The Blade-Wielding Legend

Chapter 1598 - 812: Strange Dream

"Tribute... to the Japanese?"

Li Yan’s eyelids twitched slightly, and he instantly exerted force underfoot.

Boom!

With a loud bang, Qin Chuan was kicked directly into the wall, dust falling like rain.

He slumped to the ground, coughing up a few mouthfuls of dirty blood, his snake-like eyes filled with fear.

"Explain clearly! Who did you give it to?"

Li Yan’s voice was as cold as ice shards, "Where are the items? Where are those Japanese hiding?"

Though "Qin Chuan" looked terrifying, he was a cowardly, timid person.

Feeling Li Yan’s fierce killing intent, he was scared out of his wits, struggling to shout, "Spare... spare me! I... I really don’t know exactly where they are! They’re elusive... the items... Granny Qing’s Lifebound Totem skin and a few ancient artifacts passed down in the family."

"All... all given to the contact ’Mr.’..."

"’Mr.’?"

Li Yan crouched down, grabbed his collar, "What kind of person? Any characteristics?"

"He... they have several, usually... dressed like Central Plains people, with accents and manners just like locals!"

Qin Chuan said urgently, afraid of being hit again, "They... they came to find me! Said they could help me achieve immortal life, far beyond that tattoo skill of my mother’s... even... promised me wealth and glory..."

"The leader among them, not very old, about thirty, fair-skinned, like a scholar, but his eyes were cold... the way he spoke..." Qin Chuan struggled to recall, "spoke with a particular ’taste’... yes! Just like... the taste of talking of government dogs!"

"The taste of the government?"

Beside him, Wang Daoxuan and Sha Lifei exchanged glances, seeing seriousness in each other’s eyes.

This implied that the infiltration by Japanese might be deeper and more hidden than imagined.

"They only appear when needed, changing places for each meeting!"

"Last time... last time it was at a dilapidated River God Temple outside the city... before that, in the backyard of an inconspicuous teahouse by the West Lake..."

Qin Chuan disclosed several vague locations intermittently, "I really only know these! They’re very careful, never letting me know their lair! I’m begging you..."

Li Yan let go, allowing Qin Chuan to slide to the ground like mud.

He stood up, his face dark enough to drip water.

"Useless!" Sha Lifei spat.

"Seems like the waters in Hangzhou City are muddier than we thought." Wang Daoxuan stroked his beard, his brows furrowed, "Not only are there Japanese demons, but also traitors hidden for years, perhaps even mingling within the government, the Jianmu Organization is scheming something big."

Li Yan pondered for a moment, but had already made up his mind internally.

He looked at the others: "Remember that guy from the Capital, who lurked in the Divine State for years, not only having no difference in accent and habits from the Divine State people, but even married and had children, did business, joined the officialdom, hard to distinguish, this has been planned for years."

"We must act quickly and find these people and things, we’ll split into three groups!"

"Kuai Dayou, Kong Shangzhao, you stay at the Lin Family, assist Fatty Lin in quickly stabilizing the Lin Family situation, clean house. We’ll soon set sail, and who knows when we’ll return. The enemy is cunning, we can’t let them exploit weaknesses."

"Understood!"

Kuai Dayou and Kong Shangzhao immediately nodded.

Fatty Lin knew what to do, his expression was also calm.

After the relatives’ commotion, he knew that the Lin Family’s big tree couldn’t be preserved completely.

Trying hard to maintain it would only attract a bunch of parasites.

What needs to be done now is to discard many dead branches and leaves, leaving roots for the family, accumulating heritage.

Following Li Yan and the others, benefits and risks coexist, must first leave a path for the family.

Seeing they understood his meaning, Li Yan looked at the others again.

"The Daoist’s injuries haven’t healed, also stay with neighbors to rest. Old Sha, San’er, you go to Hangzhou City. In places where Three Religions and Nine Sects gather, Gambling Houses, docks, black markets, message shops, whether spending money or using force, quickly find out the whereabouts of the Japanese."

"Alright!" Sha Lifei rubbed his fists.

Finally, Li Yan spoke solemnly: "The Jianmu Organization has already infiltrated Hangzhou and remains unexposed. Neither the government nor other Mystical Sect should be trusted easily. I will go to the Golden Swallow Sect to gather information, using their channels to send out the message."

"No time to delay, everyone prepare early."

......

The next day, at the Lin Family’s old house on Yuhang East Street.

Kuai Dayou assisted Fatty Lin in making arrangements.

Despite the Lin Family suffering a calamity, it was once the number one merchant in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with countless industries under its name.

No matter how the arrangements are made, reliable personnel are indispensable.

Their first step is to clean out all the fickle-minded people.

Meanwhile, Kong Shangzhao was buried in the Lin Family’s mountains of account books and documents.

His mind was meticulous, his eyes sharp as a knife, navigating through lines of ink and strings of numbers, sorting out the vast financial network and trading records of the Lin Family, then consolidating them, deciding what to discard and sell, what to change and plant as hidden assets...

......

And tens of miles away, as the morning twilight appeared, a thin fog enveloped the awakening Hangzhou Prefecture City.

This Southeastern giant city, its horsehead walls connected like dark waves, the Canal tributary flowing through, the streets and alleys already rising with the smoke of the Human World.

Within the Prefecture City, the bustling scenes of the market were extraordinarily vibrant.

With the city gates rumbling open, Sha Lifei and others merged into the crowd.

Under Wulin Gate, the Cao Boats stood like forests, the porters’ chants shook the sky.

Porters carried heavy hemp bags on their dark backs, sweat dripping and spreading deep marks on the bluestone docks.

Sha Lifei bit a blade of grass, casually stopping a porter leader who just finished unloading, squatting in a corner eating a biscuit, slipping a few gleaming silver coins over: "Brother, looking for something, recently seen any unfamiliar Japanese faces in the city?"