Zhang Zongnian followed Yang San Hu out of the dungeon and into the karst cave, then walked into the storeroom.
Yang San Hu, disguised, led the way ahead while Zhang Zongnian strode behind him with head held high.
At a glance, he looked every bit the young master out on inspection, with Yang San Hu playing the role of a servant.
The little monsters they passed stared curiously at this lone human strolling through the cave.
Yang San Hu guided him into the storeroom, explaining as they walked:
“Our storeroom is divided into the Inner Vault and the Outer Vault.”
“The Inner Vault holds the private property of the Cave Lord, the Young Master, and the Young Miss.”
“The Outer Vault is for things needed daily in the mountain.”
“Your job is to help me, Old Yang, clearly record every item entering and leaving the vault—who takes it, how much, who delivers, how much, which cabinet it’s stored in, so it’s easy to retrieve later.”
“At the end of every month, we’ll do an inventory and tally the losses.”
“The work isn’t much, but it can be tedious.”
As he spoke, they had already entered the storeroom.
The storeroom was an enormous natural karst cave, divided into inner and outer layers.
The inner room was the warehouse, the outer for office work.
Right now, a crowd of little monsters waited impatiently in the outer room, holding slips of paper, all anxiously pacing about.
When Yang San Hu arrived, they swarmed over, shouting:
“Manager Yang, hurry and issue those ten bundles of Arrow Bundles, our hunting team needs to go out and hunt, the captain’s been rushing me several times already!”
“Huzi! I came to pick up two sets of Armor, the patrol squad’s Armor is all fraying, need new ones.”
“Old Yang, quick, let me get two jars of Peach Blossom Drunk, the Cave Lord is hosting guests today, it’s urgent!”
Yang San Hu was driven half-mad by the commotion. “Don’t shout, don’t shout, what’s the rush? Wait your turn, I’ll get to you all soon!”
He pulled Zhang Zongnian along, pushing past the little monsters, and entered the inner warehouse.
The warehouse was vast, lined with shelves neatly organized by category: weapons, Armor, ores, medicinal herbs, clothes, and more—dazzling and countless.
Several little monsters were busy inside, tidying and sorting.
Yang San Hu led Zhang Zongnian to a locked compartment door, guarded by a leopard demon clutching a long spear, sitting on the ground dozing off.
Yang San Hu stretched out his hoof and knocked the leopard awake with a flick.
“Sleeping in broad daylight! Get up and open the door!”
The leopard demon rubbed his eyes and staggered up.
When he saw Zhang Zongnian, his feline face paled and he cried out, “A human cultivator has broken in?!”
Yang San Hu’s beard bristled in anger. “Broken in, my hoof! This is the new accountant assigned to our storeroom by the Young Miss. Open the door and let him record the batch of items that arrived yesterday.”
The leopard demon shot a surprised look at Zhang Zongnian, then pulled out a key. Yang San Hu produced his own key as well. Together, the two keys unlocked the compartment.
Inside, the room was packed to the brim with goods, barely any space to set foot.
Yang San Hu pointed at the pile and said, “Zongnian, these are congratulatory gifts the Young Miss received yesterday. They haven’t been registered in the Inner Vault yet. Record the names and quantities for me. I need to handle the urgent outgoing goods. I’ll come help you when I’m done.”
Zhang Zongnian nodded. “Alright.”
Yang San Hu left him pen and notebook, then hurried away.
Zhang Zongnian stepped into the room, noticing the boxes labeled: “Two roots of Thousand-Year Mountain Ginseng,” “Ten Purple Gold Jade Yam,” “Ten catties of Seven-leaf Sky Blue Honey,” and so on.
Attached to the boxes were slips of paper:
“Bear King Sen of Niu’er Mountain congratulates Miss Hong Yanzhi on achieving Condensed Core Realm,”
“Lang Buping of Huangfeng Mountain congratulates Miss Hong Yanzhi on her advancement, may she reach greater heights,”
“Niu Sanbian of Yuanlao Mountain congratulates Miss Hong Yanzhi on her successful core formation,”
…And more.
It seemed this Miss Hong Yanzhi had just recently advanced to Condensed Core Realm, and all these items were congratulatory gifts for her, waiting to be registered in her Inner Vault.
Amidst the boxes, Zhang Zongnian suddenly spotted two small Storage Pouches.
His heart skipped a beat.
Yesterday, after Hong Yanzhi took the Storage Pouches from him and Lin Xue, she tossed them to the little monster attendant.
That little monster must have handed them to the warehouse along with the other gifts.
Zhang Zongnian glanced at the door, checking on the leopard demon.
The leopard demon, hugging his spear, sat on the floor, head cocked and mouth agape, already lost to dreams once more.
Zhang Zongnian reached out and pressed his hand to the Storage Pouches, sending in his spiritual power to probe.
Sure enough, they were the very two he and Lin Xue had handed over yesterday.
Zhang Zongnian’s heart thudded wildly. He glanced again at the peacefully snoring leopard demon, then picked up the two Storage Pouches, intending to slip them into his robe.
These are mine and Miss Lin’s belongings! Reclaiming them is only right!
Just as he was about to stuff the Storage Pouches away, a thought struck him—such important items, the Young Miss might remember them in the coming days.
If she suddenly asked and the warehouse couldn’t find the pouches, he’d surely be in trouble.
Lin Xue would be implicated as well.
Hesitating, Zhang Zongnian finally placed the Storage Pouches back where he found them.
Forget it—for now, with his and Lin Xue’s precarious situation, best not to create more trouble.
He sent his spiritual power into the Storage Pouches, taking only the Heavenly Demon Transformation Art and Beast Refinement Codex, stowing both manuals in his inner pocket.
He could do without the rest, but these two cultivation manuals were his hope for future revenge—he must reclaim them.
He then checked Lin Xue’s Storage Pouch, extracting the paper crane Flying Magical Artifact and a few Spirit Stones, slipping them into his pocket as well.
The paper crane was key to their future escape together.
With it, they’d have a better chance of fleeing far.
Moving like a thief, Zhang Zongnian secured the items and let out a quiet sigh of relief, then picked up the pen and carefully recorded each of the remaining items in the room.
Though writing with his left hand, he was still remarkably fast. Before long, he had registered everything in the room.
Seeing that Yang San Hu still hadn’t returned, he decided to register the contents of the Storage Pouches as well.
Staring at the Storage Pouches in his hand, Zhang Zongnian felt a pang of regret.
Owning such large Storage Pouches had always been his childhood dream.
Now that he finally had them, he only wore them for half a day before they ended up belonging to someone else.
Maybe it was never his fate to keep them.
After finishing the inventory of everything in the room, Yang San Hu had yet to return.
Zhang Zongnian woke the dozing leopard demon at the door and asked him to lock the compartment.
He then walked out to the outer warehouse to find Yang San Hu.
In the outer warehouse, the room was still crowded with impatient little monsters.
Yang San Hu was gripping a brush with his hoof, painstakingly writing on paper, each stroke clumsy and slow.
Zhang Zongnian finally understood why the storeroom’s workload always piled up.
This old sheep wrote far too slowly.
He walked over and said, “Uncle Yang, let me handle the writing.”
Yang San Hu looked at him, confusion on his wrinkled face.
“Didn’t I tell you to inventory the items in that room? Go finish up there, I’ll come help once I’m done here.”
Zhang Zongnian handed him the notebook. “I’ve already finished registering everything over there.”
Yang San Hu took the notebook skeptically, but upon seeing the pages, he was dumbfounded.
How could it be so fast? And the handwriting was so neat!
His face was full of disbelief as he handed the brush to Zhang Zongnian, wanting to see for himself.
Zhang Zongnian took the brush, and as Yang San Hu dictated what to write, he swiftly and clearly recorded everything.
Yang San Hu’s face twisted in amazement.
He never expected a human could write so quickly.
With Zhang Zongnian’s help, the little monsters waiting to check items in and out quickly finished their business and left. The warehouse fell silent.
Yang San Hu was overjoyed.
Before, even with both him and Tian Shiqi working together, they were slower than Zhang Zongnian alone, always working late into the night.
Now, with this human cultivator, the workload would be much lighter.
He’d struck gold!
Lin Xue returned to Hong Yanzhi’s cave chamber with Yuan Ding.
The journey was smooth—they didn’t run into Tigerzi.
Upon entering the room and seeing Hong Yanzhi, Lin Xue finally let out a long sigh of relief.
This life was just too damn stressful—going out the door meant risking her life.
That Tigerzi was like a Sword of Damocles, hanging over her head at every moment.
Thinking of having to endure this life for another twenty-nine days, Lin Xue felt her heart sink with frustration.
I’m a transmigrator with a cheat, so how did things end up so stifling!
But alas, the cheat required her to defeat monsters to level up and grow stronger.
What she needed most now was a chance to fight monsters.
Who knew when that chance would finally come?
Sigh. Wait, just wait.
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