Chapter 337: Swallowing Gold Beast

Bai Guo remained unmoved. “I really can’t help you. Please take this back.”

He didn't even suggest, "Why don't you try another shop?" He Lingchuan understood his stance immediately.

“What’s the illness?”

Old Man Wang immediately turned to He Lingchuan. “A persistent high fever! Two doses of medicine from the clinic did nothing!” His eyes were full of hope. “This is genuine; I beg you to buy it!”

He Lingchuan asked him, “What’s written on this scroll of yours?”

“My ancestors said this is a profound divine ability!” Old Man Wang gave a bitter smile. “But I can’t understand it, and no one in my family cultivates, so I can only sell it.”

“May I take a look?”

“You can understand it?” Old Man Wang slightly, just slightly, unrolled the animal skin paper. “Then please, have a look.”

“Bring the child here, and I’ll find someone to treat them,” He Lingchuan stated after a few glances. “If they recover, this scroll of skin paper will be mine.”

“Huh?” Old Man Wang was startled. “Bring them here?”

“Yes. I’m meeting a friend here. His medical skills are excellent; treating a child’s high fever is just a trivial matter for him.”

“Oh—” Old Man Wang nodded repeatedly, beaming with joy. “Alright, alright, I’ll go get my grandson right away!” With that, he rolled up the animal skin paper and walked out.

Neither of the two people behind him tried to stop him.

After Old Man Wang walked out of Yunling Island, the sadness vanished from his face. He walked another dozen *zhang* before turning his head to see if anyone was following him. No one was. He spat towards Yunling Island.

Next, he strolled idly to the end of the street, looking completely at ease, not at all like someone with a sick person at home. He even bought two steamed buns and ate them while wandering. Soon, he left Wanglin Street and turned into another street.

The foot traffic here was far less than on Wanglin Street, and the shop signs weren't as flashy, but the street was long and interconnected in all directions. Old Man Wang discarded the grease paper, wiped his mouth and hands, patted his face to compose his expression, and then entered several shops one after another. When he re-emerged, his expression was one of smug satisfaction.

At this point, he headed straight for the city gate, moving quickly. He’d be safe once outside.

However, just as he passed a shallow alley, a hand reached out from within, yanked him in, and pressed him into the shadows. Old Man Wang was startled. He turned around and saw the young man from Yunling Island smiling brightly at him.

“You?” he cried out without thinking, “Robbery—!”

But just as he opened his mouth, He Lingchuan lightly poked his throat. Old Man Wang’s remaining words were immediately stifled. He clutched his neck, uttering “Ah” for a long time, his voice no louder than a mouse’s squeak.

He Lingchuan pulled five or six pieces of animal skin paper from his embrace and unrolled them. Each scroll had identical content: faded writing in an ancient immortal language script, on thin sheets of paper that weren't even completely filled.

“What is this?”

Old Man Wang’s face turned ashen.

Only then did He Lingchuan take out a Great Wind Army token and wave it in front of him. “The victim has reported you. There are prisons in both the west and south of the city; which one do you prefer?” The Great Wind Army token was very conspicuous, and He Lingchuan wasn't afraid of him examining it closely. Old Man Wang’s eyes went wide. He inwardly groaned, *I’m finished. How did I get exposed so quickly this time? Panlong City really isn’t a place to come.*

The pain in his neck had subsided, and he immediately knelt down with a thud. “My lord, please spare me! I’ll give you the genuine item!”

“You have the genuine item?” He Lingchuan scoffed. “Never mind. Let’s go to the west side, hand you over to the authorities nearby.”

“If you let me go, I’ll definitely give it to you!” Old Man Wang pleaded, growing anxious. “I really do have it!”

“Alright, I won’t arrest you.” He Lingchuan extended his hand. “Let me see it.”

Only then did Old Man Wang pull a scroll from his boot. The smell wasn’t pleasant. He Lingchuan pinched his nose, unrolled it for a look, and then threw the scroll back at him, exclaiming angrily, “How is this any different from the fakes?! Are you mocking me?”

“I wouldn’t dare, this is real!” Old Man Wang picked up the scroll and unrolled it. In fact, the old animal skin paper was already tattered and had been mounted within the scroll. He took out a copper coin and pointed to a beast-head design drawn in the upper left corner of the paper. “Watch closely.”

The beast head was drawn in a very realistic style, somewhat resembling a large toad with bulging eyes and a massive mouth, but it also had fine, sharp teeth, and spots on its head like plum blossoms. Its wide-open mouth was pitch black inside. Old Man Wang pressed the copper coin into the mouth of the beast-head design.

A miraculous scene unfolded: the copper coin suddenly vanished.

He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow, waited a few more breaths, then asked, “And then? What’s changed?”

“The paper has gotten bigger, didn’t you notice?”

Prompted by him, He Lingchuan indeed noticed that the edges of the paper had expanded slightly, but only by a tiny amount—so small it would be imperceptible without continuous staring.

“What are you trying to show?”

“This paper is alive, my lord!” Old Man Wang was eager to prove his point. “But it only returns to its original size, and the characters appear, after it ‘eats’ money or valuable items.”

“Really?” He Lingchuan reached into his clothes and astonishingly pulled out several large silver ingots, each weighing about twenty or thirty taels. It was hard to believe this shabbily dressed old man was actually richer than him!

“Did you just swindle these?”

Old Man Wang didn’t know how to answer. The next second, He Lingchuan tossed two large silver ingots into the beast head.

“Oh, no, don’t!”

It was too late. The silver sank into the beast’s mouth and was gone instantly. Old Man Wang’s vision went black, and his heart felt like it was being cut.

And indeed, He Lingchuan saw the animal skin paper expand a bit more, perhaps... half an inch? A few more characters did appear on the paper because of it.

“More. Again.”

Old Man Wang said with a pained expression, “My lord, please don’t throw in any more. No matter how much you throw in, it will never be full!”

“You’ve tried? How much silver have you thrown in at most?”

“I’ve thrown in two thousand taels of silver in total, and once I directly put in seven hundred taels, plus two large Eastern pearls!” As Old Man Wang spoke, his heart was filled with bitterness. “I originally had some family savings, but if it weren’t for this bottomless pit, I wouldn’t have fallen to this state!”

He Lingchuan asked for the full story.

It turned out Old Man Wang was a foreigner, who had served as a private tutor for many years and had a small surplus of money. One day, after a heavy rain, he went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables. Before he could even gather half a basket, he stumbled upon a corpse. The deceased’s sudden death in the wilderness was a mystery. Old Man Wang searched the body and only found a few pieces of broken silver and a piece of animal skin paper. He buried the person and then descended the mountain with the animal skin paper.

Old Man Wang was educated and recognized that the paper was inscribed with the ancient immortal language, but unfortunately, it was old and incomplete, preventing him from seeing the full content. He took it to the city to sell, but no one wanted it. Later, he found an expert for appraisal, who informed him that it was the skin of a Gold-Swallowing Beast.

Even in ancient times, the Gold-Swallowing Beast was an extremely rare mythical creature. A divine ability written on its hide was, naturally, invaluable. This kind of hide could withstand the test of time, still having the chance to unfold even after two or three millennia.

However, the Gold-Swallowing Beast, which devoured all valuable things in life, retained its insatiably greedy nature even after death, with its soul residing in its hide. If Old Man Wang wanted to see all the content on the paper, he had to satisfy its appetite. From then on, Old Man Wang embarked on the irreversible path of feeding the Gold-Swallowing Beast...

He couldn’t explain why he had lost his rationality, but feeding this thing was truly addictive. He was simply filled with anticipation for a future where he could satiate the Gold-Swallowing Beast, believing he had a chance to acquire a rare divine ability. At that point, the complete divine ability would surely live up to his expectations, selling for an astronomical price and ensuring he wouldn’t have to worry about food, clothing, or expenses for the rest of his life.

Of course, reality was harsh. After consuming gold and silver, the item wouldn’t remain expanded; instead, it would shrink back to its tattered original state after expanding for a quarter or half an hour! In other words, if you couldn’t satisfy it all at once, it wouldn’t reveal the complete divine ability to you.

“What a scam,” He Lingchuan couldn’t help but ask him, “If you knew it was a bottomless pit, why did you keep feeding it?”

“If I didn’t keep feeding it, wouldn’t all the gold and silver I’d already thrown in be wasted?” Old Man Wang squeezed out two bitter tears. “Later, I found a legend that said earthly treasures could never fill it! Unfortunately, I found out too late; by then, I had already lost everything!”

To make ends meet, Old Man Wang simply copied the content from the animal skin paper, disguised it as a complete divine ability, and sold it for money, using the same spiel he had at Yunling Island earlier. Quite a few customers fell for it. However, after scamming two or three times, he would quickly have to change locations to avoid imprisonment.

After listening, He Lingchuan immediately said, “You truly deserve this.”

Old Man Wang’s behavior was a form of gambling addiction. If a person indulged their desires without restraint, they would likely come to no good end. He bowed repeatedly to He Lingchuan. “Please, my lord, let me off!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t arrest you.” He Lingchuan grinned at him, stuffed the fake animal skin papers back into his embrace, and then suddenly extended a hand and pushed him back into the middle of the street.

Was he truly letting him go? Old Man Wang was overjoyed.

Just then, two shouts came from nearby: “Hey, it looks like him!” Old Man Wang turned back in alarm, seeing two patrol guards rushing toward him. With a guilty conscience, he took off running.

“Stop!”

Old Man Wang ran even faster.

Despite his slender build, he was surprisingly fast and kept darting into crowds. It took the two patrol guards a quarter of an hour to catch him. “Someone reported you for forgery and fraud!” Along the way, they also picked up several fake animal skin papers that had fallen from the old man’s body. The old man had no words to defend himself. The genuine item was gone, so no one would believe anything he said.

After watching Old Man Wang being taken away, He Lingchuan walked back to Yunling Island.

The fat shopkeeper asked him with a smile, “That old man was a swindler, wasn’t he?”

He Lingchuan hummed in affirmation and asked for a quiet room to stay in for a while. The fat shopkeeper naturally had to satisfy this small request from his landlord. So, a dozen breaths later, He Lingchuan entered a small appraisal room with a table, chairs, and some miscellaneous items piled in a corner.

He sat down, took out the original animal skin paper, spread it on the table, and lit a lamp to examine it closely.

Why go to such great lengths for an old swindler and a piece of Gold-Swallowing Beast hide? Because the paper truly recorded a divine ability: The Art of Shadow Clone Transformation, or simply, Clone Art. The outline of the divine ability visible on the animal skin stated that mastering this spell would allow one to temporarily summon a clone that would obey one’s commands. At first glance, this seemed very similar to the Mirror Image Art that He Lingchuan had originally intended to exchange at the Pengcheng Department, and even General Hong had recommended that he make such an exchange.