Late at night, at Wu Yuanwai's residence in West City.
Lin Shan poked a hole in the paper window of the side room and peeked inside, seeing a middle-aged Fat Man sleeping soundly. Next to him was likely his White Bone Madam.
After waiting for a while and sensing no movement, he quietly pushed open the door and slipped in. He directly knocked out the Fat Man on the bed and carried him to the courtyard outside. There happened to be a well in the courtyard, with a bucket and a ladle beside it.
A ladle of cold water was splashed on him, causing the Fat Man to jolt. Before he could yell, a long saber was already pressed against his neck.
"Speak softly. I ask, you answer."
A cold voice came from beside him. Wu Yuanwai, who had just been drenched in cold water, instantly felt a jolt in his brain and sobered up considerably.
He didn't dare to look up. He wasn't sure if the assassin was wearing a mask, as he somewhat knew the rules of the underworld. Not seeing the assassin's face might mean he could live; seeing it would mean certain death. So, he cooperated and nodded gently.
"You know about the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, right?"
"I... I know."
"You were the first to discover it, correct?"
"It was discovered by my subordinates."
"What items did you take out of it?"
"A black lotus buddha statue, a golden bell."
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing else."
The saber on his neck pressed closer again. Wu Yuanwai felt something warm flow down.
"Really nothing else?"
"Really nothing else! I can have my subordinates explain it to you in detail."
Wu Yuanwai was so anxious he was almost crying.
Lin Shan threatened him for a while but still couldn't get anything out. His expression also turned cold, "Call everyone who entered the Ancient Tomb over. I'll be watching you from behind. Don't try any tricks!"
For the sake of Ancient rhyme, Lin Shan naturally wouldn't miss any detail.
...
After a while, in the courtyard, besides the naked Wu Yuanwai and Lin Shan with the saber still at his neck, there were also five bare-chested men standing in a row.
These five men were awakened directly by Wu Yuanwai entering their rooms while they were asleep. He told them not to make a sound and then led them one by one to the courtyard, only to find a cold-faced assassin in black standing there, waiting for them with a large saber.
The few men exchanged glances. Lin Shan didn't waste words, "Besides the golden bell black lotus buddha statue, what else did you take out of the Ancient Tomb?"
"Nothing else."
"Nothing else."
"Nothing else."
...
No matter how he asked, the five men all said there was only the golden bell and the black lotus buddha statue.
"Could it be that such a vast Ancient Tomb of Yelang only yielded these two items?" Lin Shan's gaze swept back and forth between Wu Yuanwai and the five men, suspecting they had already colluded.
It was already the fifth watch of the night. Dark clouds obscured the moon in the sky, and the atmosphere was terrifyingly heavy.
Among the five men, there was a short, pockmarked, skinny man who hesitated slightly and then opened his mouth, "This Lord, please understand. We did indeed find many things in the tomb chamber at the time, but we encountered a ghost when we were leaving the tomb."
Speaking of this, the pockmarked skinny man swallowed and recalled with a look of lingering fear,
"At that time, we were carrying the black lotus buddha statue and the golden bell, when a coffin behind us suddenly opened by itself, and a ghost with a green face and fangs jumped out. To escape, we threw away the other burial objects in the tomb passage, only keeping the black lotus buddha statue and the golden bell, which seemed the most valuable."
"You said you saw that ghost come out of the coffin at that time?"
Lin Shan was shocked! Could there really be zombies in this world?
"That's right!"
"It's true!"
"I saw it too!"
...
The few people in front of him looked utterly convinced, and the fear they displayed didn't seem fake.
"Later, we came back and spread the news, hoping someone would go in to scout the way for us, but..."
He didn't finish the rest, but Lin Shan could guess.
The golden bell and black lotus buddha statue these people brought back were not ordinary items. Having tasted the sweetness, they were naturally reluctant to give up the other things left in the tomb. So they incited greedy people in the city to explore the tomb again, serving as cannon fodder for them.
If they died, that would be the end of it. If they returned alive, they would double-cross them.
Lin Shan asked about other things, such as the identity of the noble from Kyoto who bought the giant black lotus buddha statue. Wu Yuanwai said he didn't know. That Lord only paid to buy it and didn't leave any information.
Lin Shan interrogated them carefully again. After confirming he couldn't get any more information, he had to knock them all out and leave them in the courtyard. He then climbed over the wall and left.
He wondered what kind of associations Wu Yuanwai's family would have when they saw six naked men lying in the courtyard after dawn.
...
Half an hour later, Lin Shan arrived at "Jing'an Hall" in North City, the Zangke City branch of Nightingale.
Entering the first floor, the hall was still bustling with people, with black-clothed assassins constantly entering and exiting from various entrances and exits.
Lin Shan walked directly to a counter on the side, "I need all intelligence on the Ancient Tomb of Yelang."
The intelligence officer behind the counter was expressionless, "Members below Protector level can only access information after accepting relevant missions."
Lin Shan "..."
He turned around and walked to the center of the hall. Looking at the giant mission screen hanging from the fourth floor, Lin Shan searched for a while and finally found five or six missions related to the Ancient Tomb of Yelang in the southeast corner:
"Investigate the identities of missing persons in the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, Contribution 10 points."
"Investigate the strength of the ghost in the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, Contribution 15 points."
"Retrieve the map lost in the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, Contribution 15 points."
...
It seemed that even after a month, quite a few people were still paying attention to the Ancient Tomb of Yelang.
The missions from these employers were varied. Some wanted to know who had entered, some wanted to understand the ghost's strength, and some wanted to get the tomb passage map.
Lin Shan looked at the mission panel, his heart struggling intensely, wondering whether or not to accept these missions. After all, Wu Yuanwai's subordinates had just vividly described the horror and strangeness of the zombie in the coffin, and so many people who entered the Ancient Tomb had disappeared like waves.
Did he, a small nobody who had just become a Postnatal Martial Artist, really have the ability to go in and complete the missions?
The rules of the Nightingale organization were that once an assassin accepted a mission, no one else could accept it before the mission deadline. But once accepted, it had to be carried out!
Even if it failed, it had to have been attempted!
For example, if Lin Shan accepted the mission to investigate the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, he had to go in at least once, either complete the mission or have evidence that he attempted it.
Otherwise, it would be considered breaking the rules, maliciously hindering the mission progress, and he would be hunted down by the Nightingale organization.
At this time, people were coming and going in the hall. The passing assassins were busy with their own affairs, paying no attention to Lin Shan, who had been standing in the middle for quite a while. The staff on the side were also used to it.
Which assassin didn't live on the edge of a knife? They had seen many new assassins hesitate and struggle like this.
...
After a long ideological struggle, Lin Shan finally gritted his teeth and accepted!
He had to buy the golden bell he saw during the day as soon as possible. Otherwise, if someone got there first in a month or two, those 8 points of Ancient rhyme would be lost. And three thousand taels of gold could not be accumulated bit by bit; even robbing the rich to help the poor little by little wouldn't be fast enough.
He could only find a way to get rich overnight!
After all, if even those five ordinary people, Wu Yuanwai's subordinates, could escape, he, a Martial Artist, wasn't without a chance.
What's more, if he could find the burial objects they dropped when they escaped in the Ancient Tomb passage before the ghost fully awakened, and gain Ancient rhyme in advance, his chances of survival would be even greater.
Lin Shan went to the mission desk and handed over his identity token, "I accept mission number seventy-five."
The Nightingale staff were very professional. They quickly performed some operations and handed him his identity token along with a plate engraved with "seventy-five."
"Assassin Soldier 21, accepted mission number seventy-five, investigate the identities of missing persons in the Ancient Tomb of Yelang, deadline within ten days."
Lin Shan turned and walked to the intelligence desk, handing the number seventy-five plate to the intelligence officer. The other party also nodded and found a stack of documents to give him. Lin Shan found a window, jumped out, and disappeared instantly.
What he didn't notice was that after he left, a man in black walked out from the side, with a faint scar between his eyebrows.
"Soldier 21, you finally showed up!"