Chapter 102: Purchasing Jade

"Urgent mission: search for as many pieces of finger-sized ancient natural jade as possible and submit them to your higher-ups."

Fang Che was understandably perplexed.

What is the One Heart Church planning? They're getting into the jade resale business now? Also, can you be a little more specific? What shape are you looking for? What about the color? And finger-sized is way too general a description! Are we talking the size of my finger or one the size of one of Mo Ganyun's? And is it a thumb or pinky finger?

Fang Che didn't dare to raise these questions to Yin Shengong, instead sending them to Mu Linyuan.

Mu Linyuan didn't have any more information than Fang Che, so he could only reply: "Just do as the mission says and find all pieces of jade that fit that rough description! Why're you asking so many questions? You asking for a beating?!"

Fang Che was rather disgruntled by this response, so he took his anger out on the Five Spirit Parasite, and only when it was only just barely clinging to life did he feed it some spirit power for it to recover.

Meanwhile, Mu Linyuan had gone to visit Yin Shengong.

"Pope Yin, has anyone asked you for additional details on the jade collection mission?"

"No."

"Well, I've received some questions."

"From who?"

"Night Demon."

"What did he ask?"

Yin Shengong was very intrigued as he knew that his instructions were far from clear.

Mu Linyuan showed Yin Shengong the messages he had received from Fang Che.

"What color? Red? Orange? Yellow? Green? Azure? Blue? Purple? And what type? How big is finger-sized? Is it meant to be the size of a child's finger or an adult's? If it's a child's finger, is it a girl or a boy? Is it the finger of a warrior or a non-warrior? Is it the thumb, the index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger, or the pinky finger? Is it the finger of a sword wielder or a saber wielder? People who use hidden weapons also have different-sized fingers..."

"Does this little shit have a death wish?! Why didn't he ask me these questions?" Yin Shengong snapped.

"He's too smart to do that," Mu Linyuan sighed. "He would only dare to get so cheeky with me. I'm beginning to miss Sun Yuan."

Yin Shengong was in a very good mood these past few days, and he burst into laughter.

"Tell him that I said that everyone's searching, yet he's the only one asking questions, and that I'll break his legs if he can't find what we're looking for!"

Mu Linyuan immediately did as he was told, writing up a reply right in front of Yin Shengong.

"Pope Yin says everyone's searching, yet you're the only one asking questions! If you can't find it, prepare to get your legs broken!"

The two of them then eagerly awaited Fang Che's response, and they didn't have to wait long.

"I'll be sure to find it, even if it costs me my life! Please tell Pope Yin to rest assured that I'm doing everything in my power to search for pieces of jade that match the stipulated description!"

"Cunning little shit!" Yin Shengong scoffed. "He clearly knows I'm going to see his response!"

"He's definitely not dumb," Mu Linyuan chuckled.

***

Meanwhile, Fang Che had fallen into deep thought.

He was no longer considering what use the One Heart Church had for finger-sized pieces of natural fade. Instead, he was pondering the other thing that he had heard.

"Everyone's searching!"

Did this mean that everyone in the One Heart Church was searching for this particular piece of jade?

In the wake of this development, Fang Che returned straight to his Virtue Manor instead of visiting Old Man Shen in the afternoon.

How do I do this?

If this order really did apply to everyone in the One Heart Church, then there were definitely going to be many people exposed, which meant that he had to adopt a disguise, just in case he was identified and linked to the One Heart Church while carrying out this mission.

While it was true that he had essentially already been exposed, he couldn't be too blatant about it. Otherwise, the Protectionists would have no choice but to apprehend him.

If he were to blatantly go out to collect jade, then he would essentially be telling everyone that he was affiliated with the One Heart Church, leaving the Protectionists with no choice but to make a move on him.

With that in mind, Fang Che used the Covert Shapeshifting Technique to alter his own appearance, then left his Virtue Manor with a stack of silver vouchers.

He casually strolled around a little before making his way onto the business streets, where he combed through one shop after another, particularly the ones where jade was sold, as well as all of the pawn shops that he came across.

"Do you have any complete pieces of jade roughly the size of a finger?"

"How many do you need?"

"Bring out every single one that you have! I'll smash your shop to bits if you dare to keep even a single one from me!"

"......"

Some time later.

"I'll take all of it. How much?"

The shopkeeper gave Fang Che a wholesale price for his bulk purchase.

"And you're certain that's it?"

"That's it, I've looked through our entire stock."

"Alright, pack it up!"

Fang Che issued the payment, then left with a pouch full of jade to go to the next shop, where he repeated the same procedure.

After visiting around seven or eight shops, he ended up with over ten large pouches, and he hired a carriage so that he could dump all of the pouches inside.

Pieces of jade of this description weren't particularly valuable, so all of the shops were happy to sell to Fang Che in bulk, and over the course of a single night, Fang Che cleared out over fifty shops.

Upon visiting the fifty-sixth shop, he was informed, "My apologies, esteemed customer, but another customer came just now and purchased everything."

He received the same response from all of the other shops further up ahead as well.

Fang Che drove the carriage along at a leisurely pace, then changed to a different carriage midway. Under the dark veil of the night, Fang Che transferred all of the jade out of the carriage in a covert fashion, replacing them with some rocks.

The coach driver was a non-warrior, so he was able to complete the switcheroo completely undetected.

He then gave the coach driver fifty taels of silver and instructed him to drive the carriage out of the city.

"Go to the Li Village and deliver the contents of the carriage to Big Neck Li."

The coach driver was overjoyed. Fifty taels of silver would be enough to feed his family for a very long time.

As the carriage disappeared into the night, Fang Che rounded a corner to pick up the small mountain of jade piled up there, then snuck his way home like a ghost in the night.

That night, he sent a message to Mu Linyuan.

"Uncle-master Mu, I've collected over a hundred thousand pieces of jade. Where should I take them to?"

Mu Linyuan immediately relayed the news.

"Night Demon has already collected over a hundred thousand pieces of jade."

Bei Mingxin's expression instantly darkened upon receiving this news.

That many pieces? From a single person? That's going to take an eternity for me to go through on my own! How are there so many pieces of jade that match this description in the White Cloud Prefecture?!

Unfortunately for him, this was nowhere near the end, and more and more messages continued to pour in.

"Let's go take a look," Bei Mingxin said in a defeated manner.

Not only was the One Heart Church carrying out this mission, the same applied to all of the other churches as well, and right now, Bei Mingxin had half a mind to kill himself!

The thought of having to examine millions, perhaps even over ten million pieces of jade on his own was robbing him of the will to live.

I'm the Enforcement Altar Master of the Church of the Self-Righteous, for heaven's sake! I can't believe I have to do something so stupid!

Bei Mingxin set off for the White Cloud Prefecture, but Yin Shengong chose not to accompany him.

"With everyone collecting jade at once, the Protectionists are definitely going to be alerted, so it would be too dangerous for me to go as the pope of the One Heart Church."

Bei Mingxin didn't try to force him, and thus, he had Mu Linyuan for company.

***

Outside the city, the coach driver arrived at the Li Village, where he was informed that there was no one by the nickname of Big Neck Li.

"But I'm here to deliver something to him!"

"I'm telling you, there's no Big Neck Li in this village!"

The coach driver was left scratching his own head.

He opened the crates on the carriage, wondering what he was going to do with all this jade, and he was so stunned by what he saw that he fell flat on his backside!

Where's the jade? Why is it all rocks and bricks? I didn't see anything on the way here!

A chill instantly ran down his spine as a harrowing thought occurred to him.

Could it be that everything has already been delivered? What other explanation could there be for this?

All types of legends instantly began to surface in his mind.

I was hired by a ghost to deliver jade to a ghost!

This thought completely pushed him over the edge, and he fled in his carriage in a blind panic.

Thus, a new ghost story quickly began to spread in the area, with all those that had witnessed the coach driver's fearful display that night vehemently supporting the story.

***

That same night, Fang Che slept on a mountain of jade while constantly communicating with the individual pieces using his spirit sense.

There was definitely something fishy going on.

It was naturally also apparent to Ye Meng that something suspicious was going on, and she immediately sent out a report.

"Fang Che is currently collecting jade for some unknown reason. All of the pieces match a rough description, and at a conservative estimate, he's already collected tens of thousands of pieces. From what I've heard, many other people in the prefecture are also doing the same."

The Hall of Protectionists immediately sent out people to carry out a secret investigation.

During the course of the investigation, more and more leads about people collecting jade began to pour in from all over the White Cloud Prefecture and beyond.

Before long, even Dongfang Sansan had been made aware of this, and he immediately issued an order to monitor all of the jade collectors. For now, they were to be left alone, but a close eye had to be kept on them.