Imperial Treasure
Chapter 295 - 214: Degreased Leather Painting

Chapter 295: Chapter 214: Degreased Leather Painting

"You overestimated him," Sui Yi said without undue humility, but he honestly ignored some people.

Wu Gu was one of them.

Liang Qing was taken aback, then laughed, "It seems we agree on this point, he really is useless... But even though you saw it coming, I still took that bottle, didn’t I?"

"Sui Yi, you still lost,"

Sui Yi, not reacting much to Liang Qing’s frivolous and proud demeanor, asked curiously, "It’s just a little bottle, I don’t know its origin, that made someone as hidden and composed as you feel compelled to take action."

Liang Qing seemed hesitant about whether to tell Sui Yi but eventually said, "It was unexpected, originally it was something we wanted, but it was almost like missing a move in chess, and you intercepted it just in time. Its origin is indeed not simple, but I think there’s no need to tell you... After all, the item no longer belongs to you, does it?"

"If you don’t speak now, I think soon, you will still have to tell me," Sui Yi’s slight smile made Liang Qing frown, vaguely feeling something unpleasant.

She didn’t like this feeling, so she threw the broom aside, took a step, and in the blink of an eye, she was on the balcony, just as Gong Jiu also entered the study room.

"Miss Sui, thank you for the hospitality these past days... My wage can be considered as the rent... Bye~~" Whoosh! She leaped off the balcony,

"Snap! She’s gone!" Gong Jiu quickly ran to the balcony, seeing Liang Qing jumping nimbly like a crafty rabbit across the rooftops, and in a blink, she was in the garden, running away!

Gong Jiu was about to pull out a gun... but seeing her swift movements, he put it back, cursing under his breath, "Damn, I didn’t expect her to be so formidable!"

Liang Qing’s power was still unknown, but her speed was certainly very fast, faster than Gong Jiu.

So the typically competitive Gong Jiu looked rather vexed.

He turned and looked at Sui Yi, "Was it an inside and outside collaboration last night?"

"Yes,"

"How powerful?"

"A seventy-year Inner Strength called Wu Gu... this Liang Qing is stronger than Wu Gu,"

Seventy years!! Gong Jiu’s expression turned solemn, stroking his chin, "These two are very strong. At Ghost Teeth, they’re probably in class D... No, wait, you dealt with Wu Gu last night, your power..."

"Stronger than his," Sui Yi did not hide, "As for facing Liang Qing, it remains unknown."

"..." Gong Jiu’s expression froze for a long while before he exhaled, "Freak!"

A few months ago, his Inner Strength was still lower than hers, and now look~~

"So you just let her go like that? Didn’t she take the bottle?! You should have taken it back.."

"The bottle was already taken by Wei Feng when she left this morning,"

Sui Yi then briefly explained last night’s chase from Wu Gu to Wei Feng’s location, leaving Gong Jiu amazed, but what shocked him the most was Sui Yi’s remark.

"He was accompanied by a man, do you still remember one night we were chased on the overpass... The driver in one of the cars was him,"

Gong Jiu jumped from the balcony, exclaiming, "Ghost Teeth!?"

"They are from Ghost Teeth!"

Sui Yi nodded, "I saw them during school..." Upon mentioning school, Gong Jiu sort of understood and sighed deeply, "I know this Wei Feng, the .AGE Corporation is enormously wealthy. Since he’s with Ghost Teeth, it’s pretty much confirmed that this corporation is them too... This guy’s business tactics have always been fierce, I heard he’s also getting close to the Yun Family recently... Really tricky, not easy to deal with..."

As he spoke, Gong Jiu suddenly frowned, "Wait, you haven’t told me why you let Liang Qing go, I don’t believe you couldn’t stop her,"

Well, Miss Gong was particularly meticulous on this subject.

"No need to keep her... the bottle she took is already a useless item,"

"What?" Gong Jiu hadn’t yet grasped what was happening when Sui Yi had gone to his room and soon returned, placing a small bowl on the table.

At that moment, in a villa on the mountain top, Wei Feng placed that bottle aside, smiling.

"Sui Yi, indeed a cunning strategy,"

Wei Jiang picked up the bottle and looked at it from side to side, "She already took it?"

"Of course... No wonder Liang Qing got it so easily, I think she must be almost back by now,"

Wei Feng closed his eyes and pondered, "This changes things, she won’t just be here to help now... Only partnership is possible, no wonder she agreed so readily, heh~~"

--------

The bowl was neither too big nor too small, with something floating on the water surface... a picture.

It was as if it had been painted on!

Any other person would surely be amazed, but Gong Jiu quickly realized, "Vegetable oil? No, there’s no smell of vegetable oil, it’s tung oil... There’s a painting on vegetable oil... Is this a degreased skin painting?"

Degreased skin painting, a highly sophisticated technique passed down between the courtyards and common folk of ancient times. The reason it’s said between courtyards and common folk is because the craftsmen came from common folk, yet it was reserved exclusively for the nobility and the royal court, as the degreased skin painting required fur from the most rare mink and was made with many precious materials intricately crafted to be as thin as a cicada wing, with special ink used for painting and writing. Once soaked in water for an hour, it would thoroughly merge into the leather, becoming invisible, then this nearly invisible skin could be attached to objects, deceiving the eye as if nothing was there. Ordinary people could hardly notice it.

If it weren’t for Sui Yi who could detect the magnetic energy on it using his Magnetic Sensation, noticing the anomaly, he might not have been able to purchase this bottle before Wei Feng.

And such mysterious degreased skin paintings were often used to preserve royal court secrets, primarily serving one purpose—maps.

Gong Jiu also belonged to this line of work. Although he was not as professionally skilled or mentally capable as Flower Demon, he still had experience and a broad perspective. He quickly assessed the situation.

Sui Yi nodded, "It’s a degreased skin painting. I think the student’s family must have some historical connection, acquiring this skin painting. Later, they cleverly attached it to various objects to preserve it until now, unfortunately, it was unknowingly sold by later generations... Wei Feng must have found out too, but I got ahead of him."

"Ghost Teeth wouldn’t suddenly target this skin painting for no reason. Maybe it’s a map of some dynasty’s treasure location..." Gong Jiu was most interested in these matters. He immediately put on gloves, eagerly took out the skin painting from the tung oil, and laid it out on the table where the mountain ranges and dense routes were clearly visible...

"Where is this?" Gong Jiu was geographically inept, looking left and right without any clue...

Sui Yi didn’t know either. After all, the world is vast and the terrain varies. Even the top travelers wouldn’t dare say they recognize all the great rivers and mountains under heaven.

"Hey, I don’t believe it, I’ll look it up online... Hey, Sui Yi, your computer has no protection at all. I’m telling you, with such a crappy firewall, whatever I look up, Ghost Teeth and his people would know in minutes... Forget it, I’ll install one for you..."

Gong Jiu immediately grabbed Sui Yi’s laptop and cozied up in bed, his fingers flying over the keyboard. Sui Yi only then realized that aside from his all-round firearms and impressive racing skills, Gong Jiu was also incredibly skilled with computers.

Whereas Sui Yi wasn’t great in this area, making them somewhat complementary.

It wasn’t long before Gong Jiu was on the computer shouting, "Found it, the place is over in Xinjiang!"

"Xinjiang," Sui Yi was surprised, the place was far.

"Yes, Xinjiang, part of it is the Tianshan Mountains... It’s strange, dynasties rarely ventured to this region, and a treasure shouldn’t be buried so far away... plus, the place itself is peculiar..."

"But this map is a bit odd. It seems like it’s been cut apart and reassembled. Very strange... Anyway, it’s in Xinjiang, somewhere around there. Let me decrypt this map, and I’ll organize a team. We’ll set off when ready..." Gong Jiu always loved adventures, especially treasure-hunting ones, and he was very excited now. He was thinking of setting out even without having the correct location information.

Sui Yi glanced at her, and that look made Gong Jiu freeze, "Eh, don’t tell me you’re not letting me come along~~"

"It’s not that... I need to take a call."

No sooner had Sui Yi finished speaking than her phone rang.

It was Wei Feng’s.

"Has Miss Sui seen the map?"

"Yes."

"Hehe, it seems I don’t need to lead the way... Though I have to tell you, our people have been there three times. A total of fifty-eight people died, all killed in action."

"Is this meant as a threat?"

"No, it’s a friendly reminder as part of our cooperation... I am genuinely concerned about Miss Sui dying in such a filthy and ugly place, a beautiful and rare lady like yourself."

After a pause, Wei Feng added, "Perhaps Miss Gong and others too..."

It seemed as if he had anticipated everything about Sui Yi and her team.

Sui Yi’s response was more direct, "Indeed, Gong Jiu and others should be included."

Her condition was that she had the right to bring another group of people, which also meant she was not subordinate to him but an independent collaborator.

"Ha, alright," Wei Feng understood immediately and agreed just as promptly as Sui Yi had promised him before.

The two unspokenly hung up the phone.

Gong Jiu was already impatient to ask, "Was that guy on the line? What did you mean by your conversation, a collaboration with him?"

"Yes, I agreed," Sui Yi confirmed.

"Silly, that guy is cunning! Several old men in my tribe have suffered losses from him... Did he threaten you?"

"Threaten? Sort of..."

"Damn it, what’s he got on you?"

"Hmm~~" Sui Yi tilted her head as if thinking, then softly said, "Seems like I accidentally saw him skinny dipping."

"....."

Next door, Jiang Chenyu was writing. Suddenly, she heard sounds similar to a gorilla roaring in a fight... Her hand trembled, and the brush slipped off the rice paper..

Blinking slightly, she put down the brush, turned, walked to the French window, and gazed at the warm sunlight outside, deep in thought..

And the sunlight fell on the rice paper, where the words had already been written.

All those ships that passed were not the right ones, for a thousand years guarding the reed wine.

With one dream passing, Parrot Isle breaks the heart.

That year, the mist and rain ceased, he lay down in the mountains, yet he was lost in a drunken dream of nine...

The following words were interrupted, and Jiang Chenyu did not continue writing.

It seemed as if the air could faintly hear her murmuring a few words.

Nine Layers... Tower...

----------(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)