"Looks like I was right. This fish probably couldn’t find anything else to eat, so it ate the corpses, swallowing their belongings along with them. Later, the Jade Box was digested, shattered, and passed out. The remaining Jade got stuck in its stomach, where it’s been ever since."

As Cheng Zongyang muttered to himself, his gaze fell upon the few pieces of Jade. Two of them were dull and marked with blood-red veins, likely formed by blood seeping into them over many long years.

These were what Zhang Jinquan had called ordinary Jade.

He then shifted his gaze to the two pieces of Jade Stone that Zhang Jinquan had set aside.

After a moment of observation, he noted that they felt like stone. Their sides were clearly fractured. But his eyes were fixed on a depression on one piece, which looked as if something had fallen off, leaving a small, circular gap.

"Did it have an iron loop or something on it originally?" Luo Dingran asked, intrigued. "This looks more like a band, doesn’t it?"

Zhang Jinquan said, "I gutted the entire thing. I didn’t see anything extra, let alone something that would fit here."

"Could it be a Ring?" Han Mo suddenly interjected. "The size... how about we try fitting a Golden Ring in there?"

Cheng Zongyang’s brow furrowed deeply. He glanced around, shifted his position, then brought the piece closer to examine the inner surface of the depression.

When he saw what looked like carved patterns on the inner wall, his pupils constricted.

Suppressing the tremor in his heart, he used his appraisal ability on it.

---

[Jade Stone]

Description: A special stone that forms alongside Jade. It appears to be missing something.

---

There was no other information, nor any listed value.

But Cheng Zongyang’s mind was already reeling. He had a guess. Stowing the stone away, he said to Luo Dingran:

"I’ll leave the rest to you. I’m taking the Mole Beast out of here."

"Rest assured, My Lord." Luo Dingran could tell Cheng Zongyang recognized the object, but he didn’t press the matter.

Cheng Zongyang nodded, took a few more Red Blood Pills, then found the Mole Beast and left the Wilderness World.

Reappearing beside the pond, Cheng Zongyang stared at the water, a look of urgency in his eyes. He turned to the Mole Beast. "Dig a trench and drain this entire pond for me!"

As he spoke, he shook the Jade Bottle in his hand. "Do this, and you’ll get this reward!"

The Mole Beast’s small eyes immediately lit up. With a couple of squeaks, "CHEE CHEE," it got to work.

He watched as the Mole Beast began digging with all its might, starting about a foot away from the pond’s edge. It excavated a trench just wide enough for it to stand in.

The hard earth might as well have been soft soil, for the creature tore through it as easily as an excavator, encountering no resistance.

’The Mole Beast is really changing, growing more and more. It’s even learned to think, knowing that digging this way will keep it from being immediately flooded.’

Meanwhile, Cheng Zongyang began observing the surroundings, searching for any other clues.

An hour later, the trench was about thirty to forty meters long, and all the excavated earth had been cleared away.

After staring at the trench for a moment, the Mole Beast dug an opening through the wall near the middle of the trench, then scrambled quickly to the top.

Instantly, water from the pond began pouring out frantically. The current quickly eroded the earthen wall, which was barely a foot thick, and it collapsed.

The surging torrent drained rapidly through the now nearly meter-wide channel.

The water level dropped at a visible rate.

Cheng Zongyang watched intently. He only nodded once the animal skeletons at the bottom became visible. A little water remained, but not enough to be a problem.

He rewarded the beast with the Red Blood Pills. Then, Cheng Zongyang went into the small house to fetch some shovels and a large number of bamboo baskets, and had Luo Dingran arrange for people to be on standby.

He planned to collect all the mud here and send it to the Wilderness World, where the Soul Slaves would sift through it to find more pieces related to the Jade Stone.

’Since it’s shattered, the other fragments must be in this pond!’

Right now, this Jade Stone was far more important to him than anything else!

He rinsed off the animal bones one by one in the remaining water before tossing them aside. Then, the leftover mud and gravel were loaded, basket by basket, and sent into the Wilderness World.

When he ran out of baskets, he would go back inside for more. He’d had countless bamboo baskets made to store dried fish, so he wasn’t worried about running out. Besides, there wasn’t much mud left at the bottom of the pond anyway.

About an hour later, Cheng Zongyang had shoveled away almost all the sludge, stopping only when he reached the dry layer of earth beneath.

Next, Cheng Zongyang had the Mole Beast scrape off a layer from the pond’s walls and pack that up as well.

Only when the area had been scraped so clean that the original surface layer of the earth was gone did he pack everything up and return to the Wilderness World with the Mole Beast. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Everything inside the small house had been cleared out, and the building had already self-cleaned.

Outside, basket after basket of mud had been piled up in one area. There were over fifty of them.

It was a good thing the pond wasn’t large, or this would have been impossible. If it had been a larger pool, let alone a lake, he couldn’t have even dreamed of doing this.

"My Lord, what is all this?" Luo Dingran had come to Cheng Zongyang’s side, his curiosity piqued.

Cheng Zongyang didn’t explain, only instructing, "This is very important to me. Find ten men. I will grant them the appraisal ability. If they appraise any fragments or pebbles with the name ’Jade Stone,’ have them keep every single one."

Luo Dingran heard this and said, "Understood."

He immediately left to arrange for the men.

Cheng Zongyang took a bath. Feeling refreshed, he went to where the gold and silver Jewelry was still being inventoried.

Luo Dingran was also busy, personally inspecting the Jewelry for any hidden or special items.

The men he had arranged had arrived. After receiving authorization from Cheng Zongyang, the ten of them began washing the mud by a pool. After rinsing away the dirt, what remained was mostly small pebbles, stones, and even some bone fragments.

Following Cheng Zongyang’s instructions, they sifted through the material slowly and carefully.

They would sift the material, wash what was left, and then pour it all into a bucket for a more thorough search later.

Cheng Zongyang sat at the entrance of the small house, watching them work. There was no helping it; this was the only way.

’This Jade Stone is connected to a huge secret of my own. I’ll just have to trouble these men for a while.’

He took out the piece of Jade Stone. Staring at the thumb-sized circular impression on it, his expression grew grim as he pondered what secret the Huangfu Family could possibly be hiding.

’Looks like I’ll have to find the descendants of the Huangfu Family... and make another trip to Linchuan Prefecture City.’

「An hour later.」

"My Lord, the treasure totals thirty-four chests. There are four chests of Jewelry, with a total weight of six hundred catties; twenty chests of gold ingots—each ingot is fifty taels, with one hundred ingots per chest, for a total of one hundred thousand taels; and ten chests of silver ingots, also in fifty-tael units, for a total of fifty thousand taels."

Cheng Zongyang didn’t even glance at the ledger. He just nodded. "It seems the Huangfu Family was well aware that Gold is more valuable. Put the Gold in the warehouse. Don’t worry about the silver; I’ll deal with it."

"Yes, My Lord." Luo Dingran replied with a cupped-fist salute.

Cheng Zongyang rose and walked into the small house. A moment later, the territory’s borders expanded by another 50 kilometers.

The territory was now 320 kilometers across.

Cheng Zongyang had little interest in the territory’s expansion at the moment. When he came back outside, the pile of silver in the clearing had completely vanished. The remaining Gold and Jewelry were being moved to the warehouse.

’As for the ninth inventory slot, it can wait until I have enough Points.’

Just then, Luo Dingran approached, holding three sheets of Rubbing Paper prepared by Ding Xing.

They were rubbings of the content on the stone slate. He asked Cheng Zongyang, "My Lord, would you like to take a look?"

Cheng Zongyang took one sheet and glanced at it. He couldn’t recognize a single character; he felt like an illiterate man trying to read. Handing it back, he shook his head. "You handle it."

He really didn’t have the mental energy for this right now; his thoughts were consumed with the search for the Jade Stone fragments.

Seeing this, Luo Dingran said no more and walked over to the counter in the small house with the three sheets of paper.

A moment later, Luo Dingran said with a smile, "My Lord, the house bought it! Ten thousand Points have been added to our account!"

Cheng Zongyang nodded. "Try again."

Luo Dingran understood. Just as expected, the house would not buy another one.

Next, Luo Dingran tried listing it for consignment at a price twenty percent higher than the house’s purchase price.

This was the appropriate price he had determined through long-term experimentation. Of course, after deducting the fourteen percent transaction fee, the actual Points received would only be three hundred and twenty more than the ten thousand.

However, they both knew full well that this twenty-percent markup was the profit margin the house itself took.

As it turned out, the consigned Rubbing Paper sold in less than a minute.