real estate in Daye City was very costly.
These land and house deeds alone were enough to serve as capital for a family's resurgence!
Most importantly, they wouldn't depreciate easily.
Wang Chen had quite the admiration for his original self's father.
He roughly calculated that altogether, everything summed up to a total value between one million five hundred thousand to two million silver taels, most of it being solid assets.
It likely constituted the bulk of the Ling Family's centuries of accumulation!
Frankly, Wang Chen was starting to suspect that Ling Hongyun might have anticipated this situation long ago and made such arrangements, resulting in this outsider taking over this wealth.
He shook his head and stored all the items back into the storage space.
Except for the Mysterious Sun Haven Seven Fiend Wheel manual.
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The first update is here.