Chapter 29  : Profiteer

“Why are you so flustered?” Xiao Ran asked.

Little Zhou lowered his voice and said, “I did a simple interrogation just now. The six of them were very tight-lipped and refused to speak.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Brother Xiao, you are very resourceful. Do you have any good ideas?”

“None.” Xiao Ran entered the cell.

Dozens of students of Dragon Lake Institute were imprisoned, and according to the degree of suspicion that fell on them, they were distributed to cells on different floors of the Celestial Dungeon from the first to ninth.

The more suspicious they were, the lower the floors they were sent to.

There were a total of six people imprisoned on the ninth floor, which indicated that these six were the most suspicious.

Upon seeing Xiao Ran enter, one of the imprisoned students yelled at him, “Let me out! I’m innocent.”

“What is real cannot be faked, and what is fake cannot become real,” Xiao Ran said.

“I want to see the principal. You guys are torturing us to get a forced confession.”

“Spirit Shifting Soul Control.” Xiao Ran activated this skill.

Golden light flashed in his eyes and a series of ripples emanated forth. With his current Spiritual Master evolution, the strength of his spiritual soul energy was not something the student could withstand.

Under the golden light, the student’s consciousness became blurred until he fell under Xiao Ran’s complete control.

“Tell me what you were doing last night.”

“At nightfall, I read some articles and turned off the lights to sleep when I felt sleepy.”

Xiao Ran withdrew the Spirit Shifting Soul Control technique. He left the cell, locked the door and entered the next cell.

Just like that,

he interrogated five people in a row, but none of them were responsible.

When he arrived at the last cell, although the student saw that there was a new dungeon guard assigned, his face was still expressionless. He seemed rather calm, though inwardly he was very nervous.

Xiao Ran was different from Little Zhou.

They were both dungeon guards, but their auras were different. A single look or movement from Xiao Ran could bring about immense pressure.

“You’re different from the rest. You’re not noisy,” Xiao Ran said.

“Since the principal has ordered the Divine Sword Guards to investigate this matter and lock us up in the Celestial Dungeon, we will never be able to clear our name before the matter is fully investigated. Making a fuss at this time will only bring trouble to ourselves.” The student said with a bitter smile.

“Your temperament is not bad,” Xiao Ran replied.

The Spirit Shifting Soul Control was activated to control him.

“What were you doing last night?”

Boom!

Immense Righteous Energy shot out from the top of his head. Righteousness and saintliness combined to form a golden light, wanting to protect his consciousness and break Xiao Ran’s spiritual technique.

“Huh! He actually attained enlightenment of the Immense Righteous Energy?” Xiao Ran let out a soft exclamation.

The higher-ups only said that these students were budding talents who were being specially nurtured. None of them were known to have attained enlightenment of the Immense Righteous Energy.

If a student had attained enlightenment of the Immense Righteous Energy, he would not have been thrown into the Celestial Dungeon. Every enlightened student was a treasure of the academy. Even if he had made a mistake, they would deal with it internally and not let the Divine Sword Guards interfere.

Following this line of deduction,

the logical conclusion was that this student deliberately concealed his Immense Righteous Energy, perhaps worried that others would discover it.

“Get back,” Xiao Ran barked out.

His purifying spiritual force gushed out, pushing this little bit of Immense Righteous Energy back into his body. Once again Xiao Ran was in control of his consciousness.

“Speak!”

“Some time ago, Chen Wenheng got really lucky and bought three paintings at the Qingyuan bookstore. These three paintings were all created by a Sacred Hand. Every painting can help one to achieve enlightenment of the Immense Righteous Energy. He had absorbed the intent in one of the paintings and attained enlightenment, becoming a personal disciple of the institute, receiving one-on-one coaching.

Although the higher-ups tried their best to hush up the news, I still managed to find out.

In order to obtain the remaining two paintings, I collaborated with Priest Wu to come up with a plan a few days ago. We took action last night. After obtaining the two paintings, we took one painting each. After he left, I was afraid of more trouble that would follow, so I utilized the intent in the painting to achieve enlightenment of the Immense Righteous Energy,” the student recounted.

“Paintings?” Xiao Ran felt that this was very familiar.

“A monk, a great sword, and a sun. The shopkeeper of the Qingyuan Bookstore failed to recognize the intrinsic value of these paintings and sold such a precious treasure at a cheap price of ten thousand taels.”

Xiao Ran’s face darkened. He finally understood.

The three paintings that he had sold to the Qingyuan bookstore netted him a thousand taels each, and this profiteer had sold it for ten thousand taels each.

“I’ll look for him after work.” Xiao Ran thought.

He continued with the questioning.

“Where is Priest Wu?”

“After leaving the capital city, head west for 50 miles. There is a small mountain there. Priest Wu lives in a house by the river near there.”

He retracted the Spirit Shifting Soul Control and left the cell.

The student was totally bewildered, completely unaware of what had just happened.

Staring at the departing Xiao Ran, he frowned in puzzlement and asked, “Why is he leaving?”

Back in the hall,

Little Zhou poured a cup of tea and handed it over. “Brother Xiao, you didn’t use torture?”

“I did.” Xiao Ran accepted the teacup and drank everything in one gulp.

“Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

Xiao Ran did not answer. Little Zhou eyes lit up and he asked excitedly, “You have arrived at a conclusion?”

“Yes,” Xiao Ran nodded.

At the antechamber on the first floor,

“You guys came at the right time. I was about to get someone to call you over,” said the lieutenant.

“What’s the matter?” Xiao Ran was puzzled.

“Although the guys from the God Enforcement Division are unreliable and excel at scamming their comrades, they are still quite generous. They are not stingy when giving out rewards. In fact, they gave more than expected.” The lieutenant handed two bank notes to him and Little Zhou.

Each one had the value of 10,000 taels of silver.

“The work of the Celestial Dungeon may be dangerous, but it pays well. You deserve it,” said the lieutenant.

Xiao Ran accepted the banknote.

The lieutenant took out two more bank notes and handed them over.

The amount this time was 1,000 taels.

“This is the reward for you guys when I applied to the higher-ups on your behalf.”

“Thank you, my Lord.” The two of them thanked him.

The lieutenant asked, “Aren’t you guys interrogating the suspect? Is there a conclusion already?”

“Yes,” Xiao Ran answered.

He omitted the process of how the confession was obtained and went straight to the conclusion.

“I have not misjudged you. You have made another big contribution.” The lieutenant said excitedly.

“I’ll bear your contributions in mind. When this matter is over, the reward will naturally come.”

He quickly walked over to Wen Fuxian.

“I have news for you, Sir,” said the lieutenant.

He told him everything that Xiao Ran had just told him.

Whoosh!

Wen Fuxian stood up agitatedly and walked briskly towards Xiao Ran. “Is what you said true?”

“Yes,” Xiao Ran agreed.

“If what you said is true, then in the matter of the Dragon Lake Institute’s precious treasure being stolen, you have made the biggest contribution,” said Wen Fuxian.

Bringing Chen Wenheng along, he impatiently rushed towards the ninth floor.

Xiao Ran felt that this matter was especially funny. The three paintings that he nonchalantly drew had turned into precious treasures in the eyes of others.

“There’s white lotus cake inside. Send it to the Eldest Princess first.” The lieutenant handed over a food container.

Xiao Ran took the food container,

and entered the Purgatory. He opened the cell door and entered, placing the food container on the table.

There were two cakes inside, and each cake was cut into six pieces. The cakes were as noble and pure as a lotus flower, filled with dense spiritual energy.

“This is the white lotus cake you wanted.” Xiao Ran sat on a chair, took one piece and began eating.

The taste was not bad. The energy in one piece of white lotus cake was equivalent to three days of hard work in skills evolution.

“You’re quite impolite.” The Eldest Princess glared at him indignantly.

She sat opposite him, took a piece of white lotus cake and began nibbling elegantly.

After finishing the white lotus cake,

Xiao Ran reminded her, “If you can break through to the Earth Realm as a Spiritual Master, the pain might be lessened when the demonic aura erupts.”