Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 697 - 697 0444 Why is This Part 2

Chapter 697: Chapter 0444: Why is This? Part 2 Chapter 697: Chapter 0444: Why is This? Part 2 “Lu Chao, what on earth happened yesterday? Where are the silver notes that Marquis Ma brought? Don’t tell me you’ve destroyed them all.” Wu Shenglian coldly said.

Lu Chao said, “The silver notes are still here. I will bring them out for you to inspect.”

“There’s no need to inspect them, immediately exchange all the money as indicated on the silver notes.” Wu Shenglian impatiently said. She was almost fed up with Lu Chao. At this point, he was still considering verifying the authenticity of the silver notes. Was that important right now? Moreover, with Qi Tian’s abilities, would they bring fake silver notes just to exchange them for silver?

Lu Chao lowered his head and didn’t move.

“Lu Chao, what do you mean?” Wu Shenglian asked discontentedly.

Lu Chao said, “Ms. Wu, I’m really sorry, but we have no more silver in our vault.”

“How is that possible?” Wu Shenglian hadn’t been here for long and her purpose wasn’t to meddle in the bank’s operations, but she knew that the Four Seas Bank’s branch here had quite a lot of silver in its storage, about ten million tales. How could they be out of money now?

“There’s really no money left, do you think I would lie to you?” Lu Chao said.

Wu Shenglian snorted coldly and said, “Alright, Lu Chao, I’m going to personally check the vault. If you’re not lying, good. If you dare to deceive me, I definitely won’t let you off.”

Seeing Wu Shenglian turn around to leave, Qi Tian said, “Sir, please wait, I have something to say.”

Wu Shenglian asked, “What is it?”

Qi Tian reached into his Storage Bag and then held a thick stack of silver notes in his hand. He then handed them to Wu Shenglian and said, “Here are silver notes worth about five million tales, also issued by you. I originally planned to keep them for later, but I’m really disappointed in The Four Seas Bank today, so I’ve changed my mind. Today, you’ll help me exchange all of it into cash.”

Wu Shenglian took the silver notes and simply glanced at them. She recognized silver notes issued by the Four Seas Bank. These silver notes were a bit old, but without a doubt, they were genuine. “Sir, are the silver notes brought by Marquis Ma also given by you and are they the same kind?”

Qi Tian nodded, “Exactly, I found all of these in a secret compartment of a chest.”

“Okay, I understand.” Wu Shenglian looked at the silver notes, then at Lu Chao. She now almost completely believed that Qi Tian and Marquis Ma had genuinely come to exchange silver, but for reasons unknown to her, Lu Chao called a deer a horse, insisting that the real silver notes were fake, effectively stirring up trouble with Qi Tian, and almost causing a disaster.

Wu Shenglian intensely disliked Lu Chao, but they were still in Qi Tian’s presence, so it wasn’t a good time to deal with him. She shot Lu Chao a glance. As soon as she had a chance, she would make him pay for today.

“Sir, please wait, I’m going to check the vault. Of course, if you have any concern, you can come with me to have a look.” Wu Shenglian extended an invitation to Qi Tian. She knew that she couldn’t prevent Qi Tian from entering the silver vault. It was best to appear generous from the beginning.

Qi Tian nodded. He had never seen inside a bank vault in his entire life. He said to Jin Jin, “You guard the outside, Jin Mei, come with me to have a look.”

So, Wu Shenglian led the way, with Qi Tian and Jin Mei trailing closely behind, towards the Four Seas Bank’s silver vault.

The Four Seas Bank had made a lot of arrangements for the security of the silver vault. There were many guards and sentinels with weapons like longbows, and Qi Tian even noticed traces of cultivators.

Wu Shenglian held extremely high authority at the Four Seas Bank. When she came, the sentinels didn’t prevent her from entering and exiting, even with outsiders like Qi Tian following her.

Wu Shenglian pointed at the vault door, “Open it.”

The guards stationed outside the silver vault quickly opened the large doors, with Wu Shenglian stepping aside to let Qi Tian take the lead.

Qi Tian first used the Spirit Qi sensing function of the Heavenly Dao Engine to scan the silver vault. After confirming there was no danger in the vault, he took the first step and walked in.

Inside, the silver vault was vast with various places to store silver. However, at this point, both the shelves and countertops were almost all empty. Not to say there was no silver left, but the amount was sparse, probably only twenty to thirty thousand taels. This meager amount of reserve silver was catastrophic for a bank.

Wu Shenglian followed close behind Qi Tian into the vault. When she saw such a small amount of silver left in the vault, she suddenly changed color and asked, “What happened? The last time I visited, at least ten million taels of silver were stored here; where did they all go?”

The guard bowed his head, not daring to speak.

Wu Shenglian’s face turned frosty. She glared at the guard and said, “The disappearance of over ten million taels of silver is a matter of great importance! As a guard of this vault, you claim not to know anything about it. What’s the use of you then? I should kill you right now.”

The guard was horrified and knelt down in front of Wu Shenglian, tremblingly saying, “Elder, don’t kill me, I will speak. The silver in the vault was taken by the government troops. These few days when you were in closed-door cultivation, not hearing of affairs outside, the silver was taken away.”

“Borrowed? Is there a promissory note?” Wu Shenglian asked coldly.

The guard replied, “I am not sure. The one who handled this matter wasn’t me, it was Manager Lu. You should ask him.”

Manager Lu was none other than Lu Chao. Wu Shenglian scoffed, turned around and left the storeroom, heading towards the bank’s main gate where Lu Chao was.

This time, Qi Tian did not leave with Wu Shenglian. Instead, he scanned the surroundings.

“Master, what are you looking for?” Gao Jinmei asked curiously.

“Silver, of course,” Qi Tian responded with a smile.

Gao Jinmei advised, “Master, we’re already outside the silver vault. How could you possibly find any silver here? It’s all been transported away by the government troops. With the current volatile situation, I fear that silver has already been spent.”

Qi Tian shook his head and said, “Ten million taels of silver isn’t a small amount. If it were all squandered, how many troops would the government have to have? I’ve seen the expenditure records that Marquis Ma gave me. With a few million, the troops here could live quite comfortably. Compare a few million to ten million, and you can easily count the discrepancy.”

Gao Jinmei didn’t know much about military affairs, but she understood simple arithmetic. She nodded and said, “After you explained it this way, there indeed seems to be something wrong. Could Lu Chao have embezzled the money?”

Qi Tian simply shook his head and didn’t respond to Gao Jinmei. Clearly, he didn’t agree with her conclusion.

Gao Jinmei glanced left and right, walked closer to Qi Tian, and whispered, “Master, there’s something I don’t understand. Wu Shenglian clearly isn’t an ordinary person. Her strength is somewhat stronger than mine, and by my judgement, her background is probably not simple. Today we’ve offended her deeply, yet we didn’t kill her and instead carried out a transaction with her. Why is that?”

“What do you propose should be done?” Instead of immediately answering Gao Jinmei’s question, Qi Tian replied with a question of his own.

Gao Jinmei replied, “We have two options. One is to use me as a model. You can subdue Wu Shenglian and plant a Slave Mark in her Sea of Consciousness to make her an Immortal Slave, forever loyal to you, and at your disposal. The other is to nip the problem at its bud, and get rid of her before her background comes to light, then destroy her body and erase all traces.”

Qi Tian smiled and said, “I’ve considered both of your suggestions, but neither of them is feasible. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I was only able to enslave you because you were weak. Compared to you, Wu Shenglian is much stronger.”

“Could it be that Wu Shenglian has already become so strong that even Master can’t subdue her?”